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98-628: A larger Athenian fleet was dispatched to suppress this agitation. This fleet initially defeated the Samians and blockaded the city, but Pericles , in command, was then forced to lead a substantial portion of the fleet away upon learning that the Persian fleet was approaching from the south. Although the Persians turned back before the two fleets met, the absence of most of the Athenian fleet allowed

196-548: A Mycenaean grave-shaft, a weight of about 8.5 grams (0.30 oz) can be established for this original talent. The later Attic talent was of a different weight than the Homeric, but represented the same value in copper as the Homeric did in gold, with the price ratio of gold to copper in Bronze Age Greece being 1:3000. An Attic talent was the equivalent of 60 minae or 6,000 drachmae . An Attic weight talent

294-610: A behavior which the Athenians considered to be impious. After consultations with its allies, Sparta sent a deputation to Athens demanding certain concessions, such as the immediate expulsion of the Alcmaeonidae family including Pericles and the retraction of the Megarian Decree, threatening war if the demands were not met. The obvious purpose of these proposals was the instigation of a confrontation between Pericles and

392-516: A brother-in-law of Cimon, as a symbol of unity and employed him several times to negotiate important agreements. In the spring of 449 BC, Pericles proposed the Congress Decree, which led to a meeting ("Congress") of all Greek states to consider the question of rebuilding the temples destroyed by the Persians. The Congress failed because of Sparta's stance, but Pericles' intentions remain unclear. Some historians think that he wanted to prompt

490-621: A confederation with the participation of all the Greek cities; others think he wanted to assert Athenian pre-eminence. According to the historian Terry Buckley the objective of the Congress Decree was a new mandate for the Delian League and for the collection of "phoros" (taxes). Remember, too, that if your country has the greatest name in all the world, it is because she never bent before disaster; because she has expended more life and effort in war than any other city, and has won for herself

588-513: A decade. The causes of the Peloponnesian War have been much debated, but many ancient historians lay the blame on Pericles and Athens. Plutarch seems to believe that Pericles and the Athenians incited the war, scrambling to implement their belligerent tactics "with a sort of arrogance and a love of strife". Thucydides hints at the same thing, believing the reason for the war was Sparta's fear of Athenian power and growth. However, as he

686-462: A decree dispatching an expedition to Samos, "alleging against its people that, although they were ordered to break off their war against the Milesians, they were not complying". In a naval battle the Athenians led by Pericles and nine other generals defeated the forces of Samos and imposed on the island an Athenian administration. When the Samians revolted against Athenian rule, Pericles compelled

784-543: A democracy, gave up their fleet, and agreed to pay Athens a war indemnity of 1,300 talents over a period of 26 years. The end of the revolts elsewhere in the empire followed rapidly on this success. Although Athens did succeed in restoring order to the empire, the situation in 440 BC was very severe, particularly because of the threat of Spartan intervention. Thucydides reports that in 433 BC, when Corinthian and Corcyraean ambassadors were making their cases at Athens regarding Corcyra's request for assistance against Corinth,

882-486: A few nights before Pericles' birth, that she had borne a lion. Legends say that Philip II of Macedon had a similar dream before the birth of his son, Alexander the Great . One interpretation of the dream treats the lion as a traditional symbol of greatness, but the story may also allude to the unusually large size of Pericles' skull, which became a popular target of contemporary comedians (who called him "Squill-head", after

980-441: A figure that suggested himself as a bald old man, and also inserted a very fine likeness of Pericles fighting with an Amazon. Aspasia , who was noted for her ability as a conversationalist and adviser, was accused of corrupting the women of Athens to satisfy Pericles' perversions. The accusations against her were probably nothing more than unproven slanders, but the whole experience was very bitter for Pericles. Although Aspasia

1078-443: A hostile action, the Athenians refused to admit their emissaries. With his last attempt at negotiation thus declined, Archidamus invaded Attica , but found no Athenians there; Pericles, aware that Sparta's strategy would be to invade and ravage Athenian territory, had previously arranged to evacuate the entire population of the region to within the walls of Athens. No definite record exists of how exactly Pericles managed to convince

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1176-468: A model for his fellow citizens. For example, he would often avoid banquets, trying to be frugal. In 463 BC, Pericles was the leading prosecutor of Cimon, the leader of the conservative faction who was accused of neglecting Athens' vital interests in Macedon . Although Cimon was acquitted, this confrontation proved that Pericles' major political opponent was vulnerable. Around 461 BC, the leadership of

