While talking about the end of the Greek democracy, we have to talk about the Pericles, Thucydides, and "The Peloponnesian Wars".
Ordinarily, Pericles was the famous Democratic leader of the Athens. He was also well known for this great speech. Regardless of being the famous leader, talented politicians like Pericles and Themistocles mostly dominated the Athenian politics in order to get supported on their own agenda and policies by the majority in the assembly. In fact, Pericles dominated Athens Politics from 461 BCE to 429 BCE (Brand, n. d.).
Basically, the whole Greek world including Athens and Sparta fought as a kind of "Greek World-War". Additionally, in 431 BCE, Pericles led Athens for the first series of Peloponnesian war against Sparta. While starting the war, the Athens was quite great in navy, good annual revenue of silver from the silver mines located at Attica, and the tribute payment from her empire. Consequently, Pericles thought that they would win the war in a couple of years (Brand, n. d.). Truly, the Peloponnesian Wars lasted for next 30 years. In the meantime, the plague hit Athens by killing thousands of people along with the Pericles himself (Brand, n. d.).
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Later on, he served as the general against Sparta. He was exiled from the country after Athens lost a war on his leadership. After thirty years of war, Athens was completely devastated and lost its empire (Brand, n. d.). According to Thucydides, Pericles managed to control and guides the destructive power of the people during his leadership but after his death, the mod is misled by Demagogue "leader of the people" and they use the poor masses for the political reasons. Similarly, many aristocrats think the Demagogues, the stupid mass of the common people by the democratic system led Athens to fall (Brand, n.
Pericles argues that Athens has become a model for others, and articulates what it is to be a good citizen. This can be seen when he says, “although the eyes of an enemy may occasionally profit by our liberality; trusting less in system and policy than to the native spirit of our citizens; while in education, where our rivals from their very cradles by a painful discipline seek after manliness, at Athens we live exactly as we please, and yet are just as ready to encounter every legitimate danger.” (Thucydides, 2.39) It proves that Ancient Athens’ valued greatness and worked in order to achieve the excellence of the state, by focusing on rebuilding themselves back up after the Persian war. Pericles played a big role in this because he showed his ambitions to rebuild Athens, which lead to the thriving of other subjects such as literature, philosophy, science, art, and religion.
Athens experienced significant changes and developments during the 5th century BC as a result of the Persian Wars. The noticeable rise to power of Athens as being the hegemon of the Delian League, which was referred to as The Athenians and their Allies during the fifth century, sparked their control of the powerful Athenian Empire. Athens peak in political, economic and cultural concepts highlighted their dominance and growing influence over the Greek city-states, consequently resulting in their democratic reforms. The increased status of thetes had an impact on the modifications of the Athenian government systems. The influence of certain individuals, including, Solon, Cleisthene, Ephialtes and Pericles, introduced ostracism, redeveloped citizenship laws, and weakened the
Being alive to witness the events that occurred in and around fifth century B. C. E. Greece meant that Thucydides could not help but write down his experiences. The Athenians of Greece and the people of the Persian Empire were constantly at odds with each other, and these differences eventually led to the Peloponnesian war. This war lasted from 431-404 B.C.E. and began an era of conflict between the two peoples (Bulliet). This power struggle not only inflated the ego of the Athenians, but created many negative viewpoints of the Persians. Thucydides, being an Athenian, was therefore extremely biased against the Persians.
Within just a year it, in 429 BC, the Athenians not only forgave Pericles but also re-elected him as strategos. He was reinstated in command of the Athenian army and led all its military operations during 429 BC, having once again under his control the levers of power. In that year, however, Pericles suffered severe blows to his morale. Both his legitimate sons by first marriage, Paralus and Xanthippus, perished in the epidemic. His morale undermined, he burst into tears and not even the company of his lover Aspasia 's could comfort him.
Alcibiades (450-404 BC) was an Athenian politician and military commander. He was wealthy and born to the statesman Pericles. Alcibiades was one of the main reasons that Athens had lost the Peloponnesian War to Sparta. He was a general during the time of this war occurrence. He acted as a military commander, a politician and a strategic advisor in total.
Regardless of the exclusivity of ancient Athenian democracy (excluding women and those of non-Hellenic descent), Pericles’ influence and actions of his time laid the
A war against Sparta began during this time, which was caused by the poor decisions made by the current general. At some point Sicily invaded Athens, followed by a change in democracy to a more oligarchy system of government. Athens was fighting for their government and changes were being made over and over, power was being put on different people and becoming overrun. But finally, in 338 B.C., Athens was taken by Mecedonia. This drastic end in democracy came after Athens lost the battle of Chaeronea.
Pericles was born in 494 BC, and was raised in an aristocratic family. Pericles was very intelligent, had a lot of integrity. He was also susceptible to being bribed. He was one of the reasons why the Delian League's treasury was moved to Athens, another being Athens and their views of others not being trustworthy enough to look after. The main use Athens had for the treasury was for rebuilding the Acropolis, the Acropolis was a marvellous feat which served as a great monument for Athenian.
Democracy, a noun that means the society is governed by the people, a system of voting, and majority rules. In ancient Greece, demokratia, otherwise known as democracy can be battered down into demo, and kratia. Demo, meaning the people, and kratia meaning the power or rule. Together it means rule by the people. The purpose of this essay is to prove that ancient Greece wasn’t truly democratic.
Pericles TRAGIC NEWS: Today, our first democratic leader died The revolutionary leader was born in 495 B.C.E. His father had been a political figure, but was then banished in 484 B.C.E. He later returned to Athens, but soon passed away.
Pericles is an icon of Ancient Greece. His accomplishments left an impact on subjects of politics, theater, architecture, and combat. While his career as a strategos and how his martial actions effected has received as much attention as his political career and artistic contributions they should not be overlooked.
In mid-6th c. BCE Athens, just five years after the government of Solon (594), the Athenians found themselves encompassed by dissension and internal disorder. Athens created the first democracy-based government, although their government became more of a republic with democratic attributes. They, the electors, were unable to elect an Archon for five years due to their dissent with the former principles ran by the State. All people within Athens viewed these principles with contempt, those in the elite[upper] class were ‘estranged because of the abolition of debts,’ while the poor people wanted the distribution of all land and property. Both parties were unhappy with the changes made by Solon’s reforms and so many refused to vote for any new
Pericles One thing that led to the Athenian Golden Age is Pericle's rise to power. Pericles was an Athenian leader, statesmen, and general(History.com Staff., 2009). I will attempt to explain how Pericles was essential for Athens Golden Age. Pericles lived from 495-429 BCE(Lewis, D. M., 2018,). He became the leader of the democratic party after the death of Ephialtes in 461.
While some, like Plato in his The Republic, thought it weak to give government into the hands of the common people, Pericles countered this argument with a compelling argument of greatness. By putting government into the hands of the people, the people are united and more devoted to their country. Democracy bonds the people together in a way that no other government can understand. Pericles confidently states, “Athenians advance unsupported into the territory of a neighbor, and fighting upon a foreign soil usually vanquish with ease men who are defending their homes.”
Athens organized a group of Greek city states into the Delian League and eventually lead and dominated all of the city states in the League. Athens’s military prowess allowed them to look down on the other members of the League and treat them as members of an empire instead of equals. This caused some to view them with hostility which sparked the conflicts between Athens and Sparta that lead to the Peloponnesian War. The direct democracy of Athens wasn’t actually as inclusive and steady as the statement at Pericles 's funeral state, “Our Constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people (Doc C).” In fact, of the 450,000 citizens of Athens in 430 BC, only about 40,000 people had the power to vote.