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History of Athens

Athens is one of the oldest named cities in the world, having been continuously inhabited for perhaps 5,000 years. Situated in southern Europe, Athens became the leading city of Ancient Greece in the first millennium BC, and its cultural achievements during the 5th century BC laid the foundations of Western civilization.

This article is about ancient Athens. For modern Athens, see Athens.

During the early Middle Ages, the city experienced a decline, then recovered under the later Byzantine Empire and was relatively prosperous during the period of the Crusades (12th and 13th centuries), benefiting from Italian trade. Following a period of sharp decline under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, Athens re-emerged in the 19th century as the capital of the independent and self-governing Greek state.

Antiquity[edit]

Origins and early history[edit]

Athens has been inhabited from Neolithic times, possibly from the end of the fourth millennium BC, or over 5,000 years.[9] By 1412 BC, the settlement had become an important center of the Mycenaean civilization and the Acropolis was the site of a major Mycenaean fortress whose remains can be recognised from sections of the characteristic Cyclopean walls.[10] On the summit of the Acropolis, below the later Erechtheion, cuttings in the rock have been identified as the location of a Mycenaean palace.[10] Between 1250 and 1200 BC, to feed the needs of the Mycenaean settlement, a staircase was built down a cleft in the rock to reach a water supply that was protected from enemy incursions,[11] comparable to similar works carried out at Mycenae.


Unlike other Mycenaean centers, such as Mycenae and Pylos, it is unclear whether Athens suffered destruction in about 1200 BC, an event traditionally attributed to a Dorian invasion (though now commonly attributed to a systems collapse, part of the Late Bronze Age collapse). The Athenians always maintained that they were 'pure' Ionians with no Dorian element. However, Athens, like many other Bronze Age settlements, went into economic decline for around 150 years following this.


Iron Age burials, in the Kerameikos and other locations, are often richly provided for and demonstrate that from 900 BC onwards Athens was one of the leading centres of trade and prosperity in the region; as were Lefkandi in Euboea and Knossos in Crete.[12] This position may well have resulted from its central location in the Greek world, its secure stronghold on the Acropolis and its access to the sea, which gave it a natural advantage over inland rivals such as Thebes and Sparta.

Founding myths[edit]

According to legend, Athens was formerly ruled by kings, a situation which may have continued up until the 9th century BC. From later accounts, it is believed that these kings stood at the head of a land-owning aristocracy known as the Eupatridae (the 'well-born'), whose instrument of government was a Council which met on the Hill of Ares, called the Areopagus and appointed the chief city officials, the archons and the polemarch (commander-in-chief). The most famous king of Athens was Theseus, a prominent figure in Greek Mythology who killed the Minotaur. A slightly different mythical version of Athens' past is given in Plato's dialogue Timaeus. In this dialogue, a story is told about information given to Athenian leader Solon from Egyptian priests of the goddess Neith while he visited Egypt, according to which a well advanced Athenian state was established 9,000 years prior to his time that preceded Egypt's oldest kingdom by a thousand years. The laws of that state were the most just and largely inspired the various kings of Egypt when making laws for their kingdom.[13] This story is not supported by any scholarly evidence, as no Athenian state is known to have existed during the 10th millennium BC. In addition, no evidence exists of any possible cultural or other ties between Egypt and any part of present-day Greece at such early a date.

Classical period[edit]

During the 1st millennium BC, Athens succeeded in bringing the other towns of Attica under its rule. This process of synoikismos – the bringing together into one home – created the largest and wealthiest state on the Greek mainland, but it also created a larger class of people excluded from political life by the nobility. By the 7th century BC, social unrest had become widespread, and the Areopagus appointed Draco to draft a strict new code of law (hence the word 'draconian'). When this failed, they appointed Solon, with a mandate to create a new constitution (in 594 BC).

