He was an Athenian statesman and general (c. 495 to 429 BC) who led the city at the height of its golden age and into the Peloponnesian War against Sparta.

What is Pericles famous for?

For leading golden-age Athens, overseeing the building of the Parthenon, championing its democracy, and setting the strategy for the Peloponnesian War.

Was Pericles a general?

Yes, he was repeatedly elected as one of Athens' generals, but he is remembered above all as a political leader and strategist rather than a battlefield commander.

What was Pericles' war strategy?

He avoided a land battle against the stronger Spartan army, brought the people inside Athens' Long Walls, and relied on the navy and the empire's resources to outlast Sparta.

How did Pericles die?

He died in 429 BC of the plague that swept through Athens while its population was crowded behind the walls during the Peloponnesian War.

Why is it called the Age of Pericles?

Because Pericles dominated Athenian public life for decades at the peak of its power, wealth and culture, so the golden age of classical Athens is named after him.

Pericles: the leader of golden-age Athens

Pericles gave his name to an age. For some thirty years he was the leading man of Athens¹, guiding its democracy at the height of its power, adorning it with the Parthenon, and shaping the strategy with which it fought the long war against Sparta. He was more statesman than soldier², yet his decisions carried Athens to glory and into catastrophe alike.

The first man of Athens

Elected year after year as one of Athens' generals³, Pericles led the city not as a tyrant but as its most persuasive voice in the democratic assembly. He strengthened the navy, spread the empire's wealth among the citizens, and poured its treasure into the great building programme on the Acropolis³, above all the Parthenon, that still defines classical Athens.

The marble columns of the Parthenon against a blue sky — The Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens, seen from the west. The temple was built in the 440s and 430s BC as the centrepiece of the building programme Pericles championed. Public domain

The Peloponnesian War

Athens' power alarmed Sparta, and in 431 BC the two great Greek states went to war¹. Pericles' strategy was to abandon the countryside, bring the people inside the city's⁴ Long Walls, and rely on the navy while refusing a pitched land battle against the superior Spartan army⁵. It was a cautious, calculated plan built on sea power.

Bust of Pericles, a Roman copy of a Greek original. Public domain.

He led Athens in its golden age, and set the strategy for its greatest war.

Plague and death

The war did not go as planned. With the population crowded behind the walls, a terrible plague swept Athens⁶, killing perhaps a third of its people, and in 429 BC it took Pericles himself¹. His death robbed Athens of its steadiest hand at the worst moment, and the war would drag on for decades to end in the city's defeat.

Old map of Athens with the Long Walls running to the harbours of Piraeus and Phaleron — Athens and its neighbourhood, with the Long Walls joining the city to its harbours at Piraeus and Phaleron, from George William Cox's history of Greece, 1876. Public domain

The measure of the man

Pericles was not a conquering general; his weapons were persuasion, patience and sea power. He remains the symbol of Athens at its greatest, the leader of a golden age of democracy, art and thought, whose funeral oration still speaks across the centuries⁴.

Pericles stands on a platform addressing a crowd of Athenians, with the Acropolis behind — Pericles delivering his funeral oration, after the painting by Philipp Foltz; a photographic reproduction of about 1875 to 1880 in the Rijksmuseum. CC0 (public domain)

Meet the other great commanders of ancient Greece, or walk their battles in the greatest battles of ancient Greece.

Sources and notes

Numbered notes in the text point to the works below.

World History Encyclopedia, “Pericles” ↩ a b c
Vincent Azoulay, trans. Janet Lloyd, Pericles of Athens (Princeton University Press, 2014). ↩
Plutarch, Life of Pericles, 12 to 13 (building programme), 16 (fifteen successive years as general). ↩ a b
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 2: 13 to 14 (strategy and evacuation into the city), 34 to 46 (funeral oration), 47 to 54 (plague), 65 (death of Pericles). ↩ a b
Donald Kagan, Pericles of Athens and the Birth of Democracy (The Free Press, 1991). ↩
World History Encyclopedia, “Thucydides on the Plague of Athens: Text & Commentary” ↩
Wikipedia, “Pericles, Wikipedia”