Conflict with Sparta threatened Athens’ control in the Mediterranean, thus threatening Pericles power and influence as military leader. Pericles attempted to remedy this situation with the negotiation of a formal peace treaty with Sparta in 446 BC. This was known as The Thirty-Years Peace Treaty. It recognized that Greece was divided into two power blocks and that neither Athens nor Sparta would attempt to control the states that were controlled by the other. It allowed Pericles to maintain his military power and influence over the dealings with the Delian League. Thucydides wrote: “The reason for this was that Pericles, because of his position, his intelligence, and his known integrity, could respect the liberty of the people and at the same time hold them in check. It was he who led them, rather than they who led him........” (Thucydides 2. 65) Under Pericles the Athenian government became more democratic than it had been previously. Pericles’ importance to Athens in summed up by Thucydides: “..it was under him that Athens’ was at her greatest” (Thucydides 2. 65)
- His part in changing the Dalian league into an Athenian empire (colleting tribute, coinage decree, weights and measures) 500\
Athens suggested the Greeks form a defensive league interesting Sparta didn’t join the Delian league. One a state became a member it could only withdraw if other states agreed. The league had one common Navy the ships were built and manned by Athens but other city-states paid for them. The league moved treasury to Athens in 454. Athenian coins replaced all other money in states in the Delian league. The Delian league was a defensive alliance of Greek city-states to protect themselves from the Persians it was also designed for open trade and peaceful relationships between city-states.
The Delian league had its first meeting of representatives in 477 of Greek cities at the island of Delos. Oaths were sworn, binding their cities to defense all of Greece. Athenian generals were enforced to put to practice policies. The leadership of the league benefited Athens economy and its beliefs Athens used this to build a modern democracy. The agreement of the league was preservation of the integrity of each city but Athens made the judgments.
Aims of the Delian League – compensation and liberation from Persia
The Greek city-states paid a tribute to the Delian League organization. The funds were supposed to help build the power of the league. Instead, Pericles used these funds to beautify Athens. He did not ask approval from the members of the league to use the money. This action made other city-states angry.
Pericles spent the money to purchase gold, ivory, and marble to create sculptures and construct beautiful buildings. Pericles also used the money to pay artists, architects, and sculptors for these projects.
Aims and goals were to increase Athenian power in the Aegean. To spread the valves of democracy and destroy tyranny, to liberate lionia from Persian influences to ransack Persian territory and take booty as compensation for the damage suffered in the Persian wars. To unite the disparate Greek states and to form a rival power bloc to the Peloponnesian league. Also to protect Greece from any future Persian invasion.
The achievements of the league by 440 included; The Persian was defeated at eurymedon river, many ionic cities were liberated from Persian rule , Athenian democracy was stronger than ever and democracy was spreading throughout the Greek world. Money. Booty and slaves flowed into Greece, Athens had became the wealthiest and most powerful Greek state, trade had increased in Greece, benefiting Athens, prisa did not again invade Greece, the league had become an Athenian empire, league member who resisted Athenian rule were punished or conquered, rivalry had grown between Athens and Sparta and a destructive war loomed. , Peace was signed with Persian in 449, Athenian culture flourished as Athenian grew.
- His political opponents 300
At Around 461 BC, leadership of the democratic party had decided to aim at the , a traditional council which had once been the most powerful body in the state, controlled by the Athenian aristocracy, , was the leader and also pericles mentor. He is imoportant as he proposed a sharp reduction of the Areopagus' powers. Because of the work of ephialtes the Athenian Assemble adopted the proposal with no strong opposition. This reform signalled the commencement of a new era of "radical democracy". The democratic party gradually became dominant in Athenian politics and Pericles seemed willing to follow a populist policy in order to cajole the public. According to , Pericles' stance can be explained by the fact that his principal political opponent, , was rich and generous, and was able to secure public favor by lavishly bestowing his sizable personal fortune. The historian Loren J. Samons II argues, however, that Pericles had enough resources to make a political mark by private means, had he so chosen.
In 461 BC, Pericles achieved the political elimination of this formidable opponent using the weapon of . The ostensible accusation was that Cimon betrayed his city by acting as a friend of .
