The History of Athens

HISTORY
The
of Athens
The leading city of Ancient Greece in the first millennium BC.

History:
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.
Plato, in his dialogue Cratylus, oﬀers his own etymology of
Athena's name connecting it to the phrase ἁ θεονόα or hē
theoû nóēsis (ἡ θεοῦ νόησις, 'the mind of god')
The Caryatid Porch of the Erechtheion, Athens, 421–407 BC

Geographical setting
The site on which Athens stands was first inhabited in
the Neolithic period, perhaps as a defensible settlement on
top of the Acropolis ('high city'), around the end of the fourth
millennium BC or a little later.[8] The Acropolis is a natural
defensive position which commands the 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.
Map of the Environs of Ancient Athens

Timeline:
c. 7,000 BCE - 5,000 BCE
Earliest known human habitation on
the Acropolis and around
the Agora of Athens.
514 BCE
Fall of the Peisistratid
tyranny in Athens.
457 BCE
Hegemony of Athens over
central Greece.
431 BCE
Athens invades Megara.
Earliest known human habitation on
the Acropolis and around
the Agora of Athens.
387 BCE
Sparta attacks the
Athenian port
of Piraeus.
166 BCE
Rome gives dominion over
the Cyclades to Athens.
86 BCE
The Roman general
Sulla sacks Athens and
the port of Piraeus.
403 BCE

During the Greek Dark Ages the population of Athens was
around 4,000 people.
In 700 BC the population grew to 10,000.
In 500 BC the area probably contained 200,000 people.
When Demetrius of Phalerum conducted a population
census in 317 BC the population was 21,000 free citizens,
plus 10,000 resident aliens and 400,000 slaves. This
suggests a total population of 431,000.
4,000 10,000
200,000
431,000
Population (Thousands)
900 BC 700 BC 500 BC 300 BC
0
100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000
500,000
Demographics

The History of Athens

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