Athens under Pericles

During the Golden Age of Athens, Greece, Pericles made the government stronger by allowing all citizens to take part. Pericles was really a strong supporter of arts and sciences. He wanted Athens to become the "School of Greece." So, he hired the best artists and scholars and put them to work. The architects created great buildings, and the artists painted murals, and wall paintings about Athens' history.

Question: What were some of the things that Pericles did to help make the city a wonderful scenic place?

• Pericles was a strong dictator and was very mean to his people. He had the architects make more prisons, jails, and work camps for those who didn't obey his rules!

• Pericles supported the architects, scientists, and artists to create Athens as the city of wonder and beauty.

• Pericles supported only the aristocrats and did not care about the common people of ancient Athens. So, only the rich got the good things.

Many writers during the Golden Age of Athens recorded the history of Athens and other parts of Greece including the colonies. The most famous historian and geographer writer was Herodotus. He wrote about the Persian Wars. Herodotus explained that he wrote this history, "The Astonishing Achievements of our own and of other peoples."

Question: What was Herodotus known for?

• Herodotus was a strict school teacher of history who would often whip the students who got out of line with a huge belt.

• Herodotus loved to write poems and music because he loved to go sing at the Agora.

• Herodotus was known as the great historian and geographer of Athens, and he wrote many things about the history of Greece and the Persian Wars.

There were many other great writers in Athens that contributed to the achievements of the Golden Age of Athens. Sophocles wrote tragedies that were used for live on-stage plays. A tragedy play is one that the main character comes to an unhappy end. Aristophanes wrote comedies for plays. His comedies usually made fun of political leaders and also Greek traditions. Sometimes, the writers would combine tragedy, comedy, and history all in one writing for stage entertainment.

Question: What did Aristophanes write about that many Athenians loved?

• Aristophanes was not a great writer. He prefered letting somebody else do the writing while he could be an actor on the stage to entertain people.

• Aristophanes wrote only tragedies and usually the political leaders he wrote about wound up miserable at the end of the story.

• Aristophanes wrote comedies that often made fun of political leaders which the working class loved to read about (or watching comedy plays on stage).

One of the greatest scientists of the Golden Age was Hippocrates. Hippocrates showed that illnesses came from natural causes and not from mean gods and goddesses, as most Athenians believed. To stay healthy, Hippocrates told the Athenian, "Wheaten bread is to be preferred to barley cake, and roasted to boiled meats." While many of his suggestions made good sense, he also thought "vegetables should be reduced to a minimum." Hippocrates was best remembered for writing a code of conduct for doctors that is still used today!

Question: What did Hippocrates say about eating vegetables?

• Hippocrates said that people should reduce to only a minimum for eating. In other words, you can guess he didn't care much for vegetables.

• Hippocrates said that people should eat vegetables several times a day and make them the maximum of the daily food.

• Hippocrates said that eating red meat is much better than eating fish or other foods.

As Pericles wanted Athens to become the school of Greece, he had many teachers who could train the younger people to become great leaders, great artists, great writers, great builders, great philosophers, and many other things. During this time, Aristotle, who was a scientist and a philosopher, trained a young man who was not an Athenian. Alexander was from Macedonia, but his father Philip sent him to Athens to study under Aristotle. That young lad eventually became a king who invaded all of Greece, much of west Asia and also north Africa. He became Alexander the Great.

Question: Why did Pericles hire many teachers for the younger people?

• Pericles wanted a well-educated Athens, and he wanted the young people to become builders, artists, writers, philosophers and many other professions.

• Pericles was like a Spartan and wanted all of his citizens to train to become great soldiers and sailors so he could have a powerful empire.

• Pericles didn't really care about the young people, but only the rich aristocrats so they could completely dominate the city of Athens.