History of Athens

Athens is one of the oldest named cities in the world, having been continuously inhabited for perhaps 5,000 years. Situated in southern Europe, Athens became the leading city of ancient Greece in the first millennium BC, and its cultural achievements during the 5th century BC laid the foundations of Western civilization.

The earliest evidence for human habitation in Athens dates back to the Neolithic period. The Acropolis served as a fortified center during the Mycenaean era. By the 8th century BC, Athens had evolved into a prominent city-state, or polis, within the region of Attica. The 7th and 6th centuries BC saw the establishment of legal codes, such as those by Draco, Solon and Cleisthenes, which aimed to address social inequalities and set the stage for the development of democracy.

In the early 5th century BC, Athens played a central role in repelling Persian invasions and subsequently established its hegemony over other city-states through the formation of the Delian League. Under the leadership of Pericles, the city experienced a period of prosperity and cultural flourishing known as the Golden Age. This era saw the construction of significant architectural works, such as the Parthenon, and advancements in philosophy, drama, and the arts, establishing Athens as a center of classical civilization. The Peloponnesian War against Sparta ended in Athenian defeat and marked a decline in its political power. Nevertheless, under Hellenistic and Roman rule, Athens retained its status as a center of learning, attracting students and philosophers from across the empire.

During the early Middle Ages, the city experienced a decline, then recovered under the later Byzantine Empire and was relatively prosperous during the period of the Crusades (12th and 13th centuries), benefiting from Italian trade. Following a period of sharp decline under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, Athens in the 19th century as the capital of the independent and self-governing Greek state.

Name

The name of Athens, connected to the name of its patron goddess Athena, originates from an earlier Pre-Greek language. The origin 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. It even became the theme of the sculpture on the west pediment of the Parthenon. Both Athena and Poseidon requested to be patrons of the city and to give their name to it, so they competed with offering the city one gift each. Poseidon produced a spring by striking the ground with his trident, symbolizing naval power.

thumb|upright=2|The contest of [[Athena and Poseidon, West Pediment of the Parthenon]]

Athena created the olive tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. The Athenians, under their ruler Cecrops, accepted the olive tree and named the city after Athena. (Later the Southern Italian city of Paestum was founded under the name of Poseidonia at about 600 BC.) A sacred olive tree said to be the one created by the goddess was still kept on the Acropolis at the time of Pausanias (2nd century AD). It was located by the temple of Pandrosus, next to the Parthenon. According to Herodotus, the tree had been burnt down during the Persian Wars, but a shoot sprung from the stump. The Greeks saw this as a symbol that Athena still had her mark there on the city.

Geographical setting

thumb|upright=1.5|Map of the Environs of Ancient Athens

thumb|upright=1.5|1911 map of Athens

There is evidence that the site on which the Acropolis ('high city') stands was first inhabited in the Neolithic period, perhaps as a defensible settlement, around the end of the fourth millennium BC or a little later. The site is a natural defensive position which commands the surrounding plains. It is located about 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.

Ancient Athens, in the first millennium BC, occupied a very small area compared to the sprawling metropolis of modern Greece. The ancient walled city encompassed an area measuring about two kilometres (1.5 mi) from east to west and slightly less than that from north to south, although at its peak the ancient city had suburbs extending well beyond these walls. The Acropolis was situated just south of the centre of this walled area.

The Agora, the commercial and social centre of the city, lay about 400 m (1,300 ft) north of the Acropolis, in what is now the Monastiraki district. The hill of the Pnyx, where the Athenian Assembly met, lay at the western end of the city. The Eridanus (Ηριδανός) river flowed through the city.

One of the most important religious sites in ancient Athens was the Temple of Athena, known today as the Parthenon, which stood on top of the Acropolis, where its evocative ruins still stand. Two other major religious sites, the Temple of Hephaestus (which is still largely intact) and the Temple of Olympian Zeus or Olympeion (once the largest temple in mainland Greece but now in ruins), also lay within the city walls.

Neolithic

Athens has been inhabited from Neolithic times, possibly from the end of the fourth millennium BC, or over 5,000 years.

Late Bronze Age

In the Late Bronze Age (c. 1600/1550-1200/1150 BCE), Athens emerged as one of the main centers of Mycenaean culture.

By 1412 BC, the settlement had become an important center of the Mycenaean civilization and the Acropolis was the site of a major Mycenaean fortress whose remains can be recognised from sections of the characteristic Cyclopean walls. On the summit of the Acropolis, below the later Erechtheion, cuttings in the rock have been identified as the location of a Mycenaean palace. comparable to similar works carried out at Mycenae.

