Understanding the Politics of Perikles Around 450 BC. The Benefits of an Economic Perspective

Carl Hampus Lyttkens and Henrik Gerding ()
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Henrik Gerding: Department of Classical Archaeology and Ancient History, Lund University

No 2015:13, Working Papers from Lund University, Department of Economics

Abstract: Perikles is usually seen as a great statesman and clever leader of the Athenians. In the mid fifth century BC, he seems however to have been in serious political trouble and may well have been in danger of losing the struggle for power and of being ostracised. The fact that his incentives changed considerably at this point in time is ignored in traditional historical accounts. In contrast, we see the fierce competition as a motivation for several important policy measures introduced by Perikles at this particular time: the pay to jurors, the new law on citizenship (which has been a puzzle to many historians), and the building projects on the Acropolis and elsewhere. Compared to traditional analyses, an economic rational-actor approach thus provides a diachronic analytical benefit by focusing on the way incentives change over time and it provides a synchronic benefit by dealing with various decisions in a common framework.

Keywords: economics; ancient history; Athens; Perikles; law on citizenship; Parthenon; payment to jurors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B40 K37 N43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2015-04-28
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-hpe
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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