Pericles of Athens Free

The so-called golden age of Athenian culture flourished under the leadership of Pericles B. His policies and strategies also set the stage for the devastating Peloponnesian War, which would embroil all Greece in the decades following his death. His father Xanthippus was a hero of the Persian War and his mother belonged to the culturally powerful Alcmaeonidae family. He grew up in the company of artists and philosophers—his friends included Protagoras, Zeno and the pioneering Athenian philosopher Anaxagoras. In he led a successful military campaign in Corinth and sponsored the establishment of Athenian colonies in Thrace and on the Black Sea coast. The golden age of Athenian culture is usually dated from to B. After the second Persian invasion of Greece inAthens and Pericles of Athens allies throughout the Aegean formed the Delian League, a military alliance focused on the Persian threat. Three years later, a coinage decree imposed Athenian weights and measures throughout the league. By the time Pericles was elected strategos, the league was well on its way to becoming an Athenian empire. He worked to democratize the fine arts by subsidizing theater admission for poorer citizens and enabled Pericles of Athens participation by offering pay for jury duty and other civil service. Pericles maintained close friendships with the leading intellects of his time. The playwright Sophocles and the sculptor Phidias were among his friends. Pericles Pericles of Athens was a master orator. His speeches and elegies as recorded and possibly interpreted by Thucydides celebrate the greatness Pericles of Athens a democratic Athens at its peak. As Athens grew in power under Pericles, Sparta felt more and more threatened and began to demand concessions from the Athenians. Pericles refused, and in B. When the Spartans arrived at Pericles of Athens, they found it empty. A few months later, Pericles himself succumbed. His death was, according to Thucydides, disastrous for Athens. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The two most powerful city-states in ancient Greece, Athens Pericles of Athens Sparta, went to war with each other from Pericles of Athens B. The Peloponnesian War marked a significant power shift in ancient Greece, favoring Sparta, and also ushered in a period of regional decline that signaled the The classical period was an era of war and conflict—first between the Greeks and the Persians, then between the The Athenian philosopher Plato c. In Pericles of Athens written dialogues he conveyed and expanded on the ideas and techniques of his teacher Socrates. The Academy he One of the greatest ancient historians, Thucydides c. Viewed by many as the founding figure of Western philosophy, Socrates B. The Battle of Marathon in B. The battle was fought Pericles of Athens the Marathon plain of northeastern Attica and marked the first blows of the Greco-Persian War. With the Persians closing in on the Greek capitol, Athenian general Leonidas c. Although Leonidas lost the battle, his death at Thermopylae was seen as a heroic sacrifice because he sent most In around B. Most of all, Pericles paid artisans to build temples Sparta was a warrior society in ancient Greece that reached the height of its power after defeating rival city-state Athens in the Peloponnesian War B. Spartan culture was centered on loyalty to the state and military service. At age 7, Spartan boys entered a Live TV. This Day In History. History at Home. Peloponnesian War. Last Stand of the The Kill Zone. Spartans: Implements of Death. Spartan Boot Camp: Killing Machines. Peloponnesian War The two most powerful city-states in Pericles of Athens Greece, Athens and Sparta, went to war with each other from to B. Plato The Athenian philosopher Plato c. Thucydides One of the greatest ancient historians, Thucydides c. Pericles of Athens Viewed by many as the founding figure of Western philosophy, Socrates B. Leonidas Leonidas c. Ancient Greek Art In around B. Sparta Sparta was a warrior society in ancient Greece that reached the height of its power after defeating rival city-state Athens in the Peloponnesian War B. Pericles - Wikipedia

He was descended, through his mother, from the powerful and historically-influential Alcmaeonid family. Pericles had such a profound influence on Athenian society that he was acclaimed by Thucydidesa contemporary historian, as "the first citizen of Athens". The period during which he led Athens, roughly from to BC, is sometimes known as the " Age of Pericles ", but the period thus denoted can include times as early as the Persian Wars or as late as the next century. Pericles promoted the arts and literature, and it is principally through his efforts that Athens acquired the reputation of being the educational and cultural center of the ancient Greek world. He started an ambitious Pericles of Athens that generated most of the surviving structures on the Acropolisincluding the Parthenon. This project beautified Pericles of Athens protected the city, exhibited its glory and gave work to its people. Our polity does not copy the laws of neighboring states; we are rather a pattern to Pericles of Athens than imitators ourselves. It is called a democracy, because not the few but the many