Pericles of Athens (49 page)
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Authors: Janet Lloyd and Paul Cartledge Vincent Azoulay
32.
Ps.-Demosthenes,
Against Neaera
(59), 43. See Ps.-Aristotle,
The Constitution of the Athenians
, 29.1–3 for an example that goes back to the fifth century: at the time of the establishment
of the regime of the Four Hundred, in 411, Melobius addressed the people, but it was
Pythodorus who made the proposal. On this, see Hansen 1991, 145–146.
33.
Metiochus may have been the brother-in-law of Cimon, Pericles’ great opponent, which
shows that hostile relations between great families were by no means definitive in
Athens (Herodotus, 6.41.2).
34.
Adespota
[author unknown], fr. 741 K.-A.
35.
See Plutarch,
Pericles
, 6.2–3.
36.
Cratinus,
Drapetides
(
The Runaway Female Slaves
), fr. 57–58 and 62 K.-A.
38.
Aeschines,
Against Ctesiphon
(3), 220.
39.
Precepts of Statecraft
, 811C–D.
C
HAPTER
4. P
ERICLES AND
A
THENIAN
I
MPERIALISM
1.
Diodorus Siculus, 12.4.4–6. Even if the existence of such a treaty is not entirely
certain—since Thucydides makes no mention of it—the fact is that from 449 B.C. onward
the Persians and the Greeks were no longer de facto at war.
2.
See Lewis 1992, 121–146.
3.
IG
I
3
34 = ML 46 = Fornara 98 = Brun 9.
5.
The term is used for the first time by Thucydides (1.117.3) in connection with Byzantium.
See Raaflaub 2004, 118–122.
6.
See, for example, Mattingly 1992.
7.
Brun 2003, 24. On this thorny question, see the helpful assessment by Papazarkadas
2009.
8.
This is, in particular, the position adopted by Mattingly 1996, 147–179 (“Periclean
imperialism”): “None of the inscriptional evidence for fully organized Athenian imperialism
can be dated before 431 B.C. Even the very language of imperialism does not seem to
have been current until the last years of Pericles’ ascendancy” (p. 178).
9.
See Banfi 2003, 64.
10.
Thucydides, 1.100.2–101.3.
11.
IG
I
3
14 = ML 40 (ca. 453/2 B.C.?).
12.
Gauthier 1973, 163–178.
13.
That is the hypothesis of Briant 1995, 51–52.
14.
See Kagan 1991, 141, on Samos: “There must have been some sentiment in Athens for
a harsher punishment, but Pericles was able to convince the Athenians
to restrain their anger. This moderation was characteristic of Pericles’ management
of the empire in the remaining years before the Peloponnesian War. By the standards
of the time, and sharply in contrast with Athenian practice after Pericles’ death,
his was a firm but reasonable policy.” The American historian joins a long tradition
going back to George Grote and Victor Duruy in the mid-nineteenth century, analyzed
later, in
chapter 12
.
15.
See also Romilly 2000.
16.
Thucydides, 1.114.1. See Diodorus, 12.22.2.
17.
Plutarch,
Pericles
, 23.2.
18.
See
IG
I
3
39–40 (decrees for the Euboean cities of Eretria and Chalcis).
19.
Clouds
, 211–213. See Aristophanes,
Wasps
, 715, and the anonymous comic author [
adespota
], fr. 700 K.-A. (= Plutarch,
Pericles
, 7.8): after Ephialtes, “the people were rendered unruly, just like a horse, and,
as the comic poets say, ‘no longer had the patience to obey the rein, but nabbed Euboea
and trampled on the islands.’”
20.
See Meritt 1984, 123–133.
21.
IG
I
3
363 (= ML 55). On this repayment, see Thucydides, 1.117.3. The Samians subsequently
became a model of fidelity up until the end of the Peloponnesian War, for they remained
committed to the Athenians despite the progressive dislocation of the Delian League.
22.
Pericles
, 26.3–4. The lexicographer Photius (
s.v.
