fme_930933 - ATTICA - ATHENS Médaille, Chouette d’Athéna, Musées du monde

ATTICA - ATHENS

(5th century BC)

The fortune of Athens in the 5th century rests largely on the recovery of the treasury of the League of Delos which contained no less than five thousand talents of silver and which served to enrich and embellish Athens by oppressing the Allies. The Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) put an end to Athenian hegemony. Pericles (449-429 BC) did not live long enough to witness the fall of the city. Thucydides immortalized this conflict in his work devoted to the Peloponnesian War, of which he was one of the actors before being himself ostracized, that is to say exiled.