As Thucydides recounts Pericles claiming in a famous speech, "Our natural bravery springs from our way of life, not from the compulsion of laws.We are lovers of the beautiful, yet simple in our tastes, and we cultivate the arts without loss of manliness." Unauthorized use is prohibited. Gill, N.S. Where their system of democracy allowed them to have a voice amongst those who made important decisions that would affect them. . Please select which sections you would like to print: Professor of Ancient History, University of Oxford, 198594. These were evidence of his freedom and importance, and so a source of pride. This past spring, Richard Bernstein investigated the questions hed been asking his whole careerabout right, wrong, and what we owe one anotherone last time. Plato recognized that the freedom afforded by the Athenian democracy seemed pleasant to many people, but his own judgment was less friendly: Democracy is an agreeable, anarchic form of society, with plenty of variety, which treats all men as equal, whether they are equal or not (Republic 558C). The upper classes certainly had no prejudice against foreign marriages; the lower classes may well have had more, and, on the whole, it is possible to view Pericles here as championing exclusivist tendencies against immigrants who might break down the fabric of Athenian society. Previously, only the wealthy could afford the time to participate in politics. This new kind of government was carried to its classical form by the reforms of Pericles a half-century later, and it was in the Athens shaped by Pericles that the greatest achievements of the Greeks took place. In 461 B.C., 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. Attempts to expand it would not only be unnecessary but endanger what already existed. We can outline the ideology behind democracy from his speech. Here, front-line workers grapple with their anxieties about how the coronavirus has affected their city. Who was Pericles? - DailyHistory.org Pericles, (born c. 495 bce, Athensdied 429, Athens), Athenian statesman largely responsible for the full development, in the later 5th century bce, of both the Athenian democracy and the Athenian empire, making Athens the political and cultural focus of Greece. In the speech, Pericles, the first great statesman of the ancient world, says that he wished to focus on "the road by which we reached our position, the form of government under which our greatness grew, and the national habits out of which it sprang" in addition to praising the dead. Funeral Speech of Pericles from Athens Democracy And when such philosophers as Plato modeled their utopian regimes on Sparta, they were building on a tradition that viewed its constitution as a standing rebuke to Athenian democracy. Pericles, the author of the speech, was a general of Athens in the fifth century BCE. The Athenians gave him a public burial on the spot where he fell [only the men who died at Marathon received the same extraordinary honor] (1.30). In the speech he honoured the fallen and held up Athenian democracy as an example to the rest of Greece. And we decide public questions ourselves, or at least come to a sound understanding of them (2.40.2). While Pericles chooses to praise the Athenian citizen, Socrates criticizes Athens . In 1985, a New England Journal of Medicine article argued that it was a combination of influenza and staphylococcus, dubbed the Thucydides syndrome. A 1994 article in the American Journal of Epidemiology rejected that diagnosis, proposing, instead, typhus, anthrax, or perhaps a potentially explosive respiratory agent.. A correct assessment is vital for understanding Pericles, but explanations vary considerably; some argue that Pericles was merely forging a low-level political weapon for use against Cimon, who had a foreign mother. While Athens was fighting the Peloponnesian War, he gave a famous speech called the Funeral Oration. Pericles long tenure as a political leader, more than thirty years, permitted him to aim at goals that went far beyond the immediate concerns that fully occupy most politicians and statesmen. These facts were obvious to all and might be expected to deter aggression. Part of the answer lay in a quality of life unknown elsewhere, a range of activities that brought the pleasures of prosperity to the appetite, joy and wonder to the spirit, stimulation to the intellect, and pride to the soul. They would have been appalled by Platos notion that each man should do the one thing for which he was best suited, and so would the Athenians described by Pericles. In a battle between the Athenians and their neighbors near Eleusis, he came to the aid of his fellow-citizens, turned the enemy to rout, and died most nobly. Pericles (/ p r k l i z /; Greek: ; c. 495 - 429 BC) was a Greek politician and general during the Golden Age of Athens.He was prominent and influential in Athenian politics, particularly between the Greco-Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War, and was acclaimed by Thucydides, a contemporary historian, as "the first citizen of Athens". No one, moreover, if he has it in him to do some good for the city, is barred because of poverty or humble origins (Thucydides 2.37.1). By rewarding merit, it avoided the unnatural leveling that is the hallmark of tyranny and encouraged the individual achievement and excellence that makes life sweet and raises the quality of life for everyone. . Alcohol-free bars, no-booze cruises, and other tools can help you enjoy travel without the hangover. Modified by time and circumstance, his vision has proven peculiarly powerful. To shape that vision and persuade others of its virtues, Pericles needed to overcome the attractive force of two earlier views of the best human life. Xenophon gives a good example of the absence of any privacy in Sparta: In other cities whenever a man shows himself to be a coward his only punishment is that he is called a coward. "[14] Instead, Pericles proposes to focus on "the