Athens, Greece: the history, the culture and the incredible ancient sites
The history of Athens is one of the longest in any city in Europe and in the world. Athens has been continuously inhabited for
over 3000 years, becoming the most important city of antiquity in the first
millennium BC; the cultural achievements during the 5th century BC, the
foundations of Western civilization.
During the middle
ages, the city experienced decline, then recovery under the Byzantine
Empire and was relatively prosperous during the Crusades,
benefiting from Italian trade.
Some information about "classical Athens.
Before the rise
of Athens, the city of Sparta considered itself as the leader of the
Greeks, or hegemon. In 499 BC Athens sent troops
to help the Greeks Ionians of Asia minor, which against the Persian
Empire (see Ionian revolt rebel were). This led to two Persian
invasion of Greece,
which led by soldier-men Athenian MILTIADES and Themistocles were defeated.
490 the
Athenians, led by MILTIADES, defeated the first invasion of the Persians, led
by King Darius in the battle of Marathon. In
480, the Persians returned under a new leader, Xerxes. The Persians had to pass
through a narrow Strait Athens to. The 300 Spartans and their allies blocked
the narrow passage between the 200,000 men of Xerxes (the battle of Thermopylae). They kept the coast for several days, but
eventually all but one Spartan was killed (see Aristodemus (Spartan)). Then had
the Athenians and their allies, led by Themistocles Marine significantly
greater Persia at sea in the
battle of Salamis.
Hegemony of Sparta was in Athens,
and it was Athens, the war in Asia
minor. The period of the end of the Persian wars to the Macedonian
conquest marked the zenith of Athens
as a center of literature, philosophy (see Greek philosophy) and the Arts (see
Greek Theatre).
In this society had the political satire of the comic poets in theaters, a remarkable influence on public opinion.
Some of the most
important figures of Western cultural and intellectual history lived in Athens during this
period: playwrights Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Euripides and Sophocles, the
philosophers Aristotle, Plato and Socrates, the historians Herodotus,
Thucydides and Xenophon, the poet Simonides and the sculptor Phidias.