She became notorious. She was Milesian in descent, clever with regards to words. They say she was simultaneously teacher and beloved of Pericles. It is supposed she became the cause of two wars, the Samian[1] and the Peloponnesian.[2] It also seems that Pericles had a bastard child with the same name, Pericles, by her.[3]
[Note] that there were two courtesan Aspasias.[4] Pericles had the sexual use of one of these, [and] provoked to anger on her account he wrote the decree against the Megareans, forbidding them to be permitted into Athens. Hence these people having their way barred by the Athenians fled for refuge to the Lacedaemonians. Aspasia was a sophist and a teacher of rhetorical principles. And later she became his wife.