The Dates of the Classical Age
The Classical Age of Greece begins with the Persian Wars (490-479 B.C.) and ends with either the empire-building or the death of Alexander the Great (323 B.C.). Besides war, the Greeks of this era produced great literature, philosophy, drama, and art. There is a single name that signifies this artistic period: Pericles.The Age of Pericles (in Athens)
The Age of Pericles runs from the middle of the 5th century to either his death at the start of the Peloponnesian War or at the end of the war in 404.- While he was not a king or dictator in charge of Athens, Pericles was the foremost statesman of Athens from 461-429. He was repeatedly elected to be one of the 10 strategoi (generals).
- Pericles was strongly influenced by Aspasia, a female philosopher and courtesan from Miletus, who lived in Athens. Because of a recent citizenship law, Pericles couldn't marry a woman who wasn't born in Athens, so he could only cohabit with Aspasia.
- Pericles introduced payment for public offices.
- Pericles initiated the building of the Acropolis structures. The Acropolis had temples and was also behind the Pnyx, the place where the assembly of the people gathered. Pericles' preeminent building project was the Parthenon (447-432 B.C.). The famed Athenian sculptor Pheidias, who was also responsible for the chryselephantine statue of Athena, supervised this project. Ictinus and Callicrates were the Parthenon's architects.
- Pericles is credited with moving the treasury of the Delian League to Athens and using its money to rebuilt the Acropolis temples that the Persians had destroyed. This was an abuse of the treasury funds. The money was supposed to be for defense.
Other Famous Men in the Classical Age
Besides Pericles, Herodotus the father of history and his successor, Thucydides, and the three famous Greek dramatists Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides lived during this period.There were also renowned philosophers like Democritus during this period, as well as sophists.
Drama and philosophy flourished.
The Peloponnesian War
But then the Peloponnesian War broke out in 431 and lasted for 27 years. Pericles, along with many others, died of an undetermined plague during the war.Historians of the Archaic and Classical Period
- Herodotus
- Plutarch
- Strabo
- Pausanias
- Thucydides
- Dionorus Siculus
- Xenophon
- Demosthenes
- Aeschines
- Nepos
- Justin
Historians of the Period When Greece Was Dominated by the Macedonians
- Diodorus
- Justin
- Thucydides
- Arrian & fragments of Arrian found in Photius
- Demosthenes
- Aeschines
- Plutarch
