Athens

Ezio, my friend! How may I be of service? This article is in desperate need of a revamp. Please improve it in any way necessary in order for it to achieve a higher standard of quality in accordance with our Manual of Style.

Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. Situated at the heart of the Attika peninsula, it is considered the birthplace of democracy, and in the 5th century BCE, was the preeminent city-state in the region, wielding hegemony over the Hellenic civilization.

After a period of cultural flourishing during which the origin of much of Western intellectual thought was established, Athens was engulfed in the Peloponnesian War against its militaristic rival, Sparta. Centuries later with the fall of the Byzantine Empire, Athens came under the control of the Ottoman Empire where Assassin influence was firmly established.

History

Foundation

Athens has been inhabited as early as the Neolithic period, and by 1412 BCE, the settlement had become an important center of the Mycenaean civilization and the Akropolis was the site of a major Mycenaean fortress. From the 7th century, more stone buildings were being made, though many of these structures were not built to last. According to the myth, Kekrops founded the city and became its first king. As the gods Poseidon and Athena fighted for patronage of the city, they gave gift to the city. Eventually Athena won and the city was named after her.

According to mythology, during the reign of Aegeus, Athens must paid a tribut to Krete, sending young people to feed the Minotaur in the Labyrinth. His son Theseus promised that he would kill the monster and bring back the Athenian youth on a ship flying white sails, symbolizing victory and joy. Successful, Theseus forget to replace his ship's dark mourning sails. Assuming his son had died, the king threw himself off the steep bastion of the Akropolis, meeting his death on the ground below. The Aegean Sea was named after him.

Classical Athens

Kingdom of Athens

Between 536 and 533 BCE, the responsibility of organizing tragedies was entrusted to the archon of the city. Theater grew rapidly in popularity, and soon a permanent space for performing and watching plays was built on the slope of the Akropolis. During the 5th century BCE, theater became intertwined with Athens's democracy. It often functioned as an echo chamber for political ideas, and in some cases, it could even influence public opinion.

Circa 535 BCE the Temple of Apollo Patroos was built by Peisistratos.

Greco-Persian Wars

In the 5th century BCE, Athens was a city-state which rose to prominence under a highly distinct and intricate political system known as democracy. In an alliance with other poleis, most notably Sparta, Athens defended Greece from the Persian invasions in the first half of the century following which it emerged as the leader of the Delian League.

In 494 BCE, Athens aided the city of Miletos revolted against its Persian rulers. As they burned an important Persian temple, King Darius I of Persia was enraged by their sacrilege, and in 491 BCE, sent messengers to the Greek cities demanding their submission. As Athens and Sparta killed the messengers, the Persians invaded Greece. On the advice of the exile Athenian Tyran Hippias, the Persians landed in Marathon. In 490 BCE, 10 000 Athenian hoplites led by the soldier-statesman Miltiades and 1 000 Plaiteians defeated the Persians at the Battle of Marathon. After the battle, the Athenians buried the soldiers in a monumental tumulus near the battle field. The Athenians immortalized their prestige by erecting monuments in both their own city and in Delphi. This victory repealed the Persians and Athens was perceived as a protector against Persian tyranny.

In 480 BCE, the Persians returned under Darius's son Xerxes and backed by the Cult of Kosmos, a secret organization seeking to unify Greece. When a small Greek force holding the pass of Thermopylae was defeated, the Persians proceeded to capture an evacuated Athens. The city of Athens got captured and sacked twice by the Persians within one year after Thermopylae. During which, many of the archaic structures of the Akropolis were burnt down by the invading Persian armies. Most notably, was the Temple of Athena Polias, and the Temple of Apollo Patroos. Later, the Athenian navy led by Themistokles defeated the Persian fleet during the naval Battle of Salamis. After the battle the Athenians took Xerxes tent as a spoil of war. In 479 BCE, the Athenians and Spartans, with their allies, defeated the Persian army at the Battle of Plataia.

Golden Age

In 478 BCE, to protect Greece from Persian oppression, Athens formed the Delian League, leading an alliance of 150 cities. The allies, whose number eventually grew to 300 as a consequence of numerous victories, contributed troops and money, the latter of which was stored in the sanctuary of Apollo at Delos. After the Persians were defeated, the allies started to resent Athens and its constant demand for troops and money. Athens took advantage of the strength of its naval fleet to try to conquer and control Thrace's mines. In 465 BCE, they besieged the nearby island of Thasos and forced the city to surrender. Athens ruthlessly quelled every revolt, and transferred the allied treasury to Athens' Akropolis in 454 BCE, gradually transforming the League into its own empire.

