people delighted, and the rest of the world astonished, and which now
alone prove that the tales of the ancient power and glory of Greece are
no fables, was what particularly excited the spleen of the opposite
faction, who inveighed against him in the public assembly, declaring
that the Athenians had disgraced themselves by transferring the common
treasury of the Greeks from the island of Delos to their own custody.
"Perikles himself," they urged, "has taken away the only possible excuse
for such an act--the fear that it might be exposed to the attacks of the
Persians when at Delos, whereas it would be safe at Athens. Greece has
been outraged, and feels itself openly tyrannised over, when it sees us
using the funds which we extorted from it for the war against the
Persians, for gilding and beautifying our city, as if it were a vain
woman, and adorning it with precious marbles, and statues, and temples,
worth a thousand talents." To this Perikles replied, that the allies had
no right to consider how their money was spent, so long as Athens
defended them from the Persians; while they supplied neither horses,
ships, nor men, but merely money, which the Athenians had a right to
spend as they pleased, provided they afforded them that security which
it purchased. It was right, he argued, that, after the city had provided
all that was necessary for war, it should devote its surplus money to
the erection of buildings which would be a glory to it for all ages,
while these works would create plenty by leaving no man unemployed, and
encouraging all sorts of handicraft, so that nearly the whole city would
earn wages, and thus derive both its beauty and its profit from itself.
For those who were in the flower of their age, military service offered
a means of earning money from the common stock; while, as he did not
wish the mechanics and lower classes to be without their share, nor yet
to see them receive it without doing work for it, he had laid the
foundations of great edifices which would require industries of every
kind to complete them; and he had done this in the interests of the
lower classes, who thus, although they remained at home, would have just
as good a claim to their share of the public funds as those who were
serving at sea, in garrison, or in the field. The different materials
used, such as stone, brass, ivory, gold, ebony, cypress-wood, and so
forth, would require special artizans for each, such as carpenters,
modellers, smiths, stone masons, dyers, melters and moulders of gold,
and ivory painters, embroiderers, workers in relief; and also men to
bring them to the city, such as sailors and captains of ships and pilots
for such as came by sea; and, for those who came by land, carriage
builders, horse breeders, drivers, rope makers, linen manufacturers,
shoemakers, road menders, and miners. Each trade, moreover, employed a
number of unskilled labourers, so that, in a word, there would be work
for persons of every age and every class, and general prosperity would
be the result.
XIII. These buildings were of immense size, and unequalled in beauty and
grace, as the workmen endeavoured to make the execution surpass the
design in beauty; but what was most remarkable was the speed with which
they were built. All these edifices, each of which one would have
thought, it would have taken many generations to complete, were all
finished during the most brilliant period of one man's administration.
We are told that Zeuxis, hearing Agatharchus, the painter, boasting how
easily and rapidly he could produce a picture, said, "I paint very
slowly." Ease, and speed of execution, seldom produces work of any
permanent value or delicacy. It is the time which is spent in laborious
production for which we are repaid by the durable character of the
result. And this makes Perikles's work all the more wonderful, because
it was built in a short time, and yet has lasted for ages. In beauty
each of them at once appeared venerable as soon as it was built; but
even at the present day the work looks as fresh as ever, for they bloom
with an eternal freshness which defies time, and seems to make the work
instinct with an unfading spirit of youth.
The overseer and manager of the whole was Pheidias, although there were
other excellent architects and workmen, such as Kallikrates and Iktinus,
who built the Parthenon on the site of the old Hekatompedon, which had
been destroyed by the Persians, and Koroebus, who began to build the
Temple of Initiation at Eleusis, but who only lived to see the columns
erected and the architraves placed upon them. On his death, Metagenes,
of Xypete, added the frieze and the upper row of columns, and Xenokles,
of Cholargos, crowned it with the domed roof over the shrine. As to the
long wall, about which Sokrates says that he heard Perikles bring
forward a motion, Kallikrates undertook to build it. Kratinus satirises
the work for being slowly accomplished, saying
"He builds in speeches, but he does no work."
The Odeum, which internally consisted of many rows of seats and many
columns, and externally of a roof sloping on all sides from a central
point, was said to have been built in imitation of the king of Persia's
tent, and was built under Perikles's direction. For this reason Kratinus
alludes to him in his play of the 'Thracian Woman'--
"Our Jove with lofty skull appears;
The Odeum on his head he bears,
Because he fears the oyster-shell no more."
