who ruled athens for 30 years and made it a world famous center of learning art and culture
Pericles Pericles had such a profound influence on Athenian society that Thucydides, a contemporary historian, acclaimed him as "the first citizen of Athens".[1] Pericles turned the Delian League into an Athenian empire, and led his countrymen during the first two years of the Peloponnesian War. The period during which he led Athens, roughly from 461 to 429 BC, is sometimes known as the "Age of Pericles", though the period thus denoted can include times as early as the Persian Wars, or as late as the next century. Pericles promoted the arts and literature; it is principally through his efforts that Athens holds the reputation of being the educational and cultural center of the ancient Greek world. He started an ambitious project that generated most of the surviving structures on the Acropolis (including the Parthenon). This project beautified and protected the city, exhibited its glory, and gave work to the people.[2] Pericles also fostered Athenian democracy to such an extent that critics call him a populist.[3][4]
Gymnasium (ancient Greece) In Athens there were three great public gymnasia: the Academy, the Lyceum and the Cynosarges,[8][9] each of which was dedicated to a deity whose statue adorned the structure. Each of the three was rendered famous by association with a celebrated school of philosophy.[10] Antisthenes founded a school at the Cynosarges, from which some say the name Cynic derives;[11] Plato founded a school that gathered at the Academy, after which the school was named, making the gymnasium famous for hundreds of years;[12] and at the Lyceum,[13] Aristotle founded the Peripatetic school.