Athēnæ, a celebrated city of Attica, founded about 1556 years before the christian era, by Cecrops and an Egyptian colony. It was called Cecropia from its founder, and afterwards Athenæ in honour of Minerva, who had obtained the right of giving it a name in preference to Neptune. See: [Minerva]. It was governed by 17 kings in the following order:—After a reign of 50 years, Cecrops was succeeded by Cranaus, who began to reign 1506 B.C.; Amphictyon, 1497; Erichthonius, 1487; Pandion, 1437; Erichtheus, 1397; Cecrops II., 1347; Pandion II., 1307; Ægeus, 1283; Theseus, 1235; Menestheus, 1205; Demophoon, 1182; Oxyntes, 1149; Aphidas, 1137; Thymœtes, 1136; Melanthus, 1128; and Codrus, 1091, who was killed after a reign of 21 years. The history of the 12 first of these monarchs is mostly fabulous. After the death of Codrus the monarchical power was abolished, and the state was governed by 13 perpetual, and 317 years after, by seven decennial, and lastly, B.C. 684, after an anarchy of three years, by annual magistrates, called Archons. See: [Archontes]. Under this democracy, the Athenians signalized themselves by their valour in the field, their munificence, and the cultivation of the fine arts. They were deemed so powerful by the Persians, that Xerxes, when he invaded Greece, chiefly directed his arms against Athens, which he took and burnt. Their military character was chiefly displayed in the battles of Marathon, of Salamis, of Platæa, and of Mycale. After these immortal victories, they rose in consequence and dignity, and they demanded the superiority in the affairs of Greece. The town was rebuilt and embellished by Themistocles, and a new and magnificent harbour erected. Their success made them arrogant, and they raised contentions among the neighbouring states, that they might aggrandize themselves by their fall. The luxury and intemperance, which had been long excluded from the city by the salutary laws of their countrymen, Draco and Solon, crept by degrees among all ranks of people, and soon after all Greece united to destroy that city, which claimed a sovereign power over all the rest. The Peloponnesian war, though at first a private quarrel, was soon fomented into a universal war; and the arms of all the states of Peloponnesus [See: [Peloponnesiacum bellum]] were directed against Athens, which, after 28 years of misfortunes and bloodshed, was totally ruined, the 24th April, 404 years before the christian era, by Lysander. After this, the Athenians were oppressed by 30 tyrants, and for a while laboured under the weight of their own calamities. They recovered something of their usual spirit in the age of Philip, and boldly opposed his ambitious views; but their short-lived efforts were not of great service to the interest of Greece, and they fell into the hands of the Romans, B.C. 86. The Athenians have been admired in all ages for their love of liberty, and for the great men that were born among them; but favour there was attended with danger; and there are very few instances in the history of Athens that can prove that the jealousy and frenzy of the people did not persecute and disturb the peace of the man who had fought their battles and exposed his life in the defence of his country. Perhaps, not one single city in the world can boast, in such a short space of time, of such a number of truly illustrious citizens, equally celebrated for their humanity, their learning, and their military abilities. The Romans, in the more polished ages of their republic, sent their youths to finish their education at Athens, and respected the learning, while they despised the military character of the inhabitants. The reputation which the Athenian schools had acquired under Socrates and Plato was maintained by their degenerate and less learned successors; and they flourished with diminished lustre, till an edict of emperor Justinian suppressed, with the Roman consulship, the philosophical meetings of the academy. It has been said by Plutarch that the good men whom Athens produced were the most just and equitable in the world; but that its bad citizens could not be surpassed in any age or country, for their impiety, perfidiousness, or cruelties. Their criminals were always put to death by drinking the juice of