Download How did Pericles and Caesar influence (positively and

How did Pericles and Caesar influence (positively and negatively) their societies? Find
similarities and differences in their strategies and positions as the statesmen.
PERICLES:
http://www.e-classics.com/pericles.htm
PUBLIC APPEARANCES AND SPEAKING SKILLS
Only rarely did Pericles appear in public, and only on the most important occasions.
Then, when he spoke to the people, his words were like thunder and lightning. By far, he
was the best orator of his day, both for style and content. The old men noted a striking
resemblance to Pisistratus in the way Pericles looked and talked.
SPENDING OF PUBLIC FUNDS
To compete with Cimon for the affections of the poor, Pericles began the use of the
public treasury for new purposes, such as plays and other amusements, and distributions
of money to the public. By the measures he introduced, the Athenians were transformed
from a sober and thrifty people, who maintained themselves by their own labors, into
unscrupulous and lazy addicts of public funds.
The government shriveled into insignificance as the people, led by Pericles, overruled
the decisions of their elected representatives. With the populace steering policy by their
uproar, 3 Pericles became the most powerful man in Athens, yet he had never been
elected to any public office. Having, in effect, bought their support, he made use of the
masses against his political opponents so that he became a king disguised as a champion
of the people. Pericles contrived to have his rival Cimon ostracized, even though Cimon
had won many glorious victories over the barbarians and had filled the city with treasure.
The Parthenon and all of the famous statues and buildings of Athens were paid for using
the money that had been collected from the Greek allies to finance the war against the
Persians. 4 The aristocrats in Athens vehemently objected to such use of the money,
saying that the allies would be right to consider this an open act of tyranny when they
saw that the money raised for the war was being embezzled to adorn Athens like a whore.
But Pericles responded that the Athenians could do as they pleased with the money
because they really deserved it. Moreover, said Pericles, there were enough military
supplies, so it was proper to spend the surplus on buildings that would give Athens
eternal honor and create jobs. Thus most of the artisans and craftsmen of Athens owed
their pay to Pericles, along with the soldiers and sailors.
WAR SKILLS
War broke out between Athens and Sparta. When Cimon volunteered to come back and
join the Athenian army, which he had commanded as its general many times, Pericles and
his party compelled Cimon to leave. The Spartans gave the Athenians a severe beating,
and the Athenians became anxious for peace. But the Spartans refused to deal with
Pericles or any of the democrats, and would negotiate with no one but Cimon, whom they
respected.
In his military affairs, Pericles was very cautious. He would not, if he could help it,
risk any fight where the odds were not heavily in his favor. Although others admired
generals whose rash adventures achieved brilliant success through good luck, Pericles did
not try to imitate them.
Also, there was the matter of Aspasia, who had run a brothel until Pericles divorced his
wife and married her. Aspasia was indicted for being disrespectful to the gods. The
charge seemed to implicate Pericles himself. That led the Athenians to reopen the old
question of excessive expense in the public building projects. A decree was passed that
Pericles would have to give a full accounting to a jury of 1500.
Pericles therefore started up the smoldering war with Sparta and blew it into a flame,
knowing that in the crisis the Athenians would forget about their accusations and rally to
him as their leader. He contrived a quarrel between the Athenians and the Megarians,
and this quarrel was to be arbitrated by the Spartans. The Athenian representative was
murdered, and Pericles blamed it on the Megarians. They, however, disclaimed any
responsibility and suggested that Pericles had the man murdered so he could have his
war.
Because of this murder, the Athenians declared war on the Megarians, thus breaking
the thirty-year truce with Sparta. The Spartans gave the Athenians an ultimatum to take
back the declaration of war, and Pericles persuaded them not to. Then the Spartans asked
the Athenians to get rid of Pericles, but this had the opposite of its intended effect.
Pericles became a hero in Athens because it was clear that he was hated and feared by the
enemy.
METHOD OF CONTROL
An ostracism was called, and Thucydides was the victim. Now Pericles had undisputed
authority as the greatest man in Athens. He became less of a persuader and more of a
commander, but he never went too far in exercising arbitrary authority. Pericles was
generally able to lead the Athenians along by their own consent. Persuasion was always
his preference, but he sometimes issued orders when it was absolutely necessary for the
public good.
Pericles' objective was always to make Athens prosperous and powerful. He never
took bribes or used his power for his own profit in any way. Because of this, the
Athenians trusted Pericles and had confidence in his character. Therefore they listened
when he spoke, and by his words he steered them, using the twin rudders of their hopes
and fears, through the many crises that were bound to occur in such an empire. When the
Athenians were downhearted, Pericles cheered them up; and when they were reckless, he
made them cautious.
http://www.teach12.com/ttc/Assets/courseDescriptions/3317.asp
STAINS ON GOLDEN AGE
But in examining the lives of Athenian men and women, this course also confronts
aspects of the "Golden Age" whose echoes are far less glorious. It asks, for example,
what freedom and autonomy really meant to a society that relied on slaves and was
ruthless in its treatment of its subjects.
