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Athens, Greece, with its famous Acropolis, has come to symbolize the whole of the country in the popular imagination, and not without cause. It not only has its iconic ruins and the famous port of Piraeus but, thanks to ancient writers, its history is better documented than most other ancient Greek city-states.

The city began as a small community of the Mycenaean Civilization (c. 1700-1100 BCE) and grew into a city that, at its height, was associated with the development of democracy, philosophy, science, mathematics, drama and literature, art, and many other aspects of world culture and civilization including the Olympic Games. The city was burned in the Persian invasion of 480 BCE, rebuilt by the statesman Pericles (l. 495-429 BCE), and became the superpower of the ancient world through its formidable military and wealth.

It fell to Sparta after the Second Peloponnesian War (413-404 BCE) but again revived to assume a significant position of leadership among the city-states even after it was conquered by Philip II of Macedon (r. 359-336 BCE) in 338 BCE following his victory at the Battle of Chaeronea. The city was taken as a province of Rome after the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE and became a favorite of a number of Roman emperors, especially Hadrian (r. 117-138 CE) who contributed funds and building projects to beautify it. Paul the Apostle is depicted in the Book of Acts as preaching to the Athenians, and it would later develop into an important center of Christian theology.

After Greece was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1458, Athens entered a long period of decline which was only reversed in the 19th century after the country won its independence from the Turks in 1821. Recognizing the importance of the past in maintaining national identity, the government focused on efforts to restore and preserve monuments and temples like the Parthenon as well as ancient locales like the agora. Today, Athens is the capital of Greece and among the most often visited and highly regarded cultural centers in the world.

Early Settlement & Legend

The Athenians held to customs they felt were more ancient & therefore superior to those of their neighbors.

Evidence of human habitation on the Acropolis and, below, in the area around the agora, dates back to the Neolithic Period with a more advanced culture developing clearly c. 5000 BCE and, probably, as early as 7000 BCE. According to legend, the Athenian King Cecrops wanted the city named for himself but the gods, seeing how beautiful it was, felt it deserved an immortal name. A contest was held among the gods on the Acropolis, with Cecrops and the citizenry looking on, to determine which deity would win the honor.

Poseidon struck a rock with his trident, and as water gushed forth, he assured the people that now they would never suffer drought. Athena was next in line and dropped a seed into the earth which sprouted swiftly as an olive tree. The people thought the olive tree more valuable than the water (as, according to some versions of the story, the water was salty, as was Poseidon's realm), and Athena was chosen as patron and the city named for her. According to scholar Robin Waterfield:

This myth may reveal long-forgotten historical events. The ancient Greek name for Athens is a plural word, because once there were several villages which came together under the auspices of the goddess Athena - "the communities of Athena" - as it were. If the chief deity of one of these original villages was Poseidon, the myth reflects his losing out to Athena. (36)

The myth was also used, later, to justify the second-class status of Athenian women since it was the women of Athens who chose Athena's gift over Poseidon's and, so this justification goes, to turn away Poseidon's wrath from the city, women's names were not recorded on birth records as mothers (the woman's father's name was given) and women were denied a political voice and civic rights outside of their participation in religious activities.

As the soil was not conducive to large-scale agricultural programs, Athens turned to trade for its livelihood and mainly to sea trade through its port at Piraeus. The early Mycenaean period saw massive fortresses rise all over Greece, and Athens was no exception. The remains of a Mycenaean palace can still be seen today on the Acropolis in the present day. Homer's and (8th century BCE) portray the Mycenaeans as great warriors and seafaring people trading widely throughout the Aegean and the Mediterranean region, and this became a point of pride for the Athenians who considered themselves direct descendants of the great Homeric heroes.

Around 1200 BCE the Sea Peoples invaded the Greek archipelago of the Aegean from the south while, simultaneously, the Dorians came down from the north into mainland Greece. While the Sea Peoples made definite incursions into Attica (the mainland region surrounding Athens) the Dorians bypassed the city, allowing the Mycenaean culture to survive (although, like the rest of Greece, there seems to have been an economic and cultural downturn following these invasions during the Bronze Age Collapse). The Athenians, afterward, claimed for themselves a special status in that they spoke Ionian, instead of Doric, Greek and held to customs they felt were more ancient and therefore superior to those of their neighbors.

