THE ANCIENT GREEKS - ENGINEERING AN EMPIRE - Discovery History Science (full documentary)

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(dramatic music)

- [Voiceover] Ancient Greece.

The birthplace of Western civilization.

For over 1,000 years this
strong and charismatic people

devised the most advanced
technological feats

the world had ever seen.

- So you have the appearance
of a new generation

of thinkers, and you have
a reason to build things,

to understand nature,
to create technology.

- [Voiceover] Feats of
engineering so amazing

the ancients believed they
had been built by the gods.

- One thing that we should really wonder

is how on Earth these people managed

to lift these truly huge, gigantic stones.

- [Voiceover] These technological wonders

were fueled by leaders,

whose thirst for greatness united a people

and launched them to
the heights of empire.

(dramatic music)

But this brilliant burst
of culture and creativity

would fall victim to savage battles

that pitted brother against brother.

A duel to the death that
would lead to the end

of a golden age.

(dramatic music)

September, 480 BC,

morning breaks over the island of Salamis

and the thin, mile wide strait

that separates it from mainland Greece.

The calm sea provides no
hint of the great battle

that is about to begin here.

By day's end, the Mediterranean

will be flowing red with blood.

At stake is nothing less than the future

and independence of Greece,

a country of islands and city-states

which lie just outside the reach

of the greatest empire in the known world,

Persia.

- [Barry] Persia was the
world's superpower of it's day.

Enormously wealthy,
enormously self-confident.

The greatest multi-ethnic,
multi-cultural empire

the world had seen.

- [Voiceover] A Persian invasion force

of epic proportions is on the horizon.

As many as 700 ships,
carrying 150,000 warriors

determined to add Greece to their empire,

but one Greek is poised
and ready for battle,

his name is Themistocles.

An Athenian admiral and statesman

who has been preparing
for this moment for years.

- When going up against Persia,

the world's greatest
superpower of the time

would be no day at the
beach for Themistocles.

Hello, I'm Peter Weller.

First of all, the Greek naval fleet

was outnumbered two to one.

Second of all, Themistocles
faced the almost insurmountable

problem of trying to unite a completely

disparate and contentious
group of warriors

into one command.

You see, the good news
about the civic development

of Ancient Greece was the city-state.

Each of these city-states
was sort of a self-contained,

self-reliant mini country within Greece.

The bad news about the civic
development of Ancient Greece

was the city-state.

Because in as much as
each of these city-states

sort of spoke the same lingo,
worshiped the same gods,

there was really no sense
of a national unity,

and their only priority
was their own particular

regional and cultural agenda.

At best they didn't get along,

at worst they were violently
at each other's throats.

- [Voiceover] If there
was someone who could pull

the Athenians together,
it was Themistocles.

A man who didn't come from
the aristocratic ranks,

and wasn't ashamed to let
his fellow Athenians know it.

- [Barry] He was always an outsider,

and he saw himself as an outsider,

and he prided himself
on his lack of polish.

He said that he might not
know how to tune a lyre,

or to sing well, but he
knew all you needed to know

to make a city great and free.

- [Voiceover] Themistocles was no stranger

to facing the Persians in battle.

Ten years earlier, a smaller Persian force

had invaded Greece for the first time,

and fought the Athenians and her allies

at Marathon.

Now Themistocles would bring
that experience to Salamis,

and focus his strategy on
a fatal flaw he detected

in the Persian war machine, their navy.

- He understood that water
was not the Persian's

natural element.

Persia was a land power,

in fact, Persian religion
considered salt water

to be demonic.

- [Voiceover] Themistocles
wanted the Greeks

to build a navy unlike any
the world had ever seen.

Immediately, work began
at break-neck speed

to build a fleet of 200 triremes,

the deadliest ship in the ancient world.

- [Barry] Trireme's about 130 feet long,

it's light and sleek,

and it's tipped with a wooden ram

covered in bronze at the water level

and that is the offensive
weapon of the trireme.

Might think of the trireme, actually,

as a guided missile.

