Athens Ἀθῆναι (Ancient Greek) | |||||||||
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| 508 BC–322 BC | |||||||||
.png) Owl of Athena, patron of Athens | |||||||||
 Delian League ("Athenian Empire") shown in yellow, Athenian territory shown in red, situation in 431 BC, before thePeloponnesian War. | |||||||||
| Capital | Athens | ||||||||
| Common languages | Attic Greek | ||||||||
| Religion | Greek Polytheism | ||||||||
| Government | Athenian direct democracy | ||||||||
| Eponymous archon | |||||||||
• 508–507 BC | Isagoras | ||||||||
• 322–321 BC | Philocles | ||||||||
| Legislature | Boule Ecclesia | ||||||||
| Historical era | Classical antiquityClassical Greece | ||||||||
• Cleisthenes establishesAthenian democracy | 508 BC | ||||||||
| 478–404 BC | |||||||||
| 404–403 BC | |||||||||
| 378–355 BC | |||||||||
| 322 BC | |||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 5th century BC1 | ~250,000 (men with civil rights: ~30,000) | ||||||||
| Currency | Drachma | ||||||||
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The city ofAthens (Ancient Greek:Ἀθῆναι,Athênai[atʰɛ̂ːnai̯];Modern Greek: Αθήναι,Athine[aˈθine]) during theclassical period ofancient Greece (480–323 BC)[1] was the major urban centre of the notablepolis (city-state) of the same name, located inAttica,Greece, leading theDelian League in thePeloponnesian War againstSparta and thePeloponnesian League.Athenian democracy was established in 508 BC underCleisthenes following thetyranny ofIsagoras. This system remained remarkably stable, and with a few brief interruptions, it remained in place for 180 years, until 322 BC (aftermath ofLamian War). The peak of Athenianhegemony was achieved in the 440s to 430s BC, known as theAge of Pericles.
In theclassical period,Athens was a centre for the arts, learning, andphilosophy, the home ofPlato'sAcademy andAristotle'sLyceum,[2][3] Athens was also the birthplace ofSocrates, Plato,Pericles,Aristophanes,Sophocles, and many other prominent philosophers, writers, and politicians of the ancient world. It is widely referred to as thecradle ofWestern Civilization, and the birthplace ofdemocracy,[4] largely due to the impact of its cultural and political achievements during the 5th and 4th centuries BC on the rest of the then-known European continent.[5]
Hippias, son ofPeisistratus, had ruled Athens jointly with his brother, Hipparchus, from the death of Peisistratus in about 527. Following the assassination ofHipparchus in about 514, Hippias took on sole rule, and in response to the loss of his brother, became a worse leader who was increasingly disliked. Hippias exiled 700 of the Athenian noble families, amongst themCleisthenes' family, the Alchmaeonids. Upon their exile, they went to Delphi, and Herodotus[6] says they bribed thePythia always to tell visiting Spartans that they should invade Attica and overthrow Hippias. That supposedly worked after a number of times, andCleomenes I led a Spartan force to overthrow Hippias, which succeeded, and instated an oligarchy. Cleisthenes disliked the Spartan rule, along with many other Athenians, and so made his own bid for power. The result wasdemocracy in Athens, but considering Cleisthenes' motivation for using the people to gain power, as without their support, he would have been defeated, and so Athenian democracy may be tainted by the fact its creation served greatly the man who created it. The reforms of Cleisthenes replaced the traditional four Ionic "tribes" (phyle) with ten new ones, named after legendary heroes of Greece and having no class basis, which acted as electorates. Each tribe was in turn divided into three trittyes (one from the coast; one from the city and one from the inland divisions), while eachtrittys had one or moredemes, depending on their population, which became the basis of local government.
The tribes each selected fifty membersby lot for theBoule, the council that governed Athens on a day-to-day basis. Thepublic opinion of voters could be influenced by thepolitical satires written by thecomic poets and performed in the citytheaters.[7] TheAssembly or Ecclesia was open to all full citizens and was both a legislature and a supreme court, except in murder cases and religious matters, which became the only remaining functions of the Areopagus. Most offices were filled by lot, although the tenstrategoi (generals) were elected.
