Ancient Athens
The history of Athens offers a vast field of investigation to specialists, given the large number of documents that came to their attention.
Athens has been continuously inhabited for at least 3000 years. In the first millennium BC. AD , it became one of the principal cities of ancient Greece and its cultural achievements during the fifth century BC. BC laid the foundations of Western civilization.
During the Middle Ages , the city declined before recovering under the Byzantine Empire. Athens has also been relatively prosperous during the Crusades by benefiting trade Italian. After a long period of decline under the Ottoman Empire , Athens re-emerged in the nineteenth century as the capital of the independent Greek state.
Summary |
Etymology, origins and geography
The formation of the name would, according to some . It was during this period that Athens submits other villages of Attica. This process, called synoikismos ("gather in a house"), creates the state's largest and richest of the Greek mainland in which, however, a very large number of people are excluded from political life by the nobility. In the seventh century BC. BC social discontent is spreading. The Areopagus elect Draco to draft a new legal code . Having failed, they elect Solon , charged with drafting a new constitution , which is in the year -564. Solon seeks reform of political and economic problems. The economic power of Eupatridae is diminished by the abolition of slavery for debt and opening trade (creating a prosperous merchant class). Politically, Solon divided the Athenians into four classes based on their wealth and their ability to engage in military service. The poorest class, and most numerous, the epithet , for the first time political rights: to vote in the ecclesia , but only the upper classes can sit. The Areopagus continued to exist but with more limited powers. This system lays the foundation stones of what later became the Athenian democracy , but in the short term, it can not stop the conflict between classes. Thus, after twenty years stirred the popular party, led by Pisistratus (a cousin of Solon), is brought to power by -541. Pisistratus is often called a tyrant , but the ancient Greek word tyrannos does not mean "chief despot and cruel "but simply refers to a leader who took power by force. In fact, a very popular leader, he is a center of Athens rich, powerful and culturally important, it allows also the beginning of the Athenian naval supremacy in the Aegean and elsewhere. It keeps the constitution of Solon, but ensures that he and his family hold all official positions. He died in -527 and son Hippias and Hipparchus succeeded him. They proved to be somewhat talented chefs: in -514 Hipparchus was assassinated after a private dispute with a young man (see Tyrannoktones ). This led Hippias to establish a real dictatorship, very unpopular, crushed by -510 with military aid from Sparta. A radical politician of noble origin, Cleisthenes , then took power and established democracy in Athens. The reforms of Cleisthenes replaced the four tribes by ten phylai , named in honor of legendary heroes and not based on differences between classes were in fact electorates. Each was divided into three phyle trittyes and each TRITTY one or more demes (by number of inhabitants), which become the basis of local government. The fifty members elected phylai the Boule , a council that governs the city overnight. The Assembly was open to all citizens and acted as a legislature and Supreme Court (except in the case of homicide and religious affairs, the only cases handled by the Areopagus weakened). Most positions were filled by lot, but the ten strategists (general) were elected. This system remained stable, with few interruptions, for over 500 years until the Roman domination, and therefore much longer than any other modern democracy. Before the rise of Athens, the city of Sparta is considered the first of Greece, or hegemon. In -499 Athens sent troops to help the Ionians of Asia Minor , who rebelled against the Persian Empire , the conflict called " Revolt of Ionia. This causes two Persian invasions of Greece, both defeated by the Athenians, Miltiades and Themistocles (see Medic Wars ). In -490 the Athenians under the command of Miltiades, defeated King Darius I and his troops at the Battle of Marathon. In -480 the Persians returned under a new leader, Xerxes I , son of Darius. After the battle of Thermopylae , the Athenians evacuate their city and Athens is taken by the Persians. Soon after, the Athenians and their allies fight the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis. Athens, then led the war in Asia Minor. These victories enabled the formation of the Delian League , an alliance dominated by the Athenians. The war of Peloponnesus is triggered -431 because of the resentment felt by other Greek cities to Athens for its overwhelming dominance. The Athenian maritime empire fighting against a coalition of states on the continent dominated by the Spartans. This conflict marked the end of the Athenian power on the seas. Athenian democracy was overthrown in -411 , following the setbacks suffered during the Peloponnesian War, and the system of Four Hundred was established. But democracy is restored a few months later. Following the final defeat and the capture of Athens, the Spartans impose regime Thirty Tyrants in the -404, but democracy is reinstated in -403 by Thrasybulus and an amnesty declared. Athens recovered some of its power in the fourth century BC. AD by restoring Delian League changed. Sparta's former allies soon turned against it: Argos , Thebes , and Corinth allied to Athens. Thebes defeated Sparta -371 at the battle of Leuctra. Subsequently, the Greek cities (including Sparta and