Pericles of athens biography of barack

These last states came to resent Sparta, mainly due to two factors. For starters, naval warfare ended up becoming a very important factor in the wars. Sparta did not have a strong navy, not as powerful as Athens, for instance, or Argos, or Chalcis, or Chios. Even more contentious, though, was the idea of a Greek counterattack. After the victories at Mycale and Plataea, the invasion of mainland Greece was over and, as far as Sparta was concerned, so was the war.

The Greeks won, the Persians left, job done. But other city-states like Athens wanted to keep the pressure on and go into Asia Minor and liberate the Ionian Greek states which were still under Persian control and had been for almost a hundred years since they were conquered by Cyrus the Great. At this point, Sparta and its close allies withdrew from the war and the leadership of the remaining Greek states was passed on to Athens.

In BC, they even formed their own association called the Delian League. Even in ancient times, historians such as Thucydides regarded the counterattack on the Persian Empire as just a pretext to form this league without opposition. Over the following decades, the relationship between the two states became tense, even though it was still outwardly friendly.

One important moment came when Athens rebuilt its walls in secret under the direction of Themistocles. Sparta insisted that no Greek cities should build walls, under the pretense that they would provide fortifications for a foreign invader if they took over the city. Of course, what others took this to mean was that Sparta preferred if the rest of the Greek states stayed reliant on them for protection.

Over the years, the Delian League slowly, but surely turned into an unofficial Athenian Empire. Since its inception, each member was expected to provide an annual tribute in the form of either money or soldiers and weapons. With no immediate wars on the horizon, most members chose to pay, but Athens instead kept adding soldiers to the forces of the Delian League.

This continued under Pericles who was eager to keep increasing the hegemony of Athens over the Delian League. At one point, he refused to accept any more soldiers or supplies as tribute, instead insisting that everyone pay money. The true turning point, however, occurred in BC, when Pericles moved the treasury of the Delian League from the island of Delos to Athens.

He did it under the pretense that the money was safer in Athens but, in reality, he used it to fund his own building projects. Thanks to him, the city got marvelous structures such as the Propylaea, the Temple of Athena Nike, and, of course, the Parthenon. His spending ways were not always well-received in Athens. In fact, they often represented the main criticism of Pericles by his political opponents.

During the s, the other political party started gaining power again, led by a man named Thucydides, but not to be confused with the historian. The statesman wanted to have Pericles ostracized for playing fast and loose with public funds and, for a while, got the Athenian people on his side. However, in an example of supreme oratorical skill, Pericles managed to win back the public.

He even said that he would pay for the construction from his own pocket , as long as the inscriptions were dedicated to him alone. The magnanimity of his offer was enough to sway the Athenians. Public spending continued as before, Thucydides was himself ostracized and exiled, and Pericles stayed in power. Ever since Athens started gaining power and influence in the Greek world, it was only a matter of time before it would collide with Sparta which did not want any other city-state to rival its strength.

Just for added clarity, though, this is not the same as the more famous conflict known simply as the Peloponnesian War, which we will talk about in a bit. Technically, that should have been named the Second Peloponnesian War, but because it was much grander, lasted longer and had much more significant historical consequences, it became known just as the Peloponnesian War.

Ignoring the underlying tensions in the Greek world, this war ostensibly broke out due to a border dispute between Megara and Corinth. This caused conflict between Athens and Corinth who were the initial belligerents of the First Peloponnesian War, with Sparta only intervening on occasion. Pericles was reluctant to engage in an all-out battle with the Peloponnese forces because his army was spread far and wide, still aiding other nations in Asia Minor and Egypt who were rebelling against the Persians.

He engaged the Corinthians several times and, eventually, managed to drive them out of Megara. Meanwhile, Sparta spent the first few years of the war avoiding Athens. Instead, they battled Phocis, an Athenian ally, who themselves were in conflict with the neighboring state of Doris. Their goal appeared to be to conquer or submit all the city-states in the region of Boeotia and unify them all under one leadership.

In , he assumed rule of Athens — a role he would occupy until his death. During his leadership, he built the Acropolis and Parthenon and led Athens' recapture of Delphi, the siege on Samos and the invasion of Megara. In , he died of the plague. Ancient Greek statesman Pericles was born c. His father, Xanthippus, was a famous general and statesman who came from a wealthy family of aristocrats.

