Many governmental posts in classical Athens were chosen by lot, in an attempt to discourage corruption and patronage. Pericles was born into one of Athens’ leading families in the heyday of classical Greece. Thus, the tyrant of Pherae was able to destroy a number of cities with impunity. On the ground, however, the situation within the league proved to have changed little from that of the 5th century BC, with Athenian generals doing what they wanted and able to extort funds from the league. Hostilities even took place during winter for the first time, with the invasion of Laconia in 370 BC. Prelude to the Peloponnesian War. Alcibiades persuaded the Spartans to begin building a real navy for the first time—large enough to challenge the Athenian superiority at sea. With the disappearance of this external threat, cracks appeared in the united front of the Hellenic League.A competing coalition of Greek city-states centred around Sparta arose, and became more important as the external Persian threat subsided. The Athenian elite lived relatively modestly, and wealth and land were not concentrated in the hands of the few, but rather distributed fairly evenly across the upper classes.

Perched high on its namesake hill in the centre of the city, the 4,000-seat open-air Lycabettus amphitheatre hosts a variety of concerts by contemporary jazz and pop artists, as well as chamber orchestras, mainly during the summer.Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. It is our passion and our purpose.

Particularly famous is the Athens Epidaurus Greek Festival, with events in the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, the Herodeion Theatre in Athens and other venues.

The 5th-century confederacy is well known to us from a papyrus found at The confederacy was divided up into 11 districts, each providing a federal magistrate called a "All this constituted a significant enough force that the Spartans were happy to see the Boeotian confederacy dissolved by the king's peace. Thebes sent Pelopidas to argue against them.The confederational framework of Sparta's relationship with her allies was really an artificial one, since it attempted to bring together cities that had never been able to agree on much at all in the past.

These cookies do not store any personal information.This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. During the time of Pericles (443 – 429), Athens reached the height of its cultural and imperial achievement. Besides maybe the Spartan women, ancient Greek women were rarely considered a fundamental part of society, and yet a few women were defiant and established themselves as respected doctors, philosophers or mathematicians. Nonetheless, some women, known as

Athens began to consolidate its position again through the formation of a second Athenian League.It was important to erase the bad memories of the former league. Classical Greek culture. Epaminondas rid the Peloponnesus of pro-Spartan oligarchies, replacing them with pro-Theban democracies, constructed cities, and rebuilt a number of those destroyed by Sparta. In theory, it was composed of all the citizens of Athens; however, it is estimated that the maximum number of participants it included was 6,000. However three causes are fairly consistent among the ancient historians, namely The next year, in 432 BC, Corinth and Athens argued over control of Many historians consider these to be merely the immediate causes of the war. Thus, despite his treacherous flight to Sparta and his collaboration with Sparta and later with the Persian court, there arose a demand among the war party that Alcibiades be allowed to return to Athens without being arrested.

This is the currently selected item.

Additionally, Alcibiades persuaded the Spartans to ally themselves with their traditional foes—the Persians.

This empire was powerful but short-lived.

The strength of the Boeotian League explains Athens' problems with her allies in the second Athenian League. They would argue that the underlying cause was the growing resentment on the part of Sparta and its allies at the dominance of Athens over Greek affairs. Pelopidas and Epaminondas endowed Thebes with democratic institutions similar to those of Athens, the Thebans revived the title of "Boeotarch" lost in the Persian King's Peace and—with victory at Leuctra and the destruction of Spartan power—the pair achieved their stated objective of renewing the confederacy. This century is essentially studied from the Athenian outlook because In 510 BC, Spartan troops helped the Athenians overthrow their king, the tyrant The isonomic and isegoric (equal freedom of speech)The city's administrative geography was reworked, in order to create mixed political groups: not federated by local interests linked to the sea, to the city, or to farming, whose decisions (e.g. The Megaron Hall is a 2,000-seat auditorium hosting operatic, dance and drama performances almost daily.