Acropolis in Athens ()
The city of Athens (Αθήνα in Greek language, romanized as Athénes), named after the goddess Athena, is the capital of Greece. For many years during the 1st millennium BC, it existed as a sovereign city-state, as did every Greek city of the time. Athens was home to one of the earliest recorded formal democracies. Its most notable achievements during this era include the leadership of a powerful alliance (the Delian League), and the refinement of Greek philosophy.
The city sits on a small, southeast-facing peninsula east of the Isthmus of Corinth, known as Attica. This peninsula was first consolidated under Athenian control during the early Greek Archaic Age. The land is relatively flat and arable, but also rocky and of marginal fertility. The ancient site of the city is centered on a rocky hill called the Acropolis, a little way inland. In ancient times, Athens' port was located in the outlying settlement of Piraeus, but it has now been absorbed into the city.
It is served by a newly constructed and opened airport, the Eleftherios Venizelos Airport, about a 40-minute taxi ride from the city centre. The current airport replaced Ellinikon International Airport, which was infamous for widespread bad service.
Athens was the host of the 1896 Olympics, the 1906 Intermediary Olympics and will be the host of the 2004 Summer Olympics.
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2 Athens and the Delian League 3 Notable Athenians 4 Historical population 5 Places of note in modern Athens 6 Related topics 7 External links |
Political system
Ancient Athens provides the example of one of the earlier documented democracies, and of one of the most important in ancient times. This political system (the "Athenian democracy") was dynamic and subject to frequent change, in part because of its lack of a written constitution. (Historians, including, for instance, some translations of Aristotle, speak of a "constitution," but the term should not be understood to mean the same thing as it would today.)
The democracy is generally considered to have lasted from the early-6th (the reforms of Solon) to the mid-4th century BC (the breakdown of the city's independence due to Macedonian aggression), but these dates are more arbitrary than fixed. Though some contemporaries called it ohlocratia - mob rule - the Athenian democracy was not very democratic by modern standards. The Areopagus council, of which all retired magistrates were members for life, continued to hold substantial power for centuries. Women took no part in the political process, and citizenship was much more stringently guarded than it is today.
The assembly of all male citizens in Athens voted on decisions directly (compare direct democracy). Elected officials did not determine decisions - the ancients did not consider such a system a democracy but an oligarchy. Democracy had (and for some people still has) the meaning of equality in decisions and of elections in decisions, not the election of persons charged to decide (see representative democracy). Few checks on or limits to the power of the assembly existed, with the notable exception of the Graphe Paranomon (also voted by the assembly), which made it illegal to pass laws contrary to those already in existence.
The reforms of Draco
The first recorded attempt at reform of the political system was undertaken by a certain Draco, at the initiative of the ruling classes, during the 7th century BC. His task was to relieve social tensions, caused in part by a form of debt bondage, and the approach he took was the establishment of strict penalties.
Voting
As usual in ancient democracies, one had to physically attend a gathering in order to vote. Military service or simple distance prevented the exercise of citizenship. Voting took place in public, sometimes by physical division ("Everybody for Plan A go the right....") and sometimes by written ballot. Ostracism took place only by written ballot (voters scratched a name on a potsherd or ostracon).
Selection by lot
Lot or random choice of a citizen from a pre-determined group filled a number of positions in the Athenian democracy (see sortition). For instance, the Chairman of the Prytany or Council of 50 was chosen by lot from the 50. Having served once, that man could never serve again in his life. The significance of such positions generally originated primarily in religious functions, so the choosing fell to the gods instead of to the people. Following the reforms of Pericles, all Athenian positions except the chief of military officials, the strategos, gained selection by lottery and received payment so that any Athenian citizen could take part in office. The role of the strategos, the one and only elected representative in later Athenian democracy, remained a very difficult and dangerous position to achieve. Candidates required both wealth and popularity to fill the office. Also, in the case that he did not manage to fulfil his mission, the strategos often faced ostracism or (if he was lucky) sentencing on other charges.
