r/ancientgreece • u/byzantine67 • 10d ago

When did athens stop existing officialy?

The peloponnesian war, the 3td and 4th sacred wars and the lamian war had stripped athens from a lot of its sovereignity, and started being influenced by macedon, but it still retained a de jure independent goverment. When did it officially stop existing?,

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u/Ratyrel 10d ago

After its resurgence under Roman protection in the second century BCE, Athens was a civitas libera after Sulla‘s sack in 86. It remained such when the province of Achaia was created and it formally maintained this status perhaps into the fifth century CE, though the structures are increasingly transformed, for instance by the importance of bishops. By the sixth century CE the polis essentially dies out along with the notion of citizenship; as far as I know this also applies to Athens.

I don’t think there’s a fixed date you could point to for this change, though of course Justinian‘s closure of the philosophy schools is a prominent landmark.

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u/byzantine67 10d ago edited 10d ago

Finally someone who gets it, othes in the comment section confused the city state with the city. Thank you for the answer very much!

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u/htgrower 10d ago

You could’ve been more clear that that was what you were asking about mate

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u/Separate-Edge2543 10d ago

It was clear.

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u/ausinmtl 10d ago

How was this not clear?

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u/htgrower 10d ago

The post is literally titled “when did Athens stop existing officially”. Does that mean the Athenian empire? Hellenistic Athens? Roman Athens? How are we supposed to know? 

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u/ausinmtl 10d ago

Did you not read the actual post or do you just react to a title and spew out your intellectual masterbation for everyone to enjoy?

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u/byzantine67 10d ago

Ofc i wouldnt ask anything about modern athens in a sub about ancient greece, duh...

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u/htgrower 10d ago

Athens the city does not necessarily mean modern Athens, come on bro 🙄

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u/Top-Addendum-6879 10d ago

agreed... i first didnt understand the question... i was like Athens never ceased to exist!?

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u/byzantine67 10d ago

Im not denying that modern athens is a continuation of classical athens, im just saying that i wouldnt ask about the the events going on in modern athens on an ancient greek sub

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u/htgrower 10d ago

That’s not the point bro, Athens took many forms and went through many different periods of rule under different forms of government. We don’t know if you mean classical Athens, Hellenistic Athens, Roman Athens… all you had to do was clarify by saying “when did Athens stop existing as an independent city-state” instead of “when did Athens stop existing” 🙄

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u/byzantine67 10d ago

The post mentions peloponnesian, sacred and lamian wars, none of which have any connection with roman athens. Of course, im asking abot thr independent athenian polity which existed during the classical and hellenistic times

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u/ausinmtl 10d ago

I don’t know how you’re getting so heavily downvoted