Pericles

Pericles (495 to 429 B.C.) was an Athenian general and statesman who ruled the Athenian Democracy during its golden age.

Coming to power in 461 B.C. after winning a power struggle against Cimon, he saw Athens further sprout into an economic, philosophical, and military power expanding its influence over most of Greece. The Parthenon was built by his request. After a truce with Sparta in 445 B.C. the peace from 445 B.C. to 431 B.C. was considered the golden age of Athens.

One of the instigators of the Peloponnesian War against Sparta in 431 B.C., he was deposed and then re-elected, and then died of the plague in 429 B.C. His untimately death may have helped to bring about the defeat of Athens.

Sources

The New American Desk Encyclopedia, Penguin Group, 1989