479-323 B.C.  

  THE CITY

     By the end of the Greco-Persian Wars, Athens became a very powerful city state. But destroyed as it was from the Persians, the rebuilt was necessary. To this helped the money that came to Athens from its allies after the creation of the Athenian League. The city was fortified anew by Themistocles with a bigger and more powerful wall which also connected Athens to the port of Piraeus with the Long Walls.

    Pericles begun the construction of new monuments on the Acropolis, the most important of which, the Parthenon. When the temple was completed in 438 B.C., the treasury of the Athenian League was transferred from the island of Delos to the temple itself making the dominative tenses of Athens rather obvious. New buildings were built in the Agora. The most important were the Tholos the dinning room of the elected Deputies, the new Bouleuterion (Parliament House) and the Temple of Hephaestus (Thesseion) which is the best preserved ancient structure with the Pantheon in Rome. In the south slope of the Acropolis, the Theatre of Dionyssos is constructed, making it the first Theatre in the world's history. It was in this theatre that Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles will "teach" their tragedies and Aristophanes his comedies.

   The prosperity of Athens, the Golden Age, won't last for long. Soon everything will come to a stop as the Peloponnesian war will begin (431 B.C.), which will end with the crushing defeat of Athens in 404 B.C.

   For the monuments of Classic Athens click below:

 THE ACROPOLIS  

THE AGORA

SOUTH SLOPE OF ACROPOLIS

KERAMEIKOS