Perĭcles
（
Περικλῆς).
1.
The greatest of Athenian statesmen. He was the son of Xanthippus and Agaristé,
both of whom belonged to the noblest families of Athens. The fortune of his parents procured
for him a careful education, which his extraordinary abilities and diligence turned to the
best account. He received instruction from Damon , Zeno of Elea, and Anaxagoras. With
Anaxagoras he lived on terms of the most intimate friendship till the philosopher was
compelled to retire from Athens. From this great and original thinker Pericles was believed
to have derived not only the cast of his mind, but the character of his eloquence, which, in
the elevation of its sentiments and the purity and loftiness of its style, was the fitting
expression of the force and dignity of his character and the grandeur of his conceptions. Of
the oratory of Pericles no specimens remain to us, but it is described by ancient writers as
characterized by singular force and energy. He was described as thundering and lightening
when he spoke, and as carrying the weapons of Zeus upon his tongue (
Quint.x. 1, 82).
In B.C. 469 Pericles began to take part in public affairs, forty years before his death,
and was soon regarded as the head of the more democratic part in the State in opposition to
Cimon. He gained the favour of the people by the laws which he succeeded in passing for their
benefit. Thus it was enacted through his means that the citizens should receive from the
public treasury the price of their admittance to the theatre, amounting to two oboli apiece;
that those who served in the courts of the Heliaea should be paid for their attendance; and
that those citizens who served as soldiers should likewise be paid. It was at his instigation
that his friend Ephialtes proposed, in 461, the measure by which the Areopagus was deprived
of those functions which rendered it formidable as an antagonist to the popular party. This
success was followed by the ostracism of Cimon, who was charged with Laconism, and Pericles
was thus placed at the head of public affairs at Athens. Pericles was distinguished as a
general as well as a statesman, and frequently commanded the Athenian armies in their wars
with the neighbouring States. In 454 he commanded the Athenians in their campaigns against
the Sicyonians and Acarnanians; in 448 he led the army which assisted the Phocians in the
Sacred War; and in 445 he rendered the most signal service to the State by recovering the
island of Euboea, which had revolted from Athens. Cimon had been previously recalled from
exile without any opposition from Pericles, but had died in 449. On his death the
aristocratic party was headed by Thucydides, the son of Melesias; but on the ostracism of the
latter in 444 the organized opposition of the aristocratic party was broken up, and Pericles
was left without a rival. Throughout the remainder of his political course no one appeared to contest his supremacy; but the boundless influence which he
possessed was never perverted by him to sinister or unworthy purposes. So far from being a
mere selfish demagogue, he neither indulged nor courted the multi
 |
|
Pericles. (Vatican.)
|
tude. The next important event in which Pericles was engaged was the war against
Samos, which had revolted from Athens, and which he subdued after an arduous campaign, 440.
The poet Sophocles was one of the generals who fought with Pericles against Samos (
Thuc.i. 115-117).
For the next ten years, till the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, the Athenians were not
engaged in any considerable military operations. During this period Pericles devoted especial
attention to the Athenian navy, as her supremacy rested on her maritime superiority, and he
adopted various judicious means for consolidating and strengthening her empire over the
islands of the Aegaean. The funds derived from the tribute of the allies and from other
sources were, to a large extent, devoted by him to the erection of those magnificent temples
and public buildings which rendered Athens the wonder and admiration of Greece. Under his
administration the Propylaea and the Parthenon and the Odeum were erected as well as numerous
other temples and public buildings. With the stimulus afforded by these works architecture
and sculpture reached their highest perfection, and some of the greatest artists of antiquity
were employed in erecting or adorning the buildings. The chief direction and oversight of the
public edifices was intrusted to Phidias. (See
Phidias.) These works, calling into activity almost every branch of industry and
commerce at Athens, diffused universal prosperity while they proceeded, and thus contributed
in this, as well as in other ways, to maintain the popularity and influence of Pericles. But
he still had many enemies, who were not slow to impute to him base and unworthy motives. From
the comic poets Pericles had to sustain numerous attacks. They exaggerated his power, spoke
of his party as Pisistratids, and called upon him to swear that he was not about to assume
the tyranny. His high character and strict probity, however, rendered all these attacks
harmless. But as his enemies were unable to ruin his reputation by these means, they attacked
him through his friends. His friends Phidias and Anaxagoras, and his mistress
Aspasia (q.v.), were all accused before the people.