The wealthy aristocrats held control of both the land and the Greek government, and, in time, poorer landowners became enslaved (or nearly so) through debt to the wealthier citizens. Further, there was a perceived lack of consistency among the other laws of the city. The first series of laws written to address these problems were provided by the statesman Draco (also given as Dracon/Drakon) c. 621 BCE but were considered too severe (the penalty for most infractions was death), and so the great lawgiver Solon (l. c. 630 - c. 560 BCE) was called upon to modify and revise them. Solon, though an aristocrat himself, created a series of laws which equalized the political power of the citizenry and, in so doing, provided the groundwork for Athenian democracy c. 594 BCE.

Solon also devoted considerable effort to making the policies of Athens not only just but profitable. He legalized prostitution in ancient Athens and taxed both individual prostitutes and brothels. As Athens was a popular and profitable trade center, many young men arrived in the city and sought the services of prostitutes while young Athenian males, who usually did not marry until after the age of 30, were provided with the means to gain sexual experience without running the risk of enraging the father and male relatives of a virgin female through pre-marital sex. By encouraging young men to visit prostitutes, Solon diffused one source of blood feuds in the city since young women of good families were understood to be off-limits to any males except the one chosen to be her husband.

After Solon resigned from public office, various factional leaders sought to seize power, and the ultimate victor, Peisistratus (d. c. 528 BCE), recognized the value of Solon's revisions and kept them, in a modified form, throughout his reign as a benevolent tyrant. His son, Hippias (r c. 528-510 BCE) continued his policies as co-ruler with his brother Hipparchus (r. c. 528-514 BCE) until Hipparchus was assassinated over a love affair in 514 BCE.

The Tyrannicides & Democracy

Only upper-class male citizens had a political voice, disenfranchising women, foreigners, & the many slaves who made up a large part of Athens' population.

Hipparchus was attracted to a young man named Harmodios, but his advances were rejected because Harmodios was already involved with another man, Aristogeiton. Hipparchus did not take the rejection well and so removed Harmodios' sister from her highly visible and prestigious position among the women of Athena's cult who participated in the Panathenaic Festival honoring the goddess. As scholar Sarah B. Pomeroy notes, "to prevent a candidate from participating in this event was to cast aspersions on her reputation" (76). Hipparchus' removal of the girl was tantamount to claiming she was not a virgin and so insulting both her and her family. Harmodius and Aristogeiton murdered Hipparchus during the festival, were caught afterwards, and executed.

After this, Hippias became increasingly paranoid and erratic in his reign which culminated in the Athenian Revolt of 510 BCE which was actually a military action by Sparta under their king Cleomenes I (r. c. 519 - c. 490 BCE) who was invited by the Athenians to rid them of Hippias. Afterwards, the Athenians, not wanting to be obliged to Sparta, rewrote their history casting Harmodios and Aristogeiton as "the tyrannicides" who had struck the first blow for freedom and restored the democratic ideals of the city. Actually, they had done neither; they were simply avenging a personal insult.

In the aftermath of the coup, and after settling affairs with various factions, the statesman Cleisthenes (l. 6th century BCE) was appointed to reform the government and the laws and, c. 507 BCE, he instituted a new form of government which today is recognized as democracy. Cleisthenes is regarded as the "Father of Athenian Democracy", but this form of government was significantly different from how democracy is understood in the present day. In Athenian democracy, only upper-class male citizens had a political voice, disenfranchising women, foreigners, and, of course, the many slaves who made up a large part of Athens' population.

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Even so, this new form of government involved the citizenry directly in political decisions, and even those who were not allowed to vote understood that decisions were being made now by a majority of informed citizens rather than a tyrant. Athenian democracy would provide the stability necessary to make Athens the cultural and intellectual center of the ancient world; a reputation that lasts even into the modern age. Waterfield comments:

The pride that followed from widespread involvement in public life gave Athenians the energy to develop their city both internally and in relation to their neighbors. (62)

Believing themselves descended from great heroes, and with heroes in their midst like the tyrannicides, the Athenians understood they now had the best form of government which they should encourage elsewhere; so they decided to incite the Greek communities of Asia Minor, then under the control of the Persian Achaemenid Empire (c. 550-330 BCE) to revolt.

