Pericles, in Greek Periklếs (c.495-Athens 429 BC), Athenian strategist and statesman, of the Acamantid tribe and deme of Cholargue, member of the Alcmaeonid family, son of Xanthippe and of Agaristè.
The influence of this character on his time was so great that this period is generally nicknamed "the century of Pericles".
He was born in 494 BC and died in 429 BC. On the family level, he married a woman with whom he had two sons:Xanthippe and Paralos. Then he fell in love with Aspasie, a metic with whom he had a son, whom he managed to register as a citizen despite his own laws. Coming from the prestigious Alcmaeonid family, who had distinguished themselves alongside Solon and also in the fight against the tyrant Pisistratus several decades earlier, nephew of Cleisthenes the reformer, Pericles was as if predestined to go into politics.
In politics, this great aristocrat was a supporter of democracy and came to the fore as one of the public procurators who attacked Cimon in 463. In 462-461, he allied himself with Ephialtes to reduce the powers of the 'Areopagus, and after the murder of Ephialtes and the ostracism of Cimon, in 461, he became the most influential man in Athens.
His political decisions imposed themselves on most citizens.
He created the action of Graphê Paranomôn (complaint of illegality) which made it possible to prevent malicious acts from undermining the law and undermining democracy. This action was settled before the Heliaa, the judicial assembly of the city of Athens.
In 451, on his initiative, citizenship was restricted to those whose father was a citizen and whose mother was the daughter of Athenian citizens. From then until his death he dominated Athenian political life and was elected strategist ¤16 times in a row.
Under his leadership, Athens adopted an imperialist policy, and the League of Delos, created to keep the Persians out of Greece, was transformed into an Athenian Empire.
He seems to have tried to convene an assembly of all the Greek states to consider the reconstruction of the temples destroyed by the Persians, as well as some form of political union, but nothing came of it due to hostility from Sparta. P>
In 437 he founded a colony at Amphipolis and shortly afterwards at the same time he led an expedition to establish Athenian influence in the Black Sea region, having subjugated Samos in 439, when the island had revolted and had left the Delos league.
We do not know the exact responsibility of Pericles in the policy which involved Athens in a war against Sparta, Corinth, Aegina and Boeotia, during the period 459-446, but during the "peace of Thirty years" which followed, he obtained Sparta the recognition of the maritime empire of Athens.
He was the instigator of the construction of the Parthenon (begun in 447), the Propylaea and other important buildings of that time on the Acropolis:leading a formidablely effective prestige policy, he did not hesitate to help himself to the coffers of the league of Delos to finance the monuments.
He was also at the origin of the Misthos, compensation paid to the citizen for the time he devotes to political life (indeed, by going to the People's Assembly, the citizen lost the benefits of a whole day of work).
The politician Thucydides son of Melesias (not to be confused with the famous historian Thucydides, son of Oloros), political heir to Cimon and worst enemy of Pericles, attacked him for embezzling funds from the league of Delos for this program of constructions. Thucydides' ostracism gave Pericles a free hand.
It is likely that Pericles foresaw the war with Sparta well in advance and he resisted all the demands of the Peloponnesians. He recommended to his fellow citizens a firm attitude towards the demands of the Spartans, who according to him were looking for a pretext to start the conflict. Pericles therefore believed that it was not necessary to make concessions with people who were not really willing to negotiate.
When war broke out in 431, Pericles imposed a policy on Athens that was to neutralize Spartan superiority on land, but it involved considerable hardship for the population of Attica. Nevertheless, his strategy of encirclement and maritime blockade around the Peloponnese (made possible by the undoubted supremacy of the Athenian fleet) was a resounding success.
As surprising as it may seem, Archidamus I, the king of Sparta known for his moderation and prudence, was a great friend of Pericles; and despite the war between their two cities, Archidamos ordered his soldiers to spare the domains of Pericles during the looting of Attica by the Peloponnesians in -430. Pericles, although grateful, officially replied by donating his properties to the State, in order to defuse possible jealousies and disputes on the part of his fellow citizens.
However, despite his aura and his popularity, Athenians dissatisfied with having lost their property during the Spartan incursion into Attica in -430 brought him to trial:and, forgetting all the services that Pericles had rendered to the fatherland, the judges condemned him to a heavy fine and to the forfeiture of his civic rights (atimia, dishonor). He then retired from political life.
A few months later, his sentence was canceled and the Athenian citizens appealed to him again during the plague epidemic (-429). Pericles was again elected strategist, but he too had contracted the plague, and he died 6 months later.
Pericles was never represented without a helmet because of the malformation of his skull.
Pericles speech
Only two speeches by Pericles have come down to us through the History of the Peloponnesian War, written by Thucydides, a contemporary of Pericles. These two speeches are Advice to the Athenians on the demands of the Peloponnesians and the Oration of the first Athenian soldiers who died during the Peloponnesian War.
These speeches may have been slightly modified by the historian, but these modifications must certainly not go beyond the stage of punctuation, because we know that Thucydides was of rare objectivity and that he wrote nothing without a sure source. .
The best known is the funeral oration:we find in this speech all the moderation, all the vigilance and above all the clairvoyance that characterizes Pericles. It is a vibrant eulogy of democracy and also a patriotic tribute to Athens, "the school of Greece". We guess through the work a man imbued with dignity who was the real leader of the city (and not a one-off speaker like most politicians of his time):"In name, the city was a democracy:in the facts, it was the government of the first of the citizens" (Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War).
Cultural role and posterity of Pericles
Pericles, a pupil of Anaxagoras in his youth, attracted a crowd of scholars and artists to Athens who enabled the city to boast of the title of cultural capital of Greece. Around Pericles and Aspasia soon organized a veritable intellectual circle whose main members were:
* Anaxagoras, philosopher and writer.
* Phidias, sculptor.
* Protagoras, sophist.
* Herodotus, historian.
* Sophocles, author of tragedies.
It should also be kept in mind that Pericles was also the uncle and tutor of Alcibiades, who will be one of Socrates' most famous students. As for Pericles' impact on the emerging talents of his time, suffice it to say that one of the only politicians whom Thucydides wholeheartedly admires (while Thucydides is very difficult to seduce) in his History of the Peloponnesian War , it is indeed Pericles:he takes the trouble to transcribe two entire speeches of the great strategist.
Throughout antiquity, and up to the present day (who doesn't know the name Pericles?), the Athenian strategist has remained a model and a reference for all admirers of ancient Greece.