Citizenship
Only adult male citizens had the right to vote in Athens. This excluded slaves, women, and resident foreigners (metics) but nevertheless meant that a very large portion of the population took part in the government of Athens and of other radical democracies like it. Participation greatly exceeded that of any contemporary states, and functioned more directly than in any subsequent democracies.
Citizens had to claim descent from citizens - after the reforms of Pericles from both parents, excluding children of Athenian men and foreign women (450 BC) - or had to gain approval through an elaborate procedure, in which any citizen had a veto, which was very rarely carried through. This reflected the general conception of the polis as a community, somewhat like an extended family, rather than as a territorial state.
Athens and the Delian League
The Delian League was an association of Greek city-states in the 5th century BC. It was established by Athens as a league of sovereign cities, but as Athens came to rule it autocratically, it became an Athenian Empire of sorts.
In 478 BC, following the defeat of Xerxes' invasion of Greece, Pausanias the Spartan led Hellenic forces against the Persians. He was an unpopular commander (who may have conspired with the Persians), and Sparta was eager to stop prosecuting the war. They surrendered the leadership of the ongoing campaign to Athens, which was eager to accept it. The Delian League was inaugurated in 477 BC as an offensive and defensive alliance against Persia. The principal cities in the League were Athens, Chios, Samos, and Lesbos, but many of the principal islands and Ionian cities joined the league.
Athens led the Delian League from the beginning, though at its founding the treasury was located on the island of Delos, and each state in the league had an equal vote. The assessment due from each state was assigned by Aristides the Just, leader of the Athenians; some members were assessed ships, others money. A council of all the cities met at Delos regularly, probably when bringing their assessment to the island.
The first action of the Delian League, under the command of Cimon, was the capture of Eion, a Persian fortification that guarded a river crossing on the way to Asia; following this victory, the League acted against several pirate islands in the Aegean Sea, most notably against Scyrus where they turned the Dolopian inhabitants in to slaves and set up a cleruchy. A few years later they sailed against Caria and Lycia, defeating both the Persian army and navy in the battle of the Eurymedon.
These actions were most likely very popular with the League. However, the League, particuarly the Athenians, were willing to force cities to join the League. Carystus, a city on the southern tip of Euboea, was forced to join the League by military actions of the Athenians. The justification for this was that Carystus was enjoying the advantages of the League (protection from pirates and the Persians) without taking on any of the responsibilities. Furthermore, Carystus was a traditional base for Persian occupations. Naxos, a member of the Delian League, attempted to secede, and was enslaved; Naxos is believed to have been forced to tear down her walls, lost her fleet, and her vote in the League.
Thucydides tells us that this is how Athens control over the League grew.
Of all the causes of defection, that connected with arrears of tribute and vessels, and with failure of sevice, was the chief; for the Athenians were very severe and exacting, and made themselves offensive by applying the screw of necessity to men who were not used to and in fact not disposed for any continuous labour. In some other respects the Athenians were not the old popular rulers they had been at first; and if they had more than their fair share of service, it was correspondingly easy for them to reduce any that tried to leave the confederacy. For this the allies had themselves to blame, the wish to get off service making most of them arrange to pay their share of the expense in money instead of in ships, and so to avoid having to leave their homes. Thus while Athens was increasing her navy with the funds they contributed, a revolt always found them without resources or experience for war. [Thucydides i. 99]
In 461 BC, Cimon was ostracized, and was succeeded in his influence by democrats like Ephialtes and Pericles. This signalled a complete change in Athenian foreign policy, neglecting the alliance with the Spartans and instead allying with her enemies, Argos and Thessaly. Megara deserted the Peloponnesian league and allied herself with Athens, allowing construction of a double line of walls across the isthmus of Corinth, protecting Athens from attack from that quarter. Around the same time they also constructed the Long Walls connecting their city to the Piraeus, its port, making it effectively invulnerable to attack by land.
