2. ATHENS
ATHENS DURING THE HELLENISTIC AGE- DOWNFALL, RECOVERY AND LEGEND OF THE CITY OF DEMOCRACY
Some of you on here will have read my articles on both Hellenistic Sparta and Crete and now I thought I would continue my little series with the most famous and most popular Greek cities of them all, Athens herself. This should be of especial interest because of the upcoming Total War Rome II, which is set during the Hellenistic age 
In advance I must thank Christian Habicht for his extensive studies on the topic, which made this short article possible. The German historian Habicht (*1926) has worked at the renowned universities of Heidelberg, Princeton and Berkeley and published several books, essays and magazines on Athenian history. I can only recommend his work for those of you who are further interested in the topic (they are avaliable in English and German).
And now let's start with Athens... in 338 BC, Alexander the Great's father Philip II of Macedon had smashed the allied Theban and Athenian army at Chaironeia. While Thebes was heavily punished and later razed to the ground by Alexander, Athens was treated in a much better way. This was probably down to Athenian naval prowess, which Alexander needed against his Persian foes. But after the foundation of the Corinthian League, the city of democracy lost its freedom like every other polis in mainland Greece did. As long als Alexandros was winning and destroying Persia, the Greeks followed the events with great interest and probably even respect. But once Alexander died in 323 BC, the Macedonian hegemony was not accepted anymore. Already shortly before his death, Alexander had angered the Athenians by allowing all exiles back to Greece.
This was important for Athens, because it had conquered the Aegean island of Samos in 365 BC and then expelled the original population to Caria in Asia Minor, while colonizing Attic citizen on Samos. Thus Alexander's decree endangered Athenian control of Samos. But with his death other states saw their chance to regain independence as well and the Aitolian League allied with Athens in their bid to defeat the Macedonians.
The Empire of Alexander the Great
Together with a number of smaller city states, Argos and most of the Thessalian League they declared war on Macedon in what was to be called the Lamian War. The Boiotian League stayed firm on Macedon's side and fought together with Antipater, the strategos of the European half of Alexander's empire. The Athenian commander Leosthenes led his army North and defeated the Boiotians at Plataia. Quickly Antipate gathered his troops and faced the Greeks at Thermopylai, but again the Allies emerged victorious. Antipater retreated to Lamia, the only town in Thessaly that had stayed loyal to Macedon and which gave the war its name. Leosthenes followed him into the heart of the mountainous Thessaly and laid siege to Lamia. During the siege, the Macedonians were transporting reinforcements from Asia to Europe, where the Athenian fleet attacked them. In the battle of Amorgos, they were soundly beaten by the Macedonians and could not prevent the reinforcements from marching to Thessaly. Thus they could unite with Antipater's force and face the Greek confederacy in battle. In August 322 BC both sides met at Thessalian Crannon, where the Macedonians now clearly outnumbered the Greeks. It was a routine victory for the Macedonians, but it meant the end of freedom for all of the city states that lost.
Soon after the news of the defeat arrived the Athenian agora, panic broke out. The great philosopher Demosthenes, who had motivated the Athenians to fight against the Macedonian kingdom both in 338 and 323 BC, commited suicide and the democrats feared the end of their special rule. Their worst fears were to be confirmed, when Macedonian troops marched into Athens and occupied the city. In the following peace treaty, Athens had to give up not only Samos, but also it's democratic government. Antipater installed an oligarchic rule, led by the quasi- tyrant Phokion (*402), and stationed a garrison on the hill of Piraeus, thus denying Athens it's access to the seas. The period of a strong, independent and democratic Athens was over.
