Prosperity and Peril at the Peak with Pericles

In the Age of Pericles, from 491 until his death in 429 BCE, Athens thrived. In this short period, Athens was a place of reform and advancement, giving us our sources of democracy, architecture, and the dramatic arts. Here, great minds such as Socrates and Sophocles congregated; here, ideals flourished. These developments of the Age of Pericles distinguish it as a high point in Greek society and, indeed, all Western civilization.

From the start of his career in government, Pericles provided the Athenian people with the foundations of democracy. In 461, Pericles campaigned against aristocrats sitting in government, and in 451 enforced a law to prevent children of non-citizens from becoming full citizens (PBS, “The Greeks”). By managing the ties that aristocrats often made to other countries, Pericles managed to keep government from being monopolized. Unlike the aristocracy, Pericles focused on the disenfranchised, instructing Athenians to “especially obey those laws enacted for the protection of the oppressed and those which, although unwritten, it is acknowledged shame to violate” (Kagan 166, from Thucydides 2.37.3). Expounding on this social observance of fairness, Pericles most directly gave rights to the Athenians when he made possible “the full participation of its citizens in the government of city and empire” (Robertson 90). This faculty of citizens to have full access to their government provided Athenians with the start of democracy.

Although not everyone benefited, as women and slaves were left out during this particularly “masculine age” (Robinson 91), Pericles did try to attend to the rights of men as equally as he could. It was thus that he narrowed the gap in representation of wealthy and poor citizens: paying the ...

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... of the state as a whole they judged him to be the ablest” (Kagan, from Thucydides, 2.65.4) Having realized that Pericles was altogether the best man to lead them, Athens re-embraced the man who brought them to their peak. Unfortunately, they soon fell from it, but as that didn’t happen until after the Age of Pericles, this age, gilded like Athens’ goddess, remains relatively intact.

Athens was at once the site of the forerunner of democracy, the epitome of Classical architecture, the height of drama, naval superiority, and enlightened minds such as Socrates. As much as these developments gave Athens its preeminence, and despite how rapidly it fell, the growth of Athens in this brief time has given us the source of our modern democracy, our sense of culture, and our ideals for society. In the Age of Pericles, Athens bloomed, but even now we relish its benefits.