The speech was delivered by Pericles at the end of the first year of the Peloponnesian War ( 431 - 404 BCE ) . He was a famous Athenian politician . The speech was delivered by Pericles , an eminent Athenian politician , at the end of the first year of the Peloponnesian War ( 431 - 404 BCE ) as a part of the annual public funeral for the war dead .