Pericles

Lore & Background

Pericles was born c. 495 BC in Athens, the son of politician Xanthippus and Agariste, a member of the powerful Alcmaeonid family. His early years were quiet; he avoided public appearances and devoted time to his studies. He learned music from masters of the time and is considered the first politician to attribute importance to philosophy, enjoying the company of philosophers such as Protagoras, Zeno of Elea, and Anaxagoras. Anaxagoras became a close friend and influenced his manner of thought and rhetorical charisma. Pericles's proverbial calmness and self-control are often regarded as products of Anaxagoras's influence.

Pericles entered politics by presenting Aeschylus's The Persians at the Greater Dionysia in 472 BC. He became a leading prosecutor of Cimon in 463 BC and achieved Cimon's ostracism around 461 BC. After the murder of Ephialtes in 461 BC, Pericles consolidated his authority and remained in power until his death. He promoted populist policies, including a decree allowing the poor to attend theatre for free, lowering property requirements for the archonship, and bestowing wages on jurymen. His most controversial measure was a 451 BC law limiting Athenian citizenship to those of Athenian parentage on both sides.

Pericles promoted the arts and literature, and through his efforts Athens acquired the reputation of being the educational and cultural centre of the ancient Greek world. He started an ambitious project that generated most of the surviving structures on the Acropolis, including the Parthenon. Pericles, along with several members of his family, succumbed to the Plague of Athens in 429 BC, which weakened the city-state during a protracted conflict with Sparta.

Reader's Guide

Pericles's significance lies in his role as the leading statesman of Athens during its Golden Age, a period of cultural and political preeminence. He transformed the Delian League into an Athenian empire and oversaw the construction of the Parthenon and other Acropolis structures, which beautified the city and provided employment. His democratic reforms, such as paying jurors and lowering property requirements, expanded political participation but drew criticism from contemporaries and later historians who argued they led to populism and eventual decline. The citizenship law of 451 BC restricted Athenian identity. Pericles's leadership during the first two years of the Peloponnesian War ended with his death from the Plague of Athens in 429 BC, a blow from which the city-state never fully recovered. His legacy is debated: some see him as the architect of Athenian greatness, others as a populist whose policies weakened the state. The 'Age of Pericles' remains a label for Athens's cultural and political zenith, though the exact boundaries of the period are disputed.

Did You Know?

• Pericles was descended, through his mother, from the powerful and historically influential Alcmaeonid family.
• According to Herodotus and Plutarch, Agariste dreamed before Pericles's birth that she had borne a lion, a story also told of Philip II of Macedon before the birth of Alexander the Great.
• Contemporary comedians called Pericles 'Squill-head' due to the unusually large size of his skull.
• Pericles is considered the first politician to attribute importance to philosophy.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Wait for that wisest of all counselors, Time." — Pericles "Trees, though they are cut and lopped, grow up again quickly, but if men are destroyed, it is not easy to get them again." — Pericles "The whole Earth is the Sepulchre of famous men; and their story is not graven only on Stone over their native earth, but lives on far away, without visible symbol, woven into the stuff of other men's lives." — Pericles "Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it." — Pericles