Pericles

Examples of Pericles in the following topics:

• Athens

  • Athens attained its Golden Age under Pericles in the 5th century BCE, and flourished culturally as the hegemonic power of the Hellenic world.
  • The latter part of this time period is often called The Age of Pericles.
  • With the empire's funds, military dominance, and its political fortunes as guided by statesman and orator Pericles, Athens produced some of the most influential and enduring cultural artifacts of Western tradition, during what became known as the Golden Age of Athenian democracy, or the Age of Pericles.
  • Pericles was arguably the most prominent and influential Greek statesman, orator, and general of Athens during its Golden Age.
  • All magistrates served for a year or less, with the exception of Pericles, who was elected year after year to public office.

• Athenian Society

  • During the reforms of Ephialtes and Pericles around 460-450 BCE, thetes were granted the right to hold public office.
  • One famous example of a hetaera is Pericles’ mistress, Aspasia of Miletus, who is said to have debated with prominent writers and thinkers, including Socrates.

• The Agora

  • The Temple of Hephaestus, the god of the forge, is a Doric peripteral temple built under the reign of Pericles between 449 and 415 BCE.
  • However, during the Classical period under the reign of Pericles, the Athenian Agora was built into a central site for the city's religious, civic, and judicial practices as well as home to commerce and markets.

• The Acropolis

  • While there is evidence that the hill was inhabited as far back as the fourth millennium BCE, it was Pericles (c. 495 – 429 BCE) in the High Classical Period who coordinated the construction of the site's most important buildings including the Parthenon, the Propylaea, the Erechtheion, and the temple of Athena Nike.
  • It was immediately following the Persian war that Athenian general and statesman Pericles funded an extensive building program on the Athenian Acropolis.
  • The opisthodomos is large, accounting for the size of the treasury of the Delian League, which Pericles moved from Delos to the Parthenon.
  • The buildings include: (1) Parthenon (2) Old Temple of Athena (3) Erechtheum (4) Statue of Athena Promachos (5) Propylaea (6) Temple of Athena Nike (7) Eleusinion (8) Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia or Brauroneion (9) Chalkotheke (10) Pandroseion (11) Arrephorion (12) Altar of Athena (13) Sanctuary of Zeus Polieus (14) Sanctuary of Pandion (15) Odeon of Herodes Atticus (16) Stoa of Eumenes (17) Sanctuary of Asclepius or Asclepieion (18) Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus (19) Odeon of Pericles (20) Temenos of Dionysus Eleuthereus (21) Aglaureion

• The Parthenon

  • It was built under Pericles during the Golden Age of Athens as a temple dedicated to Athena Parthenos.
  • The opisthodomos is large, accounting for the size of the treasury of the Delian League, which Pericles moved from Delos to the Parthenon.

• Classical Greek Philosophy

  • The great statesman Pericles was closely associated with these new teachings, however, and his political opponents struck at him by taking advantage of a conservative reaction against the philosophers.
  • He liked to observe that successful fathers (such as the prominent military general Pericles) did not produce sons of their own quality.

• Introduction to the Peloponnesian War

  • Initially Athens’ strategy, as guided by Pericles, was to avoid open battle with the more numerous, and better trained Spartan hoplites, and to instead rely on Athens’ superior fleet.
  • Pericles and his sons perished as a result of plague, and in the aftermath, Athenians turned against Pericles’s defensive strategy in favor of a more aggressive one that would bring war directly to Sparta and its allies.

• Imperial Sculpture under the Nervan-Antonines

  • He was a great lover of Greek culture and wore a closely trimmed beard in the style of Classical Greek statesmen, such as the Athenian Pericles.

• History of Public Speaking

  • During this period Pericles, the Athenian ruler and Aspasia's partner, treated Aspasia as an equal and allowed her the opportunity to engage in dialogue with the important and educated men of society.