What is Boris’s great secret? Does it lie in the bust of the Athenian statesman Pericles (c. 495–429 bc) that he keeps in the Mayor’s office in London?
The key can be found, perhaps, in Pericles’ passionate commitment to the idea of Athens as a ‘living lesson for Greece’. This was the central message of his famous Funeral Speech (430 bc) — not so much the heroism of the dead as the uniqueness of the city for which they had died and the contrast with its bitter rival, the conservative, inward-looking, military-obsessed Sparta.
Athens was a model to others, Pericles affirmed, a democracy governed in the interests of the many, not the few. Advancement in public life depended on merit; poverty did not stand in a man’s way. Tolerance in private dealings did not result in lawlessness. Further, Athens was an open city, attracting to it the produce of the world, with a relaxed life style that did not compromise resolve in battle.
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