For forty years Pericles was the soul
of the politics of Athens; as Thucydides his contemporary said, "The
democracy existed in name; in reality it was the government of the
first citizen."
=Athens and Her Monuments.=--In Athens, as in the majority of Greek
cities, the houses of individuals were small, low, packed closely
together, forming narrow streets, tortuous and ill paved. The
Athenians reserved their display for their public monuments. Ever
after they levied heavy war taxes on their allies they had large sums
of money to expend, and these were employed in erecting beautiful
edifices. In the market-place they built a portico adorned with
paintings (the Poikile), in the city a theatre, a temple in honor of
Theseus, and the Odeon for the contests in music. But the most
beautiful monuments rose on the rock of the Acropolis as on a gigantic
pedestal. There were two temples of which the principal, the
Parthenon, was dedicated to Athena, protecting goddess of the city; a
colossal statue of bronze which represented Athena; and a staircase of
ornamental character leading up to the Propylaea.
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