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Athens is one of the oldest named cities in the world, having been continuously inhabited for at
least 7000 years. Situated in southern Europe, Athens became the leading city of Ancient Greece
in the first millennium BCE and its cultural achievements during the 5th century BCE laid thefoundations 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 the capital of the independentGreek state.
The name of Athens, connected to the name of its patron goddess Athena, originates from anearlier, Pre-Greek language.
[1] The etiological 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 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 one another for the honour, offering thecity one gift each. Poseidon produced a spring by striking the ground with his trident,[2]
symbolizing naval power.
Athena created the olive tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. The Athenians, under their ruler
Cecrops, accepted the olive tree and named the city after Athena. A sacred olive tree said to bethe one created by the goddess was still kept on the Acropolis at the time of Pausanias (2nd
century AD).[3]
It was located by the temple of Pandrosus, next to the Parthenon. According to
Herodotus, the tree had been burnt down during the Persian Wars, but a shoot sprung from the
stump. To the Greeks they seen this as a symbol that Athena still had her mark there on the city.[4]
Plato, in his dialogue Cratylus, offers a speculative etymology of Athena's name connecting it to
the phrase ἁ θεονόα or hē theoû nóēsis (ἡ θεοῦ νόηζις, 'the mind of god').[5]
Geographical setting
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Map of the Environs of Ancient Athens.
The site on which Athens stands was first inhabited in the Neolithic period, perhaps as adefensible settlement on top of the Acropolis ('high city'), around the end of the fourth
millennium BC or a little later .[6]
The Acropolis is a natural defensive position which commandsthe surrounding plains. The settlement was 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 the first millennium BC, occupied a very small area compared to the
sprawling metropolis of modern Athens. The ancient walled city encompassed an area measuringabout 2 km (1 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, the commercial and social centre of the city, lay about 400 m (1,312 ft) north of the
Acropolis, in what is now the Monastiraki district. The hill of the Pnyx, where the AthenianAssembly 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 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 inruins) also lay within the city walls.
According to Thucydides, the Athenian citizens at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War (5th
century BC) numbered 40,000, making with their families a total of 140,000 people in all. The
metics, i.e. those who did not have citizen rights and paid for the right to reside in Athens,
numbered a further 70,000, whilst slaves were estimated at between 150,000 to 400,000.[7]
Hence, approximately a tenth of the population were adult male citizens, eligible to meet and
vote in the Assembly and be elected to office. After the conquests of Alexander the Great in the
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4th century BC, the city's population began to decrease as Greeks migrated to the Hellenistic
empires in the East.
Antiquity
Origins and early history
The Greek goddess Athena.
Athens has been inhabited from Neolithic times, possibly from the end of the 4th millenniumBC, or nearly 7000 years.
[8] By 1412 BC 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.[9]
On the summitof the Acropolis, below the later Erechtheion, cuttings in the rock have been identified as the
location of a Mycenaean palace.[9]
Between 1250 and 1200 BC a staircase was built down a cleft in the rock to reach a protected
water supply,[10]
in a similar way to ones at Mycenae. Unlike other Mycenaean centers, such as
Mycenae and Pylos (see Bronze Age collapse), we do not know whether Athens suffereddestruction in about 1200 BC, an event often attributed to a Dorian invasion, and 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.
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Iron Age burials, in the Kerameikos and other locations, are often richly provided for and
demonstrate that from 900 BC onwards Athens was one of the leading centres of trade and
prosperity in the region; as were Lefkandi in Euboea and Knossos in Crete.[11]
This position maywell 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 (see Kings of Athens), a situation
which may have continued up until the 9th century BC. From later accounts, it is believed thatthese 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).
Before the concept of the political state arose, four tribes based upon family relationships
dominated the area. The members had certain rights, privileges, and obligations:
Common religious rights.
A common burial place.
Mutual rights of succession to property of deceased members.
Reciprocal obligations of help, defense and redress of injuries.
The right to intermarry in the gens in the cases of orphan daughters and heiresses.
The possession of common property, an archon, and a treasurer.
The limitation of descent to the male line.