Even after Cimon's ostracism, Pericles continued to espouse and promote a populist social policy. He first proposed a decree that permitted the poor to watch theatrical plays without paying, with the state covering the cost of their admission. With other decrees he lowered the property requirement for the in 458–457 BC and bestowed generous wages on all citizens who served as jurymen in the (the supreme court of Athens) some time just after 454 BC. His most controversial measure, however, was a law of 451 BC limiting Athenian citizenship to those of Athenian parentage on both sides. "Rather, the admiration of the present and succeeding ages will be ours, since we have not left our power without witness, but have shown it by mighty proofs; and far from needing a Homer for our panegyrist, or other of his craft whose verses might charm for the moment only for the impression which they gave to melt at the touch of fact, we have forced every sea and land to be the highway of our daring, and everywhere, whether for evil or for good, have left imperishable monuments behind us." Pericles' Funeral Oration as recorded by Thucydides ()
Such measures impelled Pericles' critics to regard him as responsible for the gradual degeneration of the Athenian democracy. , a major modern Greek historian, argues that Pericles sought for the expansion and stabilization of all democratic institutions. Hence, he enacted legislation granting the lower classes access to the political system and the public offices, from which they had previously been barred on account of limited means or humble birth. According to Samons, Pericles believed that it was necessary to raise the demos, in which he saw an untapped source of Athenian power and the crucial element of Athenian military dominance. (The fleet, backbone of Athenian power since the days of Themistocles, was manned almost entirely by members of the lower classes.)
Cimon, on the other hand, apparently believed that no further free space for democratic evolution existed. He was certain that democracy had reached its peak and Pericles' reforms were leading to the stalemate of populism. According to Paparrigopoulos, history vindicated Cimon, because Athens, after Pericles' death, sank into the abyss of political turmoil and demagogy. Paparrigopoulos maintains that an unprecedented regression descended upon the city, whose glory perished as a result of Pericles' populist policies. According to another historian, Justin Daniel King, radical democracy benefited people individually, but harmed the state. On the other hand, asserts that the democratic measures Pericles put into effect provided the basis for an unassailable political strength. After all, Cimon finally accepted the new democracy and did not oppose the citizenship law, after he returned from exile in 451 BC.
- His friendship and romantic life, Aspasia 300
Aspasia (meaning desired one) is the most famous woman of ancient Greece because of her relationship with Pericles. Although they couldn’t marry because she was a courtesan she was in every way Pericles partner and an important Athenian in her own right.
It is believed Aspasia was a hetaera meaning courtesans she wasn’t only a sexual partner but also a companion and even better educated than other Greek women. They were educated I philosophy, history, politics, science, art and literature so they could carry conversations with intelligent and sophisticated men. Aspasia was considered to be the most beautiful and the most intelligent of all the hetairai. Pericles met Aspasia and immediately moved in with her. It is believed he divorced his wife to make this happen. The lived together as man and wife right up to Pericles death. The city’s laws prevented marriage between them, which is very ironic. Although Pericles had major respect for her and even treated her as a equal, unusually for a respectable man and a man of Pericles standing. They were often criticized or there relationship. They had a son together called Pericles, who because of their illegal relationship could not be a citizen. Many people thought Aspasia had too much influence on Pericles and some accused her of persuading Pericles to go to war with Samos to help her native Miletus. Some even blamed her for the war with Sparta.
- His citizenship law 200
The citizenship in Athens before 451 BC was heredity in the male line meaning if you were male and your father was a citizen, and then you would be enrolled in your dene (which was the point at which you actually became a citizen at eighteen years old. This was similar with many ancient civilizations; citizenship wasn’t given to women, children or slaves.
Pericles source for his citizenship law lays in the constitution of Athens which is attributed to Aristotle here it states” it was decreed, on the motion of Pericles that a person should not have the rights of citizenship unless both of his parents had been citizens” a very similar statement is made in Plutarch’s lives, where it is said that “ he (Pericles) proposed claim Athenian parentage on both sides could be counted as Athenian citizens” therefore unlike pre times citizenship was no longer to be heredity purely on the male father. And Athenian women could gain the benefits of citizens; there status determined weather or not their sons became citizens. Because Pericles makes this the new law because he wanted to reduce the number of people who were entitled to the benefits of citizenship. Aristotle adds it was because of “the increasing number of citizens” the sources available suggest the law was not applied retrospecticly, so anyone who was an Athenian before he decrees wouldn’t loose their status. Therefore the decree didn’t reduce the total number of citizens but reduced the rate at which the citizenship body was increasing in size. What is unusually is the state should of wanted more citizens to expand the empire and have more troops for war, as the people were fighting for freedom.
