The reign of Pericles is considered the heyday of Athenian democracy and the development of the power of the Athenian state. Pericles became famous both as a brilliant military strategist and as an outstanding politician. Let's find out how the events of that time developed and how the fate of Pericles and Athens developed.
Pericles was born in 492 BC. e. His father was the hero of the Greco-Persian wars Xanthippus, and his mother Pericles belonged to the noble family of the Alcmeonids, who gave Athens many prominent political figures.
Like many Athenians from respectable families, Pericles had worthy mentors. He was taught music by the musician and thinker Damon, philosophy by the famous Greek scientist Zeno.
Pericles began his life as a military man. “He was brave in campaigns and looked for dangers,” the ancient Greek historian Plutarch wrote about him. But at that time he did not get much fame in the military field. Pericles was young and ambitious, engaging in politics was in the tradition of his family, and in the mid-60s. 5th century BC e. he entered the political arena. At this time, a fight broke out in Athens between the democrats - supporters of the rule of the majority of citizens - and aristocrats, adherents of the rule of a few noble families. Pericles, although he came from a noble family, took the side of the demos - the people, perhaps
because the Alcmeonids have always supported democracy, or Pericles realized that the greatness of Athens and his own glory lies precisely in the democratic structure of the state.
Having embarked on a political path, Pericles befriended Ephialtes, leader of the Athenian demos. Together they achieved a weakening of the role of the Areopagus, which was not only the highest state council and custodian of traditions, but also a stronghold of the nobility. Having entered into an open struggle with the aristocrats for influence in Athens, Pericles achieved the expulsion of their leader Cimon. He was accused of treason. Shortly thereafter, Ephialtes was killed by like-minded exiles. In 461 BC. e. Pericles took the place of his deceased friend, and from that moment begins the "age of Pericles" - a century that fit in 32 years, but significant, like a whole century.
So, Pericles became the leader of the Democratic Party. In this position, it was absolutely necessary for him to enlist the support of the people and become their leader and authority. Pericles understood how much in politics depends on the sympathies of Athenian citizens. The leader of the aristocrats Kimon was ready to do anything to win their love:he arranged dinners for the poor, gave them clothes, even removed the fence in his estate so that everyone could pick fruits in his garden. Pericles could not and did not want to do this, not only because he was not as rich as Cimon - such actions were not in his nature.
Pericles believed that by littering with money and gifts, you can become a favorite of the people, but not a leader. The love of the people is fickle, unlike the authority of a recognized leader. Pericles immediately stood out noticeably from among the Athenian politicians. He did not offend people with arrogance and did not stoop to familiarity, did not flaunt his person and did not seek to constantly remind himself of himself. On the contrary, Pericles began to rarely appear in public. “He was seen walking along only one road - to the square and to the Council,” Plutarch reports. In the National Assembly, he spoke only on especially important occasions, entrusting simple tasks to associates. In dealing with people, Pericles was distinguished by prudence and enviable calmness. It was not easy, because evil tongues were generous in taunts towards politicians. He patiently endured ridicule without losing his own dignity, which caused the respect of the townspeople. In addition, Pericles never flirted with the crowd, did not make fantastic plans, and did not promise mountains of gold. He drew attention to himself as a serious person. The activities that he proposed in the name of strengthening the Athenian state contributed to an even greater increase in his authority.
When in 460 B.C. e. Democrats led by Pericles came to power, their first concern was foreign policy. One of the tasks was to strengthen the Delian Maritime Union. This was the name of the association of Greek cities headed by Athens, created in 478 BC. e. to fight the Iranians. The Iranians had not directly threatened Athens for a long time, but in 454 BC. e. the Athenians again encountered them in Egypt, where they assisted the rebellious Libyans. The Iranians were victorious, which greatly alarmed the Athenians and their allies.
Pericles, in the face of impending danger, suggested the following:in a critical situation, discord should be forgotten and the interests of the allies should be subordinated to Athens, because not a single city in the union could compare with them in strength and size of the fleet . The Delos Union, according to the plan of Pericles, was to turn into an Athenian power, which controlled the military forces and funds of all the allied cities, of which there were about 200. The military forces of the union consisted of a public fleet, and funds - from the treasury, to which each city paid annual fee. This treasury was kept on the island of Delos. Referring to the threat of invasion, Pericles insisted that the treasury of the Delian League be transported to Athens. In 454 BC. e. Athens became the owners of allied money, disposing of them at its discretion.
