Athens – The History of the City

A crucial clarification is necessary here: any Ancient Greek myth is not merely a fairy tale. It is what has come down to us from events of the pre-written period in an oral tradition, somewhat altered depending on the historical remoteness of the described events. But let’s return to the distant times under discussion. Cecrops entered Greek mythology not only due to his unusual appearance. It was he who divided Attica into 12 settlements (prior to this, the Pelasgians inhabited the fields): Cecropia (future Athens), Tetrapolis, Epacria, Decelea, Eleusis, Aphidna, Phaleron, Brauron, Cephisia, Sphettus, and Kifisia. It was during his rule that one of the most crucial milestones in the history of Athens was delineated, and it was then that the newborn city received a name that would eventually become known worldwide. It was during this time that a dispute occurred on the Athenian Acropolis between two deities: the goddess of wisdom, craftsmanship, and just warfare—Athena, and the god of the sea and “earth-shaker,” responsible for earthquakes—Poseidon. The gods argued about which of them the city would be named after, and the city’s residents, led by Cecrops, acted as judges. Eventually, the decision was made to dedicate the city to the Olympian whose gift would be more beneficial. Poseidon struck his trident against a rock, and a spring of seawater gushed forth, alongside a swift-footed horse. However, this spectacle did not impress the city’s inhabitants. When it was Athens’s turn, she struck the rock with her spear, and from the point of impact, an olive tree sprouted. The sacred olive of the goddess Athena grew near the sanctuary of Cecrops’s daughter Pandrosos on the western facade of the Erechtheion temple on the Athenian Acropolis. During the Greco-Persian Wars, the tree was destroyed, and a new olive was planted in its place. The current tree was planted in 1964 in the same location to continue this tradition. he gift of Athena filled the city’s residents with absolute delight, and it was decided to name the city in honor of the goddess. Offended, Poseidon warned the Athenians of water supply problems, and considering that the issue was resolved only with the construction of reservoirs in the 1970s, he kept his word. To this day, a stone with three notches, believed to be the marks of the sea god’s trident, remains in the Erechtheion temple on the Acropolis. According to the myth, this is how Athens got its name, and the plural form in the Ancient Greek ending -ai indirectly confirms the truth of the tale, suggesting that the city likely formed from several small settlements.
During the Mycenaean era, a substantial fortress occupied the Acropolis in Athens, and remnants of it have persisted to this day. Both here and there, across the entire expanse of the Acropolis rock, one can encounter details of cyclopean masonry, reminiscent of that time. It is to the period of the flourishing Mycenaean civilization that tales linking Athens’ first known peak with the name Theseus belong.
Much more widely recognized outside of Greece as a mythological figure, Theseus is celebrated as the hero who slew the Minotaur on Crete. Not everyone is aware that Theseus was not perceived, and is still not perceived in Greece, as a fictional character but rather as a historical figure credited with not only defeating the Minotaur but also achieving certain purely historical feats. For instance, the unification of Attica, initiated by Cecrops, entered its decisive phase during the time of Theseus and reached its final stage during the political activity of Cleisthenes at the end of the 6th century BCE.
Before the appearance of Theseus in Athenian mythology, one won’t find superheroes like Heracles and Jason. Instead, early traditions are replete with stories of rulers whose lives are remembered as benefactors who did a great deal for their people. Theseus disrupts this stereotype, but it’s essential to note that for Athenians, he is only half their own, as his mother, Aethra, hailed from the city of Troezen in the Peloponnese.
After triumphing over the Cretan Minotaur and the death of his father Aegeus, Theseus ascends to the throne of Attica. In historical epochs, he becomes one of the most popular mythological figures in Hellas and a symbol of Athenian statehood. The historical context is discernible within the mythological narrative: Theseus’s victory on the road to Athens over the bandits Periphetes, Sinis, Procrustes, and Cercyon likely represents the establishment of order on the main road from the Peloponnese to Attica. The duel with the Marathonian Bull signifies the incorporation of the settlement of Marathon to the northeast of Athens. Finally, the journey to Crete, the thread of Ariadne, and the slaying of the Minotaur echo the conflicts between the youthful Athenians, eager to enter the historical arena, and the declining Minoan-Mycenaean civilization at that time.
