Pericles

Pericles was the leading statesman of Athens for about thirty years in the middle of the fifth century BC, the city's golden age. He came from a noble family but led the democratic side, and was elected general again and again. Under his leadership Athens used funds from its league of allies, the Delian League, to build the Parthenon and other temples on the Acropolis, and the city became a center of drama, philosophy and art. He introduced pay for citizens who served on juries, so that poorer men could take part in government. When war broke out with Sparta in 431 BC, Pericles persuaded the Athenians to shelter behind their city walls and rely on their navy. At the end of the first year he gave a funeral speech for the war dead, recorded by the historian Thucydides, praising the Athenian way of life. Soon afterward a terrible plague struck the crowded city. Pericles lost two sons to it and died of the plague himself in 429 BC.

Pericles is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Faith not well documented beyond Athenian civic religion; he sponsored temples on the Acropolis. Source: Wikipedia

See also: Plutarch's Life of Pericles