Maximilian Otto Bismarck Caspari

“ A conflict between Corcyra and Corinth, the second and third naval powers of Greece, led to the simultaneous appearance in Athens of an embassy from either combatant (433) . Pericles had, as it seems, resumed of late a plan of Western expansion by forming alliances with Rhegium and Leontini, and the favourable position of Corcyra on the trade route to Sicily and Italy, as well as its powerful fleet, no doubt helped to induce him to secure an alliance with that island, and so to commit an unfriendly act towards a leading representative of the Peloponnesian League. ”

“ The beginning of his ascendancy is marked by an unprecedented outward expansion of Athenian power. In continuance of Cimon’s policy, 200 ships were sent to support the Egyptian insurgents against Persia (459) , [3] while detachments operated against Cyprus and Phoenicia. At the same time Athens embarked on several wars in Greece Proper. An alliance with the Megarians, who were being hard pressed by their neighbours of Corinth, led to enmity with this latter power, and before long Epidaurus and Aegina were drawn into the struggle. ”

“ A further casus belli was provided by a decree forbidding the importation of Megarian goods into the Athenian Empire [11] presumably in order to punish Megara for her alliance with Corinth (spring 432) . The combined complaints of the injured parties led Sparta to summon a Peloponnesian congress which decided on war against Athens, failing a concession to Megara and Corinth (autumn 432) . In this crisis Pericles persuaded the wavering assembly that compromise was useless, because Sparta was resolved to precipitate a war in any case. ”

“ The influence of Aspasia on Athenian thought, though denounced unsparingly by most critics may indeed have been beneficial, inasmuch as it tended towards the emancipation of the Attic woman from the over strict tutelage in which she was kept. As a patron of art Pericles was a still greater force His policy in encouraging the drama has already been mentioned among his friends he could count three of the greatest Greek writers—the poet Sophocles and the historians Herodotus and Thucydides. ”

“ These years mark the zenith of Athenian greatness. Yet the drain on the country’s strength was severe, and when news arrived in 453 that the whole of the Egyptian armament, together with a reserve fleet, had been destroyed by the Persians, a reaction set in, and Cimon, who was recalled on Pericles’ motion (but see Cimon) , was empowered to make peace with Sparta on the basis of the status quo For a while the old anti-Persian policy again found favour in Athens, and Cimon led a great expedition against Cyprus ”

“ All the earlier evidence goes to show that only an informal understanding was arrived at, based on the de facto inability of either power to cripple the other (see Cimon) . ↑ 448 seems the most likely date. Before 460 Pericles’ influence was as yet too small; 460–451 were years of war. After 445 Athens was hardly in a position to summon such a congress, and would not have sent 10 envoys out of 20 to northern and central Greece, where she had just lost all her influence ”

“ In his home policy Pericles carried out more fully Ephialtes project of making the Athenian people truly self-governing. His chief innovation was the introduction of payment from the public treasury for state service. ”

“ The oligarch Cratmus (in a frag. of the Φυγάδες) violently attacks the whole project. ↑ These dates are suggested by the decrease of tribute which the inscriptions prove for this year. ↑ This is the date given by the Const. ”