Pericles was a famous democratic political leader in ancient Greece. He worked hard for the democracy and expansion of Athens all his life. Of course, his achievements are also remarkable. When Pericles became the chief general of Athens, it already heralded the arrival of prosperity and democracy in Athens.
Although Pericles devoted himself to the development of democracy in Athens, he was born into an aristocratic family at that time. His father was Keshan Tibos, commander of the Athenian fleet, who commanded the Athenian fleet in the Persian War and the naval battle in mickal. His mother, Agris, is Cleisthenes's niece. A wealthy family enabled him to receive a good education when he was young. He studied under the famous wise men Damon and Zhi Nuo at that time, and maintained a good teacher-student relationship with them. However, Anacras had the deepest influence on Pericles's thought.
Anacras is a simple materialist thinker, belonging to the Klazomenai school in Asia who loves Aunila. He is virtuous, knowledgeable and loves science. In the Middle Ages, he was already a famous natural scientist in Greece. After he came to Athens, he spread his knowledge to the Athenians and was deeply loved by them. At that time, the Athenians also called him "Nuss", which means wisdom. Pericles was his deepest friend in Athens, and he admired him very much. Through a good education in his youth and the influence of Anakla, Pericles made great achievements in literature, philosophy, history and military affairs, which endowed him with good qualities as a political leader. However, it was the social reality of Athens that really guided him on the road to democracy.
In the era of Pericles's growth, democracy has been established in Athens with the efforts of predecessors, and it is becoming more and more mature. However, the forces against democratic politics have not disappeared, and the democratic movement has not ended. Although the political power of the gentry and nobles in Athens was hit hard, their economic strength was still very strong; In addition, in the late Persian Gulf War, the aristocratic parliament supported the Salami War, and the representatives of optimates made outstanding contributions in the war, so that the aristocratic parliament gradually grasped the state power for 17 years. Therefore, the development of democratic politics can be said to have encountered another obstacle, and the struggle between civilians and nobles is still arduous.
As an aristocrat, Pericles saw the political demands of Athenian civilians at the critical moment of the times and chose to be the representative of the Democrats. Some people say that the reason why Pericles abandoned his aristocratic status and chose to become a civilian representative is mainly because he has a deep interest relationship with the industrialists and businessmen, the backbone of the democratic movement, and the production of the granges and workshops he owns is of a commodity nature. However, it is inevitably too narrow-minded to look at a politician who has devoted himself to the democratic movement simply from the perspective of economic interests.
As a far-sighted politician, Pericles will never throw himself into the democratic road just because of economic involvement. But after understanding and analyzing the social situation, standing at the height of the future development of the city-state, we should conform to the trend of the current situation, gain insight into the needs of the society, and then choose our own political path. For this reason, he did not hesitate to fight against the optimalists such as Meng Ke and Thucydides.
During the period of Cleisthenes, the democratic reform completely lowered the status of the archon of Athens and enhanced the power of the commander-in-chief. Later, due to the outbreak of the Greek-Persian war, the importance of Athens military generals became more prominent and their political role became more and more obvious. Meng Ke and others are the leaders born in this situation.
After Monk came to power, he firmly supported the nobility, wanted to implement oligarchy in Athens, insisted on fighting the Persians in foreign policy, and chose to be close to Sparta. Most people in Athens opposed his policies because they didn't want to see the nobles in power and didn't agree to make friends with Sparta. Seeing the demands of the people, Pericles immediately fought against the Mongols.
In 462 BC, despite the opposition of the Athenians, the Mongols went their own way and led the army to help the Spartans suppress the heroic uprising. When they arrived, they were suspected by Spartans and advised him to go home. At this time, as the leaders of the main factions, Pericles and Ephialtes took the opportunity to seize power, and the behavior of Mongolian guests made the people of Athens feel great shame. Pericles took the opportunity to appeal to the jury court, and Monk was exiled overseas for ten years.
