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Read the Funeral Oration of Pericles in the Ancient History Sourcebookat Fordham University. Given the context of this speech, do you believe everything Pericles says about Athens in the Funeral Oration? Why or why not?Ancient History Sourcebook: Thucydides (c.460/455-c.399 BCE): Pericles’ Funeral Ora±on from the Peloponnesian War (Book 2.34-46) This famous speech was given by the Athenian leader Pericles a²er the ³rst ba´les of the Peloponnesian war. Funerals a²er such ba´les were public rituals and Pericles used the occasion to make a classic statement of the value of democracy. In the same winter the Athenians gave a funeral at the public cost to those who had ³rst fallen inthis war. It was a custom of their ancestors, and the manner of it is as follows. Three days before the ceremony, the bones of the dead are laid out in a tent which has been erected; and their friends bring to their rela±ves such oµerings as they please. In the funeral procession cypress co¶ns are borne in cars, one for each tribe; the bones of the deceased being placed in the co¶n of their tribe. Among these is carried one empty bier decked for the missing, that is, for those whose bodies could not be recovered. Any ci±zen or stranger, who pleases, joins in the procession: and the female rela±ves are there to wail at the burial. The dead are laid in the public sepulcher in the Beau±ful suburb of the city, in which those who fall in war are always buried; with the excep±on of those slain at Marathon, who for their singular and extraordinary velour was interred on the spot where they fell. A²er the bodies have been laid in the earth, a man chosen by the state, of approved wisdom and eminent reputa±on, pronounces over them an appropriate panegyric; a²er which all re±re. Such is the manner of the burying; and throughout the whole of the war, whenever the occasion arose, the established custom was observed. Meanwhile these were the ³rst that had fallen, and Pericles, son of Xanthippe’s, was chosen to pronounce their eulogium. When the proper ±me arrived, he advanced from the sepulcher to an elevated pla·orm in order to be heard by as many of the crowd as possible, and spoke as follows:”Most of my predecessors in this place have commended him who made this speech part of the law, telling us that it is well that it should be delivered at the burial of those who fall in ba´le. For myself,I should have thought that the worth which had displayed itself in deeds would be su¶ciently rewarded by honors also shown by deeds; such as you now see in this funeral prepared at the people’s cost. And I could have wished that the reputa±ons of many brave men were not to be imperiled in the mouth of a single individual, to stand or fall according as he spoke well or ill. For it is hard to speak properly upon a subject where it is even di¶cult to convince your hearers that you are speaking the truth. On the one hand, the friend who is familiar with every fact of the story may think that some point has not been set forth with that fullness which he wishes and knows it to deserve; on the other, he who is a stranger to the ma´er may be led by envy to suspect exaggera±on if he hears anything above his own nature. For men can endure to hear others praised only so long as they can severally persuade th
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