In 472 BC, eight years after the defeat of the Persians at Salamis, the young Pericles, now in his late 20s, sponsored a major dramatic production for the festival of Dionysus. As well as providing entertainment for the whole city, this annual event was also an opportunity for sponsors to bring their name to wider public attention.

Pericles was lucky enough to be assigned to sponsor Aeschylus, the first of the great tragic playwrights. Aeschylus' play, 'The Persians' was considered a masterpiece and won first prize, bringing its sponsor, Pericles, to widespread public prominence.

Around this time he also married, though, as with so much about male-dominated ancient Greece, we don't even know the name of his wife. She bore him two sons.

Pericles' first real involvement in politics began a decade later, in 461. He became involved with a politician called Ephialtes. Together they organised a vote in the popular assembly that deprived the Areopagus, the old noble council, of its remaining powers. It was an action that would have huge consequences, and many historians believe it to mark the defining moment of Athenian democracy.