#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Pericles 16/

In his capacity as general, Pericles was famous above all things for his saving caution; he neither undertook of his own accord a battle involving much uncertainty or peril, nor did he envy and imitate those who took great risks, enjoyed brilliant good-fortune, and so were admired as great generals; and he was for ever saying to his fellow-citizens that, so far as lay in his power, they would remain alive forever and be immortals.

[Section 18]

#SavingLives #Caution #SunTzu #TheArtOfWar

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Pericles 15/

And this was not the fruit of a golden moment, nor the culminating popularity of an administration that bloomed but for a season; nay rather he stood first for forty years among such men as Ephialtes, Leocrates, Myronides, Cimon, Tolmides, and Thucydides, and after the deposition of Thucydides and his ostracism, for no less than fifteen of these years did he secure an imperial sway that was continuous and unbroken, by means of his annual tenure of the office of general.

During all these years he kept himself untainted by corruption.

[Section 16]

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Pericles 14/

For whereas all sorts of distempers, as was to be expected, were rife in a rabble which possessed such a vast empire, he alone was so endowed by nature that he could manage each one of these cases suitably, and more than anything else he used the people's hopes and fears, like rudders, so to speak, giving timely check to their arrogance, and allaying and comforting their despair.

The reason for his success was not his power as a speaker merely, but the reputation of his life and the confidence reposed in him as one who was manifestly proven to be utterly disinterested and superior to bribes.

[Section 15]

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Pericles 13/

To such degree, it seems, is truth hedged about with difficulty and hard to capture by research, since those who come after the events in question find that lapse of time is an obstacle to their proper perception of them; while the research of their contemporaries into men's deeds and lives, partly through envious hatred and partly through fawning flattery, defiles and distorts the truth.

[Section 13]

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Pericles 12/

For this reason are the works of Pericles all the more to be wondered at; they were created in a short time for all time.

Each one of them, in its beauty, was even then and at once antique; but in the freshness of its vigour it is, even to the present day, recent and newly wrought.

Such is the bloom of perpetual newness, as it were, upon these works of his, which makes them ever to look untouched by time, as though the unfaltering breath of an ageless spirit has been infused into them.

#Classicism #TheGoldenAge #Art

#TheBloomOfPerpetualNewness

#atimewheneverythingcomesnaturallytous

[Section 13]

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Pericles 11/

And it is true that deftness and speed in working do not impart to the work an abiding weight of influence nor an exactness of beauty; whereas the time which is put out to loan in laboriously creating, pays a large and generous interest in the preservation of the creation.

[Section 13]

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Pericles 10/

And yet they say that once on a time when Agatharchus the painter was boasting loudly of the speed and ease with which he made his figures, Zeuxis heard him, and said, "Mine take, and last, a long time."

[Section 13]

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Pericles 9/

So then the works arose, no less towering in their grandeur than inimitable in the grace of their outlines, since the workmen eagerly strove to surpass themselves in the beauty of their handicraft. And yet the most wonder­ful thing about them was the speed with which they rose. Each one of them, men thought, would require many successive generations to complete it, but all of them were fully completed in the heyday of a single administration.

[Section 13]

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Pericles 8/

Now there had been from the beginning a sort of seam hidden beneath the surface of affairs, as in a piece of iron, which faintly indicated a divergence between the popular and the aristocratic programme; but the emulous ambition of these two men cut a deep gash in the state, and caused one section of it to be called the "Demos," or the People, and the other the "Oligoi," or the Few.

[Section 11]

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Pericles 5/

In his funeral oration over those who had fallen in the Samian War, he declared that they had become immortal, like the gods.

"The gods themselves," he said, "we cannot see, but from the honours which they receive, and the blessings which they bestow, we conclude that they are immortal." So it was, he said, with those who had given their lives for their country.

[Section 8]

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Pericles 4/

The truth is that even Pericles, with all his gifts, was cautious in his discourse, so that whenever he came forward to speak he prayed the gods that there might not escape him unawares a single word which was unsuited to the matter under discussion. In writing he left nothing behind him except the decrees which he proposed, and only a few in all of his memorable sayings are preserved.

[Section 8]

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Pericles 3/

And so it was that Pericles, seeking to avoid the satiety which springs from continual intercourse, made his approaches to the people by intervals, as it were, not speaking on every question, nor addressing the people on every occasion, but offering himself like the Salaminian trireme, as Critolaüs says, for great emergencies. The rest of his policy he carried out by commissioning his friends and other public speakers.

[Section 7]

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Pericles 2/

These two men [Pericles and Fabius Maximus] were alike in their virtues, and more especially in their gentleness and rectitude, and by their ability to endure the follies of their peoples and of their colleagues in office, they proved of the greatest service to their countries.

[Section 2]

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Themistocles 14/

Ostracism was not a penalty, but a way of pacifying and alleviating that jealousy which delights to humble the eminent, breathing out its malice into this disfranchisement.

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Themistocles 13/

Themistocles used to say of the Athenians that they did not really honour and admire him for himself, but treated him for all the world like a plane-tree, running under his branches for shelter when it stormed, but when they had fair weather all about them, plucking and docking him.

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Themistocles 12/

With a courage born of necessity the Hellenes set out to confront the danger.

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Themistocles 11/

"Yes we have left behind us our houses and city walls, not accepting to be in subjection for the sake of such lifeless things; but we still have a city, the greatest in Hellas, our 200 ships, which are ready to aid you if you choose to be saved by them."

"But if you betray us for the second time, many a Hellene will learn that the Athenians have won for themselves a city that is free and a territory that is far better than the one they cast aside."

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #Themistocles 10/

When the entire city was thus putting out to sea, the sight provoked pity in some, and in others astonishment at the hardihood of the step; for they were sending off their families in one direction, while they themselves, unmoved by the lamentations and tears and embraces of their loved ones, were crossing over to the island where the enemy was to be fought.