Athens

City, seat (1871) of Clarke county (with which it was consolidated in 1990), northeastern Georgia, U.S., on the Oconee River. Founded in 1801 as the seat of the University of Georgia (chartered 1785), it was probably named for Athens, Greece. The city grew with the university, was spared the destruction that accompanied Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's march through Georgia in 1864, and became