Classical Athens

Athens.mp4

Ancient Greece.mp4

Geography of Ancient Greece - Lesson 1.mp4

Geography of Ancient Greece - Lesson 2.mp4

Athens was one of the most powerful independent city-states in ancient Greece.

Are there independent city-states today?

Yes! Although most countries are larger than one city, there are a few city-states today, such as Monaco in Europe and Singapore in Asia.

The polis

The ancient Greeks called a city-state a polis, which was the ancient Greek word for city. Today, the root word "polis" is in the name of many American towns and cities, such as Minneapolis in Minnesota.

Athens is a city in Greece, which is located on a peninsula in southern Europe.The map shows Athens and its surrounding region in about 500 BCE.

Who were Athens's neighbors?

Ancient Athens was in the same region as many empires and city-states. Athens would often trade or fight with these other lands. Below are some of the empires and city-states that ancient Athens interacted with:

Egypt was already considered ancient during the time of classical Greece! Athenians were impressed with Egypt's achievements, including the Great Pyramids.

The Persian Empire controlled parts of the present-day Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Europe. An example is Persepolis, the capital of the Persian Empire, in present-day Iran.

Sparta was a Greek city-state to the southwest of Athens. Ruins from ancient Sparta are is an example. Sparta was known for its well-trained soldiers.

The ancient Greeks established many colonies. These new city-states traded with older city-states, such as Athens. An example is an ancient theater in a Greek colony in present-day Italy.

Historians use the term "classical Athens" to describe Athens between the years 510 and 322 BCE. The timeline provides information about Athens's relationships with its neighbors.What was warfare like in ancient Greece?

Wars in ancient Greece were fought both on land and at sea. On land, battles were usually fought by groups of soldiers called hoplites. Hoplites were often armed with a large shield, a spear, and a short sword. At sea, battles were fought with ships that had both sails and oars. Ships would try to ram enemy ships to sink them.

During the classical period, Athens was the largest city in Greece. The growing city was built around a steep hill. At the top of this hill was the Acropolis (uh-KROP-uh-lus), a collection of temples and monuments.

People who lived in Athens, called Athenians, used the nearby town of Piraeus (Pie-RAY-us) as a port for their ships. Athenians built the Long Walls to connect Athens to Piraeus. Athenians built these walls so that an enemy army could not cut off their city from the sea.

One of the most important places in Athens was the Agora. The Agora was a mostly open space in the middle of the city. Archaeologists (ahr-kee-AHL-uh-jists) have found many ruins and artifacts, or ancient objects, at the site of the Agora. These findings help show that the Agora was a central place for religious, economic, and legal activities in ancient Athens.

What was it like to visit the Agora?

The Agora was an important part of Athenian daily life. If ancient Athenians wanted to buy something, meet friends, or hear the news, chances are that they would head to the Agora. During the day, the Agora bustled with people going about their business, whether it was selling pottery, visiting a temple, or serving on a jury.

Athens was named after the Greek goddess Athena. Athenians believed that Athena protected their city from harm. To show their connection to her, ancient Athenians placed the symbols of Athena on their coins. Athena's symbols included owls, olive trees, and snakes. Archaeologists can tell where a Greek coin was made by studying the symbols on that coin.

Would you rather have an olive tree or a horse?

According to an ancient Greek myth, when Athens was founded, the goddess Athena and the god Poseidon (po-SY-din) competed to be the city-state's main god.

Each god offered the Athenians a gift, and the Athenians had to choose which god's gift to accept. Poseidon offered the Athenians the first horse, and Athena offered them the first olive tree. The Athenians thought that olive trees would help feed the city, and they picked Athena as the winner.

At first, Poseidon was angry at losing. However, the Athenians promised that although Athena would be the main protector of the city, they would also honor the other gods, including Poseidon.

Athenian society was made up of several different social classes, or groups with different amounts of wealth and power.

What was life like for women in Athens?

Athenian women had a lower status than Athenian men, meaning that many people thought they were inferior to men. Women were not allowed to own property, participate in politics, or even leave the house without an escort.

Athenian women spent much of their time doing household chores, helping sick family members, and raising children. Women also played important roles in the religious life of Athens. For example, they often conducted religious ceremonies meant to honor gods such as Athena.