Pericles' mother, Agariste, was niece to the famed statesman and reformer Cleisthenes, who lead the controversial Alcmaeonidae clan. When Pericles was still just a toddler, Persia attempted to conquer Greece but was defeated at Marathon. The young Pericles received a stellar education in music under the tutelage of Damon and in math under theoretical physicist Zeno of Elea.

At 13, Pericles witnessed another Persian invasion of Greece and was likely evacuated from Athens along with his family as the Battle of Salamis threatened to tear through the Saronic Gulf. By the time he was in his early 20s, Pericles had established himself as a dedicated patron of the arts through his sponsorship of the Festival of Dionysus. Andrewes; K.

Dover — Hanson, Victor Davis [English Edition ]. Athens: Livanis Editions. Henri, Madeleine M. Prisoner of History. Aspasia of Miletus and her Biographical Tradition. Hornblower, Simon The Greek World — BC. Hurwit, Jeffrey M. The Acropolis in the Age of Pericles. Just, Roger Women in Athenian Law and Life. Kagan, Donald The Archidamian War. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. Viking Penguin Penguin Group. Kakridis, Ioannis Th. Interpretative Comments on the Pericles' Funeral Oration. Estia in Greek. Katula, Richard A. Murphy, Richard A. Katula, Forbes I. Hill, Donovan J. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. King, J. Knight, D. Libourel, Jan M. October American Journal of Philology.

Loraux, Nicole Belles Lettres. Mattson, Kevin Creating a Democratic Public. Penn State Press. McGregor, Malcolm F. The Athenians and their Empire. The University of British Columbia Press. Mendelson, Michael Miller, Laura 21 March The Last Word. Retrieved 7 June Monoson, Sara Plato's Democratic Entanglements. Princeton University Press.

Morrison, J. Gomme Ober, Josiah Westview Pr. The Athenian Revolution. Eleftheroudakis in Greek. Platias Athanasios G. Thucydides on Strategy. Eurasia Publications. Podlecki, A. Perikles and His Circle. Power, Edward J. A Legacy of Learning. SUNY Press. Rhodes, P. A History of the Classical Greek World. Blackwell Publishing. Ruden, Sarah Hackett Publishing.

Samons, Loren J. What's Wrong with Democracy? Sealey, Raphael University of California Press. Shrimpton, G. Theopompus The Historian. McGill-Queen's Press. Sicking, CMJ Distant Companions: Selected Papers. Brill Academic Publishers. Smith, William A History of Greece. Starr, Chester G. A History of the Ancient World. Oxford University Press US.

Ste Croix de, GEM — The Character of the Athenian Empire. Historia III. Ober Josiah, Strauss Barry S. St Martins Pr. Tuplin, Christopher J. Pontus and the Outside World. Vlachos, Angelos Volume I. Thucydides' bias. Wade-Grey, H. July—September Wet de, B. Acta Classica.

Pericles of athens biography of barack

Yunis, Harvey Taming Democracy. Cornell University Press. Further reading [ edit ]. Azoulay, Vincent; tr Lloyd, Janet Pericles of Athens. Brock Roger, Hodkinson Stephen Hesk, John Deception and Democracy in Classical Athens. Pericles of Athens and the Birth of Democracy. The Free Press. Lummis, Douglas C. Radical Democracy. Gore Vidal , Creation novel for a fictional account of Pericles and a Persian view of the wars.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Pericles. Library resources about Pericles. Online books Resources in your library Resources in other libraries. Works of Plutarch. Ancient Athenian politicians. Ancient Greece. History Geography. City states Politics Military. Doric Hexapolis c. Ekklesia Ephor Gerousia. Cimon, who was Athenian leader at the time, responded to the request from Sparta by leading their troops, and aiding the Spartans.

They fought together in battles that broke out during the years that fighting and rebelling took place with the Helots. The Spartans were victorious, and were able to send the Helots back thanks to the assistance of the Athenians and the democratic government, which the Helots feared. Upon his return, Cimon was ostracized for his assistance to Sparta, and because he had favored an oligarch society for Athens.

Now that democracy was the power and form of government in Athens, Pericles, who was a descendant of Cleisthenes the founder of democracy at the time , took power, and led Athens in B. The office for military general leader was elected at around the same period of B. During the period following the election, from about to B. This structure was built between Piraeus and Athens.

Piraeus was a small peninsula, that was located only a few miles from Athens, and the structure connected Athens to this small peninsula. Another project that he undertook was building a structure of Athena Promachus, on the Acropolis, on the Parthenon and on the Propylaea.