How will it end? Who was the first man? Where do souls go after death? An ambiguous, controversial concept, Jacksonian Democracy in the strictest sense refers simply to the ascendancy of Andrew Jackson and the Democratic party after The term Ancient, or Archaic, Greece refers to the years B. Archaic Greece saw advances in art, poetry and technology, but is known as the age in which the polis, or city-state, was In the late 6th century B.
This demokratia, as it became known, was a direct democracy that gave political power to free male Athenian citizens rather than a ruling aristocratic The amazing works of art and architecture known as the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World serve as a testament to the ingenuity, imagination and sheer hard work of which human beings are capable. They are also, however, reminders of the human capacity for disagreement, Beginning in the eighth century B.
Among the many legacies Few monuments in the world are more recognizable than the Parthenon. Sitting atop a limestone hill rising some feet above the Ilissos Valley in Athens, this soaring marble temple built in tribute to the goddess Athena brings the glory of ancient Greece into the modern world.
The Parthenon is a resplendent marble temple built between and B. Dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena, the Parthenon sits high atop a compound of temples known as the Acropolis of Athens. Throughout the centuries, the Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. Recommended for you.
How the Troubles Began in Northern Ireland. Ancient Greek Art. Politically, Solon divided the Athenians into four classes, based on their wealth and their ability to perform military service. The poorest class, the Thetes, who were the majority of the population, received political rights for the first time, being 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 the foundations for what eventually became Athenian democracy, but in the short term it failed to quell class conflict, and after 20 years of unrest the popular party led by Peisistratus, a cousin of Solon, seized power Peisistratus 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.
Peisistratus was in fact a very popular ruler, who made Athens wealthy, powerful, and a centre of culture, and founded the Athenian naval supremacy in the Aegean Sea and beyond. He preserved the Solonian constitution, but made sure that he and his family held all the offices of state. Peisistratus died in , and was succeeded by his sons Hippias and Hipparchus. They proved much less adept rulers, and in Hipparchus was assassinated after a private dispute over a young man see Harmodius and Aristogeiton.
This led Hippias to establish a real dictatorship, which proved very unpopular and was overthrown, with the help of an army from Sparta, in A radical politician of aristocratic background, Cleisthenes, then took charge. He was the one who established democracy in Athens. The reforms of Cleisthenes replaced the traditional four "tribes" phyle with ten new ones, named after legendary heroes and having no class basis: they were in fact electorates.
Each tribe was in turn divided into three trittyes while each trittys had one or more demes see deme - depending on the population of the demes -, which became the basis of local government. The tribes each elected fifty members to 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 offices were filled by lot, though the ten strategoi generals were, for obvious reasons, elected. This system remained remarkably stable, and with a few brief interruptions remained in place for years, until Alexander the Great conquered Athens in BC.
Prior to the rise of Athens, the city of Sparta considered itself the leader of the Greeks, or hegemon. This provoked two Persian invasions of Greece, both of which were defeated under the leadership of the Athenian soldier-statesmen Miltiades and Themistocles see Persian Wars. In the Athenians, lead by Miltiades, defeated the first invasion of the Persians, guided by the king Darius at the Battle of Marathon. In the Persians returned under a new ruler, Xerxes.
The Persians had to pass through a narrow strait to get to Athens. A call had been sent via a runner to Sparta for help. The Spartans were in the middle of a religious festival, and so could only send three hundred men.
The Spartans and their allies blocked the narrow passageway from the , men of Xerxes the Battle of Thermopylae. They held them off for a number of days, but eventually all but one Spartan was killed. This forced the Athenians to evacuate Athens, which was taken by the Persians and seek the protection of their fleet. Subsequently the Athenians and their allies, lead by Themistocles had defeated the still vastly larger Persian navy at sea in the Battle of Salamis.
It is interesting to note that Xerxes had built himself a throne on the coast in order to see the Greeks defeated. Instead, the Persians were routed. Sparta's hegemony was passing to Athens, and it was Athens that took the war to Asia Minor.
These victories enabled it to bring most of the Aegean and many other parts of Greece together in the Delian League, an Athenian-dominated alliance. 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 this society, the political satire of the Comic poets at the theaters, had a remarkable influence on public opinion.