It was Theseus who introduced a new system of administrative division, synoecism, whereby the population of Attica lived within the framework of a large community—the city-state of Athens—which gradually expanded south and southeast of the Acropolis.
The approximate rule of Theseus is dated to the 14th-13th centuries BCE—a time preceding the “Bronze Age Collapse,” an era of upheavals caused by migrations and movements of young peoples just entering the historical stage. These movements were destined to displace the Mycenaean civilization from the face of the earth, and, merging with its remnants, form the classical Greece known to us all from school.
When the conquerors from the Dorian tribes (Greek tribes descending from the Macedonian mountain slopes, anciently called modern Pindus) approached the walls of the Athenian fortress, the last scion of the Cecrops and Theseus lineage—Codrus—was ruling. The king had been foretold that the city would be saved if its ruler perished. Codrus secretly ventured beyond the fortress wall, incited a skirmish with Dorian warriors, and was killed in the process. Upon learning the identity of the fallen, the Dorians were ashamed and departed. This is why, while some historians hypothesize about the bitter fate that befell Athens at the end of the Mycenaean period, similar to the fate of other major cities of that civilization, archaeologists have not found any traces in the layers of this era that would indicate its destruction at the end of the Bronze Age.
Right here, at the crossroads of the Mycenaean civilization and the “Dark Ages” in everything we know about the capital of Greece, history gradually begins to overshadow the mythological component. It is known that in the 9th century BCE, Athens emerged as the most influential polis among the cities inhabited by the Greek Ionian tribes. A few centuries later, the city “yielded” this position, not due to a decline in Athens itself, but against the backdrop of the strengthening of Argos, Sparta, and Corinth—other major poleis.
The early days of Athens were marked by political turmoil. In the mid-7th century BCE, a scion of a noble family, Kilion, a victor in the Olympic Games, attempted to seize power in the polis and become a tyrant. However, the rebellion failed, and Kilion’s accomplices, who managed to escape, were executed at the insistence of representatives of the noble Alcmaeonid family. Even two centuries later, during the Peloponnesian War, Spartans reproached them with the “Kilonian atrocity”—an unjustified use of violence.

The end of the 7th century BCE also witnessed the introduction of the first code of laws, compiled by the ruler Draco. The legislation, a first in the history of Europe, stood out for its severity; for instance, stealing a grape from someone else’s garden could cost the offender their life. “Draconian” or “draconian” laws became a winged expression, and the precedent found wide resonance in art, such as in the title of the album “Draconian Times” by the band “Paradise Lost.”
At the close of the 7th century BCE, Athens entered an era of significant change, inseparably linked to the name of Solon—a figure synonymous with wisdom. The quote from Gogol’s “Dead Souls,” “And if I see a bad spirit and disobedience in someone, then a stick, even if it’s Solon’s belt, should be shoved into his belt,” attests to this. Solon, a relative of both Draco and Pisistratus, who succeeded him, implemented a series of reforms in Athens, significantly easing and improving the legislation of his predecessor. The reforms included the Seisachtheia, the abolishment of debt slavery, support for agriculture, permission for craftsmen from other poleis to settle and work in Athens, and the inheritance right passing through the female line. A monetary reform was carried out, transitioning from Aeginetan standards to Euboean standards. In a social reform, Solon divided the population into three property categories. The so-called Heliaea and the Council of Four Hundred were established, with the latter sharing judicial powers with the earlier Areopagus. Heliaea, a jury court, became one of the first governing bodies inherited by the later system of Athenian democracy.
Solon’s merits also extend to his poetic talent. Many of his verses and fragments of poems have survived to our time. One such piece was dedicated to a crucial milestone in the formation of the Ancient Athenian polis—the establishment of control over the strategically vital island of Salamis, which Athenians wrested from their neighbors, the Megarians. The First Sacred War, in defense of the interests of Delphi against the polis of Krisa or Kirra, claiming taxes from pilgrim caravans seeking prophecies, was also largely his initiative.
