The importance of Periclesis so much that it has even been called Age of Pericles, to the time when Athens achieved its maximum political and intellectual splendor, and began the era of the development of the arts and sciences. The medical wars had favored the progress of the popular classes, the naval victories of battles as important as that of Salamis or Micala they had been thanks to Athenian sailors recruited from the “thetes” (the lower income class), which favored the strengthening of the most disadvantaged classes causing a democratization of the government of Athens. Never seen in the history of a country during the same century, an amazing collection of brilliant scholars, artists, philosophers, painters and sculptors, who set the greatness of Athens and Greece in general.
Early life of Pericles
Pericles, Athenian politician, was born around 495 BC. C., in the demo (demarcation) of Colargos, just north of Athens. He was the son of political Xanthippus, who led the Athenian contingent in the Greek victory at the Battle of Mycale. Pericles’ mother agarist, he was part of the powerful Alcmaeonid family, and his family connections played a crucial role in the beginning of Pericles’ political career.
Pericles was an introverted young man, he shunned public appearances devoting most of his time to studies. Thanks to the nobility of his family and his economic level, Pericles was able to continue his training learning music masters of his time such as Damon or Pitocleides, in addition to being the first politician in attributing great importance to philosophy. He enjoyed the teachings of philosophers such as Protagoras, Zeno of Elea and Anaxagora, from the latter he came to receive great influence.
Pericles’ rhetoric
Pericles’ rhetoricas well as the charisma he brought to his rhetoric, could have been a consequence of the philosophical influence when facing problems, providing a great emotional calm and temperance and perhaps it was also responsible for skepticism about the divine phenomenon. The proverbial self-control and calm were the main characteristics of the oratory of Pericles.
Periclean politics
We could say that Pericles’ entry into politicshas as its beginning the theatrical representation of the play by Aeschylus, The Persians, under the patronage of Pericles. With the representation of this work, which presented a nostalgic vision of the famous victory of Themìstocles, in the Battle of Salamina, the young Pericles, showed his public support for Themistocles against his political opponent, Cimon, whose faction had emerged victorious and ostracized Themistocles soon after.
Plutarch says that Pericles stood as the first among the athenians for forty years. During these years she fought to maintain her privacy and tried to present herself as a role model for her fellow citizens. For example, she often shunned banquets, trying to be frugal.
About the years 462 and 461 a. C., democratic party leaders they decided that it was time to try to take control of the Areopagus, a traditional Council controlled by the Athenian aristocracy. The leader of the party and mentor of Pericles, Ephialtes of Athens, proposed a sharp reduction in the power of the Areopagus. The Athenian assembly accepted Ephialtes’ proposal without much opposition. This reform marked the beginning of a new era of radical democracy.
the democratic party Gradually becoming the dominant party in Athenian politics, Pericles was willing to follow a populist policy to keep the people on his side.
In the year 461 a. C., Pericles he managed to eliminate his great opponent through the use of ostracism. The accusation for it was that Cimon had betrayed the city by having acted as a friend of Sparta, an accusation that was very frequently leveled against politicians of the conservative faction. Pericles continued to carry out and promote a populist policy with a great social burden.
- Allow the poor to go to see the plays, with the state covering the cost.
- Reduced the property requirements needed to be part of the archonate (form of government made up of 9 archons)
- He introduced the payment of monetary amounts for citizens who served as jurors in the Heliea (supreme court of Athens)
- He limited Athenian citizenship to those who were born to Athenian citizens on both sides.
The assassination of Ephialtes in the year 461 a. C. he prepared the way for Pericles consolidated his power. In the absence of strong opposition after Cimon’s expulsionthe undisputed leader of the democratic party became the undisputed ruler of Athens. He remained in power almost continuously until his death in the fall (September to December) of 429 BC. c.
His government established the brightest period of Athens. He was born into a family of the ancient Attic nobility. His father, Xanthippus, stood out both in politics and in the military, as the winner of Micala. By maternal line, he was within the democratic tradition, his mother was the niece of Cleisthenes. Disciple of the philosopher Zeno of Elea, Pericles I transform Athens into a prosperous, cultured and welfare state.
internal policy
Pericles’ central concern was the aggrandizement of Athens, either from the cultural point of view or from the military. All this was financed by an alliance of almost all the islands of the Aegean Sea, called The Attic-Delic League, of which their funds were guarded on the island of Délos. However, the treasure was transferred to Athens by order of Pericles, fearing an upcoming Persian attack, so he could use it to undertake the great works of the Acropolis, in the year 444 BC.
