Origins
Protected by its mountainous belt, and perhaps by its poverty even, the Attic is saved by the great invasions, which, at the end of thousand-year-old IIe, mark last times of the Bronze Age. Its inhabitants, probably for this reason, say “autochtones”, i.e. born from the ground. The Athenians admit however that their country was used as refuge to people in escape: Pélasges, probably come from Anatolia as of thousand-year-old IIIe, then the Ionian ones, at the beginning of thousand-year-old IIe, of which they preserve the language besides.

If Athens knows of XIe in IXe front century J. - C. a development without example, marked by the abundance and the quality of its ceramics, it remains in a half-light relative when, at the dawn of VIIIe century, the Greek cities leave the “obscure ages”. A new form of State develops then: polishes (or city), under conditions still badly elucidated but on which archeology brings from now on some light. The economic factors are undoubtedly decisive: passage to the agriculture of civilizations remained pastoral up to that point, resumption of the commercial exchanges (metals) and, starting from approximately 800, demographic strong growth.  

The polishes antiquated is born from a set of villages sufficiently close from/to each other to benefit from a common citadel: in Athens, the royal fortress of the Mycenaean time, on the rock of the Acropolis, will play this part. Local regroupings preceded certainly the unification. In the structuring of the community, the religious phenomenon occupies an important place: in Athens, it is constituted around the Athéna goddess.  

The written sources, when they describe the formation process of the city, return to the traditional model of the synœcism (meeting of several villages in a city) and allot to Thésée (tenth king d' Athènes, according to the mythical tradition) this unification of the Attic.

Birth of a democracy
Historical continuity between Mycenaean time and antiquated time also appears in the institutions: Achaean monarchy seems to be weakened gradually rather than swept; its authority is little by little reduced by the control of an aristocratic council sitting on the Learned assembly (hill of Ares), and is parcelled out between three elected magistrates - the archontes - which, towards 683, see being able to them limited to one year.  

The Athenian history of the VIII E and VII E centuries is badly known. City is dominated by aristocracy warlike stirring up and chiefs of principal obstructs (clans, families), Eupatrides (those which have good fathers), are Masters of the ground and the political power. The mass of the population constitutes a kind of customers, associated within the phratries (groups of families) with the worship with the common ancestor with the génos. Between the aristocracy and this more or less dependant farming community, a group of citizens, sufficiently easy to get the “panoply” of the hoplite (heavily armed infantryman), takes part, since the VII E century, in the defense of the city. The craftsmen are still very few and Athens does not take any share with the great movement of colonization which, since the VIII E century, extends the limits of the Greek world to the most remote shores of the Mediterranean.  
 

Dracon
Dracon is elected, into 621-620, to put laws in writing applying only to the business of murder and whose hardness was to remain legendary - from where the Draconian adjective. Measure limited which, however, affirms for the first time the authority of the State above family solidarity in the field of justice, founds a common right for all and, consequently, undermines arbitrary of the aristocrats. Six thesmothètes (guards of the written law) then come to reinforce the college of the archontes. The economic and political monopoly of Eupatrides of anything is not however attacked, in spite of an economic evolution and soldier who returns less it justified and obviously less better supported. Like the other Greek cities, Athens undergoes a rural crisis which tears the company. The same solutions are offered to it: either the arbitration of a legislator, charged, in a kind of consensus, to put an end to disorders which are likely to degenerate into civil war, or the tyranny, which, in the evolution of antiquated Greece, very often seems a transitory solution with the problems of the city. With Solon, the legislator, then with Pisistratides, Athens will make successively the experiment of the one and other.  

Solon
Solon is charged, into 594-593, with remaking the unit of the city. Its work is primarily that of a liberator. By the seisachthéia (handing-over of the burden), it cancels all the credits and prohibits the personal deposit in the future, therefore slavery for debts, thus restoring a small farming community threatened to lose its freedom. Solon, in its elegies (he is also the large lyric poet of Athens), is glorified to have released the ground and also the men, “those which, in Attic even, knew the degrading constraint and which the mood of the Masters made tremble”, those which had fled, those which had been taken along to be sold abroad. Moderate reform since it does not carry out the anadasmos (new division of the grounds) very largely claimed, it however cuts down the richness by Eupatrides which undoubtedly agreed to it by fear of a popular rising and tyranny.  

