Athens was from this
time the most beautiful of the Greek cities.[81]
=Importance of Athens.=--Athens became at the same time the city of
artists. Poets, orators, architects, painters, sculptors--some
Athenians by birth, others come from all corners of the Greek
world--met here and produced their masterpieces. There were without
doubt many Greek artists elsewhere than at Athens; there had been
before the fifth century, and there were a long time afterward; but
never were so many assembled at one time in the same city. Most of the
Greeks had fine sensibilities in matters of art; but the Athenians
more than all others had a refined taste, a cultivated spirit and love
of the beautiful. If the Greeks have gained renown in the history of
civilization, it is that they have been a people of artists; neither
their little states nor their small armies have played a great role in
the world. This is why the fifth century is the most beautiful moment
in the history of Greece; this is why Athens has remained renowned
above all the rest of the Greek cities.
LETTERS
=The Orators.=--Athens is above all the city of eloquence.
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