Why Did Pericles Rebuild Athens

The agora of Athens developed from the 6th century BCE until it was destroyed in the Western farsi invasion of 480 BCE. Afterwards, the statesman Pericles (50. 495-429 BCE) used funds from the Delian League to restore information technology as the physical manifestation of the political power of the Athenian Empire.

The agora was get-go developed during the period of the Mycenaean Civilization (c. 1700 – 1100 BCE) when a fortress was built on the Acropolis and the site below, which became the agora, was used for burials. By the sixth century BCE, it was a residential surface area that was expanded further under the tyrant Peisistratus (d. c. 528 BCE) and his sons Hippias (r. c. 528-510 BCE) and Hipparchus (r. c. 528-514 BCE), becoming the "birthplace of commonwealth" afterwards the statesman Cleisthenes (50. sixth century BCE) reformed the laws.

Agora of Athens and the Temple of Hephaestus

Spyros Kamilalis (CC BY-NC-SA)

This version of the agora was destroyed in 480 BCE past the Persians, and afterwards, Pericles (l. 495-429 BCE) organized the Delian League, a confederation of Greek metropolis-states, for defense against further Persian aggression. When these anticipated hostilities did not materialize, Pericles used the money donated by the league members to rebuild the agora and cock a temple complex on the Acropolis.

Overcoming the objections of those who viewed this as a misappropriation of funds, Pericles pushed through his agenda. The ancient agora, famous as the site of philosophical, political, and artistic advances, was made possible past Pericles' vision which transformed a ruin into a thriving cultural heart. His height of the urban center, still, was non appreciated by the other city-states, and the establishment of the Athenian Empire that rose every bit the city was rebuilt led to the Peloponnesian Wars (c. 460-446 BCE and 431-404 BCE). This has led some scholars to criticize Pericles' political choices while others continue to defend them. Whichever side one aligns with, it is clear that Pericles' restoration of the agora, and Athens generally, established the urban center equally the premier cultural heart of the aboriginal world.

Development Nether Peisistratus

Peisistratus constitute the market inefficiently organized & and then had it restructured for greater convenience.

The agora was a residential district by the 6th century BCE just already regarded equally an illustrious site because of its association with the Mycenaean Culture and the great Mycenaean heroes of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Some sort of marketplace was established at the site which dealt in agricultural products from surrounding farms and other items brought upward from the seaport of nearby Piraeus.

A rudimentary form of democracy was established by the lawgiver Solon (l. c. 630 - c. 560 BCE) which was overthrown by the tyrant Peisistratus. The term 'tyrant' should exist understood in this instance as referring to one who reigns past their own authorisation and their own rules. Peisistratus was not a 'tyrant' in the modernistic-day understanding of the term and initiated a number of important building projects, including the Panathenaic Mode – the street leading from the Dipylon Gate of the urban center upward to the Acropolis - which was already a site sacred to the goddess Athena.

Love History?

Peisistratus devoted considerable attention to the agora. He institute the marketplace inefficiently organized and so had it restructured for greater convenience. He had a number of wells dug to supply the area with water and financed the construction of an aqueduct as well as establishing a number of shrines and temples. When he died in c. 528 BCE, his sons Hipparchus and Hippias succeeded him and continued his policies.

The Panathenaic Way, Athens, Greece

Betsy Mark (CC Past-NC-SA)

Peisistratus funded his building projects with communal monies (which set the precedent Pericles would later use) and his sons did the same. Nether the reign of Hipparchus and Hippias, the Chantry of the Twelve Gods was erected at the agora, a monument which served as the marking by which the traveling distance to all points in Athens was measured from. The building known as the "old Bouleuterion", a communal meeting house, was also built at this time and the boundaries of districts, including the agora, were established by the erection of purlieus stones.

Hipparchus was assassinated in 514 BCE by two youths – Harmodios and Aristogeiton – who had no interest in politics and committed the murder for personal reasons and, afterwards, Hippias became more reclusive and erratic. He was finally overthrown in 510 BCE by a Spartan strength the Athenians had asked for assistance. After the Spartans had established guild and left, the Athenians rewrote their history casting Harmodios and Aristogeiton equally the hero "tyrannicides" who had liberated Athens and erected a statuary statue in the agora in their laurels at about the same time Cleisthenes reformed the laws and established republic.

The Persians & the Adjuration of Plataea

At this bespeak, the buildings in the agora were largely municipal with residences on the outskirts of the district. Precisely what part these buildings served is unclear, simply the agora was primarily an administrative and commercial district when it was destroyed past the Farsi Invasion of 480 BCE led past their king Xerxes I (r. 486-465 BCE). Xerxes I was the son and successor of Darius I (the Groovy, r. 522-486 BCE) who was defeated by the Greeks at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE. Xerxes I's invasion was a campaign of conquest to avenge the honour of his father.

