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- margin-right: 1em; - float: left; - clear: left; - margin-top: 1em; - font-size: smaller; - color: black; - background: #eeeeee; - border: dashed 1px; -} - -.smaller { - font-size: 80%; -} - -.smcap { - font-variant: small-caps; - font-style: normal; -} - -.smcapuc { - font-variant: small-caps; - font-style: normal; - text-transform: lowercase; -} - -.titlepage { - text-align: center; - margin-top: 3em; - margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto; - text-indent: 0em; -} - -.transnote { - background-color: #E6E6FA; - color: black; - text-align: center; - font-size: smaller; - padding: 0.5em; - margin-bottom: 5em; -} - -@media handheld { - -img { - max-width: 100%; - width: auto; - height: auto; -} - -.poetry, .centered { - display: block; - margin-left: 1.5em; -} - -.blockquote { - margin-left: 5%; - margin-right: 5%; -} -} - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Historians' History of the World in -Twenty-Five Volumes, Volume 3, by Various - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Historians' History of the World in Twenty-Five Volumes, Volume 3 - Greece to the Peloponnesian War - -Author: Various - -Editor: Henry Smith Williams - -Release Date: July 24, 2017 [EBook #55195] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE WORLD, VOL 3 *** - - - - -Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="transnote"> -<p>Transcriber’s Note: As a result of editorial shortcomings in the original, -some reference letters in the text don’t have matching entries in the -reference-lists, and vice versa.</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></span></p> - -<h1>THE HISTORIANS’ -HISTORY -OF THE WORLD</h1> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span></p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 432px;"> -<img src="images/frontispiece.jpg" width="432" height="650" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">HERODOTUS</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span></p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> - -<p class="titlepage larger">THE HISTORIANS’<br /> -HISTORY<br /> -OF THE WORLD</p> - -<p class="titlepage">A comprehensive narrative of the rise and development of nations<br /> -as recorded by over two thousand of the great writers of<br /> -all ages: edited, with the assistance of a distinguished<br /> -board of advisers and contributors,<br /> -by<br /> -<br /> -HENRY SMITH WILLIAMS, LL.D.</p> - -<div class="titlepage" style="width: 100px;"> -<img src="images/titlepage.jpg" width="100" height="117" alt="(decorative, publisher’s mark) PRIUS PLACENDUM QUAM DOCENDUM" /> -</div> - -<p class="titlepage">IN TWENTY-FIVE VOLUMES<br /> -VOLUME III—GREECE TO THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 30em;"> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 14em;"> - -<p class="titlepage">T<sup>he</sup> Outlook Company<br /> -<span class="smaller">New York</span></p> - -</div> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 14em;"> - -<p class="titlepage">T<sup>he</sup> History Association<br /> -<span class="smaller">London</span></p> - -</div> - -</div> - -<p class="center smaller clearboth">1904</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span></p> - -<p class="titlepage smaller"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1904,<br /> -By HENRY SMITH WILLIAMS.</span></p> - -<p class="center smaller"><i>All rights reserved.</i></p> - -<p class="titlepage smaller">Press of J. J. Little & Co.<br /> -New York, U. S. A.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p> - -<h2>Contributors, and Editorial Revisers.</h2> - -<div class="container"> -<div class="centered"> - -<ul> -<li class="i1">Prof. Adolf Erman, University of Berlin.</li> -<li class="i2">Prof. Joseph Halévy, College of France.</li> -<li class="i3">Prof. Thomas K. Cheyne, Oxford University.</li> -<li class="i4">Prof. Andrew C. McLaughlin, University of Michigan.</li> -<li class="i5">Prof. David H. Müller, University of Vienna.</li> -<li class="i6">Prof. Alfred Rambaud, University of Paris.</li> -<li class="i7">Capt. F. Brinkley, Tokio.</li> -<li class="i1">Prof. Eduard Meyer, University of Berlin.</li> -<li class="i2">Dr. James T. Shotwell, Columbia University.</li> -<li class="i3">Prof. Theodor Nöldeke, University of Strasburg.</li> -<li class="i4">Prof. Albert B. Hart, Harvard University.</li> -<li class="i5">Dr. Paul Brönnle, Royal Asiatic Society.</li> -<li class="i6">Dr. James Gairdner, C.B., London.</li> -<li class="i1">Prof. Ulrich von Wilamowitz Möllendorff, University of Berlin.</li> -<li class="i2">Prof. H. Marczali, University of Budapest.</li> -<li class="i3">Dr. G. W. Botsford, Columbia University.</li> -<li class="i4">Prof. Julius Wellhausen, University of Göttingen.</li> -<li class="i5">Prof. Franz R. von Krones, University of Graz.</li> -<li class="i6">Prof. Wilhelm Soltau, Zabern University.</li> -<li class="i1">Prof. R. W. Rogers, Drew Theological Seminary.</li> -<li class="i2">Prof. A. Vambéry, University of Budapest.</li> -<li class="i3">Prof. Otto Hirschfeld, University of Berlin.</li> -<li class="i4">Dr. Frederick Robertson Jones, Bryn Mawr College.</li> -<li class="i5">Baron Bernardo di San Severino Quaranta, London.</li> -<li class="i6">Dr. John P. Peters, New York.</li> -<li class="i1">Dr. S. Rappoport, School of Oriental Languages, Paris.</li> -<li class="i2">Prof. Hermann Diels, University of Berlin.</li> -<li class="i3">Prof. C. W. C. Oman, Oxford University.</li> -<li class="i4">Prof. I. Goldziher, University of Vienna.</li> -<li class="i5">Prof. W. L. Fleming, University of West Virginia.</li> -<li class="i6">Prof. R. Koser, University of Berlin.</li> -</ul> - -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span></p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CONTENTS</h2> - -<table summary="Contents" class="contents"> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">VOLUME III</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">GREECE</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td></td> - <td class="tdr"><span class="smcapuc">PAGE</span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#THE_SCOPE_AND_DEVELOPMENT_OF_GREEK"><span class="smcap">Introductory Essay. The Scope and Development of Greek History.</span></a> By - Dr. Eduard Meyer</td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#GREEK_HISTORY_IN_OUTLINE"><span class="smcap">Greek History in Outline</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER I</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_I_LAND_AND_PEOPLE"><span class="smcap">Land and People</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">The land, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>. The name, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>. The origin of the Greeks, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>. Early conditions - and movements, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER II</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_II_THE_MYCENAEAN_AGE"><span class="smcap">The Mycenæan Age</span> (<i>ca.</i> 1600-1000 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">Mycenæan civilisation, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>. The problem of Mycenæan chronology, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>. The testimony - of art, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>. The problem of the Mycenæan race, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER III</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_III_THE_HEROIC_AGE"><span class="smcap">The Heroic Age</span> (1400-1200 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">The value of the myths, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>. The exploits of Perseus, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>. The labours of Hercules, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>. - The feats of Theseus, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>. The Seven against Thebes, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>. The Argonauts, - <a href="#Page_73">73</a>. The Trojan War, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>. The town of Troy, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>. Paris and Helen, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>. The - siege of Troy, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>. Agamemnon’s sad home-coming, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>. Character and spirit of the - Heroic Age, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>. Geographical knowledge, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>. Navigation and astronomy, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>. - Commerce and the arts, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>. The graphic arts, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>. The art of war, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>. Treatment - of orphans, criminals, and slaves, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>. Manners and customs, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER IV</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV_THE_TRANSITION_TO_SECURE_HISTORY"><span class="smcap">The Transition to Secure History</span> (<i>ca.</i> 1200-800 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_99">99</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span>Beloch’s view of the conventional primitive history, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER V</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_V_THE_DORIANS"><span class="smcap">The Dorians</span> (<i>ca.</i> 1100-1000 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_109">109</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">The migration in the view of Curtius, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>. Messenia, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>. Argos, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>. Arcadia, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>. - Dorians in Crete, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER VI</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI_SPARTA_AND_LYCURGUS"><span class="smcap">Sparta and Lycurgus</span> (<i>ca.</i> 885 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_128">128</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">Plutarch’s account of Lycurgus, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>. The institutions of Lycurgus, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>. Regulations - regarding marriage and the conduct of women, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>. The rearing of children, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>. - The famed Laconic discourse; Spartan discipline, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>. The senate; - burial customs; home-staying; the ambuscade, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>. Lycurgus’ subterfuge to perpetuate - his laws, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>. Effects of Lycurgus’ system, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER VII</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII_THE_MESSENIAN_WARS_OF_SPARTA"><span class="smcap">The Messenian Wars of Sparta</span> (<i>ca.</i> 764-580 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">First Messenian War, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>. The futile sacrifice of the daughter of Aristodemus, - <a href="#Page_146">146</a>. The hero Aristomenes and the Second Messenian War, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>. The poet Tyrtæus, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER VIII</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII_THE_IONIANS"><span class="smcap">The Ionians</span> (<i>ca.</i> 650-630 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_152">152</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">Origin and early history of Athens, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>. King Ægeus, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>. Theseus, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>. Rise - of popular liberty, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>. Draco, the lawgiver, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER IX</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX_SOME_CHARACTERISTIC_INSTITUTIONS"><span class="smcap">Some Characteristic Institutions</span> (884-590 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_167">167</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">The oracle at Delphi, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>. National festivals, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>. The Olympian games, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>. - Character of the games, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>. Monarchies and oligarchies, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>. Tyrannies, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>. - Democracies, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER X</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_X_THE_SMALLER_CITIES_AND_STATES"><span class="smcap">The Smaller Cities and States</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_181">181</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">Arcadia, Ellis, and Achaia, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>. Argos, Ægina, and Epidaurus, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>. Sicyon - and Megara, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>. Bœotia, Locris, Phocis, and Eubœa, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>. Thessaly, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>. Corinth - under Periander, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XI</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI_CRETE_AND_THE_COLONIES"><span class="smcap">Crete and the Colonies</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_194">194</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span>Beloch’s account of Greek colonisation, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XII</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII_SOLON_THE_LAWGIVER"><span class="smcap">Solon the Lawgiver</span> (<i>ca.</i> 638-558 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_207">207</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">The life and laws of Solon according to Plutarch, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>. The law concerning debts, - <a href="#Page_213">213</a>. Class legislation, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>. Miscellaneous laws; the rights of women, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>. Results - of Solon’s legislation, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>. Solon’s journey and return; Pisistratus, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>. A modern - view of Solonian laws and constitution, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIII</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII_PISISTRATUS_THE_TYRANT"><span class="smcap">Pisistratus the Tyrant</span> (550-527 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_222">222</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">The virtues of Pisistratus’ rule, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIV</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV_DEMOCRACY_ESTABLISHED_AT_ATHENS"><span class="smcap">Democracy Established at Athens</span> (514-490 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_231">231</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">Clisthenes, the reformer, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>. Ostracism, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>. The democracy established, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>. - Trouble with Thebes, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XV</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV_THE_FIRST_FOREIGN_INVASION"><span class="smcap">The First Foreign Invasion</span> (506-490 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_261">261</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">The origin of animosity, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>. The Ionic revolt, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>. War with Ægina, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>. - The first invasion, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>. Battle of Marathon, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>. On the courage of the Greeks, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>. - If Darius had invaded Greece earlier, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XVI</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI_MILTIADES_AND_THE_ALLEGED_FICKLENESS"><span class="smcap">Miltiades and the Alleged Fickleness of Republics</span> (489 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_280">280</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XVII</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII_THE_PLANS_OF_XERXES"><span class="smcap">The Plans of Xerxes</span> (485-480 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_285">285</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">Xerxes bridges the Hellespont, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>. How the host marched, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>. The size of - Xerxes’ army, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XVIII</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII_PROCEEDINGS_IN_GREECE_FROM"><span class="smcap">Proceedings in Greece from Marathon to Thermopylæ</span> (489-480 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_305">305</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">Themistocles and Aristides, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>. Congress at Corinth, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>. The vale of Tempe, - <a href="#Page_313">313</a>. Xerxes reviews his host, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIX</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX_THERMOPYLAE"><span class="smcap">Thermopylæ</span> (480 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_320">320</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">The famous story as told by Herodotus, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>. Leonidas and his allies, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>. Xerxes - assails the pass, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>. The treachery of Ephialtes, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>. The final assault, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>. Discrepant - <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</a></span>accounts of the death of Leonidas, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>. After Thermopylæ, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XX</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX_THE_BATTLES_OF_ARTEMISIUM_AND"><span class="smcap">The Battles of Artemisium and Salamis</span> (480 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_330">330</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">Battle of Artemisium, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>. Athens abandoned, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>. The fleet at Salamis, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>. - Xerxes at Delphi, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>. Athens taken, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>. Xerxes inspects his fleet, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>. Schemes - of Themistocles, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>. Battle of Salamis, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>. The retreat of Xerxes, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>. The spoils - of victory, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>. Syracusan victory over Carthage, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXI</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI_FROM_SALAMIS_TO_MYCALE"><span class="smcap">From Salamis to Mycale</span> (479 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_353">353</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">Mardonius makes overtures to Athens, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>. Mardonius moves on Athens, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>. - Athens appeals to Sparta, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>. Mardonius destroys Athens and withdraws, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>. A - preliminary skirmish, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>. Preparations for the battle of Platæa, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>. Battle of - Platæa, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>. Mardonius falls and the day is won, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>. After the battle, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>. The - Greeks attack Thebes, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>. The flight of the Persian remnant, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>. Contemporary - affairs in Ionia, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>. Battle of Mycale, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>. After Mycale, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>. A review of results, - <a href="#Page_379">379</a>. A glance forward, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXII</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII_THE_AFTERMATH_OF_THE_WAR"><span class="smcap">The Aftermath of the War</span> (478-468 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_382">382</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">Athens rebuilds her walls, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>. The new Athens, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>. The misconduct of Pausanias, - <a href="#Page_386">386</a>. Athens takes the leadership, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>. The confederacy of Delos, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>. The - treason of Pausanias, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>. Political changes at Athens, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>. The downfall of Themistocles, - <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXIII</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII_THE_GROWTH_OF_THE_ATHENIAN_EMPIRE"><span class="smcap">The Growth of the Athenian Empire</span> (479-462 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_402">402</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">The victories of Cimon, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>. Mitford’s view of the period, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXIV</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV_THE_RISE_OF_PERICLES"><span class="smcap">The Rise of Pericles</span> (462-440 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_416">416</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">The Areopagus, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>. Cimon exiled, <a href="#Page_423">423</a>. The war with Corinth, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>. The Long - Walls, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>. Cimon recalled, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>. The Five-Years’ Truce, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>. The confederacy - becomes an empire, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>. Commencement of decline, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>. The greatness of Pericles, - <a href="#Page_435">435</a>. A Greek federation planned, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXV</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV_ATHENS_AT_WAR"><span class="smcap">Athens at War</span> (440-432 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_438">438</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">The Samian War, <a href="#Page_438">438</a>. The war with Corcyra, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>. The war with Potidæa and - <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</a></span>Macedonia, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXVI</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI_IMPERIAL_ATHENS_UNDER_PERICLES"><span class="smcap">Imperial Athens under Pericles</span> (460-430 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_448">448</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">Judicial reforms of Pericles, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>. Rhetors and sophists, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>. Phidias accused, - <a href="#Page_461">461</a>. Aspasia at the bar, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>. Anaxagoras also assailed, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXVII</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII_MANNERS_AND_CUSTOMS_OF_THE_AGE"><span class="smcap">Manners and Customs of the Age of Pericles</span> (460-410 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_465">465</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">Cost of living and wages, <a href="#Page_465">465</a>. Schools, teachers, and books, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>. The position - of a wife in Athens, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXVIII</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII_ART_OF_THE_PERICLEAN_AGE"><span class="smcap">Art of the Periclean Age</span> (460-410 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_477">477</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">Architecture, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>. Sculpture, <a href="#Page_483">483</a>. Painting, music, etc., <a href="#Page_487">487</a>. The artists of the - other cities of Hellas, <a href="#Page_490">490</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXIX</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX_GREEK_LITERATURE"><span class="smcap">Greek Literature</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_492">492</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">Oratory and lyric poetry, <a href="#Page_492">492</a>. Tragedy, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>. Comedy, <a href="#Page_504">504</a>. The glory of - Athens, <a href="#Page_505">505</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXX</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX_THE_OUTBREAK"><span class="smcap">The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War</span> (432-431 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_508">508</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">Our sources, <a href="#Page_508">508</a>. The origin of the war, <a href="#Page_510">510</a>. Preparations for the conflict, <a href="#Page_517">517</a>. - The surprise of Platæa, <a href="#Page_522">522</a>. Pericles’ reconcentration policy, <a href="#Page_526">526</a>. The first year’s - ravage, <a href="#Page_527">527</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXXI</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI_THE_PLAGUE_AND_THE_DEATH_OF"><span class="smcap">The Plague; and the Death of Pericles</span> (431-429 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_535">535</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">The oration of Pericles, <a href="#Page_535">535</a>. Thucydides’ account of the plague, <a href="#Page_539">539</a>. Last - public speech of Pericles, <a href="#Page_545">545</a>. The end and glory of Pericles, <a href="#Page_548">548</a>. Wilhelm - Oncken’s estimate of Pericles, <a href="#Page_551">551</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXXII</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII_THE_SECOND_AND_THIRD_YEARS_OF"><span class="smcap">The Second and Third Years of the Peloponnesian War</span> (429-428 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_554">554</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">The Spartans and Thebans attack Platæa, <a href="#Page_556">556</a>. Part of the Platæans escape; the - <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</a></span>rest capitulate, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>. Naval and other combats, <a href="#Page_560">560</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXXIII</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII_THE_FOURTH_TO_THE_TENTH_YEARS_AND"><span class="smcap">The Fourth to the Tenth Years—and Peace</span> (428-421 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_566">566</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">The revolt of Mytilene, <a href="#Page_566">566</a>. Thucydides’ account of the revolt of Corcyra, <a href="#Page_570">570</a>. - Demosthenes and Sphacteria, <a href="#Page_575">575</a>. Further Athenian successes, <a href="#Page_579">579</a>. A check to - Athens; Brasidas becomes aggressive, <a href="#Page_580">580</a>. The banishment of Thucydides, <a href="#Page_581">581</a>. - A truce declared; two treaties of peace, <a href="#Page_582">582</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXXIV</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV_THE_RISE_OF_ALCIBIADES"><span class="smcap">The Rise of Alcibiades</span> (450-416 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_584">584</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXXV</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV_THE_SICILIAN_EXPEDITION"><span class="smcap">The Sicilian Expedition</span> (481-413 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_591">591</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">Sicilian history, <a href="#Page_591">591</a>. The mutilation of the Hermæ, <a href="#Page_596">596</a>. The fleet sails, <a href="#Page_599">599</a>. - Alcibiades takes flight, <a href="#Page_601">601</a>. Nicias tries strategy, <a href="#Page_602">602</a>. Spartan aid, <a href="#Page_604">604</a>. Alcibiades - against Athens, <a href="#Page_605">605</a>. Athenian reinforcements, <a href="#Page_606">606</a>. Athenian disaster, <a href="#Page_608">608</a>. Thucydides’ - famous account of the final disasters, <a href="#Page_610">610</a>. Demosthenes surrenders his - detachment, <a href="#Page_613">613</a>. Nicias parleys, fights, and surrenders, <a href="#Page_614">614</a>. The fate of the captives, - <a href="#Page_615">615</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXXVI</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI_CLOSE_OF_THE_PELOPONNESIAN_WAR"><span class="smcap">Close of the Peloponnesian War</span> (425-404 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_617">617</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdmore" colspan="2">Athens after the Sicilian débâcle, <a href="#Page_617">617</a>. Alcibiades again to the fore, <a href="#Page_620">620</a>. The - overthrow of the democracy; the Four Hundred, <a href="#Page_624">624</a>. The revolt from the Four - Hundred, <a href="#Page_627">627</a>. The triumphs of Alcibiades, <a href="#Page_630">630</a>. Alcibiades in disfavour again, <a href="#Page_633">633</a>. - Conon wins at Arginusæ, <a href="#Page_634">634</a>. The trial of the generals, <a href="#Page_636">636</a>. Battle of Ægospotami, - <a href="#Page_638">638</a>. The fall of Athens, <a href="#Page_640">640</a>. A review of the war, <a href="#Page_642">642</a>. Grote’s estimate of the - Athenian Empire, <a href="#Page_644">644</a>.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad"><a href="#BRIEF_REFERENCE-LIST_OF_AUTHORITIES_BY_CHAPTERS"><span class="smcap">Brief Reference-List of Authorities by Chapters</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr top-pad"><a href="#Page_647">647</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[xv]</a></span></p> - -<h2>PART IX</h2> - -<p class="titlepage larger">THE HISTORY OF GREECE</p> - -<p class="titlepage smaller">BASED CHIEFLY UPON THE FOLLOWING AUTHORITIES</p> - -<p class="titlepage">ARRIAN, JULIUS BELOCH, A. BŒCKH, JOHN B. BURY, GEORG BUSOLT,<br /> -H. F. CLINTON, GEORGE W. COX, ERNST CURTIUS, HERMANN<br /> -DIELS, DIODORUS SICULUS, JOHANN G. DROYSEN,<br /> -GEORGE GROTE, HERODOTUS, GUSTAV F.<br /> -HERTZBERG, ADOLF HOLM,<br /> -JUSTIN, JOHN P. MAHAFFY, EDUARD MEYER, WILLIAM MITFORD, ULRICH VON<br /> -WILAMOWITZ-MÖLLENDORFF, KARL O. MÜLLER, CORNELIUS NEPOS,<br /> -PAUSANIAS, PLATO, PLUTARCH, QUINTUS CURTIUS,<br /> -HEINRICH SCHLIEMANN, STRABO, CONNOP<br /> -THIRLWALL, THUCYDIDES, XENOPHON</p> - -<p class="titlepage smaller">TOGETHER WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY ON</p> - -<p class="center">THE SCOPE AND DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK HISTORY</p> - -<p class="titlepage smaller">BY</p> - -<p class="center">EDUARD MEYER</p> - -<p class="titlepage">A STUDY OF</p> - -<p class="center">THE EVOLUTION OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY</p> - -<p class="titlepage smaller">BY</p> - -<p class="center">HERMANN DIELS</p> - -<p class="titlepage">AND A CHARACTERISATION OF</p> - -<p class="center">THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HELLENIC SPIRIT</p> - -<p class="titlepage smaller">BY</p> - -<p class="center">ULRICH VON WILAMOWITZ-MÖLLENDORFF</p> - -<p class="titlepage smaller">WITH ADDITIONAL CITATIONS FROM</p> - -<p class="justify">CLAUDIUS ÆLIANUS, ANAXIMENES, APPIANUS ALEXANDRINUS, ARISTOBULUS, -ARISTOPHANES, ARISTOTLE, W. ASSMANN, W. BELOE, E. G. E. L. BULWER-LYTTON, -CALLISTHENES, CICERO, E. S. CREASY, CONSTANTINE VII -(PORYPHYROGENITUS), DEMOSTHENES, W. DRUMANN, VICTOR DURUY, -ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA, EUGAMON, EURIPIDES, EUTROPIUS, G. H. A. -EWALD, J. L. F. F. FLATHE, E. A. FREEMAN, A. FURTWÄNGLER AND -LÖSCHKE, P. GARDNER, J. GILLIES, W. E. GLADSTONE, O. GOLDSMITH, H. -GOLL, J. DE LA GRAVIÈRE, G. B. GRUNDY, H. R. HALL, G. W. F. HEGEL, W. -HELBIG, D. G. HOGARTH, ISOCRATES, R. C. JEBB, JOSEPHUS, F. C. R. KRUSE, -P. H. LARCHER, W. M. LEAKE, E. LERMINIER, LIVY, LYSIAS, J. C. F. MANSO, -L. MÉNARD, H. H. MILMAN, J. A. R. MUNRO, B. G. NIEBUHR, W. ONCKEN, -L. A. PRÉVOST-PARADOL, GEORGE PERROT AND CHARLES CHIPIEZ, PHILOSTEPHANUS, -PIGORINI, PHOTIUS, R. POHLMAN, POLYBIUS, J. POTTER, -PTOLEMY LAGI, JAMES RENNEL, W. RIDGEWAY, K. RITTER, C. ROLLIN, -J. RUSKIN, F. C. SCHLOSSER, W. SCHORN, C. SCHUCHARDT, S. SHARPE, -G. SMITH, W. SMYTH, E. VON STERN, THEOGNIS, THEOPOMPUS, L. A. THIERS, -C. TSOUNTAS AND J. IRVING MANATT, TYRTÆUS, W. H. WADDINGTON, -G. WEBER, B. I. WHEELER, F. A. WOLF, XANTHUS</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[xvi]</a></span></p> - -<p class="titlepage smaller"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1904,<br /> -By HENRY SMITH WILLIAMS</span></p> - -<p class="center smaller"><i>All rights reserved</i></p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-introduction.jpg" width="500" height="158" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="THE_SCOPE_AND_DEVELOPMENT_OF_GREEK">THE SCOPE AND DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK -HISTORY</h3> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Written Specially for the Present Work</span></p> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By Dr. EDUARD MEYER</span></p> - -<p class="center">Professor of Ancient History in the University of Berlin</p> - -<p>The history of Greek civilisation forms the centre of the history of antiquity. -In the East, advanced civilisations with settled states had existed for -thousands of years; and as the populations of Western Asia and of Egypt -gradually came into closer political relations, these civilisations, in spite of -all local differences in customs, religion, and habits of thought, gradually -grew together into a uniform sphere of culture. This development reached -its culmination in the rise of the great Persian universal monarchy, the -“kingdom of the lands,” <i>i.e.</i> “of the world.” But from the very beginning -these oriental civilisations are so completely dominated by the effort to -maintain what has been won that all progress beyond this point is prevented. -And although we can distinguish an individual, active, and progressive intellectual -movement among many nations,—as in Egypt, among the Iranians -and Indians, while among the Babylonians and Phœnicians nothing of -the sort is thus far known,—nevertheless the forces that represent tradition -are in the end everywhere victorious over it and force it to bow to their -yoke. Hence, all oriental civilisations culminate in the creation of a theological -system which governs all the relations and the whole field of thought -of man, and is everywhere recognised as having existed from all eternity and -as being inviolable to all future time.</p> - -<p>With the cessation of political life and the establishment of the universal -monarchy, the nationality and the distinctive civilisation of the separate -districts are restricted to religion, which has become theology. The development -of oriental civilisation then subsides in the competition of these religions -and the unavoidable coalescence consequent thereupon. This is true -even of that nation which experienced the richest intellectual development, -and did the most important work of all oriental peoples—the Israelites. -When the great political storms from which the universal monarchy arose -have spent their rage, Israel, the nation, has developed into Judaism; and -under the Persian rule and with the help of the kingdom it organises itself -as a church which seeks to put an end to all free individual movement, upon -which the greatness of ancient Israel rests.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span></p> - -<p>It was just the same with the ruling nation, the Persians, however vigorous -their entrance into history under Cyrus. The Persian kingdom is, -indeed, a civilised state, but the civilisations that it includes lack the highest -that a civilisation can offer: an energetic, independent life, a combination -of the firm institutions and permanent attainments of the past with the -free, progressive, and creative movement of individuality. So the East, -after the Persian period, was unable of its own force to create anything new. -It stagnated, and, had it not received new elements from without, had it -been left permanently to itself, would perhaps in the course of centuries -have altered its external form again and again, but would hardly have produced -anything new or have progressed a step beyond what had already -been attained.</p> - -<p>But when Cyrus and Darius founded the Persian kingdom, the East no -longer stood alone. The nations and kingdoms of the East came into communication -with the coast of the Mediterranean very early—not later than -the beginning of the second millennium <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>; and under their influence, about -1500 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, a civilisation arose among the Greeks bordering the Ægean. We -call it the Mycenæan, and in spite of its formal dependence upon the East -it could, in the field of art (where alone we have an exact knowledge of it), -take an independent and equal place beside the great civilisations of the -East.</p> - -<p>How Greek civilisation continued to advance from step to step for many -centuries in the field of politics and society as well as in that of the intellect; -how it spread simultaneously over all the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean, -from Massalia on the coast of the Ligurians and Cumæ in the land of -the Oscans to the Crimea and the eastern coast of the Black Sea, and in the -south as far as Cyprus and Cilicia; how Greek culture at the same time took -root in much more remote districts, especially in Asia Minor; and how under -its influence an energetic civilisation arose among the tribes of Italy, cannot -be depicted here.</p> - -<p>When the Persian kingdom was founded the Hellenes had developed from -a group of linguistically related tribes into a nation possessing a completely -independent culture whose equal the world had never yet seen, a culture -whose mainspring was that very political and intellectual freedom of the -individual which was completely lacking in the East.</p> - -<p>Hence its character was purely human, its aim the complete and harmonious -development of man; and if for that very reason it always strove to -be moderate and to adapt itself to the moral and cosmical forces that govern -human life, nevertheless it could accomplish this only in free subordination, -by absorbing the moral commandment into its own will. Therefore it -did not permit the opposing theological tendencies to gain control, strong -as was their development in considerable districts of Greece in the sixth -century. At that very period, on the other hand, it was stretching out to -grasp the apples on the tree of knowledge; in the most advanced regions of -Hellas science and philosophy were opposing theology. National as it was, -this culture lacked but one thing: the political unity of the nation, the -co-ordination of all its powers in the vigorous organism of a great state.</p> - -<p>The instinct of freedom itself, upon which the greatness of this civilisation -rested, favoured by the geographical conformation of the Greek soil, -had caused a constantly increasing political disunion, which saw in the -complete and unlimited autonomy of every individual community, even of -the tiniest of the hundreds of city states into which Hellas was divided, the -highest ideal of liberty, the only fit existence for a Hellene. And, internally,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> -every one of these dwarf states was eaten by the canker of political -and social contrasts which could not be permanently suppressed by any -attempt to introduce a just political order founded upon a codified law and a -written constitution—whether the ideal were the rule of the “best,” the rule -of the whole, <i>i.e.</i> of the actual masses, or that of a mixed constitution. The -smaller the city and its territory, the more apt were these attempts to become -bloody revolutions. Lively as was the public spirit, clearly as the -justice of the demand for subordination to law was recognised, every individual -and every party interpreted it according to its own conception and -its own judgment, and at all times there were not a few who were ready to -seize for themselves all that the moment offered.</p> - -<p>To be sure, manifold and successful attempts to found a greater political -power were brought about by the advancing growth of industry and culture, -as well as by the development of the citizen army of hoplites, which had a -firm tactical structure and was well schooled in the art of war. In the Peloponnesus -Sparta brought the whole south under the rule of its citizens and -not only effected the union of almost the whole peninsula into a league, -but established its right, as the first military power of Hellas, to leadership -in all common affairs.</p> - -<p>In middle Greece, Thebes succeeded in uniting Bœotia into a federal -state, while its neighbour Athens, which had maintained the unity of the -Attic district since the beginning of history, began to annex the neighbouring -districts of Megara, Bœotia, and Eubœa, and laid the foundation of a -colonial power, as Corinth had formerly done. In the north the Thessalians -acquired leadership over all surrounding tribes. In the west, in Sicily, -usurpers had founded larger monarchical unified states, especially in -Syracuse and Agrigentum.</p> - -<p>But all these combinations were after all only of very limited extent and -by no means firmly united; on the contrary, the weaker communities felt -even the loosest kind of federation, to say nothing of dependence, as an oppressive -fetter which impaired the ideal of the individual destiny of the -autonomous state, and which at least one party,—generally the one that happened -to be out of power,—felt justified in bursting at the first opportunity.</p> - -<p>However, as things lay, the nation found itself forced, with this sort of -constitution, to take up the struggle for its political independence. The -Greeks of Asia Minor, formerly subjects of the kings of Sardis, had become -subjects of the Persian kingdom under Cyrus; the free Hellenes had the -most varied relations with the latter, and more than once gave him occasion -to intervene in their affairs. The Persian kingdom, which under Darius no -longer attempted conquests that were not necessary for the maintenance of -its own existence, took no advantage of these provocations until the revolt -of the Greeks of Asia Minor, supported by Athens, made war inevitable.</p> - -<p>After the first attempt had failed Xerxes repeated it on the greatest scale. -Against the Hellenic nation, whose alien character was everywhere a hindrance -in its path, the Orient arose in the east and the west for a decisive -struggle; the Phœnician city of Carthage, the great sea power of the west, -was in alliance with the Persian kingdom. Only the minority of the Hellenes -joined in the defence; in the west the princes of Syracuse and Agrigentum, -in the east Sparta and the Peloponnesian league, Athens, the cities -of Eubœa and a few smaller powers. But in both fields of operation the -Hellenes won a complete victory; the Carthaginians were defeated on the -Himera, in the east Themistocles broke the base of the Persian position by -destroying their sea power with the Athenian fleet that he had created, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> -on the battle-field of Platæa the Persian land forces were defeated by the -superiority of the Greek armies of hoplites.</p> - -<p>Thus the Hellenes had won the leading position in the world. For the -moment there was no other power that could oppose them by land or sea; the -Asiatic king never again ventured an attack on Greece. Her absolute military -superiority was founded upon the national character, the energetic public -spirit, the voluntary subordination to law and discipline and the capacity for -conceiving and realising great political ideas. The Hellenes could gain and -assert permanently the ascendency over the entire Mediterranean world, -and impress upon it for all time the stamp of their nationality, provided only -that they were united and saw the way to gather together all their resources -into a single firmly knit great power.</p> - -<p>But the Greeks were not able to meet this first and most urgent demand; -though the days of particularism were irrevocably past, the idea which was -so inseparably bound up with the very nature of Hellenism still exerted a -powerful influence. As the individual communities were no longer able to -maintain an independent existence, they gathered about the two powers that -had gained the leadership, and each of which was striving for supremacy: -the patriarchal military state of Sparta and the new progressive great power -of Athens.</p> - -<p>With the victory over the East it had been decided that the individuality -of Hellenic culture, the intellectual liberty which gives free play to -all vigorous powers in both material and intellectual life, had asserted itself; -the future lay only along this way. Mighty was the advance that in all -fields carried Greece along with gigantic strides; after only a few decades -the time before the Persian wars seemed like a remote and long past antiquity.</p> - -<p>But mighty as were the advancing strides of the nation in trade and -industry, in wealth and all the luxury of civilisation, in art and science, all -these attainments finally became factors of political disintegration. They -furthered the unlimited development of individualism, which in custom -and law and political life recognises no other rule than its own ego and its -claims. The ideal world of the time of the sophists and the politics of an -Alcibiades and a Lysander are the results of this development.</p> - -<p>Athens perceived the political tasks that were set for the Hellenic people -and ventured an attempt to perform them. They could be accomplished -only by admitting the new ideas into the programme of democracy, by the -foundation and extension of sea power, by an aggressive policy which aimed -more and more at the subjection of the Greek world under the hegemony -of one city. In consequence all opposing elements were forced under the -banner of Sparta, which adopted the programme of conservatism and particularism, -in order to strengthen its resistance, and restrict and, if possible, -overcome its rival.</p> - -<p>The conflict was inevitable, though both sides were reluctant to enter -upon it; twenty years after the battle of Salamis it broke out. The fact -that Athens was trying at the same time to continue the war against Persia -and wrest Cyprus and Egypt from it gave her opponents the advantage; -she had far overestimated her strength. After a struggle of eleven years -(460-449 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>) Athens found herself compelled to make peace with Persia -and free the Greek mainland, only retaining absolute control over the -sea.</p> - -<p>Under the rule of Pericles she consolidated her power, and the ideals that -lived in her were embodied in splendid creations. She proved herself equal,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> -in spite of all internal instability and crises, to a second attack of her Greek -opponents (431-421 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>). But it again became evident that the radical -democracy, which was now at the helm, had no grasp of the realities of the -political situation; for the second time it stretched out its hand for -the hegemony over all Hellas, in unnatural alliance with Alcibiades, the -conscienceless, ambitious man who was aiming at the crown of Athens -and Hellas.</p> - -<p>Mighty indeed was the plan to subdue the Western world, Sicily first of -all; then with doubled power first to crush the opponents at home and then -gain the supremacy over the whole Mediterranean world. But what a -united Hellas might have accomplished was far beyond the resources of -Athens, even if the democrats had not overthrown their dangerous ally at -the first opportunity, and thus lamed the undertaking at the outset.</p> - -<p>The catastrophe of the Athenians before Syracuse (413 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>) is the turning-point -of Greek history. All the opponents of Athens united, and the -Persian king, who saw that the hour had come to regain his former power -without a struggle, made an alliance with them. Only through his subsidies -was it possible for Sparta and her allies to reduce Athens—until she -lay prostrate. And the gain fell to Persia alone, however feeble the kingdom -had meanwhile become internally. Sparta, after overthrowing the -despotism of Lysander, made an honest attempt to reorganise the Greek -world after the conservative programme, and to fulfil the task laid upon the -nation in the contest with Persia. But she only furnished her opponents at -home, and particularism, which now immediately turned against its former -ally, an occasion for a fresh uprising, which Sparta could master only by -forming a new alliance with Persia. After the peace of 386 the king of -Asia utters the decisive word even in the affairs of the Greek mother-country.</p> - -<p>Here dissolution is going rapidly forward. Every power that has once -more for a short time possessed some importance in Greece succumbs to it -in turn; first Sparta, then Thebes and Athens. The attempts to establish -permanent and assured conditions by local unions in small districts, as in -Chalcidice under Olynthus, in Bœotia and Arcadia, were never able to hold -out more than a short time. It was useless to look longer for the fulfilment -of the national destiny. Feeble as the Persian kingdom was internally, -every revolt against it, to say nothing of an attempt to make conquests -and acquire a new field of colonisation in Asia,—the programme that Isocrates -repeatedly urged upon the nation,—was made impossible by internal -strife. Prosperity was ruined, the energy of the nation was exhausted in the -wild feuds of brigands, the most desolate conditions prevailed in all communities. -Greek history ends in chaos, in a hopeless struggle of all against all.</p> - -<p>In this same period, to be sure, the positive, constructive criticism -of Socrates and his school rose in opposition to the negative tendencies of -sophistry; and made the attempt to put an end to the political misery, to -create by a proper education the true citizen who looks only to the common -welfare in place of the ignorant citizen of the existing states, who was governed -only by self-interest. These efforts resulted in the development of -science and the preservation for all future time of the highest achievements -of the intellectual life of Hellas, but they could not produce an internal transformation -of men and states, whose earthly life does not lie within the sphere -of the problems of theoretical perception, but in that of the problems of will -and power. So at the same time that Greek culture has reached the highest -point of its development, prepared to become the culture of the world, the -Greek nation is condemned to complete impotence.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span></p> - -<p>For the development in the West, different as was its course, led to no -other result. In the fifth century Greece controlled almost all Sicily -except the western point, the whole south of Italy up to Tarentum, Elea and -Posidonia and the coast of Campania. Nowhere was an enemy to be seen -that might have become dangerous. The Carthaginians were repulsed, -and the power of the Etruscans, who in the sixth century had striven for -the hegemony in Italy, decayed, partly from internal weakness, partly in -consequence of the revolt of their subjects, especially the Romans and the -Sabines. The Cumæans under Aristodemus with the Sabines as their allies -defeated Aruns, the son of Porsena of Clusium, at Aricia about 500 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, -and in the year 474 the Etruscan sea power suffered defeat at Cumæ from -the fleet of Hiero of Syracuse.</p> - -<p>The cities of western Greece stood then as if founded for all eternity; -they were adorned with splendid buildings, the gayest and most luxurious -life developed in their streets; and they had leisure enough, after the Greek -manner, to dissipate their energies, which were not claimed by external -enemies, in internal strife and in struggles for the hegemony. Only the -bold attempts which Phocæa made in the sixth century to turn the western -basin of the Mediterranean likewise into a Greek sea, to get a firm footing -in Corsica and southern Spain, had succumbed to the resistance of the Carthaginians, -who were in alliance with the Etruscans. Only in the north, on -the coast of Liguria from the Alps to the Pyrenees, Massalia maintained its -independence. Southern Spain, Gades, and the coast of the land of Tarshish -(Tartessus) were occupied by the Carthaginians about the middle of the fifth -century; and the Greeks and all foreign mariners in general were cut off -from the navigation of the ocean, as well as from the coasts of North Africa -and Sardinia.</p> - -<p>In the fourth century the political situation is totally changed in both -east and west. The Greeks are reduced to the defensive and lose one position -after the other. A few years after the destruction of the Athenian -expedition the Carthaginians stretched out their hands for Sicily; in the -years 409 and 406 they take and destroy Selinus, Himera, and Agrigentum; -in the wars of the following years every other Greek city of the island -except Syracuse was temporarily occupied and plundered by them.</p> - -<p>In Italy after the middle of the fifth century a new people made their -entrance into history, the Sabellian (Oscan) mountain tribes. From the -valleys of the Abruzzi and the Samnitic Apennines they pressed forward -towards the rich plains of the coast, and the land of civilisation with its -inhabitants succumbed to them almost everywhere. To be sure, the Sabines -under Rome defended themselves against the Æquians and Volscians, and -so did the Apulians in the east against the Frentanians and Pentrians of -Samnium. But the Etruscans of Capua and Nola and the Greeks of Cumæ -were overcome (438 and 421 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>) by the Sabellian Campanians, and Naples -alone in this district was able to preserve its independence. In the south -the Lucanians advanced farther and farther, took Posidonia (Pæstum) in -400 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, Pyxus, Laos, and harassed the Greek cities of the east coast and -the south.</p> - -<p>From between these hostile powers, the Carthaginians and the Sabellians, -an energetic ruler, Dionysius of Syracuse (405-367 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>), once more rescued -Hellenism. In great battles, with heavy losses to be sure, and only by the -employment of the military power of the Oscans, of Campanian mercenary -troops and of the Lucanians, he succeeded in setting up once more a powerful -Greek kingdom, including two-thirds of Sicily, the south of Italy as far as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> -Crotona and Terina; he held Carthage in restraint, scourged the Etruscans -in the western sea, and at the same time occupied a number of important -points on the Adriatic, Lissus and Pharos in Illyria, several Apulian towns, -Ancona, and Hadria at the mouth of the Po in Italy. Dionysius had covered -his rear by a close alliance with Sparta, which not only insured him -against any republican uprising, but made possible an uninterrupted recruiting -of mercenaries from the Peloponnesus. In return Dionysius supported -the Spartans in carrying through the Kings’ Peace and against their -enemies elsewhere.</p> - -<p>The kingdom of Dionysius seemed to rest on a firm and permanent foundation. -Had it continued to exist the whole course of the world’s history would -have been different; Hellenism could have maintained its position in the -West, which might even have received again a Greek impress instead of -becoming Italic and Roman.</p> - -<p>But the kingdom of Dionysius was in the most direct opposition to all -that Greek political theory demanded; it was a despotic state which made -the free self-government of communities an empty form in the capital Syracuse, -and in the subject territories, for the most part, simply abolished the -city-state, the <i>polis</i>. The necessity of a strong government that would protect -Hellenism in the West against its external enemies was indeed recognised -by the discerning, but internally it seemed possible to relax and to effect a -more ideal political formation.</p> - -<p>Under the successor of the old despot, Dionysius II, Plato’s pupil, Dion, -and Plato himself, made an attempt at reform, first with the ruler’s support, -and then in opposition to him. The result was, that the west Grecian kingdom -was shattered (357-353 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>), while the establishment of the ideal state -was not successful; instead anarchy appeared again, and the struggle of all -against all. Only the enemies of the nation gained. In Sicily, to be sure, -Timoleon (345-337) was able to establish a certain degree of order; he overthrew -the tyrants, repulsed the Carthaginians, restored the cities and gave -them a modified democratic constitution. But the federation of these -republics had no permanence. On the death of Timoleon the internal and -external strife began anew, and the final verdict was uttered by the governor -of the Carthaginian province.</p> - -<p>In Italy, on the other hand, the majority of the Greek cities were conquered -by the Lucanians or the newly risen Bruttians. On the west coast -only Naples and Elea were left, in the south Rhegium; in the east Locri, -Crotona, and Thurii had great difficulty in defending themselves against the -Bruttians. Tarentum alone (upon which Heraclea and Metapontum were -dependent) possessed a considerable power, owing to its incomparable situation -on a sea-girt peninsula and to the trade and wealth which furnished -it the means again and again to enlist Greek chieftains and mercenaries in -its service for the struggle against its enemies.</p> - -<p>It was as Plato wrote to the Syracusans in the year 352 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> If matters -go on in this way, no end can be foreseen “until the whole population, supporters -of tyrants and democrats, alike, has been destroyed, the Greek -language has disappeared from Sicily and the island fallen under the power -and rule of the Phœnicians or Oscans” (<i>Epist.</i> 8, 353 e). In a century the -prophecy was fulfilled. But its range extends a great deal farther than -Plato dreamed; it is the fate not only of the western Greeks, but of the -whole Hellenic nation, that he foretells here.</p> - -<p>The Greek states were not equal to the task of maintaining the position -of their nation as a world-power and gaining control of the world for their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> -civilisation. When they had completely failed, a half-Greek neighbouring -people, the Macedonians, attempted to carry out this mission. The impotence -of the Greek world gave King Philip (359-336) the opportunity, which -he seized with the greatest skill and energy, of establishing a strong Macedonian -kingdom, including all Thrace as far as the Danube, extending on -the west to the Ionian Sea, and finally, on the basis of a general peace, of -uniting the Hellenic world of the mother-country in a firm league under -Macedonian hegemony (337 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>).</p> - -<p>Philip adopted the national programme of the Hellenes proposed by -Isocrates and began war in Asia against the Persians (336 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>). His youthful -son Alexander then carried it out on a far greater scale than his father -had ever intended. His aim was to subdue the whole known world, the -οικουμένη, simultaneously to Macedonian rule and Hellenic civilisation. -Moreover, as the descendant of Hercules and Achilles, as king of Macedonia -and leader of the Hellenic league, imbued by education with Hellenic culture, -the triumphs of which he had enthusiastically absorbed, he felt himself called -as none other to this work. Darius III, after the victory of Issus (November -333 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>), offered him the surrender of Western Asia as far as the Euphrates; -and the interests of his native state and also,—we must not fail to note,—the -true interests of Hellenic culture would have been far better served by such -self-restraint than by the ways that Alexander followed.</p> - -<p>But he would go farther, out into the immeasurable; the attraction to -the infinite, to the comprehension and mastery of the universe, both intellectual -and material, that lies in the nature of the yet inchoate uniform -world-culture, finds its most vivid expression in its champion. When, -indeed, he would advance farther and farther, from the Punjab to the Ganges -and to the ends of the world, his instrument, his army, failed him; he -had to turn back. But the Persian kingdom, Asia as far as the Indus, -he conquered, brought permanently under Macedonian rule, and laid the -foundation for its Hellenisation. With this, however, only the smaller portion -of his mission was fulfilled. The East everywhere offered further tasks -which had in part been undertaken by the Persian kingdom at the height -of its power under Darius I—the exploration of Arabia, of the Indian -Ocean, and of the Caspian Sea, the subjugation of the predatory nomads of -the great steppe that extends from the Danube through southern Russia -and Turania as far as the Jaxartes.</p> - -<p>It was of far more importance that Hellenism had a task in the West like -that in the East; to save the Greeks of Italy and Sicily, to overcome the -Carthaginians and the tribes of Italy, to turn the whole Mediterranean into -a Greek sea, was just as urgently necessary as the conquest of Western Asia. -It was the aim that Alcibiades had set himself and on which Athens had -gone to wreck.</p> - -<p>In the same years in which the Macedonian king was conquering the -Persians, his brother-in-law, Alexander of Epirus, at the request of Tarentum, -had devoted himself to this task. After some success at the beginning -he had been overcome by the Lucanians and Bruttians and the opposition -of Hellenic particularism (334-331 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>).</p> - -<p>Now the Macedonian king made preparations to take up this work also -and thus complete his conquest of the world. That the resources of Macedonia -were inadequate for this purpose was perfectly clear to him. Since -he had rejected the proposals of Darius he had employed the conquered -Asiatics in the government of his empire, and above all had endeavoured to -form an auxiliary force to his army out of the people that had previously<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> -ruled Asia. In his naïve overvaluation of education, due to the Socratic -belief in the omnipotence of the intellect, he thought he could make Macedonians -out of the young Persians. But as ruler of the world he must no -longer bear the fetters which the usage of his people and the terms of the -Hellenic league put upon him. He must stand above all men and peoples, -his will must be law to them, like the commandment of the gods. The -march to Ammon (331 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>), which at the time enjoyed the highest regard -in the Greek world, inaugurated this departure. This elevation of the kingship -to divinity was not an outgrowth of oriental views, although it -resembles them, but of political necessity and of the loftiest ideas of Greek -culture—of the teaching of Greek philosophy, common to all Socratic -schools, of the unlimited sovereignty of the true sage, whose judgment no -commandment can fetter; he is no other than the true king.</p> - -<p>Henceforth this view is inseparable from the idea of kingship among -all occidental nations down to our own times. It returns in the absolute -monarchy that Cæsar wished to found at Rome and which then gradually -develops out of the principate of Augustus, until Diocletian and Constantine -bring it to perfection; it returns, only apparently modified by Christian -views, in the absolute monarchy of modern times, in kingship by the grace -of God as well as in the universal monarchy of Napoleon, and in the divine -foundation of the autocracy of the Czar.</p> - -<p>But Alexander was not able to bring his state to completion. In the -midst of his plans, in the full vigour of youth, just as a boundless future -seemed to lie before him, he was carried off by death at Babylon, on the -thirteenth of June, 323 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, in the thirty-third year of his age.</p> - -<p>With the death of Alexander his plans were buried. He left no heir who -could have held the empire together; his generals fought for the spoils. The -result of the mighty struggles of the period of the Diadochi, which covers -almost fifty years (323-277 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>), is, that the Macedonian empire is divided -into three great powers; the kingdom of the Lagidæ, who from the seaport -of Alexandria on the extreme western border of Egypt control the eastern -Mediterranean with all its coasts, and the valley of the Nile; the kingdom -of the Seleucidæ, who strive in continual wars to hold Asia together; and -the kingdom of the Antigonidæ, who obtained possession of Macedonia, -depopulated by the conquest of the world and again by the fearful Celtic -invasion (280), and who, when they wish to assert themselves as a great -power, must attempt to acquire an ascendency in some form or other over -Greece and the Ægean Sea.</p> - -<p>Of these three powers the kingdom of the Lagidæ is most firmly welded -together, being in full possession of all the resources that trade and sea -power, money and politics, afford. To re-establish the universal monarchy -was never its aim, even when circumstances seemed to tempt to it. But as -long as strong rulers wear the crown it always stands on the offensive -against the other two; it harasses them continually, hinders them at every -step from consolidating, wrests from the Seleucidæ almost all the coast -towns of Palestine and Phœnicia as far as Thrace, temporarily gains control -of the islands of the Ægean, and supports every hostile movement that is -made in Greece against Macedonia. The Greek mother-country is thus continually -forced anew into the struggle, the play of intrigue between the court -of Alexandria and the Macedonian state never gives it an opportunity to -become settled. All revolts of the Greek world received the support of -Alexandria; the uprising of Athens and Sparta in the war of Chremonides -(264), the attempt of Aratus to give the Peloponnesus an independent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> -organisation by means of the Achæan league (beginning in 252), and finally -the uprising of Sparta under Cleomenes. The aim of giving the Greek -world an independent form was never attained; finally, when at the end of -the reign of Ptolemy III Euergetes (221) the kingdom of the Lagidæ withdraws -and lets Cleomenes fall, the peninsula comes anew under the supremacy -of the Macedonians, whom Aratus the “liberator” had himself brought back to -the citadel of Corinth. But neither can the Macedonian king attain the full -power that Philip and Alexander had possessed a century earlier; in particular, -its resources are insufficient, even in alliance with the Achæans, to -overthrow the warlike, piratical Ætolian state, which is constantly increasing -in power. So Greece never gets out of these hopeless conditions; on -the contrary, indeed, through the emigration of the population to the -Asiatic colonies, through the decay of a vigorous peasant population which -began as early as in the fourth century, through the economic decline of -commerce and industry caused by the shifting of the centre of gravity to -the east, its situation becomes more and more wretched and the population -constantly diminishes. It can never attain peace of itself, but only through -an energetic and ruthlessly despotic foreign rule.</p> - -<p>In the East, on the contrary, an active and hopeful life developed. The -great kings of the Lagidæan kingdom, the first three Ptolemies, fully appreciated -the importance of intellectual life to the position of their kingdom in -the world. All that Greek culture offered they tried to attract to Alexandria, -and they managed to win for their capital the leading position in -literature and science. But in other respects the kingdom of the Lagidæ is -by no means the state in which the life of the new time reaches its full -development. However much, in opposition to the Greek world, in conflict -with Macedonia, they coquette with the Hellenic idea of liberty, within their -own jurisdiction they cannot endure the independence and the free constitution -of the Greek <i>polis</i>, and their subjects are by no means initiated into -the new world-culture, but are kept in complete subjugation, sharply distinguished -from the ruling classes, the Macedonians and Greeks, to whom -also no freedom of political movement whatever is granted.<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> - -<p>The development in Asia follows a very different course. Here, through -the activity of the great founders of cities, Antigonus, Lysimachus, Seleucus -I, and Antiochus I, one Greek city arises after another, from the Hellespont -through Asia Minor, Syria, Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Media, as far as Bactria -and India; and from them grow the great centres of culture, full of independent -life, by which the Asiatic population is introduced to the modern -world-civilisation and becomes Hellenised. Antigonus deliberately supported -the independence of the cities within the great organic body of the -kingdom, thus following on the lines of the Hellenic league under Philip -and Alexander. By the pressure of political necessity and the fact that they -could maintain their power only by winning the attachment and fidelity of -their subjects, the Seleucidæ were forced into the same ways. And side by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> -side with the great kingdom the political struggle creates a great number of -powers of the second rank, in part pure Greek communities, like Rhodes, -Chios, Cyzicus, Byzantium, Heraclea, in part newly formed states of Greek -origin, like the kingdom of Pergamus and later the Bactrian kingdom, in -part fragments of the old Persian kingdom, like Bithynia, Pontus, Cappadocia, -Armenia, Atropatene, and not much later the Parthian kingdom. -Among these states the eastern retain their oriental character, while the -western are forced to pass more and more into the culture of Hellenism.</p> - -<p>Destructive as were the effects of the continual wars, and especially of -the raids of the Celtic hordes in Asia Minor, nevertheless there pulsates -here a fresh, progressive life, to which the future seems to belong. To be -sure, there is no lack of counter disturbance; beneath the surface of Hellenism, -the native population that is absorbed into the Greek life everywhere -preserves its own character, not through active resistance, but through the -passivity of its nature. When the orientals become Hellenised, Hellenism -itself begins at the same time to take on an oriental impress.</p> - -<p>But in this there lies no danger as yet. Hellenism everywhere retains -the upper hand and seems to come nearer and nearer to the goal of its -mission for the world. In all fields of intellectual life the cultured classes -have undisputed control and can look down with absolute contempt on -the currents that move the masses far beneath them; the exponents of philosophical -enlightenment may imagine they have completely dominated them. -When the great ideas upon which Hellenism is based have been created by -the classical period and new ones can no longer be placed beside them, the -new time sets to work to perfect what it has inherited. The third century -is the culmination of ancient science.</p> - -<p>However, this whole civilisation lacks one thing, and that is a state of -natural growth. Of all the states that developed out of Alexander’s empire, -the kingdom of the Antigonidæ in Macedonia was the only one that had a -national basis; and therefore, in spite of the scantiness of its resources, it -was also the most capable of resistance of them all. All others, on the -contrary, were purely artificial political combinations, lacking that innate -necessity vital to the full power of a state. They might have been altogether -different, or they might not have been at all. The separation of state and -nationality, which is the result of the development of the ancient East, -exists in them also; they are not supported by the population, which, by -the contingencies of political development, is for the moment included in -them, and their subjects, so far as the individual man or community is not -bound to them by personal advantage, have no further interest in their -existence. To be sure, had they maintained their existence for centuries, -the power of custom might have sufficed to give them a firmer constitution, -such as many later similar political formations have acquired and such as -the Austrian monarchy possesses to-day; and as a matter of fact we find the -loyalty of subjects to the reigning dynasty already quite strongly developed -in the kingdom of the Seleucidæ. But a national state can never arise on -the basis of a universal, denationalised civilisation, and the unity is consequently -only political, based only upon the dynasty and its political successes. -Therefore, except in Macedonia, none of these states can, even in -the struggle for existence, set in motion the full national force supplied by -internal unity.</p> - -<p>The resources at the command of the Macedonio-Hellenic states were -consumed in the struggle with one another; nothing was left for the great -task that was set them in the West. The remains of Greek nationality, still<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> -maintaining their existence here, looked in vain for a deliverer to come from -the East. An attempt made by the Spartan prince Cleonymus, in response -to the appeal of Tarentum, to take up the struggle in Italy against the -Lucanians and Romans, failed miserably through the incapacity of its leader -(303-302 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>). In Sicily, to be sure, the gifted general and statesman -Agathocles (317-289) had once more established, amid streams of blood, -and by mighty and ruthless battles against both internal enemies and rivals -and against Carthage, a strong Greek kingdom that reached even to Italy and -the Ionian Sea. But he was never able to attain the position taken by -Dionysius, and at his death his kingdom goes to pieces. At this point also -the rôle of the Sicilian Greeks in the history of the world is played out; they -disappear from the number of independent powers capable of maintaining -themselves by their own resources.</p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> It is altogether wrong to regard the kingdom of the Lagidæ as the typical state of Hellenism. -Through the mass of material that the Egyptian papyri afford a further shifting in its -favour is threatened, which must certainly lead to a very incorrect conception of the whole of -antiquity. It is frequently quite overlooked that we have to do here only with documents from -a province of the kingdom of the Lagidæ (later of Rome) which had a quite peculiar constitution, -and that these documents therefore show by no means typical, but in every respect exceptional, -conditions. The investigators who have made this material accessible deserve great gratitude, -but it must never be overlooked that even a small fragment of similar documents from Asia -would have infinitely greater value for the interpretation of the whole history of antiquity and -specially that of Hellenism.</p> - -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-0.jpg" width="500" height="124" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek City Seals</span></p> -</div> - -<h3 id="GREEK_HISTORY_IN_OUTLINE">GREEK HISTORY IN OUTLINE<br /> -<br /> -A PRELIMINARY SURVEY, COMPRISING A CURSORY VIEW OF THE SWEEP -OF EVENTS AND A TABLE OF CHRONOLOGY</h3> - -<p>It is unnecessary in the summary of a country whose chief events are so -accurately dated and so fully understood as in the case of Greece, to amplify -the chronology. A synoptical view of these events will, however, prove -useful. Questions of origins and of earliest history are obscure here as -elsewhere. As to the earliest dates, it may be well to quote the dictum -of Prof. Flinders Petrie, who, after commenting on the discovery in Greece, of -pottery marked with the names of early Egyptian kings, states that “the -grand age of prehistoric Greece, which can well compare with the art of -classical Greece, began about 1600 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, was at its highest point about 1400 -<span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> and became decadent about 1200 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, before its overthrow by the -Dorian invasion.” The earlier phase of civilisation in the Ægean may -therefore date from the third millennium <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span></p> - -<p>2000-1000. Later phase of civilisation in the Ægean (the Mycenæan -Age). The Achæans and other Greeks spread themselves over Greece. -Ionians settle in Asia Minor. The Pelopidæ reign at Mycenæ. <b>Agamemnon</b>, -king of Mycenæ, commands the Greek forces at Troy. 1184. Fall of -Troy (traditional date). 1124. First migration. Northern warriors drive -out the population of Thessaly and occupy the country, causing many Achæans -to migrate to the Peloponnesus. 1104. Dorian invasion. The Peloponnesus -gradually brought under the Dorian sway. Dorian colonies sent -out to Crete, Rhodes, and Asia Minor. Argos head of a Dorian hexapolis. -885. <b>Lycurgus</b> said to have given laws to Sparta. About this time (perhaps -much earlier) Phœnician alphabet imported into Greece. 776. The first -Olympic year. 750. First Messenian war.</p> - -<h4>PERIOD OF GREEK COLONISATION (750-550 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</h4> - -<p>683. Athens ruled by nine archons. 632. Attempt of Cylon to make -himself supreme at Athens. 621. Draconian code drawn up. 611. Anaximander -of Miletus, the constructor of the first map, born. End of seventh -century. Second Messenian war. Spartans conquer the country. The -Ephors win almost all the kingly power. <b>Cypselus</b> and his son <b>Periander</b> -tyrants of Corinth. 600. The poets Alcæus and Sappho flourish at Lesbos. -594-593. <b>Solon</b> archon at Athens. 590-589. Sacred war of the Amphictyonic -league against Crissa. <b>Clisthenes</b> tyrant of Sicyon. 585. Pythian games -reorganised. Date of first Pythiad. 570. <b>Pisistratus</b> polemarch at Athens. -Athenians conquer Salamis and Nisæa. 561. Pisistratus makes himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> -supreme in Athens. He is twice exiled. 559-556. <b>Miltiades</b> tyrant of the -Thracian Chersonesus. 556. Chilon’s reforms in Sparta. 549-548. Mycenæ -and Tiryns go over to Sparta.</p> - -<h4>ATHENS UNDER THE TYRANTS (540-510 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</h4> - -<p>540. Pisistratus tyrant of Athens. 530. Pythagoras goes to Croton. -527. Pisistratus dies and is succeeded by his sons, <b>Hippias</b> and <b>Hipparchus</b>. -Homeric poems collected. 514. Hipparchus slain by Harmodius and Aristogiton. -510. A Spartan army under Cleomenes blockades Hippias and forces -him to quit Athens.</p> - -<h4>THE ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY</h4> - -<p>Clisthenes and Isagoras contend for the chief power in Athens. 507. Isagoras -calls in <b>Cleomenes</b> who invades Attica. The Athenians overcome the -Spartans, and Clisthenes, who had left Athens, returns. <b>Clisthenes</b> reforms -the Athenian democracy. 506. Spartans, Bœotians, and Chalcidians allied -against Athens. The Athenians allied with Platæa. Chalcidian territory -annexed by Athens. Nearly the whole Peloponnesus forms a league under -the hegemony of Sparta. Rivalry between Athens and Ægina. 504. The -Athenians refuse to restore Hippias on the Persian demand. 498. Athens -and Eretria send ships to aid the Milesians against the Persians. 496. Sophocles -born at Athens. 494. Naval battle off Lade, the decisive struggle of the -Ionian war, won by the Persians. Battle of Sepeia. The Spartans defeat -the Argives. 493. <b>Themistocles</b>, archon at Athens, fortifies the Piræus.</p> - -<h4>PERIOD OF THE PERSIAN WARS (492-479 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</h4> - -<p>492. Quarrel between the Spartan kings. King <b>Demaratus</b> flees to the -Persian court, and King Cleomenes seizes hostages from Ægina. Thrace -and Macedonia subdued by the Persians. 490. The Persians subdue Naxos -and other islands, and destroy Eretria before landing in Attica. Battle of -Marathon; the Greeks under Miltiades defeat the Persians, the latter losing -six thousand men; the Persian fleet sets sail for Asia. 489. Miltiades’ expedition -against Paros. Miltiades tried, and fined. His death. 487. War -between Athens and Ægina. Themistocles begins to equip an Athenian -fleet. 483. Aristides ostracised. 481. Xerxes musters an army to invade -Greece. Greek congress at Corinth. 480. Xerxes at the Hellespont. The -northern Greeks submit to Xerxes. The Greek army is defeated at the pass -of Thermopylæ and <b>Leonidas</b>, the Spartan king, is slain. Battle of Artemisium. -The Greek fleet retreats. Athens being evacuated, Xerxes occupies -it. Battle of Salamis and complete victory of the Greeks. Retreat of -Xerxes. The Greeks fail to follow up their victory. 479. Mardonius invades -Bœotia; occupies Athens. Retreat of Mardonius. Battle of Platæa. -Mardonius defeated and slain. Retreat of the Persian army. Battle of -Mycale and defeat of the Persian fleet.</p> - -<h4>POST-BELLUM RECONSTRUCTION (479-463 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</h4> - -<p>478. Athenians under Xanthippus capture Sestus in the Chersonesus. -Confederacy of Delos. 477. Athenian walls rebuilt. Piræus fortified. -Themistocles’ law providing for the annual increase of the navy. Pausanias<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> -conquers Byzantium. He enters into treacherous relations with the Persians. -476. The Spartans endeavour to reorganise the Amphictyonic league. -Their attempts defeated by Themistocles. 474. The poet Pindar flourishes. -473. Scyros conquered by the Athenian, Cimon. Argos defeated by the -Spartans at the battle of Tegea. 472. Themistocles ostracised. <i>Persæ</i> of -Æschylus performed. 471. The Arcadian league against Sparta crushed -at the battle of Dipæa. 470-469. Naxos secedes from the confederacy of -Delos, and is compelled to return. 470. Socrates born. 468. Cimon defeats -the Persians at the Eurymedon. Argos recovers Tiryns. 465-463. Thasos -revolts and is reduced by the fleet under Cimon. 464. Sparta stirred by -terrible earthquake and a revolt of the helots. The Third Messenian war. -463-462. Cimon persuades Athens to send help to the Spartans, but the -latter refuse the assistance. They are afraid of Athens’ revolutionary spirit. -This incident puts an end to Cimon’s Laconian policy. It is the triumph -of Ephialtes and his party.</p> - -<h4>THE AGE OF PERICLES (463-431 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</h4> - -<p>463-461. Triumph of democracy at Athens under Ephialtes and Pericles. -The Areopagus deprived of its powers. Cimon protests against the changes -effected in his absence. He is ostracised, and Athens forms a connection -with Argos, which captures and destroys Mycenæ. 460-459. Megara secedes -from the Peloponnesian league to Athens. A fleet, sent by Athens to aid -the Egyptian revolt against Persia, captures Memphis. 459. Ithome captured -by the Spartans. 459-458. Athens at war with the northern states of the -Peloponnesus. Athenian victories of Halieis, Cecryphalea, and Ægina. -458. Long walls of Athens completed. 457. Spartan expedition to Bœotia. -Victory of Tanagra over the Athenians. Truce between Athens and -Sparta. Battle of Œnophyta and conquest of Bœotia by the Athenians. -The Phocians and Locrians make alliance with Athens. 456. Ægina surrenders -to the Athenians. 454. Greek contingent in Egypt capitulates -to the Persians; the Athenian fleet destroyed at the mouth of the Nile. -454-453. Treasury of the confederacy of Delos transferred from the island -to Athens. 453. Pericles besieges Sicyon and Œniadæ without success. -Achaia passes under the Athenian dominion. 452-451. Five years’ truce -between Athens and the Peloponnesus. 450-449. Cimon leads an expedition -against Cyprus. Death of Cimon. The fleet on its way home wins the -battle of Salamis in Cyprus. 448. Peace of Callias concluded with Persia. -Sacred war. The Phocians withdraw from the Athenian alliance. 447. -Bœotia lost to Athens by the battle of Coronea. 447-446. Revolt of -Eubœa and Megara from the Delian confederacy. Eubœa is subdued and -annexed. Pericles plants colonies in the Thracian Chersonesus, Eubœa, -Naxos, etc. 446-445. Thirty Years’ Peace between Athens and Sparta. -444. Aristophanes born. 442. Thucydides opposes Pericles; is ostracised, -leaving Pericles without a rival in Athens, where he governs for fifteen years -with absolute power. Sophocles’ <i>Antigone</i> produced. 440-439. Pericles -subdues Samos. Corcyræans defeat Corinthians in a sea-fight. 433. Corcyra -concludes alliance with Athens. Battle of Sybota between Corcyra and -Corinth. King <b>Perdiccas</b> of Macedonia incites the revolt of Chalcidice -against Athens. 432. “Megarian decree,” passed at Athens, excludes -Megarians from all Athenian markets. Battle of Potidæa. Athenians -defeat the Corinthians.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR (431-404 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</h4> - -<p>431. Sparta decides on war with Athens on the grounds of her having -broken the Thirty Years’ Peace. Peloponnesian War. First period called -the “Attic War.” Platæa surprised by Thebans. Thebans taken and executed -in spite of a promise for their release. King <b>Archidamus</b> of Sparta -invades Attica. The population crowd into Athens. Athens annexes Ægina. -The fleet takes several important places. 430. The plague in Athens. Trial -of Pericles for misappropriation of public money. Potidæa taken by the -Athenians and the inhabitants expelled. 429. <b>Archidamus</b> besieges Platæa. -Phormion, the Athenian, wins the victory of Naupactus. Death of Pericles. -Rivalry between contending parties under Nicias and Cleon. 428. <b>Archidamus</b> -invades Attica. Mytilene revolts and is blockaded by the Athenians. -427. Fourth invasion of Attica by the Spartans. Surrender of Mytilene. -The Mytilenæan ringleaders executed. Surrender of Platæa to the Peloponnesians. -Oligarchs in Corcyra conspire to overthrow the democrats. Civil -war and naval engagement. Terrible slaughter. Athenian expedition to -Sicily under Laches. Birth of Plato. 426. Athenians under Demosthenes -defeated in Ætolia. Battle of Olpæ. Peloponnesians and Ambracians defeated -by Demosthenes. Purification of Delos by the Athenians. The Delian festival -revived under Athenian superintendence. 425. Athens increases the -amount of tribute to be paid by the confederacy. The episode of Pylos, -leading, after a long struggle, to the capture of Lacedæmonian forces in -Sphacteria. 424. Defeat of Hippocrates at Delium. Thucydides, the historian, -banished for not succouring Amphipolis in time. Brasidas takes -towns of Chalcidice. 423. Truce between Athens and Sparta. Scione in -Chalcidice revolts to Sparta and an Athenian expedition under Cleon is sent -against it, notwithstanding the truce. 422. Battle of Amphipolis won by -Brasidas, but both he and Cleon are slain. 421. Peace of Nicias ends the -first period of the Peloponnesian War. Mutual restoration of conquests. -Scione is taken and all the male inhabitants put to death. 420. Second -period of the Peloponnesian War. Alcibiades becomes the chief opponent of -Nicias. Expedition against Epidaurus. 418. Nicias recovers his power in -Athens. The Spartans invade Argolis. Athenians take Orchomenus, but -are defeated by the Spartans. Battle of Mantinea. Hyperbolus attempts -to obtain the ostracism of Nicias. The decree is passed against himself, -being the last instance of ostracism. Argive oligarchy overthrows the democratic -government. A counter revolution restores the democrats. Athens -concludes alliance with Argos. 416. Melos conquered by the Athenians. -The Sicilian city of Segesta appeals to Athens for help against Selinus. -Nicias opposes the sending of assistance, but is overruled and sent with -Alcibiades in command of a Sicilian expedition. 415. Mysterious mutilation -of the Hermæ statues regarded as an evil omen. Alcibiades accused -of a plot. His trial postponed. The expedition sails. Fall of Alcibiades; -his escape. 414. Siege of Syracuse. The Spartan Gylippus arrives -with ships. 413. Nicias appeals for help to Athens and a second expedition -is voted. Syracusans worsted in a sea battle. Syracusans capture an Athenian -treasure fleet, and win a battle in the harbour of Syracuse. Arrival of -the second Athenian expedition and its total defeat. The Athenians retreat -by land. The rear guard is forced to surrender and the relics of the main -body are captured after the defeat of the Asinarus. Tribute of the confederacy -abolished and replaced by an import and export duty. 412. Third -period of the Peloponnesian War, called the Decelean or Ionian War. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> -allies of Athens take advantage of her misfortunes to revolt. Sparta makes -a treaty with Persia. Athens wins several naval successes. 411. “Revolution -of the Four Hundred.” The fleet and army at Samos place themselves -under the leadership of Alcibiades. Spartans defeat the Athenian fleet at -Eretria. Fall of the Four Hundred and partial restoration of Athenian -democracy. Battle of Cynossema won by the Athenians. Alcibiades defeats -the Peloponnesians at Abydos. 410. Battle of Cyzicus won by Alcibiades. -Complete restoration of Athenian democracy. 408. Alcibiades conquers -Byzantium. 407. Cyrus, viceroy of Sardis, furnishes the Spartan Lysander -with money to raise the pay of the Spartan navy. Lysander begins to set -up the oligarchical government of the decarchies in the cities conquered -by him. Battle of Notium. Athenians defeated. Alcibiades’ downfall. -406. Battle of Arginusæ. Peloponnesians defeated by the Athenians. The -victorious generals are blamed for not rescuing their wounded, and are illegally -condemned and executed. The Spartans make overtures for peace, -which are rejected. 405. Battle of Ægospotami. Most of the Athenian -ships are taken and all the prisoners are put to death. The Athenian empire -passes to Sparta. Lysander subdues the Hellespont and Thrace, and -lays siege to Athens. 404. Surrender of Athens.</p> - -<h4>SPARTAN SUPREMACY AND PERSIAN INFLUENCE</h4> - -<p>Return to Athens of exiles of the oligarchical party. Athens under the -Thirty. Thrasybulus and other exiles gain Phyle. Theramenes opposes -the violent rule of the Thirty and is put to death. 403. Battle of Munychia. -Thrasybulus defeats the army of the Thirty. Death of Critias. The Thirty -are deposed and replaced by the Ten. The Spartans under Lysander come -to the aid of the Ten, but the intervention of the Spartan king, <b>Pausanias</b>, -brings about the restoration of the Attic democracy. 401. Cyrus’ campaign -and the battle of Cunaxa. Retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks under -Xenophon. 400. Spartan invasion of the Persian dominions. 399. Spartans -under Dercyllidas occupy the Troad. Elis conquered and dismembered by -the Spartans. Socrates put to death for denying the Athenian gods. -398. <b>Agesilaus</b> becomes king of Sparta. 397. Cinadon’s conspiracy. -396. Agesilaus invades Phrygia. 395. Agesilaus wins the victory of Sardis. -Revolt of Rhodes. The Spartans invade Bœotia and are repelled with the -assistance of the Athenians. Thebes, Athens, Argos, and Corinth allied -against Sparta. 394. Agesilaus returns from Asia Minor. Battle of Nemea -won by the Spartans. Battle of Cnidus. The Persian fleet under Conon -destroys the Spartan fleet. Agesilaus wins the battle of Coronea and retreats -from Bœotia. 393. Pharnabazus destroys the Spartan dominion in -the eastern Ægean, and supplies Conon with funds to restore the long -walls of Athens. Beginning of the “Corinthian War.” 392. Federation of -Corinth and Argos. Fighting between the Spartans and the allies on the -Isthmus of Corinth. Both sides send embassies to the Persians. 391. The -Spartans begin fresh wars in Asia. 389. Successes of Thrasybulus in -the northern Ægean. 388. Spartans dispute the supremacy of Athens on -the Hellespont and are defeated at Cremaste. 387. Peace of Antalcidas between -Persia and Sparta. Athens is compelled to accede. 386. Dissolution -of the union of Corinth and Argos. Sparta compels the Mantineans to -break down their city walls and separate into small villages. 384-382. The -city of Olynthus, having united the Chalcidian towns under her hegemony<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> -and increased her territory at the expense of Macedonia, makes alliance with -Athens and Thebes. Sparta sends help to the towns which refuse to join. -384. Aristotle born. 382. Spartans seize the citadel of Thebes. 380. <i>Panegyric</i> -of Isocrates, a plea for Greek unity. 381-379. Sparta forces Phlius to -submit to her dictation. 379. Chalcidian league compelled by Sparta to dissolve. -The power of Sparta at its height. Rising of Thebes under Pelopidas -against Sparta. Sphodrias, the Spartan, invades Athenian territory. The -Spartans decline to punish the aggression.</p> - -<h4>RISE OF THEBES (378-359 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</h4> - -<p>378. Athens makes alliance with Thebes. 378-377. Formation by the -Athenians of a new maritime confederacy. 378-376. Three unsuccessful -Spartan expeditions into Bœotia. 376. Great maritime victory of the Athenian -Chabrias at Naxos. Successes of Timotheus of Athens in the Ionian -Sea. 374. Brief peace between Sparta and Athens. 374-373. Corcyra unsuccessfully -invested by the Spartans. 371. Peace of Callias, guaranteeing -the independence of each individual Greek city. Thebes not included in -the Peace. Jason of Pheræ, despot of Thessaly. Battle of Leuctra. Epaminondas -of Thebes defeats the Spartans. Revolutionary outbreaks in Peloponnesus. -370. Arcadian union and restoration of Mantinea. Foundation -of Megalopolis. Epaminondas and Pelopidas invade Laconia. 369. Messene -restored by the Thebans as a menace to Sparta. Alliance between Sparta -and Athens. The Thebans conquer Sicyon. Pelopidas sent to deliver the -Thessalian cities from the rivals, Alexander of Macedon and Alexander of -Pheræ. 368. The Spartans win the “tearless victory” of Midea over the -Arcadians. Death of <b>Alexander II</b> of Macedon. Succession of his brother -<b>Perdiccas</b> secured by Athenian intervention. Pelopidas captured by Alexander -of Pheræ. 367. Epaminondas rescues him. Pelopidas obtains a -Persian decree settling disputed questions in Peloponnesus. The decree -disregarded in Greece. 366. The Thebans conquer Achaia, but fail to -keep it. Athens makes alliance with Arcadia. 365. Athenians conquer -and colonise Samos, and acquire Sestus and Crithote. <b>Perdiccas III</b> of -Macedon assassinates the regent. Timotheus takes Potidæa and Torone -for Athens. Elis invaded by the Arcadians. 364. Creation of a Bœotian -navy encourages the allies of Athens to revolt. Battle of Cynoscephalæ. -Alexander of Pheræ, defeated by the Bœotians and their Thessalian allies. -Pelopidas falls in the battle. Orchomenus destroyed by the Thebans. -Elis invaded by the Arcadians. Spartan operations fail. Battle in the -Altis during the Olympic games. The Arcadians appropriate the sacred -Olympian treasure. Praxiteles, the sculptor, flourished. 362. Unsuccessful -attack on Sparta by Epaminondas. Battle of Mantinea and death of -Epaminondas. 361. Agesilaus of Sparta goes to Egypt as a leader of mercenaries. -Battle of Peparethus. Alexander of Pheræ defeats the Athenian -fleet. He attacks the Piræus. 360. The Thracian Chersonesus lost to -Athens.</p> - -<h4>PHILIP OF MACEDONIA (359-336 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</h4> - -<p>359. Death of <b>Perdiccas III</b> of Macedon. <b>Philip</b> seizes the government -as guardian for his nephew, <b>Amyntas</b>. 358. Brilliant victories of Philip -over the Pæonians and Illyrians. 357. Thracian Chersonesus and Eubœa<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> -recovered by Athens. Philip takes Amphipolis. Revolt of Athenian allies, -Chios, Cos, and Rhodes. 356. Battle of Embata lost by the Athenians. -Philip founds Philippi, takes Pydna and Potidæa, defeats the Illyrians and -sets to work to organise his kingdom on a military basis. Birth of Alexander -the Great. 355. Peace between Athens and her revolted allies. The -Athenians abandon their schemes of a naval empire. Outbreak of the -“Sacred war” against the Phocians who had seized the Delphic temple. -354. Battle of Neon. The Phocians defeated. Demosthenes begins his -political activity. Phocian successes under Onomarchus. 353. Methone -taken by Philip of Macedon. Philip and the Thessalian league opposed to -Onomarchus and the tyrants of Pheræ. Onomarchus drives Philip from -Thessaly. Philip crushes the Phocians in Magnesia and makes himself -master of Thessaly. Phocis saved from him by help from Athens. -352. War in the Peloponnesus. Spartan schemes of aggression frustrated. -Thrace subdued by Philip. 351. Demosthenes delivers his <i>First Philippic</i>. -349. Philip begins war against Olynthus which makes alliance with Athens. -Athenian attempt to recover Eubœa fails. 348. Philip destroys Olynthus -and the Chalcidian towns. 347. Death of Plato. 346. Peace of Philocrates -between Philip and Athens. Phocis subdued by Philip. Philip -presides at the Pythian games. Philip becomes archon of Thessaly. Demosthenes -accuses Æschines of accepting bribes from Philip. 344. Demosthenes -delivers <i>The Second Philippic</i>. 343. Megara, Chalcis, Ambracia, Acarnania, -Achaia, and Corcyra ally themselves with Athens. 342-341. Philip annexes -Thrace. He founds Philippopolis. 341. Demosthenes’ <i>Third Philippic</i>. -340. Diplomatic breach between Athens and Philip. 339. Perinthus and -Byzantium unsuccessfully besieged by Philip. Philip’s campaign on the -Danube. 338. The Amphictyonic league declares a “holy war” against -Amphissa, and requests the aid of Philip. Philip destroys Amphissa and -conquers Naupactus. Philip occupies Elatea. Athens makes alliance -with Thebes. Battle of Chæronea. Philip defeats the Athenians and -Thebans. The hegemony of Greece passes to Macedon. Philip invades -the Peloponnesus which, with the exception of Sparta, acknowledges his -supremacy. Philip establishes a Greek confederacy under the Macedonian -hegemony. Lycurgus appointed to control the public revenues in Athens. -336. Attalus and Parmenion open the Macedonian war in Æolis.</p> - -<h4>THE AGE OF ALEXANDER (336-323 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</h4> - -<p>Murder of Philip and succession of <b>Alexander the Great</b>. Alexander -compels the Hellenes to recognise his hegemony. 335. Alexander conducts -a successful campaign on the Danube and defeats the Illyrians at Pelium. -Thebes revolts against him and is destroyed. 334. Alexander sets out for -Asia. Battle of the Granicus. Alexander defeats the Persians. Lydia, -Miletus, Caria, Halicarnassus, Lycia, Pamphylia, and Pisidia subdued. -333. Alexander goes to Gordium and cuts the Gordian knot. Death of his -chief opponent, the Persian general, Memnon. Submission of Paphlagonia -and Cilicia. Battle of Issus. Alexander puts the army of Darius to flight. -Sidon and Byblos submit. 332. Tyre besieged and taken. He slaughters -the inhabitants and marches southward, storming Gaza. Egypt conquered. -He founds Alexandria. 331. Battle of Arbela and defeat of the -Great King. Babylon opens its gates to Alexander. He enters Susa. The -Spartans rise and are defeated at Megalopolis. 330. Alexander occupies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> -Persepolis. Alexander in Ecbatana, in Parthia, and on the Caspian. Philotas -is accused of conspiring against Alexander’s life and is executed. His father, -the general Parmenion, put to death on suspicion. Judicial contest between -Demosthenes and Æschines ends in the latter’s quitting Athens. Part of -Gedrosia (Beluchistan) submits to Alexander. 329. Arachosia conquered. -328. Alexander conquers Bactria and Sogdiana. 327. Alexander quells the -rebellion of Sogdiana and Bactria. Clitus killed by Alexander at a banquet. -Alexander marries the Sogdian Roxane. Callisthenes, the historian, is put -to death under pretext of complicity in the conspiracy of the pages to assassinate -Alexander. Beginning of the Indian war. 326. Alexander in the -Punjab; he crosses the Indus, and is victorious at the Hydaspes. At the -Hyphasis the army refuses to advance further. Alexander builds a fleet -and sails to the mouth of the Indus. 325. Conquest of the Lower Punjab. -March through Gedrosia (Mekran in Beluchistan) and Carmania. Nearchus -makes a voyage of discovery in the Indian Ocean. 324. Alexander in Susa. -He punishes treasonable conduct of officials during his absence. Alexander’s -veterans discharged at Opis. Harpalus deposits at Athens the money stolen -from Alexander. The trial respecting misappropriation of this money ends -in Demosthenes being forced to quit Athens. Alexander’s last campaign -against the Kossæans. 323. Alexander returns to Babylon and reorganises -his army for the conquest of Arabia. Death of Alexander.</p> - -<h4>THE POST-ALEXANDRIAN EPOCH</h4> - -<p>323. At Alexander’s death his young half-brother, <b>Philip Arrhidæus</b>, succeeded -to his empire, while there are expectations of a posthumous heir by -Roxane. The young Alexander is born. <b>Perdiccas</b> is made regent over the -Asiatic dominions, while <b>Antipater</b> and <b>Craterus</b> take the joint regency of -the West. The Greeks, with Athens at their head, attempt to throw off the -Macedonian yoke as soon as Alexander is dead, and the Lamian war breaks -out (323-322). But one by one the states yield to Antipater and Craterus. -The direct government of the dominions in Europe, Africa, and Western Asia -is divided among Alexander’s generals. Thirty-four shared in the allotment; -the most important are: <b>Ptolemy Lagus</b>, in Egypt and Cyrenaica; <b>Antigonus</b>, -in Phrygia, Pamphylia, and Lycia; <b>Eumenes</b>, the secretary of Alexander, in -Paphlagonia and Cappadocia; <b>Cassander</b>, in Caria; <b>Leonnatus</b>, in Hellespontine -Phrygia; <b>Menander</b>, in Lydia; and <b>Lysimachus</b>, in Thrace and the Euxine -districts. Perdiccas aims to marry Alexander’s sister, Cleopatra, as a means -of becoming absolute master of the empire. The other generals league themselves -against him, and (321) Perdiccas is murdered by his soldiers while -proceeding against Ptolemy. Antipater replaces him as regent, and redivides -the empire; <b>Seleucus</b> is given Babylonia to rule over. Antipater dies 319, -and the son <b>Cassander</b> and <b>Polysperchon</b> become regents. In 317 and 316, -Cassander conquers Greece and Macedonia. Antigonus, with the help of Cassander, -attacks and defeats Eumenes, who is betrayed by his own forces in -316. Antigonus now has ambitions to control the whole empire, and in 315 -the terrible war of the Diadochi, between him and the other generals, begins. -Antigonus and his son, <b>Demetrius Poliorcetes</b>, call themselves kings. Seleucus, -Lysimachus, Cassander, and others do the same. Demetrius seizes Athens in -307. At the end of the struggle every member of Alexander’s family is dead, -the majority put to death. In 301, at the battle of Ipsus, Antigonus falls, -and Demetrius takes to flight. Cassander dies 296, and the succession is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> -contested by his two sons, <b>Philip IV</b> and <b>Antipater</b>. Demetrius takes the -opportunity of this quarrel to seize the European dominions. He prepares -to invade Asia, and the other successors of the empire, together with King -<b>Pyrrhus</b> of Epirus, league against him. In 287 Pyrrhus invades Macedonia, -and Demetrius’ army deserts him. Pyrrhus is welcomed as king, and he -gives Lysimachus the eastern part of Macedonia to rule over. Demetrius -renews the struggle with Pyrrhus, and at his death, in 283, his son, <b>Antigonus -Gonatas</b>, carries it on. In 282 Lysimachus is attacked by Seleucus Nicator, -and is defeated and killed on the plain of Corus in 281. <b>Ptolemy Ceraunus</b> -murders Seleucus, and seizes the European kingdom of Lysimachus. In 280 -Pyrrhus goes to Tarentum to make war on the Romans.</p> - -<h4>THE ACHÆAN AND ÆTOLIAN LEAGUES</h4> - -<p>The Achæan towns of Patræ, Dyme, Tritæa, and Pharæ expel their -Macedonian garrisons and join in a confederacy. 279. The Celts descend -on the Balkan countries and on Macedonia. Death of Ptolemy Ceraunus. -278. Celts under Brennus approach Greece. Struggle between Celts and -Hellenes round Thermopylæ. Brennus defeated at Delphi. Celts driven -back. Ætolian Confederacy becomes the most important representative of -Greek independence. 277. <b>Antigonus</b> king of Macedonia. He founds the -dynasty of the Antigonids. Pyrrhus conquers Sicily. 276. The Achæan -town Ægium expels its garrison and joins Patræ, etc., in the Achæan -Confederacy. 274. Pyrrhus returns to Epirus. 273. Pyrrhus expels -Antigonus from Macedon. 272. Pyrrhus besieges Sparta, which successfully -resists him. He turns against Argos, where he is killed. Antigonus -recovers his supremacy in Greece. The Greek cities fight for their independence. -265. The Macedonians defeat the Egyptian fleet at Cos. -Antigonus recovers his position in the Peloponnesus. 263. Chremonidean -war. 263-262. Antigonus takes Athens. End of the independent political -importance of Athens. 255. The Long Walls of Athens broken down. -249. Aratus frees Sicyon from its tyrant Nicocles, and brings the town over -to the Achæan League. 245. Aratus becomes president of the Achæan -League. <b>Agis IV</b> becomes king of Sparta and attempts to introduce reforms. -242. Aratus conquers Corinth. Megara, Trœzen, and Epidaurus join the -Achæans. 241. Agis IV executed. 239. <b>Demetrius</b>, king of Macedon. -Alliance between the Achæans and Ætolians. 238-5. Extinction of the -Epirote Æacids; federative republic in Epirus. 235. <b>Cleomenes III</b>, king of -Sparta. 234. Lydiades abdicates from his tyranny and brings Megalopolis -over to the Achæan League. 231. Illyrian corsairs ravage the western coasts -of Greece and defy the Achæan and Ætolian fleets. 229. The greater part -of Argolis included in the Achæan League. <b>Antigonus Doson</b>, regent of -Macedon. Athens frees herself from the Macedonian dominion. The -Romans defeat the Illyrian corsairs. 228. Athens makes alliance with -Rome. The Achæan League at the height of its power. 227. Beginning -of the Spartan war against the Achæan League. 226. Cleomenes III effects -fundamental reforms in Sparta. 224. Battle at Dyme. Cleomenes defeats -the Achæan League. 223. Aratus calls in the aid of Macedon. Egypt -deserts the Achæans and becomes the ally of Sparta. Achæans, Bœotians, -Phocians, Thessalians, Epirotes, and Acarnanians form, under the leadership -of Macedon, an alliance against Sparta. 222. Battle of Sellasia. Defeat of -the Spartans. Antigonus Doson restores the Spartan oligarchy. 220. <b>Philip V</b><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> -king of Macedon. War of Philip and his Greek allies, including the Achæan -League, against the Ætolians supported by Sparta. 219. <b>Lycurgus</b> (last king -of Sparta). 217. Peace of Naupactus. The destructive war against the -Ætolians ended in dread of a Carthaginian invasion. Philip V becomes -protector of all the Hellenes.</p> - -<h4>THE ROMAN CONQUEST (216-146 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</h4> - -<p>216. Philip concludes an alliance with Hannibal and provokes the first -Macedonian war with Rome. 214. Battle near the mouth of the Aous. The -Romans surprise Philip and defeat him. Ætolians, Eleans, Messenians, and -Illyrians accept Roman protection. 213. Aratus poisoned at Philip’s instigation. -211. Sparta goes over to Rome. Savage wars of the Grecian cities -against one another. 208. Philopœmen becomes general of the Achæan -League, and revives its military power. 205. Philip makes peace with Rome, -ceding the country of the Parthenians and several Illyrian districts to Rome. -Philip carries on war in Rhodes, Thrace, and Mysia, and sends auxiliaries to -Carthage. 200. Second Macedonian war declared by Rome. Romans under -Sulpicius invade Macedonia. 199. Romans kept inactive by mutiny in the -army. 198. Defeat of Philip by Flamininus. Achæans and Spartans join -the Romans. 197. Battle of Cynoscephalæ and destruction of the Macedonian -phalanx. Philip accepts humiliating terms and renounces his supremacy -over the Greeks. 194. Flamininus returns to Rome. The Ætolians, -dissatisfied, pillage Sparta, which joins the Achæan League. <b>Antiochus III</b> -of Syria comes to the aid of the Ætolians. 191. Battle of Thermopylæ. -Antiochus defeated by the Romans. 190. Battle of Magnesia. Romans -defeat Antiochus. Submission of the Ætolians. 183. Messene revolts from -the Achæan League. 179. Callicrates succeeds Philopœmen as general of -the Achæan League. Death of Philip V and accession of <b>Perseus</b>, who conciliates -the Greeks, and makes alliances with Syria, Rhodes, etc. 169. Attempted -assassination of Eumenes of Pergamum on his return from Rome. -168. Third Macedonian war declared by the Romans. Romans are unsuccessful -at first, but the battle of Pydna is won by Paulus Æmilius, the -Macedonians losing twenty thousand men. Flight and subsequent surrender -of Perseus. 150. Death of Callicrates. 152. Andriscus lays claim to the -throne of Macedon. 148. Andriscus defeated at Pydna and taken to Rome. -146. Macedon made a Roman province. Romans support Sparta in her attempt -to withdraw from the Achæan League. Corinthians take up arms, and -are joined by the Bœotians and by Chalcis. Battle of Scarphe and victory -of the Romans under Metellus. Corinth is taken by Mummius; its art -treasures are sent to Rome, and the city delivered up to pillage. Achæan -and Bœotian leagues dissolved.</p> - -<h4>THE EGYPTIAN KINGDOM OF THE PTOLEMIES OR LAGIDÆ (323-30 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</h4> - -<p>In 323 <b>Ptolemy I</b>, son of Lagus, receives the government of Egypt and -Cyrenaica in the division of Alexander’s Empire. He rules at Alexandria. -In 321 he allies himself with Antipater against the ambitious Perdiccas. He -joins the alliance against Antigonus in 315. 306. He assumes the title of -king. 304. He assists the Rhodians to repel Demetrius, and wins the surname -of Soter (Saviour). 285. He abdicates in favour of his son, <b>Ptolemy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> -(II) Philadelphus</b>, and dies two years later. Ptolemy II reigns almost in -undisturbed peace. About 266 he annexes Phœnicia and Cœle-Syria. He -is famous as a great patron of commerce, science, literature, and art, and -raises the Alexandrian Museum and Library to importance. On his death -in 247, his son, <b>Ptolemy (III) Euergetes</b>, reunites Cyrenaica, of which his -father’s half-brother, Magas, had declared himself king on the death of Ptolemy -I. In 245 he invades Syria, to avenge his sister Berenice, the wife of -Antiochus II, slain by Laodice. He also marches to and captures Babylon, -but is recalled to Egypt by a revolt in 243. In 222 he is succeeded by his -son, <b>Ptolemy (IV) Philopator</b>. In 217 this king defeats Antiochus the Great -at Raphia, recovering Phœnicia and Cœle-Syria, which has been wrested from -him. <b>Ptolemy (V) Epiphanes</b> began his reign in 205 or 204. Antiochus the -Great invades Egypt, and the Romans intervene. Ptolemy marries Cleopatra, -daughter of Antiochus. He dies by poison in 181. His son, <b>Ptolemy (VI) -Philometor</b>, succeeds, with <b>Cleopatra</b> as regent until her death in 174. Then -the ministers make war on Antiochus Epiphanes, who captures Ptolemy in 170. -The king’s brother, <b>Ptolemy (VII) Euergetes</b> or <b>Physcon</b>, then proclaims himself -king, and reigns jointly with his brother after the latter’s release. In -164 Ptolemy VII expels Ptolemy VI, but is compelled to recall him at the -demand of Rome. Ptolemy VII returns to Cyrenaica, which he holds as a -separate kingdom until his brother’s death, 146, when he returns to Egypt, -slays the legitimate heir, and rules as sole king. The people of Alexandria -expel him in 130, but he manages to get back in 127. Dies 117. His son, -<b>Ptolemy (VIII) Philometor</b> or <b>Lathyrus</b>, shares the throne with his mother, -<b>Cleopatra III</b>. In 107 his mother expels him, and puts her favourite son, -<b>Ptolemy (IX) Alexander</b>, on the throne. Ptolemy VIII keeps his power in -Cyprus, and on his mother’s death the Egyptians recall him and banish his -brother. The wars with the Seleucid princes are kept up. <b>Berenice III</b>, the -daughter of Ptolemy VIII, succeeds him in 81. Her stepson, <b>Ptolemy X</b> or -<b>Alexander II</b>, son of Ptolemy Alexander, comes from Rome as Sulla’s candidate, -and marries her. The queen is at once murdered, by her husband’s -order, and the people put him to death, 80. The legitimate line is now -extinct. An illegitimate son of Ptolemy Lathyrus, <b>Ptolemy (XI) Neus Dionysus</b> -or <b>Auletes</b>, takes Egypt; and a younger brother, Cyprus. Weary of -taxation, the Alexandrians expel Auletes in 58, but the Romans restore him -in 55. His son, <b>Ptolemy XII</b>, and his daughter, <b>Cleopatra</b>, succeed him in -joint reign in 51. In 48 Ptolemy expels his sister, who flees to Syria, and -attempts to recover Egypt by force of arms. Cæsar effects her restoration in -48, and the civil war with Pompey results. Ptolemy is defeated on the Nile, -and drowned. Cleopatra’s career after this belongs to Roman history, <i>q.v.</i> -Unwilling to appear in Octavian’s triumph after Actium, she kills herself in -some unknown way, 30 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span></p> - -<h4>THE SELEUCID KINGDOM OF SYRIA (312-65 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</h4> - -<p><b>Seleucus (I) Nicator</b> receives the satrapy of Babylon from Antipater. -He founds his kingdom in 312. He extends his conquests into Central Asia -and India, assuming the title of king about 306. He takes part against -Antigonus in the battle of Ipsus, 301. After this a part of Asia Minor is -added to his dominions, and the Syrian kingdom is formed. He defeats -Lysimachus on the plain of Corus in 281 and is assassinated by Ptolemy -Ceraunus in 280. He is the builder of the capital cities of Seleucia and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> -Antioch. His son <b>Antiochus (I) Soter</b> succeeds. He gives up all claim to -Macedonia on the marriage of Seleucus’ daughter, Phila, to Antigonus Gonatas. -Dies 261, his son <b>Antiochus (II) Theos</b> succeeding. In this reign the -kingdom is greatly weakened by the revolt of Parthia and Bactria, leading -to the establishment of the Parthian empire by Arsaces about 250. He also -involves himself in a ruinous war with Ptolemy Philadelphus, concluding with -the peace of 250. He is killed, 246, and succeeded by his son <b>Seleucus (II) -Callinicus</b> who wars with the Parthians and Egyptians until his death in -226. <b>Seleucus (III) Ceraunus</b> after a short reign of three years is succeeded -by his brother <b>Antiochus (III) the Great</b>, the most famous of the Seleucidæ. -223. Alexander and Molon the rebellious brothers of the king are subdued. -Antiochus goes to war with Ptolemy Philopator and is beaten at Raphia, 217, -losing Cœle-Syria and Phœnicia. 214. Achæus the governor of Asia Minor -rebels, and is defeated and killed. 212. Antiochus begins an attempt to -regain Parthia and Bactria, but in 205 is compelled to acknowledge their -independence. Continued warfare with Egypt. Phœnicia and Cœle-Syria -regained by battle of Paneas in 198, but these territories are given back to -Egypt when Ptolemy Epiphanes marries Cleopatra, daughter of Antiochus. -196. The Thracian Chersonesus taken from Macedonia. 192-189. War -with the Romans, who demand restoration of the Thracian and Egyptian -provinces. 190. Battle of Magnesia; great defeat of Antiochus by the -Romans. 187. Antiochus killed by his subjects as he attempts to rob the -temple of Elymais to pay the Romans. His son <b>Seleucus (IV) Philopator</b> -succeeds. Before his death, in 175, Seleucus satisfies the Roman claims. -His successor is his brother <b>Antiochus (IV) Epiphanes</b>. Armenia, lost by -Antiochus III, is reconquered, also Phœnicia and Cœle-Syria, 171-168. Antiochus -attempts to stamp out the Jewish religion, giving rise to the Maccabæan -rebellion in 167. <b>Antiochus (V) Eupator</b> succeeds his father in 164. -Lysias is regent, as the king is only nine years old. A peace with the Jews -is concluded and then Antiochus is killed, 162, by <b>Demetrius (I) Soter</b>, son of -Seleucus Philopator, who seizes the throne. The Maccabæans hold their -own against this king. Alexander Balas, a pretended son of Antiochus -Epiphanes, organises an insurrection. He invades Syria, and Demetrius is -killed, 150, in battle. <b>Alexander Balas</b> usurps the throne. <b>Demetrius (II) -Nicator</b>, son of Demetrius I, contests the throne but not with much success. -Balas wars with Ptolemy Philopator and is killed, 145. A war of succession -begins between Demetrius Nicator and Balas’ young son <b>Antiochus VI</b>. -The latter is supported by the Jews. Antiochus VI is slain by <b>Tryphon</b>, the -general of Alexander Balas, in 142. Tryphon rules until 139, when he is put -to death by <b>Antiochus (VII) Sidetes</b>. Meanwhile one faction recognises -Demetrius Nicator as king. He marries Cleopatra, an Egyptian princess, -goes to war with the Parthians, is captured, and Antiochus Sidetes takes his -place for ten years. Sidetes wages war with the Parthians, and is killed in -battle, 128. Demetrius Nicator now resumes his rule, but owing to his -misgovernment is assassinated at the instigation of Cleopatra, in 125. The -eldest son, <b>Seleucus V</b>, is put to death the same year by Cleopatra, and the -second son, <b>Antiochus (VII) Grypus</b>, takes the throne. He expels Alexander -Zabina, a usurper. Civil war breaks out between <b>Antiochus</b> and his half-brother, -<b>Antiochus (IX) Cyzicenus</b>, who in 112 compels a division of the -kingdom, taking Phœnicia and Cœle-Syria as his share. Antiochus VIII is -assassinated, 96. Antiochus IX is killed in 95 by <b>Seleucus (VI) Epiphanes</b>, -son of Grypus, who rules only one year. <b>Antiochus (X) Eusebes</b>, son of -Antiochus IX, follows. His claims are contested by the sons of Grypus,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> -<b>Philip</b>, <b>Demetrius (III) Eucærus</b>, and <b>Antiochus (XI) Epiphanes</b>. The latter -is drowned fleeing from Eusebes and the other two rule over the whole -of Syria. In 88 Demetrius is captured by the Parthians and another -brother <b>Antiochus (XII) Dionysius</b>, shares the rule with Philip. He is killed -in a war with the Arabians. Civil strife has now reached such a state that -the Syrians invite <b>Tigranes</b> of Armenia to put an end to it. He conquers -Syria in 83, and rules it until 69, when, after his defeat by Lucullus, -<b>Antiochus (XIII) Asiaticus</b>, son of Antiochus Eusebes, regains the throne. -He is deposed, 65, by Pompey, and Syria becomes a Roman province.</p> - -<h4>THE SICILIAN TYRANTS (570-210 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>)</h4> - -<p>The government of the Greek colonies in Sicily is originally oligarchical, -but the rule soon gets into the hands of despots or tyrants, who hold uncontrolled -power. 570-554. <b>Phalaris</b>, tyrant of Agrigentum or Acrargas, brings -that city to be the most powerful in the island. About 500, <b>Cleander</b> obtains -possession of Gela. His brother <b>Hippocrates</b> succeeds, and is followed by <b>Gelo</b>, -who makes himself master of Syracuse. 488. <b>Theron</b> is tyrant of Agrigentum, -and, 481, expels <b>Terillus</b> from Himera. Terillus appeals to the Carthaginians -who besiege Himera, 480. Gelo aids Theron and defeats Hamilcar. 478. Gelo -succeeded by his brother <b>Hiero I</b>, an oppressive ruler. 472. <b>Thrasydæus</b> succeeds -Theron in Agrigentum, but is expelled by Hiero. 467. <b>Thrasybulus</b> -succeeds Hiero, but is driven from Sicily by the people, 466. The fall -of Thrasybulus is the signal for great internal dissensions, settled, 461, by -a congress, which restores peace and prosperity for half a century, interrupted -only by a quickly suppressed revolt of the Sicels in 451. 409. Hannibal, -grandson of Hamilcar, attempts the conquest of Sicily. 405. <b>Dionysius</b> -attains to despotic power in Syracuse. 383. After constant war the limits -of Greek and Carthaginian power in Sicily are fixed. 367. <b>Dion</b> succeeds -Dionysius; after an oppressive rule he is murdered, 353. A period of confusion -follows. The younger <b>Dionysius</b> and <b>Hicetas</b> hold power against each -other. The latter calls in the Carthaginians, and Timoleon comes from -Corinth, defeats Hicetas, and restores Greek liberty in 343. Democratic -government is also reinstated in other parts of Sicily. 340. Defeat of Hasdrubal -and Hamilcar at the Crimisus puts an end to all fear from Carthage. -317. <b>Agathocles</b> establishes a despotism in Syracuse. His reign is oppressive -and disastrous for Sicily. 310. Defeat of Agathocles by Hamilcar at Ecnomus. -Agathocles goes to Africa to carry on the war; meanwhile Hamilcar -gets possession of a large part of Sicily. Agathocles makes peace with Carthage, -and perpetrates a fearful massacre of his opponents. 289. Death of -Agathocles. <b>Hicetas</b> becomes tyrant of Syracuse. Agrigentum, under <b>Phintias</b>, -attains to great power. The Carthaginians now begin to be predominant -in the island. 278. Pyrrhus lands in Sicily to aid the Greeks, but returns to -Italy, 276. <b>Hiero II</b> is chosen general by the Syracusans. He fights the -Mamertines. 270. Hiero assumes title of king. He allies with Carthage to -expel the Mamertines. The Romans espouse the latter’s cause, and the First -Punic War is begun, 264. 263. Hiero makes peace with Rome. 241. Battle -off the Ægetan Islands. The whole island, except the territory of Hiero, -becomes a Roman province. 215. <b>Hieronymus</b>, grandson and successor of -Hiero, breaks the treaty with Rome in the Second Punic War, and is assassinated. -Marcellus is sent to Syracuse. 212. Syracuse falls into his hands. -210. Agrigentum captured. Roman conquest completed.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-1.jpg" width="500" height="184" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_I_LAND_AND_PEOPLE">CHAPTER I. LAND AND PEOPLE</h3> - -<p>The character of every people is more or less closely connected with that -of its land. The station which the Greeks filled among nations, the part -which they acted, and the works which they accomplished, depended in a -great measure on the position which they occupied on the face of the globe. -The manner and degree in which the nature of the country affected the -bodily and mental frame, and the social institutions of its inhabitants, may -not be so easily determined; but its physical aspect is certainly not less -important in a historical point of view, than it is striking and interesting in -itself. An attentive survey of the geographical site of Greece, of its general -divisions, and of the most prominent points on its surface, is an indispensable -preparation for the study of its history. In the following sketch nothing -more will be attempted, than to guide the reader’s eye over an accurate map -of the country, and to direct his attention to some of those indelible features, -which have survived all the revolutions by which it has been desolated.</p> - -<h4>THE LAND</h4> - -<p>The land which its sons called Hellas, and for which we have adopted -the Roman name Greece,<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> lies on the southeast verge of Europe, and in -length extends no further than from the thirty-sixth to the fortieth degree of -latitude. It is distinguished among European countries by the same character -which distinguishes Europe itself from the other continents—the great -range of its coast compared with the extent of its surface; so that while in -the latter respect it is considerably less than Portugal, in the former it -exceeds the whole Pyrenean peninsula. The great eastern limb which projects -from the main trunk of the continent of Europe grows more and more -finely articulated as it advances towards the south, and terminates in the -peninsula of Peloponnesus, the smaller half of Greece, which bears some -resemblance to an outspread palm. Its southern extremity is at a nearly -equal distance from the two neighbouring continents: it fronts one of the -most beautiful and fertile regions of Africa, and is separated from the nearest -point of Asia by the southern outlet of the Ægean Sea—the sea, by the -Greeks familiarly called their own, which, after being contracted into a -narrow stream by the approach of the opposite shores at the Hellespont,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> -suddenly finds its liberty in an ample basin as they recede towards the east and -the west, and at length, escaping between Cape Malea and Crete, confounds -its waters with the broader main of the Mediterranean. Over that part of -this sea which washes the coast of Greece, a chain of islands, beginning from -the southern headland of Attica, Cape Sunium, first girds Delos with an -irregular belt, the Cyclades, and then, in a waving line, links itself to a -scattered group (the Sporades) which borders the Asiatic coast. Southward -of these the interval between the two continents is broken by the -larger islands Crete and Rhodes. The sea which divides Greece from Italy -is contracted, between the Iapygian peninsula and the coast of Epirus, into -a channel only thirty geographical miles in breadth; and the Italian coast -may be seen not only from the mountains of Corcyra, but from the low -headland of the Ceraunian hills.</p> - -<p>Thus on two sides Greece is bounded by a narrow sea; but towards the -north its limits were never precisely defined. The word Hellas did not convey -to the Greeks the notion of a certain geographical surface, determined -by natural or conventional boundaries: it denoted the country of the Hellenes, -and was variously applied according to the different views entertained -of the people which was entitled to that name. The original Hellas was -included in the territory of a little tribe in the south of Thessaly. When -these Hellenes had imparted their name to other tribes, with which they -were allied by a community of language and manners, Hellas might properly -be said to extend as far as these national features prevailed. On the east, -Greece was commonly held to terminate with Mount Homole at the mouth -of the Peneus; the more scrupulous, however, excluded even Thessaly from -the honour of the Hellenic name, while Strabo,<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_1f" id="enanchor_1f"></a><a href="#endnote_1f">f</a></span> with consistent laxity, admitted -Macedonia. But from Ambracia to the mouth of the Peneus, when -these were taken as the extreme northern points, it was still impossible to -draw a precise line of demarcation; for the same reason which justified the -exclusion of Epirus applied, perhaps much more forcibly, to the mountaineers -in the interior of Ætolia, whose barbarous origin, or utter degeneracy, was -proved by their savage manners, and a language which Thucydides<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_1g" id="enanchor_1g"></a><a href="#endnote_1g">g</a></span> describes -as unintelligible. When the Ætolians bade the last Philip withdraw from -Hellas, the Macedonian king could justly retort, by asking where they -would fix its boundaries, and by reminding them that of their own body a -very small part was within the pale from which they wished to exclude him.</p> - -<p>The northern part of Greece is traversed in its whole length by a range -of mountains, the Greek Apennines. This ridge first takes the name of -Pindus, where it intersects the northern boundary of Greece, at a point -where an ancient route still affords the least difficult passage from Epirus -into Thessaly. From Pindus two huge arms stretch towards the eastern sea, -and enclose the vale of Thessaly, the largest and richest plain in Greece: -on the north the Cambunian hills, after making a bend towards the south, -terminate in the loftier heights of Olympus, which are scarcely ever entirely -free from snow; the opposite and lower chain of Othrys parting, with its -eastern extremity, the Malian from the Pagasæan Gulf, sinks gently towards -the coast. A fourth rampart, which runs parallel to Pindus, is formed by -the range which includes the celebrated heights of Pelion and Ossa; the -first a broad and nearly even ridge, the other towering into a steep conical -peak, the neighbour and rival of Olympus, with which, in the songs of the -country, it is said to dispute the pre-eminence in the depth and duration of its -snows. The mountain barrier with which Thessaly is thus encompassed -is broken only at the northeast corner, by a deep and narrow cleft, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> -parts Ossa from Olympus: the defile so renowned in poetry as the vale, in -history as the pass, of Tempe. The imagination of the ancient poets and -declaimers delighted to dwell on the natural beauties of this romantic glen, -and on the sanctity of the site, from which Apollo had transplanted his -laurel to Delphi.</p> - -<p>From other points of view, the same spot no less forcibly claims the attention -of the historian. It is the only pass through which an army can invade -Thessaly from the north, without scaling the high and rugged ridges of its -northern frontier. The whole glen is something less than five miles long, -and opens gradually to the east into a spacious plain, stretching to the shore -of the Thermaic Gulf. On each side the rocks rise precipitously from the -bed of the Peneus, and in some places only leave room between them for the -stream; and the road, which at the narrowest point is cut in the rock, might -in the opinion of the ancients be defended by ten men against a host.</p> - -<p>On the eastern side of the ridge which stretches from Tempe to the Gulf -of Pagasæ, a narrow strip of land, called Magnesia, is intercepted between -the mountains and the sea, broken by lofty headlands and the beds of torrents, -and exposed without a harbour to the fury of the northeast gales.</p> - -<p>South of this gulf the coast is again deeply indented by that of Malis, -into which the Sperchius, rising from Mount Tymphrestus, a continuation -of Pindus, winds through a long narrow vale, which, though considered as a -part of Thessaly, forms a separate region, widely distinguished from the rest -by its physical features. It is intercepted between Othrys and Œta, a huge -rugged pile, which, stretching from Pindus to the sea at Thermopylæ, forms -the inner barrier of Greece, as the Cambunian range is the outer, to which -it corresponds in direction, and is nearly equal in height. To the south of -Thessaly and between it and Bœotia lie the countries of Doris and Phocis. -Doris is small and obscure, but interesting as the foster-mother of a race of -conquerors who became the masters of Greece. Phocis is somewhat larger -than Doris, and separates it from Bœotia.</p> - -<p>The peculiar conformation of the principal Bœotian valleys, the barriers -opposed to the escape of the streams, and the consequent accumulation of -the rich deposits brought down from the surrounding mountains, may be -considered as a main cause of the extraordinary fertility of the land. The -vale of the Cephissus especially, with its periodical inundations, exhibits a -resemblance, on a small scale, to the banks of the Nile—a resemblance which -some of the ancients observed in the peculiar character of its vegetation. -The profusion in which the ordinary gifts of nature were spread over the -face of Bœotia, the abundant returns of its grain, the richness of its pastures, -the materials of luxury furnished by its woods and waters, are chiefly remarkable, -in a historical point of view, from the unfavourable effect they -produced on the character of the race, which finally established itself in this -envied territory. It was this cause, more than the dampness and thickness -of their atmosphere, that depressed the intellectual and moral energies of -the Bœotians, and justified the ridicule which their temperate and witty -neighbours so freely poured on their proverbial failing.</p> - -<p>Eubœa, that large and important island, which at a very early period attracted -the Phœnicians by its copper mines, and in later times became almost -indispensable to the subsistence of Athens, though it covers the whole eastern -coast of Locris and Bœotia, is more closely connected with the latter of -these countries. The channel of the Euripus which parts it from the mainland, -between Aulis and Chalcis, is but a few paces in width, and is broken -by a rocky islet, which now forms the middle pier of a bridge.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span></p> - -<p>A wild and rugged, though not a lofty, range of mountains, bearing the -name of Cithæron on the west, of Parnes towards the east, divides Bœotia -from Attica. Lower ridges, branching off to the south, and sending out -arms towards the east, mark the limits of the principal districts which compose -this little country, the least proportioned in extent of any on the face -of the earth to its fame and its importance in the history of mankind. The -most extensive of the Attic plains, though it is by no means a uniform level, -but is broken by a number of low hills, is that in which Athens itself lies at -the foot of a precipitous rock, and in which, according to the Attic legend, -the olive, still its most valuable production, first sprang up.</p> - -<p>Attica is, on the whole, a meagre land, wanting the fatness of the Bœotian -plains, and the freshness of the Bœotian streams. The waters of its -principal river, the Cephisus, are expended in irrigating a part of the plain -of Athens, and the Ilissus, though no less renowned, is a mere brook, which -is sometimes swollen into a torrent. It could scarcely boast of more than -two or three fertile tracts, and its principal riches lay in the heart of its -mountains, in the silver of Laurium, and the marble of Pentelicus. It might -also reckon among its peculiar advantages the purity of its air, the fragrance -of its shrubs, and the fineness of its fruits. But in its most flourishing period -its produce was never sufficient to supply the wants of its inhabitants, and -their industry was constantly urged to improve their ground to the utmost. -Traces are still visible of the laborious cultivation which was carried by -means of artificial terraces, up the sides of their barest mountains. After -all, they were compelled to look to the sea even for subsistence. Attica -would have been little but for the position which it occupied, as the southeast -foreland of Greece, with valleys opening on the coast, and ports inviting -the commerce of Asia. From the top of its hills the eye surveys the whole -circle of the islands, which form its maritime suburbs, and seem to point out -its historical destination.</p> - -<p>The isthmus connecting Attica with the Peloponnesus is not level. The -roots of the Onean Mountains are continued along the eastern coast in a line -of low cliffs, till they meet another range, which seems to have borne the -same name, at the opposite extremity of the isthmus. This is an important -feature in the face of the country: the isthmus at its narrowest part, between -the inlets of Schœnus and Lechæum, is only between three and four miles -broad; and along this line, hence called the Diolcus, or Draughtway, vessels -were often transported from sea to sea, to avoid the delay and danger which -attended the circumnavigation of the Peloponnesus. Yet it seems not to have -been before the Macedonian period, that the narrowness of the intervening -space suggested the project of uniting the two seas by means of a canal. It -was entertained for a time by Demetrius Poliorcetes; but he is said to have -been deterred by the reports of his engineers, who were persuaded that the -surface of the Corinthian Gulf was so much higher than the Saronic, that a -channel cut between them would be useless from the rapidity of the current, -and might even endanger the safety of Ægina and the neighbouring isles. -Three centuries later, the dictator Cæsar formed the same plan, and was -perhaps only prevented from accomplishing it by his untimely death. The -above-mentioned inequality of the ground would always render this undertaking -very laborious and expensive. But the work was of a nature rather -to shock than to interest genuine Greek feelings: it seems to have been -viewed as an audacious Titanian effort of barbarian power; and when Nero -actually began it, having opened the trench with his own hands, the belief -of the country people may probably have concurred with the aversion of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> -Prætorian workmen, to raise the rumour of howling spectres, and springs of -blood, by which they are said to have been interrupted.</p> - -<p>The face of the Peloponnesus presents outlines somewhat more intricate -than those of northern Greece. At first sight the whole land appears one -pile of mountains, which, toward the northwest, where it reaches its greatest -height, forms a compact mass, pressing close upon the Gulf of Corinth. On -the western coast it recedes farther from the sea; towards the centre is pierced -more and more by little hollows; and on the south and east is broken by -three great gulfs, and the valleys opening into them, which suggested to the -ancients the form of a plane leaf, to illustrate that of the peninsula. On -closer inspection, the highest summits of this pile, with their connecting -ridges, may be observed to form an irregular ring, which separates the -central region, Arcadia, from the rest.</p> - -<p>The other great divisions of the Peloponnesus are Argolis, Laconia, Messenia, -Elis, and Achaia. Argolis, when the name is taken in its largest sense, -as the part of the Peloponnesus which is bounded on the land side by Arcadia, -Achaia, and Laconia, comprehends several districts, which, during the period -of the independence of Greece, were never united under one government, -but were considered, for the purpose of description, as one region by the -later geographers. It begins on the western side with the little territory of -Sicyon, which, beside some inland valleys, shared with Corinth a small maritime -plain, which was proverbial among the ancients for its luxuriant fertility. -The dominions of Corinth, which also extended beyond the isthmus, meeting -those of Megara a little south of the Scironian rocks, occupied a considerable -portion of Argolis. The two cities, Sicyon and Corinth, were similarly situated—both -commanding important passes into the interior of the peninsula. -The lofty and precipitous rock, called the Acrocorinthus, on which stood the -citadel of Corinth, though, being commanded by a neighbouring height, it is -of no great value for the purposes of modern warfare, was in ancient times an -impregnable fortress, and a point of the highest importance.</p> - -<p>The plain of Argos, which is bounded on three sides by lofty mountains, -but open to the sea, is, for Greece, and especially for the Peloponnesus, of -considerable extent, being ten or twelve miles in length, and four or five in -width. But the western side is lower than the eastern, and is watered by a -number of streams, in which the upper side is singularly deficient. In very -ancient times the lower level was injured by excess of moisture, as it is at -this day: and hence, perhaps, Argos, which lay on the western side, notwithstanding -its advantageous position, and the strength of its citadel, flourished -less, for a time, than Mycenæ and Tiryns, which were situate to the -east, where the plain is now barren through drought.</p> - -<p>A long valley, running southward to the sea, and the mountains which -border it on three sides, composed the territory of Laconia. It is to the -middle region, the heart of Laconia, that most of the ancient epithets and -descriptions relating to the general character of the country properly apply. -The vale of Sparta is Homer’s “hollow Lacedæmon,” which Euripides -further described as girt with mountains, rugged, and difficult of entrance -for a hostile power. The epithet “hollow” fitly represents the aspect of a valley -enclosed by the lofty cliffs in which the mountains here abruptly terminate -on each side of the Eurotas. The character which the poet ascribes to -Laconia,—that it is a country difficult of access to an enemy,—is one which -most properly belongs to it, and is of great historical importance. On the -northern and the eastern sides there are only two natural passes by which -the plain of Sparta can be invaded.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p> - -<p>At the northern foot of the Taygetus Mountains begins the Messenian -plain, which, like the basin of the Eurotas below Sparta, is divided into two -distinct districts, by a ridge which crosses nearly its whole width from the -eastern side. The upper of these districts, which is separated from Arcadia -by a part of the Lycæan chain, and is bounded towards the west by the ridge -of Ithome, the scene of ever memorable struggles, was the plain of Stenyclarus, -a tract not peculiarly rich, but very important for the protection and -command of the country, as the principal passes, not only from the north, -but from the east and west fall into it. The lower part of the Messenian -plain, which spreads round the head of the gulf, was a region celebrated in -poetry and history for its exuberant fertility; sometimes designated by the -title of Macaria, or the Blessed, watered by many streams, among the rest by -the clear and full Pamisus. It was, no doubt, of this delightful vale, that -Euripides meant to be understood, when, contrasting Messenia with Laconia, -he described the excellence of the Messenian soil as too great for words to -reach.</p> - -<p>The rich pastures on the banks of the Elean Peneus were celebrated in -the earliest legends; and an ancient channel, which is still seen stretching -across them to the sea, may be the same into which Hercules was believed to -have turned the river, to cleanse the stable of Augeas.</p> - -<p>When the necessary deduction has been made for the inequalities of its -surface, Greece may perhaps be properly considered as a land, on the whole, -not less rich than beautiful. And it probably had a better claim to this -character in the days of its youthful freshness and vigour. Its productions -were various as its aspect: and if other regions were more fertile in grain, -and more favourable to the cultivation of the vine, few surpassed it in the -growth of the olive, and of other valuable fruits. Its hills afforded abundant -pastures: its waters and forests teemed with life. In the precious -metals it was perhaps fortunately poor; the silver mines of Laurium were a -singular exception; but the Peloponnesian Mountains, especially in Laconia -and Argolis, as well as those of Eubœa, contained rich veins of iron and -copper, as well as precious quarries. The marble of Pentelicus was nearly -equalled in fineness by that of the isle of Paros, and that of Carystus in -Eubœa. The Grecian woods still excite the admiration of travellers, as they -did in the days of Pausanias,<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_1h" id="enanchor_1h"></a><a href="#endnote_1h">h</a></span> by trees of extraordinary size. Even the hills -of Attica are said to have been once clothed with forests; and the present -scantiness of its streams may be owed in a great measure to the loss of the -shade which once sheltered them. Herodotus<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_1b" id="enanchor_1i"></a><a href="#endnote_1i">i</a></span> observes, that, of all countries -in the world, Greece enjoyed the most happily tempered seasons. But it -seems difficult to speak generally of the climate of a country, in which each -district has its own, determined by an infinite variety of local circumstances. -Both in northern Greece and the Peloponnesus the snow remains long on -the higher ridges; and even in Attica the winters are often severe. On the -other hand, the heat of the summer is tempered, in exposed situations, by -the strong breezes from the northwest (the etesian winds), which prevail -during that season in the Grecian seas; and it is possible that Herodotus may -have had their refreshing influence chiefly in view.</p> - -<p>Though no traces of volcanic eruptions appear to have been discovered in -Greece, history is full of the effects produced there by volcanic agency; and -permanent indications of its physical character were scattered over its surface, -in the hot springs of Thermopylæ, Trœzen, Ædepsus, and other places. -The sea between the Peloponnesus and Crete has been, down to modern times, -the scene of surprising changes wrought by the same forces; and not long<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> -before the Christian era, a new hill was thrown up on the coast near Trœzen, -no less suddenly than the islands near Thera were raised out of the sea. -Earthquakes, accompanied by the rending of mountains, the sinking of land -into the sea, by temporary inundations, and other disasters, have in all ages -been familiar to Greece, more especially to the Peloponnesus. And hence -some attention seems to be due to the numerous legends and traditions which -describe convulsions of the same kind as occurring still more frequently, and -with still more important consequences, in a period preceding connected history; -and which may be thought to point to a state of elemental warfare, -which must have subsided before the region which was its theatre could have -been fitted for the habitation of man. Such an origin we might be inclined -to assign to that class of legends which related to struggles between Poseidon -and other deities for the possession of several districts; as his contests -with Athene (Minerva) for Athens and Trœzen; with the same goddess, or -with Hera (Juno) for Argos—where he was said, according to one account, -to have dried up the springs, and according to another, to have laid the plain -under water; with Apollo for the isthmus of Corinth.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_1b" id="enanchor_1b"></a><a href="#endnote_1b">b</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE NAME</h4> - -<p>It is a singular anomaly that a people who habitually called themselves -Hellenes should be known to all the world beside as Greeks. This name was -derived from the Graians, a small and obscure group. The Romans, chancing -to come first in contact with this tribe, gave the name Greek to the whole -people. In the course of time it became so fixed in the usage of other nations -that it could never be shaken off. Such a change of a proper name was very -unusual in antiquity. The almost invariable custom was, when it became -necessary to use a proper name from a foreign language, to transcribe it as -literally as might be with only such minor changes as a difference in the -genius of the language made necessary. Thus the Greeks in speaking of -their Persian enemies pronounced and wrote such words as “Cyrus” and -“Darius” in as close imitation as possible of the native pronunciation of those -names, and the Egyptians in turn, in accepting the domination of the Macedonian -Ptolemies, spelled and no doubt pronounced the names of their conquerors -with as little alteration as was possible in a language which made -scant use of vowels. It was indeed this fact of transliteration rather than -translation of foreign proper names which, as we have seen, furnished the -clew to the nineteenth century scholars in their investigations of the hieroglyphics -of Egypt and the cuneiform writing of Asia. Had not the engraver -of the Rosetta stone spelled the word Ptolemy closely as the Greeks spelled -it, Dr. Young, perhaps, never would have found the key to the interpretation -of the hieroglyphics. And had not the eighty or ninety proper names of the -great inscription at Behistun been interpreted by the same signs in the -three different forms of writing that make up that inscription, it may well -be doubted whether we should even now have any clear knowledge of the -cuneiform character of the Babylonians and Assyrians. Indeed, so universal -was this custom of retaining proper names in their original form that the -failure of the Romans to apply to the Greeks the name which they themselves -employed seems very extraordinary indeed. The custom which they thus -inaugurated, however, has not been without imitators in modern times, as -witness the translation “Angleterre” by which the French designate England, -and the even stranger use by the same nation of the word “Allemagne”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> -to designate the land which its residents term “Deutschland” and which in -English is spoken of as Germany.