Perikles at that period used his influence to pass a decree for
establishing a musical competition at the Panathenaic festival; and,
being himself chosen judge, he laid down rules as to how the candidates
were to sing, and play the flute or the harp. At that period, and ever
afterwards, all musical contests took place in the Odeum.
The Propylaea, before the Acropolis, were finished in five years, by
Mnesikles the architect; and a miraculous incident during the work
seemed to show that the goddess did not disapprove, but rather
encouraged and assisted the building. The most energetic and active of
the workmen fell from a great height, and lay in a dangerous condition,
given over by his doctors. Perikles grieved much for him; but the
goddess appeared to him in a dream, and suggested a course of treatment
by which Perikles quickly healed the workman. In consequence of this, he
set up the brazen statue of Athene the Healer, near the old altar in the
Acropolis. The golden statue of the goddess was made by Pheidias, and
his name appears upon the basement in the inscription. Almost everything
was in his hands, and he gave his orders to all the workmen--as we have
said before--because of his friendship with Perikles. This led to their
both being envied and belied; for it was said that Perikles, with the
connivance of Pheidias, carried on intrigues with Athenian ladies, who
came ostensibly to see the works. This accusation was taken up by the
comic poets, who charged him with great profligacy, hinting that he had
an improper passion for the wife of Menippus, his friend, and a
lieutenant-general in the army. Even the bird-fancying of Pyrilampes,
because he was a friend of Perikles, was misrepresented, and he was said
to give peacocks to the ladies who granted their favours to Perikles.
But, indeed, how can we wonder at satirists bringing foul accusations
against their betters, and offering them up as victims to the spite of
the populace, when we find Stesimbrotus, of Thasos, actually inventing
that unnatural and abominable falsehood of Perikles's intrigue with his
own daughter-in-law. So hard is it to discover the truth, because the
history of past ages is rendered difficult by the lapse of time; while
in contemporary history the truth is always obscured, either by private
spite and hatred, or by a desire to curry favour with the chief men of
the time.
XIV. When the speakers of Thucydides's party complained that Perikles
had wasted the public money, and destroyed the revenue, he asked the
people in the assembly whether they thought he had spent much. When they
answered "Very much indeed," he said in reply, "Do not, then, put it
down to the public account, but to mine; and I will inscribe my name
upon all the public buildings." When Perikles said this, the people,
either in admiration of his magnificence of manner, or being eager to
bear their share in the glory of the new buildings, shouted to him with
one accord to take what money he pleased from the treasury, and spend it
as he pleased, without stint. And finally, he underwent the trial of
ostracism with Thucydides, and not only succeeded in driving him into
exile, but broke up his party.
XV. As now there was no opposition to encounter in the city, and all
parties had been blended into one, Perikles undertook the sole
administration of the home and foreign affairs of Athens, dealing with
the public revenue, the army, the navy, the islands and maritime
affairs, and the great sources of strength which Athens derived from her
alliances, as well with Greek as with foreign princes and states.
Henceforth he became quite a different man: he no longer gave way to the
people, and ceased to watch the breath of popular favour; but he changed
the loose and licentious democracy, which had hitherto existed, into a
stricter aristocratic, or rather monarchical, form of government. This
he used honourably and unswervingly for the public benefit, finding the
people, as a rule, willing to second the measures which he explained to
them to be necessary, and to which he asked their consent, but
occasionally having to use violence, and to force them, much against
their will, to do what was expedient; like a physician dealing with some
complicated disorder, who at one time allows his patient innocent
recreation, and at another inflicts upon him sharp pains and bitter,
though salutary, draughts. Every possible kind of disorder was to be
found among a people possessing so great an empire as the Athenians; and
he alone was able to bring them into harmony, by playing alternately
upon their hopes and fears, checking them when over-confident, and
raising their spirits when they were cast down and disheartened. Thus,
as Plato says, he was able to prove that oratory is the art of
influencing men's minds, and to use it in its highest application, when
it deals with men's passions and characters, which, like certain strings
of a musical instrument, require a skilful and delicate touch. The
secret of his power is to be found, however, as Thucydides says, not so
much in his mere oratory, as in his pure and blameless life, because he
was so well known to be incorruptible, and indifferent to money; for
though he made the city, which was a great one, into the greatest and
richest city of Greece, and though he himself became more powerful than
many independent sovereigns, who were able to leave their kingdoms to
their sons, yet Perikles did not increase by one single drachma the
estate which he received from his father.
