Pericles

Pericles, who lived from about 495 to 429 BC, was an Athenian statesman and general during the Golden Age of Athens. Descended through his mother from the Alcmaeonid family, he rose to prominence in the years between the Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War and was called the first citizen of Athens by the historian Thucydides. He held the generalship, the only office he officially occupied, by yearly re-election, and he took part in the First Peloponnesian War, where he led the Athenian army against Delphi in the Second Sacred War, and in the expedition against Samos in 440 BC. He turned the Delian League into an Athenian empire, backed the building programme on the Acropolis that produced the Parthenon, and led Athens in the first two years of the Peloponnesian War with a defensive strategy of avoiding open battle with Sparta. He died of the plague of Athens in 429 BC.