- [Voiceover] The trireme
consisted of 170 rowers

on three separate levels,

62 on the top level, 54 in the middle,

and 54 on the bottom.

On the lowest level, rowers
were seated so deep in the ship

that their oar ports were just 18 inches

above the water line.

- So you have a ship, a wooden ship,

that is powered from the oars.

It can go up to eight knots,

but nine knots was an amazing
speed for the ancient world.

And it can attack like a missile.

- And the rowers, of
course have to learn how to

work as a team, they have to
learn to row together in unison

which is an easy thing to begin to do

but a very difficult thing to master.

- [Voiceover] Themistocles'
fleet of triremes

was finished in just a few years

and in the nick of time.

In the spring of 480 BC, Persia launched

a massive invasion of Greece.

Themistocles knew that the Persian fleet

outnumbered the combined Greek fleet

by almost two to one.

So he devised a simple yet cunning plan

to keep the Greeks together
and level the odds.

- [George] He had to turn a
disadvantage into an advantage,

the fact that he had fewer
ships than the Persians.

So he had to lure the
Persians, if you like,

into such a battleground
that they could not

advance the whole ranks.

So he can actually concentrate their power

and strike it.

So the best place that he could do that

was the strait of Salamis.

- [Voiceover] Themistocles
would devise a ruse

to lure the Persian fleet into the narrows

Straits of Salamis.

- Themistocles was a very cunning man,

a great trickster.

Themistocles knew that the Persians

preferred to win battles
through diplomacy,

through intimidation, and
through buying traitors.

- [Voiceover] On the eve of the battle

Themistocles sent a trusted servant

across the straits to the Persian camp.

The servant played the role of a traitor,

telling the Persian king
the Greeks were in disarray,

and if the Persians sent
their ships in the night

they could surprise the
Greek navy in the morning.

The Persians took the bait.

- So at dawn, the Persians
discovered to their shock,

that the Greek fleet, instead
of being about to flee,

was getting into battle formation

and that they, the Persians,
would have to fight.

So it was a perfect setup
of a battle by Themistocles.

- [Voiceover] Now 200 triremes,

powered by 34,000 Greek rowers,

formed into a line.

There was no room for
the Persians to maneuver

in the narrow straits.

Themistocles had sprung the perfect trap.

The attacks raged all day long

as the Greek triremes
encircled the Persian ships,

then pounded them with their forward rams.

- The Persian officers died
in unusually high proportions.

- [Voiceover] The battle was so confused,

chaotic, and unnerving,

that at the end of the day
the Greeks weren't even sure

that they had won.

But thousands of lifeless enemy bodies

on the shores of Salamis

revealed a decisive Greek victory.

Some historical sources
claim the Persians lost

as many as 200 ships to the Greeks 40.

Any Persians that didn't drown

were slaughtered by Greek
soldiers waiting onshore.

- [George] Had the Greeks
not won the battle of Salamis

the Greek civilization, or Ancient Greece,

it's values that we all
share in today's world,

may never been there.

- [Voiceover] After the
stunning victory at Salamis,

Themistocles was hailed as a hero,

but his personal ambitions and greed

began to add to his
many political enemies.

It was only a matter of time

before the rage of the
assembly boiled over.

- Athens at this time had a
practice called ostracism,

an annual un-popularity contest,

in which the people would
vote for the politician

who they felt was most
disruptive, most dangerous

to the political process,

and they would exile him for ten years.

- [Voiceover] In 471 BC,
Themistocles was ostracized,

in a stunning irony he was
forced to embrace the enemy

he had fought so hard to defeat.

He would never see Athens again.

- Amazingly he was forced
to flee to Persia itself.

Where he found refuge
and he ended his life

speaking Persian, working
as an adminstrator

for the Persian king,

helping the Persians
govern western Asia Minor.

- [Voiceover] Themistocles
had played his part

in an epic story of Greek
power and achievement

that looked to a glorious
past for inspiration.

The legendary tales of the gods and heroes

told in epics like The
Iliad and The Odyssey.

