PERICLES 



6O58 



PERIGUEUX 



Pericles (c. 490-429). Athenian 

 statesman. Educated by Zeno of 

 Elea and Anaxagoras, he made his 

 appearance in public life in 469. 

 Though an aristocrat by birth and 

 breeding, Pericles, in conjunction 

 with bis colleague Ephialtes, about 

 463 B.O., procured the important 

 reform restricting the powers of 

 tho aristocratic Areopagus (q.v.). 

 The murder of Ephialtes in 461 B.C. 

 left him without a rival in his 

 own party. In 443 B.C. the ostra- 

 cism or exile of the conservative 

 leader Thucydides (who is not to 

 be confused with the historian of 

 that name) left him without a rival 

 in the state, in which he continued 

 supreme until his death. 



Pericles regarded the state as 

 existing in the interests of the 

 whole, not of a class ; he trusted in 

 the people, in their intelligence and 

 their moral instincts ; but at 

 bottom that trust rested upon his 

 confidence in his power of leading 

 them and inspiring them. The de- 

 mocracy he set up required a Peri- 

 cles to lead and inspire it, to give 

 it fixity of purpose and policy. He 

 made Athens free, and he made 

 her the first state in the Grecian 

 world, but he did not give her the 

 organization which might have 

 fitted her to retain the position he 

 won for her. The inheritor of the 

 ideas of Themistocles (q.v.}. he 

 saw that the true policy for 

 Athens was to establish her own 

 naval supremacy, and her primacy 

 in a league of maritime states ; but 

 her primacy was always in danger 

 of being turned into a tyrannical 

 dominion in the hands of lesser 

 statesmen than himself. 



His ideals are magnificently set 

 forth in the famous funeral ora- 

 tion attributed to him by the his- 

 torian Thucydides. He aimed at 

 a leadership which should ulti- 

 mately have welded the Greeks 

 into a great free state made up of 

 autonomous units. From that ideal 

 he did not depart, and it was in 

 the pursuit of it that the growing 

 prestige of Athens spurred on 

 Sparta and her other rivals to seek 

 her overthrow. Pericles had an- 

 ticipated the attack and accepted 

 the challenge with a confident 

 equanimity ; but two years after 

 the Peloponnesian war broke out 

 in 431 B.C. his guiding hand was 

 removed by death. The age of 

 Pericles was the most brilliant 

 in the history of Greece. See 

 Greece ; consult also The Age of 

 Pericles, W. Watkiss Lloyd, 1875 ; 

 Pericles and the Golden Age of 

 Athens, Evelyn Abbott, 2nd ed. 

 1901. Pron. Peri-kleez. 



Pericles, PRINCE OF TY&E. Ro- 

 mantic play attributed to Shake- 

 speare. The greater part was 



probably written by George Wil- 

 kins, Shakespeare s handiwork 

 being seen chiefly in Acts 3-5. It 



Pericles, Athenian statesman 



From a bust in the British Museum 



is based on adaptations by John 

 Gower and Laurence Twine of the 

 early Greek romance of Apollonius 

 of Tyre. The play deals with the 

 loss by Pericles of his wife and 

 daughter and their reunion. First 

 acted at The Globe in 1608, and 

 popular as late as 1630, the last 

 notable production in London was 

 that by Phelps at Sadler's Wells, 

 Oct. 14, 1854. Wilkins, in 1608, 

 published a novel which he said 

 was based on the play. Pericles 

 was first printed in 1609, but not 

 admitted to Shakespeare's col- 

 lected works until the second 

 issue of the Third Folio in 1664. 

 It contains 2,386 lines, of which 

 418 are in prose and 1,436 in 

 blank verse. See Shakespeare's 

 Library, vol. 4, W. C. Hazlitt, 

 1875 ; Handbook to Shakespeare's 

 Works, M. Luce, 1907. 



Peridot. In geology, a variety 

 of chrysolite. Found in N. America, 

 the Levant, etc., and alternatively 

 known as Job's tears, peridot is 

 always some shade of green. It 

 commonly appears in the form of 

 small pehbles, 

 and is used as a [ 

 gem stone. See 

 Chrysolite. 



Peridotite. In 

 geology, name 

 given to a group 

 of crystalline 

 igneous rocks. 

 They consist 

 chiefly of olivine, 

 together with 

 augite, biotite, 

 hornblende, hy- 

 persthene, and 

 magnetite, etc. 

 Quartz and 



felspar are absent, but the rocks 

 are rich in magnesia, and for 

 that reason are alternatively known 

 as magnesian rocks. Peridotites 

 are often rich in iron, and on de- 

 composition pass into serpentine, 

 most of which rock has been so 

 formed. Corundum, platinum, red 

 garnet, and diamonds are all found 

 in peridotites. See Olivine ; Ser- 

 pentine. 



Perigee (Gr. peri, around ; ge, 

 the earth). Point in the moon's 

 orbit at which the moon ap- 

 proaches nearest to the earth. The 

 term is sometimes applied to the 

 position of any heavenly body 

 when it approaches in its orbit 

 nearest to the earth. It is the op- 

 posite point of apogee. See 

 Apogee ; Moon. 



Perigord. One of the provinces 

 into which France was divided be- 

 fore the Revolution. It is now re- 

 presented by the depts. of Dor- 

 dogne and Lot-et-Garonne. Before 

 the 14th century it was feudatory 

 to Aquitaine, and as such was an 

 English possession. After the ex- 

 pulsion of the English it was united 

 to the crown of France. Pron. 

 Pay-rigor. 



Perigueux. Town of France. 

 The capital of the dept. of Dor- 

 dogne, it stands on a height on the 

 right bank of the Isle, about 80 m. 

 E.N.E. of Bordeaux, and is a junc- 

 tion of the Orleans rly. It has loco- 

 motive works, and manufactures 

 agricultural machinery, furniture, 

 woollens, hats, etc. A considerable 

 trade is carried on in wine. The 

 cathedral of S. Front, 984-1047, 

 built perhaps in imitation of S. 

 Mark's at Venice, is a fine example 

 of Byzantine architecture. Other 

 important buildings are the church 

 of S. Etienne and the prefecture. 

 Perigueux, the ancient capital of 

 the Gallic Petrocorii, was the 

 Vesunna of the Romans, relics of 

 whose rule remain in a great tower 

 and an amphitheatre. It was 

 besieged by the English in 1356, 

 and was sacked by the Huguenots, 

 who occupied it from 1575 to 1581. 

 Pop. 33,500. 



Perigueux, France. The cathedral of S. Front, seen from 

 the east 



