Persian Wars

By worsening the political atmosphere in Ionia, filled Athens with a diaspora of intellectuals such as Hippodamus of Miletus who replanned the Piraeus, the harbour town of Athens; and Anaxagoras, the philosopher friend of Pericles. But above all, aristocrats such as Cimon and Pericles, by their political and military leadership, brought in the public wealth which subsidized the buildings and sculptures of Phidias, Ictinus, and Mnesicles on the Acropolis; and, by making available their private wealth for public purposes, they financed the festivals and dramatic productions which gave classical Athens its attractive power. (Boardman, 1986)