Athenian Society in the Time of Pericles

Athenian society in the time of Pericles is one of the Ancient Societies options in Section II (25 marks). You answer one question with three or four parts; one part is worth 10–15 marks and the others are short answers, often based on a source. The syllabus asks you to study the society through its evidence:

• Historical and geographical context: Attica and its resources; Athens, the Acropolis, the Agora, the Pnyx and the Piraeus.
• Social structure and political organisation: the polis, citizens and property classes, women, metics and slaves, the military; the democratic institutions (ekklesia, boule, strategia, the law courts).
• The economy: the Agora and the Piraeus, imperial tribute, trade, the Laurion silver mines and coinage, crafts and industries, the building programme.
• Religion, death and burial: gods and myths, the temples of the Acropolis, festivals (the Panathenaia, the Great Dionysia), priests and priestesses, funerary customs.
• Cultural and everyday life: sculpture, painted pottery and architecture; drama; education; leisure; marriage customs.

Dates are BC. Pericles was the leading figure in Athens from about 461 until his death in the plague in 429.

• Thucydides: an Athenian general and historian of the Peloponnesian War; admired Pericles; reconstructed speeches, such as the funeral speech, in his own words while trying to keep their general sense.
• Plutarch's Life of Pericles (about AD 100): lively but late, using earlier sources.
• The Constitution of the Athenians (attributed to Aristotle or his school, 4th century): the main account of institutions, though it describes some later practice.
• Inscriptions: the Athenian Tribute Lists, decrees and building accounts.
• Drama, vase painting, sculpture and archaeology of the Acropolis, Agora and Kerameikos.

Attica

Attica is a rocky peninsula with small plains, suited to olives, vines and barley, but it could not grow enough grain for its population, so Athens depended on imports, especially from the Black Sea. Its resources included silver from Laurion, marble from Mount Pentelikon and clay for pottery. The Long Walls joined Athens to the port of the Piraeus, so the city could be supplied by sea even under siege.

Key places in Athens

• The Acropolis: the sacred hill, with the Parthenon, the Propylaia and older shrines.
• The Agora: the civic and commercial centre, with the council house (bouleuterion), the tholos where the prytaneis met, stoas, law courts and the Hephaisteion.
• The Pnyx: the hill where the assembly met.
• The Kerameikos: the potters' quarter and main cemetery.

Historical background

Cleisthenes' reforms (508/507) created the ten tribes and the boule of 500. Victory over Persia (490, 480–479) and the founding of the Delian League (478/477) led to Athenian naval power. Ephialtes' reforms (462/461) took most powers from the Areopagus. Pericles became the leading politician, and Athens fought Sparta in the Peloponnesian War from 431.

The polis and its people

• Citizens: adult men of Athenian descent; from 451/450, Pericles' law required both parents to be Athenian. Solon's four property classes (pentakosiomedimnoi, hippeis, zeugitai, thetes) still determined eligibility for some offices; the archonship was opened to the zeugitai in 457.
• Women: citizens' wives and daughters, without political rights, under a male guardian (kyrios).
• Metics: free foreigners living in Attica, registered with a citizen sponsor, paying the metoikion tax, serving in war, but without political rights or (normally) the right to own land.
• Slaves: owned by individuals and the state; household slaves, craftsmen, mine workers at Laurion, and public slaves such as the Scythian archers who kept order.

Democratic institutions

• Ekklesia (assembly): all adult male citizens, meeting on the Pnyx; decided war, peace, alliances and decrees; elected generals; voted on ostracism.
• Boule (council of 500): 50 from each tribe, chosen by lot from citizens over 30; prepared business for the assembly, oversaw officials and finance; each tribe's group served as the prytaneis for a tenth of the year.
• Strategoi (ten generals): elected annually and could be re-elected; commanded the army and navy and had great political influence. Pericles was elected repeatedly.
• Law courts (heliaia, dikasteria): large juries of citizens over 30 chosen by lot from a panel of 6,000; Pericles introduced jury pay.
• Ostracism: a vote to exile a leading man for ten years; Pericles' rival Thucydides son of Melesias was ostracised about 443.

