PERICLES, one of the most celebrated of the Greek statesmen, was a native of Athens, and descended, both by the father and mother’s side, from the most distinguished families of that city. His father Zanthippus had been concerned in the prosecution of the great Miltiades, and commanded the fleet which defeated the Persians at Mycale, b. c. 479. He married Agariste, the niece of Cleisthenes, the chief of the noble family of the Alemaeonidae, and the leader of the party which had expelled the Pisistratidae. It is not known in what year Pericles was born; but as he began to take part in public affairs about b. c. 469, it could scarcely be later than b. c. 490. He died in the autumn of B. c. 431, in the third year of the Peloponnesian war. He studied under the ablest masters that Athens could then furnish. Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, whose force of understanding and extent of knowledge had acquired him the appellation of Intellect (νους), was the philosopher to whom he was chiefly indebted for the cultivation of his mental powers; but he also derived instruction from Zeno, the founder of the Eleatic school of philosophy, and from Damon, who, professing only music, was considered as the ablest speculative politician that Athens then produced. It is said that the young Pericles resembled much, both in person and voice, the tyrant Pisistratus, and this prevented him for some time from taking any part in public business. But when Aristides was dead, Themistocles banished, and Cimon employed in distant military expeditions, Pericles ventured to make his appearance before the people about b. c. 469; and his eloquence soon enabled him to acquire great influence over them. Although his inclination and feelings might have led him to unite himself to the aristocratical party, his interest and his peculiar talents made him solicit the favour of the people, and he became in course of time the leader of the popular faction. He concurred in the policy of his party in procuring, b. c. 461, the banishment of Cimon; and he also exerted himself to reduce the dignity of the Areiopagus, one of those measures which proved in [7:17:232]the end fatal to the Athenian constitution, as it tended to leave the power of the democracy without control.

The increased expenses of the government rendered it necessary that some means should be adopted to improve the income of the state. Pericles proposed that the common treasury of the confederacy, at the head of which Athens stood, should be removed from Delos to Athens. This fund was intended to provide the means of defence against any attack on Greece by a foreign enemy, more particularly by the Persians; and a small yearly assessment was made on each of the confederate states for this purpose. By the will of the Athenians this assessment was increased; and it was determined that the tribunals of Athens should decide all disputes which might arise respecting it. These measures were by no means fair, but the supremacy of Athens by sea made any opposition to its demands at present hopeless. Pericles took part in all the proceedings of his party, although he had not yet acquired the chief control in the state. He was present at the battle of Tanagra, B. c. 457, and distinguished himself the more as he had insisted that Cimon,,who had offered his services, should not be allowed to be present on the occasion. The Athenians, however, were defeated, and obliged to retire. In their distress they began to turn their eyes towards Cimon, and it seems to have been thought advisable by the popular party that he should be recalled. Pericles himself moved the decree, b. c. 456, and Cimon returned to Athens, after the expiration of only five years of the term of his banishment. On the death of Cimon in Cyprus, b. c. 449, Pericles was left nearly without a rival; and the nobility thought it necessary that they should bring forward some one to oppose his monopoly of power. Thucydides, son of Melesias, brother-in-law of Cimon, was the person to whom they looked; and, by his abilities, his rank, and his conduct through life, he was certainly entitled to high consideration. The two parties now gradually separated; and they never afterwards coalesced, as they had done under Cimon. A war of words was carried on; but we have little account of it, except the anecdote in which Thucydides candidly acknowledges the superiority of his rival: “When I wrestle with Pericles,” he said, “if I throw him ever so decidedly, he can persuade the spectators that he threw me.”

It was about this time that some Boeotians, who had been driven from their country in consequence of the Athenian conquest, contrived to get possession of Orchomenos, Chaeroneia, and some other towns in that neighbourhood. The Athenian army under Tolmides easily dispossessed them, but on its return it was attacked by another party of exiles at Coronea, b. c. 447, and entirely defeated, with the death of the general. The revolt of Euboea was the immediate consequence of this defeat; and an army under Pericles had scarcely landed upon the island, when intelligence reached him that the adverse party in Megara had risen, and, with the assistance of Corinth, had overpowered the Athenian garrison, and driven it out of the city. Rumours of an intended invasion of Attica by the Spartans were likewise brought to him. Pericles led back his army from Euboea, defeated the Megareans, and compelled them to confine themselves within the walls of their city. The attack of the Spartans did not take place till the following spring, and Pericles was believed to have succeeded in bribing the Spartan general CJeandrides to withdraw his troops, as he retreated without striking a blow. Pericles then returned to Euboea, and the whole island was quickly reduced. The insecure tenure of the Athenian power induced the leading men to seek an accommodation with Sparta, even on conditions that were highly disadvantageous. They had already lost Boeotia, and they now agreed to give up all pretensions to Megara and its territory, to withdraw their garrisons from Troe zen in Argolis, and to afford no assistance whatever to the democratical party in Achaia. On these conditions, a truce for thirty years was concluded, b. c. 445, between the two states. The two parties in Athens were now left at liberty to contend with each other; and as neither was willing to concede any thing to its rival, matters soon came to a crisis, and Pericles succeeded in procuring the banishment, b. c. 444, of Thucydides, by ostracism. From that moment Pericles became the master of Athens and all her dependencies.

