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80-457: The modern town is built on the ruins of the ancient city of Pyrasos (Πύρασος), and is associated with the nearby city of Thessalian or Phthiotic Thebes , near the modern village of Mikrothivai . Homer mentions Pyrasos in his list of ships ( Iliad B.695) together with Phylace and Itona , which belonged to the kingdom of Protesilaus . According to Strabo (IX.435), who discusses its topography, "well-harboured Pyrasos" (εὑλίμενος Πύρασος)

160-575: 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

240-596: 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

320-487: 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

400-749: 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

480-576: 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

560-403: A location in ancient Thessaly is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . 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 the 5th century BC laid

640-605: 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

720-535: 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

800-412: 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

880-413: Is a small fragment of an old epigraph , discovered in the remains of the great Basilica D with the name Pyrasus, which confirms the location of the town. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Smith, William , ed. (1854–1857). "Pyrasus". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography . London: John Murray. This article about

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960-665: 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

1040-514: 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

1120-637: 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

1200-628: The Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad , and described by him as "Πύρρασον ἀνθεμόεντα, Δήμητρος τέμενος" (Pyrasus having a temple of Demeter ) Pyrasus was situated on the Pagasaean Gulf , at the distance of 20 stadia from Phthiotic Thebes , and possessed a good harbour. It had disappeared in the time of Strabo ( fl. early first century CE), the town having moved to a nearby site, called Demetrium or Demetrion (Δημήτριον), derived from

1280-680: 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

1360-520: The Greek-Bulgarian struggle in Macedonia . Pyrasos 39°16′45″N 22°49′14″E  /  39.27922°N 22.8206°E  / 39.27922; 22.8206 Pyrasus or Pyrasos ( Ancient Greek : Πύρασος or Πύρρασος ) was a town and polis (city-state) of Phthiotis in ancient Thessaly , mentioned by Homer along with Phylace and Iton as ruled by Protesilaus , in

1440-559: 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

1520-455: The Neolithic (sixth millennium BCE) by fishermen and farmers. Stählin found a walled circuit covered by Byzantine remains near the top of the hill, and other walls similar at its foot. Archaeological remains are scarce and the city is barely known in historical times. An arm of a large statue, which came to light in 1965, was attributed to Demeter. Possibly the most important finding

1600-568: 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

1680-819: 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

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1760-473: 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

1840-921: 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

1920-534: 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

2000-522: 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

2080-518: 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

2160-520: 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

2240-477: 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,

2320-526: 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

2400-461: 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

2480-532: 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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2560-510: 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

2640-591: 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

2720-655: 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

2800-517: 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

2880-735: 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

2960-503: 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

3040-565: 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

3120-404: 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

3200-501: 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

3280-416: 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

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3360-576: 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

3440-657: 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

3520-663: 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

3600-624: 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

3680-430: 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 ,

3760-455: 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

3840-446: 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

3920-519: 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 the 19th century as

4000-400: 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

4080-404: 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

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4160-448: 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

4240-423: 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

4320-464: 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

4400-411: 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

4480-454: The name of Phthiotic Thebes, and became the main city of the Achaean Phthiotis League until it joined the Aetolian League at the end of the 3rd century BCE. Professor John Grainger of the University of Birmingham concluded, from evidence relating to the election of men from Thebes to office in the Aetolian League, that the city became a member of the League in the 220s BCE. Until the construction of Demetrias by Demetrius Poliorcetes , it

4560-427: 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

4640-405: The neighbouring cities of Phylake and Phthiotic Thebes. The new conurbation took the name of Phthiotic or Thessalian Thebes. The city remained prosperous under Roman rule , but it was moved from the inland site of the old Phthiotic Thebes back to Pyrasos near the sea. The city's prosperity from the 4th through the 6th centuries AD is attested by the number of its Early Christian monuments, but this

4720-418: 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

4800-406: 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

4880-409: 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

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4960-426: The remains of Pyrasos are scant, and the city is barely known in historical times. An arm from an oversized statue, which came to light in 1965, was attributed to Demeter. Possibly the most significant find is a small fragment of an ancient epigraph, discovered in the debris of the big Basilica D with the name Pyrasos, confirming the location of the city. In the late 4th century BC, Pyrasos was joined ( synoecism ) with

5040-488: 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

5120-409: 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

5200-405: 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

5280-400: 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

5360-406: The temple of Demeter, spoken of by Homer, and which Strabo describes as distant two stadia from Pyrasus. At the beginning of the Peloponnesian War , it was one of the cities of Thessaly that supplied aid to the Athenians . At the end of the 4th century BCE, it was united ( synoecism ) with the neighboring cities of Phylace and Phthiotic Thebes to form a polis . The new conurbation took

5440-435: 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

5520-418: 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

5600-463: 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

5680-490: Was 20 stadia from Phthiotic Thebes. Pyrasos is scarcely known from historical sources, except that it was an active harbour and featured a famous temple of Demeter and Kore , after which the harbour was later known as Demetrion. The only excavation which took place on the hill of Magoula, the old acropolis, southeast of Nea Anchialos, proves that the site was peopled since the earliest Neolithic period (6th millennium BC) by fishermen and agriculturalists. Archaeologically,

5760-683: 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

5840-500: 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

5920-605: Was brought to an end in a great fire in the late 7th century that destroyed the city. The city was rebuilt and apparently continued to be of some note in the early Byzantine period—its bishop is last mentioned in the 8th/9th century—but it never recovered and it was eventually eclipsed by the nearby port city of Halmyros . Nea Anchialos was founded in 1906 by Greeks who fled the Black Sea town of Anchialos (modern Pomorie in Bulgaria ) after massive anti-Greek riots, provoked by

6000-469: 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

6080-523: 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 ,

6160-418: 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

6240-659: 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

6320-473: Was the main port of the Pagasetic Gulf . It was destroyed in 217 BCE by the army of Philip V of Macedon , and its inhabitants were enslaved and the city became a Macedonian colony. The site of Pyrasus is within the limits of Nea Anchialos . The only excavation that took place on the hill of Magoula, the ancient acropolis , southeast of Nea Anchialos, shows that the place was inhabited since

6400-404: 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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