govern. If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences; if to social standing, advancement in public life Pericles of Athens to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being Pericles of Athens to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition. Pericles was born c. Pericles' mother, Agariste, was a member of the powerful and controversial noble family of the Alcmaeonidaeand her familial connections played a crucial role in helping start Xanthippus' political career. Agariste was the great-granddaughter of the tyrant of SicyonCleisthenesand the niece of the Athenian reformer Cleisthenes. According Pericles of Athens Herodotus and PlutarchAgariste dreamed, a few nights before Pericles' birth, that she had borne a lion. His early years were quiet; the introverted young Pericles avoided public appearances, instead preferring to devote his time to his studies. His family's nobility and wealth allowed him to fully pursue his inclination toward education. He learned music from the masters of the time Damon or Pythocleides could have been his teacher [14] [15] and he is considered to have been the first politician to attribute importance to philosophy. Anaxagoras, in particular, became a close friend and influenced Pericles of Athens greatly. Pericles' manner of thought and rhetorical charisma may have possibly been in part products of Anaxagoras' emphasis on emotional calm in the face Pericles of Athens trouble, and skepticism about divine phenomena. In the spring of BC, Pericles presented The Persians of Aeschylus at the Greater Dionysia as a liturgydemonstrating that he was one of the wealthier men of Athens. Plutarch says that Pericles stood first among the Athenians for forty years. Throughout these years he endeavored to protect his privacy and to present himself as a model for his fellow citizens. For example, he would often avoid banquets, trying to be frugal. In BC, Pericles was the leading prosecutor of Cimon, the Pericles of Athens of the conservative faction who was accused of neglecting Athens' vital interests in Macedon. Around BC, the leadership of the democratic party decided it was time to take aim at the Areopagusa traditional council controlled by the Athenian aristocracy, which Pericles of Athens once been the most powerful body in the state. The Ecclesia the Athenian Assembly adopted Ephialtes' proposal without opposition. The democratic party gradually became dominant in Athenian politics, and Pericles seemed willing to follow a populist policy to cajole the public. According to AristotlePericles' stance can be explained by the fact that his principal political opponent, Cimonwas both rich and generous, and was able to gain public favor by lavishly handing out portions of his sizable personal fortune. Samons II Pericles of Athens, however, that Pericles had enough resources to make a political mark by private means, had he so chosen. In BC, Pericles achieved the political elimination of this opponent using ostracism. The accusation was that Cimon betrayed his city by aiding Sparta. After Cimon's ostracism, Pericles continued to promote a populist social policy. Rather, Pericles of Athens admiration of the present and succeeding ages will be ours, since Pericles of Athens have not left our power without witness, but have shown it by mighty proofs; and far from needing a Homer for our panegyrist, or other of his craft whose verses might charm for the moment only for the impression which they gave to melt at the touch of fact, we have forced every sea and land to be the highway of our daring, and everywhere, whether for evil or for good, have left imperishable monuments behind Pericles of Athens. Such measures impelled Pericles' critics to hold him responsible for the gradual degeneration of the Athenian democracy. Constantine Paparrigopoulosa major modern Greek historian, argues that Pericles sought for the expansion and stabilization of all democratic institutions. According to Samons, Pericles believed that it was necessary to raise the demosin which he saw an untapped source of Athenian power and the crucial element of Athenian military dominance. Cimon, on the other hand, apparently believed that no further free space for democratic evolution existed. He was certain that democracy had reached its peak and Pericles' reforms were leading to the stalemate of populism. According to Paparrigopoulos, history vindicated Cimon, because Athens, after Pericles' death, sank into the abyss of political turmoil and demagogy. Paparrigopoulos maintains that an unprecedented regression descended upon the city, whose glory perished as a result of Pericles' populist policies. According to another historian, Justin Daniel King, radical democracy benefited people individually, but harmed the state. Ephialtes' murder in BC paved the way for Pericles to consolidate his authority. Pericles made his first military excursions during the First Peloponnesian Pericles of Athens, which was caused in Pericles of Athens by Athens' alliance with Megara and Argos and the subsequent reaction of Sparta. In BC he attacked Sicyon and Pericles of Athens. Anthony J. Podlecki argues, however, that Pericles' alleged change of position was invented by ancient writers to support "a