Ancient Philosophy

Pre-Socratics

Athens in Relation to Culture

The greatness of Athens begins in the period between the two Persian Wars (490 and 480—479 BCE). Prior to this, Ionia and Greater Greece (the Greek cities of Southern Italy and Sicily) had produced great figures. The victories of Athens over the Persian king Darius at Marathon (490 BCE) and the united Greek fleet, under Athenian leadership, against his son and successor Xerxes (480 BCE), conferred immense prestige upon the city. The Ionians on the islands and parts of the coast of Asia Minor rose up against the Persians, and after the Persians were expelled from the Greek mainland, they were liberated by Athens. The Spartans, focused solely on their own territory, played no part in this struggle. Thus, Athens became the dominant member of the alliance against Persia. Under the terms of the alliance, each participating state was required to supply a certain number of ships or reimburse their cost. Most opted for the latter, allowing Athens to acquire naval supremacy over its allies and gradually transform the alliance into an Athenian empire. Athens became a wealthy city, flourishing under the wise leadership of Pericles, who governed through free elections for nearly 30 years until his decline in 430 BCE.

The Age of Pericles was the happiest and most glorious time in the history of Athens. Aeschylus, who participated in the Persian Wars, was the progenitor of Greek tragedy. One of his tragedies, "The Persians," breaks from the tradition of Homeric subjects to recount the defeat of Darius. He was soon followed by Sophocles, and then by Euripides, who, however, lived to witness the grim days of the Peloponnesian War, which followed the fall and death of Pericles. Euripides reflected in his plays the skepticism of a later period. His contemporary, the poet Aristophanes, wrote comedies that mocked various "isms" from the standpoint of sturdy and limited common sense, notably ridiculing Socrates as a man who denies the existence of Zeus and indulges in demonic and pseudoscientific mysteries.

Athens was captured by Xerxes, and the temples on the Acropolis were destroyed by fire. Pericles dedicated himself to their reconstruction, building the Parthenon and other temples, the ruins of which still astonish our imaginations today. The sculptor Phidias was commissioned by the state to create colossal statues of gods and goddesses. By the end of this period, Athens had become the most beautiful and magnificent city of the Hellenic world.

Herodotus, the father of history, hailing from Halicarnassus in Asia Minor but residing in Athens, received support from the Athenian state and provided an account of the Persian Wars from the Athenian perspective. The achievements of Athens during the era of Pericles may be the most astonishing phenomenon in all of history. Up until that time, Athens lagged behind many other Greek cities, having produced no great figures in art or literature (except for Solon, who was mainly a legislator). Suddenly, influenced by victory and wealth, and driven by the necessity of reconstruction, architects, sculptors, and playwrights—still unmatched—created works that defined the future of these arts up to the present day. This becomes even more remarkable when we consider the small population involved in this endeavor. Around 430 BCE, Athens reached its peak population, estimated at approximately 230,000 (including slaves); the population of the surrounding rural Attica likely fell short of the city's numbers. Never before or since, in any state approaching Athens in population, to say nothing of its area, has such high perfection in art been achieved.

In philosophy, Athens produced only two great figures: Socrates and Plato. Although Plato belongs to a slightly later period, the youth and early maturity of Socrates coincided with the age of Pericles. The Athenians were sufficiently interested in philosophy to eagerly listen to teachers from other cities. There was a great demand for sophists among young men eager to learn the art of argumentation. In "Protagoras," Plato’s Socrates offers remarkable satirical depictions of fervent students hanging on the words of a famous guest. Pericles, as we shall see later, invited Anaxagoras to Athens, from whom Socrates, as he himself acknowledges, acquired the idea of the primacy of spirit in creation.

Most of Plato's dialogues, by the design of their creator, are set in the time of Pericles and paint an attractive picture of the lives of the wealthy. Plato came from an aristocratic Athenian family and was raised in the traditions of the period preceding the time when war and democracy shattered the wealth and security of the upper classes. The young men he describes, unburdened by the necessity to work, spent much of their leisure engaged in science, mathematics, and philosophy; they could recite Homer by heart and were discerning critics of the merits of professional reciters in poetry. Later, the art of deductive reasoning was discovered, which contributed to the emergence of new theories, both true and false, in all areas of knowledge. In that age, as in few others, one could be both happy and wise, and to be happy through wisdom.

Yet the balance of power that fostered this Golden Age was precarious. Threats arose both from within, through democracy, and from without, from Sparta. To understand what transpired after Pericles, we must briefly examine the early history of Attica. At the dawn of the historical period, Attica was a small, independent agricultural region. Its capital, Athens, was a modest city, but its population steadily increased to include a growing class of craftsmen and skilled artisans eager to sell their products abroad. Gradually, it became evident that producing wine and olives was more profitable than grain, which was primarily imported from the Black Sea coast. This occupation required more capital than farming, leading small farmers into debt. In the Homeric period, Attica, like other city-states of Greece, was ruled monarchically, but the monarch became merely a religious figure without political power. Power shifted to the aristocracy, which oppressed both rural farmers and urban artisans. In the early sixth century, Solon implemented a compromise reform in favor of democracy, and most of his measures survived the subsequent tyranny of Pisistratus and his sons. By the end of this period, the aristocrats, as opponents of tyranny, began to advocate for democracy. Before the fall of Pericles, democratic movements had brought the aristocracy to power, much as occurred later in 19th-century England. However, by the end of Pericles’ life, leaders of the Athenian democracy began to demand greater participation in political power. At the same time, his imperialistic policies, which were linked to the economic prosperity of Athens, provoked escalating tensions with Sparta, ultimately leading to the Peloponnesian War (431—404 BCE), in which Athens suffered a complete defeat.

Despite the political collapse, Athens maintained its prestige, and for nearly a millennium, it remained the center of philosophy. Alexandria surpassed Athens in mathematics and science, but Aristotle and Plato brought Athens primacy in philosophy. The Academy, where Plato taught, outlasted all other schools; it continued to exist as a bastion of paganism for two centuries after the Roman Empire converted to Christianity. Finally, in 529 CE, it was closed by the religious fanatic Justinian, ushering in centuries of darkness in Europe.