Editing Pericles (section)

{{Short description|Athenian statesman, orator and general (c.495–429 BC)}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox military person
| name          = Pericles
| image         = Pericles Pio-Clementino Inv269 n2.jpg
| caption       = [[Pericles with the Corinthian helmet|Bust of Pericles]] bearing the inscription "Pericles, son of Xanthippus, Athenian". Marble, Roman copy after a Greek original from {{Circa|430&nbsp;BC}}, [[Museo Pio-Clementino]], [[Vatican Museums]],
| birth_date    = {{Circa|495 BC}}
| death_date    = 429 BC (aged 66)
| birth_place   = [[Classical Athens|Athens]], [[Ancient Greece|Greece]]
| death_place   = Athens, Greece
| allegiance    = [[Classical Athens|Athens]]
| rank          = ''[[Strategos]]''
| commands      = 
| battles       = {{tree list}}
* [[First Peloponnesian War]]
** Battles of Sicyon and Acarnania
** [[Second Sacred War]]
* [[Samian War]]
* [[Peloponnesian War]]
{{tree list/end}}
| spouse        = [[Aspasia|Aspasia of Miletus]]
| children      = [[Paralus and Xanthippus]] <br/>
[[Pericles the Younger]]
| relations     = [[Xanthippus]] (father)<br/> Agariste (mother)
| laterwork     = 
}}
'''Pericles''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|ɛr|ɪ|k|l|iː|z}}; {{langx|grc|[[wikt:Περικλῆς|Περικλῆς]]}}; {{circa|495}}–429 BC) was a Greek statesman and general during the [[Golden Age of Athens]]. He was prominent and influential in [[Ancient Athenian]] politics, particularly between the [[Greco-Persian Wars]] and the [[Peloponnesian War]], and was acclaimed by [[Thucydides]], a contemporary historian, as "the first citizen of Athens".<ref name="Thuc65">Thucydides, [[s:History of the Peloponnesian War/Book 2#2:65|2.65]]</ref><!--All quotes [[WP:FULLCITE]]--> Pericles turned the [[Delian League]] into an Athenian empire and led his countrymen during the first two years of the Peloponnesian War. The period during which he led Athens as Archon (ruler), roughly from 461 to 429 BC, is sometimes known as the "[[Age of Pericles]]", but the period thus denoted can include times as early as the [[Persian Wars]] or as late as the following century.

Pericles promoted the arts and literature, and it was principally through his efforts that Athens acquired the reputation of being the educational and cultural center of the [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] world. He started an ambitious project that generated most of the surviving structures on the [[Acropolis of Athens|Acropolis]], including the [[Parthenon]]. This project beautified and protected the city, exhibited its glory, and gave work to its people.<ref name="Blois">L. de Blois, ''An Introduction to the Ancient World'' 99</ref> Pericles also fostered [[Athenian democracy]] to such an extent that critics called him a [[populist]].<ref name="Muhl">S. Muhlberger, [http://www.nipissingu.ca/department/history/MUHLBERGER/2055/L23ANC.HTM Periclean Athens] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110414112851/http://www.nipissingu.ca/department/history/muhlberger/2055/l23anc.htm |date=14 April 2011 }}.</ref><ref name = "Ruden 80">S. Ruden, ''Lysistrata'', 80.</ref> Pericles was descended, through his mother, from the powerful and historically influential [[Alcmaeonidae|Alcmaeonid]] family. He, along with several members of his family, succumbed to the [[Plague of Athens]] in 429 BC, which weakened the city-state during a protracted conflict with [[Sparta]].