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[4] After this the Athenians, now that the trees of their countryside had been cut down and the plague was carrying off great numbers, were plunged into despondency and became angry with Pericles, considering him to have been responsible for their being at war. Consequently they removed him from the generalship, and on the strength of some petty grounds for accusation they imposed a fine upon him of eighty talents.1

1 Thuc. 2.65.3 mentions only "a fine"; Plut. Per. 35 states that estimates of the fine varied from fifteen to fifty talents; according to Plato (Plat. Gorg. 516a) the charge was embezzlement. The scholia on Aristoph. Cl. 859, explain that Pericles entered in his accounts an expenditure εἰς τὰ δέοντα ("for necessary purposes"), which the Lacedaemonians interpreted as being for bribes and accordingly punished some of their leading men. Also mentioned is the charge that the gold on Athena's statue was not of the weight charged; but Pheidias removed and weighed it, disproving the allegation.

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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