Pericles

Pericles led Athens for some thirty years and gave his name to its greatest period. Born around 495 BC into the Alcmaeonid family through his mother, he was a nephew of Cleisthenes, and entered politics by prosecuting the conservative Cimon and supporting Ephialtes, whose reforms of 462 BC stripped the Areopagus of its powers. He was elected strategos, one of ten generals, almost every year from 443 BC — an office that could be held repeatedly, unlike the archonship, and which was therefore the route to sustained influence. He deepened the democracy. He introduced payment for jury service and for public office, which made participation possible for men without property, and he oversaw the lottery selection of most officials. He also narrowed it, restricting citizenship in 451 BC to those with two Athenian parents. He moved the treasury of the Delian League from Delos to Athens and used the allies' contributions to rebuild the Acropolis, which had been left in ruins after the Persian sack. The Parthenon, the Propylaea and the Erechtheion date from this, along with the theatre of Sophocles and Euripides. Allies who tried to leave the league were suppressed. Thucydides gives him the funeral oration of 431 BC, which describes Athens as an education to Greece and its constitution as one in which power belongs to the many. He pursued the war with Sparta by withdrawing the population inside the walls and relying on the fleet. Plague broke out in the crowded city in 430 BC and killed perhaps a quarter of the population, including his two legitimate sons and, in 429 BC, Pericles himself.

• Lived: 495 BCE – 429 BCE
• Nationality: Greek
• Roles: ruler