The periclean notions of 'justice, excellence and citizenship'

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is, precisely, to exude, through a textual exegetical and hermeneutical analysis, the Periclean notions of justice, excellence and citizenship, especially in their differentiation and opposition to both alternatives. The notions of polis, aretê and dikaiosunê are central in this brief and cryptic paragraph and, regardless of whether they may be accepted or not, they are not any less relevant today than they were at the time. Since, at least according to Plutarch, Pericles has not left any text, all our judgment on the question of his polity, polities and policies has to rely on external sources and, in this particular case, on Thucydides's meticulous chronicles of a few of his speeches, one of which, and undeniably the most important one, is the Funeral Oration. The question in this paper is not whether Pericles' polities and policies were historically consistent with the polity he describes in this Oration, but the principles he presents and their meaning and significance.