Well-structured city-States were welcomed into the 5th century, a Golden Age, at least for those in power. Shrewd and inventive leadership had catapulted Athens into the political driver's seat in much of the Hellenic space, especially in the Aegean basin and the coast cities of Asia Minor populated by fellow-Ionian tribe members. Having managed to push back the Persian invasions of 490 and 480 BC, the Athenians had now the time of their life, in gold and glory. And in arrogance and deceipt, to the extent that Sparta and other cities which had rallied under Athenian command to fend off the Persians, had had enough. The Peloponnesian Wars broke out in 431 BC, but in the meantime, Greece and particularly Attica had probably lived the most productive period of all Antiquity, in art, architecture, science, philosophy and literature. The rise of the Makedonian kingdom in the 4th century prolonged the effects of this Classical Period, but one could feel that another era was about to take over, with Alexander the Great.

CLASSICAL PERIOD