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Delian League ("Athenian Empire") shown in yellow, Athenian territory shown in red,
situation in 431 BC, before the Peloponnesian War.
Capital Athens
Languages Attic Greek
Religion Ancient Greek religion
Government Direct democracy
Strategos
� 449�429 BC Pericles
Legislature Ecclesia
Historical era Classical antiquity
� Cleisthenes establishes Athenian democracy 508 BC
� Delian League 478�404 BC (404�403 BC Thirty tyrants)
� Second Athenian Empire 378�355 BC
� Dissolution of Athenian democracy in 322 BC by Antipater 322 BC
Population
� 5th century BC1 est. 300-350,000 (men with civil rights: 30-60,000)
Currency Drachma
Preceded by Succeeded by
Athenian tyranny
Macedon
1BBC History
Warning: Value not specified for "common_name"
The city of Athens (Ancient Greek: ??????, Athenai, modern pronunciation Ath�nai)
during the classical period of Ancient Greece (508�322 BC)[1] was the major urban
center of the notable polis (city-state) of the same name, located in Attica,
Greece, leading the Delian League in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta and the
Peloponnesian League. Athenian democracy was established in 508 BC under
Cleisthenes following the tyranny of Isagoras. This system remained remarkably
stable, and with a few brief interruptions remained in place for 180 years, until
322 BC (aftermath of Lamian War). The peak of Athenian hegemony was achieved in the
440s to 430s BC, known as the Age of Pericles.
In the classical period, Athens was a center for the arts, learning and philosophy,
home of Plato's Akademia and Aristotle's Lyceum,[2][3] Athens was also the
birthplace of Socrates, Pericles, Sophocles, and many other prominent philosophers,
writers and politicians of the ancient world. It is widely referred to as the
cradle of Western Civilization, and the birthplace of democracy,[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]
Contents [hide]
1 Rise to power (508�448 BC)
2 Athenian hegemony (448�430 BC)
3 Peloponnesian War (431�404 BC)
4 Corinthian War and the Second Athenian League (395�355 BC)
5 Athens under Macedon (355�322 BC)
6 Geography
6.1 Overview
6.2 The Long Walls
6.3 The Acropolis (Upper city)
6.4 The Agora (lower city)
6.5 Gates
6.6 Districts
6.7 Hills
6.8 Streets
6.9 Public buildings
6.10 Suburbs
7 Culture
8 See also
9 References
Rise to power (508�448 BC)[edit]
Main articles: Ionian Revolt, Persian Wars, and First Peloponnesian War
Hippias, son of Peisistratus, had ruled Athens jointly with his brother,
Hipparchus, from the death of Peisistratus c527. Following the assassination of
Hipparchus c514, Hippias took on sole rule, and in response to the loss of his
brother, became a worse leader and increasingly dislike. Hippias exiled 700 of the
Athenian noble families, amongst them Cleisthenes' family, the Alchmaeonids. Upon
their exile, they went to Delphi, and Herodotus[6] says they bribed the Pithia to
always tell visiting Spartans that they should invade Attica and overthrow Hippias.
This, supposedly, worked after a number of times, and Cleomenes 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 of this was democracy in Athens, but it is important to
consider Cleisthenes' motivation for using the people to gain power, as without
their support, he would have been defeated, and so Athenian democracy may be tinted
my 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 each trittys had
one or more demes (see deme) � depending on their population � which became the
basis of local government. The tribes each selected fifty members by lot for the
Boule, the council which governed Athens on a day-to-day basis. The public opinion
of voters could be influenced by the political satires written by the comic poets
and performed in the city theaters.[7] The Assembly 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 ten strategoi (generals)
were elected.
During the time of the ascendancy of Ephialtes as leader of the democratic faction,
Pericles was his deputy. When Ephialtes was assassinated by personal enemies,
Pericles stepped in and was elected general, or strategos, in 445 BC; a post he
held continuously until his death in 429 BC, always by election of the Athenian
Assembly. The Parthenon, a lavishly decorated temple to the goddess Athena, was
constructed under the administration of Pericles.[8]
The modern National Academy in Athens, with Apollo and Athena on their columns, and
Socrates and Plato seated in front.
Resentment by other cities at the hegemony of Athens led to the Peloponnesian War
in 431, which pitted Athens and her increasingly rebellious sea empire against a
coalition of land-based states led by Sparta. The conflict marked the end of
Athenian command 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 the coup 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 as Cleon and Cleophon, there was a brief reaction
against democracy, aided by the Spartan army (the rule of the Thirty Tyrants). In
403, democracy was restored by Thrasybulus and an amnesty declared.
In the 2nd century BC, following the Battle of Corinth (146 BC), Greece was
absorbed into the Roman Republic as part of the Achaea Province, concluding 200
years of Macedonian supremacy.
Geography[edit]
Overview[edit]
Map of ancient Athens showing the Acropolis in middle, the Agora to the northwest,
and the city walls.
