Portal:Biography/Selected article/January

Pericles (also spelled Perikles) (ca. 495–429 BC, Greek: Περικλῆς) was a prominent and influential statesman, orator, and general of Athens during the city's Golden Age–specifically, the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. He was descended, through his mother, from the powerful and historically influential Alcmaeonid family. He had such a profound influence on Athenian society that Thucydides, his contemporary historian, acclaimed him as "the first citizen of Athens". Pericles turned the Delian League into an Athenian empire and led his countrymen during the first two years of the Peloponnesian War. The period he led Athens, roughly from 461 to 429 BC, is sometimes known as the "Age of Pericles", though it can include times as early as the Persian Wars, or as late as the next century. He promoted the arts and literature, helping to build the reputation of Athens as the cultural centre of Ancient Greece. He started an ambitious project that built most of the surviving structures on the Acropolis (including the Parthenon). (Read more...)