Erin Bowser
12/4/15
LW 7/8
Pericles: An Important Figure in Ancient Greece Pericles, whose name means “surrounded by gloryâ€, was a statesmen of Athens, Greece during the Golden Age between 495 – 429 BC. He rose to become one of the greatest leaders of Athens as a statesman, orator, and a general. The period during which he led Athens, from 461 to 429 BC, is sometimes known as the "Age of Pericles" because of his contributions to the arts, architecture, and to Athens as a military power. Pericles was so influential that the historian Thucydides called him "the first citizen of Athens".
Growing up, Pericles lived in a noble, prestigious, and wealthy household. His mother, Agariste, was a member of the influential Alcmaeonid family, which included Megacles, Cleisthenes, and Hippocrates.This allowed him to pursue his education full-time. His teachers influenced him greatly and were a large part of his successes later
He believed that Athens’ strength lay in its navy and that many of their enemies were too difficult to defeat on land. During the Peloponnesian War, he led Athens’ forces for the first two years until his death in 429 B.C. Pericles’ strategy was to tire the enemy and not over-extend his forces. This strategy, perceived as inglorious by the people, was unpopular. But Pericles convinced them to follow it. This fact is a good example of how great a statesman and military leader he was.
Many of the literary, artistic and architectural works of Greece’s Golden Age still exist today and are part of Pericles' legacy. The Acropolis, though in ruins, still stands and is a symbol of modern Athens. The form of democracy championed by Pericles was built upon by the Romans and serves as the basis of modern democracy. But what made him a great man in his time were his skills and instincts as a leader in military, political, and cultural
Being so cunning and intelligent allowed Odysseus to be such a tactical person when it came to battle. Odysseus' reason for being so good at battle is the fact that he was a fearless person and would stop a nothing.
...proud rationalization of its superiority. Balancing security, happiness, and values, Athens is a shining example of freedom, opportunity and justice. It is a nation that both builds itself on and produces uniquely spirited citizens. The sentiments of Pericles’ truly are reminiscent of modern day American Exceptionalism. “I doubt if the world can produce a man who, where he has only himself to depend upon, is equal to so many emergencies, and graced by so happy a versatility, as the Athenian.” (2.41.1).
Pericles ascended to power at the empire’s height and was, according to Thucydides, the city’s most capable politician, a man who understood fully the nature of his city and its political institutions and used his understanding to further its interests in tandem with his own. After Pericles, however, Thucydides notes a drastic decline in the quality of Athenian leaders, culminating in Alcibiades, the last major general to be described in The Peloponnesian War. While he is explicit in this conclusion, he is much more reticent regarding its cause. What changed in Athens to produce the decline in the quality of its leadership? The development of an empire is a change strongly emphasized in the Archeology as a radical departure from the Hellenic tradition, and consequently a major source of conflict among the Greeks.
Inevitably, when you are talking about leaders, the questions arise: is he or she good or bad? What is the metric and what is your method of evaluation? In this case, we’ll look at Odysseus’ performance through a modern leadership lens, while keeping in mind that Homeric Greek culture might have motivated him to act differently than he would have today.
It is surprising indeed that Even today, tyrannies and dictatorships exist in the world when more than two and a half thousand years ago the ancient Athenians had developed a functional and direct form of democracy. What contributed to this remarkable achievement and how it changed the socio-political. scene in Athens is what will be considered in this paper. The paper will have three sections, each detailing the various stages. of political development from the kings of Attica to the time of Pericles when, in its golden age, Athens was at the height of its. imperial power.
Athens government and military is considerably different from their neighbors. According to Pericles, Athens government is not a copy of our neighbors...
Imagining a general with great wealth, integrity, and great perverseness can only begin the learning of Pericles and his ways of being a leader of Athens. His risk-taking, leadership, and his intelligence truly show what type of person he was. Although there were people that thought he was not worthy of his position, he had many supporters and people that idolized, admired, and trusted him, making him one of the most brilliant people ever to step foot in Athens.
The death of Pericles was a significant event in the course of the Peloponnesian War; however, even without Pericles' leadership the Athenian Assembly had countless opportunities to prevent their loss and chose not to take them. The fickleness and inefficiency of democracy ('the mob') allowed the Athenians to be easily influenced and therefore electing populists such as Cleon, Lysicles and Hyperbolus into dominant leadership roles. Election, via democratic means, of such populists, meant that the Athenians would take a much more aggressive approach to the war and therefore abandon the policies that Pericles had previously established. So in turn, democracy the institution for which the Athenians fought tirelessly to protect, rather than the death of Pericles, ironically became the dominant factor influencing the final outcome of this Ancient Greek civil war.
For Pericles, Athenian values are realized through culture and “daily devotion.” He claims that Athenian citizens obey both “the laws themselves” and “agreed-on social values (which need no specific legislation),” not requiring legislation to uphold their values. Accordingly, Pericles views exceptionalism as intrinsic to Athenians. Boasting about the city, Pericles questions “how else did she become great but by this genius in her citizens?” A recommitment to civic values, therefore, is simple to Pericles: Athenians are exceptional at the moment of his speech, and must simply continue their past conduct in order to achieve future
He says "..... The Lacedaemonians do not invade our country alone, but bring with them all their confederates; while we Athenians advance unsupported into the territory of a neighbour, and fighting upon a foreign soil usually vanquish with ease men who are defending their home". Pericles is telling the funeral audience that just because we sit here at a funeral we are winning easily against Sparta. They need help even on land they are more familiar with and we still defeat them. So not only does Athens have the better form of government that was passed down from generation to generation but we also obviously have better war tactics than Sparta in which that is supposed to be their specialty. He says this to distraught funeral crowd who deep in their mind are questioning if they could win this war and Pericles is giving them a sense of hope and a sense that they could win this war with
No one would deny that Pericles was the most prominent Greek statesman and spokesperson during the Golden Age. His contribution was largely felt during the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars having obtained power from his family link to the Alcmaeonid family. He commanded a lot of respect to from the Athenian citizens with Thucydides describing him as "the first citizen of Athens” . He was born at around 495 BC north of Athens in the ...
Although, Pericles was originally elected as a strategos and was only expected to serve one term his popularity led him to be re-elected multiple times. His take on the government brought new economic stability to Athens, and benefited its people. Some may have thought that he was greedy liar, but they hadn't considered the fact that unlike other leaders and politicians of the time he never excepted gifts from the aristocracy in exchange for favors. He made sure that all government officials were payed for their jobs. He also allowed all citizens of Athens which was about 20% of the population, to participate in the government and politics through voting, which was more than any other civilization in the ancient world. He spoke straight, in fact it was his talent as a speaker that impressed people the most. His talent as a speaker got people to agree to many of his proposals. One of these many proposals was to strengthen the Athenian military mainly its
Many values are shared by both Pericles and
In the first of the two texts, Pericles is making a very bold statement on the state of the Athens. “Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighbouring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves.” In his speech, Pericles is trying to rally the Athenians to support the new democracy and to make them feel important by being associated with
The Greeks system of democracy was an entirely new concept when it was created, and one that has had lasting affects as it continues to influence present day politics around the globe. Modern day democracies may very well not exist if it wasn’t for the success the Athenians had with democracy. Today we look back at these ancient civilizations and we try to better our current society by learning from their mistakes and building on their success.