Pericles statesman, Pericles bust Artificial marble base, Pericles replica, 29 cm, 2 kg Pericles museum copy
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Original British Museum
Pericles (c. 495-429 BC), the most important statesman of Athens,
Aristocratic origin, maternal origin from the family of the Alkmaioniden, a leading Attic noble family.
Pericles was one of the strategists, first the general commanders, in Athens since 501/500 BC. an elected college of ten strategists who held the supreme command over the army and the fleet, with a daily rotating chairmanship. Their term of office was one year, but re-election was possible. The strategists gained a great deal of influence on the whole policy and sometimes steered the state. An important example of this is Pericles.
He curtailed the power of the aristocracy and suspended the judges and members of the Bule, the Greek Council, daily allowances for loss of earnings, the citizens received theatre money and grain donations. In his opinion, only those who had no job to do (he wanted to mitigate the advantage of non-working nobility members in the Bule) could gain a decisive overview of politics.
At the height of his power, Pericles began the magnificent expansion of the Acropolis with the financial means of the confederates. He was a member of several building commissions and had intensive contact with well-known scientists and artists, including Pheidias, Sophocles, Herodotus and Anaxagoras.
According to the Greek historian Thukydides, the Pentekontaetie, the period of Pericles's rule of about fifty years, was the most splendid period in Athens' history ("by name a democracy, but in reality the rule of the first man").
Roman copy of Pericles-Herme after the work of Kresilas. Third quarter of the 5th century BC, London, British Museum.
Replica reduction.
This product was added to our catalog on Wednesday, January 22, 2014.