Once Aspasia met Pericles, she new that he was the man that she most wanted to spend her time with. She was 16 when they met and he was in his 40's. Hilda Charlton wrote in her book, Saints Alive, (Lake Hill, N,Y.: Golden Quest, 1989)

"Together as two free forces of God, they dreamed and planned the perfect Athens, a vision that would spread throughout the world. They planned the Parthenon and encouraged the great artists and poets. Aspasia opened the first school to educate girls. She was a friend of Anaxagoras and Socrates, and in her home met the philosophers, poets and dramatists. They all dreamed the perfect life for mankind so long ago."

Further Charlton writes, "I will just read a tiny bit before I close tonight from this book (Taylor Caldwell, Glory and the Lightening (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Company, 1974). p. 492) which is not accurate, but you get the essence of Aspasia at that time. She's in a courtroom at this moment."

Caldwell writes, "Now a heavy silence fell on the hall for the gravest charge of all was to be brought against Aspasia...Pericles moved closer to her as if in protection. The King Archon's face lost all expression except for his eyes which studied Aspasia as if to read her soul.

Socrates, near the wall, leaned forward, holding his breath, his radiant eyes fixed on the face of Polybius, as though he felt a foreboding about his future. The heat of the hall increased. The sun which came through the high windows was an intense flaming light, too hurtful for any gaze, and many blinked in it and averted their heads.

'Aspasia of Miletus,' said the King Archon at last, 'you have been exonerated of the charges brought to you hertofore in this court and before this jury and Assembly. However, there is the most horrible of all-that you are guilty of impiety. And I must judge you, for I am the Kind Archon, and in my hands lies the power of life or death for heresay, the greatest crime against the gods and the people of Athens.'

Aspasia lifted her head and she stood very tall and straight and her eyes were open. The King Archon looked down at her now in silence, and he thought, this woman is not only beautiful but she is brave and proud...'You must answer me truly, Aspasia of Miletus,' said the King Archon...'It has been told me that you are a heretic, a mocker of the gods...that you have denied their existence. I need not bring forth witnesses to this, for I myself have heard the accusations many times before.' Again the heavy silence descended on the hall and everyone craned forward, staring at Aspasia.

She lifted her head even higher. Her eyes were without fear or evasion.

'Lord,' she said to the king, 'I do not know what you have heard, what calumnies, what falsehoods. You have asked me concerning my heresy. I can only answer that from my earliest youth I have felt the Presence of the Godhead in all things, that my soul has been shaken as a lily in the field at the thought of Him, that I have gazed on all that He has created with wonder and awe and delight and reverence, and that to the measure of my poor power, I have served Him.'

'His law has never been sweeter to my spirit than honey; His graciousness has caused me to weep with joy. I see His shadow on the mountains, His reflection in the water, His heralds in the skies, His majesty in the smallest flower in the crevice. Because He is in everything that lives there is no ugliness except in the perverted eyes of man. The very stones proclaim Him; the stars sing of His might; the rains whisper of His mercy. What is seemingly dead breaks into blossoms at His gaze; the winds shout of Him at midnight. Before Him there is no despair, there is only bliss and hope. I hear His voice, I see His grandeur in the morning, at noon, in the evening. When I am sad He comforts me. When I laugh I hear His laughter also. When I see a lamb leaping in the spring, my heart leaps also, for the lamb in his dance celebrates God and I celebrate with him. The world teems with the ebullience of God, and only men see darkness. Lord, if someone with all authority convinced me that there is no God, then I should die, for what is life without Him, and pleasure without His grace? There is only death, and in this death I could not live. He is all, and there is none else.'

And then the King says, 'I have been told that you have a small temple in your garden, Aspasia of Miletus, with a bare altar and no statues. To whom has that temple been erected, and why is the altar bare?'

Aspasia smiled like a loving child. 'The temple was built to Him, whom our priests reverence without knowing why they reverence, but their spirits know if their minds do not. The temple was built to One Whom we feel in our hearts, Who has yet no name that we have heard. Yet Greeks erect temples to Him with waiting altars, and inscribe on them: "To the Unknown God." The altar is bare because we are still waiting for Him, He Who has been promised through the ages to all nations and all men.'

And the King Archon said to the jury, 'You must make your decision.'

And this is the only time that Pericles, that strong man, that God that came down, ever wept. Tears rolled down his cheeks, and he said only this, 'Men of Athens! Sons of the laws of Solon! We Greeks, for the first time in known history, have brought a dream to mankind, the dream of liberty, of law which all men, rulers, and the ruled, must obey, of just rewards for just service, of freedom of speech and freedom to write, of judges and juries, of punishment to fit the crime, of order not imposed but self-imposed.' No one shifted or stirred. Then Pericles took the hand of Aspasia and looked at her..and the tears ran down his face...'It is your choice: to stand on your feet as men, or crouch on your knees as slaves.'

The silence remained...At last the Kind Archon spoke. 'Before this jury of equal men, I exonerate Aspasia of Miletus of all the accusations brought against her. Speak then, if any man wishes to speak.'

But the jury did not speak..Pericles bowed to the King Archon and Aspasia bent her head. Pericles took Aspasia's hand and walked through the voiceless assemblage with her and the guards opened the bronze door wide so that they sun burst in and covered the two with light."