Quotes About Athens

The Athenians had failed in the fifth century BCE; now it was to be the turn of the Spartans.

Athens and the Greek peninsula marked the western limit of the three great Hellenistic kingdoms

Victory over Athens simply replaced a much-resented Athenian empire with a Spartan one that would soon be resented

the other, a fragile alliance of Thebes, Corinth, Argos, and Athens, backed by Persia.

the world's first functioning democracy is usually said to have been created in Athens during the years 508–507 BCE.

As the century wore on, the Delian League was matched by the 'Peloponnesian League'

during the 460s BCE, Athenian democracy had been radically overhauled.

providing the leadership that had eluded both Athens and Sparta for so long.

some supporting Macedonia, others, including Athens, supporting Rome.

Alexander sent a trophy to Athens, to be dedicated to the city's patron goddess, Athena.

The military machine that had humbled Athens in the Peloponnesian War had become simply irrelevant.

In the years 416 and 415 BCE, Athens had recovered sufficiently to embark on two of the most notorious episodes of the war

Socrates had been born in Athens in 469 BCE. His career would span the entire second half of the century

Socrates immersed himself in the cutting-edge intellectual work of his day, then transcended it. He took advantage of the fact that the most exciting thinkers in the Western world were drawn to Athens. He sought them out, learned what they had to teach, then challenged what he had learned to enhance his own understanding.

It is no surprise that the only woman in antiquity who could be the subject of a full-length biography is Cleopatra. Yet, unlike Alexander, whom she rivals as the theme of romance and legend, Cleopatra is known to us through overwhelmingly hostile sources. The reward of the 'good' woman in Rome was likely to be praise in stereotyped phrases; in Athens she won oblivion.

his original manuscript of Cotton Comes to Harlem. Unfortunately, he left it behind on his return journey at the Athens

Through the whole epoch of her prosperity, through the long Olympiads of her decay, through centuries after her fall, Athens looked back on the day of Marathon as the brightest of her national existence.

An ancient tradition declares that every idiot blunder we pass into law will sooner or later redound to Athens' profit.

The law itself is accused of iniquity, and impeached, like the orators of Athens when they have persuaded the assembly to pass unjust decrees.

I knew very little or nothing about the Olympics. Having qualified was itself a big achievement for me, and then being there was quite overwhelming. Although I lost in the opening round, but the fact that I fought well was enough for me to take away from Athens.

But then something went terribly, terribly wrong. Athens had invented a democracy, but learned that you could have a democracy or an empire, but not both at the same time for long. Rome was now about to relearn that lesson. It had invented a republic, but was now to learn that you could have a republic or an empire, but not both at the same time for long.

Atenas también necesitaban remeros, lo cual significaba que los hombres libres que no poseían mucho más que su fuerza podían obtener la ciudadanía empuñando el remo.

Who can tell? Together, with God's blessing — which surely He will not withhold — you may perhaps be laying the groundwork, the foundation for a future Athens, an Athens of the South. Yes. And this young woman's child, so soon to be born," he added, indicating Ella with a deferential nod, "will be one of its leading citizens, the one perhaps under whom it will come to flower, a beacon for the South, a torch held out.

As much as London or Paris, and certainly more than Berlin or Madrid, Edinburgh was the epicenter of Aristotle's Enlightenment. Small wonder, then, that it dubbed itself the Athens of the North.