Fortified settlement. In Late Helladic III (LH III), Athens evolved from a regional settlement into a fortified Mycenaean palatial center. By LH IIIB (c. 1250 BCE), Athens had a massive fortification system with walls built of "Cyclopean" stones - similar to those found at Mycenae and Tiryns. The wall was roughly 4.5-6 m thick, built using massive unworked limestone blocks with a core of rubble and earth. The wall enclosed the entire acropolis with the main gate on the west side and a smaller postern gate to the northeast (Iakovidis, 1962).

Megaron Palace. Much of the Mycenaean layer was destroyed by later 5th-century BCE construction (the Parthenon and Erectheion). Structural remnants confirm the existence of a Megaron Palace. South the Erectheion there are two column bases identified as belonging to this palace. This implies a centralized bureaucracy managed by a wanax (king), supported by a military elite. There are also "Warrior Graves" found in the nearby Areopagus and Agora regions, containing bronze weaponry and prestige goods (Montjoy, 1995).

Unlike Mycenae, Pylos, or Tiryns, there is no archaeological evidence of a catastrophic fire or violent destruction at the Athens Acropolis during the transition from LH IIIB to LH IIIC. It is unclear whether Athens suffered destruction in about 1200 BC, an event traditionally attributed to a Dorian invasion (though now commonly attributed to a systems collapse, part of the Late Bronze Age collapse). The Athenians always maintained that they were 'pure' Ionians with no Dorian element. However, Athens, like many other Bronze Age settlements, went into economic decline for around 150 years following this.

Iron Age

Iron I

Iron I (1200/1150-950 BCE) represents the post-palatial Submycenaean period, Late Helladic IIIC (LH IIIC), or the Greek Dark Ages. While the Bronze Age Collapse triggered abrupt end and abandonment for many Mycenaean centers, evidence at Athens show a more gradual transition into the next phase. Athens appears to have been a "refugee" center. The Kerameikos cemetery shows a transition from Mycenaean chamber tombs to individual cist graves, suggesting a shift in social structure rather than a total societal wipeout (Snodgrass, 1971).

At the end of the Late Bronze Age, climate change (drought) and political turmoil caused many city-states to collapse. At Athens, there was intense building activity to withstand a siege. Apparently, Athens successfully withstood this period of turmoil as there are no burnt layer or signs of siege warefare leading to breaches in the city fortifications. In the late 13th century BCE and early 12th century BCE, Athens came under the treat of siege.

Late Helladic IIIC1

The Northeast Postern Gate. During LH IIIB/C, the small secondary entrance to the Acropolis was blocked with massive masonry. This is a classic archaeological indicator of a high-threat environment where the defenders prioritized security over accessibility (Iakovidis, 1962).

The Fountain House (Northwest Descent). The secret fountain as evidence for siege preparation. A deep shaft was cut 35 m down through the rock to reach a natural spring at the northwest descent. This is one of the most significant engieering feats of the LBA. It featured a series of wooden stairs supported by ceramic and stone sockets. Carbon-14 and ceramic dating of the pottery in the shaft (LH IIIC Early) prove it was constructed in a hurry and used for a shot period (25-30 years) before collapsing. The fact that it was used for less than a generation suggests a period of acute, localized crisis. Once the immediate threat of a prolonged blockade passed, the risky, deep-access shaft was abandoned (Gauß, 2003).

Late Helladic IIIC2-3

Following the peak tension of the early 12th century BCE, the settlement pattern shifted to the slopes of the acropolis. Analysis of pottery shards and foundation remains, shows a "de-palatialization" of the city. While the walls remained, the formal administrative functions of the palace likely dissolved. The elite no longer lived exclusively atop the rock in a centralized palace structure. Excavations by the American School (ASCSA) revealed a cluster of houses on the North Slope of the Acropolis dating to LH IIIC. These were simpler, multi-roomed dwellings built over earlier Mycenaean remains. Below the citadel, the area that would later become the Classical Agora saw an increase in domestic activity. This indicates a transition from a "citadel-and-subject" model to a more integrated, proto-urban community living on the slopes and in the valley (Mountjoy, 1995).

Iron II

Iron Age burials, in the Kerameikos and other locations, are often richly provided for and demonstrate that from 900 BC onwards Athens was one of the leading centres of trade and prosperity in the region; as were Lefkandi in Euboea and Knossos in Crete. This position may well have resulted from its central location in the Greek world, its secure stronghold on the Acropolis and its access to the sea, which gave it a natural advantage over inland rivals such as Thebes and Sparta.

