The Peloponnesian War

Periclean Athens

If anyone can be credited with creating the Athens that you picture when you hear mentioned, it would have to be Pericles. He was the architect of Athenian foreign policy. He was the force behind many of the buildings on the Acropolis, including the Parthenon itself. Pericles made Athens the most powerful city in Greece, the most beautiful, and the richest.

Pericles also was the man who was able finally to arrange peace with Persia, in 449, a peace that lasted almost 40 years. That treaty in turn allowed Pericles to transfer the treasury of the Delian League to Athens, where it became a convenient and deep extension to the city treasury.

The Acropolis of Athens

The sudden influx of wealth paid for the beautiful Parthenon and other statues and buildings. It paid also for the fortification of the Piraeus, making the port of Athens vulnerable only by sea. And from the port to Athens itself he caused to be built the famous Long Walls—a pair of walls seven miles long with space between them for four wagons across. The Long Walls, and the fortifications at Piraeus, essentially extended Athens down to the sea, where her magnificent navy ruled.

History of Western Civilization

E.L. Skip Knox
Boise State University

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