The Persian Empire at this time was led by the emperor Darius I (the Great, r. 522-486 BCE) who quickly crushed the rebellion and then sent a force against Athens. The Persians were defeated at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE, losing over 6,000 men to the brilliant tactics of the Athenian general Miltiades (l. 554-489 BCE) whose losses numbered only 192 soldiers. The Persian military was considered invincible at this time and so this victory increased the Athenians' already high opinion of themselves.

In 480 BCE, however, Darius I's son and successor, Xerxes I (r. 486-465 BCE) assembled the largest army mustered in the world up to that time and launched an invasion of Greece, with Athens as the primary target, to avenge the insult to his father. His forces were held at Thermopylae by the Spartan king Leonidas (d. 480 BCE) and his famous 300 warriors but, after defeating and killing them, Greece lay open for conquest.

The Persian navy was defeated by the Athenian-led forces at the Battle of Salamis, however, when the Athenian general Themistocles (l. 524-460 BCE) outmaneuvered and outfought them, and this defeat was followed by the land battles of Plataea and Mycale in 479 BCE which drove the Persians from Greece and established Athens as a superpower. Waterfield notes:

This was Athens' finest hour. Themistocles was the acknowledged savior of Greece, and the city expressly waved the banner of panhellenism, both by expressing what was common to all Greeks and by continuing the fight against the Persians. From obscure origins, a small and impoverished city had risen to power and prominence. (72)

Under Pericles, Athens formed the Delian League, ostensibly to create a cohesive Greek network among city-states to ward off further Persian attacks. The other city-states paid into the treasury of the Delian League and Athens agreed to protect them against Persian aggression in return. Pericles used the money from the league to beautify and fortify Athens and, under his leadership, the city grew so powerful that the Athenian Empire could effectively dictate the laws, customs, and trade of all its neighbors in Attica and the islands of the Aegean.

The Golden Age

Under Pericles, Athens entered its golden age and great thinkers, writers, and artists flourished in the city. Herodotus (l. c. 484-425/423 BCE), the "father of history", lived and wrote in Athens. Socrates (l. c. 470/469-399 BCE), the "father of philosophy", taught in the marketplace. Hippocrates (l. c. 460-370 BCE), 'the father of medicine', practiced there. Phidias (l. 480-430 BCE) created his great works of Greek sculpture for the Parthenon on the Acropolis and the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.

Democritus (l. c. 460 - c. 370 BCE) envisioned an atomic universe. Aeschylus (l. c. 525 - c. 456 BCE) Euripides (l. c. 484-407 BCE), Aristophanes (l. c. 460 - c. 380 BCE) and Sophocles (l. 496 - c. 406 BCE) made Greek drama, both comedy and tragedy, famous, and the lyric poet Pindar (l. c. 518 - c. 448 BCE) another important figure of Greek literature, wrote his Odes. This legacy would continue as Plato (l. 424/423-348/347 BCE) would found his Academy outside the walls of Athens in 385 BCE and, later, Aristotle (l. 384-322 BCE) would establish his school of the Lyceum in the city center.

The might of the Athenian Empire encouraged an arrogance in the policymakers of the day which grew intolerable to its neighbors. When Athens sent troops to help Sparta put down a Helot rebellion, the Spartans refused the gesture and sent the Athenian force back home in dishonor, thus provoking a war which had long been brewing. Later, when Athens sent their fleet to help defend its ally Corcyra ( Corfu) against a Corinthian invasion during the Battle of Sybota in 433 BCE, their action was interpreted by Sparta as aggression instead of assistance, as Corinth was an ally of Sparta.

Conclusion

The First Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE) between Athens and Sparta (though involving, directly or indirectly, all of Greece) ended in a truce between the parties involved, but Athens was defeated in the Second Peloponnesian War and fell from its height of power. The empire and the city's wealth gone, the walls destroyed, only its reputation as a great seat of learning, Greek philosophy and culture prevented the sack of the city and the enslavement of the populace. Athens struggled to throw off this condition as a subject state, and with some success, until they were defeated in 338 BCE by the Macedonian forces under Philip II at Chaeronea.