The stories may be myth,

but the engineering achievements of these

Greek ancestors were very real,

and still stand today.

In the Greek city-state of Sparta,

boys began their military
training at age seven.

By 1300 BC, a people
speaking an early form

of the Greek language

had inhabited large
portions of mainland Greece.

They were known as the Mycenaeans,

and for years their wars and scandals,

exploits and achievements,

became the stuff of legend

and laid the foundation
of Greek civilization.

Their capital city of Mycenae

was surrounded by a massive citadel

built over the course of 150 years.

According to myth, it was from this city

that the Mycenaeans were led
by a king named Agamemnon.

Whose epic struggles were written down

by the 8th century BC poet, Homer,

in two of history's most famous tales,

The Iliad and The Odyssey.

- So, The Iliad was
something like the Bible

for Ancient Greeks.

It contains a moral story.

It told you how you should live.

It described gods, it described religion,

but also described people.

It described situations.

It gave ideals that you should look upon.

- [Voiceover] The tales of
The Iliad and The Odyssey

had become some of the
most famous in history.

The abduction of Helen by Paris,

Agamemnon's ten year siege of Troy,

and the giant wooden horse

which the Greeks used to enter
Troy and destroy the city.

Although Agamemnon's exploits
during the Trojan War

may have been heroic,

his return home to Mycenae
was far from a hero's welcome.

He was murdered by his own wife.

- Scholars have debated for centuries

whether or not Homer actually penned

The Iliad and The Odyssey,

or whether he just collected
the folktales of song,

or whether he had
anything with them at all.

But if the Ancient Greeks came back today

they'd scoff at this pithy harangue,

because of the Ancient Greeks,

Homer wasn't just some
top 40s folk singer,

nor was he the best-selling hack writer

of some piece of pulp fiction.

Home was an historian,

and these legends weren't
the bedtime stories

to be whispered to the kiddies

before the oil lamps were blown out.

These were accountable facts.

(dramatic music)

This is what is left of Mycenae,

the capital city of which Homer writes

and where many, including
me, would like to believe

that Agamemnon really ruled.

These ruins show us that not only

were these early Greeks master builders,

but they were capable of some
amazing engineering feats.

- As you approach Mycenae, first thing,

of course that you will see
is the fortification walls.

Which are very impressive,

and immediately you have
this feeling of awesome.

- [Voiceover] The citadel walls of Mycenae

are buttressed by stone blocks

which weigh up to ten tons a piece.

They were engineered with such precision

that each stone fit perfectly in place

to its adjacent block.

But for awe inspiring visuals,

nothing in Mycenae comes closer

than the colossal main
entrance to the citadel,

the Lion's Gate.

- This is the Lion's Gate.

The main gate to the citadel of Mycenae.

It is one of the most stunning structures

of all of early antiquity.

It is an imposing piece of symbolism,

it is an imposing piece of engineering.

Two lions standing fully upright,

their paws on the base of a column.

Their heads, which are missing,

would be turning outward.

Anybody approaching this gate would know

that Mycenae stood for one thing,

power.

Structurally the gate
looks to be a standard

engineering practice of post
and lintel construction.

These vertical elements
here are these massive piers

are the posts supporting the lintel,

the horizontal element,

which weighs about 12 tons.

But it is above the gate
where the lions live

that the engineers took
it one step further.

If you look at this
triangle of indented stones

right by the lions,

it develops an element that we call

the corebelled arch.

- Suppose you have these four stones,

and instead of piling them up,

you try to create an
opening from the outside

and you steal a little bit of space

by putting them this way.

This is corbeling.

If we are little bit more ambitious

because this is not sufficiently large,

and we try to displace
further these stones,

still in corbeling,

then we are running this risk
that this is falling down.

So what is the little trick?

It's simple.

You start putting counter weights

behind each of these corbelstones.

- [Clairy] Now this triangle,

first of all we should
say that this is a true

Mycenaean innovation,

this is something that we
see for the first time,

it was probably worldwide.

So in that sense we are
looking at something

that's very innovative, very new.

