What are some key features of Athens?

What are some key features of Athens?

Athens was the largest and most powerful Greek state. It was a city with lots of beautiful public buildings, shops and public baths. The people of Athens lived below the Acropolis (rocky hill). The marble Parthenon, a temple, (see picture above) was built on the highest part of the Acropolis.

What is Athens city-state known for?

The Athenian city-state reached its peak in the Bronze Age. It is known as being the birthplace of democracy. Athens was also an economic powerhouse. Literature, philosophy, and art also thrived during this time period.

What were Athens physical features?

Athens is the capital and largest city in Greece, With a population of about 3,5 million people and long history, Athens stretches on a large peninsula that is protected by mountains from all sides of the horizon: Mt Egaleo to the west, Mt Parnes to the north, Mt Pentelikon to the northeast and Mt Hymettus to the east.

What are 5 facts about Athens?

15 Incredible Facts About Athens

• Athens is Europe’s oldest capital.
• Athens has experienced almost every form of government.
• If it weren’t for an olive tree, Poseidon might have been the city’s patron.
• The ancient Olympic games were never held in Athens.
• Athens is home to the first known democracy.

What are the 3 categories of the Athenian social structure?

Athenian society was composed of four main social classes – slaves, metics (non-citizen freepersons), women, and citizens, but within each of these broad classes were several sub-classes (such as the difference between common citizens and aristocratic citizens).

Why Athens is the best city-state?

Athenians thought of themselves as the best city-state in all of ancient Greece. They believed they produced the best literature, the best poetry, the best drama, the best schools – many other Greek city-states agreed with them. Athens was the measuring stick. The god in charge of Athens was Athena, goddess of wisdom.

What were the 3 main classes within Athens?

What was Athenian society like?

Athenian society was a patriarchy; men held all rights and advantages, such as access to education and power. Nonetheless, some women, known as hetaeras, did receive an education with the specific purpose of entertaining men, similar to the Japanese geisha tradition.

What made Athens so powerful?

This rise occurred largely due to its prominent location and control of key trading routes and leadership in the wars against Persia. While other Greek cities held more powerful armies, such as Sparta, Athens’ leadership proved attractive and helped pave the way for its influence.

Why was Athens the best city in ancient Greece?

Athenians thought of themselves as the best city-state in all of ancient Greece. They believed they produced the best literature, the best poetry, the best drama, the best schools – many other Greek city-states agreed with them. Athens was the measuring stick.

What was the democracy like in ancient Athens?

But for about 100 years, ancient Athens was ruled by direct democracy! It was an experiment. It didn’t last long, but the invention of democracy is one of the most important gifts we received from the ancient Greeks. Citizens of Athens had many rights, including the right to stand trial and the right (when Athens was a direct democracy) to vote.

What was the role of the Greek city states?

Greek City-States. The Greek city-states were the dominant settlement structure of the ancient Greek world and helped define how different regions interacted with each other.

Who was a citizen of the city of Athens?

But not all people in ancient Athens were citizens. Originally, a free male would be a citizen if his father was a citizen. But Pericles changed that rule in 450 BCE. The new law stated that both father and mother be Athenians for a child to be an Athenian. Out of the Athenians, only men had full citizenship.