In the years after the death of Alexander, the wars of the successors dominated the known world. One of them, Cassander (Kassandros), focused on Macedon and was not shy to use any means to reach his target. Antipater had died in 319 BC and in the following year Cassander was already strong enough to influence affairs in Greece. Phokion was convicted to death by poison and Cassander made the philosopher Demetrios of Phaleron ruler of Athens. He was a wise statesman and the fact, that the Athenians erected 360 statues for him shows that he was successful in keeping the people happy. But at the same time other Athenians supported one of Cassander's enemies, Antigonos Monophtalmos, the ''One-Eyed''. Other than most of the other successors like the famous Seleukos and Ptolemaios, Antigonos' aim was to gain control of the whole empire of Alexander, and he also commanded much more resources than his rivals. They tried to keep him in check by forming alliances against him, but for many years Antigonos led one war after the other. In 316 he had an Athenian unit under his command when he campaigned on Cyprus. His enemy Seleukos was also aware of Athenian's ongoing importance for Greek thinking and bestowed a pair of tigers to the city in 310 BC. But other than that his relation with Athens never became very close.
The Diadochs and their dominions ca. 307- 301 BC
In 307 Antigonos sent his son Demetrios, who was later named Poliorketes, ''The city besieger'', to capture Athens. Demetrios of Phaleron had not expected such an attack and was caught off guard: Demetrios quickly occupied Athens and Demetrios of Phaleron was convicted to death. But he was informed about it early enough and fled to Alexandria, where he would loyally serve Ptolemaios. The Athenians established a cult for Demetrios and Antigonos and named two of their phyles (tribes) after the two rulers. Officially, Athens was freed by Demetrios and the democracy was reinstated. But de facto Demetrios controlled the city's affairs and the democratic institutions could only decide as far as Demetrios would agree. In 301 BC Zenon founded the Stoa, the last of the four great Athenian philosophy schools: The first was Platon's academy (387 BC), followed by Aristotle's Peripatos and then Epicurus' Kepos. They were crucial to the ongoing importance of Athens in the hellenistic world, but that did not prevent some people from opposing philosophy. Demochares, nephew of Demosthenes, publically challenged the philosophers and tried to pull through a law that would forbid the philosophy schools. However most Athenians had realized how famous and important those were and after a long debate the law was rejected. After this event, never again was Athenian philosophy challenged until the 5th century AD.
During the same year, the major political events directed Athen's political course again. At Ipsos in Asia Minor the armies of the successors clashed in an epic battle including possibly more than 400 war elephants. On one side stood the 80 000 men strong army of Antigonos & Demetrios, on the other 75 000 men under Seleukos, his son Antiochos, Lysimachos and Pleistarchos, who was the son of Antipater and a general of Cassander. After an intial devastating charge by Demetrios' cavalry, Seleukos used his huge elephant reserve to press back Antigonos' army. In the end, Antigonos' troops routed and the great general himself died. With the death of Antigonos Monophtalmos, Alexander's Empire was finally dead: The remaining successors were content to rule over only a part of the former empire, although that did not mean the wars stopped. At this point most of them had acquired the title of a basileus, a hellenistic king. The right to be a basileus had to be proved again and again and military success was central to it.
For Athens, the outcome at Ipsos meant full independence for them again, with the exception that Piraeus was still occupied by a Macedonian garrison. Many citizens also took up the chance to emigrate to Antiocheia, the new city Seleukos had founded at the Orontes in Syria where Antigonos' Antigoneia had been. Seleukos had named the city after his father and invited Greeks and Macedonians from everywhere to settle there. Antiocheia would quickly grew to become one of the biggest, most important and most prosperous cities in the world and the capital of the emergent Seleucid Empire.
Bust of Demetrios Poliorketes
After his defeat at Ipsos, Demetrios Poliorketes was on the run. The other successors did not accept him as one of their own anymore and tried to hunt him down. But Demetrios still possessed a huge fleet at Ephesos and the basileus turned into a pirate, who raided the Aegean and beyond. Meanwhile, the democratic rule in Athens was shortlived. Lachares, the commander of the Athenian troops at Ipsos, who had returned to his hometown, saw his chance and proclaimed himself tyrant. A civil war broke out between Lachares and the Democrats under their leader, the hoplite general Charias. Lachares laid siege to the Akropolis and in 300 BC his troops were successful in storming the fortress. Lachares got Charias executed and despite the survival of some Democrats in Piraeus, he seized power. After gaining rule of Athens, Lachares turned to Cassander and formed an alliance with him. Demetrios quickly heard of that and began to raid Athens' most important trade partners, including the town of Chalkis on Euboia. But Lachares soon had to found out just how big the mistake to ally with Cassander was.