Athens was then subject to Macedonian rule until their defeat by the Romans in 197 BCE at the Battle of Cynoscephalae after which Greece was methodically conquered by the Roman Empire. It is a tribute to the enduring reputation of Athens as a cultural center that the Roman general Sulla, who sacked the city in 87-86 BCE, slaughtered the people, destroyed the agora, and burned the port of Piraeus, always maintained his innocence, claiming he had ordered his men to treat the city well and they simply had failed to heed him.

According to the biblical Book of Acts, Saint Paul preached to the Athenians at the Areopagus (the hill of Mars), praising their interest in religion and telling them about the new god Jesus Christ. After the rise of Christianity following its adoption by the Roman Empire, Athens became an important center for the new faith and, in the 6th century CE, pagan schools were closed and temples either destroyed or converted into churches.

The city was sacked by a number of so-called "barbarian tribes" in Late Antiquity up through the Middle Ages until it was established as the Crusader State of the Duchy of Athens (1205-1458) after the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204). Athens did well during this period until it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1458. The Ottoman Turks had no respect for the ancient city, and it steadily declined under their control.

After Greece won its independence from the Turks in 1821, Athens again revived just as it had done many times in the past. Restoration and preservation efforts became a priority of the new government, and the city was restored to some semblance of its ancient grandeur. In the present day, the name of Athens still conjures to the mind images of the classical world and the heights of intellectual and poetic creativity, while the Parthenon on the Acropolis continues to symbolize the golden age of ancient Greece and the best of what it stood for.

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Athens, Greece, with its famous Acropolis, has come to symbolize the whole of the country in the popular imagination, and not without cause. It not only has its iconic ruins and the famous port of Piraeus...

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The early period

Factors inducing settlement

The site of Athens has been inhabited since the Neolithic Period (before 3000 bce). Evidence for this has come from pottery finds on and around the Acropolis but particularly from a group of about 20 shallow wells, or pits, on the northwest slope of the Acropolis, just below the Klepsydra spring. These wells contained burnished pots of excellent quality, which show that even at this remote period Athens had a settled population and high technical and artistic standards. There are similar indications of occupation in the Early and Middle Bronze ages (3000-1500 bce).

The earliest buildings date from the Late Bronze Age, particularly about 1200 bce when the Acropolis was the citadel. Around its top was built a massive wall of cyclopean masonry (a type of construction using huge blocks without mortar). The construction of this wall probably marks the union of the 12 towns of Attica (the department in which Athens lies) under the leadership of Athens, an event traditionally ascribed to Theseus. The palace of the king was in the area of the later Erechtheum, but almost no traces of it have been identified. The town, insofar as it was outside the Acropolis, lay to the south, where wells and slight remains of houses have been found. The principal cemetery lay to the northwest, and several richly furnished chamber tombs and many smaller ones have been discovered in the area that later became the Agora.

Whether through the strength of its walls, the valour of its citizens, or its geographical position away from the main route to the Peloponnesus, Athens seems to have weathered the Late Bronze and Early Iron ages, troubled times, better than other, more important centres. There is no evidence of complete or widespread destruction, as at Mycenae and Pylos. In fact, the pottery styles show an unbroken development from Sub-Mycenaean (later than Mycenaean but not yet Greek) to Proto-Geometric (the earliest phase of Geometric) and Geometric (1000 bce to about 750 bce). Furthermore, there is positive evidence that from about 1000 bce the city began to expand in a northwesterly direction, into the area that had previously been confined to cemeteries. Wells appear, indicating occupation by the living, and any graves in the area are increasingly confined to restricted plots or placed along the roads outside the town limits. The Agora and some of the public buildings seem, to judge from scattered notices in later writers, to have been located west and northwest of the Acropolis. Though there are few remains of buildings, the wealth and prosperity of the city can be appreciated from late Geometric graves found in the area of the later Dipylon and Erian gates. These graves were adorned with large vases, sometimes more than five feet high, decorated with geometric patterns and with scenes of battles, processions, and funeral ceremonies.

