List of Famous people born in Classical Athens

Socrates was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, and as being the first moral philosopher of the Western ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, he authored no texts, and is known chiefly through the accounts of classical writers composing after his lifetime, particularly his students Plato and Xenophon. Other sources include the contemporaneous Antisthenes, Aristippus, and Aeschines of Sphettos. Aristophanes, a playwright, is the main contemporary author to have written plays mentioning Socrates during Socrates' lifetime, although a fragment of Ion of Chios' Travel Journal provides important information about Socrates' youth.

Thespis of Icaria, according to certain Ancient Greek sources and especially Aristotle, was the first person ever to appear on stage as an actor playing a character in a play. In other sources, he is said to have introduced the first principal actor in addition to the chorus.

Antisthenes was a Greek philosopher and a pupil of Socrates. Antisthenes first learned rhetoric under Gorgias before becoming an ardent disciple of Socrates. He adopted and developed the ethical side of Socrates' teachings, advocating an ascetic life lived in accordance with virtue. Later writers regarded him as the founder of Cynic philosophy.

Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those of Aeschylus; and earlier than, or contemporary with, those of Euripides. Sophocles wrote over 120 plays, but only seven have survived in a complete form: Ajax, Antigone, Women of Trachis, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus. For almost fifty years, Sophocles was the most celebrated playwright in the dramatic competitions of the city-state of Athens which took place during the religious festivals of the Lenaea and the Dionysia. He competed in thirty competitions, won twenty-four, and was never judged lower than second place. Aeschylus won thirteen competitions, and was sometimes defeated by Sophocles; Euripides won four.

Xenophon of Athens was an Athenian-born mercenary and historian. At the age of 30, he was elected a commander of the Ten Thousand, a force of Greek mercenaries in the service of Cyrus the Younger. He wrote the Anabasis, which recounts the adventures of the Ten Thousand during Cyrus's failed campaign to claim the Persian throne from Artaxerxes II and the return of the mercenaries after Cyrus's death in the Battle of Cunaxa. Xenophon established precedents for many logistical operations, and was among the first to use flanking maneuvers and feints. As the military historian Theodore Ayrault Dodge wrote, "the centuries since have devised nothing to surpass the genius of this warrior".

Demosthenes was a Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide an insight into the politics and culture of ancient Greece during the 4th century BC. Demosthenes learned rhetoric by studying the speeches of previous great orators. He delivered his first judicial speeches at the age of 20, in which he argued effectively to gain from his guardians what was left of his inheritance. For a time, Demosthenes made his living as a professional speech-writer (logographer) and a lawyer, writing speeches for use in private legal suits.

Titos Vandis was a Greek actor.

Adeimantus of Collytus, son of Ariston of Athens, was an ancient Athenian Greek best known as Plato's brother. He plays an important part in Plato's Republic and is mentioned in the Apology and Parmenides dialogues.

Glaucon son of Ariston, was an ancient Athenian and Plato's older brother. He is primarily known as a major conversant with Socrates in the Republic, and the interlocutor during the Allegory of the Cave. He is also referenced briefly in the beginnings of two dialogues of Plato, the Parmenides and Symposium.

Ariston of Collytus, was the father of the Greek philosopher Plato. Legend holds that he was descended from Codrus, the ancient king of Athens. He supposedly could trace his ancestry to the God of the sea Poseidon through Codrus and Melanthus. Diogenes Laërtius on the authority of Speusippus and others, relates a story that "Ariston made violent love to Perictione, then in her bloom, and failed to win her; and that, when he ceased to offer violence, Apollo appeared to him in a dream, whereupon he left her unmolested until her child was born". Ariston died when Plato was still a boy, and his mother Perictione remarried Pyrilampes, a friend of the Athenian politician Pericles.