Cyprus-Forum.com

[Svetlana]

'EURO 2004' Final?

Lana

[cypezokyli]

piratis wrote

My favorite part is the Golden Age of Perikles.

my friend piratis... surprise surprise
i couldnt agree more with you.

i am just wondering if we admire perikles for the same reasons. so i will post mine.

i like him bc he was a great politician.
as simple as that.

all quotes i use come from thoukidides

1) History A'
the corfu situation (reasons that lead to the pelloponiassian war)
corfu and korinth had problems. both wend representatives to athens in order to get their support. corfu representatives argued (32 - 36):
"up to now we never support you athenians. right now it is going to be in your interest to support us... bc of the coming war"
the korinthians said: (37 - 43)
you cannot accept an alliance with corfu bc you will brake the principles of justice... we want to remind you that you owe us a favor"

with this arguments which one of the two did our great predecessors chose to support?
guess


(hint: their ancestors 2000+ years later are trying to solve a problem based on justice with outcome = 0 )

2)Pericles trying to convince athenians for their superiority over the spartans: (144) "our allies, the source of our strength"

today our ally is greece and...mmm...greece..and ...mmm... can someone help?

continuing ....thoukidides History B' " both opponents planned to send representatives to the king of persians and other barbaric lands for support"
all the beaty of politics in one sentence. can u imagine the so - called ancestors of these people i.e. our politicians trying to make allies with an ex-enemy (USA, England, turkey) without being considered traitors?

later on (by the way) the athenian arepresentatives killed the spartan rep. in order to prevent them from reaching the persain king

3) History B' (13)
archidamos (the sparta general) attacked attiki and destroyed private fields and property. pericles knowing that archidamos was his friend and could spare his fields on the name of that friendship, promised (in orer to avoid being called a traitor) to give his lands to the public if they were not destroyed

its likeof one of our todays politician but i keep forgeting the name... mmm....mmm... difficult questions today...

4) history B' (65) after pericles death thoukidides comments:
.."he controlled the people without resticting their freedom and he could mostly guide the mob rather than being carried by it" ("the people are not ready" christofias.- therefore i follow them)

..."he could oppose the crowd and even in cases cause its rage"

...when he saw his people being too daring he scared them"

..."so the state of athens was indeed called democracy, in reality though it became slowly slowly power controlled by the first man of the city"

great poltician indeed

some years after his death , when the athenians had a slight advantage, the spartans proposed peace. the lead- by- the- mod -politicians rejected it.
who knows what perikles would have chosen if he were alive?

[cypezokyli]

in short i would say he was a great polticians because

he would try to improve the life of his people in internal affairs (he build the propylaia among other things) and in foreign affairs he was willing to do all kinds of dirtiness just for the good of his country

for me: the definition of a politician

on te other hand our todays politicians would do all kinds of dirtiness to steal from the public in internal affairs, while in their foreign policy are trying to hide their inabilities under the pretext of "justice".