And we shall assuredly not be without witnesses; the mighty monuments of our power make us the wonder of this age and will make us the wonder of future ages.  Pericles

Many people today consider Greece in the age of Pericles as an ideal to be lived up to. Perhaps no other country, city or culture in the history of humanity has enjoyed a period of genius and brilliance as Greece has. In philosophy, Greece produced Socrates, Anaxagoras and Plato; in history, Herodotus and Thucydides; in literature, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.  Greek citizens achieved brilliance in the arts, medicine, mathematics, and philosophy.