Although the city had intended to stay neutral after Ipsos, Lachares had brought it back on the stage of the successor wars. In 297 BC Cassander died and his son Philip IV followed him on the Macedonian throne. Lachares immediately renewed their alliance, but Philip died just months later. It was then, when Demetrios invaded the Peloponnese and overran several towns. In 295 BC his troops turned north and in the spring of 294 they laid siege to Athens. Ptolemaios, who aimed to hunt down Demetrios, sent a fleet of 150 ships to help the Athenians, but Demetrios' bigger fleet intercepted them and caused heavy lossed to the Ptolemaic navy, which had to retreat to the Eastern Mediterrenean. Now Lachares had no hope for further reinforcements anymore and realized that he had lost. The feared tyrant disguised as a simple farmer and fled. Once the Athenians noticed Lachares was gone, the democratic opposition in the Piraeus welcomed Demetrios back to the city and reinstated democratic rule.
While Demetrios went on to conquer Macedon and claim the throne, Athens was back to where they had been before Ipsos. Demetrios sent his son Antigonos (Gonatas) (*319 BC) to study ar Zenon's Stoa. For a while, the Athenians were content with Demetrios' hegemony and watched how he subjugated most of Greece, installing democratic governments dependent on him everywhere. But soon Demetrios began to rule ever more despotic and to recruit a huge army while building one of the biggest fleets the world had ever seen. The cost for these 500 ships was immense, so that he was forced to raise the taxes, which made him ever more unpopular. His enemies Lysimachos, Seleukos, Ptolemaios and the rising Epirote king Pyrrhos formed another alliance against Demetrios, who quickly left with his forces for Asia minor. The Athenians saw this as a chance to get rid of Demetrios' troops again and with the assistance of 1000 light elite troops sent by Ptolemaios, they rose against the Macedonian rule in spring 287. The Ptolemaic commander Callias, a native of Athens, led them to a quick victory and once again Athens was liberated. Because of the distance to the Ptolemaic Empire it meant real independence and freedom this time, but Piraeus remained garrison while Athens also lost the city of Oropos in the North West to the Boiotian League.
During this new period of freedom, Callias became the Ptolemaic ambassador in Athens while also serving as the Athenian speaker in Alexandria. He founded the good long term relations between the new rulers in Egypt and the city of Athens. Besides, an alliance with Lysimachos brought further security until the latter's death at the battle of Kurupedion in 281 BC. Demetrios had died in 283 BC after being defeated by Seleukos and as Ptolemaois was a personal friend of Seleukos, only Lysimachos remained as a rival for Seleukos. At Kurupedion in Asia Minor his army was crushed and his dominion destroyed. Now Seleukos set sight for Europe, while handing back the island of Lemnos to Athens. But in his retinue was also a young man called Ptolemaios Keraunos, son of Ptolemaois. When the old general and basileus died and Ptolemaios II. followed him on the throne in 282 BC, Keraunos had been expelled from Egypt and accompanied Seleukos and his forces. Seleukos, who was by now 77 years old, only wished to return to his native Macedonia, but before he could arrive there, Ptolemaios Keraunos murdered him and made himself king of Macedon.
But he was also killed just two years later after a Celtic invasion of Northern Greece. The Celts were defeated by the Aitolian League at Delphi (after the Celts had won at Thermopylae, were an Athenian contingent under Kallippos was also involved) and then by Antigonos Gonatas, son of Demetrios. With his ascent on the throne in Pella in 277 BC the Antigonid dynasty claimed the Macedonian kingship for good. Now, the three great empires of the Diadochs had been formed and would control the Eastern Mediterrenean for the decades and centuries to come: The Ptolemaic Empire, the Seleucid Empire and the Antigonid Macedonian kingdom.
