292 PERICARDITIS PERICLES vigorous and successful. According to Herodo- tus, deceived by a scandalous report, he had put to death his wife Melissa, the daughter of Procles, tyrant of Epidaurus, though he was warmly attached to her; and when in after years his two sons visited the court of the latter, their grandfather told them the manner of their mother's death. The younger son, Lycophron, on his return refused to have any intercourse with his father ; whereupon Peri- ander sent him away to Corcyra, invaded Epi- daurus, reduced it, and took Procles prisoner. His elder son Cypselus being unfit to rule, he endeavored to persuade Lycophron to return and take charge of the kingdom ; and finally the latter consented on condition that his father should abdicate and live in Corcyra. But the inhabitants of Corcyra, wishing to keep Pe- riander away, put his son to death. Periander is said to have died of grief, at the age of 80. He was usually reckoned among the seven sages of Greece, although some placed in his stead Myson of Chense in Laconia. PERICARDITIS. See HEART, DISEASES OF THE, vol. viii., p. 560. PERICLES, an Athenian statesman, born in Athens about 495 B. C., died there in 429. He was of an ancient and noble family; his fa- ther was Xanthippus, who, with he Spartan general Leotychides, defeated the Persians at Mycale ; his mother was Agariste, niece of Clisthenes, who expelled the Pisistratidse from Athens. On the father's side he was con- nected with the family of Pisistratus, and on the mother's side he was descended from the princes of Sicyon and the Alcmgeonidse. He was instructed by Damon, Zeno, and Anaxa- goras, with the last of whom he was intimate. In 469 he began to take part in public affairs, and soon became the leader of the popular party, as Cimon was of the aristocracy. When the Messenians rose against Sparta in 464, and fortified themselves on Mt. Ithome, the Spar- tans invoked the aid of the Athenians to re- duce the place. Cimon was sent with a large force ; but he failed to reduce the fortress, was slighted by the Spartans, and returned home in disgrace. Between Pericles and Cimon there was a hereditary feud ; for it was Xan- thippus, the father of Pericles, who had im- peached Miltiades, the father of Cimon. Ta- king advantage of the unpopularity which the ill fortune at Mt. Ithome brought upon Cimon and the aristocracy, Pericles caused a measure to be carried in the popular assembly, by which the^ court of the areopagus was nearly shorn of its political power. This was a fatal blow to the aristocracy, and constituted, with other changes, a political revolution. Among these changes were the institution of dicasteries or jury courts, in which jurors were paid for their attendance, and the almost complete abroga- tion of the judicial power of the senate of 500. The ascendancy of Pericles and the popular party thus established cost many a violent struggle. The poet ^Eschylus enlisted all his powers, in the drama of the "Eumenides," against these innovations ; but his opposition resulted only in his own flight from the city, while Cimon himself, who had before narrow- ly escaped banishment, was soon after driven into exile by ostracism (about 459). On the other hand, Ephialtes, a leader with Pericles of the popular party, a man of rigid integrity, who had been most conspicuous in the passage of the obnoxious measure against the areo- pagus, was, at the time of Cimon's recall from banishment (about 454), assassinated by a Boeo- tian emissary of the aristocracy. The hum- bled aristocracy afterward united themselves under the party lead of Thucydides, the son of Melesias. In the popular assembly they were drilled into a compact party organization, oc- cupying seats together instead of being mixed up with the general mass of citizens. They complained of the administration of Pericles, that the fund derived from the confederacy of Delos, intended for purposes of general defence against the Persians, had been misapplied in the adornment and strengthening of Athens. Pericles claimed the right to use in this way so much of the public treasure as was not needed for the common defence. He was sus- tained, and Thucydides driven into banish- ment. This annihilated the aristocratic party, and left to Pericles the undisputed conduct of affairs. He had succeeded to the political prin- ciples of Themistocles, and he labored first to make Athens the capital of Greece, the centre of political power and influence, and the seat of art and refinement ; and secondly to elevate the public spirit of his countrymen. He gave respectability and value to the elective franchise by setting close guards against a fraudulent abuse of it, and thus made even the humblest citizen feel something of the dignity of Athe- nian citizenship. He trained the people to na- val affairs by sending out every year a squad- ron of 60 triremes to cruise for eight months in the ^Egean. He planned great architectural works to embellish and strengthen the city. He built the Odeon for theatrical exhibitions, and the Parthenon with the Propylsea. To render secure the communication of Athens with the sea, chiefly through his advice, the long walls had been built to the Piraeus and Phalerum ; and to increase this security he added a third wall, and improved and beauti- fied the Piraeus. He further provided for the poorer classes and strengthened the state by an enlightened system of colonization. For the entertainment of the people he added to the pomp and magnificence of popular spectacles, established new ones, and made the theatres and public festivals accessible to the poorer classes. He democratized the legislative and judicial functions of government by paying jurors and legislators. Literature, architec- ture, painting, and sculpture rose under him to the highest perfection. In his foreign poli- cy he aimed at the aggrandizement of Athens and the extension and consolidation of her
