Streams of History: Ancient Greece (Yesterday's Classics) by Kemp Ellwood W

Author:Kemp, Ellwood W. [Kemp, Ellwood W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 9781599152554
Publisher: Yesterday's Classics
Published: 2010-11-10T14:49:07.513000+00:00

A Visit to Athens When Greece Was in Her Greatest Beauty

WHEN the Persians were at last driven away from Greece the people had time to look around and see what had been done to their country. Do you not think it must have been discouraging for them to come back and find their homes and temples all burned down? They must now begin all over and make a new city. It was surprising to see how quickly this was done.

One thing that helped them make Athens more beautiful than it had ever been before was this very war. Let me tell you how this was. All those cities in the AEgean Sea and in Asia Minor that we have spoken of were now free from Persia, but they were still afraid of the great Persian king. They thought Athens the strongest city of Greece, and wanted her to help them. So Athens and about two hundred of the cities around and in the AEgean Sea joined in a league, with Athens at the head. Another league was formed of the cities in southern Greece with Sparta at the head. Once a year men from each of these leagues met on the island of Delos to worship and to talk over important things about the union. If any of the cities had warships, they gave them to Athens to use; or if they had none, they gave money each year, and Athens built ships with it. This money was kept in Apollo's temple, on the island of Delos, and the temple grew very rich. But after a while Athens had as many ships as she thought she needed, and as the Persians did not come back again, she began to use this money to build up her own city. Thus you see how this war helped to make Athens more beautiful than she had ever been before. Besides making her people free and proud of their city, it gave them plenty of money to use.

I want to tell you now about a great man who lived in Athens at this time, and did more than any one else to make the city great and beautiful. His name was Pericles. He was a very handsome man, but that is not why we remember him. He was such a fine speaker that he generally made the Athenians believe what he said, and he easily led them to do what he wanted them to do. But even that is not the great thing. It is because he got them to do so many wise things and made Athens great as well as himself, that we remember him. Pericles had many wonderful buildings erected; some of them I want to tell you about. I wish I might take you there and let you see them all as they were. If we could really go to Athens, we could see only the ruins of many of them, and often only the places where some stood; for

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