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112-594: In ancient Athens , Eleos ( Ancient Greek Ἔλεος m. ) or Elea was the personification of mercy , clemency, compassion and pity – the counterpart of the Roman goddess Clementia . Pausanias described her as "among all the gods the most useful to human life in all its vicissitudes." Pausanias states that there was an altar in Athens dedicated to Eleos, at which children of Heracles sought refuge from Eurystheus ' prosecution. Adrastus also came to this altar after

224-575: A center of paganism. Christian items do not appear in the archaeological record until the early 5th century. The sack of the city by the Herules in 267 and by the Visigoths under their king Alaric I ( r.  395–410 ) in 396, however, dealt a heavy blow to the city's fabric and fortunes, and Athens was henceforth confined to a small fortified area that embraced a fraction of the ancient city. The emperor Justinian I ( r.  527–565 ) banned

336-596: A centre of culture. He preserved the Solonian Constitution , but made sure that he and his family held all the offices of state. Peisistratus built the first aqueduct tunnel at Athens, which most likely had its sources on the slopes of Mount Hymettos and along the Ilissos river . It supplied, among other structures, the fountain house in the southeast corner of the Agora, but it had a number of branches. In

448-487: A date. 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

560-749: A few brief interruptions, it remained in place for 170 years, until Philip II of Macedon defeated Athens and Thebes at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC. Prior to the rise of Athens, Sparta considered itself to be the leader (or 2 ) of the Greeks . In 499 BC, Athens sent troops to aid the Ionian Greeks of Asia Minor , who were rebelling against the Persian Empire (the Ionian Revolt ). This provoked two Persian invasions of Greece by

672-809: A fortress. During the Byzantine period, the Parthenon was used as a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary . During the Latin Duchy of Athens , the Acropolis functioned as the city's administrative center, with the Parthenon as its cathedral, and the Propylaea as part of the ducal palace. A large tower was added, the Frankopyrgos (Frankish Tower), demolished during the 19th century. After

784-576: A leading power. The period following the death of Alexander in 323 BC is known as Hellenistic Greece . The period from the end of the Persian Wars to the Macedonian conquest marked the zenith of Athens as a center of literature, philosophy, and the arts. In Athens at this time, the political satire of the Comic poets at the theatres had a remarkable influence on public opinion . Some of

896-501: A monumental gate at the western end of the Acropolis with Doric columns of Pentelic marble, built partly upon the old Propylaea of Peisistratos. These colonnades were almost finished during 432 BC and had two wings, the northern one decorated with paintings by Polygnotus . About the same time, south of the Propylaea, building started on the small Ionic Temple of Athena Nike in Pentelic marble with tetrastyle porches, preserving

1008-641: A single limestone column base and pieces of several sandstone steps. Soon after the palace was constructed, a Cyclopean massive circuit wall was built, 760 meters long, up to 10 meters high, and ranging from 3.5 to 6 meters thick. From the end of the Helladic IIIB (1300–1200 BC) on, this wall would serve as the main defense for the acropolis until the 5th century. The wall consisted of two parapets built with large stone blocks and cemented with an earth mortar called emplekton (Greek: ἔμπλεκτον). The wall uses typical Mycenaean conventions in that it followed

1120-605: 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

1232-535: 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

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1344-412: 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. 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

1456-457: Is known about the original plan of the interior, which was destroyed by fire during the first century BC and has been rebuilt several times. During the same period, a combination of sacred precincts including the temples of Athena Polias, Poseidon , Erechtheus , Cecrops , Herse , Pandrosos and Aglauros , with its Kore Porch (Porch of the Maidens) or Caryatids' Balcony was begun. Between

1568-426: Is lined with six Ionic columns. Unusually, the temple has two porches, one on the northwest corner borne by Ionic columns, the other, to the southwest, supported by huge female figures or caryatids . The eastern part of the temple was dedicated to Athena Polias , while the western part, serving the cult of the archaic king Poseidon-Erechtheus , housed the altars of Hephaestus and Voutos, brother of Erechtheus. Little

1680-571: Is the now partially reconstructed Odeon of Herodes Atticus . All the valuable ancient artifacts are situated in the Acropolis Museum , which resides on the southern slope of the same rock, 280 metres from the Parthenon. Site plan of the Acropolis at Athens showing the major archaeological remains. The Acropolis Restoration Project began in 1975 to reverse the decay of centuries of attrition, pollution, destruction from military actions, and misguided past restorations. The project included

1792-665: The Achaemenid Empire . In 490 BC, the Athenians, led by the soldier-statesman Miltiades , defeated the first invasion of the Persians under Darius I at the Battle of Marathon . In 480 BC, the Persians returned under Darius's son Xerxes . When a small Greek force holding the pass of Thermopylae was defeated , the Persians proceeded to capture an evacuated Athens. The city of Athens was twice captured and sacked by

