Theater was, in fact, invented in Athens. The great tragedy writers (and also directors)
Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides lived and presented their plays in classical
Athens. So did the great comedian writer, Aristophanes. New plays were presented
during the celebrations for the god Dionysos.
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The tragedy writer Sophocles: A roman copy of greek work (4th century BC).
Herodotus, the “father of History”, lived for many years in Athens. Thucydides and
Xenophon, the other great historians, were native Athenians.
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Thucydides from Alimos, Athens
He put the methodological bases of the scientific study of the past.
Since the supreme political and juridic power belonged to the people, the art of
persuading an audience became very important. Thus, the great orators of the
antiquity were borned in Athens and written their speaches for an athenian audience.
The greater among them was Demosthenes.
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Demosthenes, the famous democratic orator
Athens was the cultural center of the world, so the great philosophers came here to
teach, such as the Sophists of the 5th century (Protagoras, Gorgias etc.). Socrates and
his “pupil” Plato were native Athenians, but Plato’s pupil Aristoteles was from
northern Greece.
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Plato and Aristoteles by renaissance painter Rafael (Vatican)
HELLENISTIC AND ROMAN PERIOD
Athenian power began to decline even after the Peloponesian War (431-404 BC),
during which Athens tried to eliminate its rival city-state, Sparta, but was defeated.
But the final lost of power happened with the rise of another greek power, the
kingdom of Macedonia. Macedonian Greeks first dominated over Greece and then,
under the leadership of Alexander the Great, together with troops from mostly all
greek states, invaded in Asia and distroyed the Persian empire.
This was the dawn of a new historical period, called hellenistic because of the fact the
greek (hellenic) civilization was spread out all over the “known world”. This
civilization was mostly based on the athenian culture; even the new common greek
dialect (the language in which the christian New Testament was originally written)
was an evolution of the attic one.
But, old Greece was not any more the center of the greek world. New greek kingdomstates took power, among with economic and cultural development: Macedonia,
Aegypt (with Alexandria as capital), Syria, Pergamos. So, the typical greek city-states
began to loose power and they finally declined when the Romans dominated the
“known world”.
During all these periods Athens, despite the lost of political power, remains a great
city. Philosophical schools, founded by Plato and Aristoteles, continued their lives,
and new ones appeared. Many Romans love Athens: Julius Caesar inaugurated the
roman Agora, nearby the ancient one, and the emperor Adrianus was a significant
benefactor of the city. In that period the Odeion of Herodes (Herodeion) is builded,
which we use every summer for theatrical plays and concerts. And we can still see in
the center of Athens the Gate of Adrianus.
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Epicurus from Samos, a great philosopher of hellenistic period.
He, also, established his school in Athens.
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Herodeion, under Acropolis. The original building had a roof.
BYZANTINE PERIOD
At 330 AD, the roman emperor Constantine the Great transferred the capital of the
empire from Rome to Constantinople, the ancient city-state of Byzantium which now
is called Istanbul by the Turks. This was the beginning of the christian Roman
Empire, which we usually call Byzantine (although people of these centuries always
called themselves Romans).
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Constantine the Great and saint, founder of the christian Roman Empire
During this period the political, economic and cultural center of greek civilization has
been transferred to Constantinople. So, Athens and old Greece (the south of Balkan
peninsula) became marginal.
For the first christian centuries, paganism and christianism coexisted. But at 529 AD
emperor Justinianus ordered the close of the philosophical schools of Athens. This
was the end of ancient Athens. The ancient temples are now dominated by the
christians and transformed into christian churches: Parthenon becomes a church of
Virgin Mary, the temple of Hephaistos in the ancient Agora (Theseion) is now
dedicated to Saint George etc.