The dêmos
With this solution brought to the crisis which affects the rural world, the originality of Athens appears well to lie in political measurements which give to the people a right to watch on the future trend. A widened dêmos is integrated, in the civic body, by political measurements registering the seisachthéia in a coherent unit. The limits of the dêmos are clearly established within a social hierarchy founded on the land incomes. The role of the ecclésia (an assembly of the people up to that point little consulted) is reinforced. Solon sets up a popular court of justice (héliée) which functions yet only like authority of call, but which, according to Aristote, was to be a showpiece of the democratic evolution of Athens.  

The farming community still develops during the VI E century and, enjoying the solicitude of the Pisistrate tyrant (of the loans of State, in particular, withdraw it from the influence of the rich owners), it will give a sitted solid social to the Athenian democracy. The development of the craft industry, the same, is closely bound by the tradition to the memory of Solon, and archeology reveals as from years 580 an astonishing rise of the production of ceramics and exchanges. The rural ones thus find work at the city and the class of the thêtes (citizens not owners) develops. Towards 575, Athens gives itself a currency and, a little later is established equivalence between the drachma and measurements of capacity, which testifies to a new development of movable fortune.  

The extraordinary opening of Athens towards outside was thus prepared by Solon and the moderate compromise required between the contrary interests of Eupatrides and the dêmos. It hardly succeeded, on the other hand, in its will to restore the community of the polishes in crisis since, very quickly, of the disorders begin again, which see to clash factions rather than parties. Pédiens and Paraliens, far from opposing, as one said a long time, the interests of Eupatrides to those of the fishermen and the tradesmen, represent local aristocratic factions (the first rather anchored on the land values, the second more opened with the trade); Diacriens, on which Pisistrate rests, gather the dissatisfied ones against the rich and are identified with the dêmos.  

The tyranny of Pisistratides
Pisistrate is pressed on the people to conquer the power. Master of Athens for the first time in 561, it by is twice driven out by it, but it will return, always by the trick or the force, and its death, in 528, his/her sons will succeed to him. Thus, tardily, Athens knows tyranny, a moderate tyranny which will leave with the posterity the memory of a reasonable government. Pisistrate hardly modifies the institutions, obtaining a personal guard simply and entrusting the magistratures to men with his devotion. It lets Athens profit from the impulse given by Solon, continuing a policy of social balance and assertion of the State, inaugurating an active foreign policy and, inside, a program of great work vivifying for the economy.

Pisistrate and its sons maintain a brilliant court and show their will to assume the religious and mythical past of Athens (drafting of the Homeric poems, of the orphic anthems), to excite Athéna (a large temple, Hécatompédon, is built in its honor, on the Acropolis, and a remarkable glare is given to Panathénées), but also to support the popular worships, like that of Dionysos. It is around this god that is born the comedy, literary kind which marks the O C century. With Pisistratides, Athens thus knows its first period of size. However, after the assassination of Hipparque in 514, the tyranny of Hippias hardens and, in 510, this last must leave Athens in front of the combined opposition of the aristocrats and the Spartans, as well as dêmos, strengthened by the economic dynamism of Athens.  

Reforms of Clisthène
After a baited fight during which Sparte supports hardest of the oligarchs, Clisthène, Alcméonide supported by the dêmos, makes vote into 508 a radical reform of the Constitution which establishes the Athenian democracy in its institutions. Athenian civic space is reorganized, the city included in a new division of the Attic in dèmes and trittyes. The citizens are gathered in ten tribes of which each one joins together three trittyes taken in three zones different from the territory: city, coast and interior. Each tribe thus offers a reduced image of the multiple interests of the city and its members, from now on indicated name of their dème (and either of that of their génos), escape the influence more easily from Eupatrides.  

It appears consequently a reorganization general policy based on this framework of the ten tribes; a secretary is added to the nine archontes; with the Ball, or council of the Five hundreds, the 50 representatives of each tribe manage the city during a tenth of the year (a prytanie). Ten strategists ensure soon the direction of the troops of each tribe, and this military command, proof against medic wars, will give to these new magistrates a decisive power in Athens of the O C century. Lastly, the law on ostracism (exile in the ten days and for ten years, on vote of the ecclésia, of a citizen considered to be dangerous for the democracy) tries to secure the city against a possible return of tyranny.  
 
