Download Pericles with the enemy. In the 4B0s a number

THE
mind that participation in the Ekklesia was open to all
male citizens over the age of eighteen. Many of those
who lived in rural areas did not take an active part
because of the distance involved. Nevertheless, a sub-
stantial part of the adult male citizen body participated in Athenian government.
Pericles
Pericles came from an aristocratic family. His father,
Xanthippos, had been a notable politician and soldier.
His mother, Agariste, was from the Alkmaeonid clan
and, through her, Pericles was related to Kleisthenes
(the reformer), Miltiades (the hero of Marathon), and
GREEK
WORLD:
hønds
..
Perirles was thefi.rst to introd,ure paymentfor seraice
on thc law courts, a ïæaßure by whi'ch h'e tried to win
popular faaour to counteruct thc influcnre of Kimon's
weahh. ..
. . . hcfolkrued thc ad'uice of Damanid,es of Oea, who
was gercrally beli.eued to haae been th¿ instigator of
mnst of Perfu:les' mßosttres, and' was later ostra'cisedfor
that reoson. This man had ad't¡ised Peri,cl'es to
During the Persian invasion of 490 BC there had
been rumours that the Alkmaeonids were in league
consequßnîe
they were medisers.
ln 486, Megakles
was ostracised;
Xanthippos followed soon after. Pericles was about
fourteen years old when Athens was evacuated, in
øs
far
ostracised Pericles' father.
Pericles and Athenian democracy
Early in his political careeï, Pericles unsuccessfully
prosecuted Kimon for bribery. He also assisted
Ephialtes in his reforms of the Areopagus' Pericles
continued the anti-Spartan policies of Themistocles.
In 461. BC he urged that the walls protecting the
Piraeus be extended. The new walls were completed
alnur 457, and provided security for the urban lower
classes. The landed estates of the rich, however, were
still vulnerable to attack.
. . . wh.en Perirles started on hß career os a popular
leadcr anÅ.first earned' rertuu)n' thnugh stíll a rather
young man, by prosecuting Kimnn on hß aud.its as a
general, the cotuütainn became euetu tLore d,emocratir.
He took away sotttÊ of thc puners of thc Areopagus, and,,
'ffir
thn
oun', sírrce hn was han'd'irapped
as hß own priaate trcort's 'uere conrerræd'; an'd,
of this, Peri'cles írctituted pay for the
in
judges. Somn people blame him on thß occount øn'd, say
that thc lata courts dcteriorated, sinrc after that it wos
alwøys the comman men rather than thc betær m'en uhn
were eager to parti,cipate in drauting the lotfor duty in
the law courts.
480, during Xerxes' invasion.
Pericles grew up among the leading political group
in the Athenian state. His family's associates included
the aristocrat Kleinias, Kallias (the richest man in
Athens, Kimon and the playwrights Sophocles and
Aeschylus. It is known that Pericles admired
Themistocles. One can only speculate whether this
caused problems between Pericles and his father
Xanthippos. Themistocles ostracised Alkmaeonids
who were his political opponents, and eventually
267
.
people what wos their
Alkmaeonids were ostracised on the suspicion that
BC
what is most important, h'e turned Athens' aspiratíørc
dnf.nitely towards its sea putter. As a result of these
changes, the masses gairæd' still greater self-confi'dence
ani, took more ofthc control of the state into thcir own
Megakles (his uncle).
with the enemy. In the 4B0s a number of the
5OO-44O
ARtsrorLE, Constituti'on of Athcrx, trans. by
K. von FRtrz & E. KAPP, pp.97-8
was probably about 457 BC that Pericles introduced payment for jurors. Initially, the rate of pay was
two obols a day, and was later raised to three obols
It
(less than what an unskilled worker would earn)'
Payment for councillors was introduced later- These
measures allowed the poorer citizens to participate in
government. Pericles further assisted the poor when
he supplied them with the admission money enabling
them to attend the festival of Dionysia. These payments were partly financed from the tribute of the
Delian League. Athens also had income from land,
quanies, mines, taxes, law-court revenue and metic
taxes.