The administration of Pericles lasted for fifteen years; and though the seeds of future evils were then plentifully sown, it was a period during which arts, science, and taste reached a perfection which no country has ever surpassed. The policy, not less than the inclination, of Pericles, led him to encourage them, as he found it easier to direct the will and caprices of the sovereign people whilst he excited their admiration by the magnificence of his undertakings. Nothing seems more wonderful than the expedition with which works of stupendous magnitude, and of inimitable beauty, were completed. Many edifices, each of which might have required the labour of many successive ages, were finished during the administration of one prosperous man. The celebrated Phidias was the superintendent to whose taste and skill the whole management was intrusted; and the perfection of design, and even of workmanship, can still be appreciated from the reliques, after a lapse of more than two thousand years. The Parthenon was erected under his eye; and it is by no means unlikely that we may still possess many of his designs in the bas-reliefs which have been transferred from that temple, and now form the most valuable part of the British Museum. Whilst Phidias was employed in executing works of sculpture, Zeuxis and Parrhasius were not less eminent in painting; and Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides were calling forth the plaudits of the Athenians by those tragedies which still equally excite our admiration. To this love of the fine arts Pericles added eloquence, such as was fitted to control the passions of a multitude, and an assiduity in public business which never flagged. His integrity, too, was never once called in question; and though he had unlimited control over the public revenues for so long a period, at his death it was found that his private property was even less than when he had received it from his father. Although he was the constant object of satire to the comic poets, and both his person and administration were daily attacked with the severest invectives, he stood firm in the affections of the people, who appear to have never for a moment wavered. It was the chief object of his policy to keep the people either amused or employed; and for this purpose he sent out during peace a squadron of sixty galleys, to exercise for eight months every year. He got rid of the more restless citizens by sending them to various colonies; and it was under his direction that the colony of Thurium, in the south of Italy, was settled, b. c. 443, whither went Herodotus and the orator Lysias.

The first interruption of the peace arose from a dispute between two Asiatic states of the Athenian confederacy, Samos and Miletus, who each claimed the sovereignty over Priene, and it was found impossible to settle the dispute without having recourse to arms. Miletus finding itself worsted, applied to the Athenians for assistance, which Pericles thought proper to grant. His enemies asserted that he was induced to come to this decision by a wish to gratify his mistress Aspasia, a native of Miletus, and one of the most celebrated women of ancient times. (See Aspasia.) There are sufficient reasons assigned, however, why the Athenians should have interfered, without supposing that Pericles was swayed by any thing but a regard for the interests of his country. He led a considerable fleet, b. c. 440, against the Samians; and, after a nine [7:17:233]months’ siege, they were compelled to capitulate. Pericles returned with increased popularity, and gained much applause from the eloquence with which he pronounced the funeral oration over those who had fallen in battle. The historian Thucydides does not mention what part Pericles took in those measures which eventually led to the Peloponnesian war; but Plutarch asserts that he was the sole author of that contest. It is said that the people were beginning to show some symptoms of dissatisfaction with his sway, and were listening readily to all accusations against his friends. Phidias had been thrown into prison, and had there died, not without suspicion of poison. Aspasia had been accused and acquitted only through the great exertions of Pericles; and he hgd found it necessary to recommend to his friend Anaxagoras to retire from Athens for a time, as he was not certain that he could protect him from the malice of his enemies. He knew that upon any critical emergency they must have recourse to him; and, to withdraw the attention of the people from himself and friends, it is said he used every means to fan the flame of war, and to prevent all possibility of an arrangement between the Spartans and Athenians. When war at last was determined on, b. c. 431, Pericles took the whole direction of it on himself, and, thinking it hazardous to venture a battle against the united forces of the Peloponnesians, kept the Athenians within the fortifications of the'city. The crowded state of the city, from the peasants who had fled before the enemy, and an insufficiency of food, were the main causes probably of that pestilential disease which broke out with such violence in Athens during the second year of the war, and which is so graphically described by the historian Thucydides (ii.). The Athenians now lost all patience, and wreaked their vengeance upon Pericles, by imposing a fine of fifteen talents on him. At the same time that his influence with the people was thus diminished, he was suffering much from the calamities which had befallen many of his relations, and from a misunderstanding which had for some time prevailed in his own family. He had originally married one of his own relations, but as their dispositions were by no means suited to each other, they had separated, after having two sons, Xanthippus and Paralus. Pericles then lived with Aspasia, towards whom he bore the tenderest regard. Xanthippus was naturally extravagant, and had married a young and expensive wife, who was unwilling to brook the frugality of her father-in-law. They lived therefore in a constant state of irritation with Pericles, and took every opportunity of annoying him. Xanthippus was carried off by the plague, as well as many other of his relations. Pericles bore up against all his misfortunes until the death of Paralus, his last surviving legitimate son, which completely subdued his unbending spirit, and he gave up all attention to public business. It was soon found, however, that no one was capable of filling his place, and the people again solicited Pericles to re-assume the reins of government. To this he acceded; and one of the first favours that he asked was, that they would allow him to enrol a natural son in his tribe, and thereby make him legitimate. In compassion for his misfortunes this was granted, and his son, Pericles, was afterwards one of the ten commanders in the naval engagement of Arginusae. Pericles was soon after this seized with the plague, and died in the year 428 B. c. to the great regret of the Athenians. He is said to have left nothing in writing, except some public decrees. (Thucydides, Peloponnesian War ; Plutarch, Life of Pericles.)