Ancient Greece

It was constructed not so much as a temple, but as a kind of central bank, housing all the Allied treasury.

Without these funds, the Greek classics wouldn't have existed at all.

No sculpture, drama, or philosophy.

The strategist and orator Pericles became the head of this new financial center.

He concluded the 30 years peace with Sparta, restored the Acropolis that had been sacked by the Persians,