Vince Kirby, age 14, of Nampa, Ida., for his question:
HOW OLD IS ATHENS?
Athens today is the capital and largest city of Greece. The city goes back to Neolithic times. As early as 1400 B.C. the Acropolis of Athens was fortified in the manner of other late Bronze Age citadels.
Historians know little about the history of Athens before about 1900
B.C. when Greeks first occupied Attica. Late invaders never drove out the original Greek Settlers.
Athens was one of the first city states. Each of these independent states consisted of a city and the region that surrounded it. Athens had a king, as did other Greek states.
According to tradition, the first king of Athens was named Cecrops. Kings ruled the city state until 682 B.C. Beginning that year, elected officials called "archons" headed the government of Athens. The general assembly, which consisted of all adult male citizens of Athens, elected the archons to one year terms. At first a group of three archons managed the affairs of Athens. In time the people increased the number of archons to nine.
As Athens' population grew, the farmers of Attica could not provide enough food for all the people and for themselves. Many small farmers went into debt and some, who could not pay their debts, even lost their land and became slaves.
Solon, one of the archons of 594 B.C, made several important reforms. First he cancelled all debts, thus freeing the people who had fallen into slavery.
Athens then played a leading role in what has been called the Golden Age. It became famous as the literary and artistic center of Greece.
Athens lost a war against Sparta in 404 B.C. It never regained its political leadership but it remained Greece's intellectual center. During the Middle Ages Athens was poor and neglected. But in 1834, after the Greek War of Independence, Athens became the capital of the new kingdom of Greece. Athenians then started to restore their city to its original beauty
During World War II (1939 to 1945), Athens was an "open city." The Greeks agreed to neither fortify nor defend Athens. They did this to protect the city's historic buildings and works of art against bomb attacks.
German troops occupied Athens in April, 1941, but abandoned the city in 1944.
After the war, archaeologists again began to restore the ruins of ancient Athens. Since about 1960, new buildings have replaced many structures that had existed since the reign of Otto I in the mid 18008.
A mayor and city council administer the city's affairs today.
Today in modern Athens toward the southwest lies the large, flat hill of the Acropolis. This was the original center of life in ancient Athens. Here today lie the remains of the Erechtheum, the Parthenon, the Propylaea, the Temple of Athena Nike and other reminders of the glorious past.