1274-549: A nostalgic picture of Themistocles ' famous victory at Salamis , shows that the young politician was supporting Themistocles against his political opponent Cimon , whose faction succeeded in having Themistocles ostracized shortly afterward. Plutarch says that Pericles stood first among the Athenians for forty years. If this was so, Pericles must have taken up a position of leadership by the early 460s BC – in his early or mid-thirties. Throughout these years he endeavored to protect his privacy and to present himself as

1372-416: A political mark by private means, had he so chosen. In 461 BC, Pericles achieved the political elimination of this opponent using ostracism . The accusation was that Cimon betrayed his city by aiding Sparta . After Cimon's ostracism, Pericles continued to promote a populist social policy. He first proposed a decree that permitted the poor to watch theatrical plays without paying, with the state covering

1470-544: A power greater than any hitherto known, the memory of which will descend to the latest posterity. During the Second Sacred War Pericles led the Athenian army against Delphi and reinstated Phocis in its sovereign rights on the oracle . In 447 BC Pericles engaged in his most admired excursion, the expulsion of barbarians from the Thracian peninsula of Gallipoli , to establish Athenian colonists in

1568-466: A range of 36.15 to 37.2 kg based on such estimates as the weight of one full Aeginetan metretes of coins, and concluded that the Aeginetan talent represented the water weight of a Babylonian ephah : 36.29 kg by his reckoning (the metretes and the ephah were units of volume). Percy Gardner estimated a weight of 37.32 kg, based on extant weights and coins. An Aeginetan talent

1666-604: A serious crisis in the open revolt of a powerful subject state, and the situation was made more severe by simultaneous revolts in other parts of the empire, the most critical of which occurred in Byzantium ; the powerful city of Mytilene , meanwhile, stood ready to revolt upon receiving a promise of Spartan support. The Athenians immediately dispatched 60 ships to deal with the situation in the Aegean. 16 of these ships were sent on various independent missions, leaving only 44 to face

1764-461: Is always used of gold and is thought to have been quite a small weight of about 8.5 grams (0.30 oz), approximately the same as the later gold stater coin or Persian daric . In later times in Greece, it represented a much larger weight, approximately 3,000 times as much: an Attic talent was approximately 26.0 kilograms (57 lb 5 oz). The word also came to be used as the equivalent of

1862-495: Is generally regarded as an admirer of Pericles, Thucydides has been criticized for bias against Sparta . Pericles was convinced that the war against Sparta, which could not conceal its envy of Athens' pre-eminence, was inevitable if unfortunate. Therefore, he did not hesitate to send troops to Corcyra to reinforce the Corcyraean fleet, which was fighting against Corinth . In 433 BC the enemy fleets confronted each other at

1960-644: The Alcmaeonidae , and her familial connections played a crucial role in helping start his political career. Agariste was the great-granddaughter of the tyrant of Sicyon , Cleisthenes , and the niece of the Athenian reformer Cleisthenes . Pericles belonged to the Attic phyle (clan) of Acamantis ( Ἀκαμαντὶς φυλή ). His early years were quiet; the introverted young Pericles avoided public appearances, instead preferring to devote his time to his studies. According to Herodotus and Plutarch , Agariste dreamed,

2058-664: The Babylonians , Sumerians and Phoenicians , and later by the Hebrews . The Babylonian weights are approximately: shekel (8.4 g, 0.30 oz), mina (504 g, 1 lb 1.8 oz) and talent (30.2 kg, 66 lb 9 oz). The Greeks adopted these weights through their trade with the Phoenicians along with the ratio of 60 minas to one talent. A Greek mina in Euboea around 800 BC weighed 504 g; other minas in

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2156-548: The Battle of Sybota and a year later the Athenians fought Corinthian colonists at the Battle of Potidaea ; these two events contributed greatly to Corinth's lasting hatred of Athens. During the same period, Pericles proposed the Megarian decree , which resembled a modern trade embargo. According to the provisions of the decree, Megarian merchants were excluded from the market of Athens and the ports in its empire. This ban strangled

2254-686: The Corinthian gulf , before returning to Athens. In 451 BC, Cimon returned from exile and negotiated a five years' truce with Sparta after a proposal of Pericles, an event which indicates a shift in Pericles' political strategy. Pericles may have realized the importance of Cimon's contribution during the ongoing conflicts against the Peloponnesians and the Persians . Anthony J. Podlecki argues, however, that Pericles' alleged change of position

2352-553: The Delian League . The Athenians, for reasons that scholars continue to disagree over—some believe that the Athenians were influenced by a desire to protect the Milesian democracy against the Samian oligarchs, while others believe that they were concerned for the credibility of their rule if they failed to protect a state that they themselves had disarmed—intervened on behalf of Miletus. A fleet of forty triremes commanded by Pericles