hemlock. The ancients, to distinguish Athens in a more particular manner, called it Astu, one of the eyes of Greece, the learned city, the school of the world, the common patroness of Greece. The Athenians thought themselves the most ancient nation of Greece, and supposed themselves the original inhabitants of Attica, for which reason they were called ἀυτοχθονες, produced from the same earth which they inhabited, γηγενες sons of the earth, and τεττιγες grasshoppers. They sometimes wore golden grasshoppers in their hair as badges of honour, to distinguish them from other people of later origin and less noble extraction, because those insects are supposed to be sprung from the ground. The number of men able to bear arms at Athens in the reign of Cecrops was computed at 20,000, and there appeared no considerable augmentation in the more civilized age of Pericles; but in the time of Demetrius Phalereus there were found 21,000 citizens, 10,000 foreigners, and 40,000 slaves. Among the numerous temples and public edifices none was more celebrated than that of Minerva, which, after being burnt by the Persians, was rebuilt by Pericles, with the finest marble, and still exists a venerable monument of the hero’s patriotism, and of the abilities of the architect. Cicero, Letters to Atticus, Against Verres, &c.—Thucydides, bk. 1, &c.—Justin, bk. 2, &c.—Diodorus, bk. 13, &c.—Ælian, Varia Historia.—Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 56.—Xenophon, Memorabilia.—Plutarch, in vitis, &c.—Strabo, bk. 9, &c.—Pausanias, bk. 1, &c.—Valerius Maximus.—Livy, bk. 31, &c.—Cornelius Nepos, Miltiades, &c.—Polybius.—Paterculus.
Athenæa, festivals celebrated at Athens in honour of Minerva. One of them was called [♦][Panathenæa], and the other [Chalcea]; for an account of which see those words.
[♦] ‘Bana, thenæe’ replaced with ‘Panathenæa’
Athenæum, a place at Athens sacred to Minerva, where the poets, philosophers, and rhetoricians generally declaimed and repeated their compositions. It was public to all the professors of the liberal arts. The same thing was adopted at Rome by Adrian, who made a public building for the same laudable purposes.——A promontory of Italy.——A fortified place between Ætolia and Macedonia. Livy, bk. 38, ch. 1; bk. 39, ch. 25.
Athenæus, a Greek cosmographer.——A peripatetic philosopher of Cilicia in the time of Augustus. Strabo.——A Spartan sent by his countrymen to Athens, to settle the peace during the Peloponnesian war.——A grammarian of Naucratis, who composed an elegant and miscellaneous work, called [♦]Deipnosophistæ, replete with very curious and interesting remarks and anecdotes of the manners of the ancients, and likewise valuable for the scattered pieces of ancient poetry which it preserves. The work consists of 15 books, of which the two first, part of the third, and almost the whole of the last, are lost. Athenæus wrote, besides this, a history of Syria, and other works now lost. He died A.D. 194. The best edition of his works is that of Casaubon, folio, 2 vols., Lugdunum, 1612, by far superior to the editions of 1595 and 1657.——An historian, who wrote an account of Semiramis. Diodorus.——A brother of king Eumenes II., famous for his paternal affection.——A Roman historian, in the age of Gallienus, who is supposed to have written a book on military engines.——A physician of Cilicia in the age of Pliny, who made heat, cold, wet, dry, and air the elements, instead of the four commonly received.
[♦] ‘Deipnosphistæ’ replaced with ‘Deipnosophistæ’
Athenagŏras, a Greek in the time of Darius, to whom Pharnabazus gave the government of Chios, &c. Curtius, bk. 8, ch. 5.——A writer on agriculture. Varro.——A christian philosopher, in the age of Aurelius, who wrote a treatise on the resurrection, and an apology for the christians, still extant. He died A.D. 177. The best edition of his works is that of Dechair, 8vo, Oxford, 1706. The romance of Theagenes and Charis is falsely ascribed to him.
Athenāis, a Sibyl of Erythræa, in the age of Alexander. Strabo.——A daughter of the philosopher Leontius.
Athenion, a peripatetic philosopher, 108 B.C.——A general of the Sicilian slaves.——A tyrant of Athens, surnamed Ariston.
Athenŏcles, a general, &c. Polyænus, bk. 6.——A turner of Mitylene. Pliny, bk. 34.