The third possible reason made by S.C Humphreys is that the citizenship law was trying to counter the “aristocratic practice of counteracting marriage alliances with leading families in other states. A practice which created sympathies and loyalties which were liable to obstruct national policy both towards Athens subjects and towards her rivals” in a finial twist, Pericles himself almost became a victim of his own law when he bore an illegitimate son from his relationship with his mistress Aspasia in theory this child should never had become a citizen because of the requirement to have citizenship in both parents, but the people are said to have taken pity upon Pericles for his misfortunes and he was allowed to enrolled his son into the family purity list and give him his own name.
A testimony to Pericles comes from Thucydides who described him "As the first citizen of Athens".
- Building programme in Athens 600
The building campaign was developed to Repair destruction of Persian War –Athens sacked twice by Persians, to thank the gods especially the patron Athena, to glorify his city
And to provide employment for many tradesmen workers artisans. Most of the major temples were rebuilt under the leadership of during the of Athens (460–430 BC). Phidias, a great Athenian sculptor, and and , two famous architects, were responsible for the reconstruction. During the 5th century BC, the Acropolis gained its final shape. After winning at in 468 BC, and ordered the reconstruction of southern and northern walls, and Pericles entrusted the building of the to Ictinus and Phidias.
The propylaea; Monumental gates with columns of , partly built upon the old Propylaea of Pisistratus.
These colonnades were almost finished in the year 432 BC and had two wings, the northern one serving as picture gallery.
The temple of athene nike: Begun in 432 BC
Finished 421 BC
Goddess of Victory -especially against Sparta
Stature of athene promachos; Phidias' gigantic bronze statue of ("she who fights in the front line"), built between 450 BC and 448 BC.
The base was 1.50 m high, while the total height of the statue was 9 m.
The goddess held a lance whose gilt tip could be seen as a reflection by crews on ships ,and a giant shield on the left side.
Parthenon; When work began on the Parthenon in 447 BC, the Athenian Empire was at the height of its power.
Work on the temple continued until 432; the Parthenon, then, represents the tangible and visible flowering of Athenian imperial power, unencumbered by the depredations of the Peloponnesian War.
Likewise, it symbolizes the power and influence of the Athenian politician, Pericles, who championed its construction.
The long walls; The "Long Walls" were built after ' invasion of Greece (480-479); their construction was proposed by ,
the actual building started in 461, when Athens was at war with Sparta (the First Peloponnesian War). The proposal to execute the old plan was made by Cimon.
The western wall connected the southwest of Athens with its port Piraeus and was about six kilometres long; the eastern wall continued from the south of the city to another port, Phaleron, which was about 5½ kilometres away.
Between the two walls, a large triangle of land could be used for agriculture. The walls were finished in 457, although later, took the initiative for doubling the western wall (445-443).
The upper walls were made from sun-dried bricks. There were towers at regular intervals.
The Long Walls enabled Athens to survive any siege. As long as it was connected to its ports and controlled the sea, no enemy could capture the city.
During the (431-404), the Athenians simply evacuated the countryside, left it to the Spartans, and lived in Athens itself, which could receive supplies from across the sea.
Athens rebuilt Acropolis—“high city” that included Parthenon - Parthenon housed statue of goddess Athena, city’s protector - Parthenon architecture had graceful proportions, harmony, and order
Other Acropolis temple dedicated to Athena Nike, goddess of victory • Acropolis Erechtheum is sacred site with beautiful architecture - legendary site where Athena beat Poseidon to be city’s patron
Most of the major temples were rebuilt under the leadership of during the of Athens (460–430 BC). , a great Athenian sculptor, and and , two famous architects, were responsible for the reconstruction. During the 5th century BC, the Acropolis gained its final shape. After winning at in 468 BC, and ordered the reconstruction of southern and northern walls, and Pericles entrusted the building of the to Ictinus and Phidias.
