Pericles

(per'e-kleez,) one of the greatest of A then i an orators and statesmen, after completing his education under Zeno and Anaxagoras, became abt. 470 B. c. chief of the democratic party in his native city, and succeeded Cimon and Thucydides in the supreme administration of public affairs, in 444. Under his rule were effected the conquest of Samos, the extension of Greek colonization in Asia Minor, and the development of Grecian art and taste, as exemplified in the adornment of Athens with the Par the non and other architectural glories. The celebrated Aspasia was his mistre (the laws not allowing their marriage, because she came from Miletus). P. continued for40 years at the head of affairs, and D.429 B.c. [s. 697]