In 451 BC Pericles introduced a law that restricted
citizenship to those who were born of Athenian parents. Among the poor it was common for Athenians
and non-Athenians to marry. The purpose of Pericles'
law was to strengthen the position of the Athenian citizen. The growing power of Athens at this time was a
source of pride, and Pericles wanted to restrict civic
benefits to Athenians. This law also improved the
position of Athenian women, for the men were now
forced to marry within their own state in order for their
children to be citizens. One of the results of Pericles'
law was that it created a barrier between Athenians
and others.
26fJ
HISTORICAL
PERIODS
L::ro
In the archorchip of Antídotw [451 BC], in consequ.ence
of the increasing number of citizens, it was d,ecreed,, on a
motion of Pericles, that
a,
person shnuld
mt
ThtrcydiÅcs cha,racterises Peri.cles' ød,tninistration as
hauing been d,ßtirctly 67i5¡6¿¡¡1¿i¿-'d,emacra.cy in
høae thc
nøme, but in pra.ctice g@ernm,ent by thef.rst citizen'.
oth,er writers møintain that ít was hc whofi.rst
led, on th.e people into passing strch mcasures as th,e
allotrnent to Ath.enians of lands belonging to subject
peoples, or thc granting of allowancesþr thc pubtir
righæ of citizenship unlcss both of hß parents ha.d been
But mnny
citizens.
ARtsroTLE, Constitutinn of Athcrc, trans. by
K. voN FRtrz & E. Knee, p.97
festiuals and,feesfor aarinw publfu serui,ces, and that
becanue ofhß polby thcyfell into bad habits and,
becamc extro,aagant and, un d,isciplircd, i¡uteød offrugat
ønd, self-suffiricnt as thcy had otæe been.
By 450 BC Athens was the centre of an expanding
empire, and the city itself was becoming crowded.
Pericles' answer to this problem was to establish
PLUTARcH, The
cleruchies.
[Perirles] d,ispatchcd 1000 settlers to the Chersonese,
500 to Naxos,250 to Andros, 1000 to Throce . . . Inthis
way h.e reli.eued the city of a large number of id,lers ønd,
øgitators, røßed the stand,ards ofthc poorest classes,
and, by
at
PLATo, cited in T. BucKLEy,
Rße and.
p. 177
Q/n dnrt /an
/on ítng an I
/6e sources
)
;
us
tny
Whøt n'Leastlres were introd,uced, by Pericles?
Which of these n1,e(rsures
important. Why?
d,o
you consid,er most
Zot ltscussion
Why is this period
of Greek
Fall of Athcixo trans. by
l. Sqorr-Ktlvenr,
lntt
Aspects
Hßøry,p.339
time ø h,ealthyfear of rebellion.
PLurARcH, Thc
(Un
Fall of Athem,trans. by
Socanns: I'ae h,eard, that Pericles madc them lazy,
cowardly, talleatiae and greedy, by being thef,rst to
introrhtce state pay.
installing garrisons amnng the alli.es, implanæd,
th,e same
Rise anÅ.
t. scorr-KtLVERT, pp. 173_4
ffien referred to as
oPericleøn
d,emocracy'?
Øcltoi/V; essar/
Discuss the signifi,cance of the reforms of Ephialtes
and, Pericles.
Criticisms of democracy
Not everybody favoured democratic change. The crit-
ics of the democracy said that the system was inefficient because those making the decisions were not
experts. The democrats, however, believed that ordi-
lt'ng
an
d u s tng
/Âe soutces
s
Refer baclt to Source 8.51. What criticism does
Aristotle make of the democratic changes?
a
What are the aduantages and, disad,uantages
d,emocracy as outlined by Plutarch?
t
)
Why is Socrates critical of Pericles?
Do you consid,er tJrcse criticisms to
be
of
justifi,ed,?
CONCLUSION
By the middle of the Sth century Athens had become
a radical democrac¡ in which sovereignt¡ or ultimate
control over state affairs, rested with the masses. The
Athenians, through the initiatives of reformers such as
Kleisthenes, Ephialtes and Pericles, had transferred
the bulk of their political decision making to bodies
made up of ordinary citizens-the Boule, the Ekklesia
and the jury courts. Although most of the great states-
nary people were able and competent to carry out rou-
men of this period were wealthy men, the use of lot
and the rule against two terms ensured that Atheniar.',
institutions gave effective expression to the politica
tine government.
will
of the d,etnos.