pericles - what do you think???

[isaacmacdonald]

My old greek history prof theorized that pericles, while clearly an excellent governor, ultimately led to the decline and fall of athenian democracy. The idea was something like that his uber-goodness undermined the fundamental democratic nature of the system, and allowed for his successor to to be equally stupid without checks.

Sadly, I sold all of my old greek history textbooks, and can't remember the real timeline. Does anyone have comments or links to good historical references I can use for a paper that mentions pericles? Obviously I googled, but I'm looking for PARTICULARLY relevant information for this argument.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

I thought the democracy was already gone when Pericles did his thing.

 

[StormRider]

Originally posted by: isaacmacdonald
My old greek history prof theorized that pericles, while clearly an excellent governor, ultimately led to the decline and fall of athenian democracy. The idea was something like that his uber-goodness undermined the fundamental democratic nature of the system, and allowed for his successor to to be equally stupid without checks.

Sadly, I sold all of my old greek history textbooks, and can't remember the real timeline. Does anyone have comments or links to good historical references I can use for a paper that mentions pericles? Obviously I googled, but I'm looking for PARTICULARLY relevant information for this argument.

I sometimes wonder if it's possible for a society to be too super-good and accepting of all other beliefs and cultures that it will cause it's own demise because it allows another culture/government (one that is less democratic) system to eventually take over.