Status Updates From The Peloponnesian War: Athe...

In his last recorded speech Pericles enumerated the characteristics necessary in a statesman: "To know what must be done and to be able to explain it; to love one's country and to be incorruptible" (2.60.5). No one had these traits in greater measure than Pericles himself, and if he made errors, he of all the Athenians was most likely to put them right. His countrymen would miss him sorely.