Does Thucydides Portray Pericles as Good or Bad for Athens’ Democracy?

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.220110.147How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Athens’ democracy; Pericles; Thucydides

Abstract

This essay critically examines the role Pericles played in Athens’ democracy from the view of Thucydides. Contrary to popular belief, Athens’ democratic structures had a considerable number of systematic loopholes, and Thucydides believes that Pericles took hold of the flaws in the Athenian political system with his personal charm and contagious passion [1]. Freedom of speech and freedom of expression are priorities in a democracy society. Yet, Pericles’s unparalleled leadership disproportionately swayed public opinions and drowned out dissenting voices in the society. His unmatched sociopolitical influence undermined the basis of democracy and blinded the general public, making this widely acclaimed hero a villain in disguise. However, there exist counterarguments to Thucydides’ views. Some suggest that Athens was in desperate need of a stronghold leader to unify and strengthen Athens’ army in order to fend off foreign enemies and conflicting political ideologies. Despite the existing counterargument, it is believed that the cons of Pericles’ ruling outweigh the pros due to the severity of the risk to democracy it has posed.

Copyright

© 2022 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.

Open Access

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Fenglin Qiu
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/01/28
TI  - Does Thucydides Portray Pericles as Good or Bad for Athens’ Democracy?
BT  - Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Public Art and Human Development ( ICPAHD 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 776
EP  - 779
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.220110.147
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.220110.147
ID  - Qiu2022
ER  -