EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E
The Ancient Greeks
Andrew Szegedy-Maszak, Wesleyan University
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C O U R S E L E C T U R E Pericles: Aristocrat, Orator and Democratic Citizen Notes taken on September 30, 2015 by Edward Tanguay |
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Pericles
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there are very few people who have given their names to a period in history, Pericles is one of them
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The Age of Pericles
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495-429 BC
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the golden age of Athenian culture
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brilliant general, orator, patron of the arts and politician
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he was the first citizen of democratic Athens, according to the historian Thucydides
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his family background was as elite as it could be
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father was Xanthippus
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Pericles clearly destined to pick up the family banner
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463 BC, Pericles was a prosecutor of Cimon, who was acquitted for ostracism
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462 BC, came onto the public stage, along with Ephialtes, reformed the ancient council of the Areopagus
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exists along side the democratic council of 500 which had been established by Cleisthenes
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consisted of archons
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Areopagus' power was almost completely taken away
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remained a court to try voluntary homicide
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Aeschylus wrote his trilogy Oresteia
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the end of the curse on the House of Atreus
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Agamemnon
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The Libation Bearers
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The Eumenides
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addresses the Areopogus as the founding charter of a court to hear cases of homicide
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nick-named the Olympian
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aloof
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austere
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aristocratic
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friend of Protagoras
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Plato credits him with having invented the role of the professional sophist
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"man is the measure of all things"
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Aspasia [as-PAY-zhah]
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mistress
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from Miletus
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a professional escort
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good thinker and conversationalist
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Pericles and she were a kind of power couple
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elite families retained a political influence through the democratic system
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inter-marriage
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favors
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political support
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Pericles rejected all forms of this official friendship
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instead, the main source of his power was controlling discourse
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he turned to the people
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in the public assembly where you had to be able to speak powerfully and persuasively, he had no equal
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incorruptible
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had a lot of family wealth, didn't need to be bribed
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his ambition was more for Athens, for the police
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Thucydides: "During the years of his ascendency, Athens was in name a democracy but under the rule of the first citizen."
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a bit of an exaggeration, of course, he was not a king or tyrant, but he was a very influential person
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Pericles is known to have embodied Athens at its height
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revisionist view:
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in 450s, the Athenians undertook a kind of naval engagement to Egypt
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perhaps to encourage the local governor to rebel from the Persian empire
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it was a disaster, Athenian fleet was wrecked
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the league treasury was transferred from Delos to Athens
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454 BC: transfer of the treasury
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451 BC: five years truce between Athens and Sparta
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450 BC: Peace of Callias
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Athenians make some kind of formal peace with the Persians
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the Delian league then lost some of its meaning with this and power moved toward Athens
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Pericles ask Greek states to come to Athens to a conference, they don't come
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Papyrus decree for a building program
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449 BC: missing year in Athenian tribute list
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could have been no tribute or the stone had broken off
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448 BC: lower tribute
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Athenians might have eased up a bit
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Coinage Degree: members of the League had to use the Athen's money and measures
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the Cleinias Decree: involved the tightening up of the process of tribute collection in the Athenian Empire
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so we see that the Athenian Empire under the influence of Pericles was acting much more imperialistically and aggressively
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so instead of being the figure of moderation as Thucydides extols, he seems to have been more imperialistic