In wealthy Athenian families, young boys went through an intense education to prepare them to participate in Athenian society and politics.

Why did Greek students have to study Homer's poems?

The Iliad and The Odyssey were the two most important texts to the ancient Athenians. Ancient Greeks believed these poems contained wisdom about how people should live and how the gods behaved. The Athenians also thought the poems told exciting stories, and they would listen to these stories over and over again.

The Iliad tells the story of a few days during the Trojan War, a legendary conflict between an army of Greeks and the city of Troy. The plot of the Iliad focuses on Achilles (ah-KEEL-ees), the most powerful warrior in the Greek army. It also features Hector, the most powerful warrior in the Trojan army.

This 19th century painting shows Achilles riding triumphantly around the city of Troy, after killing Hector.

The Odyssey takes place after the Trojan War. It tells the story of the warrior Odysseus trying to make his way home from the war. Odysseus's journey home lasted ten years. On this journey, he went on a series of adventures that included fighting monsters and visiting the land of the dead.

This 19th century painting shows a scene from the Odyssey. The one-eyed creature is a cyclops, one of the monsters that Odysseus faces on his way home.

Most wealthy and poor Athenians were born in the city. However, Athens also attracted immigrants from other Greek city-states. Athenians called these immigrants and their descendents metics. The passage below describes what life was like for metics in classical Athens.

Most metics came to Athens for new economic opportunities. Metics often started new businesses, and some metics became wealthy. Athens was more tolerant of foreigners than many other Greek cities, and metics socialized with Athenians. However, metics and their descendants could not vote or hold political office, even if they had been born in the city.

tolerant: respectful

socialized with: were friends with

Classical Athens had tens of thousands of enslaved people.

How did someone become enslaved?

Some enslaved people were enemy soldiers or civilians who had been taken as prisoners during Athens's many wars. Other enslaved people were born into slavery because their parents were enslaved.

Was it possible for enslaved people to become free?

Yes. Enslaved people were often freed after the deaths of their owners. Other times, enslaved people were able to raise enough money to buy their freedom. Sometimes, they would escape by fleeing to other places in Greece. Running away was dangerous, however. Enslaved people could be punished or even killed for disobeying their owners.

It's often hard for archaeologists to learn about the lives of poor Athenians in the classical period.

Most poor Athenians couldn't read or write, so they didn't leave behind written records.
Athens is still a major city with people in it, so archaeologists can't dig anywhere they want.
Many of the goods owned by poor Athenians have rotted away.

What was life like for a poor Athenian family?

Life was often hard for ordinary Greek families. Each member of the family was expected to work in order to help the family survive. Greek men often had a trade, such as shoemaking, that they worked at during the day.

Women often worked in the home, making clothes or preparing food. Other times, women from poor families would also work at a trade, such as preparing food for customers.

Did children have to work, too?

Yes. In poor families, boys helped their fathers, and girls helped their mothers. However, children in Athens still found time to play. Archaeologists have found many toys used by children in ancient Athens, including dolls, animal figurines, and dice made from bones.

Classical Athens experienced several different forms of government. The table below defines the most common forms of government in ancient Greece. During its history, classical Athens had each of these forms of government.

Why did Athenian government change so much?

Although Athenians were all part of the same city, they belonged to different social groups that often disagreed with one another. For example, one Athenian argued that every city, including Athens, was divided between two warring groups: the rich and the poor.

In Athens, rich families often pushed for oligarchy, which would have meant rule by a few wealthy people. Meanwhile, the poor of Athens often pushed for democracy, which would have meant more political power for common people.

For most of the classical period, Athens was a democracy. In Athenian democracy, only Athenian citizens could participate in politics by voting or holding office. To be a citizen, a person had to be free, male, and the child of someone who was already a citizen.

Were most people who lived in Athens citizens?

No, most Athenians, including women, immigrants, and enslaved people, had few or no political rights. None of them could become citizens.

Who is an American citizen?

The U.S. and other present-day democracies have different laws about citizenship than ancient Athens. People born inside the borders of the United States are citizens, whether or not their parents were citizens. Additionally, people born in U.S. overseas territories are citizens.

All children of citizens are also citizens, even if they were born outside of the United States. And, some immigrants can become citizens through a process called naturalization.