2450-556: The Greco-Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War , and was acclaimed by Thucydides , a contemporary historian, as "the first citizen of Athens". Pericles turned the Delian League into an Athenian empire and led his countrymen during the first two years of the Peloponnesian War. The period during which he led Athens as Archon (ruler), roughly from 461 to 429 BC, is sometimes known as the " Age of Pericles ", but

2548-545: The Parthenon . This project beautified and protected the city, exhibited its glory, and gave work to its people. Pericles also fostered Athenian democracy to such an extent that critics called him a populist . Pericles was descended, through his mother, from the powerful and historically influential Alcmaeonid family. He, along with several members of his family, succumbed to the Plague of Athens in 429 BC, which weakened

2646-467: The de facto ruler of the state. In 440 BC Samos went to war against Miletus over control of Priene , an ancient city of Ionia on the foot-hills of Mycale . Worsted in the war, the Milesians came to Athens to plead their case against the Samians. When the Athenians ordered the two sides to stop fighting and submit the case to arbitration in Athens, the Samians refused. In response, Pericles passed

2744-405: The squill or sea-onion). Although Plutarch claims that this deformity was the reason that Pericles was always depicted wearing a helmet , this is not the case; the helmet was actually the symbol of his official rank as strategos (general). Our policy does not copy the laws of neighboring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. It is called a democracy, because not

2842-526: The "Periclean Acropolis", which included the Propylaea , the Parthenon and the golden statue of Athena, sculpted by Pericles' friend, Phidias . In 449 BC Pericles proposed a decree allowing the use of 9,000 talents to finance the major rebuilding program of Athenian temples. Angelos Vlachos, a Greek Academician , points out the use of the alliance's treasury, initiated and executed by Pericles, as one of

2940-578: The "prytani" (singular, "prytaneis"), Pericles had no formal control over their scheduling; rather, the respect in which Pericles was held by the prytanies was apparently sufficient to persuade them to do as he wished. While the Spartan army remained in Attica, Pericles sent a fleet of 100 ships to loot the coasts of the Peloponnese and charged the cavalry to guard the ravaged farms close to the walls of

3038-491: The Athenian forces that invaded Megara and a few months later (winter of 431–430 BC) he delivered his monumental and emotional Funeral Oration , honoring the Athenians who died for their city. Talent (silver) The talent ( Ancient Greek : τάλαντον , talanton , Latin talentum ) was a unit of weight used in the ancient world, often used for weighing gold and silver, but also mentioned in connection with other metals, ivory, and frankincense . In Homer 's poems, it

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3136-494: The Coinage Decree, which imposed Athenian silver coinage, weights and measures on all of the allies. According to one of the decree's most stringent provisions, surplus from a minting operation was to go into a special fund, and anyone proposing to use it otherwise was subject to the death penalty. It was from the alliance's treasury that Pericles drew the funds necessary to enable his ambitious building plan, centered on

3234-577: The Corinthians stated that in 440, "when the rest of the Peloponnesian powers were equally divided on the question whether they should assist [the Samians],...we told them to their face that every power has a right to punish its own allies." Modern scholars have generally regarded this as an accurate report, and have taken it to mean that Sparta was willing to go to war against Athens, but that

3332-587: The Corinthians, whose powerful navy would have been necessary for the Peloponnesians to participate effectively in such a war, derailed the plan with their opposition. Pericles Pericles ( / ˈ p ɛr ɪ k l iː z / , ‹See Tfd› Greek : Περικλῆς ; c.  495 – 429 BC) was a Greek politician and general during the Golden Age of Athens . He was prominent and influential in Ancient Athenian politics, particularly between

3430-536: The Delian League transformed into an Athenian empire is generally considered to have begun well before Pericles' time, as various allies in the league chose to pay tribute to Athens instead of manning ships for the league's fleet, but the transformation was speeded and brought to its conclusion by Pericles. The final steps in the shift to empire may have been triggered by Athens' defeat in Egypt, which challenged

3528-411: The Greek mainland which it had acquired since 460 BC, and both Athens and Sparta agreed not to attempt to win over the other state's allies. In 444 BC, the conservative and the democratic factions confronted each other in a fierce struggle. The ambitious new leader of the conservatives, Thucydides (not to be confused with the historian of the same name), accused Pericles of profligacy, criticizing

3626-532: The Mediterranean basin, and even other Greek minas, varied in some small measure from the Babylonian values, and from one to another. The Bible mentions the unit in various contexts, like Hiram king of Tyre sending 120 talents of gold to King Solomon as part of an alliance, or the building of the candelabrum necessitating a talent of pure gold. William Ridgeway speculates that the kakkaru / kikkar

