Athens, Greece

Overview

Athens is one of the oldest cities in the world and is often referred to as the “cradle of Western civilization” having played a key role in the development of democracy, philosophy, literature, art, and science. It has been inhabited for more than 3,000 years and was a major center of trade and learning during the classical period. Still today, the name “Athens” conjures visions of Greek gods and goddesses, and robe-draped philosophers and politicians.

In the Mediterranean world, only Rome rivals Athens as a city famed for its antiquities. Ancient travelers came to marvel at its grand temples and civic buildings, just as tourists do today. Wealthy Romans sent their children to Athens to be educated by its philosophers and gain sophistication in the presence of its culture. Democracy, however faltering its first steps, began in this city, and education and the arts flourished in its environment. Even at the height of the Roman Empire, the Western world’s government may have been Roman but its dominant cultural influence was Greek. Latin never spread abroad as a universal language, but Greek did, in its Koine (common) form. By the 4th century B.C.E. this Attic dialect of Plato and the Athenian orators was already in use in countries around the Mediterranean. The monuments of Athens and the treasures of its National Museum still amaze and delight millions of visitors from every nation who come to see this historic cradle of Western culture.