1904-637: The Attalid kings of Pergamon Attalos II (in front of the NW corner of the Parthenon), and Eumenes II, in front of the Propylaea. These were rededicated during the early Roman Empire to Augustus or Claudius (uncertain) and Agrippa , respectively. Eumenes was also responsible for constructing a stoa on the south slope, similar to that of Attalos in the agora below. During the Julio-Claudian period ,

2016-514: The Boule , a council which governed Athens on a day-to-day basis. The Assembly was open to all 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 public offices were filled by lot, although the ten strategoi (generals) were elected. This system remained remarkably stable and, with

2128-580: The Burgundian family called De la Roche , it replaced Athens as the capital and seat of government, although Athens remained the most influential ecclesiastical centre in the duchy and site of a prime fortress. Under the Burgundian dukes, a bell tower was added to the Parthenon, known as the Frankish Tower . The Burgundians brought chivalry and tournaments to Athens; they also fortified

2240-666: The Enneapylon , had been built around the acropolis hill and incorporated the biggest water spring, the Clepsydra , at the northwestern foot. A temple to Athena Polias , the tutelary deity of the city, was erected between 570 and 550 BC. This Doric limestone building, from which many relics survive, is referred to as the Hekatompedon (Greek for "hundred–footed"), Ur-Parthenon (German for "original Parthenon" or "primitive Parthenon"), H–Architecture or Bluebeard temple, after

2352-680: The First Mithridatic War , Athens was ruled by Aristion , a tyrant installed by Mithridates the Great . In 88–85 BC, most Athenian fortifications and homes were leveled by the Roman general Sulla after the Siege of Athens and Piraeus , although many civic buildings and monuments were left intact. The Macedonian astronomer Andronicus of Cyrrhus subsequently designed the Tower of

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2464-559: The Lamian War . Craterus fell in a battle against Eumenes in 320 BC, leaving Antipater alone to rule for a year, until his death in 319 BC. Athens had a central role in the struggle for his succession, when Antipater's son, Cassander , secured the Piraeus leaving Athens without a source of supplies, to contest Antipater's successor, Polyperchon . To consolidate power against Cassander, Polyperchon restored Athens's democracy, as it

2576-719: The Lapiths . Other monuments that have left almost nothing visible to the present day are the Chalkotheke , the Pandroseion , Pandion's sanctuary , Athena's altar, Zeus Polieus's sanctuary and, from Roman times, the circular Temple of Roma and Augustus . During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, many of the existing buildings in the area of the Acropolis were repaired to remedy damage from age and occasionally war. Monuments to foreign kings were erected, notably those of

2688-624: The Neolithic period, perhaps as a defensible settlement, around the end of the fourth millennium BC or a little later. The site is a natural defensive position which commands the surrounding plains. It is located about 20 km (12 mi) inland from the Saronic Gulf , in the centre of the Cephisian Plain , a fertile valley surrounded by rivers. To the east lies Mount Hymettus , to the north Mount Pentelicus . Ancient Athens, in

2800-687: The Ottoman conquest of Greece , the Propylaea were used as the garrison headquarters of the Turkish army, the Parthenon was converted into a mosque and the Erechtheum was turned into the governor 's private harem . The buildings of the Acropolis suffered significant damage during the 1687 siege by the Venetians in the Morean War . The Parthenon, which was being used as a gunpowder magazine ,

2912-819: The Peace of Apamea , and the Third Macedonian War (171–168), after which Macedonian territory was divided into four client republics and Macedonia was formally annexed to the Roman Republic after the Fourth Macedonian War (150–148). The Achaean League was defeated and dissolved by the Romans in the Achaean War in 146. Greece was divided into the Roman provinces of Macedonia and Achaea ; thus, Athens came under Roman rule. During

3024-473: The Persian Wars , but a shoot sprung from the stump. The Greeks saw this as a symbol that Athena still had her mark there on the city. Plato , in his dialogue Cratylus , offers an etymology of Athena's name connecting it to the phrase ἁ θεονόα or hē theoû nóēsis (ἡ θεοῦ νόησις, 'the mind of god'). There is evidence that the site on which the Acropolis ('high city') stands was first inhabited in

3136-921: The Pyrrhic War (280–275 BC) Rome asserted its hegemony over Magna Graecia and became increasingly involved in Greece and the Balkans peninsula. The First Macedonian War (214–205 BC) between the Roman Republic and the Kingdom of Macedon ended with the Treaty of Phoenice . During the Second Macedonian War (200–197), the Romans declared "the freedom of Greece" from the Macedonian Kings. The Roman–Seleucid War (192–188) ended with

3248-477: The Sack of Athens , the city to the north of the Acropolis was hastily refortified on a smaller scale, with the agora left outside the walls. Athens remained a centre of learning and philosophy during its 500 years of Roman rule, patronized by emperors such as Nero and Hadrian. In the early 4th century AD, the eastern Roman empire began to be governed from Constantinople , and with the construction and expansion of