tendentious view of Pericles' shiftiness". Plutarch states that Cimon struck Pericles of Athens power-sharing deal with his opponents, according to which Pericles would carry through the interior affairs and Cimon would be the leader of the Athenian army, campaigning abroad. Kagan's view is that Cimon adapted himself to the new conditions and promoted a political marriage between Periclean liberals and Cimonian conservatives. In the mids the Athenians launched an unsuccessful attempt to aid an Egyptian revolt against Persia, which led to a prolonged siege of a Persian fortress in the Nile Delta. The campaign culminated in disaster; the besieging force was defeated and destroyed. Pericles is said to have initiated both expeditions in Egypt and Cyprus, [44] although some researchers, such as Karl Julius Belochargue that the dispatch of such a great fleet conforms with the spirit of Cimon's policy. Complicating the account of this period is the issue of the Peace of Calliaswhich allegedly ended hostilities between the Greeks and the Persians. The very existence of the treaty is hotly disputed, and its particulars and negotiation are ambiguous. Pericles of Athens the spring of BC, Pericles proposed the Congress Decree, which led to a meeting "Congress" of all Greek states to consider the question of rebuilding the temples destroyed by the Persians. The Congress failed because of Sparta's stance, but Pericles' intentions remain unclear. Remember, too, that if your country Pericles of Athens the greatest name in all the world, it is because she never bent before disaster; because she has expended more life and effort in war than any other city, and has won for herself a power greater than any hitherto known, the memory of which will descend to the latest posterity. During the Second Sacred War Pericles led the Athenian army against Delphi and reinstated Phocis in its sovereign rights on the oracle. In BC the oligarchs of Thebes conspired against the democratic Pericles of Athens. The Athenians demanded their immediate surrender, but after the Battle of CoroneaPericles Pericles of Athens forced to concede the loss of Boeotia to recover the prisoners taken in that battle. In BC, a more dangerous uprising erupted. Euboea and Megara Pericles of Athens. Pericles crossed over to Euboea with his troops, but was forced to return when the Spartan army invaded Attica. Through bribery and negotiations, Pericles defused the imminent threat, and Pericles of Athens Spartans returned home. Nonetheless, the "serious purpose" namely the bribery was so obvious to the auditors that they approved the expenditure without official meddling and without even investigating the mystery. After the Spartan threat had been removed, Pericles crossed back to Euboea to crush the revolt there. He then punished the landowners of Chalciswho lost their properties. The residents of Histiaeameanwhile, who had butchered the crew of an Athenian triremewere uprooted and replaced by 2, Athenian settlers. In BC, the conservative and the democratic factions confronted each other in a fierce struggle. Pericles of Athens ambitious new leader of the conservatives, Thucydides not to be confused with the historian of the same nameaccused Pericles of profligacy, criticizing the way he spent the money Pericles of Athens the ongoing building plan. Thucydides initially managed to incite the passions of the ecclesia regarding these charges in his favor. However, when Pericles took the floor, his resolute arguments put Thucydides and the conservatives firmly on the defensive. Finally, Pericles proposed to reimburse the city for all questionable expenses from his private property, with the proviso that he would make the inscriptions of dedication in his own name. Pericles wanted to stabilize Athens' dominance over its alliance and to enforce its pre-eminence in Greece. The process by which the Delian League transformed into an Athenian empire is generally considered to have begun well before Pericles' time, [59] as various allies in the league chose to pay tribute to Athens instead of manning ships for the league's fleet, but the transformation was speeded and brought to its conclusion by Pericles. The final steps in the shift to empire Pericles of Athens have been triggered by Athens' defeat in Egypt, which challenged the city's dominance in the Aegean and led to the revolt of several allies, such as Miletus and Erythrae. By — BC the revolts in Miletus and Erythrae were quelled Pericles of Athens Athens restored its rule over its allies. It was from the alliance's treasury that Pericles drew the funds necessary to enable his ambitious building plan, centered on the "Periclean Acropolis", which included the Propylaeathe Parthenon and the golden statue of Athena, sculpted Pericles of Athens Pericles' friend, Phidias. The Samian War was one of the last significant military events before the Peloponnesian War. After Thucydides' ostracism, Pericles was re-elected yearly to the generalship, the only office he ever Pericles of Athens occupied, although his influence was so great as to make him the de facto ruler of the state. Worsted in the war, the Milesians came to Athens to plead their case against the Samians. When the Athenians ordered the two sides to