Athens

An important city for about three thousand years. It is now the capital of Greece. Its ancient architecture and ruins of old buildings (the Parthenon and several ancient temples) show what a beautiful city it was hundreds of years before the time of Christ. It was the center of Greek art, science, and philosophy and was the most important university city of the ancient world. Athens’s time of greatest glory was 459–431 BC when it was a city-state. Later it was defeated in war by the Spartans, then by the Romans, and later by the Goths and the Turks. Paul visited the city on his second missionary journey and spoke to a group of people. In the sermon, he called attention to an altar marked “To an Unknown God” that he had seen in the city. Although some became Christians during his visit, there is no record of Paul beginning a church in Athens.