Pericles of Athens by Cartledge Paul Lloyd Janet Azoulay Vincent

Author:Cartledge, Paul, Lloyd, Janet, Azoulay, Vincent
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2014-08-08T16:00:00+00:00

PERICLES UNDER CONTROL: THE POWER OF THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY!

One of Many Magistrates

Pericles never held military power on his own. The stratēgoi always acted in a collegial fashion, never individually:30 a single magistrate could never impose his will upon his colleagues, unless, that is, they wished him to do so. So his influence has probably been overestimated, partly as a result of the point of view adopted by the literary sources and the context in which they were produced. The comic writers based their craft on personal attacks and always set particular individuals on stage, often enough exaggerating their influence the better subsequently to demolish them. It was as if one were to pass judgment on the British political scene, gauging it solely in relation to the TV series Spitting Image, a satirical puppet show. As for Plutarch, his biographical viewpoint inevitably focused excessively on his particular hero, and it did so the more emphatically given that he was writing within a political framework—the Roman Empire—in which personal power had become the norm.31

An attentive rereading of the texts suggests that we should adopt a more circumspect attitude. Although Thucydides is always quick to ascribe unequaled domination to Pericles, he also mentions plenty of other important actors in the period between 450 and 440,32 at both the military and the diplomatic levels. First, at the military level it is the stratēgos Leocrates who is in command in the war against the people of Aegina in the early 450s (1.105.2); Myronides distinguished himself at Megara (1.105.3), as did the spirited Tolmides both at Chalcis and against the Sicyonians in 456/5 (1.108.5), before suffering a bitter defeat at Coronea in Boeotia in around 447 (1.113.2). In the years between 440 and 430, the stratēgos Hagnon seems to have held all the key roles. He was stratēgos alongside Pericles in the second year of the campaign against Samos (440–439),33 and was then, in 437/6,34 sent to found the colony of Amphipolis in Thrace, which was a great honor for him. In fact, Hagnon was judged by the Athenian people to be sufficiently powerful to deserve ostracism,35 although, in the event, not enough votes favored his banishment. Second, at the diplomatic level, Pericles clearly remained in the background—whether or not deliberately is not known—in the negotiations with the Spartans. The Thirty Years’ Peace was negotiated by Callias, Chares, and Andocides in 446, and Pericles was not even present at the negotiations.36 Similarly, at the time when the plague was ravaging the city and the Athenians sent ambassadors to parley with the Spartans (Thucydides, 2.59), this was clearly against the advice of the stratēgos.37

It is true that the posthumous aura of Pericles eclipsed many actors of the time, but they too shaped the destiny of the Athenian city in the course of those troubled decades. Throughout his career, the stratēgos inevitably had to share power, as was the custom in Athens, and above all had to submit to popular control. In the final analysis, it was the people who remained sovereign.

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