Emboldened by their new prosperity, prestige, and power, Pericles and the Athenians began to pursue empire.  Despite their protestations to the contrary, they began to treat their allies as their subjects.  Ideologically committed to their own form of radical democracy, they saw it as their mission and their right to foster, or if necessary to force, this democracy on their sister states.

You either supported Athens, or you braced yourself to be her enemy.

Sparta rightfully saw Athens as a threat and came to realize that the two of them – Athens and Sparta – were on a collision course.  Their suspicions were confirmed when the Athenian Assembly declared war on Sparta and the Peloponnese after an impassioned speech by Pericles.

At the same time, the political enemies of Pericles sought to erode his power and topple him by attacking those closest to him.  His friend Phidias, ancient Athens’ greatest sculptor and the man for whom the golden mean was named, was thrown in jail for embezzlement and died not long after.  The philosopher Anaxagoras was indicted for teaching that the sun was a red-hot mass of metal, and not a god, and for treasonable correspondence with Persia.  Anaxagoras was condemned to death, but was saved through the intervention of Pericles.  Aspasia was also put on trial, then saved by Pericles.

Pericles’ meticulous plan to defeat Sparta took account of everything, except that which can never be taken into account.  One year after the start of the war, the plague entered Athens. It spread through the over-crowded city like wildfire, taking 20,000 lives in the first outbreak.

Pericles’ two legitimate sons from his first marriage died within a week of each other, and the Athenians saw their stoic leader cry in public.

Pericles himself died of the plague during the third year of the Peloponnesian war and the glory that was Athens died with him.

The democracy was left prey to hostile factions and reckless leaders who pursued their own advantage.  Traditional warfare in Greece was brutal but brief.  A battle might last only hours or even minutes.  When one side yielded the field, the other side declared victory, erected a trophy, and collected its dead.  The practical aim of war was to bring the enemy to submission, whereas in the Peloponnesian war – through the leadership of inferior men – the aim became to annihilate the enemy.  Any line between warriors and innocents, between young and old, was ignored.  War became indistinguishable from atrocity.

The Peloponnesian War lasted nearly 30 years, and in the end Athens lost everything: her prosperity and democracy, her people and her principles had all been fed to the consuming ache for empire.  The Golden Age of Athens was over, and the Greek world from Sicily to Asia Minor was devastated.

The Spartans sacked Athens, tore down its city walls, destroyed the fortifications of its port, Piraeus, and all but 12 warships were surrendered.  Athens was henceforth to be a Spartan ally and to follow the same foreign policy. Persia was finally allowed to establish an influence in Greece, something it had not succeeded in doing during all the military battles of the last century.

The future of Greece lay to the north.  The torch of empire, which eventually consumes every hand that grasps it, was passed to a young boy named Alexander, tutored by Aristotle, who is said to have slept with the Iliad under his pillow.

 (parts excerpted from Ancient Greece: an Explorer's Guide)

© 2009 – 2011, Ithaka Bound. All rights reserved.

Related posts:

The love of Pericles’ life was an intelligent and charming woman named Aspasia, renown in her time, now known only through the words of the men she influenced.

Aspasia was an anomly in ancient Greece.  As a young women, she left her home in the ancient Ionian city of Miletus to live in Athens–a move that was unsual for men and unheard of for women.  Her father, Axiochus, had given her a rigorous and thorough education at a time when most women were confined to the home and weren’t educated to any extent.  Her status as a foreigner freed her from from the legal restraints that restricted most Athenian women and allowed her to participate in the public life of Athens.

Shortly after her arrival in Athens, she met Pericles who was in an unhappy  marriage to a women with whom he had two sons.  Pericles’ marriage was one of family obligation; he had married a woman much older than himself–the widowed wife of a family member–to save her from a life of destitution. Upon meeting Aspasia, and with his wife’s consent, he requested a divorce and found another husband to care for his ex-wife.

Pericles was never able to marry Aspasia because of a citizenship law that he himself had passed in an effort to prevent aristocratic families from making alliances with other cities.  But according to historical accounts, he was completely besotted with her and kissed her upon leaving the house in the morning and returning home at night.  Their home became the intellectual epicenter of Athens and regularly received visitors like Plato, Socrates, and Xenophon.  Socrates remarked that Aspasia had one of the finest intellects in a city full of great minds, and Plato openly credited her as having written parts of Pericles greatest speech of all, the Funeral Oration.