At a certain stage, Solon found the strength to say, “I am tired, I am leaving.” He embarked on a journey, visiting Egypt, Asia Minor, and other regions of the Mediterranean. Among these visits, his conversations with King or rather Crown Prince Croesus of Lydia and Egyptian priests are notable. Upon returning around 583 BCE to Athens, he likely influenced the overthrow of the usurper Damasias Initially, he opposed his relative Pisistratus but subsequently did not prevent him from retaining power in the polis. As a result, one truly great era for Athens gave way to another.
Pisistratus, a relative of Solon, can be confidently classified as one of the founders of political self-promotion as a historical-social phenomenon. This Athenian tyrant, bearing in mind that the term “tyrant” did not carry a negative connotation back then, distinguished himself by:
1. Securing approval from the assembly to maintain a squad of bodyguards armed with clubs, images of which can be found on wine jugs in the Museum of the Athenian Acropolis. He presented himself to the assembly wounded, claiming that political opponents had tried to kill him.
2. Seizing power in the polis with the support of the people, whom he managed to attract to his side with populist slogans, using the aforementioned squad.
3. After losing power, Pisistratus regained the favor of the Athenians, entering the city on a chariot accompanied by his future bride Phye, adorned as the goddess Athena, with the help of the aristocrat Megacles.
4. During his second exile, lasting ten years, Pisistratus returned to power through a coup, sparing his political opponents.
It should be noted that Pisistratus’s tyranny exhibited several positive aspects. He provided loans to the poor segments of the population to enable them to develop agriculture, initiated the minting of his own currency, and began the construction of the colossal Temple of Olympian Zeus on the site where, east of the Acropolis, the sanctuary of Deucalion—the Greek Noah and progenitor of all Greeks—was located. It was under Pisistratus that Athens saw the first water supply and sewage system in Europe. During Pisistratus’s era, Athenians started generating enormous income from what cost residents nothing but could be sold for significant amounts in any country— the famous Athenian pottery, which began to surpass Corinthian pottery in the markets of the Mediterranean.
After the charismatic leader’s death, Athens experienced over 20 years of unrest marked by the murder of his son Hipparchus and the exile of Pisistratus’s second son, Hippias, from the polis. Simultaneously, Spartans, led by one of the most skilled political adventurers of their time, King Cleomenes, attempted to establish control over Attica. However, around 506 BCE, after this period of turmoil, Athens saw the rise of the politician Cleisthenes. It was his merit that finalized the establishment of the new political system—Athenian democracy.
is worth noting that not all residents of the polis could participate in the functioning of the state apparatus and decision-making at the assembly; only a portion with full citizenship rights had this privilege. In Athens, with a population of around 400-450 thousand people during its peak, this amounted to only a tenth. Still, it represented a significant step in the evolution of civil society. The system worked in a way that every full-fledged citizen of Athens held some public office for at least one year, contributing to the welfare of their people. This system was one of the most advanced and sophisticated for its time, a source of pride for Athenians, and an example to be admired even in much later times.
The historical moment arrived swiftly, serving as a unique test for the new political order. In 499 BCE, a rebellion erupted among the Ionian city-states situated in western Asia Minor against Persian rule. As a result, the Athenians and Eritreans from the island of Euboea provided symbolic assistance to the Ionians, becoming a casus belli, a pretext for the Persians to wage war against the mainland Greek city-states. Two city-states, Athens and Sparta, took the forefront in resisting foreign conquest. The first Persian expedition, led by Datis and Artaphernes, ended in a significant victory for the combined forces of Athenians and Plataeans under the command of the military leader Miltiades at Marathon in the summer of 490 BCE. Ten years later, King Xerxes led a massive force into Greece but suffered substantial losses in the confrontation at Thermopylae. Despite capturing Athens, from which, by that time, the population had been evacuated through the efforts of the political figure and military commander Themistocles, Xerxes was defeated at sea at Salamis and a year later on land at Plataea. Although clashes between Greek city-states and the Achaemenid Empire continued for almost forty years, strategic initiative shifted to the Greeks, and the Persians made no further attempts to occupy mainland Greece.
