Athens in Relation to Culture

Athens in Relation to Culture During the two Persian wars (490 B.C. and 480–79 B.C.), Athens rose to prominence. The great men came from Ionia and Magna Graecia, the Greek towns of Sicily and southern Italy, before that. Athens gained immense reputation with its victories against the Persian king Darius at Marathon (490) and from the allied Greek ships against Xerxes, his son and successor, in 480, both led by Athens. After the Persians were ousted off the Greek mainland, Athens liberated the Ionians who had rebelled against Persia in the islands and in a portion of the mainland of Asia Minor. The Spartans, who were solely concerned with their own region, abstained from this operation. As a result, Athens emerged as the main player in an alliance opposing Persia. As per the alliance's constitution, each member state was required to provide a certain number of ships or cover the whole cost of those ships. The majority opted for the latter, giving Athens naval superiority over the other allies and allowing the coalition to progressively evolve into the Athenian Empire. Under the astute leadership of Pericles, who ruled Athens for almost thirty years until his overthrow in 430 B.C., the city developed and grew wealthy. The happiest and most brilliant period in Athens' history was the reign of Pericles. Greek tragedy began with Aeschylus, who had participated in the Persian wars. One of his tragedies, the Persae, breaks from the tradition of selecting Homeric topics by focusing on Darius' loss. Sophocles soon succeeded him, and Sophocles in turn was followed by Euripides. Euripides, however, continues into the gloomy Peloponnesian War days that followed Pericles' downfall and death, reflecting in his plays the pessimism of the latter era. His contemporaries, the comic playwright Aristophanes, ridicules all isms from the perspective of strong and narrow common sense; specifically, he exposes Socrates as a heretic who plays with unclean pseudoscientific secrets and rejects the reality of Zeus. Xerxes had taken Athens, and fire had devastated the temples on the Acropolis. Pericles dedicated his time to rebuilding them. He was the architect of the Parthenon and the other temples whose ruins still awe us today. The State hired Pheidias the sculptor to create enormous sculptures of gods and goddesses. Athens was the most exquisite and magnificent city in the Hellenic world at the conclusion of this era. The founder of history, Herodotus, was born in Halicarnassus, in Asia Minor, but he resided in Athens, where he received support from the Athenian government and wrote his chronicle of the Persian wars from the perspective of the Athenians. Possibly the most astounding historical feat is that of Athens under Pericles' reign. Up until then, Athens had fallen behind many other Greek towns; aside from Solon, who was essentially a lawgiver, it had produced no outstanding men in either literature or art. Abruptly, driven by triumph and affluence as well as the necessity for rebuilding, the greatest architects, sculptors, and dramatists of all time created masterpieces that shaped contemporary times and the future. Given how small the population in question is, this is all the more shocking. Athens' peak population of over 230,000 people (including slaves) is believed to have existed around 430 B.C., while the surrounding rural Attica region most likely had a somewhat lower population. Nothing has ever demonstrated that almost the same percentage of people living in any given location are capable of producing work of the greatest caliber. There are just two notable figures in philosophy that come from Athens: Socrates and Plato. While Plato is from a little different era, Socrates was raised by Pericles throughout his formative years. The Athenians' curiosity in philosophy was strong enough to make them avidly listen to philosophers from other towns. Young men who wanted to master the skill of debate went to the Sophists; in the Protagoras, the Platonic Socrates provides a humorous, sarcastic account of the devoted pupils who hung on the words of the distinguished guest. As we'll see, Pericles brought in Anaxagoras, from whom Socrates claimed to have learned that the intellect is the supreme entity in creation. Plato believed that the majority of his conversations would occur during the time of Pericles, and they provide a pleasant picture of affluent society. Belonging to an aristocratic family in Athens, Plato was raised in the customs of the time when democracy and war had shattered the upper classes' security and prosperity. His young men, who are unemployed, devote the most of their free time to studying philosophy, physics, and mathematics. They are proficient in Homer and can evaluate the abilities of professional poets who perform poetry. Since the recent discovery of the technique of deductive reasoning, new theories—both true and false—have excited the whole field of knowledge. At that age, as in few others, it was conceivable to be happy via intelligence and intelligent through happiness. However, the factors that created this golden period were not in perfect equilibrium. It faced threats from both the inside and the outside: Sparta was coming from outside and the democracy was coming from within. In order to comprehend the events that followed Pericles, it is necessary to take a quick look into Attica's past. Attica was a small, self-sufficient agricultural region at the start of recorded history. Its city, Athens, was not very big, but it was home to an increasing number of talented artists and artificers who wanted to sell their goods elsewhere. Over time, it was discovered that growing olives and vines was more profitable than growing grain, and that grain was mostly imported from the Black Sea shore. Compared to grain production, this type of farming needed more money, which led to debt for the small farmers. Like other Greek nations, Attica had been ruled by a monarchy throughout the Homeric era, but the king became reduced to a mere religious figurehead with no real political authority. The aristocracy took control of the government and repressed both urban artisans and rural farmers. Early in the sixth century, Solon made a concession in favor of democracy, and much of his work endured throughout the tyrannical reign of Peisistratus and his sons. As the opponents of tyranny, the aristocrats were able to recommend themselves to the democracy toward the conclusion of this period. Until Pericles' downfall, democratic procedures continued to give the aristocracy influence, as they did in nineteenth-century England. However, as he was nearing the end of his life, the Athenian democracy's leaders started to ask for a bigger portion of the political authority. Simultaneously, his policies of imperialism, which were fundamental to Athens' economic success, increased tensions with Sparta and ultimately resulted in the Peloponnesian War (431–404), which saw Athens decisively vanquished. Athens' reputation endured despite its political downfall, and for over a millennium, philosophy was centered there. Aristotle and Plato had elevated Athens to the pinnacle of philosophy, while Alexandria outperformed Athens in science and mathematics. After the Roman Empire was converted to Christianity, the Academy, where Plato had taught, endured as an island of paganism for two centuries, outlasting all other schools. Finally, in 529 A.D., Justinian closed it due to his religious prejudice, ushering in the Dark Ages in Europe.