Athens's expansion

The 6th century bce was a period of phenomenal growth, particularly during the tyranny of Peisistratus and his sons ( c. 560-510 bce). On the Acropolis the old primitive shrines began to be replaced with large stone temples. About 580 bce a temple to Athena known as the Hecatompedon (Hundred-Footer) was erected on the site later to be occupied by the Parthenon. The pediments (triangular spaces forming the gable) of this temple were decorated with large-scale sculpture in gaily coloured porous limestone, representing groups of lions bringing down bulls and depicting snaky-tailed monsters in the angles. These sculptures are now displayed in the New Acropolis Museum. In 566 bce Peisistratus reorganized the Panathenaic Games in honour of Athena on a four-yearly basis. About 530 bce a large peripteral temple (one having a row of columns on all sides) to Athena Polias (Guardian of the City) was erected near the centre of the Acropolis, on the site of the old Bronze Age palace. It had marble pedimental sculpture representing the battle of the gods and giants. Besides these two major temples there were five smaller buildings, treasuries and the like, and a wealth of votive offerings in marble, bronze, and terra-cotta. The Acropolis thus became a full-fledged sanctuary.

This change from citadel to sanctuary is also reflected in the arrangement of the entrance at the west. Instead of a winding path suitable for defense, there was, from about the middle of the 6th century bce, a broad ramp, designed as a ceremonial approach, leading up to the gate. This basic change of attitude toward the Acropolis must mean that the whole lower town was surrounded by a fortification wall and the Acropolis was no longer needed for defense. The ancient historians Herodotus and Thucydides tell of such a wall, but no trace of it has been found, and its course and date are uncertain.

In the lower town, too, the 6th century was a period of growth and change. The old Agora, below the western approach to the Acropolis, was now inadequate, and a new one was therefore laid out in the low ground to the northwest. This was accomplished by demolishing houses and filling in wells and gullies to create a broad open square, which was used for gatherings of all sorts: political, judicial, religious, and commercial. Dramatic contests were held there, too, before the construction of a separate theatre. Various public buildings and shrines were erected around the borders of the square, including the Basileios (Royal) Stoa, where the archon Basileus, one of the chief magistrates of the city, had his headquarters; the Old Bouleuterion (or Council House); and a large enclosure (100 square feet) that probably housed the Heliaia, the largest of the popular lawcourts. At the southeast corner of the square a fountain house received water from outside the city through a conduit of terra-cotta pipes.

In 480 bce this flourishing city was captured and destroyed by the Persians. The Acropolis buildings were burned and the houses in the lower town mostly destroyed, except for a few that had been spared to house the Persian leaders.

Athens at its zenith

When the Athenians returned, in 479 bce, they immediately rebuilt their fortification wall larger than before. About 20 years later the famous Long Walls were built, connecting the city with its port, Piraeus, four miles away. They were parallel over most of their course, forming a corridor 550 feet wide. These walls played a vital part in the history of Athens during the Classical period, for they allowed it to carry the supplies brought in by its powerful fleet in safety to the city, even when enemy forces roamed the Attic countryside.

For 30 years after the Persian destruction, the Athenians built only fortifications and some secular buildings in the Agora, notably the Stoa Poikile, or Painted Colonnade, with its famous paintings by Polygnotus and Micon, one of which represented the Battle of Marathon. The Tholos, the round building that served as the headquarters of the executive committee of the council, was also built at this time. Lack of attention to the Acropolis was partly the result of the oath, sworn before the Battle of Plataea in 479 bce, that sanctuaries destroyed by the barbarians would not be rebuilt but left as memorials of their impiety. In 449 bce, however, peace with Persia was at last officially established, and the oath was annulled. Athens, moreover, had ample funds, for the silver mines in the Laurium (Lavrion) Hills of southern Attica were in full production. These mines had always been exploited, but in 483 bce a big strike was made, the proceeds of which were used to build the ships that won the Battle of Salamis in 480 bce. Thereafter, the mines remained productive throughout the 5th and 4th centuries, providing Athens with the sinews of its strength in the great Classical age. Another source of revenue was the tribute that the allies had been paying, as members of the Delian League, to prosecute the war against Persia. Athens had been collecting and administering this money and, even though the war was officially over, continued to collect it in spite of the protests of the allies, who degenerated into subjects of Athens. Pericles deemed it proper, over the protests of his opponents, to use this money on beautifying the city; in this way he could keep the money in circulation and provide jobs for the whole population. Thus began one of the largest and most enduring works programs in history.