Some of the most important figures of Western cultural and intellectual history lived in Athens during this period: the dramatists Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Euripides and Sophocles, the philosophers Aristotle, Plato and Socrates, the historians Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon, the poet Simonides and the sculptor Phidias. The leading statesman of this period 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". Resentment by other cities at the hegemony of Athens led to the Peloponnesian War in , which pitted Athens and her increasingly rebellious sea empire against a coalition of land-based states led by Sparta. The conflict marked the end of Athenian command of the sea. The war between the two city-state Sparta had defeated Athens.
The democracy was briefly overthrown by a coup in due to its poor handling of the war, but quickly restored. The war ended with the complete defeat of Athens in Since the defeat 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 , democracy was restored by Thrasybulus and an amnesty declared. Sparta's former allies soon turned against her due to her imperialist policy and soon Athens's former enemies Thebes and Corinth had become her allies. Finally Thebes defeated Sparta in in the Battle of Leuctra. Then the Greek cities including Athens and Sparta turned against Thebes whose dominance was stopped at the Battle of Mantinea BC with the death of its military genius leader Epaminondas.
By mid century, however, the northern Greek kingdom of Macedon was becoming dominant in Athenian affairs, despite the warnings of the last great statesman of independent Athens, Demosthenes. Further, the conquests of his son, 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 an independent power. In the 2nd century, after years of Macedonian supremacy, Greece was absorbed into the Roman Republic.
In BC, most Athenian houses and fortifications were leveled by Roman general Sulla, while many civic buildings and monuments were left intact. Under Rome, Athens was given the status of a free city because of its widely admired schools. The Roman emperor Hadrian would construct, a library, a gymnasium, an aqueduct which is still in use, several temples and sanctuaries, a bridge and would finance the completion of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The city was sacked by the Heruli in 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 this the city to the north of the Acropolis was hastily refortified on a smaller scale with the Agora left outside the walls. Athens like Rome was invaded by the Barbarians; in by the Goths and in by the Herules. Finally, the city was plundered by Visigoths in In Justinian I closed the schools and the temples were transformed into churches.
Athens was the centre of the pagan rebellion against Christianism and the last non-Christian ruler of the Roman Empire, Julian the Apostate, settled in Athens.
Athens declined when the Byzantine Empire became Christian. Several centuries later, the city was plundered by the Normans who had conquered Sicily and the south of Italy. Athens prospered during the eleventh and twelfth century and many of the Byzantine churches were built during this period. However, in the Crusaders conquered Athens after occupying the Byzantine Empire and less than two centuries later, in , it was occupied by the Ottoman Turks.
The Venetians conquered Athens from the Ottoman Empire in During the conflict for the control of the city, the Parthenon was accidently blown up and severely damaged. The building was then further sacked by the Venetians until they retreated a year later and was once again under Turkish dominion. The city, much reduced, since the rule of the Ottoman Empire revolted in , but it was once again captured by the Ottoman Turks. The Ottomans finally left Athens in On 18 September , Athens was elected capital of the country and numerous public buildings were constructed during this period.
This led to the Greco-Turkish War between and The Turkish crushed the Greeks in Smyrna and as a result, the Greek and Turkish decided to exchange their population , forcing thousands of Greeks living in Turkey to move back to Greece and becoming refugees and vice versa.
Most Greek citizens returned to Athens, creating a havoc in the city. The 25 March , after a turbulent past, the Republic was proclaimed. In Ioannis Metaxas became dictator of Greece until his death in The city was shortly afterwards occupied by the Italian troops, but were pushed out by the Greeks.
In , the German troops invaded Greece until In , a civil war broke out between Left-wing supporters and the conservative government, supported by the British and the Americans. The conservatives eventually won.
In , Greece became a member state of the European Union and in , adopted the Euro as its official currency. Becoming a member state and the Olympic Games led to a great reform of the city and its main buildings. Currently the city is the political, economical and cultural hub of Greece and one of the most popular tourist destinations. Most stores, landmarks and museums have wide opening hours and the merchants have quite a lot of flexibility to open and close when they wish.
Our albums are packed with stunning photographs of Athens. Foundation and monarchy Athens is named after Athena , the Greek goddess of wisdom and war, and daughter of Zeus.
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