The Oath of Plataea is an inscription in stone binding those who took the oath from any attempt to rebuild shrines destroyed by the Persians.

The agora was burned along with the residual of Athens later the Greek defense of Thermopylae was broken and the Persians were complimentary to press home their attack on their primary target, the urban center of Athens. The Farsi forces continued their conquest until they were defeated at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BCE so at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BCE. The Boxing of Plataea, or rather a meeting allegedly held just before information technology, was later claimed every bit the reason it took the Athenians then long to rebuild the agora: because they had sworn non to.

The Oath of Plataea is an inscription in rock fix in the Attic commune (deme) of Acharnae bounden those who took the oath from any attempt to rebuild shrines destroyed by the Persians. To do so, it was claimed, would be to dishonor those who had lost their lives in defense of Greece. The ruins of the agora and other sites would be left as they fell as war monuments honoring the expressionless. Scholars take unanimously rejected the oath as authentic due to a number of factors (notably that admittedly no mention is made of the adjuration in any sources of the time, and none appear until subsequently 338 BCE), just the Oath of Plataea continues to be referenced in articles as the reason the agora lay in ruins for so long from 480 to 460 BCE.

Pericles & Restoration

Actually, the claim that the Athenians were slow to rebuild the agora could exist an exaggeration. The Persians were defeated in 479 BCE, the Delian League was formed in 478 BCE to defend against further assailment and, while all of this no doubtfulness required considerable time and attention, information technology is likely that some effort at restoration was made shortly after 478 BCE. Reconstruction of the agora is thought to have begun around 460 BCE merely at that place is no style of knowing whether earlier efforts were fabricated. The claim of c. 460 BCE is supported just by Pericles' employ of monies from the Delian League, but private benefactors could have contributed quietly on their own. It seems unlikely the city's commercial district lay in complete ruin for 20 years.

Athenian Agora and Acropolis

Ancient History Magazine / Karwansaray Publishers (CC Past-NC-SA)

However that may be, by c. 460 BCE, Pericles had turned the Delian League into an extension of Athenian power, and the other members were content to continue to pay dues to the league's fund as long as Athens kept her discussion to protect them from others' assailment. When Pericles began using the funds to restore Athens, the other city-states objected, claiming he was misappropriating public funds – to be used in defense of all of Greece – for a private project: the restoration and beautifying of his own city. The historian Plutarch (l. c. 45/fifty - c. 120/125 CE) gives an account of Pericles' reply:

In response, Pericles used to tell the people that, since they were defending the allies and keeping the Persians at bay, they were not answerable to them for the money; the tribute the allies paid consisted only of coin - not of horses, ships, or soldiers - and money, he claimed, belongs to its recipients, not its donors, as long as the recipients provide the services for which they are being paid. (Life of Pericles, 12)

Pericles pointed out further that the tribute paid was not marked for any particular utilize – information technology was merely paid in the agreement that the Athenian military would protect the other metropolis-states – so the funds could be used for any purpose seemed best. The primal market place of the agora was renovated, enlarged, and beautified with gardens, trees, fountains, and bronze, and all of the buildings damaged in 480 BCE were restored on a grander scale with new structures built abreast them. Scholar Robin Waterfield comments:

The Periclean building program included temples and other buildings elsewhere in Attica (the famous Temple of Poseidon on Cape Sounion, for example). The scale of the program equally a whole, and of individual buildings, was boggling. The Athenian democracy left monuments of a stature normally associated with self-aggrandizing tyrants or absolute rulers…The almost famous and enduring Periclean constructions, nevertheless, were religious in function and located on the Acropolis – and of these the all-time known is the Parthenon, the temple of the virgin goddess Athena. Work began in 447 and the bulk of the monumental temple, including the cult statue, was completed by 438. (91-92)

Pericles personally supervised some of the edifice projects but was the architect of the vision behind them all. He regularly inspected the piece of work on the Acropolis a well every bit managing his other responsibilities as an Athenian statesman. Although restoration may have been the initial goal, the stop result was complete transformation in an endeavour to make Athens the almost impressive city in all of Greece. Waterfield notes:

I of the popular benefits of the work was, of course, that huge numbers of Athenian and foreign craftsmen were kept in state-paid employment for and then long. But the chief do good was intangible: the new buildings taught Athenians to regard their urban center as a world leader. (91)

Afterward the Western farsi Invasion of 480 BCE, the Athenian navy became the most powerful in the region and their ground forces was as impressive. The walls of Athens were improved and strengthened, and the unabridged city beautified. All of these developments went direct toward Athens becoming the superpower of the region and, since it was clearly regarded every bit powerful, Pericles felt information technology should expect the office.