In a period of 40 years the Acropolis was entirely rebuilt in gleaming white marble quarried from Mount Pentelicus, 10 miles north of the city. The first great work was the Parthenon, begun in 447 bce and finished, except for some details, in 438 bce. The architects were Ictinus and Callicrates, and Phidias was in charge of the whole artistic program. The building was considerably larger than was usual, having eight columns across the ends and 17 on the long sides, against six by 13 for the average temple. It was richly decorated with sculpture, having a running frieze all around the top of the cella (the walled-in chamber within the colonnade) wall outside, and sculptured metopes and sculptured pediments. Inside the cella stood the cult statue, the great gold and ivory figure of Athena, the work of Phidias. No sooner was the main work on the Parthenon completed than the Propylaea was begun. This was the monumental gateway, with five doors at the head of the approach, designed by the architect Mnesicles. Its large outer vestibule was covered by a marble ceiling, supported by marble beams with a free span of 18 feet, about which Pausanias wrote, "The Propylaea has a ceiling of white marble which in the beauty and size of the stones remains supreme even to my time." Work on the Propylaea was nearly finished when it was stopped by the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War in 432 bce, but, as things began to go well for Athens, the little temple of Athena Nike was erected on the bastion in front of the Propylaea, perhaps in 425 bce. Around the time of the Peace of Nicias (421 bce), the Erechtheum was begun. This was a small Ionic temple, of highly irregular plan, which housed various early cults and sacred tokens. When the building was about half-finished, work was suddenly interrupted, probably because of the disastrous Athenian expedition to Sicily (415-413 bce), but it was resumed in 409, and the building was completed in 406. The final defeat of Athens two years later put an end to all building, but the Acropolis had been completed, and in later centuries only secondary buildings and monuments were added.

In the second half of the 5th century there was also some building activity in the lower town. Even before the Parthenon, work was begun on the temple of Hephaestus (the god of fire), the Theseum, which still stands on a low hill. In the Agora itself, a new Bouleuterion was built, and two colonnades, the Stoa of Zeus and the South Stoa, were constructed. On the south slope of the Acropolis, next to the theatre, Pericles built an odeum, a large enclosed concert hall, its roof supported by a forest of columns. Of the theatre itself there are no identifiable remains, but the arrangements were no doubt quite simple, and it is known that a theatre existed on this spot from the late 6th century bce because of the old temple of Dionysus (the god of wine) nearby, which dates from the same period. A sanctuary of Asclepius was founded on the south slope of the Acropolis in 420 bce.

Athens was slow in recovering from its defeat in the Peloponnesian War, but in 394 bce its admiral, Conon, won a decisive naval victory over Sparta off Cnidus, on the west coast of Asia Minor. As a result, he rebuilt the Long Walls, which the Spartans had demolished to the music of flutes 10 years before, believing they were inaugurating the freedom of Greece. The walls of Piraeus were also rebuilt, and those of the city were repeatedly strengthened in the course of the 4th century, notably by the addition of a ditch, or moat, as protection against siege machinery.

Apart from military works, there was little building in 4th-century Athens until the years 338-322 bce, when the orator Lycurgus was in control of the state finances and there was great activity. On the Pnyx, the broad-backed hill west of the Acropolis where the Athenian popular assembly had met since the reforms of Cleisthenes in the 6th century, a large auditorium was constructed. At the same time, two large stoas were started on the terrace above. The Theatre of Dionysus was rebuilt and greatly enlarged and furnished with stone seats to accommodate the crowds. (Lycurgus did another service to the theatre by having definitive copies made of the old plays.) The Panathenaic stadium was also built about then, partly with state funds and partly by private contributions; the land was donated by a certain Deinias, and one Eudemus of Plataea provided 1,000 yoke of draft animals to level the ground. The period was one of lavish private expenditure in other fields as well. The tripods won in choral contests were displayed on elaborate monuments, sometimes even resembling small temples; the best preserved of these is that of Lysicrates (334 bce), a small round building with six Corinthian columns. Tombs also became increasingly elaborate, often portraying the whole family in high relief. In 315 bce a stop was put to all this extravagance by the sumptuary laws of Demetrius of Phalerum.