3360-522: The iconophile position, chiefly due to the role played by Empress Irene of Athens in the ending of the first period of Iconoclasm at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. A few years later, another Athenian, Theophano , became empress as the wife of Staurakios (r. 811–812). Invasion of the empire by the Turks after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, and the ensuing civil wars, largely passed

3472-518: The 12th century. The agora or marketplace, which had been deserted since late antiquity, began to be built over, and soon the town became an important centre for the production of soaps and dyes. The growth of the town attracted the Venetians , and various other traders who frequented the ports of the Aegean, to Athens. This interest in trade appears to have further increased the economic prosperity of

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3584-471: The 13th century BC, an earthquake caused a fissure near the northeastern edge of the Acropolis. This fissure extended some 35 meters to a bed of soft marl in which a well was dug. An elaborate set of stairs was built and the well served as an invaluable, protected source of drinking water during times of siege for some portion of the Mycenaean period. Not much is known about the architectural appearance of

3696-483: The 17th century, were restored, with many wrongly assembled columns now properly placed. The roof and floor of the Propylaea were partly restored, with sections of the roof made of new marble and decorated with blue and gold inserts, as in the original. Restoration of the Temple of Athena Nike was completed in 2010. A total of 2,675 tons of architectural members were restored, with 686 stones reassembled from fragments of

3808-436: The 19th century as the capital of the independent and self-governing Greek state . The name of Athens , connected to the name of its patron goddess Athena , originates from an earlier Pre-Greek language. The origin myth explaining how Athens acquired this name through the legendary contest between Poseidon and Athena was described by Herodotus , Apollodorus , Ovid , Plutarch , Pausanias and others. It even became

3920-520: The 4th century BC it was replaced by a system of terracotta pipes in a stone-built underground channel, sometimes called the Hymettos aqueduct; many sections had round, oval or square access holes on top of about 10 cm × 10 cm (4  in × 4 in). Pipe segments of this system are displayed at the Evangelismos and Syntagma Metro stations. Peisistratos died in 527 BC and

4032-523: The 5th century BC laid the foundations of Western civilization . 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

4144-525: The Acropolis until the Archaic era . During the 7th and the 6th centuries BC, the site was controlled by Kylon during the failed Kylonian revolt, and twice by Peisistratos ; each of these was attempts directed at seizing political power by coups d'état . Apart from the Hekatompedon mentioned later, Peisistratos also built an entry gate or propylaea . Nevertheless, it seems that a nine-gate wall,

4256-477: The Acropolis, where its evocative ruins still stand. Two other major religious sites, the Temple of Hephaestus (which is still largely intact) and the Temple of Olympian Zeus or Olympeion (once the largest temple in mainland Greece but now in ruins) also lay within the city walls. Athens has been inhabited from Neolithic times, possibly from the end of the fourth millennium BC , or over 5,000 years. By 1412 BC,

4368-526: The Acropolis. They were themselves influenced by Byzantine Greek culture. In 1311, Athens was conquered by the Catalan Company , a band of mercenaries called Almogavars . It was held by the Catalans until 1388. After 1379, when Thebes was lost, Athens became the capital of the duchy again. The history of Aragonese Athens, called Cetines (rarely Athenes ) by the conquerors, is obscure. Athens

4480-461: The Acropolis—according to Benizelos, if the pasha did not treat them well and heed their opinion, he was liable to be removed before his annual term of office was out—particularly through the influence at Constantinople of the two Athenian-born patriarchs of Jerusalem , Parthenius (1737–1766) and Ephram II (1766–1770). Taxation was also light, with only the haraç tax payable to

4592-532: The Aegean and many other parts of Greece together in the Delian League , an Athenian-dominated alliance. The resentment felt by other cities at the hegemony of Athens led to the Peloponnesian War , which began in 431 BC and pitted Athens and its increasingly rebellious overseas empire against a coalition of land-based states led by Sparta. The conflict was a drawn out one that saw Sparta control

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4704-510: 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 reforms that Solon initiated dealt with both political and economic issues. The economic power of the Eupatridae was reduced by forbidding the enslavement of Athenian citizens as a punishment for debt ( debt bondage ), by breaking up large landed estates and freeing up trade and commerce, which allowed

4816-405: The Athens schist and the overlying Acropolis limestone . The Athens schist is a soft reddish rock dating from the late Cretaceous period. The original sediments were deposited in a river delta approximately 72 million years ago. The Acropolis limestone dates from the late Jurassic period, predating the underlying Athens schist by about 30 million years. The Acropolis limestone was thrust over

4928-408: The Athens schist by compressional tectonic forces, forming a nappe or overthrust sheet. Erosion of the limestone nappe led to the eventual detachment of the Acropolis, forming the present-day feature. Where the Athens schist and the limestone meet there are springs and karstic caves. Many of the hills in the Athens region were formed by the erosion of the same nappe as the Acropolis. These include

