DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14144#0208
172
AGE OF CIMON AND PERICLES.
by the invading hordes of Persia, there would have been but a narrow-
field for the exercise of the architect's and sculptor's art. Even before
the Persian wars, Athens was comparatively a noble city—full of
temples and images of the Gods, which were hallowed by the rever-
ence of bygone generations. Who but an alien in race and creed
could have wished or dared to lay a hand upon them ? It would have
been impossible to make room even for the Parthenon of Ictinus and
Pheidias by destroying the noble temple of Athene, which had already
crowned the Acropolis from the time of the Pisistratida;. Even in
our own times many of the grandest cities of Europe owe their
chief beauties to a conflagration. London would have been even
uglier than it is but for the great fire of 1666, and Hamburg dates its
chief splendour from the year of its destruction by fire in 1842.
There is, however, a very good reason for our anxiety to preserve
what is old in art, because we are not conscious of being better than
our fathers, but know, on the contrary, that we could not replace
their temples by structures of equal beauty. But Athens was made
a tabula rasa at the very moment when an Ictinus and a Pheidias
were there to write their names upon it in immortal characters.
Xerxes and Mardonius did the work of fifty conflagrations, and the
patriotism of the Athenians themselves completed the destruction by
inducing them to use the poor remains of their city as materials for
a wall alike against Persian invasion and Spartan jealousy. ' They
spared,' says Thucydides,1 'neither public nor private property where
the interests of the work were concerned, but pulled down every-
thing ;' and thus the ruins of old Athens served to protect the new
and more beautiful city which rose from its ashes.
The importance of these so-called fortuitous circumstances can
hardly be overrated. The state of the case demanded the immediate
and combined efforts of the whole Athenian people, nay, of all the
industry and talent to be found in Greece ; and fortunately the previous
foreign occupation had left the workmen of Athens destitute of em-
ployment at the very time when they were most wanted. Themistoclcs
' i. 90; ipaSofitvovi htit( i'5fou /utjtc Stifiotrlov oiKo5u/u7;/iaT»j, uOtv ris uxpeKeia tarai
es rb (pyov a\\a KaBmpovvTas iroi'Ta.
AGE OF CIMON AND PERICLES.
by the invading hordes of Persia, there would have been but a narrow-
field for the exercise of the architect's and sculptor's art. Even before
the Persian wars, Athens was comparatively a noble city—full of
temples and images of the Gods, which were hallowed by the rever-
ence of bygone generations. Who but an alien in race and creed
could have wished or dared to lay a hand upon them ? It would have
been impossible to make room even for the Parthenon of Ictinus and
Pheidias by destroying the noble temple of Athene, which had already
crowned the Acropolis from the time of the Pisistratida;. Even in
our own times many of the grandest cities of Europe owe their
chief beauties to a conflagration. London would have been even
uglier than it is but for the great fire of 1666, and Hamburg dates its
chief splendour from the year of its destruction by fire in 1842.
There is, however, a very good reason for our anxiety to preserve
what is old in art, because we are not conscious of being better than
our fathers, but know, on the contrary, that we could not replace
their temples by structures of equal beauty. But Athens was made
a tabula rasa at the very moment when an Ictinus and a Pheidias
were there to write their names upon it in immortal characters.
Xerxes and Mardonius did the work of fifty conflagrations, and the
patriotism of the Athenians themselves completed the destruction by
inducing them to use the poor remains of their city as materials for
a wall alike against Persian invasion and Spartan jealousy. ' They
spared,' says Thucydides,1 'neither public nor private property where
the interests of the work were concerned, but pulled down every-
thing ;' and thus the ruins of old Athens served to protect the new
and more beautiful city which rose from its ashes.
The importance of these so-called fortuitous circumstances can
hardly be overrated. The state of the case demanded the immediate
and combined efforts of the whole Athenian people, nay, of all the
industry and talent to be found in Greece ; and fortunately the previous
foreign occupation had left the workmen of Athens destitute of em-
ployment at the very time when they were most wanted. Themistoclcs
' i. 90; ipaSofitvovi htit( i'5fou /utjtc Stifiotrlov oiKo5u/u7;/iaT»j, uOtv ris uxpeKeia tarai
es rb (pyov a\\a KaBmpovvTas iroi'Ta.