Ancient History - Athens

Archaeologists have found evidence that Athens was inhabited from at the least the fifth millennium BC. The site would have been popular with very early settlers for several reasons: its location in the midst of effective agricultural landscapes; its closeness towards the coastline plus the normal safe harbour of Piraeus; the existence of defensible high ground, the Acropolis (from akron and polis, or 'city in the high ground'); together with proximity of a normal supply of water regarding the north-west part associated with Acropolis.

Traces of Mycenaean fortifications through the thirteenth century AC can be seen regarding the Acropolis, including some fundamentals belonging to exactly what will need to have been a palatial structure. The fortifications, referred to as 'Pelasgian' walls (following the indigenous individuals believed to have built them prior to the arrival of this Greeks around 2000 BC), remained being used before the Persian Wars of 490-480 BC. One stretch behind the temple of Athena Nike has been deliberately preserved in the traditional period.

There is a decline of Mycenaean society across the Greek world round the end of this twelfth century BC. Whether this is directly connected with the Trojan War (around 1184 BC), or the so-called Dorian Invasion thought to took spot right after this conflict, Athens will not appear to have succumbed to an attack. The Mycenaean royal family of Pylos is believed to take refuge in Athens after their town's fall towards the Dorians. One of its members, Codros, became master of his adoptive town.

The collapse of Mycenaean civilization left Greece in governmental, financial and social decline, followed closely by loss in creative abilities, literacy and trade networks. The Mycenaean form of writing, known as Linear B, was completely forgotten, and the Greek alphabet would not emerge until the belated eighth century BC while the brand new form of writing. At the moment city states started initially to emerge through the entire Greek world, governed by oligarchies, or aristocratic councils. Thirteen kings ruled in Athens after Codros, until in 753 BC these were replaced by officials with a ten-year term, referred to as decennial archons, plus in 683 BC by yearly appointed eponymous archons.

Conflict involving the oligarchs as well as the lower classes, lots of whom have been paid down to slavery, generated a series of reforms that paved just how for the emergence worldwide's first true democracy. Around 620 BC the lawmaker Dracon put up wooden pills regarding the Acropolis known as axones. These were inscribed with civil laws and regulations and punishments therefore harsh that the death penalty ended up being recommended even for small crimes, giving rise towards the term `draconian' that is still used today. Dracon's intervention did little to make sure purchase, prompting representatives of the nobles and reduced classes in 594 BC to appoint the statesman and poet Solon as archon.

Solon terminated aristocratic guideline, setting up a representational federal government where participation ended up being determined maybe not by lineage or bloodline, but wealth. He eliminated slavery predicated on debt, and restituted freedom and land to those that was indeed enslaved. Solon created a `Council of Four Hundred' from equal amounts of representatives regarding the Ionian tribes to that your Athenians claimed to belong, and instituted four classes of populace.

Peisistratos, Solon's younger cousin, became tyrant (tyrannos) of Athens in 545 BC. He ensured the Solonian constitution had been respected and governed benevolently. After Peisistratos' death, nevertheless, things took a negative turn and anti-Peisistratid sentiment grew. By 510 BC King Cleomenes of Sparta had been expected to aid in deposing Peisistratos' son Hippias. Hippias sought refuge in Persia at the court of King Darius.

Right after, the aristocrat Cleisthenes promised to institute further reforms giving an even more direct role to citizens in federal government. His reforms had been passed away in 508 BC, and democracy was created in Athens. A fresh `Council of Five Hundred' (the Boule) replaced the 'Council of Four Hundred', with equal representation through the various tribes. Cleisthenes is additionally credited with instituting the device of ostracism, which 'voted' an individual considered dangerous to democracy into exile for 10 years.

It’s uncertain whenever previous Mycenaean citadel was transformed into a sacred precinct but by the belated eighth century BC a modest temple (or maybe several) endured on the plateau. The oldest and holiest cult image regarding the Acropolis ended up being the statue of Athena Polias (Protectress for the City), a crude olive-wood figure, so old that Athenians of this Classical period thought it had either fallen from heaven or been made by Cecrops or Erichthonios. This sacred image of Athena was ritually 'dressed' each year in a peplos, a sacred robe, as part of the Panathenaic festival.

A temple is considered to happen build around 700 BC south regarding the later, Classical Erechtheion, to accommodate the statue of Athena Polias. The initial major building of which there are significant stays regarding the Acropolis ended up being the alleged 'Bluebeard Temple', built in the Archaic period around 560 BC. The 'Bluebeard Temple' is thought by some to have stood towards the south for the later Erechtheion. Ancient texts mention a mysterious building or precinct contemporary to the 'Bluebeard Temple', called the Hecatompedon, or 'Hundred-footer'. Whatever this framework or destination was, it offered its name to the major space associated with Classical Parthenon, perhaps as the later building occupies the exact same site.

Using the expulsion of Hippias a fresh temple ended up being built on the Acropolis, its foundations still noticeable to the south associated with the later Erechtheion. This building, the Archaios Naos, or 'ancient temple', will probably were deliberately commissioned around 506 BC as a substitute for the 'Bluebeard Temple'.

Initial Persian invasion of 490 BC saw the victory associated with the Athenians during the battle of Marathon contrary to the forces of King Darius of Persia. The following year the elated Athenians levelled a location in the south part regarding the Acropolis and started construction of the Old Parthenon. A fresh gateway towards the Acropolis had been also commenced, referred to as Old Propylaia.

This post-Marathonian building system on the Acropolis stumbled on a violent result in 480 BC whenever Xerxes, son of King Darius, led an additional Persian intrusion of Greece. Athens had to be evacuated and Xerxes razed the town and buildings regarding the Acropolis. Under the demand of Themistocles, the Athenians destroyed the Persian fleet in the battle of Salamis. Victory within the Persians was guaranteed following the battle of Plataea (479 BC), to the northwest of Athens, whenever a combined Greek army annihilated the Persians.

Within the aftermath associated with battle of Plataea, a vow had been created by the victors not to rebuild the shrines that were damaged in the war, preserving them rather as memorials for later on generations.

Pericles, who was simply an over-all and statesman, stumbled on power in Athens around 461 BC. He considered the oath of Plataea to possess been fulfilled, as thirty years had elapsed through the Persian invasion, and proceeded to reconstruct the temples in the Acropolis. He gathered together the very best architects and performers within the town and plans were drafted to erect brand new buildings that will outshine those torn down by the Persians. The Periclean building programme improved the reduced city with brand new monuments, like the Temple of Hephaestus, also known as the Theseion, and the Painted Stoa or Poikile situated near the Agora (marketplace).