Return now to Greece, where we left it at the end of the
Persian Wars. The invasions of Darius and Xerxes have been
Defeated. The Greek city-states, against unreasonable odds, have
Preserved their independence. And now, in the victorious glow,
Athens rises to a cultural ascendancy the world had not seen
Before and has rarely matched since. The fifth century BCE. The
Age of Pericles. The age of the great tragedians. The age of the
Sophists and Socrates. The age in which democracy, drama,
Philosophy, and history became what they have remained.
Athens
Emerged from the Persian Wars with enormous prestige. The naval
Victory at Salamis had been principally an Athenian victory—the
Athenian fleet was the largest contingent, commanded by the
Athenian Themistocles. Athens also had the distinction of being
The only major Greek city that had been physically destroyed by
The Persians (their first acts on return were to rebuild their
Burned city). The Athenians had therefore suffered more than
Most and contributed more than most, and they claimed the leading
Role in the subsequent Greek response. In four-seventy-eight
BCE, Athens formed the Delian League—a coalition of Greek
City-states, initially based on the sacred island of Delos, that
Would coordinate defense against any future Persian aggression.
The smaller members contributed ships or money; Athens provided
The central fleet and leadership. Over the next several decades,
The Delian League expanded. It conducted campaigns against
Persian holdings in the Aegean and liberated Greek cities
Still under Persian control. But over time, it became increasingly
Clear that the League was really an Athenian empire. Member cities
That tried to withdraw from the League were prevented from doing
So by Athenian military force. The League treasury, originally
At Delos, was moved to Athens in four-fifty-four BCE. Athens
Began using League funds for Athenian purposes—including the
Massive building program on the Acropolis. Member cities that
Had once contributed as equals became subject peoples contributing
Tribute to an imperial power. The Delian League had become, in
Effect, the Athenian Empire. This transformation generated deep
Resentment, especially in Sparta and her allies, who saw Athenian
Imperialism as a threat to Greek freedom (or at least to their
Own position). The tensions would eventually explode in the
Peloponnesian War. But before that war, there was the golden
Age. Between roughly four-sixty and four-thirty BCE, Athens
Experienced the most concentrated cultural efflorescence the
World had yet seen. The democratic constitution, reformed and
Extended, reached its most developed form under the leadership
Of Pericles. Male citizens—perhaps fifty thousand in a city of
Perhaps three hundred thousand total inhabitants—participated
Directly in the Assembly, served on juries, held public office
By lot. The Assembly met regularly on the Pnyx hill, where any
Citizen could speak. Executive functions were performed by boards
Of ten officials (one from each tribe, selected by lot or elected).
Judicial functions were performed by large citizen juries, often
Hundreds strong. Financial oversight, foreign policy, military
Strategy—all these were debated in public assembly and decided
By majority vote. The system was radical and, by the standards
Of most human political systems, surprisingly stable. Pericles
Himself was elected general (strategos) year after year for
Decades, giving him continuous leadership despite the formal
Constraints of democracy. His funeral oration for Athenian war
Dead, preserved by Thucydides (possibly in reconstructed form),
Is one of the supreme articulations of democratic ideology ever
Composed. "Our constitution is called a democracy because power
Is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people." The
Periclean vision was of a city in which free citizens, governed
By laws they themselves had made, engaged openly in public life,
Celebrated beauty and culture, and defended their freedom against
Enemies both external and internal. That vision was real, even
Though imperfect. Athenian democracy did have limits—slaves,
Women, metics (resident foreigners) were excluded. The empire
That funded the cultural glory rested on coercion of other
Greek states. But within these limits, the Athenian political
Experiment was revolutionary. It was the first substantial
Democracy in history, and its self-conception would inspire
Democratic movements for twenty-five centuries afterward.
