Pericles

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Pericles

Circa 495-429 b.c.e.

Athenian statesman

Family Influence . Combining the legislative ability of Solon, the economic understanding of Peisistratus, the political instincts of Cleisthenes, and the military genius of Themisto-cles, Pericles was the consummate politician of Athens’s democracy. He was an Alcmaeonid, a member of one of Athens’s most prestigious, and controversial, families. (Some claimed the Alcmaeonids were cursed from their ancestors’ involvement in the massacre of the followers of the conspirator Cylon in 632 b.c.e.) His father, Xanthippus, played an important role in Greece’s defense against the Persians but was overshadowed by Themistocles, who had once engineered his ostracism.

Man of the People . Pericles began his political career by joining in the prosecution of the statesman and general Cimon, but after Ephialtes’ assassination in 462 b.c.e., he assumed the leadership role of the democratic faction in Athens. He championed the rights of the lower class and undertook various legislative measures that gave Athens’s citizens more effective control of their government and law courts. Pericles also supported a building program that enhanced the city’s beauty and provided a great deal of employment. (Among the edifices erected under his direction were the Acropolis, Parthenon, Pro-pylaea, and Odeon.) He was able to maintain the confidence of the people well enough so that, after having his leading opponent ostracized, he was able to be elected general fifteen years running. He also manipulated Athens’s enemies into fighting only when he felt Athens was really ready.

Intellectual . Although Pericles was married to an Athenian woman, his long relationship with Aspasia, a Milesian, is more famous. Together they were the center of an intellectual circle that included the sophist Anaxagoras and the sculptor Pheidias. At times, he had to take steps to defend both of these men in the courts because of some of their revolutionary ideas.

The Plague . During the early stages of the Second Peloponnesian War, Pericles strove to secure Athens’s cultural and political leadership in Greece. He expanded Athenian naval forces, reinforced settlements abroad, and improved the defenses of Athens and the port of Piraeus by constructing the third Long Wall. Stricken by the plague in 430, he died the next year. The historian Thucydides, a great admirer of Pericles, summarized his influence this way:

By his standing, judgement and financial integrity, Pericles was able freely to control the multitude and to lead them instead of being led by them because he never acquired power by improper means. He was never forced to say anything for their pleasure, but, on the contrary, had so high an estimation that he could say something against them that resulted in anger. Whenever he saw them emboldened at the wrong time and through arrogance, he would reduce them to fear with his words; on the other hand, if they were irrationally frightened, he could at once restore them to boldness. It became in name a democracy, but in fact rule by the first man whom the people trusted.