Who was pericles? why did he give this speech?

Pericles was a general of Athens and a great orator. As a statesman he managed to turn the Delian League into Athenian supremacy. It was a tradition in Athens to make a public funeral for the dead in the war. At the end of the ceremony an important citizen would make a speech. Pericles starts his speech in the usual way of glorification of the dead but alater transformed it on a glorification of Athens and its openness to the rest of the world.