- [Voiceover] The Mycenaean engineers

took the corbelled arch one step further.

They applied the idea to create

a revolutionary interior space,

called a corbelled dome.

The dome was used in only
one kind of construction,

a tomb.

Like the Egyptians,

the Mycenaeans built incredible structures

to house their leaders in the afterlife.

These tombs are called tholos.

Their construction departed from anything

the Mycenaean engineers
had ever done before.

- The circular form,
it's completely absent

in the architectural
minds of the Mycenaeans.

The Mycenaeans work with
straight lines and right angles.

So the circle is just for
this kind of structure.

So that makes the
impression and the symbolism

of the circle as related
to death, even stronger.

- [Voiceover] Building a tholos
was a giant engineering feat

The first step would
have been to hollow out

the side of a hill.

- So they dug this trench,

and this trench would form the dromos,

which means in Greek, road or way,

in this case it's a walkway to the tomb,

and it's flanked on each
side by these beautiful

almond stones set in
linked wise and edgewise.

Now 3,200 years ago in 1200 BC,

a visitor approaching
would walk down this dromos

and then he would be confronted by

an unbelievably magnificent
and stunning site,

this massive doorway.

The doorway would be flanked
by two fantastic columns,

carved out of solid green marble,

with zigzag and spiral
designs going all the way up.

Each one of these massive stones
is two and a half feet tall

and there are 33 rings of these stones

laid out in a conical shape.

Now each layer of stone
is laid over the lower one

in a sort of protruding fashion,

that's what we mean by
the corbelled style.

Then they're shaved down
to make it all very smooth.

- [Clairy] In order for
this structure to be stable,

you need a constant pressure

from outwards, inwards.

Very much like a barrel,

where you need this
band, this metallic band

around to keep the rings together.

This pressure comes from
the addition of earth.

As they build, they add earth from around

and quite a lot of earth,
and there comes a point

when they have finished the
beehive structure inside

at the same time they have built a whole

earthen mound on top.

- [Voiceover] Around 1,100 BC,

this early Greek civilization
suddenly and mysteriously

disintegrated and disappeared.

- [George] There's a lot
of theories about that.

I think the most dominant
one is new tribes,

new barbarian tribes came from the steps,

and they attacked the
civilizations of Egypt,

they attacked the
civilization of Mesopotamia,

causing disruption in the trade routes.

But that became their fall.

- [Voiceover] With the fall of Mycenaea,

Greece entered a dark age.

Over four centuries, it's
culture fell into a deep slumber.

Then, in the 8th century BC,

individual city-states began
to develop and flourish.

Each one forging its own identity,

competing for economic, military,

and engineering prominence.

One Greek island in particular, Samos,

would see the construction
of one of the most

amazing engineering feats
seen in the ancient world.

Moving mountains to bring
water to the people.

- [Voiceover] The Ancient
Greeks believed that Homer,

the 8th century poet who
wrote The Iliad and Odyssey,

was actually blind.

(dramatic music)

- [Voiceover] Sparta,
Athens, Corinth, Thebes,

these are just a few of the more than 100

city-states that emerged all around Greece

400 years after the disappearance

of the Mycenaean civilization.

Before the advent of democracy in Greece,

many of these city-states
were led by a single ruler,

called a tyrant in Ancient Greek.

Around 540 BC, a tyrant named Polycrates

came to rule over the
island city-state of Samos

in the Eastern Aegean Sea.

- He was quite a player on
the international scene.

He made tactical alliances,
not just with the Persians,

but also, for example, with the Egyptians.

He was an ambitious figure.

- [Voiceover] Polycrates
saw that the path to power

for an island like Samos,

lay through the sea.

He built a fleet of 100 triremes,

terrorizing neighboring city-states

and taxing ships that passed
through the surrounding waters.

- Under Polycrates Samos, his home island,

became the dominant sea power,

and that was the basis
of his wealth and power.

- [Voiceover] With his newly found riches,

Polycrates built up defensive walls

around his capital city

and set about to solve a problem

that plagued many cities in
the arid Mediterranean climate,

drinking water.

