ATHENS CIVITAS

Athens has been selected by Roberto Amati in relation to the real history of european integration, then enlisted in the CITY OR CIVITAS category, accompanied by own fact SHEET useful to the comprehension, completed of historical MAPS AND IMAGES or with a direct linking to the related Blog contents dedicated to the entire history of european integration and the future of Europe.

Athens is one of the most ancient cities of the history of European integration, signed in great part by Christianity. The Civitas Athens was founded thousands of years ago by Greeks people, under the rock hosting the Acropolis, the spiritual citadel of several ancient religious temples and buildings whom most famous is the Parthenon. Its name came from the ancient goddess Athena that was the protector of the city-state (πόλις) became famous still today for being a centre for democracy, the arts, education and philosophy, such important that highly influented the European continent, particularly in ancient Rome, still today regarded as the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy in its own right independently from the rest of Greece.

Neverthless the invasion of Dorian people, Athens always maintained its independence and was one of the leading centres of trade and prosperity in the region, developed a significant naval power with a large fleet and led the Delian League against the Persian invasion in V century BC, allied to its eternal rival city of Sparta. That provoked the decadence of the city after the Peloponnesian War, opening the way to submission to Macedonians and to Romans in the II century BC, together with all Greece.

Within the reform of Augustus (see Roman Empire), Athens was part of the Acaja province and obtained the status of "free city" because of its history and widely admired ancient school ("the Academy"), then was connected to the rest of Balcanic peninsula by the Graeca way reaching the other ancient and christian civitas of Thessaloniki and Corinth. With the reform of Constantine I (see Christian Empire), Athens became part of the Acaja Diocesis whose capital was Corinth, while in the city remained open the centers and schools of philosophy and pagans aside of the christian community founded by Dionysius the Areopagite and Saint Paul.

After the sacks of the Visigoths and Slavs, between V and VI centuries AD, Athens was included in the Hellas theme and followed the political events and resurrection of the Bizantine Empire, as the "Crusader's sack" of 1204 AD that captured Athens to the Catholics Church until 1458 AD, when it was conquered by Ottoman. At the end of the Greek War of Independence, in 1830 Athens became the capital of the Greek Kingdom under the rule of the Oldenburg dinasty and remained in the actual Greece Republic.

In Athens there are two monumentsenlisted in the UNESCO Wordl Heritage: the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery. The a City of Athens is among the ten largest urban area in the European Union, located in the center of Greece within the Attica region, whose patron is Dionysius the Areopagite, the first bishops of the civitas and disciple of Saint Paul.

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