334 Route 39. ATHENS. History.
field of Chieronea (338). After that period Athens never succeeded in re¬
covering her political importance.
The material prosperity of the city, however, suffered little at first
from this political decline. In the year of the Battle of Chaeronea the fru¬
gal administration of Lycurgus, a patriotic orator and patron of art, com¬
menced; and he succeeded in completing the theatre, constructing the Sta¬
dium, and filling the Piraeus with ships and equipments of war without
impairing the finances of the state. As the city of the greatest poets of
antiquity, and as the seat of the schools of philosophy founded by Plato,
Aristotle and Zeno, Athens continued to flourish for centuries, owing her
prestige mainly to her ancient glory. Reverence for her former greatness
alone induced her conquerors to spare the city the full humiliation of defeat,
and even in the time of Hadrian (2nd cent. A. D.) Athens was indebted to
this feeling for many handsome buildings and liberal grants. — The 3Iace-
donian regime altered the external aspect of the city but little. In 322 a
3Iacedonian garrison was established on the hill of the Museum, and with
its support Demetrius of Phalerus governed wisely (318 — 307). In 287 the
3Iacedonians were expelled by a revolt, but returned soon afterwards, re¬
taining possession* of the city until it became a member of the Achaean
League. The supremacy of the Macedonians was followed by that of the
Romans, which existed de facto, notwithstanding their declaration (196) of
the freedom of the whole of Greece, and de jure after the destruction of
Corinth (146). After an insurrection of slaves (133) had .proved most dis¬
astrous for Attica, Athens espoused the cause of Jlithridates, and was there¬
fore besieged by Sulla and severely chastised (86). The Piraeus was de¬
stroyed on that occasion, never again to be restored to its ancient import¬
ance. Notwithstanding the favour shown by Athens to the cause of
Pompey, and afterwards to that of Brutus , Caesar and Augustus were well
disposed towards the city, and were imitated in this respect by the sub¬
sequent emperors of Rome. Her greatest patron was Hadrian (A. D. 117—
138), who completed the Olympieum begun by the Pisistratides, founded the
Hadrianopolis, a new quarter on the E. side of the city, and provided it
with aqueducts. At the same period Herodes Atticus, a wealthy Athenian
citizen, erected the Odeum, which derives its name from him, and provided
the Stadium with marble seats. Thus down to this late era the external
splendour of Athens continued to increase; but a period of stagnation suc¬
ceeded , and the gradual decline of the city soon commenced. Christianity
was not established here till the end of the 4th cent, after Christ, not¬
withstanding the preaching of St. Paul and the.'Christian edicts' of Con¬
stantine (312), Theodosius (396) and other emperors; and the heathen tem¬
ples were not finally converted into churches till the 6th cent., at the close
of which the schools of philosophy and the gymnasia, the last strongholds
of heathenism, were closed by Justinian. — The repose of Athens was
again rudely disturbed by the barbarian hordes who invaded Greece (A. D.
253), and the city refortified, and in 267 it was captured by a band of He-
ruli, Goths and other northmen. Resistance to these invaders was the last
effort of the Athenian arms. A dark and disastrous age succeeded. In the
4th cent, the city was twice besieged by Alaric and the Ostrogoths, the
coasts were plundered by Vandals, and the feeble arm of the Byzantine
emperors was unable to protect Greece against the incursions of the Bul¬
garians, the Sclavonians and Saracens, the first of whom established them¬
selves in every part of Greece. In 540 Athens is said to have been surround¬
ed by a new wall, and in 660 the Emp. Constans II. resided here, but for
many centuries after that period the once glorious capital of Greece is con¬
signed by history to complete oblivion.
About the beginning of the 13th cent. Greece was nearly in the same
condition as at the present day; the modern Greek language had been
developed, and the combination of Greek, Sclavonic and Albanian elements
completed. — After the conquest of Constantinople by the Latins (1204),
l'.onil'ace of 3Ionferrat, as King of Thessalonia , obtained the supremacy of
the whole of Greece, and invested Otho de Laroche, first as Slegascyr
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