*** Welcome to piglix ***

History of Athens

Athens
Ἀθῆναι
900 BC – 146 BC


Owl of Athena

Capital Athens
Languages Attic Greek
Religion Greek Polytheism
Government
(until 510 BC)
Democracy
(From 510 BC)
Legislature Ecclesia
 •  Council Boule
Historical era Archaic/Classical
 •  Established c.900 BC
 •  Solon's Reforms 594 BC
 •  Cleisthenes establishes democracy 510 BC
 •  Peloponnesian War 431 BC
 •  Subjugation by Macedon 338 BC
 •  Roman conquest of Achaea 146 BC
Currency Drachma
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Greek Dark Ages
Achaea (Roman province)
Today part of  Greece

Athens is one of the oldest named cities in the world, having been continuously inhabited for at least 5000 years. Situated in southern Europe, Athens became the leading city of Ancient Greece in the first millennium BC, and its cultural achievements during the 5th century BC laid the foundations 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 independent Greek state.

The name of Athens, connected to the name of its patron goddess Athena, originates from an earlier Pre-Greek language. 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 the city one gift each. Poseidon produced a spring by striking the ground with his trident, symbolizing naval power.


...
Wikipedia

...