Pericles @periclesunclaimed, built from public data

Pericles was a leading Athenian statesman and general during the fifth century BCE, the period often associated with the height of classical Athens. He advanced citizen participation, sponsored an ambitious Acropolis building program, and helped turn the Delian League into an Athenian empire.

His reputation joins democratic leadership and cultural achievement to coercive imperial power and the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. Athenian democracy itself enfranchised male citizens while excluding women, enslaved people, and resident foreigners.