Athenian culture flourished under the leadership of Pericles (495 - 429 BC), a brilliant general, orator, patron of the arts and politician - 'the first citizen' of democratic Athens, according to the historian Thucydides. Pericles transformed his city's alliances into an empire and graced its Acropolis with the famous Parthenon. His policies and strategies also set the stage for the devastating Peloponnesian War, which would embroil all Greece for decades. In 429, Pericles' two legitimate sons died of the plague and a few months later, Pericles himself succumbed. British Museum.