Pericles essays

Pericles essays The historian, more often than not, will have direct or indirect personal input and remarks in the historical account he is relating; the historical facts and figures obtained would flow together with his objective tendency for that particular event. The historian, Thucydides, exemplifies such, as he narrates the account of the Peloponnesian War. Reading excerpts from the mentioned historical account containing occurrences of the first years of the war, speeches from the general Pericles, as well as the historians judgment on him reveals certain illustrations of the values held by him as he infuses his text with personal opinions and evaluations, such as power, justice, virtue, equality, nobility, and rationality. Paying more attention to the speeches of Pericles the funeral oration and the last speech during the plague one sees a juxtaposition of opposites: rise and downfall, virtue and vice, democracy and mob rule. The reconstruction and inclusion of Pericles funeral oration emphasizes Pericles significance in the Peloponnesian War, being the general during the time who suggested war to his fellow Athenians. This inclusion is necessary in order to prove the greatness of Athens, which Thucydides found substantial enough for the citys description, having no need to expound on this exemplary fact anymore. In his speech, Pericles strengthens the wills and hearts of his fellow Athenians, especially relatives of those slain soldiers, speaking eloquently of life in their unyielding land, Ahtens its people, ancestors, customs, warfare, and government. This emphasis on the prominence of Athens justifies the demise of many of its patriotic citizens as they do not just become worthy of their country, but also immortal monuments...where their glory is laid up to be remembered forever...an unwritten record of the mind lives on for each of them, even in ...