20. The Athenian Protege Who Outshone His Patron
Ephialtes’ protege Pericles (495 – 429 BC) became Athens’ dominant political figure in the mid-5th century BC. The Athenian golden age, during which the city reached the apogee of its power and its empire reached its greatest extent, is also known as the “Age of Pericles“. The son of a prominent and populist general, Pericles grew up wealthy and was a patron of culture and the arts since his youth. Aeschylus’ oldest surviving play, The Persians, was paid for by Pericles in 472 BC. Pericles was also a friend and patron of Phidias, Ancient Greece’s greatest sculptor. During the Periclean Age, Athens flowered into a center of culture, art, education, and democracy.
Inheriting his father’s democratic leanings, Pericles became the deputy and right-hand man of Athenian radical democratic leader Ephialtes in the 460s BC. When Ephialtes was assassinated in 461 BC, Pericles stepped into his shoes, completed his reform agenda, and dominated Athens until his death in 429 BC. A hawk, Pericles was a proponent of expanding Athens’ power abroad, and throughout his years in power aggressively advocated the expansion of Athenian dominance in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean.