3724-616: The Megarian economy and strained the fragile peace between Athens and Sparta, which was allied with Megara. According to George Cawkwell , a praelector in ancient history , with this decree Pericles breached the Thirty Years' Peace "but, perhaps, not without the semblance of an excuse". The Athenians' justification was that the Megarians had cultivated the sacred land consecrated to Demeter and had given refuge to runaway slaves,

3822-448: The Persian fleet was on its way to attack him, and, taking 60 ships with him, he sailed off to Caria to meet it. In his absence the Samians made a sally and drove the Athenians off. For 14 days they ruled the sea and brought in supplies, but at the end of that period Pericles returned and reestablished the blockade. The siege lasted 9 months, at the end of which the Samians surrendered, tore down their walls, converted their government to

3920-415: The Samian fleet of 50 triremes and 20 transports. In a battle off the island of Tragia, the Athenians were victorious, and the Samians soon found themselves blockaded by land and sea. The Athenians constructed walls around the city of Samos, and meanwhile were reinforced by 65 more ships from Athens, Chios , and Lesbos . At this point, with the rebellion seemingly well in hand, Pericles received word that

4018-416: The Samians to drive off the remaining blockaders and, for two weeks, control the sea around their island; upon Pericles's return, however, the Athenians again blockaded and besieged Samos; the city surrendered nine months later. Under the terms of the surrender, the Samians tore down their walls, gave up hostages, surrendered their fleet, and agreed to pay Athens a war indemnity over the next 26 years. During

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4116-649: The Semitic root KKR meaning 'to be circular', referring to round masses of gold or silver. The kakkaru or talent weight was introduced in Mesopotamia at the end of the 4th millennium BC, and was normalized at the end of the 3rd millennium during the Akkadian-Sumer phase. The talent was divided into 60 minas , each of which was subdivided into 60 shekels (following the common Mesopotamian sexagesimal number system). These weights were used subsequently by

4214-528: The Spartans, and with neither side willing to back down, the two cities prepared for war. According to Athanasios G. Platias and Constantinos Koliopoulos, professors of strategic studies and international politics , "rather than to submit to coercive demands, Pericles chose war". Another consideration that may well have influenced Pericles' stance was the concern that revolts in the empire might spread if Athens showed itself weak. In 431 BC, while peace already

4312-504: The account of this period is the issue of the Peace of Callias , which allegedly ended hostilities between the Greeks and the Persians. The very existence of the treaty is hotly disputed, and its particulars and negotiation are ambiguous. Ernst Badian believes that a peace between Athens and Persia was first ratified in 463 BC (making the Athenian interventions in Egypt and Cyprus violations of

4410-557: The admiration of the present and succeeding ages will be ours, since we have not left our power without witness, but have shown it by mighty proofs; and far from needing a Homer for our panegyrist, or other of his craft whose verses might charm for the moment only for the impression which they gave to melt at the touch of fact, we have forced every sea and land to be the highway of our daring, and everywhere, whether for evil or for good, have left imperishable monuments behind us. Such measures impelled Pericles' critics to hold him responsible for

4508-542: The beginning of a new era of "radical democracy". The democratic party gradually became dominant in Athenian politics, and Pericles seemed willing to follow a populist policy to cajole the public. According to Aristotle , Pericles' stance can be explained by the fact that his principal political opponent, Cimon , was both rich and generous, and was able to gain public favor by lavishly handing out portions of his sizable personal fortune. The historian Loren J. Samons II argues, however, that Pericles had enough resources to make

4606-440: The besieging force was defeated and destroyed. In 451–450 BC the Athenians sent troops to Cyprus . Cimon defeated the Persians in the Battle of Salamis-in-Cyprus , but died of disease in 449 BC. Pericles is said to have initiated both expeditions in Egypt and Cyprus, although some researchers, such as Karl Julius Beloch , argue that the dispatch of such a great fleet conforms with the spirit of Cimon's policy. Complicating

4704-619: The city's dominance in the Aegean and led to the revolt of several allies, such as Miletus and Erythrae . Either because of a genuine fear for its safety after the defeat in Egypt and the revolts of the allies, or as a pretext to gain control of the League's finances, Athens transferred the treasury of the alliance from Delos to Athens in 454–453 BC. By 450–449 BC the revolts in Miletus and Erythrae were quelled and Athens restored its rule over its allies. Around 447 BC Clearchus proposed

4802-410: The city-state during a protracted conflict with Sparta . Pericles was born c.  495 BC , in Athens, Greece. He was the son of the politician Xanthippus , who, though ostracized in 485–484 BC, returned to Athens to command the Athenian contingent in the Greek victory at Mycale just five years later. Pericles' mother, Agariste, was a member of the powerful and controversial noble family of