The century of Athens

Ve front century J. - C. the confrontation with the Persia which opens the traditional age belongs to the history of Greece, but the key role of the Athenians in this unequal fight will make them them main actors of Ve century.  

Medic wars
Athens is, indeed, the only city, with Erétrie, to carry help to the Greeks of Asia, revolted against Darius, Grand King of Persians. A small forwarding burns one of its capitals, Sardes, and the revenge on Darius is exerted primarily against the two cities. With Marathon, Athens faces and, under the direction of the Miltiade strategist, his hoplites supported only by some Platéens obliges Persians to take again the sea into 490. Athens gained only the first medic war.  

It is it still which, thanks to the maritime orientation given by Thémistocle to the city (creation of Pirée), plays a decisive part in the second medic war. Thémistocle convinces the Athenians to give up the Attic and to fight on sea the invasion led by Xerxès. In Salamine, where they provide about half of the combined quotas, they force Persians with the retirement into 480, while their fleet still gains capital victories (Mycale, Sestos) close to the Asian coasts.  

More than any other city, Athens suffered from the invasion: the Attic is devastated, the destroyed city, but, whereas Greece seemed lost, the new city of Clisthène showed its attachment with freedom and it is towards it that turn themselves, fearing a renewed attack of Persians, the small cities of the islands and Ionian coast. Confederation Athenian, or leagues of Délos (name of the island where is deposited the federal treasure), simple military alliance made up around Athens (478), becomes the base of the power of the city with the O C century.  

Athens de Périclès
To think of Athens, it is often to evoke these years when, in most opulent of the Greek cities, the democratic institutions function harmoniously, where the balance of the company appears miraculous, where the intellectual and artistic life drains the best spirits of Greece. It is to also evoke Périclès, Master uncontested of the city during nearly thirty years. Périclès, Bouzyge by his/her father, Alcméonide by his mother, is one of these aristocrats who continue to monopolize the principal loads. Associated with Ephialtès in the fight which, after the medic wars, always opposes aristocrats and dêmos, it is with him responsible for last widenings of the democracy. Périclès dominates soon the political life and, from 443 to 431, is constantly re-elected strategist. This authority uncontested in a city where the people took in hand his destiny has what to surprise.  

The Athenian democracy
The ecclésia, the assembly of the people, decides on all; she is helped in her task by the ball, which must discuss questions submitted to the assembly and give a preliminary opinion. The magistratures, collegial and annual, are narrowly supervised by the dêmos. The strategy constitutes from now on the true executive of the city, dispossessing the archontat, reduced, like the former aristocratic council of the Learned assembly, with legal and religious attributions. The popular court of héliée (6 ' 000 héliastes drawn with the fate) the judge of almost all causes. Any Athenian citizen can thus decide destiny of his city at the assembly, sit at the court, be bouleute and exert a magistrature at least once in his life. So that this equality of right is not a vain word, Périclès grants a compensation of participation in the civic life, the misthos. The democracy also endeavors to attenuate the economic and social inequalities by the practice of the liturgies (loads normally assumed by the State entrusted to richest of the citizens), by a system of mutual aid for the most disinherited, by work for all.  

Contradictions of the Athenian company
Of course, this direct democracy is not perfect. Aristophane was made the echo of the critics who are addressed to him by those that its excesses worry. Contrary, one can notice that, until 400, no misthos (wages) is given for the participation in the assembly, or for the exercise of most important of the magistratures, strategy, that only richest of the citizens can exert. Finally and especially, this democracy is with the use of a small number of privileged: for the moment when the conquest of the democracy is completed, into 451, it is necessary, to be full citizen, to be born not only of one father citizen but - and it is new - of Athenian mother. In addition, neither the women, neither the wogs (foreigners domiciled in Athens), nor the slaves, increasingly many, take part in the political life. That constitutes one of major contradictions of Athens: more the city moves away of its agrarian origins and sees its economy being directed towards activities turned towards the exchange and the profit, more it calls upon the slaves, plus this contradiction goes growing. Périclès still said that the exercise of a trade cannot prevent the citizen from delivering an opinion useful to its country. To the IV E century, already, Xénophon and Plato estimate that the only activity compatible with the citizenship is agriculture, and Aristote, for its part, judges that to be citizen is a trade except for whole and proposes to exclude all those which work of the political life.  

