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, in this period the Greeks 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 fifth century to either his death at the start of the Peloponnesian War or at the end of the war in 404.- Pericles was the foremost statesman of Athens from 461-429. He was repeatedly elected to be one of the 10 strategoi (generals).
- He 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. This monumental structure was supervised by the famed Athenian sculptor Pheidias, who was also responsible for the chryselephantine statue of Athena. The architects of the Parthenon were Ictinus and Callicrates. It was built from 447-432 B.C.
- Pericles is credited with the move of the treasury of the Delian League to Athens and for using its money to rebuilt the temples on the Acropolis that the Persians had destroyed. This money was supposed to be for defense and was not supposed to be Athens' to do with as it chose.
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 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
