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Plutarch Life Of Pericles Analysis

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“Life of Pericles” passage 11.1-2, translated by Dillon and Garland, is part of a form of a biography written by Greek philosopher Plutarch at approximately 75 AD in Athens. At the time Greece was under Roman rule, inspiring Plutarch’s parallel writing style where he would compare great Greek Generals with great Roman Generals. Specifically, “Life of Pericles” was written as a parallel to the “Life of the Roman general Fabius Maximus”. Plutarch’s knowledge of the life of Pericles came from external sources as Pericles died centuries before Plutarch was born. Consequently, this puts the reliability and accuracy of Plutarch’s work into question, especially considering many of his sources are still unknown. Plutarch thought there to be quite a difference between writing biography and history, therefore he knew that what he wrote were biographies and never professed otherwise. Along with this, he had an apparent goal to entertain and educate with his written works and was very forthright with his personal preferences. …show more content…

It showed that despite how great a leader they were if the aristocrats felt they were becoming too powerful action would have been taken in order to decrease or completely remove their power. In this case, the Athenian aristocrats were afraid Pericles’ power would escalate to the point of a monarchy so they introduced Thucydides into the political battlefield in an attempt to dampen Pericles’

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Thucydides’ placement of Perikles’ “Funeral Oration” followed by the account of the plague is in every sense a “dramatic juxtaposition”[1]. The deliberate binary opposition of logos and ergon, and nomos and physis between the speech and plague makes these two events the antithesis of his work. With both the eulogy and the narrative that follows, the reader should understand a point of truth in human nature, and teach them something that time with never change, the past gives way to the events of the future. In his writing, Thucydides uses words and phrases to contrast Perikles’ speech with the plague in such a jarring way.

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Of all the rulers in Plutarch’s Lives, Numa Pompilus was the one king who expressed characteristics of a true ruler. Numa displayed morality known by all the people in Rome. He was a peacemaker, which brought about a prosperous and joyful kingdom. Numa not only built on top of Romulus’s work to start a strong and powerful kingdom. Above all the rulers in Plutarch’s Lives, Numa Pompilus showed morality, good judgment, and self-sacrifice.

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In Richard Crawley’s translated version of The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides the “Funeral Oration of Pericles” and “The Melian Conference” share the similarity of the Athenian representative using rich rhetoric and the differences of perspective of Athens. In both the “Funeral Oration of Pericles” and “The Melian Conference,” the Athenians uses graceful rhetoric in order to disguise its military intentions. Before Pericles acknowledges the dead soldiers and their mourning family, he praises Athens on their beauty and intellect (Book 2 Funeral Oration of Pericles 40). He also denounces Sparta, the enemy, for their military policies.

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In order to complete any analysis of the Life of Marius, it is necessary to understand the author and context of the work. Plutarch himself was a Greek who lived from 46-127AD,

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Pericles even gave the wealth of the Athens and offered dinner to those that need it. This document is a secondary source. Purpose: Pericles was a man who

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He was descended from a powerful and influential family, affording him wealth and the ability to pursue education which he believed had a great importance in directing one’s thought and actions. His political achievements include speeding up the Delian League’s creation of the Athenian empire as well as being involved in the Peloponnesian Wars. He was elected strategos, which was a military general, and this was a position he held until his death. Pericles also allowed the lower classes more access to the political system and also subsidized the fine arts for the lower class which let them enjoy the theater. He paid citizens for civil services, such as jury duty, which enabled civic participation in the

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Thesis: Pericles achieved all three goals that he had set through the use of democracy and help from the Delian League. Although he reached his goals, they didn’t last for very long because the soon-to-be conquerors, the Spartans, would soon leave Athens in Ruins. Pericles’ first goal was to strengthen the democracy. He increased the number of public officials that an income. Before this act, most public officials didn’t receive a salary, and only the most wealthy citizens could become an official.

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The Funeral Oration of Pericles: A Primary Text Analysis In Pericles’ Funeral Oration, the famous and influential text in 430 B.C was given by Pericles to traditionally honor the death of the soldiers that fought in war and serviced in the Athenian military. This interpretation of the oration is written by Thucydides, as it is a manuscript of what Pericles said to the Athenian public. Through this text, Pericles focuses on honoring the fallen soldiers, but he also emphases the values of Athenian society and the social structure of the invention of democracy, as it is introduced for the first time ever in history. The Funeral Oration of Pericles expresses the distinct values of strong moral standards for social structure and introduces democracy, as it reinforces laws and the need for equal justice.

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As Thucydides puts it “Athens [is] in name a democracy, but in fact a government by its first man.” Athens becomes a tyranny even if benevolent (57). In this case, Pericles’ interests fall in line with Athenian interests, but later demagogues will not and cause disastrous consequences for Athens. For example, Alcibiades will successfully argue for the Sicilian Expedition to “this command” to win glory for himself (117).

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More power was now placed into the hands of the commons through Pericles reforms, coupled with previous reforms by Cleisthenes where the council was greatly enlarged from 400 to 500 people to allow greater public or even the entire city’s involvement in political affairs. This idea of equality for all is certainly welcoming, but on hindsight, is it a good idea to give so much power to those who know nothing about governing a nation? Plato certainly disagrees. With his analogy of the ship, he suggests that the state required skilled leaders to navigate the nation.5 Governing a country was an art, a skill that had to be honed. The leaders needed to be well educated in matters of the law, military, economics, current affairs, so on and so forth.

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Plutarch has a lot of different recommendation for parents to follow so that they can live virtuous lives. The importance of training children that Plutarch is trying to get across is that parents are suppose to be the role models for children. As parents it is very important that they follow the rules because if they do not then how can they expect their children to.

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 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.

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This essay will be explaining the ways in which tyranny was a good thing for Greek states across the Mediterranean during the 6th, 5th, and 4th centuries BC. In the first instance, What tyranny is and how some of the Greek States were, in general, before tyranny will be explained. Additionally, examples of two tyrants from two different locations will be discussed. Finally, why and how tyranny came to be seen as a bad thing will be discussed. Tyranny

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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.

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While some, like Plato in his The Republic, thought it weak to give government into the hands of the common people, Pericles countered this argument with a compelling argument of greatness. By putting government into the hands of the people, the people are united and more devoted to their country. Democracy bonds the people together in a way that no other government can understand. Pericles confidently states, “Athenians advance unsupported into the territory of a neighbor, and fighting upon a foreign soil usually vanquish with ease men who are defending their homes.”

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