How are these citizenship rules different from the rules of Athens?

For most of its history, ancient Athens was a direct democracy. In a direct democracy, all citizens can debate and vote directly on most political issues, like whether to raise or lower taxes.

Today, there are few direct democracies in the world. But many countries, such as the United States, are representative democracies. In representative democracies, citizens elect people to represent them. These representatives debate and vote on most political issues.

The diagrams shows how four different governments would declare war.

Are there any direct democracies today?

Today, there are no countries that are fully direct democracies. Most present-day democracies have millions of citizens. Imagine how difficult it would be if millions of citizens all had to vote on every decision! So instead, all democracies today are representative democracies. In representative democracies, people vote for a person, such as a senator, to represent them and their interests.

Do any parts of direct democracy live on today?

In many present-day democracies, voters can sometimes vote directly on a particular law or issue. These direct votes are called referendums. In some democracies, such as the United States, these referendums happen on the local and state level. In other countries, such as Switzerland, citizens can vote on national laws.

Not all decisions in classical Athens were made by all the citizens. Although all citizens could vote on the most important decisions for the city, Athens needed officials to make the smaller decisions that came up every day. So, a full-time council of citizens made many of the everyday political decisions in the city.

Here is a list of some facts about the Athenian council:

- This Athenian council was made up of 500 citizens.
- Each councilman was chosen randomly, and any citizen could be a councilman.
- A councilman could only serve for one year at a time.

Getting kicked out of Athens

Classical Athenians worried that if any person became too powerful, he might overthrow the democracy and become a tyrant. To solve this problem, the Athenians had a practice called ostracism (AUS-tra-sism).

Every year, Athenian citizens could vote on whether to ostracize one person. If a person lost the ostracism vote, he was exiled, or forced to leave, from Athens for ten years. After ten years, he could come back. The Athenians believed this practice stopped anyone from gaining too much power and becoming a tyrant.

Today, to ostracize someone means to exclude him or her from a group.

During an ostracism vote, Athenians would write the name of the person they wanted exiled on a shard of pottery. These pottery shards were called "ostraka."

Pericles (PAIR-uh-kleez) was an important leader in Athens during the 5th century BCE. Although he came from a wealthy family, Pericles was good at convincing poor Athenians to vote for his plans. In 431 BCE, Pericles gave an oration, or speech, to honor Athenian soldiers who had died in a war. In his speech, Pericles described his beliefs about Athenian democracy. The passage below is part of Pericles's Funeral Oration.

A statue of Pericles

Our form of government does not copy our neighboring cities . . . . Our government is called democracy because we govern in the interests of the majority, not just the few. Our laws give equal rights to all . . . and poverty is no barrier to political office, if a man, despite being poor, can do our city some good.

in the interests: for the good

barrier: block

despite: in spite of

Was Pericles right that Athens had equal rights for all?

There were many groups of people in Athens who did not have the rights of citizens. For example, women and enslaved people were not allowed to play any role in Athenian politics. So, most of the city's population did not have equal rights. But compared to many ancient states, including other Greek city-states, ordinary Athenian men did have more political rights.

Not everyone in Athens agreed with Pericles about the benefits of Athenian democracy. The philosopher Plato (ca. 428–347 BCE) used the metaphor of a sailing ship to describe democracy. In his book, the Republic, Plato describes how a ship would sail if its crew acted like the citizens of a democracy.

The sailors argue with one another about the steering—everyone believes that he has a right to steer, though he has never learned navigation and will say that it cannot be taught, and they are ready to attack anyone who says the opposite.

steering: piloting the ship

navigation: the ability to know a ship's position and route

Benjamin Jowett, translator, The Republic, Book VI, 448e.

Who was Plato?

Plato was a philosopher who was born to a wealthy Athenian family. When he was a young man, Plato became a student of the Athenian philosopher Socrates (SOCK-ra-teez). Eventually, Socrates was put to death by the Athenian government. Many scholars think that the death of his teacher helped make Plato critical of Athenian democracy.

After Socrates's death, Plato wrote a series of books about philosophy. Plato also started a school called the Academy, where students from all over Greece came to learn about philosophy.

The images below represent four different aspects of ancient Athenian culture that still influence the world today.

What was theater like in ancient Greece?

