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Introduction
The Physical Setting

Ancient Athens consisted of the city itself and the large triangular peninsula known
as Attica, which juts southward into the Aegean Sea. In antiquity Attica was settled with nu-
merous villages and towns (demes), whose inhabitants were full citizens of the Athenian
state. The city of Athens sits on a large coastal plain in northwest Attica, surrounded by
mountains. Running through the plain in a northeast-southwest orientation is a long lime- 1
stone ridge. Near its southwest end, this ridge comprises the Acropolis, a steep-sided, free-
standing crag which became the citadel and primary sanctuary of the Classical city. The
ridge ends at the southwest in two hills west of the Acropolis, the Mouseion (modern
Philopappos Hill) and the Hill of the Nymphs, with the Pnyx lying between them. It also
continues northeast of the Acropolis, for the most part lying outside the limits of the an-
cient city; the highest point, a conical peak which reaches 273 meters above sea level, is
known as Lykabettos, now a clear reference point rising above the sprawling modern city;
beyond, the ridge continues northeast as modern Tourkovouni (ancient Brilessos or An-
chesmos).
The Classical city of Athens developed around the Acropolis, which served both as the
principal sanctuary and as a fortified place of refuge. Numerous other sanctuaries were es- 2, 3
tablished around the base of the hill (see figs. 239–242). Beyond, a circuit wall 6.5 kilome-
ters in length enclosed the lower city. On gently sloping ground to the northwest lay the
Agora, the great open square which served as the civic center and central marketplace
(see figs. 243–245). Around its sides were clustered the major public buildings needed to
run the city on a day-to-day basis: senate house, archives, magistrates’ offices, law courts,

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 1. Plan of the ancient city of Athens.

2. The Acropolis seen from the Mouseion, with Tourkovouni visible in the left background.
The Physical Setting 5

3. Classical Athens seen from the northwest. (Watercolor by Peter Connolly)

bureau of standards, mint, and the like. Just to the east lay the center of town in the Roman 4
period, represented by the Roman Agora and a great building containing a library donated
by the emperor Hadrian. Some 500 meters to the northwest of the Classical Agora was an
area known as the Kerameikos (potters’ quarter; see fig. 246). Here a long section of the city
wall has been found, together with two of the principal gates: the Dipylon (double gate) and
the Sacred Gate. The roads just outside these gates were lined with tombs, and the Ker-
ameikos area served as the most prestigious, though by no means the only, cemetery of the
city.
Moving counter-clockwise within the city walls, we next encounter the ridge west of
the Acropolis which carried the Pnyx (see figs. 127, 148), the great theatral area cut from the
rock to serve as the meeting place of all the Athenians when they gathered in the assembly
(ekklesia). East of the Pnyx a rocky outrunner of the Acropolis rises up. Here was the origi-
nal meeting place of a council of elders which took its name from the hill: Areopagos (Hill
 6 INTRODUCTION

4. The Agora and Athens from the west. The Hephaisteion is at the left, with the Stoa of Attalos in the
center, and (left to right) Mount Pentele, Lykabettos, and Mount Hymettos.

of Ares). The area to the southeast of the Acropolis was occupied by the largest temple of
Athens, the Olympieion, which was dedicated to Zeus. Individual monuments have been
excavated elsewhere, but for the most part the rest of ancient Athens lies buried under the
modern town. Outside the city walls were the three great gymnasia of Athens: the Academy,
the Lyceum, and Kynosarges. The port of Athens, Peiraieus, lies 7 kilometers away toward
the west, a low rocky peninsula with three well-protected, deep natural harbors: Mouny-
5 chia, Zea, and Kantharos (see fig. 260). These sheltered the great Athenian f leet, as well as
providing space for the huge volume of sea trade. Just beyond the Peiraieus lies the island
of Salamis, an Athenian dependency for much of antiquity.

