Editing Pericles (section)

=== Last military operations and death ===
{{rquote|right|For heroes have the whole earth for their tomb; and in lands far from their own, where the column with its epitaph declares it, there is enshrined in every breast a record unwritten with no tablet to preserve it, except that of the heart.|[[Thucydides]], ''[[Pericles' Funeral Oration]]''<ref>[[s:History of the Peloponnesian War/Book 2#2:43|2.43]]</ref>{{efn-lg|name="Thucydides speeches"}}}}

In 430 BC, the army of Sparta looted Attica for a second time, but Pericles was not daunted and refused to revise his initial strategy.<ref name="Thuc55">Thucydides, [[s:History of the Peloponnesian War/Book 2#2:55|2.55]]</ref> Unwilling to engage the Spartan army in battle, he again led a naval expedition to plunder the coasts of the Peloponnese, this time taking 100 Athenian ships with him.<ref name="Thuc56">Thucydides, [[s:History of the Peloponnesian War/Book 2#2:56|2.56]]</ref> According to Plutarch, just before the sailing of the ships an [[eclipse]] of the [[sun]] frightened the crews, but Pericles used the astronomical knowledge he had acquired from Anaxagoras to calm them.<ref name="Pl34">Plutarch, ''Pericles'', [[s:Lives/Pericles#35|XXXV]]</ref> In the summer of the same year [[Plague of Athens|an epidemic broke out]] and devastated the Athenians.<ref name="Th48-56">Thucydides, [[s:History of the Peloponnesian War/Book 2#2:48|2.48]] and [[s:History of the Peloponnesian War/Book 2#2:56|2.56]]</ref> The exact identity of the disease is uncertain; typhus or typhoid fever are suspected, but this has been the source of much debate.{{efn-lg|Taking into consideration its symptoms, most researchers and scientists now believe that it was [[typhus]] or [[typhoid fever]] and not [[cholera]], [[Bubonic plague|plague]] or [[measles]].<ref name="Go2">A.W. Gomme, ''An Historical Commentary on Thucydides'', II, 145–162.</ref><ref name="Vl177">A. Vlachos, ''Remarks on Thucydides'', 177</ref>}} In any case, the city's plight, caused by the epidemic, triggered a new wave of public uproar, and Pericles was forced to defend himself in an emotional final speech, a rendition of which is presented by Thucydides.<ref name="Thuc6064">Thucydides, [[s:History of the Peloponnesian War/Book 2#2:60|2.60–64]]</ref> This is considered to be a monumental oration, revealing Pericles' virtues but also his bitterness towards his compatriots' ingratitude.<ref name="Helios" /> Temporarily, he managed to tame the people's resentment and to ride out the storm, but his internal enemies' final bid to undermine him came off; they managed to deprive him of the generalship and to fine him at an amount estimated between 15 and 50 talents.<ref name="Pl34"/> Ancient sources mention [[Cleon]], a rising and dynamic protagonist of the Athenian political scene during the war, as the public prosecutor in Pericles' trial.<ref name="Pl34"/>
[[File:Plague in an Ancient City LACMA AC1997.10.1 (1 of 2).jpg|thumb|270px|''The Plague of Athens'' (c. 1652–1654) by [[Michiel Sweerts]]]]

Nevertheless, within just a year, in 429 BC, the Athenians not only forgave Pericles but also re-elected him as strategos.{{efn-lg|Pericles held the generalship from 444 BC until 430&nbsp;BC without interruption.<ref name="For2" />}} He was reinstated in command of the Athenian army and led all its military operations during 429 BC, having once again under his control the levers of power.<ref name="Helios" /> In that year, however, Pericles witnessed in the epidemic the death of both [[Paralus and Xanthippus]], his legitimate sons from his first wife. According to Plutarch, Pericles was overwhelmed with grief and wept copiously for his loss.<ref name="Pl36">Plutarch, ''Pericles'', XXXVI</ref> He himself died of the plague later in the year.

Just before his death, Pericles' friends were concentrated around his bed, enumerating his virtues during peace and underscoring his nine war trophies. Pericles, though moribund, heard them and interrupted them, pointing out that they forgot to mention his fairest and greatest title to their admiration; "for", said he, "no living Athenian ever put on mourning because of me".<ref name="Pl38">Plutarch, ''Pericles'', [[s:Lives/Pericles#38|XXXVIII]]</ref> Pericles lived during the first two and a half years of the Peloponnesian War and, according to Thucydides, his death was a disaster for Athens, since his successors were inferior to him; they preferred to incite all the bad habits of the rabble and followed an unstable policy, endeavoring to be popular rather than useful.<ref name="Thuc65"/> With these bitter comments, Thucydides not only laments the loss of a man he admired, but he also heralds the flickering of Athens' unique glory and grandeur.

Pausanias (c. 150 AD) records (I.29) seeing the tomb of Pericles along a road near the Academy.