Pericles and the Golden Age of Athens

"This sketch of the Age of Pericles consists of two parts: in the first and larger part I have endeavoured to trace the growth of the Athenian empire and the causes which alienated Athens and Sparta; in the second I have given a brief account of the government, the art and literature, the society and manners of the Periclean Athens. (...) In what then did his greatness lie? The answer is that it lay in the ideals which he cherished. He saw what a city might do for her citizens; and what citizens might do for their city. In the years of peace his dreams took shape, and the result is before us in the Parthenon and the great Funeral Speech: but against the hard obstinacy of facts, which followed the outbreak of the war, he struggled in vain. His visions of empire faded away, and he lived long enough to see the treasury impoverished, the people more than decimated, the most faithful of Athenian allies shut up to certain destruction..." - Evelyn AbbottContents: The Alcmæonidæ. Xanthippus and Themistocles. The Congress at Corinth, and the Delian League. The Early Years of the Delian League. The Fall of Pausanias and Themistocles. Decadence of Sparta. Revolt of the Helots. Breach between Sparta and Athens. The Areopagus and Ephialtes. The First War between Athens and Sparta. The Last Years of Cimon. Peace and the Second War with Sparta. The Thirty Years' Peace. Thurii. Samos. Amphipolis. The Coming War. Causes of the Peloponnesian War. The Outbreak of the War. First Year of the War. The Funeral Speech. The Last Year of Pericles. The Athens of Pericles: the Government, Home and Foreign. The Athens of Pericles: Art and Literature. The Athens of Pericles: Manners and Society. Conclusion. Read more