And
Under this democratic constitution, the cultural achievements
Came. The theatrical festivals—the Dionysia in particular—were
Civic institutions in which citizens competed in the production
Of tragedies and comedies. Playwrights wrote for these festivals
Plays that would be performed once and (if they were lucky)
Awarded a prize. The competitive structure produced extraordinary
Artistic energy. Out of this system came the three great tragedians
Whose work survives: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Each
Represents a different stage and sensibility in the development
Of Greek drama. Aeschylus (five-twenty-five to four-fifty-six
BCE), the earliest, wrote plays of mythic grandeur in which the
Characters are larger than life and the themes cosmic. His
Oresteia trilogy—Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides—
Is the only complete tragic trilogy to survive from antiquity.
It tells the story of the House of Atreus: Agamemnon's return
From Troy, his murder by his wife Clytemnestra, the revenge of
Their son Orestes, and finally the trial of Orestes before a
Court established by the goddess Athena to resolve the blood-
Vengeance cycle. The trilogy ends with the transformation of the
Furies into the Eumenides ("the kindly ones"), marking the
Founding of civic justice to replace tribal revenge. It is a
Meditation on the evolution of human civilization itself, from
Primal retribution to institutional law. Sophocles (four-ninety-six
To four-oh-six BCE), the middle tragedian, wrote plays in which
Individual characters of extraordinary moral weight struggle
Against inexorable fate. His seven surviving plays include
Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, and Electra. The
Figure of Oedipus—the king who solved the riddle of the Sphinx
But was blind to the riddle of his own life, who had murdered
His father and married his mother without knowing it, who
Discovered the truth and blinded himself in horror—is one of the
Permanent archetypes of Western tragedy. Sigmund Freud would,
In the twentieth century CE, adopt Oedipus's name for the
Central complex of his psychological theory. The figure is that
Powerful. Antigone, who defies the king's decree in order to
Bury her brother according to divine law, embodies the conflict
Between political authority and moral conscience in a form that
Has never been surpassed. She is one of the great heroes of
Civil disobedience, an ancestor of every subsequent figure who
Has insisted that there is a higher law than the law of the state.
Euripides (four-eighty to four-oh-six BCE), the youngest, wrote
Plays that were more psychologically modern, more skeptical of
Traditional values, more concerned with the suffering of marginal
Characters—women, slaves, the defeated. His Medea, Bacchae,
Trojan Women, and Hippolytus are harrowing examinations of
Human passion and institutional violence. Euripides was less
Popular in his own time than Sophocles but came to be regarded
In later antiquity as perhaps the greatest of the three. His
Willingness to show ugly emotions, to question pieties, to give
Voice to the voiceless, made him a model for subsequent dramatic
Traditions. Together, these three playwrights established the
Terms of tragic drama. Every subsequent tragedy—Shakespeare's,
Racine's, Ibsen's, O'Neill's—stands in relation to them. The
Category of tragedy itself as a literary form is their invention.
And alongside tragedy, comedy. Aristophanes (four-forty-six to
Three-eighty-six BCE) wrote comedies of savage political satire
And bawdy humor that are as alive today as anything from antiquity.
His Lysistrata, in which the women of Athens refuse sexual
Relations with their husbands until the men stop fighting the
Peloponnesian War, has been revived countless times as an
Anti-war statement. His Clouds savagely mocks Socrates and the
Sophists, presenting Socrates as a ridiculous charlatan floating
In a basket and teaching his students to make the worse argument
Seem better. The play is unfair to Socrates but brilliantly
Funny, and Socrates, for what it is worth, attended the premiere
And stood up in the audience so the crowd could compare the
Real philosopher to Aristophanes's caricature. It is the kind
Of anecdote that captures Athens at its most characteristic:
Intensely public, intellectually ferocious, with playwrights and
Philosophers all part of the same small, argumentative city.
