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Essays on pericles
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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
Document 8 is another statement from Pericles, a leader in Athens.
His statements were backed up with proof and he added pathos in his statements to also find the empathy in the audience. While those which were against the Periclean Building Program backed up their arguments that Pericles was keeping the money for himself with facts. Overall the debate groups used logical facts and organization of their speeches to defend their arguments which causes the audience to trust the
He mocks them for remaining closed off to foreigners when Athens is open and welcoming (Book 2 Funeral Oration of Pericles 39). Pericles uses rhetoric in order to build a sense of patriotism and nationalism with his grieving audience. He uses this nationalistic feeling to
Instead, these contributions skew away from his social impact and narrow down towards the political and military impact he had on Athenian society. Source C is an ancient source, created by Plutarch, that highlights the political and social influence Pericles held over powerful men, who chose to uplift and honour Pericles at his deathbed for his contributions to Athenian society. These two sources both mention the impact of Pericles, though they mention different contributions. Source A would be more useful for a historian looking into modern interpretations of Pericles’ creative and infrastructural contributions, whereas source C would be more useful for a historian looking into the ancient interpretations of Pericles’ political and social
Regardless of the exclusivity of ancient Athenian democracy (excluding women and those of non-Hellenic descent), Pericles’ influence and actions of his time laid the scaffold
Athenians made certain that all citizens participated in building the city 's power and strength as
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.
Was ancient Athens truly democratic? Democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state. I do not believe that in the 4th to 5th century BCE ancient Athen were democratic for many reasons.
Athens, located in southern Greece, experienced an expansion in culture and education during the years between the Persian War and Peloponnesian War (477-431 BC) which set the stage for future expansions of culture in civilizations like Ancient Rome and Europe during the Renaissance. Although Athens was very prosperous, innovative and ruled by strong leaders during their Golden Age, they still didn’t have a perfect government or social structure which puts into question how successful this period actually was. 1st Paragraph (Outline) Pericles 's had great success in beautifying Athens and increasing its culture, through innovative art and architecture, as well advances in theater, which created a Golden Age because the people of Athens experienced
Pericles was respected and liked in Athenian society, and Socrates was neither respected nor liked. Socrates questioned everything about the way people lived their lives and their beliefs. Pericles believed that Athens was the best and the way that they lived was the right way and there should be no other way of life. With the way that Pericles and Socrates lived they would clearly have different views of life. Pericles believed that Athens was superior to any other Greek city- state.
Pericles was an Athenian Statesman born in 495 BC in a small town named Holoros, north of Athens. He came from a family of rich Aristocrats, and was deeply involved with changing the structure of Greek government. In 461 BC, Pericles was pronounced the leader of Athens. He created laws that allowed every citizen to be a part of the government, and laws that balanced the rich and the poor. Pericles strengthened Athens by creating and introducing direct democracy to them, and also by valuing their arts and literature.
Pericles, a key political figure of 5th century Athens states, “Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighboring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves.” The Athenians had no desire to follow what appeared as mediocre government, the Athenians pushed for the best form they could find. Arete, for Athens, meant every person had a voice in politics. Politics embraces the reason of the mind as well as the emotion of the heart. Therefore, the very essence of a good human being would lie in being a politically active person.
Democracy, a form of government, allows the people in their own nationality to vote for people in order for them to become representatives as a result to vote on new laws that would affect their own nationality. One of the many states of Greece, ancient Athens was indeed not truly democratic as a result of not inclusive, other than male citizens, to gain authority in ancient Athens, ¨Demokratia was ruled by male citizens only, excluding women, free foreigners(Metics) and slaves.¨(Document D), therefore ruling Athens was only accessible to male citizen since since women, free foreigners(Metics), and slaves were not allowed to rule as a result of not being male citizens. One of the many states of Greece, ancient Athens, was indeed not truly democratic as a result of not even using the essentials of democracy that is used today, “Thus, by our standards, it was oligarchy, not democracy.¨(Document D), therefore ancient Athens was not using democracy as their form of government, they were using oligarchy,another form of government in which a small group of people has power and control, as their form of government instead of democracy.
the idea of representative government began to take root in some city states, specifically Athens. Athenian reformers moved toward democracy, rule by the people. In Athens citizens participated directly in political decision making. However there were limitations on citizenship to ensure that only the most rational people were able to vote. Through the construction of democracy in Athens, equality of all citizens became greater, and the city would become the top democracy of all the democracies.