Athenian Society

We know much about Athenian society from the writings of historians and others about that era and about political leaders of that city like Pericles. Pericles was featured in writings by Thucydides, notably his history of the Peloponnesian War, and later by the Roman Plutarch.

Pericles was born into two of the best families of Athens, both on his father's and mother's side. He received a good education from his teachers, including the philosopher Zeno, and from Zeno he learned the sophistry that many believed made it possible for Zeno to prove any proposition to be false. Pericles learned even more from Anaxagoras. Anaxagoras was the first philosopher to attribute the order of the world to intelligence, rather than to chance or necessity. After this education, Pericles was dignified in his language and serene and calm in his movements. Some believed that Pericles was only trying to fool the public with a false front of virtue, but Zeno argued that if Pericles were faking virtue, his detractors should do the same, because even pretending to be good, if continued for long enough, will give a man the desire and practice that is needed for good habits.

Pericles was very wealthy, and his skill with words made him famous in Athens while he was still young. However, Pericles stayed out of politics for a long time from fear of retaliation. He was also not at ease among the common people, but when he did decide to participate in public affairs, he joined the democratic par

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re. This last stage of the war is called "Decelean" from the name of a town in Attica, Decelea, which Sparta fortified, to the enormous cost of the Athenians. However, the war was won on the sea. Aided by Persian resources, Sparta became a naval power and encouraged the rebellion of Athens's allies. Proceeding north from Chios to the Hellespont, Sparta gradually overcame the Athenian navy in spite of effective countermeasures taken by Alcibiades and others. Lysander won the decisive battle of Aegospotami in 405, and Athens was blockaded and surrendered in April 404). In the aftermath, Athens gave up its fleet, submitted to the destruction of its fortifications, and suffered the rule of an oligarchy, the Thirty Tyrants. The imperial city never recovered from the blow, although the Thirty Tyrants were deposed in 403. Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War is the principal source for the events of the war up to 411 (derived from Sealey 238-385). What sort of city-states were Sparta and Athens before they fought with one another and changed history? Dorian Sparta grew out of four villages settled in and after the 11th century BC. The eventual fusion of these separate villages into a polis, or citystate, may explain Spa

Category: History - A