The second problem was the relationship with Sparta. She headed the Peloponnesian Union, which took shape in the second half of the 6th century. BC e. and included the ancient Greek policies of the Peloponnese. In Sparta, the aristocracy was in power, and throughout Hellas its adherents saw this state as a defender of their interests. The eyes of all supporters of a democratic system were turned to democratic Athens, which supported them, while expanding its influence and strengthening its power.
Taking advantage of the turmoil in Sparta, Athens interfered with her allies in the Peloponnese. In 457 BC. e. the war began. The aristocrats who rallied around Sparta were alarmed by the strengthening of their opponents in many cities. The war went on for a long time and with varying success. In its course, Pericles proved himself to be a brave warrior and a sensible commander. “As a strategist, Pericles was most famous for his caution:he voluntarily did not enter the battle if it was dangerous, and its outcome is doubtful,” wrote Plutarch. He often kept citizens from rash actions, saved Athens when they were not ready to repel the onset of the Spartans invading Attica. Pericles bribed their commander, and he withdrew the troops. Wherever possible, Pericles established the power of Athens.
The war ended in 445 BC. e. The thirty-year peace, which is also called "Periklov", emphasizing the merits of the leader of the Athenians in his conclusion. He managed to convince his fellow citizens that the refusal to negotiate with Sparta and the continuation of hostilities would bring trouble to Athens itself. The peace obligated both states not to interfere in each other's affairs; Sparta recognized the Athenian Maritime Union, and Athens renounced possessions in the Peloponnese. But Pericles was not satisfied with this position. He dreamed of seeing Athens as the center of Hellas, the greatest state of the Greek world, and tried to convene a pan-Greek "congress" for this purpose. The Spartans, who understood his plans in time, violated the plans of Pericles, but they could not prevent him from strengthening the power of Athens in Athens itself.
In 444 B.C. e., appreciating the merits of Pericles to the state, the Athenians elected him a strategist - commander in chief. He held this title for 15 years. The influence of his opponents - the aristocrats was undermined by the war with Sparta. Their leader Thucydides (not to be confused with the historian Thucydides!) Was in 443 BC. e. expelled from Athens. Pericles won, and from that time on, for 14 years, he had no equal. “Athens reached the highest power under him. He led the masses because he acquired power without resorting to unworthy means ... and did not have the need to flatter the crowd, but, being respected, he could sharply contradict it, ”wrote the historian Thucydides.
Pericles was nicknamed the Olympian for his rare oratorical gift. It was said that he, “like Zeus, throws lightning, striking with words, and the very conviction sits on his lips.”
Pericles was not a great reformer. He only completed what had been done by his predecessors, Solon and Cleisthenes. He sought to ensure that Athens became an ideal state, turned into a flourishing democracy that could protect the people from external enemies and protect the rights of all free citizens with its laws.
There were few full citizens in Athens. An increase in their number led to a reduction in the benefits that they enjoyed, for example, in the distribution of bread during a famine. Defending the rights of the Athenian demos, Pericles back in 451 BC. e. proposed a law on citizenship, according to which only one whose father and mother were Athenians was considered a citizen. The number of full-fledged Athenians was thus limited, and it became almost impossible to get into their number in order to enjoy privileges.
Concerned that all citizens could equally enjoy their rights and hold public office, Pericles secured the payment of the members of the Council of Five Hundred - the archons, in essence, the government that was in charge of affairs, submitted to the People's Assembly; heliastam--to the judges in the court; army and navy. Now ordinary citizens who participated in government did not suffer losses, being distracted from their craft, as it was before, when positions were not paid and only wealthy people could occupy them.
Pericles knew that the poverty of citizens is a disaster for the state and a cause for unrest. He insisted on the allocation of benefits for orphans and cripples. The sons of those killed in the war were brought up with the money of the state. Another way to eradicate poverty is to give people the opportunity to work and earn their living. Under Pericles, a grandiose construction unfolded in Athens. Non-military masons, carpenters, carvers, road builders were provided with a reliable piece of bread ... “The whole city was, as it were, on a salary - it supported and adorned itself,” wrote Plutarch.
