The Pnyx is a hill or hillside in central Athens, the capital of Greece. Beginning as early as 507 BC, the Athenians gathered on the Pnyx to host their popular assemblies, thus making the hill one of the earliest and most important sites in the creation of democracy.
Pnyx speaker's platform
Panorama of the Pnyx
Pnyx foreground, speaker's platform right, Acropolis background.
Albumen print of carved speaker's staircase of the Pnyx, taken circa 1865–1895, looking west.
Fifth-century Athens was the Greek city-state of Athens in the time from 480 to 404 BC. Formerly known as the Golden Age of Athens, the latter part being the Age of Pericles, it was buoyed by political hegemony, economic growth and cultural flourishing. The period began in 478 BC, after the defeat of the Persian invasion, when an Athenian-led coalition of city-states, known as the Delian League, confronted the Persians to keep the liberated Asian Greek cities free.
Bust of Pericles, marble Roman copy after a Greek original from c. 430 BC
View of the Acropolis