After the danger subsided, Greek city-states gradually returned to normal life, but for the Athenians, one of the crucial points became the restoration of the polis after the defeats of 480 and 479 BCE. This was challenging for a considerable time while the polis regained strength. In the 50s and 40s BCE, Athens reached its peak, forming essentially a maritime empire—first the Delian League, and from 448 BCE, the Athenian Maritime Empire, uniting Ionian city-states of mainland Greece, the islands of the Aegean Sea, and the western part of Asia Minor. The population of this territory was up to 15 million people, compared to the modern population of Greece, which is 11 million. The annual tribute from allies alone amounted to over 600 talents of silver, equivalent in value to 26.5 kg of modern gold, as silver was more valuable in those times. Athenian art set the tone in the Greek world, with great dramatists such as Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and the comic playwright Aristophanes active in Athens. In the latter half of the 5th century BCE, philosopher Socrates emerged on the political scene. The brilliant figure of Pericles, associated with this period, remains synonymous with cultural prosperity.
From 448 BCE, construction began on the Athenian Acropolis, and gradually, through the efforts of a creative team led by Pericles’ close associate, the great sculptor Phidias, the Parthenon was built, followed by other structures known to all from their school days. The construction was completed in 438 BCE with the installation of the colossal 12-meter statue of Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon. Phidias crafted the details of the drapery and armor from gold, and parts of the body from ivory.
However, the cultural ascent and the rise of state power could not avoid clashes of interests among major city-states. In 432 BCE, due to disagreements and increasing conflicts of interest, primarily with Sparta, and more broadly with several other city-states, including dissatisfaction from some member states of the Athenian League, a fratricidal conflict erupted, known in history as the Peloponnesian War. Events for Athens were heavily burdened at the early stage by the death of Pericles during the plague of 429 BCE. However, throughout all phases of the conflict, Athens found itself on the brink of victory several times. Nevertheless, economic burdens, making war more problematic, increased; allies defected one after another, often siding with Athens’ adversaries. After the grand fiasco in 413 BCE, when Athenians suffered defeat attempting to capture Syracuse in Sicily, Athens permanently lost its strategic initiative and, despite occasional significant successes, suffered complete defeat after the Battle of Aegospotami in 404 BCE. According to the humiliating peace treaty called the Long Walls, connecting Athens and Piraeus, were destroyed, the Athenian Maritime League was dissolved, democracy abolished, and the rule was handed over to the so-called Thirty Tyrants. However, the old political system was restored the following year.
Nevertheless, the period of decline did not last relatively long. Sparta, weakened by a prolonged war, internal problems, and a political structure too rigid for peacetime, ideal for mobilization during war but clumsy in times of peace, could not prevent the rise of its former rival. Besides, the resilience of Athens was too impressive to collapse the city-state so easily. The creative activities of two outstanding politicians and military leaders, Conon and his son Timotheus, led to the rapid restoration of the Long Walls, new fortifications around Athens and its port Piraeus, some parts of which still exist today. The Second Athenian Maritime League was established, and it seemed that the former power was about to be revived as in the old times. It was during this period in the city’s history that the great philosopher Plato left his mark, founding the Academy in Athens—an educational institution that would attract the cream of the educated society of the Mediterranean for nine centuries. In the field of art, following in Phidias’s footsteps and perfecting the school of ancient sculpture, masters like Lysippus and Polykleitos from the Peloponnesian Sicyon, and local artists Leochares and Praxiteles, continued the legacy.
While Athens continues to maintain its significance as the foremost cultural and educational center, it was not destined to regain its status as a powerhouse comparable to the Athens of Pericles. Macedonia, one of the northern Greek states on the periphery of the Hellenic world of that era, begins to rapidly strengthen under the charismatic leadership of Philip II. Despite Athens’ efforts to retain its leadership role in mainland Greece, the reformed and superior Macedonian army under Philip’s command would have the final say. In August 338 BCE, the unified coalition of city-states from central and southern Greece suffered a devastating defeat at Chaeronea, and the political concept advocated by the orator and statesman Demosthenes, who championed the preservation of civic liberties, ultimately succumbed to Philip’s vision of a united Hellenic world.
