Max Baucus: “a little less than 2500 years ago, in Athens, Pericles the king looked out from the Acropolis. In the bay beyond the…”

“a little less than 2500 years ago, in Athens, Pericles the king looked out from the Acropolis. In the bay beyond the port city, he saw some of Athens's 200 ships, which brought peace, commerce, and Athenian pottery to a free-trade area of more than 100 Greek city-states. Pericles boasted: ``The wares of the whole world find their way to us.'' Pericles stood astride one the wealthiest, most culturally-advanced states of his time. Greeks had vanquished the evil empire of Persia to the east. Pericles had transformed the Delian League, a defensive alliance formed to contain Persia, into an Athenian empire. And Pericles advanced the world of ideas, advocating the new idea of democracy. Said Pericles: ``Athens alone, of the states we know, comes to her testing time in a greatness that surpasses what was imagined of her. . . . Future ages will wonder at us, as the present age does now.'' Pericles had every reason to believe that Divine Providence had smiled on him and on his city. A little less than 500 years ago, in Aachen, Charles V looked up to receive the crown of Germany. Charles had become the most powerful ruler in Christendom: Holy Roman Emperor and sovereign over what is now Spain, Central Europe, southern Italy, and Spain's new overseas colonies. Sir Walter Scott said: ``The sun never sets on the immense empire of Charles V.'' Charles sought to unite his empire into a universal, multinational, Christian empire.…”