Pericles
Pericles (c.495–429 BC),Athenian politician, was the son of Xanthippus and Agariste (a member of the noble Alcmaeonid family), niece of Cleisthenes and granddaughter of Agariste of Sicyon and Megacles. He was chorēgos (paying for the production) for Aeschylus' Persae in 472, but first came to prominence as one of the elected prosecutors of Cimon in 463/2. In 462/1 he joined with Ephialtes in the attack on the Areopagus (see democracy, Athenian 3).
According to Plutarch he became popular leader and one of the most influential men in Athens after Ephialtes' death and the ostracism of Cimon. Little is recorded of him for some years, but it is reasonable to assume that he was in favour of the more ambitious foreign policy pursued by Athens in the 450s and of the further reforms of that...
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