-
News
Greek Personalities
-
Pericles: The Inspired Statesman
10-06-2013 18:13Pericles has been the most influential Athenian statesman of his time leaving a rich controvert legacy of the long and devastating Peloponnesian War, of the democratic institutions of Athens and the construction of marvelous public buildings such as the Temple of Parthenon on Acropolis hill.
Perikles was born in 495 B.C. with a distinguished aristocratic family background. He had two sons by an Athenian wife, whom he divorced for Aspasia. He never married her but they lived together for 20 years until his death. He entered politics as a left-wing radical and he soon emerged as Themistokles’ political heir. He was elected at least 20 times serving as a military general without interruption from 443 to 430 B.C. steering Athens through its heyday of power and cultural achievement.
The main source of information on Pericle’s political action and life is the historian Thucydides. At about age 23 he served as paying sponsor for Aeschylus’s stage drama The Persians (472 B.C.). In 463 B.C. Perikles unsuccessfully prosecuted the conservative leader Kimon for bribery. The following year he assisted the reformer Ephialtes in proposing legislation that dismantled the power of the Areopagos.
In 461 B.C. Perikles urged the creation of the Long Walls, which were to stretch four miles from Athens down to its harbor at Piraeus. When completed in about 457 B.C. the walls turned Athens into an impregnable naval fortress.
Around 457 B.C. Perikles sponsored a bill creating jury pay which effectively opened jury duty to lower-income citizens. By 460 B.C.E. Athens had slipped into an undeclared war against Sparta and its allies. Perikles as a general led a seaborne raid against the enemy city of Sikyon in about 454 B.C. and in about 449 B.C. convinced his fellow citizens to accept an offered peace with Persia, officially putting an end to the Persian Wars. To mark the event, Perikles initiated a public building program, directed by the sculptor Pheidias which created most of the famous buildings still standing today on the Athenian Acropolis funded by the treasure of the Delian League. The Delian League which had been formed around 478 B.C. as a mutual-defense alliance against Persia and the use of the money for beautifying Athens is considered Pericle’s first sign of imperialism.
When the Peloponnesian War broke out in 431 B.C. Perikles advised defense by land and offensive strikes by sea. Having faith in Athens’ resources and fortifications, he convinced the rural citizens to evacuate their homes and contain themselves within the city walls, while the invading Spartans ravaged the countryside.
This strategy backfired, however, when plague broke out among the Athenian refugees and swept the city. He ended his days in disfavor, being accused that he had provoked the Peloponnesian War and had brought plague and demoralization to Athens. He died in 430 B.C. as a victim of the plague himself.
-
Top bews!
-
Relative articles