And under his rule Athens became the school of
Greece, the great centre for every form of intellectual activity, a
position which she maintained until the later period of the Roman
Empire.
If, however, we would understand the character of Pericles, and the
spirit of the age which he represents, we must never forget that this
aspect of Athenian greatness, to us by far the most important, was not
the aspect which awoke the highest enthusiasm in him and his
contemporaries. Those things which have made the name of Athens
immortal, her art and her literature, were matters of but secondary
importance to the Athenian of that age. He worshipped his city as a
beloved mistress, and, like a lover, he delighted to adorn her with
outward dignity and splendour. But to lavish all his thought and care
on these external embellishments would have been, in his estimation, a
senseless waste of his highest faculties, as if a lover should make
the robes and jewels of his mistress the objects of his highest
adoration. To make Athens the mightiest state in Greece, to build up
the fabric of her material greatness--these were the objects for which
he was ready to devote the best energies of heart and brain, and if
need were, to lay down his life. He might be skilled in every elegant
accomplishment, an acute reasoner, an orator, a musician, a poet; and
to some extent he was all of these.
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