And
Sculpture and architecture. Phidias, the supreme sculptor of the
Age, executed the Athena Parthenos for the Parthenon—a forty-
Foot gold-and-ivory statue of the goddess holding a smaller figure
Of Nike in her hand. The statue is lost, but descriptions and
Small replicas survive. He also sculpted the Zeus at Olympia,
One of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Phidias's
Students and imitators produced much of the sculptural work that
Has come to define Greek classical art: the balance of idealized
Beauty and restrained emotion, the sense of bodies as mathematically
Perfect yet infused with vital presence. The Parthenon itself,
Built on the Acropolis between four-forty-seven and four-thirty-two
BCE under Pericles's sponsorship, designed by Ictinus and Callicrates
With sculptural supervision by Phidias, was the supreme
Architectural achievement of classical antiquity. Its Doric
Columns, subtly curved to correct optical distortions, its
Sculpted metopes depicting mythic battles, its pediments with
Gods and heroes, its interior frieze showing the Panathenaic
Procession—every aspect was a calibration of proportion and
Artistic meaning. The Parthenon influenced Western architecture
For the next two and a half millennia. The classical column orders,
The symmetrical pediment, the mathematical harmony of proportions—
All of this became the vocabulary of Western monumental building.
Courthouses, museums, banks, legislative buildings—the form
Invented by Ictinus on the Acropolis would be replicated in
Washington, London, Paris, and everywhere else that aspired
To classical dignity. The Parthenon was not just a building. It
Was a template.
And now to the philosophical revolution. We
Discussed the pre-Socratics in the previous Greek chapter. In
The second half of the fifth century BCE, philosophy took a
New turn. The Sophists—traveling teachers of rhetoric and
Wisdom—came to Athens and offered instruction for fees. Men like
Protagoras of Abdera (famous for declaring "Man is the measure
Of all things"—a relativist proposition), Gorgias of Leontini (a
Brilliant rhetorician), and Hippias of Elis (a polymath) taught
Wealthy young Athenians the techniques of public speaking and
Argument that were essential for political success in the
Democratic assembly. The Sophists were influential but also
Controversial. Their willingness to teach both sides of any
Argument (and thereby, critics said, to teach that truth is
Whatever you can make people accept) made them seem morally
Dubious. Their fees made them seem mercenary. And their radical
Philosophical positions—especially the relativism and skepticism
Of Protagoras—challenged traditional values. Into this intellectual
Ferment stepped Socrates. Socrates (four-seventy to three-ninety-nine
BCE) was an Athenian citizen, apparently of modest means, who
Spent his days engaging other citizens in philosophical conversation
In the public spaces of the city. He did not charge fees. He did
Not teach any positive doctrine. He claimed only that he knew
Nothing—and that this knowledge of his own ignorance was itself
A kind of wisdom that his interlocutors usually lacked. His
Method was dialogue: he would ask seemingly innocent questions
About important topics (what is justice? what is courage? what is
Piety?), and his interlocutors would confidently offer definitions,
And Socrates would then examine those definitions until their
Inadequacies were exposed. The interlocutor, initially confident
Of his knowledge, would come to realize that he did not know
What he had thought he knew. This is the Socratic method, and
It is one of the most influential pedagogical techniques ever
Developed. It assumes that genuine knowledge is rare, that most
Human "knowledge" is actually uncritical opinion, and that the
Path to real understanding requires rigorous examination of our
Beliefs. Socrates took this method as a divine mission. He
Believed he had been charged by the gods with the task of examining
Himself and others, helping them to recognize their ignorance
And thereby opening the possibility of genuine wisdom. He pursued
This mission relentlessly for decades. In the process, he made
Many enemies. The politically powerful did not enjoy being publicly
Exposed as ignorant. The pious did not enjoy having their religious
Assumptions questioned. In three-ninety-nine BCE, Socrates was
Formally charged with impiety (failing to worship the proper gods
And introducing new gods) and with corrupting the youth of Athens.
He was tried by a jury of five hundred citizens. He defended
Himself not by minimizing his activity but by insisting that his
Philosophical mission was a gift to the city. The jury, unimpressed,
Found him guilty. When asked what penalty he should receive, he
Suggested that the city should honor him at public expense for
The services he had rendered. The jury sentenced him to death by
Hemlock. His trial and execution, described in Plato's Apology,
Crito, and Phaedo, became one of the foundational narratives
Of Western intellectual history. The philosopher, calmly drinking
Poison rather than abandoning his mission, became the archetype
Of the thinker who will die for truth. His final words, as he
Felt the hemlock's numbness climbing his legs, were reportedly
A request that his friend Crito pay a small debt: "Crito, we
Owe a rooster to Asclepius. Pay it, don't forget." A pedestrian
Comment, perhaps, but somehow perfect—the philosopher's last
Thought was of a routine obligation, not of himself.
