After 'the Persian business', there was a spate of building in Athens and Attica. That these construction programmes went ahead was a reflection of the city's ambition to become a major power in the land. But we should not forget that there were leading politicians intent on linking their own names with important buildings. This was nothing new in Athens; but it was the first time it had been seen on such a scale. It had to do not only with maintaining the domestic balance, but with external policy. The people behind these programmes were three men who left their stamp on the political and social life of Athens across half a century - Themistocles, Cimon, and Pericles.

In 479/8 B.C., even before Sparta could react, Themistocles had arranged the building of the city walls at top speed. Their best-preserved section can be found in the neighbourhood of the Sacred Gate and the Kerameikos. Not much later Themistocles built a fortified wall at the Piraeus. This defended the three harbours - Cantharus, Zea, and Mounichia - from attack.

It was at this time that the shrine and garth of Theseus were put up, to house the mortal remains of the hero Theseus which Cimon had brought back from the island of Scyros. Their site has not been identified with any certainty. It was at this time, too, that the temple of Artemis at Melite was rebuilt and the Telesterium of the Great Gods was repaired at Phlya.

Not long afterwards, in 468-465 B.C., a new Acropolis wall was built, using debris from the sack by the Persians. The Long Walls were built between 459 and 456 B.C.: the initiative probably came from Pericles, who acted with Cimon's support. The Long Walls secured the communications with Athens' port, and these were later improved by the addition of a third wall 'down the middle'. In the Agora, the Tholos and the Painted Stoa date from this period, which also saw the embellishment of the Clepsydra spring at the foot of the Acropolis.


With Persian spoil, a temple of Euclea - usually identified with Artemis - was built on the north slope of the Acropolis in the middle years of the 5th century. The temple of Apollo Delphinius, near the temple of Olympian Zeus, dates from not long afterwards. Repair work was also done on the temples of Athena at Sunium and of Artemis at Brauron, and additions were made to these.

The grandiose buildings on the Acropolis itself, and the four great temples - to Hephaestus at Colonos-in-the-Agora, to Poseidon at Sunium, to Nemesis at Rhamnus, to Ares at Acharnae - were important 5th century landmarks. This was when the south wall of the Acropolis was completed, the temple of Artemis Agrotera was put up on the left bank of the Ilissos, and there were building works to the Lyceum (this has recently been excavated north of Syntagma Square - the gymnasium where Aristotle was to teach a hundred years later. The great Telesterium at Eleusis was built in the same period. Its construction was surrounded by a major financial scandal.



The furious building boom of the 5th century was succeeded by relative stagnation in the 4th century. There were no more great public buildings. Instead, private dwellings became swankier and more luxurious. The Pompeum, founded at the Dipylon in the first years of the new century, was the starting-point for the Panathenaea. For the rest of the time it was used as a wrestling-ground. Another building of special interest is the late Classical choregic monument of Lysicrates.

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