Pericles greece biography

The so-called golden age of Athenian culture flourished under the leadership of Pericles B. His policies and strategies also set the stage for the devastating Peloponnesian War, which would embroil all Greece in the decades following his death. His father Xanthippus was a hero of the Persian War and his mother belonged to the culturally powerful Alcmaeonidae family.

He grew up in the company of artists and philosophers—his friends included Protagoras, Zeno and the pioneering Athenian philosopher Anaxagoras. Did you know? All surviving statues and images of Pericles show him wearing a helmet—his rightful symbol as an Athenian general. The armor also covered up his one known physical flaw—his outsize head. Contemporary poets nicknamed him Schinocephalos, "sea onion-head," after a bulbed plant found on the Mediterranean coast.

In he led a successful military campaign in Corinth and sponsored the establishment of Athenian colonies in Thrace and on the Black Sea coast.

Pericles definition world history

The golden age of Athenian culture is usually dated from to B. After the second Persian invasion of Greece in , Athens and its allies throughout the Aegean formed the Delian League, a military alliance focused on the Persian threat. Three years later, a coinage decree imposed Athenian weights and measures throughout the league. By the time Pericles was elected strategos, the league was well on its way to becoming an Athenian empire.

He worked to democratize the fine arts by subsidizing theater admission for poorer citizens and enabled civic participation by offering pay for jury duty and other civil service. Pericles maintained close friendships with the leading intellects of his time.