- Samos was a very, very
important and powerful city

They were needing a lot of water,

and they were short of water.

- [Voiceover] There was a
plentiful spring available,

but it was separated from the city

by the 900 foot high Mt. Castro.

Somehow, Polycrates and his engineers

had to figure out how to
connect the city and the spring.

Running an aqueduct around the mountain

was not an option.

- You could construct
a water supply system

around the mountain,

but the first thing a
besieging enemy would do

to cut off that water line,

and there you are with your
wonderful fortification,

with your wonderful new walls,

and you're drying out.

- [Voiceover] A solution required
thinking outside the box.

Polycrates turned to an
engineer named Eupalinos.

Eupalinos came up with a solution

that literally meant moving a mountain.

A tunnel running straight
through Mt. Castro.

It would be a huge
project, and a lengthy one.

- [Theodosios] The time
needed for such tunneling

should be enormous, therefore,

the decision was taken to drive

tunnels from both sides.

This is a mathematical
and a technical problem.

- [Voiceover] Like the engineers
of the modern day chunnel

under the English Channel,

Eupalinos dug tunnels from
each side of the mountain

until they met in the middle.

To succeed, Eupalinos
would have to be sure

that each tunnel started
at the same vertical height

on opposite sides of the mountain.

The tunnels also had to match
up on a horizontal plane.

Otherwise they would pass each other

like ships in the night.

Without sophisticated surveying equipment,

it was a remarkable challenge
for an engineer to take on.

One theory involves a short
walk around a large mountain.

By forging a path from
the spring to the city,

in short perpendicular lines,

Eupalinos could measure each small length

in order to calculate two
sides of a right triangle.

With two known sides of the triangle,

the hypotenuse became
the path of the tunnel

through the mountain.

What made this prodigious
feat of engineering

even more amazing is that
it involved not one tunnel,

but two.

The main tunnel was dug
at a height and length

of about six feet by six feet,

but was only used as a
workspace to dig a second tunnel

adjacent and below the main one.

That would serve as the actual aqueduct.

While the work tunnel was
dug on a straight plane,

the aqueduct tunnel was dug
along the side and below.

This second tunnel needed to
be angled on a slight gradient

to allow the water to flow
gently downward toward the city.

It was a matter of life and death

in the dark and dangerous
bowels of the mountain.

- [Lothar] Once they
were in the mountains,

the difficulties must have been paramount

because rock may be moving
in unpredictable ways,

water may all of a sudden
splash up and cause havoc.

This was probably a constant danger.

Apart from that it was dark,

and needed to be illuminated

and you needed to constantly
know where you are

in order to keep your line straight.

- [Voiceover] After slight adjustments,

the two crews met in the middle

almost exactly where Eupalinos
had originally determined.

The floors of each tunnel connected

with only 24 inches
difference between them.

A discrepancy of less
than 1/8th of a percent

of the tunnel's 3,500 foot length.

This stunning engineering acheivement

may have been the shining moment

of Polycrates reign.

But his political fortunes
would not prove so bright.

- The Persian governor on
the coast of Asia Minor

decided that that degree of autonomy

that Polycrates enjoyed was unsuitable

to the development of Persian power

and he was arrested,

and brutally tortured and crucified.

- [Voiceover] Polycrates was
just one tyrant among many

who ruled the city-states
of Ancient Greece

between 800 BC and 500 BC.

The rule of the few over the many

was the only form of government

humans had ever known.

But that was about to change.

The city-state of Athens

was going to change the
course of world history.

The visionary leader
who would make it happen

was named Pericles.

His legacy would be an
everlasting monument

on the Athenian acropolis
that rose above the clouds.

An amazing piece of precision engineering

call the Parthenon.

- [Voiceover] The word
encyclopedia comes from

two Greek words meaning
"a circle of learning."

- [Voiceover] In 480 BC,
when Themistocles defeated

the Persians at the Battle of Salamis,

he saved not only Athens,

but also it's young democracy,

which had been born
about 25 years earlier.