5040-423: The Battle of Chaeronea and proposed in the Assembly decrees honoring Alexander the Great for the Macedonian victory. Philippides was prosecuted in trial by Hypereides , who detested his pro-Macedonian sympathies. Subsequently, the conquests of Alexander the Great widened Greek horizons and made the traditional Greek city state obsolete. Athens remained a wealthy city with a brilliant cultural life, but ceased to be

5152-407: The Ottoman government, as well as the salt tax and a water-tax for the olive yards and gardens. Acropolis of Athens While there is evidence that the hill was inhabited as early as the 4th (millennium?)BC, it was Pericles ( c.  495 –429 BC) in the fifth century BC who coordinated the construction of the buildings whose present remains are the site's most important ones, including

5264-479: The Ottomans in 1826–1827 . A new bulwark named after Odysseas Androutsos was built by the Greeks between 1822 and 1825 to protect the recently rediscovered Klepsydra spring, which became the sole fresh water supply of the fortress. After independence, most features that dated from the Byzantine, Frankish, and Ottoman periods were cleared from the site in an attempt to restore the monument to its original form, "cleansed" of all later additions. The Parthenon mosque

5376-427: The Parthenon and Propylaea . In 1640, a lightning bolt struck the Propylaea, causing its destruction. In 1687, during the Morean War , the Acropolis was besieged by the Venetians under Francesco Morosini , and the temple of Athena Nike was dismantled by the Ottomans to fortify the Parthenon. A shot fired during the bombardment of the Acropolis caused a powder magazine in the Parthenon to explode (26 September), and

5488-439: The Parthenon, the Propylaea , the Erechtheion and the Temple of Athena Nike . The Parthenon and the other buildings were seriously damaged during the 1687 siege by the Venetians during the Morean War when gunpowder being stored by the then Turkish rulers in the Parthenon was hit by a Venetian bombardment and exploded. The Acropolis is located on a flattish-topped rock that rises 150 m (490 ft) above sea level in

5600-462: The Persians within one year after Thermopylae. Subsequently, the Athenians (led by Themistocles ), with their allies, engaged the much larger Persian navy at sea in the Battle of Salamis and routed the Persians, a great turning point in the war. In 479 BC, the Athenians and Spartans, with their allies, defeated the Persian army conclusively at the Battle of Plataea . Athens then took the war to Asia Minor. These victories enabled it to bring most of

5712-446: The Propylaea. To the south of the entrance is the tiny Temple of Athena Nike. At the centre of the Acropolis is the Parthenon or Temple of Athena Parthenos (Athena the Virgin). East of the entrance and north of the Parthenon is the temple known as the Erechtheum. South of the platform that forms the top of the Acropolis there are also the remains of the ancient, though often remodelled, Theatre of Dionysus . A few hundred metres away, there

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5824-401: The Roman Herodes Atticus built his grand amphitheater or odeon . It was destroyed by the invading Herulians a century later but was reconstructed during the 1950s. During the 3rd century, under threat from a Herulian invasion, repairs were made to the Acropolis walls, and the Beulé Gate was constructed to restrict entrance in front of the Propylaea, thus returning the Acropolis to use as

5936-613: The Roman Empire (" Rhomaioi "). The conversion of the empire from paganism to Christianity greatly affected Athens, resulting in reduced reverence for the city. Ancient monuments such as the Parthenon, Erechtheion and the Hephaisteion (Theseion) were converted into churches. As the empire became increasingly anti-pagan, Athens became a provincial town and experienced fluctuating fortunes. The city remained an important center of learning, especially of Neoplatonism —with notable pupils including Gregory of Nazianzus , Basil of Caesarea and emperor Julian ( r.  355–363 )—and consequently

6048-410: The Temple of Roma and Augustus, a small, round edifice about 23 meters from the Parthenon, was to be the last significant ancient construction on the summit of the rock. Around the same time, on the north slope, in a cave next to the one dedicated to Pan since the Classical period, a sanctuary was founded where the archons dedicated to Apollo on assuming office. During 161 AD, on the south slope,

6160-447: The Venetians abandoned Athens again to the Ottomans. In the 18th century, the city recovered much of its prosperity. During Michel Fourmont 's visit in the city in the 1720s, he witnessed much construction going on, and by the time the Athenian teacher Ioannis Benizelos wrote an account of the city's affairs in the 1770s, Athens was once again enjoying some prosperity, so that, according to Benizelos, it "could be cited as an example to

6272-459: The Winds for the Roman forum , which mostly survives to the present day. Under Roman rule, Athens was given the status of a free city because of its widely admired schools. The Roman emperor Hadrian ( r.  117–138 AD ), constructed the Library of Hadrian , a gymnasium , an aqueduct which is still in use, several temples and sanctuaries, a bridge, and finally completed the Temple of Olympian Zeus . The Arch of Hadrian commemorates