Soon war with the Peloponnesians broke out. In 458 BC, the Athenians blockaded the island of Aegina, and simultaneously defended Megara from the Corinthians by sending out an army composed of those too young or old for regular military service. The next year Sparta sent an army into Boeotia, reviving the power of Thebes to help hold the Athenians in check. Their return was blocked, and they resolved to march on Athens, where the Long Walls were not yet completed, winning a victory at the Battle of Tanagra. All this accomplished, however, was to allow them to return home via the Megarid. Two months later, the Athenians under Myronides invaded Boeotia, and winning the battle of Oenophyta gained control of the whole country except Thebes.
War with the Persians continued, however. In 460 BC, Egypt had revolted under Inarus and Amyrtaeus, who requested aid from Athens. Pericles led 200 ships, originally intended to attack Cyprus, to their aid. After four years, however, the rebellion was defeated by the general Megabyzus, who captured the greater part of the Athenian forces. The remainder escaped to Cyrene and thence returned home.
Fearing retribution for all this, the Athenians moved the treasury of the League from Delos to Athens, further consolidating their control over the League. The Persians followed up their victory by sending a fleet to re-establish their control over Cyprus, and 200 ships were sent out to counter them under Cimon, who returned from ostracism in 451 BC. He died during the blockade of Citium, though the fleet won a double victory by land and sea over the Persians off Salamis Island.
This battle was the last major one fought against the Persians. Many writers report that a formal peace treaty, known as the Peace of Callias, was formalised in 450 BC, but some writers believe that the treaty was a myth created later to inflate the stature of Athens. However, an understanding was definitely reached, enabling the Athenians to focus their attention on events in Greece proper.
The peace with Persia, however, was followed by further reverses. The Battle of Coronea, in 447 BC, led to the abandonment of Boeotia. Euboea and Megara both revolted, and while the former was restored to its status as a tributary ally, the latter was a permanent loss. The Delian and Peloponnesian Leagues signed a peace treaty, which was set to endure for thirty years. It only lasted until 431 BC, when the Peloponnesian War broke out.
Those who revolted unsuccessfully during the war saw the example made of the Mytilenians, the principal people on Lesbos. After an unsuccessful revolt, the Athenians ordered the death of the entire male population. After some thought, they recinded this order, and only put to death the leading 1000 ringleaders of the revolt, and redistributed the land of the entire island to Athenian shareholders, who were sent out to reside on Lesbos.
This type of treatment was not reserved solely for those who revolted. Thucydides documents the example of Melos, a small island, neutral in the war, though originally founded by Spartans. The Melians were offered a choice to join the Athenians, or be conquered. Choosing to resist, their town was besieged and conquered; the males were put to death, and the women sold into slavery (see Melian dialogue).
The Delian League was never formally turned into the Athenian Empire; but by the start of the Peloponnesian War, only Chios and Lesbos were left to contribute ships, and these states were by now far too weak to secede without support. Lesbos tried to revolt first, and failed completely. Chios, the greatest and most powerful of the original members of the Delian League (save Athens), was the last to revolt, and in the aftermath of the Syracusan Expedition enjoyed a success of several years, inspiring all of Ionia to revolt. Athens was, however, still able to eventually suppress these revolts.
The Athenian Empire was very stable, and only 27 years of war, aided by the Persians and internal strife, were able to defeat it. The Athenian Empire did not stay defeated for long. The Second Athenian Empire, a maritime self-defense league, was founded in 377 BC and was led by Athens; but Athens would never recover the full extent of her power, and her enemies were now far stronger and more varied.
Notable Athenians
Historical population
| Year | Number of inhabitants |
|---|---|
| 5th century BC | 300,000 |
| 1853 | 30,600 |
| 1879 | 65,500 |
| 1896 | 123,000 |
| 1925 | 443,000 |
| 2001 | 3,761,810 |
According to the National Statistical Service of Greece, the 2001 figure represents over a third of the country's total population (10,964,020).
Places of note in modern Athens
Related topics
External links