Themistokles encouraged the development of the Port of Piraeus, which became Athens' naval headquarters, but also the mercantile center of the Mediterranean. Laid out by Hippodamos of Miletos, the Piraeus was divided into three districts: the Piraeus' agora, the militarian Munichia harbor and the economic emporion. Many craftsmen, merchants, bankers, sailors, and ship-owners moved to the port in great numbers. The population was a mix of Greek citizens, foreign visitors, and immigrants known as metics, nearly 5000 to 6000.

From this position, Athens began to assert its hegemony over the other Greek city-states, often aggressively. Popularly known as the Golden Age of Athens, this period of Athenian ascendancy witnessed an explosion of cultural and intellectual developments, with philosophers such as Sokrates and his pupil Plato leaving a lasting legacy on the future European academic tradition. Major milestones regarded as the origins of European fields include the works of Herodotus and Hippokrates, called the "Fathers of History and Medicine" by Western scholars respectively.

In 461 BCE, the Bouleuterion of Athens recalled the stateman Kimon from his ostracization.

Under the leadership of the general Perikles, the Golden Age entered its final stage, with his partner Aspasia, a high society hetaera, hosting numerous social events for contemporary artists, philosophers, and politicians. In secret, Aspasia was the Ghost of Kosmos, leading the Cult to unify Greece.

By 450 BCE, justice in the emporion was upheld by a group of magistrates known as the nautodikai. Their increased presence at trials runs parallel to the increasing financial and political power of Athens.

From 450 BCE onwards, the city of Athens gave poor citizens free theater tickets, which were valued at two oboloi. This initiative was provided for by a public fund called "theorikon" ("money for spectacles"), and it consisted of the distribution of special tokens, or symbola. The purpose of theorikon may have been to make sure poor citizens weren't denied access to the theater. The service was later extended to all citizens, regardless of wealth.

With the silver of Laurion and the Delian League Treasure, Perikles planned to rebuild the Akropolis citadel. He enlisted the help of renowned artists like the sculptor Phidias, as well as the architects Iktinos and Kallikrates, erecting the Parthenon and the Propylea. Built between 447 and 432 BCE, the Parthenon alone cost nearly 3 million drachmae, the equivalent of approximately 12 tons of silver. To justify the massive cost, Perikles cited the need to immortalize Athens' greatness but also called attention to the jobs the project would create for hundreds of stone cutters, carpenters, metal workers, painters, and unskilled laborers, all of whom were grateful for the opportunity to make more money. In nine years, Phidias also built a ten-meter bronze Statue of Athena on the Akropolis.

Between the 440s and the 430 BCE, Perikles ordered the construction of an Odeon to be used in the Panathenaia festival. According to ancient sources, the building design was inspired by the tent of the Persian King Xerxes. The building's roof was made of timber from captured Persian ships. In this sense, the Odeon was both a triumphant symbol of Athens, and an insult to their Persian enemies.

In 436 BCE, the Athenians founded the city of Amphipolis in Thrace, giving them a foothold in the resource-rich region.

Peloponnesian War

Those city-states under Athens' suzerainty, eventually started to resent its dominance, and in 431 BCE, a rivalry between Athens and the militaristic Sparta of the Peloponnesian League erupted into open warfare. As the conflict grew, the Cult of Kosmos infiltrated the two sides, the cultists of the Delian League were led by the Athenian statesman Kleon. Aspasia began to loose control of the cult as the members followed the Hybrid Deimos and searched power through chaos.

Wary of the Spartans' infamous reputation as the best warriors of Greece, Perikles refused to meet the enemy in battle, instead having his forces turtle within the city's walls, putting him at odds with Kleon. On the Akropolis, the Temple of Athena Nike was rebuilt, hoping that it would ensure victory for Athens. The Cult tried to diminish Perikles' influence to gain control of the city. On her side, Aspasia tried to bring down the Cult.

Kassandra at Perikles' Symposium, 431 BCE.

In May of that year, the Spartan misthios Kassandra traveled to Athens on the suggestion of Herodotos, who suggested she meet Perikles. She wanted to fight the Cult who torn apart her family, abducting her brother Alexios who became Deimos. In Athens, Perikles requested Kassandra to help him with a number of errands in exchange for the information that she needs. Completing the errands for Perikes; Kassandra rescued his friend Metiochos who was threatened by Kleon's followers. She also escorted Phidias safely to the southern island of Seriphos, as the cultist Brison planned to kill him. Kassandra killed Brison before he could do so.. She later helped influence the ostracization vote of the philosopher Anaxagoras. Afterwards, Kassandra was invited to a symposium hosted by Perikles. It was at this symposium Kassandra met with many influential individuals including: the statesmen Alkibiades; the playwrites Aristophanes and Hermippos; the sophists Protagoras and Thrasymachos; and even Aspasia. After speaking to several of them, Kassandra obtained the names of several people who may have encountered Myrrine at some point in the past. She set out from Athens to meet them.

