History of Athens

Bronze Age

Athens grew around the acropolis. Archaeologists have shown that in the Bronze Age the Acropolis was fortified and was the crown of the city. Tradition says that Theseus united Attica in the generation before the Trojan war, but in the Iliad there is mention of Athenian Heroes but just a little. This suggests that Athens was not an important center in the Bronze Age.

The Dark Ages

In 1200 B.C.E. the bronze age collapsed soon after the end of the Trojan War. In this time a series of Dorian invasions occurred, but Athens was the only city that was not sacked. During this time Athens grew in size, and many people re said to have migrated to the many islands in the Ionian sea. Athens is said to be the mother city to all the islands.

The Renaissance of Greece ( ca. 850 B.C.E.)

As Greece slowly came out of the Dark Age, its population increased and the people of other areas started to migrate to the islands off the coast of France and Italy.

The Reforms of Solon

Monarchy had been succeeded by the rule of the noble, who oppressed the farmers until they threatened a revolution. In this crisis the Athenians chose an arbitrator named Solon, who worked out a compromise between the conflicting interests. Solon was not only a states men but also a poet, and in a surviving fragment of his poetry he defends his settlement:

To the people I gave as much power as was sufficient,

	Neither taking from their honor nor giving them excess;

	As for those who held power and were envied for their wealth,

	I saw that they too should have nothing improper.

	I stood there casting my sturdy shield over both sides

	And allowed neither to conquer unjustly.

His settlement included important economical reforms, which gave the farmer a new start, and constitutional reforms, which paved the way for later democracy. It was he who divided the citizens into four classes according to property qualifications and gave appropriate rights and functions to each; in this way wealth, not birth, became the criterion for political privilege, and the aristocratic monopoly of power was weaken.

Tyranny--Pisistratus

Solon's settlement did not please either side, and within half a generation, a tyrant, Pisistratus, seize power and ruled for 33 years (561-528 B.C.E.). Under his rule Athens flourished: the economy improved, public buildings were added, and Athens became a greater power in the Greek world. Hippias, his son, succeeded him but was driven out in 510 B.C.E.

Cleisthenes and Democracy

Three years later Cleisthenes through reforms that made Athens a democracy, in which the Assembly of male citizens was sovereign. The new democracy immediately faced crisis. Hippias had taken refuge with the King of Persia. The Persian Empire now reached the shores of the Aegean sea and some Greek islands. In 499 the Ionian islands asked mainland Greece for help. Athens sent a force that was successful for a short time but the revolt was crushed in 494 B.C.E.

The Persian Wars

In 490 the Persian king Darius sent an expedition by sea to conquer Athens. It landed in Marathon, which is east of Athens. After a debate it was decided that Athens would send a force. This force pushed the Persians back to their ships, crushing the expedition. Ten years later Xerxes, Darius' son, again tried to conquer Greece by amassing a vast fleet and army. The Greeks mounted a holding operation at Thermopylae in August of 480, before abandoning all of Greece north of Peloponnesus, including Attica. Athens was sacked by the Persians, but in September in Greek fleet launched a counter attack inspired by the Athenian general Themistocles. The Persian fleet in Attica retreated to Asia, but the army, led by Mardonius, in northern Greece was left behind to try to attack again the following year. In the spring of 479 the Greeks defeated the Persians at Plataea, and the rest of the fleet at Mycale, according to tradition, both on the same day. These to battles destroyed the Persian Empire.

The Delian League and the Athenian Empire

The victory over the Persian Empire gave little relief to the Athenian Empire. Many outlying islands and coast were still held by the Persians. In 476 B.C.E. a league was formed on the island of Delos of cities that pledged themselves to continue to fight against the Persian Empire under Athenian leadership.

The Delian League under the Athenian general Cimon won a series of victories and only stop fighting when the Persian accepted a humiliating peace treaty in 449 B.C.E. The league then started to form independent state that became part of the Athenian Empire. Sparta became alarmed by the growing Athenian Empire and went to war over these fears. The Spartan Empire formed the Peloponnesian League which was made of Sparta and its allies. The first Peloponnesian war ended in 446 B.C.E. when Athens and Sparta made a thirty years' peace.

Pericles and Radical Democracy

In this period Pericles dominated Athens from 443 to his death in 429. He was elected general every year. He was responsible for Athens radical democracy. In foreign affairs he believed that the benefits of the Athenian Empire outweighed those of individual independence. After the thirty Years' Peace, Athens embarked on no more imperial ventures. Athens controlled the sea and kept a tight grip on its empire. Sparta and it allies had reason to fear Athens, and Corinth who depended on the sea was especially alarmed by the empire. In 432 B.C.E. there was frantic diplomatic activity, as both sides prepared for war.

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