Editing Pericles (section)

== Personal life ==
{{rquote|right|For men can endure to hear others praised only so long as they can severally persuade themselves of their own ability to equal the actions recounted: when this point is passed, envy comes in and with it incredulity.|[[Thucydides]], ''[[Pericles' Funeral Oration]]''<ref>[[s:History of the Peloponnesian War/Book 2#2:35|2.35]]</ref>{{efn-lg|name="Thucydides speeches"}}}}

Pericles, following Athenian custom, was first married to one of his closest relatives, with whom he had two sons, [[Paralus and Xanthippus]], but around 445&nbsp;BC, Pericles divorced his wife. He offered her to another husband, with the agreement of her male relatives.<ref name="Pap221">K. Paparrigopoulos, Aa, 221</ref> The name of his first wife is not known; the only information about her is that she was the wife of Hipponicus, before being married to Pericles, and the mother of [[Callias III|Callias]] from this first marriage.<ref name=" Pl24">Plutarch, ''Pericles'', [[s: Lives/Pericles#24|XXIV]]</ref>

After Pericles divorced his wife, he had a long-term relationship with [[Aspasia]] of Miletus, with whom he had a son, [[Pericles the Younger]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Tracy|first=Stephen V.|title=Pericles: A Sourcebook and Reader|url=https://archive.org/details/periclessourcebo0000trac|url-access=registration|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|year=2009|page=[https://archive.org/details/periclessourcebo0000trac/page/19 19]}}</ref> While Aspasia was held in high regard by many of Athens' socialites, her status as a non-Athenian led many to attack their relationship. Even Pericles' son, Xanthippus, who had political ambitions, did not hesitate to slander his father.<ref name=" Pl36" /> Nonetheless, such objections did not greatly undermine the popularity of the couple and Pericles readily fought back against accusations that his relationship with Aspasia was corrupting of Athenian society.<ref>Plutarch, ''Pericles'', XXXII</ref>

His sister and both his legitimate sons, Xanthippus and Paralus, died during the [[Plague of Athens]].<ref name=" Pl36" /> Just before his death, the Athenians allowed a change in the law of 451 BC that made his half-Athenian son with Aspasia, Pericles the Younger, a citizen, and legitimate heir,<ref name=" Pl37">Plutarch, ''Pericles'', [[s: Lives/Pericles#37|XXXVII]]</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Kennedy|first=Rebecca Futo|title=Immigrant Women in Athens: Gender, Ethnicity, and Citizenship in the Classical City|year=2014|page=17}}</ref> a striking decision considering that Pericles himself had proposed the law confining citizenship to those of Athenian parentage on both sides.<ref name="Smith271">W. Smith, ''A History of Greece'', 271</ref>