Athens) joined forces to tackle Thebes and his general Epaminondas at the Battle of Mantinea (362 BC.). Wealth came from Athens silver mines of Laurion , clay quarries of Cape Colias and trade offered by the Port: Piraeus. There was unloading grain leather and Cyrene , dried fish from the Hellespont , beef from Italy and Thessaly , in ivory from Libya , the incense of Syria , the grape of Rhodes , rigging, papyrus and grain to Egypt , carpets and cushions of Carthage , a lot of cereal Crimea , wood Macedonia , coal of Heraclea , copper from Cyprus , the vermilion of Ceos , the tin of Phocaea , of dates and flour of Phoenicia. The period between the end of the Median wars and the Macedonian conquest marked the zenith of Athens as a center for cultural, artistic and philosophical. Several of the most important figures of Western cultural history lived Athens during this period: the dramatists Aeschylus , Aristophanes , Euripides , Sophocles , the philosophers Aristotle , Plato and Socrates , the historians Herodotus , Thucydides , and Xenophon , the poet Simonides and the sculptor Phidias. The politician most important was Pericles , who used the tribute paid by the members of the Delian League to build the Parthenon and other monuments of classical Athens. The city became, in his view, "the school of Hellas". By mid-century the northern kingdom of Macedonia dominates the Athenian affairs, despite the warnings of the last great statesman of independent Athens, Demosthenes. In 338 BC. AD troops Philip II beat those of the Greek cities in the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC.) , ending the independence of Athens. Furthermore, the conquests of his son, Alexander the Great , widen the horizons of the Greeks and make obsolete the traditional city-state . The Romans gave the status of "free city" in Athens out of respect for its highly regarded schools. Several Roman emperors build significant buildings, including a concert hall, a court, a library , a gymnasium, a small temple on the Acropolis, the Olympian and an aqueduct unused . The city was sacked by Heruli in the year 267 AD, all public buildings were burned, the Agora and the Acropolis damaged and completely looted the downtown. The city is then bounded to the north of the Acropolis, surrounded by fortifications built quickly. The Agora is left outside the club. Athens remains an important cultural center during the five centuries of Roman rule and was visited by emperors, including Nero and Hadrian. However, the conversion of the Empire to Christianity terminates its role as a center of scholarship pagan , the Emperor Justinian closed the schools of philosophy in 529. This event is widely seen as marking the end of the ancient history of Athens. In the year 529 in Athens and Byzantine rule falls into disgrace . The Parthenon and the Erechtheion are used as' churches. The city becomes quite provincial and its fate is not always good. In the early Byzantine years many of his works of art are made and kept by emperors to Constantinople. Although the Byzantines controlled the Aegean and its islands in this period, the seventh and eighth seen its control decrease until they dominate the coast. From the year 600 Athens decreases considerably due to barbarian raids (the Avars and Slavs ) in the same way, throughout the century we see most of Greece invaded by the Slavs from the north. Athens itself is reduced to a shadow of what it was and is entering a period of uncertainty and insecurity. Not until the middle of the ninth, when Greece was fully reconquered the city began to revive. She and other cities benefit from increased security and restoration of central control. The invasion of the Seljuks after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 and civil wars do not receive little or Athens. When the Byzantine Empire was revived by the Emperor Comnenus Alexius I , John II and Manuel I , the Attica and Greece are all thriving. Traces Archaeological we show that the medieval town experienced a period of continued rapid growth in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The agora, or market place, deserted since late antiquity, is covered with buildings and the town became an important production center of soaps and dyes. The growth of the city attracts the Venetian and other merchants of the Mediterranean basin. This business is also increasing the prosperity of the city. The eleventh and twelfth centuries were the golden age of Byzantine art in Athens. Almost all the largest Byzantine churches of Athens and its surrounding areas are built in this period and this reflects the growth of the city in general. However, the medieval wealth does not last. In 1204 the Fourth Crusade conquered Athens, and later the city was captured by the Ottomans. She had no Greek government until the late nineteenth century. Into three distinct periods, from 1204 (4th Crusade) in 1458 (Ottoman final), Athens is controlled by the Latins (noble francs). It is first the capital of the Duchy of Athens , home of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. After the conquest of Thebes by the family of Roche, original burgundy , it became the capital and seat of power, but Athens is the most important ecclesiastical center and the duchy is the best fortress. In 1311 Athens was conquered by the Catalan Company , a band of mercenaries called Almogvers. It is controlled by the Catalans until 1388. After 1379 and the loss of Thebes, she becomes the capital of the duchy. In 1388, the Florentine Nerio Acciaiuoli I. took the city and says Duke. His descendants ruled over the city (which became their capital) until the Turkish conquest of 1458. It is the last Latin state to fall to the new conquerors. Under the Burgundian dukes, a