Meanwhile the philosophy schools in Athens continued to blossom. They were open and cosmopolitan and students were allowed to change between them whenever they desired to- only the Epicureans usually stayed at the Kepos and rarely ever left. The students came from every land one could imagine and Athens became a center of learning and studying for the whole Mediterranean world. Classical Athens had never had that many and so famous students as Hellenistic Athens, and thus the death of Epicurus in 270 BC was not only mourned in Greece, but also in Africa, Asia or Italy. But while the philosophers were content- as far as a philosopher can be- the political elite could not accept the occupation of Piraeus. Not only did it deny Athens its naval power, it also harmed its economy and its pride. In faraway Egypt, Arsinoe, wife of Ptolemaios II., noticed this as well and approached Athens over an alliance. In 269 BC an Athenian embassy arrived at Arcadian Orchomenos on the Peloponnese, asking for a future alliance. One year later the politician Chremonides pushed through a decree to finalize an alliance between Athens, the Ptolemaic Empire, Sparta and a number of minor poleis like Orchomenos. The decree portrayed Antigonos Gonatas as an heir of those, who had enslaved Athens- surely referring to the Persian great king.
Thus hostilities broke out in late 268 BC/ early 267 BC in what was to be called the Chremonidean War. However, Arsinoe had already died in 268 and thus Ptolemaic reinforcements were never big enough to decisively aid the Greek alliance against Macedon. On the other hand Gonatas was a skilled general and crushed the Spartan army at Corinth in 265 BC. Without foreign help, Athens' options were very limited and could not prevent Antigonos Gonatas from laying siege to the city for just another time. In 261 the Ptolemaic fleet finally came, but it was defeated in a battle of Kos. The starved Athenians had to give up- and this time not only Piraeus, but the whole city was occupied. The period of freedom and independence was over and now Athens was just one among many Macedonian towns. Chremonides, like Lachares in the past, saved his life by fleeing to Egypt.
Despite the fall of the city, Eumenes I., the ruler of the rising Pergamene state, donated a garden to the Academy, which was later called Lakydeion after the crabby philosopher Lakydes. Eumenes continued to promote the academy and when Attalos I. succeeded Eumenes in 241, he invited Lakydes to his court at Pergamon. But Lakydes rejected the offer, saying '' that statues are best viewed at from a distance.''
There are not many sources on Macedonian Athens, be it Literary or Archaeological. The only thing we know is that the Achaian League raided the Attica in 244/243. In Athens an epidosis was raised, a voluntary fee, to make up for the damages and the losses of the crop.
In 229 BC, the Macedonian king Demetrios II. died. At this point of time, the Antigonid kingdom was weakened and Athens used this chance to take up arms against their overlords again. But this time they had success, liberating not only the Acropolis and the actual city, but also the Piraeus. During the same time the Spartan king Kleomenes III. led his Kleomenean War against the Achaian League and later Macedon. He and Athens were supported by the Ptolemies, most of all with money, but Athens did not take part in the military actions, which ended with a victory of the new Macedonian king Antigonos Doson. But the Ptolemaic Empire had by now rendered outstanding services to the city and were rewarded in 224/223 BC, when the 13th phyle was named Ptolemais. A cult called the Ptolemaia was also installed and therefore the relations between the two sides grew ever closer.
Now Athens had established itself as an independent power again and tried to preserve it by staying neutral. For the next two decades, there was almost no foreign political activity from Athens, at least not from the government. Athenian philosophers served as advisors at different Hellenistic courts and their influence was rewarded with public promotion of the schools at the begin of the 2nd century BC. In 209 BC, an Athenian embassy conciliated between the two sides of the First Roman- Macedonian War, which ended in the peace of Phoenice in 205. After the Ptolemies had already established close ties with the city, the Attalids from Pergamon now followed them in this attempt. In 206 they had acquired the island Aegina near to Athens and began to become a second protector power of the city. With the decline of the Ptolemaic Empire around 200 BC, the Attalids became ever more important for the city’s affairs.
And the Seleucids turned to Athens as well. Under their strong and powerful ruler Antiochos III., who had restored the empire’s former glory, they demanded an asylia for the city of Antiocheia in Caria. An asylia was the declaration of invulnerability to a certain place, mostly a holy site like the oracle at Delphi. Considering the power of Antiochos III., Athens had no option but to accept the asylia to the Carian Antiocheia like every other polis.