XVI. This is the clear account of his power which is given by Thucydides
the historian; though the comic poets misrepresent him atrociously,
calling his immediate followers the New Peisistratidae, and calling upon
him to swear that he never would make himself despot, as though his
pre-eminence was not to be borne in a free state. And Telekleides says,
that the Athenians delivered up into his hands
"The tribute from the towns, the towns themselves,
The city walls, to build or to destroy,
The right of making either peace or war,
And all the wealth and produce of the land."
And all this was not on any special occasion, or when his administration
was especially popular, but for forty years he held the first place
among such men as Ephialtes, Leokrates, Myronides, Kimon, Tolmides, and
Thucydides; and, after the fall and banishment of Thucydides by
ostracism, he united in himself for five-and-twenty years all the
various offices of state, which were supposed to last only for one year;
and yet during the whole of that period proved himself incorruptible by
bribes. As to his paternal estate, he was loth to lose it, and still
more to be troubled with the management of it; consequently, he adopted
what seemed to him the simplest and most exact method of dealing with
it. Every year's produce was sold all together, and with the money thus
obtained, he would buy what was necessary for his household in the
market, and thus regulate his expenditure. This did not make him
popular with his sons when they grew up; nor yet did the women of his
family think him a liberal manager, but blamed his exact regulation of
his daily expenses, which allowed none of the superfluities common in
great and wealthy households, but which made the debit and credit
exactly balance each other. One servant, Euangelos, kept all his
accounts, as no one else had either capacity or education enough to be
able to do so. These proceedings differed greatly from those of
Anaxagoras the philosopher, who left his house, and let his estate go to
ruin, while he pursued his lofty speculations. I conceive, however, that
the life of a philosopher and that of a practical politician are not the
same, as the one directs his thoughts to abstract ideas, while the other
devotes his genius to supplying the real wants of mankind, and in some
cases finds wealth not only necessary, but most valuable to him, as
indeed it was to Perikles, who assisted many of the poorer citizens. It
is said that, as Perikles was engaged in public affairs, Anaxagoras, who
was now an old man and in want, covered his head with his robe, and
determined to starve himself to death; but when Perikles heard of this,
he at once ran to him, and besought him to live, lamenting, not
Anaxagoras's fate, but his own, if he should lose so valuable a
political adviser. Then Anaxagoras uncovered his head, and said to him,
"Perikles, those who want to use a lamp supply it with oil."
XVII. As the Lacedaemonians began to be jealous of the prosperity of the
Athenians, Perikles, wishing to raise the spirit of the people and to
make them feel capable of immense operations, passed a decree, inviting
all the Greeks, whether inhabiting Europe or Asia, whether living in
large cities or small ones, to send representatives to a meeting at
Athens to deliberate about the restoration of the Greek temples which
had been burned by the barbarians, about the sacrifices which were due
in consequence of the vows which they had made to the gods on behalf of
Greece before joining battle, and about the sea, that all men might be
able to sail upon it in peace and without fear. To carry out this decree
twenty men, selected from the citizens over fifty years of age, were
sent out, five of whom invited the Ionian and Dorian Greeks in Asia and
the islands as far as Lesbos and Rhodes, five went to the inhabitants of
the Hellespont and Thrace as far as Byzantium, and five more proceeded
to Boeotia, Phokis, and Peloponnesus, passing from thence through Lokris
to the neighbouring continent as far as Akarnania and Ambrakia; while
the remainder journeyed through Euboea to the Oetaeans and the Malian
gulf, and to the Achaeans of Phthia and the Thessalians, urging them to
join the assembly and take part in the deliberations concerning the
peace and well-being of Greece. However, nothing was effected, and the
cities never assembled, in consequence it is said of the covert
hostility of the Lacedaemonians, and because the attempt was first made
in Peloponnesus and failed there: yet I have inserted an account of it
in order to show the lofty spirit and the magnificent designs of
Perikles.