Founding myths

According to legend, Athens was formerly ruled by kings, a situation which may have continued up until the 9th century BC. From later accounts, it is believed that these kings stood at the head of a land-owning aristocracy known as the Eupatridae (the 'well-born'), whose instrument of government was a Council which met on the Hill of Ares, called the Areopagus and appointed the chief city officials, the archons and the polemarch (commander-in-chief). The most famous king of Athens was Theseus, a prominent figure in Greek Mythology who killed the Minotaur.

A slightly different mythical version of Athens' past is given in Plato's dialogue Timaeus. In this dialogue, a story is told about information given to Athenian leader Solon from Egyptian priests of the goddess Neith while he visited Egypt, according to which a well advanced Athenian state was established 9,000 years prior to his time that preceded Egypt's oldest kingdom by a thousand years. The laws of that state were the most just and largely inspired the various kings of Egypt when making laws for their kingdom. This story is not supported by any scholarly evidence, as no Athenian state is known to have existed during the 10th millennium BC. In addition, no evidence exists of any possible cultural or other ties between Egypt and any part of present-day Greece at such early a date. If the "9,000" was an error for "900", then it would fit better with the LBA city around 1550-1450 BCE - a time when the Mycenaeans started to dominate the Aegean.

Archaic period

During the 1st millennium BC, Athens succeeded in bringing the other towns of Attica under its rule. This process of synoikismosthe bringing together into one homecreated the largest and wealthiest state on the Greek mainland, but it also created a larger class of people excluded from political life by the nobility. By the 7th century BC, social unrest had become widespread, and the Areopagus appointed Draco to draft a strict new code of law (hence the word 'draconian'). When this failed, they appointed Solon with a mandate to create a new constitution in 594 BC.

The reforms that Solon initiated dealt with both political and economic issues. The economic power of the Eupatridae was reduced by forbidding the enslavement of Athenian citizens as a punishment for debt (debt bondage), by breaking up large landed estates and freeing up trade and commerce, which allowed the emergence of a prosperous urban trading class. Politically, Solon divided the Athenians into four classes, based on their wealth and their ability to perform military service. The poorest class, the Thetai, (Ancient Greek Θήται) who formed the majority of the population, received political rights for the first time and were able to vote in the Ecclesia (Assembly). But only the upper classes could hold political office. The Areopagus continued to exist but its powers were reduced.

The new system laid the foundations for what eventually became Athenian democracy, but in the short term, it failed to quell class conflict, and after twenty years of unrest, the popular party, led by Peisistratos, seized power. Peisistratos is usually called a tyrant, but the Greek word tyrannos does not mean a cruel and despotic ruler, merely one who took power by force. Peisistratos was in fact a very popular ruler, who made Athens wealthy, powerful, and a centre of culture. He preserved the Solonian Constitution, but made sure that he and his family held all the offices of state.

Peisistratus built the first aqueduct tunnel at Athens, which most likely had its sources on the slopes of Mount Hymettos and along the Ilissos river. It supplied, among other structures, the fountain house in the southeast corner of the Agora, but it had a number of branches. In the 4th century BC it was replaced by a system of terracotta pipes in a stone-built underground channel, sometimes called the Hymettos aqueduct; many sections had round, oval or square access holes on top of about .

Pipe segments of this system are displayed at the Evangelismos and Syntagma Metro stations.

thumb|upright=1.1|The ruins of the [[Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens|Temple of Olympian Zeus, conceived by the sons of Peisistratus]]

Peisistratos died in 527 BC and was succeeded by his sons Hippias and Hipparchus. They proved to be much less adept rulers and in 514 BC, Hipparchus was assassinated in a private dispute over a young man (see Harmodius and Aristogeiton). This led Hippias to establish a real dictatorship, which proved very unpopular. He was overthrown in 510 BC. A radical politician with an aristocratic background named Cleisthenes then took charge, and it was he who established democracy in Athens.

The reforms of Cleisthenes replaced the traditional four phyle ('tribes') with ten new ones, named after legendary heroes and having no class basis; they were in fact electorates. Each phyle was in turn divided into three trittyes and each trittys had one or more demes, which became the basis of local government. The phyle each elected fifty members to the Boule, a council which governed Athens on a day-to-day basis. The Assembly was open to all citizens and was both a legislature and a supreme court, except in murder cases and religious matters, which became the only remaining functions of the Areopagus.