Meanwhile the common people in Athens still only cared about the Ptolemaic Empire and were fascinated by Egyptian culture and religion. Around 201 BC the cult of Serapis was introduced in Athens, which was quickly followed by many people. The more traditional Greeks saw the cult as a unnecessary or even as a deformity, deriding Serapis as the god with the flower pot (one may think of the film Agora where the Christians ask: ’’How can anyone believe in a god who wears a flower pot as a crown?’’)
A bust of the Egyptian god Serapis
The Greek world in 200 BC
Anyway, in 200 BC, Athens went to war once again. This time Athens was supported by the Roman Republic, the Kingdom of Pergamon and the Republic of Rhodos in its fight against Macedon. King Philip V. on the other hand was allied with the Achaian League and the rather insignificant Epirotes. After the declaration of war, Athens was quick to establish a cult for the Pergamene king Attalos I. The Second Macedonian War began with Philip invading and raiding the Attica, until Roman troops arrived to push them back. In 198 BC the Achaian League seceded from Philip and joined the Roman alliance, which meant a first turning point of the war after the Aetolian League had also joined the alliance earlier. One year later, in 197, the armies of both sides clashed at Kynoskephalai/Cynoscephalae in Northern Greece. A rash attack of Philip cost him victory and the allied army, commanded by the proconsul Titus Quinctius Flamininus, crushed the Macedonian Phalanx. Soon after, the war ended and Flamininus reduced Macedon to a minor power, declaring freedom for all Greeks.
But Greeks always preferred other Greeks before outsiders and in 192 BC the chance came to get rid of the Romans again. Antiochos III., the mighty, the glorious, the victor, the Great was the first Seleucid since Seleukos Nikator himself to set his sight on Europe and on the old homelands of his dynasty: Macedon and Greece itself. Flamininus soon realized that the Greeks might support Antiochos rather than Rome in war between the two superpowers that might come only too soon and set sail for Hellas once again. A Roman delegation arrived in Athens to raise their political support. The Athenian embassy then travelled to the federal convention of the Aitolian League of 192 BC, where they met Flamininus and the Romans. Flamininus held a speech in front of all present deputies, supported by the Athenians, to make the League join the Roman alliance. After he had finished his speech, the Aitolian strategos Damokritos stepped forward and made a mockery of Rome, insulting Flamininus himself and thus convincing the delegates of the town of Demetrias and of the Magnetian League. Flamininus had failed, while Antiochos could see that the Aitolians were his loyal allies, while Demetrias and the Magnetians also joined his cause. Disaffected, the Athenians left for their hometown, where the pro-Roman atmosphere began to topple. Soon, news arrived of the murder of the Spartan tyrant Nabis on the behalf of Damokritos, and Athens began to look East to the Seleucid alliance. Just in time, Flamininus arrived with 500 Achaian troops and held a more successful speech, making Athens a firm ally of Rome.
Map of the Roman- Syrian War (Unfortunately it’s in German, so here’s a short legend: BLUE= Roman Republic and allies, RED= Seleucid Empire and allies, GREY= Neutral or passive states. Illyria is Roman, Cyprus is Ptolemaic)
Now the Roman- Syrian War began. Athens only played a minor role in the actual fighting and thus I won’t depict them in full here. After Antiochos had invaded Greece in 192 BC, the Romans slowly pushed him back. In 191 a certain military tribune called Marcus Porcius Cato Censorius arrived in Athens to survey the naval activities and to visit the famous city. The Roman- Pergamene- Achaian fleet had been stationed at Piraeus and therefore Athens became a n important base. Together with the Rhodian fleet they soon clashed with the Seleucids, and despite the support of the refugee Hannibal the Seleucid fleet lost a series of battles. The Athenians were relieved to have chosen the right side and in 190 BC the war would be decided. For this year, the Roman Senate appointed Lucius Cornelius Scipio and Gaius Laelius as consuls.