In Athens, other cultists were operating in the city among Kleon. Hermippos criticized Perikles and promoted Kleon through his plays while Nyx the Shadow led the Eyes of Kosmos, the Cult's main source of information throughout Greece. The two cultists were killed by Kassandra.

Kassandra returning to a plague struck Athens, 429 BCE

In Autumn two years later, Athens was hit by a deadly plague which left numerous thousands dead. Perikles himself had also contracted the illness, talking with Aspasia she revealed that she sent Phoibe on an errand but she was yet to return. Kassandra left in search of her. However, Kassandra was too late to save her young friend. She had been struck down by Cultist guards. In anger, Kassandra killed them all. She then headed to the Parthenon to find Aspasia, with Hippokrates and Sokrates following close behind. Kassandra made her way up to the Parthenon, meeting Aspasia outside. Following a commotion inside the Partenon, the four of them entered only to find Deimos killing Perikles. After mourning her lover's death, Aspasia left Athens with Kassandra to find her mother and secretly help her destroyed the cult. Hippokrates and Sokrates agreed to stay behind and help the people. With the death of Perikles, Kleon was able to seize power of the polis.

In 428 BCE, Athens' most powerful ally Mytilene revolted against them. Athens crushed the revolt and Kleon planned to vote for the extermination of the entire male population of the island.

During the summer 425 BCE, the Athenian General Demosthenes defeated the Spartan Army led by Brasidas during the Battle of Pylos, Kassandra being captured by the Cult after a duel with Deimos. With their troops trapped on the island of Sphacteria, Sparta sent ambassadors to Athens to hold the hostilities. Kleon refused and led an army, winning the Battle of Sphakteria. The Spartan prisoners were sent to Athens to serve as hostages.

Kassandra convening with the Periklean Circle, 424 BCE.

Held in an Athenian prison, Kassandra was approached by Deimos, and try reason with him. When the coast was clear, Sokrates and Barnabas arrived to help Kassandra break out. Although she was already ahead of them. Convening with the Periklean Circle at least a month later, a gathering of Perikles' closest friends, Kassandra and the Circle hatched a plan to discredit Kleon. The playwright Aristophanes suggested a play to mock Kleon, however, Aristophanes' actor Thespis had gone missing and so Kassandra helped locate him. However, Thespis refused to act without his muse. Finding out that his muse, Aikaterine, was being threatened by the Cultist Rhexenor, Kassandra dealt with him and Aikaterine was free to resume being Thespis' muse. Kassandra then met with Sokrates at the Pnyx and helped convince the public of Kleon's wrongdoings to eliminate Mytilene population.

In 424 BCE, as Brasidas rallied Amphipolis and nearby cities without a fight, Athens dispatched the general Thucydides to take back the city but ultimately failed, leading to his exile. The Athenian politician Nicias, as well as the city of Sparta, hoped that peace could be negotiated and established a truce in 423 BCE. But a year later, Kleon became one of Athens' strategists and led an army to Amphipolis. Brasidas sought Kassandra aid for the upcoming Battle of Amphipolis, which she accepted and promptly travelled to. During the battle, both army's leaders died, Kleon being killed by Kassandra and Brasidas by Deimos. Athens and Sparta were encouraged to push the peace. In 421 BCE, the Athenian politician Nicias led the peace delegation, bringing the so-called treaty of Fifty-Year Peace. In the negotiations, Sparta requested that Athens free the prisoners of the Battle of Sphakteria. Kassandra returned to Athens and joined the Periklean Circle to celebrate the peace and comemorated the deads.

In 415 BCE, the Peloponnesian War resumed, Athens and Sparta fighting again for their hegemony on Greece. In 406 BCE, during the Battle of Arginousai, Athens lost a lot of men and ships. The Athenians demanded punishment without due process for the generals involved in the battle. However, Sokrates, who was the epistates at the time, refused to vote on the matter, stating that he would never perform an action that wasn't in accordance with the law.

Post Peloponnesian War

In 399 BCE, Sokrates was accused of impiety against the pantheon of Athens and corruption of the city's youth. Found guilty, the philosopher was forced to drink hemlock.

In 393 BCE, Piraeus' emporion was attacked in a daring raid by a Spartan fleet of twelve triremes led by Teleutias. Many merchant ships were captured by the Spartans. The raid ended up discouraging foreign traders from travelling to Piraeus, which put Athens' economy in jeopardy. Consequently, Athens was forced to negotitate peace with Sparta.

In the 4th century BCE, the orator Lykourgos reorganized the Theater of Dionysos building it in stone. He also implemented a decree that created a fixed canon for tragedies featuring final and definitive versions of the plays of Aiskhylos, Sophokles, and Euripides. During this time, the philosopher Plato coined the term "theatrocracy" to describe his city's politics. Circa 350 BCE, the magistracy of the nautodikai was abolished. In the 4th century BCE, a new Temple of Apollo Patroos was built, with a statue of the god made by Euphranor.