XVIII. In his campaigns he was chiefly remarkable for caution, for he
would not, if he could help it, begin a battle of which the issue was
doubtful; nor did he wish to emulate those generals who have won
themselves a great reputation by running risks, and trusting to good
luck. But he ever used to say to his countrymen, that none of them
should come by their deaths through any act of his. Observing that
Tolmides, the son of Tolmaeus, elated by previous successes and by the
credit which he had gained as a general, was about to invade Boeotia in
a reckless manner, and had persuaded a thousand young men to follow him
without any support whatever, he endeavoured to stop him, and made that
memorable saying in the public assembly, that if Tolmides would not take
the advice of Perikles, he would at any rate do well to consult that
best of advisers, Time. This speech had but little success at the time;
but when, a few days afterwards, the news came that Tolmides had fallen
in action at Koronea, and many noble citizens with him, Perikles was
greatly respected and admired as a wise and patriotic man.
XIX. His most successful campaign was that in the Chersonesus, which
proved the salvation of the Greeks residing there: for he not only
settled a thousand colonists there, and thus increased the available
force of the cities, but built a continuous line of fortifications
reaching across the isthmus from one sea to the other, by which he shut
off the Thracians, who had previously ravaged the peninsula, and put an
end to a constant and harassing border warfare to which the settlers
were exposed, as they had for neighbours tribes of wild plundering
barbarians.
But that by which he obtained most glory and renown was when he started
from Pegae, in the Megarian territory, and sailed round the Peloponnesus
with a fleet of a hundred triremes; for he not only laid waste much of
the country near the coast, as Tolmides had previously done, but he
proceeded far inland, away from his ships, leading the troops who were
on board, and terrified the inhabitants so much that they shut
themselves up in their strongholds. The men of Sikyon alone ventured to
meet him at Nemea, and them he overthrew in a pitched battle, and
erected a trophy. Next he took on board troops from the friendly
district of Achaia, and, crossing over to the opposite side of the
Corinthian Gulf, coasted along past the mouth of the river Achelous,
overran Akarnania, drove the people of Oeneadae to the shelter of their
city walls, and after ravaging the country returned home, having made
himself a terror to his enemies, and done good service to Athens; for
not the least casualty, even by accident, befel the troops under his
command.
XX. When he sailed into the Black Sea with a great and splendidly
equipped fleet, he assisted the Greek cities there, and treated them
with consideration; and showed the neighbouring savage tribes and their
chiefs the greatness of his force, and his confidence in his power, by
sailing where he pleased, and taking complete control over that sea. He
left at Sinope thirteen ships, and a land force under the command of
Lamachus, to act against Timesileon, who had made himself despot of that
city. When he and his party were driven out, Perikles passed a decree
that six hundred Athenian volunteers should sail to Sinope, and become
citizens there, receiving the houses and lands which had formerly been
in the possession of the despot and his party. But in other cases he
would not agree to the impulsive proposals of the Athenians, and he
opposed them when, elated by their power and good fortune, they talked
of recovering Egypt and attacking the seaboard of the Persian empire.
Many, too, were inflamed with that ill-starred notion of an attempt on
Sicily, which was afterwards blown into a flame by Alkibiades and other
orators. Some even dreamed of the conquest of Etruria and Carthage, in
consequence of the greatness which the Athenian empire had already
reached, and the full tide of success which seemed to attend it.
XXI. Perikles, however, restrained these outbursts, and would not allow
the people to meddle with foreign states, but used the power of Athens
chiefly to preserve and guard her already existing empire, thinking it
to be of paramount importance to oppose the Lacedaemonians, a task to
which he bent all his energies, as is proved by many of his acts,
especially in connection with the Sacred War. In this war the
Lacedaemonians sent a force to Delphi, and made the Phokaeans, who held
it, give it up to the people of Delphi: but as soon as they were gone
Perikles made an expedition into the country, and restored the temple to
the Phokaeans; and as the Lacedaemonians had scratched the oracle which
the Delphians had given them, on the forehead of the brazen wolf there,
Perikles got a response from the oracle for the Athenians, and carved it
on the right side of the same wolf.