Meanwhile, the philosophy schools flourished. Plato ( c. 428-348/347 bce) established himself in the Academy, a gymnasium that had existed since at least the 6th century bce in the great olive grove about a mile west of the city. Plato himself had a house and garden nearby. Aristotle and his Peripatetics occupied the Lyceum, another gymnasium, just outside the city to the east, and his successor Theophrastus lived nearby. Antisthenes and the Cynics used the Cynosarges gymnasium to the southeast of the city. Zeno held forth in the heart of the city, in the Stoa Poikile, in the Agora, and his followers were therefore known as Stoics. Epicurus and his followers had a house and garden in town.

Apart from its temples and public buildings and its great avenues, however, Athens seems to have made a poor impression. A 3rd-century-bce visitor complained that the city was dry and ill-supplied with water, that it was badly laid out because of its great antiquity, and that most of the houses were mean. The streets were in fact narrow and winding, and the houses, it is true, presented a blank wall to the street except for the entrance door, but then they were built around a central courtyard, off which the various rooms opened. There was often an upper story, and the court had a well. Water brought in by the aqueducts was not considered good because it was hard (containing salts of magnesium or calcium) and caused rheumatism. Waste water was carried off in an elaborate system of underground drains beneath the streets.

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The site of Athens has been inhabited since the Neolithic Period (before 3000 bce). Evidence for this has come from pottery finds on and around the Acropolis but particularly from a group of about 20 shallow wells, or pits, on the northwest slope of the Acropolis, just below the Klepsydra spring.

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To decide the name of the city a myth states that, Poseidon struck a rock with his trident, and as water came forth, he told the people that now they would never suffer drought. Next Athena dropped  a seed into the earth which sprouted  as an olive tree. Citizens of the city thought that the olive tree was more valuable. So, the city was named Athens after Athena.

This myth was used to justify the patriarchal society that was formed. Women were blamed for choosing Athena over Poseidon. Hence, placing the wrath of Poseidon on Athens. To protect Athens from the wrath of Poseidon, women's names were not recorded on birth records. Women were also denied a political, and civil voice. However, they were given a voice in religious participation.

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-Three broad periods(in order)
- the Helladic period of the Bronze age
- the Hellenic period of the Greek "Dark Age"
- the Hellenistic period

- The Hellenic
- Greeks developed a distinctive form of city-state(known as the polis)
- made lasting cultural achievements

- The Hellenistic
- Macedonian and Greek armies defeat the Persian Empire
- built new cities and kingdoms

- Legend of the Start
- A contest between the gods to determine who would win the honor of having the land named after them
- Poseidon struck a rock with his trident, and as water gushed forth, he assured the people that now they would never suffer drought
- Athena dropped a seed that sprouted an olive tree
- People though the olive tree was more valuable than the water
- thats how Athens got its name

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Arguably the most important aspect of Athens was its development of democracy, the oldest example that we know to date. However, it was not a true democracy because only male citizens -the δέμοσ(dēmos)- had equal political rights, freedom of speech, and the opportunity to participate directly in the political arena, leaving out most notably women, slaves, and foreign residents called μετοικοι(metoikoi). Additionally, Athenian democracy differs from our own to its use of direct democracy. In ancient Athens, every citizens was responsible for making and voting for decisions that govern their lives, which differs from our system of representative democracy where we elect representatives to vote and legislation for us.

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Every polis maintained a considerable military force and culture of militarism.
Athens was involved in many wars with the Persians. During the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE the Persian military was defeated losing thousands of soldiers. Athens achieved this feat because of their general Miltiades's brilliant tactics. At the time the Persian Military was viewed as invincible and the Athenians victory gave them a high opinion of themselves. Later the Athenian Military obtained another victory against the Persian's at the Battle of Salamis and the battles of Plataea and Mycale in 479 BCE, and this drove the Persians out of Greece establishing Athens as an influential power. Afterwards Pericles (a leader of Athens) and the Athenians created the Delian League with the goal to make a cohesive Greek network among city-states to hinder further Persian attacks. The other city-states paid into the treasury of the Delian League and in return Athens would protect them against Persian attacks. However, the Athenians turned the Delian League into an Athenian empire and reduced their once allies into the status of subjects.

