The correct answer is A) Its location along the Aegean Sea helped Athens establish a powerful Navy and booming trade.
The role that geography played in the development of Athens as a dominant power among the cities states of ancient Greece was that its location along the Aegean Sea helped Athens establish a powerful Navy and booming trade.
Themistocles (524-549 BC) was the leader of the Athenian navy. The Athenians developed a good navy that was feared among its enemies. When Themistocles realized that the weakest point of the Persians was the sea, he developed the right strategy to defeat them. The geography of Athens ad its location along the Aegean Sea not only helped it to establish a formidable navy but to develop effective trade routes to transport its goods to other city-states.
The other options of the question were, b) the mountainous terrain helped the Athenians defend their city, c) Its location along the Mediterranean Sea helped Athens to develop a prosperous economy based on agriculture, and d) the mountainous terrain helped the Athenians invade other city-states.