Pericles

          Today in class we continued watching the video. The video focused a lot on Pericles today. It talked about how he and his groups were some of the most important to ancient western civilization. Pericles was the one who had proposed the idea of constructing the Parthenon. It took 5,000 workers in just the first year. Fifteen years later, it was finally finished. It was a glorious symbol of the Athenian empire. In 431 B.C Pericles took a daring chance and decided that he wanted to go to war with Sparta, since they seemed like competition to them because they were equally powerful. However,  that only ended with the Spartan victory leaving Athens defeated and hungry. Pericles had died in 429 B.C.  from the Plague that had devastated Athens, killing many. The video also mentioned Socrates, and ancient philosopher who didn’t care much about appearance. Socrates used a lot of reason and logic to examine the world anew. In 416 Sicily needed help and asked Athens for assistance. Athens gripped this opportunity since Sicily was allies with Sparta, and Athens wanted to humiliate Sparta and conquer Sicily. However, after about a year, the people who went over to Sicily were never heard from again. Athens had been a victim to one of the greatest defeats.