Pericles began to be distinguished in Athenian politics about 470 B. C.
as leader of the democratic party.
In the constitution of Athens a wide scope was given for the development
of great political characters, because the system not only allowed the
display of a man’s powers, but summoned every man to use those powers
for the general welfare. At the same time, no member of the community
could obtain influence unless he had the means of satisfying the
intellect, taste, and judgment, as well as the excitable and volatile
feelings, of a highly cultivated people.
Such a man was Pericles. From the force of his personality, and his
majestic oratory, he was called “the Zeus of the human Pantheon of
Athens.” For over thirty years (461 to 429 B. C.) this great man swayed
the policy of Athens. Pericles was at once a statesman, a general, a man
of learning, and a patron of the fine arts. He recovered for Athens (445
B. C.) the revolted island of Eubœa; he was the friend of the famous
sculptor Phidias, and in his age the great dramatic compositions of
Sophocles were presented on the Athenian stage. To him Athens owed the
Parthenon, the Erechtheum, left unfinished at his death, the Propylæa,
the Odeum, and numberless other public and sacred edifices; he also
liberally encouraged music and the drama; and during his rule industry
and commerce were in so flourishing a condition that prosperity was
universal in Attica.