steeple was added to the Parthenon, the Acropolis was fortified and chivalry and tournaments entered. Influenced by Greek culture, their yard was a mixture of traditional knowledge and customs of knighthood of the French era. The history of Athens Catalan (Cetiner called by the Catalans, rarely Athens), is rather obscure. It is a viguerie with its own Castellan, captain and provost. It was in this period that the Acropolis is still fortified and that the archdiocese wins two seats suffragan. The Florentines vie city to the Venetian Republic , and are victorious after seven years of Venetian rule ( 1395 - 1402 ). Athens fell to the Ottomans in 1456. When Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror entered the city, he is so dazzled by the beauty of its ancient monuments that declare immediately a firman (imperial edict) punishing looting or destruction of monuments of the death penalty. The Parthenon became the mosque 's main city . Despite efforts by the Ottoman authorities to make Athens the perfect provincial capital, the city's population declined inexorably, until reduced to a mere village in the seventeenth century. It was during this century, when note is the weakening of Ottoman power, the city was severely damaged: the Turks guarding the gunpowder and other explosives in the Parthenon and the Propylaea , in 1640 the Lightning Propylaea hits, causing destruction . In 1687 Athens was besieged by the Venetians during the War of Morea. The Ottomans dismantle the Temple of Athena Nike to fortify the Propylaea. A cannonball fired during the bombardment of the Acropolis, the key reserve of gunpowder stored in the Parthenon: the building explodes and takes about the appearance we see today . The Acropolis was occupied for six months, during which the Venetians to remove several works of art: one of the pediments of the western building is removed, further damaging the structure. The following year, Turkish troops burn the city. In the eighteenth century, ancient monuments were dismantled to build the new wall which the Ottomans surrounded the city in 1778. Between 1801 and 1805 Thomas Bruce , "said Lord Elgin, a British resident at Athens, removes friezes of the Parthenon (the famous frieze of the Parthenon ). Are removed as a Caryatid from the Erechtheion (replaced with a plaster impression) and several other sculptures, for a total of fifty (three of whom bought by French ) . During the Revolutionary War , the city and the Acropolis undergo several seats on the part of both belligerents. The monuments are still suffering. After regaining the city in 1827, Ottoman forces hold it until retirement in 1833. Athens became the capital of the Kingdom of Greece, but in reality it is then a small village at the foot of the Acropolis, in what is today the district of Plaka. In 1832 Otto I of Greece was proclaimed King of Greece. He said the country's capital Athens. His first task is to identify carefully the archaeological wealth of the city and to make topographic maps. Gustav Eduard Schaubert he hired and Stamatios Kleanthis to do so . The population of Athens is then 4 000-5 000. The choice of Athens as the Greek capital is for historical and sentimental reasons, not for its size: there are few buildings dating from the period between the Byzantine era and the nineteenth century. During the reign of Otto I, we construct a modern city and public buildings are erected. Among the best known works and successful, we find the National Kapodistrian University of Athens ( 1837 ), the National Library of Greece ( 1842 ), the National Academy of Greece ( 1885 ), the Zappeion ( 1878 ), Old Parliament ( 1858 ), the National Garden ( 1840 ), and City Hall ( 1874 ). During the First World War , the city was occupied by British and French troops. The city's population exploded after the disastrous war against Turkey in 1921 , when more than a million Greek refugees from Asia Minor emigrated to Greece. Suburbs such as Nea Ionia and Nea Smyrni , start as simple refugee camps. During the Second World War , Athens was occupied by the Germans from 27 April 1941 until October 1944. The Germans organized a systematic starvation which many dead. In 1944 , there are many battles between the forces of Communists and royalists supported by the British. After the war, the city resumed its growth and Greeks migrate from their villages and islands. The entry of Greece into the European Union in 1981 leads beauce oup investment in the capital, but also increases social and environmental problems. Traffic and pollution, among the worst in the world, pose a risk to the precious ancient monuments, traffic vibration damaging the foundation, and air pollution marble. These problems related to environment and infrastructure, prevent, in part, to hold the centennial Olympics in 1996. In 1985 , Athens was declared the cultural capital of Europe. Huge infrastructure work, including the Athens airport and the subway , were undertaken by the city of Athens and the Greek government with the assistance of the European Union. Pollution is reduced by limiting access to the city center to cars. Symbol of a return to the original country of the Olympic Games , the city was chosen for the Summer Olympics of 2004 , thereby further increasing tourism and international prestige of the city, while many of the engine infrastructure. Reform and democracy
The classical Athens
Median wars
Peloponnesian War
Corinthian War
Second Athenian Confederacy
Artists and philosophers
Hellenistic period
The Athens Byzantine
The Latin Athens
Burgundian period
Period Catalan
Florentine period
The Ottoman Athens
Greek Independence
Modern Athens
The Athens Contemporary
Schedules
Notes and references
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