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In 621 B.C. an Athenian aristocrat named Draco was pressured to create Athens' first law code. The code was harsh, and is the origin of the word draconian. It embodied the ideal that the law belonged to the people, but the aristocracy still governed Athens oppressively, and the economic situation remained dire. Small farmers and artisans were forced into economic dependence, families were sold into slavery to settle debts, and others were exiled as their land was mortgaged to the rich.

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In 594 B.C. an aristocrat named Solon was elected archon, chief magistrate of the polis, and given great power for reform. Stolon freed all people enslaved over debt, brought back everyone who was exiled, canceled all the debts on land, as well as slavery because of debt illegal. He let non-nobles into aristocratic assemblies, allowing them to vote in the election of magistrates. Later leaders broadened opportunities for commoners, turning Athens into a democracy.

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The main legistlative organ of Athens was its assembly or έκκλησία(ekklēsia). All male citizens were allowed to participate in the assembly, which met at least on Pnyx Hill at least once per month. All citizens were allowed to speak to the assembly by simply raising their hands. The majority won and their decisions was always final. Additionally, the assembly elected nine presidents or πρόεδροι(proedroi), who served only one term. Their role was to organise the meetings and assess the voting. The assembly legislated on a variety of issues such as financial and military magistrates, organsation and management of food stores, legislative and political trials, sending envoys, signing of treaties, raising and spending of funds, and military matters. One of the most important privileges to citizens and aspects of debate was that of free speech or παρρησία(parrhesia). After discussion decrees or ψέφισματα(psēphismata) were made and laws or νομοι(nomoi) were defined. Lastly, the assembly was responsible for making sure that decisions were enforced and officials were doing their duties.

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Some of the most well known architectural achievements took place in Athens, and mythology had a huge impact on both architecture and art as a whole. In 580 BCE, a temple called the Hecatompedon was built to Athena (built where the Parthenon would later be) and it was decorated with sculpture in colored limestone. Lions bringing down buildings and snakes were placed in the angles. Earlier in 530 BCE, a peripteral temple (which means there were rows of columns on all sides) was also in honor of Athena. This temple has a marble sculpture representing battles between gods and giants. This temple along with five other structures decorated in marble turned the Acropolis into a sanctuary. One of the most important figures in athenian culture was Athena, and a famous homage to her came in the form of the temple of Athena Nike.

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Athens is well known for it's great minds such as Socrates, Herodotus, and Hippocrates.
Socrates is known as the father of western philosophy. He was a sculptor who was told by an Oracle at Delphi, that he was the wisest man in the world. In efforts to prove the Oracle wrong. Socrates began questioned those who were considered wise. By doing this he ended up proving the Oracle right. Socrates was the wisest man because he never claimed to know everything.
Herodotus is considered to be the father of history, and he resided in Athens. Hippocrates is known as the father of medicine and is known for writing a large number of ancient treatises, speeches, and letters on medicine, to as the Hippocratic Corpus

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Some of the most well known pieces of literature have also come from Greece, most notably Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, written in 8th century BCE. The Iliad depicts the Trojan war, an important moment in greek and roman history, whereas the Odyssey is a classic hero's journey following Odysseus, one of the heroes in the Trojan War. Both of these stories, especially the Odyssey, connect with greek mythology as well, which showcases a common thread in Athenian art and culture.

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The council known as the boulē was responsible for determining the topics discussed in the assembly and had the power to make decisions in times of crisis and war without convening the assembly. Comprised of 500 citizens who were chosen by lot, the boulē served for a year and could not serve for more than two non-consecutive years. Representing the 139 districts of Attica, the boulē acted as an executive committee of the assembly, supervising administrative committees and officials. Additionally, there was an executive committee of the boulē consisting of 50 citizens, known as πρυτάνεις(prytaneis), elected on a rotating basis from the ten tribes participating in the boulē. The executive committee of the boulē had a chairman, called the ἐπιστάτης(epistates), who was chosen by lot each day. The prytany would meet in the Βουλευτήριον(Bouleuterion) in the Athenian αγορά(agora) and safeguarded the sacred treasuries.