Pericles

From the beginning of civilization, power and leadership have played an important role in guiding and uniting populations of people. This power can be used or exerted in various ways by the leadership of the population to either expand one’s territory or even to make laws. The difference and similarities between the ancient forms of power and leadership are dependent on each civilization’s governing style and code of laws. Dating back to one of the first written legal codes, during the time of…

Liberty and freedom is often overlooked in some countries but other countries have never seen freedom or liberty before. That is because our vast world has many different forms of government with different forms of control, two being democratic rule and absolute rule. Democracy by definition is a system of government by the whole population or all eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. Many countries today have democratic governments such as the United States…

said that “the standard of justice depend on the equality of the capacity to force and that in fact, the strong one do what they have the capacity and the weakness to accept what they have to accept” (Thucydide, 5:89). Although once declared that Périclès had justice must be made between the equal ones, the Athenians were deformed thereafter of justice so that, as far as power, Melians should not be treated…

Athens on Trial In 399 BCE a grave mistake was made by Athens which will go down in history. It was the trial and execution of Socrates, a great and mysterious philosopher. Socrates was charged and found guilty for not worshiping the gods and corrupting the mind of the youth. Both off the charges are trumped up or not true at all because he believed i vn the Oracle of Delphi but did not agree with what it was saying and that he did not tell the kids to follow what he was doing, they did it on…

Unlike a monarchy, power rests in the hands of a small group of very rich people in an Oligarchy, which was a working form of government alongside democracy in Athens. This dual form of government enabled gifted politicians like Themistocles and Pericles (who were not elected) to hold sway in the assembly where their ideas would find support. Oligarchs can also exist within a monarchy or a tyranny, where they use their wealth and clout to influence the decision…

for them. If the charges are that he is teaching illegally, then those charges are preposterous. Did we not pass a law that Meletus proposed saying, “private or free Socratic teaching is legal?” Therefore, what charges can be brought against him? Pericles says it best, “If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences; if to social standing, advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, {...}, nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is…

regional loyalties and factionalism with pan-Athenian solidarity (Blackwell 2003: 1). Also, the constitutions for the Greeks were much more than the outlining of a political system - they entailed a way of life and manufactured a common identity. Pericles boasts of the individual virtue of self-sufficiency and of tolerance towards others and Nicias also mentions that all in Athens ‘every man could live his life in unregimented liberty (Thucydides: Book VII, 69). Plato even believed that…

League (477 B.C.E.). Since there was no danger of Persia after the Greco-Persian war, the collaboration between the two dominant Greek city-states came to an end. Conflicts between Athens and Sparta continued to arise during Athens’ Age of Pericles. Pericles was an Athenian aristocrat that was constantly elected to the highest position of the Athens government between 467-429 B.C.E. His leadership transformed Athens into an “economic and commercial power unlike anything previously imagined in…

DAY ???? Acropolis and Parthenon of Athens by Loren Jurkovic Year 11 (WHEN) 28th of July 447BCE (MAIN EVENT/S) Timeline of Events - 3500-3000BCE: Remains found from the Neolithic period indicate that there was a continuous settlement up the slopes in ancient caves. - 1600 – 1100BCE: The Mycenaean people of the Bronze Age built a large fortification wall with the perimeter of 760 metres at the head of…

In the Ancient Greek culture, honor was the most crucial virtue in their society. While honor might mean different things in different cultures; to the Ancient Greeks honor was an important part of their lives and culture. However, to the Ancient Greeks it was more than just honor that formed their identity. Arête as the Ancient Greeks called it consisted of honor, masculine virtue, physical strength, courage, success in battle and everlasting fame. Arête was the foundation of the family and the…