Pericles

~495–429 BCE · Athenian Greek · Classical Greece, Golden Age of Athens

Known for: Led Athens during its Golden Age—built the Parthenon, championed democracy and the arts

Pericles led Athens for over 30 years during its greatest era, transforming it from a powerful city-state into an imperial democracy that produced Socrates, Sophocles, Phidias, and the Parthenon. He used the Delian League treasury (contributions from allied states ostensibly for mutual defense) to fund Athens' building program—history's most beautiful embezzlement.

He was a brilliant orator whose Funeral Oration (recorded by Thucydides) is the foundational text of democratic idealism. He expanded Athenian democracy, made jury service paid (so the poor could participate), and championed public works that employed thousands.

He died during the plague that devastated Athens in 429 BCE—a plague partially caused by his own war strategy of cramming the population inside the city walls during the Peloponnesian War.

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