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By 1400 B.C., the
Acropolis became a Mycenaean city and also became for the first time
a religious centre for the worship of the goddess Athena.
From the 12th century B.C till the 8th, Greece felt into a dark age
from which not much is known. Athens emerged from this Dark Age economically
reinforced but had lost every control of Attica that was divided in
several minor kingdoms.
According to history, Athens regained the rule of Attica in the 7th
century B.C and became the artistic centre of Greece.
The city, until the beginning of the 6th century was ruled by aristocrats
and generals. The position of the citizen in the hierarchy depended
to its wealth. |
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The
political power of Greece felt then into the hands of Phillip of Macedon
and his son Alexander the Great but Athens remained Greece's cultural
centre.
By the end of the 2nd century, a new threat came from the Roman Empire
as they were ruling the western Mediterranean and they will slowly
move to the east. They first attack the Macedonians who were finally
defeated.
Athens escaped for the reason that it was very respected by the Romans
for their scholarship, their art, philosophy and literature. The Pax
Romana was established. In the 3rd century, Greece was invaded by
the Goths and the Pax Romana started to break.
In the meantime, Christianity became slowly the Empire's religion. |
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Athens was invaded, between 1200 and
1459, by many west civilisations: Franks, Catalans, Florentines, Venetians
and finally by the Ottomans who ruled for over 400 years. The Acropolis
became home of the Turkish governor and the Parthenon was turned into
a mosque.
In 1821, Greek Independence was declared and Athens started to be
reorganised by foreign architects under the direction of King Otto,
the first Monarch of the newly built nation. In the 20th century,
Athens has grown spectacularly in population and industry. It is today
one of the few capitals which houses one third ("3.7 million
inhabitants) of the country's population.
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