Buildings in the Agora

Also fountains and restoration of shrines like the Altar of the Twelve Gods, the buildings known to have been restored or built by Pericles, or at least were part of his vision for the agora, are:

The Poikile Stoa (19)
The Southeast Fountain House (3)
The Prytaneum (Tholos) (8)
The Panathenaic Style
The Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios (xv)
The Mint (ii)
The Dikastiria (Law Court, ane)
The Stoa of Basileios (17)
The New Bouleuterion (12)
The Temple of Hephaestus (thirteen)
The Boundary Stones (9)
The Marketplace

The Poikile Stoa (besides known as the Painted Stoa) was a masterpiece completed past a private donation of funds from the brother-in-law of Cimon of Athens (fifty. c. 510-450 BCE), Pericles' sometimes friend and other times rival. The building was a long structure with porticoes and became famous for the paintings on its walls celebrating military victories such every bit Marathon.

The Southeast Fountain House was a primal well originally built during the reign of Hippias. Information technology operated through a series of terracotta pipes and a pump which drew water upward to a spout from which people filled their private containers. The Fountain Firm became a popular place for informal gatherings and gossip in the agora.

The Prytaneum (Tholos) was the seat of government just also housed the sacred burn down that symbolized the life of the community. Heroes of military machine victories and the Olympic Games were honored at the building where the Quango of Citizens besides met to discuss administrative matters of the city.

The Panathenaic Way still exists today & may all the same be walked.

The Panathenaic Way was the sacred route used during the Panathenaic Festival honoring Athena. As noted, it was built past Peisistratus but enlarged and improved upon past Pericles. It entered the agora at the northwest corner, exited at the southeast, and continued up the hill of the Acropolis to the temple circuitous. The Panathenaic Fashion nonetheless exists today and may still exist walked.

The Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios was a building dedicated to the god Zeus as liberator and symbolized the freedom of the community. It was not a temple, no sacrifices were made there, just it seems to have been a communal hall.

The Mint was where the Athenians coined their currency. It was a large, foursquare building located nigh the Fountain House.

The Dikastiria was the courtroom of laws where cases were heard. It was located near the prison which was used to incarcerate brusque-term offenders. Although efforts take been made to associate this site with the prison in which Socrates spent his final days, nothing supports this.

The Stoa of Basileios, in the northwest corner of the agora, was where Socrates' trial was held. The name means "royal stoa", and information technology was where the Archon presided over court cases and met with his administrative quango.

The New Bouleuterion (a modern-day name for the construction) replaced the old one and eventually became the meeting identify for the Athenian Senate.

The Temple of Hephaestus was dedicated to the god who was the patron of craftspeople. Information technology was begun under Pericles' supervision c. 450 BCE and completed in 415 BCE. In the present day, it is often referred to as the Thesion because it was once thought to have been built in honor of Theseus, the legendary founder of Athens.

The Boundary Stones were the Herma (or Herms), sculptures of the god Hermes or a stack of stones with Hermes' head or symbol at the top or simply a pile of stones understood to represent Hermes who was the patron god of travelers amongst his many other responsibilities. The boundary stones were start set in place under Hippias to constitute the boundaries of the agora.

The Market, as noted, was enlarged and beautified with fountains and gardens. Information technology was and then expansive that this market, routinely referenced equally the agora, gave its name to the modern-twenty-four hours term for a fright of open spaces and people in them: agoraphobia.

Conclusion

The growth and enhancement of the physical city of Athens, as noted, directly correlated to its increased political and armed forces power which finally resulted in the First Peloponnesian War (c. 460-446 BCE) with Sparta, which Pericles oversaw as commander-in-principal and which Cimon of Athens concluded in negotiating a truce. After the war, Pericles continued with his building projects and life with his consort Aspasia of Miletus (l. c. 470 – 410/400 BCE) who, according to some of his critics, wrote his famous Funeral Oration delivered in honor of the war expressionless.

Although he was criticized for far more than serious breaches in conduct than claiming authorship of a speech, Pericles remained a popular and admirable leader until his expiry. Waterfield comments:

The single about of import reason for Pericles' indelible popularity was that he was the first to articulate a vision of the future towards which events of the past 50 years seemed inevitably to be driving Athens – a vision of material and cultural glory for the city, and of leadership of all Greeks everywhere. (103)

Pericles died in 429 BCE in the Plague of Athens that took many of the citizens and never saw the completion of a number of the edifice projects he had initiated. They were connected in his honor, all the same, and his vision of a city of splendor was fully realized. Even afterwards information technology cruel to Sparta in the Second Peloponnesian War, Pericles' vision of the metropolis and the reputation it enjoyed because of him enabled Athens to rise again to become ane of the most important cultural and intellectual centers of the aboriginal world.

This article has been reviewed for accurateness, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication.