Work on the Acropolis started at the beginning of the
460s B.C.. Up to that time, there had been no attempt to
remove the ruins of earlier structures. They stayed
there, as a reminder of Persian atrocities, since that
was what all the Greeks had sworn to at Plataea. Once the
area had been cleaned up, there was limited
restoration work, to meet the immediate needs of religion.
But the decision to build a great temple had evidently
already been taken, and had been agreed to by all the
political groupings in Athens. The start of work on the Parthenon came at
the same time as a decision to transfer to the Acropolis funds amounting to 5000
talents from the Alliance
treasury at Delos. As soon as the
Parthenon (though not its decorative sculpture) was
complete, work started on the Propylaea and the
buttress on which the temple of Athena Nike
was to stand. Once the temple was finished (not
long after the Peace of Nicias),
work started on the Erechtheum,
which had been completed by the end of the Peloponnesian War. |
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