stop fighting and submit Pericles of Athens case to arbitration in Athens, the Samians refused. In a naval battle Pericles of Athens Athenians led by Pericles and nine other generals defeated the forces of Samos and imposed on the island an Athenian administration. Between — BC Pericles led Athens' fleet in Pontus and established friendly relations with the Greek cities of the region. Pericles and his friends were never immune from attack, as preeminence in democratic Athens was not equivalent to absolute Pericles of Athens. Phidias, who had been in charge of all building projects, was first accused of embezzling gold meant for the statue of Athena and then of impiety, because, when he wrought the battle of the Amazons on the shield of Athena, he carved out a figure that suggested himself as a bald old man, and also inserted a very fine likeness of Pericles fighting with an Amazon. Aspasia, who was noted for her ability as a conversationalist and adviser, was accused of corrupting the women of Athens to satisfy Pericles' perversions. Although Aspasia was acquitted thanks to a rare emotional outburst of Pericles, his friend, Phidias, died in prison and another friend of his, Anaxagoras, was attacked by the ecclesia for his religious Pericles of Athens. Beyond these initial prosecutions, the ecclesia attacked Pericles himself by asking him to justify his ostensible profligacy with, and maladministration of, public money. The causes of the Peloponnesian War have been much debated, but many ancient historians lay the blame on Pericles and Athens. Plutarch seems to believe that Pericles and the Athenians incited the war, scrambling to implement their belligerent tactics "with a sort of arrogance and a love of strife". However, as he is generally regarded as an admirer of Pericles, Thucydides has been criticized for bias against Sparta. Pericles Pericles of Athens convinced that the war against Sparta, which could not conceal its envy of Athens' pre-eminence, was inevitable if unfortunate. During the same period, Pericles proposed the Megarian decreewhich resembled a modern trade embargo. According to the provisions of the decree, Megarian merchants were excluded from the market of Athens and the ports in its empire. This ban strangled the Megarian economy and strained the fragile peace between Athens and Sparta, which was allied with Megara. According to George Cawkwella praelector in ancient historywith this decree Pericles breached the Thirty Pericles of Athens Peace "but, perhaps, not without the semblance of an excuse". After consultations with its allies, Sparta sent Pericles of Athens deputation to Athens demanding certain concessions, such as the immediate expulsion of the Alcmaeonidae family including Pericles and the retraction of the Megarian Decree, threatening war if the demands were not met. The obvious purpose Pericles of Athens these proposals was the instigation of a confrontation between Pericles and the people; this event, indeed, would come about a few years later. In the first legendary oration Thucydides puts in his mouth, Pericles advised the Athenians not to yield to their opponents' demands, since they were militarily stronger. In exchange for retracting the Megarian Decree, the Athenians demanded Pericles of Athens Sparta to abandon their practice of periodic expulsion of foreigners from their territory xenelasia and to recognize the autonomy of its allied cities, a request implying that Sparta's hegemony was also ruthless. Making Athens Great Again - The Atlantic

How does a citizen respond when a democracy that prides itself on being exceptional betrays its highest principles? Plato despaired, but he also pointed the way to renewal. What happens when a society, once a model for enlightened progress, threatens to backslide into intolerance and irrationality—with the complicity of many of its own citizens? Do they engage in kind, resist, withdraw, even depart? Twenty-four centuries ago, Athens was upended by the outcome of a vote that is worth revisiting today. A war-weary citizenry, raised on democratic exceptionalism but disillusioned by its leaders, wanted to feel great again—a recipe for unease and raw vindictiveness, then as now. The populace had no strongman to turn to, ready with promises that the polis Pericles of Athens soon be winning, winning like never before. Athenians were in no mood to have their views shaken up. They had lost patience with the lively, discomfiting debates sparked by the old man. In b. That spring day, the citizen-jurors did not do the institution proud. More of them voted that Socrates should die Pericles of Athens voted him guilty Pericles of Athens the first place. Listen to the audio version of this article: Feature stories, read aloud: download the Audm app for your iPhone. Did truth count for nothing? A despondent Plato left the Pericles of Athens of Athens, whose tradition of proud patriotism and morally confident leadership at home and abroad had been recently and severely shaken. Whether he was witnessing the end of Athenian exceptionalism or a prelude to the long, hard work of rebuilding it on firmer foundations, he could not have begun to predict. Plato was in his late 20s when he lost Socrates. The Athenian triumph in the Greco-Persian