Samiōn ho dēmos
) tells the story, attributing it to Douris of Samos (
FGrHist
76 F 66). In the
Babylonians
(fr. 71 K.-A.), Aristophanes also alludes to this episode: “This people of Samos,
how rich in letters [
polugrammatos
] it is!” This remark probably refers to the coinage of the island, for there was
a Samian monetary series (class VII, identified by Barron 1966), marked with different
letters of the alphabet, possibly indicating the year of coinage. These coins were
minted either by the aristocrats before 440, or else by the democrats after that date,
possibly for paying the indemnities of war. See Shipley 1987, 114 (and n. 12).
23.
Jones 1987, 149.
24.
See Suda,
s.v. Samiōn ho dēmos
. We know of a Samian currency, dated 493–489, representing the prow of a Samian ship,
with a ram that is an extension of the keel. The prow of this vessel is particularly
wide and the ram is very large. See Basch 1987, no. 520. See also von Reden 1997,
174.
25.
Douris of Samos,
FGrHist
76 F 67 (= Plutarch,
Pericles,
28.1–2). Significantly enough, Donald Kagan chooses not to mention this episode that
is so inconvenient for his exposition.
26.
See Allen 2000, 199–200. This punishment is marked by a series of distinct stages:
exposure in a public place (the Agora); attachment to a piece of wood; torture and
death; and finally the abandonment of the corpses without any funerary rituals.
27.
Herodotus, 9.120.4. See also 7.33.
28.
See Tracy 2002, 315–319 and Balot 2001a, 126.
29.
Pericles
, 34.1. In his description of this episode, Thucydides (2.27.1–2) does not mention
Pericles by name, perhaps out of respect for the
stratēgos
, whom he admires.
30.
The reason why, in 483 B.C., Themistocles managed to persuade his fellow-citizens
to use the money discovered in the Laurium mines to construct a fleet of triremes,
was not in order to face up to a hypothetical Persian invasion, a notion at that point
still in limbo, but rather in order to go and subdue the Aeginetans; see Herodotus,
7.7.
31.
Plutarch,
Pericles
, 8.5.
32.
See earlier, Bloedow 2000.
33.
This argument may seem strange. According to Pericles, the least sign of submission
represents a form of slavery. He cannot conceive of anything in between
arkhē
and
douleia
, domination and dependence: either one dominates or else one is dominated.
34.
See Thucydides, 3.47; Aristophanes,
Knights
, 1111 (424 B.C.), who presents the people, adorned by splendors worthy of the Great
King and “feared by all as if it were a tyrant.” See Tuplin 1985, and Balot 2001a,
172–175.
35.
Cratinus,
The Women of Thrace
, fr. 73 K.-A. (=
Pericles
, 13.6). The
ostrakon
refers to the exile of his opponent Thucydides of Alopeke in 443 B.C.
36.
Some historians even believe that the royal tent served as scenery in the performance
of Aeschylus’s
Persians
, of which Pericles was the
khorēgos
. From there to detecting an interplay of influences is but a step that nothing, however,
authorizes one to take.
37.
Briant 2002, 256–258.
38.
Miller 1997, 218–242.
39.
Ibid., 242.
40.
See Raaflaub 2009, 111.
42.
At first, the monument itself was simply called “the great temple” or “the temple.”
It was only at the end of the fourth century, from the time of Demosthenes onward,
that the expression was used to refer to the temple as a whole.
43.
We should remember that the cult-statue of Athena was to be found, not in the Parthenon,
but in the Erechtheion. The colossal statue by Phidias was an offering, not a cult-statue.
See Holtzmann 2003, 106.
C
HAPTER
5. A P
ERICLEAN
E
CONOMY
?
1.
Saller 2005, 233.
2.
See Bresson 2007, 150–151.
4.
See Kurke 1999. On this peculiarly Periclean way of managing an
oikos
, see Burn 1948, 125.
5.
Pericles
, 16.5.
6.
Bresson 2000.
7.
Descat 1995, 969.
8.
Pericles
, 16.4.
