Classical Athens

city-state in ancient Greece

The Heliaia or Heliaea (; Doric: Ἁλία Halia) was the largest and most prominent court venue in Classical Athens. The name, which originally designated this specific location, came to be used by ancient sources as a general term for the Athenian popular court system, though modern English-language scholarship typically reserves "Heliaia" for the venue and uses "dikasterion" (pl. dikasteria) for the institutional system.

thumb|The remains of the Dipylon Gate today The Dipylon (, "Two-Gated") was the main gate in the city wall of Classical Athens. Located in the modern suburb of Kerameikos, it led to the namesake ancient cemetery, and to the roads connecting Athens with the rest of Greece. The gate was of major ceremonial significance as the starting point of the procession of the Great Panathenaea, and accordingly it was a large, monumental structure, "the largest gate of the ancient world". Erected in 478 BC as part of Themistocles' fortification of Athens and rebuilt in the 300s BC, it remained standing and

thumb|Illustration by Peter Newell for the poem "The Sycophantic Fox and the Gullible Raven" in [[Fables for the Frivolous, by Guy Wetmore Carryl; in French, the fox says "I admire your beautiful plumage" to the raven]] In modern English, sycophant denotes an insincere flatterer and refers to someone practising sycophancy (i.e., insincere flattery to gain an advantage).

5th c. BCE city walls in Athens

thumb|Map of ancient Attica. [[Trittyes belonging to the phyle of Acamantis are numbered "5" and shaded dark grey.]] Acamantis () was one of the phylai (tribes) of classical Athens, created during the reforms of Cleisthenes. It was named after the legendary hero Acamas, and included the demes of Cholargos, Eiresidai, Hermos, Iphistiadai, Kerameis, Kephale, Poros, Thorikos, Eitea, Hagnous, Kikynna, Prospalta and Sphettos.

stoa in the Agora of Athens

a theoretical police force of Classical Athens

The dikastērion (, translit. dikastērion; pl. dikastēria) was the system of popular jury courts in Classical Athens during the 5th and 4th centuries BCE. Alongside the Assembly (ekklesia) and the Council of 500 (boule), it formed one of the three central pillars of Athenian democracy. The dikastēria heard the vast majority of private suits (dikai) and public prosecutions (graphai)—excluding homicide. The term Heliaia, properly the name of the largest court venue (whose location remains unknown), came to be used by some ancient sources as a synonym for the system as a whole. Modern English-lang

gate in the city wall of Classical Athens