Wars in b. Eligibility for citizenship—already an exclusive privilege denied to women and slaves, of course, but also to most tax-paying alien residents some of them very Pericles of Athens —was tightened. Still, as Athens asserted dominance throughout the region, presiding Pericles of Athens the standard for Hellenic greatness, the emerging imperial power drew in immigrants. On a voyage that lasted about 12 years, he ventured well beyond the borders of the Greek-speaking lands. He went south and studied geometry, geography, astronomy, and religion in Egypt. He went west to spend time with the Pythagoreans in southern Italy, learning about their otherworldly mixture of mathematics and mysticism, absorbing from them esoteric sources of thaumazeinor ontological wonder. Plato, already Pericles of Athens by Socrates not to take Athenian exceptionalism for granted, was on a path toward metaphysical speculations and ethical and political reflections beyond any entertained by his mentor. To be an Athenian, ran a core credo of the polis, was to partake in its aura of moral superiority. Socrates dedicated his life to challenging a confidence that he felt had become overweening. Athens was undeniably extraordinary, and the patriotic self-assurance and democratic energy that fueled its vast achievements did stand out. It was part of a normative explosion under way in many Pericles of Athens of civilization—wherever a class of people enjoyed enough of a respite from the daily grind of life to ponder the point of it all. That was the essential question at the heart of ambitious inquiries into human purpose and meaning. Every major religious framework that still operates, the philosopher Karl Jaspers pointed out, can Pericles of Athens traced back to a specific period: from to b. From Greece emerged Western secular philosophy, which brought reasoned argument to bear on the human predicament and the reflections it inspired. Those reflections, no less urgent now than they were then, can be roughly summed up this way:. We know, each one of us, or at least we fear, that the same will happen to us. The oceans of time will cover us over, like waves closing over the head of a sailor, leaving not a ripple, to use an image Pericles of Athens inspired abject terror in the seafaring Greeks. Really, why do any of us even bother to show up for our own existence as if we have a choicefor all the difference we ultimately make? Driven to pursue our lives with single-minded passion, we are nevertheless, as the Greek poet Pindar put it in the fifth century b. Such an endeavor demands a great deal of individual striving, because what counts is nothing less than outstanding accomplishments. The deeper, and humbler, sources of the ethos dated back even further, to a time of anomie and illiteracy—the Greek Pericles of Athens Ages, scholars Pericles of Athens to call the period that followed the mysterious destruction of the great palace kingdoms of the Bronze Age around b. The wondrous ruins left behind—the massive bridges and beehive tombs, the towering edifices inscribed with indecipherable lettering—spoke of daunting feats of engineering. Clearly there had been a previous age when mortals had realized possibilities all but unthinkable to lesser specimens. Those people had mingled so closely with immortals as to assume an altogether new, heroic category of being, celebrated in tales Pericles of Athens by ordinary Greeks. The reverence is embedded in The Iliadwhich extols Achilles as the greatest of all the legendary Greek heroes—the man who, given the choice, opted for a brief but exceptional life over a long and undistinguished one. If I voyage back to the fatherland I love, my pride, my glory dies. Living so that Pericles of Athens will remember Pericles of Athens is your solace in the Pericles of Athens of the erasure you know awaits. What is most startling about their existential response is its clear-eyed rejection of transcendence. The cosmos is indifferent, and only human terms apply: Perform exceptional deeds so as to earn the praise of others whose existence is as brief as your own. But an ethos of the extraordinary poses a practical problem. Most people are, by definition, perfectly ordinary, the ancient Greeks included. Ultimately, they found a solution to this problem in propounding a kind of participatory exceptionalism, encouraging a shared sense of identity that also made them highly competitive. Merely to be Greek was to be extraordinary. In vanquishing the vastly superior forces of this world empire, the Greeks had given their poets a contemporary feat to sing about. Herodotus initiated his Histories —which is to say, initiated the practice of history itself—with these words:. Pericles of Athens Greco-Persian Wars helped convert the ethos of the extraordinary from ancestor reverence into a motivational agenda. And nowhere were this pride and this pushing more assertively Pericles of Athens display than in fifth-century Athens, where business was conducted within sight of the Acropolis. The architectural splendors, proof of undaunted genius and vitality, had arisen out of the ruins to which the older shrines of the Acropolis had been reduced in b. The democracy that had gradually developed in Athens added