Athens was in Attica, about 30 stadia from the sea, on the southwest slope of Mount
Lycabettus, between the small rivers Cephissus to the west, Ilissos to the south,
and the Eridanos 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. The Acropolis was just south of
the centre of this walled area. The city was burnt by Xerxes in 480 BC, but was
soon rebuilt under the administration of Themistocles, and was adorned with public
buildings by Cimon and especially by Pericles, 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 the Peloponnesian War, it contained more than 10,000 houses,[9]
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, properly so called, divided into The Upper City or Acropolis, and The
Lower City, surrounded with walls by Themistocles.
The port city of Piraeus, also surrounded with walls by Themistocles and connected
to the city with the Long Walls, built under Conon and Pericles.
The Long Walls[edit]
Map of the environs of Athens showing Piraeus, Phalerum, and the Long Walls
The Long Walls consisted of two walls leading to Piraeus, 40 stadia long (4.5
miles, 7 km), running parallel to each other, with a narrow passage between them.
In addition, there was a wall to Phalerum on the east, 35 stadia long (4 miles, 6.5
km). There were therefore three long walls in all; but the name Long Walls seems to
have been confined to the two leading to the Piraeus, while the one leading to
Phalerum was called the Phalerian 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.
Gates[edit]
There were many gates, among the more important there were:
On the West side: Dipylon, the most frequented gate of the city, leading from the
inner Kerameikos to the outer Kerameikos, and to the Academy. The Sacred Gate,
where the sacred road to Eleusis began. The Knight's Gate, probably between the
Hill of the Nymphs and the Pnyx. The Piraean Gate, between the Pnyx and the
Mouseion, leading to the carriage road between the Long Walls to the Piraeus. The
Melitian Gate, so called because it led to the deme Melite, within the city.
On the South side: The Gate of the Dead in the neighbourhood of the Mouseion. The
Itonian Gate, near the Ilissos, where the road to Phalerum began.
On the East side: The Gate of Diochares, leading to the Lyceum. The Diomean Gate,
leading to Cynosarges and the deme Diomea.
On the North side: The Acharnian Gate, leading to the deme Acharnai.
Districts[edit]
The Inner Kerameikos, or "Potter's Quarter," in the west of the city, extending
north as far as the Dipylon gate, by which it was separated from the outer
Kerameikos; the Kerameikos contained the Agora, or "market-place," the only one in
the city, lying northwest of the Acropolis, and north of the Areopagus.
The deme Melite, in the west of the city, south of the inner Kerameikos.
The deme Skambonidai, in the northern part of the city, east of the inner
Kerameikos.
The Kollytos, in the southern part of the city, south and southwest of the
Acropolis.
Koele, a district in the southwest of the city.
Limnai, a district east of Milete and Kollytos, between the Acropolis and the
Ilissos.
Diomea, a district in the east of the city, near the gate of the same name and the
Cynosarges.
Agrai, a district south of Diomea.
Hills[edit]
The Areopagus, the "Hill of Ares," west of the Acropolis, which gave its name to
the celebrated council that held its sittings there, was accessible on the south
side by a flight of steps cut out of the rock.
The Hill of the Nymphs, northwest of the Areopagus.
The Pnyx, a semicircular hill, southwest of the Areopagus, where the ekklesia
(assemblies) of the people were held in earlier times, for afterwards the people
usually met in the Theatre of Dionysus.
The Mouseion, "the Hill of the Muses," south of the Pnyx and the Areopagus.
Streets[edit]
Among the more important streets, there were:
The Piraean Street, which led from the Piraean gate to the Agora.
The Panathenaic Way, which led from the Dipylon gate to the Acropolis via the
Agora, along which a solemn procession was made during the Panathenaic Festival.
The Street of the Tripods, on the east side of the Acropolis.
Public buildings[edit]
See also[edit]
Academy of Plato
Athenian Army
Ephebic Oath
Women in Classical Athens
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Democracy and knowledge: innovation and learning in classical Athens by
Josiah Ober p. 40 ISBN 0-691-13347-6 (2008)
Jump up ^ "Plato's Academy". Hellenic Ministry of Culture. www.culture.gr. Archived
from the original on 2007-03-21. Retrieved 2007-03-28.
Jump up ^ CNN & Associated Press (1997-01-16). "Greece uncovers 'holy grail' of
Greek archeology". CNN.com. Archived from the original on April 4, 2005. Retrieved
2007-03-28.
Jump up ^ "Ancient History in depth The Democratic Experiment". BBC. Retrieved
2007-12-26.
Jump up ^ Encarta: Ancient Greece. Retrieved on 26 January 2007. Archived 2009-10-
31.
Jump up ^ Translated Robin Waterfield, Herodotus (1998). The Histories. Oxford
University Press.
Jump up ^ Henderson, J. (1993) Comic Hero versus Political Elite pp.307�19 in
Sommerstein, A.H; S. Halliwell; J. Henderson; B. Zimmerman, eds. (1993). Tragedy,
Comedy and the Polis. Bari: Levante Editori.
Jump up ^ Camp, John. The Archaeology of Athens. Yale University Press.
Jump up ^ Xenophon, Mem. iii. 6.14
Jump up ^ Thucydides, 2.41.1
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Ancient Greece
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Coordinates: 37.97�N 23.72�E
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