“IN PRAISE OF ATHENS”

The following is a speech given by Pericles at a ceremony honoring those Athenians who had fallen in battle.  Recent victories over invading Spartan armies had boosted the confidence of the Athenians, and Pericles reflected this mood in his address to the citizens of Athens.

“Before I praise the dead, I should like to point out those principles which had guided our rise to power and describe the institutions and way of life which have made our city great.  I believe such thoughts are appropriate to the occasion and the citizens gathered here may profit from them.

No other form of government rivals our own institutions.  We have not copied the governments of our authoritarian neighbors, but rather have set an example for them.  We are called a democracy because the power to make laws resides with the many rather than the few.  The law gives equal justice to everyone and every citizen has the opportunity to serve the public good.  We do not discriminate against the poor as every man may serve his city no matter how low his position.  Moreover, we do not allow secrecy in our public affairs, and in our private relations we are not suspicious of one another.  We approach our public duties and the laws with reverence and are prevented from doing wrong out of respect for the law. 

An Athenian citizen does not put his private affairs before the affairs of the state; everyone knows something about politics.  We alone believe that a man who takes no interest in public affairs is more than harmless, he is useless.  Our enemies believe that publicly debating a policy prevents effective action, but we believe that the greatest barrier to wise action is not understanding an issue completely.  Athenians therefore have that particular ability to think before they act, but we do not allow thinking to interfere with acting decisively.  As a result, the individual Athenian is able to adapt to all types of conditions and to undertake any problem with grace.  Other Greeks either act without thinking or hesitate to act if they think. 

We are also unlike other cities when it comes to doing good.  We make our friends by doing favors, not by receiving them.  We help our neighbors not because we want them to repay us in our time of need, but because we are men of good will.  In short, I proclaim that Athens is the school for all Greece. 

Such is the city for whose sake these brave men nobly fought and died.  The sacrifice which they made has been repaid to each of them, for each has received our praise and each has been given the noblest of burials.  I do not wish to speak of those burials, but of their glory which survives.  Each of us should like them gladly sacrifice for Athens.”

-From Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War