The , with the Parthenon

Acropolis

Agora

Arch of Hadrian

Areopagus

Kerameikos

Lysicrates monument

monument

Philopappos

Pnyx

Temple of Hephaestus

Temple of Olympian Zeus

Tower of the Winds

City walls of Athens

Timeline of Athens

Bayliss, Andrew J. (2011). After Demosthenes : the politics of early Hellenistic Athens. London: Continuum.  9781441111517.

ISBN

Bouras, Charalambos (28 February 2018). . Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-59697-8.

Byzantine Athens, 10th - 12th Centuries

Castrén, Paavo, ed. (1994). Post-Herulian Athens : aspects of life and culture in Athens, A.D. 267-529. Helsinki: Suomen Ateenan-instituutin säätiö.  9789519529523.

ISBN

Dimitriadou, Eirini M. (31 March 2019). . ISD LLC. ISBN 978-1-938770-88-3.

Early Athens: Settlements and Cemeteries in the Submycenaean, Geometric and Archaic Periods

Geagan, Daniel J. (1967). The Athenian Constitution after Sulla. Athens: American School of Classical Studies at Athens.

Geagan, Daniel J. (1979). "Roman Athens: Some Aspects of Life and Culture I. 86 B.C. – A.D. 267". Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt. 2.7.1: 371–437.

Habicht, Christian (1997). Athens from Alexander to Antony. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.  9780674051119.

ISBN

Hoff, Michael C.; Rotroff, Susan I., eds. (1997). . Oxbow Books. ISBN 978-1-900188-51-7.

The Romanization of Athens: Proceedings of an International Conference Held at Lincoln, Nebraska (April 1996)

Hornblower, Simon (2011). The Greek world : 479-323 BC (4th ed.). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.  9780415602921.

ISBN

Mikalson, Jon D. (1998). . University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-91967-9.

Religion in Hellenistic Athens

Oliver, G. J. (2007). War, food, and politics in early Hellenistic Athens. Oxford: Oxford University Press.  9780199283507.

ISBN

O'Sullivan, Lara (2009). . Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-17888-5.

The Regime of Demetrius of Phalerum in Athens, 317-307 BCE: A Philosopher in Politics

Paga, Jessica (2021). Building democracy in late archaic Athens. New York, NY.  9780190083571.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

ISBN

Palagia, Olga, ed. (2016). The Macedonians in Athens, 322-229 B.C. proceedings of an international conference held at the University of Athens, May 24-26, 2001. Oxford: Oxbow Books.  9781785705304.

ISBN

Parker, Robert (1997). . Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-815240-8.

Athenian Religion: A History

Samons II, Loren J., ed. (15 January 2007). . Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-82669-3.

The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Pericles

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Peisistratos and the Tyranny: A Reappraisal of the Evidence

Sicilianos, Demetrios (1960). Old and New Athens (Abridged ed.). Putnam.

Thanasakis, Konstantinos; Georgopoulou, Maria, eds. (2019). . Athens: Gennadius Library. ISBN 978-960-99945-4-5.

Ottoman Athens: Archaeology, Topography, History

Vryonis, Speros (2002). . Balkan Studies: Biannual Publication of the Institute for Balkan Studies. 43 (1): 5–115. ISSN 2241-1674.

"The Ghost of Athens in Byzantine and Ottoman Times"

van Wees, Hans (2013). Ships and silver, taxes and tribute : a fiscal history of archaic Athens. London: I B Tauris.  9781780766867.

ISBN

Worthington, Ian (2021). Athens after empire : a history from Alexander the Great to the Emperor Hadrian. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.  9780190633981.

ISBN

, A Hand-book for Travellers in the Ionian Islands, Greece, Turkey, Asia Minor, and Constantinople, London: J. Murray, 1840, OCLC 397597, OL 6952607M

"Athens"

Athens official website

A history of Athens from prehistoric to contemporary times

(archived 29 May 2011)

Ancient Athens 3D

The Athenian Constitution by Aristotle

Model of Classical Athens

Athens in 421 BC

From the TV series Lost Worlds of The History Channel (Season 1, Episode 4)

Athens: Ancient Greek Supercity