4900-419: The city. When the enemy retired and the pillaging came to an end, Pericles proposed a decree according to which the authorities of the city should put aside 1,000 talents and 100 ships, in case Athens was attacked by naval forces. According to the most stringent provision of the decree, even proposing a different use of the money or ships would entail the penalty of death. During the autumn of 431 BC, Pericles led

4998-469: The city. This promise was prompted by his concern that Archidamus, who was a friend of his, might pass by his estate without ravaging it, either as a gesture of friendship or as a calculated political move aimed to alienate Pericles from his constituents. In any case, seeing the pillage of their farms, the Athenians were outraged, and they soon began to indirectly express their discontent towards their leader, who many of them considered to have drawn them into

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5096-429: The control of hostile oligarchs. In 446 BC, a more dangerous uprising erupted. Euboea and Megara revolted. Pericles crossed over to Euboea with his troops, but was forced to return when the Spartan army invaded Attica . Through bribery and negotiations, Pericles defused the imminent threat, and the Spartans returned home. When Pericles was later audited for the handling of public money, an expenditure of 10 talents

5194-468: The cost of their admission. With other decrees he lowered the property requirement for the archonship in 458–457 BC and bestowed generous wages on all citizens who served as jurymen in the Heliaia (the supreme court of Athens) some time just after 454 BC. His most controversial measure, however, was a law of 451 BC limiting Athenian citizenship to those of Athenian parentage on both sides. Rather,

5292-453: The course of the war, the Samians had apparently appealed to Sparta for assistance; the Spartans were initially inclined to grant this request, and were prevented from doing so primarily by Corinth 's unwillingness to participate in a war against Athens at the time. In 433 BC, when Corcyra requested Athenian assistance against Corinth, the Corinthians would remind the Athenians of the good will they had shown at this time. In 440 BC, Samos

5390-590: The democratic party decided it was time to take aim at the Areopagus , a traditional council controlled by the Athenian aristocracy, which had once been the most powerful body in the state. The leader of the party and mentor of Pericles, Ephialtes , proposed a reduction of the Areopagus' powers. The Ecclesia (the Athenian Assembly) adopted Ephialtes' proposal without opposition. This reform signaled

5488-468: The eruption of the Peloponnesian War, Pericles and two of his closest associates, Phidias and his companion, Aspasia , faced a series of personal and judicial attacks. Phidias , who had been in charge of all building projects, was first accused of embezzling gold meant for the statue of Athena and then of impiety, because, when he wrought the battle of the Amazons on the shield of Athena, he carved out

5586-540: The expulsion of Cimon, the unchallengeable leader of the democratic party became the unchallengeable ruler of Athens. He remained in power until his death in 429 BC. Pericles made his first military excursions during the First Peloponnesian War, which was caused in part by Athens' alliance with Megara and Argos and the subsequent reaction of Sparta. In 454 BC he attacked Sicyon and Acarnania . He then unsuccessfully tried to conquer Oeniadea on

5684-497: The face of trouble, and skepticism about divine phenomena. His proverbial calmness and self-control are also often regarded as products of Anaxagoras' influence. In the spring of 472 BC, Pericles presented The Persians of Aeschylus at the Greater Dionysia as a liturgy , demonstrating that he was one of the wealthier men of Athens. Simon Hornblower has argued that Pericles' selection of this play, which presents

5782-508: The few but the many govern. If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences; if to social standing, advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition. His family's nobility and wealth allowed him to fully pursue his inclination toward education. He learned music from

5880-423: The gradual degeneration of the Athenian democracy. Constantine Paparrigopoulos , a major modern Greek historian, argues that Pericles sought for the expansion and stabilization of all democratic institutions. Accordingly, he enacted legislation granting the lower classes access to the political system and the public offices, from which they had previously been barred. According to Samons, Pericles believed that it

5978-452: The inscriptions of dedication in his own name. His stance was greeted with applause, and Thucydides was soundly, if unexpectedly, defeated. In 442 BC, the Athenian public voted to ostracize Thucydides from the city for 10 years and Pericles was once again the unchallenged ruler of the Athenian political arena. Pericles wanted to stabilize Athens' dominance over its alliance and to enforce its pre-eminence in Greece. The process by which

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6076-425: The largest embezzlements in human history; this misappropriation financed, however, some of the most marvellous artistic creations of the ancient world. The Samian War was one of the last significant military events before the Peloponnesian War. After Thucydides' ostracism, Pericles was re-elected yearly to the generalship, the only office he ever officially occupied, although his influence was so great as to make him

