CultureEurope

The Parthenon

448 BCE – 433 BCE

Athens's golden age, paid for with its allies' money

In depth

Pericles moved the league treasury from Delos to Athens and spent it on building at home — one of history's most brazen reallocations, and a major cause of the Peloponnesian War. The same generation produced Sophocles, Euripides, Herodotus and Socrates. That cultural height and imperial extortion belonged together here is uncomfortable and well documented.

For children

Athens built a temple so precise that its columns bulge slightly outwards so the eye will read them as straight. The money came from a treasury that was supposed to be the alliance's common defence fund.

Connects to

Democracy in Athens509 BCE
The Persian Wars491 BCE
The Peloponnesian War432 BCE – 405 BCE
Socrates condemned to death400 BCE

Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org