\paperw3195 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 \fs22 The site on which the city is built has been continuously inhabited since the Mycenean era. Over the course of the fir
st millennium BC it began to develop slowly, reaching the peak of its power and beauty between the fifth and fourth century BC. Subsequently, when Greece came under Macedonian rule, Athens's importance began to decrease. Nonetheless, it remained an impor
tant artistic and cultural center, to the extent that several Hellenistic rulers erected magnificent monuments there to increase their prestige. In the second century BC Athens, like the rest of Greece, came under the control of Rome. \par