</p> - -<p>Had the classical writings of Greece been more extensively read throughout -Europe in the Middle Ages it is probable that the Roman name Greece -would have been discarded in modern usage, and the name Hellas restored -to its proper position. An effort to effect this change has indeed been made -more recently by many classical scholars, and it is by no means unusual to -meet the terms “Hellas” and “Hellenes” in modern books of almost every -European language; but to make the substitution in the popular mind after -the word Greece has been so closely linked with so wide a chain of associate -ideas for so many generations would be utterly impossible, at least in our -generation.</p> - -<h4>THE ORIGIN OF THE GREEKS</h4> - -<p>But whether known as Hellas or as Greece, the tiny peninsula designated by -these names was inhabited by a people which by common consent -was by far the most interesting of antiquity. It has been said that -they constituted a race rather than a nation, for the most patent fact about -them, to any one who gives even casual attention to their history, was that -they lacked the political unity which lies at the foundation of true national -existence. Yet the pride of race to a certain extent made up for this deficiency, -and if the Greeks recognised no single ruler and were never bound -together into a single state, they felt more keenly perhaps than any other -nation that has lived at any other period of the world’s history—unless -perhaps an exception be made of the modern Frenchman—the binding force -of racial affinities and the full meaning of the old adage that blood is thicker -than water.</p> - -<p>All this of course implies that the Greeks were one race in the narrow -sense of the term, sprung in relatively recent time from a single stock. -Such was undoubtedly the fact, and the division into Ionians, Dorians, and -various lesser branches, on which the historian naturally lays much stress, -must be understood always as implying only a minor and later differentiation. -One will hear much of the various dialects of the different Greek -states, but one must not forget that these dialects represent only minor -variations of speech which as compared with the fundamental unity of the -language as a whole might almost be disregarded. To be a Greek was to -be born of Greek parents, to the use of the Greek language as a mother -tongue; for the most part, following the national custom, it was to eschew -every other language and to look out upon all peoples who spoke another -tongue as “barbarians”—people of an alien birth and an alien genius.</p> - -<p>But whence came this people of the parent stock whose descendants -made up the historic Greek race? No one knows. The Greeks themselves -hardly dared to ask the question, and we are utterly without data for -answering it if asked. Their traditions implied a migration from some -unknown land to Greece, since those traditions told of a non-Hellenic people -who inhabited the land before them. Yet in contradiction of this idea -the Greek mind clung always to autocthony. Like most other nations, and -in far greater measure than perhaps any other, the Hellenes loved their -home—almost worshipped it. To be a Greek and yet to have no association -with the mountains and valleys and estuaries and islands of Greece -seems a contradiction of terms. True, a major part of the population at -a later day lived in distant colonies as widely separated as Asia Minor and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> -Italy, but even here they thought of themselves only as more or less temporary -invaders from the parent seat, and even kept up their association with -it by considering all lands which Greeks colonised as a part of “Greater -Greece.”</p> - -<p>That the Greeks are of Aryan stock is of course made perfectly clear by -their language. Some interesting conclusions as to the time when they -branched from the parent stock are gained by philologists through observation -of words which manifestly have the same root and meaning in the different -Aryan languages. Thus, for example, the fact that such words as -Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, Son, Daughter, and the like, are clearly of -the same root in Sanskrit and Greek as well as in Latin and the Germanic -speech, shows that a certain relatively advanced stage of family life had -been attained while the primitive Aryans still formed but a single race. -Again the resemblance between the Greek and the Latin languages goes to -show that the people whose descendants became Greeks and Romans clung -together till a relatively late period, after the splitting up of the primitive -race had begun. Yet on the other hand the differences between the Greek -and the Latin prove that the two races using these languages had been separated -long before either of them is ushered into history.</p> - -<p>From which direction the parent stock of the Greeks came into the land -that was to be their future abiding place has long been a moot point with -scholars, and is yet undetermined. So long as the original cradle of the -Aryans was held to be central Asia, it was the unavoidable conclusion that -the Aryans of Europe, including the Greeks, had come originally from the -East. But when the theory was introduced that the real cradle of the -primitive Aryan was not Asia but northwestern Europe all certainty from -<i>a priori</i> considerations vanished, for it seemed at least as plausible that the -parent Greeks might have dropped aside from the main swarm on its eastern -journey to invade Asia as that they should have oscillated back to Greece -after that invasion had been established. And more recently the question is -still further complicated by the “Mediterranean Race” theory, which includes -the Greeks as descendants of a hypothetical stock whose cradle was -neither Asia nor Europe, but equatorial Africa.<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span></p> - -<p>Some of the latest accounts of Greek origin are stated by Professor Bury -who says:</p> - -<p>“It is in the lands of Thessaly and Epirus that we first dimly descry the -Greeks busy at the task for which destiny had chosen them, of creating and -shaping the thought and civilisation of Europe. The oak wood of Dodona -in Epirus is the earliest sanctuary, whereof we have any knowledge, of their -supreme god, Zeus, the dweller of the sky. Thessaly has associations which -still appeal intimately to men of European birth. The first Greek settlers -in Thessaly were the Achæans; and in the plain of Argos, and in the -mountains which gird it about, they fashioned legends which were to sink -deeply into the imagination of Europe. We know that when the Greek -conquerors came down to the coast of the Ægean they found a material civilisation -more advanced than their own; and it was so chanced that we know -more of this civilisation than we know of the conquerors before they came -under its influence.</p> - -<p>“In Greece as in the other two great peninsulas of the Mediterranean, -we find, before the invader of Aryan speech entered in and took possession, -a white folk not speaking an Aryan tongue. Corresponding to the Iberians -in Spain and Gaul, to the Ligurians in Italy, we find in Greece a race which -was also spread over the islands of the Ægean and along the coast of Asia<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> -Minor. The men of this primeval race gave to many a hill and rock the -name which was to abide with it forever. Corinth and Tiryns, Parnassus -and Olympus, Arne and Larissa, are names which the Greeks received from -the peoples whom they dispossessed. But this Ægean race, as we may call it -for want of a common name, had developed, before the coming of the Greek, -a civilisation of which we have only very lately come to know. This civilisation -went hand in hand with an active trade, which in the third millennium -spread its influence far beyond the borders of the Ægean, as far at least as -the Danube and the Nile, and received in return gifts from all quarters of -the world. The Ægean peoples therefore plied a busy trade by sea, and their -maritime intercourse with the African continent can be traced back to even -earlier times, since at the very beginning of Egyptian history we find in -Egypt obsidian, which can have come only from the Ægean isles. The most -notable remains of this civilisation have been found at Troy, in the little -island of Amorgos, and in the great island of Crete.</p> - -<p>“The conquest of the Greek peninsula by the Greeks lies a long way -behind recorded history, and the Greeks themselves, when they began to -reflect on their own past, had completely forgotten what their remote -ancestors had done ages and ages before.</p> - -<p>“The invaders spoke an Aryan speech, but it does not follow that they -all came of Aryan stock. There was, indeed, an Aryan element among them, -and some of them were descendants of men of Aryan race who had originally -taught them their language and brought them some Aryan institutions and -Aryan deities. But the infusion of the Aryan blood was probably small; -and in describing the Greeks, as well as any other of the races who speak -sister tongues, we must be careful to call them men of Aryan speech, and not -men of Aryan stock.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_1c" id="enanchor_1c"></a><a href="#endnote_1c">c</a></span>”</p> - -<p>Perhaps the very latest view of sterling authority is that of Professor -William Ridgeway,<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_1d" id="enanchor_1d"></a><a href="#endnote_1d">d</a></span> who, after marshalling a vast amount of argument and -induction based upon the extant and newly discovered relics of early Grecian -civilisations, sums up his theories briefly and definitely. He accepts the -existence of a “Pelasgian” race, which many have scouted, and credits it -with the art-work and commerce revealed at Mycenæ and elsewhere and -called “Mycenæan.” This was a dark-skinned (or melanochroöus) race which -“had dwelt in Greece from a remote antiquity and had at all times, in spite -of conquests, remained a chief element in the population of all Greece, -whilst in Arcadia and Attica it had never been subjugated.” The Mycenæan -civilisation had its origin, he believes, in the mainland of Greece and -spread thence outwards to the isles of the Ægean, Crete, Egypt, and north -to the Euxine. This Mycenæan era differs widely from the Homeric,—as -in the treatment of the dead, and in the use of metals,—and preceded the -Homeric by a great distance, the Mycenæan period belonging to the Bronze -Age, the Homeric to the Iron Age.</p> - -<p>The Homeric people were not melanochroöus, but xanthochroöus (fair -and blond), and were evidently a conquering race—the Achæans. These -Achæans, according to Greek tradition, came from Epirus, and indeed a -study of the relics and “the culture of the early Iron Age of Bosnia, Carniola, -Styria, Salzburg, and upper Italy revealed armour, weapons, and ornaments -exactly corresponding to those described in Homer. Moreover we -found that a fair-haired race greater in stature than the melanochroöus Ægean -people had there been domiciled for long ages, and that fresh bodies of tall, -fair-haired people from the shores of the northern ocean continually through -the ages had kept pressing down into the southern peninsulas. From this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> -it followed that the Achæans of Homer were one of these bodies of Celts, -who had made their way down into Greece and had become masters of the -indigenous race.”</p> - -<p>The history of the round shield, the use of buckles and brooches, the -custom of cremating the dead, and the distribution of iron in Europe, Asia, -and Africa, seem to Professor Ridgeway to point still more sharply to a -theory that these features of Greek civilisation previously existed in central -Europe and were brought thence into Greece. A study of the dialect in -which the Homeric poems are written indicates that the language and metre -belonged to the earlier race, the Pelasgians, whom the Achæans conquered. -The earliest Greeks spoke an Aryan or Indo-Germanic language of which -the Arcadian dialect was the purest remnant, since the Achæans and Dorians -never conquered Arcadia. The introduction of labialism into the Greek, -Ridgeway believes to be a proof of the Celtic origin of the invaders who -accepted, as conquerors usually do, the language of the conquered and yet -modified it. “Labialism” is the changing of a hard consonant as “k” into -a lip-consonant as “p”—as the older Greek word for horse was “hikkos,” -which became “hippos.” The result, then, of Ridgeway’s erudite research -is his belief that “the Achæans were a Celtic tribe who made their way into -Greece,” and for this theory he asserts that “archæology, tradition, and language -are all in harmony.”</p> - -<p>The original source of this migration,—for it was rather migration than -an invasion,—seems to have been in the northwest of the Balkan peninsula. -Some extraordinary pressure must have been brought to bear on the Greeks -by the Illyrians who may themselves have been forced out of their own -homes by some unrecorded power. At the same time the people then living -in Macedonia and Thrace were dispossessed and shoved into Phrygia and -the regions of Troy in Asia Minor. The possession of Greece by the Greeks -was doubtless very gradual and the Peloponnesus was the last to be visited, -possibly by boat across the Corinthian Gulf. In some places the new-comers -were doubtless compelled to fight, elsewhere they drifted in almost unnoticed -and gradually asserted a sway. The new-comers imposed their speech -eventually on the older people, but as usual they must have been themselves -largely influenced by the older civilisation in the matter of customs and -conditions.<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span></p> - -<h4>EARLY CONDITIONS AND MOVEMENTS</h4> - -<p>In the Pelasgic period we find the ancient Greeks in a primitive, but not -really barbaric condition. There are settled peoples engaged in agriculture, -as well as half nomadic pastoral tribes. The latter form, for a long time, a -very unstable element of the population, ever ready under pressure of circumstances -to leave their old homes and fight for new ones, bearing disturbance -and anarchy into the civilised districts.</p> - -<p>The life of these peasants and shepherds was very simple and patriarchal. -The ox and the horse were known to them, and drew their wagons and their -ploughs; the principal source of their wealth consisted in great herds of -swine, sheep, and cattle. Fishermen already navigated the numerous arms -of the seas that indented the land. Public life had perfectly patriarchal -forms. “Kings” were to be found everywhere as ruling heads of the -numerous small tribes. Religion appeared essentially as a cult of the mighty -forces of nature. The deities were worshipped without temples and images, -and were appealed to with prayers, with both bloody and bloodless sacrifices,—at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> -the head Zeus, the god of the sky; at his side Dione, the goddess of -earth, who, however, was early replaced by the figure of Hera; Demeter, the -earth mother, the patron of agriculture and of settled life; Hestia, the patron -of the hearth fire and the altar fire; Hermes, the swift messenger of heaven, -driver of the clouds and guardian of the herds; Poseidon, the god of the -waters; and the chthonic [<i>i.e.</i> subterranean] divinity Aidoneus or Hades. -The art of prophecy was developed early; the oracle of Dodona in Epirus -was universally known.</p> - -<p>We know not how long the ancient Greeks remained in the quiet Pelasgic -conditions. But we can distinguish the causes that produced the internal -movement and mighty ferment, from which the chivalrous nation of the -Achæans finally came. Most important were the influences of the highly -developed civilisation of the Orient upon the youthful, gifted Greek nation. -The Phœnicians were the principal bearers of this influence. They had -occupied many of the islands of the Ægean, and had planted colonies even on -the mainland, as at Thebes and Acrocorinthus. The merchants exchanged -the products of Phœnician and Babylonian industry for wool, hides, and -slaves. They worked the copper mines of Cyprus and Argolis and the gold -mines of Thasos and Thrace, but obtained even greater wealth from the -purple shellfish of the Grecian waters.</p> - -<p>For about a century the Phœnicians exerted a strong pressure on the -coasts of Greece, and they left considerable traces in Grecian mythology -and civilisation. The gifted Greeks, who in all periods of their history were -quick to profit by foreign example, were deeply impressed by the superior -civilisation of the Phœnicians. The activity and skill of the men of Sidon in -navigation and fortification had a very permanent effect. For a long time -the Greeks made the Phœnicians their masters in architecture, mining, and -engineering; later they received from them the alphabet and the Babylonian -system of weights and measures. The industry and the artistic skill of -the Greeks also began to practice on the models brought into the land by the -Sidonians.</p> - -<p>Internal dissensions, raids of the rude pastoral tribes upon the settled -peoples of the lowlands and the coast, and feuds between the nomads themselves, -were, doubtless, also a powerful factor in the transition from the peaceful -patriarchism of Pelasgic times to the more stirring and warlike period -that followed. The necessity of protecting person and property from bold -raiders by sea and land led to the erection of fortresses, massive walls of rough -stones piled upon one another and held together only by the law of gravity. -The best example of such “Cyclopean” remains is the well-preserved citadel -of Tiryns in Argolis. Here on a hill only fifty feet high, the top of which -is nine hundred feet long and three hundred feet wide, a wall without towers -follows the edge of the rock. With an apparent thickness of twenty-five -feet the real wall, as it appears to-day, cannot be estimated at more than -fifteen feet. On each side of this run covered passages or galleries. By -degrees the Greeks learned from Phœnician models to construct these fortresses -better and finally to make real citadels of them. Little city communities -were gradually formed at the foot of the hill, but until far into the -Hellenic period the upper city, the “acropolis” remained the more important. -Here were the sanctuaries and the council chamber, the residence of the king -and often also the houses of the nobility.</p> - -<p>The military nobility, the ancient Greek chivalry, also originated in -pre-historic times. In the storms of the new time the patriarchal chieftains -developed into powerful military princes who everywhere forced the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> -“Pelasgian” peasant to keep his sling or his sword, his lance or his javelin, -always at hand. A class of lords also arose, consisting of families that supported -themselves rather by the trade of arms than by the pursuit of agriculture. -This new nobility, which gradually grew to great numerical strength, -held a very important position down to the days of democracy.</p> - -<p>This transition period was subsequently called by the Hellenes the Heroic -Age. The myths and legends which the memory of the Greek tribes and -their poets preserved of this period have a varied character. On the one -hand, heroic figures are repeatedly developed from the local names or -the surnames of divinities, or the mythical history of a god is transferred to -a human being. On the other hand, this imaginative people loved to concentrate -its historical recollections and to load the deeds and experiences of -whole tribes and epochs upon one or another heroic personality, whose cycle -of legends in the course of further development underwent new colourings -and extensions through the mixture of fresh elements. This is the way in -which the legends of Hercules and Theseus, of the Argonauts and the “Seven -against Thebes” grew up. The most glorious poetical illumination is cast -upon the alleged greatest deed of pre-Hellenic times, the ten years’ war -waged by nearly the whole body of Achæan heroes against the Teucrian -Troy or Ilion.</p> - -<p>The warlike, chivalrous-romantic nation of poetry and legendary history -at the close of the pre-Hellenic period we are accustomed to call the Achæans. -It seems to us safe to accept the theory that the name Achæans means “the -noble, excellent,” and belongs to the entire “hero-nation,” not to a single -tribe after which the Greeks as a whole were afterwards called.</p> - -<p>At least a few important remains of the tribal and state relations of this -age passed over into the Hellenic period. The Dorians were at this time an -insignificant mountain race in the mountains on the northern edge of the -beautiful basin of northeastern Greece, which had not yet received the name -of Thessaly, while the principal part was played there by the Lapithæ on -Mount Ossa and the lower Peneus, the Bœotians in the southwest of the -Peneus district, and especially the Minyæ, with one branch at Iolcus on -the gulf of Pagasæ and another in the western part of the basin of the -Copaïs, where they were in constant rivalry with the Cadmeans of Thebes. -The Ionic race was spread over the northern coast of the Peloponnesus on -the Gulf of Corinth, over a portion of the eastern coast of this peninsula -on the Gulf of Saron, and over Megaris and Attica. Among the Ionic -cantons Attica had already attained considerable importance. Here the -so-called Theseus, or rather a family of warlike chieftains descended from -the Ionic tribal hero Theseus, had succeeded in uniting the four different -portions of this district.</p> - -<p>Of greater importance than any of these in the pre-Doric period were -the feudal states of the Peloponnesus. The strongest among these was the -royal house of the Atridæ, upon whose glory terrible legends cast a dark and -bloody shadow. From their capital at Mycenæ they ruled over the whole -of Argolis; chieftains in Tiryns, in Argos and on the coast of the peninsula -of Parnon acknowledged their authority. The remains of the citadel of this -royal family are still preserved. The hill on which this citadel stood is surmounted -by a small circular wall, and lower down is surrounded by a mighty -wall which everywhere follows the edge of the cliff, and which in some -places is built of rough layers of massive stones, elsewhere of carefully fitted -polygonal blocks, but also for considerable stretches of rectangular blocks, -in horizontal courses.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p> - -<p>On the southwestern side is the principal gate, the famous Gate of the Lions, -which takes its name from the oldest extant remains of sculpture in Greece. -In the triangular gap in the wall above the lintel an enormous slab of yellow -limestone is fitted; it is divided in the middle by a perpendicular column, -on either side of which stands a lioness. In this acropolis Schliemann found -graves with human remains, with vessels of clay, alabaster, and gold, ornaments -of rock-crystal, copper, silver, gold, and ivory.</p> - -<p>Near the Gate of the Lions begin the walls of the lower city, which stood -on the ridge extending from the western declivity of the citadel to the south. -In this lower city are a number of remarkable subterranean buildings, -sepulchres and treasure houses of the ancient monarchs. The best preserved -and largest of these is the noteworthy round building known as the -“treasure house of Atreus” (also as the “grave of Agamemnon”), which is -especially interesting on account of its <i>tholos</i>, or interior circular vault.</p> - -<p>So in a large part of the Greek world a not inconsiderable degree of -civilisation had already begun to flourish. War, to be sure, was governed, -even down to the period of the highest culture, by a “martial law” that recognised -no right of the vanquished, delivered conquered cities to the flames, and -gave the person and the family of the captured enemy to the victor as booty. -The battle itself however, was conducted according to certain mutually recognised -chivalrous forms. The Greek knights, rushing into battle in their -chariots, hurled their terrible javelins at the enemy, but made less use of the -sword, and still less of the bow, sought single combat with a foe of equal -birth, and as a rule avoided slaughtering the common soldier. The development -of a class of slaves in consequence of the incessant feuds was of great -influence in determining the whole future character of the later Hellenic -states. On the other hand, it is worthy of note that the ancient cruelty and -bloodthirsty savagery disappeared more and more, although breaking out -frightfully on occasion when the heat of Greek passion burst through all restraint. -But murder and even simple homicide, as they are recorded with -traces of blood in the older legendary history, ceased to be daily occurrences.</p> - -<p>Tradition shows traces of a beautiful moral idealism. The tenderest -friendship, respect of the Greek youth for age, conjugal loyalty of the women, -ardent love of family, and the highest degree of receptivity for the good -and the noble shine forth from the traditions of the Achæans with a charm -that warms the heart.</p> - -<p>The beginnings of common religious assemblages, or Amphictyons, also -appear to belong to this time. So Greek life had already a quite complex -structure when a last echo of the ancient movement of peoples on the Illyrian-Greek -peninsula once more produced a general upheaval in all the lands -between Olympus and Malea, between the Ionian Sea and the mountains of -the coast of Asia Minor, after which Greece on either side of the Ægean Sea -had acquired the ethnographic physiognomy that it retained until the invasion -of the Slavs and Bulgarians.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_1e" id="enanchor_1e"></a><a href="#endnote_1e">e</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> [The Latin Græcus was, however, derived from the old Greek name Γραϊκός.]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-1.jpg" width="500" height="117" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></p> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_II_THE_MYCENAEAN_AGE">CHAPTER II. THE MYCENÆAN AGE</h3> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>At Mycenæ in 1876 Dr. Schliemann lifted the corner of the veil which had so long enshrouded -the elder age of Hellas. Year by year ever since that veil has been further withdrawn, and now -we are privileged to gaze on more than the shadowy outline of a far-back age. The picture is -still incomplete, but it is already possible to trace the salient features.… The name “Mycenæan” -is now applied to a whole class of monuments—buildings, sepulchres, ornaments, weapons, -pottery, engraved stones—which resemble more or less closely those found at Mycenæ. I think -I am right when I say that archæologists are unanimous in considering them the outcome of one -and the same civilisation, and the product of one and the same race.—<span class="smcap">William Ridgeway.</span></p> - -</div> - -<h4>MYCENÆAN CIVILISATION<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></h4> - -<p>“Mycenæan” is a convenient -epithet for a certain phase of a -prehistoric civilisation, which, as -a whole, is often called “Ægean.” -It owes its vogue to the fame of -Henry Schliemann’s<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_2c" id="enanchor_2c"></a><a href="#endnote_2c">c</a></span> discovery at -Mycenæ in 1876, but is not intended -to beg the open question -as to the origin or principal seat -of the Bronze Age culture of the -Greek lands.</p> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/p040.jpg" width="250" height="266" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">The Gate of the Lions, Mycenæ</span></p> -</div> - -<p>The site of Mycenæ itself was -notorious for the singular and massive -character of its ruins, long before -Schliemann’s time. The great -curtain wall and towers of the citadel, -of mixed Cyclopean, polygonal, -and ashlar construction, and unbroken -except on the south cliff, -and the main gate, crowned with -a heraldic relief of lionesses, have -never been hidden; and though much blocked with their own ruin, the larger -dome-tombs outside the citadel have always been visible, and remarked by travellers. -But since these remains were always referred vaguely to a “Heroic” -or “proto-Hellenic” period, even Schliemann’s preliminary clearing of the -gateway and two dome-tombs in 1876, which exposed the engaged columns -of the façades, and suggested certain inferences as to external revetment and -internal decoration, would not by itself have led any one to associate Mycenæ -with an individual civilisation. It was his simultaneous attack on the -unsearched area which was enclosed by the citadel walls, and in 1876 showed -no remains above ground, that led to the recognition of a “Mycenæan civilisation.” -Schliemann had published in 1868 his belief that the Heroic graves -mentioned by Pausanias lay within the citadel of Mycenæ, and now he chose -the deeply silted space just within the gate for his first sounding. About 10<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> -feet below the surface his diggers exposed a double ring of upright slabs, -once capped with cross slabs, and nearly 90 feet in diameter. Continuing -downwards through earth full of sherds and other débris, whose singularity -was not then recognised, the men found several sculptured limestone slabs -showing subjects of war or the chase, and scroll and spiral ornament rudely -treated in relief. When, after some delay, the work was resumed, some -skeletons were uncovered lying loose, and at last, 30 feet from the original -surface, an oblong pit-grave was found, paved with pebbles, and once roofed, -which contained three female skeletons, according to Schliemann, “smothered -in jewels.” A few feet to the west were presently revealed a circular altar, -and beneath it another grave with five corpses, two probably female, and an -even richer treasure of gold. Three more pits came to light to the northward, -each adding its quota to the hoard, and then Schliemann, proclaiming -that he had found Atreus and all his house, departed for Athens. But his -Greek ephor, clearing out the rest of the precinct, came on yet another grave -and some gold objects lying loose. Altogether there were nineteen corpses -in six pits, buried, as the grave furniture showed, at different times, but all -eventually included in a holy ring.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[<i>ca.</i> 1600-1000 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>These sepulchres were richer in gold than any found elsewhere in the -world, a fact which led to an absurd attempt to establish their kinship with -the later and only less golden burials of Scythians or Celts. The metal was -worked up into heavy death-masks and lighter breastplates, diadems, baldrics, -pendants, and armlets, often made of mere foil, and also into goblets, hairpins, -engraved with combats of men and beasts, miniature balances, -and an immense number of thin circular plaques and buttons with bone, -clay, or wooden cores. Special mention is due to the inlays of gold and -<i>niello</i> on bronze dagger-blades, showing spiral ornament or scenes of the -chase, Egyptian in motive, but non-Egyptian in style; and to little flat -models of shrine-façades analogous to those devoted to Semitic pillar-worship. -The ornament on these objects displayed a highly developed spiraliform -system, and advanced adaptation of organic forms, especially octopods -and butterflies, to decorative uses. The shrines, certain silhouette figurines, -and one cup bear moulded doves, and plant forms appear inlaid in a silver -vessel. The last-named metal was much rarer than gold, and used only in -a few conspicuous objects, notably a great hollow ox-head with gilded horns -and frontal rosette, a roughly modelled stag, and a cup, of which only small -part remains, chased with a scene of nude warriors attacking a fort. Bronze -swords and daggers and many great cauldrons were found, with arrow-heads -of obsidian, and also a few stone vases, beads of amber, intaglio gems, sceptre -heads of crystal, certain fittings and other fragments made of porcelain and -paste, and remains of carved wood. Along with this went much pottery, -mostly broken by the collapse of the roofs. It begins with a dull painted -ware, which we now know as late “proto-Mycenæan”; and it develops into -a highly glazed fabric, decorated with spiraliform and marine schemes in -lustrous paint, and showing the typical forms, false-mouthed <i>amphoræ</i> and -long-footed vases, now known as essentially Mycenæan. The loose objects -found outside the circle include the best intaglio ring from this site, admirably -engraved with a cult scene, in which women clad in flounced skirts are -chiefly concerned, and the worship seems to be of a sacred tree.</p> - -<p>This treasure as a whole was admitted at once to be far too highly developed -in technique and ornament, and too individual in character, to -belong, as the lionesses over the gate used to be said to belong, merely to a -first stage in Hellenic art. It preceded in time the classical culture of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> -same area; but, whether foreign or native, it was allowed to represent a -civilisation that was at its acme and practically incapable of further development. -So the bare fact of a great prehistoric art-production, not strictly -Greek, in Greece came to be accepted without much difficulty. But before -describing how its true relations were unfolded thereafter, it may be mentioned -that the site of Mycenæ had yet much to reveal after Schliemann left -it. Ten years later the Greek Archæological Society resumed exploration -there, and M. Tsountas, probing the summit of the citadel, hit upon and -opened out a fragment of a palace with hearth of stucco, painted with -geometric design, and walls adorned with frescoes of figure subjects, armed -men, and horses. An early Doric temple was found to have been built over -this palace, a circumstance which disposed forever of the later dates proposed -for Mycenæan objects. Subsequently many lesser structures were -cleared in the east and southwest of the citadel area, which yielded commoner -vessels of domestic use, in pottery, stone, and bronze, and some more painted -objects, including a remarkable fragment of stucco, which shows human ass-headed -figures in procession, a tattooed head, and a plaque apparently showing -the worship of an aniconic deity. From the immense variety of these -domestic objects more perhaps has been learned as to the affinities of Mycenæan -civilisation than from the citadel graves. Lastly, a most important -discovery was made of a cemetery west of the citadel. Its tombs are mostly -rock-cut chambers, approached by sloping <i>dromoi</i>; but there are also pits, -from one of which came a remarkable ivory mirror handle of oriental design. -The chamber graves were found to be rich in trinkets of gold, engraved -stones, usually opaque, vases in pottery and stone, bronze mirrors and -weapons, terra-cottas and carved ivory; but neither they nor the houses -have yielded iron except in very small quantity, and that not fashioned into -articles of utility. The presence of fibulæ and razors supplied fresh evidence -as to Mycenæan fashions of dress and wearing of the hair, and a -silver bowl, with male profiles inlaid in gold, proved that the upper lip was -sometimes shaved. All the great dome-tombs known have been cleared, but -the process has added only to our architectural knowledge. The tomb -furniture had been rifled long ago. Part of the circuit of a lower town has -been traced, and narrow embanked roadways conducted over streams on -Cyclopean bridges lead to it from various quarters.</p> - -<p>The abundance and magnificence of the circle treasure had been needed -to rivet the attention and convince the judgment of scholars, slow to reconstruct -<i>ex pede Herculem</i>. But there had been a good deal of evidence available -previous to 1876, which, had it been collated and seriously studied, -might have greatly discounted the sensation that the Citadel graves eventually -made. Although it was recognised that certain tributaries, represented, -<i>e.g.</i>, in the XVIIIth Dynasty tomb of Rekh-ma-Ra at Egyptian Thebes, as -bearing vases of peculiar form, were of Mediterranean race, neither their -precise habitat nor the degree of their civilisation could be determined while -so few actual prehistoric remains were known in the Mediterranean lands. -Nor did the Mycenæan objects which were lying obscurely in museums in -1870 or thereabouts provide a sufficient test of the real basis underlying the -Hellenic myths of the Argolid, the Troad, and Crete, to cause these to be -taken seriously.</p> - -<p>Even Schliemann’s first excavations at Hissarlik in the Troad did not -surprise those familiar equally with Neolithic settlements and Hellenistic -remains. But the “Burnt City” of the second stratum, revealed in 1873, -with its fortifications and vases, and the hoard of gold, silver, and bronze<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> -objects, which the discoverer connected with it (though its relation to the -stratification is doubtful still), made a stir, which was destined to spread -far outside the narrow circle of scholars when in 1876 Schliemann lighted on -the Mycenæ graves.</p> - -<p>Like the “letting in of water,” light at once poured in from all sides -on the prehistoric period of Greece. It was established that the character -of both the fabric and the decoration of the Mycenæan objects was not that of -any well-known art. A wide range in space was proved by the identification -of the <i>inselsteine</i> and the Ialysos vases with the new style, and a wide -range in time by collation of the earlier Theræan and Hissarlik discoveries. -A relation between objects of art described by Homer and the Mycenæan -treasure was generally recognised, and a correct opinion prevailed that, -while certainly posterior, the civilisation of the <i>Iliad</i> was reminiscent of the -great Mycenæan period. Schliemann got to work again at Hissarlik in -1878, and greatly increased knowledge of the lower strata, but did not -recognise the Mycenæan remains in his “Lydian” city of the sixth stratum; -but by laying bare in 1884 the upper remains on the rock of Tiryns, he made -a contribution to the science of domestic life in the Mycenæan period, which -was amplified two years later by Tsountas’ discovery of the Mycenæ palace. -From 1886 dates the finding of Mycenæan sepulchres outside the Argolid, -from which, and from the continuation of Tsountas’ exploration of the -buildings and lesser graves at Mycenæ, a large treasure, independent of -Schliemann’s princely gift, has been gathered into the National Museum at -Athens. In that year were excavated dome-tombs, most already rifled, in -Attica, in Thessaly, in Cephalonia, and Laconia. In 1890 and 1893 Stæs -cleared out more homely dome-tombs at Thoricus in Attica; and other graves, -either rock-cut “beehives” or chambers, were found at Spata and Aphidnæ in -Attica, in Ægina and Salamis, at the Heræum and Nauplia in the Argolid, -near Thebes and Delphi, and lastly not far from the Thessalian Larissa.</p> - -<p>But discovery was far from being confined to the Greek mainland and -its immediate dependencies. The limits of the prehistoric area were pushed -out to the central Ægean islands, all of which are singularly rich in evidence -of the pre-Mycenæan period. The series of Syran built graves, containing -crouching corpses, is the best and most representative that is known in the -Ægean. Melos, long marked as containing early objects, but not systematically -excavated until taken in hand by the British School at Athens in 1896, -shows remains of all the Ægean periods.</p> - -<p>Crete has been proved by the tombs of Anoja and Egarnos, by the excavations -on the site of Knossos begun in 1878 by M. Minos Kalokairinos and -resumed with startling success in 1900 by Messrs. Evans and Hogarth, and -by those in the Dictæan cave and at Phæstos, Gournia, Zakro, and Palæokastro, -to be prolific of remains of the prehistoric periods out of all proportion -to remains of classical Hellenic culture. A map of Cyprus in the later -Bronze Age now shows more than five-and-twenty settlements in and about -the Mesaorea district alone, of which one, that at Enkomi, near the site of -later Salamis, has yielded the richest gold treasure found outside Mycenæ. -Half round the outermost circle to which Greek influence attained in the -classical period remains of the same prehistoric civilisation have been happened -on. M. Chantre, in 1894, picked up lustreless ware, like that of -Hissarlik, in central Phrygia, and the English archæological expeditions -sent subsequently into northwestern Anatolia have never failed to bring -back “Ægean” specimens from the valleys of the Rhyndacus and Sangarius, -and even of the Halys.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p> - -<p>In Egypt, Mr. Petrie found painted sherds of Cretan style at Kahun in the -Fayum in 1887, and farther up the Nile, at Tel-el-Amarna, chanced on bits -of not less than eight hundred Ægean vases in 1889. There have now been -recognised in the collections at Gizeh, Florence, London, Paris, and Bologna -several Egyptian or Phœnician imitations of the Mycenæan style to set off -against the many debts which the centres of Mycenæan culture owed to -Egypt. Two Mycenæan vases were found at Sidon in 1885, and many fragments -of Ægean, and especially Cypriote, pottery have been turned up -during the recent excavation of sites in Philistia by the Palestine Fund. -Southeastern Sicily has proved, ever since Orsi excavated the Sicel cemetery -near Lentini in 1877, a -mine of early remains, among -which appear in regular succession -Ægean fabrics and -motives of decoration from the -period of the second stratum -at Hissarlik down to the latest -Mycenæan. Sardinia has Mycenæan -sites, <i>e.g.</i>, at Abini near -Teti, and Spain has yielded objects -recognised as Mycenæan -from tombs near Cadiz, and -from Saragossa.</p> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 300px;"> -<img src="images/p044.jpg" width="300" height="458" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Arched Passage Way, Mycenæ</span></p> -</div> - -<p>The results of three excavations -will especially serve as -rallying points and supply a -standard of comparison. After -Schliemann’s death, Dörpfeld -returned to Hissarlik, and recognised -in the huge remains of -the sixth stratum, on the southern -skirts of the citadel mound, -a city of the same period as -Mycenæ at its acme. Thus we can study -there remains of a later stage, in one process -of development superposed on earlier -remains, after an intervening period. The -links there missing are, however, apparent at -Phylakopi in Melos, excavated systematically -from 1896 to 1899. Here buildings of three -main periods appear one on another. The earliest -overlie in one spot a deposit of sherds of the -most primitive type known in the Ægean and -found in the earliest cist-graves. The second and third cities rise one out of -the other without evidence of long interval. A third and more important site -than either, Knossos in Crete, awaits fuller publication. Here are ruins of -a great palace, mainly of two periods. Originally constructed about 2000 -<span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, it was almost entirely rebuilt at the acme of the Mycenæan Age, but -substructures and other remains of the earlier palace underlie the later.</p> - -<p>Since recent researches, some of whose results are not yet published, have -demonstrated that in certain localities, for instance, Cyprus, Crete, and most -of the Ægean islands where Mycenæan remains were not long ago supposed -to be merely sporadic, they form in fact a stratum to be expected on the site<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> -of almost every ancient Ægean settlement, we may safely assume that -Mycenæan civilisation was a phase in the history of all the insular and -peninsular territories of the east Mediterranean basin. Into the continents -on the east and south we have no reason to suppose that its influence -penetrated either very widely or very strongly.</p> - -<p>The remains that especially concern us here belong to the later period -illustrated by these discoveries, and have everywhere a certain uniformity. -Some common influence spread at a certain era over the Ægean area and -reduced almost to identity a number of local civilisations of similar origin -but diverse development. Surviving influences of these, however, combined -with the constant geographical conditions to reintroduce some local differentiation -into the Mycenæan products.</p> - -<p>The Neolithic Age in the Ægean has now been abundantly illustrated -from the yellow bottom clay at Knossos, and its products do not differ -materially from those implements and vessels with which man has everywhere -sought to satisfy his first needs. The mass of the stone tools and -weapons, and the coarse hand-made and burnished pottery, might well proceed -from the spontaneous invention of each locality that possessed suitable -stone and clay; but the common presence of flaked blades, arrow-heads, and -blunt choppers of an obsidian, native, so far as is known, to Melos only, -speaks of inter-communication even at this early period between many distant -localities and the city whose remains have been unearthed at Phylakopi. -The wide range of the peculiar cist-grave strengthens the belief that late -Stone Age culture in the Ægean was not of sporadic development, and prepares -us for the universality of a certain fiddle-shaped type of stone idol. -Local divergence is, however, already apparent in the relative prevalence of -certain forms: for example, a shallow bowl is common in Crete, but not in -the Cyclades, while the <i>pyxis</i>, so common in the graves of Amorgos and -Melos, has left little sign of itself in Crete; and from this point the further -development of civilisation in the Ægean area results in increasing differentiation. -The Greek mainland has produced as yet very little of the earlier -periods (the excavators of the Heræum promise additions); but the primitive -remains in the rest of the area may be divided into four classes of strong -family likeness, but distinct development.</p> - -<p>The pottery supplies the best criterion, and will suffice for our end. We -have no such comprehensive and certain evidence from other classes of remains. -Except for the Great Treasure of Hissarlik, and the weapons in Cycladic -graves, there have been found as yet hardly any metal products of the period. -Of the few stone products, one class, the “island idols,” already referred -to, was obviously exported widely, and supplies an ill test either of place -or date. There have not been discovered sufficiently numerous structures or -graves to afford a basis of classification. Fortified towns have been explored -in Melos, Siphnos, and the Troad, and a few houses in Ægina and Thera; -but neither unaltered houses nor tombs of undoubted primitive character -have appeared in Crete as yet, nor elsewhere than in the Cyclad isles.</p> - -<p>Above the strata, however, which contain these remains of local divergent -development, there lies in all districts of the Ægean area a rich layer of -deposit, whose contents show a rapid and marked advance in civilisation, are -essentially uniform, and have only subsidiary characteristics due to local -influence or tradition. The civilisation there represented is not of an origin -foreign to the area. The germs of all its characteristic fabrics, forms, and -motives of decoration exist in the underlying strata, though not equally in all -districts, and the change which Mycenæan art occasions is not always equally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> -abrupt. It is most reasonable to see in these remains the result of the action -of some accidental influence which greatly increased the wealth and capacity -of one locality in the area, and caused it to impose its rapidly developing -culture on all the rest. The measure of the reaction that took place in divers -localities thereafter depended naturally on the point to which local civilisations -had respectively advanced in the pre-Mycenæan period.</p> - -<p>As to the decorative motives in vogue, there is less uniformity. The -earlier Mycenæan vessels have curvilinear and generally spiraliform geometric -schemes. These pass into naturalistic vegetable forms, and finally become -in the finest typical vases almost exclusively marine—<i>algæ</i>, octopods, molluscs, -shells, in many combinations. Everywhere animal, bird, and human -forms are but seldom found. Man certainly appears very late, and in company -with the oriental motives which characterise the Spata objects. Insects, -especially butterflies, become common, and -when their antennæ terminate in exquisite -spirals, decorative art is at the end of its -progress.</p> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 200px;"> -<img src="images/p046.jpg" width="200" height="233" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Silver Ox-head from Mycenæ</span></p> -</div> - -<p>Not only in the continuous and universal -commentary of painted earthenware, -but in many other media, we have evidence -of “Mycenæan” art, but varying in character -according to the local abundance or -variety of particular materials. We have -reached an age when the artist had at his -disposal not only terra-cotta, hard and soft -stone, and wood, but much metal, gold, silver, -lead, copper, bronze containing about -twelve per cent. of tin alloy, as well as bone -and ivory, and various compositions from -soft lime plaster up to opaque glass. If it -were not for the magnificent stone utensils, -in the guise of lioness heads, triton shells, -palm and lotus capitals, with spirals in relief, miniature shields for handles, -which have come to light at Knossos, we should have supposed stone to be a -material used (except architecturally) only for such rude metallic-seeming -reliefs as stood over the Mycenæ gate and circle graves, or for heavy commonplace -vases and lamps.</p> - -<p>We have discovered no large free statuary in the round in any material -as yet, though part of a hand at Knossos speaks to its existence; but figurines -in metal, painted terra-cotta, and ivory, replacing the earlier stone -idols, are fairly abundant. For these bronze is by far the commonest -medium, and two types prevail; a female with bell-like or flounced divided -skirt, and hair coiled or hanging in tails, and a male, nude but for a loin-cloth. -The position of the hands and legs varies with the skill of the artist, -as in all archaic statuary. Knossos has revealed for the first time the -Mycenæan artist’s skill in painted plaster-relief (<i>gesso duro</i>). The life-size -bull’s head from the northern entrance of the palace and fragments of human -busts challenge comparison triumphantly with the finest Egyptian work. -And from the same site comes the fullest assurance of a high development -of fresco-painting.</p> - -<p>Tiryns had already shown us a galloping bull on its palace wall, Mycenæ -smaller figures and patterns, and Phylakopi its panel of flying-fish; but -Knossos is in advance of all with its processions of richly dressed vase-carriers,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> -stiff in general pose and incorrect in outline, but admirably painted -in detail and noble in type; and its yet more novel scenes of small figures, -in animated act of dance or ritual or war, irresistibly suggestive of early -Attic vase-painting. Precious fragments of painted transparencies in rock-crystal -have also survived, and both Mycenæ and Knossos have yielded stone -with traces of painted design. Moulded glass of a cloudy blue-green texture -seems to belong to the later period, at which carved ivory, previously rare, -though found even in pre-Mycenæan strata, becomes common. The Spata -tomb in Attica alone yielded 730 pieces of the latter material, helmeted -heads in profile, mirror handles and sides of coffers of orientalising design, -plaques with outlines of heraldic animals, and so forth. Articles in paste -and porcelain of native manufacture, though often of exotic design, have been -found most commonly where Eastern influence is to be expected; for instance, -at Enkomi in Cyprus. But the glassy blue composition, known to -Homer as κύανος, an imitation of lapis-lazuli, was used in architectural ornament -at Tiryns.</p> - -<p>But it is in precious metals, and in the kindred technique of gem-cutting, -that Mycenæan art effects its most distinctive achievements. This is, as we -have said, an age of metal. That stone implements had not entirely passed -out of use is attested by the obsidian arrow-heads found in the circle graves, -and the flint knives and basalt axes which lay beside vases of the full “Mycenæan” -style at Cozzo del Pantano in Sicily. But they are survivals, unimportant -beside the objects in copper, bronze, and precious metals. Iron has -been found with remains of the period only as a great rarity. Some five -rings, a shield boss, and formless lumps alone represent it at Mycenæ. In -the fourth circle grave occurred thirty-four vessels of nearly pure copper. -Silver makes its appearance before gold, and is found moulded into bracelets -and bowls, and very rarely into figurines. Gold is more plentiful. -Beaten, it makes face-masks, armlets, pendants, diadems, and all kinds of -small votive objects; drawn, it makes rings whose bezels are engraved with -the burin; riveted, it makes cups; and overlaid as leaf on bone, clay, wood, -or bronze cores, it adorns hundreds of discs, buttons, and blades.</p> - -<p>Next to Mycenæ in wealth of this metal ranks Enkomi in Cyprus, and -pretty nearly all the tombs of the later period have yielded gold, conspicuously -that of Vaphio. From the town sites, <i>e.g.</i>, Phylakopi in Melos, and -Knossos, it has disappeared almost entirely. Detached from the mass of -golden objects which show primitive or tentative technique, are a few of such -elaborate finish and fineness of handiwork, that it is hard to credit them -to the same period and the same craftsmen. The Mycenæ inlaid dagger-blades -are famous examples, and the technical skill, which beat out each of -the Vaphio goblets in a single unriveted plate, has never been excelled.</p> - -<p>We are fortunate in possessing very considerable remains of all kinds of -construction and structural ornament of the Mycenæan period. The great -walls of Mycenæ, of Tiryns (though perhaps due to an earlier epoch), and -of the sixth layer at Hissarlik, show us the simple scheme of fortification—massive -walls with short returns and corner towers, but no flank defences, -approached by ramps or stairs from within and furnished with one great -gate and a few small sally-ports. Chambers in the thickness of the wall -seem to have served for the protection of stores rather than of men. The -great palaces at Knossos and Phæstos, however, are of much more complicated -plan. Remains of much architectural decoration have been found -in these palaces—at Mycenæ, frescoes of men and animals; at Knossos, -frescoes of men, fish, and sphinxes, vegetable designs, painted reliefs, and rich<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> -conventional ornament, such as an admirably carved frieze in hard limestone; -at Tiryns, traces of a frieze inlaid with lapis-lazuli glass, and also -frescoes. The rough inner walls, that appear now on these sites, must once -have looked very different.</p> - -<p>Certain chambers at Knossos, paved and lined with gypsum, and two in -Melos, have square central piers. These seem to have had a religious significance, -and are possibly shrines devoted to pillar-worship. The houses of the -great dead were hardly less elaborate. The “Treasury of Atreus” had a -moulded façade with engaged columns in a sort of proto-Doric order and -marble facing; and there is good reason to suppose that its magnificent vault -was lined within with metal ornament or hanging draperies. The construction -itself of this and the other masonry domes bespeaks skill of a high order. -For lesser folk beehive excavations were made in the rock, and at the latest -period a return was made apparently to the tetragonal chamber; but now it -has a pitched or vaulted roof, and generally a short passage of approach whose -walls converge overhead towards a pointed arch but do not actually meet. -The corpses are laid on the floor, neither mummified nor cremated; but in -certain cases they were possibly mutilated and “scarified,” and the limbs were -then enclosed in chest urns. There is evidence for this both in Crete and -Sicily. But the order of burial, which first made Mycenæan civilisation known -to the modern world, continues singular. Similar shaft graves, whether contained -within a circle of slabs or not, have never been found again.</p> - -<p>The latest excavation has at last established beyond all cavil that the -civilisation which was capable of such splendid artistic achievement was not -without a system of written communication. Thousands of clay tablets -(many being evidently labels) and a few inscriptions on pottery from the -palace at Knossos have confirmed Mr. A. J. Evans’ previous deduction, -based on gems, masons’ and potters’ marks, and one short inscription on -stone found in the Dictæan cave, that more than one script was in use in -the period. Most of the Knossos tablets are written in an upright linear -alphabetic or syllabic character, often with the addition of ideographs, and -showing an intelligible system of decimal numeration. Since many of the -same characters have been found in use as potters’ marks on sherds in Melos, -which are of earlier date than the Mycenæan period, the later civilisation -cannot be credited with their invention. Other clay objects found at -Knossos, as well as gems from the east of Crete, show a different system -more strictly pictographic. This seems native to the island, and to have survived -almost to historic times; but the origin of the linear system is -more doubtful. No such tablets or sealings have yet been found outside -Crete, and their writing remains undeciphered. The affinities of the -linear script seem to be with the Asianic systems, Cypriote and Hittite, and -perhaps with later Greek. The characters are obviously not derived from -the Phœnician.</p> - -<p>This Mycenæan civilisation, as we know it from its remains, belongs to -the Ægean area (<i>i.e.</i>, roughly the Greek), and to no other area with which -we are at present acquainted. It is apparently not the product of any of -the elder races which developed culture in the civilised areas to the east or -southeast, much as it owed to those races. It would be easy to add to the -singular vase-forms, script, lustrous paint, idols, gems, types of house and -tomb, and so forth, already mentioned, a long list of Mycenæan decorative -schemes which, even if their remote source lies in Egypt, Babylonia, or inner -Anatolia, are absolutely peculiar in their treatment. But style is conclusive. -From first to last the persistent influence of a true artistic ideal differentiates<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> -Mycenæan objects from the hieratic or stylised products of Egypt or -Phœnicia. A constant effort to attain symmetry and decorative effect for -its own sake inspires the geometric designs. Those taken from organic life -show continual reference to the model and a “naturalistic grasp of the whole -situation,” which resists convention and often ignores decorative propriety. -The human form is fearlessly subjected to experiment, the better to attain -lightness, life, and movement in its portrayal. A foreign motive is handled -with a breadth and vitality which renders its new expression practically -independent. The conventional bull of an Assyrian relief was referred to -the image of a living bull by the Knossian artist, and made to express his -emotions of fear or wrath by the Vaphio -goldsmith, the Cypriote worker in ivory -mirror handles, or the “island-gem” -cutter.</p> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/p049.jpg" width="250" height="426" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Exterior View of the Treasury of Atreus</span></p> -</div> - -<p>Since we have a continuous series -of links by which the development of -the characteristic Mycenæan products -can be traced within the area back to -very primitive forms, we can fearlessly -assert that not only did the full flower -of the Mycenæan civilisation proper -belong to the Ægean area, but also its -essential origin. That it came to have -intimate relations with other contemporary -civilisations, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, -perhaps “Hittite,” and early -began to contract a huge debt, especially -to Egypt, is equally certain. Not to -mention the certainly imported Nilotic -objects found on Mycenæan sites, and -bearing hieroglyphic inscriptions and -cartouches of Pharaonic personages, the -later Ægean culture is deeply indebted -to the Nile for forms and decorative -motives.</p> - -<p>At what epoch did Ægean civilisation -reach its full development? It is -little use to ask when it arose. A <i>terminus -a quo</i> in the Neolithic Age can -be dated only less vaguely than a geological stratum. But it is known within -fairly definite limits when it ceased to be a dominant civilisation. Nothing -but derived products of sub-Mycenæan style falls within the full Iron Age -in the Ægean. Bronze, among useful metals, accompanies almost alone the -genuine Mycenæan objects, at Enkomi in Cyprus, as at Mycenæ. This fact -supplies a <i>terminus ad quem</i>, to which a date may be assigned at least as precise -as scholars assign to the Homeric lays. For these represent a civilisation -spread over the same area and in process of transition from bronze to iron, -and if they fall in the ninth century <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, then the Mycenæan period proper -ends a little earlier, at any rate in the West. It is possible, indeed probable, -that in Asia Minor and Cyprus, where the descent of northern tribes about -1000 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, remembered by the Greeks as the “Dorian Invasion,” did not -have any direct effect, the Mycenæan culture survived longer in something -like purity, and passed by an uninterrupted process of development into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> -Hellenic; and even in Crete, where there was certainly a cataclysm, and in -the Argolid, where art was temporarily eclipsed about the tenth century, -earlier influence survived and came once more to the surface when peace was -restored. Persistence of artistic influence under a new order, and differences -in the artistic history of different districts widely sundered, have to be taken -into account. The appearance, <i>e.g.</i>, of late Mycenæan objects in Cyprus, does -not necessarily falsify the received Mycenæan dates in mainland Greece.</p> - -<p>For the main fact, however, viz., the age of greatest florescence all over -the area, a singular coincidence of testimony points to the period of the -XVIIIth Pharaonic Dynasty in Egypt. To this dynasty refer all the scarabs -or other objects inscribed with royal cartouches (except an alabaster lid from -Knossos, bearing the name of the earlier “Shepherd King,” Khyan), as yet -actually found with true Mycenæan objects, even in Cyprus. In a tomb of -this period at Thebes was found a bronze patera of fine Mycenæan style. At -Tel-el-Amarna, the site of a capital city which existed only in the reign of -Amenhotep IV, have been unearthed by far the most numerous fragments -of true “Ægean” pottery found in Egypt; and of that singular style which -characterises Tel-el-Amarna art, the art of the Knossian frescoes is irresistibly -suggestive. To the XVIIIth and two succeeding dynasties belong the tomb-paintings -which represent vases of Ægean form; and to these same dynasties -Mr. Petrie’s latest comparisons between the fabrics, forms, and decorative -motives of Egypt and Mycenæ have led him. The lapse of time between -the eighteenth and the tenth centuries is by no means too long, in the opinion -of most competent authorities, to account for the changes which take place in -Mycenæan art.</p> - -<p>The question of race, which derives a special interest from the possibility -of a family relation between the Mycenæan and the subsequent Hellenic -stocks, is a controversial matter as yet. The light recently thrown -on Mycenæan cult does not go far to settle the racial problem. The aniconic -ritual, involving tree and pillar symbols of divinity, which prevailed -at one period, also prevailed widely elsewhere than in the Ægean, and we -are not sure of the divinity symbolised. Even if sure that it was the -Father God, whose symbol alike in Crete and Caria is the <i>labrys</i> or double -axe, we could not say if Caria or Crete were prior, and whether the Father -be Aryan or Semitic or neither.</p> - -<p>When it is remembered that, firstly, knowing not a word of the Mycenæan -language, we are quite ignorant of its affinities; secondly, not enough -Mycenæan skulls have yet been recovered to establish more than the bare -fact that the race was mixed and not wholly Asiatic; and thirdly, since -identity of civilisation in no sense necessarily entails identity of race, we may -have to do not with one or two, but with many races—it will be conceded -that it is more useful at present to attempt to narrow the issue by excluding -certain claimants than to pronounce in favour of any one. The facial types -represented not only on the Knossian frescoes, but by statuettes and gems, -are distinctly non-Asiatic, and recall strongly the high-crowned brachycephalic -type of the modern northern Albanians and Cretan hillmen. Of the -elder civilised races about the Levantine area the Egyptians, Assyrians, and -Babylonians may be dismissed at once. We know their art from beginning -to end, and its character is not at any period the same as that of Ægean art. -As for the Phœnicians, for whom on the strength of Homeric tradition a -strong claim has been put forward, it cannot be said to be impossible that -some objects thought to be Mycenæan are of Sidonian origin, since we -know little or nothing of Sidonian art. But the presumption against this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> -Semitic people having had any serious share in Mycenæan development is -strong, since facial types apart, the only scripts known to have been used -in the Mycenæan area and period are in no way affiliated to the Phœnician -alphabet, and neither the characteristic forms nor the characteristic style of -Phœnician art, as we know it, appear in Mycenæan products. The one -thing, of which recent research has assured us in this matter, is this, that -the Keftiu, represented in XVIIIth Dynasty tombs at Thebes, were a -“Mycenæan” folk, an island people of the northern sea. They came into -intimate contact, both peaceful and warlike, with Egypt, and to them no -doubt are owed the Ægean styles and products found on Nile sites. Exact -parallels to their dress and products, as represented by Egyptian artists, -appear in the work of Cretan artists; and it is now generally accepted that -the Keftiu were “Mycenæans” of Crete at any rate, whatever other habitat -they may have possessed.</p> - -<p>As to place of origin, Central Europe or any western or northern part of -the continent is out of the question. Mycenæan art is shown by various -remains to have moved westwards and northwards, not <i>vice versa</i>. It arose -within the Ægean area, in the Argolid as some, <i>e.g.</i>, the Heræum excavators, -seem to propose, or the Cyclades, or Rhodes; or, if outside, then the -issue is narrowed for practical purposes to a region about which we know -next to nothing as yet, northern Libya, and to Asia Minor. So far as the -Mycenæan objects themselves testify, they point to a progress not from south -or west, but from east. In the western localities, notably Crete and Mycenæ, -we have more remains of highly developed Mycenæan civilisation, but less of -its early stages than elsewhere. Nothing in the Argolid, but much in the -Troad, prepares us for the Mycenæan metallurgy. The appearance of -Mycenæan forms and patterns is abrupt in Crete, but graduated in other -islands, especially Thera and Melos. The Cretan linear script seems to -be of “Asianic” family, and to be inscribed in Melos on sherds of earlier -date than its appearance at Knossos. Following Mycenæan development -backwards in this manner, we seem to tend towards the Anatolian coasts -of the Ægean, and especially the rich and little-known areas of Rhodes -and Caria.</p> - -<p>It does not advance seriously the solution of the racial problem to turn to -Greek literary tradition. Now that we are assured of the wide range and -the long continuance of the influence of Mycenæan civilisation, overlapping -the rise of Hellenic art, we can hardly question that the early peoples -whom the Greeks knew as Pelasgi, Minyæ, Leleges, Danai, Carians, and so -forth, shared in it. But were they its authors? and who, after all, were -they themselves? The Greeks believed them their own kin, but what value -are we to attach to the belief of an age to which scientific ethnology and -archæology were unknown? Nor is it useful to select traditions, <i>e.g.</i>, to -accept those about the Pelasgi, and to override those which connect the -Achæans equally closely with Mycenæan centres. We are gradually learning -that the classical Hellene was of no pure race, but the result of a blend -of several racial stocks, into which those pre-existing in his land can hardly -fail to have entered; and if we have been able to determine that Mycenæan -art was distinguished by just that singular quality of idealism which is of the -essence of the art which succeeded it in the same area (whatever be the -racial connection), it can scarcely be doubted in reason that Mycenæan -civilisation was in some sense the parent of the later civilisation of Hellas. -In fact, now that the Mycenæan remains are no longer to be regarded as -isolated phenomena on Greek soil, but are seen to be intimately connected on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> -the one hand with a large class of objects which carry the evolution of civilisation -in the Ægean area itself back to the Stone Age, and on the other -with the earlier products of Hellenic development, the problem is no longer -purely one of antiquarian ethnology. We ask less what race was so greatly -gifted, than what geographical or other circumstances will account for the -persistence of a certain peculiar quality of civilisation in the Ægean area.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_2b" id="enanchor_2b"></a><a href="#endnote_2b">b</a></span> -An eloquent summary of our Mycenæan knowledge and a lively description -of life such as it may have been in Mycenæ has been drawn by Chrestos -Tsountas and J. Irving Manatt in their work, <i>The Mycenæan Age</i>, from -which we quote at length.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/p052.jpg" width="500" height="261" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Sepulchral Enclosure, Mycenæ</span></p> -</div> - -<h4>THE PROBLEM OF MYCENÆAN CHRONOLOGY</h4> - -<p>Whether or not the authors of this distinct and stately civilisation -included among their achievements a knowledge of letters, their monuments -thus far address us only in the universal language of form and action. Of -their speech we have yet to read the first syllable. The vase handles of -Mycenæ may have some message for us, if no more than a pair of heroic -names; and the nine consecutive characters from the cave of Cretan Zeus -must have still more to say when we find the key. We may hope, at least, -if this ancient culture ever recovers its voice, to find it not altogether unfamiliar: -we need not be startled if we catch the first lisping accent of what -has grown full and strong in the Achæan epic.</p> - -<p>But for the present we have to do with a dumb age, with a race whose -artistic expression amazes us all the more in the dead silence of their history. -So far as we yet know from their monuments, they have recorded not -one fixed point in their career, they have never even written down their -name as a people.</p> - -<p>Now, a dateless era and a nameless race—particularly in the immediate -background of the stage on which we see the forces of the world’s golden -age deploying—are facts to be accepted only in the last resort. The student -of human culture cannot look upon the massive walls, the solemn -domes, the exquisite creations of what we call Mycenæan art, without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> -asking—When? By whom? In default of direct and positive evidence, he -will make the most of the indirect and probable.</p> - -<p>We have taken a provisional and approximate date for the meridian age -of Mycenæan culture—namely, from the sixteenth to the twelfth century <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> -We have also assumed that the Island culture was already somewhat advanced -as far back as the earlier centuries of the second millennium before -our era. This latter datum is based immediately on geological calculations: -M. Fouqué, namely, has computed a date <i>circa</i> 2000 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> for the upheaval -which buried Thera, and thus preserved for us the primitive monuments of -Ægean civilisation. Whatever be the value of Fouqué’s combinations—and -they have been vigorously, if not victoriously, assailed—we may reach a -like result by another way round. The Island culture is demonstrably older -than the Mycenæan—it must have attained the stage upon which we find it -at Thera a century or two at least before the bloom-time came in Argolis. -If, then, we can date that bloom-time, we can control within limits the geologists’ -results.</p> - -<p>Here we call in the aid of Egyptology. In Greece we find datable Egyptian -products in Mycenæan deposits, and conversely in datable Egyptian deposits -we find Mycenæan products.</p> - -<p>To take the first Mycenæan finds in Egypt. In a tomb of 1100 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, -or within fifty years of that either way, at Kahun, Flinders Petrie found -along with some dozens of bodies, “a great quantity of pottery, Egyptian, -Phœnician, Cypriote, and Ægean”—notably an Ægean vase with an ivy -leaf and stalk on each side, which he regards as the beginning of natural -design. Further, at Gurob and elsewhere, the same untiring explorer has -traced the Mycenæan false-necked vase or <i>Bügelkanne</i> through a series of -dated stages, “a chain of examples in sequence showing that the earliest -geometrical pottery of Mycenæ begins about 1400 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, and is succeeded by -the beginning of natural designs about 1100 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>”</p> - -<p>But long before these actual Mycenæan products came to light in Egypt, -Egyptian art had told its story of relations with the Ægean folk. On the -tomb-frescoes of Thebes we see pictured in four groups the tributaries of -Tehutimes III (about 1500 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>), bringing their gifts to that great conqueror; -among them, as we are told by the hieroglyphic text that runs with the painting, -are “the princes of the land of Keftu [or Kefa] (Phœnicia) and of the -islands in the great sea.” And the tribute in their hands includes vases of -distinct Mycenæan style.</p> - -<p>On the other hand, we find datable Egyptian products in Mycenæan -deposits in Greece. From Mycenæ itself and from Ialysos in Rhodes we -have scarabs bearing the cartouches of Amenhotep III and of his queen -Thi; and fragments of Egyptian porcelain, also from Mycenæ, bear the -cartouches of the same king, whose reign is dated to the latter half of the -fifteenth century.</p> - -<p>We have already noted the recurrence at Gurob, Kahun, and Tel-el-Amarna -of the characters which were first found on the vase handles of Mycenæ; and -this seemed at one time to have an important bearing on Mycenæan chronology. -But in the wider view of the subject which has been opened up by -Evans’ researches, this can no longer be insisted upon as an independent datum. -However, the occurrence of these signs in a town demonstrably occupied by -Ægean peoples at a given date has corroborative value.</p> - -<p>While it can hardly be claimed that any or all of these facts amount to -final proof, they certainly establish a strong probability that at least from the -fifteenth century <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> there was traffic between Egypt and the Mycenæan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> -world. Whatever be said for the tomb-frescoes of Tehutimes’ foreign -tribute-bearers and the scarabs from Mycenæ and Rhodes, we cannot explain -away Mr. Petrie’s finds in the Fayum. The revelations of Tel-Gurob can -leave no doubt that the brief career of the ancient city on that spot—say -from 1450 to 1200 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>—was contemporaneous with the bloom-time of -Mycenæan civilisation.</p> - -<p>Now most, if not all, of the “Ægean” pottery from Gurob, like that -pictured in the tomb-frescoes, belongs to the later Mycenæan styles as we -find them in the chamber-tombs and ruined houses—in the same deposits, -in fact, with the scarabs and broken porcelain which carry the cartouches -of Amenhotep and Queen Thi. The earlier period of Mycenæan art is thus -shown to be anterior to the reign of Tehutimes III; and as that period cannot -conceivably be limited to a few short generations, the sixteenth century -is none too early for the upper limit of the Mycenæan Age. We should, -perhaps, date it at least a century farther back. Thus we approximate the -chronology to which M. Fouqué has been led by geological considerations; -while, on the other hand, more recent inquirers are inclined to reduce by a -century or two the antiquity of the convulsion in which Thera perished, and -thus approximate our own datum.</p> - -<p>For the lower limit of the Mycenæan Age we have taken the twelfth -century, though certain archæologists and historians are inclined to a much -more recent date—some even bringing it three or four centuries further -down.</p> - -<p>This is not only improbable on its face, but at variance with the facts. -To take but one test, the Mycenæan Age hardly knew the use of iron; at -Mycenæ itself it was so rare that we find it only in an occasional ornament -such as a ring. No iron was found in the prehistoric settlements at Hissarlik -until 1890, when Dr. Schliemann came across two lumps of the metal, one of -which had possibly served as the handle of a staff. “It is therefore certain,” -he says, “that iron was already known in the second or ‘burnt city’; but it -was probably at that time rarer and more precious than gold.” In Egypt, -on the other hand, iron was known as early as the middle of the second -millennium <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, and if the beehive and chamber-tombs at Mycenæ are to -be assigned to a period as late as the ninth century, the rare occurrence of -iron in them becomes quite inexplicable.</p> - -<h5><i>The Testimony of Art</i></h5> - -<p>From the seventeenth or sixteenth to the twelfth century <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, then, we -may regard as the bloom-time of Mycenæan culture, and of the race or -races who wrought it out. But we need not assume that their arts perished -with their political decline. Even when that gifted people succumbed to or -blended with another conquering race, their art, especially in its minor -phases, lived on, though under less favouring conditions. There were no -more patrons like the rich and munificent princes of Tiryns and Mycenæ; -and domed tombs with their wealth of decoration were no longer built. -Still, certain types of architecture, definitively wrought out by the Mycenæans, -became an enduring possession of Hellenic art, and so of the art of the -civilised world; while from other Mycenæan types were derived new forms -of equally far-reaching significance.</p> - -<p>The correspondence of the gateways at Tiryns with the later Greek -propylæa, and that of the Homeric with the prehistoric palaces, is noteworthy; -so, too, is the obvious derivation of the typical form of the Greek<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> -temple, consisting of vestibule and cella, from the Mycenæan magaron. -That the Doric column is of the same lineage is a fact long ago recognised -by the ablest authorities. In fact, the Mycenæan pillars known to us, -whether in actual examples as embedded in the façades of the two beehive -tombs or in art representations, as in the lion relief and certain ivory models, -while varying in important details, exhibit now one, now another of the -features of the Doric column. Thus, all have in common abacus, echinus, -and cymatium—the last member adorned with ascending leaves just as in the -earliest capitals of the Doric order. Again, the Doric fluting is anticipated -in the actual pilasters of “Clytemnestra’s tomb,” and in an ivory model. -And as the Doric column has no base, but rests directly on the stylobate, so -the wooden pillars in the Mycenæan halls appear to rise directly from the -ground in which their stone bases are almost entirely embedded.</p> - -<p>That Mycenæan art outlasted the social régime under which it had attained -its splendid bloom is sufficiently attested by the Homeric poems. -Doubtless, the Achæan system, when it fell before the aggressive Dorian, -must have left many an heirloom above ground, as well as those which its -tombs and ruins had hidden down to our own day. And, again, the poems -in their primitive strata undoubtedly reflect the older order, and offer us -many a picture at first hand of a contemporary age. Thus the dove-cup -of Mycenæ, or another from the same hand, may have been actually known -to the poet who described old Nestor’s goblet in our eleventh <i>Iliad</i>; and -the cyanos frieze of Tiryns may well have inspired the singer of the -Phæacian tale, or at least helped out his fancy in decorating Alcinous’ -palace. Still, it is in the more recent strata of the poems that we find the -great transcripts of art-creations and the clearest indications of the very -processes met with in the monuments. To take but one instance, there is -the shield of Achilles forged at Thetis’ intercession by Hephæstus and -emblazoned with a series of scenes from actual mundane life. (<i>Iliad</i>, XVIII. -468-613.) The subjects are at once Mycenæan and Homeric. On the -central boss, for example, the Olympian smith “wrought the earth and the -heavens and the sea and the unwearying sun,” very much as the Mycenæan -artist sets sun, moon, and sky in the upper field of his great signet. Again, -the city under siege, while “on the walls to guard it, stand their dear -wives and infant children, and with these the old men,” appears to be almost -a transcript of the scene which still stirs our blood as we gaze upon the -beleaguered town on the silver cup. But it is less the subject than -the technique that reveals artistic heredity, and when we find Homer’s -Olympian craftsman employing the selfsame process in the forging of -the shield which we can now see for ourselves in the inlaid swords of -Mycenæ, we can hardly doubt that that process was still employed in the -poet’s time.</p> - -<p>In this sense of an aftermath of art, Mycenæan influence outlasted by -centuries the overthrow of Mycenæan power; and the fact is one to be -considered in establishing a chronology. We have taken as our lower -limit the catastrophe in which the old order at Mycenæ and elsewhere -obviously came to an end. But the old stock survived,—“scattered and -peeled” though it must have been,—and carried on, if it did not teach the -conqueror, their old arts. If we are to comprehend within the Mycenæan -Age all the centuries through which we can trace this Mycenæan influence, -then we shall bring that age down to the very dawn of historical Greece. -In this view it is no misnomer to speak of the Æginetan gold find recently -acquired by the British Museum as a Mycenæan treasure.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<img src="images/p056.jpg" width="400" height="150" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Acropolis of Mycenæ</span></p> -</div> - -<h4>THE PROBLEM OF THE MYCENÆAN RACE</h4> - -<p>We have seen that Mycenæan art was no exotic, transplanted full grown into -Greece, but rather a native growth—influenced though it was by the earlier -civilisations of the Cyclades and the East. This indigenous art, distinct and -homogeneous in character, no matter whence came its germs and rudiments, -must have been wrought out by a strong and gifted race. That it was of -Hellenic stock we have assumed to be self-evident. But, as this premise is -still in controversy, we have to inquire whether (aside from art) there are -other considerations which make against the Hellenic origin of the Mycenæan -peoples, and compel us to regard them as immigrants from the islands or the -Orient.</p> - -<p>In the first place, recalling the results of our discussion of domestic and -sepulchral architecture, we observe that neither in the Ægean nor in Syria -do we find the gable-roof which prevails at Mycenæ. Nor would the people -of these warm and dry climates have occasion to winter their herds in their -own huts—an ancestral custom to which we have traced the origin of the -avenues to the beehive tombs.</p> - -<p>Again, we have seen reason to refer the shaft-graves to a race or tribe -other than that whose original dwelling we have recognised in the sunken -hut. To this pit-burying stock we have assigned the upper-story habitations -at Mycenæ. If we are right, now, in explaining this type of dwelling as a -reminiscence of the pile-hut, it would follow that this stock, too, was of -northern origin. The lake-dwelling habit, we know, prevailed throughout -Northern Europe, an instance occurring, as we have seen, even in the Illyrian -peninsula; while we have no reason to look for its origin to the Orient or -the Ægean. It is indeed true that the island-folk were no strangers to the -pile-dwelling, but this rather goes to show that they were colonists from the -mainland.</p> - -<p>But, apart from the evidence of the upper-story abodes, are there other -indications of an element among the Mycenæan people which had once -actually dwelt in lakes or marshes?</p> - -<p>Monuments like the stone models from Melos and Amorgos have not -indeed been found in the Peloponnesus, or on the mainland, but in default of -such indirect testimony we have the immediate witness of actual settlements. -Of the four most famous cities of the age, Mycenæ, Tiryns, Orchomenos, and -Amyclæ, it is a singular fact that but one has a mountain-site, while the -other three were once surrounded by marshes. The rock on which Tiryns -is built, though it rises to a maximum elevation of some sixty feet above the -plain, yet sinks so low on the north that the lower citadel is only a few feet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> -above the level of the sea. Now this plain, as Aristotle asserts, and as the -nature of the ground still bears witness, was originally an extensive morass. -The founders, therefore, must have chosen this rock for their settlement, -not because it was a stronghold in itself, but because it was protected by -the swamp out of which it rose.</p> - -<p>What is true of Tiryns holds for Orchomenos as well. The original site -was down in the plain until the periodic inundations of the lake forced the -inhabitants to rebuild on the slopes of Mount Acontion; and Orchomenos was -not the only primitive settlement in this great marsh. Tradition tells us -also of Athenæ, Eleusis, Arne, Midea—cities which had long perished, and -were but dimly remembered in historic times. To one of these, or to some -other whose name has not come down to us, belong the remarkable remains on -the Island of Goulas or Gha, which is connected with the shore by an ancient -mole. During the Greek Revolution this island-fort was the refuge of the neighbouring -population who found greater security there than in the mountains.</p> - -<p>It is usually held that, when these Copaïc cities were founded, the region -was in the main drained and arable, whereas afterwards, the natural outlets -being choked up, the imprisoned waters flooded the plain, turned it into a -lake, and so overwhelmed the towns. But, obviously, this is reversing the -order of events. To have transformed the lake into a plain and kept it such -would have demanded the co-operation of populous communities in the construction -of costly embankments and perpetual vigilance in keeping them -intact. Where were such organised forces to be found at a time anterior to -the foundation of the cities themselves? Is it not more reasonable to -believe that the builders of these cities—instead of finding Copaïs an arable -plain, and failing to provide against its inundation—were induced by the -very fact of its being a lake to establish themselves in it upon natural -islands like the rock of Goulas, on artificial elevations, or even in pile-settlements? -It is possible, indeed, that on some unusual rise of the waters, towns -were submerged, but it is quite as probable that without any such catastrophe -the inhabitants finally abandoned these of their own accord to settle in -higher, healthier, and more convenient regions.</p> - -<p>The case of Amyclæ is no exception. The prehistoric as well as the -historic site is probably to be identified with that of the present village of -Mahmud Bey, some five miles south of Sparta. The ground is low and -wet, and in early times was undoubtedly a marsh.</p> - -<p>In the plain of Thessaly, again, we may trace the same early order. -There, where tradition (backed by the conclusions of modern science) tells -us that the inflowing waters used to form stagnant lakes, we find low artificial -mounds strewn with primitive potsherds. On these mounds, Lolling -holds, the people pitched their settlements to secure them against overflow.</p> - -<p>The choice of these marshy or insulated sites is all the more singular -from the environment. Around Lake Copaïs, about Tiryns and Amyclæ, -as well as in Thessaly, rise mountains which are nature’s own fastnesses and -which would seem to invite primitive man to their shelter. The preference -for these lowland or island settlements then, can only be explained in the -first instance by immemorial custom, and, secondly, by consequent inexperience -in military architecture. Naturally, a lake-dwelling people will be -backward in learning to build stone walls strong enough to keep off a hostile -force. And in default of such skill, instead of settling on the mountain -slopes, they would in their migrations choose sites affording the best natural -fortifications akin to their ancient environment of marsh or lake—reinforcing -this on occasion by a moat, an embankment, or a pile-platform.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p> - -<p>That the people in question once actually followed this way of living is -beyond a doubt. Amyclæ shows no trace of wall, and probably never had -any beyond a mere earthwork. The Cyclopean wall of Tiryns, as it now -stands, does not belong to the earliest settlement, nor is it of uniform date. -Adler holds that the first fortress must have been built of wood and sun-dried -bricks. This construction may possibly account for those remarkable -galleries whose origin and function are not yet altogether clear. The mere -utility of the chambers for storage—a purpose they did unquestionably -serve—hardly answers to the enormous outlay involved in contriving them. -May we not, then, recognise in them a reminiscence of the primitive palisade-earthwork? -In the so-called Lower Citadel of Tiryns we find no such -passages, possibly because its Cyclopean wall was built at a later date. -Likewise no proper galleries have yet been found at Mycenæ, and it is -highly improbable that any such ever existed there. What had long been -taken for a gallery in the north wall proves to be nothing but a little chamber -measuring less than seven by twelve feet. Obviously, then, the gallery -was not an established thing in fortress-architecture, and this fact shows -that it did not originate with the builders of stone walls, but came to them -as a heritage from earlier times and a more primitive art.</p> - -<p>In fact, we find in the <i>terramare</i> of Italy palisade and earthwork fortifications -so constructed that they may be regarded as a first stage in the development -which culminates in the Tiryns galleries. The construction of -the wall at Casione near Parma is thus described:<a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> “Piles arranged in two -parallel rows are driven in the ground with an inward slant so as to meet at -the top, and this Δ-shaped gallery is then covered with earth. Along the -inside of this embankment is carried a continuous series of square pens, built -of beams laid one upon another, filled with earth and brushwood, and finally -covered with a close-packed layer of sand and pebbles. This arrangement -not only strengthens the wall but provides a level platform for its defenders.” -Thus the space between these palisades would closely resemble the “arched” -corridors of Tiryns, while the square pens (if covered over without being -filled up) would correspond to the chambers.</p> - -<p>These facts strengthen the inferences to which we have been led by our -study of the stone models and the upper-story dwellings. And they point -to the region beyond Mount Olympus as the earlier seat of this lake-dwelling -contingent of the Mycenæan people as well as of their kinsmen of the earth-huts. -And we have other evidence that the Mycenæan cities, at least the -four of chief importance, were founded by a people who were not dependent -on the sea and in whose life the pursuits of the sea were originally of little -moment. Mycenæ and Orchomenos are at a considerable remove from the -coast, while Amyclæ is a whole day’s journey from the nearest salt-water. -Tiryns alone lies close to the sea-board; and, indeed, the waves of the Argolic -Gulf must have washed yet nearer when its walls were reared. But, -obviously, it was not the nearness of the sea that drew the founders to this -low rock. For it is a harbourless shore that neighbours it, while a little -farther down lies the secure haven of Nauplia guarded by the impregnable -height of Palamedes; and it is yet to be explained why the Tirynthians, if -they were a sea-faring people, did not build their city there. Again, the -principal entrance to Tiryns is not on the side towards the sea, but on the -east or landward side. This goes to show that even when the Cyclopean -wall was built, certainly long after the first settlement, the people must have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> -been still devoted mainly to tilling the soil and tending flocks, occupations -to which the fertile plain and marshy feeding grounds would invite them. -So in historic times, also, the town appears to have lain to the east of the -citadel, not between it and the sea.</p> - -<p>Even if it be granted that these Mycenæan cities were settled by immigrants -who came by sea, it does not follow that they were originally a sea-faring -folk. The primitive Dorians were hardly a maritime people, yet Grote has -shown that their conquest of the Peloponnesus was in part effected by means -of a fleet which launched from the Malian Gulf; and their kinsmen, who -settled in Melos, Thera, and Crete, in all probability, sailed straight from the -same northern port.</p> - -<p>The Minyæ, who founded Orchomenos, Curtius regards as pre-eminently -a seafaring race; and he seeks to account for their inland settlement by assuming -that they were quick to realise the wealth to be won by draining and -tilling the swamp. But this is hardly tenable. Whatever our estimate of -Minyan shrewdness, they must have had their experience in reclaiming -swamp land yet to acquire and on this ground. It was the outcome of age-long -effort in winning new fields from the waters and guarding them when -won. The region invited settlement because it offered the kind of security -to which they were wonted; the winning of wealth was not the motive but -the fortunate result.</p> - -<p>Again, if the Mycenæans had been from the outset a maritime race we -should expect to find the ship figuring freely in their art-representations. -But this is far from being the case. We have, at last, one apparent instance -of the kind on a terra-cotta fragment found in the acropolis at Mycenæ in -1892. On this we seem to have a boat, with oars and rudder, and curved -fore and aft like the Homeric νῆες ἀμφιέλισσαι. Below appear what we may -take to be dolphins. But this unique example can hardly establish the maritime -character of the Mycenæans.</p> - -<p>Along with this unfamiliarity with ships, we have to remark also their -abstinence from fish. In the remains of Tiryns and Mycenæ we have found -neither a fish-hook nor a fish-bone, though we do find oysters and other -shellfish such as no doubt could be had in abundance along the adjacent -shores. In the primitive remains of the Italian <i>terramare</i> there is the -same absence of anything that would suggest fishing or fish-eating; and, -indeed, linguistic evidence confirms these observations. Greek and Latin -have no common term for fish; and we may fairly conclude that the Græco-Italic -stock before the separation were neither fishermen or fish-eaters. That -they were slow to acquire a taste for fish, even after the separation, is attested -not only by the negative evidence of their remains in the Argolid and on the -Po but by the curious reticence of Homer. His heroes never go fishing but -once and then only in the last pinch of famine—“when the bread was all -spent from out the ship and hunger gnawed at their belly.”</p> - -<p>Now that we find in Greece, five or six centuries earlier than the poems, -a people in all probability hailing from the same region whence came the -ancestors of the Homeric Greeks, with the same ignorance of, or contempt -for, a fish diet, and building their huts on piles like the primitive Italians -whose earthworks further appear to have set the copy for the Tirynthian -galleries—can we doubt that this people sprung from the same root with -the historic Greeks and their kinsmen of Italy? The conclusion appears so -natural and so logical, that it must require very serious and solid objections -to shake it. But, instead of that, our study of Mycenæan manners and institutions—both -civil and religious—affords strong confirmation. In the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> -matter of dress we find the historical Greeks the heirs of the Mycenæans, -and the armour of the Homeric heroes—when we get behind the epic glamour -of it—differs little from what we know in the Mycenæan monuments.</p> - -<p>While our knowledge of Mycenæan religion is vague at the best, and we -must recognise in the dove-idols and dove-temples the insignia of an imported -Aphrodite-cult, we have beyond a reasonable doubt also to recognise a genuine -Hellenic divinity with her historical attributes clearly foreshadowed in -Artemis. Again, while the Homeric Greeks themselves are not presented to -us as worshippers of the dead after the custom avouched by the altar-pits of -Mycenæ and Tiryns, we do find in the poems an echo at least of this cult, -and among the later Hellenes it resumes the power of a living belief. So, -though Homer seems to know cremation only, and this has been taken -for full proof that the Mycenæans were not Greeks, the traces of embalming -in the poems clearly point to an earlier custom of simple burial as we find it -uniformly attested by the Mycenæan tombs. And, here, again, historical -Greece reverts to the earlier way. In Greece proper, at least in Attica, the -dead were not burned,—not even in the age of the Dipylon vases,—and yet -the Athenians of that day were Greeks. So, among the earlier Italians, burial -was the only mode of dealing with the dead, and the usage was so rooted in -their habits that even after cremation was introduced some member of the -body (<i>e.g.</i>, a finger) was always cut off and buried intact. We need not -repeat what we have elsewhere said of the funeral banquet, the immolation -of victims, the burning of raiment—all bearing on the same conclusion and -cumulating the evidence that the Greeks of Homer, and so of the historic age, -are the lineal heirs of Mycenæan culture.</p> - -<p>If the proof of descent on these lines is strong, it is strengthened yet -more by all we can make out regarding the political and social organisation. -That monarchy was the Mycenæan form of government is sufficiently attested -by the strong castles, each taken up in large part by a single princely -mansion. But “the rule of one man” is too universal in early times to be -a criterion of race. Far more significant is the evidence we have for a -clan-system such as we afterwards find in full bloom among the Hellenes.</p> - -<p>The clan, as we know it in historic times, and especially in Attica, was -a factor of prime importance in civil, social, and religious life. It was composed -of families which claim to be, and for the most part actually were, -descended from a common ancestor. These originally lived together in -clan-villages—of which we have clear reminiscences in the clan-names of -certain Attic demes, as Boutadai, Perithoidai, Skanbonidai. Not only did -the clan form a village by itself, but it held and cultivated its land in common. -It built the clan-village on the clan-estate; and as the clansmen -dwelt together in life, so in death they were not divided. Each clan had -its burial-place in its own little territory, and there at the tomb it kept up -the worship of its dead, and especially of its hero-founder.</p> - -<p>That the Mycenæans lived under a like clan-system, the excavation of -the tombs of the lower town has shown conclusively. The town was composed -of villages more or less removed from one another, each the seat of -a clan. We have no means of determining whether the land was held and -tilled in common, but we do know that by each village lay the common clan-cemetery—a -group of eight, ten, or more tombs, obviously answering to -the number of families or branches of the clan. In the construction of the -tombs, and in the offerings contained, we note at once differences between -different cemeteries and uniformity in the tombs of the same group. The -richest cemeteries lie nearer the acropolis, as the stronger clans would naturally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> -dwell nearer the king. Thus, for its population, Mycenæ covered a -large area, but its limits were not sharply defined, and the transition from -the citadel centre to the open country was not abrupt. The villages were -linked together by graveyards, gardens and fields, highways and squares; -thus the open settlement was indeed a πόλις εὐρυάγυια—a town of broad -ways.</p> - -<p>Somewhat such must have been the aspect in primitive days of Sparta -and Athens, not to mention many other famous cities. Indeed, even in -historic times, as we know from the ruins, Sparta was still made up of detached -villages spread over a large territory for so small a population. So, -primitive Athens was composed of the central settlement on the Acropolis, -with the villages encircling it from Pnyx to Lycabettus and back again. -When the city was subsequently walled in, some of these villages were included -in the circuit, others were left outside, while still others (as the Ceramicus) -were cut in two by the wall. The same thing happened at Mycenæ; -the town wall was built simply because the fortress was an insufficient shelter -for the populace as times grew threatening; but it could not, and did -not, take in all the villages.</p> - -<p>Such, briefly, is the objective evidence—the palpable facts—pointing -to a race connection between the Mycenæans and the Greeks of history. We -have, finally, to consider the testimony of the Homeric poems. Homer -avowedly sings of heroes and peoples who had flourished in Greece long before -his own day. Now it may be denied that these represent the civilisation -known to us as Mycenæan; but it is certainly a marvellous coincidence -(as Schuchhardt<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_2h" id="enanchor_2h"></a><a href="#endnote_2h">h</a></span> observes) that “excavations invariably confirm the former -power and splendour of every city which is mentioned by Homer as conspicuous -for its wealth or sovereignty.”</p> - -<p>Of all the cities of Hellas, it is the now established centres of Mycenæan -culture which the poet knows best and characterises with the surest hand. -Mycenæ “rich in gold” is Agamemnon’s seat, and Agamemnon is lord of -all Argos and many isles, and leader of the host at Troy. In Laconia, in -the immediate neighbourhood of the tomb which has given us the famous -Vaphio cups, is the royal seat of Menelaus, which is likened to the court of -Olympian Zeus. Bœotian Orchomenos, whose wealth still speaks for itself -in the Treasury of Minyas, is taken by the poet as a twin type of affluence -with Egyptian Thebes, “where the treasure-houses are stored fullest.” -Assuredly, no one can regard all this and many another true touch as mere -coincidence. The poet knows whereof he affirms. He has exact knowledge -of the greatness and bloom of certain peoples and cities at an epoch long -anterior to his own, with which the poems have to do. And there is not -one hint in either poem that these races and heroes were not of the poet’s -own kin.</p> - -<p>It might be assumed that there had once ruled in those cities an alien -people, and that the monuments of Mycenæan culture were their legacy to -us, but that the Achæans who came after them have entered into the inheritance -of their fame. Such usurpations there have been in history; but -the hypothesis is out of the question here. At Mycenæ, where exploration -has been unusually thorough, the genuine Mycenæan Age is seen to have -come to a sharp and sudden end—a catastrophe so overwhelming that we -cannot conceive of any lingering bloom. Had the place passed to a people -worthy to succeed to the glory of the race who reared its mighty walls and -vaulted tombs, then we should look for remains of a different but not a contemptible -civilisation. But, in fact, we find built directly on the ruins of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> -the Mycenæan palace mean and shabby huts which tell us how the once -golden city was succeeded by a paltry village. Centuries were to pass -before the Doric temple rose on the accumulated ruins of palace and hovels, -and generations more before the brave little remnant returned with the laurels -of Platæa and enough of the spoil (we may conjecture) to put the walls of -the Atreidæ in repair.</p> - -<p>If the structures peculiar to the Mycenæan age are the work of foreigners, -what have we left for Agamemnon and his Achæans? Simply the hovels. -Of the Dipylon pottery, with which it is proposed to endow them, there is -none worth mentioning at Mycenæ, very little at Tiryns, hardly a trace at -Amyclæ, or Orchomenos. In the Mycenæan acropolis, particularly, very -few fragments of this pottery have been found, and that mainly in the huts -already mentioned. Can these be the sole traces of the power and pride of -the Atreidæ?</p> - -<p>For us at least the larger problem of nationality is solved; but there is -a further question. Can we determine the race or races among the Greeks -known to history to whom the achievements of Mycenæan civilisation are to -be ascribed? In this inquiry we may set aside the Dorians, although many -scholars (especially among the Germans) still claim for them the marvellous -remains of the Argolid. The Homeric poems, they say, describe a state of -things subsequent to the Dorian migration into the Peloponnesus and consequent -upon the revolution thereby effected. As the Dorians themselves -hold sway at Mycenæ and Sparta, they must be the subjects of the poet’s -song—the stately fabric of Mycenæan culture must be the work of their -hands.</p> - -<p>On the other hand, Beloch,<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_2i" id="enanchor_2i"></a><a href="#endnote_2i">i</a></span> while accepting the Dorian theory of this -civilisation, dismisses the traditional Dorian migration as a myth, and maintains -that Dorian settlement in the Peloponnesus was as immemorial as the -Arcadian. Just as the original advent of the Arcadians in the district which -bears their name had faded out of memory and left no trace of a tradition, -so the actual migration of the Dorians belonged to an immemorial past.</p> - -<p>The first of these views which attributes the Mycenæan culture to the -Dorians of the traditional migration, cannot stand the test of chronology. -For tradition refers that migration to the end of the twelfth century <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, -whereas the Mycenæan people were established in the Argolid before the -sixteenth, probably even before the twentieth century. While Beloch’s -hypothesis is not beset with this chronological difficulty, it is otherwise -quite untenable. For, as the excavations at Tiryns and Mycenæ abundantly -prove, the Mycenæan civilisation perished in a great catastrophe. The palaces -of both were destroyed by fire after being so thoroughly pillaged that -scarcely a single bit of metal was left in the ruins. Further, they were -never rebuilt; and the sumptuous halls of Mycenæ were succeeded by the -shabby hovels of which we have spoken. The larger domes at Mycenæ, -whose sites were known, were likewise plundered—in all probability by -the same hands that fired the palace. This is evidenced by the pottery -found in the hovels and before the doorways of two of the beehive tombs. -A similar catastrophe appears to have cut short the career of this civilisation -in the other centres where it had flourished.</p> - -<p>How are we to account for this sudden and final overthrow otherwise -than by assuming a great historic crisis, which left these mighty cities with -their magnificent palaces only heaps of smoking ruins? And what other -crisis can this have been than the irruption of the Dorians? And their -descent into the Peloponnesus is traditionally dated at the very time which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> -other considerations have led us to fix as the lower limit of the Mycenæan -Age. Had that migration never been recorded by the ancients nor attested -by the state of the Peloponnesus in historic times, we should still be led to -infer it from the facts now put in evidence by the archæologist’s spade.</p> - -<p>Setting aside the Dorian claim as preposterous, we have nothing to do -but follow the epic tradition. The Homeric poems consistently assume that -prior to any Dorian occupation -Argolis was inhabited by other -peoples, and notably by Achæans -whose position is so commanding -that the whole body of Greeks -before Troy usually go by their -name. Their capital is Mycenæ, -and their monarch Agamemnon, -King of Men; although we find -them also in Laconia under the -rule of Menelaus. But the poet -has other names, hardly less famous, -applied now to the people -of Argolis and now to the Greeks -at large. One of these names -(Ἀργεῖοι) is purely geographical, -whether it be restricted to the -narrow Argolid district or extended -to the wider Argos, and -has no special ethnological significance. -But the other (Δαναοί) -belonged to a people distinct from -and, according to uniform tradition, -more ancient than the Achæans. -We find, then, two races in -Argolis before the Dorian migration, -each famous in song and story, -and each so powerful that its name -may stand for all the inhabitants -of Greece. The Achæans occupy -Mycenæ, that is to say, the northern -mountain region of the district, while legend represents the Danaans as -inseparably connected with Argos and the sea-board, and ascribes to them -certain works of irrigation.</p> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 300px;"> -<img src="images/p063.jpg" width="300" height="475" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Gallery in the Wall around the Citadel of -Tiryns</span></p> -</div> - -<p>Whatever interpretation be put upon the myth, it seems clear that Argos -could not feed its great cities without artificial irrigation, and this it owed -to Danaus and his fifty daughters, “who were condemned perpetually to pour -water in a tub full of holes,”—that is to say, into irrigation ditches which -the thirsty soil kept draining dry.</p> - -<p>Now our study of the Mycenæan remains has already constrained us to -distinguish in the Argolid two strata of Mycenæan peoples, one of them -originally dwelling on dry land in sunken huts, the other occupying pile -settlements in lakes and swamps. And since tradition squares so remarkably -with the facts in evidence, may we not venture to identify the marsh-folk -with the Danaans and the landsmen with the Achæans?</p> - -<p>But Achæans and Dorians were not alone in shaping and sharing Mycenæan culture; -they had their congeners in other regions. Foremost among<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> -these were the Minyan founders of Orchomenos. As lake-dwellers and -hydraulic engineers they are assimilated to the Danaans, whose near kinsmen -they may have been, as the primitive islanders, whose abode we have -found copied in the stone vases, must have been related to them both. Tradition -has, in fact, preserved an account of the colonisation of Thera by a -people coming from Bœotia, although it is uncertain whether it refers to the -original occupation or to a settlement subsequent to the great catastrophe.</p> - -<p>From the Danao-Minyan stock, it would appear that the Achæans parted -company at an early date and continuing for a time in a different—most -probably a mountainous—country, there took on ways of living proper to -such environment. Later than the Danaans, according to the consistent -testimony of tradition, they came down into the Peloponnesus and by their -superior vigour and prowess prevailed over the older stock.</p> - -<p>To these two branches of the race we may refer the two classes of -tombs. The beehive and chamber tombs, as we have seen, have their prototype -in the sunken huts: they belong to the Achæans coming down from -the colder north. The shaft-graves are proper to the Danaan marsh-men. -At Tiryns we find a shaft-grave, but no beehive or chamber tomb. At -Orchomenos the Treasury of Minyas stands alone in its kind against at least -eight <i>tholoi</i> and sixty chamber-tombs at Mycenæ. Hence, wherever this -type of tombs abounds we may infer that an Achæan stock had its seat, as -at Pronoia, in Attica, Thessaly, and Crete. Against this it may be urged -that precisely at the Achæan capital, and within its acropolis at that, we find -the famous group of shaft-graves with their precious offerings, as well as -humbler graves of the same type outside the circle. But this, in fact, confirms -our view when we remember it was the Danaid Perseus who founded -Mycenæ and that his posterity bore rule there until the sceptre passed to -Achæan hands in the persons of the Pelopidæ.<a name="FNanchor_5" id="FNanchor_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> We have noted the close -correspondence of the original fortress at Mycenæ with that of Tiryns, and -its subsequent enlargement. Coincident with this extension of the citadel, -the new type of tomb makes its appearance in the great domes,—some of -them certainly royal sepulchres,—although the grave-circle of the acropolis -is but half occupied. That circle, however, ceases thenceforth to be used as -a place of burial, while the humbler graves adjacent to it are abandoned and -built over with dwellings. With the new type of tomb we note changes of -burial customs, not to be accounted for on chronological grounds: in the -beehive tombs the dead are never embalmed, nor do they wear masks, nor -are they laid on pebble beds—a practice which may have owed its origin to -the wet ground about Tiryns.</p> - -<p>There is but one theory on which these facts can be fully explained. It -is that of a change in the ruling race and dynasty, and it clears up the whole -history of Mycenæ and the Argive Plain. The first Greek settlers occupied -the marshy sea-board, where they established themselves at Tiryns and other -points; later on, when they had learned to rear impregnable walls, many of -them migrated to the mountains which dominated the plain and thus were -founded the strongholds of Larissa, Midea, and Mycenæ.</p> - -<p>But while the Danaans were thus making their slow march to the north -the Achæans were advancing southward from Corinth—a base of great -importance to them then and always, as we may infer from the network of -Cyclopean highways between it and their new centre. At Mycenæ, already<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> -a strong Perseid outpost, the two columns meet—when, we cannot say. -But about 1500 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, or a little later, the Achæans had made themselves -masters of the place and imposed upon it their own kings.</p> - -<p>We have no tradition of any struggle in connection with this dynastic -revolution, and it appears probable that the Achæans did not expel the older -stock. On the contrary, they scrupulously respected the tombs of the -Danaid dynasty—it may be, because they felt the claim of kindred blood. -In manners and culture there could have been but little difference between -them, for the Achæans had already entered the strong current of Mycenæan -civilisation.</p> - -<p>Indeed, we discern a reciprocal influence of the two peoples. Within -certain of the Achæan tombs (as we may now term the beehives and rock -chambers) we find separate shaft-graves, obviously recalling the Danaid -mode of burial. On the other hand, it would appear that the typical -Achæan tomb was adopted by the ruling classes among other Mycenæan -peoples. Otherwise we cannot explain the existence of isolated tombs of -this kind as at Amyclæ (Vaphio), Orchomenos, and Menidi—obviously the -sepulchres of regal or opulent families; while the common people of these -places—of non-Achæan stock—buried their dead in the ordinary oblong -pits.</p> - -<p>Achæan ascendency is so marked that the Achæan name prevails even -where that stock forms but an inconsiderable element of the population. -Notably this is true of Laconia, where the rare occurrence of the beehive -tomb goes to show that the pre-Dorian inhabitants were mostly descended -from the older stock, which we have encountered at Tiryns and at Orchomenos.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_2d" id="enanchor_2d"></a><a href="#endnote_2d">d</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> [Reprinted, by permission of the publishers, from the article “Mycenæan Civilisation,” -by D. G. Hogarth, in the New Volumes of the <i>Encyclopædia Britannica</i>. Copyright, 1902, by -The Encyclopædia Britannica Company.]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Helbig,<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_2f" id="enanchor_2f"></a><a href="#endnote_2f">f</a></span> <i>Die Italiker in der Pœbene</i>, p. 11; cf. Pigorini<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_2g" id="enanchor_2g"></a><a href="#endnote_2g">g</a></span> in <i>Atti dell’ Accad. dei Lincei</i>, -viii. 265 ff.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> This is not gainsaying the Phrygian extraction of the Pelopid line. “The true Phrygians -were closely akin to the Greeks, quite as closely akin as the later Macedonians. We may fairly -class the Pelopidæ as Achæan.” (Percy Gardner,<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_2e" id="enanchor_2e"></a><a href="#endnote_2e">e</a></span> <i>New Chapters of Greek History</i>, p. 84.)</p> - -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-2.jpg" width="400" height="339" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Restoration of a Mycenæan Palace</span></p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-3.jpg" width="500" height="173" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_III_THE_HEROIC_AGE">CHAPTER III. THE HEROIC AGE</h3> - -<div class="sidenote">[<i>ca.</i> 1400-1200 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>In thinking of the mythical period with its citations of fables about gods -and goddesses galore and heroes unnumbered, one is apt to become the victim -of a mental mirage. One can hardly escape imagining the period in question -thus veiled in mystery and peopled with half mythical and altogether mystical -figures as really having been a time when men and women lived an idyllic -life. As one contemplates the period he intuitively falls into a day-dream -in which there dance before him light-robed artistic figures moving in arcadian -bowers, tenanted by nymphs and satyrs and centaurs. But when one -awakes to a practical view he recognises of course that all this is an illusion. -Reason tells him that this was a mythical age, simply because the people -were not sufficiently civilised to make permanent historical records. They -were half barbarians, living as pastoral peoples everywhere live, striving -for food against wild beasts, protecting their herds, cultivating the soil, fighting -their enemies. And yet, in a sense, their life was idyllic. Heroic elements -were not altogether lacking; the men were trained athletes, whose -developed muscles were a joy to look upon, and no doubt the women, despite -a certain coarseness, shared something of that figure. Then the people themselves -believed in the gods and nymphs and satyrs and centaurs of which -we dream, and so in a sense their world was peopled with them: in a sense -they did dwell in Arcady. Still one cannot disguise the fact that it was an -Arcady which no modern, placed under similar restrictions, would care to -enter.</p> - -<p>In that early day writing was an unknown art in Hellas, and so the people -as they emerged from their time of semi-civilisation brought with them no -specific tangible records of the life of that period, but only fables and traditions -to take the place of sober historical records. To the people themselves -these fables and traditions bore, for a long time at any rate, a stamp of veritable -truth. Even the most extravagant of their narratives of gods and -godlike heroes were believed as implicitly, no doubt, by the major part of the -people even at a comparatively late historical period, as we to-day believe the -stories of an Alexander, a Cæsar, or a Napoleon. As time went on these -fables became even more intimately fixed in the minds of the people through -becoming embalmed in the verses of the poet and the lines of the tragedian. -Here and there, to be sure, there was a man who questioned the authenticity -of these tales as recitals of fact, but we may well believe that the generality -of people, even of the most cultured class, preferred throughout the entire -period of antiquity to accept the myths at their face value. Not only so, -but for many generations later, throughout the period sometimes spoken of -as the “Age of Faith” of the western world, a somewhat similar estimate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> -was put upon the Greek myths as recited by the classical authors. Even -after the growth of scepticism and the development of the scientific spirit -rendered the acceptance of the myths as recitals of fact impossible, for a long -time it seemed little less than a sacrilege to think of severing them altogether -from the realm of fact.</p> - -<h4>THE VALUE OF THE MYTHS</h4> - -<p>That, considered as historical narratives, they had been elaborated and -their bald facts distorted by the creative imagination of a marvellous people, -was clearly evident. No one, for example, in recent days would be expected -to believe that the hero Achilles had been plunged into the river Styx by his -mother and rendered thereby invulnerable except as to the heel by which he -was held. But to doubt that the hero Achilles lived and accomplished such -feats as were narrated in the <i>Iliad</i> would seem almost a blow at the existence -of the most fascinating people of antiquity. There came a time, however, -in comparatively recent generations when scepticism no longer hesitated to -invade the ranks of the most time-honoured and best-beloved traditions, and -when a warfare of words began between a set of critics, who would wipe the -whole mass of Greek myths from the pages of history, and the champions of -those myths who were but little disposed to give them up. Thus scepticism -found an obvious measure of support in the clear fact that the mythical narratives -could not possibly be received as authentic in their entirety. Further -support was given to the sceptical party a little later by the study of comparative -mythology, which showed to the surprise of many scholars that the -Greek myths were by no means so unique in their character as had been supposed. -It was shown that in the main they are closely paralleled by myths -of other nations, and a theory was developed and advocated with much plausibility -that they had been developed out of a superstitious regard of the sun -and moon and elements, that most of them were, in short, what came to be -called solar myths, and that they had no association whatever with the deeds -of human historic personages.</p> - -<p>Looking at the subject in the broadest way it, perhaps, does not greatly -matter which view, as to the status of myths, is the true one. After all, the -main purport of history in all its phases has value, not for what it tells us of -the deeds of individual men or the conflicts of individual nations, but for -what it can reveal of the process of the evolution of civilisation. Weighed -by this standard, the beautiful myths of the Greeks are of value chiefly as -revealing to us the essential status of the Greek mind in the early historical -period, and the stage of evolution of that mind.</p> - -<p>The beautiful myths of Greece cannot and must not be given up, and -fortunately they need not. The view which Grote and the host of his -followers maintained, practically solves the problem for the historian. He -may retain the legend and gain from it the fullest measure of imaginative -satisfaction; he may draw from it inferences of the greatest value as to the -mental status of the Greek people at the time when the legends were crystallised -into their final form; he may even believe that, in the main, the legends -have been built upon a substructure of historical fact, and he may leave to -specialists the controversy as to the exact relations which this substructure -bears to the finished whole, content to accept the decision of the greatest -critical historians of Greece that this question is insoluble.</p> - -<p>From the period of myth pure and simple when the gods and goddesses -themselves roved the earth achieving miracles, taking various shapes, slaying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> -pythons, titans, and other monsters, and exercising their amorous fancies -among the men and women of earth—from this period we come to the -semi-historical time of the activity of the demi-gods and the men who, -superior to the ordinary clay, were called Heroes.</p> - -<p>The term “Heroic Age” has passed into general use with the historian as -applying to the period of Grecian history immediately preceding and including -the Trojan wars. As there are very few reliable documents at hand relating -to this period—there were none at all until recently—it is clear that -this age is in reality only the latter part of that mythical period to which we -have just referred. Recent historians tend to treat it much more sceptically -than did the historians of an earlier epoch; some are even disposed practically -to ignore it. But the term has passed far too generally into use to be altogether -abandoned; and, indeed, it is not desirable that it should be quite -given up, for, however vague the details of the history it connotes, it is after -all the shadowy record of a real epoch of history. We shall, perhaps, do best, -therefore, to view it through the eyes of a distinguished historian of an earlier -generation, remembering only that what is here narrated is still only half -history—that is to say, history only half emerged from the realm of legend.<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span></p> - -<p>The real limits of this period cannot be exactly defined; but still, so far -as its traditions admit of anything like a chronological connection, its duration -may be estimated at six generations, or about two hundred years.<a name="FNanchor_6" id="FNanchor_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> The -history of the heroic age is the history of the most celebrated persons belonging -to this class, who, in the language of poetry, are called heroes. The -term “hero” is of doubtful origin, though it was clearly a title of honour; -but in the poems of Homer, it is applied not only to the chiefs, but also to -their followers. In later times its use was narrowed, and in some degree -altered; it was restricted to persons, whether of the Heroic or of after ages, -who were believed to be endowed with a superhuman, though not a divine, -nature, and who were honoured with sacred rites, and were imagined to -have the power of dispensing good or evil to their worshippers; and it was -gradually combined with the notion of prodigious strength and gigantic -stature. Here however we have only to do with the heroes as men. The -history of their age is filled with their wars, expeditions, and adventures; -and this is the great mine from which the materials of the Greek poetry -were almost entirely drawn. But the richer a period is in poetical materials, -the more difficult it usually is to extract from it any that are fit for -the use of the historian; and this is especially true in the present instance. -We must content ourselves with touching on some which appear most -worthy of notice, either from their celebrity, or for the light they throw on -the general character of the period, or their connection, real or supposed, -with subsequent historical events.</p> - -<h4>THE EXPLOITS OF PERSEUS</h4> - -<p>We must pass very hastily over the exploits of Bellerophon and Perseus, -and we mention them only for the sake of one remark. The scene of their -principal adventures is laid out of Greece, in the East. The former, whose -father Glaucus is the son of Sisyphus, having chanced to stain his hands with -the blood of a kinsman, flies to Argos, where he excites the jealousy of Prœtus, -and is sent by him to Lycia, the country where Prœtus himself had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> -hospitably entertained in his exile. It is in the adjacent regions of Asia -that the Corinthian hero proves his valour by vanquishing ferocious tribes -and terrible monsters. Perseus too has been sent over the sea by his grandfather -Acrisius, and his achievements follow the same direction, but take a -wider range; he is carried along the coasts of Syria to Egypt, where Herodotus -heard of him from the priests, and into the unknown lands of the -South. There can be no doubt that these fables owed many of their leading -features to the Argive colonies which were planted at a later period in -Rhodes, and on the southwest coast of Asia. But still it is not improbable -that the connection implied by them between Argolis and the nearest parts -of Asia may not be wholly without foundation. We proceed however to a -much more celebrated name, on which we must dwell a little longer—that of -Hercules.</p> - -<h4>THE LABOURS OF HERCULES</h4> - -<p>It has been a subject of long dispute, whether Hercules was a real or a -purely fictitious personage; but it seems clear that the question, according -to the sense in which it is understood, may admit of two contrary answers, -both equally true. When we survey the whole mass of the actions ascribed -to him, we find that they fall under two classes. The one carries us back -into the infancy of society, when it is engaged in its first struggles with -nature for existence and security: we see him cleaving rocks, turning the -course of rivers, opening or stopping the subterraneous outlets of lakes, clearing -the earth of noxious animals, and, in a word, by his single arm effecting -works which properly belong to the united labours of a young community. -The other class exhibits a state of things comparatively settled and mature, -when the first victory has been gained, and the contest is now between one -tribe and another, for possession or dominion; we see him maintaining the -cause of the weak against the strong, of the innocent against the oppressor, -punishing wrong, and robbery, and sacrilege, subduing tyrants, exterminating -his enemies, and bestowing kingdoms on his friends. It would be futile -to inquire, who the person was to whom deeds of the former kind were -attributed; but it is an interesting question, whether the first conception of -such a being was formed in the mind of the Greeks by their own unassisted -imagination, or was suggested to them by a different people.</p> - -<p>It is sufficient to throw a single glance at the fabulous adventures called -the “labours” of Hercules, to be convinced that a part of them at least belongs -to the Phœnicians, and their wandering god, in whose honour they built -temples in all their principal settlements along the coast of the Mediterranean. -To him must be attributed all the journeys of Hercules round the -shores of western Europe, which did not become known to the Greeks for -many centuries after they had been explored by the Phœnician navigators. -The number to which those labours are confined by the legend, is evidently -an astronomical period, and thus itself points to the course of the sun which -the Phœnician god represented. The event which closes the career of the -Greek hero, who rises to immortality from the flames of the pile on which he -lays himself, is a prominent feature in the same Eastern mythology, and may -therefore be safely considered as borrowed from it. All these tales may -indeed be regarded as additions made at a late period to the Greek legend, -after it had sprung up independently at home. But it is at least a remarkable -coincidence, that the birth of Hercules is assigned to the city of -Cadmus; and the great works ascribed to him, so far as they were really<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> -accomplished by human labour, may seem to correspond better with the art -and industry of the Phœnicians, than with the skill and power of a less civilised -race. But in whatever way the origin of the name and idea of Hercules -may be explained, he appears, without any ambiguity, as a Greek hero; and -here it may reasonably be asked, whether all or any part of the adventures -they describe, really happened to a single person, who either properly bore -the name of Hercules, or received it as a title of honour.</p> - -<p>We must briefly mention the manner in which these adventures are linked -together in the common story. Amphitryon, the reputed father of Hercules, -was the son of Alcæus, who is named first among the children born to Perseus -at Mycenæ. The hero’s mother, Alcmene, was the daughter of Electryon, -another son of Perseus, who had succeeded to the kingdom. In his reign, the -Taphians, a piratical people who inhabited the islands called Echinades, near -the mouth of the Achelous, landed in Argolis, and carried off the king’s herds. -While Electryon was preparing to avenge himself by invading their land, -after he had committed his kingdom and his daughter to the charge of -Amphitryon, a chance like that which caused the death of Acrisius stained -the hands of the nephew with his uncle’s blood. Sthenelus, a third son of -Perseus, laid hold of this pretext to force Amphitryon and Alcmene to quit -the country, and they took refuge in Thebes: thus it happened that Hercules, -though an Argive by descent, and, by his mortal parentage, legitimate heir -to the throne of Mycenæ, was, as to his birthplace, a Theban. Hence Bœotia -is the scene of his youthful exploits: bred up among the herdsmen of -Cithæron, like Cyrus and Romulus, he delivers Thespiæ from the lion which -made havoc among its cattle. He then frees Thebes from the yoke of its -more powerful neighbour, Orchomenos: and here we find something which -has more the look of a historical tradition, though it is no less poetical in its -form. The king of Orchomenos had been killed, in the sanctuary of Poseidon -at Onchestus, by a Theban. His successor, Erginus, imposes a tribute on -Thebes; but Hercules mutilates his heralds when they come to exact it, and -then marching against Orchomenos, slays Erginus, and forces the Minyans to -pay twice the tribute which they had hitherto received. According to a -Theban legend, it was on this occasion that he stopped the subterraneous -outlet of the Cephisus, and thus formed the lake which covered the greater -part of the plain of Orchomenos. In the meanwhile Sthenelus had been -succeeded by his son Eurystheus, the destined enemy of Hercules and his -race, at whose command the hero undertakes his labours. This voluntary -subjection of the rightful prince to the weak and timid usurper is represented -as an expiation, ordained by the Delphic oracle, for a fit of frenzy, in which -Hercules had destroyed his wife and children.</p> - -<p>This, as a poetical or religious fiction, is very happily conceived; but -when we are seeking for a historical thread to connect the Bœotian legends -of Hercules with those of the Peloponnesus, it must be set entirely aside; and -yet it is not only the oldest form of the story, but no other has hitherto been -found or devised to fill its place with a greater appearance of probability. -The supposed right of Hercules to the throne of Mycenæ was, as we shall see, -the ground on which the Dorians, some generations later, claimed the dominion -of Peloponnesus. Yet, in any other than a poetical view, his enmity to Eurystheus -is utterly inconsistent with the exploits ascribed to him in the peninsula. -It is also remarkable, that while the adventures which he undertakes at the -bidding of his rival are prodigious and supernatural, belonging to the first -of the two classes above distinguished, he is described as during the same -period engaged in expeditions which are only accidentally connected with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> -these marvellous labours, and which, if they stood alone, might be taken for -traditional facts. In these he appears in the light of an independent prince, -and a powerful conqueror. He leads an army against Augeas, king of Elis, -and having slain him, bestows his kingdom on one of his sons, who had condemned -his father’s injustice. So he invades Pylus to avenge an insult which -he had received from Neleus, and puts him to death, with all his children, -except Nestor, who was absent, or had escaped to Gerenia. Again he carries -his conquering arms into Laconia, where he exterminates the family of the -king Hippocoön, and places Tyndareus on the throne. Here, if anywhere -in the legend of Hercules, we might seem to be reading an account of real -events. Yet who can believe, that while he was overthrowing these hostile -dynasties, and giving away sceptres, he suffered himself to be excluded from -his own kingdom?</p> - -<p>It was the fate of Hercules to be incessantly forced into dangerous and -arduous enterprises; and hence every part of Greece is in its turn the scene -of his achievements. Thus we have already seen him, in Thessaly, the ally of -the Dorians, laying the foundation of a perpetual union between the people -and his own descendants, as if he had either abandoned all hope of recovering -the crown of Mycenæ, or had foreseen that his posterity would require the -aid of the Dorians for that purpose. In Ætolia too he appears as a friend -and a protector of the royal house, and fights its battles against the Thesprotians -of Epirus. These perpetual wanderings, these successive alliances with -so many different races, excite no surprise, so long as we view them in a -poetical light, as issuing out of one source, the implacable hate with which -Juno persecutes the son of Jove. They may also be understood as real -events, if they are supposed to have been perfectly independent of each other, -and connected only by being referred to one fabulous name. But when the -poetical motive is rejected, it seems impossible to frame any rational scheme -according to which they may be regarded as incidents in the life of one man, -unless we imagine Hercules, in the purest spirit of knight-errantry, sallying -forth in quest of adventures, without any definite object, or any impulse but -that of disinterested benevolence. It will be safer, after rejecting those -features in the legend which manifestly belong to Eastern religions, to distinguish -the Theban Hercules from the Dorian, and the Peloponnesian hero. -In the story of each some historical fragments have most probably been preserved, -and perhaps least disfigured in the Theban and Dorian legends. In -those of Peloponnesus it is difficult to say to what extent their original form -may not have been distorted from political motives. If we might place any -reliance on them, we should be inclined to conjecture that they contain -traces of the struggles by which the kingdom of Mycenæ attained to that -influence over the rest of the peninsula, which is attributed to it by Homer, -and which we shall have occasion to notice when we come to speak of the -Trojan war.</p> - -<h4>THE FEATS OF THESEUS</h4> - -<p>The name of Hercules immediately suggests that of Theseus, according -to the mythical chronology his younger contemporary, and only second to -him in renown. It was not without reason that Theseus was said to have -given rise to the proverb, <i>another Hercules</i>; for not only is there a strong -resemblance between them in many particular features, but it also seems -clear that Theseus was to Attica what Hercules was to the rest of Greece, -and that his career likewise represents the events of a period which cannot<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> -have been exactly measured by any human life, and probably includes many -centuries. His legend is chiefly interesting to us, so far as it may be regarded -as a poetical outline of the early history of Attica [where it will be recounted -in detail].</p> - -<p>The legend of his Cretan expedition most probably preserves some -genuine historical recollections. But the only fact which appears to be -plainly indicated by it, is a temporary connection between Crete and Attica. -Whether this intercourse was grounded solely on religion, or was the result -of a partial dominion exercised by Crete over Athens, it would be useless -to inquire; and still less can we pretend to determine the nature of the -Athenian tribute, or that of the Cretan worship to which it related. That -part of the legend which belongs to Naxos and Delos was probably introduced -after these islands were occupied by the Ionians. A part is assigned -in these traditions to Minos, who is represented by the general voice of -antiquity as having raised Crete to a higher degree of prosperity and power -than it ever reached at any subsequent period [and whom we shall also discuss -later in connection with Cretan history].</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/p072.jpg" width="500" height="200" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Temple of Theseus, Athens</span></p> -</div> - -<h4>THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES</h4> - -<p>Our plan obliges us to pass over a great number of wars, expeditions, -and achievements of these ages, which were highly celebrated in heroic song, -not because we deem them to contain less of historical reality than others -which we mention, but because they appear not to have been attended with -any important or lasting consequences. We might otherwise have been -induced to notice the quarrel which divided the royal house of Thebes, and -led to a series of wars between Thebes and Argos, which terminated in the -destruction of the former city, and the temporary expulsion of the Cadmeans, -its ancient inhabitants. Hercules and Theseus undertook their adventures -either alone, or with the aid of a single comrade; but in these Theban wars -we find a union of seven chiefs; and such confederacies appear to have -become frequent in the latter part of the heroic age. So a numerous band -of heroes was combined in the enterprise, which, whatever may have been -its real nature, became renowned as the chase of the Calydonian boar. -Plassman<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_3f" id="enanchor_3f"></a><a href="#endnote_3f">f</a></span> suspects that this was in reality a military expedition against -some of the savage Ætolian tribes, and that the name of one of them (the -Aperantii) suggested the legend. We proceed to speak of two expeditions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> -much more celebrated, conducted like these by a league of independent -chieftains, but directed, not to any part of Greece, but against distant lands; -we mean the voyage of the Argonauts, and the siege of Troy, which will -conclude our review of the mythical period of Grecian history.</p> - -<h4>THE ARGONAUTS</h4> - -<p>The Argonautic expedition, when viewed in the light in which it has -usually been considered, is an event which a critical historian, if he feels -himself compelled to believe it, may think it his duty to notice, but which -he is glad to pass rapidly over as a perplexing and unprofitable riddle. For -even when the ancient legend has been pared down into a historical form, -and its marvellous and poetical features have been all effaced, so that nothing -is left but what may appear to belong to its pith and substance, it becomes -indeed dry and meagre enough, but not much more intelligible than -before. It relates an adventure, incomprehensible in its design, astonishing -in its execution, connected with no conceivable cause, and with no -sensible effect. The narrative, reduced to the shape in which it has often -been thought worthy of a place in history, runs as follows:</p> - -<p>In the generation before the Trojan war, Jason, a young Thessalian -prince, had incurred the jealousy of his kinsman Pelias, who reigned at -Iolcus. The crafty king encouraged the adventurous youth to embark in a -maritime expedition full of difficulty and danger. It was to be directed to -a point far beyond the most remote which Greek navigation had hitherto -reached in the same quarter; to the eastern corner of the sea, so celebrated -in ancient times for the ferocity of the barbarians inhabiting its coasts, that -it was commonly supposed to have derived from them the name of “Axenus,” -the inhospitable, before it acquired the opposite name of the “Euxine,” from -the civilisation which was at length introduced by Greek settlers. Here, -in the land of the Colchians, lay the goal, because this contained the prize, -from which the voyage has been frequently called the adventure of the -golden fleece. Jason having built a vessel of uncommon size,—in more -precise terms, the first 50-oared galley his countrymen had ever launched,—and -having manned it with a band of heroes, who assembled from various -parts of Greece to share the glory of the enterprise, sailed to Colchis, where -he not only succeeded in the principal object of his expedition, whatever -this may have been, but carried off Medea, the daughter of the Colchian -king, Æetes.</p> - -<p>Though this is an artificial statement, framed to reconcile the main incidents -of a wonderful story with nature and probability, it still contains many -points which can scarcely be explained or believed. It carries us back to a -period when navigation was in its infancy among the Greeks; yet their first -essay at maritime discovery is supposed at once to have reached the extreme -limit, which was long after attained by the adventurers who gradually explored -the same formidable sea, and gained a footing on its coasts. The -success of the undertaking however is not so surprising as the project itself; -for this implies a previous knowledge of the country to be explored, which -it is very difficult to account for. But the end proposed is still more mysterious; -and indeed can only be explained with the aid of a conjecture. -Such an explanation was attempted by some of the later writers among -the ancients, who perceived that the whole story turned on the Golden -Fleece, the supposed motive of the voyage, and that this feature had not a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> -sufficiently historical appearance. But the mountain torrents of Colchis -were said to sweep down particles of gold, which the natives used to detain -by fleeces dipped in the streams.</p> - -<p>This report suggested a mode of translating the fable into historical language. -It was conjectured that the Argonauts had been attracted by the -metallic treasures of the country, and that the Golden Fleece was a poetical -description of the process which they had observed, or perhaps had practised: -an interpretation certainly more ingenious, or at least less absurd, -than those by which Diodorus transforms the fire-breathing bulls which -Jason was said to have yoked at the bidding of Æetes, into a band of Taurians, -who guarded the fleece, and the sleepless dragon which watched over -it, into their commander Draco; but yet not more satisfactory; for it explains -a casual, immaterial circumstance, while it leaves the essential point -in the legend wholly untouched. The epithet “golden,” to which it relates, is -merely poetical and ornamental, and signified nothing more as to the nature -of the fleece than the epithets white or purple, which were also applied to -it by early poets. According to the original and genuine tradition, the -fleece was a sacred relic, and its importance arose entirely out of its connection -with the tragical story of Phrixus, the main feature of which is the -human sacrifice which the gods had required from the house of Athamas. -His son Phrixus either offered himself, or was selected through the artifices -of his stepmother Ino, as the victim; but at the critical moment, as he -stood before the altar, the marvellous ram was sent for his deliverance, and -transported him over the sea, according to the received account, to Colchis, -where Phrixus, on his arrival, sacrificed the ram to Jupiter, as the god who -had favoured his escape; the fleece was nailed to an oak in the grove of -Mars, where it was kept by Æetes as a sacred treasure, or palladium.