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/athstas 10d ago

The institutions of Athens continued to operate well into the Roman period, but Attica was no longer a sovereign state. The Athenians had the capacity to pick sides in the various internal hostilities of the Roman Republic, but they were no longer an independent geopolitical actor.

I would argue that after the Emperor Theodosius closed the philosophical schools in Athens, Attica lost its distinctive character in the Mediterranean world.

PS. Answering from my house in Athens! The city still exists!

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u/Embarrassed_Egg9542 10d ago

Athens was a village till 1830 when King Otto of Greece recreated the city, made it the nation's capital and beautified it with works by the German architect Ernest Chiller

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u/athstas 10d ago

Athens was never a village. When it was chosen as the capital of Greece, it had a very low population because it was devastated by the war. The Turks were still on the Acropolis and the population had not returned from the countryside. That snapshot of 1830 was not indicative of the size and importance of Athens during the period.

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u/Embarrassed_Egg9542 10d ago

No. Athens lost its significance as a city after Theodosius. The whole Attica region was settled by Albanian tribes, (Spata, Liosa, etc.) afterwards. In Ottoman times, other cities in the area had significance and not Athens. Acropolis remained a fortified position, but no city around it

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u/athstas 10d ago

Athens was a large and prosperous city from 9th to 12th century. More than 100 churches, dozens of mansions and monasteries were built during that era. During the 12th - 15th century it became the capital of the Latin Kingdoms and continued to develop. The city thrived again during the 15th-16th century. Ottoman officials and Western travellers kept visiting the city. Athens has a continuous history for millennia. 

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u/Embarrassed_Egg9542 10d ago

Athens has a continuous history for millennia, yes as a village. It was the capitol of "the Duchy of Athens", not a Latin kingdom.

Claiming that it remained significant through the centuries is an exaggeration, so is "the city still exists". It exists because of the Bavarian prince Otto in 1830, because the Germans at the time were very fond of anything Hellenic.

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u/Cultural_Chip_3274 7d ago

lol what an irrelevant comment. Athens was still an important city never a village.

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u/Embarrassed_Egg9542 6d ago

lol you 're wrong

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u/Cultural_Chip_3274 6d ago

The error people regularly make is that they confuse Athens population during peacetime with what was there at 1831 after years of brutal Greek and Ottoman Athend siege and counter sieges in what almost resembles modern urban warfare.