Early Modern Athens and Early Travellers to Greece - Essay Example

Early Modern Athens and Early Travelers to Greece In its recorded history of over three thousand years, Athens has seen many changes. Commonly referred to as the cradle of civilization, Athens has played a pivotal role in the development of the country that we now know as Greece (Martin). The city has long been the hub of Greek influence, spanning from its early days as the leading city of Classical Greece in the fifth century B.C. Athens is also the birthplace of democracy, largely due to the cultural and political impact of the city on the then known European continent during the fifth and fourth centuries B. C (Stoneman). Some of history's most revered poets, scholars, and military minds once called this great city home. Since its formation in the Mycenaean Period, there have been several different civilizations that have brought new changes and new eras to the Athenian and Greek society as a whole. Each new era ushered in important societal changes that brought differing levels of modernization to the city as Greece continued to grow in importance throughout Europe and eastern civilizations. Though unified under a single ruler for many centuries, Greece not once in its long history ever unite all of its city-states to form what we now recognize as a nation until modern times (Wilson). In ancient Greece, each city-state was placed under a ruler as a territory who was governed by the emperor or king with no other unity among them. The people could relate to one another through their culture. For example, they all spoke the same language and worshipped the same gods, though they did not recognize themselves as belonging to the same union (Constantine). The ideals of a united Greek society began under the rule of Phillip of Macedon and ended when the empire was pulled apart after the death of his son, Alexander, in 323 B.C. The Hellenic ideal of a united empire began in 338 B.C. with the Battle of Chaeronea, where Athens fell to the invading Macedonian king, Phillip (Constantine). It was after this battle that the city-states, most notably including Athens, lost their independence, eventually leading toward the unification of the Greek territories. This marked an important milestone in Greek history as Phillip of Macedon defeated the Persians, thus freeing the Greek people from slavery. Phillip ushered in the Classical Age of Greece, a time marked both by war and significant literary and cultural advances to the Greek society. His ideals of a Hellenic Greece were spread by his son, Alexander the Great, who took the throne in 336 B.C. Phillip also brought with him a new ruling class of Greeks, the Macedonians (Martin). The strength of their armies and their immense wealth set the Macedonians apart from the other Greek races. Their superiority in education and military expertise set the stage for the conquests of Alexander the Great. Alexander and his armies spread the ideals of a united Greek empire as they set out and conquered the Persians, India, and parts of Asia within a seven year period. The young ruler's goal was to spread the Greek empire to the sea, believing that in reaching the ocean he would reach the edge of the world. In each conquered land, Alexander set up new Greek cities, promoting them as centers of culture and civilization. He spread the Greek language into Asia, making it the predominant language of trade at the time. During the rule of Alexander, Athens lost its place as a dominant city in the empire (Martin). Alexander's new cultural cities were designed to enhance the education of the people, particularly in the sciences, as well as to end the Macedonian racial views of the supposed barbarians who occupied the lands to the east. The growing importance of these new cities as cultural centers left Athens obsolete in the new empire. The city still retained its importance as a wealthy learning center. Alexander passed away suddenly in 323 B.C. before his dream was realized. The true beginning of the Hellenic period in Greek history is marked with the death of Alexander (Constantine). When Alexander the Great died without directly naming an heir, it began a war among his generals to see who would succeed the great empire's throne. The battles between his self-proclaimed successors carried on for forty years as the empire was divided into four separate kingdoms, not including the Greek Isles which remained predominantly under the control of Macedonia, which were ruled by a different one of the successors. Though clashes between the kingdoms carried on for nearly three hundred years, it was during this time that the Greeks began to view themselves not just as belonging to a single city-state, but belonging to the empire as a whole (Unknown). The barbarian labels fell away as even through the turbulence of the era, the separate kingdoms acknowledged both themselves and the other kingdoms as Greek. This led to a wider influence of the Greek culture as the cities created by Alexander joined the other Greek cities in the empire as political strongholds and cultural centers as Greeks migrated from their homeland into the new territories. Various hybrids of the Greek culture sprung up in these territories as the incoming Greeks adapted the customs of the local people as necessary to maintain their control over the area. During this time, Athens grew as an independent state within the empire, gaining and maintaining its position as the epicenter of cultural learning and higher education (Martin). The city of Athens was followed in cultural rankings by the city of Alexandria. The end of the Hellenic period of ancient Greece was heralded by the invasion and conquest of the empire by the Romans in 146 B.C. The long, drawn-out battles between Alexander's successors had left the Greek empire vulnerable to the Roman armies. The establishment of Greece as an annex to the Roman Empire did not end the Hellenic ideals unifying the Greeks (Constantine). It did, however, mark the end of Greek independence for many years. Roman colonists were brought to Greece, paying special attention to the city of Athens, much of the housing of which had been mostly leveled by the Roman invaders. As the people of Athens rebuilt, the city was granted the special status of an independent city-state from the Romans because of its prestige as a learning center. The Romans continued to build libraries and schools in the city even after the invasion of the Heruli in 267 A.D. during which all of the public centers were burned. The Greek language continued to dominate, spreading further into the Roman Empire, as did their culture. Much of what we now know as Roman culture, myths, and legends was born from the ancient Greeks (Wilson). During the rule of the Romans, Greece came under the influence of Christianity as the apostle Paul taught his beliefs to the people in Athens, effectively marking the end of pagan learning in the city. The emperor Justinian closed many of the schools, marking the beginning of the end of ancient Athens as political power. Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire and Greece quickly became one of the most Christianized areas of the empire. The fall of the Roman Empire in 395 A.D. signaled the beginning of the Byzantine era in Greek history (Martin). The Byzantine era is defined by the continuation of Greek culture combined with Roman and Eastern influences, marked by the increasing popularity of Christianity as the dominant religion. The name came from the original name of the city of Constantinople, which became the political seat of the Eastern Empire under Emperor Constantine in 330 A.D. As Constantinople grew in favor with the new regime, Athens fell out of it. The city maintained its Roman-given state of independence, but lost many of its former cultural centers to the invaders as libraries and art were moved to the new political seat of Constantinople, their previous homes turned into churches (Martin). The eastern area of the Roman Empire faced little of the difficulties present in the rest of the empire as the Romans were defeated by Hun invaders since the Eastern provinces had the finances to play host to foreign leaders and pay off the invaders in order to keep peace. After the death of Atilla the Hun in 453 A.D. the Eastern Empire remained strong, enjoying a period of peace as the rest of the empire disintegrated at the hands of the Germanic Romans. The still dominant eastern half of the empire remained a stronghold under various Byzantine emperors who sought to spread their influence through culture and religion. It was around this time that Athens saw a marked recovery from the decline faced at the beginning of the Byzantine rule. The Eastern Empire remained a large influence in global culture due to their impressive fleets who ruled the surrounding seas from the empirical hub of Constantinople, strategically placed at the apex of the European and Asian continents. While this placement of power shifted global domination to the east, it also brought unwanted attention to the empire from invaders (Wilson). The beginning of Frankish rule over Greece began with the first Crusade in 1096. During the first of the four holy wars, the Greek Isles were taken by the Crusaders. The dismantling of the Byzantine empire continued throughout the second, third and fourth Crusades, ending in the fall of Constantinople in 1204. Though the empire did not survive the Crusades, the ideas of Hellenism did. The ideals of national unity formed pockets of resistance among the Greeks, beginning with the taking back of Constantinople in 1262. The revived Greek state carried on for two hundred years before falling to the Ottoman Turks. Even the Greeks that remained under Frankish rule held on to their Hellenic ideals, causing small revolutions as the city of Constantinople barricaded itself against invaders (Martin). The city eventually fell in 1453. Though the empire fell during the crusades, the city of Athens enjoyed a prosperity not seen in several hundred years, since before the invasion of the Byzantines. The city encouraged and benefited from trade routes, mainly with Italy. As it rebuilt over the ruins left by invaders, the city drew notice from large cities of other provinces, notably Venice, all of whom sent traders to Athens as it grew in importance as a marketplace. The city of Athens fell to the Latin invaders of the Crusades in 1204. In the time period between the fourth Crusade and the Ottoman invasion in 1458, Athens was under the rule of several different Latin rulers. The city remained a capital city of the empire for many years and was the last city-state to fall to the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman ruler, Mehmet II, was awestruck at the beauty of the city (Martin). He set it up as a model provincial capital and protected the city's art and monuments on penalty of death. Despite the adoration of the city by the early Ottoman rulers, the city faced a dramatic decline under their rule, falling from provincial capital to a mere village in a remarkably short amount of time. As the people abandoned the city, the Ottoman rulers found other uses for the historical monuments. The neglect of the Ottomans as their status in the world declined would cause great damage to Athens. Where the early Ottoman rulers had praised the city and attempted to seal its destiny as one of the premiere cities in the world, the latter Ottomans would begin storing gun powder in the cities monuments, notably the Parthenon and Propylaea. As the Venetians invaded the city, the Ottomans dismantled the temple of Athena Nike to help fortify the Parthenon (Wilson). During the struggle, a lone shot fired in the Acropolis set off the explosives the Turks had been storing there, causing a massive explosion and giving the structure its current appearance. The Venetians continued their siege of the city, looting the Parthenon among other historical monuments before eventually setting fire to the city. The ancient buildings not destroyed by the fire were dismantled, their parts used to form a wall around Athens. Many of the city's pieces of art were either looted or sold to neighboring countries. Athens remained under Ottoman rule despite a Greek resurgence in 1822, until 1833 when the Ottomans were defeated and Greece became an independent kingdom (Unknown). In the new kingdom, Athens was named the capital city and continues to be so today. At the time that it was named capitol, the city was virtually uninhabited. All that remained of the once-great city was a small amount of buildings nestled at the base of the Acropolis. Once chosen as the capitol city, a massive restructuring and rebuilding of Athens was began by the Bavarian prince, King Othon, the proclaimed