9.
These boundary markers came in various types. The most common model consisted of
a mortgage guaranteeing a loan of money: it took the form of a sale “on the condition
of a liberating repurchase” (
prasis epi lusei
). The borrower “sold” his property to a creditor, promising to buy it back within
an agreed
period, by repaying the borrowed sum plus interest (12 to 18 percent per year). In
the meantime, the debtor owner retained the usufruct (right of use) of his property.
10.
Finley 1981, 62–76. However, returning to the evidence, Shipton 2000 has shown that
wealthy Athenians were also deeply involved in nonagricultural sectors.
11.
See earlier,
Pericles
, 16.4. In Aristophanes’
Clouds
, the character Pheidippides closely resembles the young Xanthippus.
12.
Ps.-Aristotle,
Oeconomica
, I.6.1344b32.
13.
The ancient authors suggest three names, Aristides, Cimon, and Pericles, but there
is no way of knowing for certain. See Pritchett 1971, 7–14 for the sources and commentary.
14.
The Mediterranean Sea was “closed” to navigation during the winter, from November
to February, because of the winds and storms that blew up and the fragility of military
vessels; soldiers usually slept on land, rather than on their ships, at sea.
15.
Ps.-Aristotle,
Constitution of the Athenians
, 24–25.1.
16.
Ibid., 24.2–3.
17.
The earliest example even dates from before the creation of the alliance: in 506,
the Athenians confiscated the land of the Chalcidian aristocrats and divided them
into 4,000
klēroi
that were assigned to citizens who, having become cleruchs, obtained part of the
harvest without having to cultivate the land themselves.
18.
Plutarch,
Pericles
, 11.5.
19.
Tolmides had already taken some to the island, as Diodorus Siculus reports (11.88.3).
20.
Moreno 2009, 213–214.
21.
IG
I
3
46, 43–46 = ML 49, 39–42: “Let the colonists for Brea be taken from among the thetes
and the
zeugitae
.” See Figueira 1991, 59–60.
22.
See Moreno 2009, 213–214.
23.
See Foxhall and Forbes 1982.
24.
Moreno 2007, 32–33, has recently indicated Athens’s heavy dependence on grain by
increasing (to 75 percent) the calculations of Garnsey 1989, 89–164 (50 percent).
Whatever the figure accepted, one thing is certain: Athens depended largely on the
outside world in order to feed its population.
25.
These calculations are based on the figures provided by Demosthenes,
Against Leptines
(20), 31–33 (ca. 355 B.C.), who mentions a total of 800,000
medimnoi
of cereals imported by Athens every year.
26.
Pericles
, 11.5. This may possibly be the expedition to which the inscription
IG
I
3
1162 refers.
27.
IG
I
3
61 = ML 65 = Fornara 128 = Brun 15.
28.
However, we should not anticipate the law of Agyrrhius, dated 374/3, which stipulates
that Athenian merchants do not have the right to unload wheat from the Pontus anywhere
apart from Piraeus. Concern about supplies of wheat remained constant throughout the
whole classical period, peaking in the 330s on account of the food shortages that
affected the Aegean world at that time. See Oliver 2007.
29.
Thucydides, 2.38.2.
30.
These inscriptions, published by American scholars, are generally known as the Athenian
Tribute Lists (ATL). According to calculations based on the ATL, whereas the number
of allies is much higher than in 478, the total sum is much lower than the 460 talents
mentioned by Thucydides, for it amounts only to about 400 talents. Instead of doubting
the figure given by Thucydides, we should perhaps consider two alternative solutions:
either the figure given by the historian also includes the value of the triremes and
the pay for the troops—that is to say, the estimated value of the
phoros
in kind—or the figures given by the ATL refer only to the
surplus
of the tribute brought to Athens, with the expenses for military operations already
deducted.
32.
Thucydides, 2.13.3–5.
33.
Of course, it might have been a way of safeguarding appearances where the accounts
were concerned: even today, after all, in the state budget there are many “slippages”
between different categories of expenses.