Opposite 5. Athens and the Peiraieus, seen from the southwest, with the long walls connecting them. In
the center is the Kephisos River, which is joined by the Eridanos River from Athens; the Ilissos River is at
the right, paralleling the course of the separate long wall to Phaleron Bay. (Watercolor by Peter Connolly)
The Physical Setting 7

Three rivers pass through the plain, the two biggest lying beyond the limits of the an-
cient city. To the north, the Kephisos River rises in the foothills of Mount Parnes and makes
its way, for 27 kilometers, to the sea at Phaleron. To the south, the Ilissos winds along the
foot of Mount Hymettos to the southeast of Athens. Between them, the Eridanos rises on
the slopes of Lykabettos Hill and f lows north of the Acropolis, passing through the Agora.
It continues northwestward, exiting the city through the Sacred Gate, and disappears un-
derground several hundred meters farther on, at the edge of the present German excava-
tions of the Kerameikos. From that point it made its way to the sea. It was canalized by the
mid-fifth century B.C. for much of its length where it passed through the city. Ancient
sources indicate that pollution was a problem even in antiquity:

In his Collection of Rivers, Kallimachos says that it makes him laugh if anyone
makes bold to write that the Athenian maidens “draw pure liquid from the Eri-
danos,” from which even cattle would hold aloof. (Strabo 9.1.19)
 8 INTRODUCTION

6. Inscription of the 5th

century b.c., limiting the
area along the Ilissos River
where hides may be tanned.

This concern over pollu-

tion of the rivers is at-
tested to for the Ilissos as
well; a fifth-century in-
scription prohibits the
washing of hides up-
stream of the sanctuary
6 of Herakles (IG I3 257).
The plain of Athens
is bounded by four moun-
tains. To the west, Mount Aigaleos runs down to the sea; a pass through it carried the Sa-
cred Way to the Thriasian plain and the important town of Eleusis, with its sanctuary of
Demeter. To the north, Mount Parnes separated Athens from Thebes and Boiotia. To the
northeast is Mount Pentele, source of the fine white marble used and exported by the Athe-
nians for centuries. And to the southeast, closing Athens off from the rest of Attica, is
Mount Hymettos, crowned with a sanctuary to Zeus as weather god and famous in antiq-
uity for fine honey.
Beyond Pentele and Hymettos lay the rest of Attica, some of it hilly country, part of it
7 a large arable plain. The northeast limit was occupied by the towns of Rhamnous and
Marathon, both on the sea, facing the large island of Euboia. The southern tip is Cape
Sounion, which was dedicated to the sea god Poseidon.
Attica, and therefore Athens, was rich in certain products, poor in others. Grapes and
olives have always done well, grain less so. The area is a dry one, and when Athens pros-
pered and the population grew, Attica could not produce enough, and food had to be im-
ported, especially grain. Attica also failed to provide enough timber for Athenian needs; in
addition to housing and fuel, immense amounts of timber were needed for the huge f leet
from which Athens derived its power. Plato, writing in the early fourth century B.C., de-
scribes an earlier time when the ecological system was better:

But at that epoch the country was unimpaired, and for its mountains it had high
arable hills, and in place of the moorlands, as they are now called, it contained
plains full of rich soil; and it had much forest land in its mountains, of which
7. Map of prehistoric Attica, the territory belonging to ancient Athens, showing the principal
Bronze Age sites.
10 INTRODUCTION

there are visible signs even to this day; for there are some mountains which now
have nothing but food for bees, but they had trees no very long time ago, and the
rafters from the trees felled there to roof the largest buildings are still sound.
And in addition there were many lofty trees of cultivated species; and the coun-
try produced boundless pasturage for f locks. Moreover, it was enriched by the
yearly rains from Zeus, which were not lost to it, as now, by f lowing from the
bare land into the sea; but the soil it had was deep and therein it received the wa-
ter, storing it up in the retentive, loamy soil. (Critias 111 C–D)

Beautiful white marble, large deposits of silver, and excellent clay all contributed to Athe-
nian prominence in the historical period, though they were of little interest to the earliest
human inhabitants of the area.