Question

Discuss the rise and growth of Athens, pointing out its glorious legacy.

Answer 1

1. In Athens, the pressure from below resulted in the replacement of both oligarchy and tyranny by “democracy.”
2. The law-making power in Athens was vested in an assembly open to all freemen.
3.  Judges and lower officials were chosen hy lots.
4. This arrangement was resented by the upper classes who considered democracy to be the rule of the mob.
5. The history of many Greek city-states was one of continual struggles by the rich landowners against “democracy”.
6. The only exception was Athens, where “democracy’ survived for about 200 years
7. Athens had a great leader, Pericles, who held power for thirty years.
8. During his rule, Athens and Sparta were continuously at war with each other. This war is known as the Peloponnesian War.
9. Athens, despite hostility and disturbance from Sparta, became a noble city with magnificent buildings.
10. There were great artists and great thinkers.
11. Historians therefore call this the Age of Pericles.
12. The great historians Herodotus and Thucydides lived during the period.
13. Socrates was a great thinker of the Pericles era.
14. Plato, Aristotle, Democritus and Epicurus belonged to this period.