During this period, Ephialtes and Pericles urged the citizens' assembly to restrict the power of the aristocratic assembly, deprive it of the power to veto the resolutions of the citizens' assembly and control the actions of public officials, deprive it of its judicial power, and reserve only the right to resolve religious disputes. At this point, the power of the state can only be dominated by the citizens' assembly, the jury court, the 500-member meeting and the Committee of Ten Generals. This is another great victory for the Athenian Democrats. Unfortunately, the following year, Ephialtes was assassinated and Pericles became the new leader of the Democratic Party.
After Pericles came to power, optimates still refused to give up, so they chose their relative Thucydides to challenge Pericles and defeat his regime in an attempt to restore the aristocratic politics practiced by the Mongols. Thucydides is an outstanding politician, although his military ability is not as good as that of Mongolian guests. He confronted Pericles in the management of the city-state, which soon made the political power between the civilians and nobles in Athens reach a balance, and the democratic advantage that Pericles won seemed to disappear.
In the face of Thucydides' angry attack, Pericles was not intimidated. He made a plan for the prosperity of Athens as planned, and will also give his opponent a fierce counterattack at the appropriate time. Although the Greek-Persian war ended in the victory of Greece, the negative impact of the war still spread to Athens. The ravaged Athens was a time when everything was in ruins. The Athenians are eager to rebuild their homes and restore their former prosperity, but it is far from enough to rely solely on the economic ability of the Athenians. Therefore, Pericles used the tribute from Tyrol League to build Athens, and Thucydides took the opportunity to accuse him of violating moral ethics. However, human morality and ethics are all based on a certain economic foundation. For war-torn Athens, this is a time when money is needed. Although Pericles harmed the interests of other allied city-states, it met the real needs of the Athenians, so Thucydides' appeal failed.
Optimates still won't give up. They attacked Pericles's disorderly personal life and the state property consumed by large-scale construction. Pericles argued and refused to let him. In order to completely destroy optimates' ambition, he did a very risky thing. In 442 BC, he asked the assembly to vote on who should be exiled, he or Thucydides. As a result, Pericles won, Thucydides was exiled overseas for ten years, and Pericles also took the opportunity to carry out a big cleaning of optimates.
During the reign of Pericles, the democratic system in Athens was established with the continuous efforts of predecessors, and there was no need for vigorous reform. Pericles's outstanding contribution to the Athenian democratic system is to make the city-state democratic system more complete and concrete from theory to practice, and to make the concept of "sovereignty belongs to the people" the essence of the democratic system.
From Solon's reform to Pericles's ruling, the democratic reform in Athens has been going on for more than 100 years. In the process of establishing democratic politics, those reformers failed to explain and summarize the nature, content and significance of the democratic system, which led to the lack of theoretical support for Athenian democratic politics. Pericles solved this problem and expounded his knowledge and understanding of Athenian democratic system. His exposition of democratic politics is entirely based on human values. He regards man above everything else, emphasizes the significance of human existence, shows respect for citizens' independent personality, and enables every citizen to actively participate in democratic politics.
After the opponents were eliminated, the aristocratic power in Athens was weakened, and Pericles became more confident in his prestige and understood that his policies met the needs of the Athenian people. Since then, he has worked harder to create an Athens with political democracy, economic prosperity, long culture and military hegemony. Athens entered an unprecedented heyday, known as the Pericles era in history.
The developed democracy in Athens was destroyed and obstructed by the optimizer in the process of its establishment and development. It is because of people like Solon, Cleisthenes and Pericles who devoted themselves to democracy that we can sail to a different Athens city-state.
Although the democratic politics in Athens had been established and developed to a certain extent during the period of Pericles, the restoration of aristocratic forces also posed a threat to the democracy in Athens. Pericles, who also came from a noble family, can clearly understand the people's demands for development, give up his aristocratic status, become a representative of the democrats, and lead the common people to protect the democratic system in Athens, which can be said to be closely related to his personal morality. Hard work pays off. In the long-term political struggle, Pericles, whose policy was more popular with the people, won the final victory, which ensured the continued existence and development of the Athenian democratic system and made it more perfect, thus creating a prosperous democracy in Athens.