Pericles

I am 50% Greek, so I thought a good topic would be something related to the video we watched on Wednesday. Pericles was the leader of the Athenians in 461 B.C. He was unlike previous leaders for a few reasons, one big one being that he encouraged participation from citizens in the government. He also transformed the goverernment into more a a democracy and helped the poor out, not by just handing them things, but by giving them work to earn it. Athens had been damaged during war so Pericles went to work on rebuilding it (the Parthenon was built during this time). To me, Pericles seems like he was a great leader and really just wanted to help people. But every story has two sides. The money he was getting to rebuild the city was from allie cities and they started becoming uneasy. To make a long story short, Sparta declared war and won. So what does this have to do with Pericles..? He received most of the blame for the war and around 429 B.C., he was no longer the leader. He later died of the plague that struck the city. (http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/bios/b2pericles.htm#) Overall, Pericles was important to history because he started to introduce us to democracy and I think he really just wanted to be a good leader and help his people. THANK YOU PERICLES.