XXII. Events proved that Perikles was right in confining the Athenian
empire to Greece. First of all Euboea revolted, and he was obliged to
lead an army to subdue that island. Shortly after this, news came that
the Megarians had become hostile, and that an army, under the command of
Pleistoanax, king of the Lacedaemonians, was menacing the frontier of
Attica. Perikles now in all haste withdrew his troops from Euboea, to
meet the invader. He did not venture on an engagement with the numerous
and warlike forces of the enemy, although repeatedly invited by them to
fight: but, observing that Pleistoanax was a very young man, and
entirely under the influence of Kleandrides, whom the Ephors had sent to
act as his tutor and counsellor because of his tender years, he opened
secret negotiations with the latter, who at once, for a bribe, agreed to
withdraw the Peloponnesians from Attica. When their army returned and
dispersed, the Lacedaemonians were so incensed that they imposed a fine
on their king, and condemned Kleandrides, who fled the country, to be
put to death. This Kleandrides was the father of Gylippus, who caused
the ruin of the Athenian expedition in Sicily. Avarice seems to have
been hereditary in the family, for Gylippus himself, after brilliant
exploits in war, was convicted of taking bribes, and banished from
Sparta in disgrace. This is more fully set forth in the Life of
Lysander.
XXIII. When Perikles submitted the accounts of the campaign to the
people, there was an item of ten talents, "for a necessary purpose,"
which the people passed without any questioning, or any curiosity to
learn the secret. Some historians, amongst whom is Theophrastus the
philosopher, say that Perikles sent ten talents annually to Sparta, by
means of which he bribed the chief magistrates to defer the war, thus
not buying peace, but time to make preparations for a better defence. He
immediately turned his attention to the insurgents in Euboea, and
proceeding thither with a fleet of fifty sail, and five thousand heavy
armed troops, he reduced their cities to submission. He banished from
Chalkis the "equestrian order," as it was called, consisting of men of
wealth and station; and he drove all the inhabitants of Hestiaea out of
their country, replacing them by Athenian settlers.
He treated these people with this pitiless severity, because they had
captured an Athenian ship, and put its crew to the sword.
XXIV. After this, as the Athenians and Lacedaemonians made a truce for
thirty years, Perikles decreed the expedition against Samos, on the
pretext that they had disregarded the commands of the Athenians, to
cease from their war with the Milesians. It was thought that he began
this war with the Samians to please Aspasia, and this is, therefore, a
good opportunity to discuss that person's character, and how she
possessed so great influence and ability that the leading politicians of
the day were at her feet, while philosophers discussed and admired her
discourse. It is agreed that she was of Milesian origin, and that her
father's name was Axiochus; and she is said to have reserved her favours
for the most powerful personages in Greece, in imitation of Thargelia,
an Ionian lady of ancient times, of great beauty, ability, and
attractions, who had many lovers among the Greeks, and brought them all
over to the Persian interest, by which means the seeds of the Persian
faction were sown in many cities of Greece, as they were all men of
great influence and position.
Now some writers say that Perikles valued Aspasia only for her wisdom
and political ability. Indeed Sokrates and his friends used to frequent
her society; and those who listened to her discourse used to bring their
wives with them, that they too might profit by it, although her
profession was far from being honourable or decent, for she kept
courtesans in her house. Aeschines says that Lysikles, the sheep dealer,
a low-born and low-minded man, became one of the first men in Athens,
because he lived with Aspasia after Perikles's death. In Plato's
dialogue too, called 'Menexenus,' though the first part is written in a
humorous style, yet there is in it thus much of serious truth, that she
was thought to discuss questions of rhetoric with many Athenians. But
Perikles seems to have been more enamoured of Aspasia's person than her
intellect. He was married to a woman who was nearly related to him, who
had previously been the wife of Hipponikus, by whom she became the
mother of Kallias the rich. By her Perikles had two sons, Xanthippus and
Paralus; but afterwards, as they could not live comfortably together,
he, at his wife's wish, handed her over to another husband, and himself
lived with Aspasia, of whom he was passionately fond. It is said that he
never went in or out of his house during the day without kissing her. In
the comedies of the time, she is spoken of as the new Omphale and as
Deianeira, and sometimes as Hera (Juno). Kratinus plainly speaks of her
as a harlot in the following lines:
"To him Vice bore a Juno new,
Aspasia, shameless harlot."
He is thought to have had a bastard son by her, who is mentioned by
Eupolis in his play of 'The Townships,' where Perikles is introduced,
asking, "Lives then my son?" to which Myronides answers:
"He lives, and long had claimed a manly name,
But that he feared his harlot mother's shame."