Most public offices were filled by lot, although the ten strategoi (generals) were elected. This system remained remarkably stable and, with a few brief interruptions, it remained in place for 170 years, until Philip II of Macedon defeated Athens and Thebes at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC.

Classical Athens

thumb|upright=0.8|Roman statuette of [[Athena, copy of the Phidias statue, created for the Parthenon in 447 BC, National Archaeological Museum, Athens]]

Greco–Persian Wars

Before the rise of Athens, Sparta considered itself to be the leader (or hegemon) of the Greeks. In 499 BC, Athens sent a small force to support the Ionian Greeks of Asia Minor in their revolt against Persian rule. This intervention contributed to the outbreak of two Persian invasions of mainland Greece. The first occurred in 490 BC, when Persian forces under Darius I landed at Marathon. There, an Athenian army led by the soldier-statesman Miltiades repelled the invaders in a significant victory.

A second and much larger invasion was launched in 480 BC by Darius’s successor, Xerxes I. In the years leading up to the war, Athenian statesman Themistocles had persuaded the Athenian assembly that the revenues from newly discovered silver mines at Laurion should be used not for individual distribution, but for the construction of warships—an investment that would prove decisive in the conflict. After a Spartan-led defensive force was defeated at Thermopylae, the Persian army advanced into central Greece and invaded Attica. Under the leadership of Themistocles, the population of Athens had by then been evacuated to the Peloponnesian city of Troezen. Soon after, Persian forces captured the deserted city and set fire to the buildings on the Acropolis.

Later that year, an Athenian-led fleet engaged the Persians at the Battle of Salamis. Exploiting the constricted geography of the straits near Salamis Island, the smaller and more agile Greek ships were able to inflict substantial losses on the larger Persian fleet. Following this defeat, Xerxes withdrew most of his forces to Asia, leaving a contingent in Greece under his general Mardonius. In 479 BC, this remaining army was defeated at the Battle of Plataea by a coalition of Greek city-states.thumb|upright=1.2|[[Athenian decadrachm, 467–465 BC: Head of Athena wearing crested Attic helmet. <br><small>Rev: Owl standing facing, ΑΘΕ (ΑΘΗΝΑΙΩΝ – of Athenians). Commemorative issue, representing the Athenian military domination.</small>]]

Following the war, Athens shifted from a regional power to a political and military force of wider consequence. It led the formation of the Delian League—an alliance forged to continue the war against Persia—which would soon evolve into the foundation of Athenian imperial influence across the Aegean. At this time, Athens began its ascent as a maritime and cultural power, laying the groundwork for what would become its classical golden age.

Golden Age

thumb|The modern [[Academy of Athens (modern)|Academy of Athens, with Apollo and Athena on their columns, and Socrates and Plato seated in front]]

The period from the end of the Persian Wars to the Macedonian conquest marked the zenith of Athens as a center of literature, philosophy, and the arts. In Athens at this time, the political satire of the Comic poets at the theatres had a remarkable influence on public opinion.

Some of the most important figures of Western cultural and intellectual history lived in Athens during this period: the dramatists Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes, the physician Hippocrates, the philosophers Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, the historians Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon, the poet Simonides, the orators Antiphon, Isocrates, Aeschines, and Demosthenes, and the sculptor Phidias. The leading statesman of the mid-fifth century BC was Pericles, who used the tribute paid by the members of the Delian League to build the Parthenon and other great monuments of classical Athens. The city became, in Pericles's words, "the school of Hellas [Greece]."

Peloponnesian War

The resentment felt by other cities at the hegemony of Athens led to the Peloponnesian War, which began in 431 BC and pitted Athens and its increasingly rebellious overseas empire against a coalition of land-based states led by Sparta. The conflict was a drawn out one that saw Sparta control the land while Athens was dominant at sea, however the disastrous Sicilian Expedition severely weakened Athens and the war eventually ended in an Athenian defeat following the Battle of Aegospotami which ended Athenian naval supremacy.

Athenian coup of 411 BC

thumb|The [[Caryatid|Karyatides statues of the Erechtheion, constructed 421–406 BC on the Acropolis]]

Due to its poor handling of the war, the democracy in Athens was briefly overthrown by a coup in 411 BC; however, it was quickly restored. The Peloponnesian War ended in 404 BC with the complete defeat of Athens. Since the loss of the war was largely blamed on democratic politicians such as Cleon and Cleophon, there was a brief reaction against democracy, aided by the Spartan army (the rule of the Thirty Tyrants). In 403 BC, however, democracy was restored by Thrasybulus and an amnesty was declared.

