the people of Delphi, and the rest was collected as donations from other civilizations, such as other Greek states and Egypt. The architect, Spintharius of Corinth, was chosen by the council to construct a design created by members of the Alcmaeonidae family, a wealthy Athenian family who had been forcibly exiled from Athens by the tyrant Peisistratos.The temple, according to the design, was made of limestone and included white Parian marble columns. Pediments, built by the Athenians, Praxias and Androsthenes, occupied the east and west sides of the temple. The Eastern pediment included statues of Apollo, Latona, and Artemis standing along a rising and setting sun. The west pediment depicted the god Dionysos among his female votaries, the Thyiades. Persian shields taken as booty by the Athenians from the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC were attached to the temple's metopes along with Gallic shields, spoils of the repulse of Gauls during the 279 BC invasion. Inscribed on a column in the pronaos (the porch before the temple's cella), according to ancient writers, were three of the Delphic maxims of the Seven Sages: ΓΝΩΘΙ ΣEΑΥΤΟΝ (KNOW THYSELF), ΜΗΔΕΝ ΑΓΑΝ (NOTHING IN EXCESS), and ΕΓΓΥΑ, ΠΑΡΑ ΔΑΤΗ (SURETY BRINGS RUIN) as well as the enigmatic Delphic symbol “Ε”. The temple survived until AD 390, when the Roman emperor Theodosius I silenced the oracle by destroying the temple and most of the statues and works of art in the name of Christianity. The site was completely destroyed by zealous Christians in an attempt to remove all traces of Paganism. The ruins of this temple decay at a faster rate than some of the other ruins on the Southern slopes of Mount Parnassos. This is mostly due to the use of limestone, a softer material, along with porous stone. Function The Temple of Apollo at Delphi functions as a Panhellenic sanctuary serving all Greek settlements. Archaeologist J. Henry Middleton suggests Delphi, the location of the temple, contributes to the sanctuary's Panhellenic nature because Delphi itself was a sacred space representing, in Greek view, a politically and religiously united Greece. Political function Professor of classics at the University of Buffalo, Susan Guettel Cole, explains in her book, Landscapes, Gender, and Ritual Space, Apollo was a figure of authority in legal and political concerns. The god served Greek civilizations which sought his political support and protection from corrupt leadership. Citizens from different Greek settlements came