For Athens, the age of the single ruler

was over.

Athens was rich in military might,

treasure, technology, and ideas.

She was poised for her golden age,

and one man would take her there.

His name was Pericles,

a democrat and enlightened intellectual

who encouraged the arts.

But Pericles would also
expand Athenian power

through any means,
including threats, bribery,

and naked force.

- Pericles came from one of
the old aristocratic families

of Athens.

So he came from the kind
of family background

in which a career of political
and military leadership

was expected.

- [Voiceover] His rise to power began

when he was elected as a young man

to the position of strategos,

one of ten such men who commanded the army

and set foreign policy.

A natural at politics and a gifted orator,

Pericles was soon Athens' most influential

and powerful statesmen.

- Pericles was the typical
political animal, if you like.

This guy was a politician.

He was able to speak and convince.

He was completely
dedicated to what he did.

- [Voiceover] Pericles
became leader of Athens

in 461 BC.

Thanks to the fleet of triremes
Themistocles had built,

the Athenian navy held unrivaled power

in the Eastern Mediterranean.

But despite the defeat of the
Persian empire at Salamis,

the threat of another
invasion was always looming.

In 478 BC, Athens, together
with the city-states

of the Aegean, formed a
mutual defense alliance

called the Delian League.

The ancient world's version of NATO.

- By 450 BC Athens has
become the undisputed leader

of the Delian League,

which is nothing more than a money faucet

for the city-state.

But Pericles, as undisputed
leader of Athens,

finds ways to put this money
to the best possible use

by building massive public structures

that best reflect the grandeur
and magnificence of Athens.

Now legend has it that
Poseidon, god of the sea,

and Athena, goddess of wisdom,

each came to the Acropolis to compete

for the patronage of the city,

the outcome to be decided
by the inhabitants.

Poseidon struck the
ground with his trident

and up popped a spring.

Athena struck the ground with her spear

and up came an olive tree,

which not only suggested
sustenance for the Greeks,

but a possible outlet
for commercial venue.

Thus Athena became the
patron goddess of the city.

Over the centuries there were
several temples to Athena,

most of them destroyed.

But we leave it to Pericles

to give the world the most
remarkable piece of architecture

in all of Greek antiquity,

the Parthenon.

- [Voiceover] Pericles decided
to rebuild the Parthenon

on the Acropolis,

using the crumbling
foundations of an older

Athenian temple.

It would take thousands of
laborers and skilled craftsman

to create this magnificent temple.

And it would cost more than any building

the Greeks had ever engineered.

30 million dracmas.

In our terms, billions of dollars.

- That's an amazing amount,

but keep in mind that was
a huge state enterprise.

- [Voiceover] Construction
on the gargantuan

building project began in 447 BC.

The Parthenon was to be
about 2/3rds the length

of a football field,

it's outer dimensions, 228 feet long,

by 101 feet wide.

The first challenge was
to cleave the marble

from a mountain quarry ten miles away.

In all, about 30,000 tons
of the fine white stone

would be needed.

In the quarry, workers used
the natural cracks of the stone

to separate giant marble
slabs from the mountainside.

- The first step is to locate this crux

and calculate if this piece of marble

is sufficient for my specific purpose.

The second step is to
put within these cracks,

those horizontal cracks
and vertical cracks

wedges, iron wedges, why?

Because an enormous energy

was given by hammering

all these wedges simultaneously,

so that the brittleness of the material

makes further cracking.

- [Voiceover] Once the
giant slabs were ready,

gangs of men used levers,
ropes, and pulleys,

to maneuver the marble
and prepare the stone

for transportation to the Acropolis.

But accidents often happened.

- It was an enormous risk

that this big block

would slide further down

killing people underneath.

- [Voiceover] But cutting
and transporting the marble

from the side of the mountain

was only half the battle
in the construction

of the Parthenon.

Engineers now had to answer the question

of how to lift these
ten ton marble behemoths

and erect the greatest temple
the world had ever seen.

