Pericles and the Pentekontaetia - Shape of things to come

To the casual observer, Ancient Athens and the Delian Empire it aquired rapidly during the Classical epoch of the 5^th century BCE would appear a happy family sort of affair. A we-scratch-your-back-and-you-scratch-mine setup that protected the eastern reaches of Greece from the Persian threat, which only fifty years hence had run riot through the beleagured land under the command of Xerxes (nice bloke - just ask Herodotus¹). Athens and their main rival Sparta quickly coalesced "Leagues" (or rather and empire by any other name) in order to bring notoriously independant poleis into line for the defense of Greece.

Athens soon organised it's League into an Empire with them at the helm, which included such cities as Argos and Thebes, as well as islands such as Naxos, Euboea and Samos. Corinth remained semi-allied to Sparta, with the latter commandeering the west. Athens demanded high tribute from their "allies", as well as discipling those who fell out of line (Naxos has some pretty nasty stories to tell about this). Tension grew, Sparta loomed ever more menacing, and the multi-tiered Peloponnesian War was imminent. However, the 50 years before this event were plentiful and grand for Athens, and were dubbed the "Pentekontaetia" (50 years of peace) by the historian Thucydides.² Over all that Athens did loomed the godhead of the great Pericles - primus inter pares, general, philosopher.

"Pericles has taken the spring from Athen's year".

What kind of man was this Pericles? multi-faceted to the hilt, and liked by just about anybody who was Athenian. As a singular wit in a polis that was supposedly governed by democratic principles³. Pericles, some say, acted like a totalitarian titular head-of-state who bent Athens and it's Delian "League" in his own manner.

As the Peloponnesian war loomed ever more closer Pericles laid down the rules for survival against the Spartan threat. A good thing really, as had the rules been written by the masses and their "influences" Athens would have crumbled in a week. In his famous "funeral oration" (which was given at the funeral for the first soldiers killed in the war) he rambled on about the perfect citizen and the means to save his way of life. Athens was to be on the defensive, not the offensive, and to remain within the protective walls that surrounded Athens and it's port, Pireaus. As the great visonary and General he was he maintained this manifesto beautifully - Sparta didn't know what hit them.Yet Pericles and his illustrious career lasted a mere four years into the thirty-years war - the "Great Plague" as described by Thucydides soon claimed his and countless other lives. Free of his command, Athens soon fell foul of vague opportunists such as Creon who jockeyed for influence with the people - they sent Athens on offensive campaigns which whittled the city and her resources away, even turning down two Spartan offers for peace on the way. The disastrous Sicilian expedition finished it for Athens, and they soon collapsed in grand acrimony. As Pericles had warned,

"unless we follow this plan, the Athenians will find that the spring will be taken from her year"

Tyrant or benign figurehead?

Debate still rages on about whether Pericles could be defined as a despot (enlightened or otherwise) who bent Athens and her "allies" to his will or whether he was merely an influential citizen who came to a cities aid when events surrounding it grew out of proportion and control. Thucydides alludes to the latter, and as he has a great hatred of tyranny⁴a bias against the man can be considered. But this all goes against the point - without a great man who exudes a "cult of personality" many major epochal events would have collapsed without the necessary "rudder" these men provide. Pericles was that rudder, and besides, without men such as Frederick The Great and Barbarossa, who the Hell would people blame for their ills? Exactly.