Athens, during the period of its greatest political and military power and of its economic dominance over much of the Greek world, the half century between the Persian invasion and the start of the Peloponnesian war, the second half of it under the leadership of Pericles, is characterized by two features. The first is the contrast between the level of art, literature, and science, which was not to be reached again in the Western World until the Renaissance, and its low standard of living, which reflected its generally primitive agricultural, industrial, and financial technology. The second characteristic is the division of functions between, first, the citizens who owned all real estate, cultivated the land, participated in handicrafts, and monopolized the political life; second, the resident foreigners (metics) who shared manufacturing activities with citizens and dominated domestic and foreign trade and finance, but had no political rights; and, third, the mostly non-Greek slaves, who did most of the heavy work and shared domestic chores with the wives of citizens and metics.

Population

The population of Attica, an area of slightly over 2,500 km2, at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War in 431 B.C. has been put at close to 320,000, accounting for not much over one-tenth of the population of Greece. Fully one-half of the population lived in Athens and its port the Peiraios.