6384-404: The beauty of its ancient monuments and issued a firman (imperial edict) forbidding their looting or destruction, on pain of death. The Parthenon was converted into the main mosque of the city. Under Ottoman rule, Athens was denuded of any importance and its population severely declined, leaving it as a "small country town" ( Franz Babinger ). From the early 17th century, Athens came under

6496-413: The beginning of the Axis occupation of Greece in 1941, German soldiers raised the Nazi German War Flag over the Acropolis. It would be taken down by Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas in one of the first acts of resistance. In 1944 Greek Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou arrived on the Acropolis to celebrate liberation from the Nazis. The entrance to the Acropolis was a monumental gateway termed

6608-445: The building was severely damaged, giving it largely the appearance it has today. The Venetian occupation of Athens lasted for six months, and both the Venetians and the Ottomans participated in the looting of the Parthenon. One of its western pediments was removed, causing even more damage to the structure. During the Venetian occupation, the two mosques of the city were converted into Catholic and Protestant churches, but on 9 April 1688

6720-402: The city (as their capital) until the Turkish conquest of 1458. The first Ottoman attack on Athens, which involved a short-lived occupation of the town, came in 1397, under the Ottoman generals Yaqub Pasha and Timurtash. Finally, in 1458, Athens was captured by the Ottomans under the personal leadership of Sultan Mehmed II . As the Ottoman Sultan rode into the city, he was greatly struck by

6832-440: The city [of Athens] an altar belonging to no god of power; gentle Clementia (Clemency) [Eleos] had there her seat, and the wretched made it sacred". Ancient 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

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6944-458: The city in 480 BC. The building was burned and looted, along with the Ancient Temple and practically everything else on the rock. After the Persian crisis had subsided, the Athenians incorporated many architectural parts of the unfinished temple (unfluted column drums, triglyphs, metopes, etc.) into the newly built northern curtain wall of the Acropolis, where they served as a prominent "war memorial" and can still be seen today. The devastated site

7056-405: The city of Athens , with a surface area of about 3 ha (7.4 acres). While the earliest artifacts date to the Middle Neolithic era, there have been documented habitations in Attica from the Early Neolithic period (6th millennium BC). There is little doubt that a Mycenaean megaron palace stood upon the hill during the late Bronze Age . Nothing of this structure survives except, probably,

7168-614: The collection and identification of all stone fragments, even small ones, from the Acropolis and its slopes, and the attempt was made to restore as much as possible using reassembled original material ( anastylosis ), with new marble from Mount Pentelicus used sparingly. All restoration was made using titanium dowels and is designed to be completely reversible, in case future experts decide to change things. A combination of cutting-edge modern technology and extensive research and reinvention of ancient techniques were used. The Parthenon colonnades, largely destroyed by Venetian bombardment during

7280-427: The commercial and social centre of the city, lay about 400 m (1,300 ft) north of the Acropolis, in what is now the Monastiraki district. The hill of the Pnyx , where the Athenian Assembly met, lay at the western end of the city. The Eridanus (Ηριδανός) river flowed through the city. One of the most important religious sites in ancient Athens was the Temple of Athena, known today as the Parthenon, which stood on top of

7392-545: The complete defeat of Athens. Since the loss of the war 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 BC, however, democracy was restored by Thrasybulus and an amnesty was declared. Sparta's former allies soon turned against her, due to her imperialist policy, and soon Athens' former enemies Thebes and Corinth had become her allies; they fought with Athens and Argos against Sparta in

7504-406: The defeat of the Seven against Thebes , praying that those who died in the battle be buried. Eleos was only recognized in Athens, where she was honored by the cutting of hair and the undressing of garments at the altar. Statius in Thebaid (1st century) describes the altar to Clementia in Athens (treating Eleos as feminine based on the grammatical gender in Latin): "There was in the midst of

7616-518: The emergence of a prosperous urban trading class. Politically, Solon divided the Athenians into four classes, based on their wealth and their ability to perform military service. The poorest class, the Thetai , (Ancient Greek Θήται ) who formed the majority of the population, received political rights for the first time and were able to vote in the Ecclesia (Assembly). But only the upper classes could hold political office. The Areopagus continued to exist but its powers were reduced. The new system laid

7728-424: The essentials of Greek temple design. After an interruption caused by the Peloponnesian War , the temple was finished during the time of Nicias ' peace, between 421 BC and 409 BC. Construction of the elegant temple of Erechtheion in Pentelic marble (421–406 BC) was by a complex plan which took account of the extremely uneven ground and the need to circumvent several shrines in the area. The entrance, facing east,

7840-428: The festival, a procession (believed to be depicted on the Parthenon frieze) traveled through the city via the Panathenaic Way and culminated on the Acropolis. There, a new robe of woven wool ( peplos ) was placed on either the statue of Athena Polias in the Erechtheum (during the annual Lesser Panathenaea) or the statue of Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon (during the Great Panathenaea, held every four years). Within