</p> - -<p>But the tradition must have had a historical foundation in some real -voyages and adventures, without which it could scarcely have arisen at all, -and could never have become so generally current as to be little inferior in -celebrity to the tale of Troy itself. If however the fleece had no existence -but in popular belief, the land where it was to be sought was a circumstance -of no moment. In the earlier form of the legend, it might not have been -named at all, but only have been described as the distant, the unknown, land; -and after it had been named, it might have been made to vary with the -gradual enlargement of geographical information. But in this case the voyage -of the Argonauts can no longer be considered as an isolated adventure, -for which no adequate motive is left; but must be regarded, like the expedition -of the Tyrian Hercules, as representing a succession of enterprises, -which may have been the employment of several generations. And this is -perfectly consistent with the manner in which the adventurers are most -properly described. They are Minyans; a branch of the Greek nation, -whose attention was very early drawn by their situation, not perhaps without -some influence from the example and intercourse of the Phœnicians, to -maritime pursuits. The form which the legend assumed was probably determined -by the course of their earliest naval expeditions. They were naturally -attracted towards the northeast, first by the islands that lay before the -entrance of the Hellespont, and then by the shores of the Propontis and its -two straits. Their successive colonies, or spots signalised either by hostilities -or peaceful transactions with the natives, would become the landing-places of -the Argonauts. That such a colony existed at Lemnos, seems unquestionable; -though it does not follow that Euneus, the son of Jason, who is described in -the Iliad as reigning there during the siege of Troy, was a historical personage.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p> - -<p>If however it should be asked, in what light the hero and heroine of the -legend are to be viewed on this hypothesis, it must be answered that both -are most probably purely ideal personages, connected with the religion of the -people to whose poetry they belong. Jason was perhaps no other than the -Samothracian god or hero Jasion, whose name was sometimes written in -the same manner, the favourite of Demeter, as his namesake was of Hera, -and the protector of mariners as the Thessalian hero was the chief of the -Argonauts. Medea seems to have been originally another form of Hera herself, -and to have descended, by a common transition, from the rank of a goddess -into that of a heroine, when an epithet had been mistaken for a distinct -name. We have already seen that the Corinthian tradition claimed her as -belonging properly to Corinth, one of the principal seats of the Minyan race. -The tragical scenes which rendered her stay there so celebrated were commemorated -by religious rites, which continued to be observed until the city -was destroyed by the Romans. According to the local legend, she had not -murdered her children; they had been killed by the Corinthians; and the -public guilt was expiated by annual sacrifices offered to Hera, in whose temple -fourteen boys, chosen every twelve-month from noble families, were appointed -to spend a year in all the ceremonies of solemn mourning. But we -cannot here pursue this part of the subject any further. The historical side -of the legend seems to exhibit an opening intercourse between the opposite -shores of the Ægean. If however it was begun by the northern Greeks, it -was probably not long confined to them, but was early shared by those of -the Peloponnesus. It would be inconsistent with the piratical habits of the -early navigators, to suppose that this intercourse was always of a friendly -nature; and it may therefore not have been without a real ground, that -the Argonautic expedition was sometimes represented as the occasion of -the first conflict between the Greeks and Trojans. We therefore pass -by a natural transition out of the mythical circle we have just been tracing, -into that of the Trojan war, and the light in which we have viewed the one -may serve to guide us in forming a judgment on the historical import of the -other.</p> - -<p>We have already seen in what manner Eurystheus, the son of Sthenelus, -had usurped the inheritance which belonged of right to Hercules, as the -legitimate representative of Perseus. Sthenelus had reserved Mycenæ and -Tiryns for himself; but he had bestowed the neighbouring town of Midea -on Atreus and Thyestes, the sons of Pelops, and uncles of Eurystheus. On -the death of Hercules, Eurystheus pursued his orphan children from one -place of refuge to another, until they found an asylum in Attica. Theseus -refused to surrender them, and Eurystheus then invaded Attica in person; -but his army was routed, and he himself slain by Hyllus, the eldest son of -Hercules, in his flight through the isthmus. Atreus succeeded to the throne -of his nephew, whose children had been all cut off in this disastrous expedition; -and thus, when his sceptre descended to his son Agamemnon, it conveyed -the sovereignty of an ample realm. While the house of Pelops was -here enriched with the spoils of Hercules, it enjoyed the fruits of his triumphant -valour in another quarter. He had bestowed Laconia on Tyndareus, -the father of Helen; and when Agamemnon’s brother, Menelaus, had -been preferred to all the other suitors of this beautiful princess, Tyndareus -resigned his dominions to his son-in-law. In the meanwhile a flourishing -state had risen up on the eastern side of the Hellespont. Its capital, Troy, -had been taken by Hercules, with the assistance of Telamon, son of Æacus, -but had been restored to Priam, the son of its conquered king, Laomedon,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> -who reigned there in peace and prosperity over a number of little tribes, -until his son Paris, attracted to Laconia by the fame of Helen’s beauty, abused -the hospitality of Menelaus by carrying off his queen in his absence. All -the chiefs of Greece combined their forces, under the command of Agamemnon, -to avenge this outrage, and sailed with a great armament to Troy.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_3c" id="enanchor_3c"></a><a href="#endnote_3c">c</a></span> -Their enterprise, famous for all time as the Trojan War, stands quite by -itself in interest and importance among the traditions of the Heroic Age, -and demands exceptional treatment here.</p> - -<h4>THE TROJAN WAR</h4> - -<p>Historic criticism is almost a pendulum in its motion. Nowhere has -this been more vividly seen than in the attitude of prominent historians -toward the Trojan War and the poetical chronicle of it known as Homer’s -<i>Iliad</i>. Scholarly belief has passed through all imaginable grades of opinion -ranging between a flat denial that there was ever such a place as Troy, -such a war as the Trojan, or such a man as Homer, to an acceptance of them -all with an unquestioning credulity matching that of the early Greeks.</p> - -<p>It was textual criticism, the deadly work of the critical scalpel in the -verbal form of the poems that first destroyed the good standing of the Homeric -legend. It is the revivifying work of the pickaxe and shovel in the -actual ground as wielded by the excavator and archæologist that have -brought back the repute of Homer. A few years ago and a Gladstone arguing -for the reality of a Homer and of an Homeric epic was dismissed by the -professor as an old-fashioned ignoramus. To-day almost the same terms -are applied to those who cling to the fashion of yesterday and claim that the -Trojan War and Homer himself are myths. In the new swing of the pendulum, -however, the cautious will still avoid extremes.</p> - -<p>What has already been said about the status of Greek myth applies in -the main to the Homeric poems. They are legends doubtless with some -measure of historical foundation, but they cannot be accepted by the critical -student of to-day as historical narratives in the narrow sense. But the -Homeric poems have an interest of quite another kind which gives them a -place apart among the legends of antiquity. This interest centres about -the personality of the author of the <i>Iliad</i> and the <i>Odyssey</i>. From the earliest -historic periods of Grecian life the authorship of the <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i> -was unquestionably ascribed to a poet named Homer. If doubts ever arose -in the mind of any sceptical or critical person as to the reality of Homer, -such doubts were quite submerged by the popular verdict. It was not generally -claimed that Homer himself had written the works ascribed to him,—it -was long held, indeed, that he must have lived at a period prior to the -introduction of writing into Greece,—but that the person whom tradition -loved to speak of as the blind bard had invented and recited his narratives -<i>in toto</i>, and that these, memorised by others, had been brought down through -succeeding generations until they were finally given permanence in writing, -were accepted as the most unequivocal of historical facts.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> -<img src="images/fp1.jpg" width="450" height="650" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">HOMER</p> -</div> - -<p>But in the latter half of the 18th century, these supposed historical facts -began to be called in question, Wolf<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_3k" id="enanchor_3k"></a><a href="#endnote_3k">k</a></span> leading the van and holding all -scholarship in terror of his name for nearly a century. Critical students of -Homer were struck with numerous anomalies in his writings that seemed to -them inconsistent with the idea that the <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i> had been composed -at one time and by one person. To cite but a single illustration, it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> -was noted that the various parts of these poems were not all written in the -same dialect, and it seemed highly improbable that any one person should -have employed different dialects in a single composition. Such a suggestion -as this naturally led to bitter controversies—controversies which have -by no means altogether subsided after the lapse of a century.<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span> Later scholarship -denies the “stratification of language” in the poems.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_3b" id="enanchor_3b"></a><a href="#endnote_3b">b</a></span> But the controversy -did not confine itself to the mere question whether such a person as -Homer had lived and written, it came presently to involve also the subject of -the Homeric poems, in particular, of the <i>Iliad</i>.</p> - -<p>Certain details aside, the Trojan War had been looked upon as an historical -event, quite as fully credited by the modern historian as it had been by -Alexander when he stopped to offer sacrifices at the site of Troy. But now -the iconoclastic movement being under way there was a school of students -who openly maintained that the whole recital, by whomsoever written, was -nothing but a fable which the historian must utterly discard. It was even -questioned whether such a place as Troy had ever existed. Such a scepticism -as this seemed, naturally enough, a clear sacrilege to a large body of -scholars, but for several generations no successful efforts were made to meet -it with any weapons more tangible than words. Then came a champion of -the historical verity of the Homeric narrative who set to work to prove his -case in the most practical way. Curiously enough the man who thus championed -the cause of the closet scholars and poets and visionaries was himself -a practical man of affairs, no less experienced and no less successful in -dealing with the affairs of an everyday business than had been the man from -whom the iconoclastic movement had gained its chief support. This man -was also a German, Heinrich Schliemann.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_3l" id="enanchor_3l"></a><a href="#endnote_3l">l</a></span></p> - -<p>Having amassed a fortune, the income from which was more than sufficient -for all his needs, he retired from active business and devoted the -remainder of his life to a self-imposed task, which had been an ambition -with him all his life, the search, namely, for the site of Ancient Troy. How -well he succeeded all the world knows. But in opposition to the opinions -of many scholars he selected the hill of Hissarlik as the site of ancient -Ilium, and his excavations there soon demonstrated that at least it had been -the site not of one alone but of at least seven different cities in antiquity—one -being built above the ruins of another at long intervals of time. One -of these cities, the sixth from the top,—or to put it otherwise, the most -ancient but one,—was, he became firmly convinced, Ilium itself.</p> - -<p>The story of his achievements cannot be told here in detail, and it is -necessary to point the warning that Dr. Schliemann’s excavations—wonderful -as are their results—do not, perhaps, when critically viewed, demonstrate -quite so much as might at first sight appear. There is, indeed, a high -degree of probability that the city which he excavated was really the one -intended in the Homeric descriptions, but it must be clear to any one who -scrutinises the matter somewhat closely, that this fact goes but a little way -towards substantiating the Homeric narrative as a whole. The city of -Ilium may have existed without giving rise to any such series of events as -that narrated in the <i>Iliad</i>. Dr. Schliemann himself was led to realise this -fact, and to modify somewhat in later years the exact tenor of some of his -more enthusiastic earlier views, yet the fact remains that the excavations at -Hissarlik must be reckoned with by whoever in future discusses the status -of the Homeric story.</p> - -<p>This is not the place to enter into a statement of the multitudinous -phases scepticism has taken in dealing with the Trojan legend. The story,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> -whether pure fancy, as some have thought it, or a dramatised and romantic -version of actual history, is indispensable to any chronicle of Greece or of -Grecian influence.<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span> Taking Homer as a basis, it may be outlined as follows:</p> - -<h5><i>The Town of Troy</i></h5> - -<p>The origin of Dardanus, founder of the Trojan state, has been very variously -related; but the testimony of Homer to the utter uncertainty of his -birth and native country, delivered in the terms that he was the son of -Jupiter, may seem best entitled to belief. Thus however it appears that the -Greeks not unwillingly acknowledged consanguinity with the Trojans; for -many, indeed most, of the Grecian heroes also claimed their descent from -Jupiter. It is moreover remarkable that, among the many genealogies which -Homer has transmitted, none is traced so far into antiquity as that of the -royal family of Troy. Dardanus was ancestor in the sixth degree to Hector, -and may thus have lived from a hundred and fifty to two hundred years -before that hero. On one of the many ridges projecting from the foot of -the lofty mountain of Ida in the northwestern part of Asia Minor, he -founded a town, or perhaps rather a castle, which from his own name was -called Dardania.</p> - -<p>The situation commanded the narrow but highly fruitful plain, watered -by the streams of Simois and Scamander, and stretching from the roots of -Ida to the Hellespont northward, and the Ægean Sea westward. His son -Erichthonius, who succeeded him in the sovereignty of this territory, had -the reputation of being the richest man of his age. Much of his wealth -seems to have been derived from a large stock of brood mares, to the number, -according to the poet, of three thousand, which the fertility of his soil -enabled him to maintain, and which by his care and judgment in the choice -of stallions produced a breed of horses superior to any of the surrounding -countries. Tros, son of Erichthonius, probably extended, or in some other -way improved, the territory of Dardania; since the appellation by which it -was known to posterity was derived from his name. With the riches the -population of the state of course increased. Ilus, son of Tros, therefore, venturing -to move his residence from the mountain, founded, on a rising ground -beneath, that celebrated city called from his name Ilion [or Ilium], but more -familiarly known in modern languages by the name of Troy, derived from -his father.</p> - -<p>Twice before that war which Homer has made so famous Troy is said to -have been taken and plundered: and for its second capture by Hercules, in -the reign of Laomedon, son of Ilus, we have Homer’s authority. The government -however revived, and still advanced in power and splendour. -Laomedon after his misfortune fortified the city in a manner so superior to -what was common in his age that the walls of Troy were said to be a work -of the gods. Under his son Priam, the Trojan state was very flourishing and -of considerable extent; containing, under the name of Phrygia, the country -afterwards called Troas, together with both shores of the Hellespont and the -large and fertile island of Lesbos.</p> - -<p>A frequent communication, sometimes friendly, but oftener hostile, was -maintained between the eastern and western coasts of the Ægean Sea; each -being an object of piracy more than of commerce to the inhabitants of the -opposite country. Cattle and slaves constituting the principal riches of the -times, men, women, and children, together with swine, sheep, goats, oxen, -and horses, were principal objects of plunder. But scarcely was any crime<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> -more common than rapes; and it seems to have been a kind of fashion, in -consequence of which the leaders of piratical expeditions gratified their vanity -in the highest degree when they could carry off a lady of superior rank. -How usual these outrages were among the Greeks, may be gathered from -the condition said to have been exacted by Tyndareus, king of Sparta, father -of the celebrated Helen, from the chieftains who came to ask his daughter -in marriage; he required of all, as a preliminary, to bind themselves by solemn -oaths that, should she be stolen, they would assist with their utmost -power to recover her. This tradition, with many other stories of Grecian -rapes, on whatsoever founded, indicates with certainty the opinion of the -later Greeks, among whom they were popular, concerning the manners of -their ancestors. But it does not follow that the Greeks were more vicious -than other people equally unhabituated to constant, vigorous, and well-regulated -exertions of law and government. Equal licentiousness but a few -centuries ago prevailed throughout western Europe. Hence those gloomy -habitations of the ancient nobility, which excite the wonder of the traveller, -particularly in the southern parts, where, in the midst of the finest countries, -he often finds them in situations so very inconvenient and uncomfortable, -except for what was then the one great object, security, that now the houseless -peasant will scarcely go to them for shelter. From the licentiousness -were derived the manners, and even the virtues, of the times; and hence -knight-errantry with its whimsical consequences.</p> - -<h5><i>Paris and Helen</i></h5> - -<p>The expedition of Paris, son of Priam king of Troy, into Greece, appears -to have been a marauding adventure, such as was then usual. It is said -indeed that he was received very hospitably, and entertained very kindly, by -Menelaus king of Sparta. But this also was consonant to the spirit of the -times; for hospitality has always been the virtue of barbarous ages: it is at -this day no less characteristical of the wild Arabs than their spirit of robbery; -and in the Scottish highlands we know robbery and hospitality flourished -together till very lately. Hospitality indeed will be generally found in different -ages and countries very nearly in proportion to the need of it; that is, in proportion -to the deficiency of jurisprudence, and the weakness of government. -Paris concluded his visit at Sparta with carrying off Helen, wife of Menelaus, -together with a considerable treasure: and whether this was effected by -fraud, or as some have supposed, by open violence, it is probable enough -that as Herodotus relates, it was first concerted, and afterward supported, in -revenge for some similar injury done by the Greeks to the Trojans.</p> - -<p>An outrage however so grossly injurious to one of the greatest princes of -Greece, especially if attended with a breach of the rights of hospitality, -might not unreasonably be urged as a cause requiring the united revenge of -all the Grecian chieftains. But there were other motives to engage them -in the quarrel. The hope of returning laden with the spoil of the richer -provinces of Asia was a strong incentive to leaders poor at home, and bred -to rapine. The authority and influence of Agamemnon, king of Argos, -brother of Menelaus, were also weighty. The spirit of the age, his own -temper, the extent of his power, the natural desire of exerting it on a -splendid occasion, would all incite this prince eagerly to adopt his brother’s -quarrel. He is besides represented by character qualified to create and -command a powerful league; ambitious, active, brave, generous, humane; -vain indeed and haughty, sometimes to his own injury; yet commonly repressing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> -those hurtful qualities, and watchful to cultivate popularity. Under this -leader all the Grecian chieftains from the end of Peloponnesus to the end of -Thessaly, together with Idomeneus from Crete, and other commanders -from some of the smaller islands, assembled at Aulis, a seaport of Bœotia. -The Acarnanians alone, separated from the rest of Greece by lofty mountains -and a sea at that time little navigated, had no share in the expedition.</p> - -<h5><i>The Siege of Troy</i></h5> - -<p>A story acquired celebrity in aftertimes, that, the fleet being long detained -at Aulis by contrary winds, Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter -Iphigenia as a propitiatory offering to obtain from the gods a safe and speedy -passage to the Trojan coast. To the credit of his character however it is -added that he submitted to this abominable cruelty with extreme reluctance, -compelled by the clamours of the army, who were persuaded that the gods -required the victim; nor were there wanting those who asserted that by a -humane fraud the princess was at last saved, under favour of a report that a -fawn was miraculously sent by the goddess Diana to be sacrificed in her -stead. Indeed the story, though of such fame, and so warranted by early -authorities, that some notice of it seemed requisite, wants, it must be confessed, -wholly the best authentication for matters of that very early age; for -neither Homer, though he enumerates Agamemnon’s daughters, nor Hesiod, -who not only mentions the assembling of the Grecian forces under his command -at Aulis, but specifies their detentions by bad weather, has left one -word about so remarkable an event as this sacrifice.</p> - -<p>The fleet at length had a prosperous voyage. It consisted of about -twelve hundred open vessels, each carrying from fifty to a hundred and -twenty men. The number of men in the whole armament, computed from -the mean of those two numbers mentioned by Homer as the complement of -different ships, would be something more than a hundred thousand; and -Thucydides, whose opinion is of the highest authority, has reckoned this -within the bounds of probability; though a poet, he adds, would go to the -utmost of current reports. The army, landing on the Trojan coast, was immediately -so superior to the enemy as to oblige them to seek shelter within -the city walls: but here the operations were at a stand. The hazards to -which unfortified and solitary dwellings were exposed from pirates and freebooters -had driven the more peaceable of mankind to assemble in towns for -mutual security. To erect lofty walls around those towns for defence was -then an obvious resource, requiring little more than labour for the execution. -More thought, more art, more experience were necessary for forcing the -rudest fortification, if defended with vigilance and courage. But the Trojan -walls were singularly strong: Agamemnon’s army could make no impression -upon them. He was therefore reduced to the method most common for ages -after, of turning the siege into a blockade, and patiently waiting till want of -necessaries should force the enemy to quit their shelter. But neither did -the policy of the times amount by many degrees to the art of subsisting so -numerous an army for any length of time, nor would the revenues of Greece -have been equal to it with more knowledge, nor indeed would the state of -things have admitted it, scarcely with any wealth, or by any means. For in -countries without commerce, the people providing for their own wants only, -supplies cannot be found equal to the maintenance of a superadded army. -No sooner therefore did the Trojans shut themselves within their walls than -the Greeks were obliged to give their principal attention to the means of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> -subsisting their numerous forces. The common method of the times was to -ravage the adjacent countries; and this was immediately put in practice. -But such a resource soon destroys itself. To have therefore a more permanent -and certain supply, a part of their army was sent to cultivate the -vales of the Thracian Chersonesus, then abandoned by the inhabitants on -account of the frequent and destructive incursions of the wild people who -occupied the interior of that continent.</p> - -<p>Large bodies being thus detached from the army, the remainder scarcely -sufficed to deter the Trojans from taking the field again, and could not prevent -succour and supplies from being carried into the town. Thus the siege -was protracted to the enormous length of ten years. It was probably their -success in marauding marches and pirating voyages that induced the Greeks -to persevere so long. Achilles is said to have plundered no less than twelve -maritime and eleven inland towns. Lesbos, then under the dominion of the -monarch of Troy, was among his conquests; and the women of that island -were apportioned to the victorious army as a part of the booty. But these -circumstances alarming all neighbouring people contributed to procure -numerous and powerful allies to the Trojans. Not only the Asiatic states, -to a great extent eastward and southward, sent auxiliary troops, but also -the European, westward, as far as the Pæonians of that country about the -river Axius, which afterwards became Macedonia.</p> - -<p>At length, in the tenth year of the war, after great exertions of valour -and the slaughter of numbers on both sides, among whom were many of the -highest rank, Troy yielded to its fate. Yet was it not then overcome by -open force; stratagem is reported by Homer; fraud and treachery have been -supposed by later writers. It was, however, taken and plundered: the venerable -monarch was slain: the queen and her daughters, together with only one -son remaining of a very numerous male progeny, were led into captivity. -According to some, the city was totally destroyed, and the survivors of the -people so dispersed that their very name was from that time lost. But the -tradition supported by better authority, and in no small degree by that of -Homer himself, whose words upon the occasion seem indeed scarcely doubtful, -is, that Æneas and his posterity reigned over the Trojan country and -people for some generations; the seat of government however being removed -from Troy to Scepsis: and Xenophon has marked his respect for this tradition, -ascribing the final ruin of the Trojan state and name to that following -inundation of Greeks called the Æolic emigration.</p> - -<h5><i>Agamemnon’s Sad Home-coming</i></h5> - -<p>Agamemnon, we are told, triumphed over Troy; and the historical evidence -to the fact is large. But the Grecian poets themselves universally -acknowledge that it was a dear-bought, a mournful triumph. Few of the -princes, who survived to partake of it, had any enjoyment of their hard-earned -glory in their native country. None expecting that the war would -detain them so long from home, had made due provision for the regular -administration of their affairs during such an absence. It is indeed probable -that the utmost wisdom and forethought would have been unequal to the -purpose. For, in the half-formed governments of those days, the constant -presence of the prince as supreme regulator was necessary towards keeping -the whole from running presently into utter confusion. Seditions and revolutions -accordingly remain recorded almost as numerous as the cities of -Greece. Many of the princes on their return were compelled to embark<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> -again with their adherents, to seek settlements in distant countries. A more -tragical fate awaited Agamemnon. His queen, Clytemnestra, having given -her affection to his kinsman Ægisthus, concurred in a plot against her husband, -and the unfortunate monarch on his return to Argos was assassinated; -those of his friends who escaped the massacre were compelled to fly with his -son Orestes; and, so strong was the party which their long possession of the -government had enabled the conspirators to form, the usurper obtained complete -possession of the throne. Orestes found refuge at Athens; where alone -among the Grecian states there seems to have been then a constitution capable -of bearing both the absence and the return of the army and its commander -without any essential derangement.</p> - -<p>Such were the Trojan war and its consequences, according to the best of -the unconnected and defective accounts remaining, among which those of -Homer have always held the first rank. In modern times, as we have seen, -the authority of the great poet as an historian has been more questioned. It -is of highest importance to the history of the early ages that it should have -its due weight; and it may therefore be proper to mention here some of the -circumstances which principally establish its authority; others will occur -hereafter. It should be observed then that in Homer’s age poets were the -only historians; whence, though it does not at all follow that poets would so -adhere to certain truth as not to introduce ornament, yet it necessarily follows -that veracity in historical narration would make a large share of a -poet’s merit in public opinion, a circumstance which the common use of -written records and prose histories instantly and totally altered. The probability -and the very remarkable consistency of Homer’s historical anecdotes, -variously dispersed as they are among his poetical details and embellishments, -form a second and powerful testimony. Indeed, the connection and -the clearness of Grecian history, through the very early times of which -Homer has treated, appear very extraordinary when compared with the darkness -and uncertainty that begin in the instant of our losing his guidance, -and continue through ages.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_3h" id="enanchor_3h"></a><a href="#endnote_3h">h</a></span></p> - -<h4>CHARACTER AND SPIRIT OF THE HEROIC AGE</h4> - -<p>In the tales of Grecian mythology a great difference is apparent between -the earlier and later centuries of the heroic age. They show us a considerable -progress in culture during the course of the period. The legends -of Perseus, Hercules, and Theseus, or of the battle of the Lapithæ and -Centauri, depict the early Greeks as a half wild race tormented by fierce -animals, robbers, and tyrants. Giants, fearful snakes, and other monsters, -also adventures in the nether world, often appear in these legends, and the -Grecians seem to be engaged in a battle with the wildness of nature and -with their own crudity. The same land appears utterly different in the -legends and poems of the Trojan war and the other events of the later -heroic age. In these legends the manners of the Greeks are represented as -friendlier and more peaceful, and, with a few exceptions, we find no more -real miracles, but everything points to a quieter time and a more orderly -state of affairs.</p> - -<p>We have a poetical, yet essentially faithful, description of these last -centuries in the <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i>, the two oldest extant Grecian literary -works. Both poems are, besides the recital of a part of the heroic legends, -a true picture of the customs, the conquering spirit, and the domestic as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> -well as public life of the Greeks at the time of the Trojan war and immediately -after it. The Grecians at that time do not seem to have been a very -numerous people. They lived in small states, with central cities in active -intercourse with one another, not differing much in their ways of life, -customs, and language. They were a rustic, warlike race, who rejoiced in -simple customs and led a happy existence under a friendly sky. The similarity -of religion, language, and customs made the Greeks of that time, as it -were, members of a great organism, holding together although divided into -many tribes and states. At the end of the heroic age some of the tribes -were brought even closer together by near relationship and by means of -temples and feasts in common. But the link that held them all together -had not as yet become a clear conviction; therefore, so far there was no -joint name for the Greek nation.</p> - -<p>Agriculture and cattle raising were the principal occupations of the -people. Besides this they had few industries. Other sources of wealth -were the chase, fishing, and war. The agriculture consisted of corn and -wine-growing and horticulture. The ox was the draught animal, donkeys -and mules were used for transport, horses were but seldom used for riding, -but they drew the chariots in time of war. The herds consisted principally -of cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs. Slaves were used for the lower work. -These were purchased from sea-robbers, obtained in victorious wars, or born -in the house. They had a knowledge of navigation, although their ships -generally had no decks, and were worked more by means of oars than sails. -There was no commerce on a large scale; war and piracy served instead as a -means of obtaining riches. Many metals were known; they used iron, the -working of which was still difficult. Coinage was not used at all, or, at all -events, very little. Weaving was the work of women; the best woven -stuffs, however, were obtained from the Phœnicians, who were the reigning -commercial people of the Grecian seas. They made various kinds of arms, -which were in part of artistic workmanship, ornaments and vessels of metal, -ivory, clay, and wood. The descriptions of these objects show that the taste -for plastic art, that is, the representation of beautiful forms, was already -awakened among them. They possessed further a knowledge of architecture; -towns and villages are mentioned, also walls with towers and gates. -The houses of princes were built of stone; they contained large and lofty -rooms, as well as gardens and halls.</p> - -<p>Caste was unknown to the Grecians. The people in the heroic age, to be -sure, consisted of nobles and commons, but the latter took part in all public -affairs of importance, and the privileges of the former did not rest upon -their birth alone; an acquisition of great strength, bravery, and adroitness -was also necessary—virtues which are accessible to all. The difference between -the two classes was, therefore, not grounded, like the oriental establishment -of caste, on superstition and deception, but on the belief that certain -families possessed bodily strength and warlike abilities, and were therefore -appointed by the gods as protectors of the country; that their only right to -superiority over others lay in their actual greater capacity for ruling and -fighting.</p> - -<p>The system of government was aristocratic monarchy, supported by the -personal feelings and co-operative opinions of all free men. The state was -thus merely a warlike assembly of vigorous men, consisting of nobles and -freemen, having a leader at their head. The latter was bound to follow the -decisions of the nobility, and in important affairs had to ask the consent of -the people.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p> - -<p>The king was only the first of the nobility, and the only rights he possessed -which were not shared by them was that of commander in battle and -high priest. Therefore, if he wished to excel others as real ruler, everything -depended on his personality; he had to surpass others in riches, bodily -strength, bravery, discernment, and experience. The king brought the -sacrifice to the gods for the totality and directed the religious ceremonies. -He also sat in judgment, but mostly in company with experienced old men -from the nobility, being really arbitrator and protector of the weak against -the strong; for if no plaintiff appeared there was no trial at the public -judgment-seat. It was the king’s duty to offer hospitality to the ambassadors -of other states and to be hospitable to strangers generally. His revenues -consisted only of the voluntary donations of his subjects, of a larger -share in the spoils of war, and of the produce of certain lands assigned to -him. The only signs of his royalty were the sceptre and the herald that -went before him. He took the first place at all assemblies and feasts, and -at the sacrificial repasts he received a double helping of food and drink. -He was addressed in terms of veneration, but otherwise one associated with -him as with any other noble, and there was no trace of the oriental forms -of homage towards kings among the ancient Greeks.</p> - -<p>The nobility was composed of men of certain families to whom especial -strength and dexterity were attributed as hereditary prerogatives; they -sought to keep these up by means of knightly practices and to prove them -on the battle-field. As has already been said, they took part in the government -of the country. The common people or free citizens of the second -class were assembled on all important occasions, to give their votes for peace -or war, or any other matter of importance. The assemblies of the people -described in the <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i> show the same general participation in -public affairs and that lively activity which later reached such a high development -in the Grecian republics. Beside this, at that time bravery and -strength showed what every man was worth, and still more than mere bodily -strength, experience, eloquence, and a judicious insight into life and its circumstances -brought to any one honour and importance.</p> - -<p>In time of war the decision depended more upon the bravery of the kings -and nobles than upon the fighting of the people, who arranged themselves in -close masses on the battle-field. The chiefs were not trained to be generals -or leaders, but rather brave and skilled fighters. Swiftness in running, -strength and certainty in throw, and skill in wrestling as in the use of arms, -of the lance and the sword, were the most important items. Every leader -had his own chariot, with a young companion by his side to hold the reins, -while he himself fought with a javelin. The fortifications of the towns consisted -of a trench and a wall with towers. As yet they had no knowledge -of how to conduct a siege. They knew of no implement which would serve -in the taking of a town.</p> - -<p>Music and poetry played an important part in the lives of these warlike -people. These were inseparable from their meals, their feasts, and military -expeditions. The lyre, the flute, and the pipe were the musical instruments -in the heroic age; the trumpet was not used until the end of that time. -Flute and pipe were the instruments of shepherds and peasants. The lyre, -on the other hand, was played by poets and singers and even by many of -the kings and nobles, and always served as the accompaniment of songs. -The subjects of their songs were the deeds of living or past heroes. There -were singers or bards who composed these songs and sang them while men -stood round to listen and these bards were held in great esteem.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p> - -<p>Religion and politics were closely connected; but there was no trace of -a priesthood with predominant influence. The king was the director of -sacrifices, the presence of a priest not being required. There already existed, -to be sure, besides the ancient oracle of Dodona, the oracle of Delphi in -Phocis, which became so celebrated at a later period; but neither had any -great influence in the heroic age. On the other hand, there were so-called -soothsayers, who were supposed to possess much wisdom and at the same -time a kind of association with the gods. For this reason they were consulted, -so as to foretell the results of important undertakings, and to discover -the cause of general misfortunes as well as a means of removing them.</p> - -<p>The most renowned of these men were Orpheus, who played the part of -prophet in the expedition of the Argonauts; Amphiaraus, who joined the -expedition of the Seven against Thebes in the same character; Tiresias, -who was the prophet of the Thebans both at that time and in -the war of the Epigoni; and lastly Calchas, the soothsayer -of the Greeks in the Trojan war. Even these -men had no influence to be compared -with the oriental priesthood.</p> - -<p>They were really only looked upon -as pacifiers of the outraged godhead -and as advisers; their soothsayings -were not always respected, -and when their prophecies were -unsatisfactory they had to face -the anger of those in power.</p> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 300px;"> -<img src="images/p085.jpg" width="300" height="338" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Zeus</span></p> -<p class="caption">(From a Greek Statue)</p> -</div> - -<p>The religious belief of the heroic -age was the origin of the later -national religion. It sprang probably -from various sources. Therefore -it cannot be distinguished by -any special belief like that of the -Indians and Egyptians. The religion -of the Greeks was never a -perfected system and therefore -not free from contradictions, -especially as oriental -conceptions were introduced -into it from ancient -times. The Grecians of -this time believed heaven, -or rather the summit of the towering Mount Olympus, to be inhabited -by beings, like the earth; they imagined that these beings resembled human -beings in appearance and inner nature, but with the difference that they -ascribed to them invisibility, greater strength, freedom from the barriers of -mortality, and a powerful influence over earthly things. The life of the -gods, according to the representation of the heroic age, only differed from -that of men in the fact that it had a more beautiful colouring and higher -pleasures. They therefore looked upon the gods as personal beings and had -that form of religion known as anthropomorphism, the essential characteristic -of which is the belief that the gods resemble men. But joined in an inexplicable -manner with this view, was the idea that the gods were at the same -time natural phenomena and powers of nature. For instance Zeus, the king -and ruler in the kingdom of the gods, was also regarded as the god of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> -atmosphere; Apollo of the sun; Poseidon the god of the sea; and the woods, -wells, valleys, and hills were believed to be inhabited by divine beings called -nymphs.</p> - -<p>The king offered sacrifice for the people and every father for his house and -family. The religious ceremonies consisted chiefly of sacrifices and prayers. -There were but few temples, but on the other hand every town had a piece of -land set apart, on which there was an altar. They did not feel bound to these -holy places for the worship of the gods, but often built an altar on some spot -in the open field for prayer and sacrifice. The sacrifice consisted in burning -some pieces of flesh to the gods and the pouring of wine into the fire; while -the rest was consumed at a general and merry feast. Even the appointed -religious feast days had quite a festive colouring: they feasted, drank, joked, -held tournaments, and listened while bards sang of the deeds of heroes. There -was no trace to be found among the religious ceremonies of the heroic Greeks -of that wild, intoxicating character which generally existed at the feasts of -the oriental people.</p> - -<p>This was how the character of the later Grecian heroic age was formed. -They were a vigorous people, with warlike tastes and simple customs, living -under a mild heaven. All took part in public affairs, all were free, and, in -spite of a certain inequality among them, they were all connected; and -divided by no great contrasts in education, the community felt no kind of -oppression. The limited population of the country and the possession of -slaves permitted a careless and merry way of life. Rough work was unknown -to the greater part of the populace. They exercised their bodies -and steeled their strength with warlike undertakings, hunting, practice with -arms, and wrestling. Their mental intelligence was directed to higher -things through religious customs and soothsayers, and developed rapidly by -means of the merry association of the nobility, frequent consultations about -public affairs, and mutual military expeditions; and, above all, by means of -the poetical stories related by the bards, who put into pleasant form what all -felt, and were the real teachers of a higher mental culture; and lastly by -means of the elevating power of music.</p> - -<p>The Greek, under his bright heaven, looked upon life in the kind sunlight -of the upper world as a real life; but that of the lower regions seemed to him, -even if he obtained the greatest honours, and reigned like Achilles “over the -entire dead as king,” only a sombre picture as compared with the upper world: -he loved life and did not throw it ostentatiously away, where there was no -necessity. He did not look upon flying from a stronger foe as disgrace; -swiftness of foot was regarded by him as a heroic merit, like cunning and a -mighty arm.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_3d" id="enanchor_3d"></a><a href="#endnote_3d">d</a></span></p> - -<h4>GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE</h4> - -<p>If we endeavour to ascertain the extent of Homer’s geographical knowledge, -we find ourselves almost confined to Greece and the Ægean. Beyond -this circle all is foreign and obscure: and the looseness with which he describes -the more distant regions, especially when contrasted with his accurate delineation -of those which were familiar to him, indicates that as to the others he -was mostly left to depend on vague rumours, which he might mould at his -pleasure. In the catalogue indeed of the Trojan auxiliaries, which probably -comprises all the information which the Greeks had acquired concerning that -part of the world at the time it was composed, the names of several nations -in the interior of Asia Minor are enumerated. The remotest are probably<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> -the Halizonians of Alyba, whose country may, as Strabo supposes, be that of -the Chaldeans on the Euxine. On the southern side of the peninsula the -Lycians appear as a very distant race, whose land is therefore a fit scene for -fabulous adventures: on its confines are the haunts of the monstrous Chimæra, -and the territory of the Amazons: farther eastward the mountains of the -fierce Solymi, from which Poseidon, on his return from the Ethiopians, -descries the bark of Ulysses sailing on the western sea. These Ethiopians -are placed by the poet at the extremity of the earth; but as they are visited -by Menelaus in the course of his wanderings, they must be supposed to -reach across to the shores of the inner sea, and to border on the Phœnicians. -Ulysses describes a voyage which he performed in five days, from Crete to -Egypt: and the Taphians, though they inhabit the western side of Greece, -are represented as engaged in piratical adventures on the coast of Phœnicia. -But as to Egypt, it seems clear that the poet’s information was confined to -what he had heard of a river Ægyptus, and a great city called Thebes.</p> - -<p>On the western side of Europe, the compass of his knowledge seems to be -bounded by a few points not very far distant from the coast of Greece. The -northern part of the Adriatic he appears to have considered as a vast open -sea. Farther westward, Sicily and the southern extremity of Italy are represented -as the limits of all ordinary navigation. Beyond lies a vast sea, -which spreads to the very confines of nature and space. Sicily itself, at least -its more remote parts, is inhabited by various races of gigantic cannibals: -whether, at the same time, any of the tribes who really preceded the Greeks -in the occupation of the island were known to be settled on the eastern side, -is not certain, though the Sicels and Sicania are mentioned in the <i>Odyssey</i>. -Italy, as well as Greece, appears, according to the poet’s notions, to be -bounded on the north by a formidable waste of waters.</p> - -<p>When we proceed to inquire how the imagination of the people filled up -the void of its experience, and determined the form of the unknown world, -we find that the rudeness of its conceptions corresponds to the scantiness of -its information. The part of the earth exposed to the beams of the sun was -undoubtedly considered, not as a spherical, but as a plane surface, only varied by -its heights and hollows; and, as little can it be doubted, that the form of this -surface was determined by that of the visible horizon. The whole orb is girt -by the ocean, not a larger sea, but a deep river, which, circulating with constant -but gentle flux, separates the world of light and life from the realms -of darkness, dreams, and death. No feature in the Homeric chart is more -distinctly prominent than this: hence the divine artist terminates the shield of -Achilles with a circular stripe, representing “the mighty strength of the river -<i>Ocean</i>,” and all the epithets which the poet applies to it are such as belong -exclusively to a river. Homer describes all the other rivers, all springs and -wells, and the salt main itself, as issuing from the ocean stream, which might -be supposed to feed them by subterraneous channels. Still it is very difficult -to form a clear conception of this river, or to say how the poet supposed -it to be bounded. Ulysses passes into it from the western sea; but whether -the point at which he enters is a mouth or opening, or the two waters are -only separated by an invisible line, admits of much doubt. On the farther -side however is land: but a land of darkness, which the sun cannot pierce, -a land of Cimmerians, the realm of Hades, inhabited by the shades of the -departed, and by the family of dreams. As to the other dimensions of -the earth, the poet affords us no information, and it would be difficult to decide -whether a cylinder or a cone approaches nearest to the figure which -he may have assigned to it: and as little does he intimate in what manner<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> -he conceives it to be supported. But within it was hollowed another vast -receptacle for departed spirits, perhaps the proper abode of Hades. Beneath -this, and as far below the earth as heaven was above it, lay the still more -murky pit of Tartarus, secured by its iron gates and brazen floor, the -dungeon reserved by Jupiter for his implacable enemies.</p> - -<p>Some of the epithets which Homer applies to the heaven, seem to imply -that he considered it as a solid vault of metal. But it is not necessary to -construe these epithets so literally, nor to draw any such inference from -his description of Atlas, who “holds the lofty pillars which keep earth and -heaven asunder.” Yet it would seem, from the manner in which the height -of heaven is compared with the depth of Tartarus, that the region of light -was thought to have certain bounds. The summit of the Thessalian Olympus -was regarded as the highest point on the earth, and it is not always carefully -distinguished from the aerian regions above. The idea of a seat of the -gods,—perhaps derived from a more ancient tradition, in which it was not -attached to any geographical site,—seems to be indistinctly blended in the -poet’s mind with that of a real mountain. Hence Hephæstus, when hurled -from the threshold of Jupiter’s palace, falls “from morn to noon, from noon -to dewy eve,” before he drops on Lemnos; and Jupiter speaks of suspending -the earth by a chain from the top of Olympus.</p> - -<h4>NAVIGATION AND ASTRONOMY</h4> - -<p>A wider compass of geographical knowledge, and more enlarged views -of nature, would scarcely have been consistent with the state of navigation -and commerce which the Homeric poems represent. The poet expresses the -common feelings of an age when the voyages of the Greeks were mostly confined -to the Ægean. The vessels of the heroes, and probably of the poet’s -contemporaries, were slender half-decked boats: according to the calculation -of Thucydides, who seems to suspect exaggeration, the largest contained -one hundred and twenty men, the greatest number of rowers mentioned in -the catalogue: but we find twenty rowers spoken of as a usual complement of -a good ship. The mast was movable, and was only hoisted to take advantage -of a fair wind, and at the end of a day’s voyage was again deposited in its -appropriate receptacle. In the day-time, the Greek mariner commonly followed -the windings of the coasts, or shot across from headland to headland, -or from isle to isle: at night his vessel was usually put into port, or hauled -up on the beach; for though on clear nights he might prosecute his voyage -as well as by day, yet should the sky be overcast his course was inevitably -lost. Engagements at sea are never mentioned by Homer, though he so frequently -alludes to piratical excursions. They were probably of rare occurrence: -but as they must sometimes have been inevitable, the galleys were -provided with long poles for such occasions. The approach of winter put a -stop to all ordinary navigation. Hesiod fixes the time for laying up the merchant -ship, covering it with stones, taking out the rigging, and hanging the -rudder up by the fire. According to him, the fair season lasts only fifty days: -some indeed venture earlier to sea, but a prudent man will not then trust his -substance to the waves.</p> - -<p>The practical astronomy of the early Greeks consisted of a few observations -on the heavenly bodies, the appearances of which were most conspicuously -connected with the common occupations of life. The succession of light -and darkness, the recurring phases of the moon, and the vicissitude of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> -seasons, presented three regular periods of time, which, though all equally -forced on the attention, were not all marked with equal distinctness by sensible -limits. From the first, and down to the age of Solon, the Greeks seem -to have measured their months in the natural way, by the interval between -one appearance of the new moon and the next. Hence, their months were -of unequal duration; yet they might be described in round numbers as consisting -of thirty days. It was soon observed that the revolutions of the -moon were far from affording an exact measure of the apparent annual -revolution of the sun, and that if this were taken to be equal to twelve of -the former, the seasons would pass in succession through all the months of -the year. This in itself would have been no evil, and would have occasioned -no disturbance in the business of life. Seen under the Greek sky, the stars -were scarcely less conspicuous objects than the moon itself: some of -the most striking groups were early observed and named, and served, by -their risings and settings, to regulate the labours of the husbandman and -the adventures of the seaman.</p> - -<h4>COMMERCE AND THE ARTS</h4> - -<p>Commerce appears in Homer’s descriptions to be familiar enough to the -Greeks of the heroic age, but not to be held in great esteem. Yet in the -<i>Odyssey</i> we find the goddess, who assumes the person of a Taphian chief, -professing that she is on her way to Temesa with a cargo of iron to be -exchanged for copper: and in the <i>Iliad</i>, Jason’s son, the prince of Lemnos, -appears to carry on an active traffic with the Greeks before Troy. He -sends a number of ships freighted with wine, for which the purchasers pay, -some in copper, some in iron, some in hides, some in cattle, some in slaves. -Of the use of money the poet gives no hint, either in this description or -elsewhere. He speaks of the precious metals only as commodities, the value -of which was in all cases determined by weight. The <i>Odyssey</i> represents -Phœnician traders as regularly frequenting the Greek ports; but as Phœnician -slaves are sometimes brought to Greece, so the Phœnicians do not -scruple, even where they are received as friendly merchants, to carry away -Greek children into slavery.</p> - -<p>The general impression which the Homeric pictures of society leave on -the reader is, that many of the useful arts,—that is, those subservient to -the animal wants or enjoyments of life,—had already reached such a stage -of refinement as enabled the affluent to live, not merely in rude plenty, but -in a considerable degree of luxury and splendour. The dwellings, furniture, -clothing, armour, and other such property of the chiefs, are commonly described -as magnificent, costly, and elegant, both as to the materials and -workmanship. We are struck, not only by the apparent profusion of the -precious metals and other rare and dazzling objects in the houses of the -great, but by the skill and ingenuity which seem to be exerted in working -them up into convenient and graceful forms. Great caution, however, is -evidently necessary in drawing inferences from these descriptions as to the -state of the arts in the heroic ages. The poet has treasures at his disposal -which, as they cost him nothing, he may scatter with an unsparing hand. -The shield made by Hephæstus for Achilles cannot be considered as a specimen -of the progress of art, since it is not only the work of a god, but is -fabricated on an extraordinary occasion, to excite the admiration of men. It -is clear that the poet attributes a superiority to several Eastern nations, more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> -especially to the Phœnicians, not only in wealth, but in knowledge and skill, -that, compared with their progress, the arts of Greece seem to be in their -infancy. The description of a Phœnician vessel, which comes to a Greek -island freighted with trinkets, and of the manner in which a lady of the -highest rank, and her servants, handle and gaze on one of the foreign ornaments, -present the image of such a commerce as Europeans carry on with -the islanders of the South Sea. It looks as if articles of this kind, at least, -were eagerly coveted, and that there were no means of procuring them -at home.</p> - -<p>It is possible that Homer’s pictures of the heroic style of living may be -too highly coloured, but there is reason to believe that they were drawn -from the life. He may have been somewhat too lavish of the precious -metals; but some of the others, particularly copper, were perhaps more -abundant than in later times; beside copper and iron, we find steel and tin, -which the Phœnicians appear already to have brought from the west of -Europe, frequently mentioned. There can be no doubt that the industry -of the Greeks had long been employed on these materials. We may therefore -readily believe that, even in the heroic times, the works of Greek -artisans already bore the stamp of the national genius. In some important -points, the truth of Homer’s descriptions has been confirmed by monuments, -brought to light within our own memory, of an architecture which was -most probably contemporary with the events which he celebrated. The -remains of Mycenæ and other ancient cities seem sufficiently to attest the -fidelity with which he has represented the general character of that magnificence -which the heroic chieftains loved to display. On the other hand, the -same poems afford several strong indications that, though in the age which -they describe such arts were, perhaps, rapidly advancing, they cannot then -have been so long familiar to the Greeks as to be very commonly practised; -and that a skilful artificer was rarely found, and was consequently viewed -with great admiration, and occupied a high rank in society. Thus, the craft -of the carpenter appears to be exceedingly honourable. He is classed with -the soothsayer, the physician, and the bard, and like them is frequently sent -for from a distance. The son of a person eminent in this craft is not mixed -with the crowd on the field of battle, but comes forward among the most -distinguished warriors. And as in itself it seems to confer a sort of nobility, -so it is practised by the most illustrious chiefs. Ulysses is represented -as a very skilful carpenter. He not only builds the boat in which he leaves -the island of Calypso, but in his own palace carves a singular bedstead out -of the trunk of a tree, which he inlays with gold, silver, and ivory. Another -chief, Epeus, was celebrated as the builder of the wooden horse in which the -heroes were concealed at the taking of Troy. The goddess Athene was held -to preside over this, as over all manual arts, and to favour those who excelled -in it with her inspiring counsels.</p> - -<p>The chances of war give occasion, as might be expected, for frequent -allusions to the healing art. The Greek army contains two chiefs who have -inherited consummate skill in this art from their father Æsculapius; and -Achilles has been so well instructed in it by Chiron, that Patroclus, to whom -he has imparted his knowledge, is able to supply their place. But the processes -described in this and other cases show that these might often be the -least danger from the treatment of the most unpractised hands. The operation -of extracting a weapon from the wound, with a knife, seems not to have -been considered as one which demanded peculiar skill; the science of the -physician was chiefly displayed in the application of medicinal herbs, by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> -which he stanched the blood, and eased the pain. When Ulysses has been -gored by a wild boar, his friends first bind up the hurt, and then use a charm -for stopping the flow of blood. The healing art, such as it was, was frequently -and successfully practised by the women.</p> - -<p>We have already seen that several of the arts which originally ministered -only to physical wants, had been so far refined before the time of Homer, that -their productions gratified the sense of beauty, and served for ornament as -well as for use. Hence our curiosity is awakened to inquire to what extent -those arts, which became in later times the highest glory of Greece, in which -she yet stands unrivalled, were cultivated in the same period. Unfortunately, -the information which the poet affords on this subject is so scanty and obscure, -as to leave room on many points for a wide difference of opinion. If we begin -with his own art, of which his own poetry is the most ancient specimen extant, -we find several hints of its earlier condition. It was held in the highest -honour among the heroes. The bard is one of those persons whom men send -for to very distant parts; his presence is welcome at every feast; it seems -as if one was attached to the service of every great family, and treated with an -almost religious respect; Agamemnon, when he sets out on the expedition -to Troy, reposes the most important of all trusts in the bard whom he leaves -at home. It would even seem as if poetry and music were thought fit to -form part of a princely education; for Achilles is found amusing himself -with singing, while he touches the same instrument with which the bards -constantly accompany their strains. The general character of this heroic -poetry is also distinctly marked; it is of the narrative kind, and its subjects -are drawn from the exploits or adventures of renowned men. Each song is -described as a short extemporaneous effusion, but yet seems to have been -rounded into a little whole, such as to satisfy the hearer’s immediate curiosity.</p> - -<h5><i>The Graphic Arts</i></h5> - -<p>An interesting and difficult question presents itself, as to the degree -in which Homer and his contemporaries were conversant with the imitative -arts, and particularly with representations of the human form. We find -such representations, on a small scale, frequently described. The garment -woven by Helen contained a number of battle scenes; as one presented by -Penelope to Ulysses was embroidered with a picture of a chase, wrought -with gold threads. The shield of Achilles was divided into compartments -exhibiting many complicated groups of figures: and though this was a -masterpiece of Hephæstus, it would lead us to believe that the poet must -have seen many less elaborate and difficult works of a like nature. But -throughout the Homeric poems there occurs only one distinct allusion to -a statue, as a work of human art. The robe which the Trojan queen -offers to Athene in her temple, is placed by the priestess on the knees of -the goddess, who was therefore represented in a sitting posture. Even -this, it may be said, proves nothing as to the Greeks. They can only be -admitted as additional indications that the poet was not a stranger to such -objects.</p> - -<p>To pictures, or the art of painting, properly so called, the poet makes -no allusion, though he speaks of the colouring of ivory, as an art in which -the Carian and Mæonian women excelled. It must, however, be considered -that there is only one passage in which he expressly mentions any kind of -delineation, and there in a very obscure manner, though he has described so -many works which imply a previous design.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_3c2" id="enanchor_3c2"></a><a href="#endnote_3c">c</a></span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE ART OF WAR</h4> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 200px;"> -<img src="images/p092.jpg" width="200" height="386" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Pavement of Southwest Ramparts of -the Walls of Troy</span></p> -</div> - -<p>The art of war is among the arts of -necessity, which all people, the rudest -equally and the most polished, must cultivate, -or ruin will follow the neglect. -The circumstances of Greece were in some -respects peculiarly favourable to the improvement -of this art. Divided into little -states, the capital of each, with the greater -part of the territory, generally within a -day’s march of several neighbouring states -which might be enemies and seldom were -thoroughly to be trusted as friends, while -from the establishment of slavery arose -everywhere perpetual danger of a domestic -foe, it was of peculiar necessity both for -every individual to be a soldier, and for the -community to pay unremitting attention to -military affairs. Accordingly we find that -so early as Homer’s time the Greeks had -improved considerably upon that tumultuary -warfare alone known to many barbarous -nations, who yet have prided themselves in -the practice of war for successive centuries. -Several terms used by the poet, together -with his descriptions of marches, indicate -that orders of battle were in his time regularly -formed in rank and file. Steadiness -in the soldier, that foundation of all those -powers which distinguish an army from a -mob, and which to this day forms the highest -praise of the best troops, we find in great perfection in the <i>Iliad</i>. “The -Grecian phalanges,” says the poet, “marched in close order, the leaders directing -each his own band. The rest were mute: insomuch that you would say -in so great a multitude there was no voice. Such was the silence with which -they respectfully watched for the word of command from their officers.”</p> - -<p>Considering the deficiency of iron, the Grecian troops appear to have -been very well armed both for offence and defence. Their defensive armour -consisted of a helmet, a breastplate, and greaves, all of brass, and a shield, -commonly of bull’s hide, but often strengthened with brass. The breastplate -appears to have met the belt, which was a considerable defence to the -belly and groin, and with an appendant skirt guarded also the thighs. All -together covered the forepart of the soldier from the throat to the ankle; -and the shield was a superadded protection for every part. The bulk of the -Grecian troops were infantry thus heavily armed, and formed in close order -many ranks deep. Any body formed in ranks and files, close and deep, without -regard to a specific number of either ranks or files, was generally termed -a phalanx. But the Locrians, under Oïlean Ajax, were all light-armed: bows -were their principal weapons; and they never engaged in close fight.</p> - -<p>Riding on horseback was yet little practised, though it appears to have -been not unknown. Some centuries, however, passed before it was generally -applied in Greece to military purposes; the mountainous ruggedness of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> -country preventing any extensive use of cavalry, except among the Thessalians, -whose territory was a large plain. But in the Homeric armies no -chief was without his chariot, drawn generally by two, sometimes by three -horses; and these chariots of war make a principal figure in Homer’s -battles. Nestor, forming the army for action, composes the first line of -chariots only. In the second he places that part of the infantry in which -he has least confidence; and then forms a third line, or reserve, of the most -approved troops. It seems extraordinary that chariots should have been so -extensively used in war as we find they were in the early ages. In the wide -plains of Asia, indeed, we may account for their introduction, as we may give -them credit for utility: but how they should become so general among the -inhabitants of rocky, mountainous Greece, how the distant Britons should -arrive at that surprising perfection in the use of them which they possessed -when the Roman legions first invaded this island, especially as the same -mode of fighting was little if at all practised among the Gauls and Germans, -is less obvious to conjecture.</p> - -<p>The combat of the chiefs, so repeatedly described by Homer, advancing -to engage singly in front of their line of battle, is apt to strike a modern -reader with an appearance of absurdity perhaps much beyond the reality. -Before the use of fire-arms, that practice was not uncommon when the art -of war was at its greatest perfection. In Cæsar’s <i>Commentaries</i> we have a -very particular account of an advanced combat, in which, not generals indeed, -but two centurions of his army engaged. The Grecian chiefs of the -heroic age, like the knights of the times of chivalry, had armour apparently -very superior to that of the common soldiers; which, with the skill acquired -by assiduous practice amid unbounded leisure, might enable them to obviate -much of the seeming danger of such skirmishes. Nor might the effect be -unimportant. Like the sharp-shooters of modern days, a few men of superior -strength, activity, and skill, superior also by the excellence of their defensive -armour, might prepare a victory by creating disorder in the close array of -the enemy’s phalanx. They threw their weighty javelins from a distance, -while none dared advance to meet them but chiefs equally well-armed with -themselves: and from the soldiers in the ranks they had little to fear; because, -in that close order, the dart could not be thrown with any advantage. -Occasionally, indeed, we find some person of inferior name advancing to throw -his javelin at a chief occupied against some other, but retreating again immediately -into the ranks: a resource not disdained by the greatest heroes -when danger pressed. Hector himself, having thrown his javelin ineffectually -at Ajax, retires toward his phalanx, but is overtaken by a stone of -enormous weight, which brings him to the ground. If from the death or -wounds of chiefs, or slaughter in the foremost rank of soldiers, any confusion -arose in the phalanx, the shock of the enemy’s phalanx, advancing -in perfect order, must be irresistible.</p> - -<p>Another practice common in Homer’s time is by no means equally defensible, -but on the contrary marks great barbarism; that of stopping in the -heat of action to strip the slain. Often this paltry passion for possessing -the spoil of the enemy superseded all other, even the most important and most -deeply interesting objects of battle. The poet himself was not unaware of -the danger and inconveniency of the practice, and seems even to have aimed -at a reformation of it. We find indeed in Homer’s warfare a remarkable -mixture of barbarism with regularity. Though the art of forming an army -in phalanx was known and commonly practised, yet the business of a general, -in directing its operations, was lost in the passion, or we may call it fashion,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> -of the great men to signalise themselves by acts of personal courage and -skill in arms. Achilles and Hector, the first heroes of the <i>Iliad</i>, excel only -in the character of fighting soldiers: as generals and directors of the war, -they are inferior to many. Excepting indeed in the single circumstance of -forming the army in order of battle, so far from the general, we scarcely ever -discover even the officer among Homer’s heroes. It is not till most of the -principal Grecian leaders are disabled for the duty of soldiers that at length -they so far take upon themselves that of officers as to endeavour to restore -order among their broken phalanges.</p> - -<p>We might, however, yet more wonder at another deficiency in Homer’s art -of war, were it not still universal throughout those rich and populous countries -where mankind was first civilised. Even among the Turks, who, far as they -have spread over the finest part of Europe, retain pertinaciously every defect -of their ancient Asiatic customs, the easy and apparently obvious precaution -of posting and relieving sentries, so essential to the safety of armies, -has never obtained. When, in the ill turn of the Grecian affairs, constant -readiness for defence became more especially necessary, it is mentioned as an -instance of soldiership in the active Diomedes, that he slept on his arms without -his tent: but no kind of watch was kept; all his men were at the same -time asleep around him: and the other leaders were yet less prepared against -surprise. A guard indeed selected from the army was set, in the manner of -a modern grand-guard or out-post; but though commanded by two officers -high both in rank and reputation, yet the commander-in-chief expresses his -fear that, overcome with fatigue, the whole might fall asleep and totally forget -their duty. The Trojans, who at the same time, after their success, -slept on the field of battle, had no guard appointed by authority, but depended -wholly upon the interest which every one had in preventing a surprise; -“They exhorted one another to be watchful,” says the poet. But the -allies all slept; and he subjoins the reason, “For they had no children or wives -at hand.” However, though Homer does not expressly blame the defect, or -propose a remedy, yet he gives, in the surprise of Rhesus, an instance of the -disasters to which armies are exposed by intermission of watching, that might -admonish his fellow-countrymen to improve their practice.</p> - -<p>The Greeks, and equally the Trojans and their allies, encamped with -great regularity; and fortified, if in danger of an attack from a superior -enemy. Indeed Homer ascribes no superiority in the art of war, or even in -personal courage, to his fellow-countrymen. Even those inland Asiatics, -afterwards so unwarlike, are put by him upon a level with the bravest people. -Tents, like those now in use, seem to have been a late invention. The -ancients, on desultory expeditions, and in marching through a country, slept -with no shelter but their cloaks; as our light troops often carry none but a -blanket—a practice which Bonaparte extended to his whole army, thereby -providing a speedy and miserable death for thousands in his retreat from -Russia. When the ancients remained long on a spot they hutted. Achilles’ -tent or hut was built of fir, and thatched with reeds; and it seems to have -had several apartments.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_3h2" id="enanchor_3h2"></a><a href="#endnote_3h">h</a></span></p> - -<h4>TREATMENT OF ORPHANS, CRIMINALS, AND SLAVES</h4> - -<p>There are two special veins of estimable sentiment, on which it may be interesting -to contrast heroic and historical Greece, and which exhibit the latter -as an improvement on the former, not less in the affections than in the intellect.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p> - -<p>The law of Athens was peculiarly watchful and provident with respect -both to the persons and the property of orphan minors; but the description -given in the <i>Iliad</i> of the utter and hopeless destitution of the orphan boy, -despoiled of his paternal inheritance and abandoned by all the friends of his -father, whom he urgently supplicates, and who all harshly cast him off, is -one of the most pathetic morsels in the whole poem. In reference again to -the treatment of the dead body of an enemy, we find all the Greek chiefs -who come near (not to mention the conduct of Achilles himself) piercing with -their spears the corpse of the slain Hector, while some of them even pass disgusting -taunts upon it. We may add, from the lost epics, the mutilation of -the dead bodies of Paris and Deiphobus by the hand of Menelaus. But at -the time of the Persian invasion, it was regarded as unworthy of a right-minded -Greek to maltreat in any way the dead body of an enemy, even -where such a deed might seem to be justified on the plea of retaliation.</p> - -<p>The different manner of dealing with homicide presents a third test, -perhaps more striking yet, of the change in Grecian feelings and manners -during the three centuries preceding the Persian invasion. That which the -murderer in the Homeric times had to dread, was, not public prosecution -and punishment, but the personal vengeance of the kinsmen and friends of -the deceased, who were stimulated by the keenest impulses of honour and -obligation to avenge the deed, and were considered by the public as specially -privileged to do so. To escape from this danger, he is obliged to flee the -country, unless he can prevail upon the incensed kinsmen to accept of a -valuable payment (we must not speak of coined money, in the days of -Homer) as satisfaction for their slain comrade. They may, if they please, -decline the offer, and persist in their right of revenge; but if they accept, -they are bound to leave the offender unmolested, and he accordingly remains -at home without further consequences. The chiefs in agora do not seem to -interfere, except to insure payment of the stipulated sum.</p> - -<p>In historical Athens, this right of private revenge was discountenanced -and put out of sight, even so early as the Draconian legislation, and at last -restricted to a few extreme and special cases; while the murderer came -to be considered, first as having sinned against the gods, next as having -deeply injured the society, and thus at once as requiring absolution and -deserving punishment. On the first of these two grounds, he is interdicted -from the agora and from all holy places, as well as from public functions, -even while yet untried and simply a suspected person; for if this were -not done, the wrath of the gods would manifest itself in bad crops and other -national calamities. On the second ground, he is tried before the council -of Areopagus, and if found guilty, is condemned to death, or perhaps -to disfranchisement and banishment. The idea of a propitiatory payment to -the relatives of the deceased has ceased altogether to be admitted: it is the -protection of society which dictates, and the force of society which inflicts, -a measure of punishment calculated to deter for the future.</p> - -<p>The society of legendary Greece includes, besides the chiefs, the general -mass of freemen (λαοὶ), among whom stand out by special names certain professional -men, such as the carpenter, the smith, the leather-dresser, the leech, -the prophet, the bard, and the fisherman. We have no means of appreciating -their condition. Though lots of arable land were assigned in special property -to individuals, with boundaries both carefully marked and jealously watched, -yet the larger proportion of surface was devoted to pasture. Cattle formed -both the chief item in the substance of a wealthy man, the chief means of -making payments, and the common ground of quarrels—bread and meat, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> -large quantities, being the constant food of every one. The estates of the -owners were tilled, and their cattle tended, mostly by bought slaves, but to -a certain degree also by poor freemen called <i>thetes</i>, working for hire and -for stated periods. The principal slaves, who were entrusted with the care -of large herds of oxen, swine, or goats, were of necessity men worthy of confidence, -their duties placing them away from their master’s immediate eye. -They had other slaves subordinate to them, and appear to have been well-treated: -the deep and unshaken attachment of Eumæus the swineherd and -Philœtius the neatherd to the family and affairs of the absent Ulysses, is -among the most interesting points in the ancient epic. Slavery was a calamity, -which in that period of insecurity might befall any one: the chief who -conducted a freebooting expedition, if he succeeded, brought back with him -a numerous troop of slaves, as many as he could seize—if he failed, became -very likely a slave himself: so that the slave was often by birth of equal -dignity with his master—Eumæus was himself the son of a chief, conveyed -away when a child by his nurse, and sold by Phœnician kidnappers to Laertes. -A slave of this character, if he conducted himself well, might often expect to -be enfranchised by his master and placed in an independent holding.</p> - -<p>On the whole, the slavery of legendary Greece does not present itself as -existing under a peculiarly harsh form, especially if we consider that all the -classes of society were then very much upon a level in point of taste, sentiment, -and instruction. In the absence of legal security or an effective social -sanction, it is probable that the condition of a slave under an average master, -may have been as good as that of the free Thete. The class of slaves whose -lot appears to have been the most pitiable were the females—more numerous -than the males, and performing the principal work in the interior of the -house. Not only do they seem to have been more harshly treated than the -males, but they were charged with the hardest and most exhausting labour -which the establishment of a Greek chief required; they brought in water -from the spring, and turned by hand the house-mills, which ground the large -quantity of flour consumed in his family. This oppressive task was performed -generally by female slaves, in historical as well as in legendary -Greece. Spinning and weaving was the constant occupation of women, -whether free or slave, of every rank and station; all the garments worn -both by men and women were fashioned at home, and Helen as well as -Penelope is expert and assiduous at the occupation. The daughters of -Celeus at Eleusis go to the well with their basins for water, and Nausicaa, -daughter of Alcinous, joins her female slaves in the business of washing her -garments in the river. If we are obliged to point out the fierceness and insecurity -of an early society, we may at the same time note with pleasure its -characteristic simplicity of manners: Rebecca, Rachel, and the daughters of -Jethro, in the early Mosaic narrative, as well as the wife of the native Macedonian -chief (with whom the Temenid Perdiccas, ancestor of Philip and -Alexander, first took service on retiring from Argos), baking her own cakes -on the hearth, exhibit a parallel in this respect to the Homeric pictures.</p> - -<p>We obtain no particulars respecting either the common freemen generally, -or the particular class of them called <i>thetes</i>. These latter, engaged for -special jobs, or at the harvest and other busy seasons of field labour, seem -to have given their labour in exchange for board and clothing: they are -mentioned in the same line with the slaves, and were (as has been just observed) -probably on the whole little better off. The condition of a poor freeman -in those days, without a lot of land of his own, going about from one -temporary job to another, and having no powerful family and no social<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> -authority to look up to for protection, must have been sufficiently miserable. -When Eumæus indulged his expectation of being manumitted by his masters, -he thought at the same time that they would give him a wife, a house, -and a lot of land near to themselves; without which collateral advantages -simple manumission might perhaps have been no improvement in his condition. -To be <i>thete</i> in the service of a very poor farmer is selected by -Achilles as the maximum of human hardship.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_3b2" id="enanchor_3b2"></a><a href="#endnote_3b">b</a></span></p> - -<h4>MANNERS AND CUSTOMS</h4> - -<p>The Trojan war gives a great shock to Greece and hurls it for the first -time against Asia. Herodotus saw very well in this war, still mixed with -fables, but certain in its principal events and in its issue, the first act of this -long struggle between Greece and Asia, which will have for end the expedition -of Alexander.</p> - -<p>The Eastern armies are richer, the habits more slack, the spirit less active -and less enterprising. Greece already lived its own life, it was conscious -of itself and practised in its own centre that military and intellectual activity -of which the Trojan War was the first development.</p> - -<p>Marriage is no longer, as in the East, a sale, where the woman is considered -as a thing; an exchange of presents between the two families seems -to indicate a certain equality between the husband and wife. The legitimate -wife, in this society where the scourge of polygamy has not passed, -has a dignity and influence unknown in Greece. Penelope is the companion -of Ulysses. The nobleness of her sorrow, her authority, are signs of the -new destiny of women. The wife of Alcinous rules the domestic affairs. -Helen herself, after her return to family life, will come and sit down, free -and respected by the hearth of her spouse. Lastly, Andromache is the true -companion of Hector, and seems worthy of sharing in all his fortune. But -the woman is still far from being the equal of man. Favourite slaves frequently -take from her her influence, and slavery, which the chances of war -can bring down on the noblest, vilifies her at every instant. That tripod, -given to a victor in a contest, is worth twelve oxen. We see the princes -Iphitus and Ulysses, labourers and shepherds, Anchises, who is shepherd and -hunter. The shield of Achilles shows us a king harvesting. Neleus gives -his daughter in marriage for a flock; Andromache herself takes care of -Hector’s horses; and Nausicaa, at a later and more civilised period than -the <i>Odyssey</i>, is depicted to us washing the linen of the royal family.</p> - -<p>The guest almost makes part of the family; it is the gods who send him, -a touching and wholesome belief in that time of brigandage and of difficult -communications. You are going to spurn this guest; take care! perhaps -it is Jupiter himself. How many times have the gods not come thus to try -mortals? Also hospitality formed a sacred link which united, in the most -distant tribes, those who had received it to those who had given it. This -gave rise to duties of gratitude and friendship that nothing could efface, and -which kept their sway even to the encounters on the battle-field. Glaucus -and Diomedes met in the midst of the conflict and exchanged weapons, which -they would have a horror of staining with the blood of a guest. It is not in -vain that Hercules and Theseus travelled over Greece, punishing the violators -of hospitality. There were no castes in the Grecian society, but slavery -from the most ancient times, with the right of life and death for sanction. -War was the most ordinary cause of servitude. The enemy spared became<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> -the slave of the victor; it is thus that Briseis fell to the power of Achilles. -There was no town taken without slaves, and the inhabitants formed part of -the booty. Hector predicted slavery for his wife and his sons, and depicts -Andromache as fetching water from the fountain, and spinning wool in the -house of a Greek. The carrying off of children by pirates, who made a -regular trade of them, already maintained slavery; it is thus that Eumæus -was sold at Ithaca. This custom of taking away children from the inhabitants -of the coasts, lasted as long as the ancient world. The Greek comedy, -and after it Roman comedy, made of this carrying off the most ordinary -source of their intrigues. But if servitude was already rooted in Greek -civilisation, it was at least then singularly softened by the simplicity of the -customs, and above all by the rural and agricultural life, which brought together -in common works master and slave.</p> - -<p>Poetry was already a fashion in these rising societies, and in the middle -of these hard wars the pleasures of the mind had their place. The warriors, -seated in circles, listened with an eagerness, full of patience, to the interminable -recitals of the <i>ædes</i> or singers. Competitions of music and religious -poetry are already instituted in the small towns, which call the rising art to -their ceremonies. These poetries were sung with the accompaniment of the -lyre, and there was no king who had not his singer. Agamemnon treated -his with honour, and in leaving, entrusted to him his wife and his treasures. -This religious and heroic poetry preceded Homer, who found established -rules and fixed types. As to the beauty of this primitive poetry, it must be -judged by the immortal creations of its most illustrious representative. -Certainly there were not many Homers, but he was not the only poet, and -the imposing simplicity of his poetry could not be a unique fact in this age -of chanted legends. Art and sciences were in infancy, but the curiosity and -admiration that the poets testify for the still imperfect work of the artists, -and for the fabulous tales of travellers, remind us that we see at its beginning -the most industrious and the most inventive race of antiquity.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_3i" id="enanchor_3i"></a><a href="#endnote_3i">i</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_6" id="Footnote_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> [This estimate must not be taken too literally. The “Heroic Age” is more a racial memory -than a chronological epoch.]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-3.jpg" width="500" height="141" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-4.jpg" width="500" height="255" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_IV_THE_TRANSITION_TO_SECURE_HISTORY">CHAPTER IV. THE TRANSITION TO SECURE HISTORY</h3> - -<h4>BELOCH’S VIEW OF THE CONVENTIONAL PRIMITIVE HISTORY<a name="FNanchor_7" id="FNanchor_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[<i>ca.</i> 1200-800 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The singers of the epic poems as well as their hearers were as yet wholly -unconscious of the gap separating mythology from history. To them the -Trojan War, the march of the Seven against Thebes, the wanderings of -Ulysses and Menelaus, were historical realities and they believed just as -firmly that Achilles, Diomedes, Agamemnon, and all the other heroes once -really lived, as the Swiss until recently believed in the reality of their Tell -and Winkelried. Indeed until the fourth century hardly any one in Greece -dared to question the truth of these things. Even so critical a person as -Thucydides is still wholly under the influence of epic tradition, so much so -that he gives a statistical report of the strength of Agamemnon’s army and -tries to answer the question as to how such masses of people could have been -supported during the ten years’ siege of Troy.</p> - -<p>But the world which the epic described belonged to an immeasurably distant -past. The people of that time were much stronger than those “who live -to-day”; the gods still used to descend upon the earth and did not consider -it beneath them to generate sons with mortal women. In comparison with -that great by-gone age, the present and that which oral tradition told of the -immediate past seemed wholly without interest; and if the epic did occasionally -seize upon historical recollections, the events were put back into the -heroic age and became inseparably mingled with mythical occurrences. As -to how the present had grown out of this heroic past, the poets and their -contemporaries had not yet begun to ask.</p> - -<p>The time came, however, when this question was put. People wanted to -know why the Greece of historical times looked so different from Homer’s -Greece; why for example Homer knows of no Thessaly; why he has Achæans -instead of Dorians living in Argolis; why, according to him, descendants of -Pelops instead of those of Hercules sit upon the thrones of Argos and Sparta.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> -It is the first awakening of the historical sense which finds expression in such -questions. The answer, however, was already given with the question. It -was clear that the Grecian tribes must have changed their abodes to a great -extent after the Trojan War; Hellas must have been shaken by a real migration -of peoples. But this single fact was not sufficient. People wanted to -know the impelling cause of the migrations, and the particular circumstances -under which they took place. The answer was not difficult for a people -endowed with such a facility for speculation.</p> - -<p>The very lack of colour in such accounts would be a sufficient proof -for the fact that we are not dealing here with pure speculation, not with -real tradition. Thus hardly anything more is told of the immigration of the -Thessalians into the river basin of the Peneus beyond the bald fact, and that -was sufficient to explain why Homer’s “Pelasgian Argos” was called Thessaly -in historic times. Of course the incomers must have had a leader, consequently -Thessalus, the eponymic hero of the people, was placed at their -head, a point in the story which of itself is sufficient to stamp the whole narrative -as a late invention. The Thessalians also must have come from somewhere; -but since Homer already places the races south of Thermopylæ in the -homes they actually occupied in history, and since they could not make a -Grecian tribe immigrate from Thrace or Illyria, there was nothing else to do -but to place the original home of the conquerors in Epirus. This was all the -more plausible as the name Thessaly is really closely connected with Thessaliotis, -the region about Pharsalia and Cierium on the borders of Epirus, and -first spread from here to other parts of the country.</p> - -<p>Even more characteristic perhaps is the account of the migration of the -Bœotians. According to Homer, Cadmeans lived in Thebes, Minyæ in -Orchomenos. Hence it followed that the Bœotians must have immigrated -after the Trojan War, like the Thessalians. But a great many Thessalian -names of places and religious practices occur in Bœotia. Hence nothing was -more simple than to make the Bœotians immigrate from Thessaly, thus at the -same time explaining what had become of the original inhabitants of Thessaly -after the influx of Thessalians. To be sure this original population, as -represented by the serfs (<i>penestai</i>) of the Thessalian nobles, presented a very -different appearance; still these two views could very well be combined: -one needed only to suppose that one part of the former population of the -region had fallen into bondage, and that the other had emigrated. Moreover, -Homer already mentions Bœotians in the region which they occupied in -historic times. That made the further supposition necessary that a part of -the people had already settled in Bœotia before the Trojan War; or else the -opposite hypothesis was made, that the Bœotians had been driven out of -Bœotia after the Trojan War by the Pelasgians and Thracians, and had -returned thither after several generations. We see plainly from this example -how all such suppositions were dependent on the epic poems.</p> - -<p>The migration of the Eleans is a similar case. Elis is an old district name, -consequently no Eleans can ever have existed outside of Elis. But Homer -mentions the Epeans as being inhabitants of the country; consequently it was -stated that the Eleans did not enter the Peloponnesus until after the Trojan -War, and that they came from Ætolia, where Oxylus, the mythical ancestor -of the Elean royal house, was also worshipped as a hero. According to an -opposite version Ætolia was settled by emigrants from Elis; and these two -views were then combined, and the Eleans were made first to move to Ætolia -and then, after ten generations, to move back again. As a matter of fact the -Homeric Epeans are nothing else than the inhabitants of Epea in Triphylia,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> -whose name was extended to include the inhabitants of the surrounding districts, -like the name of the neighbouring Pylians, since the knowledge of the -Ionic rhapsodists concerning the western part of the Peloponnesus is very -scanty.</p> - -<p>Further, since Homer knows of no Dorians in the Peloponnesus, it was -clear that the peoples inhabiting Argolis and Laconia in historic times could -have come in only after the Trojan War; it remained only to discover from -whence. This was not difficult; there was in the middle part of Greece, -between Œta and Parnassus, a small mountainous district whose inhabitants -were called Dorians, quite like the Grecian colonists on the Carian coast. -This is not at all remarkable, since in a widely extended linguistic territory -the same local names must necessarily recur in different places, as may be -seen from any topographical dictionary. Such homonyms by no means -prove an especially close relationship between the inhabitants of such localities; -in the formation of Greek racial tradition, however, they have played -an important part.</p> - -<p>The home of the Dorians was in this way established. People now -wanted to know the reason which had led them to seek new abodes so far -away. In close connection with this was the question as to how the -descendants of Hercules had come to reign over Argos, Sparta, and Messene. -The answer was given by the tradition of the return of the Heraclidæ. -Hercules, it was related, had belonged to the royal family of Argos, but had -been robbed of his rights to the throne and had died in exile; his sons, or -grandsons as was stated later for chronological reasons, had made good their -rights with the aid of the Dorians and had also established the claims which -Hercules had to dominion over Laconia and Messenia. The regained lands -were divided under the three brothers Temenus, Cresphontes, and Aristodemus, -or between the twin sons of the latter, Procles and Eurysthenes. -This was a tradition which could be put to admirable political use. Supported -by this title, Argos could claim the hegemony over the whole of -Argolis; Sparta could justify the subjection of the small cities of Laconia -and Messenia. That was why this tradition, once come into existence, was -quickly circulated and officially recognised.</p> - -<p>But the mention of Messenia shows that we are here dealing with a comparatively -recent stage in the growth of tradition, since this region could -not be claimed as a heritage by the Heraclidæ until after the Spartan -conquest between the eighth and seventh centuries.</p> - -<p>Also the eponymi of the Spartan royal dynasties of Agis and Eurypon -have no place in the tradition of the Doric migrations; a sure sign that they -were first connected with Hercules artificially. And Temenus, from whom -the Argive kings traced their descent, was, according to the Arcadian myth,—no -doubt taken from Argos,—the son of Pelasgus, of Phegeus, or of the -Argolian hero Phoroneus. It was also related that Temenus had been -brought up by Hera—the goddess of the Argolian land. He was thus an -old Argive hero who originally had nothing whatever to do with Hercules. -Just as little was known about the Doric migration on the island of Cos at -the time when the genealogy of its ruling dynasty was written, since the -latter is not traced back to Temenus, but directly to Hercules through his -son Thessalus. And anyway Hercules, as we have seen, is not a “Doric” -divinity at all, but a Bœotian, whose cult was extended to the neighbouring -countries of Bœotia, only after the colonisation of Asia Minor. The tradition -concerning the return of the Heraclidæ is thus seen to have come into -existence long after the immigration of the Dorians into the Peloponnesus,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> -with which it is inseparably connected. This tradition is first mentioned by -Tyrtæus towards the end of the seventh century and in the epic poem -<i>Ægimios</i>, ascribed to Hesiod, which may have been written at the same -time, or a little later. That was the period when the Homeric poems became -popular in European Greece; both Tyrtæus and Hesiod are wholly under -their influence. Moreover it is clear that an immigration of Dorians from -middle Greece into the Peloponnesus could be talked of only after the Doric -name had been carried from the colonies of Asia Minor to the west coast of -the Ægean Sea, which did not happen until post-Homeric times. In the -same way the legend of the Thessalian migration could have grown up only -after the inhabitants of the Peneus river basin had become conscious of -their racial unity and had begun to designate themselves by the common -name of Thessalians. This must have taken place early in the eighth or -seventh centuries, since, as has already been stated, Homer is not as yet -acquainted with this name, whereas the latest part of the <i>Iliad</i>, the catalogue -of ships, mentions the eponymic hero of the people. Finally, the -dependence of all these legendary migrations upon the epic poems is shown -by the fact that they are connected only with regions which in Homer had -a different population than in historic times. The Arcadians and Athenians, -on the other hand, who already in Homer are found in the same districts -they occupied in later times, considered themselves autochthonous. -Thus we see that Homer had not only given the Greeks their gods, as Herodotus -says, but their ancient history also. We, however, do not need to be -told that traditions which did not grow up until the eighth or seventh century -are entirely worthless as helping to an understanding of conditions in -Greece at a time preceding the colonisation of Asia Minor.</p> - -<p>After all this the question as to the internal evidence of the truth of -these traditions is really superfluous. Even a well-invented myth is yet by -no means history. Here, however, we are asked to believe the most improbable -things. The Doris on the Œta is a wild mountain valley, measuring -scarcely two hundred square kilometers in area, which could not have contained -more than a few thousand inhabitants, since farming and grazing formed -their sole means of support. In Homer’s time the eastern Locrians were -still so lightly armed that they were wholly unfitted for fighting with the -hoplites at close range; the Dorians who lived farther inland than these -Locrians cannot have been much further advanced several centuries earlier. -And a few hundreds or even thousands of such poorly armed soldiers are to -have conquered the old highly civilised districts of the Peloponnesus with -their numerous strongholds, and the superior armour of their inhabitants? -The very idea is an absurdity. No more can we understand why the Dorians -should have migrated precisely to Argolis, and Laconia, and even to Messenia—places -situated so far from their home. The legend does indeed give -a satisfactory answer to this question, but anyone who cannot recognise -Hercules, with his sons and grandsons, as historical characters, is obliged to -find some other motive for the migration of the Dorians.</p> - -<p>In other respects, also, there is absolutely no proof to support the supposition -of a migration of peoples upon the Grecian peninsula. The “Mycenæan” -civilisation was not, as has been supposed, suddenly destroyed by an -incursion of uncivilised tribes, but was gradually merged into the civilisation -of the classic period. Even Attica, in connection with which there is no -tradition of a migration, had its period of Mycenæan culture. The so-called -“Doric” institutions are limited to Crete and Laconia, and in the latter -country they are not older than the Spartan conquest in the eighth century;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> -hence they have nothing whatever to do with the Doric migration. In the -same way the serfdom of the Thessalian peasants may very well have been -the result of an economic development, like the colonia during the Roman -empire or serfdom in Germany after the end of the Middle Ages. Also the -differentiation of the Grecian dialects came about, as we saw, after the colonisation -of Asia Minor, and hence should not be traced back to the migrations -which took place within the Grecian peninsula at some time preceding -this period. And, in any case, after the Dorians settled in the Peloponnesus -they must have adopted the dialect of the original inhabitants of the country, -who were so far superior to them in numbers and civilisation; just as no one -doubts that the Thessalians did the same after their immigration into the -Peneus river basin. A “religion of the Doric race,” however, exists only in -the imagination of modern scholars; Hercules himself, the ancestral god -of the Dorians, is of Bœotian origin. Finally, it is extremely doubtful if the -Argives and Laconians were any more closely related to each other than -to the other Grecian tribes—the so-called Doric Phyleans, at least, have -until now been traced only in Argolis and in the Argolian colonies. But -even if a closer relationship did exist between the two neighbouring tribes, -it would by no means necessarily follow that the Argo-Laconian people first -immigrated into the Peloponnesus at a time when the eastern part of the -peninsula had already reached a comparatively high grade of civilisation. -There is indeed no question but that the Peloponnesus got its Hellenic -population from the north, that is directly from middle Greece; and it is -very probable that, even after the Peloponnesus was already in the possession -of the Greeks, tribal displacements still took place in Greece. But they -occurred in so remote a period that they have left no distinguishable trace, -even in tradition. If the Greeks of Asia Minor remembered only the bare -fact of their immigration, how could a tradition have been maintained -of tribal wanderings which took place long before this colonisation? It is -an idle task to try to discover the direction of these migrations or the more -particular circumstances under which they took place.</p> - -<p>Hence it is a picture of the imagination which, since Herodotus,<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_4e" id="enanchor_4e"></a><!-- letter not in references list for this chapter -->e</span> has been -accepted as primitive Grecian history. But the problem which gave rise to -the traditions of mythical migrations still remains for us to solve—the question -as to why the epics present us with a different picture of the distribution -of Grecian tribes, from that found in historic times. The answer to-day will -naturally be different from the one given two thousand years ago.</p> - -<p>The epic poem designates Agamemnon’s followers, and indeed all the -Greeks before Troy, as Argives, Achæans, or Danaans—terms which are -used wholly synonymously even in the oldest parts of the <i>Iliad</i>. Now we -know that not only in Homeric times, but already centuries earlier, before -the colonisation of Crete and Asia Minor, Argolis was inhabited by the same -people that we find there in historic times. It would not of itself be impossible -to suppose that this people, who afterwards had no common tribal name, -should have called themselves Achæans or Danaans, in prehistoric times, -although it would be difficult to understand how this tribal name could have -been lost. But as a matter of fact a tribe called Danaan never did exist. -Danaus is an old Argive hero who is said to have transformed the waterless -Argos into a well-watered country; his daughters, the Danaides, are water -nymphs; Danæ also, the mother of the solar hero Perseus, and herself -a goddess, cannot be separated from Danaus. The Danaans, accordingly, -are the “people of Danaus”; they belong like him to tradition, and have -been transposed from heaven to earth like the Cadmeans and Minyæ to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> -whom we shall return later on. The name Achæan, however, was applied -in historic times to the inhabitants of the northern coast of the Peloponnesus -and of the south of Thessaly, and it is hardly probable that it should have -been more widely spread in historic times. Agamemnon seems rather, -according to the oldest tradition, to have been a Thessalian prince, like -Achilles, who continued to be regarded as such. At the time, however, when -the epic was being formed in Ionia, the Peloponnesian Argos outshone all -other parts of the Grecian peninsula, and the poets in consequence were -obliged to transpose the governmental seat of the powerful ruler from -Thessaly to the Peloponnesus. His Achæans of course migrated with him.</p> - -<p>Since, now, in Homer the name Achæan includes all the Grecian tribes -under Agamemnon’s command, it could no longer be used to designate the -inhabitants of one single region. Consequently in the epic the name Achaia -is not used for the northern coast of the Peloponnesus, but this region is -simply called “coast-land,” or Ægialea. This then gave rise to the tradition—if -we still call such combinations tradition—that the Achæans who -were driven out of Laconia by the Dorians had settled in Ægialea and given -their name to the country. Ionians were said to have lived there previously, -a theory which was supported by the existence of a sanctuary of the Heliconian -Poseidon on the promontory of Mycale.</p> - -<p>Furthermore Homer mentions various peoples upon the Grecian peninsula -and the surrounding islands, which in historic times no longer existed there; -for example, the Abantes, who appear in the catalogue of ships as inhabitants -of Eubœa, whereas in the rest of the <i>Iliad</i> they are not localised. It -is possible that there has here been a preservation of the old tribal name of -the Eubœans, which later must have been lost; but it is also just as possible, -and more probable, that the Abantes had originally nothing whatever to do -with Eubœa, but that they were the inhabitants of Abæ in Phocis, whose -name then, for the sake of some theory, was transferred to the neighbouring -island. The Caucones according to the <i>Telemachus</i> must have dwelt in the -western part of the Peloponnesus, not far from Pylus, whereas the <i>Iliad</i> calls -them allies of the Trojans; and in reality even in historic times Caucones -are said to have been found on the Paphlagonian coast. The name was thus -evidently transferred from Asia Minor to the Peloponnesus, for which the -river Caucon near Dyme in Achaia may have given a reason. A comparatively -late part of the <i>Iliad</i> tells of a war between the Curetes and the inhabitants -of Calydon in Ætolia. In Hesiod, on the other hand, the Curetes -are divine beings, related to the nymphs and satyrs. They appear also as -beneficent dæmons in the Cretan folk-lore; they are said to have taught -mankind all sorts of useful arts and also to have brought up the infant Zeus. -They belong thus to mythology, not to history. They were probably located -in Ætolia only because there was a mountain there called Curion; and as a -matter of course it was said that they had immigrated from Crete. Since -on the Ætolian coast at the foot of the Curion there was a city called Chalcis, -they were further transferred to the Eubœan Chalcis.</p> - -<p>There are also other cases in pre-Homeric times of mythical people having -been transposed from heaven to earth—thus the Danaans of whom we have -already spoken; furthermore, the Lapithæ, who are said to have lived in -the northern part of Thessaly at the foot of Olympus and Ossa. Their close -association with the centaurs leaves no doubt that they, like the latter, belong -to the realm of mythology. Closely related to them are the Phlegyæ. The -<i>Iliad</i> gives us a picture of Ares, as he advances to battle in their ranks, but -leaves their dwelling-place indefinite; later authorities placed it in Thessaly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> -or in the valley of the Bœotian Cephisus. Coronis, the mother of Æsculapius, -belonged to this tribe; also Ixion, who laid violent hands on Hera. -Finally, the Phlegyæ are said to have burned the Delphic temple and in -punishment therefor were destroyed by Apollo by lightning and an earthquake. -The Minyæ also belong to this circle. They compose the crew of -the ship <i>Argo</i>, which goes into the distant sun-land of the east to bring back -from thence the Golden Fleece; the daughter of their tribal hero, Minyas, -is Persephone, and no further proof is necessary to show that he himself is a -god and his people mythical. Afterwards when the starting-point of the -Argonauts was localised in the Pagasæan Gulf, the Minyæ also became a -Thessalian race; from there, like their relatives the Phlegyæ, they were -brought over to Bœotia, where Orchomenos in Homer is called “Minyean.” -And since the <i>Iliad</i> furthermore mentions a river Minyos in the later Triphylia, -the Minyæ were placed there also.</p> - -<p>The Pelasgians play a much more important part in the conventional -primitive history of Greece than the last-mentioned peoples. Throughout -antiquity their name is connected with the western part of the great Thessalian -plain, the “Pelasgic Argos” of Homer, the Pelasgiotis of historic -times. The <i>Iliad</i> speaks of the Pelasgians, famed for their spears, who lived -far from Troy in broad-furrowed Larissa, and probably intends thereby the -Thessalian capital. Thessalian Achilles prays to the Pelasgian Zeus of -Dodona before the departure of his friend Patroclus. But the <i>Iliad</i> as yet -knows nothing of Pelasgian inhabitants of Dodona; on the contrary the catalogue -of ships reckons this sacred city as belonging to the territory of the -Ænianes and Perrhæbi, and it is Hesiod who first makes the temple to have -been founded by Pelasgians. Elsewhere Pelasgians are mentioned by Homer -only in Crete.</p> - -<p>Otherwise the later accounts. Wherever within the circle of the Ægean -Sea the name of Larissa occurs, there Pelasgians are said to have lived—in -the Peloponnesian Argos, in Æolis of Asia Minor, on the island of Lesbos, -on the Cayster near Ephesus. It is possibly for this reason that the <i>Odyssey</i> -places Pelasgians in Crete, since there, also, there was a Larissæan field near -Hierapytna, and Gortyn is said to have been called Larissa in ancient times. -From Argos the Pelasgians also became woven into the myths of the neighbouring -Arcadia, the ancestral hero of which, Lycaon, is called by Hesiod a -son of Pelasgus.</p> - -<p>Pelasgians were said to have lived once in Attica also. The wall which -defended the approach to the citadel of Athens bore the name Pelargicon, -and as no one knew what that meant, it was said that it had been corrupted -out of Pelasgicon and that the citadel had been built by Pelasgians. These -Pelasgians were then said to have been driven out by the Athenians and to -have migrated to Lemnos. Why they went precisely to this place we do not -know, nor why these Lemnian Pelasgians were called Tyrrhenians. Homer -places the Sinties, that is a Thracian tribe, in Lemnos. Remnants of the -original inhabitants of the island, who were driven out by the Athenians in -about the year 500 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, were, a hundred years later, still living on the -peninsula of Athos and on the Propontis near Placia and Scylace; they had -preserved their old language, which was different from the Greek.</p> - -<p>In consequence of this and similar traditions, the theory was brought forward -in the sixth century that the Hellenes had been preceded in Greece by -a Pelasgic race. Since, however, some of the Grecian tribes, as the Arcadians -and Athenians, considered themselves to be autochthonous, there was -nothing for it but to call the Pelasgians the ancestors of the later Hellenes,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> -and so the whole change was reduced to one of name only. This to be sure -was in contradiction of the statements of Homer, who names the Pelasgians -among the allies of Troy, and hence evidently considered them to be racially -antagonistic to the Greeks. The genealogists and historians of antiquity -never got around this contradiction, which was indeed inexplicable with the -means at their command.</p> - -<p>Moreover, even if a Pelasgian people ever had existed in the wide extent -attributed to them by tradition, the Greeks of antiquity would no more have -conceived of them as being a single nation, than they themselves became -conscious of their national unity before the eighth century; they would have -designated the several Pelasgian tribes by different names. This alone -shows that we are not dealing here with real historical tradition, quite apart -from the fact that there is no historical tradition from the time preceding -the colonisation of Asia Minor. Here also it is a question of mere theorising, -and the theories already presuppose the existence of the <i>Iliad</i> and -<i>Odyssey</i>, even to their later songs, so that they cannot be older than the -seventh or sixth century. Historically the Pelasgians can be traced only in -Thessaly. Pelasgiotis is thus equivalent to Pelasgia, just as Thessaliotis is -equivalent to Thessalia and Elimiotis to Elimea. The Pelasgiots, however, -of historic times were of Grecian origin and we have not the slightest reason -to suppose that the same was not true of prehistoric times. Indeed the -Thessalian plain in all probability is the place in which the Hellenes first -made permanent settlements.</p> - -<p>A similar position to that of the Pelasgians is occupied by the Leleges -in tradition. Homer speaks of them as inhabiting Pedasus in southern -Troy and even Alcæus calls Antandrus, situated in this region, a Lelegean -town. Later comers regarded the Leleges as the original inhabitants of -Caria, where there was also a Pedasus; even in the Hellenistic period they -were said to have formed a clan of serfs in this region, like the Heliots in -Sparta. Old fortresses and tombstones, concerning the origin of which -nothing was known, were ascribed to the Leleges, just as we speak of -“Pelasgian” walls. It was also supposed that the whole Ionian coast and -the islands near it were once inhabited by these people. It was natural to -suppose a similar relationship for European Greece and here also to let a -Lelegean population precede the Hellenic. Supports for this theory were -found in a number of local names, such as Physcus and Larymna in Locris, -Abæ in Phocis, Pedasus in Messenia, which occur in an identical or similar -form in Caria. One of the two citadels of Megara was called Caria; and -Zeus Carios was worshipped in various parts of Greece. Accordingly, -Leleges or Carians were said to have lived in all these places. The supposition -that the southern part of the Hellenic peninsula was occupied by a -Carian population in a pre-Grecian period has, as we have seen, a great deal -in its favour; only we should avoid trying to discover historical tradition in -late suppositions, since Homer still knows nothing of all these myths and -Hesiod is the first to make Locrus rule over the Leleges.</p> - -<p>Nor does Homer know anything of Thracians outside of their historic -abodes to the north of the Ægean Sea. Later tradition places them in Phocian -Daulis and in Bœotia on the Helicon. The most direct cause for this -was probably furnished by the race of Thracidæ, which attained a prominent -position in Delphi and which had probably spread into other Phocian cities -as well; another reason was the name of the Daulian king, Tereus, which -had a Thracian sound, and lastly, the cult of the Muses which had a home -on the Helicon, as also on Olympus in Thracian Pieria. Mysteries were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> -connected with this cult even at a comparatively early period, as is shown -by the legends of Orpheus and Musæus. Hence Eumolpus, the mythical -founder of the Eleusinian mysteries, was held to be a Thracian; his very -name shows that he is connected with the worship of the Muses, even if he -were not expressly said to be the son of Musæus. The historic value of this -tradition is thus sufficiently demonstrated.</p> - -<p>There were also traditions of immigrations from the Orient into Greece. -These were based in part upon solar myths, which have given rise to similar -legends among the most widely separated peoples; they also reflect the consciousness -that the rudiments of a higher civilisation were brought to the -Greeks from the East. In the form in which we have them, these myths -are without exception late formations, which presuppose close relations -between Greece and the old civilisations of Asia and Egypt. In Homer, -accordingly, there is no trace of them.</p> - -<p>Thus Pelops is said to have come from Lydia or Phrygia to the peninsula -which has since borne his name. One might be tempted to regard him -as the eponymic hero of the Peloponnesus; but Pelopia was also the name -of a daughter of Pelias or of Niobe, and of the mother of Cycnus, a son of -Ares. Pelops’ mother also is Euryanassa, a daughter of Dione; his paternal -grandfather is Xanthus (the “shining one”); two of his sons are called -Chrysippus and Alcathous. These names leave no doubt as to the fact that -Pelops was originally a solar hero; hence also the story of his contest with -Œnomaus for the possession of Hippodamia. The name Peloponnesus, -which is also unknown to Homer, means accordingly “Island of the sun-god”; -Helios, as is well known, had a celebrated temple at the most -extreme southern point of the peninsula, on the promontory of Tænarum. -Thus Pelops, originally, was not materially different from Hercules, who for -the most part has crowded him out of cult and tradition; just as the genealogy -of the Peloponnesian dynasties was traced back to Pelops in ancient -times and to Hercules at a later period. Nevertheless Pelops has at least -kept the first place in Olympia.</p> - -<p>The tradition of the immigration of Danaus from Egypt is closely connected -with the legend of the wanderings of Io, which could not have -taken on its present form until after Egypt was opened up to the Hellenes, -that is not before the end of the seventh century. The legend concerning -the Egyptian origin of the old Attic national hero Cecrops grew up much -later in the fourth or third century, and never attained general recognition.</p> - -<p>We have already seen how Phœnix and his brother Cadmus became Phœnicians. -Accordingly Phœnix’s daughter, or according to a later myth his sister, -Europa, was carried off by Zeus from Phœnicia to Crete, where she gave -birth to Minos. This alone makes it clear that Minos had nothing whatever -to do with the Phœnicians, but is a good Grecian god, as are also Phœnix, -Cadmus, Europa, his wife Pasiphaë (the “all enlightening”), his daughter -Phædra (the “beaming”), and Ariadne the wife of Dionysus. Minos, also, -afterwards fell to the rank of a hero; already in Homer he appears as the king -of Knossos, and later the Cretans trace their laws back to him. The name -Minoa occurs frequently in the islands and on the coast of the Ægean Sea; -also in Crete itself, and in Amorgos, Siphnos, and on the coast of Megaris. -Hence the conclusion was drawn that Minos had ruled in all these places and -must therefore have been a great sea-king, whose dominion extended over -the whole of the Cyclades and in fact over the whole Ægean Sea. But in -Sicily there was also a Minoa, a daughter city of the Megarian colony of -Selinus, and doubtless named after the small island of Minoa near the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> -Nisæan Megara. Thus the tradition arose that Minos had proceeded to -Sicily and there found his death. Since Selinus was founded in the year -650 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, this myth cannot have come into existence before the sixth century.</p> - -<p>At the beginning of the fifth century all these traditions were combined, -and connected; on the one hand, with the myths which formed the substance -of the epic poems; on the other, with the oldest historic recollections. The -genealogies of the heroes as given in part by Homer and more completely -by Hesiod served as a chronological basis. At the beginning were placed -the Pelasgians, then the immigrations from the east, of Danaus, Pelops, -Cadmus, and others. Then followed the expedition of the Argonauts, the -march of the Seven against Thebes, the Trojan War, and whatever else of -similar nature was related in the epics. Next came the age of the great migrations; -first the incursion of the Thessalians into the plains of the Peneus, -and the Bœotian migration caused thereby, then the march of the Dorians and -their allies, the Eleans, into the Peloponnesus, which was followed by the -colonisation of the islands and of the western coast of Asia Minor.</p> - -<p>Thus was gained the misleading appearance of a pragmatic history of -Grecian antiquity; and although even in ancient times occasional critical -doubts were not wanting, this system as a whole was accepted by the Greeks -as historical truth.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_4c" id="enanchor_4c"></a><a href="#endnote_4c">c</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_7" id="Footnote_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> [Reproduced by permission from his <i>Griechische Geschichte</i>. The subject here treated is -one on which the authorities are by no means agreed. Other views are presented in a subsequent -chapter.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-5.jpg" width="500" height="145" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_V_THE_DORIANS">CHAPTER V. THE DORIANS</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Land of the lordly mien and iron frame!</div> -<div class="verse">Where wealth was held dishonour, Luxury’s smile</div> -<div class="verse">Worse than a demon’s soul-destroying wile!</div> -<div class="verse">Where every youth that hailed the Day-God’s beam,</div> -<div class="verse">Wielded the sword, and dreamt the patriot’s dream;</div> -<div class="verse">Where childhood lisped of war with eager soul,</div> -<div class="verse">And woman’s hand waved on to glory’s goal.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse right">—<span class="smcap">Nicholas Michell.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>From the earliest period there were two peoples of Greece who seem, at -least in the eye of later generations, to have been pre-eminent—the Dorians -and the Ionians. Of the former the leaders are the Spartans; of the -latter, the Athenians. In the main, so preponderant are these two cities -that, viewed retrospectively, Greek history comes to seem the history of -Athens and Sparta. This appears a curious anomaly when one considers -that these cities were not great world emporiums like Babylon and Nineveh -and Rome, but at best only moderate-sized towns. Yet they influenced -humanity for all time to come; and our study of Greek history perforce -resolves itself largely into the doings of the citizens of these two little communities. -We shall first consider the history of the Dorians, who, though -in the long run the less important of the two, were the earlier to appear -prominently on the stage of history.<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span></p> - -<p>The Dorians derived their origin from those districts in which the -Grecian nation bordered towards the north upon numerous and dissimilar -races of barbarians. As to the tribes which dwelt beyond these boundaries -we are indeed wholly destitute of information; nor is there the slightest -trace of any memorial or tradition that the Greeks originally came from -those quarters. On these frontiers, however, the events took place which -effected an entire alteration in the internal condition of the whole Grecian -nation, and here were given many of those impulses, of which the effects -were so long and generally experienced. The prevailing character of the -events alluded to, was a perpetual pressing forward of the barbarous races, -particularly of the Illyrians, into more southern districts.</p> - -<p>To begin then by laying down a boundary line, which may be afterwards -modified for the sake of greater accuracy, we shall suppose this to be -the mountain ridge, which stretches from Mount Olympus to the west as far -as the Acroceraunian Mountains (comprehending the Cambunian ridge and -Mount Lacmon), and in the middle comes in contact with the Pindus chain, -which stretches in a direction from north to south. The western part of -this chain separates the farthest Grecian tribes from the great Illyrian nation, -which extended back as far as the Celts in the south of Germany.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p> - -<p>In the fashion of wearing the mantle and dressing the hair, and also in -their dialect, the Macedonians bore a great resemblance to the Illyrians, -whence it is evident that the Macedonians belonged to the Illyrian nation. -Notwithstanding which, there can be no doubt that the Greeks were aboriginal -inhabitants of this district. The plains of Emathia, the most beautiful -district of the country, were occupied by the Pelasgi, who, according to -Herodotus, also possessed Creston above Chalcidice, to which place they -had come from Thessaliotis. Hence the Macedonian dialect was full of -primitive Greek words. And that these had not been introduced by the -royal family (which was Hellenic by descent or adoption of manners) is evident -from the fact, that many signs of the most simple ideas (which no language -ever borrows from another) were the same in both, as well as from -the circumstance that these words do not appear in their Greek form, but -have been modified according to a native dialect. In the Macedonian dialect -there occur grammatical forms which are commonly called Æolic, together -with many Arcadian and Thessalian words: and what perhaps is still more -decisive, several words, which, though not to be found in the Greek, have -been preserved in the Latin language. There does not appear to be any -peculiar connection with the Doric dialect: hence we do not give much credit -to the otherwise unsupported assertion of Herodotus, of an original identity -of the Dorian and Macednian (Macedonian) nations. In other authors -Macednus is called the son of Lycaon, from whom the Arcadians were -descended, or Macedon is the brother of Magnes, or a son of Æolus, according -to Hesiod and Hellanicus, which are merely various attempts to form a -genealogical connection between this semi-barbarian race and the rest of the -Greek nation.</p> - -<p>The Thessalians as well as the Macedonians were, as it appears, an -Illyrian race, who subdued a native Greek population; but in this case the -body of the interlopers was smaller, while the numbers and civilisation of -the aboriginal inhabitants were considerable. Hence the Thessalians resembled -the Greeks more than any of the northern races with which they -were connected: hence their language in particular was almost purely -Grecian, and indeed bore perhaps a greater affinity to the language of the -ancient epic poets than any other dialect. But the chief peculiarities of -this nation with which we are acquainted were not of a Grecian character. -Of this their national dress, which consisted in part of the flat and broad-brimmed -hat καυσία and the mantle (which last was common to both nations, -but was unknown to the Greeks of Homer’s time, and indeed long afterwards, -until adopted as the costume of the equestrian order at Athens), is -a sufficient example. The Thessalians moreover were beyond a doubt the -first to introduce into Greece the use of cavalry. More important distinctions -however than that first alleged are perhaps to be found in their impetuous -and passionate character, and the low and degraded state of their mental -faculties. The taste for the arts shown by the rich family of the Scopadæ -proves no more that such was the disposition of the whole people, than the -existence of the same qualities in Archelaus argues their prevalence in Macedonia. -This is sufficient to distinguish them from the race of the Greeks, -so highly endowed by nature. We are therefore induced to conjecture that -this nation, which a short time before the expedition of the Heraclidæ, migrated -from Thesprotia, and indeed from the territory of Ephyra (Cichyrus) -into the plain of the Peneus, had originally come from Illyria. On the other -hand indeed, many points of similarity in the customs of the Thessalians -and Dorians might be brought forward. Thus, for example, the love for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> -male sex (that usage peculiar to the Dorians) was also common among the -Illyrians, and the objects of affection were, as at Sparta, called ἀΐται; the -women also, as amongst the Dorians, were addressed by the title of ladies -(δέσποιναι), a title uncommon in Greece, and expressive of the estimation in -which they were held. A great freedom in the manners of the female sex -was nevertheless customary among the Illyrians, who in this respect bore a -nearer resemblance to the northern nations. Upon the whole, however, -these migrations from the north had the effect of disseminating among the -Greeks manners and institutions which were entirely unknown to their -ancestors, as represented by Homer.</p> - -<p>We will now proceed to inquire what was the extent of territory -gained by the Illyrians in the west of Greece. A great part of Epirus had -in early times been inhabited by Pelasgi, to which race the inhabitants of -Dodona are likewise affirmed by the best authorities to have belonged, as -well as the whole nation of Thesprotians; also the Chaonians at the foot of -the Acroceraunian Mountains, and the Chones, Œnotri, and Peucetii on the -opposite coast of Italy, are said to have been of this race. The ancient -buildings, institutions, and religious worship of the Epirotes are also manifestly -of Pelasgic origin. We suppose always that the Pelasgi were Greeks, -and spoke the Grecian language, an opinion however in support of which -we will on this occasion only adduce a few arguments. It must then be -borne in mind, that all the races whose migrations took place at a late -period, such as the Achæans, Ionians, Dorians, were not (the last in particular) -sufficiently powerful or numerous to effect a complete change in -the customs of a barbarous population; that many districts, Arcadia and -Perrhæbia for instance, remained entirely Pelasgic, without being inhabited -by any nation not of Grecian origin; that the most ancient names, either of -Grecian places or mentioned in their traditions, belonged indeed to a different -era of the dialect, but not to another language; that finally, the great -similarity between the Latin and Greek can only be explained by supposing -the Pelasgic language to have formed the connecting link. Now the nations -of Epirus were almost reduced to a complete state of barbarism by the -operation of causes, which could only have had their origin in Illyria; and -in the historic age, the Ambracian Bay was the boundary of Greece. In -later times more than half of Ætolia ceased to be Grecian, and without doubt -adopted the manners and language of the Illyrians, from which point the -Athamanes, an Epirote and Illyrian nation, pressed into the south of Thessaly. -Migrations and predatory expeditions, such as the Encheleans had undertaken -in the fabulous times, continued without intermission to repress and -keep down the genuine population of Greece.</p> - -<p>The Illyrians were in these ancient times also bounded on the east by -the Phrygians and Thracians, as well as by the Pelasgi. The Phrygians -were at this time the immediate neighbours of the Macedonians in Lebæa, -by whom they were called Brygians (Βρύγες, Βρύγοι, Βρίγες); they dwelt at -the foot of the snowy Bermius, where the fabulous rose-gardens of King -Midas were situated, while walking in which the wise Silenus was fabled to -have been taken prisoner. They also fought from this place (as the <i>Telegonia</i> -of Eugamon related) with the Thesprotians of Epirus. At no great -distance from hence were the Mygdonians, the people nearest related to the -Phrygians. According to Xanthus, this nation did not migrate to Asia until -after the Trojan War. But, in the first place, the Cretan traditions begin -with religious ceremonies and fables, which appear from the most ancient -testimonies to have been derived from Phrygians of Asia; and secondly the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> -Armenians, who were beyond a doubt of a kindred race to the Phrygians, -were considered as an aboriginal nation in their own territory. It will -therefore be sufficient to recognise the same race of men in Armenia, Asia -Minor, and at the foot of Mount Bermius, without supposing that all the -Armenians and Phrygians emigrated from the latter settlement on the Macedonian -coast. The intermediate space between Illyria and Asia, a district -across which numerous nations migrated in ancient times, was peopled irregularly -from so many sides, that the national uniformity which seems to have -once existed in those parts was speedily deranged. The most important -documents respecting the connection between the Phrygian and other nations -are the traces that remain of its dialect. It was well known in Plato’s time -that many primitive words of the Grecian language were to be recognised -with a slight alteration in the Phrygian, such as πῦρ, ὕδωρ, κύων; and the -great similarity of grammatical structure which the Armenian now displays -with the Greek, must be referred to this original connection. The Phrygians -in Asia have, however, been without doubt intermixed with Syrians, who -not only established themselves on the right bank of the Halys, but on the -left also in Lycaonia, and as far as Lycia, and accordingly adopted much of -the Syrian language and religion. Their enthusiastic and frantic ceremonies, -however, had doubtless always formed part of their religion; these -they had in common with their immediate neighbours, the Thracians: but -the ancient Greeks appear to have been almost entirely unacquainted with -such rites.</p> - -<p>The Thracians, who settled in Pieria at the foot of Mount Olympus, -and from thence came down to Mount Helicon, as being the originators of -the worship of Bacchus and the Muses, and the fathers of Grecian poetry, -are a nation of the highest importance in the history of civilisation. We -cannot but suppose that they spoke a dialect very similar to the Greek, -since otherwise they could not have had any considerable influence upon the -latter people. They were in all probability derived originally from the -country called Thrace in later times, where the Bessi, a tribe of the nation -of the Satræ, at the foot of Mount Pangæum, presided over the oracle of -Bacchus. Whether the whole of the populous races of Edones, Odomantes, -Odrysi, Treres, etc., are to be considered as identical with the Thracians in -Pieria, or whether it is not more probable that these barbarous nations -received from the Greeks their general name of Thracians, with which -they had been familiar from early times, are questions which we shall not -attempt to determine. Into these nations, however, a large number of Pæonians -subsequently penetrated, who had passed over at the time of a very -ancient migration of the Teucrians together with the Mysians. To this -Pæonian race the Pelagonians, on the banks of the Axius, belonged; who -also advanced into Thessaly, as will be shown hereafter. Of the Teucrians, -however, we know nothing excepting that, in concert with (Pelasgic) Dardanians, -they founded the city of Troy—where the language in use was -probably allied to the Grecian, and distinct from the Phrygian.</p> - -<p>Now it is within the mountainous barriers above described that we -must look for the origin of the nations which in the heroic mythology are -always represented as possessing dominion and power, and are always contrasted -with an aboriginal population. These, in our opinion, were northern -branches of the Grecian nation, which had overrun and subdued the Greeks -who dwelt farther south. The most ancient abode of the Hellenes proper -(who in mythology are merely a small nation in Phthia) was situated, -according to Aristotle, in Epirus, near Dodona, to whose god Achilles prays,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> -as being the ancient protector of his family. In all probability the Achæans, -the ruling nation both of Thessaly and of the Peloponnesus in fabulous times, -were of the same race and origin as the Hellenes. The Minyans, Phlegyans, -Lapithæ, and Æolians of Corinth and Salmone, came originally from the -districts above Pieria, on the frontiers of Macedonia, where the very ancient -Orchomenus, Minya, and Salmonia or Halmopia were situated. Nor is there -less obscurity with regard to the northern settlements of the Ionians; they appear, -as it were, to have fallen from heaven into Attica and Ægialea; they -were not, however, by any means identical with the aboriginal inhabitants -of these districts, and had perhaps detached themselves from some northern, -probably Achæan, race. Lastly, the Dorians are mentioned in ancient -legends and poems as established in one extremity of the great mountain -chain of Upper Greece, viz. at the foot of Mount Olympus: there are, however, -reasons for supposing that at an earlier period they had dwelt at its -other northern extremity, at the farthest limit of the Grecian nation.</p> - -<p>We now turn our attention to the singular nation of the Hylleans -(Ὑλλεῖς, Ὕλλοι), which is supposed to have dwelt in Illyria, but is in many -respects connected in a remarkable manner with the Dorians. The real -place of its abode can hardly be laid down; as the Hylleans are never mentioned -in any historical narrative, but always in mythological legends; and -they appear to have been known to the geographers only from mythological -writers. Yet they are generally placed in the islands of Melita and Black-Corcyra, -to the south of Liburnia. Now the name of the Hylleans agrees -strikingly with that of the first and most noble tribe of the Dorians. Besides -which, it is stated, that though dwelling among Illyrian races, these Hylleans -were nevertheless genuine <i>Greeks</i>. Moreover they, as well as the Doric -Hylleans, were supposed to have sprung from Hyllus, a son of Hercules, -whom that hero begot upon Melite, the daughter of Ægæus: here the name -Ægæus refers to a river in Corcyra, Melite to the island just mentioned. -Apollo was the chief god of the Dorians; and so likewise these Hylleans -were said to have concealed under the earth, as the sign of inviolable sanctity, -that instrument of such importance in the religion of Apollo, a tripod. -The country of the Hylleans is described as a large peninsula, and compared -to the Peloponnesus: it is said to have contained fifteen cities; which however -had not a more real existence, than the peninsula as large as the Peloponnesus -on the Illyrian coast. How all these statements are to be understood -is hard to say. It appears however that they can only be reconciled as follows: -the Doric Hylleans had a tradition, that they came originally from -these northern districts, which then bordered on the Illyrians, and were -afterwards occupied by that people; and there still remained in those parts -some members of their tribe, some other Hylleans. This notion of Greek -Hylleans in the very north of Greece, who also were descended from Hercules, -and also worshipped Apollo, was taken up and embellished by the -poets: although it is not likely that any one had really ever seen these -Hylleans and visited their country. Like the Hyperboreans, they existed -merely in tradition and imagination. It is possible also that the Corcyræans, -in whose island there was an “<i>Hyllæan</i>” harbour, may have contributed to -the formation of these legends, as is shown by some circumstances pointed -out above; but it cannot be supposed that the whole tradition arose from -Corcyræan colonies.</p> - -<p>Here we might conclude our remarks on this subject, did not the following -question (one indeed of great importance) deserve some consideration. -What relation can we suppose to have existed between the races<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> -which migrated into those northern districts, and the native tribes, and what -between the different races of Greece itself? All inquiries on this subject -lead us back to the Pelasgi, who although not found in every part of ancient -Greece (for tradition makes so wide a distinction between them and many -other nations, that no confusion ever takes place), yet occur almost universally -wherever early civilisation, ancient settlements, and worships of peculiar -sanctity and importance existed. And in fact there is no doubt that most -of the ancient religions of Greece owed their origin to this race. The Jupiter -and Dione of Dodona; Jupiter and Juno of Argos; Vulcan and Minerva -of Athens; Ceres and Proserpine of Eleusis; Mercury and Diana of Arcadia, -together with Cadmus and the Cabiri of Thebes, cannot, if properly -examined, be referred to any other origin. We must therefore attribute to -that nation an excessive readiness in creating and metamorphosing objects -of religious worship, so that the same fundamental conceptions were variously -developed in different places, a variety which was chiefly caused by the arbitrary -neglect of, or adherence to, particular parts of the same legend. In -many places also we may recognise the sameness of character which pervaded -the different worships of the above gods; everywhere we see manifested -in symbols, names, rites, and legends, an uniform character of ideas -and feelings. The religions introduced from Phrygia and Thrace, such as -that of the Cretan Jupiter and Dionysus or Bacchus, may be easily distinguished -by their more enthusiastic character from the native Pelasgic worship. -The Phœnician and Egyptian religions lay at a great distance from -the early Greeks, were almost unknown even where they existed in the -immediate neighbourhood, were almost unintelligible when the Greeks attempted -to learn them, and repugnant to their nature when understood. On -the whole, the Pelasgic worship appears to form part of a simple elementary -religion, which easily represented the various forms produced by the -changes of nature in different climates and seasons, and which abounded -in expressive signs for all the shades of feeling which these phenomena -awakened.</p> - -<p>On the other hand, the religion of the northern races (who as being -of Hellenic descent are put in contrast with the Pelasgi) had in early times -taken a more moral turn, to which their political relations had doubtless -contributed. The heroic life (which is no fable of the poets), the fondness -for vigorous and active exertion, the disinclination to the harmless occupations -of husbandry, which is so remarkably seen in the conquering race of -the Hellenes, necessarily awakened and cherished an entirely different train -of religious feeling. Hence the Jupiter Hellanius of Æacus, the Jupiter -Laphystius of Athamas, and, finally, the Doric Jupiter, whose son is Apollo, -the prophet and warrior, are rather representations of the moral order and -harmony of the universe, after the ancient method, than of the creative -powers of nature. We do not however deny, that there was a time when -these different views had not as yet taken a separate direction. Thus it -may be shown, that the Apollo Lyceus of the Dorians conveyed nearly the -same notions as the Jupiter Lycæus of the Arcadians, although the worship -of either deity was developed independently of that of the other. Thus also -certain ancient Arcadian and Doric usages had, in their main features, a -considerable affinity. The points of resemblance in these different worships -can be only perceived by comparison: tradition presents, at the very first -outset, an innumerable collection of discordant forms of worship belonging -to the several races, but without explaining to us how they came to be thus -separated. For these different rites were not united into a whole until they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> -had been first divided; and both by the connection of worships and by the -influence of poetry new combinations were introduced, which differed essentially -from those of an earlier date.