Philip did not seek to crush the defeated opponent. In contrast to former Macedonian allies, the Thebans, who had to pay even for the right to bury their dead, the Athenians not only took back their fallen but also seized part of the personal belongings without ransom. When they demanded the return of their cloaks and blankets, Philip laughed, saying, “The Athenians behave as if they lost a game of dice to us.” Immediately to reconcile with Athens, a delegation of Macedonian aristocracy led by the young heir to the throne, Alexander, arrived at the Acropolis. After a significant victory over the Persians at Granicus a few years later, Alexander sent 300 Persian sets of armor to Athens as trophies, which were displayed on the Parthenon frieze and at the foot of the Propylaea.
Despite the precarious situation of the city during the War of All Against All in the Hellenistic period that followed the death of Alexander the Great, Athens remained, in the words of Pericles, the “school of Hellas.” The challenging times coincided with the period when, in the last years of the 4th century BCE, the Macedonian king and one of the greatest political adventurers of his time, Demetrius Poliorcetes, seized control of the city. However, he fortified the city and invested significant sums in its development. In the 60s of the next century, the 3rd century BCE, a coalition of Greek city-states led by Athens suffered another defeat by Macedonia in the Chremonidean War. In 146 BCE, Athens, along with all the city-states of central and southern Greece, came under the rule of the Roman Republic. However, only Sparta and Athens retained a nominal freedom, elements of self-government, and the lands that rightfully belonged to the polis, in memory of the great historical contributions of these cities. These privileges were preserved even after 86 BCE when Cornelius Sulla plundered Athens for supporting the anti-Roman movement led by the Pontic king Mithridates VI Eupator. Although during that time, a considerable number of statues, paintings, and other works of art and valuables were taken from Athens to Rome. However, even after this, ancient authors mentioned that in Athens, there were more statues than people.
In 27 CE, Athens became part of the formed Roman province of Achaea, with its administrative center in Corinth. As a city attracting a large number of Roman citizens seeking a good education, Athens received the privileges of a free city. The 51st year is marked by the fiery preaching of the Apostle Paul. Arriving in Athens from Mevania in Macedonia, Paul landed in Piraeus and, during his speech to the Athenian judicial council on the Areopagus, converted the local judge Dionysius to Christianity. Dionysius would become the first bishop and founder of the Christian community in the city, as well as its heavenly patron, Dionysius the Areopagite.
Athens was loved by many Roman emperors, including Augustus, during whose reign his son-in-law and closest aide, Marcus Agrippa, adorned the Acropolis with new constructions and sculptures; Caligula, who once again took many statues and other works of art from the city; Claudius, Nero, Vespasian, the Severans, Marcus Aurelius, Nerva, Commodus, and many other rulers of the empire. he city experienced its last significant flourishing in antiquity during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, who was such a great admirer of Hellenic art that he even wore a beard in the fashion of ancient Greek philosophers. Under him, the city expanded the Agora’s territory with a new Roman Forum, built a colossal library, gymnasiums, aqueducts, reservoirs, a bridge, and finally completed the construction of the long-standing sanctuary initiated by Pisistratus—Zeus Olympius, the largest ancient temple of that era. Hadrian endowed the city with substantial sums of money, encouraged patrons, and actively participated in Athens’ cultural life. However, a severe blow followed after more than a hundred years. In 267 CE, the Heruli, a Germanic barbarian tribe, swept through Greece like a “fiery roller,” devastating the city. Subsequently, new walls were built outside of which part of the ancient polis remained. Athens’ dire situation worsened when the Goths, led by Alaric, ravaged the city in 396 CE. Nevertheless, during all this time, the city continued to be an educational center, reinforcing both Christianity and paganism, supported by the late philosophical movement of Neoplatonism. It was there that future pillars of Christianity, such as Gregory of Nazianzus and Basil the Great, studied, and were well acquainted with their opponent, the future Emperor Julian the Apostate, who also studied there and later made the last attempt to reconstruct the ancient religion.
With the spread of Christianity and its establishment as the sole official religion of the Roman Empire, ancient temples began to be transformed into churches. Thus, from the beginning of the 5th or 6th century, the Parthenon was converted first into the Church of Hagia Sophia (Divine Wisdom) and later into the Church of the Athenian Mother of God. The city received significant contributions from the wife of the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II, Eudokia, who was born in Athens and also bore the name Athenaida, meaning an Athenian.
