Pericles of Athens
Vincent Azoulay
Language: English
Pages: 312
ISBN: 0691154597
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Pericles has had the rare distinction of giving his name to an entire period of history, embodying what has often been taken as the golden age of the ancient Greek world. "Periclean" Athens witnessed tumultuous political and military events, and achievements of the highest order in philosophy, drama, poetry, oratory, and architecture. Pericles of Athens is the first book in more than two decades to reassess the life and legacy of one of the greatest generals, orators, and statesmen of the classical world.
In this compelling critical biography, Vincent Azoulay provides an unforgettable portrait of Pericles and his turbulent era, shedding light on his powerful family, his patronage of the arts, and his unrivaled influence on Athenian politics and culture. He takes a fresh look at both the classical and modern reception of Pericles, recognizing his achievements as well as his failings while deftly avoiding the adulatory or hypercritical positions staked out by some scholars today. From Thucydides and Plutarch to Voltaire and Hegel, ancient and modern authors have questioned the great statesman's relationship with democracy and Athenian society. Did Pericles hold supreme power over willing masses or was he just a gifted representative of popular aspirations? Was Periclean Athens a democracy in name only, as Thucydides suggests? This is the enigma that Azoulay investigates in this groundbreaking book.
Pericles of Athens offers a balanced look at the complex life and afterlife of the legendary "first citizen of Athens" who presided over the birth of democracy.
Brill's Companion to Thucydides
Kinship Myth in Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece at Work (History of Civilization)
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Sparta, 138, 164, 176–179, 184, 185, 190 Lysander, 177 Lysias, 91, 123, 138, 243n27 Mably, Gabriel Bonnot de, 178, 179–181, 196, 254n73, 255n74 Machiavelli, Niccolò, 158, 161, 164, 165, 195 Marathon, 18 Mattingly, Harold, 224, 235n8, 244n50 Megacles, 18, 20, 26, 240n6, 240n7 Melians, the, 58 Melobius, 235n32 Menippus, 32, 48, 99, 232n16 Mérimée, Prosper, 206 Methone of Pieria, 75 Metiochus, 48, 50, 235n33 Miletus, 49, 58, 60, 91, 93, 103, 104, 105, 243n37, 244n50 Mill, John Stuart,
Pompeii, 176 pornē, 104, 105 pothos, 98, 242n19, 243n20 Propylaea, 77, 111, 116, 141, 201, 220, 239n35 prosodoi, 68, 79, 239n42 Protagoras, 49, 91, 120 Psammetichus, 82 Pyrilampes, 99, 100, 243n30 Pythodorus, 235n32 Racine, Jean, 169, 171 Rhamnous, 77, 111 Robespierre, Maximilien de, 184, 188, 190–191 Rollin, Charles, 14, 178, 195, 197–198, 206, 254n56, 257n19 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 177–178, 179–181, 257n11 Saint-Just, Louis Antoine de, 184, 185 Saint-Lambert, Jean-François de,
the treasury—that explains the strange layout of the monument. The fact is that, ordinarily, a Greek temple was built in accordance with a stereotyped schema: a vestibule (pronaos), then a central hall containing the cult statue (naos), and, finally, a back room (opisthodomos), for the use of the temple staff. In comparison to this canonical arrangement, the structure of the Parthenon is, to say the least, unusual—and for two reasons: in the first place, the huge dimensions of the naos contrast
rationality of a political rather than an economic nature. Because all forms of speculation were liable to damage the people—who depended on cereals for their survival—the stratēgos was absolutely determined not to pass for a profiteer or even a monopolist, however much this harmed his own interests. Pericles wished to be the protector of the dēmos even in the manner in which he managed his own property. Although he was sometimes accused of avarice in the private sphere, the stratēgos had a