Athens

Athens, the capital of Greece, a city of about 100,000 inhabitants. It is situated towards the S. of the plain of Attica, about five miles from the Saronic Gulf, between the two streams Cephissus and Ilissus, with the mountain of Hymettus to the E., and that of Pentelicus to the N.E. The modern city lies between the rock of Lycabettus and the Acropolis.

The history of Athens goes back to mythological times. In the beginning the Acropolis was all the city, which was then called Cecropia, after Cecrops, its founder. Cecrops I. was therefore the first king of Athens, so termed. He is supposed to have reigned about 1580 B.C. The city was then fenced with wooden palings. Caves in the rocks W. and S.W. of the Acropolis still exist, and are conjectured to have been the dwellings of these first Pelasgic Athenians. One of them is now called the prison of Socrates, though upon no exact evidence. According to the legend, King Theseus in the 13th century B.C. united all Attica in one state, named the city Athens, and instituted the Panathenaic festival. With the death of Codrus about 1100 B.C. began the reign of archons instead of kings. Gradually the city became democratic. Three centuries later the archons were elected every ten years instead of for life, and in 684 they were elected annually. In 624 Draco was archon. His code of laws is proverbial for its severity, all offences being punished with death. The recently discovered MS. of Aristotle proves him to have been the founder of Athenian democracy. The archon Solon (594 B.C.) repealed many of Draco's laws, and drew up a scheme of constitutional reform which reorganised the financial system, and much extended the franchise. He had previously carried the Seisachtheia, a measure relieving the poor peasant-farmers from the servitude they had incurred by their inability to pay the arrears of rent and interest due to the land-owning nobility. After Solon, Pisistratus seized the government by a coup d'etat, and, though twice successfully opposed and expelled, ruled despotically for seventeen years in all. His reign was a good time for Athens - "peace was preserved, public works constructed, agriculture encouraged, justice enforced." His sons Hipparchus and Hippias were not so successful. The former was killed by Aristogeiton, and the latter, being driven from Athens in 510 B.C., took refuge in Persia. Thanks in part to him King Darius sent an expedition against Athens, which was routed by Miltiades in 490 B.C. in the famous plain of Marathon. Subsequently Xerxes sought to avenge this defeat. Athens was sacked twice in two years, and but for Themistocles and the Battle of Salamis (480 B.C.) the Athenian nation would have been exterminated. Athens now became the head of a Hellenic league against Persia. The brilliant era of Pericles may be dated from about 460 B.C. The Parthenon was built. The dramas of Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes were written and represented. Money streamed into the city from dependencies. Luxury and leisure prevailed. The population was at its greatest - 100,000 freeborn Athenians, and 200,000 slaves or more. But another reaction followed soon after the death of Pericles in 429 B.C. The Sicilian expedition under Nicias failed deplorably in 412 B.C., and in the agitation that ensued the government was seized by an oligarchy, whose rule soon broke down through internal dissensions. The war with Sparta turned out badly for Athens. In 405 B.C. Lysander, the Spartan admiral, captured the city, and there was talk of razing it to the ground and making its site a pasturage. At Lysander's bidding the Athenians now chose an oligarchy of thirty to rule over them. But the thirty soon became despotic, and used their power for private ends. Hence they were called the "Thirty Tyrants." Thrasybulus headed a salutary revolution, and for a time Athens continued to flourish. But the Athenians had degenerated in spirit. They were glutted with too much prosperity, and Philip of Macedon at Chaeronea, in 338 B.C., was able to beat the combined Greek army, whereby Athens lost her independence. The succeeding Macedonian kings were not hard upon Athens, but they were careful to keep the city in subjection. Demetrius Poliorcetes showed especial favour to the Athenians, who, from gratitude, pretended to worship him as a god until his fortunes began to change. Then they made it a capital offence to have any dealings with him. For this Demetrius was able afterwards to punish them, though he was persuaded by Craterus the philosopher, not to proceed to extremities against the city. The nature of the Athenians was by this time an astounding blend of sycophantism and aspiration. They wore chaplets of flowers on a report of Aratus's death, to ingratiate themselves with the Macedonians; yet a little later they besought this same Aratus to help them to get rid of the Macedonians. In this entreaty they were successful. Athens now came under the protection of Rome. It was politic of the Roman Senate to leave the Athenians a shadow of independence. Nevertheless, they were taxed and ruled from Rome like any other province of the Republic. Active malcontents were disposed of summarily; otherwise the Athenians had not much to complain of at the hands of Rome until Sulla came upon them. This was in 86 B.C. Athens had sheltered one of the generals of Mithridates, in revenge for which Sulla sacked the city, "and committed so merciless a slaughter that the very channels in the streets flowed with blood." Under the empire, Athens, now in a state of impotence, was treated benignly. A Roman gentleman's education was not reckoned complete unless he had journeyed to the famous city, whence most of Rome's own wisdom had proceeded. With the accession of Hadrian in A.D. 117 Athens seemed likely to have a new lease of splendour. The emperor so loved the city that he gave the inhabitants special privileges, and built many new edifices. Hence the saying, "the city that used to be Theseus's is now Hadrian's." In the third century the Goths overran Attica and took Athens. A significant tale is told of them. "When they had plundered the city, and heaped up an infinite number of books, with a design to burn them, they desisted from that puqjose for this reason, viz. that the Greeks, by employing their time upon them, might be diverted from martial affairs." The long winter of Athens' declension and neglect now set in. Its temples fell into ruins, and its old fame was obscured. From the Latin dukes it passed at length by conquest, in 1456, to the Turks, who held it until 1830, when, by the Second London Protocol, Greece was declared an independent kingdom. In 1832 Prince Otto of Bavaria was proclaimed King of Greece, and was succeeded in 1863 by Prince William of Sonderburg-Glucksburg, who still rules as George I., and who has several children to perpetuate his royal line.

