A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

19t6 PERICLES. PERICLES.
the policy which Athens exercised towards her times and country, his political morality was cerallies, the issue of it tended greatly to confirm tainly not below that of the age; nor would it
that direct authority which she exercised over be easy even in more modern times to point out
them. This policy did not originate with Pericles, a nation or statesman whose procedure in similar
but it was quite in accordance with his views, and circumstances would have been widely different.
was carried out by him in the most complete man- The empire which arose out of this consolidaner. By the commutation of military service for tion of the Athenian confederacy, was still further
tribute, many of the allied states had been strengthened by planting colonies, which colnstripped of their means of defence in the time of monly stood to the parent state in that peculiar
Cimon. It appears, however, to have been on the relation which was understood by the term
proposition of Pericles that the treasure of the con- KA77POXOL. (Diet. of Int. art. Colonia.) Colonies
federacy was removed from Delos to Athens (about of this kind were planted at Oreus in Euboea,
R. c. 461; see Biickh, Public Econ. of Atli. at Chalcis, in Naxos, Andros, among the Thrabk. iii. c. 15), and openly appropriated to objects cians, and in the Thracian Chersonesus. The
which had no immediate connection with the pur- settlement at Sinope has been already spoken of.
pose for which the confederacy was first formed, The important colony of Thurii was founded in
and the contributions levied. In justification of B. C. 444. Amphipolis was founded by Hagnon
this procedure, Pericles urged that so long as the in B. c. 437. These colonies also served the very
Athenians fulfilled their part of the compact, by important purpose of drawing off from Athens a
securing the safety of their allies against the large part of the more troublesome and needy
attacks of the Persian power, they were not obliged citizens, whom it might have been found difficult
to render any account of the mode in which the to keep employed at a time when no military
money was expended; and if they accomplished operations of any great magnitude were being
the object for which the alliance was formed with carried on. Pericles, however, was anxious rather
so much vigour and skill as to have a surplus for a well consolidated empire than for an extensive
treasure remaining out of the funds contributed by dominion, and therefore refused to sanction those
the allies, they had a right to expend that surplus plans of extensive conquest which many of his
in any way they pleased. Under the administra- contemporaries had begun to cherish. Such attion of Pericles the contributions were raised from tempts, surrounded as Athens was by jealous
460 to 600 talents. The greater part of this in- rivals and active enemies, he knew would be too
crease may have arisen from the commutation of vast to be attended with success.
service for money. There is nothing to show that Pericles thoroughly understood that the supreany of the states were more heavily burdened than macy which it was his object to secure for Athens
before (see Biickh, Public Econ. bk. iii. c. 15, rested on her maritime superiority. The Athenian
p. 400, 2nd ed.). The direct sovereignty which the navy was one of the objects of his especial care.
Athenians claimed over their allies was also exer- A fleet of 60 galleys was sent out every year anld
cised in most instances in establishing or support- kept at sea for eight months, mainly, of course, for
ing democratical government, and in compelling all the purpose of training the crews, though the subthose who were reduced to the condition of sub- sistence thus provided for the citizens who served
ject allies to refer, at all events, the more im- in the fleet was doubtless an item in his calcu!aportant of their judicial causes to the Athenian tions. To render the communication between
courts for trial (Bickh, iii. c. 16). Pericles was Athens and Peiraeeus still more secure, Pericles
not insensible to the real nature of the supremacy built a third wall between the two first built,
which Athens thus exercised. He admitted that parallel to the Peiraic wall.
it was of the nature of a tyranny (Thucyd. ii. The internal administration of Pericles is charac63). In defence of the assumption of it he would terised chiefly by the mode in which the public
doubtless have urged, as the Athenian ambas- treasures were expended. The funds derived
sadors did at Sparta, that the Athenians deserved from the tribute of the allies and other sources
their high position on account of their noble sacri- were devoted to a large extent to the erection of
fices in the cause of Greece, since any liberty which those magnificent temples and public buildings
the Greek states enjoyed was the result of that which rendered Athens the wonder and admiration
self-devotion; that the supremacy was offered to of Greece. A detailed description of the splendid
them, not seized by force; and that it was the structures which crowned the Acropolis, belongs
jealousy and hostility of Sparta which rendered it rather to an account of Athens. The Propylaea,
necessary for the Athenians in self-defence to con- and the Parthenon, with its sculptured pediments
vert their hegemony into a dominion, which every and statue of Athene, exhibited a perfection of art
motive of national honour and interest urged them never before seen, and never since surpassed.
to maintain; that the Athenians had been more Besides these, the Odeum, a theatre designed for
moderate in the exercise of their dominion than the musical entertainments which Pericles appended
could have been expected, or than any other state to the festivities of the Panathelaea, was conwould have been under similar circumstances; and structed under his direction; and the temples at
that the right of the Athenians had been tacitly Eleusis and other places in Attica; which had been
acquiesced in by the Lacedaemonians themselves destroyed by the Persians, were rebuilt. The
until actual causes of quarrel had arisen between rapidity with which these works were finished
them. (Thucyd. i. 73, &c., especially 75, 76.) excited astonishment. The Propylaea, the most
In point of fact, we find the Corinthians at an expensive of them, was finished in five years.
earlier period, in the congress held to deliberate Under the stimulus afforded by these works archirespecting the application of the Sanmians, openly tecture and sculpture reached their highest perfeclaying down the maxim that each state had a tion, and somle of the greatest artists of antiquity
right to punish its own allies. (Thucyd. i. 40.) If were employed in erecting or adorning the buildPericles did not rise above the maxims of his I ings. The chief direction and oversight of the