Pericles was an Athenian general and political leader whosucceeded his mentor Ephialtes who was murdered in 460 BCE by thearistocrats for reintroducing democracy in Athens. Pericles tookthe democracy to a more extreme stage where the assembly ofcitizens made the decisions and the Council of 5000 implementedthem. He led Athens into a war with the Peloponnesian League led bySparta. He died of plague a couple of years into the 27-year war,so we don't know if he could have guided Athens safely out of thewar he brought on.