To answer this and other questions, the course constantly juxtaposes the striking
accomplishments of Athenian culture in such fields as philosophy, tragedy, comedy,
sculpture, and architecture with its equally striking flaws, including:
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the exclusion of women from public life
Athenian reliance on slavery, including the abuse of those slaves
the cruel treatment of other Greek populations.
In following Athens from the height of its power to its defeat at the hands of the far
different Greek city-state of Sparta, these lectures produce a portrait of a complex people
and a complicated culture whose ties to our own civilization are not casual, but deeply
meaningful.
CAESAR:
PUBLIC APPEARANCES AND SPEAKING SKILLS
http://heraklia.fws1.com/civil_war/
Cicero, representative of many, metaphorically wrung his hands and vacillated, finally
choosing the side of his senatorial colleagues. Every family in Rome had a similar choice
to make. When Sulla marched on Rome a generation and more earlier, his triumph had
been followed by massive proscriptions, murders, confiscation of his enemies' property;
many were sure that the same fate would befall them under Caesar. Instead, Caesar from
the first showed a policy of clementia (mercy), which reaped rewards and earned the
grudging admiration of his bitterest enemies. This shrewd political move won many
nervous Romans to his side of the quarrel. Time and again he pardoned whole cities and
armies standing against him, releasing his enemies with pacific words to join Pompey if
they wished. It is an irony of history that most of his murderers, save one, were men who
had fought against him and been pardoned, in some cases more than once, during the
Civil War.
SPENDING OF PUBLIC FUNDS
http://heraklia.fws1.com/civil_war/
Stone marker
commemorating
Caesar's arrival in
Rimini, January, 50 BC.
The senatorial party had given command to Pompey but, as
Pompey slowly gathered his legions, Caesar took city after city
in northern Italy, many by peaceful surrender. It appeared that
all of northern Italy would fall to Caesar without a serious
battle. Within weeks, Rome was in a sufficient state of panic
and rumor for Pompey to announce that he and the Republican
senators were leaving the city. He is said to have decreed that
any Romans who remained thereafter would be considered
Caesar's allies and his enemies.
Pompey intended to fight Caesar in asia, an area of the Roman
world in which he had strong connections and many clientkings. Unfortunately, in the scramble to evacuate Rome,
neither Pompey nor the Senators thought to take charge of
Rome's treasury, stored under the Temple
of Saturn. Caesar found it intact when he arrived. He and his bodyguard showed up one
morning to impound the entire Roman treasury - 15,000 bars of gold, 30,000 bars of
silver, and 30,000,000 sesterces. When a young Tribune, Marcellus, remonstrated with
Caesar, saying the funds belonged to the legitimate government of Rome, Caesar noted
pleasantly that it would be much easier for him to kill Marcellus than to threaten to do so.
He got the money. The move was unpopular but, at a stroke, Caesar's war chest vastly
outweighed Pompey's.
WAR SKILLS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Caesar#The_military_Caesar
Caesar's successful campaigning in any terrain and under all weather conditions owes
much to the strict but fair discipline of his legionaries, whose admiration and devotion to
him was proverbial. Caesar's infantry and cavalry was first rate, and he made heavy use
of formidable Roman artillery; additional factors which made him so effective in the field
were his army's superlative engineering abilities and the legendary speed with which he
maneuvered (Caesar's army sometimes marched as many as 40 Roman miles a day).
METHOD OF CONTROL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Caesar#The_military_Caesar
Caesar fought and won a civil war which left him undisputed master of the Roman world,
and began extensive reforms of Roman society and government. He was proclaimed
dictator for life, and heavily centralized the already faltering government of the weak
Republic. Caesar's friend Marcus Brutus conspired with others to assassinate Caesar in
hopes of saving the Republic. The dramatic assassination on the Ides of March was the
catalyst for a second set of civil wars, which marked the end of the Roman Republic and
the beginning of the Roman Empire under Caesar's grand-nephew and adopted son
Octavian, later known as Caesar Augustus.
STAINS ON GOLDEN AGE
http://www.crystalinks.com/juliuscaesar.html
Caesar's death was partly due to his clemency and impatience, which, in combination,
were dangerous for his personal security. Caesar had not hesitated to commit atrocities
against "barbarians" when it had suited him, but he was almost consistently
magnanimous in his treatment of his defeated Roman opponents. Thus clemency was
probably not just a matter of policy.
Caesar's earliest experience in his political career had been Sulla's implacable persecution
of his defeated domestic opponents. Caesar amnestied his opponents wholesale and gave
a number of them responsible positions in his new regime. Gaius Cassius Longinus, who
was the moving spirit in the plot to murder him, and Marcus Junius Brutus, the symbolic
embodiment of Roman republicanism, were both former enemies. "Et tu, Brute" ("You
too, Brutus") was Caesar's expression of his particular anguish at being stabbed by a man
whom he had forgiven, trusted, and loved.