The character of Athens (5)
I believe the answer is:
timon
'the character of athens' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'the character of athens' is the wordplay.
'the' becomes 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects).
'character' becomes 'i'.
'of athens' becomes 'mon' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
't'+'i'+'mon'='TIMON'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for timon that I've seen before include "title role" , "Greek misanthrope in play" , "Athenian in Shakespeare play" , "- - of Athens (Shakespeare)" , "part of Shakespeare" .)