Greek playwrights wrote comedies and tragedies. Comedies were meant to make people laugh, and they often included funny stories about real Athenian leaders to make them look ridiculous. Tragedies were sad stories, often about famous people from Greek legends, such as the heroes from the Iliad and Odyssey.

And the award goes to . . .

Athenian plays were sometimes awarded prizes. For example, during the Festival of Dionysus, Athenians would watch many different plays. A panel of judges would pick the best tragedy and best comedy and give awards to the winning playwrights.

In the 440s BCE, the Athenians began constructing a new temple to the goddess Athena. They called this temple the Parthenon.

The Parthenon has inspired the design of many buildings. Below are some pictures of buildings whose design was influenced by the Parthenon.

Why did the Athenians build the Parthenon?

The Parthenon was built to replace an older temple to Athena. This older temple had been burned down in 480 BCE when a Persian army captured Athens. In the years after the Persian War, the Athenians planned to build a larger temple to Athena.

Rebuilding the Parthenon

Although it survived a thousand years in good condition, in 1689 CE the Parthenon was used as a storage facility for gunpowder. During a battle, the gunpowder was set off and the explosion destroyed much of the Parthenon. Since 1975, international teams have worked to restore the Parthenon.

Classical Athens was a center for philosophy. The word "philosophy" comes from the ancient Greek words for "love" and "wisdom." Ancient Greek philosophers wanted to gain more wisdom, or knowledge, about the world. Many ancient Greek philosophers believed that Athens was one of the best places to study and gain knowledge about the world. But Athens had some downsides for philosophers, as well.

How do you know what you know?

One of the most famous Athenian philosophers was a man named Socrates (470–399 BCE). Socrates taught philosophy by engaging people in conversation. He would ask people basic questions about important topics.

In these conversations, people would realize they didn't know as much as they thought they did. Some people got angry with Socrates, because they thought he was trying to make them look foolish. Other people were impressed with Socrates and became his students. Today, the Socratic method means to teach by asking questions, much like Socrates did.

The death of Socrates

Some Athenians believed that philosophers such as Socrates were dangerous to the city. Socrates often asked questions that went against the traditions and religion of Athens. In 399 BCE, Socrates was put to death.

Archaeologists have found thousands of ancient Athenian statues made of stone. Most of them appear to be white or tan. But archaeologists have noticed that some of these statues show small amounts of paint. Over the course of 2,500 years, most of this paint has disappeared.

Using ultraviolet light, archaeologists have been able to see old layers of paint. With this evidence, archaeologists demonstrated that many statues in ancient Athens had been painted bright colors!

A statue worth its weight in gold

The ancient Athenians painted their statues to make them more decorative and lifelike. Sometimes, they even used gold to decorate their statues! For example, the Athenians built a massive statue of the goddess Athena for the inside of her temple, the Parthenon. The statue was almost 38 feet tall, with much of it made of gold! However, the statue is now lost. Most likely, people melted it down for the gold.

Ancient Greek plays have been performed for thousands of years. Sometimes, people still perform plays that were written by Aeschylus (ESS-ke-lus), Sophocles (SAH-fah-kleez), and Euripides (yu-RIH-puh-deez). But not all of their plays have survived.

The bar graph below shows how many of their plays still survive today.

Why do we have so few works from ancient Athens?

In the almost 2,500 years since the classical age, ancient texts have been lost for many reasons. Some were destroyed in fires, and others were lost in floods. Many texts became moldy and fell apart through the centuries. Finally, others were simply thrown away because people considered them unimportant.

How did any texts survive from ancient Athens?

No physical pieces of text survive from classical Athens. Instead, we have copies or translations that were made by people in later time periods. For example, during the 8th–12th centuries CE, many Greek writings were translated into Arabic by Islamic scholars. In places such as the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, Islamic scholars saved many ancient texts from being lost forever.

Classical Athens has been written about in many different ways over the last 2,500 years. After the American Revolution (1775–1783), many people wondered what the new country of the United States could learn from classical Athens. The passages come from two people who lived during and after the American Revolution.

Paine wrote that Athens was the wonder of the ancient world. He also wrote that the United States was the wonder of the modern world. By holding these two states up as wonders, Paine meant that both places should be admired, or respected, for their achievements.

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