</p> - -<p>The language of the ancient Grecian race (which, together with its religion, -forms the most ancient record of its history) must, if we may judge -from the varieties of dialect and from a comparison with the Latin language, -have been very perfect in its structure, and rich and expressive in its flexions -and formations; though much of this was polished off by the Greeks of -later ages: in early times, distinctness and precision in marking the primitive -words and the inflections being more attended to than facility of utterance. -Wherever the ancient forms had been preserved, they sounded -foreign and uncouth to more modern ears; and the language of later times -was greatly softened, in comparison with the Latin. But the peculiarities -of the pure Doric dialect are (wherever they were not owing to a faithful -preservation of archaic forms) actual deviations from the original dialect, -and consequently they do not occur in Latin; they bear a northern character. -The use of the article, which did not exist in the Latin language or in -that of epic poetry, can be ascribed to no other cause than to immigrations -of new tribes, and especially to that of the Dorians. Its introduction must, -nearly as in the Roman languages, be considered as the sign of a great revolution. -The peculiarities of the Doric dialect must have existed before the -period of the migrations; since thus only can it be explained how peculiar -forms of the Doric dialect were common to Crete, Argos, and Sparta: the -same is also true of the dialects which are generally considered as subdivisions -of the Æolic; the only reason for the resemblance of the language of -Lesbos to that of Bœotia being, that Bœotians migrated at that period to -Lesbos. The peculiarities of the Ionic dialect may, on the other hand, be -viewed in great part as deviations caused by the genial climate of Asia; for -the language of the Attic race, to which the latter were most nearly related, -could hardly have differed so widely from that of the colonies of Athens, if -the latter had not been greatly changed.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_5b" id="enanchor_5b"></a><a href="#endnote_5b">b</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE MIGRATION—THE VIEW OF CURTIUS</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[<i>ca.</i> 1100 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>It is with the advance of the Dorians that the power of the mountain -peoples makes its appearance from the north to take its share in the history -of nations. For centuries they had lagged behind the coast and maritime -races, but now they stepped in with all the greater impress of sheer natural -force, and all that was transformed and reformed as a consequence of their -conquering march, had a durability which lasted throughout the whole period -of Greek history. This is the reason that in contradistinction to the “Heroic -Age” ancient historians begin the historical period with the first deeds of the -Dorians.</p> - -<p>But, for all that, the information concerning these deeds is none the less -scanty. On the contrary: as this epoch approaches, the old sources dry up, -and new ones are not opened. Homer knows nothing of the march of the -Heraclidæ [<i>i.e.</i>, descendants of Heracles or Hercules]. The Achæan emigrants -lived entirely in the memory of past days, and cherished it beyond the -sea in the faithful memorials of song. For those who remained behind, who -had to submit themselves to a strange and powerful rule, it was no time for -poetry. The Dorians themselves have always been sparing in the matter of -tradition; it was not their way to use many words about what they had done;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> -they had not the soaring enthusiasm of the Achæan race, and still less were -they capable of spinning out their experiences at a pleasing length, in the -fashion of the Ionians. Their inclination and ability were directed to practical -existence, to the fulfilment of definite tasks, to earnest occupations.</p> - -<p>Thus, then, the great incidents of the Dorian emigration were left to chance -tradition, of which all but a few faint traces have been lost, and this is why -our whole information on the conquest of the peninsula is as poor in names -as in facts. For it was only at a later date, when the national epos itself had -long died out, that an attempt was made to recover the beginnings of Peloponnesian -history.</p> - -<p>But these later poets could no longer find any fresh and living fountain of -tradition; nor is theirs that pure and unrestrained delight in the images -of the olden time, which constitutes the very breath of life in the Homeric -poem; but there is a conscious effort to fill out the gaps in tradition, and to -join the torn threads connecting the Achæan and the Dorian period. They -sought to unify the legends of various places, to restore the missing links, -to reconcile contradictions; and thus arose a history of the march of the -Heraclidæ, in which things that had come about gradually and in the course -of centuries, were related together with dogmatic brevity.</p> - -<p>The Dorians crossed over from the mainland in successive troops, accompanied -by their wives and children; they spread slowly over the country; -but wherever they gained a footing the result was a complete transformation -of the conditions of life by their agency. They brought with them their household -and tribal institutions; they clung with tenacious obstinacy to their -peculiarities of speech and custom; proud and shy, they held aloof from the -other Greeks, and instead of becoming absorbed, as the Ionians did, into -the older population, they impressed on the new home the character of their -own race. The peninsula became Dorian.</p> - -<p>But this transmutation came about in a very varied fashion; it did not -start from one point, but had three chief centres. The legend of the -Peloponnesus has expressed it in this wise: three brothers, Temenus, Aristodemus, -and Cresphontes, who were of the race of Heracles [Hercules], -the old rightful heir to the dominion of Argos, asserted the claims of their -ancestor. They offered common sacrifices on the three altars of Zeus Patrous -and cast lots among themselves for the various lordships in the country. -Argos was the principal lot, and it fell to Temenus; Lacedæmon, the second, -came to the children of Aristodemus, who were minors, whilst the beautiful -Messenia passed, by craft, into the third brother’s possession.</p> - -<p>This tale of the drawing of lots by the Heraclidæ, arose in the Peloponnesus -after the states had assumed their peculiar constitution. It contains the -reasons, derived from the old heroic past, for the erection of the three metropolitan -towns; the mythical authority for the Peloponnesian claims of the -Heraclidæ, and for the new state organisation. The historical kernel of -the legend is that, from the very beginning, the Dorians represented, not the -interests of their own race, but the interests of their leaders, who were -not Dorians, but Achæans; this is why the god, under whose authority the -division of the land was made, was none other than the ancient god of -the race of Æacidæ. Further, the foundation of the legend lies in the fact -that the Dorians, in order to gain possession of the three chief plains of -the peninsula, divided, soon after their arrival into three hosts.</p> - -<p>Each had its Heraclid as leader of the people. Each was composed of -three races, the Hylleans, Dymanes, and Pamphylians. Each host was an -image of the entire race. Thus the whole subsequent development of Peloponnesian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> -history depended on the manner in which the different hosts now -established themselves in the new regions; on the extent to which, in the midst -of the ancient people of the country and in spite of the subservience of their -forces to foreign leadership, they remained faithful to themselves and their -native customs; and on the method by which mutual relations were established.</p> - -<h4>MESSENIA</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[<i>ca.</i> 1100-1000 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The new states were in part, also new territories, as was, for instance, -Messenia. For in the Homeric Peloponnesus there is no country of this -name: its eastern portion where the waters of the Pamisus connect a higher -and lower plain with one another, belongs to the lordship of Menelaus, and the -western half to the kingdom of the Neleïdes which has its centre on the coast. -The Dorians came from the north into the upper plain, and there obtained -a footing in Stenyclarus. Thence they spread farther and drove the Thessalian -Neleïdes towards the sea. The high, island-like ocean citadel of old -Navarino, seems to have been the last spot on the coast where the latter -maintained themselves, till finally, being more and more closely pressed, they -forsook the land for the sea. The island-plain of Stenyclarus now became -the kernel of the newly-formed district, and could thence be called Messene—that -is, the middle or inner country.</p> - -<p>With the exception of this great supplanting of one nation by another -the change was effected more peacefully than in most other quarters. At -least the native legend knows nothing of forcible conquest. A certain portion -of arable land and pasture was to be given up to the Dorians; the -remainder was to be left to the inhabitants in undisturbed possession. The victorious -visitors laid claim to no special and favoured position; the new princes -were by no means regarded as foreign conquerors, but were received with -friendliness by the nation as relatives of the ancient Æolian kings, and on -account of the dislike to the house of the Pelopidæ. With full confidence -they and their following settled among the Messenians, and evidently with -the idea that under their protection the old and new inhabitants might peacefully -amalgamate into one community.</p> - -<p>But after this their relations did not develop in the same harmless manner. -The Dorians believed themselves betrayed by their leaders, and in -consequence of a Dorian reaction Cresphontes found himself compelled -to overthrow the old order of things; to abolish equality before the law; to -unite the Dorians in one close society in Stenyclarus, and to make this place -the capital of the country, while the rest of Messenia was reduced to the -position of a conquered district. The disturbances went on. Cresphontes -himself became the victim of a bloody insurrection; his family were overthrown -and no Cresphontidæ followed. Æpytus succeeded. He is by name -and race an Arcadian, brought up in Arcadia whence he penetrated into -Messenia, then on the verge of dissolution. He gave order and direction -to the development of the country, and hence its subsequent kings are called -Æpytidæ. But the whole direction henceforth taken by the history of -the country is different, non-Dorian, unwarlike. The Æpytidæ are no -soldier-princes, but creators of order, and founders of forms of religious -worship. And these forms are not those of the Dorians, but decidedly -non-Dorian, old Peloponnesian, like those of Demeter, Æsculapius, the -Æsculapidæ. The high festival of the country was a mystery-service of the -so-called “great deities” and unknown to the Dorian race, while at Ithome,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> -the lofty citadel of the country, which raises its commanding height between -the two plains of the district, ruled the Pelasgic Zeus, whose worship was -considered the distinctive mark of the Messenian people.</p> - -<p>Scanty as are the relics preserved of the history of the Messenian country, -some very important facts undoubtedly underlie them. From the first -a remarkable insecurity reigned in this Dorian foundation; a deep gulf -between the commander of the army and the people, which had its origin in -the king’s connection with the ancient pre-Achæan population. He did not -succeed in founding a dynasty, for it is only in subsequent legend, which -here, as in the case of all Greek pedigrees, seeks to disguise a violent break, -that Æpytus is made to be the son of Cresphontes. But the warlike Dorian -nation must have become so weakened by internal conflicts, that it was not -in a position to assert itself; the transformation of Messenia into a Dorian -country was not carried into effect, and thus the main lines of its history -were determined. For rich though the district was in natural resources, -uniting as it did two of the finest watersheds with a coast stretching between -two seas and well provided with harbours; yet the development of -the State was from the first unfortunate. There was here no complete -renewal, no powerful Hellenic revival in the district.</p> - -<p>It was with far different success that a second host of Dorian warriors -pressed down the long valley of the Eurotas, which from a narrow gorge -gradually widens to the smiling plain of cornfields at the foot of Taygetus, -the “Hollow Lacedæmon.” There is no Greek territory in which one plain -is so decidedly the very kernel of the whole as it is here. Sunk deep between -rugged mountains and severed from the surrounding country by high -passes, it holds in its lap all the means of comfort and well-being. Here on -the hillocks on the Eurotas above Amyclæ the Dorians pitched their camp, -from which grew up the town of Sparta, the youngest city of the plain.</p> - -<p>If the Dorian Sparta and the Achæan Amyclæ existed for centuries side -by side, it is manifest that no uninterrupted state of war continued during -this period. Here, no more than in Messenia, can a thorough occupation -of the whole district have taken place, but the relations between the old and -new inhabitants must have been arranged by agreement. Here, too, the -Dorians dispersed through different places and mingled with the foreign -nation.</p> - -<h4>ARGOS</h4> - -<p>The third state has its kernel in the plain of the Inachus, which was -regarded as the portion of the first-born of the Heraclidæ. For the fame of -Atrides’ might, though it was chiefly fixed at Mycenæ, also extended over -the state which was founded on the ruins of the Mycenæan kingdom. The -nucleus of the Dorian Argos was on the coast, where between the sandy -estuary of the Inachus, and that of the copious stream of the Erasinus, a tract -of firm land rises in the swampy soil. Here the Dorians had their camp and -their sanctuaries; here their commander Temenus had died and had been -buried before he had seen his people in secure possession of the upper plain; -and after him this coast town preserved the name of Temenium. Its situation -shows that the citadels and passes farther inland were maintained by the -Achæans with a more steadfast resistance, so that the Dorians were for a -long time compelled to content themselves with a thoroughly disadvantageous -situation. For it was only by degrees that the whole strip of shore was -rendered habitable, and the swampy character of the soil was, according to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> -Aristotle, the main reason why the sovereign town of the Pelopidæ was placed -so far back in the upper plain. Now by the advance of the Dorian might, -the high rock citadel of Larissa also became the political centre of the district, -and the Pelasgian Argos at its foot, which had been the oldest place -of assembly for the population, was once more the capital. It came to be the -seat of the reigning family of the line of Temenus, and the starting-point for -the further extension of their power.</p> - -<p>This extension did not result from the uniform conquest of the district -and the annihilation of the earlier settlements, but from the despatch of Dorian -bands which established themselves at the chief points between the Ionian -and Achæan populations. This was also effected in different ways, more or -less violent, and radiating in two directions, on the one side towards the -Corinthian, on the other towards the Saronic Sea.</p> - -<p>Low passes lead from Argos into the Asopus Valley. Rhegnidas the Temenid -led Dorian armies into the upper valley, where, under the blessing of Dionysus, -flourished the old Ionian Phlius, while Phalces chose the lower vale at -whose entrance, Sicyon, the ancient capital of the coast district of Ægialea, -spread itself over a stately plateau. At both places a peaceful division of -the soil appears to have taken place; and the same was the case in the neighbourhood -of the Phliasians, at Cleonæ.</p> - -<p>It must be confessed that it is incredible that, in this narrow and thickly -populated territory, lordless acres were to be found with which to satisfy -the strangers’ desire for territory, and even more so that the former land-owners -willingly vacated their hereditary possessions; but the sense of the -tradition is that only certain wealthy families were compelled to give place -in consequence of the Dorian immigration, whilst the rest of the population -continued in their former situation and were exempted from political change. -The passion for emigration which had taken possession of the Ionian -families throughout the north of the peninsula softened the effects of the -transfer. The hope of finding fairer homes and a wider future beyond the -sea, drove them to a distance. Thus Hippasus the ancestor of Pythagoras, -left the narrow valley of Phlius to find in Samos a new home for him and -his.</p> - -<p>In this way it came about that good arable lands were left unoccupied in -all the coast districts, so that the governments of the small states, which -either retained their power or entered upon it in the place of the emigrants, -were able to portion out fields and hand them over to the members of the warrior -race of Dorians. For the latter were not anxious to overthrow the -ancient order and to assert new principles of government, but only required -a sufficiency of landed property for themselves and their belongings, together -with the civil rights that belonged to it. Therefore the similarities between -their worship of gods and heroes were utilised as a means of forming -peaceful bonds of union. Thus it is expressly declared of Sicyon that from -ancient times the Heraclidæ had ruled in this very place: therefore Phalces, -when he penetrated thither with his Dorians, had allowed the ruling family -to retain its offices and titles and had come to an understanding with it by -peaceful agreement.</p> - -<p>Towards the coast of the Saronic Gulf marched two hosts from Argos, -under Deïphontes and Agaios, who transformed the old Ionian Epidaurus -and Trœzen into Dorian towns; but from Epidaurus the march was continued -to the isthmus, where, in the strong and important city of Corinth, -whose citadel was the key of the whole peninsula, the series of Temenid -settlements found its limit.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p> - -<p>These settlements unquestionably form the most brilliant part of the warlike -march of the Dorians through the Peloponnesus. By the energy of -these Dorians and their leaders of the race of Hercules, who must have -joined in these undertakings in specially large numbers, all parts of the -many sections into which the country was split up were successfully occupied, -and the new Argos, stretching from the island of Cythera as far as the Attic -frontiers, far exceeded the bounds of the modest settlements on the Pamisus -and Eurotas. For even if the leaders of the armies had not everywhere -founded new states, still those existing had all become homogeneous by the -acceptance of a Dorian element, which formed the military and preponderating -section of the population.</p> - -<p>This transformation had started from Argos, and consequently all these -settlements stood in a filial relation to the mother city, so that we may -regard Argos, Phlius, Sicyon, Trœzen, Epidaurus, and Corinth as a Dorian -hexapolis forming a confederation like that in Caria.</p> - -<p>Moreover this organisation was not an entirely new one. In Achæan -times Mycenæ had formed with Heræum the centre of the country; in -the Heræum Agamemnon had received the oath of fealty from his vassals. -This was why the goddess Hera [Juno] is said to have preceded the Temenidæ -to Sicyon, when they sought to revive the union between the towns -which had become estranged from one another. Thus here also the remodelling -was connected with the ancient tradition.</p> - -<p>But now a central point for the confederacy was found in the worship of -Apollo, which the Dorians had found established in Argos and had merely -reconstituted, in the guise of the Delphic or Pythian god, through whose -influence they had become an active people and under whose auspices they -had hitherto been led. The towns sent their yearly offerings to the temple -of Apollo Pythæus, which stood in Argos at the foot of the Larissa, but the -mother city possessed the rights of a chief town as well as the government -of the sanctuary.</p> - -<p>In the meantime the size of Argos and the splendour of her new foundations, -constituted a dangerous superiority. For the extension of power -implied its division, and this was in the highest degree increased by the -natural peculiarities of the Argive territory, which is more broken than any -other Peloponnesian country.</p> - -<p>In regard to the internal relations of the different states, great complications -prevailed from the time that the older and younger population had -mutually arranged themselves. For where the victory of the Dorians had -been decided by force of arms, the old occupants had been driven from rights -and possessions; an Achæo-Dorian town was formed and none were citizens -save those belonging to the three tribes.</p> - -<p>But in most cases it was otherwise. For example where, as in Phlius -and Sicyon, a prosperity founded on agriculture, industrial activity, and -commerce already existed; there the population did not, at least for any -length of time, submit to be oppressed and thrust on one side. They -remained no nameless and insignificant mass, but were recognised as forming -one or several tribes, side by side with the three Dorian divisions, though -not with the same rights. Where, therefore, more than three <i>phylæ</i> or -tribes are met with; where, besides the Hylleans, Dymanes and Pamphylians, -there are also mentioned “Hyrnethians” as in Argos, or “Ægialæans” -(shore people) as in Sicyon, or a “<i>Chthonophyle</i>” (which was -perhaps the tribal name of the natives in Phlius), it may be concluded that -the immigrants had not left the older people entirely outside the newly-founded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> -commonwealth, but had sooner or later given them a certain recognised -standing. However insignificant the latter might be, it was still the -germ of important developments, and the existence of such co-tribes suffices to -indicate a peculiar history for those states in which they occur.</p> - -<p>Originally the various tribes also occupied different localities. As the -diverse sections of the army had been separated in the camp, so the Pamphylians, -the Dymanes and the Hylleans had their special quarters in Argos, -and these long subsisted as such; when the Hyrnethians were admitted into -the municipal commonwealth, they formed a fourth quarter. How long a -period generally elapsed before the various elements of the population -became amalgamated, is most clearly shown by the fact that places like -Mycenæ continued their quiet existence as Achæan communities. Here -the ancient traditions of the age of the Pelopidæ lived on undisturbed on -the very spot where they had been enacted; here the anniversary of Agamemnon’s -death was celebrated year after year at the place of his burial, and -even during the Persian War, we see the men of Mycenæ and Tiryns, mindful -of their old hero kings, as they take their part in the national quarrel -against Asia.</p> - -<p>Thus under the Dorian influence three new states were founded in the -south and east of the peninsula, namely Messenia, Laconia, and Argos, -which differed greatly even at the outset, and early diverged upon separate -lines.</p> - -<h4>ARCADIA</h4> - -<p>At the same time great changes were taking place on the remote west -coast. The states north and south of the Alpheus with which Homer is -acquainted, were overthrown and Ætolian families, who honoured Oxylus as -their ancestor, founded new lordships on the territory of the Epeans and -Pylæans. These foundations had no apparent connection with the marches -of the Dorian armies, and it is only a legendary poem of later date which -speaks of Oxylus as having stipulated for the western land as his share in -reward for services rendered to the Dorians. This betrays that it was a -subsequent invention, by the fact that the new settlements on the peninsula -are represented in this and similar fables as a result of a great and carefully -planned undertaking; a representation which stands in complete contradiction -to the facts of history. And when it is further related that the Dorians -were conducted by their crafty leader, not along the flat coast road but -across country through Arcadia, so that they might not be roused to envy or -tempted to break their compact altogether, by the sight of the tracts of land -conceded to Oxylus; this is but a tale invented with the object of explaining -the erection of a state in Elis independently of the Dorian immigration, and -the grounds for it are to be sought in the circumstance that the whole west -coast, from the straits by Rhium down to Navarino, is distinguished by easy -tracts of level country, such as are scarcely found elsewhere in Greek territory.</p> - -<p>The best cornland lies at the foot of the Erymanthus Mountains, a broad -plain through which the Peneus flows and which is surrounded by vine-clad -hills stretching towards the neighbouring groups of islands. At the spot -where the Peneus issues from the Arcadian mountains and flows into the -coast-plain there rises on the left bank a stately height which looks clear -over land and island sea and on this account was called in the Middle Ages, -Calascope, or Belvidere. This height was selected by the Ætolian immigrants<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> -as their chief citadel; it became the royal fortress of the Oxylidæ -and their following, into whose hands fell the best estates.</p> - -<p>From here the Ætolian state, under the territorial name of Elis spread -southward over the whole low country, where on the banks of the Alpheus -the Epeans and Pylæans had once fought out those petty feuds of which -Nestor was so fond of telling. On the decay of that maritime kingdom of -the Neleidæ which was attacked on the south by the Messenian Dorians and -on the north by the Epeans, Ætolian tribes pressed forward from the interior -of the island; these were the Minyans who being expelled from Taygetus took -possession of the mountains which run farthest in the direction of the Sicilian -Sea from Arcadia. Here they settled themselves in six fortified towns, -united by a common worship of Poseidon; Macistus and Lapreus, were the -most distinguished. Thus between the Alpheus and the Neda, in what was -afterwards the so-called Triphylia, or “country of three tribes,” a new -Minyan state was formed.</p> - -<p>Finally the nucleus of a new state was also planted in the valley of the -Alpheus, where scattered families of Achæans under Agorius of Helice allied -themselves with Ætolian houses, and founded the state of Pisa.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[<i>ca.</i> 1000 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Thus on the western coast, partly through conquest by the northern -tribes and partly by arrivals from other parts of the peninsula, three new -states arose, namely Elis, Pisa, and Triphylia; and in this way the whole -coast district of the Peloponnesus was gradually newly populated and partitioned -out afresh. Only in the district in the heart of the peninsula, did the -country remain undisturbed in its existing state.</p> - -<p>Arcadia was regarded by the ancients as a pre-eminently Pelasgian -country, and here it was thought the autochthonic condition of the aboriginal -inhabitants had been longest preserved and had suffered the least disturbance. -Nevertheless the native legends themselves distinctly indicate -that here also immigrations took place, interrupting the uniform condition -of Pelasgian life, and occasioning a fusion of races, of different character and -origin. Here too there is no mistaking the epoch at which, as in all other -Greek states, the historical movement began.</p> - -<p>After Pelasgus and his sons, Arcas, as ancestor of the Arcadians, stands -at the beginning of a new era in the prehistoric life of the country. But -Arcadians were to be found in Phrygia and Bithynia as well as in Crete and -Cyprus, and the fact that colonists from the islands and shores of the eastern -sea ascended into the highlands of the Peloponnesus that they might settle -there in the beautiful valleys, is manifested by many tokens. The Cretan -myths about Zeus are repeated in the closest manner of the Arcadian -Lycæum; Tegea and Gortys are Cretan as well as Arcadian towns, with -identical forms of worship, ancient legends connect Tegea and Paphos -and the Cyprian dialect, which has only very recently been learnt from the -native monuments, shows a great likeness to the Arcadian. Arcadians were -known as navigators both in the western and in the eastern sea, and Nauplius, -the hero of the oldest Peloponnesian seaport town appears as the servant of -the Tegeatic kings, to whose house Argonauts like Ancæus also belong.</p> - -<p>There are remains of old traditions, which show that even the interior of -the Peloponnesus was not so remote or isolated as is commonly supposed; -that here too there were immigrations and that in consequence in the rural -districts, and particularly in the fruitful ravines of the eastern side, a series -of towns grew up, which, on account of the natural barriers of their frontiers, -early formed isolated city domains; such as those of Pheneus, Stynphalus, -Orchomenus, Cleitor and afterwards the towns of Mantinea, Alea, Caphyæ,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> -and Gortys. In the southwest portion of Arcadia, in the forest range of -Lycæum, and in the valley of the Alpheus were also to be found ancient -fortress towns, such as Lycosura; but these fortresses never became political -centres of the districts. The mass of the people remained scattered and -were only connected with the community by very slight bonds.</p> - -<p>Thus the whole of Arcadia consisted of a numerous group of municipal -and rural cantons. It was only the former which could attain historical -importance, and among them especially Tegea, which lying as it did in the -most fertile part of the great Arcadian plateau, must from the earliest times -have assumed something of the position of a capital city. Thus it was a -Tegeatic king, Echemus, the “steadfast,” who is said to have prevented the -Dorians from entering the peninsula. Yet the Tegeatæ never succeeded in -giving a unity to the whole island. Its natural conformation was too multi-form, -too diversified, and too much cut up by high mountain ridges into -numerous and sharply defined portions for it to be able to attain to a common -territorial history. It was only certain forms of worship, with which customs -and institutions were bound up, that were universal among the whole Arcadian -people. These were, in the north country the worship of Artemis -Hymnia, and in the south that of Zeus Lycæus, on the Lycæum, whose -summit had been honoured as the holy mountain of Arcadia from primeval -Pelasgian times.</p> - -<p>The country was in this condition when the Pelopidæ founded their -states; and so it still remained when the Dorians invaded the peninsula. -A wild, impracticable mountain country, thickly populated by a sturdy -people, Arcadia offered little prospect of easy success to races in search of -territory, and could not detain them from their attempts on the river plains -of the southern and western districts. According to the legend they were -granted a free passage through the Arcadian fields. Nothing was changed -except that the Arcadians were pushed farther and farther back from the -sea, and therefore driven farther and farther from the advance Hellenic -civilisation.</p> - -<p>If we take a glance at the peninsula as a whole, and the political government -which, in consequence of the immigration, it acquired for all time, we -shall find, first, the interior persisting in its former condition unshaken, -secondly, three districts, Lacedæmon, Messenia, and Argos, which had undergone -a thorough metamorphosis directly due to the immigrating races; -and finally the two strips of land along the north and west coasts, which had -been left untouched by the Dorians, but in part were resettled by the -ancient tribes whom the Dorians displaced, as was the case with Triphylia -and Achæa, and in part transformed by arrivals of another kind, as happened -at Elis.</p> - -<p>Thus complicated were the results which followed the Dorian migration. -They show sufficiently how little we have here to do with a transformation -effected at one blow, like the result of a fortunate campaign. After the -races had long wandered up and down in a varying series of territorial disputes -and mutual agreements, the fate of the peninsula was gradually -decided. Only when men had forgotten the tedious period of unrest and -ferment, which memory can adorn with no incidents, could the reconstitution -of the peninsula be regarded as a sudden turn of events by which the -Peloponnesus had become Dorian.</p> - -<p>Even in those districts which the invaders especially contended for and -occupied, the transformation of the people into a Dorian population was -only effected very gradually and in a very imperfect fashion. How could it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> -have been otherwise? Even the conquering hosts themselves were not of -purely Dorian blood, but intermixed with people of all sorts of races. Nor -was it as Dorians but as relatives of the Achæan princes that the leaders of -their armies laid claim to power and rule. Thus Plato saw in the march of -the Heraclids a union between Dorians and Achæans, dating from the times -of the movement of the Greek peoples, and how little unity originally existed -between the commander and his men is shown by a series of undoubted facts. -For no sooner had the force of the warriors won a firm footing in the districts, -than the interests of Heraclids and Dorians diverged and such dissensions -broke out as either endangered or nullified the whole success of the -colony.</p> - -<p>The leaders sought to effect amalgamation of the old and new populations, -that they might thus attain a broader foundation for their power and -place themselves in a position independent of the influence of the Dorian -warriors. Everywhere do we find the same phenomena, and most distinctly -in Messenia. But in Laconia also, the Heraclids made themselves detested -by their warriors, by trying to assimilate the non-Dorian to the Dorian -people, and in Argolis we see the Heraclid Deïphontes, whose name is thoroughly -Ionic, allied with Hyrnetho, who is the representative of the original -population of the coast district. It is this same Deïphontes who helps to -establish the throne of the Temenids in Argos, to the indignation of the -other Heraclids and of the Dorians: here, therefore, their new kingdom -undoubtedly rests on the support of the pre-Dorian population.</p> - -<p>Thus the bonds between the Heraclids and the Dorians were loosened -in all three countries, soon after their occupation. The political institutions -were established in spite of the Dorians, and if the newly imported popular -force was to have a fruitful and beneficial effect on the soil of the country, -it required the art of a wise legislation to conciliate opposition and regulate -the forces which threatened to destroy it. The first example of such legislation -was given, as far as we know, on the island of Crete.</p> - -<h4>DORIANS IN CRETE</h4> - -<p>Dorians in considerable numbers had passed over into Crete from Argos -and Laconia, and if in other cases islands and seacoast were not a soil on -which the Dorian races felt at home, here it was otherwise.</p> - -<p>Crete is rather a continent than an island. With the wealth of resources -of every kind which distinguishes the country, the Cretan towns were able -to preserve themselves from the restlessness belonging to the life of a seaport, -and quietly to unfold the new germs of life which the Dorians brought -to the island. Here, too, they came as invaders: massed in great hosts they -overpowered the island people, whom no bonds of union held together. We -find Dorian tribes in Cydonia, the first place in which the new arrivals from -Cythera established themselves. Then Knossos, and especially Lyctus, whose -Dorian people hailed from Laconia, became the chief towns of the new settlement.</p> - -<p>The Dorians had here reached the land of an ancient civilisation, whose -fertility was not yet exhausted. They found towns with definite constitutions -and families well versed in the art of rule. State government and -religious worship had here, under quieter conditions, retained their original -connection and in especial the religion of Apollo, administered by the old -priestly families, displayed its organising, civilising, and intellectual influence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> -in entirety. The Dorians brought nothing but their tempestuous -courage and the strength of their spears; compared with the Cretan nobility -they were the merest children in all that concerns the art of government -and legislation. They demanded land and left it to others to find out the -ways and means of satisfying their requirements, for the overthrow of the -ancient government signified nothing to them. But that the Dorians nevertheless -did not behave as reckless conquerors; that they did not overturn -the ancient state and found new ones, is manifest from the mere fact that -the organisation of Dorian Crete is nowhere referred to a Dorian originator.</p> - -<p>On the contrary, Aristotle testifies that the inhabitants of the Cretan -town of Lyctus, where the Dorian institutions were most completely developed, -preserved the existing institutions of the country; according to unanimous -tradition, there was no break, no gap between the Dorian and the -pre-Dorian period; so that the name of Minos, the representative of Cretan -civilisation, could be associated both with the old and the new.</p> - -<p>Patrician houses whose rights had come down to them from the royal -period, remained in possession of the government. Now as formerly it was -from them that the ten chief rulers of the state, “the Kosmoi,” were taken -in the different towns; from them that the senate was chosen, whose members -retained their dignity for life and were answerable to none. These -families held rule in the towns when the Dorians invaded them. They concluded -treaties with them, which took account of the interests of both sides, -they made themselves subservient to the foreign power, by assigning the -immigrants a sufficient share of the land which the state had to dispose of, -not without the accompanying obligation of military service and the right, -as the fighting portion of the community, to a voice in all important decisions -but especially when it was a question of war and peace.</p> - -<p>The Dorians took their place as the fighting element in the state. For -this reason, the boys as they grew up, were placed under state discipline; -united in troops; trained according to regulation, in the public gymnasia, and -schooled in the use of weapons; they were inured to hard living and prepared -by warlike games for real combats. Thus, remote from all effeminate -influences, the military qualities peculiar to the Dorian race were to be imparted; -there was also, however, some intermixture of Cretan customs, as -for instance, the use of the bow, which was previously unknown to the -Dorian. The grown youths and men, even if they possessed households of -their own, were expected to be sensible first of all of the fact that they were -comrades in arms, and prepared to march at any moment as though in a -camp. Accordingly at the men’s daily meal they sat together by troops, as -they served in the army, and in the same way they slept in common dormitories. -The costs were met through the state from a common chest, but this -chest was supplied by each delivering the tenth part of the fruit of his possession -to the fraternity to which he belonged, and this tithe was then handed -over to the state chest. In return, the state undertook to support the warriors, -as well as the women who had charge of the house with the children -and servants, in times both of peace and war. I believe it is plain that we -have here an arrangement agreed on by treaty between the older and newer -members of the state.</p> - -<p>In order, however, that the Dorian fighting element might be able to -devote itself wholly to its calling, its members had to be entirely exempt -from the necessity of personally cultivating their share of the soil; otherwise -they would not only have been impoverished by its neglect in war-time, -but in peace they would have been detained from military exercises, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> -equally valuable hunting excursions after the plentiful game of the Ida -Mountains. Consequently the work of agriculture was imposed on a special -class of men, who, by the chance of war, had fallen into the condition of -servitude and were deprived of civil rights. When and how this element -of serfdom was formed, is not indicated; but there were two classes of them. -The one tilled those fields which had been preserved by the state as public -property; these were the so-called Mnoetæ; the others, the Clarotæ dwelt on -the lands which had passed by donation into the hereditary possession of the -immigrants. The Dorian landowners were their masters and had the right -to demand of them the fruit of the field at a fixed date, while it was their -duty to see that the soil was properly improved, so that nothing might be lost -to the state. Otherwise the military class lived without care, unconcerned -for the maintenance of existence, and could say, as the proverbial lines of -the Cretan Hybrias have it, “Here are my sword, spear and shield; my -whole treasure; herewith I plough and gather the harvest.”</p> - -<p>What they learned was the use of weapons and self-command; their art, -discipline, and obedience, obedience of the younger to the older, of the soldier -to his superior, of all to the state. Higher and more liberal culture appeared -unnecessary and even dangerous, and we may suppose that the ruling families -of Crete had intentionally laid down a one-sided and narrow education -for the Dorian community, in order that they might not feel tempted to outstep -their soldierly calling, and contest the guidance of the state with the -native races.</p> - -<p>Beside these however there remained on the peninsula a considerable part -of the older population, whose position was entirely unaffected by the Dorian -immigration; the people on the mountains and in the rural towns, who were -dependent on the larger cities of the island and paid according to an ancient -usage a yearly tax to their governments; and rural peasants and cattle-breeders, -tradesmen, fishers, and sailors who had nothing to do with the State -except willingly to submit to its ordinances, and to pursue their occupations -in a peaceful fashion.</p> - -<p>It is on the whole, an unmistakable fact that a Greek state organisation -of a very remarkable character was here called into being, and formed a combination -in which old and new, foreign and native, were amalgamated; an -organization which Plato judged worthy to form the groundwork for the -plan of his ideal state. For here we actually have the latter’s three classes: -the class equipped with the wise foresight becoming the rulers of the state; -the class of “guards,” in which the virtue of courage, with exclusion from a -more liberal development by means of art and science, was the object to be -attained; and, finally, the industrial class, the element which provided the -necessaries of life, and to which a disproportionately larger amount of arbitrary -freedom was permitted; it had but to provide for the physical support -of itself and the community generally. The first and third classes might -have formed the state by themselves, inasmuch as they sufficiently represented -the mutual relations of governing and governed. Between the two -the guards, or armed element, had thrust itself in, to the increase of stability -and durability. On this wise it came to pass that Crete was the first country -to succeed in assigning to the Dorian race a share in the ancient community, -and thus for the second time the island of Minos became a typical starting-point -for the Hellenic state organisation.</p> - -<p>The later Crete is also better known to us by the effects which proceeded -from it, than in its internal condition like a heavenly body the abundance of -whose light is measured by its reflection on other objects. Crete became for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> -the Hellenes the cradle of a complicated civilisation. Thence sprang a series -of men who founded the art of sculpture in the peculiar Hellenic form, and -strewed its seeds in all Greek countries—for Dipœnus and Scyllis, the -earliest masters in marble sculptures, derived their origin from Crete, the -home of Dædalus. Other Cretans distinguished themselves as masters in -the art of divination, and as singers and musicians who, educated in the -service of Apollo, obtained such power over the human soul, that they were -summoned by foreign states to interpose their aid in a disordered condition -of the community and lay the foundations of a sound system of government. -These Cretan masters, such as Thaletas and Epimenides, are not, however, -sprung from the Dorian race any more than are the sculptors; the new -shoots had sprouted from the old root of native culture, even if the admixture -of various Greek races had essentially contributed to the impulse of -new vital activity.</p> - -<p>In spite of the fact that the population of Crete received such a reinforcement -and that she had so well understood how to employ it to strengthen her -states, none the less, after the time of Minos, she never again attained to a -political influence extending over all her shores. The chief cause lies in the -condition of the island which made the formation of a great state an impossibility. -The territories of the various towns among which the Dorians were -divided, Cydonia in the west, Knossos and Lyctus in the north and Gortys -in the south of the island, held suspiciously aloof from one another, or were -at open feud; thus the Dorian strength was squandered in the interests of -petty towns. Added to this that the Dorians, when they immigrated across -the sea, of course came only in small bands, and for the most part, unaccompanied -by women, so that for this reason alone they could not retain their -racial characteristics to the same extent as on the mainland. Finally, even -in the seats of Dorian habitation across the sea, we sometimes find, that not -all three races, but only one of them had settled in the same town; thus -in Halicarnassus there were only Dymanes; in Cydonia, as it seems, only -Hylleans. Thus a fresh dispersal and weakening of the Dorian strength -must have supervened, and it is easy to understand why the continental -settlements of the Dorians, especially those of the Peloponnesus, still remained -the most important and the ones fraught with most consequence -for history.</p> - -<p>In the Peloponnesus, however, it was, once again, at a single point that a -Dorian history of independent and far-reaching importance developed itself. -And that point was Sparta.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_5c" id="enanchor_5c"></a><a href="#endnote_5c">c</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-5.jpg" width="500" height="131" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Coin</span></p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-6.jpg" width="500" height="136" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_VI_SPARTA_AND_LYCURGUS">CHAPTER VI. SPARTA AND LYCURGUS</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">What! are these stones, yon column’s broken shaft,</div> -<div class="verse">Where moss-crowned Ruin long hath sat and laughed,</div> -<div class="verse">These shattered steps, these walls that earthward bow,</div> -<div class="verse">All Sparta’s Royal Square can boast of now?</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse right">—<span class="smcap">Nicholas Michell.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="sidenote">[<i>ca.</i> 885 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The characteristic development of Sparta depends partly on the nature -of the land and partly on the relations formed there by strange conquerors.</p> - -<p>Sparta is a peninsular land, enclosed by an almost uninterrupted line of -mountains, a hundred miles square in area, which opens itself out southwards -towards the sea between two necks of land. On the west side are the steep -walls of Taygetus, which before entering into the Tænarian promontory -are penetrated by a pass which leads into Messenia; to the east on the -coast is the chain of Parnon. Between these mountains, which enclose -many cultivable valleys, the valley of the Eurotas runs from north to south -and is narrow in its upper part to below the defile in which Sparta lies; -south of this it extends itself in the shape of a trough into a fertile plain -which again narrows itself towards the sea; there are no good ports. -Therefore on all sides Sparta was not easily accessible to the enemy, or -even to friends; and had produce enough for its inhabitants.</p> - -<p>Sparta had three classes of inhabitants. They were:</p> - -<p>(1) the Helots, those old inhabitants of the land who in consequence -of their obstinate resistance were made slaves; and were not so much -oppressed as hated and despised; they had to pay a “fixed and moderate -rent” for the land on which they (bound to the soil) dwelt, nevertheless -they were partly public and partly private slaves and could only go -about in a special slave costume; the so-called <i>crypteia</i><a name="FNanchor_8" id="FNanchor_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> was a yearly -campaign against them when they showed themselves refractory; it served -as military exercise or manœuvres to the youthful conquerors.</p> - -<p>(2) The Laconians stood under far more favourable relations; they -were the populations of the hundred towns of the province; a portion of -them were strangers who had joined the Dorians at the conquest, but, for -the greater part, they were old inhabitants who early enough subjected -themselves to the conquerors. They stood in the relation of subjects, and -had no political rights, but were in no way oppressed; they had landed property -for which they paid rent to the state; and they carried on trade and art.</p> - -<p>(3) The Dorian conquerors, the real Spartans, dwelt in the capital, -which remained an “open camp,” all the more so as they formed only a -small part of the whole population and could keep the land in subjection -only by arms. They were the ruling citizens, possessed the best lands<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> -which were in the vicinity of the capital, and had these cultivated by slaves -(helots) whilst they dedicated themselves to war and the affairs of state.</p> - -<p>These relations certainly existed in the beginnings of the Dorian conquest, -but they were only brought about by circumstances, without being -regulated by law. Many errors must have arisen through this, and they -seem to have given rise to the “Legislation of Lycurgus.”<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_6b" id="enanchor_6b"></a><a href="#endnote_6b">b</a></span></p> - -<p>While modern criticism makes few inroads upon the accepted stories of -the Spartan régime it assails the very existence of Lycurgus, the so-called -creator of it. The earliest accounts of his legislation are three centuries -later than the time of his alleged career. The old Spartan poet Tyrtæus -does not seem to have mentioned him. Pindar credits his edicts to Ægimius -the mythical ancestor of the Dorians. Hellanicus and Thucydides do not -credit them to Lycurgus, and the “argument from silence” is strong against -him. His name means “wolf-repeller,” and it is thought that from being -originally a god of protection worshipped by the predecessors of the Dorians, -he came to be accepted finally as a man and a lawgiver. But historical -cities have denied the existence of other heroes of tradition only to restore -them later to their old glory, and it is necessary to present here the Lycurgus -of venerable story, as all the traditions of early Spartan communal life centre -about his name; and their alleged ancient lawgiver becomes, therefore, one -of the most important personages in Grecian history. As to his personality—accepting -him for the nonce as a reality—opinions differ according to -the bias of the individual historian. We shall perhaps be in best position -to gain a judicious idea of the subject by first following the biography of -Lycurgus by Plutarch, and afterward turning to modern investigators for an -estimate of the man and his laws. Whatever our individual opinion as -to the personality of the hero himself, we shall at least gain an insight into -the actual customs of the Spartans; and it perhaps does not greatly matter -if we are left in doubt as to the share which any single man—be his name -Lycurgus or what not—had in shaping them.<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/p129.jpg" width="500" height="223" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">The Valley of Sparta</span></p> -</div> - -<h4>PLUTARCH’S ACCOUNT OF LYCURGUS</h4> - -<p>Of Lycurgus, the lawgiver, says Plutarch, we have nothing to relate that -is certain and uncontroverted. For there are different accounts of his birth, -his travels, his death, and especially of the laws and form of government<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> -which he established. But least of all are the times agreed upon in which -this great man lived. For some say he flourished at the same time with -Iphitus, and joined with him in settling the cessation of arms during the -Olympic Games. Among these is Aristotle the philosopher, who alleges -for proof an Olympic quoit, on which was preserved the inscription of -Lycurgus’ name. But others who, with Eratosthenes and Apollodorus, -compute the time by the succession of the Spartan kings, place him -much earlier than the first Olympiad. Timæus, however, supposes, that, -as there were two Lycurguses in Sparta at different times, the actions -of both are ascribed to one, on account of his particular renown; and -that the more ancient of them lived not long after Homer: Nay, some say -he had seen him. Xenophon, too, confirms the opinion of his antiquity, -when he makes him contemporary with the Heraclidæ. It is true, the latest -of the Lacedæmonian kings were of the lineage of the Heraclidæ; but -Xenophon there seems to speak of the first and more immediate descendants -of Hercules. As the history of those times is thus involved, in relating the -circumstances of Lycurgus’ life, we shall endeavour to select such as are -least controverted, and follow authors of the greatest credit.</p> - -<p>For a long time anarchy and confusion prevailed in Sparta, by which -one of its kings, the father of Lycurgus, lost his life. For while he was -endeavouring to part some persons who were concerned in a fray, he -received a wound by a kitchen knife, of which he died, leaving the kingdom -to his eldest son Polydectes.</p> - -<p>But he, too, dying soon after, the general voice gave it for Lycurgus to -ascend the throne; and he actually did so, till it appeared that his brother’s -widow was pregnant. As soon as he perceived this, he declared that the -kingdom belonged to her issue, provided it were male, and he kept the -administration in his hands only as his guardian. This he did with the title -of Prodicos, which the Lacedæmonians give to the guardians of infant kings. -Soon after, the queen made him a private overture, that she would destroy -her child, upon condition that he would marry her when king of Sparta. -Though he detested her wickedness, he said nothing against the proposal, -but pretending to approve it, charged her not to take any drugs to procure -an abortion, lest she should endanger her own health or life; for he would -take care that the child, as soon as born, should be destroyed. Thus he artfully -drew on the woman to her full time, and, when he heard she was in -labour, he sent persons to attend and watch her delivery, with orders, if it -were a girl, to give it to the women, but if a boy, to bring it to him, in whatever -business he might be engaged. It happened that he was at supper with -the magistrates when she was delivered of a boy, and his servants, who were -present, carried the child to him. When he received it, he is reported -to have said to the company, “Spartans, see here your new-born king.” -He then laid him down upon the chair of state, and named him Charilaus, -because of the joy and admiration of his magnanimity and justice testified by -all present. Thus the reign of Lycurgus lasted only eight months. But the -citizens had a great veneration for him on other accounts, and there were -more that paid him their attentions, and were ready to execute his commands, -out of regard to his virtues, than those that obeyed him as a guardian -to the King, and director of the administration. There were not, however, -wanting those that envied him, and opposed his advancement, as too high -for so young a man; particularly the relations and friends of the queen-mother, -who seemed to have been treated with contempt. Her brother -Leonidas one day boldly attacked him with virulent language, and scrupled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> -not to tell him, that he was well assured he would soon be king. Insinuations -of the same kind were likewise spread by the queen-mother. Moved -with this ill treatment, and fearing some dark design, he determined to get -clear of all suspicion, by travelling into other countries, till his nephew -should be grown up, and have a son to succeed him in the kingdom.</p> - -<p>He set sail, therefore, and landed in Crete. There having observed the -forms of government, and conversed with the most illustrious personages, -he was struck with admiration of some of their laws, and resolved at his -return to make use of them in Sparta. Some others he rejected. From -Crete Lycurgus passed to Asia, desirous, as is said, to compare the Ionian -expense and luxury with the Cretan frugality and hard diet, so as to judge -what effect each had on their several manners and governments. The -Egyptians likewise suppose that he visited them; and as of all their institutions -he was most pleased with their distinguishing the military men from -the rest of the people, he took the same method at Sparta, and, by separating -from these the mechanics and artificers, he rendered the constitution more -noble and more of a piece.</p> - -<p>Returning, he immediately applied himself to alter the whole frame of the -constitution; sensible that a partial change, and the introducing of some -new laws, would be of no sort of advantage, he applied to the nobility, -and desired them to put their hands to the work; addressing himself privately -at first to his friends, and afterwards, by degrees, trying the disposition of -others, and preparing them to concur in the business. When matters were -ripe, he ordered thirty of the principal citizens to appear armed in the market-place -by break of day, to strike terror into such as might desire to oppose -him. Upon the first alarm, King Charilaus, apprehending it to be a design -against his person, took refuge in the <i>Chalcioicos</i> [brazen temple]. But he -was soon satisfied, and accepted their oath, and joined in the undertaking.</p> - -<h5><i>The Institutions of Lycurgus</i></h5> - -<p>Among the many new institutions of Lycurgus, the first and most important -was that of a senate; which sharing, as Plato says, in the power of -the kings, too imperious and unrestrained before, and having equal authority -with them, was the means of keeping them within the bounds of moderation, -and highly contributed to the preservation of the state. For before, it had -been veering and unsettled, sometimes inclining to arbitrary power, and -sometimes towards a pure democracy; but this establishment of a senate, an -intermediate body, like ballast, kept in it a just equilibrium, and put it in a -safe posture: the twenty-eight senators adhering to the kings, whenever -they saw the people too encroaching, and, on the other hand, supporting the -people, when the kings attempted to make themselves absolute. This, -according to Aristotle, was the number of senators fixed upon, because two -of the thirty associates of Lycurgus deserted the business through fear.</p> - -<p>He had this institution so much at heart, that he obtained from Delphi -an oracle in its behalf called <i>rhetra</i>, or <i>the decree</i>.</p> - -<p>Though the government was thus tempered by Lycurgus, yet soon after -it degenerated into an oligarchy, whose power was exercised with such wantonness -and violence, that it wanted indeed a bridle, as Plato expresses it. -This curb they found in the authority of the ephori, about one hundred -and thirty years after Lycurgus.</p> - -<p>A second and bolder political enterprise of Lycurgus, was a new division -of the lands. For he found a prodigious inequality, the city over-charged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> -with many indigent persons, who had no land, and the wealth centred in the -hands of a few. Determined, therefore, to root out the evils of insolence, -envy, avarice, and luxury, and those distempers of a state still more inveterate -and fatal, I mean poverty and riches, he persuaded them to cancel all -former divisions of land, and to make new ones, in such a manner that they -might be perfectly equal in their possessions and way of living. Hence, if -they were ambitious of distinction they might seek it in virtue, as no other -difference was left between them, but that which arises from the dishonour -of base actions and the praise of good ones. His proposal was put in practice.</p> - -<p>After this, he attempted to divide also the movables, in order to take -away all appearance of inequality; but he soon perceived that they could -not bear to have their goods directly taken from them, and therefore took -another method, counterworking their avarice by a stratagem. First he -stopped the currency of the gold and silver coin, and ordered that they -should make use of iron money only: then to a great quantity and weight -of this he assigned but a small value; so that to lay up ten minæ [£30 or -$150] a whole room was required, and to remove it nothing less than a yoke -of oxen. When this became current, many kinds of injustice ceased in -Lacedæmon. Who would steal or take a bribe, who would defraud or rob, -when he could not conceal the booty? Their iron coin would not pass in -the rest of Greece, but was ridiculed and despised; so that the Spartans had -no means of purchasing any foreign or curious wares; nor did any merchant-ship -unlade in their harbours. There were not even to be found in all their -country either sophists, wandering fortune-tellers, keepers of infamous houses, -or dealers in gold and silver trinkets, because there was no money. Thus -luxury, losing by degrees the means that cherished and supported it, died -away of itself: even they who had great possessions, had no advantage from -them, since they could not be displayed in public, but must lie useless, in -unregarded repositories.</p> - -<p>Desirous to complete the conquest of luxury, and exterminate the love of -riches, he introduced a third institution, which was wisely enough and -ingeniously contrived. This was the use of public tables, where all were to -eat in common of the same meat, and such kinds of it as were appointed by -law. At the same time, they were forbidden to eat at home, upon expensive -couches and tables, to call in the assistance of butchers and cooks, or to fatten -like voracious animals in private. For so not only their manners would be -corrupted, but their bodies disordered; abandoned to all manner of sensuality -and dissoluteness, they would require long sleep, warm baths, and the -same indulgence as in perpetual sickness. To effect this was certainly very -great; but it was greater still, to secure riches from rapine and from envy, -as Theophrastus expresses it, or rather by their eating in common, and by the -frugality of their table, to take from riches their very being. For what -use or enjoyment of them, what peculiar display of magnificence could there -be, where the poor man went to the same refreshment with the rich?</p> - -<p>The rich, therefore (we are told), were more offended with this regulation -than with any other, and, rising in a body, they loudly expressed their -indignation: nay, they proceeded so far as to assault Lycurgus with stones, -so that he was forced to fly from the assembly and take refuge in a temple.</p> - -<p>The public repasts were called by the Cretans <i>andria</i>; but the Lacedæmonians -styled them <i>phiditia</i>, either from their tendency to <i>friendship</i> and -mutual benevolence, <i>phiditia</i> being used instead of <i>philitia</i>; or else from -their teaching frugality and <i>parsimony</i>, which the word <i>pheido</i> signifies. -But it is not at all impossible, that the first letter might by some means or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> -other be added, and so <i>phiditia</i> take place of <i>editia</i>, which barely signifies -<i>eating</i>. There were fifteen persons to a table, or a few more or less. Each -of them was obliged to bring in monthly a bushel of meal, eight gallons of -wine, five pounds of cheese, two pounds and a half of figs, and a little money -to buy flesh and fish. If any of them happened to offer a sacrifice of first -fruits, or to kill venison, he sent a part of it to the public table: for after a -sacrifice or hunting, he was at liberty to sup at home: but the rest were to -appear at the usual place. For a long time this eating in common was -observed with great exactness: so that when King Agis returned from a -successful expedition against the Athenians, and from a desire to sup with -his wife, requested to have his portion at home, the polemarchs refused to -send it: nay, when, through resentment, he neglected the day following to -offer the sacrifice usual on occasion of victory, they set a fine upon him. -Children were also introduced at these public tables, as so many schools of -sobriety. There they heard discourses concerning government, and were -instructed in the most liberal breeding. There they were allowed to jest -without scurrility, and were not to take it ill when the raillery was returned. -For it was reckoned worthy of a Lacedæmonian to bear a jest: but if any one’s -patience failed, he had only to desire them to be quiet, and they left off immediately. -After they had drunk moderately, they went home without lights. -Indeed, they were forbidden to walk with a light either on this or any other -occasion, that they might accustom themselves to march in the darkest night -boldly and resolutely. Such was the order of their public repasts.</p> - -<p>Lycurgus left none of his laws in writing; it was ordered in one of the -<i>rhetræ</i> that none should be written. For what he thought most conducive -to the virtue and happiness of a city, was principles interwoven with the -manners and breeding of the people. As for smaller matters, it was better -not to reduce these to a written form and unalterable method, but to suffer -them to change with the times, and to admit of additions or retrenchments -at the pleasure of persons so well educated. For he resolved the whole business -of legislation into the bringing up of youth. And this, as we have -observed, was the reason why one of his ordinances forbade them to have -any written laws.</p> - -<p>Another ordinance levelled against magnificence and expense, directed -that the ceilings of houses should be wrought with no tool but the axe, and -the doors with nothing but the saw.</p> - -<h5><i>Regulations Regarding Marriage and the Conduct of Women</i></h5> - -<p>As for the education of youth, which he looked upon as the greatest and -most glorious work of a lawgiver, he began with it at the very source, taking -into consideration their conception and birth, by regulating the marriages. -For he did not (as Aristotle says) desist from his attempt to bring the -women under sober rules. They had, indeed, assumed great liberty and -power on account of the frequent expeditions of their husbands, during which -they were left sole mistresses at home, and so gained an undue deference and -improper titles; but notwithstanding this he took all possible care of them. -He ordered the virgins to exercise themselves in running, wrestling, and -throwing quoits and darts; that their bodies being strong and vigorous, the -children afterwards produced from them might be the same; and that, thus -fortified by exercise, they might the better support the pangs of childbirth, -and be delivered with safety. In order to take away the excessive tenderness -and delicacy of the sex, the consequence of a recluse life, he accustomed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> -the virgins occasionally to be seen naked as well as the young men, and to -dance and sing in their presence on certain festivals. There they sometimes -indulged in a little raillery upon those that had misbehaved themselves, and -sometimes they sung encomiums on such as deserved them, thus exciting in -the young men a useful emulation and love of glory. For he who was -praised for his bravery and celebrated among the virgins, went away perfectly -happy: while their satirical glances thrown out in sport, were no less cutting -than serious admonitions; especially as the kings and senate went with the -other citizens to see all that passed. As for the virgins appearing naked, -there was nothing disgraceful in it, because everything was conducted with -modesty, and without one indecent word or action. Nay, it caused a simplicity -of manners and an emulation for the best habit of body; their ideas, -too, were naturally enlarged, while they were not excluded from their share -of bravery and honour. Hence they were furnished with sentiments and -language, such as Gorgo the wife of Leonidas is said to have made use of. -When a woman of another country said to her, “You of Lacedæmon are the -only women in the world that rule the men:” she answered, “We are the -only women that bring forth men.”</p> - -<p>These public dances and other exercises of the young maidens naked, in -sight of the young men, were, moreover, incentives to marriage; and, to use -Plato’s expression, drew them almost as necessarily by the attractions of love, -as a geometrical conclusion follows from the premises. To encourage it -still more, some marks of infamy were set upon those that continued bachelors. -For they were not permitted to see these exercises of the naked virgins; -and the magistrates commanded them to march naked round the market-place -in the winter, and to sing a song composed against themselves, which expressed -how justly they were punished for their disobedience to the laws. -They were also deprived of that honour and respect which the younger -people paid to the old; so that nobody found fault with what was said to -Dercyllidas, though an eminent commander. It seems, when he came one -day into company, a young man, instead of rising up and giving place, told -him, “You have no child to give place to me, when I am old.”</p> - -<p>In their marriages the bridegroom carried off the bride by violence; and -she was never chosen in a tender age, but when she had arrived at full maturity. -Then the woman that had the direction of the wedding, cut the -bride’s hair close to the skin, dressed her in man’s clothes, laid her upon a -mattress, and left her in the dark. The bridegroom, neither oppressed with -wine nor enervated with luxury, but perfectly sober, as having always supped -at the common table, went in privately, untied her girdle, and carried her to -another bed. Having stayed there a short time, he modestly retired to his -usual apartment, to sleep with the other young men: and observed the same -conduct afterwards, spending the day with his companions, and reposing -himself with them in the night, nor even visiting his bride but with great -caution and apprehensions of being discovered by the rest of the family; -the bride at the same time exerted all her art to contrive convenient opportunities -for their private meetings. And this they did not for a short time -only, but some of them even had children before they had an interview with -their wives in the day-time. This kind of commerce not only exercised their -temperance and chastity, but kept their bodies fruitful, and the first ardour -of their love fresh and unabated; for as they were not satiated like those -that are always with their wives, there still was place for unextinguished desire.</p> - -<p>When he had thus established a proper regard to modesty and decorum -with respect to marriage, he was equally studious to drive from that state<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> -the vain and womanish passion of jealousy; by making it quite as reputable -to have children in common with persons of merit, as to avoid all offensive -freedom in their own behaviour to their wives. He laughed at those who -revenge with wars and bloodshed the communication of a married woman’s -favours; and allowed, that if a man in years should have a young wife, he -might introduce to her some handsome and honest young man, whom he most -approved of, and when she had a child of this generous race, bring it up as -his own. On the other hand, he allowed, if a man of character should entertain -a passion for a married woman on account of her modesty and the beauty -of her children, he might treat with her husband for admission to her company, -that so planting in a beauty-bearing soil, he might produce excellent -children, the congenial offspring of excellent parents.</p> - -<p>For in the first place, Lycurgus considered children, not so much the -property of their parents, as of the state; and therefore he would not have -them begot by ordinary persons, but by the best men in it. In the next -place, he observed the vanity and absurdity of other nations, where people -study to have their horses and dogs of the finest breed they can procure, -either by interest or money; and yet keep their wives shut up, that they -may have children by none but themselves, though they may happen to be -doting, decrepit, or infirm. As if children, when sprung from a bad stock, -and consequently good for nothing, were no detriment to those whom they -belong to, and who have the trouble of bringing them up, nor any advantage, -when well descended and of a generous disposition. These regulations -tending to secure a healthy offspring, and consequently beneficial to the state, -were so far from encouraging that licentiousness of the women which prevailed -afterwards, that adultery was not known amongst them.</p> - -<h5><i>The Rearing of Children</i></h5> - -<p>It was not left to the father to rear what children he pleased, but he was -obliged to carry the child to a place called Lesche, to be examined by the -most ancient men of the tribe, who were assembled there. If it was strong -and well proportioned, they gave orders for its education, and assigned it -one of the nine thousand shares of land; but if it was weakly and deformed, -they ordered it to be thrown into the place called Apothetæ, which is a deep -cavern near the mountain Taygetus: concluding that its life could be no -advantage either to itself or to the public, since nature had not given it at -first any strength or goodness of constitution. For the same reason the -women did not wash their new-born infants with water, but with wine, thus -making some trial of their habit of body; imagining that sickly and epileptic -children sink and die under the experiment, while healthy became more -vigorous and hardy. Great care and art was also exerted by the nurses; for, -as they never swathed the infants, their limbs had a freer turn, and their -countenances a more liberal air; besides, they used them to any sort of -meat, to have no terrors in the dark, nor to be afraid of being alone, and -to leave all ill humour and unmanly crying. Hence people of other countries -purchased Lacedæmonian nurses for their children.</p> - -<p>The Spartan children were not in that manner, under tutors purchased -or hired with money, nor were the parents at liberty to educate them as -they pleased: but as soon as they were seven years old, Lycurgus ordered -them to be enrolled in companies, where they were all kept under the same -order and discipline, and had their exercises and recreations in common. -He who showed the most conduct and courage amongst them, was made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> -captain of the company. The rest kept their eyes upon him, obeyed his -orders, and bore with patience the punishment he inflicted: so that their -whole education was an exercise of obedience. The old men were present -at their diversions, and often suggested some occasion of dispute or quarrel, -that they might observe with exactness the spirit of each, and their firmness -in battle.</p> - -<p>As for learning, they had just what was absolutely necessary. All the -rest of their education was calculated to make them subject to command, -to endure labour, to fight and conquer. They added, therefore, to their discipline, -as they advanced in age; cutting their hair very close, making them -go barefoot, and play, for the most part, quite naked. At twelve years of -age, their under garment was taken away, and but one upper one a year -allowed them. Hence they were necessarily dirty in their persons, and not -indulged the great favour of baths and oils, except on some particular days -of the year. They slept in companies, on beds made of the tops of reeds, -which they gathered with their own hands, without knives, and brought -from the banks of the Eurotas. In winter they were permitted to add a -little thistle-down, as that seemed to have some warmth in it.</p> - -<p>They steal, too, whatever victuals they possibly can, ingeniously contriving -to do it when persons are asleep, or keep but indifferent watch. If they -are discovered, they are punished not only with whipping, but with hunger. -Indeed, their supper is but slender at all times, that, to fence against want, -they may be forced to exercise their courage and address. This is the first -intention of their spare diet: a subordinate one is, to make them grow tall. -For when the animal spirits are not too much oppressed by a great quantity -of food, which stretches itself out in breadth and thickness, they mount upwards -by their natural lightness, and the body easily and freely shoots up in -height. This also contributes to make them handsome: for thin and slender -habits yield more freely to nature, which then gives a fine proportion to the -limbs; whilst the heavy and gross resist her by their weight.</p> - -<p>The boys steal with so much caution, that one of them, having conveyed -a young fox under his garment, suffered the creature to tear out his bowels -with his teeth and claws, choosing rather to die than to be detected. Nor -does this appear incredible, if we consider what their young men can endure -to this day; for we have seen many of them expire under the lash at the -altar of Diana Orthia.</p> - -<h5><i>The Famed Laconic Discourse; Spartan Discipline</i></h5> - -<p>The boys were also taught to use sharp repartee, seasoned with humour, -and whatever they said was to be concise and pithy. For Lycurgus, as we -have observed, fixed but a small value on a considerable quantity of his iron -money; but on the contrary, the worth of speech was to consist in its being -comprised in a few plain words, pregnant with a great deal of sense: and -he contrived that by long silence they might learn to be sententious and -acute in their replies. As debauchery often causes weakness and sterility in -the body, so the intemperance of the tongue makes conversation empty and -insipid. King Agis, therefore, when a certain Athenian laughed at the -Lacedæmonian short swords and said, “The jugglers would swallow them -with ease upon the stage,” answered in his laconic way, “And yet we can -reach our enemies’ hearts with them.” Indeed, to me there seems to be -something in this concise manner of speaking which immediately reaches the -object aimed at, and forcibly strikes the mind of the hearer.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span></p> - -<p>Lycurgus himself was short and sententious in his discourse, if we may -judge by some of his answers which are recorded: that, for instance, concerning -the constitution. When one advised him to establish a popular -government in Lacedæmon, “Go,” said he, “and first make a trial of it in -thy own family.” That again, concerning sacrifices to the deity, when he -was asked why he appointed them so trifling and of so little value, “That -we may never be in want,” said he, “of something to offer him.” Once -more, when they inquired of him, what sort of martial exercises he allowed -of, he answered, “All, except those in which you stretch out your palms.” -Several such like replies of his are said to be taken from the letters which -he wrote to his countrymen: as to their question, “How shall we best guard -against the invasion of an enemy?” “By continuing poor, and not desiring -in your possessions to be one above another.” And to the question, whether -they should enclose Sparta with walls, “That city is well fortified which has -a wall of men instead of brick.” Whether these and some other letters -ascribed to him are genuine or not, is no easy matter to determine.</p> - -<p>Even when they indulged a vein of pleasantry, one might perceive, that -they would not use one unnecessary word, nor let an expression escape them -that had not some sense worth attending to. For one being asked to go and -hear a person who imitated the nightingale to perfection, answered, “I have -heard the nightingale herself.”</p> - -<p>Nor were poetry and music less cultivated among them, than a concise -dignity of expression. Their songs had a spirit, which could rouse the soul, -and impel it in an enthusiastic manner to action. The language was plain and -manly, the subject serious and moral. For they consisted chiefly of the -praises of heroes that had died for Sparta, or else of expressions of detestation -for such wretches as had declined the glorious opportunity, and rather -chose to drag on life in misery and contempt. Nor did they forget to express -an ambition for glory suitable to their respective ages.</p> - -<p>Hippias the sophist tells us, that Lycurgus himself was a man of great -personal valour, and an experienced commander. Philostephanus also -ascribes to him the first division of cavalry into troops of fifty, who were -drawn up in a square body. But Demetrius the Phalerean says, that he -never had any military employment, and that there was the profoundest -peace imaginable when he established the Constitution of Sparta. His providing -for a cessation of arms during the Olympic Games is likewise a mark -of the humane and peaceable man.</p> - -<p>The discipline of the Lacedæmonians continued after they were arrived -at years of maturity. For no man was at liberty to live as he pleased; the -city being like one great camp, where all had their stated allowance, and -knew their public charge, each man concluding that he was born, not for -himself, but for his country. Hence, if they had no particular orders, they -employed themselves in inspecting the boys, and teaching them something -useful, or in learning of those that were older than themselves. One of the -greatest privileges that Lycurgus procured his countrymen, was the enjoyment -of leisure, the consequence of his forbidding them to exercise any -mechanic trade. It was not worth their while to take great pains to raise a -fortune, since riches there were of no account: and the helots, who tilled -the ground, were answerable for the produce above-mentioned.</p> - -<p>Lawsuits were banished from Lacedæmon with money. The Spartans -knew neither riches nor poverty, but possessed an equal competency, and -had a cheap and easy way of supplying their few wants. Hence, when they -were not engaged in war, their time was taken up with dancing, feasting,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> -hunting, or meeting to exercise or converse. They went not to market -under thirty years of age, all their necessary concerns being managed by -their relations and adopters. Nor was it reckoned a credit to the old to be -seen sauntering in the market-place; it was deemed more suitable for them -to pass great part of the day in the schools of exercise, or places of conversation. -Their discourse seldom turned upon money, or business, or trade, but -upon the praise of the excellent, or the contempt of the worthless; and the -last was expressed with that pleasantry and humour, which conveyed instruction -and correction without seeming to intend it. Nor was Lycurgus himself -immoderately severe in his manner; but, as Sosibius tells us, he -dedicated a little statue to the god of laughter in each hall. He considered -facetiousness as a seasoning of their hard exercise and diet, and therefore -ordered it to take place on all proper occasions, in their common entertainments -and parties of pleasures. Upon the whole, he taught his citizens to -think nothing more disagreeable than to live by (or for) themselves.</p> - -<h5><i>The Senate; Burial Customs; Home-Staying; The Ambuscade</i></h5> - -<p>The Senate, as said before, consisted at first of those that were assistants -to Lycurgus in his great enterprise. Afterwards, to fill up any vacancy -that might happen, he ordered the most worthy men to be selected, of those -that were full threescore years old. This was the most respectable dispute -in the world, and the contest was truly glorious: for it was not who should -be swiftest among the swift, or strongest of the strong, but who was the -wisest and best among the good and wise. He who had the preference was -to bear this mark of superior excellence through life, this great authority, -which put into his hands the lives and honour of the citizens, and every -other important affair. The manner of the election was this: When the -people were assembled, some persons appointed for the purpose were shut up -in a room near the place; where they could neither see nor be seen, and only -hear the shouts of the constituents: for by them they decided this and most -other affairs. Each candidate walked silently through the assembly, one -after another according to lot. Those that were shut up had writing tables, -in which they set down in different columns the number and loudness of the -shouts, without knowing whom they were for; only they marked them as -first, second, third, and so on, according to the number of the competitors. -He that had the most and loudest acclamations, was declared duly elected. -Then he was crowned with a garland, and went round to give thanks to the -gods: a number of young men followed, striving which should extol him -most, and the women celebrated his virtues in their songs, and blessed his -worthy life and conduct. Each of his relations offered him a repast, and -their address on the occasion was, “Sparta honours you with this collation.” -When he had finished the procession, he went to the common table, and lived -as before. Only two portions were set before him, one of which he carried -away: and as all the women related to him attended at the gates of the -public hall, he called her for whom he had the greatest esteem, and presented -her with the portion, saying at the same time, “That which I received as a -mark of honour, I give to you.” Then she was conducted home with great -applause by the rest of the women.</p> - -<p>Lycurgus likewise made good regulations with respect to burials. In -the first place, to take away all superstition, he ordered the dead to be buried -in the city, and even permitted their monuments to be erected near the -temples; accustoming the youth to such sights from their infancy, that they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> -might have no uneasiness from them nor any horror for death, as if people -were polluted with the touch of a dead body, or with treading upon a grave. -In the next place, he suffered nothing to be buried with the corpse, except -the red cloth and the olive leaves in which it was wrapped. Nor would he -suffer the relations to inscribe any names upon the tombs, except of those -men that fell in battle, or those women who died in some sacred office. He -fixed eleven days for the time of mourning: on the twelfth they were to -put an end to it, after offering sacrifice to Ceres. No part of life was left -vacant and unimproved, but even with their necessary actions he interwove -the praise of virtue and the contempt of vice: and he so filled the city -with living examples, that it was next to impossible for persons who had -these from their infancy before their eyes, not to be drawn and formed to -honour.</p> - -<p>For the same reason he would not permit all that desired to go abroad -and see other countries, lest they should contract foreign manners, gain -traces of a life of little discipline, and of a different form of government. -He forbade strangers, too, to resort to Sparta, who could not assign a good -reason for their coming; not, as Thucydides says, out of fear they should -imitate the constitution of that city, and make improvements in virtue, but -lest they should teach his own people some evil. For along with foreigners -come new subjects of discourse; new discourse produces new opinions; and -from these there necessarily spring new passions and desires, which, like -discords in music, would disturb the established government. He, therefore, -thought it more expedient for the city, to keep out of it corrupt customs and -manners, than even to prevent the introduction of a pestilence.</p> - -<p>Thus far, then, we can perceive no vestiges of a disregard to right and -wrong, which is the fault some people find with the laws of Lycurgus, allowing -them well enough calculated to produce valour, but not to promote -justice. Perhaps it was the <i>crypteia</i>, as they called it, or <i>ambuscade</i>, if that -was really one of this lawgiver’s institutions, as Aristotle says it was, which -gave Plato so bad an impression both of Lycurgus and his laws. The -governors of the youth ordered the shrewdest of them from time to time to -disperse themselves in the country, provided only with daggers and some -necessary provisions. In the day-time they hid themselves, and rested in the -most private places they could find, but at night they sallied out into the -roads, and killed all the helots they could meet with. Nay, sometimes by -day, they fell upon them in the fields, and murdered the ablest and strongest -of them. Thucydides relates, in his history of the Peloponnesian War, that -the Spartans selected such of them as were distinguished for their courage, -to the number of two thousand or more, declared them free, crowned them -with garlands, and conducted them to the temples of the gods; but soon -after they all disappeared; and no one could, either then or since, give -account in what manner they were destroyed. Aristotle particularly says, -that the <i>ephori</i>, as soon as they were invested in their office, declared war -against the helots, that they might be massacred under pretence of law. In -other respects they treated them with great inhumanity: sometimes they -made them drink till they were intoxicated, and in that condition led them -into the public halls, to show the young men what drunkenness was. They -ordered them, too, to sing mean songs, and to dance ridiculous dances, but -not to meddle with any that were genteel and graceful. Thus they tell us, -that when the Thebans afterwards invaded Laconia, and took a great number -of the helots prisoners, they ordered them to sing the odes of Terpander, -Alcman, or Spendon the Lacedæmonian, but they excused themselves, alleging<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> -that it was forbidden by their masters. Those who say, that a freeman -in Sparta was most a freeman, and a slave most a slave, seem well to have -considered the difference of states. But in my opinion, it was in aftertimes -that these cruelties took place among the Lacedæmonians; chiefly after -the great earthquake, when, as history informs us, the helots, joining the -Messenians, attacked them, did infinite damage to the country, and brought -the city to the greatest extremity. I can never ascribe to Lycurgus so -abominable an act as that of the ambuscade. I would judge in this case by -the mildness and justice which appeared in the rest of his conduct.</p> - -<h5><i>Lycurgus’ Subterfuge to Perpetuate His Laws</i></h5> - -<p>When his principal institutions had taken root in the manners of the -people, and the government was come to such maturity as to be able to support -and preserve itself, then, as Plato says of the Deity, that he rejoiced -when he had created the world, and given it its first motion; so Lycurgus -was charmed with the beauty and greatness of his political establishment, -when he saw it exemplified in fact, and move on in due order. He was next -desirous to make it immortal, so far as human wisdom could effect it, and -to deliver it down unchanged to the latest times. For this purpose he -assembled all the people, and told them, the provisions he had already made -for the state were indeed sufficient for virtue and happiness, but the greatest -and most important matter was still behind, which he could not disclose to -them till he had consulted the oracle; that they must therefore inviolably -observe his laws, without altering anything in them, till he returned from -Delphi; and then he would acquaint them with the pleasure of Apollo. -When they had promised to do so, he took an oath of the kings and senators, -and afterwards of all the citizens, that they would abide by the present -establishment till Lycurgus came back. He then took his journey to Delphi.</p> - -<p>When he arrived there, he offered sacrifice to the gods, and consulted the -oracle, whether his laws were sufficient to promote virtue, and secure the -happiness of the state. Apollo answered, that the laws were excellent, and -that the city which kept to the constitution he had established, would be the -most glorious in the world. This oracle Lycurgus took down in writing, and -sent it to Sparta. He then offered another sacrifice, and embraced his friends -and his son, determined never to release his citizens from their oath, but -voluntarily there to put a period to his life; while he was yet of an age -when life was not a burden, when death was not desirable, and while he was -not unhappy in any one circumstance. He, therefore, destroyed himself by -abstaining from food, persuaded that the very death of lawgivers, should -have its use, and their exit, so far from being insignificant, have its share of -virtue, and be considered as a great action. To him, indeed, whose performances -were so illustrious, the conclusion of life was the crown of happiness, -and his death was left guardian of those invaluable blessings he had procured -his countrymen through life, as they had taken an oath not to depart from -his establishment till his return. Nor was he deceived in his expectations. -Sparta continued superior to the rest of Greece, both in its government at -home and reputation abroad, so long as it retained the institution of Lycurgus; -and this it did during the space of five hundred years, and the reign of -fourteen successive kings, down to Agis the son of Archidamus. As for the -appointment of the ephors, it was so far from weakening the constitution, -that it gave it additional vigour, and though it seemed to be established in -favour of the people, it strengthened the aristocracy.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_6c" id="enanchor_6c"></a><a href="#endnote_6c">c</a></span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span></p> - -<h4>EFFECTS OF LYCURGUS’ SYSTEM</h4> - -<p>Thus far we have followed Plutarch; now let us see what modern -authority will say of the influence of Lycurgus.</p> - -<p>The best commentary on the laws of Lycurgus is the history of Sparta; -let us read it and judge the tree by its fruits.</p> - -<p>Lycurgus, if we unite under his name all the laws mentioned, without -pausing to make sure that they are rightfully attributed, had operated with -rare sagacity to render Sparta immutable and its constitution immortal. But -there exists an arch-enemy to the things of this world that call themselves -eternal—the old man with the white beard and denuded scalp that antiquity -armed with a scythe. Legislators like, no better than poets, to take him -into account; they are ready enough to declare that they have erected an -edifice more solid than brass. Time advances and the whole structure -crumbles to the earth. Sparta braved him through several centuries, by -sacrificing the liberty of her citizens whom she kept bowed under the severest -discipline. She lasted long, but never truly lived. As soon as her inflexible, -and in some respects immoral, constitution, established outside the usual conditions -under which society exists, was shaken, her decadence was rapid and -irrevocable.</p> - -<p>Lycurgus had desired to make fixed, population, lands, and the number -and fortune of citizens; as it turned out never was there a city where property -changed hands more frequently, where the condition of citizens was more -unstable, or their number subject to more steady diminution. He had singularly -restricted individual property rights to strengthen the power of the -state; and Aristotle says: “In Sparta the state is poor, the individual rich -and avaricious.” He had failed to recognise the laws of nature in the education -and destiny of women; and Aristotle, charging the Spartan women -with immorality, with greed, and even calling into question their courage, -sees in the license they allowed themselves one of the causes of Lacedæmon’s -downfall.</p> - -<p>He made the helots tremble under his rule, and finally sent them back -to their masters. He prohibited long wars; but he had made war attractive -by freeing the soldiers from the heavy rules laid upon the citizen, and -it was by war and victory that his republic perished. He withdrew from -his fellow-citizens all power of initiative, assigning to each moment of their -lives its particular duty; in a word, to speak with Rousseau, who was also a -master of political paradox, “His laws completely changed the nature of -man to make of him a citizen.” Yet Sparta, become a revolutionary city, perished -for want of men. He proscribed gold and silver that there might be no -corruption, and nowhere since the Median wars, was venality so pronounced -and shameless.</p> - -<p>He banished the arts, except for the adornment of his temple of Apollo -at Amyclæ; and in this he succeeded. Pausanias makes note of some fifty -temples in Lacedæmonia, but not a stone of them remains. Rustic piety -and not art erected them. Save for a certain taste in music, the dance, and -a severe style of poetry, Sparta stands alone as a barbarian city in the middle -of Greece, a spot of darkness where all else is light; she did not even know -thoroughly the only art she practised, that of war; at least she always remained -ignorant of certain features of it.</p> - -<p>As Aristotle says: “Trained for war, Lacedæmonia, like a sword in its -scabbard, rests in peace.” All her institutions taught her to fight, not one -to live the life of the spirit. Savage and egotistical, she satisfied the pride<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> -of her children, and won the praise of those who admire power and success, -but what did she do for the world? A war machine perfectly fitted to -destroy but incapable of production, what has she left behind her? Not an -artist nor a man of genius, not even a ruin that bears her name; she is -dead in every part as Thucydides predicted, while Athens, calumniated by -rhetoricians of all ages, still has to show the majestic ruins of her temples, -source of inspiration to modern art in two worlds, as her poets and philosophers -are the source of eternal beauty.</p> - -<p>To sum up, and this is the lesson taught by this history: rigidly as Lycurgus -might decree for Sparta equality of possessions, an end contrary to -natural as to social conditions, nowhere in Greece was social inequality so -marked. Something of her discipline subsisted longer, and it was this strange -social ordonnance that won for Lacedæmon her power and renown, striking -as it did all other populations with astonishment.</p> - -<p>The Spartans have further set a noble example of sobriety, and of contempt -for passion, pain, and death. They could obey and they could die. -Law was for them, according to the felicitous expression of Pindarus and of -Montaigne: “Queen and Empress of the World.” Let us accord to them -one more virtue which does them honour, respect for those upon whose -head Time has placed the crown of whitened locks.</p> - -<p>The aristocratic poet of Bœotia who like another Dorian, Theognis of -Megara hated the masses, admired the city where reigned under a line of -hereditary kings, “The wisdom of old men, and the lances of young, the -choirs of the Muse and sweet harmony.” Simonides more clearly recognises -the true reason of Sparta’s greatness; he called Lacedæmon “the city -which tames men.” Empire over oneself usually gives empire over others, -and for a long time the Spartan possessed both.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_6d" id="enanchor_6d"></a><a href="#endnote_6d">d</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_8" id="Footnote_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> [J. B. Bury translates it as “a secret police.”]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-6.jpg" width="500" height="230" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-7.jpg" width="500" height="95" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_VII_THE_MESSENIAN_WARS_OF_SPARTA">CHAPTER VII. THE MESSENIAN WARS OF SPARTA</h3> - -<div class="sidenote">[<i>ca.</i> 764 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>That there were two long contests between the Lacedæmonians and -Messenians, and that in both the former were completely victorious, is a -fact sufficiently attested. And if we could trust the statements in Pausanias,—our -chief and almost only authority on the subject,—we should be in a -situation to recount the history of both these wars in considerable detail. -But unfortunately, the incidents narrated in that writer have been gathered -from sources which are, even by his own admission, undeserving of credit, -from Rhianus, the poet of Bene in Crete, who had composed an epic poem -on Aristomenes and the Second Messenian War, about <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> 220, and from -Myron of Priene, a prose author whose date is not exactly known, but belonging -to the Alexandrine age, and not earlier than the third century -before the Christian era.</p> - -<p>The poet Tyrtæus was himself engaged on the side of the Spartans in the -second war, and it is from him that we learn the few indisputable facts respecting -both the first and the second. If the Messenians had never been -re-established in Peloponnesus, we should probably never have heard any -further details respecting these early contests. That re-establishment, and -the first foundation of the city called Messene on Mount Ithome, was among -the capital wounds inflicted on Sparta by Epaminondas, in the year <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> -369,—between three hundred and two hundred and fifty years after the -conclusion of the Second Messenian War. The descendants of the old Messenians, -who had remained for so long a period without any fixed position -in Greece, were incorporated in the new city, together with various helots -and miscellaneous settlers who had no claim to a similar genealogy. The -gods and heroes of the Messenian race were reverentially invoked at this -great ceremony, especially the great hero Aristomenes; and the site of -Mount Ithome, the ardour of the newly established citizens, the hatred and -apprehension of Sparta, operating as a powerful stimulus to the creation -and multiplication of what are called <i>traditions</i>, sufficed to expand the few -facts known respecting the struggles of the old Messenians into a variety of -details. In almost all these stories we discover a colouring unfavourable -to Sparta, contrasting forcibly with the account given by Isocrates in his -discourse called <i>Archidamus</i>, wherein we read the view which a Spartan -might take of the ancient conquests of his forefathers. But a clear proof -that these Messenian stories had no real basis of tradition, is shown in -the contradictory statements respecting the prime hero Aristomenes. Wesseling -thinks that there were two persons named Aristomenes, one in the -first and one in the second war. This inextricable confusion respecting -the greatest name in Messenian antiquity, shows how little any genuine -stream of tradition can here be recognised.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span></p> - -<p>Pausanias states the First Messenian War as beginning in <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> 743 and -lasting till <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> 724,—the Second, as beginning in <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> 685 and lasting till -<span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> 668. Neither of these dates rest upon any assignable positive authority; -but the time assigned to the first war seems probable, that of the -second is apparently too early. Tyrtæus authenticates both the duration of -the first war, twenty years, and the eminent services rendered in it by the -Spartan king Theopompus. He says, moreover, speaking during the second -war, “the fathers of our fathers conquered Messene;” thus loosely indicating -the relative dates of the two.</p> - -<p>The Spartans (as we learn from Isocrates, whose words date from a -time when the city of Messene was only a recent foundation) professed -to have seized the territory, partly in revenge for the impiety of the -Messenians in killing their king, the Heraclid Cresphontes, whose relative -had appealed to them for aid,—partly by sentence of the Delphian oracle. -Such were the causes which had induced them first to invade the country, -and they had conquered it after a struggle of twenty years. The Lacedæmonian -explanations, as given in Pausanias, seem for the most part to -be counter-statements arranged after the time when the Messenian version, -evidently the interesting and popular account, had become circulated.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_7b" id="enanchor_7b"></a><a href="#endnote_7b">b</a></span></p> - -<p>Within the limits of Messenia there was a temple of Diana Limnatis, -which was alone common to the Messenians among the Dorians, and to the -Lacedæmonians. The Lacedæmonians asserted, that the virgins whom they -sent to the festival were violated by the Messenians; that their king, Teleclus, -was slain through endeavouring to prevent the injury, and that the -violated virgins slew themselves through shame.</p> - -<p>The Messenians, however, relate this affair differently; that stratagems -were raised by Teleclus against those persons of quality that came to -the temple in Messene. For when the Lacedæmonians, on account of the -goodness of the land desired to possess Messenia, Teleclus adorned the -beardless youths after the manner of virgins, and so disposed them, that -they might suddenly attack the Lacedæmonians with their daggers as they -were sitting. The Messenians, however, running to their assistance, slew -both Teleclus and all the beardless youths. But the Lacedæmonians, as -they were conscious that this action was perpetrated by public consent, never -attempted to revenge the death of their king. And such are the reports of each -party, which every one believes, just as he is influenced by his attachment to -each. After this event had taken place, and when one generation had passed -away, a hatred commenced between the Lacedæmonians and Messenians.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_7c" id="enanchor_7c"></a><a href="#endnote_7c">c</a></span></p> - -<h4>FIRST MESSENIAN WAR</h4> - -<p>In spite of the death of Teleclus, however, the war did not actually break -out until some little time after, when Alcamenes and Theopompus were kings -at Sparta, and Antiochus and Androcles, sons of Pintas, kings of Messenia. -The immediate cause of it was a private altercation between the Messenian -Polychares (victor at the fourth Olympiad, <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> 764) and the Spartan Euæphnus. -Polychares having been grossly injured by Euæphnus, and his claim -for redress having been rejected at Sparta, took revenge by aggressions upon -other Lacedæmonians; the Messenians refused to give him up, though one -of the two kings, Androcles, strongly insisted upon doing so, and maintained -his opinion so earnestly against the opposite sense of the majority and of his -brother, Antiochus, that a tumult arose, and he was slain.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">[<i>ca.</i> 750 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The Lacedæmonians, now resolving upon war, struck the first blow -without any formal declaration, by surprising the border town of Amphea, -and putting its defenders to the sword. They further overran the Messenian -territory, and attacked some other towns, but without success. Euphaes, who -had now succeeded his father Antiochus as king of Messenia, summoned the -forces of the country and carried on the war against them with energy and -boldness. For the first four years of the war, the Lacedæmonians made no -progress, and even incurred the ridicule of the old men of their nation as -faint-hearted warriors: in the fifth year, they made a more vigorous invasion, -under their two kings, Theopompus and Polydorus, who were met by -Euphaes with the full force of the Messenians. A desperate battle ensued, -in which it does not seem that either side gained much advantage: nevertheless -the Messenians found themselves so much enfeebled by it, that they were -forced to take refuge on the fortified mountain of Ithome, and to abandon -the rest of the country.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_7b2" id="enanchor_7b2"></a><a href="#endnote_7b">b</a></span></p> - -<p>After this battle the affairs of the Messenians were in a calamitous situation. -For, in the first place, through the great sums of money which they -had expended in fortifying their cities, they had no longer the means of supplying -their army. In the next place, their slaves had fled to the Lacedæmonians. -And lastly, a disease resembling a pestilence, though it did not -infest all their country, greatly embarrassed their affairs. In consequence, -therefore, of consulting about their present situation, they thought proper -to abandon all those cities which had the most inland situation, and to -betake themselves to the mountain Ithome. In this mountain there was -a city of no great magnitude, which, they say, is mentioned by Homer in -his catalogue:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“And those that in the steep Ithome dwell.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">In this city, therefore, fixing their residence, they enlarged the ancient enclosure, -so that it might be sufficient to defend the whole of its inhabitants. -This place was in other respects well fortified: for Ithome is not inferior to -any of the mountains within the isthmus in magnitude; and besides this, is -most difficult of access.</p> - -<p>When they were settled in this mountain, they determined to send to Delphos, -and consult the oracle concerning the event of the war. Tisis, therefore, -the son of Alcis, was employed on this errand; a man who, in nobility of -birth, was not inferior to any one, and who was particularly given to divination. -This Tisis, on his return from Delphos, was attacked by a band of -Lacedæmonians belonging to the guard of Amphea, but defended himself so -valiantly that they were not able to take him. It is certain, however, that -they did not desist from wounding him, till a voice was heard, from an -invisible cause, “Dismiss the bearer of the oracle.” And Tisis, indeed, as -soon as he returned to his own people, repeated the oracle to the king, and -not long after died of his wounds. But Euphaes, collecting the Messenians -together, recited the oracle, which was as follows: “Sacrifice a pure virgin, -who is allotted a descent from the blood of the Æpytidæ, to the infernal -demons, by cutting her throat in the night: but if the virgin who is led to -the altar descends from any other family, let her voluntarily offer herself to -be sacrificed.” Such then being the declaration of the god, immediately all -the virgins descended from the Æpytidæ awaited the decision of lots: -when the lot fell upon the daughter of Lyciscus, the prophet Epebolus told -them that it was not proper that she should be sacrificed, because she was -not the genuine daughter of Lyciscus: but that the wife of Lyciscus, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> -consequence of her barrenness, had falsely pretended that this was her -daughter.</p> - -<h5><i>The Futile Sacrifice of the Daughter of Aristodemus</i></h5> - -<div class="sidenote">[<i>ca.</i> 750-725 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>In the meantime, while the prophet was thus dissuading the people, -Lyciscus privately took away the virgin and fled to Sparta. But the Messenians -being greatly dejected as soon as they perceived that Lyciscus had -fled, Aristodemus, a man descended from the Æpytidæ, and who was most -illustrious in warlike concerns and other respects, offered his own daughter -as a voluntary sacrifice. Destiny, however, no less absorbs the alacrity of -mankind, than the mud of a river the pebbles which it contains. For the -following circumstance became a hindrance to Aristodemus, who was then -desirous of saving Messene by sacrificing his daughter: A Messenian citizen -whose name is not transmitted to us happened to be in love with the daughter -of Aristodemus, and was just on the point of making her his wife. This -man from the first entered into a dispute with Aristodemus, asserting that -the virgin was no longer in the power of her father, as she had been promised -to him in marriage, but that all authority over her belonged to him as -her intended husband. However, finding that this plea was ineffectual, he -made use of a shameful lie in order to accomplish his purpose, and affirmed -that he had lain with the girl, and that she was now with child by him. -But in the end, Aristodemus was so exasperated by this lie, that he slew his -daughter, and having cut open her womb, plainly evinced that she was not -with child.</p> - -<p>Upon this, Epebolus, who was present, exhorted them to sacrifice the -daughter of some other person, because the daughter of Aristodemus, in -consequence of having been slain by her father in a rage, could not be the -sacrifice to those dæmons which the oracle commanded. In consequence of -the prophet thus addressing the people, they immediately rushed forth in -order to slay the suitor of the dead virgin, as he had been the means of -Aristodemus becoming defiled with the blood of his offspring, and had rendered -the hope of their preservation dubious. But this man was a particular -friend of Euphaes; and in consequence of this, Euphaes persuaded the Messenians -that the oracle was accomplished in the death of the virgin, and that -they ought to be satisfied with what Aristodemus had accomplished. All -the Æpytidæ, therefore, were of the opinion of Euphaes, because each was -anxious to be liberated from the fear of sacrificing his daughter. In consequence -of this, the advice of the king was generally received, and the assembly -dissolved. And after this they turned their attentions to the sacrifices -and festival of the gods.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_7c2" id="enanchor_7c2"></a><a href="#endnote_7c">c</a></span></p> - -<p>The war still continued, and in the thirteenth year of it another hard-fought -battle took place, in which the brave Euphaes was slain, but the result -was again indecisive. Aristodemus, being elected king in his place, -prosecuted the war strenuously: the fifth year of his reign is signalised by a -third general battle, wherein the Corinthians assist the Spartans, and the -Arcadians and Sicyonians are on the side of Messenia; the victory is here -decisive on the side of Aristodemus, and the Lacedæmonians are driven -back into their own territory. It was now their turn to send envoys and -ask advice from the Delphian oracle; and the remaining events of the war -exhibit a series, partly of stratagems to fulfil the injunctions of the priestess, -partly of prodigies in which the divine wrath is manifested against -the Messenians. The king Aristodemus, agonised with the thought that he -has slain his own daughter without saving his country, puts an end to his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> -own life. In the twentieth year of the war, the Messenians abandoned -Ithome, which the Lacedæmonians razed to the ground: the rest of the -country was speedily conquered, and such of the inhabitants as did not flee -either to Arcadia or to Eleusis, were reduced to complete submission.</p> - -<p>Such is the abridgement of what Pausanias gives as the narrative of the -First Messenian War. Most of his details bear the evident stamp of mere -late romance: and it will easily be seen that the sequence of events presents -no plausible explanation of that which is really indubitable—the result. -The twenty years’ war, and the final abandonment of Ithome, are attested by -Tyrtæus, and beyond all doubt, as well as the harsh treatment of the conquered. -“Like asses worn down by heavy burthens” (says the Spartan -poet) “they were compelled to make over to their masters an entire half of -the produce of their fields, and to come in the garb of woe to Sparta, themselves -and their wives, as mourners at the decease of the kings and principal -persons.” The revolt of their descendants, against a yoke so oppressive, -goes by the name of the Second Messenian War.</p> - -<h5><i>The Hero Aristomenes and the Second Messenian War</i></h5> - -<div class="sidenote">[<i>ca.</i> 750-668 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Had we possessed the account of the First Messenian War as given by -Myron and Diodorus, it would evidently have been very different from the -above, because they included Aristomenes in it, and to him the leading parts -would be assigned. As the narrative now stands in Pausanias, we are not -introduced to that great Messenian hero,—the Achilles of the epic of Rhianus,—until -the second war, in which his gigantic proportions stand prominently -forward. He is the great champion of his country in the three -battles which are represented as taking place during this war: the first, with -indecisive result, at Deræ; the second, a signal victory on the part of the -Messenians, at the Boar’s Grave; the third, an equally signal defeat, in consequence -of the traitorous flight of Aristocrates, king of the Arcadian Orchomenus, -who, ostensibly embracing the alliance of the Messenians, had received -bribes from Sparta. Thrice did Aristomenes sacrifice to Zeus Ithomates the -sacrifice called Hecatomphonia, reserved for those who had slain with their -own hands a hundred enemies in battle. At the head of a chosen band he -carried his incursions more than once into the heart of the Lacedæmonian territory, -surprised Amyclæ and Pharis, and even penetrated by night into the -unfortified precinct of Sparta itself, where he suspended his shield, as a token -of defiance, in the temple of Athene Chalciœcus. Thrice was he taken -prisoner, but on two occasions marvellously escaped before he could be conveyed -to Sparta.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_7b3" id="enanchor_7b3"></a><a href="#endnote_7b">b</a></span> Pausanias thus describes one of his escapes:</p> - -<p>“Aristomenes continued to plunder the Spartan land, nor did he cease his -hostilities till, happening to meet with more than half of the Lacedæmonian -forces, together with both the kings, among other wounds which he received -in defending himself, he was struck so violently on the head with a stone, that -his eyes were covered with darkness, and he fell to the ground. The Lacedæmonians, -on seeing this, rushed in a collected body upon him, and took him -alive, together with fifty of his men. They likewise determined to throw all -of them into the Ceadas, or a deep chasm, into which the most criminal offenders -were hurled. Indeed, the other Messenians perished after this manner; -but some god who had so often preserved Aristomenes, delivered him at that -time from the fury of the Spartans. And some who entertain the most magnificent -idea of his character, say, that an eagle flying to him bore him on its -wings to the bottom of the chasm, so that he sustained no injury by the fall.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Indeed, he had not long reached the bottom before a dæmon shewed him -a passage, by which he might make his escape; for as he lay in this profound -chasm wrapped in a robe, expecting nothing but death, he heard a -noise on the third day, and uncovering his face (for he was now able to look -through the darkness) he saw a fox touching one of the dead bodies. Considering, -therefore, where the passage could be through which the beast had -entered, he waited till the fox came nearer to him, and when this happened -seized it with one of his hands, and with the other, as often as it turned to -him, exposed his robe for the animal to seize. At length, the fox beginning -to run away, he suffered himself to be drawn along by her, through places -almost impervious, till he saw an opening just sufficient for the fox to pass -through, and a light streaming through the hole. And the animal, indeed, -as soon as she was freed from Aristomenes, betook herself to her usual place -of retreat. But Aristomenes, as the opening was not large enough for him to -pass through, enlarged it with his hands, and escaped safe to Ira. The fortune, -indeed by which Aristomenes was taken, was wonderful, for his spirit and -courage were so great, that no one could hope to take him; but his preservation -at Ceadas is far more wonderful, and at the same time it is evident to all -men that it did not take place without the interference of a divine power.”<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_7c3" id="enanchor_7c3"></a><a href="#endnote_7c">c</a></span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">[<i>ca.</i> 668 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The fortified mountain of Ira on the banks of the river Nedon, and near -the Ionian Sea, had been occupied by the Messenians, after the battle in -which they had been betrayed by Aristocrates the Arcadian; it was there -that they had concentrated their whole force, as in the former war at Ithome, -abandoning the rest of the country. Under the conduct of Aristomenes, assisted -by the prophet Theoclus, they maintained this strong position for eleven -years. At length, they were compelled to abandon it; but, as in the case of -Ithome, the final determining circumstances are represented to have been, not -any superiority of bravery or organisation on the part of the Lacedæmonians, -but treacherous betrayal and stratagem, seconding the fatal decree of the -gods. Unable to maintain Ira longer, Aristomenes, with his sons, and a body -of his countrymen, forced his way through the assailants, and quitted the -country—some of them retiring to Arcadia and Elis, and finally migrating to -Rhegium. He himself passed the remainder of his days in Rhodes, where he -dwelt along with his son-in-law, Damagetus, the ancestor of the noble Rhodian -family, called the Diagorids, celebrated for its numerous Olympic victories.</p> - -<p>Such are the main features of what Pausanias calls the Second Messenian -War, or of what ought rather to be called the Aristomeneïs of the poet Rhianus. -That after the foundation of Messene, and the recall of the exiles by Epaminondas, -favour and credence was found for many tales respecting the -prowess of the ancient hero whom they invoked in their libations,—tales -well-calculated to interest the fancy, to vivify the patriotism, and to inflame -the anti-Spartan antipathies, of the new inhabitants,—there can be little -doubt. And the Messenian maidens of that day may well have sung, in -their public processional sacrifices, how “Aristomenes pursued the flying -Lacedæmonians down to the mid-plain of Stenyclarus, and up to the very -summit of the mountain.” From such stories, <i>traditions</i> they ought not to -be denominated, Rhianus may doubtless have borrowed; but if proof were -wanting to show how completely he looked at his materials from the point -of view of the poet, and not from that of the historian, we should find it in -the remarkable fact noticed by Pausanias: Rhianus represented Leotychides -as having been king of Sparta during the Second Messenian War; now Leotychides, -as Pausanias observes, did not reign until near a century and a half -afterwards, during the Persian invasion.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE POET TYRTÆUS</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[<i>ca.</i> 668-648 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>To the great champion of Messenia, during this war, we may oppose, on -the side of Sparta, another remarkable person, less striking as a character -of romance, but more interesting, in many ways, to the historian—the -poet Tyrtæus, a native of Aphidnæ in Attica, an inestimable ally of the -Lacedæmonians during most part of this second struggle. According to a -story—which however has the air partly of a boast of the later Attic -orators—the Spartans, disheartened at the first successes of the Messenians, -consulted the Delphian oracle, and were directed to ask for a leader from -Athens.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_7b4" id="enanchor_7b4"></a><a href="#endnote_7b">b</a></span> “At the same time,” Pausanias writes, “the Lacedæmonians -received an oracle from Delphos, which commanded them to make use of -an Athenian for their counsellor. Hence, when by ambassadors they had -informed the Athenians of the oracle, and at the same time required an -Athenian as their adviser, the Athenians were by no means willing to comply: -for they considered, that the Lacedæmonians could not without great -danger to the Athenians take possession of the best part of Peloponnesus; and -at the same time, they were unwilling to disobey the commands of the god.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/p149.jpg" width="500" height="288" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">View of Delphi, Seat of the Delphian Oracle</span></p> -</div> - -<p>“At last they adopted the following expedient: There was at Athens a certain -teacher of grammar, whose name was Tyrtæus, who appeared to possess -the smallest degree of intellect, and who was lame in one of his feet. This -man they sent to Sparta, who at one time instructed the principal persons in -what was necessary for them to do, and at another time instructed the common -people by singing elegies to them, in which the praise of valour was -contained, and verses called <i>anapæsti</i>.”<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_7c4" id="enanchor_7c4"></a><a href="#endnote_7c">c</a></span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">[<i>ca.</i> 660-610 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>This seems to be a colouring put upon the story by later writers, and the -intervention of the Athenians in the matter in any way deserves little credit. -It seems more probable that the legendary connection of the Dioscuri with -Aphidnæ, celebrated at or near that time by the poet Alcman, brought -about, through the Delphian oracle, the presence of the Aphidnæan poet at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> -Sparta. Respecting the lameness of Tyrtæus, we can say nothing: but -that he was a schoolmaster (if we are constrained to employ an unsuitable -term) is highly probable, for in that day, minstrels, who composed and -sung poems, were the only persons from whom the youth received any mental -training. Moreover, his sway over the youthful mind is particularly -noted in the compliment paid to him, in after-days, by king Leonidas: -“Tyrtæus was an adept in tickling the souls of youth.” We see enough to -satisfy us that he was by birth a stranger, though he became a Spartan by -the subsequent recompense of citizenship conferred upon him; that he was -sent through the Delphian oracle; that he was an impressive and efficacious -minstrel, and that he had, moreover, sagacity enough to employ his talents -for present purposes and diverse needs; being able, not merely to reanimate -the languishing courage of the baffled warrior, but also to soothe the -discontents of the mutinous. That his strains, which long maintained -undiminished popularity among the Spartans, contributed much to determine -the ultimate issue of this war, there is no reason to doubt; nor is his -name the only one to attest the susceptibility of the Spartan mind in that -day towards music and poetry. The first establishment of the Carneian -festival, with its musical competition, at Sparta, falls during the period -assigned by Pausanias to the Second Messenian War: the Lesbian harper, -Terpander, who gained the first recorded prize at this solemnity, is affirmed -to have been sent for by the Spartans pursuant to a mandate from the Delphian -oracle, and to have been the means of appeasing a sedition. In like -manner, the Cretan Thaletas was invited thither during a pestilence, which -his art, as it is pretended, contributed to heal (about 620 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>); and Aleman, -Xenocritus, Polymnastus, and Sacadas, all foreigners by birth, found -favourable reception, and acquired popularity, by their music and poetry. -With the exception of Sacadas, who is a little later, all these names fall in -the same century as Tyrtæus, between 660 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>-610 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> The fashion which -the Spartan music continued for a long time to maintain, is ascribed chiefly -to the genius of Terpander.</p> - -<p>That the impression produced by Tyrtæus at Sparta, therefore, with his -martial music, and emphatic exhortations to bravery in the field, as well -as union at home, should have been very considerable, is perfectly consistent -with the character both of the age and of the people; especially -as he is represented to have appeared pursuant to the injunction of the Delphian -oracle. From the scanty fragments remaining to us of his elegies and -anapæsts, however, we can satisfy ourselves only of two facts: first, that -the war was long, obstinately contested, and dangerous to Sparta as well as -to the Messenians; next, that other parties in Peloponnesus took part on -both sides, especially on the side of the Messenians. So frequent and harassing -were the aggressions of the latter upon the Spartan territory, that -a large portion of the border-land was left uncultivated: scarcity ensued, -and the proprietors of the deserted farms, driven to despair, pressed for -a redivision of the landed property in the state. It was in appeasing these -discontents that the poem of Tyrtæus, called <i>Eunomia</i>, “Legal Order,” was -found signally beneficial. It seems certain that a considerable portion of -the Arcadians, together with the Pisatæ and the Triphylians, took part with -the Messenians; there are also some statements numbering the Eleans -among their allies, but this appears not probable. The state of the case -rather seems to have been, that the old quarrel between the Eleans and the -Pisatæ, respecting the right to preside at the Olympic games, which had -already burst forth during the preceding century, in the reign of the Argeian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> -Pheidon, still continued. The Second Messenian War will thus stand -as beginning somewhere about the 33rd Olympiad, or 648 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, between -seventy and eighty years after the close of the first, and lasting, according -to Pausanias, seventeen years; according to Plutarch, more than twenty -years.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[<i>ca.</i> 660-580 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Many of the Messenians who abandoned their country after this second -conquest are said to have found shelter and sympathy among the Arcadians, -who admitted them to a new home and gave them their daughters in marriage; -and who, moreover, punished severely the treason of Aristocrates, -king of Orchomenos, in abandoning the Messenians at the battle of the -Trench.</p> - -<p>The Second Messenian War was thus terminated by the complete subjugation -of the Messenians. Such of them as remained in the country were -reduced to a servitude probably not less hard than that which Tyrtæus -described them as having endured between the first war and the second. In -after-times, the whole territory which figures on the map as Messenia,—south -of the river Nedon, and westward of the summit of Taygetus,—appears as -subject to Sparta, and as forming the western portion of Laconia. Nor do -we hear of any serious revolt from Sparta in this territory until a hundred -and fifty years afterwards, subsequent to the Persian invasion—a revolt -which Sparta, after serious efforts, succeeded in crushing. So that the territory -remained in her power until her defeat at Leuctra, which led to the -foundation of Messene by Epaminondas.</p> - -<p>Imperfectly as these two Messenian wars are known to us, we may see -enough to warrant us in saying that both were tedious, protracted, and -painful, showing how slowly the results of war were then gathered, and -adding one additional illustration to prove how much the rapid and instantaneous -conquest of Laconia and Messenia by the Dorians, which the Heraclid -legend sets forth, is contradicted by historical analogy.</p> - -<p>The relations of Pisa and Elis form a suitable counterpart and sequel -to those of Messenia and Sparta. Unwilling subjects themselves, the -Pisatæ had lent their aid to the Messenians, and their king Pantaleon, one -of the leaders of this combined force, had gained so great a temporary -success, as to dispossess the Eleans of the <i>agonothesia</i> or administration -of the games for one Olympic ceremony, in the 34th Olympiad. Though -again reduced to their condition of subjects, they manifested dispositions -to renew their revolt. These incidents seem to have occurred about the -50th Olympiad, or <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> 580; and the dominion of Elis over her Periœcid -territory was thus as well assured as that of Sparta. The Lacedæmonians, -after the close of the Peloponnesian War had left them undisputed heads -of Greece, formally upheld the independence of the Triphylian towns -against Elis, and seem to have countenanced their endeavours to attach -themselves to the Arcadian aggregate, which, however, was never fully -accomplished. Their dependence on Elis became loose and uncertain, -but was never wholly shaken off.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_7b5" id="enanchor_7b5"></a><a href="#endnote_7b">b</a></span></p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-8.jpg" width="500" height="270" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_VIII_THE_IONIANS">CHAPTER VIII. THE IONIANS</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts and eloquence.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse right">—<span class="smcap">Milton.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The complete change in the map of Greece at the close of the Achæan -period and the origin of the ethnographic system with which the history of -Hellenic times begins, were always referred by Greek tradition to a last -wandering of north Grecian tribes. The customary chronology places the -beginning of this shifting at 1133 or 1124 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, <i>i.e.</i>, less than three generations -after the so-called conquest of Troy. Recent chronological investigations, -however, have made it seem probable that a period at least a hundred years -later should be chosen.</p> - -<p>The first impulse was probably given by new movements of tribes in the -north. The advance of the Illyrians caused the Thessalians, a part of the -Epirot tribe of the Thesproti, to withdraw across Pindus into the valley of -the Peneus, which was afterwards called Thessaly. While the preservation -of the Greek character in Epirus was henceforth left to the brave Molossi, the -Thessalians east of Pindus fell upon the settled Greeks of the lowlands and -destroyed their states. The proudest and most vigorous elements of the old -population that survived the war, determined to emigrate and found a new -home. Thus, the Arnæ migrated to middle Greece, destroyed the old states -of Thebes and Orchomenus in the basin of the Copaïs and united this whole -district, which henceforth appears in history as Bœotia, under their rule.</p> - -<p>While the Thessalians were making preparations to subjugate the warlike -tribes of the highlands about the valley of the Peneus, one of these mountain -races, the Dorians, carried the mighty movement on to the extreme -south of the Peloponnesus. Within twenty years, according to tradition, -they had crossed the narrow strait of Rhium and begun the conquest of the -Peloponnesus. They ascended the valley of the Alpheus into southern Arcadia. -From here one body of them descended into the Messenian valley of -the Pamisus and overwhelmed the old kingdom of the Melidæ of Pylos. -The other branch invaded the principal districts of the Achæans in the -east and southeast of the Peloponnesus. In open battle the rude Dorian -foot-soldiers easily defeated the Achæan knights. But they could not -destroy the colossal walls of the Achæan fortresses or cities, and were themselves -finally forced to build fortifications from which they could watch or -invest the Achæan strongholds until the opportunity was presented of storming -them or forcing their capitulation. It was in such a fortified camp that -the Dorian capital Sparta had its origin.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></p> - -<p>It was probably the tenacious resistance of the Achæans in Laconia that -determined a large body of the Dorians to leave that district and turn to -the east, where they completely subjugated Argolis and made Argos the centre -of Dorian power in the eastern part of the Peloponnesus.</p> - -<p>At the close of the Achæan period Attica was the canton which appeared -to have the most settled and uniform structure. It now became a favourite -refuge of migrant Greeks of many different tribes. This movement seems -to have strengthened little Attica in a considerable degree, for tradition -ascribes to these immigrants the successful resistance that Attica was able -to make when the hordes of the conquerors finally approached her borders. -But Attica was far too small and unproductive to retain the mass of fugitives -as permanent settlers. So the movement was finally turned towards -the islands of the Ægean and the coast of Asia Minor. According to tradition -there had already been an Archæan (or Æolian) migration to Lesbos -and Tenedos, from whence the Mysian coast and Troas were later colonised.</p> - -<p>The most important Ionian colonies in the east were in the Cyclades, at -Miletus, and at Ephesus. As their power continued to grow, the Ionians -gradually Hellenised a broad strip of coast and in the river valleys pushed -out a considerable distance to the eastward.</p> - -<p>The Dorians also followed the movement of the other Greeks to the -islands and to Asia. Their most important occupations were Crete, Rhodes, -and a small portion of the southern coast of Caria, including the cities of -Cnidus and Halicarnassus.</p> - -<p>By the first half of the eighth century <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, the Greek world had acquired -the aspect which it retained for several centuries. The nation had greatly -increased its territory by colonisation. But the district now called Thessaly -was in possession of a race that showed little capacity to develop beyond -a vigorous and pleasure-loving feudalism; and the Greeks of Epirus and -the valley of the Achelous had been for several centuries shut out from -the evolution into Hellenism. So apart from the newly risen power of the -Bœotians, the future of Greece rested upon the two races that had been but -little named in the Achæan period. The Dorians had become a great -people. Argos had at first been the leading power of the Peloponnesus, -both in religion and in politics. The Doric canton in the valley of the -Upper Eurotas had made but slow and difficult progress, until, at the close -of the ninth and beginning of the eighth century, that remarkable military -and political consolidation was completed which is connected with the name -of Lycurgus. This was the starting-point of a growth of Spartan power in -consequence of which before the end of the eighth century the balance -of Doric power was to pass from Argos to the south of the Peloponnesus.</p> - -<p>Among the Ionians the Asiatic branch long remained the more important. -The Ionian Greeks of the Ægean and of the Lydio-Carian coast, through -their direct contact with the Orient, introduced to the Greek world new elements -of culture of a varied character. Of a friendly and adaptable nature, -they were specially fitted to be the traders and mariners of Greek nationality. -Politically they became pre-eminently the democratic element of the -nation, although there were powerful aristocratic groups among them. But -with them the tendency appears stronger than among the other Greeks to -allow full scope to personality, individual right, individual liberty, and individual -activity beside, and even in opposition to the common interest.</p> - -<p>The Asiatic Achæans appear in the historical period only under the name -of Æolians. This name also came to be applied to those members of the Greek -nation in Europe that could not be counted among either Dorians or Ionians.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></p> - -<p>The common name borne by the Greeks after the completion of the -migrations is that of Hellenes. All the members of the various branches -exhibit the Hellenic character, though only a few communities developed it -in so ideal a form as the Athenians at the height of their historical greatness. -A beautiful heritage of all Hellenes was their appreciation and enjoyment of -art—of poetry and music as well as the plastic arts. A warm feeling not -only for the beautiful, but for the ideal and the noble,—among the best -elements also for right and harmoniously developed life,—and a fine taste -in art and in ethical perception have never been denied the Greeks.</p> - -<p>They were, moreover, at all periods characterised by a quick intellectual -receptivity and an incomparable union of glowing fancy, brilliant intelligence, -and sharp understanding. But mighty passion was coupled with all -this. Party spirit and furious party hatred ran through all Greek history. -The proud Greek self-assertion often degenerates into boundless presumption. -Cruelty in war, even towards Greeks themselves, cunning and treachery, -harsh self-interest and reckless greed are traits that mar the brilliant -figure of Hellenism long before the Roman and Byzantine times.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_8b" id="enanchor_8b"></a><a href="#endnote_8b">b</a></span></p> - -<h4>ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF ATHENS</h4> - -<p>In that part of earth termed by the Greeks Hellas, and by the Romans -Græcia, a small tract of land known by the name of Attica extends into the -Ægean Sea—the southeast peninsula of Greece. In its greatest length it is -about sixty, in its greatest breadth about twenty-four, geographical miles. -In shape it is a rude triangle,—on two sides flows the sea—on the third, -the mountain range of Parnes and Cithæron, divides the Attic from the Bœotian -territory. It is intersected by frequent but not lofty hills, and compared -with the rest of Greece, its soil, though propitious to the growth of -the olive, is not fertile or abundant. In spite of painful and elaborate culture, -the traces of which are yet visible, it never produced a sufficiency of -corn to supply its population; and this, the comparative sterility of the land, -may be ranked among the causes which conduced to the greatness of the -people. The principal mountains of Attica are, the Cape of Sunium, Hymettus -renowned for its honey, and Pentelicus for its marble; the principal -streams which water the valleys are the capricious and uncertain rivulets of -Cephisus and Ilissus—streams breaking into lesser brooks, deliciously pure -and clear. The air is serene, the climate healthful, the seasons temperate. -Along the hills yet breathe the wild thyme and the odorous plants which, -everywhere prodigal in Greece, are more especially fragrant in that lucid -sky—and still the atmosphere colours with peculiar and various tints the -marble of the existent temples and the face of the mountain landscapes.</p> - -<p>Even so early as the traditional appearance of Cecrops amongst the savages -of Attica, the Pelasgians in Arcadia had probably advanced from the -pastoral to the civil life; and this, indeed, is the date assigned by Pausanias -to the foundation of that ancestral Lycosura, in whose rude remains (by the living -fountain and the waving oaks of the modern Diaphorte) the antiquary -yet traces the fortifications of “the first city which the sun beheld.” It is -in their buildings that the Pelasgi have left the most indisputable record of -their name. Their handwriting is yet upon their walls! A restless and -various people—overrunning the whole of Greece, found northward in -Dacia, Illyria, and the country of the Getæ, colonising the coasts of Ionia, -and long the master-race of the fairest lands of Italy—they have passed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> -away amidst the revolutions of the elder earth, their ancestry and their -descendants alike unknown.</p> - -<p>The proofs upon which rest the reputed arrival of Egyptian colonisers, -under Cecrops, in Attica, have been shown to be slender, the authorities -for the assertion to be comparatively modern, the arguments against the -probability of such an immigration in such an age, to be at least plausible -and important. The traditions speak of them with gratitude as civilisers, -not with hatred as conquerors. Assisting to civilise the Greeks, they then -became Greeks; their posterity merged and lost amidst the native population.</p> - -<p>Perhaps in all countries, the first step to social improvement is in the institution -of marriage, and the second is the formation of cities. As Menes -in Egypt, as Fohi in China, so Cecrops at Athens is said first to have reduced -into sacred limits the irregular intercourse of the sexes, and reclaimed his -barbarous subjects from a wandering and unprovidential life, subsisting on the -spontaneous produce of no abundant soil. High above the plain, and fronting -the sea, which, about three miles distant on that side, sweeps into a bay peculiarly -adapted for the maritime enterprises of an earlier age, we still behold -a cragged and nearly perpendicular rock. In length its superficies is about -eight hundred, in breadth about four hundred, feet. Below, on either side, -flow the immortal streams of the Ilissus and Cephisus. From its summit -you may survey here the mountains of Hymettus, Pentelicus, and, far away, -“the silver bearing Laurium”; below, the wide plain of Attica, broken by -rocky hills—there, the islands of Salamis and Ægina, with the opposite -shores of Argolis, rising above the waters of the Saronic Bay. On this rock -the supposed Egyptian is said to have built a fortress, and founded a city; the -fortress was in later times styled the Acropolis, and the place itself, when -the buildings of Athens spread far and wide beneath its base, was still -designated πόλις, or the City. By degrees we are told that he extended, -from this impregnable castle and its adjacent plain, the limit of his realm, -until it included the whole of Attica, and perhaps Bœotia. It is also related -that he established eleven other towns or hamlets, and divided his people into -twelve tribes, to each of which one of the towns was apportioned—a fortress -against foreign invasion, and a court of justice in civil disputes.</p> - -<p>If we may trust to the glimmering light which, resting for a moment, -uncertain and confused, upon the reign of Cecrops, is swallowed up in all the -darkness of fable during those of his reputed successors, it is to this apocryphal -personage that we must refer the elements both of agriculture and law. -He is said to have instructed the Athenians to till the land, and to watch the -produce of the seasons; to have imported from Egypt the olive tree, for -which the Attic soil was afterwards so celebrated, and even to have navigated -to Sicily and to Africa for supplies of corn. That such advances, from a -primitive and savage state, were not made in a single generation, is sufficiently -clear. With more probability, Cecrops is reputed to have imposed -upon the ignorance of his subjects and the license of his followers, the curb -of impartial law, and to have founded a tribunal of justice (doubtless the -sole one for all disputes), in which after-times imagined to trace the origin -of the solemn Areopagus.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_8c" id="enanchor_8c"></a><a href="#endnote_8c">c</a></span></p> - -<h4>KING ÆGEUS</h4> - -<p>The fortress, which Cecrops made his residence, was from his own name -called Cecropia, and was peculiarly recommended to the patronage of the -Egyptian goddess whom the Greeks worshipped by the name of Athene, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> -the Latins of Minerva. Many, induced by the neighbourhood of the port, -and expecting security both from the fortress and from its tutelary deity, -erected their habitations around the foot of the rock; and thus arose early -a considerable town, which, from the name of the goddess, was called Athenai, -or, as we after the French have corrupted it, Athens.