Socrates
Wrote nothing. What we know of him comes primarily from two of
His students: Plato and Xenophon. Plato (four-twenty-seven to
Three-forty-seven BCE) was by far the more philosophically
Significant. He founded the Academy—the first institution we
Might call a university—and wrote dozens of philosophical dialogues
In which Socrates typically appears as the main speaker. The
Relationship between the historical Socrates and Plato's literary
Socrates is debated; in the earlier dialogues Plato probably
Preserves his teacher's views, while in later dialogues he uses
The figure of Socrates to present his own developed philosophy.
Plato's philosophical system—the theory of the forms, the tripartite
Soul, the philosopher-king, the immortality of the soul—is one of
The most influential in human history. It would shape Neoplatonism,
Christian theology, Islamic philosophy, and countless later
Intellectual movements. Alfred North Whitehead, in the twentieth
Century CE, famously remarked that all subsequent Western
Philosophy is "a series of footnotes to Plato"—an overstatement,
But capturing something important. And Plato's student Aristotle
(Three-eighty-four to three-twenty-two BCE) would take Plato's
Philosophical project in a different direction, more empirical,
More systematic, more concerned with the study of concrete things
Rather than abstract forms. Aristotle's treatises on logic, physics,
Biology, psychology, ethics, politics, rhetoric, and poetics would
Define the disciplines of philosophy and science for nearly two
Thousand years. Medieval Islamic and Christian thinkers would
Call him simply "the Philosopher." His works, preserved and
Transmitted through Byzantine and Arabic scholars, would shape
The intellectual revival of medieval Europe. He would be student,
In turn, to Alexander the Great—linking the philosophical tradition
Of Socrates directly to the Macedonian conquest that would spread
Hellenistic culture across three continents. But we are, again,
Getting ahead of ourselves. In the span of this chapter, the
Classical age is still unfolding. We will return to Aristotle and
Alexander in the next chapter.
And meanwhile, the Peloponnesian War.
The tensions between Athens and Sparta that had been building
For decades finally exploded in four-thirty-one BCE. For the next
Twenty-seven years, the Greek world was convulsed by war.
Pericles died of plague in four-twenty-nine BCE, leaving Athens
Without strategic leadership in the war's middle phase. Athens
Made disastrous military blunders—most catastrophically the
Sicilian Expedition of four-fifteen to four-thirteen BCE, in
Which an enormous Athenian fleet and army were annihilated in
An attempt to conquer Syracuse. Athens never fully recovered.
In four-oh-four BCE, after a final naval defeat, Athens
Surrendered. The city's long walls were torn down. The democratic
Constitution was briefly replaced by an oligarchy (the Thirty Tyrants),
Though democracy was soon restored. The Athenian empire ended.
Sparta was the nominal victor, but the war had exhausted all the
Greek states. The golden age of classical Greece ended with
This war. The Greek cities would never again be so powerful or
So creative. They would eventually fall under the rule of
Macedon to the north. And while some later cultural achievements
Would still come—Aristotle's work, the Hellenistic diffusion
Of Greek culture—the specifically classical city-state
Civilization was over. Its distinctive creativity had been the
Product of a specific political moment: free citizens of small
Competitive cities, engaged in direct democratic politics, with
Enough wealth from empire to support cultural production and
Enough freedom from external domination to think and argue openly.
That moment lasted about a century. It produced more foundational
Cultural achievements than any other comparable period in human
History. And then it was gone.
Classical Greece, part two.
The Delian League and the Athenian Empire. Pericles's
Leadership. Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes—
The great playwrights. Phidias and the Parthenon. The Sophists
And Socrates. Plato and the Academy. Aristotle in the wings.
The Peloponnesian War that destroyed everything. The supreme
Concentration of cultural achievement in one small city in one
Short century.
Classical Athens. The fifth-century
Civilization that taught the West what cities, what democracies,
What philosophy, and what theater could be.
Stand.