Pericles Funeral Oration Of War

In the opening year of the Peloponnesian War, 431 B.C.E., Pericles delivered, and according to Plato may not have written, a speech praising Athenian democracy while also remembering all the Soldiers that had died in the service of Athens. He took the opportunity to reinforce the Athenian constitution and to let people know that the deaths of their Soldiers was justified to uphold the democracy.

Pericles cites that when Athens goes to war it goes alone. He goes onto to say that when other countries go to war against Athens that they must bring their “confederates” (Funeral Oration of Pericles) with them if they are to stand a chance at victory. This, I believe, is incorrect or at least a twisting of the truth depending on your perception. Many states who were allied with Athens still had to pay Athens or at least contribute ships to them. If you use only the funeral oration as a source you would be led to believe that Athens stood on their own without the help of any allies that were later to become part of the Athenian Empire. On top of that many of the states that were allies or part of the empire were being ruled less as equals and more as a slave master relationship.

I believe that Pericles is alluding to the fact that the country’s men, though preoccupied with their personal lives, were still fair judges in public matters (Funeral Oration of Pericles). This is a good representation of the big picture of the judicial system. Seeing as how men from all walks of life took time out of their lives to serve on juries at all trials. However, there was not very much quality control during the trials. Jurors were limited to their own knowledge of the law and were often persuaded by either the defendant or plaintiff. Whichever one was the better public speaker sometimes won the day as opposed to who was actually right. In this way I disagree that men were always fair judges of public