ATHENS 



453 



ATHENS 



from the beloved Athenian soil. Their first 

 king, according to these traditions, was Cecrops, 

 but the most famous was Theseus, celebr 

 for his victorious conflict with the dreadful 

 Minotaur. (See the three titles, in their places 

 in these volumes.) This king united under his 

 sway the twelve independent little states of 

 Attica, and made Athens really a capital. In 

 there came a king, Codrus, whom it was 

 ft It tin -re wa^ no one worthy to succeed, and 

 state was accordingly organized as an oli- 

 iv. or government of the nobility, with a 

 chief magistrate known as the archon. In time 

 the number of archons was increased to nine. 

 See ARCHON. 



Like the early Romans these early Greeks 

 in time found their aristocratic form of gov- 

 ernment very unsatisfactory, for the rulers 

 were bound by no written laws and could thus 

 practice any oppressions they chose. The 

 lower classes, therefore, finally revolted and 

 demanded written laws, but when these were 

 drawn up about 621 B.C. by Draco (which see) 

 they were found to be so severe that they 

 bettered matters not at all. Solon, one of the 

 st of men, was then chosen, about 594 B. c., 

 to make a new code, and this gave relief by 

 introducing many democratic features (see 

 Sou. 



There were still disturbances, however, and 

 in 561 B. c. Pisistratus secured the aid of a large 

 dissatisfied class and made himself tyrant, or 

 absolute ruler. The city prospered under his 

 rule, however, and under that of his sons 

 Hippias and Hipparchus, and was adorned with 

 v beautiful new buildings. But the Athen- 

 ians could never submit long to even such 

 benevolent tyranny, and in 509 B.C. a new 

 constitution, proposed by Clisthenes, made of 

 the state a democracy. This document, while 

 it introduced little that was actually new into 

 ii'd for the new condi- 

 h iiad grown up since the time of 

 Solon. Athens was divided into 100 divisions 

 called deme*, n was enrolled in 



one of these divisions. Ten of the denies, not 

 adjacent but as widely scattered as possihle. 

 posed a ward, and thus tin- politir.il i. 

 . old clans which had caused so much 

 trouble was destroy of the foreigners 



throughout Attica were also enrolled as citizens. 

 In 499 Athens the Ionian 



colonies in Asia Minor help in their struggle 

 nst Persia, and the result was the Persian 

 - (see GREECE, subhead History) which 

 1 Greece for all time from the danger of 



invasion by that ambitious power. At the 

 close of the conflir was the leader of 



Greece, and proceeded _:hen its posi- 



tion by organizing the Confederacy of Delos. 

 The original purpose of this was the protection 

 of Greek colonies from Asiatic rule, but it 

 speedily developed into a real Athenian Em- 

 pire. The fifty years following were the most 

 brilliant in Athenian history; under Pericles, 

 especially, Athens was the literary and artistic 

 center of Greece. (See subhead below, 

 Audi nt City, and the article PERICLES). 



But Sparta, in Southwestern Greece, had 

 watched jealously the rise to power of its rival. 

 and in 431 B.C. it demanded that Athens break 

 up the Delian Confederacy and free all the 

 Greek cities. Athens in reply insisted that 

 Sparta relinquish its conquests in the Pelo- 

 ponnesus, the southern peninsula of Greece, 

 and the result was the Peloponnesian War (see 

 GREECE, subhead History), at the close of which 

 Athens found itself defeated and under the 

 domination of Sparta. A government by 

 Thirty Tyrants (which see) was established, 

 but before long the democracy was again in 

 force. 



Though Athens never regained its former 

 political position, it remained the intellectual 

 center of Greece. Under Macedonian and later 

 under Roman rule people still flocked to it as 

 a center of culture, and a number of the Roman 

 emperors favored the city to the extent of 

 erecting new and gorgeous buildings. It played 

 a distinct part in Roman history, for thither 

 for centuries were sent the sons of wealthy 

 Roman families to finish their education. Hut 

 from the time of Justinian (A. D. 529), who 

 closed the schools of philosophy, until the 

 eh-venth century, the history of Athens was not 

 at all important. 



During the twelfth, thirteenth and four- 



h centuries it was sometimes. independent, 



sometimes subject to an Italian city or to 



Turkey. Init always mowing poorer and more 



. hed. In the fifteenth century the 

 of Turkey was firmly i. hut, nothing 



was done to build up the city until it. became, 



the Creek revolution in 1835, the capital 



of the new kingdom oi Since then it 



has had the life and history of an enlightened 



ital. One of the most interesting 



happenings connected with it in recent y< 



has been the estahli.-hment of the new < Hympic 



games and restoration in 1902 in m.uhle of the 



great Stadium (see OLYMPIC GAMKS; STADIUM). 



excavations carried on in the city and its 