road by which we reached our position, the form of government under which our greatness grew, and the national habits out of which it sprang". He was so important to Athens that his name defines the Periclean age ("The Age of Pericles"), a period when Athens rebuilt what had been destroyed during the recent war with Persia (the Greco-Persian or Persian Wars). All rights reserved. In the realm of private disputes everyone is equal before the law, but when it is a matter of public honors each man is preferred not on the basis of his class but of his good reputation and his merit [arete]. The most famous of these, Pericles' Funeral Speech, as recorded by Thucydides, is also the most instructive; its peculiarities of diction and its general tone, which is in conflict with Thucydides' own outlook, suggest that it is a fairly faithful reproduction of what Pericles . Why was Pericles talking about democracy during this speech? Translation and the establishment of liberal democracy in nineteenth-century England. Our form of government does not enter into rivalry with the institutions of others. Athens is called a democracy because the many rule, not the few; everyone knew that in Sparta a small minority dominated the vast majority. The history of book bansand their changing targetsin the U.S. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. At the Dionysia Festival in 472 B.C. Gill, N.S. In what does happiness lie? Perhaps outbid in his search for popular support, Xanthippus was ostracized in 484 bce, though he returned in 480 to command the Athenian force at Mycale in 479, probably dying soon after. (Athens was only a democracy for adult, male citizens of Athenian descent, not for women or slaves, or for foreigners living under imperial rule.) He advanced the foundations. Pericles Pericles expands on his earlier point about Athenian democracy to establish that it is not just a system of government; it is the whole way of life for Athenians. In 451 or 450 Pericles carried a law confining Athenian citizenship to those of Athenian parentage on both sides. In 430-429 B.C.E., Athens was devastated by a mysterious epidemic, which reared its head again a few years. In a democracy, there is equal justice for all in private disputes. That development transformed the character of Athenian democracy and society; lower-class Athenians (called thetes) could now participate as fully as citizens with property. Bequeathed, too, was his innovative approach of conducting an orderly, thorough examination of the past to explain the causesand outcomesof past events. In the streets around the Fifth Precinct police station, protesters battle law enforcement, chastise looters, and fight to be heard. America was a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Victory would mean a new birth of freedom, and would ensure that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth. The fallen soldiers purpose was to preserve a Constitution and a way of life that was unique and worthy of sacrifice. 29, 2021, thoughtco.com/pericles-funeral-oration-thucydides-version-111998. "[22], Pericles addresses the widows of the dead only here, telling them that "the greatest glory for a woman is not to be spoken of at all, either for good or ill."[23] This passage is often cited as characteristic of Athenian attitudes to women's role in public life,[24] but is also connected to the standard behaviour of women as mourners at private funerals.[25]. "Everybody Wants to Make a Speech": Cleon and Aristophanes On Athens was one of the most important and powerful cities in the ancient world. The world has been astounded to see thin shoots of democracy trying to break through the hard surface of oppression. Excerpt from Funeral Speech for Athenian War Dead Given in the first year of the Peloponnesian War 431/430 B.C. [28][29][30] Lincoln's speech, like Pericles': It is uncertain to what degree, if any, Lincoln was directly influenced by Pericles's funeral oration. Monarchy and different forms of despotism, on the other hand, have gone on for millennia. In fact, it is a prerequisite for them, for the brave deeds performed by enraged heroes who give no thought to danger are, by his definition, not brave at all. For the whole world is the burial place for famous men; not only does the epitaph inscribed on monuments in their native country commemorate them, but in lands not their own the unwritten memory, more of their spirit even than of what they have done, lives on within each person. Pericles' funeral oration has exercised a permanent fascination on the political imagination of the West. . As for poverty, no one need be ashamed to admit it, the real shame is in not taking . By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. In the opening scene of the Iliad, Achilles honor and reputation are diminished by Agamemnons arrogance, so he retires from the battle and sulks in his tent while the Greeks suffer a series of costly defeats. In his speech, he talked about Athenian democracy. Pericles delivered the oration not only to bury the dead but to praise democracy. 4.4 Athens Democracy.docx - Essential Question: Was Ancient Their national poet, Tyrtaeus, specifically rejected the Homeric values and replaced them with a single definition of arete: the courage to stand bravely in the ranks of a hoplite phalanx fighting for Sparta. Therefore, he proceeds to point out that the greatest honour and act of valour in Athens is to live and die for freedom of the state Pericles believed was different and more special than any other neighbouring city. . Pericles ends with a short epilogue, reminding the audience of the difficulty of the task of speaking over the dead. The city was blanketed with corpses. Wars were frequent, and in order to survive and flourish each polis required devotion and sacrifice from its citizens. But they are won by and for all the citizens of democratic Athens, and Pericles does not hesitate to assert the superiority of this collective achievement, going