- [Voiceover] No medals were
awarded in the ancient Olympics

A winner received an
olive wreath on his head.

- [Voiceover] July, 447 BC.

Construction began on a magnificent temple

on the Athenian Acropolis.

The Parthenon was the vision of Pericles,

a dynamic and ambitious leader

who would take Athens into a golden age

never before seen in ancient Greece.

- It was a statement,

We are the most powerful city.

We are the cauldron of
democracy and freethinking.

We have the best people,
we have the best army,

the best navy, we are the leaders.

- [Voiceover] The Parthenon would differ

from most temples of the day

which consisted of a
hexistyle construction,

featuring six columns on one end

and 13 on the side.

The Parthenon would be a larger octistyle,

with 8 by 17 columns.

- That makes the building very different

because they basically have
all the same proportions.

When you make them larger you
simply scale up everything.

To make it wider was to
give it an extra dimension.

- [Voiceover] The columns
provide the main support

for the structure.

Each column consisted of 11 separate drums

stacked one on top of
the other like checkers.

They were carved so that
they would perfectly fit

when laid together in a column.

To do this, the top of
each drum was divided

into four concentric circles,

with each ring either
smoothed or roughed out,

depending on the amount of grit needed

to interlock with the next drum.

In the center of each drum

masons cut a rectangular notch

measuring about four to six inches square

and three to four inches deep.

Carpenters then inserted
wooden plugs into the notches

which served to align and center each drum

with the one above it.

The next challenge was in lifting

the enormously heavy drums,

especially those for the upper sections

of the columns.

A single column of the Parthenon

could weigh between 63 and 119 tons.

- A crane is an extremely simple device.

You have just the boom, and then

you have a series of pulleys,

which, as we know, just
give you the possibility

of taking up a weight of say,

ten tons by pulling down only 100 kilos.

- [Voiceover] Engineers
attached the stone to the crane

in one of several ways.

The method most often used

was to tie the end of
the rope to the top part

of a metal S-hook,

fasten shorter ropes to
the bottom of the hook,

and then loop these around
small protruding knobs

called bosses, that had been
left uncut from the marble

for this very purpose.

Typically four bosses would be left

surrounding the drum or stone block,

evenly distributing the force needed

to hoist the object.

The walls enclosing interior spaces

had to be laid down with extreme precision

since the builders did not use mortar.

To hold the ends of each block together,

builders hollowed out the ends

in a double T design.

Then, iron rods were inserted
to clamp them together.

After the columns and
blocks were put in place,

the bosses used to lift
them were chipped off

and smoothed over.

- There's a saying that
there are no straight lines

in the Parthenon.

Now what's meant by this is the architects

incorporated a series of sort of

optical illusions when they built it.

It starts with the stairs,

goes up to the columns,

all the way up to the top of the building,

the pediment, that triangular
element at the top.

So let's take a look at the stairs,

they seem to be straight, but no,

a closer look they bow in the center

and they go back down at the end.

Now this conceit, if you will,

continues right up to the columns.

This column is of the Doric
order, there's no base.

It seems to grow right
up out of the stone.

Each column has 20 flutes,

which makes the column sort of ungulate

as you look around it.

Then the column bows out in the center

and bows back up at the top.

This is a process called entasis.

- [Clairy] Such long lines,
which are more or less

at the level of your horizon,

tend to curve.

So in order to extinguish this effect,

they curve them the other way

so the result, again, is
more harmonious and you

see it as being straight,

because if it was all
straight, perfect right angles,

then you will see it like that.

- [Voiceover] The
Parthenon's main function

was to provide shelter
for the monumental statue

of Athena.

- Parthenon was an extremely
expensive building.

But the statue inside of
it was almost equal in cost

to the building itself, if
not even more expensive.

- Athena's statue was
about 10, 11 meters high,

it means 30 to 35 feet or so.

And it was of the
materials gold and ivory.

- [Voiceover] Hundreds of sculptures

created lifelike figures that
proved that craftsmanship

wasn't simply in the engineering.

