\paperw7395 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 \b Pericles (Athens ca. 495 BC - 429 BC)\par
\b0 The son of Xanthippus, he was the chief representative of the faction that
tried to strengthen the power of the mercantile middle class against that of the noble oligarchy. It was Pericles who gave Athens its leading role in the Greek world through the struggle against the Persians. Once he had succeeded in having Thucydides s
ent into exile, he became the main spokesman of the democratic party in Athens, and was responsible for important political reforms aimed at strengthening democracy. Pericles also sought to extend Athens's sphere of influence through alliances and the es
tablishment of numerous colonies. Elected commander of the army every year from 443 BC onward, he was able to reconcile his political action with the extraordinary moment of democratic awareness that he himself had brought about in the city. He promoted
an intense program of construction (the acropolis of Athens, the temple at Cape Sounion, the fortification of the Piraeus) and cultural activity and was a friend of Protagoras and Anaxagoras. He died during an epidemic in 429 BC.\par
\par
\b Phidias (A
thens ca. 490 BC - ca. 431 BC)\par
\b0 Architect, painter, and sculptor, he worked mainly in Athens and Olympia. He carved many statues that are known to us through subsequent replicas and descriptions in literary sources. Highly skilled in the volumetr
ic representation of nudes and in the soft and animated treatment of drapery, he was able to impart life and movement to his sculptures, summing up the achievements of earlier sculptors in a new plastic language. The sculptural decoration of the Partheno
n was due to his personal intervention. He exercised a very powerful influence on later sculpture, right up to the late classical age.\par
\par
\par
\b Polybius (Megalopolis 202 BC - ca. 118 BC)\par
\b0 A Greek historian, he was taken to Rome as a ho
stage in 168 BC. There he formed a friendship with Scipio Aemilianus, following him to Africa and witnessing the destruction of Carthage. He wrote the Histories (forty books) between 164 and 146 BC, of which only the first five books and extracts of the
others have come down to us.\par
\par
\b Polyclitus the Elder (Argos, active 460-420 BC)\par
\b0 An Argive sculptor, born around 480 BC, he carved statues with perfect proportions and harmonious and balanced forms, following a precise theoretical syst
em that he had developed himself. His most famous works include the Spearman and the Diadumenos, statues known to us through numerous copies.\par
\par
\b Praxiteles (Athens, active 360-320 BC)\par
\b0 An Attic sculptor, to whom over forty works have b
een attributed. He carved statues of adolescents in graceful poses, with a joyous or occasionally sad expression. Among the deities, he was particularly fond of representing Aphrodite. He exercised a great influence on the artists of the Hellenistic peri
od. Among his most famous works are the Aphrodite of Cnidus and Hermes with the Child Dionysus of Olympia, the only one of his original sculptures to have survived.\par
\par
\par
\b Publius Cornelius Scipio the African (Rome 236 BC - Liternum 183 BC)
\par
\b0 He commenced his brilliant military career in Spain during the Second Punic War, by defeating Hasdrubal at Baecula (208 BC) and Mago at Ilipa (206 BC) and driving the Carthaginians out of the territory. Made a consul in 205, he argued that it wa
s necessary to take the war to Africa. He landed there with an army of volunteers in 205, winning the decisive battle of Zama (202 BC). He gained enormous prestige and was again elected consul. He fought alongside his brother in the war against Antiochus
III of Syria, where they won a crushing victory at the battle of Magnesia (190 BC). Surrounded by envy, he was caught up in various actions brought against his brother and, accused of treachery, retired to Liternum, where he died shortly afterward.
\par
\par
\b Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus (Rome 185 - 129 BC)\par
\b0 Adopted by the son of Scipio the African and made a consul in 147 even though he had not yet reached the prescribed age, he was sent to Carthage to bring the siege of the city to
an end. A censor in 142 BC, he was made consul again in 134 and concluded the war in Spain by overcoming the resistance of Numantia (133 BC). He was the chief exponent of enlightened conservatism.\par
