Our sources provide very little evidence about Pericles’ early career. Yet the historical context of these years provides crucial insight into the statesman Pericles became in later life. Between 480 and about 462/1, Athens was allied with Sparta (against Persia) and Pericles’ marriage relation Kimon – a pro-Spartan conservative – served as Athens’ most important leader. During these years Kimon and his supporters created the Athenian empire, converting what had been an alliance against Persia into a tool for bringing Athens’ long-standing ambitions in the Aegean to fruition by planting Athenian settlements and by collecting revenues from increasingly recalcitrant allies. Pericles undoubtedly served in the Athenian military in these years and may have been elected general, but his first certain appearance as a political figure appears in a (failed) prosecution of Kimon, an event that provides us with an opportunity to explore the Athenian people's eagerness for expansion as well as the extremely complicated relations between Kimon's and Pericles’ families. Kimon's fall from political power and his exile from Athens in 462/1 opened the door for Pericles and the more progressive faction (or, rather, signaled that they had already asserted themselves).