Was Pericles' Funeral Oration the greatest speech of the ancient world?

Pericles stands addressing a crowd in Athens, gesturing with his right hand, with the Acropolis visible in the background.
Fotoreproductie van een schilderij, voorstellende Pericles draagt zijn grafrede voor te Athene. (c. 1875–c. 1880). Rijksmuseum, RP-F-2001-7-864-5. Public Domain. Source: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/RP-F-2001-7-864-5

At the close of the first year of the Peloponnesian War in 431 BCE, Pericles delivered a funeral speech that became one of the most well-regarded expressions of public duty and city pride in the ancient world.

 

His words, as recorded in the History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, paid tribute to the fallen and promoted the ideals of democratic citizenship.

 

Later generations returned to the speech as an example of how a city should speak to its people in times of grief and struggle. 

Why was Athens fighting the Peloponnesian War?

At the time war began, Athens had already transformed the Delian League into an empire that demanded tribute and obedience from subject allies.

 

From island garrisons to naval patrols, the Athenian presence dominated the eastern Mediterranean.

 

By the mid-fifth century BCE, more than 150 city-states paid tribute to Athens.

 

That expansion caused growing resentment in Sparta and its allies, who viewed Athens as a unsettling force.

 

Among the Spartans, fears of Athenian interference in the Peloponnese had grown steadily throughout the 430s. 

Eventually, disputes over Potidaea, trade sanctions against Megara, and pressure from Corinth led Sparta to issue ultimatums.

 

Athens refused to retreat. Thebes, which aligned with Sparta, attacked Plataea, a long-time ally of Athens.

 

That event was the first military confrontation of the war. Soon after, Sparta launched repeated invasions of Athenian territory, while Athens retaliated with naval raids on the Peloponnesian coast. 

Pericles urged the Athenian assembly to remain inside the well-protected city and rely on the navy.

 

His strategy required disciplined patience grounded in confidence drawn from the long-term strength of the Athenian economy.

 

According to his judgment, the city could afford to lose land; its sea power remained strong.

 

His plan focused on avoiding direct confrontation with Sparta’s superior land forces, and it forced the enemy into a long and tiring conflict. 


What was the funeral where Pericles spoke?

During each year of war, Athens held a public funeral for those who had died in military service.

 

In a formal ceremony, officials displayed the coffins in the agora and then transported them to the Kerameikos for burial.

 

A leading citizen delivered a eulogy that praised the dead and reminded the city of its values.

 

According to tradition, the orator honoured the collective sacrifice made in defence of Athens instead of focusing on individuals.

 

This practice formed part of the epitaphios logos, a ceremonial speech delivered to mark the burial of war dead. 

In this particular case, the ceremony followed the first campaign season. The dead included those who had fallen at Potidaea and others who had died during Spartan raids.

 

Contemporary estimates suggest that over 1,000 Athenians had perished in that year alone.

 

Families of the fallen gathered with ordinary citizens, city officials, and foreign guests.

 

The mood remained sombre, but also hopeful. People looked to the oration to provide comfort and strength as the war entered its second year. 


What did Pericles say in the Funeral Oration?

In his opening remarks, Pericles acknowledged the challenge of praising men whose deeds exceeded the reach of language.

 

He declared that true honour came from action rather than from words. Rather than recount individual achievements, he described the institutions and customs that had shaped those who fought.

 

The focus shifted quickly to the character of Athens itself. Although the original words have not survived, Thucydides preserved the speech in Book 2, Chapters 35 to 46 of his history. 

Notably, he praised the political system, which granted equal justice to all citizens and opened public office to ability rather than wealth.

 

He described a society in which public participation defined citizenship and where freedom existed together with discipline.

 

He argued that Athenian citizens enjoyed both private comfort and public responsibility without conflict between the two. 

Importantly, Pericles highlighted the voluntary nature of military service in Athens.

 

He claimed that the dead had chosen to fight out of love for their city rather than under force.

 

They knew the risks and accepted them. In his view, that decision reflected strength of character and loyalty to something higher than personal gain.

 

Later in the speech, he turned to those left behind. He urged parents to bear their loss with pride, encouraged younger men to follow the example of the fallen, and reminded widows of their duties under tradition.

 

His tone remained firm and composed. He did not offer false promises or overstated comfort.

 

Instead, he demanded that the city remain worthy of the sacrifice it had received.

 

In one memorable line, he proclaimed that "the whole earth is the tomb of famous men," suggesting that the memory of the fallen would endure in the values they upheld. 


What made Pericles’ speech so powerful?

Clearly, one of the speech’s greatest strengths lay in its ability to turn private sorrow into public commitment.

 

Pericles did not sentimentalise the dead. Instead, he made their sacrifice meaningful by linking it to a living ideal.

 

In his account, Athens had earned their loyalty by giving them freedom, voice, and dignity.

 

Their deaths preserved that structure for others to enjoy. 

In terms of delivery, the speech displayed skillful control of language. Pericles avoided exaggeration and spoke in measured praise.

 

He relied on contrast between Athenian values and those of its enemies without attacking Sparta directly.

 

He offered reason instead of emotion, and he anchored his claims in observed behaviour rather than general ideas. 

At a time when fear and uncertainty gripped the city and loss weighed on its citizens, the oration offered purpose.

 

It made the war about a defence of a political system that empowered ordinary people to act with courage and dignity.

 

Pericles had led Athens for over a decade by that point, and his credibility added force to his words. 


Why has the speech remained important?

Since its inclusion in Thucydides’ history, the Funeral Oration has became a model for public speech during war.

 

Political leaders, educators, and scholars have studied its language and message for over two thousand years.

 

In later periods, orators who faced a national crisis turned to Pericles for guidance on how to speak about sacrifice bound citizens to duty and fostered unity.

 

Historians also debated how accurately Thucydides reproduced the speech, and some historians suggested that it conveyed his own political interpretation rather than a direct transcript. 

Frequently, scholars have compared it to the Gettysburg Address, where Lincoln spoke about the meaning of their actions rather than about individual soldiers.

 

Both speeches argued that the living must continue the work of the dead. Both defined patriotism as loyalty to a set of shared values rather than to a ruler or a tribe.