How Did Pericles Influence Greek Government

Pericles (493-429BC)

By Elexa Tobel

Pericles was famous for the establishment of the first democracy, as well as having the Parthenon built. In ancient times, Pericles was well known for his knowledge of the arts and sciences, his, diminishing the power of the rich, and for raising illegitimate children with his foreign wife, Aspasia. In spite of the public’s disapproval of his domestic life, Pericles still did well in politics, due to his public speaking skills and support the desires and rights of the commoner, and is now considered to be one of the most famous rulers of ancient Greece.

Pericles was born in Athens, 493BC, into a wealthy, upper class family. His father, Alchmaeonids, was the general of the Athenian army in 479BC, and his

mother was related to Cleisthenes, the reformer of Athens. Not much else is known of Pericles’ early life, partly due to the chaos in Athens while he was a child, the battle at Marathon and its aftereffects. When Pericles was three the Persians attempted to conquer the Greeks at Marathon. When he was thirteen years old, the Spartans returned, causing many women and children, including Pericles and his mother, to evacuate Athens.
In 472 BC, after the Greeks had once again defeated the Persians at Salamis, Pericles sponsored a dramatic production for the festival of Dionysus, and was assigned Aeschylus. When Aeschylus’ play won first prize, Pericles too profited from the win, being his sponsor, and became well known throughout Athens.
Soon after the success of the play, Pericles married and had to sons. No one now knows the name of his wife, because during that time, women were not considered as important as men.
In 461BC, Pericles, with the partnership of a politician named Ephialtes, organized a vote that diminished power in the old noble council, setting the stage for the beginning of Athenian democracy. Because of his role in the vote, Ephialtes was assassinated by a supporter of the old noble council, possibly organized by Pericles’ rival politician Cimon. Cimon underestimated the power of the people and was banished, allowing Pericles’ to become more powerful than ever before.
Over the next decade, Pericles led many battles, trying to reinforce Athens’ control over Greece’s naval alliance called the Delian League.

He also made peace with Persian and introduced the idea of payment for jury service, allowing the poor to take time off of work to become involved in politics.

In 451 Pericles established a law that prevented the son of an Athenian father and non-Athenian mother from becoming a full citizen. The main effect of this law was to lessen the power of the aristocrats by preventing them from forming alliances with other aristocrats from different city-states.

Soon after, Pericles divorced his wife and lived with a foreign woman named Aspasia, who was described by Socrates as one of the most intelligent women of her time. This relationship was considered a scandal because they were not married and Pericles treated Aspasia as an equal, which was an unusual act in ancient Greece.

Pericles began the construction of the Parthenon in 447, partially funded by the Delian League. It cost him five thousand talents in the first year of its construction, which is equivalent to three billion American dollars today, and took less than fifteen years to

build.
In 431BC, the Greeks, led by Pericles, declared war on the Spartans. Pericles had developed a very thorough plan to defeat the Spartans, and the Athenians with an army of three-thousand triremes, thirteen-thousand hoplites, twelve thousand Calvary and sixteen-thousand reserves, believed they were invincible.
Just a year after the war started, the grain boats that fed the city brought a plague that devastated at least twenty-thousand people, including Pericles and the sons born to him by his first wife.

Because of the plague, the council offered a peace treaty with Sparta, and Pericles was impeached.

Soon after, Pericles was reinstated, but did not live for long after that. He tried to make his son he had with Aspasia his heir, but the law that he had established prevented him from doing this. In 421BC, Pericles died.

Sources:

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“Pericles Biography General (c. 495 BCE-429BCE)”, biography.com, Web, Oct. 8, 2014.

Plutarch. “Pericles (legendary, died 429 B.C.E.)”, classics.mit.edu, 75 A.C.E. Web. Oct. 8, 2014.

Gill, N.S. “Pericles (c. 495-429 B.C.)”, ancienthistory.about.com. Web. Oct. 8, 2014.

Lendering, Jona. “Pericles”, www.livius.org, 2005 modified Aug. 28, 2014. Web. Oct. 8, 2014.

Halsal, Paul. “Ancient History Sourcebook: 11th Brittanica: Pericles”, www.fordham.edu, Jan 1999, Fordham University. Web. Oct. 8, 2014.

History.com Staff. “Pericles”, History.com, 2009. Web. Oct. 8, 2014.

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