. A smaller history of Greece, from the earliest times to the Roman conquest. is period, or that comprised under theascendency of Pericles, exhibits Athenian art in its highest state ofperfection, and is therefore by way of excellence commonly desig-nated as the age of Pericles. The great sculptor of this period—perhaps the greatest the world has ever seen—was Phidias, to whomPericles intrusted the superintendence of all the works executed inhis administration. The first public monuments that arose after the Persian warswere erected under the auspices of Cimon, who was, like Pericles,a lover a
. A smaller history of Greece, from the earliest times to the Roman conquest. is period, or that comprised under theascendency of Pericles, exhibits Athenian art in its highest state ofperfection, and is therefore by way of excellence commonly desig-nated as the age of Pericles. The great sculptor of this period—perhaps the greatest the world has ever seen—was Phidias, to whomPericles intrusted the superintendence of all the works executed inhis administration. The first public monuments that arose after the Persian warswere erected under the auspices of Cimon, who was, like Pericles,a lover and patron of the arts. The principal of these were thesmall Ionic temple of Nike Apteros (Wingless Victory;*, and theThese am, or temple of Theseus. The temple of Nike Apteros wasonly 27 feet in length by IS in breadth, and was erected on the Chap. X. MONUMENTS OF CIMON. 89 Acropolis in commemoration of Cimons victory at the view of it is given at the beginning of this chapter, and its posi-tion on the Acropolis, on one side of the Propylaea, is seen in the. The Theseum restored. The Theseum is situated on a height to the north of the Areo-pagus, and was built to receive the bones of Theseus, which Cimonbrought from Scyros in 469. It was probably finished about465, and is the best preserved of all the monuments of ancientAthens. It was at once a tomb and temple, and possessed the pri-vileges of an asylum. It is of the Doric order, 104 feet in lengthby 45 feet broad, and surrounded with columns. But it was the Acropolis which was the chief centre of the archi-tectural splendour of Athens. After the Persian wars the Acro-polis had ceased to be inhabited, and was appropriated to theworship of Athena and to the other guardian deities of the city. Itwas covered with the temples of gods and heroes ; and thus itsplatform presented not only a sanctuary, but a museum, containingthe finest productions of the architect and the sculptor, in whichthe whiteness of the ma
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