Axis Age/ Golden Age of Greece

I had the great pleasure of interviewing Pericles, leader of Athens during the Golden Age. Enjoy!

Q: I understand that you are were the leader of Greece during the Golden Age? Can you tell me a little bit about that?

A: Sure! This whole Axis Age began around 546- 479 BCE. The golden age was began after we, the Greeks, kicked some Persian behind in the Persian War. It was great, it was flourishing! Drama and festivals are at the top of their game! The Golden Age of Greece ended when we unfortunately lost the Peloponnesian War to Sparta. 

Q: Were you doing all of this alone?

A: I had the help of my lady, Aspasia. She was foreign born and helped me through that era. We worked so well together!

Q: Did anything remarkable happen during these times? What was so great?

A: Why of course! Many things did! One that really stuck out for me was Democracy in Athens. I really tried to be the best ruler and to do that, I needed the help of my people! We had great advances in science and philosophy. Women were getting a lot of rights! People were reaching their full potential and we had a lot of different philosophers to help out! Socrates was one of the best! We used a hellenistic culture which was really working with the people.

Q: You are speaking of all these wars. Can you explain a little more?

A: Sure, We had two major events that really defined us. The first were the Persian Wars, and those were not too fun. Darius was out for us Athenians. We both met at Marathon and battled it out. We ended up defeating the Persians and what would come to be known as the beginning of the Golden age so f Greece. Second was the Peloponnesian War. This was around 431 BCE when Sparta launched attack on us. That used our enemies, The Persians, as allies. I just couldn't get over that! We couldn't use our navy and we allowed our citizens to come inside the city walls for protection. The overcrowding led to plague and killed many people. This led to our decline.

Q: Is there anything of yours that you think will continuously affect the distant future?

A: I definitely think that all of the culture and philosophy will survive! This was such a great era with many achievements which i hope will make it for a while. Culture and women's rights, the idea of potential and equality. Hopefully democracy as well. I just want everyone to get to experience what we all did!