The interest of old Athens centres upon the Acropolis, the summit of which is about 250 yards by 100 in area. Here, near the middle, is the Parthenon - "the finest building on the finest site in the world." It was designed by Ictinus, and completed in 438 B.C. Its Doric columns have with age acquired a golden colour, very beautiful with the sunlight upon them. It was dedicated to Athena, and was used as a treasure-house, and also as the temple-in-chief for the Panathenaic festivals. Since the days of Pericles it has served variously as a Christian church of the Greek and Latin faith, as a Turkish mosque, and as a powder magazine. In 1687, during the siege by Venice, a shell exploded the powder in the Parthenon, and many of its columns were wrecked. Later, Lord Elgin obtained permission to take what he pleased from it. The Elgin marbles in the British Museum thus comprise, among other valuables, the frieze of this notable work of art.

The Erechtheum, a temple dedicated to Poseidon, stands near the Parthenon. It is much more ornate than its nobler neighbour. Some of the details of its chiselling are, indeed, masterpieces, copied in every art school in the world. Within the Erechtheum were the salt spring supposed to have been caused by a touch of Poseidon's trident; an image of Athena, said to have dropped from the skies; and the sacred olive produced by her. To this day the Erechtheum is in parts admirably preserved.

These two are the chief buildings of the Acropolis. There are also the temple of the Wingless Victory, the Propylaea, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the theatre of Dionysus, and other lesser relics, either . on or built in the outer sides of the rock. The Greek Government is now very zealous in preserving all the remains of old Athens in architecture and sculpture. It is a criminal offence to take any such relic out of the country without official sanction, which is little likely to be given.

A few words may be said about modern Athens. It is a well-built, bustling city, with several daily papers, three or four railway stations, and boundless ambition. The royal palace is an ugly, square building, of white marble from Pentelicus, whence also came the material for the Parthenon itself. Some of the private houses of Athens are exceedingly handsome, thanks to the abundance of precious building material. The city itself is stretching fast over the plain towards Pirams, its port, with which it will soon be quite connected by houses. The Athenians do not dress differently from the people of other European capitals; but the number of Albanians and country-folk in their ancient costumes gives colour to the streets.

As a residence, Athens is both healthy and cheap. The prevailing winds are north-east and south-west; these blow for more than two hundred days in the year. The middle of August is the hottest time and the end of January the coldest, the range of temperature being between about 40° in January to 90° in August. The rainiest month of the year is November. Of diseases, those most fatal in Athens are consumption, pneumonia, typhoid fever, cardiac maladies, and, chief of all, affections of the digestive organs. August seems to be the month with the highest rate of mortality, and the next in order are June, January, and May. February, March, and April have the least mortality. It may be remarked that the great fast of Lent occurs in February and March; while, on the other hand, the fruits are ripe, or nearly ripe, during May, June, and August, when the mortality is excessive.