“When it’s a question if putting one person before another un

positions of public responsibility, what counts is not

membership of a particular class, but the actual ability which
the man possesses.

We give our obedience to those whom we put in positions of

authority, and we obey laws themselves, especially those which are
for the protection of the oppressed, and those unwritten laws
(customs) which it is an acknowledged shame to break.
 When it is a question of setting private disputes, everyone is
equal before the law.

We are free and tolerant in our private lives;

but in public a airs, we keep to the law.

In the excerpt from “Pericles’ Funeral Oration,” Pericles uses his love of Athens to criticise how life in Sparta
was di erent. For example, Pericles states that, in Athens, “We Athenians, in our own persons, take our
decisions on policy or submit them to proper discussions”. As a result, readers may infer that in Sparta
people might now get as much chance to speak up or have open talks, meaning that their society is
controlled by higher-ups. This only one example of how Pericles used his “Funeral Oration” to criticise
Athens’