Essay On Pericles

Pericles was the leader of Athens and was born in 495BC and died in 429BC. His father, Xanthippus was a political leader who grew up in the family of the Alcmaeonids and his mother, Agariste provided Pericles with political value and a relgious defilement. Growing up Pericles was very bright, his family was wealthy which meant he had access to the best teachers in the whole of Athens. This meant he was able to fully pursue his education. As a young man, Pericles used much of his wealth to support the arts, at school he studied politics, ethics, philosophy and music. He learnt music from the masters of the time, Damo or Phyhocleides and was considered to be the first politcian to have such a great influence on philosophy. Pericles became a
He also made it possible for poor men who could no afford to leave their jobs, to do so. This meant men of all social classes were now part of the government. Not only was serving in the governemt a privelage, but also a responsibility. Pericles believed in that very strongly. Pericles biggest aim for athenian society was reforming the Athenian democracy. He introduced many laws such as his citizenship law. This law prevented a non-Athenian mother and the son of an Athenian father from become a full citizen. Pericles aim was to restrain the power of aristocrats where all supreme power is in the hands of one person. In Pericles oration he desribes Athens as “an education to greece” and that the city strives for freedom of the citizen. I believe that Pericles main aim of the oration was to explain to people that Athens was a society worth dying for and wanted Athenians to have pride about their identitiy. Pericles entered 470BC and 8 years later, esatblished a vote in the popular assembly. As a result the vote came to a complete loss of