The obligation not to marry in the gens except in specified cases.
The right to adopt strangers into the gens.
The right to elect and depose its chiefs.[12]
During this period, 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 politicallife by the nobility. By the 7th century BC social unrest had become widespread, and 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).
Reform and democracy
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The ruins of the Temple of Olympian Zeus.
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, by breaking up large landed estates and freeing up trade and commerce,which allowed 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 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 (in 541 BC). 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 instituted 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 527 BC and 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 realdictatorship, which proved very unpopular and he was overthrown in 510 BC. A radical
politician with an aristocratic background named Cleisthenes then took charge, and it was he
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' and each trittys had one or more 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
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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 a few brief interruptions, it remained in place for
170 years, until Philip II of Macedon defeated Athens at the Battle of Chaeroneain 338 BC.
Classical Athens
The city of Athens during the classical period of Ancient Greece (508 – 322 BC)[1]
was a notable
polis (city-state) of Attica, Greece, leading the Delian League in the Peloponnesian War against
Sparta and the Peloponnesian League. Athenian democracy was established in 508 BC under
Cleisthenes following the tyranny of Hippias. This system remained remarkably stable, and witha few brief interruptions remained in place for 180 years, until 322 BC (aftermath of Lamian
War ). The peak of Athenian hegemony was achieved in the 440s to 430s BC, known as the Age
of Pericles.
In the classical period, Athens was a center for the arts, learning and philosophy, home of Plato's
Akademia and Aristotle's Lyceum,[2][3]
Athens was also the birthplace of Socrates, Pericles, Sophocles, and many other prominent philosophers, writers and politicians of the ancient world.
It is widely referred to as the cradle of Western Civilization, and the birthplace of democracy,[4]
largely due to the impact of its cultural and political achievements during the 5th and 4thcenturies BC on the rest of the then known European continent.
[5]
Rise to power (508 – 448 BC)
Main articles: Ionian Revolt, Persian Wars, and First Peloponnesian War
Hippias - of the Peisistratid family - established a dictatorship in 514 BC, which proved veryunpopular, although it established stability and prosperity, and was eventually overthrown withthe help of an army from Sparta, in 511/510 BC. The radical politician of aristocratic background
(the Alcmaeonid family), Cleisthenes, then took charge and established democracy in Athens.
The reforms of Cleisthenes replaced the traditional four Ionic "tribes" ( phyle) with ten new ones,named after legendary heroes of Greece and having no class basis, which acted as electorates.
Each tribe was in turn divided into three trittyes (one from the coast; one from the city and one
from the inland divisions), while each trittys had one or more demes (see deme) — depending on
their population — which became the basis of local government. The tribes each selected fiftymembers by lot for the Boule, the council which governed Athens on a day-to-day basis. The
public opinion of voters could be influenced by the political satires written by the comic poets and performed in the city theaters.
[6] The Assembly or Ecclesia was open to all full 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, although
the ten strategoi (generals) were elected.
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Early Athenian coin, 5th century BCE. British Museum.
Prior to the rise of Athens, Sparta, a city-state with a militaristic culture, considered itself theleader of the Greeks, and enforced an hegemony. In 499 BC Athens sent troops to aid the Ionian
Greeks of Asia Minor , who were rebelling against the Persian Empire (see Ionian Revolt). This
provoked two Persian invasions of Greece, both of which were repelled under the leadership of the soldier-statesmen Miltiades and Themistocles (see Persian Wars). In 490 the Athenians, led
by Miltiades, prevented the first invasion of the Persians, guided by king Darius I, at the Battle of
Marathon. In 480 the Persians returned under a new ruler, Xerxes I. The Hellenic League led bythe Spartan King Leonidas led 7,000 men to hold the narrow passageway of Thermopylae
against the 100,000-250,000 army of Xerxes, during which time Leonidas and 300 other Spartan
elites were killed. Simultaneously the Athenians led an indecisive naval battle off Artemisium.
However, this delaying action was not enough to discourage the Persian advance which soonmarched through Boeotia, setting up Thebes as their base of operations, and entered southern
Greece. 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, led by Themistocles, defeated the 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 Greecetogether in the Delian League, an Athenian-dominated alliance.
Athenian hegemony (448 – 430 BC)
Main article: Age of Pericles
Pericles — an Athenian general, politician and orator — distinguished himself above the other personalities of the era, men who excelled in politics, philosophy, architecture, sculpture, history
and literature. He fostered arts and literature and gave to Athens a splendor which would never
return throughout its history. He executed a large number of public works projects and improvedthe life of the citizens. Hence, he gave his name to the Athenian Golden Age. Silver mined inLaurium in southeastern Attica contributed greatly to the prosperity of this "Golden" Age of
Athens.
During the time of the ascendancy of Ephialtes as leader of the democratic faction, Pericles was
his deputy. When Ephialtes was assassinated by personal enemies, Pericles stepped in and was
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elected general, or strategos, in 445 BC; a post he held continuously until his death in 429 BC,
always by election of the Athenian Assembly.
Peloponnesian War (431 – 404 BC)
Main article: Peloponnesian War
Further information: Athenian coup of 411 BC
The modern National Academy in Athens, with Apollo and Athena on their columns, and Socrates and
Plato seated in front.
Resentment by other cities at the hegemony of Athens led to the Peloponnesian War in 431,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 Athens and the city-state Sparta ended with an Athenian defeat after Sparta started itsown navy.
Athenian democracy was briefly overthrown by the coup of 411, brought about because of its poor handling of the war, but it was quickly restored. The war ended with the complete defeat of
Athens in 404. 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 403, democracy was restored by Thrasybulus and an amnesty declared.
Corinthian War and the Second Athenian League (395 – 355 BC)
Sparta's former allies soon turned against her due to her imperialist policies, and Athens's former
enemies, Thebes and Corinth, became her allies. Argos, Thebes and Corinth, allied with Athens,
fought against Sparta in the decisive Corinthian War of 395 BC – 387 BC. Opposition to Sparta
enabled Athens to establish a Second Athenian League. Finally Thebes defeated Sparta in 371 inthe Battle of Leuctra. However, other Greek cities, including Athens, turned against Thebes, and
its dominance was brought to an end at the Battle of Mantinea (362 BC) with the death of its
leader, the military genius Epaminondas.
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Athens under Macedon (355 – 322 BC)
Further information: Alexander the Great, Antipatrid dynasty, and Antigonid dynasty
By mid century, however, the northern kingdom of Macedon was becoming dominant in
Athenian affairs, despite the warnings of the last great statesman of independent Athens,Demosthenes. In 338 BC the armies of Philip II defeated Athens at the Battle of Chaeronea,
effectively limiting Athenian independence. Athens and other states became part of the Leagueof Corinth. Further, the conquests of his son, Alexander the Great, widened Greek horizons and
made the traditional Greek city state obsolete. Antipater dissolved the Athenian government and
established a plutocratic system in 322 BC (see Lamian War and Demetrius Phalereus). Athensremained a wealthy city with a brilliant cultural life, but ceased to be an independent power.
In the 2nd century BC, following the Battle of Corinth (146 BC), Greece was absorbed into the
Roman Republic as part of the Achaea Province, concluding 200 years of Macedoniansupremacy.
Geography
Overview
Map of ancient Athens showing the Acropolis in middle, the Agora to the northwest, and the city walls.
Athens was in Attica, about 30 stadia from the sea, on the southwest slope of Mount Lycabettus, between the small rivers Cephissus to the west, Ilissos to the south, and the Eridanos to the north,
the latter of which flowed through the town. The walled city measured about 1.5 km (0.93 mi) indiameter, although at its peak the city had suburbs extending well beyond these walls. TheAcropolis was just south of the centre of this walled area. The city was burnt by Xerxes in 480
BC, but was soon rebuilt under the administration of Themistocles, and was adorned with public
buildings by Cimon and especially by Pericles, in whose time (461-429 BC) it reached itsgreatest splendour. Its beauty was chiefly due to its public buildings, for the private houses were
mostly insignificant, and its streets badly laid out. Towards the end of the Peloponnesian war , it
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contained more than 10,000 houses,[7]
which at a rate of 12 inhabitants to a house would give a
population of 120,000, though some writers make the inhabitants as many as 180,000.
Athens consisted of two distinct parts:
The City , properly so called, divided into The Upper City or Acropolis, and The Lower City,surrounded with walls by Themistocles.
The port city of Piraeus, also surrounded with walls by Themistocles and connected to the city
with the Long Walls, built under Conon and Pericles.
The Long Walls
Map of the environs of Athens showing Piraeus, Phalerum, and the Long Walls
The Long Walls consisted of two walls leading to Piraeus, 40 stadia long (4.5 miles, 7 km),running parallel to each other, with a narrow passage between them. In addition, there was a wall
to Phalerum on the east, 35 stadia long (4 miles, 6.5 km). There were therefore three long walls
in all; but the name Long Walls seems to have been confined to the two leading to the Piraeus,while the one leading to Phalerum was called the Phalerian Wall . The entire circuit of the walls
was 174.5 stadia (nearly 22 miles, 35 km), of which 43 stadia (5.5 miles, 9 km) belonged to the
city, 75 stadia (9.5 miles, 15 km) to the long walls, and 56.5 stadia (7 miles, 11 km) to Piraeus,Munichia, and Phalerum.
The Acropolis (Upper city)
The Acropolis, also called Cecropia from its reputed founder, Cecrops, was a steep rock in the
middle of the city, about 50 meters high, 350 meters long, and 150 meters wide; its sides were
naturally scarped on all sides except the west end. It was originally surrounded by an ancientCyclopean wall said to have been built by the Pelasgians. At the time of the Peloponnesian war
only the north part of this wall remained, and this portion was still called the Pelasgic Wall ;
while the south part which had been rebuilt by Cimon, was called the Cimonian Wall . On thewest end of the Acropolis, where access is alone practicable, were the magnificent Propylaea,
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"the Entrances," built by Pericles, before the right wing of which was the small Temple of Athena
Nike. The summit of the Acropolis was covered with temples, statues of bronze and marble, and
various other works of art. Of the temples, the grandest was the Parthenon, sacred to the"Virgin" goddess Athena; and north of the Parthenon was the magnificent Erechtheion,
containing three separate temples, one to Athena Polias, or the "Protectress of the State," the
Erechtheion proper, or sanctuary of Erechtheus, and the Pandroseion, or sanctuary of Pandrosos, the daughter of Cecrops. Between the Parthenon and Erechtheion was the colossal Statue of Athena Promachos, or the "Fighter in the Front," whose helmet and spear was the first object on
the Acropolis visible from the sea.
The Acropolis imagined in an 1846 painting by Leo von Klenze
Lower city
The lower city was built in the plain round the Acropolis, but this plain also contained severalhills, especially in the southwest part. On the west side the walls embraced the Hill of the
Nymphs and the Pnyx, and to the southeast they ran along beside the Ilissos.
Gates
There were many gates, among the more important there were:
On the West side: Dipylon, the most frequented gate of the city, leading from the inner
Kerameikos to the outer Kerameikos, and to the Academy. The Sacred Gate, where the sacred
road to Eleusis began. The Knight's Gate, probably between the Hill of the Nymphs and the Pnyx. The Piraean Gate, between the Pnyx and the Mouseion, leading to the carriage road between
the Long Walls to the Piraeus. The Melitian Gate, so called because it led to the deme Melite,
within the city.
On the South side: The Gate of the Dead in the neighbourhood of the Mouseion. The Itonian
Gate, near the Ilissos, where the road to Phalerum began.
On the East side: The Gate of Diochares, leading to the Lyceum. The Diomean Gate, leading to
Cynosarges and the deme Diomea.
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On the North side: The Acharnian Gate, leading to the deme Acharnai.
Districts
The Inner Kerameikos, or "Potter's Quarter," in the west of the city, extending north as far as the
Dipylon gate, by which it was separated from the outer Kerameikos; the Kerameikos containedthe Agora, or "market-place," the only one in the city, lying northwest of the Acropolis, and
north of the Areopagus.
The deme Melite, in the west of the city, south of the inner Kerameikos.
The deme Skambonidai , in the northern part of the city, east of the inner Kerameikos.
The Kollytos, in the southern part of the city, south and southwest of the Acropolis.
Koele, a district in the southwest of the city.
Limnai , a district east of Milete and Kollytos, between the Acropolis and the Ilissos.
Diomea, a district in the east of the city, near the gate of the same name and the Cynosarges.
Agrai , a district south of Diomea.
Hills
The Areopagus, the "Hill of Ares," west of the Acropolis, which gave its name to the celebrated
council that held its sittings there, was accessible on the south side by a flight of steps cut out of
the rock.
The Hill of the Nymphs, northwest of the Areopagus.
The Pnyx , a semicircular hill, southwest of the Areopagus, where the ekklesia (assemblies) of the
people were held in earlier times, for afterwards the people usually met in the Theatre of
Dionysus.
The Mouseion, "the Hill of the Muses," south of the Pnyx and the Areopagus.
Streets
Among the more important streets, there were:
The Piraean Street , which led from the Piraean gate to the Agora.
The Panathenaic Way , which led from the Dipylon gate to the Acropolis via the Agora, along
which a solemn procession was made during the Panathenaic Festival.
The Street of the Tripods, on the east side of the Acropolis.
Public buildings
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The Temple of Hephaestus in modern-day Athens
Temples. Of these the most important was the Olympieion, or Temple of Olympian Zeus,
southeast of the Acropolis, near the Ilissos and the fountain Callirrhoë, which was long
unfinished, and was first completed by Hadrian. The Temple of Hephaestus, located to the west
of the Agora. The Temple of Ares, to the north of the Agora. Metroon, or temple of the mother
of the gods, on the west side of the Agora. Besides these, there was a vast number of other
temples in all parts of the city.
The Bouleuterion (Senate House), at the west side of the Agora.
The Tholos, a round building close to the Bouleuterion, built c. 470 BC by Cimon, which served as
the Prytaneion, in which the Prytaneis took their meals and offered their sacrifices.
Stoae, or Colonnades, supported by pillars, and used as places of resort in the heat of the day, of
which there were several in Athens. In the Agora there were: the Stoa Basileios, the court of the
King-Archon, on the west side of the Agora; the Stoa Eleutherios, or Colonnade of Zeus
Eleutherios, on the west side of the Agora; the Stoa Poikile, so called because it was adorned
with fresco painting of the Battle of Marathon by Polygnotus, on the north side of the Agora.
Artist's impression of the Theatre of Dionysus
Theatres. The Theatre of Dionysus, on the southeast slope of the Acropolis, was the great
theatre of the state. Besides this there were Odeons, for contests in vocal and instrumental
music, an ancient one near the fountain Callirrhoë, and a second built by Pericles, close to the
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theatre of Dionysius, on the southeast slope of the Acropolis. The large odeon surviving today,
the Odeon of Herodes Atticus was built in Roman times.
Panathenaic Stadium, south of the Ilissos, in the district Agrai, where the athletic portion of the
Panathenaic Games were held.
Suburbs
The Outer Kerameikos, northwest of the city, was the finest suburb of Athens; here were buried
the Athenians who had fallen in war, and at the further end of it was the Academy , 6 stadia from
the city.
Cynosarges, east of the city, across the Ilissos, reached from the Diomea gate, a gymnasium
sacred to Heracles, where the Cynic Antisthenes taught.
Lyceum, east of the city, a gymnasium sacred to Apollo Lyceus, where Aristotle taught.
Culture
Main articles: Age of Pericles, Greek philosophy, Athenian festivals, and Greek theatre
The Karyatides statues of the Erechtheion on its Acropolis.
The period from the end of the Persian Wars to the Macedonian conquest marked the zenith of Athens as a center of literature, philosophy (see Greek philosophy) and the arts (see Greek
theatre). 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[Greece]."
[8]
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