In 301 BCE, the philosopher Zeno of Kition chose the Stoa Poikilè as the location for his school of philosophy which was dubbed Stoicism.

Roman Era

During the 2nd century BCE, like all Macedonian Greece, Athens was conquered by the Roman Republic and later been part of the Roman Empire. During Nero's reign, a new stage was built in the Theater of Dionysos, in honor of both the god and the emperor.

During the late 3rd century CE, a Germanic tribe invaded Athens, destroying monuments on the Akropolis. Circa 280 CE, using the remains of the monuments, F. Septimius Marcellinus built a ceremonial entrance in front of the Propylaea.

As for the rest of the Roman Empire, the worship of the Greek gods faded away with the expansion of the Christianity. The Temple of Hephaistos was converted into a Christian church. In 590 CE, the Parthenon was converted into a Christian Greek Church dedicated to Maria Parthenos. The church became the fourth most important pilgrimage destination in the Byzantine Empire, after Constantinople, Ephesus, and Thessalonica. With the Great Schism of the 11th century, the Parthenon became an Orthodox Church.

Duchy of Athens

After the Fourth Crusade and the sack of Constantinople in 1204, with the scrumbling of the Byzantine Empire, the Crusaders established the Duchy of Athens. The Latin Duke built his palace on the Akropolis and the Parthenon became the Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady.

Ottoman era

In 1458, the Ottoman Empire conquered the Duchy of Athens. On the Akropolis, the Parthenon was converted into a mosque and the Ottomans built living quarters, and the harem of the local governor.

Resentment against the new Turkish regime remained fresh as late as 1511, when the local Assassins struggled to maintain public faith given their transnational policies. That year, with Ezio Auditore da Firenze, Mentor of the Italian Brotherhood taking over operations in Constantinople, Ottoman Assassins were sent to Athens to revitalize the Greek branch. These Turkish Assassins were instrumental in helping their Greek counterparts reestablish the Athenians' trust by convincing the common people that their cause transcended national sentiments, prioritizing humanity as a whole.

Not long after, Templar agents began paying Ottoman soldiers for the goods of wealthy Athenians, thereby instigating them into open robbery of these citizens' homes. The explicit order of Sultan Bayezid II against such raiding could not dissuade these soldiers from the promise of handsome profits, leading to the intervention of the Ottoman Assassins. After these Assassins defended the Athenians from further robbery, they discovered the Templar background of the affair and assassinated the leaders behind it.

Subsequently, remnants of Isu technology were uncovered beneath the acropolis. In response, further Turkish agents were sent by Ezio to guard the site while Assassin scholars conducted a thorough survey. By the end of 1512, Athens was fully under the control of the Assassin Brotherhood as with the other major cities in the Mediterranean.

In 1687, during the Morean War, the Republic of Venice besieged the Akropolis. The Parthenon, which became a gunpowder storage, was struck by a Venetian cannonball. The explosion blew apart the roof, severely damaged three walls, and several columns and metopes fell to the ground, as well as most of the sculptures on the pediments and the frieze.

Modern times

In the early 19th century, Greece became independent and the state decided to revive the Akropolis' Classical ruins, removing the medieval and modern buildings.

Geography

Characterized by a dry summer climate, the environment of Athens is the definition of the Greek atmosphere. The city is divided into thirty districts, including the Pottery District called Kerameikos.

Economy

During the 5th century BCE, the Athenian economy was largely fueled by taxes paid by city-states it held suzerainty over as the head of the Delian League.

Behind the scenes

The artwork used for Attika on Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed: Odyssey site is the concept art by Hugo Puzzuoli, albeit featuring Alexios.

The Animus Next, the Assassin's Creed series promotion website for the 15th anniversary, presents the native name as "Aθhna". Not "Αθήνα" in Ancient Greek.

Gallery

VideosScreenshotsConcept artwork

• File:Assassin's Creed Odyssey The Secrets of Ancient Athens Uncovered Ubisoft NA

• 
  Athens during the plague in 429 BCE
• 
• 
• 
• 
  Temple of Hephaistos at night
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
  Symbol of Athens
• 
  Concept art of Athens by Hugo Puzzuoli
• 
  Concept art of Athens by Hugo Puzzuoli
• 
  Artwork from Assassin's Creed: Atlas

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed III (first mentioned) (mentioned in Database entry only)
• Assassin's Creed: Revelations (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Odyssey novel
• Discovery Tour: Ancient Greece
• Assassin's Creed: Rebellion (mentioned only)
  • Spears for Hire (mentioned only)
  • For Democracy! (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Where's the Assassin? (non-canonical appearance)
• Echoes of History (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Nexus VR