Phidias was condemned and cast into prison; Anaxagoras was also sentenced to pay a fine and
leave Athens (see
Anaxagoras); and Aspasia was
only acquitted through the entreaties and tears of Pericles (
Plut.
Per. 24).
The Peloponnesian War has been falsely ascribed to the ambitious schemes of Pericles. It is
true that he counselled the Athenians not to yield to the demands of the Lacedaemonians, and
he pointed out the immense advantages which the Athenians possessed in carrying on the war;
but he did this because he saw that war was inevitable; and that as long as Athens
retained the great power which she then possessed, Sparta would never rest contented. On the
outbreak of the war in 431 a Peloponnesian army under Archidamus invaded Attica; and upon his
advice the Athenians conveyed their movable property into the city and their cattle and
beasts of burden to Euboea, and allowed the Peloponnesians to desolate Attica without
opposition. Next year (430 B.C.), when the Peloponnesians again invaded Attica, Pericles
pursued the same policy as before. In this summer a plague made its appearance in Athens. The
Athenians, being exposed to the devastation of the war and the plague at the same time, began
to turn their thoughts to peace, and looked upon Pericles as the author of all their
distresses, inasmuch as he had persuaded them to go to war. Pericles attempted to calm the
public ferment; but such was the irritation against him that he was sentenced to pay a fine
(
Thuc.ii. 64). The ill-feeling of the people having found this
vent, Pericles soon resumed his accustomed sway, and was again elected one of the generals
for the ensuing year (429 B.C.). Meantime Pericles had suffered in common with his
fellow-citizens. The plague carried off most of his near connections. His son Xanthippus, a
profligate and undutiful youth, his sister, and most of his intimate friends died of it.
Still he maintained unmoved his calm bearing and philosophic composure. At last his only
surviving legitimate son, Paralus, a youth of greater promise than his brother, fell a
victim. The firmness of Pericles then at last gave way; as he placed the funeral garland on
the head of the lifeless youth, he burst into tears and sobbed aloud. He had one son
remaining, his child by Aspasia; and he was allowed to enroll this son in his own tribe and
give him his own name. In the autumn of 429 Pericles himself died of a lingering sickness. He
survived the commencement of the war two years and six months. The name of the wife of
Pericles is not mentioned. She had been the wife of Hipponicus, by whom she was the mother of
Callias. She bore two sons to Pericles, Xanthippus and Paralus. She lived unhappily with
Pericles, and a divorce took place by mutual consent, when Pericles connected himself with
Aspasia. Of his strict probity he left the decisive proof in the fact that at his death he
was found not to have added a single drachma to his hereditary property. His greatest fault
as a statesman was his inability to see that personal government in the long run is injurious
to a nation; for it impairs the capacity of the people for self-government, and on the death
of the chief leaves them helpless and inexperienced. On his death-bed his friends were
commenting on his victories and triumphs, when he interrupted them with the remark,
“That which you have left unnoticed is that of which I am the proudest; no Athenian
ever wore mourning through any act of mine.” His life is sketched for us by
Thucydides and Plutarch. See also the sketch by E. Abbott
(London, 1891); and
for a comprehensive account of his times, Lloyd,
The Age of Perikles
(London, 1875); Filleul,
Histoire du Siècle de
Periclès (Paris, 1873); also Frey,
Leben des
Perikles (Bern, 1889).
2.
Son of the preceding, by Aspasia, was one of the generals at the battle of Arginusae, and
was put to death by the Athenians with the other generals, B.C. 406.
