Pericles of Athens

French scholar Azoulay reassesses the life and legacy of the legendary Athenian orator and statesman who represents Greece’s golden age. Striking a balance between adulation and hypercriticism, the author depicts Pericles as a formidable strategos overseeing grandiose public works, including the Parthenon, Odeon, and Long Walls linking Athens to its port of Piraeus, while inwardly mastering the art of remaining silent and suffering “outrageous assaults without striking back.” Although Pericles left no writings of his own, he was immortalized in the works of the historian Thucydides and biographer Plutarch, favorably in the former, less so in the latter. Over time, Athens’s first citizen and “model of a wise and incorruptible leader” was variously vilified for his aristocratic rhetoric, demagogic tyranny, harsh management of the Delian League, and war-mongering during the Peloponnesian War. He also suffered chronically in comparisons to Solon and Cimon of Athens and Lycurgus of Sparta. Although Pericles’s reputation recovered, Azoulay concludes with an interesting note on his conspicuous absence in modern culture. This is a solid, well-researched profile that features a pronounced French historiographical slant; however, it would have benefitted from a more narrative prose style. Still, it remains a worthwhile addition for lovers of ancient history and classical Greece. (July)