With reference to ancient and modern sources, evaluate Pericles life and career.

15 marks

Ancient Sources

·  Thucydides, who wrote at the same time that Pericles lived, in fifth century BC, greatly admired Pericles’ leadership, believing that Athens ‘was at its greatest under him’.

·  He believed that he ‘could respect the liberty of the people, and at the same time, hold them in check.

·  It was he who led them, rather than they who led him, and since he never sought power from any wrong motive, he was under no necessity of flattering them, in fact he was so highly respected that he was able to speak angrily to them and to contradict them.’.

·  Plato is an ancient source who is more cynical in his interpretation of Pericles.

·  He contradicts Thucydides, believing that Pericles’ leadership was achieved by manipulating the demos (common people).

·  Plutarch, wrote in the first and second centuries AD, was also a great admirer of Pericles.

·  He wrote that one of Pericles’ political strategies was that he ‘took care not to make himself too familiar a figure… but reserved himself… for great occasions, and allowed friends and other public speakers to deal with less important matters.’

·  Plutarch’s interpretation is of a man who lived nearly six centuries before him,

·  Similarly, Plutarch wrote that the love (of Pericles and Aspasia) was of a more ‘erotic kind’.

Various modern and ancient sources have interpreted Pericles’ public and private image differently.

·  Modern sources, interpret Pericles’ behaviour as conceited or a clever political strategy.

·  Ancient and modern sources view various incidents, recorded by Plutarch, in different ways.

·  One particular incident which sources draw on to interpret Pericles’ personality is the time when his son borrowed money from a friend because he believed that Pericles did not give him enough and then Pericles refused to pay the money back and took his son to court.

·  While many sources interpret this behaviour as ‘stingy’, Donald Kagan has interpreted Pericles as being indifferent to money, and leading a modest social life without great expenditures.

·  Kagan has also criticised Pericles for his ‘failure to make his sons men of outstanding virtue and achievement’.

·  In contrast to these negative interpretations, many modern sources, such as Chester Starr, admire Pericles.

·  Starr wrote; ‘Pericles was incorruptible… a masterful speaker and a clear thinker.’

·  Ancient sources such as Eupolis also admire him for his skills in rhetoric, ‘in eloquence no man could equal him’.

·  Plutarch too, believed that Pericles had ‘a dignity of spirit and nobility of utterance… also a composure of countenance… which deeply impressed his audience’. He also wrote that ‘despite the immense power he wielded, he had never given way to feelings of envy or hatred and had treated no man as so irreconcilable an enemy that he could never become his friend.’

·  An example Plutarch uses to re-enforce this argument is the day which a man apparently followed Pericles around all day, insulting him. Apparently, when Pericles reached home in the dark he ordered a servant to light a torch and see the man home.

·  Kagan interprets this as a ‘striking display of the restrain and good manners of a nobleman and the detachment of a philosopher.’ This incident has also been interpreted by some sources as a display of his presumptuous, arrogant and haughty nature.

·  Kagan assumes a heroic interpretation of Pericles; ‘Pericles worked consistently to resist the desires of ambitious expansionists and avoid undue risks. He plainly believed that intelligence and reason could restrain unruly passions, maintain the empire at its current size, and use its revenues for a different, safer, possibly even greater glory than the Greeks had yet known.’

·  Written extensively about Pericles’ private life.

·  Pericles was married to an Athenian girl, however he divorced her and married his mistress Aspasia.

·  Kagan believes that Pericles ‘loved her dearly and passionately’.

·  Interpreted Pericles’ social life as stimulating and unusual for the time, writing that he had a ‘wide circle of friends and acquaintances’.

·  Most modern historians, John Thornley and Chester Starr, saw Pericles as a great leader who was very popular with the people.

·  The favourable way, in which the ancient sources have depicted his image, making him a hero for Athens because they were writing for entertainment and not attempting to give an unbiased or entirely factual account of his image.

Some sort of assessment must be made of his period of rule

Positive

·  His period of rule is known as the Golden age of Athens between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars

·  Pericles building program transformed Athens permanently into the greatest city of its age

·  Pericles extended democracy to the poorest citizens , guaranteeing a social development that was progressive and affected the rest of the Ancient World

·  Taught Athens a new patriotism that combined the state gods with a faith in Athens

·  He wanted Athens to be the “School for Hellas”

·  Art, literature and architecture flourished during his period

·  Athens became extremely successful and wealthy in these years

Negative

·  Went to war against other Greeks e.g. revolt of Delian League members

·  Arrogant and showed contempt for others, egotistical

·  Too much influence and power. Plutarch “everything was left to Pericles’ discretion”

·  Re-elected year after year never had to account for his previous year as strategos

·  Dangerously optimistic

·  Encouraged Athenian nationalism at expense of pan-Hellenism

·  Precipitated Peloponnesian War

·  Fell in love with and lived with a young (hetaira) prostitute at the cost of his own wife and the affection of his sons

·  Butt of many Athenian comedies – often satirised as “The Olympian”

·  Charged with impiety for putting reason and logic before religion and tradition

·  Held too restrictive views of the role of women in society