Surrounded by the cultural elite of the time, he managed to carry out his project. For this, artists of the stature of Phidias, the architects Mnesicles, Lucinus and Callicrates, and a whole cast of illustrious men, such as Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Anistophanes, Hippocrates the physician, Polykleitos the sculptor, Polignotos the muralist and the philosophers Georgias and Socrates.
Pericles, was a figure capable of getting the century in which he lived to bear his own name, “the century of Pericles”. The century of Pericles is synonymous with intellectual brilliance, political maturity, and democracy. The consolidation of democracy was founded on three government bodies: Heliea, Bulè and Ekklesia.
- Helia: It was known as the People’s Court.
- Bule: Councilor of the Five Hundred, made up of ten groups of fifty citizens, which represented the ten tribes into which the Athenian community was divided.
- Ekklesia: It was the People’s Assembly.
The Bulè were chosen by lottery and renewed every year. Its function was directed towards the Ekklesia, since they prepare proposals for it that should be debated.
In this supreme body, anyone could take the floor and they used to be a small group of speakers who intervened since the presentation of a bill or an amendment that was unconstitutional could lead to the prosecution and even the conviction of its inspirer.
In this assembly attendance was free and paid and also composed of male citizens that they were of legal age and that in turn have been registered. Pericles, however, managed to obtain the power to govern Athens both in foreign and domestic policy, thanks to the fact that year after year, he renewed in the Ecclesia, by a show of hands, his position as autocratic strategistthat is, his position as general in chief of the armed forces.
Athenian democracy was direct and non-representative. The citizen did not elect a representative who made decisions autonomously, but rather intervened directly in the government, as if it were a daily obligation.
Pericles He also carried out other reforms, such as the development and expansion of the fleet or the construction of a wall that linked the city with the port of Piraeus, the “long walls, thus improving the defensive position of Athens.
He also sought the free access for the most disadvantaged classes to the shows, as well as the restriction of citizenship to males not born to an Athenian father and mother. This bill was later put against her, because after the death of her children from her first marriage, the rest of her offspring could not qualify for the aforementioned category, since Aspasia was not an Athenian.
Finally, one cannot fail to mention the reconstruction and beautification works of the Acropolissite where the Parthenon was erected, a building that has become the symbol of an entire era.
Foreign policy
Thanks to your naval potentialAthens led the Delian League, which was established as a defense before the persian threat and to recover the islands and the Greek Asian cities conquered by the troops of the Great King. Pericles intervened in the internal politics of these towns, in which he did not apply the democratic regime that prevailed in Athens. He harshly repressed any attempt at secession. In this way, managed to create the Attic Empire.
Among their colonial initiativesthe most adventurous was sending an expedition to Taranto, in southern Italy, for foundingunder the direction of the architect Hippodamus of Miletus, Turi model colony.
In addition to fighting the Persians, with whom he signed the Peace of Callias in the year 448, the Athens of Pericles had to face another enemy, Spartacops who have always rivaled for control of Hellas. Finally, in 446 a. C., the peace of the Thirty Years inaugurated a period of relative calm in relations with the neighboring city. ANDn these moments all the constructions of the Acropolis were carried out.
However, the truce It only lasted 15 years. In 441 BC c. Samos had the audacity to attack Miletus. Aspasia’s homeland. The failure of the diplomatic intervention launched by Pericles, forced the opening of hostilities, culminating in the military subjugation of Samos. A year later, the city of Potidaea, a colony of Corinth, revolted, and the metropolis rushed to its aid. Shortly after, Athens decreed the blockade of the commerce of Megara.
Faced with such provocations, the Peloponnesian League then decided to go to war. Led by Sparta, she undertook a series of expeditions that culminated in the invasion and devastation of Attica.. On the advice of Pericles, all the inhabitants gathered behind the walls of Athens, trusting in the naval superiority of the polis to achieve the final victory. But the plague exhausted the people crowded into the city.
This fact, together with the ruinous economic situationprovoked Pericles’ fall from grace and his circle of friends in the eyes of the people of Athens. All of them suffered legal proceedings, the Pericles was removed from his posts. A year later, in 429 a. C., things returned to normal and the name of Pericles was claimed again. However, youThe politician also fell victim to the plague.
On the other hand, the war…