The city of Athens, Greece started as a small Mycenaean community to become the symbol of the whole country regarding virtues. The ancient period runs from 508 B.C to 322 B.C. During this time, it was one of the major city-states in Greece. It was an important art center with learning and philosophy being prominent. Many important people came from it including philosophers, politicians, and writers of the time. During the 5 th and 4 th centuries B.C., it made great cultural and political achievements which significantly influenced the European continent and became considered as the foundation of Western Civilization. It is thus relevant in studies concerning the development of cities (Dynneson, 2008).
Importance of Ancient Athens in Development of Cities
Ancient Athens presents an important contribution to the development of cities from the fact that it is the place where many ideas originated from. Its people were very thoughtful and dedicated their time to knowledge acquisition and got involved in systematic studies in many fields including philosophy, science, and history among others. Despite its small size, this city-state produced people like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle representing some of the brilliant minds that the world has seen (Patriquin, 2015). No other place in the world produced great minds as this city-state did. They were also interested in literature, art as well as architecture and this can be seen from the way they expressed their sense of beauty in temples and statues that they built so meticulously.
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According to Patriquin (2015), ancient Athenian style of art, as well as architecture, has endured the test of time and it is still evident in some of the most prominent buildings in the world. To this day the term “classical” is used to refer to their architecture and art that has been enduring over a very long time. For the greater part of its history, Ancient Athens was marred by wars. During the time that it experienced peace from 454 to 430 B.C., it significantly prospered. It had a small population, lacked systematic organization and was not very powerful in comparison to other Greek towns but it had the minds to show what it was capable of doing. For the little window period of peace, it attracted brilliant and smart people.
Ancient Athens was small and characterized by noisy, narrow and dirty streets with houses of the rich and the poor built of wood, and sun-dried clay and robbers could simply dig and get in. It was crowded and had enemies all around. What made this city-state special is that its people deeply loved it and were passionately interested in participating in public affairs. They greatly spent on public projects. This can be seen from the association of several Greek city-states known as the Delian league which was established as a protection against the Persians. This alliance constructed several buildings and structures including the Parthenon, representing possibly the most popular ancient structure in the world (Kotapish, 2001).
Patriquin (2015) points out that ancient Athens has been a perennial urban center since its beginning until now. Its ancient citizenship was progressive and provided an important foundation for leadership which benefited the society. As with contemporary cities faced with many urban challenges, it also demonstrated the negativities of overpopulation. Its importance also lies in the fact that it is among the basic examples of city-states in ancient times and was characterized by an urban lifestyle. It successfully attained urbanization owing to several factors in Greece such as advanced agriculture technology, the use of coined money as invented by Greeks, written alphabet, central banks, the presence of cultural functions in the city and the Agora which acted as a central point for urban life where public functions got carried out. Athenians are credited with building the world's first global city. They traveled far and wide being master shipbuilders and sailors and borrowed new ideas from outside and then perfected on them. They learned their alphabet from Phoenicians, literature from Sumerians, mathematics from Babylonians and medicine from Egyptians among others. They also welcomed foreigners despite the much insecurity that surrounded them and was thus open to foreign goods as well as ideas.
Conclusion
Ancient Athens was an important city-state that greatly contributes to lessons about the development of cities. Despite its small size, over crowdedness and lack of organization, it played an important role in the development of modern cities (Dynneson, 2008). It demonstrated characteristics of urban living were presenting both benefits and challenges inherent in common city developments. As a place where many great minds have their origins in great numbers in comparison to any other place in the world, Ancient Athens was unique. It had knowledgeable people who were interested in studies and actively participated in developing their city-state. Traveling to foreign lands facilitated them with new ideas that greatly supported development. Allowing foreigners to roam their cities also increased their knowledge of the outside world which they perfected and implemented. As such, these factors significantly provided a healthy environment for development.
References
Dynneson, T. L. (2008). City-state civism in ancient Athens: Its real and ideal expressions
(6 th ed.). Peter Lang.
Kotapish, D. (2001). Daily life in ancient and modern Athens (5 th ed.). Runestone Press .
Patriquin, L. (2015). Economic equality and direct Democracy in Ancient Athens (6 th ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.