The silvermines of Laurion contributed significantly to the development of Athens in the 5th century BC, when the Athenians learned to prospect, treat, and refine the ore and used the proceeds to build a massive fleet, at the instigation ofThemistocles.[8]
In 499 BC, Athens sent troops to aid theIonian Greeks ofAsia Minor, who were rebelling against thePersian Empire (seeIonian Revolt). That provoked two Persian invasions of Greece, both of which were repelled under the leadership of the soldier-statesmenMiltiades andThemistocles (seePersian Wars). In 490 the Athenians, led byMiltiades, prevented the first invasion of the Persians, guided by kingDarius I, at theBattle of Marathon. In 480 the Persians returned under a new ruler,Xerxes I. The Hellenic League led by the Spartan KingLeonidas led 7,000 men to hold the narrow passageway ofThermopylae against the 100,000–250,000 army of Xerxes, during which Leonidas and 300 other Spartan elites were killed. Simultaneously the Athenians led an indecisive naval battle offArtemisium. However, that delaying action was not enough to discourage the Persian advance, which soon marched throughBoeotia, setting upThebes as their base of operations, and entered southern Greece. That forced the Athenians to evacuate Athens, which was taken by the Persians, and seek the protection of their fleet. Subsequently, the Athenians and their allies, led byThemistocles, defeated the Persian navy at sea in theBattle of Salamis. Xerxes had built himself a throne on the coast in order to see the Greeks defeated. Instead, the Persians were routed. Sparta's hegemony was passing to Athens, and it was Athens that took the war to Asia Minor. The victories enabled it to bring most of the Aegean and many other parts of Greece together in theDelian League, an Athenian-dominated alliance.
Pericles – an Athenian general, politician and orator – distinguished himself above the other personalities of the era, men who excelled inpolitics,philosophy,architecture,sculpture,history andliterature. He fostered arts and literature and gave to Athens a splendor which would never return throughout its history. He executed a large number of public works projects and improved the life of the citizens. Hence, this period is often referred to as "Age of Pericles."[9] Silver mined inLaurium in southeastern Attica contributed greatly to the prosperity of this Athenian Golden Age.
During the time of the ascendancy ofEphialtes as leader of the democratic faction,Pericles was his deputy. When Ephialtes wasassassinated by personal enemies, Pericles stepped in and was elected general, orstrategos, in 445 BC; a post he held continuously until his death in 429 BC, always by election of theAthenian Assembly. TheParthenon, a lavishly decorated temple to the goddessAthena, was constructed under the administration of Pericles.[10]
Resentment by other cities at the hegemony of Athens led to thePeloponnesian War in 431, which pitted Athens and her increasingly rebellious sea empire against a coalition of land-based states led bySparta. The conflict marked the end of Atheniancommand of the sea. The war between Athens and the city-state Sparta ended with an Athenian defeat after Sparta started its own navy.
Athenian democracy was briefly overthrown by thecoup of 411, brought about because of its poor handling of the war, but it was quickly restored. The war ended with the complete defeat of Athens in 404. Since the defeat was largely blamed on democratic politicians such asCleon andCleophon, there was a brief reaction against democracy, aided by the Spartan army (the rule of theThirty Tyrants). In 403,democracy was restored byThrasybulus and an amnesty declared.
Sparta's former allies soon turned against her due to her imperialist policies, and Athens's former enemies,Thebes andCorinth, became her allies.Argos, Thebes and Corinth, allied with Athens, fought againstSparta in theCorinthian War of 395–387 BC. In 378, the attempt of the Spartan commanderSphodrias to capturePiraeus by surprise triggered Athens to establish theSecond Athenian League. FinallyThebes defeated Sparta in 371 in theBattle of Leuctra. However, other Greek cities, including Athens, turned againstThebes, and its dominance was brought to an end at theBattle of Mantinea (362 BC) with the death of its leader, the military geniusEpaminondas.
By mid century, however, the northern Greek kingdom ofMacedon was becoming dominant in Athenian affairs. In 338 BC the armies ofPhilip II defeated Athens at theBattle of Chaeronea, effectively limiting Athenian independence. During the winter of 338–37 BC Macedonia, Athens and other Greek states became part of theLeague of Corinth. Further, the conquests of his son,Alexander the Great, widened Greek horizons and made the traditional Greek city state obsolete.Antipater dissolved the Athenian government and established aplutocratic system in 322 BC (seeLamian War andDemetrius Phalereus). Athens remained a wealthy city with a brilliant cultural life, but ceased to be an independent power.