Corinthian War and the Second Athenian League

Sparta's former allies soon turned against her, due to her imperialist policy, and soon Athens' former enemies Thebes and Corinth had become her allies; they fought with Athens and Argos against Sparta in the indecisive Corinthian War (395 – 387 BC). Opposition to Sparta enabled Athens to establish a Second Athenian League.

Finally Thebes defeated Sparta in 371 BC in the Battle of Leuctra. But then the Greek cities (including Athens and Sparta) turned against Thebes, whose dominance was stopped at the Battle of Mantinea (362 BC) with the death of its military-genius leader Epaminondas.

Rise of Macedon

By the mid-4th century BC, however, the northern Greek kingdom of Macedon was becoming dominant in Athenian affairs. In the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC), Philip II's armies defeated an alliance of some of the Greek city-states including Athens and Thebes, forcing them into a confederation and effectively limiting Athenian independence. Philippides of Paiania, one of the wealthiest Athenian aristocratic oligarchs, campaigned for Philip II during the Battle of Chaeronea and proposed in the Assembly decrees honoring Alexander the Great for the Macedonian victory. Philippides was prosecuted in trial by Hypereides, who detested his pro-Macedonian sympathies. Subsequently, the conquests of Alexander the Great widened Greek horizons and made the traditional Greek city state obsolete. Athens remained a wealthy city with a brilliant cultural life, but ceased to be a leading power. The period following the death of Alexander in 323 BC is known as Hellenistic Greece.

Hellenistic period

Shortly after the death of Alexander the Great, Antipater and Craterus became joint generals of Greece and Macedonia. Athens joined Aetolia and Thessaly in facing their power, known as the Lamian War. Craterus fell in a battle against Eumenes in 320 BC, leaving Antipater alone to rule for a year, until his death in 319 BC. Athens had a central role in the struggle for his succession, when Antipater's son, Cassander, secured the Piraeus leaving Athens without a source of supplies, and Macedon, ending the short-lived Antipatrid dynasty and installing his own.

Athens and the rise of the Roman empire

After the Pyrrhic War (280–275 BC) Rome asserted its hegemony over Magna Graecia and became increasingly involved in Greece and the Balkans peninsula. The First Macedonian War (214–205 BC) between the Roman Republic and the Kingdom of Macedon ended with the Treaty of Phoenice. During the Second Macedonian War (200–197), the Romans declared "the freedom of Greece" from the Macedonian Kings. Athens allied with Rome in that war but Livy said of Athens efforts that "words are the only weapons that the Athenians have left.

The Roman–Seleucid War (192–188) ended with the Peace of Apamea, and the Third Macedonian War (171–168), after which Macedonian territory was divided into four client republics and Macedonia was formally annexed to the Roman Republic after the Fourth Macedonian War (150–148). The Achaean League was defeated and dissolved by the Romans in the Achaean War in 146. Greece was divided into the Roman provinces of Macedonia and Achaea; thus, Athens came under Roman rule.

Roman period

thumb|The ruins of the [[Roman Agora, the second commercial centre of ancient Athens]]

During the First Mithridatic War, Athens was ruled by Aristion, a tyrant installed by Mithridates VI. In 88–85 BC, most Athenian fortifications and homes were leveled by the Roman general Sulla after the Siege of Athens and Piraeus, although many civic buildings and monuments were left intact. The Macedonian astronomer Andronicus of Cyrrhus subsequently designed the Tower of the Winds for the Roman forum, which mostly survives to the present day. Under Roman rule, Athens was given the status of a free city because of its widely admired schools.

The Roman emperor Hadrian (), constructed a large number of civic buildings.

The city was sacked in 267 AD, resulting in the burning of all the public buildings, and the city to the north of the Acropolis was hastily refortified. Athens remained a centre of learning and philosophy during its 500 years of Roman rule, patronized by emperors such as Nero and Hadrian.