7952-430: The first millennium BC, occupied a very small area compared to the sprawling metropolis of modern Greece. The ancient walled city encompassed an area measuring about two kilometres (1.5 mi) from east to west and slightly less than that from north to south, although at its peak the ancient city had suburbs extending well beyond these walls. The Acropolis was situated just south of the centre of this walled area. The Agora ,

8064-455: The foundation of the city by Hadrian, with the "city of Theseus" referred to on its inscription on one side of the arch, and the new quarter erected by Hadrian around the Temple of Zeus called the "city of Hadrian". The city was sacked by the Heruli in 267 AD, resulting in the burning of all the public buildings, the plundering of the lower city and the damaging of the Agora and Acropolis. After

8176-446: The foundations for what eventually became Athenian democracy , but in the short-term it failed to quell class conflict and after twenty years of unrest the popular party, led by Peisistratos , seized power. Peisistratos is usually called a tyrant , but the Greek word tyrannos does not mean a cruel and despotic ruler, merely one who took power by force. Peisistratos was in fact a very popular ruler, who made Athens wealthy, powerful, and

8288-463: The front line"), built between 450 BC and 448 BC, dominated. The base was 1.50 m (4 ft 11 in) high, while the total height of the statue was 9 m (30 ft). The goddess held a lance, the gilt tip of which could be seen as a reflection by crews on ships rounding Cape Sounion , and a giant shield on the left side, decorated by Mys with images of the fight between the Centaurs and

8400-465: The hills of Lykabettos , Areopagus , and Mouseion . The marble used for the buildings of the Acropolis was sourced from the quarries of Mount Pentelicus , a mountain to the northeast of the city. The limestone that the Acropolis is built upon is unstable because of the erosion and tectonic shifts that the region is prone to. This instability may cause rock slides that cause damage to the historic site. Various measures have been implemented to protect

8512-400: The imperial city, many of Athens's works of art were taken by the emperors to adorn it. The Empire became Christianized, and the use of Latin declined in favour of exclusive use of Greek ; in the Roman imperial period , both languages had been used. In the later Roman period, Athens was ruled by the emperors continuing until the 13th century, its citizens identifying themselves as citizens of

8624-404: The indecisive Corinthian War (395 – 387 BC). Opposition to Sparta enabled Athens to establish a Second Athenian League . Finally Thebes defeated Sparta in 371 BC in the Battle of Leuctra . But then the Greek cities (including Athens and Sparta) turned against Thebes, whose dominance was stopped at the Battle of Mantinea (362 BC) with the death of its military-genius leader Epaminondas . By

8736-619: The jurisdiction of the Kizlar Agha , the chief black eunuch of the Sultan's harem . The city had originally been granted by Sultan Ahmed I ( r.  1603–1617 ) to Basilica, one of his favourite concubines, who hailed from the city, in response of complaints of maladministration by the local governors. After her death, Athens came under the purview of the Kizlar Agha. The Turks began a practice of storing gunpowder and explosives in

8848-423: The land while Athens was dominant at sea, however the disastrous Sicilian Expedition severely weakened Athens and the war eventually ended in an Athenian defeat following the Battle of Aegospotami which ended Athenian naval supremacy. Due to its poor handling of the war, the democracy in Athens was briefly overthrown by a coup in 411 BC; however, it was quickly restored. The Peloponnesian War ended in 404 BC with

8960-485: The later tradition of Western civilization and Classical revival , the Acropolis, from at least the mid-18th century on, has often been invoked as a critical symbol of the Greek legacy and of the glories of Classical Greece . Most of the artifacts from the temple are housed today in the Acropolis Museum at the foot of the ancient rock. The Acropolis is a klippe consisting of two lithostratigraphic units:

9072-520: The mid-4th century BC, however, the northern Greek kingdom of Macedon was becoming dominant in Athenian affairs. In the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC) , Philip II 's armies defeated an alliance of some of the Greek city-states including Athens and Thebes, forcing them into a confederation and effectively limiting Athenian independence. Philippides of Paiania , one of the wealthiest Athenian aristocratic oligarchs, campaigned for Philip II during

9184-411: The most important figures of Western cultural and intellectual history lived in Athens during this period: the dramatists Aeschylus , Sophocles , Euripides and Aristophanes , the physician Hippocrates , the philosophers Socrates , Plato and Aristotle , the historians Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon , the poet Simonides , the orators Antiphon , Isocrates , Aeschines , and Demosthenes , and

9296-470: The natural contour of the terrain and its gate, which was towards the south, was arranged obliquely, with a parapet and tower overhanging the incomers' right-hand side, thus facilitating defense. There were two lesser approaches up the hill on its north side, consisting of steep, narrow flights of steps cut in the rock. Homer is assumed to refer to this fortification when he mentions the "strong-built house of Erechtheus " ( Odyssey 7.81). At some time before

