Athens (Ancient Greek: Ἀθῆναι, Athênai) was a prominent polis (city-state) of ancient Greece, located in the peninsula of Attica. Athenian democracy was established in 508 BC and remained in place for almost two centuries except for a few brief interruptions. During the Classical period, Athens was a centre for the arts, learning, and philosophy, and is widely referred to as a cradle of Western civilization largely due to the impact of its cultural and political achievements.
Ten years after its victory at Marathon, Athens formed an alliance with Sparta and other Greek city-states, which defeated the invading Achaemenid Empire at Salamis and Plataea. In the aftermath of the Second Persian invasion of Greece during the 470s, Athens led by Cimon established hegemony over a wide range of other Greek polities around the Aegean, known as the Delian League, reaching its peak of power in the 450s and 440s BC during the age of Pericles. In the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), the Athenian empire fought against the Spartan-led Peloponnesian League, suffering a decisive defeat in 404 BC. Athens soon recovered and founded the Second Athenian League in order to counterbalance the Spartan and Theban hegemonies. After the defeat at the battle of Chaeronea, Athens was forced to become a member of the League of Corinth by Philip II of Macedon, while continuing to be a major maritime power in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean up until the start of the Hellenistic period following the death of Alexander the Great.
History
Earlier History and Archaic period
The earliest evidence for human habitation in Athens dates back to the Neolithic period. The Acropolis served as a fortified center during the Mycenaean era. Theseus is considered the mythical founder of Athens.
By the 8th century BC, Athens had evolved into a prominent city-state, or polis. The 7th and 6th centuries BC saw the establishment of legal codes, such as those by Draco and Solon, as well as the rule of tyrrant Peisistratus.
Athenian democracy
Hippias, son of Peisistratus, had ruled Athens jointly with his brother, Hipparchus, from the death of Peisistratus in about 527. Following the assassination of Hipparchus 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 them Cleisthenes's family, the Alchmaeonids. Upon their exile, they went to Delphi, and Herodotus says they bribed the Pythia always to tell visiting Spartans that they should invade Attica and overthrow Hippias. That supposedly worked after a number of times, and Cleomenes 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 was democracy in Athens, but considering Cleisthenes's 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 each trittys had one or more demes, depending on their population, which became the basis of local government.
The tribes each selected fifty members by lot for the Boule, the council that 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. 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.
The silver mines 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 of Themistocles.
Classical period
Persian Wars and rise of Athens
In 499 BC, Athens sent troops to aid the Ionian Greeks of Asia Minor who were rebelling against the Persian Empire. This provoked two Persian invasions of Greece, both of which were repelled under the leadership of the soldier-statesmen Miltiades and Themistocles.
In 490 the Athenians, led by Miltiades, prevented the first invasion of the Persians, guided by king Darius I, with their victory at the Battle of Marathon.
In 480 the Persians returned under a new ruler, Xerxes I. The Hellenic League led by the Spartan King Leonidas led 7,000 men to hold the narrow passageway of Thermopylae 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 off Artemisium. However, that delaying action was not enough to discourage the Persian advance, which soon marched through Boeotia, setting up Thebes 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 by Themistocles, defeated the Persian navy at sea in the Battle of Salamis. Xerxes had built himself a throne on the coast in order to see the Greeks defeated. Instead, the Persians were routed.
Athenian hegemony
Sparta's hegemony was passing to Athens, and it was Athens that took the war to Thrace and Asia Minor. The victories of Cimon enabled Athens to bring most of the Aegean and many other parts of Greece together in the Delian League, an Athenian-dominated alliance.
Pericles – an Athenian general, politician and well known figure – distinguished himself above the other personalities of the era, men who excelled in politics, philosophy, architecture, sculpture, history and literature. 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." Silver mined in Laurium in southeastern Attica contributed greatly to the prosperity of this Athenian Golden Age.
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.
Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC)
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.
Corinthian War and the Second Athenian League
Sparta's former allies soon turned against her due to her imperialist policies, and Athens's former enemies, Thebes and Corinth, became her allies. Argos, Thebes and Corinth, allied with Athens, fought against Sparta in the Corinthian War of 395–387 BC. In 378, the attempt of the Spartan commander Sphodrias to capture Piraeus by surprise triggered Athens to establish the Second Athenian League. Finally Thebes defeated Sparta in 371 in the Battle of Leuctra. However, other Greek cities, including Athens, turned against Thebes, and its dominance was brought to an end at the Battle of Mantinea (362 BC) with the death of its leader, the military genius Epaminondas.
Athens relations with Philip II and Alexander
By mid century, however, the northern Greek kingdom of Macedon under Philip II was becoming dominant in Greek affairs despite the opposition of Demosthenes. In 338 BC the army of Philip II of Macedon defeated Athens and Thebes at the Battle of Chaeronea, effectively limiting Athenian independence. During the winter of 338–37 BC Macedonia, Athens and other Greek states became part of the League of Corinth. Further, the conquests of his son, Alexander the Great, widened Greek horizons and made the traditional Greek city state obsolete.
Hellenistic period
Antipater dissolved the Athenian government and established a plutocratic system in 322 BC at the end of the Lamian War (see also Demetrius Phalereus). Athens remained a wealthy city with a brilliant cultural life, but ceased to be an independent power. Athens became an ally of the Roman Republic during the 2nd century BC. However during the First Mithridatic War, Athenians sided with Mithridates VI against Rome, and Sulla captured and devastated Athens after a siege.
The city
Overview
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, 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.
City walls
The city was surrounded by defensive walls from the Bronze Age and they were rebuilt and extended over the centuries.
In addition the Long Walls consisted of two parallel walls leading to Piraeus, 40 stadia long (4.5 miles, 7 km), running parallel to each other, with a narrow passage between them and, furthermore, 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
There were many gates, among the more important there were:
- On the West side: the 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.