Aeschylus after the death of Phrynichus, one of his chief rivals, Aeschylus was the yearly favorite in the Dionysia, winning first prize in nearly every competition. In 472 BC, Aeschylus staged the production that included the "Persians", with Pericles serving as "choregos". In 458 BC, he returned to Sicily for the last time, visiting the city of Gela where he died in 456 or 455 BC. Valerius Maximus wrote that he was killed outside the city by a tortoise dropped by an eagle (possibly a lammergeier or Cinereous vulture, which do feed on tortoises by dropping them on hard objects) which
Aeschylus and Aeschylus. The Ring and the Oresteia" (London: Faber. 1982) that the influence was so great as to merit a direct character by character comparison between Wagner's "Ring" and Aeschylus's "Oresteia". A critic of his book however, while not denying that Wagner read and respected Aeschylus, has described his arguments as unreasonable and forced. Sir J. T. Sheppard argues in the second half of his "Aeschylus and Sophocles: Their Work and Influence" that Aeschylus, along with Sophocles, have played a major part in the formation of dramatic literature from the Renaissance to the present, specifically in French and Elizabethan drama.