Pericles Background Q - Ancient History PDF

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Outline the family background and education of Pericles

Pericles was a highly influential Athenian stateman born around 494BC from a very wealthy and distinguished family. Both his parents had high profiles among the Athenian society and was often taught by some of the greatest minds. His teachers such as Anaxagoras, Damon, Pythocledias and Zeno taught him and fostered his political acumen along with his incredible foresight and orating skills. Pericles’s mother was Agariste, who had a family background that was long involved into the political history of Athens, being part of the Alcmaeonids. Similarly, his father was Xanthippus, a politician and strategos that was unfortunately ostracised in 484BC however recalled in 481BC due to the Persian wars. Pericles’s great uncle was Cleisthenes who reformed the government of Athens in 507BC and could be considered one of the founding fathers of democracy. Furthermore, due to being taught by some of the greatest minds, as described by Plutarch, Pericles was able to develop into an influential statesman with a political mindset that would be described by modern day scholars to have led Athens into their highest state. Damon of Oa taught music and poetry to Pericles who also through this, trained Pericles for political contests. His gradual learning of music and poetry fostered into a deep appreciation for the arts and thus greatly supported fine arts and dramas which consequently led to Athens’s golden period. Zeno the Eleatic was a philosopher who perfected the art of cross examination which allowed Pericles to defend and argue back during political speeches which would give him the upperhand. Another philosopher that took Pericles under his wing was Anaxagoras of Clazomenae who helped Pericles develop a natural dignity of character. Due to Anaxagoras’s sceptical outlook on superstition, relying on facts and science to prove supernatural events, this allowed him to teach Pericles to insightfully look upon uncertain times and thus provide the best answers to the people to benefit the state. Consequently, it can be said that the education and family background of Pericles had largely allowed him to become one of the greatest leaders of Athens.

Describe Pericles’s rise to prominence Pericles was a powerful Greek statesman who utilised various mediums in order to attain influence and rise to power. Through his young life, Pericles was always taught the skills of politicians and thus was trained to become a politician. However, his decisions in joining the military, attacking the areopagus and seeing the demos as an untapped method to power, ultimately allowed him to amass a large amount of power. During his young life, Pericles engaged in a military career before entering politics. As Burn described Pericles “Pericles threw himself into the task of winning a good name by his conduct as a soldier” this could have been done in order to win the trust of the people as well as having humble beginnings in which would put him in good stead for future warfare and knowledge. However, his decision to stray away from politics at the beginning was described by Thucydides to be “disassociating with the powerful” for the fear of ostracism. Burn argues however, that this was unlikely as ostracism was often targeted at established politicians and so would not have affected Pericles as much. Consequently, his early political career was kickstarted through acting as a choregos for Aeschylus in “The Persians” to show his appreciation for fine arts. However, due to the play winning the competition, this improved his name and gave his name a wider attention from the common people. Similarly, whilst Cimon appealed to the common people through his large wealth in providing dinners, Pericles saw the distribution of public funds, public festivals and juror payment to secure his support. This allowed Pericles to gain a wide appreciation from the common people, ultimately boosting is popularity and rise to prominence Aristotle explains how the Areopagus had the majority of the power after the Persian wars and seeing this as a problem to Athens, Pericles seeked to abolish it. Thus he proceeded to attack upon the Areopagus to strip them of their powers transferring them to the demos. This secured demos support as it presented him as a man of the people, largely aligning his goals with actions which would benefit Athens the most. Finally, Pericles introduced pay for jurors of 2 obols a day which would secure employment and welfare payments for the older people of society. Thus, it can be said that Pericles’s various methods of appealing to the people whilst increasing the power of Athens had largely allowed him to overtime, accumulate power and rise to a prominent position in Athenian society.

Outline Pericles’s political alliances and rivalries Pericles, as an Athenian statesman being largely responsible for the full development of both the Athenian democracy and Athenian empire, must have had political alliances and rivalries. However, the rivalries were of much less of a threat than the common people as no one during his time was able to lead the Athenian people as well as he. Pericles was often associated with Ephialtes and Cimon as they both pursued the

Describe Pericles’ main democratic reforms Over the course of Pericles time as a strategos and influential statesman, he introduced and improved many reforms in order to advance the wellbeing of the Athenian people and society. His main successes were in the form of a greater democracy, taking power from the Areopagus, introducing juror payment, state pay, chief archonships and citizenship laws. Thus, his political impact and influence on the Athenian people was very large Pericles was very successful in taking the power away from the Areopagus. He joined the reformer Ephialtes in organizing a vote in the popular assembly that stripped all remaining powers from the Areopagus, the old noble council. Thus, the power was transferred towards the Boule, Ekklesia and Dikasteria where the common people would hold the majority of the power Furthermore, Pericles was often described as a believer of radical democracy. Previously, only the wealthy could afford the time to participate in politics. Pericles approved payment for jury duty and for soldiers, sailors, and administrators according to Aristotle. This allowed employment and income for the lower classes which would serve to decrease the inequality. That development transformed the character of Athenian democracy and society; lower-class Athenians (called thetes ) could now participate as fully as citizens with property. In Thucydides life of Pericles, he introduced a citizenship law that decreed that ‘a person should not have the rights of citizenship unless both his parents had been citizens”. Pericles wanted to restrict civic benefits to Athenians. This law improved the position of Athenian women as men were forced now to marry within their own state in order for their children to be citizens Thus, through these three main democratic reforms, Pericles was able to complete the democracy of the Athenian people.

Explain the purpose and extent of Pericles building program Pericles proposed a building program soon after the Persian defeat, which had devastated much of Athens. The program's main aim was to restore various Athenian temples as a reminder of the hubris of the Persians. Furthermore, it allowed the Athenian people to display their imperial strength through their architectural and artistic works. Plutarch states that the building program not only served to display their might but also allowed the establishment of employment which would be essential for the masses. Some of the main achievements of the building program included the Parthenon, Temple of Athena Nike, Temple of Hephaestus, the Propylea and the Odeon. This building program along with the various promotions of art and literature brought the development of the “golden age” in which would demonstrate a period in Greece of high art and culture. Whilst the scale of the project was immensely large, the project was completed in a short amount of time. The Parthenon that was completed in 438BC, took just nine years. The Propylaea, the gateway to the Acropolis took even less time of just 5 years. As Hurwit comments “From our perspective, the construction of these buildings was very quick” displaying the unity and harmony of the Athenian people to work together efficiently with technologies that were regarded very advanced for their time.

Costing 5000 talents in the first year alone, an equivalent to $3B in today’s terms, the building program was of an immense scale. The Parthenon made from 20 thousand tons of marble, was largely funded and made possible through the Delian funds which caused much resentment among the allies and could have potentially become a source of future troubles. Thus, the purpose of the building program was to display their imperial power along with reminding themselves of Persian hubris. The building program was of a massive scale and thus contributed to the golden age of the Athenians....