Beginning construction, Pericles thought not only about fighting poverty and idleness of citizens, but also about strengthening defensive structures. Long walls, 7 km long, connecting Athens with the port of Piraeus, were built as early as 456 BC. e. Pericles dreamed of creating a monument to the eternal glory of Athens. On his initiative, the Acropolis was decorated with new majestic temples. The Parthenon was erected - the temple of Athena Parthenos; Propylaea - a monumental structure framing the entrance to the Acropolis; temples of Nike and Pallas Athena. In a short time, Athens became the political and cultural center of Hellas. Masters and philosophers flocked here, knowing that they would find students and listeners. Pericles himself was friendly with the historians Herodotus, Thucydides, the philosophers Zeno, Socrates, Protagoras, Anaxagoras, the tragedian Sophocles, and the sculptor Phidias. They were frequent guests in the house of the strategist, and then the beautiful and educated wife of Pericles Aspasia, a hetera, whom he married in spite of the disapproving gossip of the Athenians and the gossip of ill-wishers, became the soul of this extraordinary society.
The defeated aristocrats reproached Pericles for spending money from the treasury of the Athenian Maritime Union to decorate Athens. Athens really used the treasury as its wallet for a long time. Pericles answered this with all frankness that Athens is not obliged to report in money, because she protects allies who only pay a fee, but do not give either a ship or a warrior; and money does not belong to the one who pays it, but to the one who receives it, if he does what is paid for. Pericles could afford such an answer:the power of Athens during his reign had increased so much that the Athenians did not take into account the opinion of their allies too much. The Athenian Maritime Union turned into the Athenian power - "arche", and Athens - into a hegemon, dictating its will (see the article "Ancient Greece").
Strengthening the Athenian state, Pericles kept in mind its main enemy - Sparta. Sparta's allies, the aristocratic cities, demanded decisive action against democratic Athens, whose influence was growing rapidly. The ancient rival of Athens, Corinth, was especially worried. In it, they watched with alarm as the Athenians expanded trade with the Greek colonies in Italy and Sicily, gradually ousting the Corinthians. Another
The conflict that arose between the allies of Sparta and Athens heated the situation even more. The Corinthians, who had the most direct relation to the civil strife, accused Athens of violating the terms of the Thirty Years' Peace. The allies unanimously demanded that the Spartans curb the presumptuous rival. After listening to all the complaints and appeals, Sparta presented an ultimatum to Athens, one of the requirements of which was the expulsion from the state of the Alkmeonids, i.e. Pericles. He was now to be looked upon as the culprit of the war, remembering that it was at the suggestion of Pericles that Athens intervened in the conflict of the Peloponnesian cities.
It has long been known that those who have chosen politics as their fate rarely have to count on the gratitude of their contemporaries. Despite all the successes of Athens, Pericles himself had a hard time at this time. “Why do you Athenians get tired of receiving kindness from the same people?” - these words of Themistocles, the hero of the war with the Iranians, expelled from Athens, could be repeated by Pericles. A man who gave 30 years of his life to democracy was accused of tyranny. Not daring yet to directly attack Pericles, the enemies fell upon his wife and friends:Phidias died in prison, Aspasia was hardly able to defend himself from the accusations.
Sparta's ultimatum was rejected, and in 431 B.C. e. The Spartans invaded Attica. The war of the Hellenes with the Hellenes began - the Peloponnesian War. Pericles urged the inhabitants of Attica to take refuge behind the Long Walls in Athens. He kept the Athenians rushing into battle, offering to rely on the fleet, which he sent to ravage the coast of the Peloponnese. The Spartans did retreat, but this did not bring relief. Along with the refugees who lived in the city in the dirt and cramped, came the plague. Frightened citizens began to look for someone to blame for their troubles, and their anger fell on Pericles.
For the first time in 15 years, in 430 B.C. e., Pericles was not elected strategist. He was accused of embezzlement and sentenced to a fine, forgetting that at one time, proclaiming Pericles the first citizen of the state, his main merits were recognized as patriotism and incorruptibility. Rivals could triumph, but none of the "other strategists and orators had neither the influence sufficient for such high power, nor the authority to ensure its reliable execution," Plutarch wrote. The Athenians were so accustomed to the advice and suggestions of Pericles that they did not know what to do without him. Realizing from their own experience that there are still irreplaceable people, the changeable Athenians in 429 BC. e. Pericles was again chosen as strategist. But he was too tired, he was 60 years old. He lost friends in the fight against opponents, the plague claimed his relatives. In the same year, Pericles died.
The power of the Athenian state and the immortal beauty of the great city were the merits of Pericles. His victory was the strengthening of Athenian democracy - the rule of full citizens.
Pericles died in Athens, fortunately not knowing that they would never again be as strong and majestic as in the days when, as Plutarch testified, he “concentrated and Athens itself, and all the things that depend on the Athenians - contributions, allies, an army, islands, the sea, great power and supreme dominion.
From the encyclopedia.
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