king of Greece. He assigned contractors to construct a modernized city plan and begin the rebuilding of the city to the massive urban center that it is today (Wilson). Greece has a long, rich history filled with a constant influx of different people of differing cultures, whether through trade or invasion. One things that all of these people seem to have in common is that the Greek culture influenced their own way of life, whether through blending with the Greeks or through a complete change over to the Greek way of life. The Hellenic ideals of a unified society, where there were no racial boundaries or prejudices, that was began under Phillip of Macedon continued for many hundreds of years, resulting in the influence of the Greek culture throughout Europe and parts of Asia. Athens played an important role in the spread of Greek ideas and learning by becoming an important marketplace for trade. The city also provided visitors and colonists alike with a way to study Greek traditions with its famous schools, holding a seat as an important cultural learning center as well as being a dominant political power throughout most of its three thousand year history. Travelers through the city inevitably took away some piece of the country whether through new customs adopted or through the Greek language, which became the predominant language of trade throughout Europe and parts of Asia early in the city's history (Stoneman). Though the city was besieged several times by invaders, it only once lost its place among the cultural learning centers of the world. That time was when the city fell, during the fourth Crusade at the advent of Christianity as the preferred religion of the empire. Despite the best efforts of invaders to destroy the city, it has rebuilt itself time and time again to retake its place among the top historical and cultural cities in the world. Greece as a whole faced many changes over the years, the least of those being changes in regime. As each new ruler entered the country, they brought with them their own ideas for political rule. The one thing that transcended all of the changes in rulers is the spread of Hellenism among the Greeks and the countries under their command. The ideal of a united people held the country together during the low points of its history, leading to revolutions against the monarchies that would oppress the people. It also unified Greeks across two continents, forming strong alliances and empires. The unity as Greeks did not even fall during the battle between Alexander the Great's self-proclaimed successors, whose wars between themselves and their claimed territories led to the weakness that allowed the Romans to conquer the Macedonian empire. In modern times there is still a strong sense of nationality among the Greek people. There is a sense of pride in their nationality and in their heritage that has not diminished with time. In the roughly fifteen hundred years encompassed here, Athens has gone from an independent city-state to a wrecked village and back to a seat of power in Greece. The city has undergone massive destruction and near devastation. It returned from that place to be the capital city of the free kingdom of Greece, where it remains today. The city is still considered a center of great cultural importance and education, though few of the buildings hearken back to the city's original and most notable scholars, artists and authors, such as Aristotle, Sophocles, Euripides. Athens has built on the foundations of its ancient heritage, continuing the ideals of Hellenism into modern times by not forgetting its past. In Classical Greece, Athens was a city of great political power, showcasing the modernization of the European world with its libraries and well-known schools. As the Macedonian armies invaded and established their dominance over Greece, Athens lost some of its political power to the cities formed by Alexander, notably his newly formed Alexandria. Even through the loss of political power, the city retained its place as the premiere place for learning and the arts. It maintained its schools, monuments, and self-awareness even into the Roman conquest of the Macedonian Empire. Though the Romans did not move the capital back to Athens, it remained an important cultural center of their empire as they spread the ideals of Hellenism instigated by the Macedonians throughout Europe and parts of Asia. Athens fell from grace in the Roman Empire as Constantinople emerged as the new capital city. The advent of Christianity as the dominant religion of the empire affirmed the decline of the great city for many years, ending with the first of the Crusades and the beginning of Frankish rule. Athens was fortunately spared many of the upheavals felt by its sister cities as the Byzantine Empire fell to the Turks. Athens resurged as a city of great importance through acquiring status as a trade route during three of the Crusades, its windfall ending with the invasion of the Ottoman Turks during the fourth of the Crusades. During this time the city suffered a drastic reduction in population as it struggled for continued existence. Though the city was largely diminished, the Ottoman's used it as a military stronghold, storing large amounts of weapons and explosives in some of the most historic buildings in the city. When the Venetians invaded, conquering the Ottomans, it led to further destruction in the city, notably in some of the most ancient buildings. Once normality was restored to the Greek empire, plans were made and executed for the rebuilding of the city. This rebuilding has resulted in the preservation of many historical monuments in and around Athens. It also returned the kingdom's seat of political power to the city, once again making it a political stronghold. Despite its colorful history, Athens and the Greek people have endured, continuing to cement their place as a culturally rich area of the world. Works Cited Constantine, David. Early Greek Travelers and the Hellenic Ideals. Cambridge: Cambridge Press, 1984. Martin, Thomas R. Ancient Greece. 20 November 2007. 1 December 2008 . Stoneman, Richard. Land of Lost Gods: The Search for Classical Greece. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987. Unknown. History of Greece. 7 July 2007. 1 December 2008 . Wilson, Nigel. Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece. London: Routledge, 2006. Read More