The most famous carving in the decoration

of the temple is the frieze
running on the interior walls

of the Parthenon.

It was carved in a low relief,

just inches off the stone,

and depicts the panathenia,

a celebration to the goddess Athena

held in Athens every four years.

- What survives on the
side of the Parthenon today

are the white marble
remains of the building.

In antiquity, not only the sculptures,

but also many other parts of the building

were richly decorated with paint.

- [Voiceover] But not every
citizen was enthralled

by the Parthenon.

Some saw Pericles' pet project

as an Athenian eyesore

and simply a monument to his own glory.

- Now many Athenians hated
the Parthenon, the temples.

They thought it was disgusting.

They thought it was terrible.

Plato didn't like it at all.

For many Athenians, when they saw in their

holiest of holies, if you like,

those new buildings coming up,

buildings that had incorporated novelties,

buildings that were making
a break from the tide.

- [Voiceover] The whispers
of discontent in Athens

weren't limited to the Parthenon.

As Pericles continued to
expand Athens domination

his rivals began to conspire against him.

Soon they lashed out and
attacked his close associates.

At the top of the list was
an elegant and educated woman

named Aspasia,

a member of the elite
Hetaerae social caste,

and Pericles consort.

- Hetaerae were high-class courtesans,

often compared, for example,

to Geishas in Japanese culture.

Hetaerae moved in the top circles

in Athenian and Greek cultural life.

- [Voiceover] In classical Athens,

a woman's role lay under
the dominion of men,

but Aspasia was the exception to the rule.

Pericles treated Aspasia as an equal,

and his consort quickly became part

of the Athenian elite.

- But they became a well-known couple

and to the sort of astonishment

and some scandal of the Athenian people,

Pericles was even to be seen actually

kissing Aspasia publicly.

And of course, public
displays of affection

were not anything that one expected to see

in classical Athens.

- [Voiceover] By 432, after
nearly 15 years of construction,

the Parthenon was completed.

This temple to Athena did
just what Pericles wanted,

it advertised the power
of Athens to the world.

Ironically, the supremacy
the Parthenon symbolized

was already waning,

and Athens long time enemy, Sparta

was on the rise.

- Once Athens had established
this great alliance system,

or as some people put
it, this Athenian empire,

and arguably that's what it became,

the Spartans began more and more to look

askance, as it were, at the Athenians

and eventually, by the 430s,

to feel threatened by the Athenians.

- [Voiceover] In 431 BC,

Sparta moved on Athens.

For two long years, Athens held out

against the Spartan siege.

But Pericles' shining city
was about to come under attack

by an invisible enemy.

- After a couple of years,

because of the overcrowding
in the city of Athens,

disease that seems to have come originally

from the near East,

attacked the Athenian people.

It's known as the Great Athenian Plague.

Large numbers of Athenians
died in this plague.

- [Voiceover] Pericles,
now in his early 60s,

survived the plague, but
was physically weakened

and bore the brunt of the blame

for the city's misfortune.

In 429, with plague and war

overshadowing his beloved
city, Pericles died.

(somber music)

The bloody and brutal conflict
between Athens and Sparta

known as the Peloponnesian War,

continued for another 25 years,

until finally in 404 BC,

Athens fell.

- With the end of the Peloponnesian War

the time of Pericles and the
dominance of Athens was over.

Great marvels of Greek
culture and Greek engineering

would live on,

and the irony was that the two men,

the two purveyors of the fantastic legacy

of classical age of Athens,

were not Athenians at all.

The names of these two
men would be synonymous

not only with conquest, but with Helenism,

the spreading of the Greek
ideal of culture and value

throughout the world right on up

to our own modern day.

These two men were
Phillip II of Macedonia,

and his son, a man who would be the envy

of every single general and emperor

from Julius Caesar and
Napoleon, to George Patton.

A man who would traverse
most of his known world

in his short 33 years,

that student of Aristotle,

and self-proclaimed god,

Alexander the Great.

I'm Peter Weller for the History Channel.

(dramatic music)