The construction of the Parthenon would come to symbolise the greatness of Periclean Athens by the fall of 404. In the years of the peace treaty with Sparta was when the Parthenon, proclaim and other works were built and it was in those years that Pericles reached the peak of his authority and prestige. Plutarch’s vivid description of the building program and his engaging picture of Periclean Athens in actions is used. Plutarch gives us a list of the projects that Pericles initiated these are in the order Plutarch gives them: the Parthenon which was built by Iktinos and Kalikrates the Telesterion the hall of Mysteres at Eleusis in western Attika built by Koroibos, Metagener and Xenekles, the middle long wall linking Athens to the Peiraieus by kallikrates , the Obeion on the south slop of the acropolis, the propylaia and the statue of Athena pantheons its difficult to know the extent of Pericles vision for Athens but his program was certainly not limited to the six projects on Plutarch’s list. Other sources credit him with building a grain warehouse in the Peiraieus and a gymnasium at Athens and we know from an inscription that in the 430s Pericles and his sons offed to finance a new springhouse somewhere in the city on the other hand just because something may have been built or initiated in Athens during Pericles period of dominance doesn’t guarantee he had anything to do with it finally we should note that the Periclean acropolis was by no means finished at Pericles death in 429. It is unlikely that Pericles and his designers developed a master plan for remaking the acropolis architecturally integrating for example, the various building and precincts in the area between the Propylaia and the Parthenon and creating an appropriately impressing setting for the Parthenon and creating an appropriately impressive setting for the Parthenon itself including a massive terrace surrounding it.
- Changes to the Athenian democratic system-payment for office 200
The great Athenian leader of the 5th century BCE, Pericles, was swept into power in a popular democratic movement. A member of a noble and venerable family, Pericles led the Athenians against Cimon for harboring autocratic intentions. Pericles had been the leader of the democratic faction of Athenian politics since 462 BCE. Ephialtes was the Athenian leader who had finally divested the Areopagus of all its power; the council and the democratic Assembly now solely governed Athens.
Pericles quickly brought forward legislation that let anyone serve as the archon [one of the nine central leaders], despite birth or wealth. The Assembly became the central power of the state. Consisting of all the freeborn male citizens of Athens, the Assembly was given sole approval or veto power over every state decision. The Assembly was not a representative government, but instead consisted of every male citizen. In terms of numbers, this still was not a democratic state: women weren't included, nor were foreigners, slaves or freed slaves.
Pericles also changed the rules of citizenship: before the ascendancy of Pericles, anyone born of a single Athenian parent was an Athenian citizen; Pericles instituted laws, which demanded that both parents be Athenian citizens. So, in reality, the great democracy of Periclean Athens was in reality only a very small minority of the people living in Athens. It was, however, the closest human culture has come to an unadulterated democracy.
One figure towers over this new democratic state: Pericles. This Age of Athens, which begins either in 462 or 450 or 445 BCE and lasts until 404 BCE, when Athens was defeated by Sparta, is called the Athenian Age, the Classical Age or after its most important political figure, the Age of Pericles. And still there remains the figure of Pericles himself. There is no question that the democratic reforms of the Age of Pericles owe their existence to the energy of this political figure. He was a man of immense persuasiveness and an orator of great power. Although he was eventually ostracized by the Athenians [he later returned], he dominated the democratic government of Athens with his formidable capacity to speak and to persuade. He had two central policies: democratic reform and the maintenance of the empire.
Sparta, however, growing increasingly wary of Athenian prosperity, would soon find itself entangled once again with its old rival. The thirty-year peace managed to hang on for only fourteen years before hostilities broke out again. In 431BCE, a second war broke out, called simply The Peloponnesian War; this war would see the death of Pericles in its second year, but eventually witness the foolish destruction of the Athenian navy, the defeat of Athens and the end of Athenian democracy.