</p> - -<p>This account of the rise of Athens, and of the origin of its government, -though possibly a village and even a fortress may have existed there before -Cecrops, is supported by a more general concurrence of traditional testimony, -and more complete consonancy to the rest of history, than is often -found for that remote age. The subsequent Attic annals are far less satisfactory. -Strabo declines the endeavour to reconcile their inconsistencies; -and Plutarch gives a strong picture of the uncertainties and voids which -occurred to him in attempting to form a history from them. “As geographers,” -he says, “in the outer parts of their maps distinguish those countries -which lie beyond their knowledge with such remarks as these, <i>All here -is dry and desert sand</i>, or <i>marsh darkened with perpetual fog</i>, or <i>Scythian cold</i>, -or <i>frozen sea</i>; so of the earliest history we may say, <i>All here is monstrous and -tragical land, occupied only by poets and fabulists</i>.” If such apology was -reckoned necessary by Plutarch for such an account as could in his time be -collected of the life of Theseus, none can now be wanting for omitting all -disquisition concerning the four or seven kings, for even their number is not -ascertained, who are said to have governed Attica from Cecrops to Ægeus, -father of that hero. The name of Amphictyon, indeed, whose name is in the -list, excites a reasonable curiosity: but as it is not in his government of -Athens that he is particularly an object of history, farther mention of him -may best be reserved for future opportunity.</p> - -<p>Various, uncertain, and imperfect, then, as the accounts were which passed -to posterity concerning the early Attic princes, yet the assurance of Thucydides -may deserve respect, that Attica was the province of Greece in which -population first became settled, and where the earliest progress was made -toward civilisation. Being nearly peninsular, it lay out of the road of emigrants -and wandering freebooters by land; and its rocky soil, supporting -few cattle, afforded small temptation to either. The produce of tillage was -of less easy removal; and the gains of commerce were secured within fortifications. -Attica therefore grew populous, not only through the safety -which the natives thus enjoyed, but by a confluence of strangers from other -parts of Greece; for when either foreign invasion or intestine broil occasioned -anywhere the necessity of emigration, Athens was the resort in highest -estimation not only as a place of the most permanent security, but also as -strangers of character, able by their wealth or their ingenuity to support -themselves and benefit the community, were easily admitted to the privilege -of citizens.</p> - -<p>But, as population increased, the simple forms of government and jurisprudence -established by Cecrops were no longer equal to their purpose. -Civil wars arose; the country was invaded by sea: Erechtheus, called by -later authors Erichthonius, and by the poets Son of the Earth, acquired the -sovereignty, bringing, according to some not improbable reports, a second -colony from Egypt.<a name="FNanchor_9" id="FNanchor_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> Eumolpus, with a body of Thracians, about the same -time established himself in Eleusis. When, a generation or two later,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> -Ægeus, contemporary with Minos, succeeded his father Pandion in the -throne, the country seems to have been well peopled, but the government -ill constituted and weak. Concerning this prince, however, and his immediate -successor, tradition is more ample; and though abundantly mixed -with fable, yet in many instances apparently more authentic than concerning -any other persons of their remote age. Plutarch has thought a history of -Theseus, son of Ægeus, not unfit to hold a place among his parallel lives of the -great men of Greece and Rome; and his account appears warranted in many -points by strong corresponding testimony from other ancient authors of various -ages. The period also is so important in the annals of Attica, and the -reports remaining altogether go so far to illustrate the manners and circumstances -of the times, that it may be proper to allow them some scope in -narration.</p> - -<p>Ægeus, king of Athens, though an able and spirited prince, yet, in the -divided and disorderly state of his country, with difficulty maintained his -situation. When past the prime of life he had the misfortune to remain childless, -though twice married; and a faction headed by his presumptive heirs, the -numerous sons of Pallas his younger brother, gave him unceasing disturbance. -Thus urged, he went to Delphi to implore information from the oracle how -the blessing of children might be obtained. Receiving an answer which, like -most of the oracular responses, was unintelligible, his next concern was to -find some person capable of explaining to him the will of the deity thus -mysteriously declared. Among the many establishments which Pelops had -procured for his family throughout Peloponnesus was the small town and -territory of Trœzen on the coast opposite to Athens, which he placed under -the government of his son Pittheus. Ægeus applied to that prince; who -was not only in his own age eminent for wisdom, but of reputation remaining -even in the most flourishing period of Grecian philosophy; yet so little -was he superior to the ridiculous, and often detestable superstition of his -time that, in consequence of some fancied meaning in the oracle, which even -the superstitious Plutarch confesses himself unable to comprehend, he introduced -his own daughter Æthra to an illicit commerce with Ægeus. Perhaps -it may be allowed to conjecture that the commerce was unknown to the -Trœzenian prince till the consequence became evident, and that the interpretation -of the oracle was an ensuing resource to obviate disgrace.</p> - -<p>The affairs of Attica being in great confusion required the return of -Ægeus. His departure from Trœzen is marked by an action which, to persons -accustomed to consider modern manners only, may appear unfit to be -related but in a fable, yet is so consonant to the manners of the times, -and so characteristical of them, as to demand the notice of the historian. -He led Æthra to a sequestered spot where was a small cavity in a rock. -Depositing there a hunting-knife and a pair of sandals, he covered them with -a marble fragment of enormous weight; and then addressing Æthra, “If,” -said he, “the child you now bear should prove a boy, let the removal of this -stone be one day the proof of his strength; when he can effect it, send him -with the tokens underneath to Athens.”</p> - -<p>Pittheus, well knowing the genius and the degree of information of his -subjects and fellow-countrymen, thought it not too gross an imposition to -report that his daughter was pregnant by the god Poseidon, or, as we -usually call him with the Latins, Neptune, esteemed the tutelary deity of -the Trœzenians. A similar expedient seems indeed to have been often successfully -used to cover the disgrace which, even in those days, would otherwise -attend such irregular amours in a lady of high rank, though women of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> -lower degree appear to have derived no dishonour from concubinage with -their superiors. Theseus was the produce of the singular connection of -Æthra with Ægeus. He is said to have been carefully educated under the -inspection of his grandfather, and to have given early proofs of uncommon -vigour both of body and mind. On his attaining manhood, his mother, in -pursuance of the injunction of Ægeus, unfolded to him the reality of his -parentage, and conducted him to the rock where his father’s tokens were -deposited. He removed the stone which covered them, with a facility indicating -that superior bodily strength so necessary in those days to support -the pretensions of high birth; and thus encouraged she recommended to -him to carry them to Ægeus at Athens. This proposal perfectly suited the -temper and inclination of Theseus; but when he was farther advised to go -by sea on account of the shortness and safety of the passage, piracy being -about this time suppressed by the naval power of Minos, king of Crete, he -positively refused.</p> - -<h4>THESEUS</h4> - -<p>The age of Theseus was the great era of those heroes, to whom the -knights errant of the Gothic kingdoms afterwards bore a close resemblance. -Hercules was his near kinsman. The actions of that extraordinary personage -are reported to have been for some years the subject of universal conversation, -and both an incentive and a direction to young Theseus in the -road to fame. After having destroyed the most powerful and atrocious freebooters -throughout Greece, Hercules, according to Plutarch, was gone into -Asia; and those disturbers of civil order, whom his irresistible might and -severe justice had driven to conceal themselves, took advantage of his absence -to renew their violences. Being not obscure and vagabond thieves, but -powerful chieftains, who openly defied law and government, the dangers to -be expected from them were well known at Trœzen. Theseus however persevered -in his resolution to go by land; alleging that it would be shameful, -if, while Hercules was traversing earth and sea to repress the common disturbers -of mankind, he should avoid those at his door, disgracing his reputed -father by an ignominious flight over his own element, and carrying -to his real father, for tokens, a bloodless weapon and sandals untrodden, -instead of giving proofs of his high birth by actions worthy of it.</p> - -<p>Proceeding in his journey he found every fastness occupied by men who, -like many of the old barons of the Western European kingdoms, gave protection -to their dependants, and disturbance to all beside within their reach, -making booty of whatever they could master. His valour, however, and his -good fortune procuring him the advantage in every contest carried him safe -through all dangers; though he found nothing friendly till he arrived on the -bank of the river Cephisus in the middle of Attica. Some people of the country -meeting him there saluted him in the usual terms of friendship to strangers. -Judging himself then past the perils of his journey, he requested to have the -accustomed ceremony of purification from blood performed, that he might -properly join in sacrifices and other religious rites. The courteous Atticans -readily complied, and then entertained him at their houses. An ancient altar, -said to have been erected in commemoration of this meeting, dedicated to Jupiter -with the epithet of Meilichius, the friendly or kind, remained to the time -of Pausanias.</p> - -<p>When Theseus arrived at Athens, Ægeus, already approaching dotage, -was governed by the Colchian princess Medea, so famous in poetry, who flying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> -from Corinth had prevailed on him to afford her protection. Theseus, -as an illustrious stranger invited to a feast, on drawing his hunting-knife, as -it seems was usual, to carve the meat before him, was recognised by Ægeus. -The old king immediately rising embraced him, acknowledged him before the -company for his son, and afterward summoning an assembly of the people presented -Theseus as their prince. The fame of exploits suited, as those of Theseus, -to acquire popularity in that age had already prepossessed the people in his -favour; strong marks of general satisfaction followed. But the party of the -sons of Pallas was powerful: their disappointment was equally great and unexpected; -and no hope remaining to accomplish their wishes by other means, -they withdrew from the city, collected their adherents, and returned in arms. -The tide of popular inclination, however, now ran so strongly in favour of -Theseus that some even of their confidants gave way to it. A design to surprise -the city was discovered; part of their troops were in consequence cut -off, the rest dispersed; and the faction was completely quelled.</p> - -<p>Quiet being thus restored to Athens, Theseus was diligent to increase the -popularity he had acquired. Military fame was the means to which his active -spirit chiefly inclined him; but, as the state had now no enemies, he exercised -his valour in the destruction of wild beasts, and, it is said, added not a little -to his reputation by delivering the country from a savage bull, which had -done great mischief in the neighbourhood of Marathon.</p> - -<p>An opportunity however soon offered for Theseus to do his country more -essential service, and to acquire more illustrious fame. The Athenians, in a -war with Minos, king of Crete, had been reduced to purchase peace of that -powerful monarch by a yearly tribute of seven youths and as many virgins. -Coined money was not common till some centuries after his age; and slaves -and cattle were not only the principal riches, but the most commodious -and usual standards by which the value of other things was determined. A -tribute of slaves therefore was perhaps the most convenient that Minos could -impose; Attica maintaining few cattle, and those being less easily transported. -The burden however could not but cause much uneasiness among -the Athenians; so that the return of the Cretan ship at the usual time to -demand the tribute excited fresh and loud murmurs against the government -of Ægeus. Theseus took an extraordinary step, but perfectly suited to the -heroic character which he affected, for appeasing the popular discontent. -The tributary youths and virgins had been hitherto drawn by lot from the -body of the people; who might however apparently send slaves, if they had -or could procure them, instead of persons of their own family. But Theseus -offered himself. Report went that those unfortunate victims were thrown -into the famous labyrinth built by Dædalus, and there devoured by the -Minotaur, a monster, half-man and half-bull. This fable was probably -no invention of the poets who embellished it in more polished ages: -it may have been devised at the time, and even have found credit among a -people of an imagination so lively, and a judgment so uninformed, as were -then the Athenians. The offer of Theseus therefore, really magnanimous, -appeared an unparalleled effort of patriotic heroism.</p> - -<p>Ancient writers, who have endeavoured to investigate truth among the -intricacies of fabulous tradition, tell us that the labyrinth was a fortress -where prisoners were usually kept, and that a Cretan general, its governor, -named Taurus, which in Greek signifies a bull, gave rise to the fiction of -the Minotaur. The better testimony from antiquity however asserts that -Theseus was received by Minos more agreeably to the character of a great -and generous prince than of a tyrant who gave his captives to be devoured<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> -by monsters. But during this, the flourishing age of Crete, letters were, if -at all known, little used in Greece. In after-times, when the Athenians bore -the sway in literature, their tragedians, flattering vulgar prejudices, exhibited -Minos in odious colours; and through the popularity of their ingenious -works their calumnious misrepresentations, as Plutarch has observed, overbore -the eulogies of the elder poets, even of Hesiod and Homer. Thus the -particulars of the adventures of Theseus in Crete, and of his return to Athens, -have been so disguised that even to guess at the truth is difficult. For these -early ages Homer is our best guide; but he has mixed mythology with his -short notice of the adventure of Theseus in Crete.</p> - -<p>A rational interpretation nevertheless is obvious. Minos, surprised -probably at the arrival of the Athenian prince among the tributary slaves, -received him honourably, became partial to his merit, and after some experience -of it gave him his daughter Ariadne in marriage. In the voyage -toward Athens the princess being taken with sudden sickness was landed in -the island of Naxos, where Bacchus was esteemed the tutelary deity; and -she died there. If we add the supposition that Theseus, eager to communicate -the news of his extraordinary success, or urged by public duty, proceeded -on his voyage while the princess was yet living, no further foundation -would be wanting for the fables which have made these names so familiar. -Theseus however, according to what with most certainty may be gathered -from Athenian tradition, freed his country from further payment of the -ignominious and cruel tribute.</p> - -<p>This achievement, by whatsoever means effected, was so bold in the -undertaking, so complete in the success, so important and so interesting in -the consequences, that it deservedly raised Theseus to the highest popularity -among the Athenians. Sacrifices and processions were instituted in honour -of it, and were continued while the Pagan religion had existence in Athens. -The vessel in which he made his voyage was yearly sent in solemn pomp -to the sacred island of Delos, where rites of thanksgiving were performed to -Apollo. Through the extreme veneration in which it was held, it was so -anxiously preserved that in Plato’s time it was said to be still the same -vessel; though at length its frequent repairs gave occasion to the dispute, -which became famous among the sophists, whether it was or was not still -the same. On his father’s death the common voice supported his claim to -the succession, and he showed himself not less capable of improving the state -by his wisdom than of defending it by his valour.</p> - -<p>The twelve districts into which Cecrops had divided Attica were become -so many nearly independent commonwealths, with scarcely any bond of -union but their acknowledgment of one chief, whose authority was not -always sufficient to keep them from mutual hostilities. The inconveniences -of such a constitution were great and obvious, but the remedy full of difficulty. -Theseus, however, undertook it; and effected that change which -laid the foundation of the following glory of Athens, while it ranks him among -the most illustrious patriots that adorn the annals of mankind. Going -through every district, with that judicial authority which in the early state -of all monarchical governments has been attached to the kingly office, and -with those powers of persuasion which he is said largely to have possessed, -he put an end to civil contest. He proposed then the abolition of all the -independent magistracies, councils, and courts of justice, and the substitution -of one common council of legislation, and one common system of judicature. -The lower people readily acceded to his measures. The rich and powerful, -who shared among them the independent magistracies, were more inclined<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> -to opposition. To satisfy these, therefore, he offered, with a disinterestedness -of which history affords few examples, to give up much of his own -power; and, appropriating to himself only the cares and dangers of royalty, -to share with his people authority, honour, wealth, all that is commonly most -valued in it. Few were inclined to resist so equitable and generous a proposal: -the most selfish and most obstinate dared not. Theseus therefore -proceeded quietly to new-model the commonwealth.<a name="FNanchor_10" id="FNanchor_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> - -<p>The dissolution of all the independent councils and jurisdictions in the -several towns and districts, and the removal of all the more important -civil business to Athens, was his first measure. He wisely judged that the -civil union, so happily effected, would be incomplete, or at least unstable, if -he did not cement it by union in religion. He avoided however to shock -rooted prejudices by any abolition of established religious ceremonies. -Leaving those peculiar to each district as they stood, he instituted, or improved -and laid open for all in common, one feast and sacrifice, in honour -of the goddess Athene, or Minerva, for all inhabitants of Attica. This feast -he called <i>Panathenæa</i>, the feast of all the Athenians or people of Minerva; -and thenceforward apparently all the inhabitants of Attica, esteeming themselves -unitedly under the particular protection of that goddess, uniformly -distinguished themselves by a name formed from hers; for they were before -variously called from their race, Ionians; from their country, Atticans; or -from their princes, Cranaans, Cecropians, or Erechtidæ. To this scheme of -union, conceived with a depth of judgment, and executed with a moderation -of temper, rarely found in that age, the Athenians may well be said to owe -all their after greatness. Otherwise Attica, like Bœotia and other provinces, -whose circumstances will come hereafter under notice, would probably have -contained several little republics, united only in name; each too weak to -preserve dignity, or even to secure independency to its separate government; -and possessing nothing so much in common as occasions for perpetual disagreement.</p> - -<p>A share in the legislature, extended to all, insured civil freedom to all; -and no distinction prevailed, as in other Grecian provinces, between the -people of the capital and those of the inferior towns; but all were united -under the Athenian name in the enjoyment of every privilege of Athenian -citizens. When his improvements were completed, Theseus, according to -the policy which became usual for giving authority to great innovations and -all uncommon undertakings, is said to have procured a declaration of divine -approbation from the prophetical shrine of Delphi.</p> - -<p>Thus the province of Attica, containing a triangular tract of land with -two sides about fifty miles long, and the third forty, was moulded into a -well-united and well-regulated commonwealth, whose chief magistrate was -yet hereditary, and retained the title of king. In consequence of so improved -a state of things, the Athenians began the first of all the Greeks to acquire -more civilised manners. Thucydides remarks that they were the first who -dropped the practice, formerly general among the Greeks, of going constantly -armed; and who introduced a civil dress in contradistinction to the -military. This particularity, if not introduced by Theseus, appears to have -been not less early, since it struck Homer, who marks the Athenians by -the appellation of long-robed Ionians. If we may credit Plutarch, Theseus -coined money; which was certainly rare in Greece two centuries after.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span></p> - -<p>The rest of the history of Theseus affords little worthy of notice. It is -composed of a number of the wildest adventures, many of them consistent -enough with the character of the times, but very little so with what is related -of the former part of his life. It seems indeed as if historians had inverted -the order of things; giving to his riper years the extravagance of youth, -after having attributed to his earliest manhood what the maturest age seldom -has equalled. Whether this should be attributed altogether, or in any -part, to the fancy which afterward prevailed among philosophical writers to -mix mythology with history, will be rather for the dissertator than the historian -to inquire. Theseus however, it may be proper to observe, is said to -have lost in the end all favour and all authority among the Athenians; and -though his institutions remained in vigour, to have died in exile. After -him, Menestheus, a person of the royal family, acquired the sovereignty, and -commanded the Athenian troops in the Trojan War.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_8d" id="enanchor_8d"></a><a href="#endnote_8d">d</a></span></p> - -<p>According to some historians, Theseus, however explained, deserves no -credit for the Athenian union, since at the time this union took place, Theseus -was not even a national hero but only a local and minor god worshipped -about Marathon.</p> - -<h4>RISE OF POPULAR LIBERTY</h4> - -<p>We may perhaps safely conclude from analogy, that, even while the -power of the nobles was most absolute, a popular assembly was not unknown -at Athens; and the example of Sparta may suggest a notion of the limitations -which might prevent it from endangering the privileges of the ruling -body. So long as the latter reserved to itself the office of making, or declaring, -of interpreting, and administering the laws, as well as the ordinary -functions of government, it might securely entrust many subjects to the decision -of the popular voice. Its first contests were waged, not with the people, -but with the kings.</p> - -<p>Even in the reign of Theseus himself the legend exhibits the royal power -as on the decline. Menestheus, a descendant of the ancient kings, is said to -have engaged his brother nobles in a conspiracy against Theseus, which -finally compelled him and his family to go into exile, and placed Menestheus -on the throne. After the death of this usurper indeed the crown is restored -to the line of Theseus for some generations. But his descendant Thymœtes -is compelled to abdicate in favour of Melanthus, a stranger, who has no -claim but his superior merit. After the death of Codrus, the nobles, taking -advantage perhaps of the opportunity afforded by the dispute between his sons, -are said to have abolished the title of king, and to have substituted for -it that of archon. This change however seems to have been important, -rather as it indicated the new, precarious tenure by which the royal power -was held, than as it immediately affected the nature of the office. It was -indeed still held for life; and Medon, the son of Codrus, transmitted it to -his posterity, though it would appear that, within the house of the Medontids, -the succession was determined by the choice of the nobles. It is added -however, that the archon was deemed a responsible magistrate, which implies -that those who elected had the power of deposing him; and consequently, -though the range of his functions may not have been narrower than that of -the king’s, he was more subject to control in the exercise of them. This indirect -kind of sway, however, did not satisfy the more ambitious spirits; and we -find them steadily, though gradually, advancing towards the accomplishment -of their final object—a complete and equal participation of the sovereignty.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span></p> - -<p>After twelve reigns, ending with that of Alcmæon,<a name="FNanchor_11" id="FNanchor_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> the duration of the -office was limited to ten years; and through the guilt or calamity of Hippomenes, -the fourth decennial archon,<a name="FNanchor_12" id="FNanchor_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> the house of Medon was deprived of -its privilege, and the supreme magistracy was thrown open to the whole -body of the nobles. This change was speedily followed by one much more -important. When Tlesias, the successor of Eryxias, had completed the -term which his predecessor had left unfinished, the duration of the archonship -was again reduced to a single year; and at the same time its branches -were severed, and distributed among nine new magistrates.</p> - -<p>Among these, the first in rank retained the distinguishing title of The -Archon, and the year was marked by his name. He represented the majesty -of the state, and exercised a peculiar jurisdiction—that which had belonged -to the king as the common parent of his people, the protector of families, -the guardian of orphans and heiresses, and of the general rights of inheritance. -For the second archon the title of king, if it had been laid aside, -was revived, as the functions assigned to him were those most associated -with ancient recollections. He represented the king as the high priest of -his people; he regulated the celebration of the mysteries and the most -solemn festivals; decided all causes which affected the interests of religion, -and was charged with the care of protecting the state from the pollution it -might incur through the heedlessness or impiety of individuals. The third -archon bore the title of polemarch, and filled the place of the king, as the -leader of his people in war, and the guardian who watched over its security -in time of peace. Connected with this character of his office was the jurisdiction -he possessed over strangers who had settled in Attica under the -protection of the state, and over freedmen. The remaining six archons received -the common title of <i>thesmothetes</i>, which literally signifies legislators, -and was probably applied to them, as the judges who determined the great -variety of causes which did not fall under the cognisance of their colleagues; -because, in the absence of a written code, those who declare and interpret -the laws may be properly said to make them.</p> - -<p>These successive encroachments on the royal prerogatives, and the final -triumph of the nobles, are almost the only events that fill the meagre annals -of Attica for several centuries. Here, as elsewhere, a wonderful stillness -suddenly follows the varied stir of enterprise and adventure, and the throng -of interesting characters, that present themselves to our view in the heroic -age. Life seems no longer to offer anything for poetry to celebrate, or for -history to record. Are we to consider this long period of apparent tranquillity, -as one of public happiness, of pure and simple manners, of general -harmony and content, which has only been rendered obscure by the absence -of the crimes and the calamities which usually leave the deepest traces in -the page of history? We should willingly believe this, if it were not that, -so far as the veil is withdrawn which conceals the occurrences of this period -from our sight, it affords us glimpses of a very different state of things. -In the list of the magistrates who held the undivided sovereignty of the state, -the only name with which any events are connected is that of Hippomenes, -the last archon of the line of Codrus. It was made memorable by the shame -of his daughter, and by the extraordinary punishment which he inflicted on -her and her paramour. Tradition long continued to point out as accursed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> -ground the place where she was shut up to perish from hunger, or from the -fury of a wild horse, the companion of her confinement. The nobles, glad -perhaps to seize an opportunity so favourable to their views, deposed Hippomenes, -and razed his house to the ground.</p> - -<p>This story would seem indeed to indicate the austerity, as well as the -hardness, of the ancient manners: but on the other hand we are informed, -that the father had been urged to this excess of rigour by the reproach that -had fallen upon his family from the effeminacy and dissoluteness of its members. -Without however drawing any inference from this isolated story, we -may proceed to observe, that the accounts transmitted to us of the legislation -of Draco, the next epoch when a gleam of light breaks through the -obscurity of the Attic history, do not lead us to suppose that the people -had enjoyed any extraordinary measure of happiness under the aristocratical -government, or that their manners were peculiarly innocent and mild.</p> - -<h4>DRACO, THE LAWGIVER</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[<i>ca.</i> 650-600 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The immediate occasion which led to Draco’s legislation is not recorded, -and even the motives which induced him to impress it with that character -of severity to which it owes its chief celebrity, are not clearly ascertained. -We know however that he was the author of the first written laws of -Athens: and as this measure tended to limit the authority of the nobles, to -which a customary law, of which they were the sole expounders, opposed -a much feebler check, we may reasonably conclude that the innovation did -not proceed from their wish, but was extorted from them by the growing -discontent of the people. On the other hand, Draco undoubtedly framed -his code as much as possible in conformity to the spirit and the interests of -the ruling class, to which he himself belonged; and hence we may fairly -infer that the extreme rigour of its penal enactments was designed to overawe -and repress the popular movement which had produced it.</p> - -<p>Aristotle observes that Draco made no change in the constitution; and -that there was nothing remarkable in his laws, except the severity of the -penalties by which they were enforced. It must however be remembered -that the substitution of law for custom, of a written code for a fluctuating -and flexible tradition, was itself a step of great importance; and we also -learn that he introduced some changes in the administration of criminal -justice, by transferring causes of murder, or of accidental homicide, from the -cognisance of the archons to the magistrates called <i>ephetes</i>; though it was -not clear whether he instituted, or only modified or enlarged, their jurisdiction. -Demades was thought to have described the character of his laws very -happily, when he said that they were written not in ink, but in blood. He -himself is reported to have justified their severity, by observing that the least -offences deserved death, and that he could devise no greater punishment -for the worst. This sounds like the language of a man who proceeded on -higher grounds than those of expediency, and who felt himself bound by -his own convictions to disregard the opinions of his contemporaries. Yet it -is difficult to believe, that Draco can have been led by any principles of -abstract justice, to confound all gradations of guilt, or, as has been conjectured -with somewhat greater probability, that, viewing them under a religious -rather than a political aspect, he conceived that in every case alike they -drew down the anger of the gods, which could only be appeased by the -blood of the criminal.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span></p> - -<p>It seems much easier to understand how the ruling class, which adopted -his enactments, might imagine that such a code was likely to be a convenient -instrument in their hands, for striking terror into their subjects, -and stifling the rising spirit of discontent, which their cupidity and oppression -had provoked. We are however unable to form a well-grounded -judgment on the degree in which equity may have been violated by his -indiscriminate vigour; for though we read that he enacted the same capital -punishment for petty thefts as for sacrilege and murder, still as there were -some offences for which he provided a milder sentence, he must have -framed a kind of scale, the wisdom and justice of which we have no means -of estimating.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[<i>ca.</i> 630 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The danger which threatened the nobles at length showed itself from a -side on which they probably deemed themselves most secure. Twelve years -after Draco’s legislation, a conspiracy was formed by one of their own number -for overthrowing the government. Cylon, the author of this plot, was -eminent both in birth and riches. His reputation, and still more his confidence -in his own fortune, had been greatly raised by a victory at the -Olympic games; and he had further increased the lustre and influence of -his family by an alliance with Theagenes, the tyrant of Megara, whose -daughter he married. This extraordinary prosperity elated his presumption, -and inflamed his ambition with hopes of a greatness, which could only be -attained by a dangerous enterprise. He conceived the design of becoming -master of Athens. He could reckon on the cordial assistance of his father-in-law, -who, independently of their affinity, was deeply interested in establishing -at Athens a form of government similar to that which he himself had -founded at Megara; and he had also, by his personal influence, insured the -support of numerous friends and adherents. Yet it is probable that he -would not have relied on these resources, and that his scheme would never have -suggested itself to his mind, if the general disaffection of the people toward -their rulers, the impatience produced by the evils for which Draco had provided -so inadequate a remedy, and by the irritating nature of the remedy -itself, and the ordinary signs of an approaching change, the need of which -began to be universally felt, had not appeared to favour his aims.</p> - -<p>At this period scarcely any great enterprise was undertaken in Greece -without the sanction of an oracle; yet we cannot but feel some surprise, -when we are informed by Thucydides, that Cylon consulted the Delphic god -on the means by which he might overthrow the government of his country, -and still more at the answer he is said to have received: that he must seize -the citadel of Athens during the principal festival of Zeus. Cylon naturally -interpreted the oracle to mean the Olympic games, the scene of his glory; -and Thucydides thinks it worth observing, that the great Attic festival in -honour of the same god occurred at a different season. At the time however -which appeared to be prescribed by his infallible counsellor, Cylon proceeded -to carry his plan into effect. With the aid of a body of troops furnished -by Theagenes, and of his partisans, he made himself master of the citadel. -Cylon and his friends soon found themselves besieged by the forces which -the government called in from all parts of the country. When the provisions -were all spent, and some had died of hunger, the remainder abandoned -the defence of the walls, and took refuge in the temple of Athene.</p> - -<p>The archon Megacles and his colleagues, seeing them reduced to the last -extremity of weakness, began to be alarmed lest the sanctuary should be -profaned by their death. To avoid this danger, they induced them to surrender -on condition that their lives should be spared. Thucydides simply<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> -relates that the archons broke their promise, and put their prisoners -to death when they had quitted their asylum, and that some were even -killed at the altars of the “dread goddesses,” as the Eumenides, or Furies, -were called, to which they had fled in the tumult. Plutarch adds a feature -to the story, which seems too characteristic of the age to be considered as -a later invention. More effectually to insure their safety, the suppliants, -before they descended from the citadel, fastened a line to the statue of Minerva, -and held it in their hands, as they passed through the midst of their -enemies. But the line chancing to break as they were passing by the sanctuary -of the Eumenides, Megacles, with the approbation of his colleagues, declared -that they were no longer under the safeguard of the goddess, who had thus -visibly rejected their supplication, and immediately proceeded to arrest them. -His words were the signal of a general massacre, from which even the awful -sanctity of the neighbouring altars did not screen the fugitives: none -escaped but those who found means of imploring female compassion.</p> - -<p>If the conduct of the principal actors in this bloody scene had been -marked only by treachery and cruelty, it would never have exposed them -to punishment, perhaps not even to reproach. But they had been guilty of -a flagrant violation of religion; and Megacles and his whole house were -viewed with horror, as men polluted with the stain of sacrilege. All public -disasters and calamities were henceforth construed into signs of the divine -displeasure: and the surviving partisans of Cylon did not fail to urge that -the gods would never be appeased until vengeance should have been taken -on the offenders. Yet if this had been the only question which agitated the -public mind, it might have been hushed without producing any important -consequences. But it was only one ingredient in the ferment which the -conflict of parties, the grievances of the many, and the ambition of the few, -now carried to a height that called for some extraordinary remedy. Hence -Cylon’s conspiracy and its issue exercised an influence on the history of -Athens, which has rendered it forever memorable, as the event which led -the way to the legislation of Solon.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_8e" id="enanchor_8e"></a><a href="#endnote_8e">e</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_9" id="Footnote_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> [According to some, the name Erechtheus was imported into “history” from the legend of -the contest between Minerva (Athena) and Neptune (Poseidon Erechtheus) for the Acropolis. -Erechtheus, though defeated, was permitted to remain; later he was thought of as a hero, and finally -given a place along with Cecrops (the imaginary ancestor of the Cecropes) in the list of kings.]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_10" id="Footnote_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Payne Knight has supposed Theseus a merely fabulous personage, because he is not mentioned -in any passage of Homer’s poems, excepting one which he has reckoned not genuine. -It seems bold to oppose such negative testimony to the positive of Thucydides and Cicero.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_11" id="Footnote_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> The successors of Medon were Acastus, Archippus, Thersippus, Phorbas, Megacles, Diognetus, -Pherecles, Ariphron, Thespieus, Agamestor, Æschylus, Alcmæon (<i>Ol.</i> VII, 1. <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> 752).</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_12" id="Footnote_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> His predecessors were Charops, Æsimedes, Clidicus; he was succeeded by Leocrates, Apsander, -and Eryxias. Creon, the first annual archon, enters upon his office <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> 684.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-8.jpg" width="500" height="123" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Seals</span></p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-9.jpg" width="500" height="111" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Seals</span></p> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_IX_SOME_CHARACTERISTIC_INSTITUTIONS">CHAPTER IX. SOME CHARACTERISTIC INSTITUTIONS</h3> - -<p>Perpetual warfare, pushed to the last extremity of hostile rage, would -in no long time have consumed or ruined the little tribes whose territories -occupied only a few adjacent valleys, always open to invasion: the -necessity of mutual forbearance for general safety would naturally suggest -the prudence of entering into friendly associations, without any ulterior -views, either of aggrandisement, or of protection against a common enemy. -Such an association, formed among independent neighbouring tribes for -the regulation of their mutual intercourse, and thus distinguished on the -one hand from confederations for purposes offensive or defensive, and on -the other, from the continued friendly relations subsisting among independent -members of the same race, is the one properly described by the -Greek term <i>amphictyony</i>.</p> - -<p>This Greek word, which we shall be obliged to borrow, has been supposed -by some ancient and modern writers to have been derived from the name -of Amphictyon, the son of Deucalion, who is said to have founded the most -celebrated of the Amphictyonic associations, that which is always to be -understood under the title of the Amphictyonic Confederacy. There can, -however, be scarcely any reasonable doubt that this Amphictyon is a merely -fictitious person, invented to account for the institution attributed to him, -the author of which, if it was the work of any individual, was probably no -better known than those of the other amphictyonies, which did not happen -to become so famous.</p> - -<p>The term “amphictyony,” which has probably been adapted to the legend, -and would be more properly written “amphictiony,” denotes a body referred -to a local centre of union, and in itself does not imply any national -affinity: and, in fact, the associations bearing this name include several -tribes, which were but very remotely connected together by descent. But -the local centre of union appears to have been always a religious one—a -common sanctuary, the scene of periodical meetings for the celebration of -a common worship. It is probable that many amphictyonies once existed in -Greece, all trace of which has been lost: and even with regard to those -which happen to have been rescued from total oblivion, our information is -for the most part extremely defective.</p> - -<p>Of all such institutions the most celebrated and important was the one -known, without any other local distinction, as the Amphictyonic League or -council. This last appellation refers to the fact that the affairs of the -whole Amphictyonic body were transacted by a congress, composed of -deputies sent by the several states according to rules established from time -immemorial. One peculiar feature of this congress was, that its meetings -were held at two different places. There were two regularly convened<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> -every year; one in the spring, at Delphi, the other in the autumn, near the -little town of Anthela, within the pass of Thermopylæ, at a temple of -Demeter.</p> - -<p>The confederate tribes are variously enumerated by different authors. -A comparison of their lists enables us to ascertain the greater part of the -names, and to form a probable conjecture as to the rest; but it also leads us -to conclude that some changes took place at a remote period in the constitution -of the council, as to which tradition is silent. The most authentic -list of the Amphictyonic tribes contains the following names: Thessalians, -Bœotians, Dorians, Ionians, Perrhæbians, Magnetes, Locrians, Œtæans or -Enianians, Phthiots or Achæans of Phthia, Malians or Melians, and Phocians. -The orator Æschines, who furnishes this list, shows, by mentioning -the number twelve, that one name is wanting. The other lists supply two -names to fill up the vacant place; the Dolopes, and the Delphians. It seems -not improbable that the former were finally supplanted by the Delphians, -who appear to have been a distinct race from the Phocians.</p> - -<p>The mere inspection of this list is sufficient to prove at once the high -antiquity of the institution and the imperfection of our knowledge with -regard to its early history. It is clear that the Dorians must have become -members of the Amphictyonic body before the conquest, which divided them -into several states, each incomparably more powerful than most of the petty -northern tribes, which possessed an equal number of votes in the council. -It may however be doubted, whether they were among the original members, -and did not rather take the place of one of the tribes which they had dislodged -from their seats in the neighbourhood of Delphi, perhaps the Dryopes.</p> - -<p>On the other hand the Thessalians were probably not received into the -league, before they made their appearance in Thessaly, which is commonly -believed to have taken place only twenty years before the Dorian invasion -of the Peloponnesus. It is therefore highly probable that they were admitted -in the room of some other tribe, which had lost its independence through the -convulsions of this eventful period.</p> - -<p>The constitution of the council rested on the supposition, once perhaps -not very inconsistent with the fact, of a perfect equality among the tribes -represented by it. Each tribe, however feeble, had two votes in the deliberation -of the congress: none, however powerful, had more. The order in -which the right of sending representatives to the council was exercised by -the various states included in one Amphictyonic tribe was perhaps regulated -by private agreement; but, unless one state usurped the whole right of its -tribe, it is manifest that a petty tribe, which formed but one community, had -greatly the advantage over Sparta, or Argos, which could only be represented -in their turn, the more rarely in proportion to the magnitude of the -tribe to which they belonged. Besides the council which held its sessions -either in the temple, or in some adjacent building, there was an Amphictyonic -assembly, which met in the open air, and was composed of persons residing -in the place where the congress was held, and of the numerous strangers -who were drawn to it by curiosity, business, or devotion.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 428px;"> -<img src="images/fp2.jpg" width="428" height="650" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">A GREEK WARRIOR</p> -</div> - -<p>It is evident that a constitution such as we have described could not have -been suffered to last, if it had been supposed that any important political -interests depended on the decision of the council. But, in fact, it was not -commonly viewed as a national congress for such purposes; its ordinary -functions were chiefly, if not altogether, connected with religion, and it was -only by accident that it was ever made subservient to political ends. The -original objects, or at least the essential character, of the institution, seem to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> -be faithfully expressed in the terms of the oath, preserved by Æschines, -which bound the members of the league to refrain from utterly destroying -any Amphictyonic city, and from cutting off its supply of water, even in war, -and to defend the sanctuary and the treasures of the Delphic god from sacrilege. -In this ancient and half-symbolical form we perceive two main functions -assigned to the council; to guard the temple, and to restrain the -violence of hostility among Amphictyonic states. There is no intimation -of any confederacy against foreign enemies, except for the protection of the -temple; nor of any right of interposing between members of the league, -unless where one threatens the existence of another.</p> - -<p>A review of the history of the council shows that it was almost powerless -for good, except perhaps as a passive instrument, and that it was only active -for purposes which were either unimportant or pernicious. In the great -national struggles it lent no strength to the common cause; but it now and -then threw a shade of sanctity over plans of ambition or revenge. It sometimes -assumed a jurisdiction uncertain in its limits, over its members; but -it seldom had the power of executing its sentences, and commonly committed -them to the party most interested in exacting the penalty. Thus it punished -the Dolopes of Scyros for piracy, by the hands of the Athenians, who coveted -their island. But its most legitimate sphere of action lay in cases where -the honour and safety of the Delphic sanctuary were concerned; and in these -it might safely reckon on general co-operation from all the Greeks. Thus it -could act with dignity and energy in a case where a procession, passing -through the territory of Megara towards Delphi, was insulted by some Megarians, -and could not obtain redress from the government; the Amphictyonic -tribunal punished the offenders with death or banishment.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[590 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>A much more celebrated and important instance of a similar intervention, -was that which gave occasion to the war above alluded to, which is commonly -called the Crissæan, or the First Sacred War. Crissa appears to be -the same town which is sometimes named Cirrha. Situate on that part of the -Corinthian Gulf which was called from it the Gulf of Crissa, it commanded a -harbour, much frequented by pilgrims from the West, who came to Delphi by -sea, and was also mistress of a fruitful tract, called the Cirrhæan Plain. It -is possible that there may have been real ground for the charge which was -brought against the Crissæans, of extortion and violence used towards the -strangers who landed at their port, or passed through their territory: one -ancient author, who however wrote nearly three centuries later, assigned as -the immediate occasion of the war an outrage committed on some female -pilgrims as they were returning from the oracle. It is however at least equally -probable, that their neighbours of Delphi had long cast a jealous and a wishful -eye on the customs by which Crissa was enriched, and considered all that -was there exacted from the pilgrims as taken from the Delphic god, who -might otherwise have received it as an offering.</p> - -<p>A complaint, however founded, was in the end preferred against Crissa -before the Amphictyons, who decreed a war against the refractory city. -They called in the aid of the Thessalians, who sent a body of forces under -Eurylochus; and their cause was also actively espoused by Clisthenes, tyrant -of Sicyon: and, according to the Athenian tradition, Solon assisted them -with important advice. They consulted the offended god, who enjoined, as -the condition of success in the war, that they should cause the sea to beat -upon his domain. In compliance with this oracle, at the suggestion of Solon, -they vowed to dedicate the Crissæans and their territory to the god, by -enslaving them, and making their land a waste forever. If the prospect of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> -such signal vengeance animated the assailants, the besieged were no doubt -goaded to a more obstinate defence by the threat of extermination. The -war is said to have lasted ten years, and at length to have been brought to a -close by a stratagem, which we could wish not to have found imputed to -Solon. He is reported to have poisoned the waters of the Plistus, from -which the city was supplied, and thus to have reduced the garrison to a state -in which they were easily overpowered. When the town had fallen, the -vow of the conquerors was literally fulfilled. Crissa was razed to the ground, -its harbour choked up, its fruitful plain turned into a wilderness. This -triumph was commemorated by the institution of gymnastic games, called -the Pythian, in the room of a more ancient and simple festival. The Amphictyons, -who celebrated the new games with the spoils of Crissa, were appointed -perpetual presidents.</p> - -<h4>THE ORACLE AT DELPHI</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[589-585 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>As the Delphic oracle was the object to which the principal duties of the -Amphictyons related, it might have been imagined to have been under their -control, and thus to have afforded them an engine by which they might, at -least secretly, exert a very powerful influence over the affairs of Greece. -But though this engine was not unfrequently wielded for political purposes, -it appears not to have been under the management of the council, but of the -leading citizens of Delphi, who had opportunity of constant and more efficacious -access to the persons employed in revealing the supposed will of the -god. In early times the oracle was often consulted, not merely for the sake -of learning the unknown future, but for advice and direction, which, as it -was implicitly followed, really determined the destiny of those who received -it. The power conferred by such an instrument was unbounded; and it -appears, on the whole, not to have been ill applied: but the honour of its -beneficial effects must be ascribed almost entirely to the wisdom and patriotism -of the ruling Delphians or of the foreigners who concerted with them -in the use of the sacred machinery. But the authority of the oracle itself -was gradually weakened, partly by the progress of new opinions, and partly -by the abuse which was too frequently made of it. The organ of the prophetic -god was a woman, of an age more open to bribery than to any other -kind of seduction;<a name="FNanchor_13" id="FNanchor_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> and, even before the Persian wars, several instances -occurred in which she had notoriously sold her answers. The credulity of -individuals might notwithstanding be little shaken: but a few such disclosures -would be sufficient to deprive the oracle of the greater part of its -political influence.</p> - -<h4>NATIONAL FESTIVALS</h4> - -<p>The character of a national institution, which the Amphictyonic council -affected, but never really acquired, more truly belonged to the public festivals, -which, though celebrated within certain districts, were not peculiar to -any tribe, but were open to all who could prove their Hellenic blood.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_8b2" id="enanchor_8b2"></a><a href="#endnote_8b">b</a></span></p> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 200px;"> -<img src="images/p171.jpg" width="200" height="450" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Dancing Girl</span></p> -<p class="caption">(After Hope)</p> -</div> - -<p>From very early times, it had been customary among the Greeks to hold -numerous meetings for purposes of festivity and social amusement. A foot-race, -a wrestling match, or some other rude trial of bodily strength and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> -activity, formed originally the principal entertainment, which seems to have -been very similar in character to our country wakes. The almost ceaseless -warfare among the little Grecian states gave especial value to military exercises, -which were accordingly ordinary in those -games. The connection of these games with -the warlike character may have occasioned their -introduction at funerals in honour of the dead; -a custom which, we learn from Homer, was in -his time ancient. But all the violence of the -early ages was unable to repress that elegance -of imagination which seems congenial to Greece. -Very anciently a contention for a prize in poetry -and music was a favourite entertainment of the -Grecian people; and when connected, as it often -was, with some ceremony of religion, drew together -large assemblies of both sexes. A festival -of this kind in the little island of Delos, at which -Homer assisted, brought a numerous concourse -from different parts by sea: and Hesiod informs -us of a splendid meeting for the celebration of -various games at Chalcis in Eubœa, where himself -obtained the prize for poetry and song. The -contest in music and poetry seems early to have -been particularly connected with the worship of -Apollo. When this was carried from the islands -of the Ægean to Delphi, a prize for poetry was -instituted; and thence appear to have arisen the -Pythian games. But Homer shows that games, -in which athletic exercises and music and dancing -were alternately introduced, made a common -amusement of the courts of princes; and before -his time the manner of conducting them was so -far reduced to a system that public judges of the -games were of the established magistracy. Thus -improved, the games greatly resembled the tilts and tournaments of the ages -of chivalry. Only men of high rank presumed to engage in them; but a -large concourse of all orders attended as spectators; and to keep regularity -among these was perhaps the most necessary office of the judges. But the -most solemn meetings, drawing together people of distinguished rank and -character, often from distant parts, were at the funerals of eminent men. -The paramount sovereigns of the Peloponnesus did not disdain to attend -these, which were celebrated with every circumstance of magnificence and -splendour that the age could afford. The funeral of Patroclus, described -in the <i>Iliad</i>, may be considered as an example of what the poet could imagine -in its kind most complete. The games, in which prizes were there -contended for, were the chariot-race, the foot-race, boxing, wrestling, throwing -the quoit and the javelin, shooting with the bow, and fencing with the -spear. And in times when none could be rich or powerful but the strong -and active, the expert at martial exercises, all those trials of skill appear to -have been esteemed equally becoming men of the highest rank; though it may -seem, from the prizes offered and the persons contending at the funeral of -Patroclus, the poet himself saw, in the game of the cestus, some incongruity -with exalted characters.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">[<i>ca.</i> 884 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Traditions are preserved of games celebrated in Elis, upon several great -occasions, in very early times, with more than ordinary pomp, by assemblies -of chiefs from different parts of Greece. Homer mentions such at Elis under -King Augeas, contemporary with Hercules, and grandfather of one of the -chiefs who commanded the Elean troops in the Trojan War; and again at -Buprasium in Elis, for the funeral of Amarynceus, while Nestor was yet in -the vigour of youth. But it does not at all appear from Homer that in his -time, or ever before him, any periodical festival was established like that -which afterward became so famous under the title of the Olympiad or the -Olympian contest, or, as our writers, translating the Latin phrase, have -commonly termed it, the Olympian Games. On the contrary, every mention -of such games, in his extant works, shows them to have been only occasional -solemnities; and Strabo has remarked that they were distinguished -by a characteristical difference from the Olympian. In these the honour -derived from receiving publicly a crown or chaplet, formed of a branch of -oleaster, was the only reward of the victor; but in Homer’s games the -prizes, not merely honorary, were intrinsically valuable, and the value was -often very considerable.</p> - -<p>After Homer’s age, through the long troubles ensuing from the Dorian -conquest, and the great change made in the population of the country, the -customs and institutions of the Peloponnesians were so altered that even -memory of the ancient games was nearly lost.</p> - -<h4>THE OLYMPIAN GAMES</h4> - -<p>In this season of turbulence and returning barbarism, Iphitus, a descendant, -probably grandson, of Oxylus (though so deficient were the means of -transmitting information to posterity that we have no assurance even of his -father’s name), succeeded to the throne of Elis. This prince was of a -genius that might have produced a more brilliant character in a more -enlightened age, but which was perhaps more beneficial to mankind in the -rough times in which he lived. Active and enterprising, but not by inclination -a warrior, he was anxious to find a remedy for the disorderly situation -of his country. He sent a solemn embassy to Delphi to supplicate information -from the deity of the place, “How the anger of the gods, which threatened -total destruction to the Peloponnesus through endless hostilities among -its people, might be averted.” He received for answer, what himself, as a -judicious critic has observed, had probably suggested, “That the Olympic -festival must be restored; for the neglect of that solemnity had brought on -the Greeks the indignation of the god Jupiter, to whom it was dedicated, -and of the hero Hercules, by whom it had been instituted: and that a -cessation of arms must therefore immediately be proclaimed for all cities -desirous of partaking in it.” This response of the god was promulgated -throughout Greece; and Iphitus, in obedience to it, caused the armistice to be -proclaimed. But the other Peloponnesians, full of respect for the authority -of the oracle, yet uneasy at the ascendancy thus assumed by the Eleans, -sent a common deputation to Delphi, to inquire concerning the authenticity -of the divine mandate reported to them. The Pythoness however, seldom -averse to authorise the schemes of kings and legislators, adhered to her -former answer and commanded the Peloponnesians “to submit to the direction -and authority of the Eleans, in ordering and establishing the ancient -laws and customs of their forefathers.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span></p> - -<p>Supported thus by the oracle, and encouraged by the ready acquiescence of -all the Peloponnesians, Iphitus proceeded to model his institution. Jupiter, -the chief of the gods, being now the acknowledged patron of the plan, and -the prince himself, under Apollo, the promulgator of his will, it was ordained -that a festival should be held at the temple of Jupiter at Olympia, near the -town of Pisa in Elis, open to the whole Greek nation; and that it should be -repeated at the termination of every fourth year: that this festival should -consist in solemn sacrifices to Jupiter and Hercules, and in games celebrated -to their honour; and as wars might often prevent not only individuals, but -whole states, from partaking in the benefits with which the gods would reward -those who properly shared in the solemnity, it was ordained under the same -authority, that an armistice should take place throughout Greece for some -time before the commencement of the festival, and continue for some time -after its conclusion. For his own people, the Eleans, Iphitus procured an -advantage never perhaps enjoyed in equal extent by any other people. A -tradition was current that the Heraclidæ, on appointing Oxylus at the same -time to the throne of Elis and to the guardianship of the temple of Olympian -Jupiter, had consecrated all Elis to the god under sanction of an oath, -and denounced the severest curses, not only on any who should invade it, but -also on all who should not defend it against invaders. Iphitus procured universal -acquiescence to the authority of this tradition; and the deference of the -Grecian people towards it, during many ages, is not among the least remarkable -circumstances of Grecian history. A reputation of sacredness became -attached to the whole Elean people as the hereditary priesthood of Jupiter, -and a pointed difference in character and pursuits arose between them and -the other Greeks. Little disposed to ambition, and regardless even of the -pleasures of a town-life, their general turn was to rural business and rural -amusements. Elsewhere the country was left to hinds and herdsmen, who -were mostly slaves; men of property, for security as well as for pursuits of -ambition and pleasure, resided in fortified towns. But the towns of Elis, -Elis itself the capital, remained unfortified. In republican governments however -civil contention would arise. Within a narrow territory the implication -of domestic party-politics with foreign interests could not be entirely obviated; -and thus foreign wars would ensue. But to the time of Polybius, -who saw the liberty of Greece expire, the Eleans maintained their general -character, and in a great degree their ancient privileges; whence they were -then the wealthiest people of the Peloponnesus, and yet the richest of them -mostly resided upon their estates, and many, as that historian avers, without -ever visiting Elis.</p> - -<h5><i>Character of the Games</i></h5> - -<p>At the Olympian festival, as established by Iphitus, the foot-race, distinguished -by the name of <i>stadion</i>, is said to have been the only game exhibited; -whether the various other exercises familiar in Homer’s age had -fallen into oblivion, or the barbarism and poverty, superinduced by the -violent and lasting troubles which followed the return of the Heraclidæ, forbade -those of greater splendour.</p> - -<p>Afterwards, as the growing importance of the meeting occasioned inquiry -concerning what had been practised of old, or excited invention concerning -what might be advantageously added new, the games were multiplied. The -<i>diaulos</i>, a more complicated foot-race, was added at the fourteenth Olympiad; -wrestling, and the <i>pentathlon</i> or game of five exercises, at the eighteenth; -boxing at the twenty-third; the chariot-race was not restored till the twenty-fifth,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> -of course not till a hundred years after the institution of the festival; -the <i>pancration</i> and the horse-race were added in the thirty-third.</p> - -<p>So much Pausanias has asserted; apparently from the Olympian register, -which on other occasions he has quoted. Originally the sacrifices, processions, -and various religious ceremonies apparently formed the principal -pageantry of the meeting. Afterwards perhaps the games became the -greater inducement for the extraordinary resort of company to Olympia; -though the religious ceremonies continued still to increase in magnificence -as the festival gained importance. The temple, like that of Delphi, became -an advantageous repository for treasure. A mart or fair was a natural -consequence of a periodical assembly of multitudes in one place; and -whatever required extensive publicity, whatever was important for all the -scattered members of the Greek nation to know, would be most readily -communicated, and most solemnly, by proclamation at the Olympian festival. -Hence treaties by mutual agreement were often proclaimed at Olympia; and -sometimes columns were erected there at the joint expense of the contracting -parties, with the treaties engraved.</p> - -<p>Thus the Olympian meeting to a not inconsiderable degree supplied -the want of a common capital for the Greek nation; and, with a success -far beyond what the worthy founder’s imagination, urged by his warmest -wishes, could reach, contributed to the advancement of arts, particularly of -the fine arts, of commerce, of science, of civilised manners, of liberal sentiments, -and of friendly communication among all the Grecian people. Such -was the common feeling of these various advantages, it became established -as a divine law that, whatever wars were going forward among the republics, -there should be a truce, not only during the festival, but also for some -days before and after; so that persons from all parts of Greece might safely -attend it.</p> - -<p>The advantages and gratifications in which the whole nation thus became -interested, and the particular benefits accruing to the Eleans, excited attempts -to establish or improve other similar meetings in different parts of -Greece. Three of these, the Delphian, Isthmian, and Nemean, though they -never equalled the celebrity and splendour of the Olympian, acquired considerable -fame and importance. Each was consecrated to a different deity. -In the Delphic, next in consideration to the Olympic, Apollo was honoured; -the Delphian people were esteemed his ministers; the Amphictyonic council -were the allowed protectors and regulators of the institution. The Isthmian -had its name from the Corinthian Isthmus, near the middle of which, -overlooking the scene of the solemnity, stood a temple of the god Neptune, -venerated by the Corinthian people, administrators of the ceremonies, as -their patron.</p> - -<p>At the Nemean, sacred to Juno, the Argives (who esteemed her the -tutelary deity of their state) presided. All these meetings, like the Olympian, -were, in war as in peace, open to all Grecian people; the faith of gods -as well as of men being considered as plighted for protection of all, under -certain rules, going to, staying at, and returning from them. All were also, -like the Olympian, held at intervals of four years; so that, taking their years -in turn, it was provided that in every summer, in the midst of the military -season, there should be a respite of those hostilities among the republics which -were otherwise so continually desolating Greece; and though this beneficial -regulation was under some pretences occasionally overborne by powerful -states, yet the sequel of history shows it to have been of very advantageous -efficacy.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_8c2" id="enanchor_8c2"></a><a href="#endnote_8c">c</a></span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span></p> - -<h4>MONARCHIES AND OLIGARCHIES</h4> - -<p>The enterprises of the heroic age, as we see from the example of the -Trojan War itself, often led to the extinction, or expulsion, of a royal family, -or of its principal members; and no principle appears to have been generally -recognised which rendered it necessary, in such cases, to fill a vacant throne -or to establish a new dynasty, while every such calamity inevitably weakened -the authority of the kings, and made them more dependent on the nobles, -who, as an order, were not affected by any disasters to individuals. But the -great convulsions which attended the Thessalian, Bœotian, and Dorian -migrations, contributed still more effectually to the same end. In most -parts of Greece they destroyed or dislodged the line of the ancient kings, -who, when they were able to seek new seats, left behind them the treasures -and the strongholds which formed the main supports of their power: and, -though the conquerors were generally accustomed to a kingly government, it -must commonly have lost something of its vigour when transplanted to a -new country, where it was subject to new conditions, and where the prince -was constantly reminded, by new dangers, of the obligations which he owed -to his companions in arms. Yet, even this must be considered rather as the -occasion which led to the abolition of the heroic monarchy, than as the cause: -that undoubtedly lay much deeper, and is to be sought in the character of -the people—in that same energy and versatility which prevented it from -ever stiffening, even in its infancy, in the mould of oriental institutions, and -from stopping short, in any career which it had once opened, before it had -passed through every stage.</p> - -<p>It seems to have been seldom, if ever, that royalty was abolished by a -sudden and violent revolution; the title often long survived the substance, -and this was extinguished only by slow successive steps. These consisted -in dividing it among several persons, in destroying its inheritable quality, -and making it elective, first in one family, then in more; first for life, then -for a certain term; in separating its functions, and distributing them into -several hands. In the course of these changes it became more and more -responsible to the nobles, and frequently, at a very early stage, the name -itself was exchanged for one simply equivalent to ruler, or chief magistrate. -The form of government which thus ensued might, with equal propriety, -be termed either aristocracy or oligarchy, but, in the use of the terms to -which these correspond, the Greek political writers made a distinction, -which may at first sight appear more arbitrary than it really is. They -taught—not a very recondite truth—that the three forms of government, -that of one, that of a few, and that of the many, are all alike right and -good, so long as they are rightly administered, with a view, that is, to -the welfare of the state, and not to the interest of an individual or of a -particular class. But, when any of the three loses sight of its legitimate -object, it degenerates into a vicious species, which requires to be marked by -a peculiar name. Thus a monarchy, in which selfish aims predominate -becomes a tyranny. The government of a few, conducted on like principles, -is properly called an oligarchy. But to constitute an aristocracy, it -is not sufficient that the ruling few should be animated by a desire to promote -the public good: they must also be distinguished by a certain character; -for aristocracy signifies the rule of the best men.</p> - -<p>More distinctly to understand the peculiar nature of the Greek oligarchies, -it is necessary to consider the variety of circumstances under which they -arose. By the migrations which took place in the century following the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> -Trojan War, most parts of Greece were occupied by a new race of conquerors. -Everywhere their first object was to secure a large portion of the conquered -land; but the footing on which they placed themselves, with regard to the -ancient inhabitants, was not everywhere the same; it varied according to -the temper of the invaders, or of their chiefs, to their relative strength, -means, and opportunities. In Sparta, and in most of the Dorian states, the -invaders shunned all intermixture with the conquered, and deprived them, -if not of personal freedom, of all political rights. But elsewhere, as in Elis, -and probably in Bœotia, no such distinction appears to have been made; -the old and the new people gradually melted into one.</p> - -<p>An oligarchy, in the sense which we have assigned to the word, could -only exist where there was an inferior body which felt itself aggrieved by -being excluded from the political rights which were reserved to the privileged -few. Such a feeling of discontent might be roused by the rapacity or -insolence of the dominant order, as we shall find to have happened at Athens, -and as was the case at Mytilene, where some members of the ruling house -of the Penthilids went about with clubs, committing outrages like those -which Nero practised for a short time in the streets of Rome. But, without -any such provocation, disaffection might arise from the cause which we shall -see producing a revolution at Corinth, where the aristocracy was originally -established on a basis too narrow to be durable: as Aristotle relates of the -Basilids at Erythræ, that, though they exercised their power well, they could -not retain it, because the people would no longer endure that it should be -lodged in so few hands. In general however it was a gradual, inevitable -change in the relative position of the higher and lower orders, which converted -the aristocracy into an oligarchical faction, and awakened an opposition -which usually ended in its overthrow.</p> - -<p>The precautions which were used by the ruling class, when it began to -perceive its danger, were of various kinds, and it was more frequently found -necessary to widen the oligarchy itself, by the admission of new families, and -to change the principle of its constitution by substituting wealth for birth as -the qualification of its members. The form of government in which the -possession of a certain amount of property was the condition of all, or at -least of the highest, political privileges, was sometimes called a timocracy, -and its character varied according to the standard adopted. When this was -high, and especially if it was fixed in the produce of land, the constitution -differed little in effect from the aristocratical oligarchy, except as it opened -a prospect to those who were excluded of raising themselves to a higher rank. -But, when the standard was placed within reach of the middling class, the -form of government was commonly termed a polity, and was considered -as one of the best tempered and most durable modifications of democracy. -The first stage however often afforded the means of an easy transition to the -second, or might be reduced to it by a change in the value of the standard.</p> - -<p>Another expedient, which seems to have been tried not unfrequently in -early times, for preserving or restoring tranquillity, was to invest an individual -with absolute power, under a peculiar title, which soon became obsolete: -that of <i>æsymnete</i>. At Cumæ indeed, and in other cities, this was the title -of an ordinary magistracy, probably of that which succeeded the hereditary -monarchy; but, when applied to an extraordinary office, it was equivalent -to the title of protector or dictator. It did not indicate any disposition to -revive the heroic royalty, but only the need which was felt, either by the -commonalty of protection against the nobles, or by all parties of a temporary -compromise, which induced the adverse factions to acquiesce in a neutral government.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> -The office was conferred sometimes for life, sometimes only for a -limited term, or for the accomplishment of a specific object, as the sage Pittacus -was chosen by universal consent at Mytilene, when the city was threatened -by a band of exiles, headed by the poet Alcæus and his brother Antimenidas -[about 612 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>].</p> - -<h4>TYRANNIES</h4> - -<p>The fall of an oligarchy was sometimes accelerated by accidental and inevitable -disasters, as by a protracted war, which at once exhausted its wealth -and reduced its numbers, or by the loss of a battle, in which the flower of -its youth might sometimes be cut off at one blow, and leave it to the mercy -of its subjects; a case of which we shall find a signal instance in the history -of Argos. But much more frequently the revolutions which overthrew the -oligarchical governments arose out of the imprudence or misconduct, or the -internal dissensions, of the ruling body, or out of the ambition of some of -its members. The commonalty, even when really superior in strength, -could not, all at once, shake off the awe with which it was impressed by -ages of subjection. It needed a leader to animate, unite, and direct it.</p> - -<p>Such was the origin of most of the governments which the Greeks described -by the term “tyranny”—a term to which a notion has been attached, -in modern languages, which did not enter into its original definition. A -tyranny, in the Greek sense of the word, was the irresponsible dominion of -a single person, not founded on hereditary right, like the monarchies of the -heroic ages and of many barbarian nations; nor on a free election, like that -of a dictator or <i>æsymnete</i>; but on force. It did not change its character -when transmitted through several generations, nor was any other name invented -to describe it when power which had been acquired by violence was -used for the public good; though Aristotle makes it an element in the definition -of tyranny, that it is exercised for selfish ends. But, according to the -ordinary Greek notions, and the usage of the Greek historians, a mild and -beneficent tyranny is an expression which involves no contradiction. On -the other hand, a government, legitimate in its origin, might be converted -into a tyranny, by an illegal forcible extension of its powers, or of its duration; -and we are informed by Aristotle that this was frequently the case in -early times, before the regal title was abolished, or while the chief magistrate, -who succeeded under a different name to the functions of royalty, was -still invested with prerogatives dangerous to liberty. Such was the basis -on which one of the ancient tyrants, most infamous for his cruelty, Phalaris -of Agrigentum [or Acragas], established his despotism.</p> - -<p>But most of the tyrannies which sprang up before the Persian wars owed -their existence to the cause above described, and derived their peculiar character -from the occasion which gave them birth. It was usually by a mixture -of violence and artifice that the demagogue accomplished his ends. A -hackneyed stratagem, which however seems always to have been successful, -was, to feign that his life was threatened, or had even been attacked by the -fury of the nobles, and on this pretext to procure a guard for his person -from the people. This band, though composed of citizens, he found it easy -to attach to his interests, and with its aid made the first step towards absolute -power by seizing the citadel: an act which might be considered as a -formal assumption of the tyranny, and as declaring a resolution to maintain -it by force. But in other respects the more politic tyrants set an example -which Augustus might have studied with advantage. Like him, they as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> -carefully avoided the ostentation of power as they guarded its substance. -They suffered the ancient forms of the government to remain in apparent -vigour, and even in real operation, so far as they did not come into conflict -with their own authority. They assumed no title, and were not distinguished -from private citizens by any ensigns of superior rank. But they did not -the less keep a jealous eye on all whom wealth, or character, or influence -might render dangerous rivals; and commonly either forced them into exile -or removed them by the stroke of an assassin. They exerted still greater -vigilance in suppressing every kind of combination which might cover the -germ of a conspiracy. The lowest class of the commonalty they restrained -from license, and provided with employment. For this purpose, no less -than to gratify their taste or display their magnificence, they frequently -adorned their cities with costly buildings, which required years of labour -from numerous hands: and, where this expedient did not suffice, they scrupled -not to force a part of the population to quit the capital, and seek -subsistence in rural occupations. On the same ground they were not reluctant -to engage in wars, which afforded them opportunities of relieving -themselves, in a less invidious manner, both from troublesome friends and -from dangerous foes, as well as of strengthening and extending their dominion -by conquest.</p> - -<p>Such was the ordinary policy of the best tyrants; and by these arts they -were frequently able to reign in peace, and to transmit their power to their -children. But the maxims and character of the tyranny generally underwent -a change under their successors, and scarcely an instance was known -of a tyrannical dynasty that lasted beyond the third generation. But, even -where the tyrant did not make himself universally odious, or provoke the -vengeance of individuals by his wantonness or cruelty, he was constantly -threatened by dangers, both from within and from without, which it required -the utmost vigour and prudence to avert. The party which his usurpation -had supplanted, though depressed, was still powerful, more exasperated than -humbled by its defeat, and ever ready to take advantage of any opportunity -of overthrowing him, either by private conspiracy, or by affecting to make -common cause with the lower classes, or by calling in foreign aid. And in -Greece itself such aid was always at hand: the tyrants indeed were partially -leagued together for mutual support. But Sparta threw all her might into -the opposite scale. She not only dreaded the contagion of an example which -might endanger her own institutions, but was glad to extend her influence -by taking an active part in revolutions, which would cause the states restored, -by her intervention, to their old government to look up to her with gratitude -and dependence as their natural protectress. And accordingly Thucydides -ascribes the overthrow of most of the tyrannies which flourished in Greece -before the Persian War to the exertions of Sparta.</p> - -<p>The immediate effect produced by the fall of the tyrants depended on the -hands by which it was accomplished. Where it was the work of Sparta, she -would aim at introducing a constitution most in conformity to her own. -But the example of Athens will show, that she was sometimes instrumental -in promoting the triumph of principles more adverse to her views than those -of the tyranny itself. When, however, the struggle which had been interrupted -by the temporary usurpation was revived, the parties were no longer -in exactly the same posture as at its outset. In general the commonalty -was found to have gained, in strength and spirit, even more than the oligarchy -had lost; and the prevalent leaning of the ensuing period was on the -side of democracy. Indeed the decisive step was that by which the oligarchy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> -of wealth was substituted for the oligarchy of birth. This opened the door -for all the subsequent innovations, by which the scale of the timocracy was -gradually lowered, until it was wholly abolished.</p> - -<h4>DEMOCRACIES</h4> - -<p>The term “democracy” is used by Aristotle sometimes in a larger sense, -so as to include several forms of government, which, notwithstanding their -common character, were distinguished from each other by peculiar features; -at other times in a narrower, to denote a form essentially vicious, which -stands in the same relation to the happy temperament to which he gives the -name of polity, as oligarchy to aristocracy, or tyranny to royalty. We shall -not confine ourselves to the technical language of his system, but will endeavour -to define the notion of democracy, as the word was commonly understood -by the Greeks, so as to separate the essence of the thing from the -various accidents which have sometimes been confounded with it by writers -who have treated Greek history as a vehicle for conveying their views on -questions of modern politics, which never arose in the Greek republics.</p> - -<p>It must not be forgotten, that the body to which the terms oligarchy and -democracy refer formed a comparatively small part of the population in most -Greek states, since it did not include either slaves or resident free foreigners. -The sovereign power resided wholly in the native freemen; and whether it -was exercised by a part or by all of them, was the question which determined -the nature of the government. When the barrier had been thrown down, -by which all political rights were made the inheritance of certain families,—since -every freeman, even when actually excluded from them by the want -of sufficient property, was by law capable of acquiring them,—democracy -might be said to have begun. It was advancing, as the legal condition of -their enjoyment was brought within the reach of a more numerous class; -but it could not be considered as complete, so long as any freeman was -debarred from them by poverty. Since, however, the sovereignty included -several attributes which might be separated, the character of the constitution -depended on the way in which these were distributed. It was considered -as partaking more of democracy than of oligarchy, when the most important -of them were shared by all freemen without distinction, though a part was -still appropriated to a number limited either by birth or fortune. Thus -where the legislative, or, as it was anciently termed, the deliberative, branch -of the sovereignty was lodged in an assembly open to every freeman, and -where no other qualification than free birth was required for judicial functions, -and for the election of magistrates, there the government was called -democratical, though the highest offices of the state might be reserved to -a privileged class. But a finished democracy, that which fully satisfied -the Greek notion, was one in which every attribute of sovereignty might be -shared, without respect to rank or property, by every freeman.</p> - -<p>More than this was not implied in democracy; and little less than this -was required, according to the views of the philosophers, to constitute the -character of a citizen, which, in the opinion of Aristotle, could not exist -without a voice in the legislative assembly, and such a share in the administration -of justice as was necessary to secure the responsibility of the magistrates. -But this equality of rights left room for a great diversity in the -modes of exercising them, which determined the real nature of a democratical -constitution. There were, indeed, certain rights, those which Aristotle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> -considers as essential to a citizen, which, according to the received Greek -notions, could, in a democracy, only be exercised in person. The thought of -delegating them to accountable representatives seems never to have occurred -either to practical or speculative statesmen, except in the formation of confederacies, -which rendered such an expedient necessary.</p> - -<p>But the principle of legal equality, which was the basis of democracy, -was gradually construed in a manner which inverted the wholesome order -of nature, and led to a long train of pernicious consequences. The administration -of the commonwealth came to be regarded, not as a service, in which -all were interested, but for which some might be qualified better than others, -but as a property, in which each was entitled to an equal share. The practical -application of this view was the introduction of an expedient for levelling, -as far as possible, the inequality of nature, by enabling the poorest to -devote his time, without loss, or even with profit, to public affairs. This -was done by giving him wages for his attendance on all occasions of exercising -his franchise; and, as the sum which could be afforded for this purpose -was necessarily small, it attracted precisely the persons whose presence was -least desirable.</p> - -<p>A further application of the same principle was, as much as possible, to -increase the number, and abridge the duration and authority of public offices, -and to transfer their power to the people in a mass. On the same ground, -chance was substituted for election in the creation of all magistrates, whose -duties did not actually demand either the security of a large fortune or -peculiar abilities and experience. In proportion as the popular assembly, or -large portions detached from it for the exercise of judicial functions, drew -all the branches of the sovereignty more and more into their sphere, the -character of their proceedings became more and more subject to the influence -of the lower class of the citizens, which constituted a permanent majority. -And thus the democracy, instead of the equality which was its supposed -basis, in fact established the ascendancy of a faction, which, although greatly -preponderant in numbers, no more represented the whole state than the oligarchy -itself; and which, though not equally liable to fall into the mechanism -of a vicious system, was more prone to yield to the impulse of the moment, -more easily misled by blind or treacherous guides, and might thus, as frequently, -though not so deliberately and methodically, trample, not only on -law and custom, but on justice and humanity. This disease of a democracy -was sometimes designated by the term “ochlocracy,” or the dominion of the -rabble.</p> - -<p>A democracy thus corrupted exhibited many features of a tyranny. It -was jealous of all who were eminently distinguished by birth, fortune, or -reputation; it encouraged flatterers and sycophants; was insatiable in its -demands on the property of the rich, and readily listened to charges which -exposed them to death or confiscation. The class which suffered such oppression, -commonly ill satisfied with the principle of the constitution itself, was -inflamed with the most furious animosity by the mode in which it was -applied, and regarded the great mass of its fellow-citizens as its mortal -enemies.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_9b" id="enanchor_9b"></a><a href="#endnote_9b">b</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_13" id="Footnote_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> The Pythia had once been a maiden, chosen in the flower of youth; but this practice having -been attended with inconvenient consequences, women were appointed who had passed the -age of fifty, but still wore the dress of virgins. Diodorus, xvi, 26.</p> - -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-10.jpg" width="500" height="260" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Ruins of the Temple of Apollo Epicurius, Arcadia</span></p> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_X_THE_SMALLER_CITIES_AND_STATES">CHAPTER X. THE SMALLER CITIES AND STATES</h3> - -<p>Aristotle’s survey of the Greek forms of government was founded on -a vast store of information which he had collected on the history and constitution -of more than a hundred and fifty states, in the mother country and the -colonies, and which he had consigned to a great work now unfortunately lost. -Our knowledge of the internal conditions and vicissitudes of almost all these -states is very scanty and fragmentary: but some of the main facts concerning -them, which have been saved from oblivion, will serve to throw -light on several parts of the ensuing history.</p> - -<h4>ARCADIA, ELIS, AND ACHAIA</h4> - -<p>We have scarcely anything to say, during this period, of the state of -parties, or even the forms of government, in Arcadia, Elis, and Achaia. If -Arcadia was ever subject to a single king, which seems to be intimated by -some accounts of its early history, it was probably only, as in Thessaly, -by an occasional election, or a temporary usurpation. The title of king -however appears not to have been everywhere abolished down to a much -later time, as we find a hint that it was retained at Orchomenos even in the -fifth century before our era. That the republican constitutions were long -aristocratical can scarcely be doubted, as the two principal Arcadian cities, -Tegea and Mantinea, were at first only the chief among several small hamlets, -which were at length united in one capital. This, whenever it happened, was -a step towards the subversion of aristocratical privileges; and it was no doubt -with this view that the five Mantinean villages were incorporated by the -Argives, as Strabo mentions without assigning the date of the event. But -it is not probable that Argos thus interfered before her own institutions had -undergone a like change, which, as we shall see, did not take place before a -later period than our history has yet reached. Whether the union of the -nine villages, which included Tegea as their chief, was effected earlier or -later, does not appear. But, after she had once acknowledged the supremacy -of Sparta, Tegea was sheltered by Spartan influence from popular innovations, -and was always the less inclined to adopt them when they prevailed at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> -Mantinea: for as the position of the two Arcadian neighbours tended to connect -the one with Sparta, and the other with Argos, so it supplied occasion for -interminable feuds between them. But, in general, the history of the western -states of Arcadia is wrapt in deep obscurity, which was only broken, in -the fourth century <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, by the foundation of a new Arcadian capital.</p> - -<p>In Elis the monarchical form of government continued for some generations -in the line of Oxylus, but appears to have ceased there earlier than at -Pisa, which, at the time when it was conquered and destroyed by the Eleans, -was ruled by chiefs, who were probably legitimate kings. Immediately after -the conquest, in the fiftieth Olympiad, the dignity of <i>hellanodicæ</i>, which had -been held by the kings of Elis, or shared by them with those of Pisa, was -assigned to two Elean officers by lot, a proof that royalty was then extinct. -The constitution by which it was replaced seems to have been rigidly aristocratical, -perhaps no other than the narrow oligarchy described by Aristotle,—who -observes that the whole number of citizens exercising any political -functions was small—confined, perhaps to the six hundred mentioned by -Thucydides; and that the senate, originally composed of ninety members, -who held their office for life, and filled up vacancies at their pleasure, had -been gradually reduced to a very few. Elis, the capital, remained in a condition -like that of the above-mentioned Arcadian towns until the Persian -War, when the inhabitants of many villages were collected in its precincts. -This was probably attended by other changes of a democratical nature—perhaps -by the limitation which one Phormis is said to have effected in -the power of the senate—and henceforth the number of the <i>hellanodicæ</i> -corresponded to that of the tribes or regions into which the Elean territory -was divided; so that, whenever any of these regions was lost by the chance -of war, the number of the <i>hellanodicæ</i> was proportionately reduced. So too -the matrons who presided at the games in honour of Hera, in which the -Elean virgins contended at Olympia, were chosen in equal number from each -of the tribes.</p> - -<p>In Achaia, the royal dignity was transmitted in the line of Tisamenus -down to Ogyges, whose sons, affecting despotic power, were deposed, and -the government was changed to a democracy, which is said to have possessed -a high reputation. From Pausanias it would rather seem as if the title of -king had been held by a number of petty chiefs at once. If so, the revolution -must have had its origin in causes more general than those assigned to -it by Polybius. It was probably accelerated by the number of Achæan emigrants -who sought refuge in Achaia from other parts of the Peloponnesus, and -who soon crowded the country, till it was relieved by its Italian colonies. -What Polybius and Strabo term a democracy may however have been a -polity, or a very liberal and well-tempered form of oligarchy. Of its details -we know nothing; nor are we informed in what relation the twelve principal -Achaian towns—a division adopted from the Ionians—stood to the hamlets, -of which each had seven or eight in its territory, like those of Tegea and -Mantinea. As little are we able to describe the constitution of the confederacy -in which the twelve states were now united.</p> - -<h4>ARGOS, ÆGINA, AND EPIDAURUS</h4> - -<p>More light has been thrown by ancient authors on the history of the -states in the northeast quarter of Peloponnesus, those of Argolis in the -largest sense of the word. At Argos itself, regal government subsisted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> -down to the Persian wars, although the line of the Heraclid princes appears -to have become extinct toward the middle of the preceding century. Pausanias -remarks, that, from a very early period, the Argives were led by their -peculiarly independent spirit to limit the prerogatives of their kings so -narrowly as to leave them little more than the name. We cannot however -place much reliance on such a general reflection of a late writer. But -we have seen that Phidon, who, about the year 750 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, extended the -power of Argos farther than any of his predecessors, also stretched the royal -authority so much beyond its legitimate bounds, that he is sometimes called -a tyrant, though he was rightful heir of Temenus. After his death, as his -conquests appear to have been speedily lost, so it is probable that his -successors were unable to maintain the ascendancy which he had gained over -his Dorian subjects, and the royal dignity may henceforth have been, as -Pausanias describes it, little more than a title. Hence, too, on the failure -of the ancient line, about <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> 560, Ægon, though of a different family, may -have met with the less opposition in mounting the throne. The substance -of power rested with the Dorian freemen: in what manner it was distributed -among them we can only conjecture from analogy. Their lands were cultivated -by a class of serfs, corresponding to the Spartan helots, who served in -war as light-armed troops, whence they derived their peculiar name, “gymnesii.” -They were also sovereigns of a few towns, the inhabitants of which, -like the Laconians subject to Sparta, though personally free, were excluded -from all share in their political privileges. The events which put an end to -this state of things, and produced an entire change in the form of government -at Argos, will be hereafter related.</p> - -<p>Among the states of the Argolic <i>acte</i>, Epidaurus deserves notice, not so -much for the few facts which are known of its internal history, as on account -of its relation to Ægina. This island, destined to take no inconsiderable -part in the affairs of Greece, was long subject to Epidaurus, which was so -jealous of her sovereignty as to compel the Æginetans to resort to her tribunals -for the trial of their causes. It seems to have been as a dependency of -Epidaurus that Ægina fell under the dominion of the Argive Phidon. -After recovering her own independence, Epidaurus still continued mistress -of the island. Whether she had any subjects on the main land standing on -the same footing, we are not expressly informed. But here likewise the -ruling class was supported by the services of a population of bondsmen, -distinguished by a peculiar name (<i>conipodes</i>, the dusty-footed), designating -indeed their rural occupations, but certainly expressive of contempt. -Towards the end of the seventh century <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, and the beginning of the -next, Epidaurus was subject to a ruler named Procles, who is styled a -tyrant, and was allied with Periander the tyrant of Corinth. But nothing -is known as to the origin and nature of his usurpation. He incurred the -resentment of his son-in-law Periander, who made himself master of Procles -and of Epidaurus. It was perhaps this event which afforded Ægina an -opportunity of shaking off the Epidaurian yoke. But, had it been otherwise, -the old relation between the two states could not have subsisted much -longer. Ægina was rapidly outgrowing the mother country, was engaged in -a flourishing commerce, strong in an enterprising and industrious population, -enriched and adorned by the arts of peace, and skilled in those of war. -The separation which soon after took place was embittered by mutual resentment; -and the Æginetans, whose navy soon became the most powerful in -Greece, retaliated on Epidaurus for the degradation they had suffered by a -series of insults. But the same causes to which they owed their national<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> -independence seem to have deprived the class which had been hitherto predominant -in Ægina of its political privileges. The island was torn by the -opposite claims and interests arising out of the old and the new order of -things, and became the scene of a bloody struggle.</p> - -<h4>SICYON AND MEGARA</h4> - -<p>The history of Sicyon presents a series of revolutions, in many points -resembling those of Corinth. At what time, or in whose person, royalty was -there extinguished, and what form of government succeeded it, we are not -expressly informed; but, as we know that there was a class of bondsmen at -Sicyon, answering to the helots, and distinguished by peculiar names, derived -from their rustic dress or occupation, there can be little doubt that other -parts of the Dorian system were also introduced there, and subsisted until a -fortunate adventurer, named Orthagoras, or Andreas, overthrew the old aristocracy, -and founded a dynasty, which lasted a century: the longest period, -Aristotle observes, of a Greek tyranny. Orthagoras is said to have risen -from a very low station—that of a cook—and was, therefore, probably -indebted for his elevation to the commonalty. The long duration of his -dynasty is ascribed by Aristotle to the mildness and moderation with which -he and his descendants exercised their power, submitting to the laws and -taking pains to secure the good will of the people.</p> - -<p>His successor, Myron, having gained a victory in the Olympic chariot-race -in the thirty-third Olympiad, erected a treasury at Olympia, which was -remarkable for its material, brass of Tartessus, which had not long been -introduced into Greece; for its architecture, in which the Doric and Ionic -orders were combined; and for its inscription, in which the name of Myron -was coupled with that of the people of Sicyon. It may be collected, from an -expression of Aristotle’s, that, though Myron was succeeded, either immediately -or after a short interval, by his grandson Clisthenes, son of Aristonymus, -this transmission of the tyranny did not take place without interruption or -impediment; and, if this arose from the Dorian nobles, it would explain -some points in which the government of Clisthenes differed from that of -his predecessors.</p> - -<p>He seems to have been the most able and enterprising prince of his house, -and to have conducted many wars, beside that in which we have seen him -engaged on the side of the Amphictyons, with skill and success: he was of -a munificent temper, and displayed his love of splendour and of the arts both -in the national games and in his native city, where, out of the spoils of -Crissa, he built a colonnade, which long retained the name of the Clisthenean. -The magnificence with which he entertained the suitors who came -from all parts of Greece, and even from foreign lands, to vie with one another, -after the ancient fashion, in manly exercises, for his daughter’s hand, was -long so celebrated, that Herodotus gives a list of the competitors. It proves -how much his alliance was coveted by the most distinguished families; and it -is particularly remarkable, that one of the suitors was a son of Phidon, king -of Argos, whom Herodotus seems to have confounded with the more ancient -tyrant of the same name. Still Clisthenes appears not to have departed -from the maxims by which his predecessors had regulated their government -with regard to the commonalty, but, in the midst of his royal state, to have -carefully preserved the appearance, at least, of equity and respect for the -laws. On the other hand, towards his Dorian subjects he displayed a spirit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> -of hostility which seems to have been peculiar to himself, and to have been -excited by some personal provocation. It was probably connected with a -war in which he was engaged with Argos, and it impelled him to various -political and religious innovations, the real nature of which can now be but -very imperfectly understood.</p> - -<p>One of the most celebrated was the change which he made in the names of -the Dorian tribes, for which he substituted others, derived from the lowest -kinds of domestic animals; while a fourth tribe, to which he himself belonged, -was distinguished by the majestic title of the <i>archelai</i> (the princely). -Herodotus supposes that he only meant to insult the Dorians; and we could -sooner adopt this opinion than believe, with a modern author, that he took -so strange a method of directing their attention to rural pursuits. But -Herodotus adds, that the new names were retained for sixty years after the -death of Clisthenes and the fall of his dynasty, when those of the Dorian -tribes were restored, and, in the room of the fourth, a new one was created, -called from a son of the Argive hero, Adrastus, the Ægialeans. When -the Dorians resumed their old division, the commonalty was thrown into the -single tribe (called not from the hero, but from the land), the Ægialeans.</p> - -<p>We do not know how this dynasty ended, and can only pronounce it -probable that it was overthrown at about the same time with that of the -Cypselids (<span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> 580), by the intervention of Sparta, which must have been -more alarmed and provoked by the innovations of Clisthenes than by the -tyranny of Periander. It would seem, from the history of the tribes, that -the Dorians recovered their predominance; but gradually, and not so completely -as to deprive the commonalty of all share in political rights.</p> - -<p>On the other side of the isthmus, the little state of Megara passed -through vicissitudes similar to those of Corinth and Sicyon, but attended -with more violent struggles. Before the Dorian conquest royalty is said to -have been abolished there after the last king, Hyperion, son of Agamemnon, -had fallen by the hand of an enemy, whom he had provoked by insolence -and wrong: and a Megarian legend seems to indicate that the elective -magistrates, who took the place of the kings, bore the title of <i>æsymnetes</i>. -The Dorians of Corinth kept those of Megara, for a time, in the same kind -of subjection to which Ægina was reduced by Epidaurus; and the Megarian -peasantry were compelled to solemnise the obsequies of every Bacchiad -with marks of respect, such as were exacted from the subjects of Sparta on -the death of the king. This yoke however was cast off at an early period; -and Argos assisted the Megarians in recovering their independence. Henceforth -it is probable Megara assumed a more decided superiority over the -hamlets of her territory, which had once been her rivals; and she must have -made rapid progress in population and in power, as is proved by her flourishing -colonies in the east and west, and by the wars which she carried on in -defence of them. One of her most illustrious citizens, Orsippus, who, in the -fifteenth Olympiad, set the example of dropping all incumbrances of dress in -the Olympic foot-race, also conducted her arms with brilliant success against -her neighbours—probably the Corinthians—and enlarged her territory to -the utmost extent of her claims. But the government still remained in the -hands of the great Dorian land-owners, who, when freed from the dominion -of Corinth, became sovereigns at home; and they appear not to have administered -it mildly or wisely. For they were not only deprived of their power -by an insurrection of the commonalty, as at Corinth and Sicyon, but were -evidently the objects of a bitter enmity, which cannot have been wholly -unprovoked.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span></p> - -<p>Theagenes, a bold and ambitious man, who put himself at the head of the -popular cause, is said to have won the confidence of the people by an attack -on the property of the wealthy citizens, whose cattle he destroyed in their -pastures. The animosity provoked by such an outrage, which was probably -not a solitary one, rendered it necessary to invest the demagogue with -supreme authority. Theagenes, who assumed the tyranny about 620 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, -followed the example of the other usurpers of his time. He adorned his -city with splendid and useful buildings, and no doubt in other ways cherished -industry and the arts, while he made them contribute to the lustre of -his reign. He allied himself to one of the most eminent families of Athens, -and aided his son-in-law, Cylon, in his enterprise, which, if it had succeeded, -would have lent increased stability to his own power.</p> - -<p>The victories which deprived the Athenians of Salamis, and made them -at last despair of recovering it, were probably gained by Theagenes. Yet -he was at length expelled from Megara; whether through the discontent of -the commonalty, or by the efforts of the aristocratical party, which may -have been encouraged by the failure of Cylon’s plot, we are not distinctly -informed. Only it is said that, after his overthrow, a more moderate and -peaceful spirit prevailed for a short time, until some turbulent leaders, who -apparently wished to tread in his steps, but wanted his ability or his fortune, -instigated the populace to new outrages against the wealthy, who were -forced to throw open their houses, and to set luxurious entertainments before -the rabble, or were exposed to personal insult and violence. But a much -harder blow was aimed at their property by a measure called the <i>palintocia</i>,—which -carried the principles of Solon’s <i>seisachtheia</i> to an iniquitous excess,—by -which creditors were required to refund the interest which they had -received from their debtors.</p> - -<p>This transaction at the same time discloses one, at least, of the causes -which had exasperated the commonalty against the nobles, who probably -had exacted their debts no less harshly than the Athenian Eupatrids. But, -in this period of anarchy, neither justice nor religion was held sacred: even -temples were plundered; and a company of pilgrims, passing through the -territory of Megara, on their way to Delphi, was grossly insulted; many -lives even were lost, and the Amphictyonic council was compelled to interpose, -to procure the punishment of the ringleaders. It is unquestionably of -this period that Aristotle speaks, when he says that the Megarian demagogues -procured the banishment of many of the notable citizens for the sake of confiscating -their estates; and he adds, that these outrages and disorders ruined -the democracy, for the exiles became so strong a body, that they were able -to reinstate themselves by force, and to establish a very narrow oligarchy, -including those only who had taken an active part in the revolution. -Unfortunately we have no means of ascertaining the dates of these events, -though the last-mentioned reaction cannot have taken place very long after -600 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span></p> - -<p>During the following century, our information on the state of Megara is -chiefly collected from the writings of the Megarian poet, Theognis, which -however are interesting not so much for the historical facts contained in -them, as for the light they throw on the character and feelings of the parties -which divided his native city and so many others. Theognis appears to have -been born about the fifty-fifth Olympiad, not long before the death of Solon; -and to have lived down to the beginning of the Persian wars. He left some -poems, of which considerable fragments remain, filled with moral and political -maxims and reflections. We gather from them, that the oligarchy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> -which followed the period of anarchy, had been unable to keep its ground; -and that a new revolution had taken place, by which the poet, with others of -the aristocratical party, had been stript of his fortune and driven into exile. -But his complaints betray a fact which throws some doubt on the purity of -his patriotism, and abates our sympathy for his misfortunes.</p> - -<h4>BŒOTIA, LOCRIS, PHOCIS, AND EUBŒA</h4> - -<p>The peculiar circumstances under which Bœotia was conquered, by a -people who had quitted their native land to avoid slavery or subjection, -would be sufficient to account for the fact that royalty was very early abolished -there. It may indeed be doubted whether the chief named Xanthus, -who is called king, sometimes of the Bœotians, sometimes of the Thebans, -and who was slain by the Attic king Melanthus, was anything more than a -temporary leader. The most sacred functions of the Theban kings seem to -have been transferred to a magistrate, who bore the title of archon, and, like -the archon-king at Athens, was invested rather with a priestly than a civil -character.</p> - -<p>From the death of Xanthus, down to about 500 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, the constitution of -Thebes continued rigidly aristocratical, having probably been guarded from -innovation as well by the inland position of the city as by the jealousy of -the rulers; and the first change, of which we have any account, was one -which threw the government into still fewer hands. But, about the thirteenth -Olympiad, it seems as if discontent had arisen, among the members of -the ruling caste itself, from the inequality in the division of property, which -had perhaps been increased by lapse of time, until some of them were reduced -to indigence. Not long after that Olympiad, Philolaus, one of the Corinthian -Bacchiads, having been led by a private occurrence to take up his residence -at Thebes, was invited to frame a new code of laws; and one of the main -objects of his institutions was to prevent the accumulation of estates, and to -fix forever the number of those into which the Theban territory, or at least -the part of it occupied by the nobles, was divided. He too was perhaps -the author of the law which excluded every Theban from public offices -who had exercised any trade within the space of ten years. It is probable -enough that his code also embraced regulations for the education of the -higher class of citizens; and it may have been he who, with the view, as -Plutarch supposes, of softening the harshness of the Bœotian character, -or to counterbalance an excessive fondness for gymnastic exercises, to which -the Thebans were prone, made music an essential part of the instruction -of youth.</p> - -<p>Our information on the other Bœotian towns is still scantier as to their -internal condition; but we may safely presume that it did not differ very -widely from that of Thebes, especially as we happen to know that at Thespiæ -every kind of industrious occupation was deemed degrading to a freeman: -an indication of aristocratical rigour which undoubtedly belongs to this -period, and may be taken as a sample of the spirit prevailing in Bœotia. -The Bœotian states were united in a confederacy which was represented by -a congress of deputies, who met at the festival of the <i>Pambœotia</i>, in the -temple of the Itonian Athene, near Coronea, more perhaps for religious than -for political purposes. There were also other national councils, which deliberated -on peace and war, and were perhaps of nearly equal antiquity, though -they were first mentioned at a later period, when there were four of them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> -It does not appear how they were constituted, or whether with reference -to as many divisions of the country, of which we have no other trace. The -chief magistrates of the league, called <i>Bœotarchs</i>, presided in these councils, -and commanded the national forces. They were, in later times at least, -elected annually, and rigidly restricted to their term of office.</p> - -<p>As to the institutions of the Locrian tribes in Greece, very little is -known, and they never took a prominent part in Greek history. Down to a -late period the use of slaves was almost wholly unknown among them, as -well as among the Phocians. This fact, which indicates a people of simple -habits, strangers to luxury and commerce, and attached to ancient usages, -may lead us to the further conclusion that their institutions were mostly aristocratical; -and this conclusion is confirmed by all that we hear of them. Opus -is celebrated, in the fifth century <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, as a seat of law and order by Pindar.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<img src="images/p188.jpg" width="400" height="225" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Mt. Parnassus, in Phocis</span></p> -</div> - -<p>Equally scanty is our information as to the general condition of the -Phocians. Their land, though neither extensive nor fertile, was divided -among between twenty and thirty little commonwealths, which were united -like the Achæans and the Bœotians, and sent deputies at stated times to a -congress which was held in a large building, called the Phocicum, on the -road between Daulis and Delphi. But Delphi, though lying in Phocis, disclaimed -all connection with the rest of the nation. Its government, as was to -be expected under its peculiar circumstances, was strictly aristocratical, and -was in the hands of the same families which had the management of the temple, -on which the prosperity of the city and the subsistence of a great part of the -inhabitants depended. In early times the chief magistrate bore the title of -king, afterwards that of <i>prytanis</i>. But a council of five, who were dignified -with a title marking their sanctity, and were chosen from families which -traced their origin—possibly through Dorus—to Deucalion, and held their -offices for life, conducted the affairs of the oracle.</p> - -<p>In Eubœa an aristocracy or oligarchy of wealthy land-owners, who, from -the cavalry which they maintained, were called <i>hippobotæ</i>, long prevailed -in the two principal cities, Chalcis and Eretria. The great number of -colonies which Chalcis sent out, and which attests its early importance, -was probably the result of an oligarchical policy. Its constitution appears -to have been, in proper terms, a timocracy: a certain amount of property -was requisite for a share in the government. Eretria, once similarly -governed, seems not to have been at all inferior in strength. She was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> -mistress of several islands, among the rest of Andros, Tenos, and Ceos; -and, in the days of her prosperity, could exhibit 600 horsemen, 3000 heavy-armed -infantry, and 60 chariots in a sacred procession. Chalcis and Eretria -were long rivals, and a tract called the Lelantian plain, which contained -valuable copper mines, afforded constant occasion for hostilities. These -hostilities were distinguished from the ordinary wars between neighbouring -cities by two peculiar features—the singular mode in which they were -conducted, and the general interest which they excited throughout Greece. -They were regulated, at least in early times, by a compact between the -belligerents, which was recorded by a monument in a temple, to abstain -from the use of missile weapons. But, while this agreement suggests the -idea of a feud like those which we have seen carried on, in an equally mild -spirit, between the Megarian townships, we learn with surprise from -Thucydides that the war between Eretria and Chalcis divided the whole -nation, and that all the Greek states took part with one or the other of -the rivals.</p> - -<p>It has been suspected that the cause which drew this universal attention -to an object apparently of very slight moment was, that the quarrel -turned upon political principles; that the oligarchy at Eretria had very -early given way to democracy, while that of Chalcis, threatened by this new -danger, engaged many states to espouse its cause. We are informed indeed -that the Eretrian oligarchy was overthrown by a person named Diagoras, -of whom we also hear that he died at Corinth while on his way to Sparta, -and that he was honoured with a statue by his countrymen. It is also certain -that the oligarchy at Chalcis, though more than once interrupted by a -tyranny, was standing till within a few years of the Persian wars. But we -do not know when Diagoras lived, and, without stronger evidence, it is -difficult to believe that the revolution which he effected took place before -the fall of the Athenian aristocracy, an epoch which appears to be too late -for the war mentioned by Thucydides.</p> - -<h4>THESSALY</h4> - -<p>Thessaly seems, for some time after the conquest, to have been governed -by kings of the race of Hercules, who however may have been only chiefs -invested with a permanent military command, which ceased when it was -no longer required by the state of the country. Under one of these -princes, named Aleuas, it was divided into the four districts, Thessaliotis, -Pelasgiotis, Pthiotis, and Hestiæotis. And, as this division was retained -to the latest period of its political existence, we may conclude that it was -not a merely nominal one, but that each district was united in itself, as -well as distinct from the rest. As the four Bœotian councils seem to imply -that a like division existed in Bœotia, so we may reasonably conjecture that -each of the Thessalian districts regulated its internal affairs by some kind of -provincial council. But all that we know with certainty is, that the principal -cities exercised a dominion over several smaller towns, and that they -were themselves the seat of noble families, sprung from the line of the -ancient kings, which were generally able to draw the government of -the whole nation into their hands. Thus Larissa was subject to the great -house of the Aleuadæ, who were considered as descendants of the ancient -Aleuas; Crannon and Pharsalus to the Scopadæ and the Creondæ, who -were branches of the same stock. The vast estates of these nobles were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> -cultivated, and their countless flocks and herds fed, by their serfs, the -Penests, who at their call were ready to follow them into the field on foot -or on horseback. They maintained a princely state, drew poets and artists -to their courts, and shone in the public games of Greece by their wealth -and liberality.</p> - -<p>We are not anywhere informed whether there were any institutions -which provided for the union of the four districts, and afforded regular -opportunities for consultation on their common interests. But, as often -as an occasion appeared to require it, the great families were able to bring -about the election of a chief magistrate, always of course taken from their -own body, whose proper title was that of <i>tagus</i>, but who is sometimes -called a king. We know little of the nature of his authority, except that -it was probably rather military than civil; nor of its constitutional extent, -which perhaps was never precisely ascertained, and depended on the personal -character and the circumstances of the individual.</p> - -<p>The population of Thessaly, beside the penests, whose condition was -nearly that of the Laconian helots, included a large class of free subjects, -in the districts not immediately occupied by the Thessalian invaders, who -paid a certain tribute for their lands, but, though not admitted to the -rights of citizens, preserved their personal liberty unmolested. But above -this class stood a third, of the common Thessalians, who, though they -could not boast, like the Aleuadæ and the Scopadæ, of a heroic descent, -and had therefore received a much smaller portion of the conquered land, -still, as the partners of their conquest, might think themselves entitled to -some share in the administration of public affairs. Contests seem early -to have arisen between this commonalty and the ruling families, and at -Larissa the aristocracy of the Aleuadæ was tempered by some institutions -of a popular tendency. We do not know indeed to what period Aristotle -refers, when he speaks of certain magistrates at Larissa who bore the title -of guardians of the freemen, and exercised a superintendence over the -admission of citizens, but were themselves elected by the whole body of -the people, out of the privileged order, and hence were led to pay their -court to the multitude in a manner which proved dangerous to the interests -of the oligarchy. It seems not improbable that the election of a tagus, -like that of a dictator at Rome, was sometimes used as an expedient for -keeping the commonalty under. But the power of the oligarchs was also -shaken by intestine feuds; and, under the government of the Aleuadæ, -such was the state of parties at Larissa, that, by common agreement, the -city was committed to the care of an officer, who was chosen, perhaps from -the commonalty, to mediate between the opposite factions; but, being -entrusted with a body of troops, made himself master of both. This -event took place two generations before the Persian War; but the usurpation -appears to have been transitory, and not to have left any durable -traces, while the factions of Larissa continue to appear from time to time -throughout the whole course of Grecian history.</p> - -<p>The western states of Greece are, during this period, shrouded in so -complete obscurity, that we cannot pretend to give any account of their -condition. With respect to the Ætolians indeed it is uncertain how far -they are entitled to the name of Greeks. The Acarnanians, as soon as they -begin to take a part in the affairs of Greece, distinguish themselves as a -finer and more civilised people; and it is probable that the Corinthian -colonies on the Ambracian Gulf may have exerted a beneficial influence on -their social progress.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_10b" id="enanchor_10b"></a><a href="#endnote_10b">b</a></span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span></p> - -<h4>CORINTH UNDER PERIANDER</h4> - -<p>In the Isthmus of Corinth there is a pillar with a double inscription. -On the side facing Peloponnesus is written “Here is Peloponnesus and not -Ionia.” On the opposite side, which faced the territory of Megaris, was -written, “This is not Peloponnesus but Ionia.” Between the hostile worlds -of the Dorians and Ionians, Corinth was as between two stools. Originally, -however, the Corinthians favoured the Dorians because they had been conquered -by them when Peloponnesus was subjugated under the Heraclids. -Corinth took the side of Lacedæmon in the internal quarrels of Greece.</p> - -<p>The aristocratic genius of the Dorians without abolishing the ancient -royalty, subordinated Corinth. One of the Heraclids was called king. -He commanded the army and presided over the debates of this military -aristocracy. Later, the oligarchy made this not very powerful king disappear, -and kept for itself all the rights of sovereignty. This was at the time -of the descendants of Bacchis, the Heraclid.</p> - -<p>The Bacchiadæ numbered over two hundred, amongst them being other -families with whom they were connected and who governed Corinth together. -Each year, one of them, elected by his fellows, exercised under the name -Prytanis, a power very much resembling royalty. One day this annual -authority fell into the hands of an ambitious man Cypselus, who was not -satisfied with his power, and became master, not only of the people but -of his equals. This tyranny was followed by that of Periander, son of Cypselus. -Periander’s first acts were popular, but a sad occurrence weighed -upon his brain and made him cruel. This was found out in Corinth, and -from that time Periander, thinking he had nothing more to hope for, gave -way to all the bad traits of his character. He banished the most powerful -citizens. He killed his wife, Melissa, by a kick in the stomach and then -wishing by way of atonement to give her a splendid funeral, he assembled -all the women of Corinth in Juno’s Temple, where his guards stripped -them of their jewels and clothes which were burnt in honour of Melissa.</p> - -<p>However, Periander kept down luxury. He forbade the citizens to keep -many slaves, he ordered land-owners to live on their estates in order to cultivate -them, he allowed no one to spend more than his income, and he established -no new taxes. Last of all, he increased the Corinthian navy and he -conceived the idea of piercing the isthmus. These acts were worthy of a -statesman. He wrote and composed over two thousand verses with morals. -He praised democratic government and said that he himself was a tyrant -because he thought it too dangerous to give up being so. He recommended -moderation in happiness and that friendship should not change with fortune.</p> - -<p>Man’s heart is large enough to have good as well as bad qualities. Besides, -to have supreme power over equals was a double spur exciting good -as well as bad actions. If the intoxication of power inflamed the senses and -passions of the usurper, and defiance had to be met by cruelty, it was in -Periander’s interest to give his town all the advantages of good government. -Also, as he was clever, he knew how to conciliate the people. Force is -always admired and worshipped when it comes from the highest, and protects -and spares the weak.</p> - -<p>After Periander, who died in his bed, Corinth had an aristocratic government -and knew no more the tyranny of a single ruler. The people had an -assembly but the direction of the important affairs of state was in the hands -of a senate. The aristocracy of Corinth which was rich and prudent in -governing, watched with jealous care over maintaining its power and it is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> -due to the energy of one of its number that Corinth escaped from a new -tyranny.</p> - -<p>Of an illustrious family, Timophanes had become the idol of the people. -His audacity, his prowess in warfare, his familiarity with the humblest citizens -delighted the multitude and seemed to invite him to take the reins of -government into his hands. But Timophanes had near him a severe judge -in his brother. This brother, though loving him very much and having for -a long time screened or excused his faults, ended by killing him in order -that Corinth should not be reduced to servitude. The verses Virgil dedicated -to the first of the Brutuses might be applied to Timoleon.</p> - -<p>This republican fratricide had the misfortune of being cursed by his -mother. He lived twenty years, not in repentance but in solitude, and we -shall find him again at Syracuse. Corinth had not only founded that celebrated -city in Sicily, she had founded other colonies besides, amongst them -Corcyra, with which she was a long time at war, accusing the inhabitants -of not paying the respect due to a capital. “Our other colonies love and -respect us whilst the Corcyreans are arrogant and unjust, to such a point -that they have seized Epidamnus, which belongs to us and which they intend -to keep.” These were the complaints Corinth made through her deputies, -at Athens, against her colonies. However, in spite of the complaints, the -Athenians received the alliance of Epidamnus, which had a powerful navy, -and which, in their eyes, had the great advantage of being situated on the -way to Italy and Sicily.</p> - -<p>This determination not to help Corinth, irritated the Corinthians, whose -Dorian origin already made them Athens’ natural enemy, and was one of -the decisive causes of the Peloponnesian War. It was at the instigation of -Corinth that the Peloponnesians held a kind of congress at Sparta, in which -they denounced the ambition and audacity of the Athenians who were born, -they said, never to have rest and never to allow anybody else to have any.</p> - -<p>Before Athens shone by her eloquence, poetry, and art, Corinth was the -centre of Hellenic trade and was the sojourn of pleasure. All the merchandise -of Europe and of Asia was imported on payment of duty, and all -foreigners flocked there more than they did to any other town of Greece. -People came from everywhere, from Egypt as well as from Sicily; but -Corinth was a town essentially for rich men—it was the town of Venus. -The courtesans were honoured. They had the privilege of offering the -public vows to Venus, when the goddess was appealed to in a case of great -danger. They it was who asked her to grant the salvation of Greece when -that country was invaded by Xerxes. When private people had their prayers -granted by the goddess they showed their gratitude by offering her a number -of courtesans for her temple. All the countries which traded with Corinth -provided these charming priestesses.</p> - -<p>At Sparta the glory of women was their patriotism, at Athens their -intellect, and at Corinth their beauty. Laïs was the queen of the courtesans -and received homage from the most important and serious personages of -Greece, from philosophers as well as from politicians. She was in reality a -Sicilian, captured when a child by the Athenians and sold to Corinth. But -the Corinthians idolised her, and always swore she was born amongst them.</p> - -<p>Riches and pleasure! It was to the interest of the Corinthians not to -get rid of these women, in order to enjoy life, and this was in itself a -guarantee against the rule of a demagogue in the city of Periander and of -Timoleon. Pindar can say with great truth in one of his Olympics, -“Harmony and good legislation are found in Corinth, also justice and peace.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> -The daughters of the prudent Themis dispense happiness to mankind and -watch over their cities.”</p> - -<p>This prosperity had a tragic ending. When the Romans triumphed over -the Achæan League, Corinth perished miserably. Such lamentable ruin -was like the last day of Ilium. Everything condemned the town before the -Roman tribunals: its admirable position, the key to the whole of Greece; -its riches and works of art, which were placed in the Capitol at Rome.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_8c3" id="enanchor_8c3"></a><a href="#endnote_8c">c</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/p193.jpg" width="250" height="463" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Ruins of a Tower of Tithorea, in Phocis</span></p> -<p class="caption">(Near Mt. Parnassus)</p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-11.jpg" width="500" height="200" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XI_CRETE_AND_THE_COLONIES">CHAPTER XI. CRETE AND THE COLONIES</h3> - -<p>Crete was an island, which, from its position, should have dominated -over the whole of Greece, as it had for its neighbours the coasts of the Peloponnesus -and of Asia. The Cretans were remarkable amongst the Hellenic -nations for their institutions, which bore a singular physiognomy. Diodorus -describes all the legends relating to the Greek divinities of whom Crete -boasted to be the cradle; he then adds that during the generations succeeding -the birth of the gods, many heroes lived in the island, the most illustrious -of whom were Minos, Rhadamanthus and Sarpedon. These heroes are not -truly historic, and an exact place cannot be given to their genius and passions, -but at any rate they indicate deeds and customs which have left strong impressions -on the lives of men. Antiquity believed that Crete, even from the -most ancient period, had good laws which were imitated by many of the peoples -of Greece, and above all by the Lacedæmonians.</p> - -<p>Before teaching Greece, Crete, for a short time, dominated over her. The -Cretans, who were an insular and warlike nation made up chiefly of Pelasgians -and Dorians, at an epoch made great by the name of Minos, had a navy -with which they were able to take possession of the greater number of the -islands belonging to Greece. They also reigned over part of the coast of -Asia Minor. They were the guardians of the sea, suppressed the Athenian -pirates and made them pay tribute. These pirates had their revenge according -to the fable of the Minotaur. The Cretans pushed on as far as Sicily, and -it was there, so goes the legend, that Minos was killed by the daughters of -King Cocalus, who suffocated their father’s guest in a bath. A few generations -later, Crete sent a fleet of eighty vessels against Priam, a new proof -of maritime greatness. About the time when the <i>Odyssey</i> was written, this -is how Greece imagined the island of Minos: “In the middle of the vast -ocean is glorious Crete, a fertile island, where countless men live; there are -eighty-six towns,<a name="FNanchor_14" id="FNanchor_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> which have each a different language; they are inhabited -by the Achæans, the autochthonous Cretans, high-minded heroes, the Cydonians, -the Dorians, who are divided into three tribes, and the divine Pelasgi. -In the midst of all these people is the beautiful town of Knossos, where -Minos reigned, and every nine years had an audience with Jupiter.” Thus -is the divine or religious type of legislator formed in the mind of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> -Greeks and with the double help of time and poetry the name of Minos -becomes great.</p> - -<p>Crete was as little spared from the revolutions which Thucydides foretold -would be one of the results of the Trojan War, as the peculiar state of her -soil and customs warranted. The inhabitants, living in a mountainous and -divided country, were separated into many cantons, jealous of one another’s -independence. In Crete, as in Switzerland, nature prepared republics. For -a long time royal power succeeded in preventing the germs of discord from -bursting forth; this was in the time of Minos, of Rhadamanthus, and of -Sarpedon, when the Cretans were conquerors and masters of the sea and possessed -of a legislation inspired by the first of all the gods. Later, everything -which had helped to make a sovereign authority gave way, the towns -of Crete quarrelled internally and with one another for individual government. -This spirit of independence was doubtless encouraged by the presence -of the Greeks, who, on their return from Troy, founded colonies on -the island. Little by little, royal power, weakened by the absence of the -chiefs, who had joined the princes of the Peloponnesus in order to attack -Asia, disappeared.</p> - -<p>Through what shocks, compromises or transitions, Crete passed from -government by kings, to an aristocratic federation, with Knossos, Gortyna, -Cydonia, and Lyctus at the head, we know not. All we know is that several -generations after the Trojan War the new government had entirely taken -the place of the old, though still invoked in the sacred name of Minos. -The Cretans thus began the great practice we so often find in ancient days, -that of placing the young generations under the protection and genius of the -ancients. Man, even with a long line of centuries behind him, is a weak -creature, and when he separates from the ancients he adds to his nothingness.</p> - -<p>In representing Crete with a federal and aristocratic government, these -words must not be taken in their full meaning. It was not the entire -establishment of a nation, but attempts at peace and order frequently interrupted -by revolutions. This point has often escaped modern writers, especially -Montesquieu.</p> - -<p>Crete was a fertile chaos, from which Sparta took various principles. -But Crete itself could not benefit from them. The reason for the outbreaks -was the rivalry between the different towns. When one of them conquered -the other, the result was despotism; when they strove one against the other -without either getting a decisive advantage, the result was anarchy.</p> - -<p>At the head of each town were ten magistrates called <i>cosmes</i> (or <i>cosmoi</i>), -taking their name from order itself, and from the necessity of seeing it -carried out, for in every town there was always an incorrigible inclination -for plotting. The cosmes, who were the forerunners of the Spartan <i>ephori</i>, -were chosen, not from all the citizens, but from a small number of families. -As they succeeded royal authority they had its powers, they commanded the -troops, concluded treaties, and ruled over people and things alike, with an -arbitrary power. The Cretan customs were a strange contrast to this despotism, -which was the unmistakable remains of sovereignty. When by their -conduct the cosmes offended some of their colleagues, they were driven away. -When they chose they could also abdicate. Law did not rule, but the will -of man, which is not a sure rule. The Cretans had the habit, when they -reached the highest point in their quarrels, of returning to a provisional -monarchy, in order to facilitate war between them. They lived in the -midst of periodical disputes which prevented them from ever forming a great -nation.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p> - -<p>When the cosmes came to the end of their term of office, which lasted a -year, they took a place in the assembly or senate formed of the old men of -the city. This was always the custom in antiquity, as in all youthful nations. -Thus, experience in life is called in to help govern. The old men who had -been cosmes, or had been destined to be so, exercised an irresponsible and -life-long authority, deciding all things, not according to written laws but -according to their opinions. The decisions of the cosmes and senators were -presented to a general assembly where all the citizens met; the assembly only -confirmed by vote what was proposed. There were no discussions, a mute -acquiescence was alone allowed. The senators and cosmes were the chiefs -of that army which had warriors and labourers as body and force. This -division into soldiers and labourers was common to the Egyptians and Cretans, -according to Aristotle, who traces it back, for the former, to Sesostris -and for the latter to Minos, and the ancient discipline, adds Alexander’s -tutor, remained especially strong amongst the peasants. Like all ancient -nations, the Cretans had slaves, those serving in the country were called <i>chrysonetes</i> -and those in the towns <i>amphamiotes</i>. Their usual name was <i>clarotes</i>, -because they were divided equally by lot, as they were prisoners of war. -At Cydonia, one of the towns of Crete, the slaves had festivals during which -they were free and powerful, and could even fight the citizens. Servitude -has always provoked orgies.</p> - -<p>All the instincts of civilisation began to develop in Crete with great -energy. The Cretans did not like inaction, they liked hunting, wrestling, -and every kind of exercise. They lived in common and divided the fruits of -the earth. These customs and habits were at the bottom of Cretan institutions. -The legislators confirmed these customs in certain cases and in others -trained or suppressed them. The laws, called the laws of Minos, were never -written down, and changed in the course of years.</p> - -<p>Let us enter into Lyctus, a town of Crete, and see the everyday life of -the people. Each person gave up the tenth of his productions or possessions -to help support the society of which he was a member. These contributions -were divided amongst all the families of the city by the magistrates. -The citizens were divided into little societies; the care of the meals being in -the hands of one of the women who directed the work of three or four of -the public slaves, each of whom had a water-carrier. In each city there -were two public edifices; one devoted to the serving of meals, the other to -the shelter of foreigners and strangers. In the building for the meals were -two tables, called hospitable tables, where strangers sat. The other tables -were for the use of the citizens. An equal portion was given to each, except -to the young people, who had only half a portion of meat and touched no -other food. A pitcher of wine and water was on each table, from which -everybody drank; after the meal another pitcher was placed on the table. -The children had one pitcher in which the wine was measured, the old people -and men had unlimited wine. The women who presided at the meals chose -the choicest pieces for those who had distinguished themselves by their -valour or their prudence. After the repast, public affairs were discussed, -then great actions were related and those who had been courageous were -praised and set up as models to the young.</p> - -<p>Warfare was the object of all the institutions. On this point Plato and -Aristotle agree. Clinias the Cretan, one of Plato’s interrogators, wished -everything to be arranged for warfare; he took trouble to have it understood -that without supremacy in battle, riches and culture in art will be -of no use, since all the treasures of the defeated pass into the hands of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> -conqueror. Aristotle remarked that in Crete as in Sparta, and among the -Scythians, Persians, Thracians, and Celts, everything led up to warfare—education, -laws, customs. In Crete, the men were soldiers living under the -same discipline, eating the same food, sharing perils and pleasure, and -always ready to march or to fight. They were respected only when they -were hardy, vigorous, agile, and quick. Prudence and repose were for old -age.</p> - -<p>As soon as the children could read, they were taught poems in which the -laws were explained, and the elements of music. They were very strictly -treated, with a severity which was never changed, no matter what the season. -Clothed in rough clothes, they ate on the ground, helping one another -and waiting upon the men. When they became older, they formed part of -different companies, each one being presided over by a youth chosen from -the highest or most powerful families. These young chiefs led the companies -out hunting and racing; they had an almost parental authority over -their companions and punished the disobedient. On certain days the companies -fought against each other; to the sound of the flute and lyre, they -attacked each other with their hands or weapons. This drilled them in the -art of warfare. The Cretan towns, like other Grecian cities, had public -buildings and gymnasiums for corporal exercises, gymnasiums for the mind -were added later.