Pericles biography

Dromo's Den

Pericles Biography

PERICLES (?–429 b.c.). The greatest statesman of ancient Greece. His father was Xanthippus, victor over the Persians at Mycale in 479 B.C. His mother was Agariste, the niece of Clisthenes, the lawgiver. He received a careful education and was especially influenced by two of his teachers, Damon, a famous sophist and master of music, and the philosopher Anaxagoras of Clazomenæ, to whose teaching he undoubtedly owed the independence of thought and freedom from superstition which raised him above the multitude. Throughout his life Pericles was conspicuous for his singular dignity and aloofness. He avoided convivial gatherings and seldom walked abroad among his fellow citizens. But his eloquence, sagacity, uprightness, and patriotism won recognition from a large part of the Athenians, and for more than 30 years he was the most influential leader in Athens. When he entered on public life Aristides had only recently died. Themistoclés was an exile, and Cimon was engaged in fighting abroad. Pericles from the first attached himself to the democratic party, and under his leadership the complete democratization of Athens was accomplished. Hitherto only the nobler and richer elements in the state had had access to the higher offices, but under his direction all offices were eventually opened to the entire body of citizens. The first step in this new course was the limitation of the functions of the Areopagus, at that time the chief court at Athens. Through the agency of Pericles' associate, Ephialtes, in the year 462–461 measures were passed which deprived the Areopagus (q.v.) of all its important political powers. To it were left jurisdiction only in cases of homicide, the care of the sacred olive trees of Athena, and a share in the supervision of the land sacred to the Eleusinian divinities. Its former functions passed to the Athenian Senate of 500, the popular assembly, and the law courts. Pay for archons was introduced, and later all officials received a salary for their services. About 458 the third class of citizens, the Zeugitæ, were made eligible to the archonship, and it cannot have been many years before this office was open to all, even the lowest citizens. Furthermore, the members of the Senate were now chosen absolutely by lot from the entire body of Athenians. Thus in a few years after Pericles became prominent most important constitutional changes were carried through at Athens. The opposition of Cimon had been avoided by his ostracism (q.v.). Pericles' foreign policy seems to have been based on a desire to extend the power and influence of Athens as widely as possible over the Greek states, and he confidently hoped to consummate an Hellenic league which should embrace all Greek states. His attempt to hold a congress for this latter purpose in 448 was unfortunately defeated.

The Athenians, elated by their victories over the Persians and fired by the splendid empire established under the name of the Confederacy of Delos (see Delos), were eager for foreign conquest. As their naval empire grew and their trade increased, they came into rivalry with Corinth and Ægina. In 460 they had seized Megara, an act which led to war with the Spartans, and during the next four years Athens successfully resisted the attacks of Corinthians and Spartans, and in 459–456 reduced Ægina, which was made a tributary member of the Confederacy of Delos. Athens had seized Naupactus also, which gave her a naval station by which she could command the Corinthian Gulf. She also extended her conquest to the north, and by the battle of Œnophyta (457) gained the greater part of Bœotia, only to lose it again 10 years later by the battle of Coronea. The war with Persia had continued in the East under the direction of Cimon, who had been recalled at Pericles' suggestion. After Cimon's death in 449 Pericles seems to have thought the struggle against Persia too severe a tax on Athens if she was to continue her efforts against her rivals in Greece, and so in 448 a peace was concluded with the Persians. Athens was now free to attend to her cares at home. She had gradually extended her territory so that, aside from her allies on the mainland, she embraced, under the Confederacy of Delos, as equal or subject allies, nearly all the larger islands of the Ægean, and she furthermore possessed important cities in the north and in the Thracian Chersonese. In 446–445 a 30 years' peace was concluded between Athens and her allies on the one side and the Peloponnesians and their allies on the other. There was, however, strong opposition to Pericles' policy. The party opposed to him was led by Thucydides, whose ostracism in 444 left Pericles the undisputed leader. He apparently had the power to persuade the people to do whatever he thought good, and for 15 years after his opponent's ostracism he was annually elected to the office of general. Under his direction Athens had been made supreme within her naval empire, and his purpose was to aggrandize Athens even at the expense of her subject states. With the great wealth which came to her treasury Pericles restored the temples destroyed by the Persians and erected new monuments which made Athens the most magnificent city of the ancient world. Most prominent among these monuments were the bronze statue of Athena Promachos, which was erected about 448 at the west end of the Acropolis, and a new temple to Athena Polias. The Parthenon (q.v.) was also built on an enlarged and more magnificent scale. At the west entrance to the Acropolis a new propylæum was erected; on a projection at the southwest corner of the Acropolis the temple of Athena Nike was built. The city was also adorned with many other temples and monuments. In the period of Pericles' leadership Athens became a great centre of literature as well as of the fine arts, and philosophy was also transplanted from Ionia and Italy to the soil of Athens, which was destined to be its home for a thousand years. Pericles was not only a great political leader, but was also able in the field, as was shown by his successful reduction of the revolt of Samos in 439.

Athens's prominence at length made her an object of jealousy. In 433 she formed an alliance with Corcyra, a recalcitrant colony of Corinth, and in the winter of 432–431 the Peloponnesians under the leadership of Sparta decided on war against Athens. Pericles summoned the country residents of Attica within the walls of Athens, and allowed the Peloponnesian army to harry the country at will during the summers of 431 and 430. In the latter year plague broke out in the city and caused many deaths and great dejection. Pericles was deposed from his office, tried, and fined, but soon reinstated through a revulsion of feeling. In the following year he died after a lingering sickness. While Pericles undoubtedly contributed greatly to Athenian brilliancy, his imperialistic schemes made the Peloponnesian War inevitable. (See Aspasia.)

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XVIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 337-338.