In this episode of pplpod, we explore the life of Pericles, the celebrated Greek statesman and general who dominated Athenian politics during the city’s Golden Age (c. 461–429 BC). Acclaimed by the historian Thucydides as "the first citizen of Athens," Pericles is renowned for fostering democracy to such an extent that critics labeled him a populist, while simultaneously transforming the Delian League into a powerful Athenian empire,. We discuss his ambitious cultural projects, including the construction of the Parthenon and the Propylaea on the Acropolis, which helped establish Athens as the educational and cultural center of the ancient Greek world,.

The episode also covers his military leadership as a strategos, or general, particularly his defensive "grand strategy" against Sparta during the early years of the Peloponnesian War ...