Athens was inAttica, about 30stadia from the sea, on the southwest slope ofMount Lycabettus, between the small riversCephissus to the west,Ilissos to the south, and theEridanos to the north, the latter of which flowed through the town. The walled city measured about 1.5 km (0.93 mi) in diameter, although at its peak the city had suburbs extending well beyond these walls. TheAcropolis was just south of the centre of this walled area. The city was burnt byXerxes in 480 BC, but was soon rebuilt under the administration ofThemistocles, and was adorned with public buildings byCimon and especially byPericles, in whose time (461–429 BC) it reached its greatest splendour. Its beauty was chiefly due to its public buildings, for the private houses were mostly insignificant, and its streets badly laid out. Towards the end of thePeloponnesian War, it contained more than 10,000 houses,[11] which at a rate of 12 inhabitants to a house would give a population of 120,000, though some writers make the inhabitants as many as 180,000. Athens consisted of two distinct parts:
The city was surrounded by defensive walls from the Bronze Age and they were rebuilt and extended over the centuries.
In addition theLong Walls consisted of two parallel walls leading toPiraeus, 40stadia long (4.5 miles, 7 km), running parallel to each other, with a narrow passage between them and, furthermore, a wall toPhalerum on the east, 35 stadia long (4 miles, 6.5 km). There were therefore three long walls in all; but the nameLong Walls seems to have been confined to the two leading to the Piraeus, while the one leading to Phalerum was called thePhalerian Wall. The entire circuit of the walls was 174.5 stadia (nearly 22 miles, 35 km), of which 43 stadia (5.5 miles, 9 km) belonged to the city, 75 stadia (9.5 miles, 15 km) to the long walls, and 56.5 stadia (7 miles, 11 km) to Piraeus, Munichia, and Phalerum.
There were many gates, among the more important there were:
TheAcropolis, also calledCecropia from its reputed founder,Cecrops, was a steep rock in the middle of the city, about 50 meters high, 350 meters long, and 150 meters wide; its sides were naturally scarped on all sides except the west end. It was originally surrounded by an ancientCyclopean wall said to have been built by thePelasgians. At the time of thePeloponnesian war only the north part of this wall remained, and this portion was still called thePelasgic Wall; while the south part which had been rebuilt byCimon, was called theCimonian Wall. On the west end of the Acropolis, where access is alone practicable, were the magnificentPropylaea, "the Entrances", built byPericles, before the right wing of which was the smallTemple of Athena Nike. The summit of the Acropolis was covered with temples, statues of bronze and marble, and various other works of art. Of the temples, the grandest was theParthenon, sacred to the "Virgin" goddessAthena; and north of the Parthenon was the magnificentErechtheion, containing three separate temples, one toAthena Polias, or the "Protectress of the State", theErechtheion proper, or sanctuary ofErechtheus, and thePandroseion, or sanctuary ofPandrosos, the daughter of Cecrops. Between the Parthenon and Erechtheion was the colossalStatue of Athena Promachos, or the "Fighter in the Front", whose helmet and spear was the first object on the Acropolis visible from the sea.
The lower city was built in the plain around the Acropolis, but this plain also contained several hills, especially in the southwest part. On the west side the walls embraced the Hill of the Nymphs and thePnyx, and to the southeast they ran along beside theIlissos.
Among the more important streets, there were:
The streets formed an important space for the social interaction of the Athenians of the classical age.[12]
The period from the end of the Persian Wars to the Macedonian conquest marked the zenith of Athens as a center of literature, philosophy (seeGreek philosophy) and the arts (seeGreek theatre). Some of the most important figures of Western cultural and intellectual history lived in Athens during this period: the dramatistsAeschylus,Aristophanes,Euripides andSophocles, the philosophersAristotle,Plato, andSocrates, the historiansHerodotus,Thucydides andXenophon, the poetSimonides and the sculptorPhidias. The leading statesman of this period wasPericles, who used the tribute paid by the members of the Delian League to build theParthenon and other great monuments of classical Athens. The city became, in Pericles's words, an education for Hellas (usually quoted as "the school of Hellas [Greece].")[13]
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