Hellenistic Athens (323-86 BC)

In 307 BC the son of Antigonus, Demetrius the Besieger, occupied Athens and exiled Dimitrios Phalereus. Demetrius the Besieger resided in the opisthodomus of the Parthenon from where he ruled in a tyrannic way. In 301 BC Lacharis accomplished to overthrow Demetrius. However Demetrius beseiged the city from Piraeus. Lacharis was forced to remove the gold from the statue of Athena in the Parthenon in order to pay his soldiers. The city however did surrender shortly after.

Athens changed many hands and finally, from the beginning of the 2nd century BC, acquired some freedom. The city maintained the fame and the philosophical schools and became the artistic and philosophical centre of continental Greece. Many hellenistic rulers studied there and when they rised in power they dedicated to the city lots of buildings and sculptures. The most characteristic examples are Attalos II (159-138 BC) and the Eumenes II (197-159 BC) of Pergamon who built the homonymous stoas, and Ariarathis V (162-130 BC) who built the Middle Stoa in the Agora.

Also, the king of Cappadocia Antiochus IV ordered the construction of the temple of Zeus Olympios (Olympieion) which had remained unfinished from the era of Peisistratos. The architect was the Roman Cossutius. The work had advanced enough, but with the death of Antiochos in 163 BC, it stopped. The columns that today stand in the southeast part of the Olympieion are dated from that very period.

In 146 BC the Romans defeated the Achaic Legue and begun to involve into the political matters of Greek cities. In 88 BC the Athenians followed Mithridates VI of Pontus to a rebellion against the Romans. A two year siege of the city followed, commanded by the Roman general Sylla, who occupied and destroyed the city in 86 BC.