The steady decline of Athens began after 529 CE when Emperor Justinian ordered the closure of the philosophical Academy, originally founded by Plato. The influx of youth seeking education dwindled, and the city transformed into a typical peripheral settlement of the Byzantine Empire. Many artworks, dating back to the time of Constantine the Great, were transported to Constantinople.
In 582 CE, Athens fell victim to plunder by the Slavs, and in the 7th century, the city became part of the theme of Hellas, the administrative units in the Byzantine period. Empresses Irene (late 8th century) and Theophano (early 9th century), both originating from Athens, endeavored to influence the affairs of their homeland. During the Iconoclast Controversy (724-843), the positions of the iconoclasts in Greece were never particularly strong. In 896 CE, the city suffered an Arab raid, likely resulting in a brief occupation. Despite Athens’ general decline, the temples retained their decoration. In 1018 CE, Emperor Basil II officially visited the city, mainly to inspect the Church of the Athenian Mother of God, for which the Parthenon had been converted.
Excavations indicate a relative flourishing of Athens in the 11th-12th centuries. Most of the surviving monuments from the Byzantine period date to this time. The city saw the establishment of numerous soap and dye manufacturing enterprises, flourishing trade, and new constructions on the ancient agora, abandoned since the invasions of the 3rd and 4th centuries.
After the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the city underwent another change in its development. The Crusaders, who captured Constantinople in that year, established their dominance in Athens. he Acropolis was reconstructed into a fortress. Burgundian dukes of the de la Roche family founded the Duchy of Athens, a vassal of the Latin Empire, with its capital in Constantinople. Later, in 1311, Catalans took control of the city, holding it until 1388. The Catalans often referred to it as Cetines, using the old name sparingly. Until the Ottoman conquest, the Florentine family Acciaioli ruled the city, rebuilding the Propylaea on the Acropolis into an Italian palace, establishing their residence there.
During this period, European traditions such as chivalry and tournaments were introduced to the city. Often, new rulers identified themselves as “Lord of the Greeks” in an attempt to align with the local population. Influential Italian merchant families like Tocco, Gateluzo, and Nerio exerted their influence on the city.
The Ottoman Turks captured Athens briefly in 1397 but finally conquered the city in 1458, five years after the fall of Constantinople. Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror was so captivated by the beauty of the ancient buildings that he issued a decree forbidding their plunder and destruction. Unfortunately, this covenant was forgotten by subsequent Ottoman rulers. The Parthenon was transformed into the city’s main mosque, with a dome and minarets added, altering the building’s appearance once again.
The Ottoman period marked a time of maximum decline for Athens. Deprived of any significance during this era, with declining industries, destroyed infrastructure, a lost city plan, and situated far from the major trade routes of the Ottoman Empire, the city lost most of its population. In the early 17th century, Sultan Ahmed I granted Athens to his concubine Vasiliki, a Greek woman from these parts. After her death, the city fell under the control of the kizlar-aga, the chief black eunuch of the sultan’s harem. City governance was carried out more according to the whims of the ruling authorities than established rules and laws, reflecting the spirit of Eastern despotism.
Some of the ancient buildings began to be used as warehouses for gunpowder and ammunition, which had a disastrous effect. In 1640, or according to other sources, in 1645, lightning struck the Propylaea, which was then the residence of the dizdar, the military commander of Athens, causing a tremendous explosion that resulted in the death of the dizdar and his family. The masterpiece of the architect Mnesicles suffered irreparable damage. In 1687, a cannonball, fired from the nearby hill of the Muse during the siege of Athens by the Venetians under the command of Francesco Morosini, pierced the roof of the Acropolis, and the ancient temple, still relatively intact at that time, suffered the most severe destruction in its history. The city remained under occupation for six months, during which both Venetians and Turks participated in the looting of the Parthenon. One of its western pediments was removed, causing even more devastation to the structure. The Venetians occupied the city, converting its two mosques into Catholic and Protestant churches, but on April 9, 1688, they handed it back to the Turks once again.
The somewhat prosperous period of the 18th century in Athens can be loosely described as a time when the Greek population enjoyed a degree of self-governance. Pashas, who ignored the interests of the people, could be displaced before the expiration of their terms at the request of the inhabitants. This was partly influenced by the advocacy of Parthenios I and Ephraim, Jerusalem patriarchs who hailed from Athens. Additionally, the residents benefited from a relatively lenient tax policy, and relations with the local Turks were quite peaceful, considering their assimilation.