6174-492: The late Second Temple period was the talent consisting of 60 maneh . According to Talmudic scholars, the talent ( kikkar ) of 60 maneh (and which sum total of 60 maneh equals 1,500 sela s, or 6,000 denarii (the denarius also being known in Hebrew as zuz ), had a weight of 150 dirham for every 25 sela s. The anatomic weight of each dirham at that time was put at 3.20 grammes, with every sela or 'shekel of

6272-428: The mainland, secured the support of Pissuthnes , the Persian satrap of Lydia , who provided them with mercenaries and also rescued their hostages from Lemnos. With their hands thus freed, the oligarchs, collaborating with allies in the city, invaded with the 700 mercenaries of Pissuthnes, defeated the democrats, and handed all the Athenians in the city over to Pissuthnes for imprisonment. Athens now found itself facing

6370-485: The masters of the time ( Damon or Pythocleides could have been his teacher) and he is considered to have been the first politician to attribute importance to philosophy. He enjoyed the company of the philosophers Protagoras , Zeno of Elea , and Anaxagoras . Anaxagoras, in particular, became a close friend and influenced him greatly. Pericles' manner of thought and rhetorical charisma may have possibly been in part products of Anaxagoras' emphasis on emotional calm in

6468-507: The middle eastern kakkaru or kikkar . A Babylonian talent was 30.2 kg (66 lb 9 oz). Ancient Israel adopted the Babylonian weight talent, but later revised it. The heavy common talent , used in New Testament times, was 58.9 kg (129 lb 14 oz). A Roman talent (divided into 100 librae or pounds) was 1 + 1 ⁄ 3 Attic talents, approximately 32.3 kg (71 lb 3 oz). An Egyptian talent

6566-658: The minuscule weight of 12 ma’in (10.08 grammes). The talent as a unit of value is mentioned in the New Testament in Jesus ' Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14–30). The use of the word "talent" to mean "gift or skill" in English and other languages originated from an interpretation of this parable sometime late in the 13th century. Luke includes a different parable involving the mina . According to Epiphanius ,

6664-434: The original Homeric talent was probably the gold equivalent of the value of an ox or a cow. Homer describes how Achilles set an ox as 2nd prize in a foot race, and a half-talent of gold as the third prize, suggesting that the ox was worth a talent. Based on a statement from a later Greek source that "the talent of Homer was equal in amount to the later daric [... i.e.] two Attic drachmas " and analysis of finds from

6762-527: The peace), and renegotiated at the conclusion of the campaign in Cyprus, taking force again by 449–448 BC. John Fine, in contrast, suggests that the first peace between Athens and Persia was concluded in 450–449 BC, due to Pericles' calculation that ongoing conflict with Persia was undermining Athens' ability to spread its influence in Greece and the Aegean . Kagan believes that Pericles used Callias ,

6860-436: The people; this event, indeed, would come about a few years later. At that time, the Athenians unhesitatingly followed Pericles' instructions. In the first legendary oration Thucydides puts in his mouth, Pericles advised the Athenians not to yield to their opponents' demands, since they were militarily stronger. Pericles was not prepared to make unilateral concessions, believing that "if Athens conceded on that issue, then Sparta

6958-534: The period thus denoted can include times as early as the Persian Wars or as late as the following century. Pericles promoted the arts and literature, and it was principally through his efforts that Athens acquired the reputation of being the educational and cultural center of the ancient Greek world. He started an ambitious project that generated most of the surviving structures on the Acropolis , including

7056-460: The rebels to capitulate after a tough siege of eight months, which resulted in substantial discontent among the Athenian sailors. Pericles then quelled a revolt in Byzantium and, when he returned to Athens, gave a funeral oration to honor the soldiers who died in the expedition. Between 438 and 436 BC Pericles led Athens' fleet in Pontus and established friendly relations with the Greek cities of

7154-462: The region. At this time, however, Athens was seriously challenged by a number of revolts among its subjects. In 447 BC the oligarchs of Thebes conspired against the democratic faction. The Athenians demanded their immediate surrender, but after the Battle of Coronea , Pericles was forced to concede the loss of Boeotia to recover the prisoners taken in that battle. With Boeotia in hostile hands, Phocis and Locris became untenable and quickly fell under

7252-429: The region. Pericles focused also on internal projects, such as the fortification of Athens (the building of the "middle wall" about 440 BC), and on the creation of new cleruchies , such as Andros , Naxos and Thurii (444 BC) as well as Amphipolis (437–436 BC). Pericles and his friends were never immune from attack, as preeminence in democratic Athens was not equivalent to absolute rule. Just before

