Athens

Athens was the leading city-state, or polis, of ancient Greece, situated in the region of Attica on the Greek mainland. From 508 BC the city developed a direct democracy in which adult male citizens voted in person in the Assembly rather than through elected representatives, a system that endured with only brief interruptions for close to two centuries. During its classical era Athens became a center of art, philosophy, and learning, home to figures such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and its political and cultural achievements are widely credited as a foundation of later Western civic and intellectual life. As a nationality identity for a historical figure in this atlas, Athens designates a person who belonged to this city-state and its civic community, distinct from the wider Greek-speaking world beyond Attica.