The little brother of the famous Scipio Africanus and his best friend had served in the 2nd Punic War and were both experienced and famous generals, which made them the perfect choice for this campaign. But Rome knew about Antiochos’ military skills and to make sure of victory, Scipio and Laelius were accompanied by Scipio Africanus himself. After Africanus had reached a ceasefire with the Aitolian League, they assembled their troops and left central Greece. On their way from Macedonia to Asia the Scipio brothers and Laelius cleverly made friends with the local population to cover their march and their supply lines.
Shortly after they had arrived in Asia minor, Africanus became sick and therefore Lucius would command the army in battle. In the winter of 190/189 the Roman army, boosted by the arrival of Eumenes II.’s Pergamene army, met the Seleucid force at Magnesia near the river Sipylum. Antiochos, who allegedly commanded the bigger army, opened the contest by charging forward with his cataphracts and other cavalry. The Roman lines had nothing to make a stand against them and Antiochos easily broke through. But the Seleucid king had underestimated the morale of the Roman legions, most of who were experienced soldiers and quickly reorganized by the presence of Lucius Scipio and Laelius. In the feeling of victory, the Seleucid cavalry advanced for the Roman camp, thus practically leaving the battlefield. Now Eumenes did not hesitate to charge forward with his own horsemen and broke the flank of the Seleucid infantry. After Scipio saw that, he ordered his legions to attack and they pressed the enemy back, until Antiochos’ elephants panicked. A mass rout started and the battle was won.
Map of all battles of the Roman- Syrian War (again in German, BLUE are Roman alliance victories, RED are Seleucid alliance victories)
The Roman- Syrian War was concluded by the Peace of Apameia, which meant massive losses for the Seleucids in Asia Minor and huge gains for Pergamon and Rhodos. Meanwhile, the Aitolian League had been defeated later in 189 and became a Roman vassal. During the peace negotiations, Athenian diplomats were heavily involved and they also reorganized the Delphian Amphictyony, which had been under Aitolian control for decades. Now the polis of Delphi itself aimed to gain this control, but the Athenian delegates agreed with the Thessalian League to share the leadership. Despite not taking part in the actual fighting, Athens was one of the winners of the war. In 186 they already reopened relations with the Seleucid Empire, now under the kingship of Seleukos IV., while arranging a peace treaty between the bitter enemies Milet and Magnesia on the Meander. This shows that Athens had still preserved herself more independence and power than what is usually thought.
In 182 the great Panathenaic Games took place as usual. But this time a special guest arrived: King Ptolemaios himself took part, and his son also did. This gesture was meant to deepen the cultural relation between Athens and Alexandria and renewed their old alliance. Four years later, on the next Panathenaia, Eumenes II. of Pergamon and his three brothers took part and won in several events. Two years before, Eumenes had built the 163m long Portico near the Dionysios temple in Athens to make himself ever present in the city. Possibly it had already been built earlier in his reign (197- 158 BC).
Also in 178, the prince Antiochos, son of Antiochos the Great, who had taken has a hostage by the Romans after Apameia and lived in Rome, arrived in Athens. The city honoured him by producing coins with his face on it and erecting statues. In return, Antiochos finished the temple of the Olympian Zeus in a glamorous way, which had been begun by the Peisistratids almost 350 years before! (One might think of the Dom in Cologne here) Antiochos was also a personal friend of the Attalids, who met him in Athens repeatedly. Time after time, rumours spread about a conspiracy, and they soon turned out to be true. In 175, his brother Seleukos IV. was murdered by the Syrian general Heliodoros. The Attalids quickly reacted and sent Antiochos IV. to Asia, where he was able to seize the power by executing Heliodoros and marrying the widow of his brother. The common people now declared him a manifest god for bringing justice and thus he was crowned as Antiochos IV. Epiphanes.
The ruins of the temple of the Olympian Zeus, finished by Antiochos IV. Epiphanes
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antiokhos_IV.jpg
Bust of Antiochos IV. Epiphanes (Somehow the picture doesn't appear here)
One year later, an extraordinary decision by the Athenian rulers made the city to be heard of everywhere again. Philetairos, brother of Eumenes, the Hellenistic king himself, became naturalized in Athens. This was a big honour not only for Philetairos, but also for Athens, and testimony to everyone that Athens was the most important ally for the Attalids and the other way round.