As the unmarried companion of Athens’ leading politician, Aspasia quickly became the target of malicious gossip and political accusations.  Athenian traditionalists were unsettled at the great respect their leader showed to her.  In a time when women were meant to be unseen and unheard, Pericles consulted Aspasia as an equal, made no effort to prevent her mixing with important men, and openly showed her great affection. As time went on, she was called a courtesan and accused of running a brothel that procured women for Pericles.  Comic writers included her in their jibes at Pericles:

To find him a Juno

the goddess of Lust

Bore that harlot past shame,

Aspasia by name.

Aspasia was eventually accused of inciting the Peloponnesian War against Sparta, and shortly before the start of the war she was put on trial for corrupting the women of Athens and disrespecting the gods. She was saved only through a rare emotional outburst by Pericles.

© 2009 – 2011, Ithaka Bound. All rights reserved.

Related posts:

Pericles.

Every father’s favorite son.

Every historian’s favorite leader.

My secret ancient crush.

The man responsible for bringing radical democracy to Athens was born into aristocracy, but became leader of the people’s party.  He made sure that every Athenian citizen had not only the right to vote, but also a voice in government, access to office, and equality before the law.   This was radical indeed when one considers that Pericles ruled over 2500 years ago when most of the world’s people were living under the rule of tyrants who relied on the supernatural and the threat of death to keep their populations under control.  Even today there are countries that do not grant all their citizens the right to vote, and where the supernatural determines rule of law.

Pericles was the first politician to recognize the importance of a strong middle-class and enacted legislation that granted the lower classes access to the political systems.  He saw the middle-class as an untapped source of Athenian power, and a crucial part of Athens’ military dominance.

Pericles also started an imperial building program, focused on the Acropolis and the Agora.  He made the case that Athens should look like the imperial power that she was. During his reign the crown of Athens, the Parthenon, was built.  He wanted the city to inspire the love of her citizens and the admiration of everyone who would ever set eyes upon her.  And he succeeded.

Try to imagine, if you can, a modern politician suggesting such a thing.

As if all that weren’t enough, Pericles was also a patron of the arts and passed a decree in which the state covered the expenses of any family in Attika that wished to watch a theatrical play in Athens.  This included their travel expenses as well as room and board.

Pericles was also the first politician to place an importance on philosophy in political discourse.  He was educated by the sophist Daman, who taught him politics; by Zeno the Eleatic, who taught him rhetoric and argumentation; and by Anaxagoras, who taught him nobility of purpose and character.  Anaxagoras was the first philosopher to attribute the order of the world to intelligence, rather than chance or necessity, and to explain power as the affinity of similar things.  Pericles is believed to have been greatly influenced by Anaxagoras in his steadfast calmness, dignified manner, and rhetorical eloquence.  Nothing could shake his majestic composure.

History recounts that one days, as Pericles was in the marketplace of Athens conducting business, a noisy and troublesome pest followed him around, shouting insults and accusations at him.  The pest went so far as to follow him home.  Throughout the ordeal, Pericles maintained his composure.  It was dark by the time Pericles arrived home, so he gave orders for one of his servants to take a torch and guide the critic safely back to wherever he lived.

Pericles godlike dignity and demeanor earned him the nickname “The Olympian”, and his rhetoric was legendary.  It’s difficult to imagine a time when eloquence in speech was so highly regarded, so I’ll let Pericles speak for himself:

“For men can endure to hear others praised only so long as they can persuade themselves of their own ability to equal or surpass the actions recounted.  When this point is passed, envy comes in and with it incredulity.”

“There is no shame for a man to admit his poverty, but only disgrace in not fleeing it.”

“Our form of government does not enter into rivalry with the institutions of others.  Our government does not copy our neighbors’, but is an example to them.  It is true that we are called a democracy, for the administration is in the hands of the many and not the few.  But while there exists equal justice to all,  and alike in their private disputes, the claim of excellence is also recognized; and when a citizen is in any way distinguished, he is recommended for public service, not as a matter of privilege, but as the reward of merit.  Neither is poverty an obstacle, but a man may benefit his country whatever the obscurity of his condition.  There is no exclusiveness in our public life, and in our private business we are not suspicious of one another, nor angry with our neighbor if he does what he likes; we do not cast sour looks at him which, though harmeless, are not pleasant.  While we are thus constrained in our private business, a spirit of reverence pervades our public acts; we are prevented from doing wrong by respect for the authorities and for the laws, having a particular regard for those which are ordained for the protection of the injured, as well as those unwritten laws which bring upon the transgressor the reprobation of general sentiment.”

© 2009 – 2011, Ithaka Bound. All rights reserved.

Related posts: