Athens is the capital of modern Greece. In ancient times it was a powerful city-state, part of Attica, and the center of ancient Greek civilization. Little is known about Athens before the ninth century BCE. Like other Greek states, it was originally ruled by kings. However, between the eleventh and ninth centuries BCE, the monarchy was overthrown. Gradually reforms were introduced, and power came to be shared among a wider number of people.
Democracy
In the sixth century BCE, largely through the work of the statesmen Solon and Cleisthenes, Athens became a democracy – a state in which ordinary citizens held power (although women and slaves were excluded). A council of five hundred citizens was chosen annually, but their proposals had to be voted upon by a people’s assembly at a place called the Pnyx, where any citizen could speak. Cleisthenes introduced a method for getting rid of unpopular citizens. Citizens could be banished from Athens for up to ten years if their name was scratched, by a majority of people, on ostraca, which were broken pieces of pottery. From this we get the word ostracism.
The Delian League
At Marathon in 490 BCE, the small Athenian army successfully defended themselves and all of Greece against an invasion by the Persians, but when the Persians returned in 480 BCE, the Athenians had to abandon their city, and it was destroyed. However, the Athenian navy, helped by some other Greek states, then lured the Persian fleet into the narrow waters of Salamis and overwhelmed it.
After this victory the Athenians organized an alliance with the other Greek states – the Delian League – to protect Greece against any future Persian threat. Each state contributed ships or money toward the building of a new fleet. When the Persian threat had passed, Athens insisted on continuing to collect the tribute from the other states, in return for Athenian protection. The Athenians used much of this money to rebuild the holy buildings on the rocky outcrop at the center of their city, known as the Acropolis. These buildings included a magnificent temple dedicated to Athena, called the Parthenon, built between 447 and 432 BCE, with a wonderfully sculpted image of the goddess inside.
A Center of Arts and Learning
Cultural life flourished in Athens during the fifth century BCE. Drama competitions in the open-air theater on the slopes of the Acropolis attracted playwrights such as Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes. In the gymnasia Athenians looked after their bodies as well as their minds, for here many of Athens’s great philosophers, such as Socrates, would discuss matters with any who wanted to listen. Athletics was very important to the Athenians, as it was to many Greeks, and every four years games were held in honor of Athena, with competitions similar to the Olympics. Below the Acropolis was the agora, a shopping and government center.
|
LAW COURTS |
|
|
|
Athenian democracy extended to the law courts. Jurors were randomly selected by a special machine in the morning and sent to one of the courts. There were at least 201 jurymen for each court because it was believed that such a large number would be difficult to threaten or bribe. There were no judges or lawyers, only a chairman. The jurors would first listen to arguments from both sides, with speeches timed by a simple water clock. After the arguments, with no discussion, the jurors would vote "guilty" or "not guilty" by handing in a token.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
POTTERY |
|
|
|
Athenian pottery was famous. Black-figure work had the outline of a picture first painted with slip, a watered-down mixture of clay and ash, and then the details were scratched through. In the firing process the slip baked black while the rest of the pot turned red, including the scratched detail. In red-figure painting, the detail of the picture was painted on, and then the rest of the pot was covered with slip, which would later turn black. Black-figure pictures often look simple, like silhouettes; red figure has more flowing lines.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