so far as to reject the need for an epic poet to guarantee its renown: We have provided great evidences of our power, and it is not without witnesses; we are the objects of wonder today and will be in the future. Ad Choices. Pericles: The First Great Statesman of the Ancient World To approach a question 400 million years in the making, researchers turned to mudskippers, blinking fish that live partially out of water. The Spartans believed in deeds, not words. Instead, it opened the competition for excellence and honor to all, removing the accidental barriers imposed in other constitutions and societies: Our city is called a democracy because it is governed by the many, not the few. This text is an excerpt from the National Geographic special issue, The little-known history of the Florida panther. Work began in 447 B.C. Prior to the plague's devastation, Athenians were already dying as a result of the war. The newer image, provided by Sparta, took shape no earlier than the seventh century but immediately captured the imagination of many and continued to fascinate Greek thinkers for centuries. [11] The speech glorifies Athens' achievements, designed to stir the spirits of a state still at war. To win the necessary devotion, the cityor rather its leaders, poets, and teachersmust show that its demands are compatible with the needs of the citizen, and even better, that the city is needed to achieve his own goals. In Minneapolis, Protesters Confront the Policeand One Another. Pericles was a leading figure from the Greek Peloponnesian War. The Athenian democracy, Pericles asserts, far from reducing all to a low common level, raises all its citizens to the level of noblemen by asking them to take part in political life and so to control their own destiny. Heres how paradise fought back. Unlike some Athenian dramatists, he saw neither metaphorical significance nor divine retribution in the epidemic. Inside South Africas skeleton trade. The story of the Athenians in the time of Pericles suggests that the creation and survival of democracy requires leadership of a high order. His father, Xanthippus, a typical member of this generation, almost certainly of an old family, began his political career by a dynastic marriage into the controversial family of the Alcmaeonids. The play lacks moral ambiguity within many of the central characters. This message has been remembered: during the First World War, London buses carried posters with passages from the speech; in 2012, a memorial in central London to the R.A.F. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008. Gill is a Latinist, writer, and teacher of ancient history and Latin. With the linkage of Athens' greatness complete, Pericles moves to addressing his audience. His life has neither law nor order; and this distracted existence he terms joy and bliss and freedom; and so he goes on (Republic 56lC). She was also niece to the father of Athenian democracy, Cleisthenes. Unfortunately, the 27-year-long Peloponnesian War resulted in great losses for Athens. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. "[18] Finally, Pericles links his praise of the city to the dead Athenians for whom he is speaking, "for the Athens that I have celebrated is only what the heroism of these and their like have made hernone of these men allowed either wealth with its prospect of future enjoyment to unnerve his spirit, or poverty with its hope of a day of freedom and riches to tempt him to shrink from danger. Under his leadership Atheniandemocracyand the Athenian empire flourished, makingAthensthe political and cultural focus of Greece between the Greco-Persian and Peloponnesian wars. The earliest is known as the Funeral Oration of Pericles. The first is to have a set of good institutions; the second is to have a body of citizens who possess a good understanding of the principles of democracy, or who at least have developed a character consistent with the democratic way of life; the third is to have a high quality of leadership, at least at critical moments. Pericles, a great supporter of democracy, was a Greek leader and statesman during the Peloponnesian War. After all, Athens was a naval power, an imperial capital, and a trading city whose fleets ranged across the ancient world; the contagion, he wrote, probably spread from Ethiopia to Libya to Persia before finally reaching Greece, where Athensa global port for commercial shipswas its first stop. The Spartans were famous for their brevity and distrust of subtle reasoning, but Pericles praises the democracys fondness for debate and discussion. Nor did they believe in personal immortality, in which death is a blessing, a release from a painful and wretched life and admission to paradise. Pericles begins by mentioning the struggles of the Athenian ancestors whom "after many a struggle transmitted to us their sons this great empire." . The Athenian democracy, Pericles asserts, far from reducing all to a low common level, raises all its citizens to the level of noblemen by asking them to take part in political life and so to. Funeral Oration Quotes | Course Hero [8] It is possible that elements of both speeches are represented in Thucydides's version. Pericles' Funeral Oration - Thucydides' Version - ThoughtCo Pericles. Pericles was an Athenian statesman. The average citizen could not look even to his polis for the satisfaction of his greatest spiritual needs. The authorship of the Funeral Oration is also not certain. Leading up to this oration, the people of Athens, including those from the countryside whose land was being pillaged by their enemies, were kept in crowded conditions within the walls of Athens. Athens lost its first citizen, but his legacy endures in the Athens skyline and in democratic institutions around the world. She has been featured by NPR and National Geographic for her ancient history expertise. Welcome as this prospect was, it nonetheless presented a problem.
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