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Plutarch life of pericles pdf

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Study Guide for Plutarch's Life of Pericles

Text taken from Thomas North and/or John Dryden
Study Guide by Anne White

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Pericles (ca. 495-429 B.C.)

"We find Plutarch's Lives exceedingly inspiring. These are read by the teacher . . . and narrated with great spirit by the children. They learn to answer such questions as,--'In what ways did Pericles make Athens beautiful? How did he persuade the people to help him?' And we may hope that the idea is engendered of preserving and increasing the beauty of their own neighbourhood without the staleness which co

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Athens in the Age of Pericles, 462–429 BC OCR Teachers Guide

Background information about Classical Greece

Suggested timing: 1 – 1 ½ hours

It is likely that students will have studied the Persian period study prior to this depth study. Therefore they should have familiarity with some of the places and events that will be covered in this depth study.

Athens and Attica:

· Its geographical position in Greece and where key places in Athens such as the acropolis, agora and pynx are situated

· the size of the population

· The organisation of Athens: tribes, trittyes, demes

· different members of society: citizens, women, children, metics and slaves

· the different property classes: pentakosiomedimoi, hippeis, zeugitai and thetes.

The geographical location of other prominent places mentioned in this depth study:

· Boeotia

· Megara

· Sparta

· The Peloponnese including Corinth and the Peloponnesian League

· Relevant islands including Samos, Delos and Aegina

Details/information about the main prescribed authors:

· Thucydides

· Aristotle

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Pericles

499–429 BC

PERICLES

Pericles was the central figure in Athens during its golden age. Although he was extremely influential, and had tremendous influence with the masses, he thought it wise to spend much of his extraordinary career as a "behind the scenes" influence. Athens was notorious for its fickle treatment of leaders who became to powerful, and ostracization was best avoided by maintaining a quiet demeanor. None the less, Pericles effectively controlled the democratic party, and in this position is much credited for making Athens a great cultural center. He was very influential in the development of public works, including the famous Parthenon, and the strategically important Long Wallsthat enclosed the entire city, and ran all the way to the port of Athens. It was under Pericles that Athens became the cultural center of the Mediterranean, and produced much of the artistic and literary masterpieces for which it is still renowned.

Pericles was a member of the Alcmaeonidae family, which had always been very influential in Athenian politic