all about athens

Website design By BotEap.comAthens is the capital city of Greece. It is a large and modern city like the capitals of other European countries, and more than a million people live in Athens and its suburbs. But Athens is also one of the most important cities in history. Thousands of years ago, when most men on earth were still ignorant savages, today’s learning, science, and art had their beginning in Athens. About five thousand years ago, men first built a city where Athens stands today. They built the city around a rocky hill about four hundred feet high.

Website design By BotEap.comOn this hill they built walled fortifications called acropolises, about which there is a separate article. People lived around the hill and farmed the land. If an enemy attacked, everyone could go to the Acropolis for safety. All the cities in those ancient times passed under the rule of one king after another, they fought and lost many wars, sometimes they were conquered and ruled by neighboring peoples, and sometimes they conquered the neighboring peoples and ruled them. For hundreds of years, Athens rose and fell this way.

Website design By BotEap.comBut about three thousand years ago, not long after 1000 B.C. C., the people of Athens began to develop a greater civilization than the world had known before. The first step towards this was the Greek language as learned by the Athenians. No other language then had the words needed to write great science books, as well as great poetry and other literature. Homer’s poetry, written in this language, is still as great as any that has ever been written. In the hundreds of years that followed, drama was born in the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, and others. Three of the greatest philosophers of all time, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, taught and wrote in this Greek language.

Website design By BotEap.comLaws written in this language by the great statesman Solon and others gave Athens one of the first democratic governments. The Greek language is still used by scholars around the world. Athens became a democracy in 508 BC. C. The two hundred years that followed were those of her greatest glory. During this period, the sculptor Phidias and other Athenian sculptors built the magnificent buildings of the Acropolis and carved statues that are still paragons of beauty. The people elected their own leaders. Athens was a “city-state”, which means that it was a city but also an independent country. However, there were many slaves. In 338 BC C., Athens was conquered by King Philip of Macedonia, a neighboring country of Greece. (Philip was the father of Alexander the Great, who conquered almost the entire civilized world.)

Website design By BotEap.comAfter falling under Macedonian rule, Athens did not become great and independent again for more than two thousand years. The Romans ruled it, then a series of conquerors until the Turks made it part of Turkey about four hundred years ago. Athens became a small city. In the year 1834, the entire country of Greece became independent again and Athens became the capital. It started to grow, and now it’s a big city again. It is the seat of the Greek Orthodox Church (also called the Orthodox Catholic Church), and the capital of the kingdom of Greece. About two-thirds of all manufacturing in Greece takes place in and around Athens. The remains of many of the great buildings of ancient Athens, including the Acropolis, can still be seen there. During World War II, the Germans occupied Greece and captured Athens, but it was not damaged.