Map of the Roman Empire - Athens

Athens
M-6 on the Map

Athens Athens was located in the southeastern portion of the plain of Attica, near the sea. The city had always been a leading city of Greece and a center within the Western world for culture and intellectualism. It was especially important in the 5th century BC. When Rome came into power Athens was only a part of the province of Achaea, yet it was still an intellectual center. Augustus was upset with Athenian favor toward his rival Marc Anthony, and after the battle of Actium in 31 BC he punished the Athenians by removing the city's right to grant citizenship and to mint their own coins. When Achaea was made an official province and was administered from the city of Corinth, as another token of Imperial displeasure. Later Athens would become great when Rome offer their blessing, especially when the Emperor Hadrian became a lover of all things Greek, and Athens greatest patron. Later Athens was divided into two main sections, the Acropolis and the Lower City. The Acropolis contained many temples and massive statues, being the seat of religion and art, and the Parthenon could be seen in its greatness. Adrian also built the fantastic Temple of Zeus in 125 A.D., he also built his arch and his library in Athens. Athens is mentioned in the Bible in Acts 17:15ff.; 1 Thessalonians 3:1.

Acts 17:15ff. - And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens: and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed, they departed.

1 Thess. 3:1 - Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone;

Athens ( /ˈ�θɪnz/;[2] Modern Greek: Αθήνα, Athina, IPA: [aˈθina], Katharevousa/Ancient Greek: Ἀθῆναι, Athēnai (Plural of Αθήνα), the capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the world's oldest cities, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years.

The Greek capital has a population of 745,514 (in 2001) within its administrative limits[1] and a land area of 39 km2 (15 sq mi).[3] The urban area of Athens extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3,130,841 (in 2001)[1] and a land area of 412 km2 (159 sq mi).[3] According to Eurostat, the Athens Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) is the 8th most populous LUZ in the European Union (the 4th most populous capital city of the EU) with a population of 4,013,368 (in 2004).[4] A cosmopolitan metropolis, Athens is central to economic, financial, industrial, political and cultural life in Greece and it is rated as an alpha- world city.[5] In 2008, Athens was ranked the world's 32nd richest city by purchasing power [6] and the 25th most expensive[7] in a UBS study.

Classical Athens was a powerful city-state. A centre for the arts, learning and philosophy, home of Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum,[8][9] it is widely referred to as the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy,[10][11] largely due to the impact of its cultural and political achievements during the 5th and 4th centuries BC on the rest of the then known European continent.[12]

The heritage of the classical era is still evident in the city, represented by a number of ancient monuments and works of art, the most famous of all being the Parthenon, widely considered a key landmark of early Western civilization. The city also retains a vast variety of Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a smaller number of remaining Ottoman monuments projecting the city's long history across the centuries. Landmarks of the modern era are also present, dating back to 1830 (the establishment of the independent Greek state), and taking in the Hellenic Parliament (19th century) and the Athens Trilogy consisting of the National Library of Greece, the Athens University and the Academy of Athens. Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics.[13]

Etymology

In Ancient Greek, the name of Athens was: Ἀθῆναι [atʰɛ̑ːnaɪ], related tο name of the goddess Athena (Attic Ἀθηνᾶ [atʰɛːnȃː] and Ionic Ἀθήνη [a'tʰɛ:nɛ:]). The city's name was in the plural, like those of Θῆβαι (Thēbai), Μυκῆναι (Mukēnai), and Δελφοί (Delphoi).

In the 19th century, Ἀθῆναι (Athinai / [aˈθinɛ]) was formally re-adopted as the city's name. Since the official abandonment of Katharevousa Greek in the 1970s, Αθήνα (Ath�na / [aˈθina]) has become the city's official name.

Geography

The oldest known human presence in Athens is the Cave of Schist which has been dated to between the 11th and 7th millennium BC.[14] Athens has been continuously inhabited for at least 7000 years.[15][16] Classical Athens became the leading city of Ancient Greece in the 5th century BC, with its cultural achievements laying the foundations of Western civilization. It was eventually overcome by its rival city-state of Sparta.[17] By the end of Late Antiquity the city experienced decline followed by recovery in the second half of the Middle Byzantine Period (9th-10th centuries AD), and was relatively prosperous during the Crusades, benefiting from Italian trade. In 1453 it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and entered a long period of decline.

Athens re-emerged in the 19th century as the capital of the independent Greek state. In 1896 it hosted the first modern Olympic Games. In the 1920s a number of Greek refugees, expelled from Asia Minor after the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922), swelled Athens' population; nevertheless it was most particularly following World War II, and from the 1950s and 1960s, that the population of the city exploded, and Athens experienced a gradual expansion in all directions. In the 1980s it became evident that smog from factories and an ever increasing fleet of automobiles, as well as a lack of adequate free space due to overcongestion, had evolved into the city's most important challenge. A series of anti-pollution measures taken by the city's authorities in the 1990s, combined with a substantial improvement of the city's infrastructure (including the Attiki Odos motorway, the expansion of the Athens Metro, and the new Athens International Airport), considerably alleviated pollution and transformed Athens into a much more functional city. - Wikipedia