Perikles at that period used his influence to pass a decree for establishing a musical competition at the Panathenaic festival; and, being himself chosen judge, he laid down rules as to how the candidates were to sing, and play the flute or the harp.  At that period, and ever afterwards, all musical contests took place in the Odeum.

The Propylaea, before the Acropolis, were finished in five years, by Mnesikles the architect; and a miraculous incident during the work seemed to show that the goddess did not disapprove, but rather encouraged and assisted the building.  The most energetic and active of the workmen fell from a great height, and lay in a dangerous condition, given over by his doctors.  Perikles grieved much for him; but the goddess appeared to him in a dream, and suggested a course of treatment by which Perikles quickly healed the workman.  In consequence of this, he set up the brazen statue of Athene the Healer, near the old altar in the Acropolis.  The golden statue of the goddess was made by Pheidias, and his name appears upon the basement in the inscription.  Almost everything was in his hands, and he gave his orders to all the workmen—­as we have said before—­because of his friendship with Perikles.  This led to their both being envied and belied; for it was said that Perikles, with the connivance of Pheidias, carried on intrigues with Athenian ladies, who came ostensibly to see the works.  This accusation was taken up by the comic poets, who charged him with great profligacy, hinting that he had an improper passion for the wife of Menippus, his friend, and a lieutenant-general in the army.  Even the bird-fancying of Pyrilampes, because he was a friend of Perikles, was misrepresented, and he was said to give peacocks to the ladies who granted their favours to Perikles.  But, indeed, how can we wonder at satirists bringing foul accusations against their betters, and offering them up as victims to the spite of the populace, when we find Stesimbrotus, of Thasos, actually inventing that unnatural and abominable falsehood of Perikles’s intrigue with his own daughter-in-law.  So hard is it to discover the truth, because the history of past ages is rendered difficult by the lapse of time; while in contemporary history the truth is always obscured, either by private spite and hatred, or by a desire to curry favour with the chief men of the time.

XIV.  When the speakers of Thucydides’s party complained that Perikles had wasted the public money, and destroyed the revenue, he asked the people in the assembly whether they thought he had spent much.  When they answered “Very much indeed,” he said in reply, “Do not, then, put it down to the public account, but to mine; and I will inscribe my name upon all the public buildings.”  When Perikles said this, the people, either in admiration of his magnificence of manner, or being eager to bear their share in the glory of the new buildings, shouted to him with one accord to take what money he pleased from the treasury, and spend it as he pleased, without stint.  And finally, he underwent the trial of ostracism with Thucydides, and not only succeeded in driving him into exile, but broke up his party.