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Pericles Golden Age Of Athenian Leadership

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Pericles was an influential statesman and general remembered for leading Athens during the Golden Age. Athens was a strong city-state of Greece, but would gain more power and significance through Pericles. Pericles was born into an aristocratic family, which helped him develop his political interests and strong leadership (Tschen-Emmons). He then gained more publicity through a scandal with the Athenian statesman Cimon, allowing him to lead the democratic faction (Eddy). He led Athens to its greatest political height, creating the Athenian Empire out of the Delian League. This would be his basis for the other important achievements regarding Athens’ Golden Age of political dominance, cultural development, and interactions with Sparta. Without …show more content…

The Delian League was originally formed in 476 BCE as an offensive and defensive alliance against Persia during the Greco-Persian Wars. The League consisted of Greek states that would pay tribute to Athens in order to maintain the Athenian fleet and protect the city-states (Viscusi). Meanwhile, during this time, Pericles gained more influence over the people as the leader of the democratic faction, after the issues with Cimon regarding Sparta. The situation would lead to Cimon’s ostracization and cause greater rivalries between Athens and Sparta (Eddy). Because of this, Pericles gained control and used the League’s treasury to benefit Athens instead of its original purposes, by introducing measures to enhance the city. Pericles also expanded the League to more areas in the Peloponnesian coast, and his strategy of creating a land empire would help Athens reach its greatest territorial extent. Meetings of the League's assembly soon stopped, and the states in the League would have no voice. Because of this, the areas in the alliance became part of the Athenian Empire under Pericles’ control …show more content…

The Athenian Empire was able to emerge because of the rich culture developed in Athens through Pericles’ leadership. One aspect of his significance was using the League’s treasury for civic improvements in Athens. Pericles promoted Athens by commissioning the building program of the Acropolis, including the Parthenon, Propylaea, and Odeon. These buildings enhanced the city’s beauty, provided employment, and developed Greek architecture ("Pericles"). These structures also symbolized the Greek attitude of aspiring towards excellence, seen in the balance and symmetry of these buildings. Pericles also cared about the well being of the citizens by introducing measures providing pay for Athenians in services, and lowering theater admission prices for the poor (Viscusi). These measures benefitted the lower class, promoted entertainment for all people, and better balanced society. Also during Pericles’ rule, artists, poets, and scholars came to Athens from all parts of the Hellenic world; the city becoming the cultural and philosophical center of Greece, and creating “The Golden Age of Athens” (Eddy). The construction of the Acropolis and the acts regarding the citizens showed Pericles’ love for the city and developed Athens into a great

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After Thucydides' ostracism, Pericles was re-elected yearly to the generalship, the only office he ever officially occupied, although his influence was so great as to make him the de facto ruler of the state. For more than 20 years Pericles led many expeditions, mainly naval ones. Being always cautious, he never undertook of his own accord a battle involving much uncertainty and peril and he did not accede to the "vain impulses of the citizens". He based his military policy on Themistocles' principle that Athens' predominance depends on its superior naval power and believed that the Peloponnesians were near-invincible on land. (The fleet, backbone of Athenian power since the days of Themistocles, was manned almost entirely by members of the

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The Parthenon, Temple of Athena Nike, and the Erechtheion are located in Athens. All of them were built with extraordinary talents and skills. 2. Philosophy achievement. “The great Athenian philosopher Socrates, born in 469 BCE, a decade after the Greek defeat of the Persians.”

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After the formation of the Hellenic League which successfully repelled Persia from Greece, the alliance broke up into two major forces. Thucydides claims “at the head of the one stood Athens, at the head of the other Lacedaemon, one the first naval, the other the first military power in Hellas.” (1.18) Athens and allies became the Delian League, which continued fighting in Asia Minor in order to conquer and liberate Persian controlled Greek states, and Sparta and allies formed the Peloponnesian League. However, once peace had been established with Persia in 449, the Delian League was reformed and Athens held hegemony over the allies and utilized them as tribute paying subjects.

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Later on, he served as the general against Sparta. He was exiled from the country after Athens lost a war on his leadership. After thirty years of war, Athens was completely devastated and lost its empire (Brand, n. d.). According to Thucydides, Pericles managed to control and guides the destructive power of the people during his leadership but after his death, the mod is misled by Demagogue "leader of the people" and they use the poor masses for the political reasons. Similarly, many aristocrats think the Demagogues, the stupid mass of the common people by the democratic system led Athens to fall (Brand, n.

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Pericles argues that Athens has become a model for others, and articulates what it is to be a good citizen. This can be seen when he says, “although the eyes of an enemy may occasionally profit by our liberality; trusting less in system and policy than to the native spirit of our citizens; while in education, where our rivals from their very cradles by a painful discipline seek after manliness, at Athens we live exactly as we please, and yet are just as ready to encounter every legitimate danger.” (Thucydides, 2.39) It proves that Ancient Athens’ valued greatness and worked in order to achieve the excellence of the state, by focusing on rebuilding themselves back up after the Persian war. Pericles played a big role in this because he showed his ambitions to rebuild Athens, which lead to the thriving of other subjects such as literature, philosophy, science, art, and religion.

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