</p> - -<p>There was a time when the disputes between the different towns were -judged by a kind of federal arbitration, but it is doubtful whether the decisions -of this tribunal were respected. However, after some civil wars -between the towns, arrangements were made, and we find some curious remains -in the principal clauses of a treaty between two towns, Hierapolis -and Priansus. Each had rights of isopolity and of marriage, of acquiring -possessions in each other’s territory, and of having an equal share in all -things, divine and human. Those who wanted to reside in the other town -could do so and could buy and sell there, lend or borrow money and make -any kind of contract according to the laws of both.</p> - -<p>Thus without unity and always at war with one another, the Cretans -never left their island and took no part in the general affairs of Greece. -They refused to enter into the league formed against Darius, giving the -excuse that their assisting Menelaus had cost them misfortune, and recalling -the conduct of the Greeks who had not hastened to avenge the death of -Minos. These were pretexts, but the real cause was the feebleness of the -Cretans, too weak and too few to take part in any great enterprise, a weakness -which kept Crete always isolated, obscure and selfish. Polybius was -indignant at Crete being compared to Lacedæmonia; he compared the equality -of wealth and contempt of riches which reigned at Sparta to the avarice of -the Cretans who were quite unscrupulous as to their means of becoming rich.</p> - -<p>With the exception of the fact that the cosmes were elected yearly, we -believe Polybius is wrong in esteeming Crete a democratic state. Power -was in the hands of the senate, which was a regular oligarchy. As for the -natural faults of the Cretans, which their government rather encouraged -than corrected, time succeeded only in making them increase, and it is not -astonishing that, at the time that Polybius wrote, they deserved the severe -opinion of the historian. It would be unjust not to state with what disfavour -the Greeks looked upon them. This insular race that helped no one -and was ready to accept the pay of any nation, was hated by the Greeks. The -Cretans were called treacherous liars, and it was proverbial that it was permitted -to “cretise” with a Cretan.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span></p> - -<p>Crete was renowned for two causes; it was looked upon first as the cradle -of the gods, then as the nest of sea-robbers and mercenaries. After having -shone at the beginning of Greek civilisation, its development was interrupted -before its time. Anarchy unnerved it. The bad reputation of the Cretans -at Athens was also due to the jealousy of the Athenians who could never -forgive Crete a short supremacy on the sea. When the poets wished to -please the Athenians they abused Minos and the Cretans. Nothing is more -dangerous to good fame with posterity than to have for enemy a witty -nation.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_11b" id="enanchor_11b"></a><a href="#endnote_11b">b</a></span></p> - -<h4>BELOCH’S ACCOUNT OF GREEK COLONISATION</h4> - -<p>The scene of Grecian primitive history is practically limited to the countries -bordering the Ægean Sea. But in the period which gave rise to the -great epic poems the geographical horizon had already begun to expand. In -one of the later songs of the <i>Iliad</i>, Egyptian Thebes is mentioned; the songs -relating the wanderings of Ulysses speak of the Cimmerians, the original -inhabitants of the north coast of the Pontus, and the clear summer nights of -the north, of which the Greeks could learn only on this coast. The <i>Telemachus</i> -speaks of Libya, beside Egypt, and the latest songs of the <i>Odyssey</i> -show an acquaintance with the Siculi and the land of the Sicani. No tradition -has preserved the names of the bold explorers who first ventured out -into the open sea which phantasy had peopled with all kinds of monsters and -fabulous beings, and which, in reality, concealed countless terrors and dangers. -Their deeds however lived on in the songs relating the expedition of -the Argo and the home-coming of the heroes from Troy.</p> - -<p>The settler soon followed the explorer. The need of land had once -in a dim antiquity led the Hellenes to the islands of the Ægean Sea and -to the western coast of Asia Minor; these regions were now occupied, and -whoever found his home too narrow was obliged to seek out more distant -lands. Commercial interests played no part in these migrations at first, -because there was no industry in Greece to furnish articles for export. -People were in search of fertile districts; whether or not good harbours were -close at hand was wholly a question of secondary importance. The division -of farm lands was consequently the first business of the new settlers; at the -beginning of the fifth century the ancient citizens of Syracuse already style -themselves “land owners” (γαμόροι). Herein lies the fundamental difference -between Grecian and Phœnician colonisation. Every Phœnician settlement -was primarily a commercial establishment, which under favourable circumstances -might develop into an agricultural colony; the Grecian settlements -were originally agricultural colonies out of which, however, in the course of -time extensive commercial centres were developed.</p> - -<p>The oldest colonial foundations of this time were like those unorganised -expeditions which once poured out upon the islands and the shores of Asia -Minor. Such were the settlements of the Achæans and Locrians in southern -Italy. As the Greeks, however, were continually being forced out to more -distant coasts, their colonisation had to take on a different character. The -navigation of the islandless sea in the west, or even the journey to Libya and -the stormy Pontus, necessitated a degree of seamanship greater than that -possessed by the inhabitants of the agricultural coast districts of the Grecian -peninsula, from among whom the settlers of the lands across the sea had -until then gone forth. Hence Africa, Bœotia, and Argolis ceased to take an -independent part in the colonisation movement. In their place arose cities,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> -hardly or not at all mentioned by Homer, which by their advantageous -location had come to be centres of navigation; Chalcis and Eretria on -the Euripus, the strait which furnishes the most convenient connection -between southern Greece and Thessaly; Megara and Corinth on the isthmus, -where the two seas which wash the shores of Greece come within a few -miles of each other; Rhodes, Lesbos, and other islands of the Ægean Sea; -finally the Ionian coast towns, especially Miletus. Not that all the colonists, -who went out from here to seek new homes on distant shores were actually -at home in these cities. On the contrary, these cities were only gathering -places whither streamed the emigrants from the surrounding regions—all -those who found no chance to advance in their old homes or who were driven -abroad by love of adventure or by dissatisfaction with political conditions. -But the cities, from which the colonising expeditions went out, organised -the undertaking; they provided leaders and ships and their institutions -served as models for the colonies.</p> - -<p>Once founded, however, the colonies were, as a rule, wholly independent -of the mother-city. The relation between them was like that between -a father and his grown son in Grecian law. The citizen of the mother-city -was always respected in the colony; and the colony, on the other hand, could -always count on finding support with the mother-city in case of a difficult crisis. -That the colony, moreover, remained in especially active intercourse with its -mother-city lay in the nature of this colonial relationship; and in the course of -time the colonies became the surest supports for the commerce of the mother-city -and the best markets for the productions of its industrial activity.</p> - -<p>In consequence the recollection of this relationship was kept alive for -a long time. But the circumstances which gave rise to the foundation of -all the colonies earlier than the sixth century, remain veiled in the darkness -of tradition. Historical records were as yet far removed from this period, -and the dates of foundations which have been handed down to us are based -wholly upon calculations according to generations or upon suppositions -of even less value. Such accounts can at the most give us only approximate -clews and must in each single instance be compared with other traditions. -Only so much is certain that in the first half of the seventh century the settlement -of the southern coast of Thrace was in full progress and the Hellenes -had already established themselves upon the gulf of Tarentum.</p> - -<p>No other field offered the Grecian colonists such favourable conditions as -the coasts of Italy and Sicily, beyond the Ionic Sea. Situated in the same -latitude as the mother-land, these countries have a climate very similar to -that of Greece.</p> - -<p>Intercourse between the two shores existed at an early date. Fragments -of vases in the Mycenæan style have been found in Messapia, and the pre-Hellenic -necropolis in eastern Sicily shows traces of a civilisation which is -partially under Mycenæan influence. It even appears that in pre-historic -times immigrations from the Balkan peninsula into Italy already took place -by way of Otranto. At least it is related that the Chones once dwelt on the -western coast of the gulf of Tarentum; and the similarity of names between -these people and the Epirot Chaones, the inhabitants of the region about the -Acroceraunian promontory, can hardly be accidental. Perhaps this is connected -with the fact that the Italici designate the Hellenes as Græci, since -the Græci are said to have been an Epirot tribe, which in historic times had -wholly disappeared.</p> - -<p>Be that as it may, the Hellenes had at all events taken possession of the -eastern coast of the present Calabria, during the course of the eighth, or at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> -latest at the beginning of the seventh century. The new settlers called -themselves Achæans and thought they were descended from the Achæans in -the Peloponnesus. As a matter of fact their dialect is closely related to the -Argolian. The Chones of Italy have since disappeared from history, and -have probably been merged into one people with the Achæans.</p> - -<p>The new home was called Italia, after a branch of the original population -which disappeared at an early date, and this name was gradually extended -over the whole peninsula clear to the Alps. The land offered a boundless -field for Hellenic activity, and the realisation of that fact found expression -in the name Greater Hellas, which arose in the colonial territory across the -Ionian Sea in about the sixth century, in contrast to the crowded condition -of the too thickly populated mother-land. This may have been hyperbole, -but it was in a sense justified by the brilliant development of the Achæan -settlements. The coasts of the gulf of Tarentum became covered with a -circle of flourishing cities. In the north at the mouth of the Bradanus was -Metapontum, which bore on its armour the speaking device of an ear of corn; -then came Siris in the fruitful plain at the mouth of the river of the same -name, which, to the poet Archilochus appeared an ideal place for a colony; -further south where Crathis empties into the sea, was Sybaris, whose wealth -and luxury soon became proverbial. In close rivalry with Sybaris stood -Croton, situated near the promontory of Lacinium, on the top of which the -new settlers founded the temple of Hera, the queen of heaven, which became -the chief sanctuary for the Greeks of Italy. One column of the building is -still standing, a signal for ships, and can be seen from afar over the blue -waters of the Ionian Sea. Finally, far to the south at Cape Stilo was -Caulonia, the last of the Achæan settlements.</p> - -<p>The Achæans soon penetrated also into the interior and through the -narrow peninsula to the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Sybaris founded -here the colonies of Scidrus and Laos, and, further north, on the lower Silarus, -Posidonia [afterwards Pæstum], whose temple to-day arises in solemn -majesty from out its desolate surroundings, the most beautiful monument of -Grecian architecture which has been preserved on the western side of the -Ionian Sea. Pyxus [afterwards Buxentum], between Posidonia and Laos, is -probably a colony from Siris, which was directly opposite it on the Ionian -Sea, and was later closely associated with it. Croton founded Pandosia in -the upper valley of the Crathis, and Terina and Scylletium (Scylacium) on -the isthmus of Catanzaro where the Ionian and Tyrrhenian seas approach to -within a few miles of each other. The Achæans now controlled the whole -region from the Bradanus and Silarus southward to the gulf of Terina and -the gulf of Scylletium, an area of fifteen thousand square kilometres.</p> - -<p>The Achæans were soon followed by the Locrians, who lived opposite -them on the gulf of Corinth. They founded a new Locri, south of the -Achæan settlements not far from the Zephyrian promontory. This city -also soon became rich and powerful, so that its territory was extended to -the west coast of the peninsula, where it established the colonies Hipponium -and Medma.</p> - -<p>In the meantime the inhabitants of eastern Greece had begun to direct -their gaze to the newly discovered lands in the west—first of all the Chalcidians, -the bravest men in Hellas, as they are called in an old proverb. -Since the coast of the gulf of Tarentum was already occupied, they sailed -further, to Sicily the land famed in fable as the home of the Cyclops and -Læstrygones. These were no longer to be found there, but instead a people -of Italic race, the Siceli, or the Sicani, as they were called in the western<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> -part of the island, a brave and warlike people, but with no national unity so -that they were unable successfully to oppose the invaders. Here, at the foot -of the lofty snow pyramid of Ætna, the Chalcidians founded Naxos, their -first settlement and the first Hellenic town on Sicilian soil. In gratitude -to the god, Apollo Archegetes, who had brought them over the sea in safety, -the settlers erected an altar. Later on, when Sicily had become an Hellenic -land, all those who were setting sail to attend the festivals in the mother-land -used to sacrifice at this place.</p> - -<p>From Naxos the Chalcidians soon took possession of the surrounding -region. In the south they founded Catane, Leontini, Callipolis, Eubœa; in -the north, on the strait which separates Sicily from Italy, they built Zancle, the -later Messana, or Messina, and opposite this on the mainland Rhegium was -established. Here the wide Tyrrhenian Sea was open to the Hellenes. The -precipitous western coast of the Calabria of to-day and the waterless Liparæan -Islands were not indeed attractive to settlers, but on the small island -Pithecusa (Ischia), off the coast of the Osci, was the most favourable spot a -colonist could wish—the soil being luxuriantly fertile and at the same time -secure from hostile attacks. Thus the Calcidians established themselves -here at an early date, perhaps in the eighth century. Soon they ventured -over to the near-lying continent, and on the steep trachyte cliff, upon the -flat, wave-beaten shore of the gulf of Gæta, they founded Cumæ, so called -from a place [Cyme] in the old Eubœan home-land.</p> - -<p>Neapolis, the “new city” was colonised from here in about the year 600, -while Samian fugitives settled at Dicæarchia [afterwards Puteoli], in close -proximity to Cumæ (in 527). The second large island of the Neapolitan -Bay, Capreæ must also have been settled by Chalcidians, since we find a -Hellenic population there even in the period of the empire.</p> - -<p>Cumæ is the most extreme westerly point of Italy which the Chalcidians, -and indeed the Hellenes as a whole, ever possessed. It has always remained, -as it was first established, the most advanced frontier post, and the continuous -territory of Grecian colonisation in Italy ends at the Silarus. A similar -position was occupied on the southern shore of the Tyrrhenian Sea by -Himera, which was colonised from Messana in about the year 650, and was -the only Grecian city on the northern coast of Sicily. Chalcidian colonisation -in the west came to an end with this settlement.</p> - -<p>The example given by Chalcis was soon imitated. The Corinthians in -the eighth century still occupied the rich island of Corcyra and likewise -turned their steps to Sicily. Since the region around Ætna and the strait -was already occupied by Chalcidians, they went further south and established -the colony of Syracuse upon the small island of Ortygia, in the most -beautiful harbour on the eastern coast of Sicily. This colony was destined -to become the metropolis of the Grecian west. The real colonising activity -of Corinth, however, was directed chiefly towards the northwestern part of -the Grecian peninsula. In the course of the eighth century a dense circle -of Corinthian and Corintho-Corcyræan settlements grew up here: among -them Chalcis and Molycrium in Ætolia at the entrance to the bay of Corinth.</p> - -<p>Like Corinth, its neighbour city Megara began at an early date to take -part in the colonisation of Sicily. A new Megara arose here, between Syracuse -and the Chalcidian Leontini, professedly in the eighth century, at any -rate before Syracuse had acquired much importance and had begun to found -colonies of its own. Its powerful neighbours made it impossible for the city -to expand towards the interior and thus the Megarians were obliged to go -further west, when their territory became too cramped for them at home.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> -They founded Selinus, not far from the most western point of the island on -the coast of the Libyan Sea, at about the same time that the Chalcidians laid -out Himera on the opposite coast (about 650). On account of the fertility -of the district the new colony soon reached a high grade of prosperity and -established on its own account a number of settlements, such as Minoa, near -the mouth of the Halycus (Platani) so called from the little island of like -name in the old Grecian home.</p> - -<p>Of the other states of the Grecian mother-land only Sparta took part in -the settlement of the west. Inner disturbances which broke out after the -conquest of Messenia are said to have caused a portion of the conquered party -to leave their home. The emigrants set sail for Iapygia and established there, -upon the only good harbour on the southeast coast of Italy, the colony of -Tarentum (700 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>). Two centuries later, shortly before the Persian wars, -the Spartans made an attempt to establish themselves in the west.</p> - -<p>Sicily and Italy were too far out of the way for the Asiatic Greeks, and -they consequently held almost entirely aloof from any colonising expeditions -thither. Rhodes was an exception. At the beginning of the seventh century -its citizens, together with the Cretans, established the colony of Gela, on the -fertile depression at the mouth of the Gela, which was the first Grecian city on -the south coast of Sicily. About a century later (in 580) this city colonised -Agrigentum, which is situated farther to the west on a steep height commanding -a broad outlook, not far from the sea. This filled the gap which had been -left in the row of Grecian cities between Gela and Selinus. At about the same -time Rhodians and Cnidians under the leadership of the Heraclid Pentathlus, -tried to find a footing on the most extreme west point of Sicily, on the -promontory of Lilybæum. But the Hellenes were here successfully opposed -by the Elymi, the original inhabitants of this part of the island, and by the -citizens of the neighbouring Phœnician colony of Motya. The new settlers -and their Selinuntine allies were beaten; Pentathlus himself fell, and the -remainder of his people were forced to take refuge on the barren Liparæan -Islands, which were thus won for the Grecians.</p> - -<p>The distant west had been opened up to Grecian commerce even before -this. It is said to have been a Samian sailor, Colœus by name, who, on a journey -to Egypt, being carried out of his way by a storm off the Libyan coast, was -the first to reach Tartessus, the rich silver-land, lying near the Pillars of Hercules -(600 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>) At about the same time Ionic Phocæans founded the colony -of Massalia not far from the mouth of the Rhodanus. This soon became a -centre for the commerce of these regions and extended its influence far into -the Celtic interior. From here the Phocæans advanced along the Iberian -coast to Tartessus, where they entered into friendly relations with the -natives and established the colony of Mænaca, which was the most westerly -point the Hellenes ever held. The Phocæans settled also on Cyrnus (Corsica). -In 565 they founded Alalia on the east coast of the island. When Ionia was -forced to succumb to the Persians after the fall of Sardis (545) a large portion -of the citizens of Phocæa left their homes and turned to their tribal kinsmen -in Alalia, which thus grew from a mere mercantile settlement into a -powerful city.</p> - -<p>These results, however, were for the most part of short duration. The -Phœnicians reached the western Mediterranean at the same time with the -Hellenes, perhaps somewhat earlier even. The northern coast of Libya -from Syrtis Major to the Pillars of Hercules was covered with a line of their -settlements, among which Carthage attained the first place in the course of -time, owing to the advantage of its incomparable location. It was not long<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> -before they crossed over to the islands lying opposite Africa. They occupied -Melita (Malta) and Gaulos (Gozzo), and founded Motya, Panormus, and -Solus in west Sicily, probably during the seventh century. Here the Greeks -formed a barrier preventing their further expansion. The Phœnicians, however, -could spread themselves upon Sardinia without hindrance, since the -Greeks, although they may have planned to settle there, never went seriously -about it. In this way a succession of Phœnician settlements grew up along -the south and west coast of the island—Caralis, Nora, Sulci, Tharrus and -others. The Pityusæ are said to have been colonised from Carthage in the -year 654-653 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> The Phœnicians had already reached the silver-land of -Tartessus in the eighth century. Their chief point of support in this region -was Gades, situated on a small island beyond the Pillars of Hercules on the -edge of the ocean.</p> - -<p>A hostile encounter with the Hellenes could now no longer be avoided and -it seems to have been the danger which threatened the Phœnicians from this -side which led their scattered settlements to unite into a single state with -Carthage as its centre, or at any rate materially assisted Carthage in her -work of unification. Above all it was necessary to drive out the Phœnicians -from their newly won position on Corsica. The Phœnicians were aided in -their attempt by the Etruscans, who, as bold pirates, had long beforehand -made themselves feared by the Greeks, and regarded the Phocæan settlements -so near their coasts with no less anxiety than the Phœnicians themselves. -The Phocæans could not withstand the attack of the two peoples, -who were the most skilful navigators in the western Mediterranean. -They were indeed victorious in an open sea fight, but they endured such severe -losses that they were obliged to give up Alalia. They next turned to south -Italy and established there the colony of Hyele, between Pyxus and Posidonia. -Massalia was now isolated and thrown upon its own resources. The distant -Mænaca could consequently be maintained no longer, and Carthage won -undisputed possession of Tartessus. But within its narrow range of power -Massalia victoriously resisted all attacks of the Phœnicians, and the final -result was that a sort of dividing line was established between the two cities. -Massaliot influence was preponderant north of the promontory of Artemisium -(cape of Nao); Carthaginian, south of it, on the east coast of Iberia.</p> - -<p>Cyrnus came under Etruscan influence after the withdrawal of the Phocæans. -The Etruscans, it appears, had already taken possession of the -fertile plain on the lower Vulturnus and had established there a number of -settlements, whose centre was at Capua. They now proceeded to attack -Hellenic Cumæ (presumably in 524). Here, however, the superior military -skill of the Greeks won the victory, and the latter were able to defend the -Latin cities, which were friendly to them, from being brought into subjection -by the Etruscans. The strength of Cumæ, however, was not sufficient -to keep up the unequal fight for long and it was due only to the intervention -of the Syracusans that Hellenism maintained itself here until the end -of the fifth century.</p> - -<p>Nearly contemporaneously with the beginnings of colonisation in the -west the Hellenes began to spread toward the north and southeast. The -Chalcidians again took the first place. Opposite Eubœa a long peninsula -projects from the north into the Ægean Sea, which, on account of the numerous -indentations of its coast, as well as the fertility of its soil, invited -settlement. A long succession of Grecian colonial towns grew up here, the -most of which were founded from Chalcis; hence the name Chalcidice, which -the peninsula bore in later times. The Corinthians followed the Chalcidians<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> -here, just as they had done in the west. On the narrow isthmus joining the -peninsula of Pallene with the main body of Chalcidice they founded the colony -of Potidæa (in 600) which remained the most important city of this region -until the time of the Peloponnesian War. The original Thracian population -maintained itself only on the rugged slopes of Athos.</p> - -<p>Further east, in the first half of the seventh century, the Parians took -possession of the mountainous island of Thasos, which at that time was still -covered with a thick primeval forest. The new settlers soon crossed over -to the near-lying mainland, where they established a number of commercial -stations, as Œsyma and Galepsus, which had to maintain themselves through -long struggles with the warlike Thracian tribes. Opposite Thasos, on the -fruitful plain between Nestus and Lake Bistonis, the Clazomenæans founded -Abdera in 651, but they could not long maintain themselves against the -attacks of the Thracians. Colonists from Teos, who emigrated after the -conquest of Ionia by the Persians (545) and took possession of the deserted -place, were more successful; Abdera now became the most important city -on this whole coast and also took an active part in the intellectual life of -the nation.</p> - -<p>Lesbos and Tenedos were for a long time the most advanced posts of -the Hellenic world toward the northeast. Not until the eighth century -do the inhabitants of these islands appear to have succeeded in taking possession -of the south of Troas, from the wooded slopes of Ida to the entrance to -the Hellespont. None of the numerous settlements founded here, however, -became very important. The Lesbians then went further and crossed over -to the European shore of the Hellespont, where they built Sestus at the -narrowest point of the strait and Alopeconnesus on the northern coast of -the Thracian Chersonesus. Ænus, at the mouth of the mighty Hebrus, the -principal river of Thrace, was also colonised by Mytileneans. The further -expansion of the Greeks on this coast was arrested by the warlike tribes of -Thrace.</p> - -<p>The Lesbians were soon followed by the Milesians. In 670 they established Abydos, -opposite Sestus, and at about the same time (675) founded -Cyzicus on the isthmus connecting the mountainous peninsula of Arcotonnesus -with the Asiatic mainland. Other Ionian cities also took part in the -colonisation of these regions. Lampsacus was colonised from Phocæa (651); -Elæus from Teos; Myrlea from Colophon; Perinthus from Samos (600).</p> - -<p>The Milesians also advanced into the Pontus at an early date. It was -due to them that this sea, which, with its inhospitable shores peopled by -wild barbarians, had been the terror of Grecian mariners, became known as -“the hospitable sea” (Pontos Euxinos), with which few other regions could -compare in importance for Grecian commerce. Miletus is said to have -founded in all no less than ninety colonies on the coasts of the Hellespont -and Pontus. In 630 Milesians built Sinope not far from the mouth of the -Halys, which soon grew to be the most important emporium in this region, -and founded in its turn a number of colonies, as Cotyora, Trapezus, and -Cerasus. The Milesians, however, turned their attention especially to the -northwest and north coasts of the Pontus, which were to become the principal -granaries of Greece. After the middle of the seventh century a large -number of Milesian colonies grew up here. The first was Istrus south of -the mouth of the Danube, said to have been founded in 656; a few years -later (644) Olbia, at the mouth of the Borysthenes near its junction with -the Hypanis (Bug); then in the first half of the sixth century on the east -coast of Thrace, Apollonia, Odessus, and Tomis; further on Tyras at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> -mouth of the river of like name (Dniester) and Theodosia on the south -coast of the Crimea. The Hellenic settlements were especially frequent -in the Cimmerian Bosporus, the highway uniting the Pontus with the sea of -Mæotis. Nymphæum and the Milesian colony of Panticapæum, the later -capital of the Bosporian kingdom, arose here on the western shore; opposite, -on the Asiatic shore, was Phanagorea, founded from Teos. Finally, Tanais -was founded at the mouth of the Don, the most northerly point ever occupied -by the Greeks.</p> - -<p>The Megarians had begun to establish themselves on the Propontis at -about the same time with the Milesians. In 675 they founded Chalcedon at -the entrance to the Thracian Bosporus, and seventeen years later, Byzantium, -on the opposite European shore. Selymbria, neighbouring Byzantium on the -west, and Astacus, at the most easterly point of the Propontis, not far from -the site of the later Nicomedia, were Megarian colonies. The Megarians, however, -penetrated into the Pontus itself, at a comparatively late date. Their -first colony here was Heraclea, founded in association with Bœotian settlers -in the year 550, in the land of the Mariandyni, about two hundred kilometres -from the outlet of the Bosporus. From there Mesembria and Callatis were -colonised on the east coast of Thrace, and Chersonesus, on the southern -point of the Tauric peninsula, near the present Sebastopol.</p> - -<p>All of these Grecian towns, however, remained with few exceptions -isolated points in the midst of the original population of barbarians. An -actual hellenising of the country as in Sicily and lower Italy was never -accomplished. This was largely due to the configuration of the Pontine -coast, which with the exception of the Crimea has no indentations, so that the -Grecian colonies had no way to protect themselves against the attacks of -the tribes from the interior. Besides, the winter climate of the regions north -of the Pontus was very raw. The Greeks could not feel happy in a land -where the vine and olive tree grew only in sheltered places, and only the -bitterest necessity or the prospect of great commercial gain could cause -them to leave their sunny home-land for such a country. Thus the Grecian -cities on the Pontus never became very populous; there was not one among -them to compare with Sybaris, Taras, Acragas, to say nothing of Syracuse. -Condemned to a continual struggle for existence, the Greeks here had no -leisure for the cultivation of higher interests. It is remarkable how poor -the Pontine colonies have been in intellectual greatness. Their rôle in -history has practically been confined to providing the mother-land with -grain, salted fish, and other such raw products. Only once, when the rest -of the nation had already fallen under foreign dominion, did they take an -active part in great political events. The last battle for Grecian liberty was -fought with their forces, but he who led the fight was a hellenised barbarian -king.</p> - -<p>Although the Hellenes had been able to expand on the Italian, Sicilian, -and Pontine coasts with almost no hindrance, Grecian colonisation met an -insurmountable obstacle in the old civilised lands on the southeastern shores -of the Mediterranean, with their dense populations. In Syria the Hellenes -did not attempt a settlement; they were not even able to drive the Phœnicians -out of Cyprus. Indeed, when the Assyrian king Sargon conquered -Syria at the end of the eighth century, the Greeks on Cyprus thought it -advisable to recognise his supremacy, at least nominally, and this relation -continued under his successors until Asshurbanapal. Later, after the fall of -the Assyrian Empire, the island came under Egyptian rule. Sargon’s son -Sennacherib (705-681) repulsed an attempt of the Greeks to settle on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> -Cilician plain. The warlike tribes of rough Cilicia and Lycia also succeeded -in keeping the Greeks at a distance from their coasts, or at least prevented -their further expansion. Phaselis, founded by the Rhodians on the western -shore of the gulf of Pamphylia in 700, remained the last Grecian colony in -the south of Asia Minor.</p> - -<p>The rich valley of the Nile attracted Grecian pirates at an early period, -the more so as the political divisions of the country in the eighth and first -half of the seventh century rendered an effective resistance impossible. The -superior military ability of these pirates finally caused Psamthek, the ruler -of Saïs, to hire them as mercenaries. With their aid he got the upper hand -over the other sectional princes and freed Egypt from the Assyrian yoke -(about 660-645). From that time forward, Greeks formed the kernel of the -Egyptian army, and although the Nile valley was now closed to piracy, it -was, on the other hand, open to Greek commerce. The Milesians founded -a colony on the Bolbitinic mouth of the Nile, below Saïs; somewhat later a -number of Greek mercantile settlements grew up at Naucratis, not far from the -Canopic mouth of the Nile, to which King Aahmes granted rights of corporation. -The city soon grew to be the chief commercial emporium of Egypt -and in the sixth century occupied, on a small scale, a position like that of the -later Alexandria. In the course of time the Greeks would without doubt -have become rulers of the country, but the Persian conquest retarded their -development for fully a century and put a limit to the further expansion of -Hellenism.</p> - -<p>The route from Greece to Egypt was usually by way of Crete in a southerly -direction to the coast of Libya. This is the narrowest part of the eastern -Mediterranean, and the stretch of open sea to be crossed measures hardly three -hundred kilometers, about the same as the width of the Ægean Sea. The need -soon began to be felt of having a station at the place where land was first -touched again. Thus in 630 Greeks from Thera settled upon the small -island of Platea, which is situated off the Libyan shore at precisely this point. -After a few years the colonists felt strong enough to cross over to the mainland. -At a short distance from the coast, where the high tableland of the interior -slopes down to the sea, they founded the city of Cyrene. The fertility of the -soil and the trade in the aromatic plant <i>silphion</i>, which is here indigenous -and was highly prized by the Greeks, assured prosperity to the newcomers. -The Libyan tribes living in the neighbourhood were subdued and an attack -of the Egyptian king Apries [Uah-ab-Ra] was successfully repulsed (570). -A short time later Barca was founded (550) on the heights of the plateau -west of Cyrene, and Teuchira and Hesperides on the coast. Carthage prevented -a further extension toward the west, and Egypt toward the east, and -consequently Cerenaica remained the only district on the south coast of the -Mediterranean, which was colonised by Hellenes.</p> - -<p>Thus in the course of two centuries the Ionian Sea, the Propontis, and -the Pontus had become Grecian seas, and Grecian colonies had arisen in -Egypt as well as in Libya, on the west coast of Italy, and in the land of the -Celts as far as distant Iberia. The nation had grown out of the narrow -limits in which till then its history had been enacted. Greek influence was -henceforth predominant within the entire circumference of the Mediterranean. -The reaction of this on Grecian life was manifest in all its phases.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_11c" id="enanchor_11c"></a><a href="#endnote_11c">c</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_14" id="Footnote_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> [Recent excavations have tended to confirm the existence of Crete’s boasted hundred cities.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-12.jpg" width="500" height="135" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XII_SOLON_THE_LAWGIVER">CHAPTER XII. SOLON THE LAWGIVER</h3> - -<div class="sidenote">[594-593 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>It is on the occasion of Solon’s legislation that we obtain our first glimpse—only -a glimpse, unfortunately—of the actual state of Attica and its inhabitants. -It is a sad and repulsive picture, presenting to us political -discord and private suffering combined.</p> - -<p>Violent dissensions prevailed among the inhabitants of Attica, who were -separated into three factions—the <i>pedicis</i>, or men of the plain, comprising -Athens, Eleusis, and the neighbouring territory, among whom the greatest -number of rich families were included; the mountaineers in the east and -north of Attica, called <i>diacrii</i>, who were on the whole the poorest party; -and the <i>paralii</i> in the southern portion of Attica from sea to sea, whose -means and social position were intermediate between the two. Upon what -particular points these intestine disputes turned we are not distinctly informed; -they were not however peculiar to the period immediately preceding -the archontate of Solon; they had prevailed before, and they reappear -afterwards prior to the despotism of Pisistratus, the latter standing forward -as the leader of the <i>diacrii</i>, and as champion, real or pretended, of the poorer -population.</p> - -<p>But in the time of Solon these intestine quarrels were aggravated by -something much more difficult to deal with—a general mutiny of the poorer -population against the rich, resulting from misery combined with oppression. -The Thetes, whose condition we have already contemplated in the poems of -Homer and Hesiod, are now presented to us as forming the bulk of the -population of Attica—the cultivating tenants, metayers, and small proprietors -of the country. They are exhibited as weighed down by debts -and dependence, and driven in large numbers out of a state of freedom into -slavery—the whole mass of them (we are told) being in debt to the rich, -who were proprietors of the greater part of the soil. They had either -borrowed money for their own necessities, or they tilled the lands of the -rich as dependent tenants, paying a stipulated portion of the produce, and -in this capacity they were largely in arrear.</p> - -<p>All the calamitous effects were here seen of the old harsh law of debtor -and creditor,—once prevalent in Greece, Italy, Asia, and a large portion of -the world,—combined with the recognition of slavery as a legitimate status, -and of the right of one man to sell himself as well as that of another man to -buy him. Every debtor unable to fulfil his contract was liable to be adjudged -as the slave of his creditor until he could find means either of paying or -working it out; and not only he himself, but his minor sons and unmarried -daughters and sisters also, whom the law gave him the power of selling. -The poor man thus borrowed upon the security of his body, to translate -literally the Greek phrase, and upon that of the persons in his family;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> -and so severely had these oppressive contracts been enforced, that many debtors -had been reduced from freedom to slavery in Attica itself, many others -had been sold for exportation, and some had only hitherto preserved their own -freedom by selling their children. Moreover, a great number of the smaller -properties in Attica were under mortgage, signified, according to the formality -usual in the Attic law, and continued down throughout the historical -times, by a stone pillar erected on the land, inscribed with the name of -the lender and the amount of the loan. The proprietors of these mortgaged -lands, in case of an unfavourable turn of events, had no other prospect -except that of irremediable slavery for themselves and their families, either -in their own native country, robbed of all its delights, or in some barbarian -region where the Attic accent would never meet their ears. Some had -fled the country to escape legal adjudication of their persons, and earned a -miserable subsistence in foreign parts by degrading occupations. Upon -several, too, this deplorable lot had fallen by unjust condemnation and corrupt -judges; the conduct of the rich, in regard to money sacred and profane, -in regard to matters public as well as private, being thoroughly unprincipled -and rapacious.</p> - -<p>The manifold and long-continued suffering of the poor under this system, -plunged into a state of debasement not more tolerable than that of the Gallic -plebs—and the injustices of the rich in whom all political power was then -vested—are facts well attested by the poems of Solon himself, even in the -short fragments preserved to us, and it appears that immediately preceding -the time of his archonship, the evils had ripened to such a point and the -determination of the mass of sufferers, to extort for themselves some mode -of relief, had become so pronounced that the existing laws could no longer -be enforced. According to the profound remark of Aristotle, that seditions -are generated by great causes but out of small incidents, we may -conceive that some recent events had occurred as immediate stimulants to -the outbreak of the debtors—like those which lend so striking an interest -to the early Roman annals, as the inflaming sparks of violent popular movements -for which the train had long before been laid. Condemnations by -the archons of insolvent debtors may have been unusually numerous, or the -maltreatment of some particular debtor, once a respected freeman, in his -condition of slavery, may have been brought to act vividly upon the public -sympathies—like the case of the old plebeian centurion at Rome (first impoverished -by the plunder of the enemy, then reduced to borrow, and lastly -adjudged to his creditor as an insolvent), who claimed the protection of the -people in the forum, rousing their feelings to the highest pitch by the marks -of the slave-whip visible on his person. Some such incidents had probably -happened, though we have no historians to recount them; moreover it is not -unreasonable to imagine, that that public mental affliction which the purifier -Epimenides had been invoked to appease, as it sprung in part from pestilence, -so it had its cause partly in years of sterility, which must of course have -aggravated the distress of the small cultivators. However this may be, -such was the condition of things in 594 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, through mutiny of the poor -freemen and Thetes, and uneasiness of the middling citizens, that the governing -oligarchy, unable either to enforce their private debts or to maintain -their political power, were obliged to invoke the well-known wisdom and -integrity of Solon. Though his vigorous protest (which doubtless rendered -him acceptable to the mass of the people) against the iniquity of the existing -system, had already been proclaimed in his poems, they still hoped -that he would serve as an auxiliary to help them over their difficulties, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> -they therefore chose him, nominally as archon along with Philombrotus, but -with power in substance dictatorial.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_12b" id="enanchor_12b"></a><a href="#endnote_12b">b</a></span></p> - -<p>For the life of Solon we can do no better than turn to Plutarch, keeping -the very translation, by North, that Shakespeare read, but modernising the -spelling.</p> - -<h4>THE LIFE AND LAWS OF SOLON ACCORDING TO PLUTARCH</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[<i>ca.</i> 638-558 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>He was of the noblest and most ancient house of the city of Athens. -For of his father’s side, he was descended of King Codrus: and for his -mother, Heraclides Ponticus writeth, she was cousin-german unto Pisistratus’ -mother. For this cause even from the beginning there was great -friendship between them, partly for their kindred, and partly also for the -courtesy and beauty of Pisistratus, with whom it is reported Solon on a -time was in love. But Solon’s father (as Hermippus writeth) having spent -his goods in liberality, and deeds of courtesy, though he might easily have -been relieved at divers men’s hands with money, he was yet ashamed to -take any, because he came of a house which was wont rather to give and -relieve others, than to take themselves: so being yet a young man, he devised -to trade merchandise. Howbeit others say, that Solon travelled -countries, rather to see the world, and to learn, than to traffic, or gain. -For sure he was very desirous of knowledge, as appeareth manifestly: for -that being now old, he commonly used to say this verse:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“I grow old learning still.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">Also he was not covetously bent, nor loved riches too much: for he said in -one place:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Whoso hath goods, and gold enough at call,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Great herds of beasts, and flocks in many a fold;</div> -<div class="verse">Both horse and mule, yea, store of corn and all</div> -<div class="verse indent1">That may content each man above the mould:</div> -<div class="verse">No richer is, for all those heaps and hoards,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Than he which hath sufficiently to feed</div> -<div class="verse">And clothe his corpse with such as God affords.</div> -<div class="verse indent1">But if his joy and chief delight do breed,</div> -<div class="verse">For to behold the fair and heavenly face</div> -<div class="verse">Of some sweet wife, which is adorned with grace:</div> -<div class="verse">Or else some child, of beauty fair and bright,</div> -<div class="verse">Then hath he cause (indeed) of deep delight.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>And in another place also he saith:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Indeed I do desire some wealth to have at will:</div> -<div class="verse">But not unless the same be got by faithful dealing still.</div> -<div class="verse">For sure who so desires by wickedness to thrive,</div> -<div class="verse">Shall find that justice from such goods will justly him deprive.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">Solon learned to be lavish in expense, to fare delicately, and to speak wantonly -of pleasures in his poems, somewhat more licentiously than became -the gravity of a philosopher: only because he was brought up in the trade -of merchandise, wherein for that men are marvellous subject to great losses -and dangers, they seek other whiles good cheer to drive these cares away, -and liberty to make much of themselves. Poetry at the beginning he -used but for pleasure, and when he had leisure, writing no matter of importance -in his verses. Afterwards he set out many grave matters of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> -philosophy, and the most part of such things as he had devised before, in -the government of a commonweal, which he did not for history or memory’s -sake, but only of a pleasure to discourse: for he showeth the reasons of that -he did, and in some places he exhorteth, chideth, and reproveth the Athenians. -And some affirm also he went about to write his laws and ordinances -in verse, and do recite his preface, which was this:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Vouchsafe, O mighty Jove, of heaven and earth high king:</div> -<div class="verse">To grant good fortune to my laws and hests in everything.</div> -<div class="verse">And that their glory grow in such triumphant wise,</div> -<div class="verse">As may remain in fame for aye, which lives and never dies.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="sidenote">[594-590 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>He chiefly delighted in moral philosophy, which treated of government -and commonweals: as the most part of the wise men did of those times. -But for natural philosophy, he was very gross and simple. So in effect -there was none but Thales alone of all the seven wise men of Greece, who -searched further the contemplation of things in common use among men, -than he. For setting him apart, all the others got the name of wisdom, -only for their understanding in matters of State and government. It is -reported that they met on a day all seven together in the city of Delphes, -and another time in the city of Corinth, where Periander got them together -at a feast that he made to the other six.</p> - -<p>Anacharsis being arrived at Athens, went to knock at Solon’s gate, saying -that he was a stranger which came of purpose to see him, and to desire -his acquaintance and friendship. Solon answered him, that it was better -to seek friendship in his own country. Anacharsis replied again: “Thou -then that art at home, and in thine own country, begin to show me friendship.” -Then Solon wondering at his bold ready wit, entertained him very -courteously: and kept him a certain time in his house, and made him very -good cheer, at the self-same time wherein he was most busy in governing -the commonweal, and making laws for the state thereof. Which when -Anacharsis understood, he laughed at it, to see that Solon imagined with -written laws, to bridle men’s covetousness and injustice. “For such laws,” -said he, “do rightly resemble the spider’s cobwebs: because they take hold -of little flies and gnats which fall into them, but the rich and mighty will -break and run through them at their will.” Solon answered him, that men -do justly keep all covenants and bargains which one makes with another, -because it is to the hindrance of either party to break them: and even -so, he did so temper his laws, that he made his citizens know, it was more -for their profit to obey law and justice, than to break it. Nevertheless -afterwards, matters proved rather according to Anacharsis’ comparison, -than agreeable to the hope that Solon had conceived. Anacharsis being -by hap one day in a common assembly of the people at Athens, said that -he marvelled much, why in the consultations and meetings of the Grecians, -wise men propounded matters, and fools did decide them.</p> - -<p>The Athenians, having sustained a long and troublesome war against -the Megarians, for the possession of the isle of Salamis, were in the end -weary of it, and made proclamation straightly commanding upon pain of -death, that no man should presume to prefer any more to the counsel of the -city, the title or question of the possession of the isle of Salamis. Solon -could not bear this open shame, and seeing the most part of the lustiest -youths desirous still of war, though their tongues were tied for fear of the -proclamation; he feigned himself to be out of his wits, and caused it to be -given out that Solon was become a fool; and secretly he had made certain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> -lamentable verses, which he had conned without book, to sing abroad the -city. So one day he ran suddenly out of his house with a garland on his -head, and got him to the market-place, where the people straight swarmed -like bees about him: and getting him up upon the stone where all proclamations -are usually made out he singeth the elegies he had made.</p> - -<p>This elegy is entitled Salamis, and containeth an hundred verses, which -are excellently well written. And these being sung openly by Solon at -that time, his friends incontinently praised them beyond measure, and especially -Pisistratus: and they went about persuading the people that were -present, to credit that he spake. Hereupon the matter was so handled -amongst them, that by and by the proclamation was revoked, and they -began to follow the wars with greater fury than before, appointing Solon -to be general in the same.</p> - -<p>But the common tale and report is, that he went by sea with Pisistratus -unto the temple of Venus, surnamed Colias: where he found all the women -at a solemn feast and sacrifice, which they made of custom to the goddess. -He taking occasion thereby, sent from thence a trusty man of his own unto -the Megarians, which then had Salamis: whom he instructed to feign himself -a revolted traitor, and that he came of purpose to tell them, that if they -would but go with him, they might take all the chief ladies and gentlewomen -of Athens on a sudden. The Megarians easily believed him, and shipped -forthwith certain soldiers to go with him. But when Solon perceived the -ship under sail coming from Salamis, he commanded the women to depart, -and instead of them he put lusty beardless springalls into their apparel, and -gave them little short daggers to convey under their clothes, commanding them -to play and dance together upon the seaside, until their enemies were landed, -and their ship at anchor; and so it came to pass. For the Megarians being -deceived by that they saw afar off, as soon as ever they came to the shore -side did land in heaps, one in another’s neck, even for greediness, to take -these women: but not a man of them escaped, for they were slain every -mother’s son. This stratagem being finely handled, and to good effect, the -Athenians took sea straight, and coasted over to the isle of Salamis: which -they took upon the sudden, and won it without much resistance.</p> - -<p>Others say that it was not taken after this sort: By order of the oracle, -Solon one night passed over to Salamis, and did sacrifice to Periphemus, and -to Cychreus, demi-gods of the country. Which done, the Athenians delivered -him five hundred men, who willingly offered themselves: and the city made -an accord with them: that if they took the isle of Salamis, they should -bear greatest authority in the commonweal. Solon embarked his soldiers -into divers fisher boats, and appointed a galliot of thirty oars to come after -him, and he anchored hard by the city of Salamis, under the point which -looketh towards the isle of Negropont. The Megarians which were within -Salamis, having by chance heard some inkling of it, but yet knew nothing -of certainty: ran presently in hurly-burly to arm them, and manned out a -ship to descry what it was. But they fondly coming within danger, were -taken by Solon, who clapped the Megarians under hatches fast bound, and -in their rooms put aboard in their ship the choicest soldiers he had of the -Athenians, commanding them to set their course direct upon the city, and -to keep themselves as close out of sight as could be. And he himself with -all the rest of his soldiers landed presently, and marched to encounter with -the Megarians, which were come out into the field. Now whilst they were -fighting together, Solon’s men whom he had sent in the Megarians’ ship -entered the haven and won the town. This is certainly true, and testified<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> -by that which is showed yet at this day. For to keep a memorial hereof, -a ship of Athens arriveth quietly at the first, and by and by those that are -in the ship make a great shout, and a man armed leaping out of the ship, -runneth shouting towards the rock called Sciradion, which is as they come -from the firm land: and hard by the same is the temple of Mars, which -Solon built there after he had overcome the Megarians in battle, from whence -he sent back again those prisoners that he had taken (which were saved -from the slaughter of the battle) without any ransom paying. Nevertheless, -the Megarians were sharply bent still, to recover Salamis again. Much -hurt being done and suffered on both sides: both parties in the end made -the Lacedæmonians judges of the quarrel.</p> - -<p>Solon undoubtedly won great glory and honour by this exploit, yet was -he much more honoured and esteemed, for the oration he made in defence of -the temple of Apollo, in the city of Delphes: declaring that it was not meet -to be suffered, that the Cyrrhæans should at their pleasure abuse the sanctuary -of the oracle, and that they should aid the Delphians in honour and -reverence of Apollo. Whereupon the counsel of the Amphictyons, being -moved with his words and persuasions, proclaimed wars against the Cyrrhæans.</p> - -<p>Now that this sedition was utterly appeased in Athens, for that the excommunicates -were banished the country, the city fell again into their old troubles -and dissensions about the government of the commonweal: and they were -divided into so diverse parties and factions, as there were people of sundry -places and territories within the country of Attica. For there were the -people of the mountains, the people of the valleys, and the people of the seacoast. -Those of the mountains, took the common people’s part for their lives. -Those of the valley, would a few of the best citizens should carry the sway. -The coastmen would that neither of them should prevail, because they would -have had a mean government and mingled of them both. Furthermore, the -faction between the poor and rich, proceeding of their unequality, was -at that time very great. By reason whereof the city was in great danger, -and it seemed there was no way to pacify or take up these controversies, -unless some tyrant happened to rise, that would take upon him to rule the -whole. For all the common people were so sore indebted to the rich, that -either they ploughed their lands, and yielded them the sixth part of their crop -(for which cause they were called hectemorii and servants), or else they borrowed -money of them at usury, upon gauge of their bodies to serve it out. -And if they were not able to pay them, then were they by the law delivered -to their creditors, who kept them as bondsmen and slaves in their houses, or -else they sent them into strange countries to be sold: and many even for -very poverty were forced to sell their own children (for there was no law to -forbid the contrary) or else to forsake their city and country, for the extreme -cruelty and hard dealings of these abominable usurers, their creditors. Insomuch -that many of the lustiest and stoutest of them, banded together in -companies, and encouraged one another, not to suffer and bear any longer -such extremity, but to choose them a stout and trusty captain, that might -set them at liberty, and redeem those out of captivity, which were judged to -be bondsmen and servants, for lack of paying of their debts at their days -appointed: and so to make again a new division of all lands and tenements, -and wholly to change and turn up the whole state and government.</p> - -<p>Then the wisest men of the city, who saw Solon only neither partner -with the rich in their oppression, neither partaker with the poor in their -necessity: made suit to him, that it would please him to take the matter in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> -hand, and to appease and pacify all these broils and sedition. Yet Phanias -Lesbian writeth, that he used a subtilty, whereby he deceived both the one -and the other side, concerning the commonweal. For he secretly promised -the poor to divide the lands again: and the rich also, to confirm their covenants -and bargains. Howsoever it fell out, it is very certain that Solon from -the beginning made it a great matter, and was very scrupulous to deal -between them, fearing the covetousness of the one, and arrogancy of the -other. Howbeit in the end he was chosen governor after Philombrotus, and -was made reformer of the rigour of the laws, and the temperer of the state -and commonweal, by consent and agreement of both parties.</p> - -<p>The rich accepted him, because he was no beggar: the poor did also like -him, because he was an honest man. They say, moreover, that one word -and sentence which he spake (which at that present was rife in every man’s -mouth) that equality did breed no strife: did as well please the rich and -wealthy, as the poor and needy. For the one sort conceived of this word -equality, that he would measure all things according to the quality of the -man: and the other took it for their purpose, that he would measure all -things by the number, and by the poll only. Thus the captains of both -sections persuaded and prayed him, boldly to take upon him that sovereign -authority, since he had the whole city now at his commandment. The -neuters also of every part, when they saw it very hard to pacify these things -with law and reason, were well content that the wisest, and honestest man, -should alone have the royal power in his hands. But his familiar friends -above all rebuked him, saying he was to be accounted no better than -a beast, if for fear of the name of tyrant, he would refuse to take upon him -a kingdom: which is the most just and honourable state, if one take it -upon him that is an honest man.</p> - -<p>Now, notwithstanding he had refused the kingdom, yet he waxed nothing -the more remiss or soft therefor in governing, neither would he bow for fear -of the great, nor yet would frame his laws to their liking, that had chosen -him their reformer. For where the mischief was tolerable, he did not -straight pluck it up by the roots: neither did he so change the state, as he -might have done, lest if he should have attempted to turn upside down the -whole government, he might afterwards have been never able to settle and -establish the same again. Therefore he only altered that which he thought -by reason he could persuade his citizens unto, or else by force he ought to -compel them to accept, mingling as he said, sour with sweet, and force with -justice. And herewith agreeth his answer that he made afterwards unto -one that asked him, if he had made the best laws he could for the Athenians? -“Yea, sure,” saith he, “such as they were able to receive.” And this that -followeth also, they have ever since observed in the Athenian tongue: to -make certain things pleasant, that be hateful, finely conveying them under -colour of pleasing names. As calling taxes, contributions: garrisons, guards: -prisons, houses. And all this came up first by Solon’s invention, who called -clearing of debts <i>seisachtheia</i>: in English, discharge.</p> - -<h5><i>The Law Concerning Debts</i></h5> - -<p>For the first change and reformation he made in government was this: he -ordained that all manner of debts past should be clear, and nobody should -ask his debtor anything for the time passed. That no man should thenceforth -lend money out to usury upon covenants for the body to be bound, if -it were not repaid. Howbeit some write (as Androtion among other) that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> -the poor were contented that the interest only for usury should be moderated, -without taking away the whole debt: and that Solon called this easy -and gentle discharge, <i>seisachtheia</i>, with crying up the value of money. For -he raised the pound of silver, being before but threescore and thirteen -drachmas, full up to an hundred: so they which were to pay great sums of -money, paid by tale as much as they ought, but with less number of pieces -than the debt could have been paid when it was borrowed. And so the -debtors gained much, and the creditors lost nothing. Nevertheless the -greater part of them which have written the same, say, that this crying up of -money, was a general discharge of all debts, conditions, and covenants upon -the same: whereto the very poems themselves, which Solon wrote, do seem -to agree. For he glorieth, and breaketh forth in his verses, that he had -taken away all marks that separated men’s lands through the country of -Attica, and that now he had set at liberty, that which before was in bondage. -And that of the citizens of Athens, which for lack of payment of their debts -had been condemned for slaves to their creditors, he had brought many home -again out of strange countries, where they had been so long, that they had -forgotten to speak their natural tongue, and others which remained at home -in captivity, he had now set them all at good liberty.</p> - -<p>But while he was in doing this, men say a thing thwarted him, that -troubled him marvellously. For having framed an edict for clearing of all -debts, and lacking only a little to grace it with words, and to give it some -pretty preface, that otherwise was ready to be proclaimed: he opened himself -somewhat to certain of his familiars whom he trusted (as Conon, Clinias, -and Hipponicus) and told them how he would not meddle with lands and -possessions, but would only clear and cut off all manner of debts. These -men, before the proclamation came out, went presently to the money-men, -and borrowed great sums of money of them, and laid it out straight upon -land. So when the proclamation came out, they kept the lands they had -purchased, but restored not the money they had borrowed. This foul part -of theirs made Solon very ill spoken of, and wrongfully blamed: as if he had -not only suffered it, but had been partaker of this wrong and injustice. -Notwithstanding he cleared himself of this slanderous report, losing five -talents by his own law. For it was well known that so much was due unto -him, and he was the first that, following his own proclamation, did clearly -release his debtors of the same. Notwithstanding, they ever after called -Solon’s friends <i>Chreocopides</i>, cutters of debts. This law neither liked the -one nor the other sort. For it greatly offended the rich, for cancelling their -bonds: and it much more misliked the poor, because all lands and possessions -they gaped for, were not made again common, and everybody alike rich and -wealthy, as Lycurgus had made the Lacedæmonians.</p> - -<p>But Lycurgus was the eleventh descended of the right line from Hercules, -and had many years been king of Lacedæmon, where he had gotten -great authority, and made himself many friends: all which things together, -did greatly help him to execute that, which he wisely had imagined for the -order of his commonweal. Yet also, he used more persuasion than force, -a good witness thereof the loss of his eye: preferring a law before his -private injury, which hath power to preserve a city long in union and concord, -and to make citizens to be neither poor nor rich.</p> - -<p>Solon could not attain to this. Howbeit he did what he could possible, -with the power he had, as one seeking to win no credit with his citizens, but -only by his counsel. To begin withal, he first took away all Draco’s bloody -laws, saving for murder and manslaughter.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span></p> - -<h5><i>Class Legislation</i></h5> - -<p>Then Solon being desirous to have the chief offices of the city to remain -in rich men’s hands, as already they did, and yet to mingle the authority of -government in such sort, as the meaner people might bear a little sway, -which they never could before: he made an estimate of the goods of every -private citizen. And those which he found yearly worth five hundred -bushels of corn, and other liquid fruits and upwards, he called <i>pentacosiomedimni</i>: -as to say, five-hundred-bushel-men of revenue. And those that -had three hundred bushels a year, and were able to keep a horse of service, -he put in the second degree, and called them knights. They that might -dispend but two hundred bushels a year, were put in the third place, and -called <i>zeugitæ</i>. All other under those, were called <i>thetes</i>, as you would -say, hirelings, or craftsmen living of their labour: whom he did not admit -to bear any office in the city, neither were they taken as free citizens, saving -they had voices in elections, and assemblies of the city, and in judgments, -where the people wholly judged.</p> - -<p>Furthermore because his laws were written somewhat obscurely, and -might be diversely taken and interpreted, this did give a great deal more -authority and power to the judges. For, considering all their controversies -could not be ended, and judged by express law: they were driven of necessity -always to run to the judges and debated their matters before them. Insomuch -as the judges by this means came to be somewhat above the law: -for they did even expound it as they would themselves.</p> - -<p>Yet considering it was meet to provide for the poverty of the common -sort of people: he suffered any man that would, to take upon him the -defence of any poor man’s case that had the wrong. For if a man were -hurt, beaten, forced, or otherwise wronged: any other man that would, -might lawfully sue the offender, and prosecute law against him. And this -was a wise law ordained of him, to accustom his citizens to be sorry for -another’s hurt, and so to feel it, as if any part of his own body had been -injured. And they say he made an answer on a time agreeable to this law. -For, being asked what city he thought best governed, he answered: “That -city where such as receive no wrong, do as earnestly defend wrong offered -to others, as the very wrong and injury had been done unto themselves.” -He erected also the council of the Areopagites, of those magistrates of the -city, out of which they did yearly choose their governor: and he himself -had been of that number, for that he had been governor for a year.</p> - -<p>Wherefore perceiving now the people were grown to a stomach and -haughtiness of mind because they were clear discharged of their debts: he -set one up for matters of state, another council of an hundred chosen out of -every tribe, whereof four hundred of them were to consult and debate of all -matters, before they were propounded to the people: that when the great -council of the people at large should be assembled, no matters should be put -forth, unless it had been before well considered of, and digested, by the -council of the four hundred. Moreover, he ordained the higher court should -have the chief authority and power over all things, and chiefly to see the -law executed and maintained: supposing that the commonweal being settled, -and stayed with these two courts (as with two strong anchor-holds), it -should be the less turmoiled and troubled, and the people also better pacified -and quieted. The most part of writers hold this opinion, that it was Solon -which erected the council of the Areopagites, as we have said, and it is very -likely to be true, for that Draco in all his laws and ordinances made no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> -manner of mention of the Areopagites, but always speaketh to the ephetes -(which were judges of life and death) when he spake of murder, or of any -man’s death.</p> - -<p>Notwithstanding, the eighth law of the thirteenth table of Solon saith thus, -in these very words: All such as have been banished or detected of naughty -life, before Solon made his laws, shall be restored again to their goods and -good name, except those which were condemned by order of the council of -the Areopagites, or by the ephetes, or by the kings in open court, for murder, -and death of any man, or for aspiring to usurp tyranny. These words -to the contrary seem to prove and testify, that the council of the Areopagites -was, before Solon was chosen reformer of the laws. For how could -offenders and wicked men be condemned by order of the council of the Areopagites -before Solon, if Solon was the first that gave it authority to judge?</p> - -<h5><i>Miscellaneous Laws; the Rights of Women</i></h5> - -<p>Furthermore amongst the rest of his laws, one of them indeed was of his -own device: for the like was never stablished elsewhere. And it is that law, -that pronounceth him defamed, and dishonest, who in a civil uproar among the -citizens, sitteth still a looker-on, and a neuter, and taketh part with neither -side. Whereby his mind was as it should appear, that private men should -not be only careful to put themselves and their causes in safety, nor yet -should be careless for other men’s matters, or think it a virtue not to meddle -with the miseries and misfortunes of their country, but from the beginning -of every sedition that they should join with those that take the justest cause in -hand, and rather to hazard themselves with such, than to tarry looking (without -putting themselves in danger) which of the two should have the victory.</p> - -<p>There is another law also, which at the first sight methinketh is very -unhonest and fond. That if any man according to the law hath matched -with a rich heir and inheritor, and of himself is impotent, and unable to do -the office of a husband, she may lawfully lie with any whom she liketh, of -her husband’s nearest kinsmen. Howbeit some affirm, that it is a wise -made law for those, which knowing themselves unmeet to entertain wedlock, -will for covetousness of lands, marry with rich heirs and possessioners, -and mind to abuse poor gentlewomen under the colour of law: and will -think to force and restrain nature. This also confirmeth the same, that such -a new-married wife should be shut up with her husband, and eat a quince -with him: and that he also which marrieth such an inheritor, should of duty -see her thrice a month at the least. For although he get no children of -her, yet it is an honour the husband doth to his wife, arguing that he taketh -her for an honest woman, that he loveth her, and that he esteemeth of her. -Besides, it taketh away many mislikings and displeasures which oftentimes -happen in such cases, and keepeth love and good will waking, that it die not -utterly between them.</p> - -<p>Furthermore, he took away all jointures and dowries in other marriages, -and willed that the wives should bring their husbands but three gowns only, -with some other little movables of small value, and without any other thing -as it were: utterly forbidding that they should buy their husbands, or that -they should make merchandise of marriages, as of other trades to gain, but -would that man and woman should marry together for issue, for pleasure, -and for love, but in no case for money.</p> - -<p>They greatly commend another law of Solon’s, which forbiddeth to speak -ill of the dead. For it is a good and godly thing to think, that they ought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> -not to touch the dead, no more than to touch holy things; and men should -take great heed to offend those that are departed out of this world; besides -it is a token of wisdom and civility, to beware of immortal enemies. He -commanded also in the self-same law, that no man should speak ill of the -living, specially in churches, during divine service, or in council chamber of -the city, nor in the theatres whilst games were a-playing: upon pain of -three silver drachmæ to be paid to him that was injured, and two to the -common treasury.</p> - -<p>So he was marvellously well thought of, for the law that he made touching -wills and testaments. For before, men might not lawfully make their -heirs whom they would, but the goods came to the children or kindred of -the testator. But he leaving it at liberty, to dispose their goods where they -thought good, so they had no children of their own: did therein prefer -friendship before kindred, and good will and favour before necessity and -constraint, and so made every one lord and master of his own goods. Yet -he did not simply and alike allow all sorts of gifts howsoever they were -made: but those only which were made by men of sound memory, or by -those whose wits failed them not by extreme sickness, or through drinks, -medicines, poisonings, charms, or other such violence and extraordinary -means, neither yet through the enticements and persuasions of women. As -thinking very wisely, there was no difference at all between those that were -evidently forced by constraint, and those that were compassed and wrought -by subornation at length to do a thing against their will, taking fraud in -this case equal with violence, and pleasure with sorrow, as passions with -madness, which commonly have as much force the one as the other, to draw -and drive men from reason.</p> - -<p>He made another law also, in which he appointed women their times to -go abroad into the fields, their mourning, their feasts and sacrifices, plucking -from them all disorder and wilful liberty, which they used before. For he -did forbid that they should carry out of the city with them above three -gowns, and to take victuals with them above the value of a half-penny, -neither basket nor pannier above a cubit high: and especially he did forbid -them to go in the night other than in their coach, and that a torch should be -carried before them. He did forbid them also at the burial of the dead, to -tear and spoil themselves with blows, to make lamentations in verses, to weep -at the funeral of a stranger not being their kinsman, to sacrifice an ox on -the grave of the dead, to bury above three gowns with the corpse, to go to -other men’s graves, but at the very time of burying the corpse.</p> - -<h5><i>Results of Solon’s Legislation</i></h5> - -<p>And perceiving that the city of Athens began to replenish daily more -and more, by men’s repairing thither from all parts, and by reason of the -great assured safety and liberty that they found there: and also considering -how the greatest part of the realm became in manner heathy, and was very -barren, and that men trafficking the seas, are not wont to bring any merchandise -to those, which can give them nothing again in exchange: he began to -practise that his citizens should give themselves unto crafts and occupations, -and made a law, that the son should not be bound to relieve his father being -old, unless he had set him in his youth to some occupation.</p> - -<p>It was a wise part of Lycurgus (who dwelt in a city where was no resort -for strangers, and had so great a territory, as could have furnished twice as -many people, as Euripides saith, and moreover on all sides was environed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> -with a great number of slaves of the helots, whom it was needful to keep -still in labour and work continually) to have his citizens always occupied in -exercises of feats of arms, without making them to learn any other science, -but discharge them of all other miserable occupations and handicrafts.</p> - -<p>But Solon framing his laws unto things, and not things unto laws, when -he saw the country of Attica so lean and barren, that it could hardly bring -forth to sustain those that tilled the ground only, and therefore much more -impossible to keep so great a multitude of idle people as were in Athens: -thought it very requisite to set up occupations, and to give them countenance -and estimation. Therefore he ordered, that the council of the Areopagites, -should have full power and authority to inquire how every man lived -in the city, and also to punish such as they found idle people, and did not -labour. Yet to say truly, in Solon’s laws touching women, there are many -absurdities, as they fall out ill-favouredly. For he maketh it lawful for any -man to kill an adulterer taking him with the fact. But he that ravisheth or -forcibly taketh away a free woman, is only condemned to pay a hundred -silver drachmæ.</p> - -<p>Of the fruits of the earth, he was contented they should transport and -sell only oil out of the realm to strangers, but no other fruit or grain. He -ordained that the governor of the city should yearly proclaim open curses -against those that should do to the contrary, or else he himself making default -therein, should be fined at a hundred drachmæ. This ordinance is in -the first table of Solon’s laws, and therefore we may not altogether discredit -those which say, they did forbid in the old time that men should carry figs -out of the country of Attica, and that from hence it came that these pick-thanks, -which bewray and accuse them that transported figs, were called -sycophants. He made another law also against the hurt that beasts might -do unto men. Wherein he ordained, that if a dog did bite any man, he that -owned him should deliver to him that was bitten, his dog tied to a log of -timber of four cubits long: and this was a very good device, to make men -safe from dogs. But he was very straight in one law he made, that no -stranger might be made denizen and free man of the city of Athens, unless -he were a banished man forever out of his country, or else that he should -come and dwell there with all his family, to exercise some craft or science. -Notwithstanding, they say he made not this law so much to put strangers -from their freedom there, as to draw them thither, assuring them by this -ordinance, they might come and be free of the city: and he thought moreover, -that both the one and the other would be more faithful to the commonweal -of Athens.</p> - -<p>This also was another of Solon’s laws, which he ordained for those that -should feast certain days at the townhouse of the city, at other men’s cost. -For he would not allow, that one man should come often to feasts there. And -if any man were invited thither to the feast, and did refuse to come: he did -set a fine on his head, as reproving the miserable niggardliness of the one -and the presumptuous arrogancy of the other, to contemn and despise common -order.</p> - -<p>After he had made his laws, he did stablish them to continue for the space -of one hundred years, and they were written in tables of wood called <i>axones</i>. -So all the councils and magistrates together did swear, that they would keep -Solon’s laws themselves, and also cause them to be observed of others thoroughly -and particularly. Then every one of the <i>thesmothetes</i> (which were -certain officers attendant on the council, and had special charge to see the -laws observed) did solemnly swear in the open market-place, near the stone<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> -where the proclamations are proclaimed: and every one of them both promised, -and vowed openly to keep the same laws, and that if any of them did -in any one point break the said ordinances, then they were content that such -offender should pay to the temple of Apollo, at the city of Delphi, an image -of fine gold, that should weigh as much as himself.</p> - -<p>Now after his laws were proclaimed, there came some daily unto him, -which either praised them, or misliked them: and prayed him either to take -away, or to add something unto them. Many again came and asked him -how he understood some sentence of his laws: and requested him to declare -his meaning, and how it should be taken. Wherefore considering how it -were to no purpose to refuse to do it, and again how it would get him much -envy and ill will to yield thereunto: he determined (happen what would) to -wind himself out of these briers, and to fly the groanings, complaints, and -quarrels of his citizens. So, to convey himself awhile out of the way, he -took upon him to be master of a ship in a certain voyage, and asked license -for ten years of the Athenians to go beyond sea, hoping by that time the -Athenians would be very well acquainted with his laws.</p> - -<h4>SOLON’S JOURNEY AND RETURN; PISISTRATUS</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[590-580 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>So went he to the seas, and the first place of his arrival was in Egypt, -where he remained awhile. And as for the meeting and talk betwixt him -and King Crœsus, I know there are that by distance of time will prove it but -a fable, and devised of pleasure: but for my part I will not reject, nor condemn -so famous a history, received and approved by so many grave testimonies. -Moreover it is very agreeable to Solon’s manners and nature, and also not -unlike to his wisdom and magnanimity: although in all points it agreeth -not with certain tables (which they call Chronicles) where they have busily -noted the order and course of times which even to this day, many have curiously -sought to correct.<a name="FNanchor_15" id="FNanchor_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> - -<p>But during the time of his absence, great seditions rose at Athens amongst -the inhabitants, who had gotten them several heads amongst them: as those -of the valley had made Lycurgus their head. The coast-men Megacles, the -son of Alcmæon. And those of the mountains, Pisistratus; with whom all -artificers and craftsmen living of their handy labour were joined, which were -the stoutest against the rich. So that notwithstanding the city kept Solon’s -laws and ordinances, yet was there not a man but gaped for a change, and -desired to see things in another state.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[580-558 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The whole commonweal broiling thus with troubles, Solon arrived at -Athens, where every man did honour and reverence him: howbeit he was no -more able to speak aloud in open assembly to the people, nor to deal in matters -as he had done before, because his age would not suffer him: and therefore -he spake with every one of the heads of the several factions apart, trying -if he could agree and reconcile them together again.</p> - -<p>Whereupon Pisistratus seemed to be more willing than any of the rest, -for he was courteous, and marvellous fair spoken, and showed himself besides -very good and pitiful to the poor, and temperate also to his enemies: further, -if any good quality were lacking in him, he did so finely counterfeit it, that -men imagined it was more in him, than in those that naturally had it in them -indeed. By this art and fine manner of his, he deceived the poor common<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> -people. Howbeit Solon found him straight, and saw the mark he shot at: -but yet hated him not at that time, and sought still to win him, and bring -him to reason.</p> - -<p>Shortly after Pisistratus having wounded himself, and bloodied all his -body over, caused his men to carry him in his couch into the market-place, -where he put the people in an uproar, and told them that they were his enemies -that thus traitorously had handled and arrayed him, for that he stood -with them about the governing of the commonweal: insomuch as many of -them were marvellously offended, and mutinied by and by, crying out it was -shamefully done. Then Solon drawing near said unto him: “O thou son of -Hippocrates, thou dost ill-favouredly counterfeit the person of Homer’s Ulysses: -for thou hast whipped thyself to deceive thy citizens, as he did tear and -scratch himself, to deceive his enemies.” Notwithstanding this, the common -people were still in uproar, being ready to take arms for Pisistratus: and -there was a general council assembled, in the which one Ariston spake, that -they should grant fifty men, to carry halberds and maces before Pisistratus -for guard of his person.</p> - -<p>But Solon going up into the pulpit for orations, stoutly inveighed against -it. But in the end, seeing the poor people did tumult still, taking Pisistratus’ -part, and that the rich fled here and there, he went his way also.</p> - -<p>Wherefore he hied him home again, and took his weapons out of his -house, and laid them before his gate in the midst of the street, saying: “For -my part, I have done what I can possible, to help and defend the laws and -liberties of my country.”</p> - -<p>So from that time he betook himself unto his ease, and never after dealt -any more in matters of state, or commonweal. His friends did counsel him -to fly: but all they could not persuade him to it. For he kept his house, -and gave himself to make verses, in which he sore reproved the Athenians’ -faults. His friends hereupon did warn him to beware of such speeches, and -to take heed what he said, lest if it came unto the tyrant’s ears, he might put -him to death for it. And further, they asked him wherein he trusted, that -he spake so boldly. He answered them, “In my age.”</p> - -<p>Howbeit Pisistratus, after he had obtained his purpose, sending for him -upon his word and faith, did honour and entertain him so well, that Solon in -the end became one of his council, and approved many things which he did.</p> - -<p>Solon lived a long time after Pisistratus had usurped the tyranny, -as Heraclides Ponticus writeth. Howbeit Phanias Ephesian writeth, that he -lived not above two years after.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_12d" id="enanchor_12d"></a><a href="#endnote_12d">d</a></span></p> - -<h4>A MODERN VIEW OF SOLONIAN LAWS AND CONSTITUTION</h4> - -<p>As a recent summing up of Solon, we may quote Professor Bury:</p> - -<p>“He was a poet, not because he was poetically inspired, like the Parian -Archilochus of an earlier, or the Lesbian Sappho of his own, generation; -but because at that time every man of letters was a poet; there was no -prose literature. A hundred years later Solon would have used prose as the -vehicle of his thought. We are fortunate enough to possess portions of -poems—political pamphlets—which he published for the purpose of guiding -public opinion; and thus we have his view of the situation in his own -words.</p> - -<p>“The character of the remedial measures of Solon is imperfectly known. -His title to fame as one of the great statesmen of Europe rests upon his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> -reform of the constitution. He discovered a secret of democracy, and he -used his discovery to build up the constitution on democratic foundations. -The Athenian commonwealth did not actually become a democracy till -many years later. The radical measure of Solon, which was the very -corner-stone of the Athenian democracy, was his constitution of the courts -of justice. He composed the law courts out of all the citizens, including -the Thetes; and as the panels of judges were enrolled by lot, the poorest -burgher might have his turn. The constitution of the judicial courts out of -the whole people was the secret of democracy which Solon discovered.</p> - -<p>“It was the fate of Solon to live long enough to see the establishment of -the tyranny which he dreaded. We know not what part he had taken in -the troubled world of politics since his return to Athens. The story was -invented that he called upon the citizens to arm themselves against the -tyrant, but called in vain; and that then, laying his arms outside the threshold -of his house, he cried, ‘I have aided, so far as I could, my country and -the constitution, and I appeal to others to do likewise.’ Nor has the story -that he refused to live under a tyranny and sought refuge with his Cyprian -friend the king of Soli, any good foundation. We know only that in his -later years he enjoyed the pleasures of wine and love, and that he survived -but a short time the seizure of the tyranny by Pisistratus, who at least -treated the old man with respect.”<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_12e" id="enanchor_12e"></a><a href="#endnote_12e">e</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_15" id="Footnote_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> [This famous story has already been given in the Appendix to the history of Western Asia, -Vol. II.]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-12.jpg" width="400" height="250" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-13.jpg" width="500" height="176" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XIII_PISISTRATUS_THE_TYRANT">CHAPTER XIII. PISISTRATUS THE TYRANT</h3> - -<p>Pisistratus directed with admirable moderation the courses of the -revolution he had produced. Many causes of success were combined in his -favour. His enemies had been the supposed enemies of the people, and the -multitude doubtless beheld the flight of the Alcmæonidæ (still odious in their -eyes by the massacre of Cylon) as the defeat of a foe, while the triumph of -the popular chief was recognised as the victory of the people. In all revolutions -the man who has sided with the people is permitted by the people the -greatest extent of license. It is easy to perceive, by the general desire which -the Athenians had expressed for the elevation of Solon to the supreme -authority, that the notion of regal authority was not yet hateful to them, and -that they were scarcely prepared for the liberties with which they were entrusted. -But although they submitted thus patiently to the ascendency of -Pisistratus, it is evident that a less benevolent, or less artful tyrant would -not have been equally successful. Raised above the law, that subtle genius -governed only by the law; nay, he affected to consider its authority greater -than his own. He assumed no title—no attribute of sovereignty. He was -accused of murder, and he humbly appeared before the tribunal of the Areopagus—a -proof not more of the moderation of the usurper than of the -influence of public opinion. He enforced the laws of Solon, and compelled -the unruly tempers of his faction to subscribe to their wholesome rigour. -The one revolution did not, therefore, supplant, it confirmed, the other. -“By these means,” says Herodotus, “Pisistratus mastered Athens, and yet -his situation was far from secure.”</p> - -<p>Although the heads of the more moderate party, under Megacles, had -been expelled from Athens, yet the faction, equally powerful, and equally -hostile, headed by Lycurgus, and embraced by the bulk of the nobles, still -remained. For a time, extending perhaps to five or six years, Pisistratus -retained his power; but at length, Lycurgus, uniting with the exiled Alcmæonidæ, -succeeded in expelling him from the city. But the union that -had led to his expulsion, ceased with that event. The contests between the -lowlanders and the coastmen were only more inflamed by the defeat of the -third party which had operated as a balance of power, and the broils of their -several leaders were fed by personal ambition as by hereditary animosities. -Megacles, therefore, unable to maintain equal ground with Lycurgus, turned -his thoughts towards the enemy he had subdued, and sent proposals to Pisistratus, -offering to unite their forces, and to support him in his pretensions to -the tyranny, upon condition that the exiled chief should marry his daughter -Cœsyra. Pisistratus readily acceded to the terms, and it was resolved by a -theatrical pageant to reconcile his return to the people.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_13b" id="enanchor_13b"></a><a href="#endnote_13b">b</a></span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">[550-540 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>This was, according to Herodotus, “the most ridiculous project that was -ever imagined.” “In the Pæanean tribe was a woman named Phya,” he -says, “four cubits high, wanting three fingers, and in other respects handsome; -having dressed this woman in a complete suit of armour, and placed -her on a chariot, and having shown her beforehand how to assume the most -becoming demeanour, they drove her to the city, having sent heralds before, -who, on their arrival in the city, proclaimed what was ordered in these -terms: ‘O Athenians, receive with kind wishes Pisistratus, whom Minerva -herself, honouring above all men, now conducts back to her own citadel.’ -They then went about proclaiming this; and a report was presently spread -among the people that Minerva was bringing back Pisistratus; and the -people in the city, believing this woman to be the goddess, both adored a -human being, and received Pisistratus.”<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_13c" id="enanchor_13c"></a><a href="#endnote_13c">c</a></span></p> - -<p>The sagacity of the Athenians was already so acute, and the artifice -appeared to Herodotus so gross, that the simple Halicarnassian could -scarcely credit the authenticity of this tale. But it is possible that the -people viewed the procession as an ingenious allegory, to the adaptation of -which they were already disposed; and that like the populace of a later and -yet more civilised people, they hailed the goddess while they recognised the -prostitute.<a name="FNanchor_16" id="FNanchor_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> Be that as it may, the son of Hippocrates recovered his authority -and fulfilled his treaty with Megacles by a marriage with his daughter. -Between the commencement of his first tyranny and the date of his second -return, there was probably an interval of twelve years. His sons were -already adults. Partly from a desire not to increase his family, partly from -some superstitious disinclination to the blood of the Alcmæonidæ, which the -massacre of Cylon still stigmatised with contamination, Pisistratus conducted -himself towards the fair Cœsyra with a chastity either unwelcome to -her affection, or afflicting to her pride. The unwedded wife communicated -the mortifying secret to her mother, from whose lips it soon travelled to the -father. He did not view the purity of Pisistratus with charitable eyes. He -thought it an affront to his own person that that of his daughter should be -so tranquilly regarded. He entered into a league with his former opponents -against the usurper, and so great was the danger, that Pisistratus (despite -his habitual courage) betook himself hastily to flight—a strange instance -of the caprice of human events, that a man could with a greater impunity -subdue the freedom of his country, than affront the vanity of his wife!</p> - -<p>Pisistratus, his sons and partisans, retired to Eretria in Eubœa: there -they deliberated as to their future proceedings—should they submit to their -exile, or attempt to retrieve their power? The counsels of his son Hippias, -prevailed with Pisistratus; it was resolved once more to attempt the -sovereignty of Athens. The neighbouring tribes assisted the exiles with -forage and shelter. Many cities accorded the celebrated noble large sums of -money, and the Thebans outdid the rest in pernicious liberality. A troop of -Argive adventurers came from the Peloponnesus to tender to the baffled -usurper the assistance of their swords, and Lygdamis, an individual of Naxos, -himself ambitious of the government of his native state, increased his -resources both by money and military force. At length, though after a long -and tedious period of no less than eleven years, Pisistratus resolved to -hazard the issue of open war. At the head of a foreign force he advanced -to Marathon, and pitched his tents upon its immortal plain. Troops of the -factious, or discontented, thronged from Athens to his camp, while the bulk<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> -of the citizens, unaffected by such desertions, viewed his preparations with -indifference. At length, when they heard that Pisistratus had broken up -his encampment, and was on his march to the city, the Athenians awoke -from their apathy, and collected their forces to oppose him. He continued -to advance his troops, halted at the temple of Minerva, whose earthly -representative had once so benignly assisted him, and pitched his tents -opposite the fane. He took advantage of that time in which the Athenians, -during the heat of the day, were at their entertainments, or indulging the -noontide repose, still so grateful to the inhabitants of a warmer climate, to -commence his attack. He soon scattered the foe, and ordered his sons to -overtake them in their flight, to bid them return peaceably to their employments, -and fear nothing from his vengeance. His clemency assisted the -effect of his valour, and once more the son of Hippocrates became the -master of the Athenian commonwealth.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[540 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Pisistratus lost no time in strengthening himself by formidable alliances. -He retained many auxiliary troops, and provided large pecuniary -resources. He spared the persons of his opponents, but sent their children -as hostages to Naxos, which he first reduced and consigned to the tyranny -of his auxiliary, Lygdamis. Many of his inveterate enemies had perished -on the field—many fled from the fear of his revenge. He was undisturbed -in the renewal of his sway, and having no motive for violence, pursued the -natural bent of a mild and generous disposition, ruling as one who wishes -men to forget the means by which his power has been attained.</p> - -<p>It was in harmony with this part of his character that Pisistratus refined -the taste and socialised the habits of the citizens, by the erection of buildings -dedicated to the public worship, or the public uses, and laid out the stately -gardens of the Lyceum—(in after-times the favourite haunt of Philosophy)—by -the banks of the river dedicated to Song. Pisistratus thus did more than -continue the laws of Solon—he inculcated the intellectual habits which the -laws were designed to create. And as in the circle of human events the -faults of one man often confirm what was begun by the virtues of another, -so perhaps the usurpation of Pisistratus was necessary to establish the institutions -of Solon. It is clear that the great lawgiver was not appreciated at -the close of his life as his personal authority had ceased to have influence, -so possibly might have soon ceased the authority of his code. The citizens -required repose, to examine, to feel, to estimate the blessings of his laws—that -repose they possessed under Pisistratus. Amidst the tumult of fierce -and equipoised factions it might be fortunate that a single individual was -raised above the rest, who, having the wisdom to appreciate the institutions -of Solon, had the authority to enforce them. Silently they grew up under -his usurped but benignant sway, pervading, penetrating, exalting the people, -and fitting them by degrees to the liberty those institutions were intended -to confer. If the disorders of the republic led to the ascendency of -Pisistratus so the ascendency of Pisistratus paved the way for the renewal -of the republic. As Cromwell was the representative of the very sentiments -he appeared to subvert—as Napoleon in his own person incorporated -the principles of the revolution of France, so the tyranny of Pisistratus concentrated -and embodied the elements of that democracy he rather wielded -than overthrew.</p> - -<p>At home, time and tranquillity cemented the new laws; poetry set before -the emulation of the Athenians its noblest monument in the epics of -Homer; and tragedy put forth its first unmellowed fruits in the rude recitations -of Thespis. Pisistratus sought also to counterbalance the growing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> -passion for commerce by peculiar attention to agriculture, in which it is -not unlikely that he was considerably influenced by early prepossessions, for -his party had been the mountaineers attached to rural pursuits, and his -adversaries the coastmen engaged in traffic. We learn from Aristotle -that his policy consisted much in subjecting and humbling the Pedieis, or -wealthy nobles of the lowlands. But his very affection to agriculture must -have tended to strengthen an aristocracy, and his humility to the Areopagus -was a proof of his desire to conciliate the least democratic of the Athenian -courts. He probably, therefore, acted only against such individual chiefs as -had incurred his resentment, or as menaced his power; nor can we perceive -in his measures the systematic and deliberate policy, common with other -Greek tyrants, to break up an aristocracy and create a middle class.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[540-527 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Abroad, the ambition of Pisistratus, though not extensive, was successful. -There was a town on the Hellespont, called Sigeum, which had long -been a subject of contest between the Athenians and the Mytileneans. -Some years before the legislation of Solon, the Athenian general, Phrynon, -had been slain in single combat by Pittacus, one of the Seven Wise Men, -who had come into the field armed like the Roman retiarius, with a net, a -trident, and a dagger. This feud was terminated by the arbitration of -Periander, tyrant of Corinth, who awarded Sigeum to the Athenians, which -was then in their possession, by a wise and plausible decree, that each -party should keep what it had got. This war was chiefly remarkable for -an incident that introduces us somewhat unfavourably to the most animated -of the lyric poets. Alcæus, an eminent citizen of Mytilene, and, according -to ancient scandal, the unsuccessful lover of Sappho, conceived a passion -for military fame: in his first engagement he seems to have discovered that -his proper vocation was rather to sing of battles than to share them. He -fled from the field, leaving his arms behind him, which the Athenians -obtained, and suspended at Sigeum in the temple of Minerva. Although -this single action, which Alcæus himself recorded, cannot be fairly held a -sufficient proof of the poet’s cowardice, yet his character and patriotism -are more equivocal than his genius. Of the last we have ample testimony,—though -few remains save in the frigid grace of the imitations of Horace. -The subsequent weakness and civil dissensions of Athens, were not favourable -to the maintenance of this distant conquest—the Mytileneans regained -Sigeum. Against this town Pisistratus now directed his arms—wrested it -from the Mytileneans—and instead of annexing it to the republic of -Athens, assigned its government to the tyranny of his natural son, Hegesistratus—a -stormy dominion, which the valour of the bastard defended -against repeated assaults.</p> - -<p>But one incident, the full importance of which the reader must wait -awhile to perceive, we shall in this place relate. Among the most powerful -of the Athenians was a noble named Miltiades, son of Cypselus. By -original descent, he was from the neighbouring island of Ægina, and of -the heroic race of Æacus; but he dated the establishment of his house -in Athens from no less distant a founder than the son of Ajax. Miltiades -had added new lustre to his name by a victory at the Olympic Games. -It was probably during the first tyranny of Pisistratus that an adventure, -attended with vast results to Greece, befell this noble. His family were -among the enemies of Pisistratus, and were regarded by that sagacious -usurper with a jealous apprehension, which almost appears prophetic. -Miltiades was, therefore, uneasy under the government of Pisistratus, and -discontented with his position in Athens.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span></p> - -<p>In that narrow territory which, skirting the Hellespont, was called the -Chersonesus, or Peninsula, dwelt the Doloncians, a Thracian tribe. Engaged -in an obstinate war with the neighbouring Absinthians, the Doloncians -had sent to the oracle of Delphi to learn the result of the contest.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_13b2" id="enanchor_13b2"></a><a href="#endnote_13b">b</a></span></p> - -<p>The Pythian answered them, “that they should take that man with them -to their country to found a colony, who after their departure from the temple -should first offer them hospitality.” Accordingly the Doloncians, going by -the sacred way, went through the territories of the Phocians and Bœotians, -and when no one invited them, turned out of the road towards Athens. -Miltiades, being seated in his own portico, and seeing the Doloncians passing -by, wearing a dress not belonging to the country, and carrying javelins, called -out to them; and upon their coming to him, he offered them shelter and -hospitality. They having accepted his invitation, and having been entertained -by him, made known to him the whole oracle, and entreated him to -obey his duty. Their words persuaded Miltiades as soon as he heard them, -for he was troubled with the government of Pisistratus, and desired to get -out of his way. He therefore immediately set out to Delphi to consult the -oracle, whether he should do that which the Doloncians requested of him. -The Pythian having bid him do so, thereupon Miltiades, taking with him all -such Athenians as were willing to join in the expedition, set sail with the -Doloncians, and took possession of the country; and they who introduced -him appointed him tyrant.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_13c2" id="enanchor_13c2"></a><a href="#endnote_13c">c</a></span></p> - -<p>Miltiades (probably <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> 559) first of all fortified a great part of the -isthmus, as a barrier to the attacks of the Absinthians; but shortly afterwards, -in a feud with the people of Lampsacus, he was taken prisoner by the -enemy. Miltiades, however, had already secured the esteem and protection -of Crœsus; and the Lydian monarch remonstrated with the Lampsacenes in -so formidable a tone of menace, that the Athenian obtained his release, and -regained his new principality. In the meanwhile, his brother Cimon, (who -was chiefly remarkable for his success at the Olympic Games,) sharing the -political sentiments of his house, had been driven into exile by Pisistratus. -By a transfer to the brilliant tyrant of a victory in the Olympic chariot-race, -he, however, propitiated Pisistratus, and returned to Athens.</p> - -<p>Full of years, and in the serene enjoyment of power, Pisistratus died -(<span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> 527). His character may already be gathered from his actions: crafty -in the pursuit of power, but magnanimous in its possession, we have only, with -some qualification, to repeat the eulogium on him ascribed to his greater kinsman -Solon—“That he was the best of tyrants, and without a vice save that of -ambition.”<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_13b3" id="enanchor_13b3"></a><a href="#endnote_13b">b</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE VIRTUES OF PISISTRATUS’ RULE</h4> - -<p>Pisistratus was far from overturning the constitution of Athens; rather -did Solon’s ordinances remain in full force under him. The reasonable and -necessary progress of development in the state which lay at the root of the -movement which produced Greek tyrannies, had been in every way provided -for by Solon, and consequently wise and temperate tyrants might govern in -accordance with the Solonian laws. Pisistratus honoured the memory of his -relative, with whose ideas their former intercourse had made him familiar, -and he therefore fostered and forwarded his instructions, so far as they were -consistent with his own supremacy. He himself submitted to the laws, and -is said to have appeared in person before the Areopagus, to justify himself -against a complaint, so that on the whole his government greatly contributed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> -to accustom the Athenians to the laws. It must be confessed, however, that -he raised the money which he required for the maintenance of his troops, as -well as for the buildings and public festivals, by the mere right of tyranny, -and by levying a tenth on the real estate of the citizens.</p> - -<p>His new measures and dispositions also exhibited the character of a wise -moderation, and were in harmony with Solon. Thus he insisted on the -obligation of the commonwealth to care for those who were wounded in the -wars, as well as for the families of such as had fallen in battle. He especially -took upon himself the charge of public morality, the fostering of those good -manners which consist in the respect of youth for age and in reverence towards -sacred things. He promulgated a law against idle loitering about the streets, -and, although he had himself risen to greatness in the market through the -agency of the people who had come in from the country, still he regarded -the increasing mass of the townsfolk with anxiety. For this reason he sought -to oppose a barrier to the tendency to constitute the life of a great city, which -prevailed amongst the Ionic races, and following the precedent of Periander -and the Orthagoridæ, he made entry into the capital more difficult. He -endeavoured to raise the peasant class, which Solon had rescued, and to -encourage the taste for agriculture.</p> - -<p>With these important dispositions, whose spirit was pre-eminently that of -Hipparchus to whom the whole civilisation of the country was so much indebted, -were also connected the great aqueducts which brought the drinking-water -from the mountains to the capital through rocky underground conduits. -That these canals might be inspected and cleaned in every part, shafts were -cut through the rock at stated intervals, and thus light and air were introduced -into the dark channels. On the outskirts of the town the inflowing -water was collected in great rock basins, where it clarified before disseminating -itself into the town and feeding the public fountains. These wonderful -works have continued in a state of efficiency down to our own day.</p> - -<p>Pisistratus governed Athens, but he bore no sovereign title, on the -strength of which to lay claim to unlimited supremacy. He had, in truth, -grounded his rule on force; he retained in his service a standing army, -which, dependent on him alone and uncontrolled by the vote of the citizens, -could be all the more crushingly opposed to any attempt at a rising, since -the greater part of the citizens were unarmed, the townsfolk diminished in -number, and the public interest, from political circumstances, directed partly -to rural economy, partly to the new town institutions. The order of the -officers of state remained unaltered, only that one of them was always in -the hands of a member of Pisistratus’ family, in which he managed to suppress -every sign of disunion with great skill, so that to the people the ruling -house appeared united in itself and animated by but one spirit. In this -sense men spoke of the government of the Pisistratidæ, and could not refuse -recognition to the manifold gifts which distinguished the house.</p> - -<p>It was a wise counsel which the old state organisers gave the tyrants, -that they should bestow on their rule as much as possible the character of -ancient royalty, so that the usurping origin of their power might be forgotten. -Thus Pisistratus did not, like the Cypselidæ and Orthagoridæ, desire -to break with the past of the state, but rather to connect himself closely -with the ancient and glorious history of the country, so that after all the -evil which the party government of the nobility had brought on Attica, she -might be restored the blessing of a united rule. Standing superior to the -parties, as a relative to the ancient royal house, he believed himself especially -chosen to accomplish this end. With this view, he lived on the citadel, near<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> -the altar of Zeus Herceios, the family hearth of the ancient princes of the -country, watching over the turbulent citizens from the summit of the rock, -which, before the building of the Propylæa, was still more inaccessible than -afterwards. The very position of his dwelling must have drawn him into -a close relation with the goddess of the citadel and her priesthood.</p> - -<p>The public life of the Athenians was awakened and transformed in every -direction. Athens became a new town within and without. With her new -highways and military roads, her town squares, gymnasia, fountains and -aqueducts, her new altars, temples and temple festivals, she stood out prominently -from the crowd of Greek towns, and the Pisistratidæ neglected nothing -which might contribute to lend her new importance by means of numerous -alliances with the islands and shores of the Ægean Sea.</p> - -<p>To this end, it was not enough that the Athenians ruled in Delos, Naxos, -and at the Hellespont, but they must also appropriate to themselves the intellectual -treasures of the further coasts where the Hellenic spirit showed -itself at its best, and thus enrich their own life. For this purpose Solon had -already introduced the Homeric rhapsodies into Athens, and ordained their -public recitation at the festivals. Pisistratus joined in these efforts, with a -full appreciation of the importance of the matter, though not with the disinterestedness -of the Solonian love for art, but designedly, and for his own -advantage. For he ministered at once to the fame of his ancestors and the -splendour of his house.</p> - -<p>These songs had hitherto been passed down by word of mouth, and the -noblest abilities of the nation had been dedicated to the preservation of this -national treasure in widely disseminated schools of bards. Nevertheless, -even with the utmost power of memory, it was unavoidable that all kinds of -confusion should be introduced into the tradition, that the original should -be disfigured, what was authentic be lost, spurious matter creep in, and the -whole, the most important collection possessed by the Hellenic people, fall -to pieces. The danger became the more threatening, the higher rose the -turbulence of the times, and the more the individual states deviated in special -directions and the interests of modern times gained primary importance. It -became, therefore, a state obligation to meet this danger, and to take in hand -the task which individual ability had not succeeded in accomplishing; and the -state was all the more concerned in the matter since the recital of the Homeric -poems had been prescribed in the ordinances for the public festivals.</p> - -<p>It is to the great merit of Pisistratus to have clearly recognised that -nothing could create for the Athenians a greater and more lasting renown -than could be achieved by assuming this task. He therefore summoned a -number of learned men, and commissioned them to collect and compare the -texts of the rhapsodies, to cut out what did not belong, to unite what was -scattered, and fix the Homeric epos as a whole, a great record of national -life, in a standard form. Thus Onomacritus the Athenian, Zopyras of Heraclea, -and Orpheus of Croton worked under the superintendence of the regent; -they formed a scientific commission, which had an extensive sphere of labour; -for not only were the <i>Odyssey</i> and <i>Iliad</i> revised, but also that later epos, -that is to say the poetic writings of the so-called “cyclic poets,” which had -come into existence as a sequel supplementary to the <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i>, -together with the whole treasure of the Ionic epos, which was united under -the name of Homer, besides Hesiod and the religious poems. Pisistratus -took a personal interest in the work, and even here we can trace the character -of a tyranny in that alterations, omissions, and interpolations were -made according to his taste or policy. Thus, for example, in the catalogue<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> -of ships the Salaminians were ranged among the Athenian levies, in order to -supply a traditional authority for an ancient claim of Athens.</p> - -<p>The end and aim of the proceeding was completely attained. The most -important branch of the poetic art, which had developed amongst the Hellenes, -namely, the epic of the Ionic and Bœotian schools, was transplanted to -Athens. Here for the first time a Hellenic philology was founded: for, in -the work of collecting, the critical faculty was first awakened, since the collecting -involved the distinction of genuine from spurious, ancient from -modern, and, though the scientific performance as such could not bear a very -close scrutiny, yet still the treasure of the Homeric poems received from the -Athenians the first appreciation of its national significance, and it was now -that writing was for the first time employed to secure an irreplaceable -national possession against the dangers of a merely verbal tradition. The -poems were not, however, by any means alienated from ordinary life, but -were raised to a higher position in the festivals of the town and the education -of the young. The city of Pisistratus acquired an authoritative reputation -in the domain of national poetry; through him a Homer and Hesiod -came into existence which could be read in the same form to the ends of the -Greek world.</p> - -<p>The collection and investigation went back beyond Homer to the most -ancient sources of Hellenic theology, of which the Thracian Orpheus was -regarded as the founder, and which Onomacritus now worked up into a new -system of mystic wisdom, while at the same time it was utilised to give enhanced -importance to the favourite cult of the dynasty, the worship of -Dionysus. With it was joined the collection of oracular sayings, upon -which the Pisistratidæ placed a special value, as well as the arrangement of -the historical records, especially the genealogies.</p> - -<p>Thus Athens became a centre of scientific learning and labour. If any -one wished to gain a sight of any poem worthy of remembrance which had -been written in the Hellenic tongue, or of anything concerning the knowledge -of the gods and of ethics which had been thought out by the ancients and -handed down by tradition from former times, he must journey to Athens. -Here, on the citadel of Pisistratus, the whole treasure was united; here the -works of the nation’s poets and wise men were collected together, carefully -inscribed in rolls, well arranged, and suitably disposed.</p> - -<p>Yet it was not enough to garner what remained from ancient times; -there was also a desire to encourage living art and to have its masters in -Athens, and specially those in the lyric art, which had succeeded the epic, -and during the age of the tyrants was in full vigour. The lyric poets were -especially qualified to enhance the brilliance of courts, and to ennoble their -feasts, and were consequently summoned from one place to another. Thus -the Pisistratidæ sent out their state ships to fetch Anacreon of Teos, the -joyous poet and comrade of Polycrates, to Athens, and thus Simonides of -Ceos and Lasus of Hermione dwelt at the tyrant’s Court of the Muses.</p> - -<p>But quite new germs of national poetry were also unfolded under them -and by their means. For they were already the fosterers of the worship of -Dionysus [or Bacchus], and at the latter’s festivals were developed not only -the choral dance and choral song of the Dithyrambus, which Arion had invented -and Lasus further improved, but mimic representations were added -to them, in which masked choruses appeared, and singers who assumed a -rule opposite the choruses, spoke to the latter and conducted conversations -with them. Thus an action, a drama, developed itself, and after the thing -had been invented it was freed from the bacchanalian material and changed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> -in contents as in masks; the whole cycle of heroic legends was gradually -drawn on for dramatic treatment, and the founder of this Dionysian play -was Thespis of Icaria.</p> - -<p>Thus the Pisistratidæ collected the after-echoes of the epic, fostered the -existing art of song in its full blossom, and called forth by their patronage a -new and genuinely Attic branch of national art, that drama which united -both lyric and epic. Besides this the best architects, Antistates, Callicrates, -Antimachides, Porinus, and sculptors were busily employed on the Olympieum -and Hecatompedon, and the best experts of their time at the great -hydraulic constructions. The most eminent men of all faculties learnt to -know each other and interchanged their experiences. But there was also -no lack of friction and mutual jealousy, and Lasus did not shrink from publicly -reproaching Onomacritus, who had attempted to serve his master by -means of forged oracles, with abuse of the princely confidence, and thus to -bring about his banishment.</p> - -<p>Under such conditions, where everything depended on the ambitious -whims of a self-seeking ruling family, how could it fail to happen that many -underhand transactions should take place? Even in the arrangement of -the Orphic teachings, the traces of wilful forgery were brought home to the -sycophantic Onomacritus. Nevertheless the reputation of the Pisistratidæ -still remains that of extreme integrity. They clearly recognised the vocation -of Athens to unite and cultivate everything that was of national importance, -and within a short time and by incredible industry they attained -results which have never been effaced.</p> - -<p>To the regent himself indeed, no more than to other tyrants was granted -the peaceful enjoyment of his success; he continually felt that he trod on -the brink of a volcano. Every popular commotion, every aspiring family, -every unwonted stroke of fortune attained by an Athenian was pain and -grief to him.</p> - -<p>This is shown by the petty and superstitious means, which this powerful -man employed to quiet his mind. He allowed himself to be pleased when -Athenians who had conquered at Olympia caused the name of Pisistratus to -be called out instead of their own, as was done by Cimon, called Coalemos, -the half-brother of Miltiades, on the occasion of his second triumph (Ol. -63; 528 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>), when in recognition of this loyalty he was recalled from banishment. -With anxious care inquiries were ceaselessly made after sayings -of the gods which might give security of a long duration for the dynasty; -and since the tyrant, being himself envious and jealous, felt that he was continually -beset by the malevolence of strangers, he had the image of a locust -fastened to the wall of his princely citadel, to serve as a defence against the -evil glance of envy. Yet in advanced years, Pisistratus might confidently -expect that his son and grandson, who were both gifted with talent for rule -and took part in the government under him, would remain true to his policy -to preserve the dynasty to which Athens was so much indebted at home and -abroad. In this hope he died at a great age, surrounded by his family. -(Ol. 63, 527 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>). Hippias succeeded to the power of the tyranny, in -accordance with his father’s will; and the brothers, as they had promised -their father, stood firmly by one another. To the gentle and refined Hipparchus -there was no hardship in being second; he employed his position -for the exercise of the peaceful side of power.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_13d" id="enanchor_13d"></a><a href="#endnote_13d">d</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_16" id="Footnote_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> The procession of the goddess of Reason in the first French Revolution solves the difficulty -that perplexed Herodotus.</p> - -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-14.jpg" width="500" height="114" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XIV_DEMOCRACY_ESTABLISHED_AT_ATHENS">CHAPTER XIV. DEMOCRACY ESTABLISHED AT ATHENS</h3> - -<p>Pisistratus left three legitimate sons—Hippias, Hipparchus, and -Thessalus: the general belief at Athens among the contemporaries of -Thucydides was, that Hipparchus was the eldest of the three and had succeeded -him; but the historian emphatically pronounces this to be a mistake, -and certifies, upon his own responsibility, that Hippias was both eldest son -and successor. Such an assurance from him, fortified by certain reasons in -themselves not very conclusive, is sufficient ground for our belief, the more -so as Herodotus countenances the same version. But we are surprised at -such a degree of historical carelessness in the Athenian public, and seemingly -even in Plato, about a matter both interesting and comparatively -recent. In order to abate this surprise, and to explain how the name of -Hipparchus came to supplant that of Hippias in the popular talk, Thucydides -recounts the memorable story of Harmodius and Aristogiton.</p> - -<p>Of these two Athenian citizens, both belonging to the ancient <i>gens</i> called -Gephyræi, the former was a beautiful youth, attached to the latter by a mutual -friendship and devoted intimacy which Grecian manners did not condemn. -Hipparchus made repeated propositions to Harmodius, which were -repelled, but which, on becoming known to Aristogiton, excited both his -jealousy and his fears lest the disappointed suitor should employ force—fears -justified by the proceedings not unusual with Grecian despots, and by -the absence of all legal protection against outrage from such a quarter. -Under these feelings, he began to look about, in the best way that he could, -for some means of putting down the despotism. Meanwhile Hipparchus, -though not entertaining any designs of violence, was so incensed at the -refusal of Harmodius, that he could not be satisfied without doing something -to insult or humiliate him. In order to conceal the motive from which the -insult really proceeded, he offered it, not directly to Harmodius, but to his -sister. He caused this young maiden to be one day summoned to take her -station in a religious procession as one of the <i>canephoræ</i>, or basket-carriers, -according to the practice usual at Athens; but when she arrived at the -place where her fellow-maidens were assembled, she was dismissed with -scorn as unworthy of so respectable a function, and the summons addressed -to her was disavowed. An insult thus publicly offered filled Harmodius -with indignation, and still further exasperated the feelings of Aristogiton: -both of them, resolving at all hazards to put an end to the despotism, concerted -means for aggression with a few select associates. They awaited the -festival of the Great Panathenæa, wherein the body of the citizens were -accustomed to march up in armed procession, with spear and shield, to the -Acropolis; this being the only day on which an armed body could come -together without suspicion. The conspirators appeared armed like the rest -of the citizens, but carrying concealed daggers besides. Harmodius and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> -Aristogiton undertook with their own hands to kill the two Pisistratidæ, -while the rest promised to stand forward immediately for their protection -against the foreign mercenaries; and though the whole number of persons -engaged was small, they counted upon the spontaneous sympathies of the -armed bystanders in an effort to regain their liberties, so soon as the blow -should once be struck. The day of the festival having arrived, Hippias, -with his foreign bodyguard around him, was marshalling the armed citizens -for procession, in the Ceramicus without the gates, when Harmodius and -Aristogiton approached with concealed daggers to execute their purpose. -On coming near, they were thunder-struck to behold one of their own fellow-conspirators -talking familiarly with Hippias, who was of easy access to -every man; and they immediately concluded that the plot was betrayed. -Expecting to be seized, and wrought up to a state of desperation, they resolved -at least not to die without having revenged themselves on Hipparchus, -whom they found within the city gates near the chapel called the Leocorion, -and immediately slew him. His attendant guards killed Harmodius on the -spot; while Aristogiton, rescued for the moment by the surrounding crowd, -was afterwards taken, and perished in the tortures applied to make him disclose -his accomplices.</p> - -<p>The news flew quickly to Hippias in the Ceramicus, who heard it -earlier than the armed citizens near him, awaiting his order for the commencement -of the procession. With extraordinary self-command, he took -advantage of this precious instant of foreknowledge, and advanced towards -them, commanding them to drop their arms for a short time, and assemble -on an adjoining ground. They unsuspectingly obeyed, and he immediately -directed his guards to take possession of the vacant arms. He was now -undisputed master, and enabled to seize the persons of all those citizens -whom he mistrusted, especially all those who had daggers about them, which -it was not the practice to carry in the Panathenaic procession.</p> - -<p>Such is the memorable narrative of Harmodius and Aristogiton, peculiarly -valuable inasmuch as it all comes from Thucydides. To possess great -power, to be above legal restraint, to inspire extraordinary fear, is a privilege -so much coveted by the giants among mankind, that we may well take -notice of those cases in which it brings misfortune even upon themselves. -The fear inspired by Hipparchus—of designs which he did not really entertain, -but was likely to entertain, and competent to execute without hindrance—was -here the grand cause of his destruction.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[514-510 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The conspiracy here detailed happened in 514 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, during the thirteenth -year of the reign of Hippias, which lasted four years longer, until -510 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> And these last four years, in the belief of the Athenian public, -counted for his whole reign; nay, many of them made the still greater historical -mistake of eliding these last four years altogether, and of supposing -that the conspiracy of Harmodius and Aristogiton had deposed the Pisistratid -government and liberated Athens. Both poets and philosophers -shared this faith, which is distinctly put forth in the beautiful and popular -<i>scolion</i> or song on the subject: the two friends are there celebrated as the -authors of liberty at Athens—“they slew the despot and gave to Athens -equal laws.” So inestimable a present was alone sufficient to enshrine in -the minds of the subsequent democracy those who had sold their lives to -purchase it: and we must further recollect that the intimate connection -between the two, so repugnant to the modern reader, was regarded at -Athens with sympathy, so that the story took hold of the Athenian mind -by the vein of romance conjointly with that of patriotism. Harmodius and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> -Aristogiton were afterwards commemorated both as the winners and as the -protomartyrs of Athenian liberty. Statues were erected in their honour -shortly after the final expulsion of the Pisistratidæ; immunity from taxes -and public burdens was granted to the descendants of their families; and -the speaker who proposed the abolition of such immunities, at a time when -the number had been abusively multiplied, made his only special exception -in favour of this respected lineage. And since the name of Hipparchus -was universally notorious as the person slain, we discover how it was that -he came to be considered by an uncritical public as the predominant member -of the Pisistratid family,—the eldest son and successor of Pisistratus, -the reigning despot,—to the comparative neglect of Hippias. The same -public probably cherished many other anecdotes, not the less eagerly believed -because they could not be authenticated, respecting this eventful period.</p> - -<p>Whatever may have been the moderation of Hippias before, indignation -at the death of his brother and fear for his own safety, now induced him to -drop it altogether. It is attested both by Thucydides and Herodotus, and -admits of no doubt, that his power was now employed harshly and cruelly—that -he put to death a considerable number of citizens. We find also -a statement, noway improbable in itself, and affirmed both in Pausanias and -in Plutarch,—inferior authorities, yet still in this case sufficiently credible,—that -he caused Leæna, the mistress of Aristogiton, to be tortured to death, -in order to extort from her a knowledge of the secrets and accomplices of -the latter. But as he could not but be sensible that this system of terrorism -was full of peril to himself, so he looked out for shelter and support in -case of being expelled from Athens; and with this view he sought to connect -himself with Darius, king of Persia—a connection full of consequences -to be hereafter developed. Æantides, son of Hippoclus the despot of Lampsacus -on the Hellespont, stood high at this time in the favour of the Persian -monarch, which induced Hippias to give him his daughter Archedice in -marriage; no small honour to the Lampsacene, in the estimation of Thucydides. -To explain how Hippias came to fix upon this town, however, it is -necessary to say a few words on the foreign policy of the Pisistratidæ.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[537-515 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The expedition of Miltiades to the Chersonesus, as described in the previous -chapter, must have occurred early after the first usurpation of Pisistratus, -since even his imprisonment by the Lampsacenes happened before the -ruin of Crœsus (546 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>). But it was not till much later,—probably -during the third and most powerful period of Pisistratus,—that the latter -undertook his expedition against Sigeum in the Troad. This place appears -to have fallen into the hands of the Mytileneans: Pisistratus retook it, and -placed there his illegitimate son Hegesistratus as despot. The Mytileneans -may have been enfeebled at this time (somewhere between 537-527 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>), -not only by the strides of Persian conquest on the mainland, but also by the -ruinous defeat which they suffered from Polycrates and the Samians. Hegesistratus -maintained the place against various hostile attempts, throughout all -the reign of Hippias, so that the Athenian possessions in those regions comprehended -at this period both the Chersonesus and Sigeum. To the former -of the two, Hippias sent out Miltiades, nephew of the first <i>œcist</i>, as governor, -after the death of his brother Stesagoras. The new governor found much -discontent in the peninsula, but succeeded in subduing it by entrapping and -imprisoning the principal men in each town. He further took into his pay -a regiment of five hundred mercenaries, and married Hegesipyle, daughter -of the Thracian king Olorus. It appears to have been about 515 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> that -this second Miltiades went out to the Chersonesus. He seems to have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> -obliged to quit it for a time, after the Scythian expedition of Darius, in -consequence of having incurred the hostility of the Persians; but he was -there from the beginning of the Ionic revolt until about 493 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, or two or -three years before the battle of Marathon, on which occasion we shall find him -acting-commander of the Athenian army.</p> - -<p>Both the Chersonesus and Sigeum, though Athenian possessions, were, -however, now tributary and dependent on Persia. And it was to this -quarter that Hippias, during his last years of alarm, looked for support in -the event of being expelled from Athens: he calculated upon Sigeum as a -shelter, and upon Æantides, as well as Darius, as an ally. Neither the one -nor the other failed him.</p> - -<p>The same circumstances which alarmed Hippias, and rendered his dominion -in Attica at once more oppressive and more odious, tended of course to -raise the hopes of his enemies, the Athenian exiles, with the powerful Alcmæonidæ -at their head. Believing the favourable moment to be come, they -even ventured upon an invasion of Attica, and occupied a post called Leipsydrion -in the mountain range of Parnes, which separates Attica from -Bœotia. But their schemes altogether failed: Hippias defeated and drove -them out of the country. His dominion now seemed confirmed, for the -Lacedæmonians were on terms of intimate friendship with him; and Amyntas, -king of Macedon, as well as the Thessalians were his allies. Yet the -exiles whom he had beaten in the open field succeeded in an unexpected -manœuvre, which, favoured by circumstances, proved his ruin.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[548-514 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>By an accident which had occurred in the year 548 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, the Delphian -Temple was set on fire and burnt. To repair this grave loss was an object -of solicitude to all Greece; but the outlay required was exceedingly heavy, -and it appears to have been long before the money could be collected. The -Amphictyons decreed that one-fourth of the cost should be borne by the -Delphians themselves, who found themselves so heavily taxed by this assessment, -that they sent envoys throughout all Greece to collect subscriptions in -aid, and received, among other donations, from the Greek settlers in Egypt -twenty minæ, besides a large present of alum from the Egyptian king -Amasis [Aahmes II]: their munificent benefactor Crœsus fell a victim to -the Persians in 546 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, so that his treasure was no longer open to them. -The total sum required was three hundred talents, equal probably to about -£115,000 sterling [or $575,000],—a prodigious amount to be collected -from the dispersed Grecian cities, who acknowledged no common sovereign -authority, and among whom the proportion reasonable to ask from each -was so difficult to determine with satisfaction to all parties. At length, -however, the money was collected, and the Amphictyons were in a situation -to make a contract for the building of the temple. The Alcmæonidæ, -who had been in exile ever since the third and final acquisition of power by -Pisistratus, took the contract; and in executing it, they not only performed -the work in the best manner, but even went much beyond the terms stipulated; -employing Parian marble for the frontage, where the material prescribed -to them was coarse stone. As was before remarked in the case of -Pisistratus when he was in banishment, we are surprised to find exiles -whose property had been confiscated so amply furnished with money—unless -we are to suppose that Clisthenes the Alcmæonid, grandson of the -Sicyonian Clisthenes, inherited through his mother wealth independent of -Attica, and deposited it in the temple of the Samian Hera.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[514-510 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>To the Delphians, especially, the rebuilding of their temple on so superior -a scale was the most essential of all services, and their gratitude towards the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> -Alcmæonidæ was proportionally great. Partly through such a feeling, partly -through pecuniary presents, Clisthenes was thus enabled to work the oracle -for political purposes, and to call forth the powerful arm of Sparta against -Hippias. Whenever any Spartan presented himself to consult the oracle, -either on private or public business, the answer of the priestess was always -in one strain, “Athens must be liberated.” The constant repetition of this -mandate at length extorted from the piety of the Lacedæmonians a reluctant -compliance. Reverence for the god overcame their strong feeling of friendship -towards the Pisistratidæ, and Anchimolius son of Aster was despatched -by sea to Athens, at the head of a Spartan force, to expel them. On landing -at Phalerum, however, he found them already forewarned and prepared, as -well as farther strengthened by one thousand horse specially demanded from -their allies in Thessaly. Upon the plain of Phalerum, this latter force was -found peculiarly effective, so that the division of Anchimolius was driven -back to their ships with great loss and he himself slain. The defeated armament -had probably been small, and its repulse only provoked the Lacedæmonians -to send a larger, under the command of their king Cleomenes in -person, who on this occasion marched into Attica by land. On reaching the -plain of Athens, he was assailed by the Thessalian horse, but repelled them -in so gallant a style, that they at once rode off and returned to their native -country; abandoning their allies with a faithlessness not unfrequent in the -Thessalian character. Cleomenes marched on to Athens without further -resistance, and found himself, together with the Alcmæonids and the malcontent -Athenians generally, in possession of the town. At that time there -was no fortification except around the Acropolis, into which Hippias retired -with his mercenaries and the citizens most faithful to him; having taken -care to provision it well beforehand, so that it was not less secure against -famine than against assault. He might have defied the besieging force, -which was noway prepared for a long blockade; but, not altogether confiding -in his position, he tried to send his children by stealth out of the country; -and in this proceeding the children were taken prisoners. To procure their -restoration, Hippias consented to all that was demanded of him, and withdrew -from Attica to Sigeum in the Troad within the space of five days.</p> - -<p>Thus fell the Pisistratid dynasty in 510 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, fifty years after the first -usurpation of its founder. It was put down through the aid of foreigners, -and those foreigners, too, wishing well to it in their hearts, though hostile from -a mistaken feeling of divine injunction. Yet both the circumstances of its fall, -and the course of events which followed, conspire to show that it possessed -few attached friends in the country, and that the expulsion of Hippias was -welcomed unanimously by the vast majority of Athenians. His family and -chief partisans would accompany him into exile,—probably as a matter of -course, without requiring any formal sentence of condemnation; and an -altar was erected in the Acropolis, with a column hard by, commemorating -both the past iniquity of the dethroned dynasty, and the names of all its -members.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[510-507 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>With Hippias disappeared the mercenary Thracian garrison, upon which -he and his father before him had leaned for defence as well as for enforcement -of authority; and Cleomenes with his Lacedæmonian forces retired -also, after staying only long enough to establish a personal friendship, -productive subsequently of important consequences, between the Spartan -king and the Athenian Isagoras. The Athenians were thus left to themselves, -without any foreign interference to constrain them in their political -arrangements.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span></p> - -<p>It has been mentioned that the Pisistratidæ had for the most part respected -the forms of the Solonian Constitution: the nine archons, and the -probouleutic or preconsidering Senate of Four Hundred (both annually -changed), still continued to subsist, together with occasional meetings of -the people—or rather of such portion of the people as was comprised in the -gentes, phratries, and four Ionic tribes. The timocratic classification of -Solon (or quadruple scale of income and admeasurement of political franchises -according to it) also continued to subsist—but all within the tether -and subservient to the purposes of the ruling family, who always kept one -of their number as real master, among the chief administrators, and always -retained possession of the Acropolis as well as of the mercenary force.</p> - -<p>That overawing pressure being now removed by the expulsion of Hippias, -the enslaved forms became at once endued with freedom and reality. There -appeared again what Attica had not known for thirty years, declared political -parties, and pronounced opposition between two men as leaders,—on -one side, Isagoras, son of Tisander, a person of illustrious descent,—on the -other, Clisthenes the Alcmæonid, not less illustrious, and possessing at this -moment a claim on the gratitude of his countrymen as the most persevering -as well as the most effective foe of the dethroned despots. In what manner -such opposition was carried on we are not told. It would seem to have -been not altogether pacific; but at any rate, Clisthenes had the worst of -it, and in consequence of this defeat, says the historian, “he took into partnership -the people, who had been before excluded from everything.” His -partnership with the people gave birth to the Athenian democracy: it was -a real and important revolution.</p> - -<h4>GROTE’S ESTIMATE OF CLISTHENES THE REFORMER</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[507 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The political franchise, or the character of an Athenian citizen, both -before and since Solon, had been confined to the primitive four Ionic tribes, -each of which was an aggregate of so many close corporations or quasi-families—the -gentes and the phratries. None of the residents in Attica, -therefore, except those included in some gens or phratry, had any part in -the political franchise. Such non-privileged residents were probably at all -times numerous, and became more and more so by means of fresh settlers: -moreover, they tended most to multiply in Athens and Piræus, where emigrants -would commonly establish themselves. Clisthenes broke down the -existing wall of privilege, and imparted the political franchise to the excluded -mass. But this could not be done by enrolling them in new gentes or phratries, -created in addition to the old; for the gentile tie was founded upon -old faith and feeling, which, in the existing state of the Greek mind, could -not be suddenly conjured up as a bond of union for comparative strangers: -it could only be done by disconnecting the franchise altogether from the -Ionic tribes as well as from the gentes which constituted them, and by redistributing -the population into new tribes with a character and purpose exclusively -political. Accordingly, Clisthenes abolished the four Ionic tribes, -and created in their place ten new tribes founded upon a different principle, -independent of the gentes and phratries. Each of his new tribes comprised -a certain number of demes or cantons, with the enrolled proprietors and -residents in each of them. The demes taken altogether included the entire -surface of Attica, so that the Clisthenean Constitution admitted to the -political franchise all the free native Athenians; and not merely these, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> -also many metics, and even some of the superior order of slaves. Putting -out of sight the general body of slaves, and regarding only the free inhabitants, -it was in point of fact a scheme approaching to universal suffrage, both -political and judicial.