- Pericles viewpoint on how the great Peloponnesian wars should be fought 300
Pericles preserved political dominance in Greece by establishing colonies and maintaining good ties with rulers throughout the Aegean city-states. He built the Delian League into a powerful sea empire. When the Peloponnesian war erupted in 431 B.C., Pericles was not surprised. Planning to defeat Sparta via navy power, he gathered his people within the city walls. However, the close quarters brought on the plague, killing many Athenian citizens. Discouraged by their plight, the Athenians blamed Pericles and removed him from office. Within a year he also perished from the plague. The historian Thucydides recorded the history of Pericles and the Peloponnesian War quite accurately
The Peloponnesian War began in 431BCE with the Spartan invasion of Attica. The Spartans had sent a delegation with a final demand that Athens give into Spartan wishes, but they were not allowed into Athens due to a resolution passed by Pericles. The resolution stated that Spartan officials would not be allowed into Athens if Sparta had invoked military pressure, pressure that was found in the Spartan army at Corinth. Fortunately for Athens, Pericles had already evacuated all Athenian citizens out of Attica. Although it was for their wellbeing, many of the citizens were upset with having to abandon their land. To calm them, Pericles promised to give his land to the city if it remained untouched. Although their land was being ravished, Pericles refused to fully engage Sparta:
He, meanwhile, seeing anger and infatuation just now in the ascendant, and of his wisdom in refusing a sally, would not call either assembly or meeting of the people, fearing the fatal results of a debate inspired by passion and not by prudence. Accordingly he addressed himself to the defense of the city, and kept it as quiet as possible, though he constantly sent out cavalry to prevent raids on the lands near the city from flying parties of the enemy.
During the looting in Attica, Pericles did however send a fleet of 100 ships to patrol the Peloponnese coasts and a force of cavalry to guard the walls of the city. In autumn, Pericles led a force that invaded Megara and at the end of the year he delivered his famous Funeral Oration. The speech was done in honors of those who had lost their lives for Athens and to raise the spirits of a city at war. It is unknown how much of the recorded speech was actually Pericles' words, as Thucydides noted:
it was in all cases difficult to carry them word for word in one's memory, so my habit has been to make the speakers say what was in my opinion demanded of them by the various occasions, of course adhering as closely as possible to the general sense of what they really said.
- How did he die 200
Pericles died of the plague. According to Plutarch, ‘it was not a violent or acute attack such as others had suffered, but a kind of dull lingering fever, which persisted through a number of different symptoms and gradually wasted his bodily strength and undermined his noble spirit’. Plutarch also wrote that on his deathbed, Pericles’ friends who were leading men of Athens were sitting around him speaking of the greatness of his achievements believing that he was unconscious. Pericles’ had, in fact, been listening the whole time and said he was astonished ‘that they should praise and remember him for exploits which owed at least as much to good fortune as the his own efforts, and which many other generals had performed quite as well as himself’. This heroic ending to Pericles’ life may be a fictitious embellishment, added to Plutarch’s story to enhance the greatness of his character.
Pericles death had a significant impact on Athenian society. When he died Athens was in the middle of the Peloponnesian war. As the leading citizen of Athens, his death- according to Plutarch- made the people acutely aware of his loss. His death was followed by corruption and wrongdoing in Athens, which Pericles had suppressed. After his death, the Athenian state declined in power and magnificence, and eventually lost the Peloponnesian war and was overtaken by Sparta. According to Aristotle, ‘as Pericles was the leader of the people, things went tolerably well with the state; but when he was dead, there was a great change for the worse’.
Plutarch has written that people who resented Pericles’ power turned to other orators and popular leaders after his death and had to admit that ‘no man for all his majesty was ever more moderate, or, when clemency was called for, better able to maintain his dignity.’ This praise of Pericles is perhaps not entirely true as Plutarch was a great admirer of Pericles.
One of the victims of the plague that swept Athens in 430 BC was Pericles himself. According to the historian Thucydides:
'...The plague seized Pericles, not with sharp and violent fits, but with a dull lingering distemper, wasting the strength of his body and undermining his noble soul.'
The city was devastated; morale was at its lowest ebb. In despair the popular assembly sent a peace delegation to Sparta, and turned on the man they blamed for starting the war: Pericles.
Tried in the courts he had helped to reform, Pericles was stripped of his office and heavily fined. Yet even now the people were reluctant to be rid of the man who had guided them for so long. Soon after they reinstated him.
But Pericles was a broken man. The plague had claimed his two legitimate sons and in an attempt to have his son by Aspasia declared as his heir he sought to repeal his own citizenship law. The man who had renounced all superstition also turned to charms to ward off the plague. In the fall of 429, at the age of about 65, Pericles, the mastermind of Athenian glory, died.
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All of Mrs. Cofini’ s useful notes
“The Role of Ephialtes in the Rise of Athenian Democracy," by Lesley Ann Jones; Classical Antiquity, (1987), pp. 53-76
“The acropolis in the age of pericles” by Jeffery M.Hurwit