Whether we take a
right aim at our intended purpose, it is left to the reader to
judge by what he shall find here.
Pericles was of the tribe of Acamantis, and the township
Cholargus, of the noblest birth both on his father's and mother's
side. Xanthippus, his father, who defeated the king of Persia's
generals in the battle at Mycale, took to Wife Agariste, the
grandchild of Clisthenes, who drove out the sons of Pisistratus,
and nobly put and end to their tyrannical usurpation, and moreover
made a body of laws, and settled a model of government admirably
tempered and suited for the harmony and safety of the people.
Pericles in other respects was perfectly formed physically, only
his head was somewhat longish and out of proportion. For which
reason almost all the images and statues that were made of him
have the head covered with a helmet, the workmen not apparently
being willing to expose him. The poets of Athens called him
"Schinocephalos," or squill-head, from "schinos," a squill, or
sea-onion.
Pericles was a hearer of Zeno, the Eliatic, who treated of natural
philosophy in the same manner as Parmenides did, but had also
perfected himself in an art of his own for refuting and silencing
opponents in argument; as Timon of Phlius describes it,--
Also the two-edged tongue of mighty Zeno, who,
Say what one would, could argue it untrue.
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