9408-427: 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, 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

9520-588: The old temple of Athena was set afire. Pausanias does not mention it in his 2nd century AD Description of Greece . Around 500 BC the Hekatompedon was dismantled to make place for a new grander building, the Older Parthenon (often referred to as the Pre-Parthenon or Early Parthenon). For this reason, Athenians decided to stop the construction of the Olympieion temple which was connoted with

9632-485: The olive tree and named the city after Athena. (Later the Southern Italian city of Paestum was founded under the name of Poseidonia at about 600 BC.) A sacred olive tree said to be the one created by the goddess was still kept on the Acropolis at the time of Pausanias (2nd century AD). It was located by the temple of Pandrosus , next to the Parthenon. According to Herodotus, the tree had been burnt down during

9744-552: The originals, 905 patched with new marble, and 186 parts made entirely of new marble. A total of 530 cubic meters of new Pentelic marble were used. In 2021, the addition of new reinforced concrete paths to the site to improve accessibility caused controversy among archaeologists. Every four years, the Athenians had a festival called the Great Panathenaea that rivaled the Olympic Games in popularity. During

9856-461: The other cities of Greece". Its Greek population possessed a considerable degree of self-government, under a council of primates composed of the leading aristocratic families, along with the city's metropolitan bishop. The community was quite influential with the Ottoman authorities, the pasha (governor), the kadi (judge), the mufti (Islamic prelate), and the garrison commander of

9968-631: The pedimental three-bodied man-serpent sculpture, whose beards were painted dark blue. Whether this temple replaced an older one or just a sacred precinct or altar is not known. Probably, the Hekatompedon was built where the Parthenon now stands. Between 529 and 520 BC yet another temple was built by the Pisistratids , the Old Temple of Athena , usually referred to as the Arkhaios Neōs (ἀρχαῖος νεώς, "ancient temple"). This temple of Athena Polias

10080-525: The reconstruction of the southern and northern walls of the Acropolis. Most of the major temples, including the Parthenon , were rebuilt by order of Pericles during the so-called Golden Age of Athens (460–430 BC). Phidias , an Athenian sculptor, and Ictinus and Callicrates , two famous architects, were responsible for the reconstruction. During 437 BC, Mnesicles started building the Propylaea ,

10192-476: The region by and Athens continued its provincial existence unharmed. When the Byzantine Empire was rescued by the resolute leadership of the three Komnenos emperors Alexios , John and Manuel , Attica and the rest of Greece prospered. Archaeological evidence tells us that the medieval town experienced a period of rapid and sustained growth, starting in the 11th century and continuing until the end of

10304-607: The sculptor Phidias . The leading statesman of the mid-fifth century BC was Pericles , who used the tribute paid by the members of the Delian League to build the Parthenon and other great monuments of classical Athens. The city became, in Pericles's words, "the school of Hellas [Greece]." Shortly after the death of Alexander the Great, Antipater and Craterus became joint generals of Greece and Macedonia. Athens joined Aetolia and Thessaly in facing their power, known as

10416-747: The series of feudal fiefs , similar to the Crusader states established in Syria and on Cyprus after the First Crusade . This period is known as the Frankokratia . Athens was initially the capital of the eponymous Duchy of Athens , a fief of the Latin Empire which replaced the Byzantine Empire, ruling from Constantinople. After Thebes became a possession of the Latin dukes, which were of

10528-461: 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. On the summit of the Acropolis, below the later Erechtheion , cuttings in the rock have been identified as the location of a Mycenaean palace. Between 1250 and 1200 BC, to feed

10640-502: The teaching of philosophy by pagans in 529, an event whose impact on the city is much debated, but is generally taken to mark the end of the ancient history of Athens. Athens was sacked by the Slavs in 582, but remained in imperial hands thereafter, as highlighted by the visit of the emperor Constans II ( r.  641–668 ) in 662/3 and its inclusion in the Theme of Hellas . The city

10752-576: The temple of Athena Nike and the Parthenon, there was the Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia (or the Brauroneion), the goddess represented as a bear and worshipped in the deme of Brauron. According to Pausanias, a wooden statue or xoanon of the goddess and a statue of Artemis made by Praxiteles during the 4th century BC were both in the sanctuary. Behind the Propylaea, Phidias' gigantic bronze statue of Athena Promachos ("Athena who fights in

10864-435: The theme of the sculpture on the west pediment of the Parthenon . Both Athena and Poseidon requested to be patrons of the city and to give their name to it, so they competed with offering the city one gift each. Poseidon produced a spring by striking the ground with his trident, symbolizing naval power. Athena created the olive tree , symbolizing peace and prosperity. The Athenians, under their ruler Cecrops , accepted

10976-592: The town. The 11th and 12th centuries were the Golden Age of Byzantine art in Athens. Almost all of the most important Middle Byzantine churches in and around Athens were built during these two centuries, and this reflects the growth of the town in general. However, this medieval prosperity was not to last. In 1204, the Fourth Crusade conquered Athens and the city was not recovered from the Latins before it