</p> - -<p>The slight and cursory manner in which Herodotus announces this -memorable revolution tends to make us overlook its real importance. He -dwells chiefly on the alteration in the number and names of the tribes: -Clisthenes, he says, despised the Ionians so much, that he would not tolerate -the continuance in Attica of the four tribes which prevailed in the -Ionic cities, deriving their names from the four sons of Ion—just as his -grandfather, the Sicyonian Clisthenes, hating the Dorians, had degraded -and nicknamed the three Dorian tribes at Sicyon. Such is the representation -of Herodotus, who seems himself to have entertained some contempt -for the Ionians, and therefore to have suspected a similar feeling where it -had no real existence. But the scope of Clisthenes was something far more -extensive: he abolished the four ancient tribes, not because they were -Ionic, but because they had become incommensurate with the existing condition -of the Attic people, and because such abolition procured both for himself -and for his political scheme new as well as hearty allies.</p> - -<p>As soon as Hippias was expelled, the senate and the public assembly -regained their efficiency. But had they been continued on the old footing, -including none except members of the four tribes, these tribes would have -been reinvested with a privilege which in reality they had so long lost, that -its revival would have seemed an odious novelty, and the remaining population -would probably not have submitted to it. If, in addition, we consider -the political excitement of the moment, the restoration of one body of men -from exile, and the departure of another body into exile, the outpouring -of long-suppressed hatred, partly against these very forms, by the corruption -of which the despot had reigned, we shall see that prudence as well -as patriotism dictated the adoption of an enlarged scheme of government. -Clisthenes had learned some wisdom during his long exile; and as he probably -continued, for some time after the introduction of his new constitution, -to be the chief adviser of his countrymen, we may consider their extraordinary -success as a testimony to his prudence and skill not less than to their -courage and unanimity. For, necessary as the change had become, it was -not the less a shock to ancient Attic ideas. It radically altered the very -idea of a tribe, which now became an aggregation of demes, not of gentes; -and it thus broke up those associations, religious, social, and political, between -the whole and the parts of the old system, which operated powerfully on the -mind of every old-fashioned Athenian. The patricians at Rome, who composed -the gentes and curiæ, and the plebs, who had no part in these corporations, -formed for a long time two separate and opposing factions in the -same city, each with its own separate organisation. It was only by slow -degrees that the plebs gained ground.</p> - -<p>So too in the Italian and German cities of the Middle Ages, the patrician -families refused to part with their own separate political identity, when -the guilds grew up by the side of them; even though forced to renounce a -portion of their power, they continued to be a separate fraternity, and would -not submit to be regimented anew, under an altered category and denomination, -along with the traders who had grown into wealth and importance. -But the reform of Clisthenes effected this change all at once, both as to -the name and as to the reality. In some cases, indeed, that which had been -the name of a gens was retained as the name of a deme, but even then the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> -old gentiles were ranked indiscriminately among the remaining demots; and -the Athenian people, politically considered, thus became one homogeneous -whole, distributed for convenience into parts, numerically, locally, and politically -equal. It is, however, to be remembered, that while the four Ionic -tribes were abolished, the gentes and phratries which compose them were -left untouched, and continued to subsist as family and religious associations, -though carrying with them no political privilege.</p> - -<p>The ten newly created tribes, arranged in an established order of precedence, -were called: Erechtheis, Ægeis, Pandionis, Leontis, Acamantis, Œneis, -Cecropis, Hippothoöntis, Æantis, Antiochis—names borrowed chiefly from -the respected heroes of Attic legend. This number remained unaltered until -the year 305 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, when it was increased to twelve by the addition of two -new tribes, Antigonias and Demetrias, afterwards designated anew by the -names of Ptolemais and Attalis. The mere names of these last two, borrowed -from living kings and not from legendary heroes, betray the change from -freedom to subservience at Athens. Each tribe comprised a certain number -of demes—cantons, parishes, or townships—in Attica. But the total -number of these demes is not distinctly ascertained.</p> - -<p>There is another point, however, which is at once more certain, and more -important to notice. The demes which Clisthenes assigned to each tribe -were in no case all adjacent to each other; and therefore, the tribe, as -a whole, did not correspond with any continuous portion of the territory, -nor could it have any peculiar local interest, separate from the entire community. -Such systematic avoidance of the factions arising out of neighbourhood -will appear to have been more especially necessary, when we recollect -that the quarrels of the Paralii, the Diacrii, the Pedieis, during the preceding -century, had all been generated from local feud, though doubtless artfully -fomented by individual ambition. Moreover, it was only by this same -precaution that the local predominance of the city, and the formation of a -city-interest distinct from that of the country, was obviated; which could -hardly have failed to arise had the city by itself constituted either one deme -or one tribe. Clisthenes distributed the city (or found it already distributed) -into several demes, and those demes among several tribes; while -Piræus and Phalerum, each constituting a separate deme, were also assigned -to different tribes; so that there were no local advantages either to bestow -predominance, or to create a struggle for predominance, of one tribe over -the rest. Each deme had its own local interests to watch over; but the tribe -was a mere aggregate of demes for political, military, and religious purposes, -with no separate hopes or fears apart from the whole state. Each tribe had -a chapel, sacred rites and festivals, and a common fund for such meetings, in -honour of its eponymous hero, administered by members of its own choice; -and the statues of all the ten eponymous heroes, fraternal patrons of the -democracy, were planted in the most conspicuous part of the agora of Athens. -In the future working of the Athenian government we shall trace no symptom -of disquieting local factions—a capital amendment compared with the -disputes of the preceding century, and traceable, in part, to the absence of -border-relations between demes of the same tribe.</p> - -<p>The deme now became the primitive constituent element of the commonwealth, -both as to persons and as to property. It had its own demarch, its -register of enrolled citizens, its collective property, its public meetings and -religious ceremonies, its taxes levied and administered by itself. The -register of qualified citizens was kept by the demarch, and the inscription -of new citizens took place at the assembly of the demots, whose legitimate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> -sons were enrolled on attaining the age of eighteen, and their adopted sons -at any time when presented and sworn to by the adopting citizen. The -citizenship could only be granted by a public vote of the people, but wealthy -non-freemen were enabled sometimes to evade this law and purchase admission -upon the register of some poor deme, probably by means of a fictitious -adoption. At the meetings of the demots, the register was called over, and -it sometimes happened that some names were expunged—in which case the -party thus disfranchised had an appeal to the popular judicature. So great -was the local administrative power, however, of these demes, that they are -described as the substitute, under the Clisthenean system, for the naucraries -under the Solonian and anti-Solonian. The trittyes and naucraries, -though nominally preserved, and the latter (as some affirm) augmented in -number from forty-eight to fifty, appear henceforward as of little public -importance.</p> - -<p>Clisthenes preserved, but at the same time modified and expanded, all -the main features of Solon’s political constitution; the public assembly, or -ecclesia,—the preconsidering senate, composed of members from all the -tribes,—and the habit of annual election, as well as annual responsibility -of magistrates, by and to the ecclesia. The full value must now have been -felt of possessing such pre-existing institutions to build upon, at a moment -of perplexity and dissension. But the Clisthenean ecclesia acquired new -strength, and almost a new character, from the great increase of the number -of citizens qualified to attend it; while the annually changed senate, instead -of being composed of four hundred members taken in equal proportion from -each of the old four tribes, was enlarged to five hundred, taken equally from -each of the new ten tribes. It now comes before us, under the name of -Senate of Five Hundred, as an active and indispensable body throughout the -whole Athenian democracy: and the practice now seems to have begun -(though the period of commencement cannot be decisively proved), of determining -the names of the senators by lot. Both the senate thus constituted, -and the public assembly, were far more popular and vigorous than -they had been under the original arrangement of Solon.</p> - -<p>The new constitution of the tribes, as it led to a change in the annual -senate, so it transformed, no less directly, the military arrangements of the -state, both as to soldiers and as to officers. The citizens called upon to -serve in arms were now marshalled according to tribes—each tribe having -its own taxiarchs as officers for the hoplites, and its own phylarch at the -head of the horsemen. Moreover, there were now created for the first time -ten strategi, or generals, one from each tribe; and two hipparchs, for the -supreme command of the horsemen. Under the prior Athenian constitution -it appears that the command of the military force had been vested in the -third archon, or polemarch, no strategi then existing; and even after the -latter had been created, under the Clisthenean constitution, the polemarch -still retained a joint right of command along with them—as we are told at -the battle of Marathon, where Callimachus the polemarch not only enjoyed -an equal vote in the council of war along with the ten strategi, but even -occupied the post of honour on the right wing. The ten generals, annually -changed, are thus (like the ten tribes) a fruit of the Clisthenean constitution, -which was at the same time powerfully strengthened and protected by -such remodelling of the military force. The functions of the generals becoming -more extensive as the democracy advanced, they seem to have acquired -gradually not merely the direction of military and naval affairs, but also -that of the foreign relations of the city generally,—while the nine archons,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> -including the polemarch, were by degrees lowered down from that full executive -and judicial competence which they had once enjoyed, to the simple -ministry of police and preparatory justice. Encroached upon by the strategi -on one side, they were also restricted in efficiency by the rise of the popular -dicasteries or numerous jury-courts, on the other. We may be very sure -that these popular dicasteries had not been permitted to meet or to act under -the despotism of the Pisistratidæ, and that the judicial business of the city -must then have been conducted partly by the senate of Areopagus, partly -by the archons; perhaps with a nominal responsibility of the latter at the -end of their year of office to an acquiescent ecclesia. And if we even assume -it to be true, as some writers contend, that the habit of direct popular judicature, -over and above this annual trial of responsibility, had been partially -introduced by Solon, it must have been discontinued during the long coercion -exercised by the supervening dynasty. But the outburst of popular -spirit, which lent force to Clisthenes, doubtless carried the people into -direct action as jurors in the aggregate heliæa, not less than as voters in the -ecclesia; and the change was thus begun which contributed to degrade -the archons from their primitive character as judges, into the lower function -of preliminary examiners and presidents of a jury. Such convocation of numerous -juries, beginning first with the aggregate body of sworn citizens above -thirty years of age, and subsequently dividing them into separate bodies or -panels, for trying particular causes, became gradually more frequent and -more systematised: until at length, in the time of Pericles, it was made to -carry a small pay, and stood out as one of the most prominent features of -Athenian life.</p> - -<p>The financial affairs of the city underwent at this epoch as complete a -change as the military: in fact, the appointment of magistrates and officers -by tens, one from each tribe, seems to have become the ordinary practice. -From this time forward, the senate of Five Hundred steps far beyond its -original duty of preparing matters for the discussion of the ecclesia: it -embraces, besides, a large circle of administrative and general superintendence, -which hardly admits of any definition. Its sittings become constant, -with the exception of special holidays, and the year is distributed into ten -portions called prytanies—the fifty senators of each tribe taking by turns -the duty of constant attendance during one prytany, and receiving during -that time the title of the Prytanes: the order of precedence among the -tribes in these duties was annually determined by lot.</p> - -<p>During those later times known to us through the great orators, the -ecclesia, or formal assembly of the citizens, was convoked four times regularly -during each prytany, or oftener if necessity required—usually by the -senate, though the strategi had also the power of convoking it by their own -authority. How often the ancient ecclesia had been convoked during the -interval between Solon and Pisistratus, we cannot exactly say—probably -but seldom during the year. But under the Pisistratidæ, its convocation had -dwindled down into an inoperative formality; and the re-establishment of it -by Clisthenes, not merely with plenary determining powers, but also under -full notice and preparation of matters beforehand, together with the best -securities for orderly procedure, was in itself a revolution impressive to the -mind of every Athenian citizen. To render the ecclesia efficient, it was indispensable -that its meetings should be both frequent and free. Men thus -became trained to the duty both of speakers and hearers, and each man, while -he felt that he exercised his share of influence on the decision, identified his -own safety and happiness with the vote of the majority, and became familiarised<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> -with the notion of a sovereign authority which he neither could nor ought -to resist. This is an idea new to the Athenian bosom; and with it came the -feelings sanctifying free speech and equal law—words which no Athenian -citizen ever afterwards heard unmoved: together with that sentiment of the -entire commonwealth as one and indivisible, which always overruled, though -it did not supplant, the local and cantonal specialties. It is not too much to -say that these patriotic and ennobling impulses were a new product in the -Athenian mind, to which nothing analogous occurs even in the time of Solon. -They were kindled in part doubtless by the strong reaction against the Pisistratidæ, -but still more by the fact that the opposing leader, Clisthenes, turned -that transitory feeling to the best possible account, and gave to it a vigorous -perpetuity, as well as a well-defined positive object, by the popular elements -conspicuous in his constitution. His name makes less figure in history than -we should expect, because he passed for the mere renovator of Solon’s scheme -of government after it had been overthrown by Pisistratus. Probably he -himself professed this object, since it would facilitate the success of his -propositions: and if we confine ourselves to the letter of the case, the fact is -in a great measure true, since the annual senate and the ecclesia are both -Solonian—but both of them under his reform were clothed in totally new -circumstances, and swelled into gigantic proportions. How vigorous was -the burst of Athenian enthusiasm, altering instantaneously the position of -Athens among the powers of Greece, we shall hear presently.</p> - -<p>But it was not only the people formally installed in their ecclesia, who received -from Clisthenes the real attributes of sovereignty; it was by him also -that the people were first called into direct action as dicasts, or jurors. This -custom may be said, in a certain limited sense, to have begun in the time -of Solon, since that lawgiver invested the popular assembly with the power of -pronouncing the judgment of accountability upon the archons after their year -of office. Here, again, the building, afterwards so spacious and stately, was -erected on a Solonian foundation, though it was not itself Solonian. That the -popular dicasteries, in the elaborate forms in which they existed from Pericles -downward, were introduced all at once by Clisthenes, it is impossible to -believe; yet the steps by which they were gradually wrought out are not distinctly -discoverable. It would rather seem, that at first only the aggregate -body of citizens above thirty years of age exercised judicial functions, being -specially convoked and sworn to try persons accused of public crimes, and -when so employed bearing the name of the heliæa, or heliasts; private offences -and disputes between man and man being still determined by individual -magistrates in the city, and a considerable judicial power still residing in the -senate of Areopagus. There is reason to believe that this was the state of -things established by Clisthenes, and which afterwards came to be altered -by the greater extent of judicial duty gradually accruing to the heliasts, so -that it was necessary to subdivide the collective heliæa. According to the -subdivision, as practised in the times best known, six thousand citizens above -thirty years of age were annually selected by lot out of the whole number, -six hundred from each of the ten tribes: five thousand of these citizens were -arranged in ten panels or decuries of five hundred each, the remaining one -thousand being reserved to fill up vacancies in case of death or absence -among the former. The whole six thousand took a prescribed oath, couched -in very striking words, and every man received a ticket inscribed with his -own name as well as with a letter designating his decury. When there were -causes or crimes ripe for trial, the <i>thesmothets</i> or six inferior archons, determined -by lot, first, which decuries should sit, according to the number<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> -wanted—next, in which court, or under the presidency of what magistrate, -the decury B or E should sit, so that it could not be known beforehand in -what cause each would be judge. Each of these decuries sitting in judicature -was called the heliæa, a name which belongs properly to the collective assembly -of the people; this collective assembly having been itself the original -judicature. We conceive that the practice of distributing this collective -assembly, or heliæa, into sections of jurors for judicial duty, may have begun -under one form or another soon after the reform of Clisthenes, since the direct -interference of the people in public affairs tended more and more to increase. -But it could only have been matured by degrees into that constant and systematic -service which the pay of Pericles called forth at last in completeness. -Under the last mentioned system the judicial competence of the archons was -annulled, and the third archon, or polemarch, withdrawn from all military -functions. Still, this had not been yet done at the time of the battle of -Marathon, in which Callimachus the polemarch not only commanded along -with the strategi, but enjoyed a sort of pre-eminence over them: nor -had it been done during the year after the battle of Marathon, in which -Aristides was archon—for the magisterial decisions of Aristides formed one -of the principal foundations of his honourable surname, the Just.</p> - -<p>With this question, as to the comparative extent of judicial power vested -by Clisthenes in the popular dicastery and the archons, are in reality connected -two others in Athenian constitutional law; relating, first, to the -admissibility of all citizens for the post of archon—next, to the choosing of -archons by lot. It is well known that, in the time of Pericles, the archons, -and various other individual functionaries, had come to be chosen by lot—moreover, -all citizens were legally admissible, and might give in their names -to be drawn for by lot, subject to what was called the docimasy, or legal -examination into their status of citizen, and into various moral and religious -qualifications, before they took office; while at the same time the function -of the archon had become nothing higher than preliminary examination of -parties and witnesses for the dicastery, and presidence over it when afterwards -assembled, together with the power of imposing by authority a fine of -small amount upon inferior offenders.</p> - -<p>Now all these three political arrangements hang essentially together. -The great value of the lot, according to Grecian democratical ideas, was that -it equalised the chance of office between rich and poor. But so long as the -poor citizens were legally inadmissible, choice by lot could have no recommendation -either to the rich or to the poor; in fact, it would be less democratical -than election by the general mass of citizens, because the poor citizen -would under the latter system enjoy an important right of interference by -means of his suffrage, though he could not be elected himself. Again, choice -by lot could never under any circumstances be applied to those posts where -special competence, and a certain measure of attributes possessed only by a -few, could not be dispensed with without obvious peril; nor was it ever -applied, throughout the whole history of democratical Athens, to the strategi, -or generals, who were always elected by show of hands of the assembled citizens. -Accordingly, we may regard it as certain that, at the time when the -archons first came to be chosen by lot, the superior and responsible duties -once attached to that office had been, or were in course of being, detached -from it, and transferred either to the popular dicasts or to the ten elected -strategi: so that there remained to these archons only a routine of police -and administration, important indeed to the state, yet such as could be executed -by any citizen of average probity, diligence, and capacity. At least<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> -there was no obvious absurdity in thinking so; and the docimasy excluded -from the office men of notoriously discreditable life, even after they might -have drawn the successful lot. Pericles, though chosen strategus, year after -year successively, was never archon; and it may even be doubted whether -men of first-rate talents and ambition often gave in their names for the office. -To those of smaller aspirations it was doubtless a source of importance, but -it imposed troublesome labour, gave no pay, and entailed a certain degree of -peril upon any archon who might have given offence to powerful men, when -he came to pass through the trial of accountability which followed immediately -upon his year of office. There was little to make the office acceptable -either to very poor men, or to very rich and ambitious men; and between the -middling persons who gave in their names, any one might be taken without -great practical mischief, always assuming the two guarantees of the docimasy -before, and accountability after, office. This was the conclusion—in our -opinion a mistaken conclusion, and such as would find no favour at present—to -which the democrats of Athens were conducted by their strenuous desire -to equalise the chances of office for rich and poor. But their sentiment -seems to have been satisfied by a partial enforcement of the lot to the choice -of some offices,—especially the archons, as the primitive chief magistrates of -the state,—without applying it to all, or to the most responsible and difficult. -Nor would they have applied it to the archons, if it had been indispensably -necessary that these magistrates should retain their original very serious -duty of judging disputes and condemning offenders.</p> - -<p>Now in regard to the eligibility of all Athenians indiscriminately to the -office of archon, we find a clear and positive testimony as to the time when -it was first introduced. Plutarch tells us that the oligarchical, but high-principled -Aristides, was himself the proposer of this constitutional change—shortly -after the battle of Platæa, with the consequent expulsion of the -Persians from Greece, and the return of the refugee Athenians to their -ruined city. Seldom has it happened in the history of mankind, that rich -and poor have been so completely equalised as among the population of -Athens in that memorable expatriation and heroic struggle. Nor are we at -all surprised to hear that the mass of citizens, coming back with freshly -kindled patriotism as well as with the consciousness that their country had -only been recovered by the equal efforts of all, would no longer submit to be -legally disqualified from any office of state. It was on this occasion that the -constitution was first made really “common” to all, and that the archons, -strategi, and all functionaries, first began to be chosen from all Athenians -without any difference of legal eligibility. No mention is made of the lot in -this important statement of Plutarch, which appears in every way worthy -of credit, and which teaches us that, down to the invasion of Xerxes not -only had the exclusive principle of the Solonian law of qualification continued -in force (whereby the first three classes on the census were alone -admitted to all individual offices, and the fourth or thetic class excluded), -but also the archons had hitherto been elected by the citizens—not -taken by lot.</p> - -<p>Now for financial purposes, the quadruple census of Solon was retained -long after this period, even beyond the Peloponnesian War and the oligarchy -of Thirty. But we thus learn that Clisthenes in his constitution retained -it for political purposes also, in part at least: he recognised the exclusion of -the great mass of the citizens from all individual offices—such as the archon, -the strategus, etc. In his time, probably, no complaints were raised on the -subject. His constitution gave to the collective bodies—senate, ecclesia,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> -and heliæa, or dicastery—a degree of power and importance such as they -had never before known or imagined: and we may well suppose that the -Athenian people of that day had no objection even to the proclaimed system -and theory of being exclusively governed by men of wealth and station as -individual magistrates—especially since many of the newly enfranchised -citizens had been previously metics and slaves. Indeed, it is to be added -that, even under the full democracy of later Athens, though the people had -then become passionately attached to the theory of equal admissibility of all -citizens to office, yet, in practice, poor men seldom obtained offices which -were elected by the general vote, as will appear more fully in the course of -this history.<a name="FNanchor_17" id="FNanchor_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> - -<p>The choice of the strategi remained ever afterwards upon the footing on -which Aristides thus placed it. But the present is not the time to enter -into the modifications which Athens underwent during the generation after -the battle of Platæa. They have been here briefly noticed for the purpose -of reasoning back, in the absence of direct evidence, to Athens as it stood in -the generation before that memorable battle, after the reform of Clisthenes. -His reform, though highly democratical, stopped short of the mature democracy -which prevailed from Pericles to Demosthenes, in three ways especially, -among various others; and it is therefore sometimes considered by the later -writers as an aristocratical constitution: (1) It still recognised the archons -as judges to a considerable extent, and the third archon, or polemarch, as -joint military commander along with the strategi. (2) It retained them as -elected annually by the body of citizens, not as chosen by lot. (3) It still -excluded the fourth class of the Solonian census from all individual office, -the archonship among the rest. The Solonian law of exclusion, however, -though retained in principle, was mitigated in practice thus far—that -whereas Solon had rendered none but members of the highest class on the -census (<i>the pentakosiomedimni</i>) eligible to the archonship, Clisthenes opened -that dignity to all the first three classes, shutting out only the fourth. That -he did this may be inferred from the fact that Aristides, assuredly not a -rich man, became archon.</p> - -<p>We are also inclined to believe that the senate of Five Hundred, as constituted -by Clisthenes, was taken, not by election, but by lot, from the ten -tribes, and that every citizen became eligible to it. Election for this purpose—that -is, the privilege of annually electing a batch of fifty senators, all -at once, by each tribe—would probably be thought more troublesome than -valuable; nor do we hear of separate meetings of each tribe for purposes of -election. Moreover, the office of senator was a collective, not an individual -office; the shock, therefore, to the feelings of semi-democratised Athens, from -the unpleasant idea of a poor man sitting among the fifty prytanes, would be -less than if they conceived him as polemarch at the head of the right wing -of the army, or as an archon administering justice.</p> - -<p>A further difference between the constitution of Solon and that of -Clisthenes is to be found in the position of the senate of Areopagus. -Under the former, that senate had been the principal body in the state, and -he had even enlarged its powers; under the latter, it must have been treated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> -at first as an enemy, and kept down. For as it was composed only of all the -past archons, and as, during the preceding thirty years, every archon had been -a creature of the Pisistratidæ, the Areopagites collectively must have been -both hostile and odious to Clisthenes and his partisans, perhaps a fraction -of its members might even retire into exile with Hippias. Its influence must -have been sensibly lessened by the change of party, until it came to be gradually -filled by fresh archons springing from the bosom of the Clisthenean -constitution. But during this important interval, the new-modelled senate -of Five Hundred, and the popular assembly, stepped into that ascendency -which they never afterwards lost. From the time of Clisthenes forward, -the Areopagites cease to be the chief and prominent power in the state: yet -they are still considerable; and when the second fill of the democratical tide -took place, after the battle of Platæa, they became the focus of that which -was then considered as the party of oligarchical resistance. We have already -remarked that the archons, during the intermediate time (about 509-477 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>), -were all elected by the ecclesia, not chosen by lot, and that the fourth (or -poorest and most numerous) class on the census were by law then ineligible; -while election at Athens, even when every citizen without exception was an -elector and eligible, had a natural tendency to fall upon men of wealth and -station. We thus see how it happened that the past archons, when united in -the Senate of Areopagus, infused into that body the sympathies, prejudices, -and interests of the richer classes. It was this which brought them into conflict -with the more democratical party headed by Pericles and Ephialtes, in -times when portions of the Clisthenean constitution had come to be discredited -as too much imbued with oligarchy.</p> - -<p>One other remarkable institution, distinctly ascribed to Clisthenes, yet -remains to be noticed—the Ostracism. It is hardly too much to say that, -without this protective process, none of the other institutions would have -reached maturity.</p> - -<h4>OSTRACISM</h4> - -<p>By the ostracism, a citizen was banished without special accusation, trial, -or defence, for a term of ten years—subsequently diminished to five. His -property was not taken away, nor his reputation tainted; so that the penalty -consisted solely in the banishment from his native city to some other Greek -city. As to reputation, the ostracism was a compliment rather than otherwise; -and so it was vividly felt to be, when, about ninety years after Clisthenes, -the conspiracy between Nicias and Alcibiades fixed it upon Hyperbolus. -The two former had both recommended the taking of an ostracising vote, -each hoping to cause the banishment of the other; but before the day -arrived, they accommodated the difference. To fire off the safety-gun of -the republic against a person so little dangerous as Hyperbolus, was denounced -as the prostitution of a great political ceremony: “It was not -against such men as him,” said the comic writer, Plato, “that the oyster-shell -(or potsherd) was intended to be used.” The process of ostracism was -carried into effect by writing upon a shell, or potsherd, the name of the person -whom a citizen thought it prudent for a time to banish; which shell, -when deposited in the proper vessel, counted for a vote towards the sentence.</p> - -<p>We have already observed that all the governments of the Grecian cities, -when we compare them with that idea which a modern reader is apt to conceive -of the measure of force belonging to a government, were essentially -weak, the good as well as the bad—the democratical, the oligarchical, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> -the despotic. The force in the hands of any government, to cope with conspirators -or mutineers, was extremely small, with the single exception of a -despot surrounded by his mercenary troop; so that no tolerably sustained -conspiracy or usurper could be put down except by the direct aid of the -people in support of the government; which amounted to a dissolution, for -the time, of constitutional authority, and was pregnant with reactionary consequences -such as no man could foresee. To prevent powerful men from -attempting usurpation was, therefore, of the greatest possible moment; and -a despot or an oligarchy might exercise preventive means at pleasure, much -sharper than the ostracism, such as the assassination of Cimon, as directed -by the Pisistratidæ. At the very least, they might send away any one, from -whom they apprehended attack or danger, without incurring even so much -as the imputation of severity. But in a democracy, where arbitrary action -of the magistrate was the thing of all others most dreaded, and where fixed -laws, with trial and defence as preliminaries to punishment, were conceived -by the ordinary citizen as the guarantees of his personal security and as the -pride of his social condition—the creation of such an exceptional power presented -serious difficulty. If we transport ourselves to the times of Clisthenes, -immediately after the expulsion of the Pisistratidæ, when the working of -the democratical machinery was as yet untried, we shall find this difficulty -at its maximum; but we shall also find the necessity of vesting such a power -somewhere absolutely imperative. For the great Athenian nobles had yet -to learn the lesson of respect for any constitution; their past history had -exhibited continual struggles between the armed factions of Megacles, Lycurgus, -and Pisistratus, put down after a time by the superior force and alliances -of the latter. And though Clisthenes, the son of Megacles, might be -firmly disposed to renounce the example of his father, and to act as the faithful -citizen of a fixed constitution—he would know but too well that the sons -of his father’s companions and rivals would follow out ambitious purposes -without any regard to the limits imposed by law, if ever they acquired sufficient -partisans to present a fair prospect of success. Moreover, when any -two candidates for power, with such reckless dispositions, came into a bitter -personal rivalry, the motives to each of them, arising as well out of fear as out -of ambition, to put down his opponent at any cost to the constitution, might -well become irresistible, unless some impartial and discerning interference -could arrest the strife in time. “If the Athenians were wise (Aristides is -reported to have said, in the height and peril of his parliamentary struggle -with Themistocles), they would cast both Themistocles and me into the -barathrum.” And whoever reads the sad narrative of the Corcyræan sedition, -in the third book of Thucydides, together with the reflections of the historian -upon it, will trace the gradual exasperation of these party feuds, beginning -even under democratical forms, until at length they break down the -barriers of public as well as of private morality.</p> - -<p>Against this chance of internal assailants Clisthenes had to protect the -democratical constitution—first, by throwing impediments in their way -and rendering it difficult for them to procure the requisite support; next, -by eliminating them before any violent projects were ripe for execution. -To do either the one or the other, it was necessary to provide such a constitution -as would not only conciliate the good will, but kindle the passionate -attachment of the mass of citizens, insomuch that not even any considerable -minority should be deliberately inclined to alter it by force. It was necessary -to create in the multitude, and through them to force upon the leading -ambitious men, that rare and difficult sentiment which we may term a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> -constitutional morality; a paramount reverence for the forms of the constitution, -enforcing obedience to the authorities acting under and within those -forms, yet combined with the habit of open speech, of action subject only to -definite legal control, and unrestrained censure of those very authorities as -to all their public acts—combined too with a perfect confidence in the -bosom of every citizen, amidst the bitterness of party contest, that the forms -of the constitution will be not less sacred in the eyes of his opponents than -in his own. This coexistence of freedom and self-imposed restraint—of -obedience to authority with unmeasured censure of the persons exercising -it—may be found in the aristocracy of England (since about 1688) as well -as in the democracy of the American United States: and because we are -familiar with it, we are apt to suppose it a natural sentiment; though there -seem to be few sentiments more difficult to establish and diffuse among a community, -judging by the experience of history. We may see how imperfectly -it exists at this day in the Swiss cantons; and the many violences of the first -French Revolution illustrate, among various other lessons, the fatal effects -arising from its absence, even among a people high in the scale of intelligence. -Yet the diffusion of such constitutional morality, not merely among -the majority of any community, but throughout the whole, is the indispensable -condition of a government at once free and peaceable; since even any -powerful and obstinate minority may render the working of free institutions -impracticable, without being strong enough to conquer ascendency for themselves. -Nothing less than unanimity, or so overwhelming a majority as to -be tantamount to unanimity, on the cardinal point of respecting constitutional -forms, even by those who do not wholly approve of them, can render -the excitement of political passion bloodless, and yet expose all the authorities -in the state to the full license of pacific criticism.</p> - -<p>At the epoch of Clisthenes, which by a remarkable coincidence is the -same as that of the <i>regifugium</i> at Rome, such constitutional morality, if it -existed anywhere else, had certainly no place at Athens; and the first creation -of it in any particular society must be esteemed an interesting historical -fact. By the spirit of his reforms,—equal, popular, and comprehensive, far -beyond the previous experience of Athenians,—he secured the hearty attachment -of the body of citizens; but from the first generation of leading men, -under the nascent democracy, and with such precedents as they had to look -back upon, no self-imposed limits to ambition could be expected: and the -problem required was to eliminate beforehand any one about to transgress -these limits, so as to escape the necessity of putting him down afterwards, -with all that bloodshed and reaction, in the midst of which the free working -of the constitution would be suspended at least, if not irrevocably extinguished. -To acquire such influence as would render him dangerous under -democratical forms, a man must stand in evidence before the public, so as to -afford some reasonable means of judging of his character and purposes; and -the security which Clisthenes provided was, to call in the positive judgment -of the citizens respecting his future promise purely and simply, so that they -might not remain too long neutral between two formidable political rivals—pursuant -in a certain way to the Solonian proclamation against neutrality in -a sedition, as we have already remarked in a former chapter. He incorporated -in the constitution itself the principle of <i>privilegium</i> (to employ the -Roman phrase, which signifies, not a peculiar favour granted to any one, but -a peculiar inconvenience imposed), yet only under circumstances solemn and -well defined, with full notice and discussion beforehand, and by the positive -secret vote of a large proportion of the citizens. “No law shall be made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> -against any single citizen, without the same being made against all Athenian -citizens; unless it shall so seem good to six thousand citizens voting secretly.” -Such was that general principle of the constitution, under which the ostracism -was a particular case. Before the vote of ostracism could be taken, a -case was to be made out in the senate and the public assembly to justify it. -In the sixth prytany of the year, these two bodies debated and determined -whether the state of the republic was menacing enough to call for such an -exceptional measure. If they decided in the affirmative, a day was named, -the agora was railed round, with ten entrances left for the citizens of each -tribe, and ten separate casks or vessels for depositing the suffrages, which -consisted of a shell, or a potsherd, with the name of the person written on it -whom each citizen designed to banish. At the end of the day, the number -of votes was summed up, and if six thousand votes were found to have been -given against any one person, that person was ostracised; if not, the ceremony -ended in nothing. Ten days were allowed to him for settling his -affairs, after which he was required to depart from Attica for ten years, but -retained his property, and suffered no other penalty.</p> - -<p>It was not the maxim at Athens to escape the errors of the people, by -calling in the different errors, and the sinister interest besides, of an extra-popular -or privileged few; nor was any third course open, since the principles -of representative government were not understood, nor indeed conveniently -applicable to very small communities. Beyond the judgment of the people—so -the Athenians felt—there was no appeal; and their grand study -was to surround the delivery of that judgment with the best securities for -rectitude and the best preservatives against haste, passion, or private corruption. -Whatever measure of good government could not be obtained in -that way, could not, in their opinion, be obtained at all. We shall illustrate -the Athenian proceedings on this head more fully when we come to speak -of the working of their mature democracy: meanwhile, in respect to this -grand protection of the nascent democracy,—the vote of ostracism,—it -will be found that the securities devised by Clisthenes, for making the -sentence effectual against the really dangerous man, and against no one -else, display not less foresight than patriotism. The main object was, to -render the voting an expression of deliberate public feeling, as distinguished -from mere factious antipathy: the large minimum of votes required, one-fourth -of the entire citizen population, went far to insure this effect, the -more so, since each vote, taken as it was in a secret manner, counted unequivocally -for the expression of a genuine and independent sentiment, and -could neither be coerced nor bought. Then again, Clisthenes did not permit -the process of ostracising to be opened against any one citizen exclusively. -If opened at all, every one without exception was exposed to the sentence; so -that the friends of Themistocles could not invoke it against Aristides, nor -those of the latter against the former, without exposing their own leader -to the same chance of exile. It was not likely to be invoked at all, therefore, -until exasperation had proceeded so far as to render both parties insensible -to this chance—the precise index of that growing internecine hostility, -which the ostracism prevented from coming to a head. Nor could it even -then be ratified, unless a case was shown to convince the more neutral portion -of the senate and the ecclesia: moreover, after all, the ecclesia did not -itself ostracise, but a future day was named, and the whole body of the citizens -were solemnly invited to vote. It was in this way that security was -taken not only for making the ostracism effectual in protecting the constitution, -but to hinder it from being employed for any other purpose. And we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> -must recollect that it exercised its tutelary influence, not merely on those -occasions when it was actually employed, but by the mere knowledge that -it might be employed, and by the restraining effect which that knowledge -produced on the conduct of the great men. Again, the ostracism, though -essentially of an exceptional nature, was yet an exception sanctified and -limited by the constitution itself; so that the citizen, in giving his ostracising -vote, did not in any way depart from the constitution or lose his reverence -for it. The issue placed before him—“Is there any man whom you -think vitally dangerous to the State? if so, whom?”—though vague, was -yet raised directly and legally. Had there been no ostracism, it might -probably have been raised both indirectly and illegally, on the occasion of -some special imputed crime of a suspected political leader, when accused -before a court of justice.</p> - -<p>Care was taken to divest the ostracism of all painful consequence except -what was inseparable from exile; and this is not one of the least proofs of -the wisdom with which it was devised. Most certainly, it never deprived -the public of candidates for political influence: and when we consider the -small amount of individual evil which it inflicted,—evil too diminished, in -the cases of Cimon and Aristides, by a reactionary sentiment which augmented -their subsequent popularity after return,—two remarks will be -quite sufficient to offer in the way of justification. First, it completely -produced its intended effect; for the democracy grew up from infancy to -manhood without a single attempt to overthrow it by force—a result, -upon which no reflecting contemporary of Clisthenes could have ventured -to calculate. Next, through such tranquil working of the democratical -forms, a constitutional morality quite sufficiently complete was produced -among the leading Athenians, to enable the people after a certain time to -dispense with that exceptional security which the ostracism offered. To -the nascent democracy, it was absolutely indispensable; to the growing yet -militant democracy, it was salutary; but the full-grown democracy both -could and did stand without it. The ostracism passed upon Hyperbolus, -about ninety years after Clisthenes, was the last occasion of its employment. -And even this can hardly be considered as a serious instance: it was a -trick concerted between two distinguished Athenians (Nicias and Alcibiades), -to turn to their own political account a process already coming to be -antiquated. Nor would such a manœuvre have been possible, if the contemporary -Athenian citizens had been penetrated with the same serious feeling -of the value of ostracism as a safeguard of democracy, as had been once -entertained by their fathers and grandfathers. Between Clisthenes and -Hyperbolus, we hear of about ten different persons as having been banished -by ostracism. First of all, Hipparchus of the deme Cholargus, the son of -Charmus, a relative of the recently expelled Pisistratid despots; then -Aristides, Themistocles, Cimon, and Thucydides son of Melesias, all of -them renowned political leaders; also Alcibiades and Megacles (the paternal -and maternal grandfathers of the distinguished Alcibiades), and Callias, -belonging to another eminent family at Athens; lastly, Damon, the preceptor -of Pericles in poetry and music, and eminent for his acquisitions in -philosophy. In this last case comes out the vulgar side of humanity, aristocratical -as well as democratical; for with both, the process of philosophy and -the persons of philosophers are wont to be alike unpopular. Even Clisthenes -himself is said to be ostracised under his own law, and Xanthippus; -but both upon authority too weak to trust. Miltiades was not ostracised -at all, but tried and punished for misconduct in his command.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span></p> - -<p>We should hardly have said so much about this memorable and peculiar -institution of Clisthenes, if the erroneous accusations against the Athenian -democracy—of envy, injustice, and ill-treatment of their superior men, had -not been greatly founded upon it, and if such criticisms had not passed from -ancient times to modern with little examination. In monarchical governments, -a pretender to the throne, numbering a certain amount of supporters, -is, as a matter of course, excluded from the country. No man treats this as -any extravagant injustice, yet it is the parallel of the ostracism, with a stronger -case in favour of the latter, inasmuch as the change from one regal dynasty to -another does not of necessity overthrow all the collateral institutions and -securities of the country. Plutarch has affirmed that the ostracism arose -from the envy and jealousy inherent in a democracy, and not from justifiable -fears—an observation often repeated, yet not the less demonstrably untrue. -Not merely because ostracism so worked as often to increase the influence of -that political leader whose rival it removed, but still more, because, if the -fact had been as Plutarch says, this institution would have continued as long -as the democracy; whereas it finished with the banishment of Hyperbolus, -at a period when the government was more decisively democratical than it -had been in the time of Clisthenes.</p> - -<p>It was, in truth, a product altogether of fear and insecurity, on the part -both of the democracy and its best friends—fear perfectly well-grounded, -and only appearing needless because the precautions taken prevented attack. -So soon as the diffusion of a constitutional morality had placed the mass of -the citizens above all serious fear of an aggressive usurper the ostracism was -discontinued. And doubtless the feeling, that it might safely be dispensed -with, must have been strengthened by the long ascendancy of Pericles, by -the spectacle of the greatest statesman whom Athens ever produced, acting -steadily within the limits of the constitution; as well as by the ill-success -of his two opponents, Cimon and Thucydides,—aided by numerous -partisans and by the great comic writers, at a period when comedy was a -power in the state such as it has never been before or since,—in their -attempts to get him ostracised. They succeeded in fanning up the ordinary -antipathy of the citizens towards philosophers, so far as to procure the ostracism -of his friend and teacher Damon: but Pericles himself, to repeat the -complaint of his bitter enemy, the comic poet Cratinus, “was out of the -reach of the oyster-shell.” If Pericles was not conceived to be dangerous to -the constitution, none of his successors were at all likely to be so regarded. -Damon and Hyperbolus were the two last persons ostracised: both of them -were cases, and the only cases, of an unequivocal abuse of the institution, -because, whatever the grounds of displeasure against them may have been, it -is impossible to conceive either of them as menacing to the state—whereas -all the other known sufferers were men of such position and power, that the -six or eight thousand citizens who inscribed each name on the shell, or at -least a large proportion of them, may well have done so under the most conscientious -belief that they were guarding the constitution against real danger. -Such a change in the character of the persons ostracised plainly evinces that -the ostracism had become dissevered from that genuine patriotic prudence -which originally rendered it both legitimate and popular. It had served for -two generations an inestimable tutelary purpose,—it lived to be twice dishonoured,—and -then passed, by universal acquiescence, into matter of -history.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 448px;"> -<img src="images/fp3.jpg" width="448" height="650" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">STATUE OF MINERVA</p> -</div> - -<p>A process analogous to the ostracism subsisted at Argos, at Syracuse, and -in some other Grecian democracies. Aristotle states that it was abused for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> -factious purposes: and at Syracuse, where it was introduced after the expulsion -of the Gelonian dynasty, Diodorus affirms that it was so unjustly and -profusely applied, as to deter persons of wealth and station from taking any -part in public affairs; for which reason it was speedily discontinued. We -have no particulars to enable us to appreciate this general statement. But -we cannot safely infer that because the ostracism worked on the whole well -at Athens, it must necessarily have worked well in other states—the more -so, as we do not know whether it was surrounded with the same precautionary -formalities, nor whether it even required the same large minimum of -votes to make it effective. This latter guarantee, so valuable in regard to an -institution essentially easy to abuse, is not noticed by Diodorus in his brief -account of the petalism—so the process was denominated at Syracuse.</p> - -<h4>THE DEMOCRACY ESTABLISHED</h4> - -<p>Such was the first Athenian democracy, engendered as well by the -reaction against Hippias and his dynasty as by the memorable partnership, -whether spontaneous or compulsory, between Clisthenes and the unfranchised -multitude. It is to be distinguished, both from the mitigated oligarchy -established by Solon before, and from the full-grown and symmetrical democracy -which prevailed afterwards from the beginning of the Peloponnesian -War towards the close of the career of Pericles. It was, indeed, a striking -revolution, impressed upon the citizen not less by the sentiments to which it -appealed than by the visible change which it made in political and social -life. He saw himself marshalled in the ranks of hoplites, alongside of new -companions in arms; he was enrolled in a new register, and his property -in a new schedule, in his deme and by his demarch, an officer before unknown; -he found the year distributed afresh, for all legal purposes, into ten parts -bearing the name of prytanies, each marked by a solemn and free-spoken -ecclesia, at which he had a right to be present; that ecclesia was convoked -and presided by senators called prytanes, members of a senate novel -both as to number and distribution; his political duties were now performed -as member of a tribe, designated by a name not before pronounced -in common Attic life, connected with one of ten heroes whose statues he now -for the first time saw in the agora, and associating him with fellow-tribesmen -from all parts of Attica. All these and many others were sensible -novelties, felt in the daily proceedings of the citizen. But the great novelty -of all was the authentic recognition of the ten new tribes as a sovereign -demos, or people, apart from all specialties of phratric or gentile origin, with -free speech and equal law; retaining no distinction except the four classes -of the Solonian property-schedule with their gradations of eligibility. To -a considerable proportion of citizens this great novelty was still further -endeared by the fact that it had raised them out of the degraded position of -metics and slaves; and to the large majority of all the citizens, it furnished -a splendid political idea, profoundly impressive to the Greek mind, capable of -calling forth the most ardent attachment as well as the most devoted sense -of active obligation and obedience. We have now to see how their newly-created -patriotism manifested itself.</p> - -<p>Clisthenes and his new constitution carried with them so completely the -popular favour, that Isagoras had no other way of opposing it except by -calling in the interference of Cleomenes and the Lacedæmonians. Cleomenes -listened the more readily to this call, as he was reported to have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> -on an intimate footing with the wife of Isagoras. He prepared to come to -Athens; but his first aim was to deprive the democracy of its great leader -Clisthenes, who, as belonging to the Alcmæonid family, was supposed to -be tainted with the inherited sin of his great-grandfather Megacles, the destroyer -of the usurper Cylon. Cleomenes sent a herald to Athens, demanding -the expulsion “of the accursed,”—so this family were called by their -enemies, and so they continued to be called eighty years afterwards, when -the same manœuvre was practised by the Lacedæmonians of that day against -Pericles. This requisition had been recommended by Isagoras, and was so -well-timed that Clisthenes, not venturing to disobey it, retired voluntarily, -so that Cleomenes, though arriving at Athens only with a small force, found -himself master of the city. At the instigation of Isagoras, he sent into exile -seven hundred families, selected from the chief partisans of Clisthenes: his -next attempt was to dissolve the new senate of Five Hundred and place the -whole government in the hands of three hundred adherents of the chief -whose cause he espoused. But now was seen the spirit infused into the -people by their new constitution. At the time of the first usurpation of -Pisistratus, the senate of that day had not only not resisted, but even lent -themselves to the scheme. But the new senate of Clisthenes resolutely -refused to submit to dissolution, and the citizens manifested themselves in -a way at once so hostile and so determined, that Cleomenes and Isagoras -were altogether baffled. They were compelled to retire into the Acropolis -and stand upon the defensive; and this symptom of weakness was the signal -for a general rising of the Athenians, who besieged the Spartan king on the -holy rock. He had evidently come without any expectation of finding, or -any means of overpowering, resistance; for at the end of two days his provisions -were exhausted, and he was forced to capitulate. He and his Lacedæmonians, -as well as Isagoras, were allowed to retire to Sparta; but the -Athenians of the party captured along with him were imprisoned, condemned, -and executed by the people.</p> - -<p>Clisthenes, with the seven hundred exiled families, was immediately recalled, -and his new constitution materially strengthened by this first success. -Yet the prospect of renewed Spartan attack was sufficiently serious to induce -him to send envoys to Artaphernes, the Persian satrap at Sardis, soliciting -the admission of Athens into the Persian alliance: he probably feared the -intrigues of the expelled Hippias in the same quarter. Artaphernes, having -first informed himself who the Athenians were, and where they dwelt, -replied that, if they chose to send earth and water to the king of Persia, -they might be received as allies, but upon no other condition. Such were -the feelings of alarm under which the envoys had quitted Athens, that they -went the length of promising this unqualified token of submission. But -their countrymen, on their return, disavowed them with scorn and indignation.</p> - -<h4>TROUBLE WITH THEBES</h4> - -<p>It was at this time that the first connection began between Athens and -the little Bœotian town of Platæa, situated on the northern slope of the range -of Cithæron, between that mountain and the river Asopus, on the road from -Athens to Thebes; and it is upon this first occasion that we become acquainted -with the Bœotians and their polities. The Bœotian federation has -already been briefly described, as composed of some twelve or thirteen autonomous -towns under the headship of Thebes, which was, or professed to have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span> -been, their mother-city. Platæa had been, so the Thebans affirmed, their -latest foundation; it was ill-used by them, and discontented with the alliance. -Accordingly, as Cleomenes was on his way back from Athens, the -Platæans took the opportunity of addressing themselves to him, craved -the protection of Sparta against Thebes, and surrendered their town and -territory without reserve. The Spartan king, having no motive to undertake -a trust which promised nothing but trouble, advised them to solicit the protection -of Athens, as nearer and more accessible for them in case of need. He -foresaw that this would embroil the Athenians with Bœotia; and such anticipation -was in fact his chief motive for giving the advice, which the Platæans -followed.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[506 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Selecting an occasion of public sacrifice at Athens, they despatched thither -envoys, who sat down as suppliants at the altar, surrendered their town to -Athens, and implored protection against Thebes. Such an appeal was not -to be resisted, and protection was promised; it was soon needed, for the -Thebans invaded the Platæan territory, and an Athenian force marched to -defend it. Battle was about to be joined, when the Corinthians interposed -with their mediation, which was accepted by both parties. They decided -altogether in favour of Platæa, pronouncing that the Thebans had no right -to employ force against any seceding member of the Bœotian federation. -But the Thebans, finding the decision against them, refused to abide by it, -and, attacking the Athenians on their return, sustained a complete defeat: -the latter avenged this breach of faith by joining to Platæa the portion of -Theban territory south of the Asopus, and making that river the limit -between the two. By such success, however, the Athenians gained nothing, -except the enmity of Bœotia, as Cleomenes had foreseen. Their alliance -with Platæa, long continued, and presenting in the course of this history -several incidents touching to our sympathies, will be found, if we except -one splendid occasion, productive only of burden to the one party, yet -insufficient as a protection to the other.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile Cleomenes had returned to Sparta full of resentment against -the Athenians, and resolved on punishing them, as well as on establishing -his friend Isagoras as despot over them. Having been taught, however, by -humiliating experience, that this was no easy achievement, he would not make -the attempt, without having assembled a considerable force; he summoned -allies from all the various states of the Peloponnesus, yet without venturing -to inform them what he was about to undertake. He at the same time -concerted measures with the Bœotians, and with the Chalcidians of Eubœa, -for a simultaneous invasion of Attica on all sides. It appears that he had -greater confidence in their hostile dispositions towards Athens than in those -of the Peloponnesians; he was not afraid to acquaint them with his design, -and probably the Bœotians were incensed with the recent interference of -Athens in the affair of Platæa. As soon as these preparations were completed, -the two kings of Sparta, Cleomenes and Demaratus, put themselves -at the head of the united Peloponnesian force, marched into Attica, and advanced -as far as Eleusis on the way to Athens. But when the allies came to -know the purpose for which they were to be employed, a spirit of dissatisfaction -manifested itself among them. They had no unfriendly sentiment -towards Athens; and the Corinthians especially, favourably disposed rather -than otherwise towards that city, resolved to proceed no further, withdrew -their contingent from the camp, and returned home. At the same time, -king Demaratus, either sharing in the general dissatisfaction, or moved by -some grudge against his colleague which had not before manifested itself,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> -renounced the undertaking also. And these two examples, operating upon -the pre-existing sentiment of the allies generally, caused the whole camp to -break up and return home without striking a blow.</p> - -<p>We may here remark that this is the first instance known in which -Sparta appears in act as recognised head of an obligatory Peloponnesian -alliance, summoning contingents from the cities to be placed under the command -of her king. Her headship, previously recognised in theory, passes -now into act, but in an unsatisfactory manner, so as to prove the necessity of -precaution and concert beforehand, which will be found not long wanting.</p> - -<p>Pursuant to the scheme concerted, the Bœotians and Chalcidians attacked -Attica at the same time that Cleomenes entered it. The former seized -Œnoe and Hysiæ, the frontier demes of Attica on the side towards Platæa, -while the latter assailed the northeastern frontier, which faces Eubœa. Invaded -on three sides, the Athenians were in serious danger, and were compelled -to concentrate all their forces at Eleusis against Cleomenes, leaving -the Bœotians and Chalcidians unopposed. But the unexpected breaking up -of the invading army from the Peloponnesus proved their rescue, and enabled -them to turn the whole of their attention to the other frontier. They -marched into Bœotia to the strait called Euripus, which separates it from -Eubœa, intending to prevent the junction of the Bœotians and Chalcidians, -and to attack the latter first apart. But the arrival of the Bœotians caused -an alteration of their scheme; they attacked the Bœotians first, and gained -a victory of the most complete character, killing a large number, and capturing -seven hundred prisoners. On the very same day they crossed over -to Eubœa, attacked the Chalcidians, and gained another victory so decisive -that it at once terminated the war. Many Chalcidians were taken, as well as -Bœotians, and conveyed in chains to Athens, where after a certain detention -they were at last ransomed for two minæ per man; and the tenth of the -sum thus raised was employed in the fabrication of a chariot and four -horses in bronze, which was placed in the Acropolis to commemorate the victory. -Herodotus saw this trophy when he was at Athens. He saw too, -what was a still more speaking trophy, the actual chains in which the -prisoners had been fettered, exhibiting in their appearance the damage -undergone when the Acropolis was burnt by Xerxes: an inscription of four -lines described the offerings and recorded the victory out of which they had -sprung.</p> - -<p>Another consequence of some moment arose out of this victory. The -Athenians planted a body of four thousand of their citizens as cleruchs (lot-holders) -or settlers upon the lands of the wealthy Chalcidian oligarchy -called the <i>hippobotæ</i>—proprietors probably in the fertile plain of Lelantum, -between Chalcis and Eretria. This is a system which we shall find -hereafter extensively followed out by the Athenians in the days of their -power; partly with the view of providing for their poorer citizens, partly -to serve as garrison among a population either hostile or of doubtful -fidelity. These Attic cleruchs (we can find no other name by which to -speak of them) did not lose their birthright as Athenian citizens: they were -not colonists in the Grecian sense, and they are known by a totally different -name, but they corresponded very nearly to the colonies formally planted -out on the conquered lands by Rome. The increase of the poorer population -was always more or less painfully felt in every Grecian city. For -though the aggregate population never seems to have increased very fast, -yet the multiplication of children in poor families caused the subdivision of -the smaller lots of land, until at last they became insufficient for a maintenance;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> -and the persons thus impoverished found it difficult to obtain subsistence -in other ways, more especially as the labour for the richer classes -was so much performed by imported slaves. The numerous cleruchies sent -out by Athens, of which this to Eubœa was the first, arose in a great measure -out of the multiplication of the poorer population, which her extended power -was employed in providing for. Her subsequent proceedings with a view to -the same object will not be always found so justifiable as this now before us, -which grew naturally, according to the ideas of the time, out of her success -against the Chalcidians.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[498-491 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The war between Athens, however, and Thebes with her Bœotian allies, -still continued, to the great and repeated disadvantage of the latter, until at -length the Thebans in despair sent to ask advice of the Delphian oracle, -and were directed to “solicit aid from those nearest to them.” “How (they -replied) are we to obey? Our nearest neighbours, of Tanagra, Coronea, and -Thespiæ, are now, and have been from the beginning, lending us all the aid -in their power.” An ingenious Theban, however, coming to the relief of -his perplexed fellow-citizens, dived into the depths of legend and brought -up a happy meaning. “Those nearest to us (he said) are the inhabitants of -Ægina: for Thebe (the eponym of Thebes) and Ægina (the eponym of that -island) were both sisters, daughters of Asopus: let us send to crave assistance -from the Æginetans.” If his subtle interpretation (founded upon their -descent from the same legendary progenitors) did not at once convince all -who heard it, at least no one had any better to suggest; and envoys were at -once sent to the Æginetans, who, in reply to a petition founded on legendary -claims, sent to the help of the Thebans a reinforcement of legendary, -but venerated, auxiliaries—the Æacid heroes. We are left to suppose that -their effigies are here meant. It was in vain, however, that the glory and -the supposed presence of the Æacids, Telamon and Peleus, were introduced -into the Theban camp. Victory still continued on the side of Athens; and -the discouraged Thebans again sent to Ægina, restoring the heroes, and praying -for aid of a character more human and positive. Their request was granted, -and the Æginetans commenced war against Athens without even the decent -preliminary of a herald and declaration.</p> - -<p>This remarkable embassy first brings us into acquaintance with the -Dorians of Ægina,—oligarchical, wealthy, commercial, and powerful at sea, -even in the earliest days; more analogous to Corinth than to any of the -other cities called Dorian. The hostility which they now began without -provocation against Athens,—repressed by Sparta at the critical moment of -the battle of Marathon, and hushed for a while by the common dangers of -the Persian invasion under Xerxes; then again breaking out,—was appeased -only with the conquest of the island about twenty years after that event, -and with the expulsion and destruction of its inhabitants some years later. -There had been indeed, according to Herodotus, a feud of great antiquity -between Athens and Ægina, of which he gives the account in a singular -narrative, blending together religion, politics, exposition of ancient customs, -etc.; but at the time when the Thebans solicited aid from Ægina, the latter -was at peace with Athens. The Æginetans employed their fleet, powerful -for that day, in ravaging Phalerum and the maritime demes of Attica; nor -had the Athenians as yet any fleet to resist them. It is probable that the -desired effect was produced, of diverting a portion of the Athenian force -from the war against Bœotia, and thus partially relieving Thebes. But the -war of Athens against both of them continued for a considerable time, though -we have no information respecting its details.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span></p> - -<p>Meanwhile the attention of Athens was called off from these combined -enemies by a more menacing cloud, which threatened to burst upon her -from the side of Sparta. Cleomenes and his countrymen, full of resentment -at the late inglorious desertion of Eleusis, were yet more incensed by the -discovery, which appears to have been then recently made, that the injunctions -of the Delphian priestess for the expulsion of Hippias from Athens had -been fraudulently procured. Moreover, Cleomenes, when shut up in the -Acropolis of Athens with Isagoras, had found there various prophecies previously -treasured up by the Pisistratidæ, many of which foreshadowed events -highly disastrous to Sparta. And while the recent brilliant manifestations -of courage, and repeated victories, on the part of Athens, seemed to indicate -that such prophecies might perhaps be realised, Sparta had to reproach -herself, that, from the foolish and mischievous conduct of Cleomenes, she had -undone the effect of her previous aid against the Pisistratidæ, and thus lost -that return of gratitude which the Athenians would otherwise have testified. -Under such impressions, the Spartan authorities took the remarkable step of -sending for Hippias from his residence at Sigeum to the Peloponnesus, and of -summoning deputies from all their allies to meet him at Sparta.</p> - -<p>The convocation thus summoned deserves notice as the commencement -of a new era in Grecian politics. The previous expedition of Cleomenes -against Attica presents to us the first known example of Spartan headship -passing from theory into act: that expedition miscarried because the allies, -though willing to follow, would not follow blindly, nor be made the instruments -of executing purposes repugnant to their feelings. Sparta had now -learned the necessity, in order to insure their hearty concurrence, of letting -them know what she contemplated, so as to ascertain at least that she had no -decided opposition to apprehend. Here, then, is the third stage in the spontaneous -movement of Greece towards a systematic conjunction, however -imperfect, of its many autonomous units. First we have Spartan headship -suggested in theory, from a concourse of circumstances which attract to her -the admiration of all Greece,—power, unrivalled training, undisturbed -antiquity, etc.; next, the theory passes into act, yet rude and shapeless; -lastly, the act becomes clothed with formalities, and preceded by discussion -and determination. The first convocation of the allies at Sparta, for the -purpose of having a common object submitted to their consideration, may -well be regarded as an important event in Grecian political history. The -proceedings at the convocation are no less important, as an indication of the -way in which the Greeks of that day felt and acted, and must be borne in -mind as a contrast with times hereafter to be described.</p> - -<p>Hippias having been presented to the assembled allies, the Spartans -expressed their sorrow for having dethroned him, their resentment and -alarm at the new born insolence of Athens, already tasted by her immediate -neighbours, and menacing to every state represented in the convocation, -and their anxiety to restore Hippias, not less as a reparation for past wrong, -than as a means, through his rule, of keeping Athens low and dependent. -But the proposition, though emanating from Sparta, was listened to by the -allies with one common sentiment of repugnance. They had no sympathy -for Hippias, no dislike, still less any fear, of Athens, and a profound detestation -of the character of a despot. The spirit which had animated the -armed contingents at Eleusis now reappeared among the deputies at Sparta, -and the Corinthians again took the initiative. Their deputy Sosicles protested -against the project in the fiercest and most indignant strain: no language -can be stronger than that of the long harangue which Herodotus puts<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> -into his mouth, wherein the bitter recollections prevalent at Corinth respecting -Cypselus and Periander are poured forth. “Surely, heaven and earth -are about to change places,—the fish are coming to dwell on dry land, and -mankind going to inhabit the sea,—when you, Spartans, propose to subvert -the popular governments, and to set up in the cities that wicked and bloody -thing called a Despot. First try what it is, for yourselves at Sparta, and -then force it upon others if you can: you have not tasted its calamities as -we have, and you take very good care to keep it away from yourselves. We -adjure you, by the common gods of Hellas,—plant not despots in her cities: -if you persist in a scheme so wicked, know that the Corinthians will not -second you.”</p> - -<p>This animated appeal was received with a shout of approbation and sympathy -on the part of the allies. All with one accord united with Sosicles in -adjuring the Lacedæmonians “not to revolutionise any Hellenic city.” No -one listened to Hippias when he replied, warning the Corinthians that the -time would come, when they, more than any one else, would dread and abhor -the Athenian democracy, and wish the Pisistratidæ back again. He knew -well, says Herodotus, that this would be, for he was better acquainted with -the prophecies than any man. But no one then believed him, and he was -forced to take his departure back to Sigeum: the Spartans not venturing to -espouse his cause against the determined sentiment of the allies.</p> - -<p>That determined sentiment deserves notice, because it marks the present -period of the Hellenic mind; fifty years later it will be found materially -altered. Aversion to single-headed rule, and bitter recollection of men like -Cypselus and Periander are now the chords which thrill in an assembly of -Grecian deputies: the idea of a revolution, implying thereby a great and -comprehensive change, of which the party using the word disapproves, consists -in substituting a permanent One in place of those periodical magistrates -and assemblies which were the common attribute of oligarchy and democracy: -the antithesis between these last two is as yet in the background, nor does there -prevail either fear of Athens or hatred of the Athenian democracy. But -when we turn to the period immediately before the Peloponnesian War, we -find the order of precedence between these two sentiments reversed. The -anti-monarchical feeling has not perished, but has been overlaid by other and -more recent political antipathies,—the antithesis between democracy and -oligarchy having become, not indeed the only sentiment, but the uppermost -sentiment, in the minds of Grecian politicians generally, and the soul of -active party movement. Moreover, a hatred of the most deadly character -has grown up against Athens and her democracy, especially in the grandsons -of those very Corinthians who now stand forward as her sympathising -friends. The remarkable change of feeling here mentioned is nowhere so -strikingly exhibited as when we contrast the address of the Corinthian -Sosicles, just narrated, with the speech of the Corinthian envoys at Sparta, -immediately antecedent to the Peloponnesian War, as given to us in Thucydides. -It will hereafter be fully explained by the intermediate events, by -the growth of Athenian power, and by the still more miraculous development -of Athenian energy.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[494-490 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Such development, the fruit of the fresh-planted democracy as well as the -seed for its sustentation and aggrandisement, continued progressive during -the whole period just adverted to. But the first unexpected burst of it, -under the Clisthenean constitution, and after the expulsion of Hippias, is -described by Herodotus in terms too emphatic to be omitted. After narrating -the successive victories of the Athenians over both Bœotians and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> -Chalcidians, that historian proceeds: “Thus did the Athenians grow in -strength. And we may find proof, not merely in this instance but everywhere -else, how valuable a thing freedom is: since even the Athenians, while -under a despot, were not superior in war to any of their surrounding neighbours, -but, so soon as they got rid of their despots, became by far the first of -all. These things show that while kept down by one man, they were slack -and timid, like men working for a master; but when they were liberated, -every single man became eager in exertions for his own benefit.” The same -comparison reappears a short time afterwards, where he tells us, that “the -Athenians when free, felt themselves a match for Sparta; but while kept -down by any man under a despotism, were feeble and apt for submission.”</p> - -<p>Stronger expressions cannot be found to depict the rapid improvement -wrought in the Athenian people by their new democracy. Of course this -did not arise merely from suspension of previous cruelties, or better laws, or -better administration. These, indeed, were essential conditions, but the -active transforming cause here was the principle and system of which such -amendments formed the detail: the grand and new idea of the sovereign -people, composed of free and equal citizens,—or liberty and equality, to use -words which so profoundly moved the French nation half a century ago. -It was this comprehensive political idea which acted with electric effect upon -the Athenians, creating within them a host of sentiments, motives, sympathies, -and capacities to which they had before been strangers. Democracy in -Grecian antiquity possessed the privilege, not only of kindling an earnest -and unanimous attachment to the constitution in the bosoms of the citizens, -but also of creating an energy of public and private action, such as could -never be obtained under an oligarchy, where the utmost that could be hoped -for was a passive acquiescence and obedience. Mr. Burke has remarked -that the mass of the people are generally very indifferent about theories of -government; but such indifference—although improvements in the practical -working of all governments tend to foster it—is hardly to be expected -among any people who exhibit decided mental activity and spirit on other -matters; and the reverse was unquestionably true, in the year 500 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, -among the communities of ancient Greece. Theories of government were -there anything but a dead letter; they were connected with emotions of the -strongest as well as of the most opposite character. The theory of a permanent -ruling One, for example, was universally odious: that of a ruling -Few, though acquiesced in, was never positively attractive, unless either where -it was associated with the maintenance of peculiar education and habits, as -at Sparta, or where it presented itself as the only antithesis to democracy, the -latter having by peculiar circumstances become an object of terror. But -the theory of democracy was pre-eminently seductive; creating in the mass -of the citizens an intense positive attachment, and disposing them to voluntary -action and suffering on its behalf, such as no coercion on the part of -other governments could extort.</p> - -<p>Herodotus, in his comparison of the three sorts of government, puts in -the front rank of the advantages of democracy, “its most splendid name and -promise,”—its power of enlisting the hearts of the citizens in support of -their constitution, and of providing for all a common bond of union and fraternity. -This is what even democracy did not always do: but it was what -no other government in Greece could do: a reason alone sufficient to stamp -it as the best government, and presenting the greatest chance of beneficent -results, for a Grecian community. Among the Athenian citizens, certainly, -it produced a strength and unanimity of positive political sentiment, such as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> -has rarely been seen in the history of mankind, which excites our surprise -and admiration the more when we compare it with the apathy which had -preceded,—and which is even applied as the natural state of the public -mind in Solon’s famous proclamation against neutrality in a sedition. Because -democracy happens to be unpalatable to some modern readers, they -have been accustomed to look upon the sentiment here described only in -its least honourable manifestations,—in the caricatures of Aristophanes, -or in the empty commonplaces of rhetorical declaimers. But it is not in -this way that the force, the earnestness, or the binding value of democratical -sentiment at Athens is to be measured. We must listen to it as it -comes from the lips of Pericles, while he is strenuously enforcing upon the -people those active duties for which it both implanted the stimulus and supplied -the courage; or from the oligarchical Nicias in the harbour of Syracuse, -when he is endeavouring to revive the courage of his despairing troops for -one last death-struggle, and when he appeals to their democratical patriotism -as to the only flame yet alive and burning even in that moment of agony. -From the time of Clisthenes downward, the creation of this new mighty -impulse makes an entire revolution in the Athenian character. And if the -change still stood out in so prominent a manner before the eyes of Herodotus, -much more must it have been felt by the contemporaries among whom it -occurred.</p> - -<p>The attachment of an Athenian citizen to his democratical constitution -comprised two distinct veins of sentiment: first, his rights, protection, and -advantages derived from it; next, his obligations of exertion and sacrifice -towards it and with reference to it. Neither of these two veins of sentiment -was ever wholly absent; but according as the one or the other was present at -different times in varying proportions, the patriotism of the citizen was a -very different feeling. That which Herodotus remarks is, the extraordinary -efforts of heart and hand which the Athenians suddenly displayed,—the -efficacy of the active sentiment throughout the bulk of the citizens; and we -shall observe even more memorable evidences of the same phenomenon in -tracing down the history from Clisthenes to the end of the Peloponnesian -War: we shall trace a series of events and motives eminently calculated to -stimulate that self-imposed labour and discipline which the early democracy -had first called forth. But when we advance farther down, from the restoration -of the democracy after the Thirty Tyrants to the time of Demosthenes, -we venture upon this brief anticipation, in the conviction that one period -of Grecian history can be thoroughly understood only by contrasting it with -another,—we shall find a sensible change in Athenian patriotism. The active -sentiment of obligation is comparatively inoperative, the citizen, it is true, -has a keen sense of the value of the democracy as protecting him and insuring -to him valuable rights, and he is, moreover, willing to perform his ordinary -sphere of legal duties towards it; but he looks upon it as a thing established, -and capable of maintaining itself in a due measure of foreign ascendency, -without any such personal efforts as those which his forefathers cheerfully -imposed upon themselves. The orations of Demosthenes contain melancholy -proofs of such altered tone of patriotism,—of that languor, paralysis, and -waiting for others to act, which preceded the catastrophe of Chæronea, notwithstanding -an unabated attachment to the democracy as a source of protection -and good government. That same preternatural activity which the -allies of Sparta, at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, both denounced -and admired in the Athenians, is noted by the orator as now belonging to -their enemy Philip.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span></p> - -<p>Such variations in the scale of national energy pervade history, modern -as well as ancient, but in regard to Grecian history, especially, they can never -be overlooked. For a certain measure, not only of positive political attachment, -but also of active self-devotion, military readiness, and personal effort, -was the indispensable condition of maintaining Hellenic autonomy, either in -Athens or elsewhere; and became so more than ever when the Macedonians -were once organised under an enterprising and semi-Hellenised prince. -The democracy was the first creative cause of that astonishing personal and -many-sided energy which marked the Athenian character, for a century downwards -from Clisthenes.</p> - -<p>That the same ultra-Hellenic activity did not longer continue, is referable -to other causes, which will be hereafter in part explained. No system of -government, even supposing it to be very much better and more faultless than -the Athenian democracy, can ever pretend to accomplish its legitimate end -apart from the personal character of the people, or to supersede the necessity -of individual virtue and vigour.</p> - -<p>During the half-century immediately preceding the battle of Chæronea, -the Athenians had lost that remarkable energy which distinguished them -during the first century of their democracy, and had fallen much more nearly -to a level with the other Greeks, in common with whom they were obliged to -yield to the pressure of a foreign enemy. We here briefly notice their last -period of languor, in contrast with the first burst of democratical fervour -under Clisthenes, now opening—a feeling which will be found, as we proceed, -to continue for a longer period than could have been reasonably anticipated, -but which was too high-strung to become a perpetual and inherent -attribute of any community.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_14b" id="enanchor_14b"></a><a href="#endnote_14b">b</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_17" id="Footnote_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> So in the Italian republics of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the nobles long continued -to possess the exclusive right of being elected to the consulate and the great offices of state, even -after those offices had come to be elected by the people: the habitual misrule and oppression of -the nobles gradually put an end to this right, and even created in many towns a resolution positively -to exclude them. At Milan, towards the end of the twelfth century, the twelve consuls, -with the Podestat, possessed all the powers of government: these consuls were nominated by -one hundred electors chosen by and among the people.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-14.jpg" width="500" height="178" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Theatre of Phocis</span></p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-15.jpg" width="500" height="100" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XV_THE_FIRST_FOREIGN_INVASION">CHAPTER XV. THE FIRST FOREIGN INVASION</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Where’er we tread ’tis haunted, holy ground;</div> -<div class="verse">No earth of thine is lost in vulgar mould,</div> -<div class="verse">But one vast realm of wonder spreads around,</div> -<div class="verse">And all the muse’s tales seem truly told,</div> -<div class="verse">Till the sense aches with gazing to behold</div> -<div class="verse">The scenes our earliest dreams have dwelt upon;</div> -<div class="verse">Each hill and dale, each deepening glen and wold,</div> -<div class="verse">Defies the power which crushed thy temples gone:</div> -<div class="verse">Age shakes Athena’s tower, but spares gray Marathon.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse right">—<span class="smcap">Byron.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Curtius in the well-known passage which begins his celebrated history -asks where is the division between Asia and Europe, pointing out that the -islands of the Ægean Sea are practically stepping-stones between Asia Minor -and Greece, and that from one point of view the intervening bits of water -are rather connecting links than a severing barrier. This claim has much -to support it in the view of a maritime people; yet from another point of view -a very tangible barrier does exist between the two continents. The Persians, -as is well known, having their native seat far inland had a standing dread of -water. For them the Ægean Sea was unquestionably a barrier, not a bridge. -It would probably have been long before they attempted to cross this barrier -had not the initiative been taken from the other side. But while it was far -from Asia to Europe, it was not far, in the point of view of the sea-faring -Greek, from Europe to Asia. To him the sea was a bridge.</p> - -<p>No one knows how early the Greeks themselves crossed the various -“bridges” of the Ægean and began to make settlements in Asia Minor, but -it is known that in a very early day these settlements on the eastern shore -had come to play a most important part in Grecian life. It is supposed that -in the early day the inhabitants of Asia Minor welcomed the Greek colonist -who became valuable to them as a manufacturer, and, in particular, as a -trader.</p> - -<p>It was long before there seemed anything menacing in the growth of -these scattered colonies, and, before the powers of Asia Minor had aroused to -a right understanding of the political import of the colonisation that had gone -on under their eyes, the whole coast had come practically under the control -of these peaceful invaders from the West. Then indeed the Lydians, in -particular, were aroused to a realisation of what they had permitted, and -sought to make amends by subjecting the colonies that had hitherto been -their own masters. The attempt was first made on a large scale by Crœsus, -but, before he had completed the task, he was himself overthrown by Cyrus, -and the standing broil with the Greek colonies of the coast was one of the -perquisites of war which Crœsus handed over to the Persians.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span></p> - -<p>Cyrus himself seems to have thought the Greeks of small importance, as -he left a subordinate to dispose of them, while he turned his personal attention -to the more powerful Babylonians, but the Greeks were supported by -the memory of some generations of freedom, and they did not prove the contemptible -foe that they seemed. Cities once conquered were prone to revolt, -and the indomitable spirit of the Greeks on this western border of the -Persian territory proved a standing source of annoyance. At last Darius -determined to put an end to the Grecians once for all, and it was his general -who for the first time led a Persian host across the Hellespont and into the -precincts of Greece itself. The repulse of this host by the Athenians on -the field of Marathon was an event which the Greeks of a later time never -tired of celebrating, and which has taken its place in later history as one of -the half-dozen great decisive battles of the world. Subjected to a critical -view this battle of Marathon, as we shall have occasion to see presently, was -not quite so decisive an event as the Athenians were disposed to think it. -Still it turned the Persian horde back from Greece for a decade. Then -under Xerxes came that stupendous half-organised army that has been the -wonder of all after-times; and the glorious events of Thermopylæ, Salamis, -Platæa, and Mycale in rapid succession added to the glory of Greek prowess -and saved the life of Greece as a nation—saved it from an outer foe that it -might die by its own hand. The events of this memorable epoch are among -the most important in all Grecian history, and we must view them in detail, -drawing largely for our knowledge of them on the great original source, -Herodotus, but noting also the impression which they have made upon many -generations of historians of other times and other lands.<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE ORIGIN OF ANIMOSITY</h4> - -<p>Herodotus, born 484, in the midst of the Median wars, wondered at this -great conflict between the Greek and barbarian worlds and sought its causes -in times more remote than the Trojan war, even in the mythological period.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[506 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>“The most learned of the Persians,” he says, “assert that the Phœnicians -were the original exciters of contention. This nation migrated from the borders -of the Red Sea to the place of their present settlement, and soon distinguished -themselves by their long and enterprising voyages. They exported -to Argos, among other places, the produce of Egypt and Assyria. Argos, at -that period, was the most famous of all those states which are now comprehended -under the general appellation of Greece. On their arrival here, the -Phœnicians exposed their merchandise to sale; after remaining about six days, -and when they had almost disposed of their different articles of commerce, the -king’s daughter, whom both nations agree in calling Io, came among a great -number of other women, to visit them at their station. Whilst these females, -standing near the stern of the vessel, amused themselves with bargaining for -such things as attracted their curiosity, the Phœnicians, in conjunction, made -an attempt to seize their persons. The greater part of them escaped, but Io, -with many others, remained a captive. They carried them on board, and -directed their course for Egypt.</p> - -<p>“The relation of the Greeks differs essentially; but this, according to the -Persians, was the cause of Io’s arrival in Egypt, and the first act of violence -which was committed. In process of time, certain Grecians, concerning -whose country writers disagree, but who were really of Crete, are reported to -have touched at Tyre, and to have carried away Europa, the daughter of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> -prince. Thus far the Greeks had only retaliated; but they were certainly -guilty of the second provocation. They made a voyage in a vessel of war -to Æa, a city of Colchis, near the river Phasis; and, after having accomplished -the more immediate object of their expedition, they forcibly carried -off the king’s daughter, Medea. The king of Colchis despatched a herald -to demand satisfaction for the affront, and the restitution of the princess; -but the Greeks replied, that they should make no reparation in the present -instance, as the violence formerly offered to Io still remained unexpiated.</p> - -<p>“In the age which followed, Alexander [Paris], the son of Priam, encouraged -by the memory of these events, determined on obtaining a wife from -Greece, by means of similar violence; fully persuaded that this, like former -wrongs, would never be avenged.</p> - -<p>“Upon the loss of Helen, the Greeks at first employed messengers to demand -her person, as well as a compensation for the affront. All the satisfaction -they received was reproach for the injury which had been offered to -Medea; and they were further asked, how, under circumstances entirely -alike, they could reasonably require what they themselves had denied.</p> - -<p>“Hitherto the animosity betwixt the two nations extended no farther than -to acts of private violence. But at this period, the Greeks certainly laid the -foundation of subsequent contention; who, before the Persians invaded -Europe, doubtless made military incursions into Asia. The Persians appear -to be of opinion, that they who offer violence to women must be insensible -to the impressions of justice, but that such provocations are as much beneath -revenge, as the women themselves are undeserving of regard: it being obvious, -that all females thus circumstanced must have been more or less accessary to -the fact. They asserted also, that although women had been forcibly carried -away from Asia, they had never resented the affront. The Greeks, on -the contrary, to avenge the rape of a Lacedæmonian woman, had assembled -a mighty fleet, entered Asia in a hostile manner, and had totally overthrown -the empire of Priam. Since which event they had always considered the -Greeks as the public enemies of their nation.”</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[515-499 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Such were the causes of the animosity between Persians and Greeks as -Herodotus conceived them. But the modern historian gives scant credence -to these tales. In reality we do not have to go back to the abduction of Io -and Helen by the Asiatics, and of Europa and Medea by the Greeks to explain -this mutual hate. Equally trivial are such incidents as the flight -of the physician Democedes, who deceived Darius that he might return to his -native Croton; and the desire of the queen, Atossa, to include Spartan and -Athenian women among her slaves. The appeals of Hippias to be reinstated -in Athens, and of the Aleuadæ of Thessaly to be delivered from the enemies -that oppressed them had, to be sure, a somewhat more serious influence. -But the real cause was Persia’s power. This empire had at that -time attained its natural limits. Being nearly surrounded by deserts, the -sea, wide rivers, and high mountains, there was but one direction in which -she could expand, the northwest; and on that side lay a famous country, -Greece, whose independence affronted the pride of the Great King. Cyrus -had conquered Asia; Cambyses a part of Africa, so Darius, not to be outdone -by his predecessors, attacked Europe. The Sardian satrap, Artaphernes, -had already replied to the overtures of Clisthenes by demanding that -Athens should come under the rule of the Great King. Darius had reorganised -his empire and restored in his provinces the order so rudely shaken by -the usurpation of the Magian and the efforts of the conquered nations to -regain their freedom; it was necessary moreover to furnish occupation for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> -the warlike ardour which still characterised the Persians. With this end in -view he planned an important expedition. The Scythians had formerly -invaded Asia; it was the recollection of that injury and the desire to subjugate -Thrace which adjoined his own empire that pointed out to Darius -the route he was to follow. He set out from Susa with a numerous army, -crossed the Bosporus on a bridge of boats constructed by the Samian, Mandrocles, -and entered Europe bringing seven or eight hundred thousand men -in his train, among whom were some Asiatic Greeks commanded by the -tyrants of the various cities. He traversed Thrace, crossed the Danube -(Ister) on a bridge of boats which he left the Greeks to guard, then penetrated -well into Scythia in pursuit of an enemy whom it was impossible to -seize. Darius had told the Greeks not to expect him to return after the -expiration of sixty days. This time having passed without news of him, -the Athenian, Miltiades, tyrant of the Chersonesus, proposed to destroy the -bridge that the way into Thrace might not be left open to the Scythians -whom he supposed victorious, also that the Persian army might be destroyed -by them should it still exist. Histiæus of Miletus opposed this plan, -representing to the chiefs, who were all tyrants of Greek cities, that they -would surely be overthrown the day they lost the support of their great -leader. This reasoning saved Darius, who, returning from his vain pursuit, -left with Megabyzus eighty thousand men to complete the subjugation of -Thrace, and also to conquer Macedonia.</p> - -<p>Megabyzus conquered Perinthus, that part of Thrace which still resisted, -Pæonia, and called upon the king of Macedonia to render him homage of -earth and water. Amyntas accorded this, and Megabyzus was able to report -to his master that the Persian empire at last adjoined Greece in Europe. -With this the expedition came to an end. Histiæus’ services were rewarded -by the gift of a vast territory on the banks of the Strymon. The site had -been well chosen, near the gold and silver mines of Mount Pangæ, at the -foot of hills rich in building woods and near the mouth of a river that offered -an excellent port on the Ægean Sea. Myrcinus, founded there by Histiæus, -would soon have attained the growth and prosperity that were to signalise -Amphipolis later on the same spot, had not Megabyzus, in alarm, warned the -king of the necessity of preventing this Greek from carrying out the plans -he meditated. Histiæus was summoned to Sardis on pretext of being needed -for an important consultation, and once there, Darius told him simply that -he could not do without his friendship and advice. Histiæus was obliged to -accept these gilded chains.</p> - -<h4>THE IONIC REVOLT</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[499-494 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Several years had passed in unbroken peace when a trivial matter and an -obscure man threw all in disorder again. Naxos, the largest of the Cyclades, -was powerful at that time, ruling over several islands, possessing a considerable -navy and able to place in the field eight thousand hoplites. Unfortunately, -like every other Grecian state, Naxos was divided into two factions, -the popular and the aristocratic. This latter destroyed itself by an unpardonable -crime, similar to that of which Lucretia was victim about the same -time in Rome. Sent into exile, they proposed to Aristagoras, Histiæus’ son-in-law -and, in his absence, tyrant of Miletus, to take them back to their -island. He acceded readily, beholding in fancy the Cyclades, possibly also -Eubœa as already under his dominion. But unable to accomplish such an -enterprise without help, he succeeded in interesting the satrap of Sardis,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> -Artaphernes, who placed at his disposal a fleet of two hundred ships commanded -by Megabates. This Persian rebelled at being under the orders of -a Greek and to avenge a slight received in a quarrel that broke out between -them, sent information to the Naxians. The success of the expedition depended -on secrecy; this once destroyed, it was bound to fail. Aristagoras -held to the project four months, spending his own treasure as well as that -given him for the enterprise by the king. He feared being obliged to make -good this loss, and decided that revolt offered a preferable alternative, in -which choice he was aided by the secret instigations of Histiæus. The army -he had led before Naxos was still united, and forming part of it were all the -tyrants of the cities on the Asiatic coast. These he seized and sent back to -their respective cities where they were placed under sentence of death or -exile, then established democracy everywhere (499 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>). After these deeds, -finding it necessary to attach some powerful ally to his cause, he visited -Lacedæmon. Cleomenes, its king, questioned him as to the distance of the -Persian capital from the sea. “A three months’ march,” replied Aristagoras. -“In that case you will leave this place to-morrow,” said the king, “it -would be folly to propose to Lacedæmonians to put a three months’ march -between themselves and the sea.” Aristagoras tried to bribe him to consent; -but for once Spartan virtue was incorruptible and the Ionian went on to -Athens. Given permission to speak in the assembly, he described the riches -of Persia, and laid stress on the advantage the Greeks would have over a -foe to whom the use of spear and shield was unknown, and finally adduced -the fact that Miletus was a colony of Athens. The Athenians had more -than one grievance against the Persians—the refuge given to Hippias, and -the order to recall the tyrant received as a reply to their remonstrances. -Aristagoras had little difficulty in persuading them to assure their own -safety by carrying the war with which they were menaced over into the -enemy’s country, they also believing doubtless that the matter was but a private -quarrel between the satrap and Aristagoras. They decreed to the envoy -twenty vessels to which were added five triremes from Eretria, this state -thus repaying the aid it had formerly received from Miletus in its war -against Chalcis. The allies proceeded to Ephesus and thence to Sardis, -which they took and pillaged. The houses were thatched with reeds, and, a -soldier accidentally setting fire to one of the roofs, the entire city, with the -exception of the citadel to which Artaphernes had retired, was consumed, -together with the temple of Cybele, venerated as deeply by the Persians as -by the Lydians (498). Artaphernes meanwhile had recalled the army that -was besieging Miletus, and from all sides gathered the provincial troops; the -Athenians began to think of retreat. A defeat they suffered near Ephesus, -possibly also treason among themselves, completed their dissatisfaction. -They boarded their ships and returned to Athens, leaving their allies to -extricate themselves from the difficulty in which they were placed as best -they could.</p> - -<p>The Ionians continued the contest, drawing into their movement all the -cities on the Hellespont and the Propontis, together with Chalcedonia and -Byzantium, the Carians and the island of Cyprus. The Persians got together -several armies; one, directed northward against the cities of the Hellespont, -took several towns, then fell back towards the south against the Carians, who, -after losing two battles, surrendered. Another attacked Cyprus with the -Phœnician fleet that had been defeated by the Ionians, but the treachery of -a Cypriote chief delivered the island over to the enemy. Acting jointly in -the centre, Artaphernes and Otanes captured Clazomenæ and Cyme, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> -then advanced with a considerable force against Miletus, the last bulwark -of Ionia. Here Aristagoras was no longer chief; he had basely deserted -and escaped to Myrcinus, and was later killed in an attack on a Thracian -city. As regards Histiæus, Darius, deceived by his promises, had recently -restored him to liberty, but the Milesians, having no liking for tyrants, -refused to receive him. Getting together a small force of Mytilenæans he -became a pirate and was killed in a descent on the Asiatic coast. The -Ionians assembled at the Panionium, deliberated as to the best means of -saving Miletus. It was decided to risk a naval battle; Chios furnished a -hundred ships, Lesbos seventy, Samos sixty, and Miletus itself eighty, the -fleet numbering in all three hundred and fifty-three ships. The Persians -had six hundred.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[494-492 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>In the Greek fleet was a very able man who would have saved Ionia had -she been willing to be saved. This was Dionysius, a Phocæan, who demonstrated -to the allies that strict discipline and constant practice in manœuvres -would assure them success. For seven days he drilled the crews in all the -movements of naval warfare, but at the end of this time the effeminate Ionians -had had enough; they left the ships, pitched their tents on land, and -forgot that the enemy existed. As was unavoidable after taking such a -course, their moral fibre became relaxed and treachery began to show among -them. When the day of battle arrived, the Samians, in the hottest of the -action, deserted their post and made for their own island. The Ionians were -defeated despite the splendid courage of the Chian sailors and of Dionysius, -who himself took three of the enemy’s vessels. When he saw that the battle -was lost he boldly pushed on to Tyre and sank several merchant ships, retiring -to Sicily with the wealth obtained. The rest of his life was passed in -pursuing on the open sea Phœnician, Carthaginian, and Tyrrhenian ships.</p> - -<p>All hope was lost for Miletus; it was taken and its inhabitants transported -to Ampe, at the mouth of the Tigris (494). Chios, Lesbos, Tenedos, -shared Miletus’ fate, and several cities of the Hellespont were destroyed by -fire. The inhabitants of Chalcedon and Byzantium abandoned these cities -to seek a home on the northwest coast of the Pontus Euxinus, in Mesambria. -Miltiades also deemed it prudent to leave the Chersonesus; he returned to -Athens, where he was soon to find himself arrayed against those very Persians -from whom he now sought flight. The news of Ionia’s downfall echoed -sadly throughout Greece, Athens, in particular, being affected. Phrynichus -presented a play entitled the <i>Capture of Miletus</i> at which the entire audience -burst into tears, and the poet was sentenced to pay a fine of a thousand -drachmæ “for having revived the memory of a great domestic misfortune.” -Tears like these expiate many faults.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile Darius had not forgotten that after the burning of Sardis he -had sworn to be revenged on the Athenians. He gave to his son-in-law, -Mardonius, command over a newly raised army that was to enter Europe by -way of Thrace while the fleet followed along the coast. Mardonius, to conciliate -the Greeks in Asia, restored to them a democratic government, bearing -in mind that the authors of the recent revolt had been two of the tyrants -that Persia supported.</p> - -<p>Megabazus had already subdued all the nations between the Hellespont -and Macedonia. Mardonius crossed the Strymon and gave his fleet rendezvous -in the Thermaic Gulf. He took Thasos and was passing along the -coast of Chalcidice when on doubling the promontory of Mount Athos, -which rises nineteen hundred and fifty metres out of the sea, his fleet encountered -a terrific gale that wrecked three hundred ships and destroyed twenty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> -thousand lives. About the same time Mardonius, attacked at night by the -Thracians, lost many of his men and was himself wounded. He continued -the expedition, but was so enfeebled after the subjugation of the Brygians -that he felt himself obliged to return to Asia.</p> - -<p>A more formidable armament was at once prepared. Before sending it -forth Darius despatched heralds to Greece demanding homage of earth and -water, and, in the case of maritime cities, a contingent of galleys. The -greater part of the islands and several cities yielded to this demand, Ægina -even anticipating the desire of the Great King. The indignation of Athens -and Sparta was such that they forgot the respect due to envoys. “You -want earth and water?” replied the Spartans, “very well, you shall have -both,” and the unfortunate men were thrown into a well. The Greeks cast -them into the barathrum, and if a not very authentic tale may be believed, -condemned to death the interpreter who had defiled the Greek tongue by -translating into it the orders of a barbarian.<a name="FNanchor_18" id="FNanchor_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> - -<h4>WAR WITH ÆGINA</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[492 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Athens was constantly at war with the Æginetans, and she now seized -an opportunity their conduct offered to accuse them to the Lacedæmonians -of treachery to the common cause. This appeal to the Spartans was equivalent -to acknowledging their claims to supremacy as the recognised chiefs -of Hellas, the exigencies of the situation having silenced pride. Cleomenes -shared the resentment of the Athenians, and proceeded to Ægina to seize -the offenders. But his colleague Demaratus, who had already betrayed -him in an expedition into Attica, informed the islanders and the enterprise -fell through.</p> - -<p>To put an end to his colleague’s vexatious opposition Cleomenes caused -it to be declared by the Pythia, whom he had won over, that Demaratus was -not of royal blood, thus obtaining his deposition. Leotychides, who had -joined with him in this scheme, succeeded the deposed king, to whom he -was next of kin, and by outrageous treatment drove him from Sparta. -Demaratus sought out Hippias in his exile and, like him, begged hospitality -of the great protector of kings.</p> - -<p>Cleomenes next proceeded to Ægina and took thence ten hostages whom -he delivered over to the Athenians. This was the last public act of the -turbulent chief who later became insane and perished miserably by his own -hand; Leotychides, convicted of having taken bribes from the enemy he -should have stubbornly opposed, died in exile. “Thus,” says Herodotus, -“did the gods punish the perjury of these two princes.” Meanwhile the -Æginetans demanded the return of their hostages, and, Athens refusing -to surrender them, they attacked and captured the sacred galley that was -carrying to Cape Sunium many prominent citizens. War immediately broke -out. An Æginetan attempted to overthrow, in his island, the oligarchical -government. He got possession of the citadel, but reinforcements not -reaching him in time, he left in the hands of the enemy seven hundred of -his men, who were massacred without mercy. One of these poor creatures -succeeded in escaping and made his way to the temple of Ceres where -he expected to find safe refuge. The gates being closed, he clung with both<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> -hands to the latch-ring, and all efforts to make him let go being unavailing, -the butchers cut off his hands, which even in the convulsions of death still -preserved their frenzied hold. Herodotus, accustomed as he was to civil -war, raises not a word of protest against this slaughter of seven hundred -citizens, he remarks only upon the sacrilege committed on account of one -of them. “No sacrifice,” he says piously, “will be sufficient to appease the -wrath of the goddess.” The nobles were all ejected from the island before -they had expiated their act of sacrilege. This war did not close, in fact, -until nine years after the second expedition of the Persians.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_15d" id="enanchor_15d"></a><a href="#endnote_15d">d</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE FIRST INVASION</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[492-490 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Whilst these two nations were thus -engaged in hostilities, the domestic of -the Persian monarch continued regularly -to bid him “Remember the Athenians,” -which incident was further -enforced by the unremitting endeavours -of the Pisistratidæ to criminate -that people. The king himself was -very glad of this pretext, effectually -to reduce such of the Grecian states -as had refused him “earth and water.” -He accordingly removed from his command -Mardonius, who had been unsuccessful -in his naval undertakings; he -appointed two other officers to commence -an expedition against Eretria -and Athens; these were Datis, a -native of Media, and Artaphernes his -nephew, who were commanded totally -to subdue both the above places, and -to bring the inhabitants captive before -him.</p> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/p268.jpg" width="250" height="415" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Foot Soldier</span></p> -</div> - -<p>These commanders, as soon as -they had received their appointment, -advanced to Aleum in Cilicia, with -a large and well-provided body of -infantry. Here, as soon as they -encamped, they were joined by a -numerous reinforcement of marines, -agreeably to the orders which had -been given. Not long afterwards, those vessels arrived to take the cavalry -on board, which in the preceding year Darius had commanded his tributaries -to supply. The horse and foot immediately embarked, and proceeded to -Ionia, in a fleet of six hundred triremes. They did not, keeping along -the coast, advance in a right line to Thrace and the Hellespont, but loosing -from Samos, they passed through the midst of the islands, and the -Icarian Sea, fearing, as we should suppose, to double the promontory of -Athos, by which they had in a former year severely suffered. They were -further induced to this course by the island of Naxos which before they had -omitted to take.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span></p> - -<p>Proceeding therefore from the Icarian Sea to this island, which was the -first object of their enterprise, they met with no resistance. The Naxians, -remembering their former calamities, fled in alarm to the mountains. Those -taken captive were made slaves, the sacred buildings and the city were -burned. This done, the Persians sailed to the other islands.</p> - -<p>At this juncture the inhabitants of Delos deserted their island and fled -to Tenos. The Persian fleet was directing its course to Delos, when Datis, -hastening to the van, obliged them to station themselves at Rhenea, which -lies beyond it. As soon as he learned to what place the Delians had retired, -he sent a herald to them with this message: “Why, oh sacred people, do you -fly, thinking so injuriously of me? If I had not received particular directions -from the king my master to this effect, I, of my own accord, would -never have molested you, nor offered violence to a place in which two deities -were born. Return therefore, and inhabit your island as before.” Having -sent this message, he offered upon one of their altars incense to the amount -of three hundred talents [£60,000 or $300,000].</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[490 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>After this measure, Datis led his whole army against Eretria, taking with -him the Ionians and Æolians. The Delians say, that at the moment of his -departure the island of Delos was affected by a tremulous motion, a circumstance -which, as the Delians affirm, never happened before or since. The -deity, as it should seem by this prodigy, forewarned mankind of the evils -which were about to happen. Greece certainly suffered more and greater -calamities during the reigns of Darius son of Hystaspes, Xerxes son of Darius, -and Artaxerxes son of Xerxes, than in all the preceding twenty generations; -these calamities arose partly from the Persians, and partly from the contentions -for power among its own great men. It was not therefore without -reason that Delos, immovable before, should then be shaken, which event -indeed had been predicted by the oracle:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Although Delos be immovable, I will shake it.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">It is also worth observation, that, translated into the Greek tongue, Darius -signifies one who compels, Xerxes, a warrior, Artaxerxes, a great warrior; -and thus they would call them if they used the corresponding terms.</p> - -<p>The barbarians, sailing from Delos to the other islands, took on board -reinforcements from them all, together with the children of the inhabitants -as hostages. Cruising round the different islands, they arrived off Carystus; -but the people of this place positively refused either to give hostages, or to -serve against their neighbours, Athens and Eretria. They were consequently -besieged, and their lands wasted; and they were finally compelled to surrender -themselves to the Persians.</p> - -<p>The Eretrians, on the approach of the Persian army, applied to the Athenians -for assistance; this the Athenians did not think proper to withhold; -they accordingly sent them the four thousand men to whom those lands had -been assigned which formerly belonged to the Chalcidian cavalry; but the -Eretrians, notwithstanding their application to the Athenians, were far from -being firm and determined. They were so divided in their resolutions, that -whilst some of them advised the city to be deserted, and a retreat made to -the rocks of Eubœa, others, expecting a reward from the Persians, prepared -to betray their country. Æschines, the son of Nothon, an Eretrian of the -highest rank, observing these different sentiments, informed the Athenians -of the state of affairs, advising them to return home, lest they should be involved -in the common ruin. The Athenians attended to this advice of Æschines, -and by passing over to Oropus, escaped the impending danger.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span></p> - -<p>The Persians, arriving at Eretria, came near Tamynæ, Chærea, and -Ægilia; making themselves masters of these places, they disembarked the -horse, and prepared to attack the enemy. The Eretrians did not think -proper to advance and engage them; the opinion for defending the city had -prevailed, and their whole attention was occupied in preparing for a siege. -The Persians endeavoured to storm the place, and a contest of six days was -attended with very considerable loss on both sides. On the seventh, the -city was betrayed to the enemy by two of the more eminent citizens, Euphorbus, -son of Alcimachus, and Philager, son of Cyneas. As soon as the Persians -got possession of the place, they pillaged and burned the temples to -avenge the burning of their own temples at Sardis. The people, according -to the orders of Darius, were made slaves.</p> - -<p>After this victory at Eretria, the Persians stayed a few days, and then -sailed to Attica, driving all before them, and thinking to treat the Athenians -as they had done the Eretrians. There was a place in Attica called Marathon, -not far from Eretria, well adapted for the motions of cavalry: to this -place therefore they were conducted by Hippias, son of Pisistratus.</p> - -<p>As soon as the Athenians heard this, they advanced to the same spot, -under the conduct of ten leaders, with the view of repelling force by force. -The last of these was Miltiades. His father Cimon, son of Stesagoras, had -been formerly driven from Athens by the influence of Pisistratus, son of -Hippocrates. During his exile, he had obtained the prize at the Olympic games, -in the chariot-race of four horses. This honour, however, he transferred -to Miltiades his uterine brother. At the Olympic games which next followed -he was again victorious, and with the same mares. This honour he suffered -to be assigned to Pisistratus, on condition of his being recalled; a reconciliation -ensued, and he was permitted to return. Being victorious a third time, -on the same occasion, and with the same mares, he was put to death by the -sons of Pisistratus, Pisistratus himself being then dead. He was assassinated -in the night, near the Prytaneum, by some villains sent for the purpose: he -was buried in the approach to the city, near the hollow way; and in the same -spot were interred the mares which had three times obtained the prize at the -Olympic games. If we except the mares of Evagoras of Sparta, no other -ever obtained a similar honour. At this period, Stesagoras, the eldest son -of Cimon, resided in the Chersonesus with his uncle Miltiades; the youngest -was brought up at Athens under Cimon himself, and named Miltiades, from -the founder of the Chersonesus.</p> - -<p>This Miltiades, the Athenian leader, in advancing from the Chersonesus, -escaped from two incidents which alike threatened his life: he was pursued -as far as Imbros by the Phœnicians, who were exceedingly desirous to take -him alive, and present him to the King; on his return home, where he thought -himself secure, his enemies accused, and brought him to a public trial, under -pretence of his aiming at the sovereignty of the Chersonesus; from this also -he escaped, and was afterwards chosen a general of the Athenians by the suffrages -of the people.</p> - -<p>The Athenian leaders, before they left the city, despatched Phidippides -to Sparta: he was an Athenian by birth, and his daily employment was that -of a courier. To this Phidippides, as he himself affirmed, and related to the -Athenians, the god Pan appeared on Mount Parthenius, which is beyond -Tegea. The deity called him by his name, and commanded him to ask the -Athenians why they so entirely neglected him, who not only wished them -well, but who had frequently rendered them service, and would do so again. -All this the Athenians believed, and as soon as the state of their affairs<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> -permitted, they erected a temple to Pan near the citadel: ever since the -above period, they venerate the god by annual sacrifices, and the race of -torches.</p> - -<p>Phidippides, who was sent by the Athenian generals, and who related -his having met with Pan, arrived at Sparta on the second day of his departure -from Athens. He went immediately to the magistrates, and thus addressed -them: “Men of Lacedæmon, the Athenians supplicate your assistance, and -entreat you not to suffer the most ancient city of Greece to fall into the -hands of the barbarians: Eretria is already subdued, and Greece weakened -by the loss of that illustrious place.” After this speech of Phidippides, the -Lacedæmonians resolved to assist the Athenians; but they were prevented -from doing this immediately by the prejudice of an inveterate custom. This -was the ninth day of the month, and it was a practice with them to undertake -no enterprise before the moon was at the full: for this, therefore, they -waited.</p> - -<p>In the night before Hippias conducted the barbarians to the plains of -Marathon, he saw this vision: he thought that he lay with his mother. The -inference which he drew from this was, that he should again return to Athens, -be restored to his authority, and die in his own house of old age: he was then -executing the office of a general. The prisoners taken in Eretria he removed -to Ægilia, an island belonging to the Styreans; the vessels which arrived at -Marathon, he stationed in the port, and drew up the barbarians in order as -they disembarked. Whilst he was thus employed, he was seized with a fit -of sneezing, attended with a very unusual cough. The agitation into which -he was thrown, being an old man, was so violent, that as his teeth were loose, -one of them dropped out of his mouth upon the sand. Much pains were taken -to find it, but in vain; upon which Hippias remarked with a sigh to those -around him, “This country is not ours, nor shall we ever become masters of -it—my lost tooth possesses all that belongs to me.”</p> - -<p>Hippias conceived that he saw in the above incident, the accomplishment -of his vision. In the meantime the Athenians, drawing themselves up in -military order near the temple of Hercules, were joined by the whole force -of the Platæans. The Athenians had formerly submitted to many difficulties -on account of the Platæans, who now, to return the obligation, gave -themselves up to their direction. The occasion was this: the Platæans -being oppressed by the Thebans, solicited the protection of Cleomenes -the son of Anaxandrides, and of such Lacedæmonians as were at hand; -they disclaimed, however, any interference, for which they assigned this -reason:</p> - -<p>“From us,” said they, “situated at so great a distance, you can expect -but little assistance; for before we can even receive intelligence of your -danger, you may be effectually reduced to servitude; we would rather recommend -you to apply to the Athenians, who are not only near, but able to -protect you.”</p> - -<p>The Lacedæmonians, in saying this, did not so much consider the interest -of the Platæans, as they were desirous of seeing the Athenians harassed by a -Bœotian war. The advice was nevertheless accepted, and the Platæans going -to Athens, first offered a solemn sacrifice to the twelve deities, and then -sitting near the altar, in the attitude of supplicants, they placed themselves -formally under the protection of the Athenians. Upon this the Thebans led -an army against Platæa, to defend which, the Athenians appeared with a -body of forces. As the two armies were about to engage, the Corinthians -interfered; their endeavours to reconcile them so far prevailed, that it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span> -agreed, on the part of both nations, to suffer such of the people of Bœotia as -did not choose to be ranked as Bœotians, to follow their own inclinations. -Having effected this, the Corinthians retired, and their example was followed -by the Athenians; these latter were on their return attacked by the -Bœotians, whom they defeated. Passing over the boundaries, which the -Corinthians had marked out, they determined that Asopus and Hysiæ -should be the future limits between the Thebans and Platæans. The Platæans -having thus given themselves up to the Athenians, came to their assistance -at Marathon.</p> - -<p>The Athenian leaders were greatly divided in opinion; some thought -that a battle was by no means to be hazarded, as they were so inferior to the -Medes in point of number; others, among whom was Miltiades, were anxious -to engage the enemy. Of these contradictory sentiments, the less -politic appeared likely to prevail, when Miltiades addressed himself to the -polemarch, whose name was Callimachus of Aphidna. This magistrate, -elected into his office by vote, has the privilege of a casting voice: and, -according to established customs, is equal in point of dignity and influence -to the military leaders. Miltiades addressed him thus:</p> - -<p>“Upon you, O Callimachus, it alone depends, whether Athens shall be -enslaved, or whether, in the preservation of its liberties, it shall perpetuate -your name even beyond the glory of Harmodius and Aristogiton. Our -country is now reduced to a more delicate and dangerous predicament than -it has ever before experienced; if conquered, we know our fate, and must -prepare for the tyranny of Hippias; if we overcome, our city may be made -the first in Greece. How this may be accomplished, and in what manner it -depends on you, I will explain: the sentiments of our ten leaders are divided, -some are desirous of an engagement, others the contrary. If we do not -engage, some seditious tumult will probably arise, which may prompt many -of our citizens to favour the cause of the Medes; if we come to a battle -before any evil of this kind take place, we may, if the gods be not against -us, reasonably hope for victory: all these things are submitted to your attention, -and are suspended on your will. If you accede to my opinion, our -country will be free, our city the first in Greece.”</p> - -<p>These arguments of Miltiades produced the desired effect upon Callimachus, -from whose interposition it was determined to fight. Those leaders, -who from the first had been solicitous to engage the enemy, resigned to Miltiades -the days of their respective command. This he accepted, but did not -think proper to commence the attack till the day of his own particular command -arrived in its course.</p> - -<h4>THE BATTLE OF MARATHON</h4> - -<p>When this happened, the Athenians were drawn up for battle in the following -order: Callimachus, as polemarch, commanded the right wing, in -conformity with the established custom of the Athenians; next followed -the tribes, ranged in close order, according to their respective ranks; the -Platæans, placed in the rear, formed the left wing. Ever since this battle, -in those solemn and public sacrifices, which are celebrated every fifth year, -the herald implores happiness for the Platæans, jointly with the Athenians. -Thus the Athenians produced a front equal in extent to that of the Medes. -The ranks in the centre were not very deep, which of course constituted -their weakest part; but the two wings were more numerous and strong.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span></p> - -<p>The preparations for the attack being thus made, and the appearance of -the victims favourable, the Athenians ran toward the barbarians. There was -betwixt the two armies an interval of about eight furlongs. The Persians -seeing them approach by running, prepared to receive them, and as they -observed the Athenians to be few in number, destitute both of cavalry and -archers, they considered them as mad, and rushing on certain destruction; -but as soon as the Greeks mingled with the enemy, they behaved with the -greatest gallantry. They were the first Greeks that we know of, who ran -to attack an enemy; they were the first also who beheld without dismay the -dress and armour of the Medes; for hitherto in Greece the very name of a -Mede excited terror.</p> - -<p>After a long and obstinate contest, the barbarians in the centre, composed -of the Persians and the Sacæ, obliged the Greeks to give way, and pursued -the flying foe into the middle of the country. At the same time the Athenians -and Platæans, in the two wings, drove the barbarians before them; then -making an inclination toward each other, by contracting themselves, they -formed against that part of the enemy which had penetrated and defeated -the Grecian centre, and obtained a complete victory, killing a prodigious -number, and pursuing the rest to the sea, where they set fire to their vessels.</p> - -<p>Callimachus the polemarch, after the most signal acts of valour, lost his -life in this battle. Stesilaus also, the son of Thrasylas, and one of the Grecian -leaders, was slain. Cynægirus, son of Euphorion, after seizing one of -the vessels by the poop, had his hand cut off with an axe, and died of his -wounds: with these many other eminent Athenians perished.</p> - -<p>In addition to their victory, the Athenians obtained possession of seven -of the enemy’s vessels. The barbarians retired with their fleet, and taking -on board the Eretrian plunder, which they had left in the island, they passed -the promontory of Sunium, thinking to circumvent the Athenians, and arrive -at their city before them. The Athenians impute the prosecution of -this measure to one of the Alcmæonidæ, who they say held up a shield as a -signal to the Persians, when they were under sail.</p> - -<p>While they were doubling the cape of Sunium, the Athenians lost no time -in hastening to the defence of their city, and effectually prevented the designs -of the enemy. Retiring from the temple of Hercules, on the plains of -Marathon, they fixed their camp near another temple of the same deity, in -Cynosarges. The barbarians anchoring off Phalerum, the Athenian harbour, -remained there some time, and then retired to Asia.</p> - -<p>The Persians lost in the battle of Marathon six thousand four hundred -men, the Athenians one hundred and ninety-two. In the heat of the engagement -a most remarkable incident occurred: an Athenian, the son of Cuphagoras, -whose name was Epizelus, whilst valiantly fighting, was suddenly -struck with blindness. He had received no wound, nor any kind of injury, -notwithstanding which he continued blind for the remainder of his life. -Epizelus, in relating this calamity, always declared, that during the battle -he was opposed by a man of gigantic stature, completely armed, whose beard -covered the whole of his shield: he added, that the spectre, passing him, -killed the man who stood next him.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_15c" id="enanchor_15c"></a><a href="#endnote_15c">c</a></span></p> - -<p>Thus far we have followed the account of Herodotus. His high repute, -for many years scoffed at, has had a sudden and cordial revival. Minute surveys -of the Grecian battle-fields have recently been made by George Beardoe -Grundy,<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_15f" id="enanchor_15f"></a><a href="#endnote_15f">f</a></span> who finds Herodotus remarkably accurate in his topography and in -his sifting of evidence and discarding of what he could not definitely substantiate. -It is well to read, however, a typical account of the battle of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> -Marathon, by a German critic Busolt, whose cautious use of Herodotus has -made the following account of this battle famous.<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span></p> - -<p>At the head of the army marched Callimachus the polemarch, who in his -capacity of military chief was entitled to important privileges and honours. -Not only did he offer sacrifices and vows, and in the order of battle assume -the place of honour at the head of the right wing, but he was also entitled to -vote with the Strategi in the council of war, and it even appears that as -president of the latter he registered his vote last. In spite of this the actual -command of the army was in the hands of the leaders of the regiments of the -phylæ, amongst whom the chief command alternated in daily rotation. The -Strategi at that time included, so far as we know, Aristides, Stesilaus, and Miltiades, -who had apparently been elected as the tenth by his phyle, the Œneis. -The Athenian army is said to have marched out nine or ten thousand strong, -but no confidence can be placed in these numbers as they rest on a later and -unreliable authority.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/p274.jpg" width="500" height="341" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">The Plain of Marathon</span></p> -</div> - -<p>Similarly, we have no decided, tangible information, as to what it was -that induced the Athenians not to fortify themselves behind the walls of -their city, but to venture into the open field to encounter an enemy, far -superior in numbers and also, since the victory over the Ionians, evidently -dreaded in Hellas. Perhaps the fate of Eretria may have exercised a decisive -influence on the resolution of the Athenians. The town walls may not -have been in the best condition, and, as in particular there was good cause to -distrust the followers of the Pisistratidæ, there must have been some apprehension -lest the latter should find occasion, while the Persian army lay before -the town, to enter into relations with the enemy, as the Eretrian traitors had -done. But if they decided for contest in the open field it was advisable to -join battle in as favourable a position as possible; so that the country might -be protected from plunder and foraging. It was therefore necessary to renounce -the idea of barring the passes of Pentelicus and its outlying slopes,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> -since this position might be easily turned by way of the sea. Still less durst -they risk a battle in the open plain, where the enemy would have all the -advantage belonging to their overwhelming numbers, and the Persian cavalry -would have full play.</p> - -<p>The most favourable place to take up a position would be in one of the -long narrow side valleys, which adjoin the plain of Marathon and in which a -small army might safely encamp opposite a large one. In one of these side -valleys and indeed in that of Avlon itself, was the temple precinct of the -Heracleum, by which the Athenian army took up its position. The flanks -were covered by the slopes of Argaliki (right) and of Kotroni (left) and -secured against a turning movement. Whilst it was well calculated for an -attack the position also afforded protection against an advancing enemy. -The limited breadth of the entrance to the valley hindered the Persians from -bringing forward the whole strength of their infantry and from using their -cavalry effectively.<a name="FNanchor_19" id="FNanchor_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> If they elected to make no attack but to slip past the -Athenian army, two ways offered themselves for the march against Athens. -One of these led by Marathon or Vrana to Cephisia, the other between the -outlying slopes of Pentelicus towards Pallene and the Mesogæa. But it was -only this last road that was practicable for vehicles and an army with cavalry -and baggage. On the march by either of these two routes the Persians -must expose their flank to the enemy. If they took ship, that they might make -direct for Phalerum, they were liable to be attacked by the Athenian army -before they could get away.</p> - -<p>When the Athenians had taken up their stand at the Heracleum, the -whole fighting force of the Platæans joined them. It appears from this that -the armies had been encamped opposite one another for several days, since -the Platæans could of course only start for Marathon after they had heard -of the decisive resolution of the Athenians to go out to meet the enemy in -that place. Since the Persians showed no signs of attacking the Attic position -and since doubtful tidings had already arrived from Sparta, Miltiades -decided to anticipate the attack himself, in order, as Herodotus says, to leave -those who cherished projects of high treason no time to affect a wider circle -of citizens and create discord. Yet half of his colleagues held the Athenian -army to be too weak and declared against a battle. Under these circumstances -the decision lay with the vote of the polemarch Callimachus, and the -latter sided with Miltiades. Thereupon, each of the Strategi, who had voted -for the battle, surrendered his command for the day on which it was his turn -to assume it to Miltiades. The latter did indeed accept it, but it is nevertheless -said that he did not advance to the attack until the day arrived on -which he held the command-in-chief himself in his own right. This statement -is very doubtful, but shows that Herodotus was unacquainted with the -tradition that Miltiades advanced to the attack when he received the news -that the Persians were embarking and that the cavalry were on the sea-shore. -If the battle-day was selected in this way, Miltiades could not certainly -have voluntarily waited for his day. Now it is principally Herodotus -whom we have to go upon, as the oldest authority and the one on which -later writers have generally preferred to draw, and, moreover, the tradition -of the embarkation of the cavalry is a completely unreliable one; all hypotheses -therefore which are built upon it and on the circumstance of the -display of the shield on the height of Pentelicus are to be regarded as of -no value.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span></p> - -<p>In the order of battle the Athenians placed themselves according to the -official order of the phylæ. At their head as leader of the right wing, -stood the polemarch Callimachus, with the phyle Æantis, to which he himself, -as an Aphidnæan, belonged. The Platæans received a place on the -extreme left. The front of the Athenians was turned to the northeast. -The left wing was covered by the slope of Kotroni and the trees which -fringed it; the right was not very far from the shore. The ground permitted -Miltiades to make the line of battle the same length as that of the -enemy, in order to protect himself from a flank movement. The wings had to -be strong enough both to repel an attempt to surround them and to effect a -charge; he therefore ranged the centre only a few lines deep, whilst the -wings were relatively strong. The attack was not unexpected by the Persians; -they had time to form in order of battle with a centre including their -picked troops, Persians and Sacæ, while the cavalry seem to have been kept -in reserve behind the hills. They were, however, astounded by the manner -of the attack. According to Herodotus the space between the two lines of -battle amounted to eight stadia. The serried ranks of the Athenians covered -this distance at a run (in some nine minutes) chiefly to avoid the chance -that the cavalry might fall upon them by the way, and in order to get as -quickly as possible past the hail of Persian arrows and come to a hand-to-hand -combat. For the Persians began their battles with a fight at a distance, -and their army was essentially a defensive army, to which Hellenic hoplites -were superior in a struggle of man against man. Moreover the speed of -the forward movement must have added force to the charge of the heavy-armed -infantry. The shock of meeting probably took place between the Charadra -and the Brexisa; the Persian foot stood firm and the fight lasted a long -time. Finally the Athenians and Platæans with great force threw back the -enemy, on either wing, although their centre was pierced by the Persians -and Sacæ and pursued inland. In consequence, the victorious wings left -the vanquished to fly, wheeled inwards and turned their united front against -the Persians and Sacæ. A new fight ensued, which ended in the total defeat -of the barbarians. Many of them were driven, in their flight, into the great -swamp of Kato Suli, and there perished.</p> - -<p>In the meantime, the Persian wings which had been vanquished in the -onset, had had some time in which to launch a number of ships and get first -on board. In especial, the embarkation of the cavalry, which had probably -remained behind the wings, must have been effected. This cannot have required -very much time, since the horse-transports were flat-built vessels. -When the Athenians wished to follow up the pursuit of the Persians and -Sacæ by the shore, they attempted to take or set fire to such ships as were -still within reach. Thereupon there ensued a hot fight in which fell many -men of name, such as polemarch Callimachus, the strategus Stesilaus, and -Cynægirus, brother of the poet Æschylus. The Athenians succeeded in gaining -possession of only seven ships; with the others the Persians got away and -then made for the islet of Ægilia, to take on board the Eretrians they had -left there.</p> - -<p>The Persians were already in their ships, when it was noticed in the -Athenian camps that a signal had been made by a shield, set up apparently -upon the height of Pentelicus. It was believed that it had been given by the -traitors in the town. Apparently on the morning after the battle the Persian -fleet left Ægilia and steered its course for Cape Sunium. As soon as -the Athenians observed the direction taken, the strategi could no longer doubt -that it was the town which was aimed at. Forthwith they started with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> -army, and, by a rapid forced march, succeeded in reaching Athens before the -enemy, and there set up a camp on the Heracleum, at the southern foot of -Lycabettus, in Cynosarges. The Persian fleet soon showed itself above the -height of Phalerum, yet made no attack, but only anchored for a time and -then sailed back to Asia.