In the 1750s, the situation changed with the appointment of a new pasha, whose abuse of power led to a rebellion and countermeasures by Ottoman authorities. In 1759, the new pasha dismantled one of the columns of the Temple of Olympian Zeus to use in constructing a new mosque, despite the temple being considered the property of the sultan, making it an illegal act. The following year, the city transitioned from the possession of the kizlar-aga back to the sultan, along with changes in financial policy, diverting all income into the owner’s treasury in exchange for a designated annual budget. During this period, Athens had about 10,000 residents. The climate was healthy, with pastures surrounding Athens more than agricultural fields. The city exported leather, soap, grain, oil, honey, wax, resin, silk in small quantities, cheese, mainly to Constantinople and France. French and English consuls were regularly present in Athens. By the late 18th century, for protection against Albanian raids in Attica, Pasha Hadji-Ali Haseki built a new fortification known as the “Haseki Wall,” breaking numerous ancient monuments for construction material. Between 1801 and 1805, Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, organized the removal of many sculptures from the Parthenon and one of the Caryatids from the Erechtheion to Britain. Many ancient buildings, preserved in Athens from ancient and Byzantine times, were lost forever during the decline of the Ottoman period.
During the Greek War of Independence, the city changed hands, and Ottoman forces left only in March 1833. Ancient structures suffered serious damage again during the battles and Greek attempts to take the Acropolis. At that time, the city consisted of 168 houses clinging to the rock of the Acropolis, housing an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 inhabitants.
In 1834, Athens was declared the capital of the newly established Greek State. The goddess of luck, Tyche, once again took the city under her patronage, as it emerged from historical obscurity. The city began to be planned and rebuilt almost from scratch. During this time, Europe’s best architects shaped the new capital’s appearance. Gustav Schaubert, Stamatis Kleanthis, Otto von Klenze, Lysandros Kaftanzoglio, Theophil Hansen, Ernst Ziller, Friedrich von Gärtner—this is far from an exhaustive list of those who contributed their creative efforts to the rebirth of Athens. The city’s population grew rapidly. The Athens University, the Athens Academy, the old royal palace, the National Library, the old parliament, the new royal palace, the Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation, and more were constructed. In 1896, the reconstructed Panathenaic Stadium hosted the competitions of the first modern Olympic Games, a celebration of sports revived by Pierre de Coubertin with financial support from the benefactor Georgios Averoff from Metsovo.
The population of the city sharply increases after Greece’s defeat in the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922, with a significant influx of refugees from Asia Minor, Eastern Thrace, and the islands of Imbros and Tenedos. New districts emerge in Athens with characteristic names prefixed with “Neos” or “Nea,” meaning new. Examples include Nea Smyrni, Nea Philadelphia, Nea Chalkidona, and Nea Ionia.
During the German occupation in the period of World War II, Athens experiences the “Great Famine,” leading to the death of many residents. In late 1944, fierce battles between communists and supporters of the western development course of the country add to the calamities, turning Athens into an arena for conflict. The aftermath of the so-called “December events” results in a civil war, finally subsiding around 1949.
The second half of the 20th century marks a period of continuous expansion for the Greater Athens metropolitan area, accompanied by environmental challenges. For a long time, Athenian smog was not only a cautionary tale but also a tangible threat to the marble of ancient monuments. However, due to various measures, this problem has been largely resolved in recent times.
In 1985, Athens was recognized by UNESCO as the Cultural Capital of Europe, and in 2004, it hosted the Summer Olympic Games. In 2006, an international music competition, the Eurovision Song Contest, took place in Athens.
The city’s growth continues into the present day. While the official population of Athens and its metropolitan area is recorded as 3,168,000 people (according to the 2011 census), unofficial estimates suggest that the number of residents could reach around 6 million. This accounts for more than half of the country’s population. Athens is considered one of the most densely populated cities in Europe. The fact that the city has expanded to the boundaries of Lekanopedio, with quarters gradually encroaching on the elevations surrounding it from three sides, raises another question for modern Greeks: where will Athens continue to grow in the future?