Pericles

Pericles or Perikles (ca. 495–429 BC, Greek: Περικλῆς, meaning "surrounded by glory") was a prominent and influential statesman. He also was an orator, and general of Athens. He lived between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. He was descended, through his mother, from the Alcmaeonid family.

Pericles
Bust of Pericles after Cresilas, Altes Museum, Berlin
Allegiance	Athens
Rank	General (Strategos)
Battles/wars	Battle in Sicyon and Acarnania (454 BC) Second Sacred War (448 BC) Expulsion of barbarians from Gallipoli (447 BC) Samian War (440 BC) Siege of Byzantium (438 BC) Peloponnesian War (431–429 BC)

Pericles had great influence on Athenian society. Thucydides, a contemporary historian, described him as "the first citizen of Athens". Pericles turned the Delian League into an Athenian empire and led his countrymen during the first two years of the Peloponnesian War. The period during which he led Athens, roughly from 461 to 429 BC, is sometimes known as the "Age of Pericles,". This period though can include times as early as the Persian Wars, or as late as the next century.

In Pericles late 20’s he sponsored a major dramatic production for the festival of Dionysus, and he also entertained the whole city. Pericles also got married and had 2 sons. His wife's name is unknown. He associated with a courtesan named Aspasia. A decade later the people started to like him more and more. He got involved with the politics called Ephialtes. Pericles and Ephialtes took away the noble's powers. Ephialtes was later assassinated.

Pericles promoted the arts and literature. This was a chief reason Athens holds the reputation of being the educational and cultural centre of the ancient Greek world. He started an ambitious project that built most of the surviving structures on the Acropolis (including the Parthenon). This project made the city more beautiful., It also showed its glory, and gave work to the people. Furthermore, Pericles fostered Athenian democracy to such an extent that critics call him a populist.

Pericles Media

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  Bust of Pericles, Roman copy of a Greek original, British Museum

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  Phidias Showing the Frieze of the Parthenon to Pericles, Aspasia, Alcibiades and Friends, by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1868, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

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  Aspasia of Miletus (c. 469 BC – c. 406 BC), Pericles' companion

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  Anaxagoras and Pericles by Augustin-Louis Belle (1757–1841)

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  The Parthenon was prompted by Pericles.

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  Pericles' Funeral Oration (Perikles hält die Leichenrede) by Philipp Foltz (1852)

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  The Plague of Athens (c. 1652–1654) by Michiel Sweerts

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  An ostracon with Pericles' name written on it (c. 444–443 BC), Museum of the ancient Agora of Athens

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  A painting by Hector Leroux (1682–1740), which portrays Pericles and Aspasia, admiring the gigantic statue of Athena in Phidias' studio

Related pages

• Pericles' Funeral Oration

Works about Pericles

• Aristophanes, The Acharnians. See original text in Perseus program.
• Aristotle.  Constitution of the Athenians. Wikisource. . See original text in Perseus program.
• Aristotle, Politika (Politics). See original text in Perseus program.
• Cicero, De Oratore. See original text in Perseus program.
• Diodorus Siculus, Library, 12th Book. See original text in Perseus program.
• Herodotus, The Histories, VI. See original text in Perseus program.
• Plato, Alcibiades I. See original text in Perseus program, from Plato; W.R.M. Lamb (trans.) (1955). Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 8. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-99184-2.
• Plato, Gorgias. See original text in Perseus program, from Plato (1903). Platonis Opera. Oxford University Press.
• Plato, Menexenus. See original text in Perseus program, from Plato; W.R.M. Lamb (trans.) (1925). Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-99185-0.
• Plato, Phaedrus, See original text in Perseus program, from Plato (1903). Platonis Opera. Oxford University Press.
• Plutarch, Cimon. See original text in Perseus program.
• Plutarch, Pericles. See original text in Perseus program.
• Quintilian, Institutiones. See original text in The Latin Library.
• Thucydides.  History of the Peloponnesian War. Wikisource. , I-III. See original text in Perseus program.
• Xenophon (?), Constitution of Athens. See original text in Perseus program

• Blois de, Lukas (1997). An Introduction to the Ancient World. Routledge (UK). ISBN 0-415-12774-2.
• Ruden, Sarah (2003). Lysistrata. Hackett Publishing. ISBN 0-87220-603-3.
  • Abbott, Evelyn (1898). Pericles and the Golden Age of Athens. G. P. Putnam's Sons.
  • Brock Roger, Hodkinson Stephen (2003). Alternatives to Athens: Varieties of Political Organization and Community in Ancient Greece. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-925810-4.
  • Gardner, Percy (1902). Ancient Athens.
  • Grant, Arthur James (1893). Greece in the Age of Pericles. John Murray.
  • Hesk, John (2000). Deception and Democracy in Classical Athens. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-64322-8.
  • Kagan, Donald (1991). Pericles of Athens and the Birth of Democracy. The Free Press. ISBN 0-684-86395-2.
  • Lummis, Douglas C. (1997). Radical Democracy. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-8451-0.
  • Ober, Josiah (2001). Political Dissent in Democratic Athens: Intellectual Critics of Popular Rule. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-08981-7.
  • Rhodes, P.J. (2005). A History of the Classical Greek World: 478-323 BC. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0-631-22565-X.
  • Whibley, Leonard (1889). A History of the Classical Greek World: 478-323 BC. University Press.
  • Gore Vidal, Creation (novel) for a fictional account of Pericles and a Persian view of the wars.