In 171 the Third Roman- Macedonian War broke out. This time Athens stayed neutral, but sympathized with the Roman- Pergamene alliance. Two years later the Sixth Syrian War between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies was underway. Ptolemaios VI. Invited a number of embassies from Greece to negotiate with Antiochos IV. for him. Among them, the most important ones came from Athens, the Achaian League and Milet. The Athenian embassy was second in importance only to the Achaians and proved its worth.
In 168 the Romans defeated the Macedonians at Pydna and won the Third Macedonian War. Athens was rewarded for its role with the acquisition of Delos in 167, which was one of the most important trading ports in the Aegean. One year later the city celebrated the 400th Panathenaia, and rulers from the whole Mediterranean world paid their respects to the city of democracy. Eumenes, Attalos and Antiochos IV. made huge grain and silver donations, while the Romans handed the islands of Lemnos, Imbros and Skyros, together with the town of Haliatos in Boiotia, to Athens. Despite growing Roman control in Greece, Athens reemerged as a powerful state, though always as a Roman and Pergamene ally.
An event in faraway Judaea confirmed the strong position Athens had gained. In 165, the revolt of the Maccabees against Seleucid role started, and among the demands sent to Antiochos IV. it was said that they wanted a role similar to that of Athens. But Antiochos rejected and a long war began.
Perhaps in the same year or in 164, the later Attalos II. (159- 138) of Pergamon and Ariarathes V. of Cappadocia were naturalized in Athens to underline their royal claims. So it was no surprise, when Attalos, after his ascension on the throne in 159, made the so called ’’little Attalid donation’’. In fact it wasn’t that little, portraying a number of defeated giants, amazons, Persians and Galatians. The latter were the Celts who had raided Asia Minor and who had been beaten by the Attalids several times. The Galatian victories underlined their claim to kingship and their depiction in Athens itself, the center of Greek culture, was an intelligent act of propaganda on behalf of Attalos II. Until 148, he also constructed the Attalos Stoa and a new Metroon, which was a sanctuary and the urban archive at the same time.
http://www.uni-leipzig.de/antik/inde...896c855833d50e
Laying giant from the Little Attalid donation (same problem as above)
The Attalos Stoa
In 145 BC, relations with the Ptolemies were put to a test. Ptolemaios VIII. banned all intellectuals from his court in Alexandria, including many Athenian philosophers. One of them, Apollodoros, went to Pergamon, while others returned to Greece or searched for other royal courts. But the relationship between Athens and Alexandria quickly recovered and continued to be close and friendly.
During the same time, the political events in Greece and Africa had made the Roman Empire the greatest power on Earth. Macedon was no more, while Carthage and Corinth had been destroyed. Athens was still an ally of Rome and did not have to fear to be punished but it increasingly felt that its status was rather that of a vassal, than that of a true ally. In the East, the Attalids had already realized this and when Attalos III. died in 133 BC without a successor, he bequeathed his realm on Rome. Two years later, the ferocious tribe of the Parthians invaded Seleucid territory a new. After initial successes of Antiochos VII., he was honoured in Athens, but the war soon turned into a catastrophe. The Seleucid Empire lost its Babylonian and Persian homelands and was reduced to an insignificant kingdom in Syria, while the Parthians emerged as the only power equal to Rome.
However, for Athens, those were quiet times. The teenage Antiochos VII. Gryphos had studied in the city until 125 when he became basileus with 16, but other than that relations with the crumbling Hellenistic kingdoms began to cease, while Rome had put Athens to its place as a vassal. For three decades, Athens was a peaceful place, profiting from the trade base on Delos and the famous philosophy schools. It’s symbolic meaning remained immeasurable and more and more Romans came to study in Athens, while Athenians served as advisors for the senate and the officials in Rome.