Late Antiquity

thumb|The Byzantine [[Church of the Holy Apostles, Athens|Church of the Holy Apostles next to the Stoa of Attalos]]In the early 4th century AD, the eastern Roman empire began to be governed from Constantinople, and with the construction and expansion of the imperial city, many of Athens's works of art were taken by the emperors to adorn it. The Empire became Christianized, and the use of Latin declined in favour of exclusive use of Greek; in the Roman imperial period, both languages had been used. In the later Roman period, Athens was ruled by the emperors continuing until the 13th century, its citizens identifying themselves as citizens of the Roman Empire ("Rhomaioi"). The conversion of the empire from paganism to Christianity greatly affected Athens, resulting in reduced reverence for the city. The sack of the city by the Herules in 267 and by the Visigoths under their king Alaric I () in 396, however, dealt a heavy blow to the city's fabric and fortunes, and Athens was henceforth confined to a small fortified area that embraced a fraction of the ancient city. an event whose impact on the city is much debated,—but there is also evidence of a mosque existing in the city at the time. and an early supporter of Greek liberation.]]

The first Ottoman attack on Athens, which involved a short-lived occupation of the town, came in 1397, under the Ottoman generals Yaqub Pasha and Timurtash.

The Turks began a practice of storing gunpowder and explosives in the Parthenon and Propylaea. In 1640, a lightning bolt struck the Propylaea, causing its destruction. In 1687, during the Morean War, the Acropolis was besieged by the Venetians under Francesco Morosini, and the temple of Athena Nike was dismantled by the Ottomans to fortify the Parthenon. A shot fired during the bombardment of the Acropolis caused a powder magazine in the Parthenon to explode (26 September), and the building was severely damaged, giving it largely the appearance it has today. The Venetian occupation of Athens lasted for six months, and both the Venetians and the Ottomans participated in the looting of the Parthenon. One of its western pediments was removed, causing even more damage to the structure. Taxation was also light, with only the tax payable to the Ottoman government, as well as the salt tax and a water-tax for the olive yards and gardens. Chalcondyles published the first printed editions of Homer (in 1488), of Isocrates (in 1493), and of the Suda lexicon (in 1499), and a Greek grammar (Erotemata).

His cousin Laonicus Chalcondyles (c. 1423–1490) was also a native of Athens, a notable scholar and Byzantine historian and one of the most valuable of the later Greek historians. He was the author of the valuable work Historiarum Demonstrationes (Demonstrations of History) and was a great admirer of the ancient writer Herodotus, encouraging the interest of contemporary Italian humanists in that ancient historian. In the 17th century, Athenian-born Leonardos Philaras (c. 1595–1673), was a Greek scholar, politician, diplomat, advisor and the Duke of Parma's ambassador to the French court, spending much of his career trying to persuade western European intellectuals to support Greek independence.

thumb| [[The Entry of King Otto of Greece into Athens by Peter von Hess, 1839]]

Independence from the Ottomans

In 1822, a Greek insurgency captured the city, but it fell to the Ottomans again in 1826 (though Acropolis held till June 1827). Again the ancient monuments suffered badly. The Ottoman forces remained in possession until March 1833, when they withdrew. At that time, the city (as throughout the Ottoman period) had a small population of an estimated 400 houses, mostly located around the Acropolis in the Plaka.

Modern history

In 1832, Otto, Prince of Bavaria, was proclaimed King of Greece. He adopted the Greek spelling of his name, King Othon, as well as Greek national dress, and made it one of his first tasks as king to conduct a detailed archaeological and topographical survey of Athens, his new capital. He assigned Gustav Eduard Schaubert and Stamatios Kleanthis to complete this task. Following the failed attempt to secure the 1996 Olympics, both the city of Athens and the Greek government, aided by European Union funds, undertook major infrastructure projects such as the new Athens Airport and a new metro system. The city also tackled air pollution by restricting the use of cars in the center of the city. As a result, Athens won its bid to host the 2004 Summer Olympic Games. Despite the skepticism of many observers, the games were a success and brought renewed prestige and tourism revenue to Athens. The 2008 Greek Riots began in Athens following the killing of a 15-year old student by an officer.

As of May 2024, construction of a new metro line in Athens, Line 4, is underway, meaning the biggest infrastructure project in Greece at present. The new line will include 15 stations on a U-shaped underground route of 13 kilometers of tunnels, located mostly in central Athens. The project is expected to be completed in 2029.

thumb|View of part of central Athens and some of the city's southern suburbs from Lykavittos Hill

Recent historical population

{|class="wikitable"

|- "

! Year !! City population !! Urban population !! Metro population

|1833 ||4,000 ||– ||–

|1839 ||26.473 ||– ||–

|1981 ||885,737 ||– ||–

|1991 ||772,072 ||– ||3,444,358

|2001 ||745,514 ||3,130,841

|3,041,131