The military

Hoplites came mainly from the wealthier classes; the poorer thetes rowed the triremes, which made them central to Athenian power and the democracy. Thucydides says Athens had 300 seaworthy triremes in 431.

Empire and tribute

The Delian League treasury was moved to Athens in 454. Allies paid tribute (several hundred talents a year), and one-sixtieth went to Athena, recorded on the Athenian Tribute Lists. Athens planted cleruchies (settlements of citizens) on allied land, and a decree of disputed date (about 449 or the 420s) required allies to use Athenian coins, weights and measures.

Trade and the Piraeus

The Piraeus was the busiest port in the Aegean, importing grain, timber and luxury goods and exporting olive oil, pottery and silver. Many traders and bankers there were metics.

Silver and coinage

The Laurion mines, worked by thousands of slaves, produced the silver for the Athenian owl coins, which were accepted across the Mediterranean.

Industries and the building programme

Pottery, metalwork, textiles and shield-making were done in small workshops. The building programme employed citizens, metics and slaves.

Gods and temples

Athena was the patron goddess, honoured as Athena Polias (of the city), Parthenos (maiden) and Nike (victory). The Parthenon (447–432) housed Pheidias' gold-and-ivory statue of Athena Parthenos (438); the Propylaia (from 437) formed the entrance; the Erechtheion and the Nike temple were completed later. Myths told of Athena's birth and her contest with Poseidon for Attica.

Festivals

• Panathenaia: Athena's festival; every four years the Great Panathenaia, with a procession bringing a new peplos to Athena's ancient statue, sacrifices and contests with olive-oil prize amphorae.
• Great Dionysia: Dionysus' festival, with tragedy and comedy competitions; according to later writers (Isocrates), the allies' tribute was displayed in the theatre.
• Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone, and women's festivals such as the Thesmophoria.

Priests and priestesses

Priesthoods were held by citizens, some by members of old families. The priestess of Athena Polias was among the most honoured people in Athens; the priesthood of Athena Nike, created by a decree of disputed date (about 448 or the 420s), was open to all Athenian women, chosen by lot.

Death and burial

Families washed and laid out the body (prothesis), carried it in procession (ekphora) and buried or cremated it outside the city walls, especially in the Kerameikos, with offerings. White-ground lekythoi (oil flasks) were painted for graves. The city held a public funeral each year of war for those killed in battle, with a speech by a chosen citizen, as Pericles gave in 431.

Sculpture, pottery and architecture

Classical sculpture reached its height under Pheidias, with idealised, balanced figures in the Parthenon's metopes, pediments and frieze. Red-figure pottery showed myths and daily life. The Parthenon's Doric architecture used subtle refinements (curves and tilts) to look perfect.

Drama

Sophocles and Euripides wrote tragedies (Aeschylus died in 456), and comedy flourished; plays were part of religious festivals and civic life.

Education

Boys of families who could afford it learned letters (from a grammatistes), music (kitharistes) and physical training (paidotribes), accompanied by a slave (paidagogos). Sophists taught rhetoric to young men for fees. Girls learned household skills at home.

Marriage and the household

Marriage was arranged between the bride's kyrios and the groom (engye), with a dowry. Girls often married in their mid-teens and men around 30, though practice varied. The household (oikos) was the basic unit of society.

Leisure

The symposium (drinking party) for men, athletics in the gymnasia, festivals and the theatre.

• Calling Pericles a ruler or tyrant. He was an elected general who had to persuade the assembly.
• Treating the funeral speech as a neutral description. It is Thucydides' idealised version of the speech.
• Forgetting the majority without political rights: women, metics and slaves.
• Mixing up the boule (500, by lot) with the strategoi (10, elected).
• Dating the Erechtheion and the Nike temple to Pericles' lifetime; they were finished after his death.

• Name specific institutions, buildings, festivals and sources.
• For a source, use its words, add own knowledge and comment on its author, date and purpose.
• In the 10–15 mark answer, begin with a clear judgement and keep returning to the question.
• Historians' views are credited if used accurately, but they are not required.

• ANC-SPA (Sparta): compare the two most studied Greek societies.
• Personalities in their Times — Pericles: builds directly on this society.
• ANC-PER (Persia): the Persian Wars and Athenian leadership of the Delian League.