7350-458: The residents of Attica to agree to move into the crowded urban areas. For most, the move meant abandoning their land and ancestral shrines and completely changing their lifestyle. Therefore, although they agreed to leave, many rural residents were far from happy with Pericles' decision. Pericles also gave his compatriots some advice on their present affairs and reassured them that, if the enemy did not plunder his farms, he would offer his property to

7448-409: The revolt there. He then punished the landowners of Chalcis , who lost their properties. The residents of Histiaea , meanwhile, who had butchered the crew of an Athenian trireme , were uprooted and replaced by 2,000 Athenian settlers. The crisis was brought to an official end by the Thirty Years' Peace (winter of 446–445 BC), in which Athens relinquished most of the possessions and interests on

7546-575: The sanctuary' weighing-in at 20.16 grammes. The sum aggregate of the 60 maneh talent (or 1,500 sela s) came to c. 28.800 kilograms (63.49 lb). According to Adani, in the silver coinage known as the Mughal India rupaiya , minted during British colonial rule (each with a weight of 11.6638038 grammes (1 tola ), of which weight only 91.7% was of fine silver), one talent (Heb. kikkar ) would have amounted to 2,343 of these silver coins in specie (27.328 kilograms (60.25 lb)), in addition to

7644-502: The stalemate of populism. According to Paparrigopoulos, history vindicated Cimon, because Athens, after Pericles' death, sank into the abyss of political turmoil and demagogy . Paparrigopoulos maintains that an unprecedented regression descended upon the city, whose glory perished as a result of Pericles' populist policies. According to another historian, Justin Daniel King, radical democracy benefited people individually, but harmed

7742-412: The state. In contrast, Donald Kagan asserts that the democratic measures Pericles put into effect provided the basis for an unassailable political strength. After all, Cimon finally accepted the new democracy and did not oppose the citizenship law, after he returned from exile in 451 BC. Ephialtes' murder in 461 BC paved the way for Pericles to consolidate his authority. Without opposition after

7840-596: The talent at the time of Moses was double that of the Roman era talent, which latter had the weight of either 100 maneh ( Roman librae ), or 60 maneh (Roman librae ), each maneh ( libra ) having the weight of 25 sela s ( sela being a term used for the biblical Shekel of Tyrian coinage, or 'shekel of the Sanctuary', and where there were 4 provincial denarii or zuz to each sela ; 25 sela s being equivalent to 100 denaria ). The standard talent during

7938-513: The talent is called mina ( maneh ) among the Hebrews, and was the equivalent in weight to one-hundred denarii . The talent is found in another parable of Jesus where a servant who is forgiven a debt of ten thousand talents refuses to forgive another servant who owes him only one hundred silver denarii . The talent is also used elsewhere in the Bible , as when describing the material invested in

8036-440: The war. Even when in the face of mounting pressure, Pericles did not give in to the demands for immediate action against the enemy or revise his initial strategy. He also avoided convening the ecclesia, fearing that the populace, outraged by the unopposed ravaging of their farms, might rashly decide to challenge the vaunted Spartan army in the field. As meetings of the assembly were called at the discretion of its rotating presidents,

8134-429: The way he spent the money for the ongoing building plan. Thucydides initially managed to incite the passions of the ecclesia regarding these charges in his favor. However, when Pericles took the floor, his resolute arguments put Thucydides and the conservatives firmly on the defensive. Finally, Pericles proposed to reimburse the city for all questionable expenses from his private property, with the proviso that he would make

8232-592: Was 80 librae, approximately 27 kg (60 lb). The Akkadian talent was called kakkaru in the Akkadian language, corresponding to Biblical Hebrew kikkar כִּכָּר (translated as Greek τάλαντον 'talanton' in the Septuagint , English 'talent'), Ugaritic kkr (𐎋𐎋𐎗), Phoenician kkr (𐤒𐤒𐤓), Syriac kakra (ܟܲܟܪܵܐ), and apparently to gaggaru in the Amarna Tablets . The name comes from

8330-532: Was about 25.8 kilograms (57 lb). Friedrich Hultsch estimated a weight of 26.2 kg, and Dewald (1998) offers an estimate of 26.0 kg. An Attic talent of silver was the value of nine man-years of skilled work, according to known wage rates from 377 BC. In 415 BC, an Attic talent was a month's pay for a trireme crew. Hellenistic mercenaries were commonly paid one drachma per day of military service. The Aeginetan talent weighed about 37 kg. The German historian Friedrich Hultsch calculated

8428-523: Was acquitted thanks to a rare emotional outburst of Pericles, his friend Phidias died in prison according to Plutarch; however, he is also credited with the later statue of Zeus at Olympia , therefore this is debated, and another friend of his, Anaxagoras, was attacked by the ecclesia for his religious beliefs. Beyond these initial prosecutions, the ecclesia attacked Pericles himself by asking him to justify his ostensible profligacy with, and maladministration of, public money. According to Plutarch, Pericles

