Introduction: Athenian History and Society in the Age of Pericles

Abstract

S ources Our literary sources for the study of mid-fifth-century Athens consist of contemporary Greek historians (especially Herodotus and Thucydides), Athenian orators and intellectuals (especially Andocides, Antiphon, Plato, and the anonymous author known as Pseudo-Xenophon or “The Old Oligarch”), and Aristotle's works analyzing Athenian and Greek political life (the Politics and the Constitution of the Athenians , the latter probably but not certainly composed by Aristotle). Besides the references to older (but no longer extant) works found in such late authorities as Plutarch and the Hellenistic and Byzantine commentators, we also possess a significant number of fifth-century decrees ( psephismata ) passed by vote in the Athenian assembly. The Athenians often inscribed these measures on stone pillars ( stelai ), and fragments of many of these decrees (and other inscribed documents) have survived into the present age. Plutarch composed his biography of Pericles (and those of his contemporaries Themistocles, Aristeides, Cimon, Nicias, and Alcibiades) between ca. A.D. 90 and 120. The biographer was therefore removed from his fifth-century B.C. subjects by more than five centuries. Plutarch's anecdotal style and purpose - to shed light on his subjects' characters rather than their political careers - make his work difficult for the historian to exploit confidently. Nevertheless, Plutarch had access to contemporary fifth-century sources lost to us, and any attempt to flesh out Athenian life or understand Athenian politics in the Age of Pericles must rely heavily (if often uneasily) on his biographical works.