But it seems that Athens was never a boring place, and in 91 BC a man called Medeios smartly seized control of the city. His opponents called him a tyrant, but not a lot his known about this man. He only ruled for three years, when bigger events unfold: In Northern Asia Minor in a region called Pontos King Mithridates VI. rose as a new threat for Rome. After acquiring the Bosphoran kingdom on the Crimea and expanding on the East coast of the Black Sea, he allied with Tigranes II. the Great of Armenia. Together, they subjugated the East, with Pontos expanding as far as Bithynia and Armenia shortly even gaining control of Judaea. In 88 BC, in the Asiatic Vespers, or Vesper of Ephesos, 80 000 Roman and Italian citizen in Asia minor were executed and massacred on command of Mithridates on a single day. The army of Pontos crushed the Romans in Asia Minor and Mithridates emerged as Rome’s bitterest enemy since the days of Hannibal.
The Eastern Mediterranean in 89 BC
Electrified by Mithridates’ successes and his demonstration of sheer power, Athens dropped away from Rome and agreed an alliance with Pontos. Mithridates installed his loyal servant Athenion as a tyrant on his behalf, who was later succeeded by Aristion. But Rome had a general equal to Mithridates not only as a military, but also in the fear he could spread: Lucius Cornelius Sulla. In 86 BC he arrived at the walls of Athens and besieged the city. The desperate Aristion could not hope for reinforcements and thus on the 1st of March the city fell once again, this time to the Romans. Sulla conquered the old city and sacked it, damaging many of the public buildings. Athens would never regain its independence from this point on, and was occupied as just another Roman town.
But once again, the Athenians lived up to their great reputation as clever thinkers. The damages were quickly repaired and the Sulleia- games were introduced to honour the conqueror. Also, a damnatio memoriae for the eponym archon of 88/87 was made. For many decades, this made historians and archaeologists alike speculate over who that man was. The year was called a year of anarchia, and was still known as that during the reign of the emperor Claudius in the middle of the 1st century AD. Christian Habicht convincingly argued, that this means only one man could have been the eponym archon: Mithridates himself. Even more than 100 years later he was still seen as one of Rome’s greatest and most feared enemies, and his name shall not be named.
In 85/84 the peace of Dardanos ended the First Mithridatic war, more or less a stalemate between Rome and Pontos. In Athens not only the Sulleia were introduced, but also all relatives of Aristion were banned from the city. One year later the mints produced coins portraying Harmodios and Aristogeiton, the tyrant murderers- a clear sign against Aristion and Mithridates. While the conflicts in Rome and between Rome and Pontos continued, a 27-year-old philosophy student arrived in Athens in 79 BC. His name was Marcus Tullius Cicero and it was here that he would learn a lot of his rhetoric that would make him so famous until the present day.
Athens' political autonomy had ended, but strangely it did not really harm or annoy the people. Its economy was thriving; the philosophy schools made it known throughout the world and the public buildings were as impressive as Rome’s. By now, Athens had become more than a mere town, it was a Legend. Greeks and Romans alike called It ’’the origin of all good that mankind has’’, the center of civilization, role model for the world. Contemporary and later authors, be it Cicero or Athenaios, Pliny or the Amphictyony in Delphi, all of them were full of praise for Athens. The powerful classic Athens had had its critics and enemies, but Hellenistic Athens was admired and respected by everyone, whatever the political circumstances.
It is needless to tell the story of the 2nd and 3rd Mithridatic Wars and the Roman civil wars here. For Athens it was a quiet and good time, only attracting special attention by erecting statues for Brutus and Cassius in 44 BC, like most of Greece did. In the winter of 32/31, Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra arrived in Athens to spend their last time before the fateful confrontation with Octavian and Agrippa there. The city and the citizens honoured them in different ways, but one day a storm appeared on the skies. The winds were so strong that they overthrew the statues of Ptolemaios III. and Attalos I. - a bad omen.
On 2 September 31, Octavian defeated Antonius in the battle of Action and ended the period of Hellenism, establishing the Roman Empire in all its glory. At the end of the year, after a wait of 256 years, he restored the city of Oropos in Boiotia to Athens.
Historical background for the Rome II factions
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