The city of Athens during the classical period of Ancient Greece (508–322 BCE) is a notable polis (city-state) of Attica, Greece, leading the Delian League in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta and the Peloponnesian League.

Athenian democracy is established in 508 BC under Cleisthenes following the tyranny of Hippias.

This system remains remarkably stable, and with a few brief interruptions remains in place for 180 years, until 322 BCE (aftermath of Lamian War).

The peak of Athenian hegemony is achieved in the 440s to 430s BCE, known as the Age of Pericles.In the classical period, Athens is a center for the arts, learning and philosophy.

Home of Plato's Akademia and Aristotle's Lyceum, Athens is also the birthplace of Socrates, Pericles, Sophocles, and many other prominent philosophers, writers and politicians of the ancient world.

It is widely referred to as the cradle of Western Civilization, and the birthplace of democracy, largely due to the impact of its cultural and political achievements during the 5th and 4th centuries BCE on the rest of the then known European continent.