The Athenian imperialism
Moreover, this democracy which wants its citizens freest of the Greeks admits the imperialism outside. Thucydide is not made illusions: the league of Délos, of alliance which it was, was transformed into empire. The aristocrats who lead the league to his beginnings, not only make him make decisive progress, but repress hard the revolts with Naxos into 470, in Thasos into 465. The democrats, when they succeed to them, do not act differently: repression with Samos in 441, led by Périclès, is not less bloody, and the establishment of Athenian colonists on the grounds removed in the allied cities continues. At the time when the signature of the peace of Callias with Persians in 449 could have made alliance null and void, Athens imposes on all the cities the circulation of its currency and more rationally organizes the perception of a tribute which, since 454, is not deposited any more in Délos but in Athens. It is authorized to draw from this treasure, intended for common defense, at ends which are clean for him.  

Athens, indeed, is not only imperialist by accident (if the league were born from the initiative of the allies, their negligence to discharge tribute explains its transformation into empire), it is it by need: its democracy saw empire, and not only of the richness that, thanks to the control of the sea, it gets to him, but also grounds taken in the old allied cities and phoros (tribute), finally, which makes it possible to distribute misthoi, to help the most stripped and to practice a policy of prestige useful for the economy and decisive to cement the very whole community.  

The Peloponnesian War
It is of this last contradiction that is born the Peloponnesian War (431-404). The intransigent policy of Athens encourages the allies with the revolt and its claims with hegemony draw up against it its old rivals who are Sparte and Corinthe.  

The conflict, keen, lasts nearly thirty years. The strategy wanted by Périclès appears to be the logical result of two centuries a long evolution; the city, indeed, had turned to the sea. The creation of Pirée by Thémistocle then its development, the realization of the Long Walls had made city and of its port a kind of island whose safety depended on the sea and the fleet. The Attic given up with the periodic incursions of Lacédémoniens, the population is cut off inside the walls and the citizens resist, while the counter-attacks are carried out on sea. The plague and the death of Périclès, in 429, leave weakened Athens; the war is trailed with various fortunes and if the peace of Nicias, in 421, puts an end for a time to the hostilities, those are re-ignited with the disastrous forwarding of Sicily (415-413), wanted by Alcibiade. After the loss of 12 000 citizens, Athens still gains some successes at sea Egée, but is definitively demolished with the battle of Aigos-Potamos into 405. The following year, the Spartans enter the city which must deliver its fleet, destroy its walls, to give up its empire, of which all the cities except one made defection besides.

The danger Macedonian
Athens must then face a new danger, that which the king of Macedonia makes run to all Greece. Philippe II triumphs over the united cities with Chéronée into 338. He is generous towards Athens: the city preserves its autonomy, but must enter the league of Corinth, which gathers all the Greek cities under hegemony Macedonian.  

Hellenistic and Roman Athens
After the death of Alexandre and an unhappy attempt at revolt (the lamiaque war), the Athenians must, into 322, to accept of Antipatros a garrison Macedonian and an oligarchical Constitution which constrained poorest of them with the exile. Consequently, pulled about between the successors of the Macedonian and always cherishing the vain dream of a revenge, Athens is not any more that the shade of what it had been. The center of gravity of the Greek world, moreover, moved towards the recently conquered Eastern provinces, and the economic activity of the city declined. Even literary creation weakens, and only the comedy of manners remains alive, with Ménandre. On the other hand, Athens, where the schools épicurienne develop and stoical, remains the most active center of the philosophical thought.  

Last fires of Athens
When, after the defeat of Persée with Pydna in 168, the hegemony of Rome replaces that of Macedonia, Athens finds some vitality (the Romans, in particular, give him Délos, and Pirée still benefits from the destruction of Corinth, into 146). It is on a downward slope, however, as of Ier century (plundering by the troops of Sylla in 86) and if it profits from Roman peace and remains a free and federate city, the honors whose the emperors fill it - after the Hellenistic sovereigns - are inversely proportional to its real weakness. They however testify to immense prestige that the city preserves which dominated Greece.  

In spite of the threat of the Barbarians (destruction by Goths and Hérules to the III E century apr. J. - C., incursions of Alaric at the end of the IV E century), in spite of the triumph of Christianity become religion of State, the city of Athéna remains a intellectual center and a center of attraction for the young Greeks and the fortunate Romans. Its university will close only into 529 after J. - C., when Justinien imposes the disappearance of all the philosophical schools.