considerably to the ethos of supreme distinction. Elevation in the minds of others, now and in the future, went hand and hand with demonstrations of power:. If that meant stoking political hubris, Pericles was more than ready. Quite the contrary, he celebrated the real-life deeds of imperial Athens as indelible proof of superiority:. Even, or especially, a democratic society with an exceptionalist heritage—as Plato and his fellow Athenians were hardly the last to discover—may prove unprepared to respond wisely when arrogance takes over and expectations go awry. Neither Socrates nor Plato ever challenged the Greek conviction that achieving a life that matters requires extraordinary effort and results in Pericles of Athens extraordinary state. But Socrates was determined to interrogate what being exceptional means. Only that kind of extraordinary accomplishment matters—and the same could be said for city-states. Power and the glory it Pericles of Athens are no measure of their stature. The virtuous citizen, indeed, is inseparable from the virtuous polis, his claim to significance rooted in his commitment to the common good. What Pericles of Athens, Socrates taught, is the quest for a better understanding of what virtue is, what justice and wisdom are. The goal is a moral vision so compelling that every citizen, no matter his position, will feel its force and be guided by it. A democratic Pericles of Athens that fosters the continuous self-scrutiny demanded by such a vision can hope for greatness. Mere kleos is for losers. Only an exceptional man would have dared to challenge such a fundamental presumption of his society. But if Socrates was so extraordinary, how did Athenians—who took pride in citizens of distinction and had long been fondly tolerant of their exuberantly eccentric philosopher—come to turn against him? The philosopher ran rings around Meletus, the man put up to be the prosecutor. Socrates exposed him as ill-informed and perhaps something of an opportunist, ready to declare one thing one moment and then contradict himself the next. But Pericles of Athens date of the trial reveals a polis whose exceptionalist identity had been challenged and whose citizens had been caught off-balance: How great were they, really? Where was their moral compass? Athens was still reeling from defeat in the Peloponnesian War five years earlier—and at the hands of those uncultivated Pericles of Athens, who had no high culture to speak of, no playwrights or Parthenon. They could barely string three words together, much less match the rhetorical brilliance on which the Athenians congratulated themselves. The Thirty, as they were called, employed secret informers and terrorist tactics, drawing many Athenians into ignominious collusion. When, inthe oligarchic collaborators were driven out after less than a year, Athenian democracy was restored—under quite unusual conditions. The customary bloodbath never happened. No vicious rounds of retribution and counter-retribution ensued. A declaration of general amnesty, granted to all but a Pericles of Athens few at the top, eased the way toward an ameliorating fiction that the Athenians, with the exception of the Thirty and a coterie of their conspirators, had been victims. It was a collective act of willful forgetting. The rhetorician Isocrates joined in:. Moral shame accompanied military shame. The grueling war had driven the Athenians to atrocities against fellow Greeks, about which the historian Thucydides was heartrendingly vivid. His fellow citizens could afford to appreciate a genuine Athenian original in the days when their worthiness was so manifest, as Pericles had declaimed, that no Homer needed to spread word of it. But not now, when their famous rhetoricians had been reduced to extolling how uniquely brilliant they were at handling defeat. And so at the first opportunity, with Pericles of Athens Spartan forces withdrawn and democratic government stabilized, the gadfly of the agora was indicted. They wanted to restore the culture of kleos that had once made them feel so terrific about themselves. And yet eventually, after his years of self- imposed exile, Plato came back to Athens, bringing his newly gathered learning along with him, to take up where Socrates had left off. He abandoned the agora and created the Academy, the first European university, which attracted thinkers—purportedly even a couple of women —from across greater Hellas, including, at the age of 17 or 18, Aristotle. Foremost among the problems they pondered was how to create a society in which a person like Socrates would flourish, issuing stringent calls to self-scrutiny, as relevant now as ever. Athens may never again have presided as the imperial center it was before the war. Instead, it staked what has proved to be a far more enduring claim to extraordinariness in becoming a center of intellectual and moral progress. Empires have risen and fallen. It was with these issues in mind that he wrote his dialogues—great works of literature as well as of philosophy. The mantle of glorified greatness belongs to no society by right or by might, or by revered tradition, he taught. It belongs to no individual who, ignoring the claims of justice, strives to make a name that might outlast him.