11088-539: The tyrant Peisistratos and his sons, and, instead, used the Piraeus limestone destined for the Olympieion to build the Older Parthenon. To accommodate the new temple, the south part of the summit was cleared, made level by adding some 8,000 two-ton blocks of limestone, a foundation 11 m (36 ft) deep at some points, and the rest was filled with soil kept in place by the retaining wall. However, after

11200-405: The victorious Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, the plan was revised and marble was used instead. The limestone phase of the building is referred to as Pre-Parthenon I and the marble phase as Pre-Parthenon II. In 485 BC, construction stalled to save resources as Xerxes became king of Persia, and war seemed imminent. The Older Parthenon was still under construction when the Persians invaded and sacked

11312-634: 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

11424-683: Was a veguería with its own castellan , captain, and veguer . At some point during the Aragonese period, the Acropolis was further fortified and the Athenian archdiocese received an extra two suffragan sees. In 1388, the Florentine Nerio I Acciajuoli took the city and made himself duke. The Florentines had to dispute the city with the Republic of Venice , but they ultimately emerged victorious after seven years of Venetian rule (1395–1402). The descendants of Nerio I Acciajuoli ruled

11536-500: Was before the Lamian War. However, after losing the fleet one year prior, Polyperchon had to flee Macedon when in 316 BC Cassander secured control of Athens. Cassander appointed Demetrius of Phalerum as head of the administration of Athens. Demetrius remained in power until 307 BC when Cassander's enemy, Demetrius Poliorcetes captured Athens, and Macedon, ending the short-lived Antipatrid dynasty and installing his own. After

11648-711: Was built upon the Dörpfeld foundations, between the Erechtheion and the still-standing Parthenon. The Arkhaios Neōs was destroyed as part of the Achaemenid destruction of Athens during the Second Persian invasion of Greece during 480–479 BC; however, the temple was probably reconstructed during 454 BC, since the treasury of the Delian League was transferred in its opisthodomos . The temple may have been burnt down during 406/405 BC as Xenophon mentions that

11760-523: Was cleared of debris. Statuary, cult objects, religious offerings, and unsalvageable architectural members were buried ceremoniously in several deeply dug pits on the hill, serving conveniently as a fill for the artificial plateau created around the Classical Parthenon. This " Persian debris " was the richest archaeological deposit excavated on the Acropolis by 1890. After winning at Eurymedon during 468 BC, Cimon and Themistocles ordered

11872-419: Was demolished in 1843, and the Frankish Tower in 1875. German Neoclassicist architect Leo von Klenze was responsible for the restoration of the Acropolis in the 19th century, according to German historian Wolf Seidl, as described in his book Bavarians in Greece . Some antiquities from the Acropolis were exhibited in the old Acropolis Museum , which was built in the second half of the 19th century. At

11984-416: Was he who established democracy in Athens. The reforms of Cleisthenes replaced the traditional four phyle ('tribes') with ten new ones, named after legendary heroes and having no class basis; they were in fact electorates. Each phyle was in turn divided into three trittyes and each trittys had one or more demes , which became the basis of local government. The phyle each elected fifty members to

12096-474: Was hit by artillery and damaged severely. During subsequent years, the Acropolis was a site of bustling human activity with many Byzantine, Frankish, and Ottoman structures. The dominant feature during the Ottoman period was a mosque inside the Parthenon, complete with a minaret. The Acropolis was besieged thrice during the Greek War of Independence —two sieges from the Greeks in 1821–1822 and one from

12208-523: Was one of the leading centres of trade and prosperity in the region; as were Lefkandi in Euboea and Knossos in Crete. 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 . According to legend, Athens was formerly ruled by kings ,

12320-418: Was succeeded by his sons Hippias and Hipparchus . They proved to be much less adept rulers and in 514 BC, Hipparchus was assassinated in a private dispute over a young man (see Harmodius and Aristogeiton ). This led Hippias to establish a real dictatorship, which proved very unpopular. He was overthrown in 510 BC. A radical politician with an aristocratic background named Cleisthenes then took charge, and it

12432-659: Was taken by the Ottoman Turks . It did not become Greek in government again until the 19th century. From 1204 until 1458, Athens was ruled by Latins in three separate periods, following the Crusades . The "Latins", or " Franks ", were western Europeans and followers of the Latin Church brought to the Eastern Mediterranean during the Crusades. Along with rest of Byzantine Greece, Athens was part of

12544-404: Was threatened by Saracen raids in the 8th–9th centuries—in 896, Athens was raided and possibly occupied for a short period, an event which left some archaeological remains and elements of Arabic ornamentation in contemporary buildings —but there is also evidence of a mosque existing in the city at the time. In the great dispute over Byzantine Iconoclasm , Athens is commonly held to have supported

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