8526-419: Was at war with Miletus about Priene , an ancient city of Ionia on the foot-hills of Mycale . Worsted in the war, the Milesians came to Athens with loud complaints against the Samians. Miletus was militarily weak, having been compelled to disarm and pay tribute after rebelling from Athens twice, once in the 450s and again in 446 BC; Samos, meanwhile, was one of only three remaining fully independent states in

8624-464: Was dispatched to Samos; Pericles established a democracy, and then, after taking 100 hostages to the island of Lemnos and leaving a garrison at Samos, returned home. This had all been achieved with remarkable ease, and this, in comparison with the stiff resistance that the Samians put up later, suggests that they had not expected such a harsh response from the Athenians. The settlement thus imposed did not last long, however. A group of oligarchs fled to

8722-403: Was invented by ancient writers to support "a tendentious view of Pericles' shiftiness". Plutarch states that Cimon struck a power-sharing deal with his opponents, according to which Pericles would carry through the interior affairs and Cimon would be the leader of the Athenian army, campaigning abroad. If it were actually made, this bargain would constitute a concession on Pericles' part that he

8820-472: Was necessary to raise the demos , in which he saw an untapped source of Athenian power and the crucial element of Athenian military dominance. (The fleet, backbone of Athenian power since the days of Themistocles, was manned almost entirely by members of the lower classes. ) Cimon, in contrast, apparently believed that no further free space for democratic evolution existed. He was certain that democracy had reached its peak and Pericles' reforms were leading to

8918-458: Was not a great strategist. Kagan's view is that Cimon adapted himself to the new conditions and promoted a political marriage between Periclean liberals and Cimonian conservatives. In the mid-450s the Athenians launched an unsuccessful attempt to aid an Egyptian revolt against Persia, which led to a prolonged siege of a Persian fortress in the Nile Delta. The campaign culminated in disaster;

9016-408: Was not sufficiently justified, since the official documents just referred that the money was spent for a "very serious purpose". Nonetheless, the "serious purpose" (namely the bribery) was so obvious to the auditors that they approved the expenditure without official meddling and without even investigating the mystery. After the Spartan threat had been removed, Pericles crossed back to Euboea to crush

9114-514: Was originally the weight of a load which could be carried by a man. Thus in the Book of Kings we read that Naaman “bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bare them before him”. He notes that in Assyrian cuneiform, the same ideogram or sign was used for both "tribute" and "talent", which might be explained if a load of corn

9212-440: Was precarious, Archidamus II , Sparta's king, sent a new delegation to Athens, demanding that the Athenians submit to Sparta's demands. This deputation was not allowed to enter Athens, as Pericles had already passed a resolution according to which no Spartan deputation would be welcomed if the Spartans had previously initiated any hostile military actions. The Spartan army was at this time gathered at Corinth, and, citing this as

9310-478: Was so afraid of the oncoming trial that he did not let the Athenians yield to the Lacedaemonians . Beloch also believes that Pericles deliberately brought on the war to protect his political position at home. Thus, at the start of the Peloponnesian War, Athens found itself in the awkward position of entrusting its future to a leader whose pre-eminence had just been seriously shaken for the first time in over

9408-433: Was sure to come up with further demands". Consequently, Pericles asked the Spartans to offer a quid pro quo . In exchange for retracting the Megarian Decree, the Athenians demanded from Sparta to abandon their practice of periodic expulsion of foreigners from their territory ( xenelasia ) and to recognize the autonomy of its allied cities, a request implying that Sparta's hegemony was also ruthless. The terms were rejected by

9506-474: Was the regular unit of tribute. In Homer, the word τάλαντα in the plural is sometimes used of a pair of scales or a balance; it is used especially of the scales in which Zeus weighed the fortunes of men ( Iliad 8.69, 19.223, 22.209). The word is also used as a measurement, always of gold. "From the order of the prizes in Il. 23.262 sq. and other passages its weight was probably not great". According to Seltman,

9604-474: Was worth 60 Aeginetan minae, or 6,000 Aeginetan drachmae. The talent ( Hebrew : ככר , kikkar ; Aramaic : קינטרא ‎, qintara ) in late Hebrew antiquity (c. 500 CE) was the greatest unit of weight in use at the time, and which weight varied depending on the era. According to the Jerusalem Talmud ( Sanhedrin 9a, Pnei Moshe Commentary , s.v. דכתיב בקע לגלגלת ‎), the weight of

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