=Athanis=, a man who wrote an account of Sicily. _Athenæus_, bk. 3. =Atheas=, a king of Scythia, who implored the assistance of Philip of Macedonia against the Istrians, and laughed at him when he had furnished him with an army. _Justin_, bk. 9, ch. 2. =Athēna=, the name of Minerva among the Greeks; and also among the Egyptians, before Cecrops had introduced the worship of the goddess into Greece. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 2. =Athēnæ=, a celebrated city of Attica, founded about 1556 years before the christian era, by Cecrops and an Egyptian colony. It was called _Cecropia_ from its founder, and afterwards _Athenæ_ in honour of Minerva, who had obtained the right of giving it a name in preference to Neptune. _See:_ Minerva. It was governed by 17 kings in the following order:――After a reign of 50 years, Cecrops was succeeded by Cranaus, who began to reign 1506 B.C.; Amphictyon, 1497; Erichthonius, 1487; Pandion, 1437; Erichtheus, 1397; Cecrops II., 1347; Pandion II., 1307; Ægeus, 1283; Theseus, 1235; Menestheus, 1205; Demophoon, 1182; Oxyntes, 1149; Aphidas, 1137; Thymœtes, 1136; Melanthus, 1128; and Codrus, 1091, who was killed after a reign of 21 years. The history of the 12 first of these monarchs is mostly fabulous. After the death of Codrus the monarchical power was abolished, and the state was governed by 13 perpetual, and 317 years after, by seven decennial, and lastly, B.C. 684, after an anarchy of three years, by annual magistrates, called Archons. _See:_ Archontes. Under this democracy, the Athenians signalized themselves by their valour in the field, their munificence, and the cultivation of the fine arts. They were deemed so powerful by the Persians, that Xerxes, when he invaded Greece, chiefly directed his arms against Athens, which he took and burnt. Their military character was chiefly displayed in the battles of Marathon, of Salamis, of Platæa, and of Mycale. After these immortal victories, they rose in consequence and dignity, and they demanded the superiority in the affairs of Greece. The town was rebuilt and embellished by Themistocles, and a new and magnificent harbour erected. Their success made them arrogant, and they raised contentions among the neighbouring states, that they might aggrandize themselves by their fall. The luxury and intemperance, which had been long excluded from the city by the salutary laws of their countrymen, Draco and Solon, crept by degrees among all ranks of people, and soon after all Greece united to destroy that city, which claimed a sovereign power over all the rest. The Peloponnesian war, though at first a private quarrel, was soon fomented into a universal war; and the arms of all the states of Peloponnesus [_See:_ Peloponnesiacum bellum] were directed against Athens, which, after 28 years of misfortunes and bloodshed, was totally ruined, the 24th April, 404 years before the christian era, by Lysander.