</p> - -<p>Presumably Datis did not venture on a landing in sight of the Athenian -army after the experience of Marathon. The defeat was not indeed a crushing -one, but had been by no means insignificant, for the Persians had lost 6400 -killed, to which a considerable number of wounded is to be added. Of the -Athenians, 192 citizens had fallen in the battle. The town bestowed on them -the peculiar honour of a common burial on the battle-field itself. Close by, -a tropæum of white marble and a monument to Miltiades were erected. -With the tithe of the spoil, the Athenians erected, amongst other things, a -bronze group at Delphi. Every year, on the sixth of Bœdromion, the festival -of Artemis Agrotera, a great goat sacrifice was offered to that goddess for -the crowd of defeated enemies, in fulfilment of a vow of the polemarch, -before the battle.</p> - -<p>Pan, who had thrown his terror amongst the barbarians, received a sanctuary -in the grotto on the northwest side of the rock-citadel. To him also -an annual sacrifice was offered and a torch-race instituted. The memory of -the victory which the Athenians, as advance guard of the Hellenes, had -achieved always filled them with special pride. Poets and orators could not -refer to it often enough.</p> - -<p>The day of the battle cannot be determined with precision. Only this -much is certain, that the fight took place at the time of the full moon, in one -of the last months of the summer of the year 490. For after the full moon -two thousand Lacedæmonians marched hastily from Sparta and made every -effort to reach Athens in time. On the third day they arrived in Attica, but -the battle had already been fought. After having viewed the scene of the -Persian overthrow they started on their return march spreading eulogies on -the Athenians.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_15g" id="enanchor_15g"></a><a href="#endnote_15g">g</a></span></p> - -<p>In an article in the <i>Journal of Hellenic Studies</i> (1898), J. A. R. Munro<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_15h" id="enanchor_15h"></a><a href="#endnote_15h">h</a></span> -declares that the reason the Persians chose so disadvantageous a field as -Marathon, was purely to lure Miltiades and the troops out of Athens while -the plot was maturing by which the supporters of Hippias should open the -gates and admit the Persians by way of Phalerum. But as usually happens, -something hung fire, the Spartans approached and, before the signal of the -shield could be raised, Miltiades had routed the land forces with undreamed -success and was hastening back to Athens.</p> - -<p>In this view, the strategy of the Persians becomes somewhat less contemptible -and the march of the Spartans seems not so useless.<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span></p> - -<h4>ON THE COURAGE OF THE GREEKS</h4> - -<p>Modern history will never cease to ring with grateful praises of the -Athenians and Platæans for their defence of Greece against Persia. They -were the bulwark of the Occident against the Orient, of Europe against -Asia. The Persian scholar can see many ways in which, to his mind at least, -it would have been best if the Asiatic conquest of Greece had not thus been -postponed for centuries. We of to-day shall always be glad that events -fashioned themselves as they did until Europe was ready to resist any general -enforcement of Asiatic ideals and customs.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span></p> - -<p>Granting the importance, then, of the victory to its fullest extent, it cannot -but make for truth to realise how little the Greeks knew all they were -doing, how selfish and mutually jealous they were, and in what a humble -manner they accomplished so much more than they dreamed or desired.<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span> -The realism of this glorious feat could not be more vividly phrased than by -Prof. J. P. Mahaffy in his <i>Rambles and Studies in Greece</i>:</p> - -<p>“Byron may well be excused for raving about the liberty of the Greeks, -for truly their old conflict at Marathon where a thousand ill-disciplined men -repulsed a larger number of still worse disciplined Orientals, without any -recondite tactics,—perhaps even without any very extraordinary heroism,—how -is it that this conflict has maintained a celebrity which has not been -equalled by all the great battles of the world, from that day down to our -own? The courage of the Greeks was not of the first order. Herodotus -praises the Athenians in this very battle for being the first Greeks that -dared to look the Persians in the face. Their generals all through history -seem never to feel sure of victory, and always endeavour to harangue their -soldiers into a fury. Instead of advising coolness, they specially incite to -rage—ὀργῇ προσμίξωμεν, says one of them in Thucydides—as if any man -not in this state would be sure to estimate the danger fully, and run away.</p> - -<p>“It is, indeed, true that the ancient battles were hand to hand, and -therefore parallel to our charges of bayonets, which are said to be very -seldom carried out by two opposing lines, as one of them almost always gives -way before the actual collision takes place. This must often have taken -place in Greek battles, for, at Amphipolis, Brasidas in a battle lost seven -men; at a battle of Corinth, mentioned by Xenophon—an important battle, -too—the slain amounted to eight; and these battles were fought before the -days when whole armies were composed of mercenaries, who spared one -another, as Ordericus Vitalis says, ‘for the love of God, and out of good -feeling for the fraternity of arms.’ So, then, the loss of 192 Athenians, including -some distinguished men, was rather a severe one. As to the loss -of the Persians, I so totally disbelieve the Greek accounts of such things, that -it is better to pass it by in silence.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps most readers will be astonished to hear of the Athenian army -as undisciplined, and of the science of war as undeveloped, in those times. -Yet I firmly believe this was so. The accounts of battles by almost all the -historians are so utterly vague, and so childishly conventional, that it is evident -these gentlemen were not only quite ignorant of the science of war, but -could not easily find any one to explain it to them. We know that the Spartans, -the most admired of all Greek warriors, were chiefly so admired because -they devised the system of subordinating officers to one another within -the same detachment, like our gradation from colonel to corporal. So orders -were passed down from officer to officer, instead of being bawled out by a -herald to a whole army.</p> - -<p>“But this superiority of the Spartans who were really disciplined, and -went into battle coolly, like brave men, certainly did not extend to strategy, -but was merely a question of better drill. As soon as any real strategist -met them, they were helpless. Thus Iphicrates, when he devised Wellington’s -plan of meeting their attacking column in line, and using missiles, -succeeded against them, even without firearms. Thus Epaminondas, when -he devised Napoleon’s plan of massing troops on a single point, while keeping -his enemy’s line occupied, defeated them without any considerable struggle. -As for that general’s great battle of Mantinea, which seems really to -have been introduced by some complicated strategical movements, it is a mere<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span> -hopeless jumble in our histories. But these men were in the distant future -when the battle of Marathon was being fought.</p> - -<p>“Yet what signifies all this criticism? In spite of all scepticism, in spite -of all contempt, the battle of Marathon, whether badly or well fought, and -the troops at Marathon, whether well or ill trained, will ever be more famous -than any other battle or army, however important or gigantic its dimensions. -Even in this very war, the battles of Salamis and Platæa were vastly more -important and more hotly contested. The losses were greater, the results -were more enduring, yet thousands have heard of Marathon to whom the -other names are unknown. So much for literary ability—so much for the -power of talking well about one’s deeds. Marathon was fought by Athenians; -the Athenians eclipsed the other Greeks as far as the other Greeks -eclipsed the rest of the world in literary power. This battle became the literary -property of the city, hymned by poet, cited by orator, told by aged -nurse, lisped by stammering infant; and so it has taken its position, above -all criticism, as one of the great decisive battles which assured the liberty of -the West against oriental despotism.”<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_15j" id="enanchor_15j"></a><a href="#endnote_15j">j</a></span></p> - -<h4>IF DARIUS HAD INVADED GREECE EARLIER</h4> - -<p>Had the first aggressive expedition of Darius, with his own personal -command and fresh appetite for conquest, been directed against Greece -instead of against Scythia (between 516-514 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>), Grecian independence -would have perished almost infallibly. For Athens was then still governed -by the Pisistratidæ. She had then no courage for energetic self-defence, -and probably Hippias himself, far from offering resistance, would have found -it advantageous to accept Persian dominion as a means of strengthening his -own rule, like the Ionian despots: moreover the Grecian habit of co-operation -was then only just commencing. But fortunately the Persian invader -did not touch the shore of Greece until more than twenty years afterwards, -in 490 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>; and during that precious interval, the Athenian character had -undergone the memorable revolution which has been before described. Their -energy and their organisation had been alike improved and their force of -resistance had become decupled; moreover, their conduct had so provoked -the Persians that resistance was then a matter of necessity with them and -submission on tolerable terms an impossibility. When we come to the grand -Persian invasion of Greece, we shall see that Athens was the life and soul -of all the opposition offered. We shall see further, that with all the efforts -of Athens, the success of the defence was more than once doubtful; and -would have been converted into a very different result, if Xerxes had -listened to the best of his own counsellors. But had Darius, at the head of -the very same force which he conducted into Scythia, or even an inferior -force, landed at Marathon in 514 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, instead of sending Datis in 490 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>—he -would have found no men like the victors of Marathon to meet him. -As far as we can appreciate the probabilities, he would have met with little -resistance, except from the Spartans singly, who would have maintained -their own very defensible territory against all his effort—like the Mysians -and Pisidians in Asia Minor, or like the Mainots of Laconia in later days; -but Hellas generally would have become a Persian satrapy.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_15k" id="enanchor_15k"></a><a href="#endnote_15k">k</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_18" id="Footnote_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> [It is worthy of mention that since this embassy there were no diplomatic relations between -Athens and Persia until, in the last days of 1902, a Persian ambassador was appointed to the -Hellenic court—an interval of about twenty-four hundred years.]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_19" id="Footnote_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> [“Large trees felled and scattered over the plain obstructed the movements of the cavalry,” -says Bulwer-Lytton, not naming his authority.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-16.jpg" width="500" height="155" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XVI_MILTIADES_AND_THE_ALLEGED_FICKLENESS">CHAPTER XVI. MILTIADES AND THE ALLEGED FICKLENESS -OF REPUBLICS</h3> - -<p>Happy would it have been for Miltiades if he had shared the honourable -death of the polemarch Callimachus, in seeking to fire the ships of the defeated -Persians at Marathon. The short sequel of his history will be found -in melancholy contrast with the Marathonian heroism.</p> - -<p>His reputation had been great before the battle, and after it the admiration -and confidence of his countrymen knew no bounds: it appears, indeed, -to have reached such a pitch that his head was turned, and he lost both his -patriotism and his prudence. He proposed to his countrymen to incur the -cost of equipping an armament of seventy ships, with an adequate armed -force, and to place it altogether at his discretion; giving them no intimation -whither he intended to go, but merely assuring them that, if they would -follow him, he would conduct them to a land where gold was abundant, and -thus enrich them. Such a promise from the lips of the recent victor of -Marathon was sufficient, and the armament was granted, no man except -Miltiades knowing what was its destination. He sailed immediately to the -island of Paros, laid siege to the town, and sent in a herald to require from -the inhabitants a contribution of one hundred talents [£20,000 or $100,000], -on pain of entire destruction. His pretence for this attack was, that the -Parians had furnished a trireme to Datis for the Persian fleet at Marathon; -but his real motive, so Herodotus assures us, was vindictive animosity against -a Parian citizen named Lysagoras, who had exasperated the Persian general -Hydarnes against him. The Parians amused him at first with evasions, until -they had procured a little delay to repair the defective portions of their wall, -after which they set him at defiance; and Miltiades in vain prosecuted hostilities -against them for the space of twenty-six days: he ravaged the island, -but his attacks made no impression upon the town. Beginning to despair of -success in his military operations, he entered into some negotiation—such at -least was the tale of the Parians themselves—with a Parian woman named -Timo, priestess or attendant in the temple of Demeter, near the town gates. -This woman, promising to reveal to him a secret which would place Paros in -his power, induced him to visit by night a temple to which no male person -was admissible. He leaped the exterior fence, and approached the sanctuary; -but on coming near, was seized with a panic terror and ran away, -almost out of his senses: on leaping the same fence to get back, he strained -or bruised his thigh badly, and became utterly disabled. In this melancholy -state he was placed on shipboard, the siege being raised, and the whole -armament returning to Athens.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">[489 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Vehement was the indignation both of the armament and of the remaining -Athenians against Miltiades on his return; and Xanthippus, father of the -great Pericles, became the spokesman of this feeling. He impeached Miltiades -before the popular judicature as having been guilty of deceiving the -people, and as having deserved the penalty of death. The accused himself, -disabled by his injured thigh, which even began to show symptoms of gangrene, -was unable to stand, or to say a word in his own defence: he lay on -his couch before the assembled judges, while his friends made the best case -they could in his behalf. Defence, it appears, there was none; all they could -do, was to appeal to his previous services: they reminded the people largely -and emphatically of the inestimable exploit at Marathon, coming in addition -to his previous conquest of Lemnos. The assembled dicasts, or jurors, -showed their sense of these powerful appeals by rejecting the proposition of -his accuser to condemn him to death: but they imposed on him the penalty -of fifty talents [£10,000 or $50,000] “for his iniquity.”</p> - -<p>Cornelius Nepos affirms that these fifty talents represented the expenses -incurred by the state in fitting out the armament; but we may more probably -believe, looking to the practice of the Athenian dicastery in criminal -cases, that fifty talents was the minor penalty actually proposed by the -defenders of Miltiades themselves, as a substitute for the punishment of -death. In those penal cases at Athens, where the punishment was not fixed -beforehand by the terms of the law, if the person accused was found guilty, -it was customary to submit to the jurors, subsequently and separately, the -question as to amount of punishment: first, the accuser named the penalty -which he thought suitable; next, the accused person was called upon to -name an amount of penalty for himself, and the jurors were constrained to -take their choice between these two—no third gradation of penalty being -admissible for consideration. Of course, under such circumstances, it was -the interest of the accused party to name, even in his own case, some real -and serious penalty—something which the jurors might be likely to deem -not wholly inadequate to his crime just proved; for if he proposed some -penalty only trifling, he drove them to prefer the heavier sentence recommended -by his opponent. Accordingly, in the case of Miltiades, his friends, -desirous of inducing the jurors to refuse their assent to the punishment of -death, proposed a fine of fifty talents as the self-assessed penalty of the -defendant; and perhaps they may have stated, as an argument in the case, -that such a sum would suffice to defray the costs of the expedition. The -fine was imposed, but Miltiades did not live to pay it: his injured limb -mortified, and he died, leaving the fine to be paid by his son Cimon.</p> - -<p>According to Cornelius Nepos, Diodorus, and Plutarch, he was put in -prison, after having been fined, and there died. But Herodotus does not -mention this imprisonment, and the fact appears improbable: he would -hardly have omitted to notice it, had it come to his knowledge.</p> - -<p>Thus closed the life of the conqueror of Marathon. The last act of it -produces an impression so mournful, and even shocking—his descent from -the pinnacle of glory to defeat, mean tampering with a temple-servant, -mortal bodily hurt, undefended ignominy, and death under a sentence of -heavy fine, is so abrupt and unprepared—that readers, ancient and modern, -have not been satisfied without finding some one to blame for it: we must -except Herodotus, our original authority, who recounts the transaction without -dropping a single hint of blame against any one. To speak ill of the -people, as Machiavelli has long ago observed, is a strain in which every one at -all times, even under a democratical government, indulges with impunity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> -and without provoking any opponent to reply; and in this instance, the hard -fate of Miltiades has been imputed to the vices of the Athenians and their -democracy—it has been cited in proof, partly of their fickleness, partly of -their ingratitude. But however such blame may serve to lighten the mental -sadness arising from a series of painful facts, it will not be found justified if -we apply to those facts a reasonable criticism.</p> - -<p>What is called the fickleness of the Athenians on this occasion is nothing -more than a rapid and decisive change in their estimation of Miltiades; unbounded -admiration passing at once into extreme wrath. To censure them -for fickleness is here an abuse of terms; such a change in their opinion was -the unavoidable result of his conduct. His behaviour in the expedition of -Paros was as reprehensible as at Marathon it had been meritorious, and the -one succeeded immediately after the other: what else could ensue except an -entire revolution in the Athenian feelings? He had employed his prodigious -ascendency over their minds to induce them to follow him without knowing -whither, in the confidence of an unknown booty; he had exposed their lives -and wasted their substance in wreaking a private grudge; in addition to the -shame of an unprincipled project, comes the constructive shame of not having -succeeded in it. Without doubt, such behaviour, coming from a man whom -they admired to excess, must have produced a violent and painful revulsion -in the feelings of his countrymen. The idea of having lavished praise and -confidence upon a person who forthwith turns it to an unworthy purpose, is -one of the greatest torments of the human bosom; and we may well understand -that the intensity of the subsequent displeasure would be aggravated -by this reactionary sentiment, without accusing the Athenians of fickleness.</p> - -<p>In regard to the charge of ingratitude against the Athenians, this last-mentioned -point—sufficiency of reason—stands tacitly admitted. It is -conceded that Miltiades deserved punishment for his conduct in reference to -the Parian expedition, but it is nevertheless maintained that gratitude for -his previous services at Marathon ought to have exempted him from punishment. -But the sentiment upon which, after all, this exculpation rests, -will not bear to be drawn out and stated in the form of a cogent or justifying -reason. For will any one really contend, that a man who has rendered -great services to the public, is to receive in return a license of unpunished -misconduct for the future? Is the general, who has earned applause by eminent -skill and important victories, to be recompensed by being allowed the -liberty of betraying his trust afterwards, and exposing his country to peril, -without censure or penalty? This is what no one intends to vindicate deliberately; -yet a man must be prepared to vindicate it, when he blames the -Athenians for ingratitude towards Miltiades. It will be recollected that the -death of Miltiades arose neither from his trial nor his fine, but from the hurt -in his thigh.</p> - -<p>The charge of ingratitude against the Athenian popular juries really -amounts to this—that, in trying a person accused of present crime or -fault, they were apt to confine themselves too strictly and exclusively to the -particular matter of charge, either forgetting or making too little account -of past services which he might have rendered. Whoever imagines that -such was the habit of Athenian dicasts, must have studied the orators to -very little purpose. Their real defect was the very opposite: they were -too much disposed to wander from the special issue before them, and to be -affected by appeals to previous services and conduct.</p> - -<p>This defect is one which we should naturally expect from a body of private, -non-professional citizens assembled for the occasion, and which belongs<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> -more or less to the system of jury-trial everywhere; but it is the direct -reverse of that ingratitude, or habitual insensibility to prior services, for -which they have been so often denounced.</p> - -<p>The fate of Miltiades, then, so far from illustrating either the fickleness -or the ingratitude of his countrymen, attests their just appreciation of deserts. -It also illustrates another moral, of no small importance to the right -comprehension of Grecian affairs; it teaches us the painful lesson, how perfectly -maddening were the effects of a copious draught of glory on the -temperament of an enterprising and ambitious Greek. There can be no -doubt, that the rapid transition, in the course of about one week, from -Athenian terror before the battle to Athenian exultation after it, must have -produced demonstrations towards Miltiades such as were never paid towards -any other man in the whole history of the commonwealth. Such unmeasured -admiration unseated his rational judgment, so that his mind became -abandoned to the reckless impulses of insolence, and antipathy, and rapacity—that -distempered state, for which (according to Grecian morality) the -retributive Nemesis was ever on the watch, and which, in his case, she -visited with a judgment startling in its rapidity, as well as terrible in its -amount. Had Miltiades been the same man before the battle of Marathon -as he became after it, the battle might probably have turned out a defeat -instead of a victory. We shall presently be called upon to observe the same -tendency in the case of the Spartan Pausanias, and even in that of the Athenian -Themistocles.</p> - -<p>It is, indeed, fortunate that the reckless aspirations of Miltiades did not -take a turn more noxious to Athens than the comparatively unimportant -enterprise against Paros. For had he sought to acquire dominion and -gratify antipathies against enemies at home, instead of directing his blow -against a Parian enemy, the peace and security of his country might have -been seriously endangered.</p> - -<p>Of the despots who gained power in Greece, a considerable proportion -began by popular conduct, and by rendering good service to their fellow-citizens: -having first earned public gratitude, they abused it for purposes -of their own ambition. There was far greater danger, in a Grecian community, -of dangerous excess of gratitude towards a victorious soldier, than -of deficiency in that sentiment: hence the person thus exalted acquired a -position such that the community found it difficult afterwards to shake -him off. Now there is a disposition almost universal among writers and -readers to side with an individual, especially an eminent individual, against -the multitude; and accordingly those who under such circumstances suspect -the probable abuse of an exalted position, are denounced as if they harboured -an unworthy jealousy of superior abilities. But the truth is, that the largest -analogies of the Grecian character justified that suspicion, and required the -community to take precautions against the corrupting effects of their own -enthusiasm. There is no feature which more largely pervades the impressible -Grecian character, than a liability to be intoxicated and demoralised -by success: there was no fault from which so few eminent Greeks were -free: there was hardly any danger, against which it was at once so necessary -and so difficult for the Grecian governments to take security—especially -the democracies, where the manifestations of enthusiasm were always the -loudest. Such is the real explanation of those charges which have been -urged against the Grecian democracies, that they came to hate and ill-treat -previous benefactors; and the history of Miltiades illustrates it in a manner -no less pointed than painful.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span></p> - -<p>If we are to predicate any attribute of the multitude, it will rather be that -of undue tenacity than undue fickleness; and there will occur nothing in -the course of this history to prove that the Athenian people changed their -opinions on insufficient grounds more frequently than an unresponsible one -or few would have changed.</p> - -<p>But there were two circumstances in the working of the Athenian democracy -which imparted to it an appearance of greater fickleness, without the -reality: First, that the manifestations and changes of opinion were all open, -undisguised, and noisy: the people gave utterance to their present impression, -whatever it was, with perfect frankness; if their opinions were really -changed, they had no shame or scruple in avowing it. Secondly,—and this -is a point of capital importance in the working of democracy generally,—the -present impression, whatever it might be, was not merely undisguised in -its manifestations, but also had a tendency to be exaggerated in its intensity. -This arose from their habit of treating public affairs in multitudinous assemblages, -the well-known effect of which is, to inflame sentiment in every man’s -bosom by mere contact with a sympathising circle of neighbours. Whatever -the sentiment might be,—fear, ambition, cupidity, wrath, compassion, piety, -patriotic devotion, etc.,—and whether well-founded or ill-founded, it was -constantly influenced more or less by such intensifying cause. This is a -defect which of course belongs in a certain degree to all exercise of power -by numerous bodies, even though they be representative bodies, especially -when the character of the people, instead of being comparatively sedate and -slow to move, like the English, is quick, impressible, and fiery, like Greeks -or Italians; but it operated far more powerfully on the self-acting Demos -assembled in the Pnyx. It was in fact the constitutional malady of the -democracy, of which the people were themselves perfectly sensible,—as we -shall show hereafter from the securities which they tried to provide against -it,—but which no securities could ever wholly eradicate. Frequency of -public assemblies, far from aggravating the evil, had a tendency to lighten it. -The people thus became accustomed to hear and balance many different views -as a preliminary to ultimate judgment; they contracted personal interest and -esteem for a numerous class of dissentient speakers; and they even acquired -a certain practical consciousness of their own liability to error.</p> - -<p>These two attributes, then, belonged to the Athenian democracy; first, -their sentiments of every kind were manifested loudly and openly; next, -their sentiments tended to a pitch of great present intensity. Of course, -therefore, when they changed, the change of sentiment stood prominent, -and forced itself upon every one’s notice—being a transition from one strong -sentiment past to another strong sentiment present. And it was because -such alterations, when they did take place, stood out so palpably to remark, -that the Athenian people have drawn upon themselves the imputation of -fickleness: for it is not at all true that changes of sentiment were more -frequently produced in them by frivolous or insufficient causes, than changes -of sentiment in other governments.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_15b" id="enanchor_15b"></a><a href="#endnote_15b">b</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-16.jpg" width="500" height="124" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-17.jpg" width="500" height="129" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XVII_THE_PLANS_OF_XERXES">CHAPTER XVII. THE PLANS OF XERXES</h3> - -<p>What follows is one of the most interesting parts of Herodotus. It -exhibits the most circumstantial detail of the expedition of Xerxes against -Greece, by a writer almost contemporary. It is also impressed with the -character of authenticity, for it was recited to a multitude of Greeks assembled -at Olympia, among whom doubtless there were many who had fought -both at Salamis and Platæa.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_17f" id="enanchor_17f"></a><a href="#endnote_17f">f</a></span></p> - -<p>When the news of the battle of Marathon was communicated to Darius, -he, who was before incensed against the Athenians, on account of their -invasion of Sardis, became still more exasperated, and more inclined to -invade Greece. He instantly therefore sent emissaries to the different cities -under his power, to provide a still greater number of transports, horses, -corn, and provisions. In the interval which this business employed, Asia -experienced three years of confusion; her most able men being enrolled for -the Greek expedition, and making preparation for it. In the fourth, the -Egyptians, who had been reduced by Cambyses, revolted from the Persians: -but this only induced Darius to accelerate his preparations against both -nations. At this juncture there arose a violent dispute among the sons of -Darius, concerning the succession to the throne, the Persian customs forbidding -the sovereign to undertake any expedition without naming his heir. -Darius had three sons before he ascended the throne, by the daughter of -Gobryas; he had four afterwards by Atossa, daughter of Cyrus: Artabazanes -was the eldest of the former, Xerxes of the latter. Not being of the same -mother, a dispute arose between them; Artabazanes asserted his pretensions -from being the eldest of all his father’s sons, a claim which mankind -in general consent to acknowledge. Xerxes claimed the throne because he -was the grandson of Cyrus, to whom the Persians were indebted for their -liberties.</p> - -<p>Darius having declared Xerxes his heir, prepared to march; but in the -year which succeeded the Egyptian revolt, he died; having reigned thirty-six -years, without being able to gratify his resentment against the Egyptians -and Athenians who had opposed his power. On his death, Xerxes immediately -succeeded to the throne, and from the first, seemed wholly inclined to -the Egyptian rather than the Athenian War. But Mardonius, who was his -cousin, being the son of Gobryas, by a sister of Darius, thus addressed him:</p> - -<p>“I should think, Sir, that the Athenians, who have so grievously injured -the Persians, ought not to escape with impunity. I would nevertheless -have you execute what you immediately propose; but when you shall have -chastised the insolence of Egypt, resume the expedition against Athens. -Thus will your reputation be established, and others in future be deterred -from molesting your dominions.” What he said was further enforced by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> -representing the beauties of Europe, that it was exceedingly fertile, abounded -with all kinds of trees, and deserved to be possessed by the king alone.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[485-484 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Mardonius said this, being desirous of new enterprises, and ambitious of -the government of Greece. Xerxes at length acceded to his counsel, to -which he was also urged by other considerations. Some messengers came -from Thessaly on the part of the Aleuadæ, imploring the king to invade -Greece; to accomplish which, they used the most earnest endeavours. These -Aleuadæ were the princes of Thessaly: their solicitations were strengthened -by the Pisistratidæ, who had taken refuge at Susa, and who to the arguments -before adduced, added others. They had among them Onomacritus, -an Athenian, a famous priest, who sold the oracles of Musæus; with him -they had been reconciled previous to their arrival at Susa. This man had -been formerly banished from Athens by the son of Pisistratus; for Lasus of -Hermione had detected him in the fact of introducing a pretended oracle, -among the verses of Musæus, intimating that the islands contiguous to -Lemnos should be overwhelmed in the ocean. Hipparchus for this expelled -him, though he had been very intimate with him before. He accompanied -the Pisistratidæ to Susa, who always spoke of him in terms highly honourable; -upon which account, whenever he appeared in the royal presence, he recited -certain oracular verses. He omitted whatever predicted anything unfortunate -to the barbarians, selecting only what promised them auspiciously; -among other things he said the fates decreed that a Persian should throw a -bridge over the Hellespont.</p> - -<p>Thus was the mind of Xerxes assailed by the predictions of the priest, -and the opinions of the Pisistratidæ. In the year which followed the death -of Darius, he determined on an expedition against Greece, but commenced -hostilities with those who had revolted from the Persians. These being subdued, -and the whole of Egypt more effectually reduced than it had been by -Darius, he confided the government of it to Achæmenes, his own brother, -son of Darius. Achæmenes was afterwards slain by Inarus, a Libyan, the -son of Psammetichus. After the subjection of Egypt, Xerxes prepared to -lead an army against Athens, but first of all he called an assembly of the -principal Persians, to hear their sentiments, and to deliver, without reserve, -his own. He addressed them to the following purport:</p> - -<p>“You will remember, O Persians, that I am not about to execute any new -project of my own; I only pursue the path which has been previously marked -out for me. I have learned from my ancestors, that ever since we recovered -this empire from the Medes, after the depression of Astyages by Cyrus, we -have never been in a state of inactivity. A deity is our guide, and auspiciously -conducts us to prosperity. It must be unnecessary for me to relate -the exploits of Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius, and the nations they added to -our empire. For my own part, ever since my accession to the throne, it has -been my careful endeavour not to reflect any disgrace upon my forefathers, -by suffering the Persian power to diminish. My deliberations on this matter -have presented me with a prospect full of glory; they have pointed out to -me a region not inferior to our own in extent, and far exceeding it in fertility, -which incitements are further promoted by the expectation of honourable -revenge; I have therefore assembled you to explain what I intend:</p> - -<p>“I have resolved, by throwing a bridge over the Hellespont, to lead my -forces through Europe into Greece, and to inflict vengeance on the Athenians -for the injuries offered to my father and Persia. You well know that -this war was intended by Darius, though death deprived him of the means -of vengeance. Considering what is due to him and to Persia, it is my determination<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> -not to remit my exertions, till Athens shall be taken and burned. -The Athenians, unprovoked, first insulted me and my father; under the -conduct of Aristagoras of Miletus, our dependent and slave, they attacked -Sardis, and consumed with fire our groves and temples. What they perpetrated -against you, when, led by Datis and Artaphernes, you penetrated into -their country, you know by fatal experience. Such are my inducements to -proceed against them: but I have also additional motives.</p> - -<p>“If we reduce these and their neighbours who inhabit the country of -Pelops the Phrygian, to our power, the Persian empire will be limited by -the heavens alone; the sun will illuminate no country contiguous to ours; I -shall overrun all Europe, and with your assistance possess unlimited dominion. -For if I am properly informed, there exists no race of men, nor can any city -or nation be found, which if these be reduced, can possibly resist our arms: -we shall thus subject, as well those who have, as those who have not, injured -us. I call therefore for your assistance, which I shall thankfully accept and -acknowledge; I trust that with cheerfulness and activity you will all assemble -at the place I shall appoint. To him who shall appear with the greatest -number of well-provided troops, I will present those gifts which in our -country are thought to confer the highest honour. That I may not appear -to dictate my own wishes in an arbitrary manner, I commit the matter to -your reflection, permitting every one to deliver his sentiments with freedom.”</p> - -<p>When Xerxes had finished, Mardonius made the following reply:</p> - -<p>“Sir, you are not only the most illustrious of all the Persians who have -hitherto appeared, but you may securely defy the competition of posterity. -Among other things which you have advanced, alike excellent and just, you -are entitled to our particular admiration for not suffering the people of Ionia, -contemptible as they are, to insult us with impunity. It would indeed be -preposterous, if after reducing to our power the Sacæ, the Indians, the -Ethiopians, and the Assyrians, with many other great and illustrious nations, -not in revenge of injuries received, but solely from the honourable desire of -dominion, we should not inflict vengeance on these Greeks who, without -provocation, have molested us.</p> - -<p>“There can be nothing to excite our alarm; no multitude of troops, no -extraordinary wealth; we have tried their mode of fighting, and know their -weakness. Their descendants, who under the names of Ionians, Æolians, and -Dorians, reside within our dominions, we first subdued, and now govern. -Their prowess I myself have known, when at the command of your father I -prosecuted a war against them. I penetrated Macedonia, advanced almost -to Athens, and found no enemy to encounter.</p> - -<p>“Beside this, I am informed that in all their military undertakings, the -Greeks betray the extremest ignorance and folly. As soon as they commence -hostilities among themselves, their first care is to find a large and beautiful -plain,<a name="FNanchor_20" id="FNanchor_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> where they appear and give battle: the consequence is, that even the -victors suffer severe loss; of the vanquished I say nothing, for they are totally -destroyed. As they use one common language, they ought in policy to terminate -all disputes by the mediation of ambassadors, and above all things to -avoid a war among themselves: or, if this should prove unavoidable, they -should mutually endeavour to find a place of great natural strength, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> -then try the issue of a battle. By pursuing as absurd a conduct as I have -described, the Greeks suffered me to advance as far as Macedonia without -resistance. But who, Sir, shall oppose you, at the head of the forces and the -fleet of Asia? The Greeks, I think, never can be so audacious. If however -I should be deceived, and they shall be so mad as to engage us, they will soon -find to their cost that in the art of war we are the first of mankind. Let us -however adopt various modes of proceeding, for perfection and success can -only be the result of frequent experiment.”</p> - -<p>In this manner, Mardonius seconded the speech of Xerxes.</p> - -<p>A total silence prevailed in the assembly, no one daring to oppose what -had been said; till at length Artabanus, son of Hystaspes, and uncle to -Xerxes, deriving confidence from his relationship, thus delivered his sentiments: -“Unless, O King, different sentiments be submitted to the judgment, -no alternative of choice remains, the one introduced is of necessity adopted. -The purity of gold cannot be ascertained by a single specimen; it is known -and approved by comparing it with others. It was my advice to Darius, your -father and my brother, that he should by no means undertake an expedition -against the Scythians, a people without towns and cities. Allured by his -hopes of subduing them, he disregarded my admonitions; and proceeding to -execute his purpose was obliged to return, having lost numbers of his best -troops. The men, O King, whom you are preparing to attack, are far superior -to the Scythians, and alike formidable by land and sea. I deem it therefore -my duty to forewarn you of the dangers you will have to encounter.</p> - -<p>“You say that, throwing a bridge over the Hellespont, you will lead your -forces through Europe into Greece; but it may possibly happen, that either -on land or by sea, or perhaps by both, you may sustain a defeat, for our enemies -are reported to be valiant. Of this indeed we have had sufficient testimony; -for if the Athenians by themselves routed the numerous armies of -Datis and Artaphernes, it proves that we are not, either by land or sea, perfectly -invincible. If, preparing their fleet, they shall be victorious by sea, and -afterwards sailing to the Hellespont, shall destroy your bridge, we may dread -all that is bad. I do not argue in this respect from my own private conjecture; -we can all of us remember how very narrowly we escaped destruction, -when your father, throwing bridges over the Thracian Bosporus and the Ister, -passed into Scythia. The guard of this pass was entrusted to the Ionians, -whom the Scythians urged to break it down, by the most earnest importunity. -If at this period Histiæus of Miletus had not opposed the sentiments of the -rest, there would have been an end of the Persian name.</p> - -<p>“It is painful to repeat, and afflicting to remember, that the safety of our -prince and his dominions depended on a single man. Listen therefore to -my advice, and where no necessity demands it, do not involve yourself in -danger. For the present, dismiss this meeting; revolve the matter more -seriously in your mind, and at a future and seasonable time make known -your determination. For my own part, I have found from experience, -that deliberation produces the happiest effects. In such a case, if the event -does not answer our wishes, we still merit the praise of discretion, and fortune -is alone to be blamed. He who is rash and inconsiderate, although -fortune may be kind, and anticipate his desires, is not the less to be censured -for temerity. You may have observed how the thunderbolt of heaven -chastises the insolence of the more enormous animals, whilst it passes over -without injury the weak and insignificant: before these weapons of the gods -you must have seen how the proudest palaces and the loftiest trees fall and -perish. The most conspicuous things are those which are chiefly singled out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> -as objects of the divine displeasure. From the same principle it is that a -mighty army is sometimes overthrown by one that is contemptible: for the -Deity in his anger sends his terrors among them, and makes them perish in a -manner unworthy of their former glory. Perfect wisdom is the prerogative -of Heaven alone, and every measure undertaken with temerity is liable to be -perplexed with error, and punished by misfortune. Discreet caution, on -the contrary, has many and peculiar advantages, which if not apparent at the -moment, reveal themselves in time.</p> - -<p>“Such, O King, is my advice; and little does it become you, O son of -Gobryas, to speak of the Greeks in a language foolish as well as false. By -calumniating Greece, you excite your sovereign to war, the great object -of all your zeal: but I entreat you to forbear. Calumny is a restless vice, -where it is indulged there are always two who offer injury. The calumniator -himself is injurious, because he traduces an absent person; he is also injurious -who suffers himself to be persuaded without investigating the truth. The -person traduced is doubly injured, first by him who propagates, and secondly -by him who receives the calumny. If this war be a measure of necessity, let -it be prosecuted; but let the king remain at home with his subjects. Suffer -the children of us two to remain in his power, as the test of our different -opinions; and do you, Mardonius, conduct the war with whatever forces you -shall think expedient. If, agreeably to your representations, the designs of -the king shall be successful, let me and my children perish; but if what I -predict shall be accomplished, let your children die, and yourself too, in case -you shall return. If you refuse these conditions, and are still resolved to lead -an army into Greece, I do not hesitate to declare, that all those who shall be -left behind will hear that Mardonius, after having involved the Persians in -some conspicuous calamity, became a prey to dogs and ravenous birds, in the -territories either of Athens or Lacedæmon, or probably during his march -thither. Thus you will know, by fatal experience, what those men are, -against whom you endeavour to persuade the king to prosecute a war.”</p> - -<p>When Artabanus had finished, Xerxes thus angrily replied: “Artabanus, -you are my father’s brother, which alone prevents your receiving the chastisement -due to your foolish speech. This mark of ignominy shall however -adhere to you—as you are so dastardly and mean, you shall not accompany -me to Greece, but remain at home, the companion of our women. Without -your assistance, I shall proceed in the accomplishment of my designs; for I -should ill deserve to be esteemed the son of Darius, who was the son of Hystaspes, -and reckoned among his ancestors Arsames, Ariaramnes, Teispes, -Cyrus, Cambyses, Teispes, and Achæmenes, if I did not gratify my revenge -upon the Athenians. I am well assured, that if we on our parts were tranquil, -they would not be, but would invade and ravage our country. This we may -reasonably conclude from their burning of Sardis, and their incursions into -Asia. Neither party can therefore recede; we must advance to the attack -of the Greeks, or we must prepare to sustain theirs; we must either submit -to them, or they to us; in enmities like these there can be no medium. -Injured as we have been, it becomes us to seek for revenge; for I am determined -to know what evil is to be dreaded from those whom Pelops the -Phrygian, the slave of my ancestors, so effectually subdued, that even to -this day they, as well as their country, are distinguished by his name.”</p> - -<p>On the approach of evening the sentiments of Artabanus gave great disquietude -to Xerxes, and after more serious deliberation with himself in the -night, he found himself still less inclined to the Grecian war. Having decided -on the subject, he fell asleep, when, as the Persians relate, the following vision<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> -appeared to him:—He dreamed that he saw before him a man of unusual -size and beauty, who thus addressed him: “Are you then determined, O -Persian, contrary to your former resolutions, not to lead an army against -Greece, although you have ordered your subjects to prepare their forces? -This change in your sentiments is absurd in itself, and will certainly be censured -by the world. Resume therefore, and persist in what you had resolved -by day.” Having said this, the vision disappeared.</p> - -<p>The impression made by the vision vanished with the morning. Xerxes -a second time convoked the former meeting, and again addressed them:</p> - -<p>“Men of Persia,” said he, “you will forgive me, if my former sentiments -are changed. I am not yet arrived at the full maturity of my judgment; -and they who wish me to prosecute the measures which I before seemed to -approve, do not remit their importunities. When I first heard the opinion -of Artabanus, I yielded to the emotions of youth, and expressed myself more -petulantly than was becoming, to a man of his years. To prove that I see -my indiscretion, I am resolved to follow his advice. It is not my intention -to undertake an expedition against Greece; remain therefore in tranquillity.”</p> - -<p>The Persians hearing these sentiments, prostrated themselves with joy -before the king. On the following night the same phantom appeared a -second time to Xerxes in his sleep, and spake to him as follows: “Son of -Darius, disregarding my admonitions as of no weight or value, you have publicly -renounced all thoughts of war. Hear what I say: unless you immediately -undertake that which I recommend, the same short period of time -which has seen you great and powerful, shall behold you reduced and abject.”</p> - -<p>Terrified at the vision, the king leaped from his couch, and sent for -Artabanus. As soon as he approached, “Artabanus,” exclaimed Xerxes, “in -return for your salutary counsel, I reproached and insulted you; but as soon -as I became master of myself I endeavoured to prove my repentance by adopting -what you proposed. This however, whatever may be my wishes, I am -unable to do. As soon as my former determinations were changed, I beheld -in my sleep a vision, which first endeavoured to dissuade me, and has this -moment left me with threats. If what I have seen proceed from the interference -of some deity, who is solicitous that I should make war on Greece, -it will doubtless appear to you, and give you a similar mandate. This -will I think be the case, if you will assume my habit, and after sitting on -my throne retire to rest in my apartment.”</p> - -<p>Artabanus was at first unwilling to comply, alleging that he was not -worthy to sit on the throne of the king. But being urged, he finally acquiesced, -after thus expressing his sentiments: “I am of opinion, O King, that -to think well, and to follow what is well-advised, is alike commendable: both -these qualities are yours; but the artifice of evil counsellors misleads you. -Thus, the ocean is of itself most useful to mankind, but the stormy winds -render it injurious, by disturbing its natural surface. Your reproaches gave -me less uneasiness than to see that when two opinions were submitted to -public deliberation, the one aiming to restrain, the other to countenance the -pride of Persia, you preferred that which was full of danger to yourself and -your country, rejecting the wiser counsel, which pointed out the evil tendency -of ambition. Now that you have changed your resolution with respect to -Greece, a phantom has appeared, and, as you say, by some divine interposition, -has forbidden your present purpose of dismissing your forces. But, -my son, I dispute the divinity of this interposition, for of the fallacy of dreams -I, who am more experienced than yourself, can produce sufficient testimonies. -Dreams in general originate from those incidents which have most occupied<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> -the thoughts during the day. Two days since, you will remember that -this expedition was the object of much warm discussion: but if this vision -be really sent from heaven, your reasoning upon it is just, and it will certainly -appear to me as it has done to you, expressing itself to a similar -effect; but it will not show itself to me dressed in your robes, and reclining -on your couch, sooner than if I were in my own habit and my own apartment. -No change of dress will induce the phantom, if it does appear, to mistake me -for you. If it shall hold me in contempt, it will not appear to me, however -I may be clothed. It unquestionably however merits attention; its -repeated appearance I myself must acknowledge to be a proof of its divinity. -If you are determined in your purpose, I am ready to go to rest in your -apartment: but till I see the phantom myself I shall retain my former -opinions.”</p> - -<p>Artabanus, expecting to find the king’s dream of no importance, did as -he was ordered. He accordingly put on the robe of Xerxes, seated himself -on the royal throne, and afterward retired to the king’s apartment. The -same phantom which had disturbed Xerxes appeared to him,<a name="FNanchor_21" id="FNanchor_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> and thus -addressed him: “Art thou the man who, pretending to watch over the conduct -of Xerxes, art endeavouring to restrain his designs against Greece? -Your perverseness shall be punished both now and in future; and as for -Xerxes himself, he has been forewarned of the evils he will suffer, if disobedient -to my will.”</p> - -<p>Such were the threats which Artabanus heard from the spectre, which at -the same time made an effort to burn out his eyes with a hot iron. Alarmed -at his danger, Artabanus leaped from his couch, and uttering a loud cry, -went instantly to Xerxes. After relating his vision, he thus spake to him: -“Being a man, O King, of much experience, and having seen the undertakings -of the powerful foiled by the efforts of the weak, I was unwilling -that you should indulge the fervour of your age. Of the ill effects of inordinate -ambition, I had seen a fatal proof, in the expedition which Cyrus undertook -against the Massagetæ; I knew also what became of the army of -Cambyses in their attack of Ethiopia; and lastly, I myself witnessed the -misfortunes of Darius, in his hostilities with the Scythians. The remembrance -of these incidents induced me to believe that if you continued -a peaceful reign, you would beyond all men deserve the character of happy: -but as your present inclination seems directed by some supernatural influence, -and as the Greeks seem marked out by heaven for destruction, I acknowledge -that my sentiments are changed; do you therefore make known to the Persians -the extraordinary intimations you have received, and direct your -dependents to hasten the preparations you had before commanded. Be careful, -in what relates to yourself, to second the intentions of the gods.”</p> - -<p>The vision indeed had so powerfully impressed the minds of both, that -as soon as the morning appeared, Xerxes communicated his intentions to -the Persians; which Artabanus, in opposition to his former sentiments, now -openly and warmly approved.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[484-480 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Whilst everything was making ready for his departure, Xerxes saw a -third vision. The magi to whom it was related were of opinion that it portended -to Xerxes unlimited and universal empire. The king conceived -himself to be crowned with the wreath of an olive tree, whose branches -covered all the earth, but that this wreath suddenly and totally disappeared. -After the above interpretation of the magi had been made known in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> -national assembly of the Persians, the governors departed to their several -provinces, eager to execute the commands they had received, in expectation -of the promised reward. Xerxes was so anxious to complete his levies that -no part of the continent was left without being ransacked for this purpose. -After the reduction of Egypt, four entire years were employed in assembling -the army and collecting provisions; but in the beginning of the fifth he -began his march with an immense body of forces.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_17b" id="enanchor_17b"></a><a href="#endnote_17b">b</a></span></p> - -<p>Darius was three years in preparing for an expedition against Greece; -in the fourth Egypt revolted, and in the following year Darius died; this -therefore was the fifth year after the battle of Marathon. Xerxes employed -four years in making preparations for the same purpose; in the fifth he -began his march, he advanced to Sardis, and there wintered; in the beginning -of the following spring he entered Greece. This therefore was in the -eleventh year after the battle of Marathon; which account agrees with that -given by Thucydides.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_17f2" id="enanchor_17f2"></a><a href="#endnote_17f">f</a></span></p> - -<p>Of all the military expeditions, the fame of which has come down to us, -this was far the greatest, much exceeding that which Darius undertook -against Scythia, as well as the incursion made by the Scythians, who, pursuing -the Cimmerians, entered Media, and made themselves entire masters -of almost all the higher parts of Asia; an incursion which afforded Darius -the pretence for his attack on Scythia. It surpasses also the famous expedition -of the sons of Atreus against Troy, as well as that of the Mysians and -Teucrians before the Trojan War. These nations, passing over the Bosporus -into Europe, reduced all the inhabitants of Thrace, advancing to the -Ionian Sea, and thence as far as the southern part of the river Peneus.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[483 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>None of the expeditions already mentioned, nor indeed any other, may -at all be compared with this of Xerxes. It would be difficult to specify any -nation of Asia, which did not accompany the Persian monarch against Greece, -or any waters, except great rivers, which were not exhausted by his armies. -Some supplied ships, some a body of infantry, others of horse; some provided -transports for the cavalry and the troops; others brought long ships -to serve as bridges; many also brought vessels laden with corn, all which -preparations were made for three years, to guard against a repetition of the -calamities which the Persian fleet had formerly sustained, in their attempts -to double the promontory of Mount Athos. The place of rendezvous for -the triremes was at Elæus of the Chersonesus, from whence detachments from -the army were sent, and by force of blows compelled to dig a passage through -Mount Athos, with orders to relieve each other at certain regular intervals. -The undertaking was assisted by those who inhabited the mountain, and the -conduct of the work was confided to Bubares, the son of Megabazus, and -Antachæus, son of Artæus, both of whom were Persians.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_17b2" id="enanchor_17b2"></a><a href="#endnote_17b">b</a></span></p> - -<p>This incident Richardson conceives to be utterly incredible. The promontory -was, as he justly remarks, no more than two hundred miles from -Athens, and yet Xerxes is said to have employed a number of men, three -years before his crossing the Hellespont, to separate it from the continent, -and make a canal for his shipping. Themistocles, also, who from the time of -the battle of Marathon had been incessantly alarming the Athenians with -another Persian invasion, never endeavoured to support his opinion by -any allusion to this canal, the very digging of which must have filled all -Greece with astonishment, and been the subject of every public conversation. -Pococke, who visited Mount Athos, also deems the event highly improbable, -and says that he could not perceive the smallest vestige of any such undertaking.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_17f3" id="enanchor_17f3"></a><a href="#endnote_17f">f</a></span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span></p> - -<p>Bury thinks that the canal was actually dug, the reason being not that -which Herodotus later suggests, a mere desire for display, but an obedience -to the axiom of Persian strategy that the army and the fleet should not lose -touch with each other. But leaving the riddle unsolved, as needs we must, -let us proceed with the narrative, Herodotus acting as guide.<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span></p> - -<p>Athos is a large and noble mountain projecting into the sea, and inhabited; -where it terminates on the land side, it has the appearance of a peninsula, -and forms an isthmus of about twelve stadia in breadth: the surface -of this is interspersed with several small hills, reaching from the Acanthian -Sea to that of Torone, which is opposite. Where Mount Athos terminates, -stands a Grecian city, called Sane; in the interior parts, betwixt Sane and -the elevation of Athos, are situated the towns of Dium, Olophyxus, Acrothoum, -Thyssus, and Cleonæ, inhabited by Greeks. It was the object of the -Persians to detach these from the continent.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/p293.jpg" width="500" height="322" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">The Hellespont</span></p> -</div> - -<p>They proceeded to dig in this manner: the barbarians marked out the -ground in the vicinity of Sane with a rope, assigning to each nation their -particular station; then sinking a deep trench, whilst they at the bottom -continued digging, the nearest to them handed the earth to others standing -immediately above them upon ladders; it was thus progressively elevated, -till it came to the summit, where they who stood received and carried -it away. The brink of the trench giving way, except in that part where the -Phœnicians were employed, occasioned a double labour; and this, as the -trench was no wider at top than at bottom, was unavoidable. But in this, -as in other instances, the Phœnicians discovered their superior sagacity, for -in the part allotted to them they commenced by making the breadth of the -trench twice as large as was necessary; and thus proceeding in an inclined -direction, they made their work at the bottom of the prescribed dimensions. -In this part was a meadow, which was their public place for business and for -commerce, and where a vast quantity of corn was imported from Asia.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_17b3" id="enanchor_17b3"></a><a href="#endnote_17b">b</a></span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span></p> - -<p>Plutarch, in his treatise <i>De Ira cohibenda</i>, has preserved a ridiculous -letter, supposed to have been written by Xerxes to Mount Athos. It was to -this effect: “O thou miserable Athos, whose top now reaches to the heavens, -I give thee in charge not to throw any great stones in my way, which may -impede my work; if thou shalt do this, I will cut thee in pieces and cast -thee into the sea.” This threat to the mountain is however at least as sensible -as the chastisement inflicted upon the Hellespont; so that if one anecdote -be true, the other may also obtain credit.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_17f4" id="enanchor_17f4"></a><a href="#endnote_17f">f</a></span></p> - -<p>The motive of Xerxes in this work was, as far as we are able to conjecture, -the vain desire of exhibiting his power, and of leaving a monument to posterity. -When with very little trouble he might have transported his vessels -over the isthmus, he chose rather to unite the two seas by a canal, of sufficient -diameter to admit two triremes abreast. Those employed in this business -were also ordered to throw bridges over the river Strymon.</p> - -<p>For these bridges Xerxes provided cordage made of the bark of the -biblos, and of white flax. The care of transporting provisions for the army -was committed jointly to the Egyptians and Phœnicians, that the troops, as -well as the beasts of burden, in this expedition to Greece, might not suffer -from famine. After examining into the nature of the country, he directed -stores to be deposited in every convenient situation, which were supplied by -transports and vessels of burden, from the different parts of Asia. Of these, -the greater number were carried to that part of Thrace which is called the -“White Coast”; others to Tyrodiza of the Perinthians; the remainder -were severally distributed at Doriscus, at Eion on the banks of the Strymon, -and in Macedonia.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[483-480 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Whilst these things were carrying on, Xerxes, at the head of all his -land forces, left Critalla in Cappadocia, and marched towards Sardis: it was -at Critalla that all those troops were appointed to assemble who were to attend -the king by land; who the commander was, that received from the -king the promised gifts, on account of the number and goodness of his -troops, we are unable to decide, nor indeed can we say whether there was any -competition on the subject. Passing the river Halys, they came to Phrygia, -and continuing to advance, arrived at Celænæ, where are the fountains of -the Mæander, as well as those of another river of equal size with the -Mæander, called Catarrhactes, which rising in the public square of Celænæ, -empties itself into the Mæander. In the forum of this city is suspended the -skin of Marsyas, which the Phrygians say was placed there after he had been -flayed by Apollo.</p> - -<p>In this city lived a man named Pythius, son of Atys, a native of Lydia, -who entertained Xerxes and all his army with great magnificence: he further -engaged to supply the king with money for the war. Xerxes was on this -induced to inquire of his Persian attendants who this Pythius was, and what -were the resources which enabled him to make these offers: “It is the -same,” they replied, “who presented your father Darius with a plane-tree -and a vine of gold, and who, next to yourself, is the richest of mankind.”<a name="FNanchor_22" id="FNanchor_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span></p> - -<p>These last words filled Xerxes with astonishment; and he could not -refrain from asking Pythius himself the amount of his wealth: “Sir,” he replied, -“I conceal nothing from you, nor affect ignorance; but as I am able -I will fairly tell you.—As soon as I heard of your approach to the Grecian -sea, I was desirous of giving you money for the war; on examining into the -state of my affairs, I found that I was possessed of two thousand talents of -silver, and four millions, wanting only seven thousand, of gold staters of -Darius; all this I give you—my slaves and my farms will be sufficient to -maintain me.”</p> - -<p>“My Lydian friend,” returned Xerxes, much delighted, “since I first left -Persia, you are the only person who has treated my army with hospitality, -or who, appearing in my presence, has voluntarily offered me a supply for -the war; you have done both; in acknowledgment for which I offer you -my friendship; you shall be my host, and I will give you the seven thousand -staters, which are wanting to make your sum of four millions complete.—Retain, -therefore, and enjoy your property; persevere in your present mode -of conduct, which will invariably operate to your happiness.”</p> - -<p>Xerxes having performed what he promised, proceeded on his march; -passing by a Phrygian city, called Anava, and a lake from which salt is -made, he came to Colossæ. This also is a city of Phrygia, and of considerable -eminence; here the Lycus disappears, entering abruptly a chasm in the -earth, but at the distance of seven stadia it again emerges, and continues its -course to the Mæander. The Persian army, advancing from Colossæ, came -to Cydrara, a place on the confines of Phrygia and Lydia; here a pillar had -been erected by Crœsus, with an inscription defining the boundaries of the -two countries.</p> - -<p>On entering Lydia from Phrygia they came to a place where two roads -met, the one on the left leading to Caria, the other on the right to Sardis: -to those who go by the latter it is necessary to cross the Mæander, and to -pass Callatebus, a city where honey is made of the tamarisk and wheat. -Xerxes here found a plane tree, so very beautiful, that he adorned it with -chains of gold, and assigned the guard of it to one of the immortal band; -the next day he came to the principal city of the Lydians.</p> - -<p>When arrived at Sardis, his first step was to send heralds into Greece, demanding -earth and water, and commanding that preparations should be made -to entertain him. He did not, however, send either to Athens or Lacedæmon: -his motive for repeating the demand to the other cities, was the expectation -that they who had before refused earth and water to Darius would, from -their alarm at his approach, send it now; this he wished positively to know.</p> - -<h4>XERXES BRIDGES THE HELLESPONT</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[481 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Whilst he was preparing to go to Abydos, numbers were employed in -throwing a bridge over the Hellespont, from Asia to Europe; betwixt Sestos -and Madytus, in the Chersonesus of the Hellespont, the coast toward the sea<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> -from Abydos is rough and woody. After this period, and at no remote -interval of time, Xanthippus, son of Ariphron, and commander of the Athenians, -in this place took Antayctes, a Persian, and governor of Sestos, -prisoner; he was crucified alive: he had formerly carried some females to -the temple of Protesilaus in Elæus, and perpetrated what is detestable.</p> - -<p>They on whom the office was imposed proceeded in the work of the -bridge, commencing at the side next Abydos. The Phœnicians used a -cordage made of linen, the Egyptians the bark of the biblos: from Abydos -to the opposite continent is a space of seven stadia. The bridge was no -sooner completed, than a great tempest arose, which tore in pieces and -destroyed the whole of their labour.</p> - -<p>When Xerxes heard of what had happened, he was so enraged, that he -ordered three hundred lashes to be inflicted on the Hellespont, and a pair of -fetters to be thrown into the sea. We are told that he even sent some executioners -to brand the Hellespont with marks of ignominy; but it is certain, -that he ordered those who inflicted the lashes to use these barbarous and -mad expressions: “Thou ungracious water, thy master condemns thee to this -punishment for having injured him without provocation. Xerxes the king -will pass over thee, whether thou consentest or not: just is it that no man -honours thee with sacrifice, for thou art insidious, and of an ungrateful flavour.” -After thus treating the sea, the king commanded those who presided -over the construction of the bridge to be beheaded.</p> - -<p>These commands were executed by those on whom that unpleasing -office was conferred. A bridge was then constructed by a different set of -architects, who performed it in the following manner: they connected together -ships of different kinds, some long vessels of fifty oars, others three-banked -galleys, to the number of three hundred and sixty on the side towards -the Euxine Sea, and three hundred and thirteen on that of the Hellespont.<a name="FNanchor_23" id="FNanchor_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p> - -<p>When these vessels were firmly connected to each other, they were secured -on each side by anchors of great length; on the upper side, because -of the winds which set in from the Euxine; on the lower, toward the Ægean -Sea, on account of the south and southeast winds. They left however openings -in three places, sufficient to afford a passage for light vessels, which -might have occasion to sail into the Euxine or from it: having performed -this, they extended cables from the shore, stretching them upon large capstans -of wood; for this purpose they did not employ a number of separate -cables, but united two of white flax with four of biblos. These were alike -in thickness, and apparently so in goodness, but those of flax were in proportion -much the more solid, weighing not less than a talent to every cubit.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> -When the pass was thus secured, they sawed out rafters of wood, making -their length equal to the space required for the bridge; these they laid in -order across upon the extended cables, and then bound them fast together. -They next brought unwrought wood, which they placed very regularly upon -the rafters; over all they threw earth, which they raised to a proper height, -and finished all by a fence on each side, that the horses and other beasts of -burden might not be terrified by looking down upon the sea.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[481-480 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The bridges were at length completed, and the work at Mount Athos -finished: to prevent the canal at this last place being choked up by the flow -of the tides, deep trenches were sunk at its mouth. The army had wintered -at Sardis, but on receiving intelligence of the above, they marched at the -commencement of the spring for Abydos. At the moment of their departure, -the sun, which before gave his full light, in a bright unclouded atmosphere, -withdrew his beams, and the darkest night succeeded. Xerxes, alarmed at -this incident, consulted the magi upon what it might portend. They replied, -that the protection of Heaven was withdrawn from the Greeks; the -sun, they observed, was the tutelar divinity of Greece, as the moon was of -Persia. The answer was so satisfactory to Xerxes, that he proceeded with -increased alacrity. During the march, Pythius the Lydian, who was much -intimidated by the prodigy which had appeared, went to the king; deriving -confidence from the liberality he had shown and received, he thus addressed -him: “Sir, I entreat a favour no less trifling to you, than important to myself.”</p> - -<p>Xerxes, not imagining what he was about to ask, promised to grant it, and -desired to know what he would have. Pythius on this became still more -bold: “Sir,” he returned, “I have five sons, who are all with you in this -Grecian expedition; I would entreat you to pity my age, and dispense with -the presence of the eldest. Take with you the four others, but leave one to -manage my affairs; so may you return in safety, after the accomplishment -of your wishes.”</p> - -<p>Xerxes, in great indignation, made this reply: “Infamous man! you -see me embark my all in this Grecian war; myself, my children, my -brothers, my domestics, and my friends, how dare you then presume to mention -your son, you who are my slave, and whose duty it is to accompany -me on this occasion, with all your family, and even your wife? Remember -this, the spirit of a man resides in his ears; when he hears what is agreeable -to him, the pleasure diffuses itself over all his body; but when the contrary -happens, he is anxious and uneasy. If your former conduct was good, and -your promises yet better, you still cannot boast of having surpassed the king -in liberality. Although your present behaviour is base and insolent, you -shall be punished less severely than you deserve: your former hospitality -preserves yourself and four of your children; the fifth, whom you most -regard, shall pay the penalty of your crime.”</p> - -<p>As soon as he had finished, the king commanded the proper officers to -find the eldest son of Pythius, and divide his body in two; he then ordered -one part of the body thrown on the right side of the road, the other on the -left, whilst the army continued their march betwixt them.</p> - -<h4>HOW THE HOST MARCHED</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[480 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The march was conducted in the following order: first of all went those -who had the care of the baggage; they were followed by a promiscuous body -of strangers of all nations, without any regularity, but to the amount of more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> -than half the army; after these was a considerable interval, for these did not -join the troops where the king was; next came a thousand horse, the flower -of the Persian army, who were followed by the same number of spear-men, -in like manner selected, trailing their pikes upon the ground; behind these -were ten sacred horses called Nisæan, with very superb trappings (they take -their name from a certain district in Media, called Nisæus, remarkable for -producing horses of an extraordinary size); the sacred car of Jupiter was -next in the procession, it was drawn by eight white horses, behind which, on -foot, was the charioteer, with the reins in his hands, for no mortal is permitted -to sit in this car; then came Xerxes himself, in a chariot drawn by -Nisæan horses; by his side sat his charioteer, whose name was Patiramphes, -son of Otanes the Persian.</p> - -<p>Such was the order in which Xerxes departed from Sardis; but as often -as occasion required, he left his chariot for a common carriage. A thousand -of the first and noblest Persians attended his person, bearing their spears -according to the custom of their country; and a thousand horse, selected like -the former, immediately succeeded. A body of ten thousand chosen infantry -came next; a thousand of these had at the extremity of their spears a pomegranate -of gold, the remaining nine thousand, whom the former enclosed, had -in the same manner pomegranates of silver. They who preceded Xerxes, and -trailed their spears, had their arms decorated with gold: they who followed -him had, as we have described, golden pomegranates: these ten thousand foot -were followed by an equal number of Persian cavalry; at an interval of about -two furlongs, followed a numerous, irregular, and promiscuous multitude.</p> - -<p>From Lydia the army continued its march along the banks of the Caicus, -to Mysia, and leaving Mount Canæ on the left, proceeded through Atarnis -to the city Carina. Moving hence over the plains of Thebe, and passing by -Adramyttium and Antandros, a Pelasgian city, they left Mount Ida to the -left, and entered the district of Ilium. In the very first night which they -passed under Ida, a furious storm of thunder and lightning arose, which -destroyed numbers of the troops. From hence they advanced to the Scamander; -this river first of all, after their departure from Sardis, failed in -supplying them with a quantity of water sufficient for their troops and beasts -of burden. On his arrival at this river, Xerxes ascended the citadel of Priam, -desirous of examining the place. Having surveyed it attentively, and satisfied -himself concerning it, he ordered a thousand oxen to be sacrificed to the -Trojan Minerva, at the same time the magi directed libations to be offered to -the manes of the heroes; when this was done, a panic spread itself in the night -through the army. At the dawn of morning they moved forwards, leaving -to the left the towns of Rhœteum, Ophryneum, and Dardanus, which last is -very near Abydos: the Gergithæ and Teucri were to their right.</p> - -<p>On their arrival at Abydos, Xerxes desired to take a survey of all his -army: the inhabitants had, at his previous desire, constructed for him, on -an eminence, a seat of white marble; upon this he sat, and directing his eyes -to the shore, beheld at one view, his land and sea forces. He next wished to -see a naval combat; one was accordingly exhibited before him, in which -the Phœnicians of Sidon were victorious. The view of this contest, as well -as of the number of his forces, delighted Xerxes exceedingly.</p> - -<p>When the king beheld all the Hellespont crowded with ships, and all the -shore, with the plains of Abydos, covered with his troops, he at first congratulated -himself as happy, but he afterward burst into tears.</p> - -<p>Artabanus, the uncle of Xerxes, who with so much freedom had at first -opposed the expedition against Greece, observed the king’s emotion: “How<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> -different, Sir,” said he, addressing him, “is your present behaviour, from what -it was a few minutes since! you then esteemed yourself happy, you now are -dissolved in tears.”</p> - -<p>“My reflection,” answered Xerxes, “on the transitory period of human -life, excited my compassion for this vast multitude, not one of whom will -complete the term of an hundred years! But tell me, has the vision which -you saw impressed full conviction on your mind, or do your former sentiments -incline you to dissuade me from this Grecian war?—speak without -reserve.”</p> - -<p>“May the vision, O King,” replied Artabanus, “which we have mutually -seen, succeed to both our wishes! For my own part I am still so full of apprehensions, -as not at all to be master of myself: after reflecting seriously on -the subject, I discern two important things, exceedingly hostile to your views.”</p> - -<p>“What, my good friend, can these two things possibly be?” replied -Xerxes; “do you think unfavourably of our land army, as not being sufficiently -numerous? Do you imagine the Greeks will be able to collect one -more powerful? Can you conceive our fleet inferior to that of our enemies?—or -do both these considerations together distress you? If our force does -not seem to you sufficiently effective, reinforcements may soon be provided.”</p> - -<p>“No one, Sir,” answered Artabanus, “in his proper senses, could object -either to your army, or to the multitude of your fleet: should you increase -their number, the more hostile would the two things be of which I speak; I -allude to the land and the sea. In case of any sudden tempest, you will find -no harbour, as I conjecture, sufficiently capacious or convenient for the protection -of your fleet; no one port would answer this purpose, you must have -the whole extent of the continent; your being without a resource of this -kind, should induce you to remember that fortune commands men, and not -men fortune. This is one of the calamities which threaten you; I will now -explain the other. The land is also your enemy; your meeting with no resistance -will render it more so, as you will be thus seduced imperceptibly to -advance; it is the nature of man, never to be satisfied with success: thus, -having no enemy to encounter every moment of time, and addition to your -progress, will be gradually introductive of famine. He, therefore, who is -truly wise, will as carefully deliberate about the possible event of things, as -he will be bold and intrepid in action.”</p> - -<p>Xerxes made this reply: “What you allege, Artabanus, is certainly reasonable; -but you should not so much give way to fear, as to see everything -in the worst point of view: if in consulting upon any matter we were to be -influenced by the consideration of every possible contingency, we should -execute nothing. It is better to submit to half of the evil which may be the -result of any measure, than to remain in inactivity from the fear of what may -eventually occur. You are sensible to what a height the power of Persia has -arrived, which would never have been the case, if my predecessors had either -been biassed by such sentiments as yours, or listened to such advisers: it was -their contempt of danger which promoted their country’s glory, for great exploits -are always attended with proportionable danger. We, therefore, emulous -of their reputation, have selected the best season of the year for our -enterprise; and having effectually conquered Europe, we shall return without -experience of famine or any other calamity: we have with us abundance of -provisions, and the nations among which we arrive will supply us with corn, -for they against whom we advance are not shepherds, but husbandmen.”</p> - -<p>“Since, Sir,” returned Artabanus, “you will suffer no mention to be -made of fear, at least listen to my advice: where a number of things are to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span> -be discussed, prolixity is unavoidable. Cyrus, son of Cambyses, made all -Ionia tributary to Persia, Athens excepted; do not, therefore, I entreat you, -lead these men against those from whom they are immediately descended: -without the Ionians, we are more than a sufficient match for our opponents. -They must either be most base, by assisting to reduce the principal city of -their country; or, by contributing to its freedom, will do what is most just. -If they shall prove the former, they can render us no material service; if -the latter, they may bring destruction on your army. Remember, therefore, -the truth of the ancient proverb, When we commence a thing we cannot -always tell how it will end.”</p> - -<p>“Artabanus,” interrupted Xerxes, “your suspicions of the fidelity of the -Ionians must be false and injurious; we have had sufficient testimony of -their constancy, as you yourself must be convinced, as well as all those who -served under Darius against the Scythians. It was in their power to save -or to destroy all the forces of Persia, but they preserved their faith, their -honour, and their gratitude; add to this, they have left their wives, their -children, and their wealth, in our dominions, and therefore dare not meditate -anything against us. Indulge, therefore, no apprehensions, but cheerfully -watch over my family and preserve my authority: to you, I commit -the exercise of my power.”</p> - -<p>Xerxes after this interview dismissed Artabanus to Susa, and a second -time called an assembly of the most illustrious Persians. As soon as they -were met, he thus addressed them: “My motive, Persians, for thus convoking -you, is to entreat you to behave like men, and not dishonour the many great -exploits of our ancestors: let us individually and collectively exert ourselves. -We are engaged in a common cause; and I the rather call upon you to display -your valour, because I understand we are advancing against a warlike -people, whom if we overcome, no one will in future dare oppose us. Let us, -therefore, proceed, having first implored the aid of the gods of Persia.”</p> - -<p>On the same day they prepared to pass the bridge: the next morning, -whilst they waited for the rising of the sun, they burned on the bridge all -manner of perfumes, and strewed the way with branches of myrtle. When -the sun appeared, Xerxes poured into the sea a libation from a golden vessel, -and then addressing the sun, he implored him to avert from the Persians -every calamity, till they should totally have vanquished Europe, arriving at -its extremest limits.</p> - -<p>Xerxes then threw the cup into the Hellespont, together with a golden -goblet, and a Persian scimitar. We are not able to determine whether the -king, by throwing these things into the Hellespont, intended to make an -offering to the sun, or whether he wished thus to make compensation to the -sea, for having formerly chastised it.</p> - -<p>When this was done, all the infantry and the horse were made to pass -over that part of the bridge which was toward the Euxine; over that to the -Ægean, went the servants of the camp, and the beasts of burden. They -were preceded by ten thousand Persians, having garlands on their heads; -and these were followed by a promiscuous multitude of all nations—these -passed on the first day. The first who went over the next day were the -knights, and they who trailed their spears; these also had garlands on their -heads: next came the sacred horses, and the sacred car; afterwards Xerxes -himself, who was followed by a body of spear-men, and a thousand horse. -The remainder of the army closed the procession, and at the same time the -fleet moved to the opposite shore: it is said that the king himself was the -last who passed the bridge.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span></p> - -<p>As soon as Xerxes had set foot in Europe, he saw his troops driven over -the bridge by the force of blows; and seven whole days and as many nights -were consumed in the passage of his army. [Later authorities than Herodotus -say that the crossing took two days and that the term seven days and -nights was based first on the greatly exaggerated estimate of Xerxes’ host, -and secondly on the peculiar sanctity of the number seven.]</p> - -<p>When Xerxes had passed the Hellespont, an inhabitant of the country is -said to have exclaimed: “Why, O Jupiter, under the appearance of a Persian, -and for the name of Jupiter taking that of Xerxes, art thou come to distract -and persecute Greece? or why bring so vast a multitude, when able to accomplish -thy purpose without them?”</p> - -<p>When all were gone over, and were proceeding on their march, a wonderful -prodigy appeared, which, though disregarded by Xerxes, had an obvious -meaning—a mare brought forth a hare<a name="FNanchor_24" id="FNanchor_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a>: from this it might have been inferred, -that Xerxes, who had led an army into Greece with much ostentation -and insolence, should be involved in personal danger, and compelled to return -with dishonour. Whilst yet at Sardis, he had seen another prodigy—a mule -produced a young one, which had the marks of both sexes those of the male -being beneath.</p> - -<p>Neither of these incidents made any impression on his mind, and he continued -to advance with his army by land, whilst his fleet, passing beyond the -Hellespont, coasted along the shore in an opposite direction. The latter -sailed toward the west, to the promontory of Sarpedon, where they were -commanded to remain; the former proceeded eastward through the Chersonesus, -having on their right the tomb of Helle, the daughter of Athamas; -on their left the city of Cardia. Moving onward, through the midst of a -city called Agora, they turned aside to the Gulf of Melas, and a river of -the same name, the waters of which were not sufficient for the troops. -Having passed this river, which gives its name to the above-mentioned gulf, -they directed their march westward, and passing Ænos, a city of Æolis, and -the lake Stentoris, they came to Doriscus.</p> - -<p>Doriscus is on the coast, and is a spacious plain of Thrace, through which -the great river Hebrus flows. Here was a royal fort called Doriscus, in -which Darius, in his expedition against Scythia, had placed a Persian garrison. -This appearing a proper place for the purpose, Xerxes gave orders to -have his army here marshalled and numbered. The fleet being all arrived -off the shore near Doriscus, their officers arranged them in order near where -Sale, a Samothracian town, and Zone are situated. At the extremity of this -shore is the celebrated promontory of Serrhium, which formerly belonged to -the Ciconians. The crews having brought their vessels to shore, enjoyed an -interval of repose, whilst Xerxes was drawing up his troops on the plain of -Doriscus.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_17b4" id="enanchor_17b4"></a><a href="#endnote_17b">b</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE SIZE OF XERXES’ ARMY</h4> - -<p>A curious instance of extreme critical scepticism is the opinion of the -English lexicographer, Charles Richardson: “I remain still in doubt,” says -he, “whether any such expedition was ever undertaken by the paramount -sovereign of Persia. Disguised in name by some Greek corruption, Xerxes -may possibly have been a feudatory prince or viceroy of the western districts; -and that an invasion of Greece may have possibly taken place under this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> -prince, I shall readily believe, but upon a scale I must also believe infinitely -narrower than the least exaggerated description of the Greek historians.”</p> - -<p>In Herodotus the reputed followers of Xerxes amount to 5,283,220; Isocrates, -in his <i>Panathenaicos</i>, estimates the land army in round numbers at five -million. And with them Plutarch in general agrees; but such myriads appeared -to Diodorus, Pliny, Ælianus, and other later writers, so much stretched -beyond all belief, that they at once cut off about four-fifths, to bring them -within the line of possibility. Yet what is this, but a singular and very -unauthorised liberty in one of the most consequential points of the expedition? -What circumstance in the whole narration is more explicit in Herodotus, -or by its frequent repetition, not in figures, but in words at length, -seems less liable to the mistake of copiers?</p> - -<p>Upon this subject, Larcher<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_17d" id="enanchor_17d"></a><a href="#endnote_17d">d</a></span>, who probably had never seen Richardson’s -book, writes as follows:</p> - -<p>“This immense army astonishes the imagination, but still is not incredible. -All the people dependent on Persia were slaves; they were compelled to -march, without distinction of birth or profession. Extreme youth or advanced -age were probably the only reasons which excused them from bearing arms. -The only reasonable objection to be made to this recital of Herodotus is that -which Voltaire has omitted to make—where were provisions to be had for -so numerous an army? But Herodotus has anticipated this objection: -‘We have with us,’ says Xerxes, ‘abundance of provisions, and all the -nations among which we shall come, not being shepherds, but husbandmen, -we shall find corn in their country, which we shall appropriate to our own -use.’ Subsequent writers have, it is true, differed from Herodotus, and diminished -the number of the army of Xerxes; but Herodotus, who was in some -measure a contemporary, and who recited his history to Greeks assembled at -Olympia, where were many who fought at Salamis and Platæa, is more -deserving of credit than later historians.”</p> - -<p>The truth perhaps may lie betwixt the two different opinions of Richardson -and Larcher. It is not likely, as there were many exiles from Greece at -the court of Persia, that Xerxes should be ignorant of the numbers and -resources of Greece. To lead there so many millions seems at first sight not -only unnecessary but preposterous. Admitting that so vast an army had -marched against Greece, no one of common-sense would have thought of -making an attack by the way of Thermopylæ, where the passage must have -been so tedious, and any resistance, as so few in proportion could possibly -be brought to act, might be made almost on equal terms: whilst, on the -contrary, to make a descent, they had the whole range of coast before them. -With respect to provisions, the difficulty appears still greater, and almost insurmountable. -We cannot think, with Larcher, that the numbers recorded -by Herodotus are consistent with probability.</p> - -<p>Rennell<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_17e" id="enanchor_17e"></a><a href="#endnote_17e">e</a></span> says, that the Persians may be compared, in respect to the rest of -the army of Xerxes, with the Europeans in a British army in India, composed -chiefly of sepoys and native troops.</p> - -<p>Probably Xerxes had not many more actual soldiers than the Greeks; the -rest were desultory hordes fit only for plunder, and four-fifths of the whole -were followers of the camp with rice, provisions, etc. The army that marched -under Lord Cornwallis at the siege of Seringapatam, in the first campaign, -consisted of twenty thousand troops, but the followers were more than one -hundred thousand. This is the case in all Eastern countries.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_17f5" id="enanchor_17f5"></a><a href="#endnote_17f">f</a></span></p> - -<p>But let us hear what Herodotus has to say concerning the size of Xerxes’ -horde, for after all the modern critics have only his account as a basis:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span></p> - -<p>We are not able to specify what number of men each nation supplied, as -no one has recorded it. The whole amount of the land forces was seventeen -hundred thousand. Their mode of ascertaining the number was this: they -drew up in one place a body of ten thousand men; making these stand -together as compactly as possible, they drew a circle round them. Dismissing -these, they enclosed the circle with a wall breast high; into this they -introduced another and another ten thousand, till they thus obtained the -precise number of the whole. They afterwards ranged each nation apart.</p> - -<p>The generals in chief of all the infantry were Mardonius, son of Gobryas; -Tritantæchmes, son of Artabanus, who had given his opinion against the -Grecian war; and Smerdomenes, son of Otanes, which last two were sons of -two brothers of Darius, the uncles of Xerxes. To the above may be added -Masistes, son of Darius by Atossa; Gergis, son of Arinus; and Megabyzus, -son of Zopyrus.</p> - -<p>These were the commanders of all the infantry, except of the ten thousand -chosen Persians, who were led by Hydarnes, son of Hydarnes. These -were called the Immortal Band, and for this reason, if any of them died in -battle, or by any disease, his place was immediately supplied. They were -thus never more nor less than ten thousand. The Persians surpassed all -the rest of the army, not only in magnificence but valour; they were also -remarkable for the quantity of gold which adorned them: they had with -them carriages for their women, and a vast number of attendants splendidly -provided. They had also camels and beasts of burden to carry their provisions, -beside those for the common occasions of the army. The Persian -horse, except a small number, whose casques were ornamented with brass and -iron, were habited like the infantry.</p> - -<p>There appeared of the Sagartii a body of eight thousand horse. These -people lead a pastoral life, were originally of Persian descent, and used the -Persian language: their dress is something betwixt the Persian and the Pactyan; -they have no offensive weapons, either of iron or brass, except their -daggers: their principal dependence in action is upon cords made of twisted -leather, which they use in this manner: when they engage an enemy they -throw out these cords, having a noose at the extremity; if they entangle in -them either horse or man, they without difficulty put them to death. These -forces were embodied with the Persians. The cavalry of the Medes, and -also of the Cissians, are accoutred like their infantry. The Indian horse -likewise were armed like their foot; but beside led horses they had chariots -of war, drawn by horses and wild asses. The armour of the Bactrian and -Caspian horse and foot were alike. This was also the case with the Africans, -only it is to be observed that these last all fought from chariots. The -Paricanian horse were also equipped like their foot, as were the Arabians, -all of whom had camels, by no means inferior to the horse in swiftness.</p> - -<p>These were the cavalry, who formed a body of eighty thousand, exclusive -of camels and chariots. They were drawn up in regular order, and the -Arabians were disposed in the rear, that the horses might not be terrified, -as a horse cannot endure a camel. Harmamithres and Tithæus, the sons -of Datis, commanded the cavalry; they had shared this command with -Pharnuches, but he had been left at Sardis indisposed. As the troops -were marching from Sardis he met with an unfortunate accident: a dog ran -under the feet of his horse, which being terrified reared up and threw his -rider. Pharnuches was in consequence seized with a vomiting of blood, -which finally terminated in a consumption. His servants, in compliance with -the orders of their master, led the horse to the place where the accident<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span> -happened, and there cut off his legs at the knees. Thus was Pharnuches -deprived of his command.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_17b5" id="enanchor_17b5"></a><a href="#endnote_17b">b</a></span></p> - -<p>We give the account of the Persian fleet as stated by Herodotus, that the -reader may compare it with that which follows of Diodorus Siculus:</p> - -<table summary="Numbers from Herodotus"> - <tr> - <td>Phœnicians</td> - <td class="tdr">300</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Egyptians</td> - <td class="tdr">200</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Cyprians</td> - <td class="tdr">150</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Cilicians</td> - <td class="tdr">100</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Pamphylians</td> - <td class="tdr">30</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Lycians</td> - <td class="tdr">50</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Dorians</td> - <td class="tdr">30</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Carians</td> - <td class="tdr">70</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Ionians</td> - <td class="tdr">100</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Islanders</td> - <td class="tdr">17</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Æolians</td> - <td class="tdr">60</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>People of the Hellespont</td> - <td class="tdr">100</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td></td> - <td class="tdr total">1207</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p>According to Diodorus Siculus,</p> - -<table summary="Numbers from Diodorus Siculus"> - <tr> - <td>Dorians</td> - <td class="tdr">40</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Æolians</td> - <td class="tdr">40</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Ionians</td> - <td class="tdr">100</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Hellespontians</td> - <td class="tdr">80</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Islanders</td> - <td class="tdr">50</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Egyptians</td> - <td class="tdr">200</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Phœnicians</td> - <td class="tdr">300</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Cilicians</td> - <td class="tdr">80</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Carians</td> - <td class="tdr">80</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Pamphylians</td> - <td class="tdr">40</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Lycians</td> - <td class="tdr">40</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Cyprians</td> - <td class="tdr">150</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td></td> - <td class="tdr total">1200<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_17f6" id="enanchor_17f6"></a><a href="#endnote_17f">f</a></span></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p>The commanders-in-chief of the sea forces were Ariabignes, son of -Darius, Prexaspes, son of Aspathines, and Megabazus, son of Megabates, -together with Achæmenes, another son of Darius. The other leaders we -forbear to specify, it not appearing necessary; but it is impossible not to -speak, and with admiration, of Artemisia, who, though a female, served in -this Grecian expedition. On the death of her husband she enjoyed the supreme -authority, for her son was not yet grown up, and her great spirit and -vigour of mind alone induced her to exert herself on this occasion. She was -the daughter of Lygdamis, by her father’s side of Halicarnassus, by her mother -of Cretan descent. She had the conduct of those of Halicarnassus, Cos, -Nisyros, and Calynda. She furnished five ships, which next to those of the -Sidonians, were the best in the fleet. She was also distinguished among all -the allies for the salutary counsels which she gave the king. Such were -the maritime forces.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_17b6" id="enanchor_17b6"></a><a href="#endnote_17b">b</a></span> Leaving this vast armament on its prosperous course -towards Greece, let us see what has been happening meanwhile in that busy -little nation.</p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_20" id="Footnote_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> [The Romans, in attacking an enemy, so disposed their army, as to be able to rally three -different times. This has been thought by many as the great secret of the Roman discipline; -because fortune must have failed their efforts three different times before they could be possibly -defeated. The Greeks drew up their forces in one extended line, and therefore depended upon -the effect of the first charge.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_17f7" id="enanchor_17f7"></a><a href="#endnote_17f">f</a></span>]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_21" id="Footnote_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> [Larcher<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_17d2" id="enanchor_17d2"></a><a href="#endnote_17d">d</a></span> reasonably supposes that this was a plot of Mardonius to impose on Xerxes; and -that some person, dressed and disguised for the purpose, acted the part of the ghost.]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_22" id="Footnote_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> [Many wonderful anecdotes are related of the riches of individuals in more ancient times; -among which this does not seem to be the least marvellous. The sum of which Pythius is said to -have been possessed amounted to five millions and a half of sterling money [$27,500,000]; this -is according to the estimate of Prideaux; that given by Montfaucon differs essentially. “The -denii,” says this last writer, “weighed eight modern louis-d’ors; therefore Pythius possessed -thirty-two millions of louis-d’ors” [£25,600,000, $128,000,000].</p> - -<p>Montfaucon, relating the story of Pythius, adds these reflections:</p> - -<p>“‘A man might in those days safely be rich, provided he obtained his riches honestly; and -how great must have been the circulation in commerce, if a private man could amass so prodigious -a sum!’ The wealth which the Roman Crassus possessed was not much inferior; when -he had consecrated a tenth of his property to Hercules, and at ten thousand tables feasted all -the people of Rome, beside giving as much corn to every citizen as was sufficient to last him -three months, he found himself still possessed of seventy-one hundred Roman talents, equivalent -to a million and a half of our money. The gold which Solomon employed in overlaying the -sanctum sanctorum of the Temple, which was no more than thirty feet square and thirty feet -high, amounted to four millions three hundred and twenty thousand pounds sterling. The gold -which he had in one year from Ophir was equal to three millions two hundred and forty thousand -pounds.”<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_17f8" id="enanchor_17f8"></a><a href="#endnote_17f">f</a></span>]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_23" id="Footnote_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> [It seems a matter of certainty that Herodotus’ numbers must be erroneous. Vessels -placed transversely must reach to a much greater extent than the same number placed side by -side; yet here the greater number of ships is stated to have been on the side where they were -arranged transversely, that is, across the channel, with their broadsides to the stream. What the -true numbers were it is vain to conjecture, it is sufficient to have pointed out that the present -must be wrong.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_17f9" id="enanchor_17f9"></a><a href="#endnote_17f">f</a></span></p> - -<p>Since the Hellespont, in the neighbourhood of Abydos, has a very considerable bend in its -course, first running northward from Abydos towards Sestos, and then taking a pretty sharp turn -to the eastward, may it not have been, that the two lines of ships were disposed on different sides -of the angle just mentioned, by which it might truly be said, that the ships in one line presented -their heads to the Euxine, the other their sides, although the heads of both were presented to the -current? The different numbers in the two lines certainly indicate different breadths of the -strait, which can only be accounted for by their being at some distance from each other: for it -cannot be supposed that the line was placed obliquely across the strait.</p> - -<p>The cables extended from each shore appear to have been for the sole purpose of supporting -the bridgeways. The ships were kept in their places by anchors ahead and astern; by the -lateral pressure of each other, and by side-fastening.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_17e2" id="enanchor_17e2"></a><a href="#endnote_17e">e</a></span>]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_24" id="Footnote_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> [This story will probably excite a smile from the English reader, whom it will remind of -Mary Tofts and her rabbits.—<span class="smcap">Beloe.</span>]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-17.jpg" width="500" height="100" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Rings</span></p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-18.jpg" width="500" height="150" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XVIII_PROCEEDINGS_IN_GREECE_FROM">CHAPTER XVIII. PROCEEDINGS IN GREECE FROM -MARATHON TO THERMOPYLÆ</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">O Land of Solon, Plato, and of men</div> -<div class="verse">Whose glorious like earth ne’er shall see again!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse right">—<span class="smcap">Nicholas Michell.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Our information respecting the affairs of Greece immediately after the -repulse of the Persians from Marathon, is very scanty.</p> - -<p>Cleomenes and Leotychides, the two kings of Sparta (the former belonging -to the elder or Eurysthenid, the latter to the younger or the Proclid, -race), had conspired for the purpose of dethroning the former Proclid king -Demaratus: and Cleomenes had even gone so far as to tamper with the -Delphian priestess for this purpose. His manœuvre being betrayed shortly -afterwards, he was so alarmed at the displeasure of the Spartans, that he -retired into Thessaly, and from thence into Arcadia, where he employed the -powerful influence of his regal character and heroic lineage to arm the Arcadian -people against his country. The Spartans, alarmed in their turn, voluntarily -invited him back with a promise of amnesty. But his renewed -lease did not last long: his habitual violence of character became aggravated -into decided insanity, insomuch that he struck with his stick whomsoever -he met; and his relatives were forced to confine him in chains under a helot -sentinel. By severe menaces, he one day constrained this man to give him -his sword, with which he mangled himself dreadfully and perished.</p> - -<p>But what surprises us most is, to hear that the Spartans, usually more -disposed than other Greeks to refer every striking phenomenon to divine -agency, recognised on this occasion nothing but a vulgar physical cause: -Cleomenes had gone mad (they affirmed) through habits of intoxication, -learnt from some Scythian envoys who had come to Sparta.</p> - -<p>The general course of the war with Ægina, and especially the failure -of the enterprise concerted with Nicodromus in consequence of delay in -borrowing ships from Corinth, were well calculated to impress upon the -Athenians the necessity of enlarging their naval force. And it is from the -present time that we trace among them the first growth of that decided -tendency towards maritime activity which coincided so happily with the -expansion of their democracy, and opened a new phase in Grecian history -as well as a new career for themselves.</p> - -<p>The exciting effect produced upon them by the repulse of the Persians -at Marathon has been dwelt upon. Miltiades, the victor in that field, having -been removed from the scene under circumstances already described, -Aristides and Themistocles became the chief men at Athens: and the former<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span> -was chosen archon during the succeeding year. His exemplary uprightness -in magisterial functions ensured to him lofty esteem from the general public, -not without a certain proportion of active enemies, some of them sufferers -by his justice. These enemies naturally became partisans of his rival Themistocles, -who had all the talents necessary for bringing them into co-operation: -and the rivalry between the two chiefs became so bitter and menacing, -that even Aristides himself is reported to have said, “If the Athenians were -wise, they would cast both of us into the barathrum.”</p> - -<h4>THEMISTOCLES AND ARISTIDES</h4> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 100px;"> -<img src="images/p306.jpg" width="100" height="200" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Themistocles</span></p> -</div> - -<div class="sidenote">[489-481 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Of the particular points on which their rivalry turned, -we are unfortunately little informed. But it is highly -probable that one of them was the important change of -policy above alluded to,—the conversion of Athens from -a land-power into a sea-power; the development of this -new and stirring element in the minds of the people. By -all authorities, this change of policy is ascribed principally -and specially to Themistocles. On that account, if for no -other reason, Aristides would probably be found opposed -to it: but it was moreover a change not in harmony -with that old-fashioned Hellenism, undisturbed uniformity -of life, and narrow range of active duty and experience -which Aristides seems to have approved in common -with the subsequent philosophers. The seaman was -naturally more of a wanderer and cosmopolite than the -heavy-armed soldier: the modern Greek seaman even at -this moment is so to a remarkable degree, distinguished -for the variety of his ideas, and the quickness of his intelligence: -the land-service was a type of steadiness and -inflexible ranks, the sea-service that of mutability and adventure. Such was -the idea strongly entertained by Plato and other philosophers: though we -may remark that they do not render justice to the Athenian seaman, whose -training was far more perfect and laborious, and his habits of obedience far -more complete, than that of the Athenian hoplite or horseman: a training -beginning with Themistocles, and reaching its full perfection about the commencement -of the Peloponnesian War.</p> - -<p>In recommending extraordinary efforts to create a navy as well as to -acquire nautical practice, Themistocles displayed all that sagacious appreciation -of the circumstances and dangers of the time for which Thucydides -gives him credit: and there can be no doubt that Aristides, though the honester -politician of the two, was at this particular crisis the less essential to -his country. Not only was there the struggle with Ægina, a maritime -power equal or more than equal, and within sight of the Athenian harbour, -but there was also in the distance a still more formidable contingency to -guard against. The Persian armament had been driven with disgrace from -Attica back to Asia; but the Persian monarch still remained with undiminished -means of aggression as well as increased thirst for revenge; and -Themistocles knew well that the danger from that quarter would recur -greater than ever. He believed that it would recur again in the same way, -by an expedition across the Ægean like that of Datis to Marathon; against -which the best defence would be found in a numerous and well-trained fleet.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span> -Nor could the large preparations of Darius for renewing the attack remain -unknown to a vigilant observer, extending as they did over so many Greeks -subject to the Persian empire. Such positive warning was more than enough -to stimulate the active genius of Themistocles, who now prevailed upon his -countrymen to begin with energy the work of maritime preparation, as well -against Ægina as against Persia. Not only were two hundred new ships -built, and citizens trained as seamen, but the important work was commenced, -during the year when Themistocles was either archon or general, -of forming and fortifying a new harbour for Athens at Piræus, instead of -the ancient open bay of Phalerum. The latter was indeed somewhat nearer -to the city, but Piræus with its three separate natural ports, admitting of -being closed and fortified, was incomparably superior in safety as well as in -convenience. It is not too much to say with Herodotus, that the Æginetan -war was “the salvation of Greece, by constraining the Athenians to -make themselves a maritime power.” The whole efficiency of the resistance -subsequently made to Xerxes turned upon this new movement in the organisation -of Athens, allowed as it was to attain tolerable completeness through -a fortunate concurrence of accidents; for the important delay of ten years -between the defeat of Marathon and the fresh invasion by which it was to -be avenged was, in truth, the result of accident. First, the revolt of Egypt; -next, the death of Darius; thirdly, the indifference of Xerxes at his first -accession towards Hellenic matters—postponing until 480 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, an invasion -which would naturally have been undertaken in 487 or 486 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, and which -would have found Athens at that time without her wooden walls—the great -engine of her subsequent salvation.</p> - -<p>Another accidental help, without which the new fleet could not have -been built—a considerable amount of public money—was also by good -fortune now available to the Athenians. It is first in an emphatic passage -of the poet Æschylus, and next from Herodotus on the present occasion, that -we hear of the silver mines of Laurium in Attica, and the valuable produce -which they rendered to the state. At what time they first began to be worked, -we have no information; but it seems hardly possible that they could have -been worked with any spirit or profitable result, until after the expulsion of -Hippias and the establishment of the democratical constitution of Clisthenes. -Neither the strong local factions, by which different portions of Attica were -set against each other before the time of Pisistratus—nor the rule of that -despot succeeded by his two sons—were likely to afford confidence and encouragement. -But when the democracy of Clisthenes first brought Attica -into one systematic and comprehensive whole, with equal rights assigned to -each part, and with a common centre at Athens—the power of that central -government over the mineral wealth of the country, and its means of binding -the whole people to respect agreements concluded with individual undertakers, -would give a new stimulus to private speculation in the district of Laurium. -It was the practice of the Athenian government either to sell, or to -let for a long term of years, particular districts of this productive region -to individuals or companies; on consideration partly of a sum or fine paid -down, partly of a reserved rent equal to one twenty-fourth part of the gross -produce.</p> - -<p>We are told by Herodotus that there was in the Athenian treasury, at -the time when Themistocles made his proposition to enlarge the naval force, -a great sum arising from the Laurian mines, out of which a distribution -was on the point of being made among the citizens—ten drachmæ [about -8 shillings or $2] to each man. Themistocles availed himself of this precious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span> -opportunity—set forth the necessities of the war with Ægina, and the still -more formidable menace from the great enemy in Asia—and prevailed upon -the people to forego the promised distribution for the purpose of obtaining -an efficient navy. One cannot doubt that there must have been many speakers -who would try to make themselves popular by opposing this proposition and -supporting the distribution; insomuch that the power of the people generally -to feel the force of a distant motive as predominant over a present gain, deserves -notice as an earnest of their approaching greatness.</p> - -<p>Immense indeed was the recompense reaped for this self-denial, not merely -by Athens but by Greece generally, when the preparations of Xerxes came -to be matured, and his armament was understood to be approaching. The -orders for equipment of ships and laying in of provisions, issued by the Great -King to his subject Greeks in Asia, the Ægean, and Thrace, would of course -become known throughout Greece proper; especially the vast labour bestowed -on the canal of Mount Athos, which would be the theme of wondering -talk with every Thasian or Acanthian citizen who visited the festival -games in the Peloponnesus. All these premonitory evidences were public -enough, without any need of that elaborate stratagem whereby the exiled -Demaratus is alleged to have secretly transmitted, from Susa to Sparta, intelligence -of the approaching expedition. The formal announcements of -Xerxes all designated Athens as the special object of his wrath and vengeance. -Other Grecian cities might thus hope to escape without mischief: -so that the prospect of the great invasion did not at first provoke among -them any unanimous disposition to resist. Accordingly, when the first -heralds despatched by Xerxes from Sardis in the autumn of 481 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, a little -before his march to the Hellespont, addressed themselves to the different -cities with demand of earth and water, many were disposed to comply. -Neither to Athens, nor to Sparta, were any heralds sent; and these two -cities were thus from the beginning identified in interest and in the necessity -of defence. Both of them sent, in this trying moment, to consult the -Delphian oracle; while both at the same time joined to convene a Panhellenic -congress at the Isthmus of Corinth, for the purpose of organising -resistance against the expected invader.</p> - -<h4>CONGRESS AT CORINTH</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[481 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>We have pointed out the various steps whereby the separate states of Greece -were gradually brought, even against their own natural instincts, into something -approaching more nearly to political union. The present congress, -assembled under the influence of common fear from Persia, has more of -a Panhellenic character than any political event which has yet occurred in -Grecian history. It extends far beyond the range of those Peloponnesian -states which constitute the immediate allies of Sparta: it comprehends Athens, -and is even summoned in part by her strenuous instigation: moreover it seeks -to combine every city of Hellenic race and language, however distant, which -can be induced to take part in it—even the Cretans, Corcyræans, and Sicilians. -It is true that all these states do not actually come, but earnest efforts are -made to induce them to come: the dispersed brethren of the Hellenic family -are entreated to marshal themselves in the same ranks for a joint political -purpose—the defence of the common hearth and metropolis of the race. This -is a new fact in Grecian history, opening scenes and ideas unlike to anything -which has gone before—enlarging prodigiously the functions and duties<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span> -connected with that headship of Greece which had hitherto been in the -hands of Sparta, but which is about to become too comprehensive for her -to manage—and thus introducing increased habits of co-operation among -the subordinate states, as well as rival hopes of aggrandisement among the -leaders. The congress at the Isthmus of Corinth marks such further advance -in the centralising tendencies of Greece, and seems at first to promise -an onward march in the same direction: but the promise will not be found -realised.</p> - -<p>Its first step was indeed one of inestimable value. While most of the -deputies present came prepared, in the name of their respective cities, to swear -reciprocal fidelity and brotherhood, they also addressed all their efforts to -appease the feuds and dissensions which reigned among particular members -of their own meeting. Of these the most prominent, as well as the most -dangerous, was the war still subsisting between Athens and Ægina. The -latter was not exempt, even now, from suspicions of <i>medising</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, embracing -the cause of the Persians), which had been raised by her giving earth and -water ten years before to Darius. But her present conduct afforded no countenance -to such suspicions: she took earnest part in the congress as well as -in the joint measures of defence, and willingly consented to accommodate her -difference with Athens. In this work of reconciling feuds, so essential to the -safety of Greece, the Athenian Themistocles took a prominent part, as well as -Cheileus of Tegea in Arcadia. The congress proceeded to send envoys and -solicit co-operation from such cities as were yet either equivocal or indifferent, -especially Argos, Corcyra, and the Cretan and Sicilian Greeks; and at the -same time to despatch spies across to Sardis, for the purpose of learning the -state and prospects of the assembled army.</p> - -<p>These spies presently returned, having been detected, and condemned to -death by the Persian generals, but released by express order of Xerxes, who -directed that the full strength of his assembled armament should be shown -to them, in order that the terror of the Greeks might be thus magnified. -The step was well calculated for such a purpose: but the discouragement -throughout Greece was already extreme, at this critical period when the -storm was about to burst upon them. Even to intelligent and well-meaning -Greeks, much more to the careless, the timid, or the treacherous—Xerxes -with his countless host appeared irresistible, and indeed something more -than human. Of course such an impression would be encouraged by the -large number of Greeks already his tributaries: and we may even trace the -manifestation of a wish to get rid of the Athenians altogether, as the chief -objects of Persian vengeance and chief hindrance to tranquil submission. -This despair of the very continuance of Hellenic life and autonomy breaks -forth even from the sanctuary of Hellenic religion, the Delphian temple; -when the Athenians, in their distress and uncertainty, sent to consult the -oracle. Hardly had their two envoys performed the customary sacrifices, -and sat down in the inner chamber near the priestess Aristonice, when she -at once exclaimed: “Wretched men, why sit ye there? Quit your land -and city, and flee afar! Head, body, feet, and hands are alike rotten: fire and -sword, in the train of the Syrian chariot, shall overwhelm you: nor only -your city, but other cities also, as well as many even of the temples of the -gods—which are now sweating and trembling with fear, and foreshadow, -by drops of blood on their roofs, the hard calamities impending. Get ye -away from the sanctuary, with your souls steeped in sorrow.”</p> - -<p>So terrific a reply had rarely escaped from the lips of the priestess. The -envoys were struck to the earth by it, and durst not carry it back to Athens.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span> -In their sorrow they were encouraged yet to hope by an influential Delphian -citizen named Timon (we trace here as elsewhere the underhand working of -these leading Delphians on the priestess), who advised them to provide themselves -with the characteristic marks of supplication, and to approach the -oracle a second time in that imploring guise: “O lord, we pray thee (they -said), have compassion on these boughs of supplication, and deliver to us -something more comfortable concerning our country; else we quit not thy -sanctuary, but remain here until death.” Upon which the priestess replied: -“Athene with all her prayers and all her sagacity cannot propitiate Olympian -Zeus. But this assurance I will give you, firm as adamant. When everything -else in the land of Cecrops shall be taken, Zeus grants to Athene that the -wooden wall alone shall remain unconquered, to defend you and your children. -Stand not to await the assailing horse and foot from the continent, -but turn your backs and retire: you shall yet live to fight another day. O -divine Salamis, thou too shalt destroy the children of women, either at the -seed-time or at the harvest.”</p> - -<p>This second answer was a sensible mitigation of the first. It left open -some hope of escape, though faint, dark, and unintelligible: and the envoys -wrote it down to carry back to Athens, not concealing probably the terrific -sentence which had preceded it. When read to the people, the obscurity -of the meaning provoked many different interpretations. What was meant -by “the wooden wall”? Some supposed that the Acropolis itself, which -had originally been surrounded with a wooden palisade, was the refuge -pointed out; but the greater number, and among them most of those who -were by profession expositors of prophecy, maintained that the wooden wall -indicated the fleet. But these professional expositors, while declaring that -the god bade them go on shipboard, deprecated all idea of a naval battle, -and insisted on the necessity of abandoning Attica forever: the last lines -of the oracle, wherein it was said that Salamis would destroy the children -of women, appeared to them to portend nothing but disaster in the event of -a naval combat. Such was the opinion of those who passed for the best -expositors of the divine will. It harmonised completely with the despairing -temper then prevalent, heightened by the terrible sentence pronounced in -the first oracle; and emigration to some foreign land presented itself as the -only hope of safety even for their persons. The fate of Athens—and of -Greece generally, which would have been helpless without Athens—now -hung upon a thread, when Themistocles, the great originator of the fleet, -interposed with equal steadfastness of heart and ingenuity, to insure the -proper use of it. He contended that if the god had intended to designate -Salamis as the scene of a naval disaster to the Greeks, that island would -have been called in the oracle by some such epithet as “wretched Salamis:” -but the fact that it was termed “divine Salamis,” indicated that the parties, -destined to perish there, were the enemies of Greece, not the Greeks themselves. -He encouraged his countrymen therefore to abandon their city and -country, and to trust themselves to the fleet as the wooden wall recommended -by the god, but with full determination to fight and conquer on -board. Great indeed were the consequences which turned upon this bold -stretch of exegetical conjecture. Unless the Athenians had been persuaded, -by some plausible show of interpretation, that the sense of the oracle encouraged -instead of forbidding a naval combat, they would in their existing -depression have abandoned all thought of resistance.</p> - -<p>Even with the help of an encouraging interpretation, however, nothing -less than the most unconquerable resolution and patriotism could have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span> -enabled the Athenians to bear up against such terrific denunciations from -the Delphian god, and persist in resistance in place of seeking safety by -emigration. Herodotus emphatically impresses this truth upon his readers: -nay, he even steps out of his way to do so, proclaiming Athens as the real saviour -of Greece. Writing as he did about the beginning of the Peloponnesian -War—at a time when Athens, having attained the maximum of her empire, -was alike feared, hated, and admired, by most of the Grecian states—he -knows that the opinion which he is giving will be unpopular with his -hearers generally, and he apologises for it as something wrung from him -against his will by the force of the evidence. Nor was it only that the -Athenians dared to stay and fight against immense odds: they, and they -alone, threw into the cause that energy and forwardness whereby it was -enabled to succeed, as will appear further in the sequel.</p> - -<p>But there was also a third way, not less deserving of notice, in which they -contributed to the result. As soon as the congress of deputies met at the -Isthmus of Corinth, it became essential to recognise some one commanding -state: and with regard to the land-force, no one dreamt of contesting the -pre-eminence of Sparta. But in respect to the fleet, her pretensions were more -disputable, since she furnished at most only sixteen ships, and little or no -nautical skill; while Athens brought two-thirds of the entire naval force, -with the best ships and seamen. Upon these grounds the idea was at first -started, that Athens should command at sea and Sparta on land: but the -majority of the allies manifested a decided repugnance, announcing that they -would follow no one but a Spartan. To the honour of the Athenians, they -at once waived their pretensions, as soon as they saw that the unity of the -confederate force at this moment of peril would be compromised. To appreciate -this generous abnegation of a claim in itself so reasonable, we must -recollect that the love of pre-eminence was among the most prominent attributes -of the Hellenic character; a prolific source of their greatness and -excellence, but producing also no small amount both of their follies and -their crimes. To renounce at the call of public obligation a claim to personal -honour and glory, is perhaps the rarest of all virtues in a son of -Hellen.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[481-480 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>We find thus the Athenians nerved up to the pitch of resistance, prepared -to see their country wasted, and to live as well as to fight on shipboard, -when the necessity should arrive; furnishing two-thirds of the whole fleet, -and yet prosecuting the building of fresh ships until the last moment; sending -forth the ablest and most forward leader in the common cause, while -content themselves to serve like other states under the leadership of Sparta. -During the winter preceding the march of Xerxes from Sardis, the congress -at the isthmus was trying, with little success, to bring the Grecian cities -into united action. Among the cities north of Attica and the Peloponnesus, -the greater number were either inclined to submit, like Thebes and the greater -part of Bœotia, or were at least lukewarm in the cause of independence: so rare -at this trying moment (to use the language of the unfortunate Platæans -fifty-three years afterwards) was the exertion of resolute Hellenic patriotism -against the invader. Even in the interior of the Peloponnesus, the powerful -Argos maintained an ambiguous neutrality. It was one of the first steps of -the congress to send special envoys to Argos, setting forth the common danger -and soliciting co-operation. The result is certain, that no co-operation was -obtained—the Argives did nothing throughout the struggle; but as to -their real position, or the grounds of their refusal, contradictory statements -had reached the ears of Herodotus. They themselves affirmed that they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span> -were ready to have joined the Hellenic cause, in spite of dissuasion from the -Delphian oracle—exacting only as conditions that the Spartans should -conclude a truce with them for thirty years, and should equally divide the -honours of headship with Argos.</p> - -<p>Such was the story told by the Argives themselves, but seemingly not -credited either by any other Greeks, or by Herodotus himself. The prevalent -opinion was, that the Argives had a secret understanding with Xerxes, -and some even affirmed that they had been the parties who invited him into -Greece, as a means both of protection and of vengeance to themselves against -Sparta after their defeat by Cleomenes. And Herodotus himself evidently believed -that they <i>medised</i>, though he is half afraid to say so, and disguises his -opinion in a cloud of words which betray the angry polemics going on about -the matter, even fifty years afterwards. It is certain that in act the Argives -were neutral.</p> - -<p>The Cretans declined to take any part, on the ground of prohibitory -injunctions from the oracle; the Corcyræans promised without performing, -and even without any intention to perform. Their neutrality was a serious -loss to the Greeks, since they could fit out a naval force of sixty triremes, -second only to that of Athens. With this important contingent they engaged -to join the Grecian fleet, and actually set sail from Corcyra; but they took -care not to sail round Cape Malea, or to reach the scene of action.</p> - -<p>The envoys who visited Corcyra proceeded onward on their mission to -Gelo the despot of Syracuse. Of that potentate, regarded by Herodotus -as more powerful than any state in Greece, we shall speak more fully in a -subsequent chapter: it is sufficient to mention now, that he rendered no aid -against Xerxes. Nor was it in his power to do so, whatever might have -been his inclinations; for the same year which brought the Persian monarch -against Greece, was also selected by the Carthaginians for a formidable invasion -of Sicily, which kept the Sicilian Greeks to the defence of their own -island. It seems even probable that this simultaneous invasion had been -concerted between the Persians and Carthaginians.</p> - -<p>The endeavours of the deputies of Greeks at the isthmus had thus produced -no other reinforcement to their cause except some fair words from the -Corcyræans. It was about the time when Xerxes was about to pass the Hellespont, -in the beginning of 480 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, that the first actual step for resistance -was taken, at the instigation of the Thessalians. Though the great Thessalian -family of the Aleuadæ were among the companions of Xerxes, and the -most forward in inviting him into Greece, with every promise of ready submission -from their countrymen—yet it seems that these promises were in -reality unwarranted. The Aleuadæ were at the head only of a minority, -and perhaps were even in exile, like the Pisistratidæ: while most of the -Thessalians were disposed to resist Xerxes—for which purpose they now -sent envoys to the isthmus, intimating the necessity of guarding the passes -of Olympus, the northernmost entrance of Greece. They offered their own -cordial aid in this defence, adding that they should be under the necessity of -making their own separate submission, if this demand were not complied with. -Accordingly a body of ten thousand Grecian heavy-armed infantry, under -the command of the Spartan Euænetus and the Athenian Themistocles, -were despatched by sea to Alus in Achaia Phthiotis, where they disembarked -and marched by land across Achaia and Thessaly. Being joined by -the Thessalian horse, they occupied the defile of Tempe, through which the -river Peneus makes its way to the sea, by a cleft between the mountains -Olympus and Ossa.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE VALE OF TEMPE</h4> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;"> -<img src="images/p313.jpg" width="150" height="350" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Standard Bearer</span></p> -</div> - -<p>The long, narrow, and winding defile of Tempe formed then, and -forms still, the single entrance, open throughout winter as well as -summer, from lower or maritime Macedonia into Thessaly. The -lofty mountain precipices approach so closely as to leave -hardly room enough in some places for a road: it is thus -eminently defensible, and a few resolute men would be -sufficient to arrest in it the progress of the most numerous -host. But the Greeks soon discovered that the -position was such as they could not hold—first, because -the powerful fleet of Xerxes would be able to -land troops in their rear; secondly, because -there was also a second entrance passable in -summer, from upper Macedonia into Thessaly, -by the mountain passes over the range of Olympus. -It was in fact by this second pass, evading -the insurmountable difficulties of Tempe, -that the advancing march of the Persians was -destined to be made, under the auspices of Alexander, -king of Macedon, tributary to them and -active in their service. That prince sent a communication -of the fact to the Greeks at Tempe, -admonishing them that they would be trodden -under foot by the countless host approaching, -and urging them to renounce their hopeless -position. He passed for a friend, and probably -believed himself to be acting as such, in dissuading -the Greeks from unavailing resistance -to Persia: but he was in reality a very dangerous -mediator; and as such the Spartans had -good reason to dread him, in a second intervention -of which we shall hear more hereafter. -On the present occasion, the Grecian commanders -were quite ignorant of the existence -of any other entrance into Thessaly, besides Tempe, until their arrival in -that region. Perhaps it might have been possible to defend both entrances -at once, and considering the immense importance of arresting the march of -the Persians at the frontiers of Hellas, the attempt would have been worth -some risk. So great was the alarm, however, produced by the unexpected -discovery, justifying or seeming to justify the friendly advice of Alexander, -that they remained only a few days at Tempe, then at once retired back to -their ships, and returned by sea to the Isthmus of Corinth—about the time -when Xerxes was crossing the Hellespont.</p> - -<p>This precipitate retreat produced consequences highly disastrous and -discouraging. It appeared to leave all Hellas north of Mount Cithæron -and of the Megarid territory without defence, and it served either as reason -or pretext for the majority of the Grecian states, north of that boundary, -to make their submission to Xerxes, which some of them had already begun -to do before. When Xerxes in the course of his march reached the -Thermaic Gulf, within sight of Olympus and Ossa, the heralds whom he -had sent from Sardis brought him tokens of submission from a third portion -of the Hellenic name—the Thessalians, Dolopes, Ænianes, Perrhæbians,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span> -Magnetes, Locrians, Dorians, Melians, Phthiotic Achæans, and Bœotians. -Among the latter is included Thebes, but not Thespiæ or Platæa. The -Thessalians, especially, not only submitted, but manifested active zeal and -rendered much service in the cause of Xerxes, under the stimulus of the -Aleuadæ, whose party now became predominant: they were probably indignant -at the hasty retreat of those who had come to defend them.</p> - -<p>Had the Greeks been able to maintain the passes of Olympus and Ossa, -all this northern fraction might probably have been induced to partake in -the resistance instead of becoming auxiliaries to the invader. During the -six weeks or two months which elapsed between the retreat of the Greeks -from Tempe and the arrival of Xerxes at Therma, no new plan of defence -was yet thoroughly organised; for it was not until that arrival became -known at the isthmus, that the Greek army and fleet made its forward -movement to occupy Thermopylæ and Artemisium.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_18b" id="enanchor_18b"></a><a href="#endnote_18b">b</a></span></p> - -<h4>XERXES REVIEWS HIS HOST</h4> - -<p>Xerxes having ranged and numbered his armament, was desirous to -take a survey of them all. Mounted in his car, he examined each nation in -its turn. To all of them he proposed certain questions, the replies to which -were noted down by his secretaries. In this manner he proceeded from first -to last through all the ranks, both of horse and foot. When this was done, -the fleet also was pushed off from land, whilst the monarch, exchanging his -chariot for a Sidonian vessel, on the deck of which he sat beneath a golden -canopy, passed slowly the heads of the ships, proposing in like manner -questions to each, and noting down the answers. The commanders had -severally moored their vessels at about four plethra from shore, in one -uniform line, with their sterns out to sea, and their crews under arms, as -if prepared for battle. Xerxes viewed them, passing betwixt their prows -and the shore.</p> - -<p>When he had finished his survey, he went on shore; and sending for -Demaratus, the son of Ariston, who accompanied him in this expedition -against Greece, he thus addressed him: “From you, Demaratus, who are -a Greek, and, as I understand from yourself and others, of no mean or -contemptible city, I am desirous of obtaining information: do you think -that the Greeks will presume to make any resistance against me? For -my own part, not to mention their want of unanimity, I cannot think that -all the Greeks, joined to all the inhabitants of the west, would be able to -withstand my power: what is your opinion on this subject?” “Sir,” said -Demaratus, in reply, “shall I say what is true, or only what is agreeable?” -Xerxes commanded him to speak the truth.</p> - -<p>“Since,” answered Demaratus, “you command me to speak the truth, -it shall be my care to deliver myself in such a manner that no one hereafter, -speaking as I do, shall be convicted of falsehood. Greece has ever been the -child of poverty; for its virtue it is indebted to the severe wisdom and discipline, -by which it has tempered its poverty, and repelled its oppressors. -To this praise all the Dorian Greeks are entitled; but I shall now speak of -the Lacedæmonians only. You may depend upon it that your propositions, -which threaten Greece with servitude, will be rejected; and if all the other -Greeks side with you against them, the Lacedæmonians will engage you in -battle. Make no inquiries as to their number, for if they shall have but a -thousand men, or even fewer, they will fight you.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span></p> - -<p>“What, Demaratus,” answered Xerxes, smiling, “think you that a thousand -men will engage so vast a host? Tell me, you who, as you say, have -been their prince, would you now willingly engage with ten opponents? If -your countrymen be what you describe them, according to your own principles -you, who are their prince, should be equal to two of them. If, therefore, -one of them be able to contend with ten of my soldiers, you may be -reasonably expected to contend with twenty: such ought to be the test of -your assertions. But if your countrymen really resemble in form and size -you, and such other Greeks as appear in my presence, it should seem that -what you say is dictated by pride and insolence; for how can it be shown that -a thousand, or ten thousand, or even fifty thousand men, all equally free, -and not subject to the will of an individual, could oppose so great an army? -Granting them to have five thousand men, we have still a majority of a -thousand to one; they who like us are under the command of one person, -from the fear of their leader, and under the immediate impression of the lash, -are animated with a spirit contrary to their nature, and are made to attack -a number greater than their own; but they who are urged by no constraint -will not do this. If these Greeks were even equal to us in number, I cannot -think they would dare to encounter Persians. The virtue to which you -allude, is to be found among ourselves, though the examples are certainly -not numerous; there are of my Persian guards men who will singly contend -with three Greeks. The preposterous language which you use can only, -therefore, proceed from your ignorance.”</p> - -<p>“I knew, my lord, from the first,” returned Demaratus, “that by speaking -truth I should offend you. I was induced to give you this representation -of the Spartans, from your urging me to speak without reserve. You -may judge, sir, what my attachment must be to those who, not content with -depriving me of my paternal dignities, drove me ignominiously into exile. -Your father received, protected, and supported me: no prudent man will -treat with ingratitude the kindness of his benefactor. I will never presume -to engage in fight with ten men, nor even with two, nor indeed willingly with -one; but if necessity demanded, or danger provoked me, I would not hesitate -to fight with any one of those, who is said to be a match for three Greeks. -The Lacedæmonians, when they engage in single combat, are certainly not -inferior to other men, but in a body they are not to be equalled. Although -free, they are not so without some reserve; the law is their superior, of which -they stand in greater awe than your subjects do of you: they are obedient -to what it commands, and it commands them always not to fly from the -field of battle, whatever may be the number of their adversaries. It is -their duty to preserve their ranks, to conquer or to die. If what I say -seem to you absurd, I am willing in future to be silent. I have spoken -what I think, because the king commanded me, to whom may all he desires -be accomplished.”</p> - -<p>Xerxes smiled at these words of Demaratus, whom he dismissed without -anger, civilly from his presence. After the above conference, he removed -from Doriscus the governor who had been placed there by Darius, and promoted -in his room Mascames, son of Megadostes. He then passed through -Thrace with his army, towards Greece.</p> - -<p>To this Mascames, as to the bravest of all the governors appointed either by -himself or by Darius, Xerxes sent presents every year, and Artaxerxes, son -of Xerxes continued to do the same to his descendants. Before this expedition -against Greece, there had constantly been governors both in Thrace and -the Hellespont, all of whom, except Mascames, the Greeks afterwards expelled:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span> -he alone retained Doriscus in his subjection, in defiance of the many and -repeated exertions made to remove him. It was in remembrance of these -services, that he and all his descendants received presents from the kings of -Persia.</p> - -<p>The only one of all those expelled by the Greeks, who enjoyed the good -opinion of Xerxes, was Boges, the governor of Eion; he always mentioned -this man in terms of esteem, and all his descendants were honourably regarded -in Persia. Boges was not undeserving his great reputation: when he was -besieged by the Athenians, under the conduct of Cimon, son of Miltiades, -he might, if he had thought proper, have retired into Asia; this he refused, -and defended himself to the last extremity, from apprehensions that the king -might ascribe his conduct to fear. When no provisions were left, he caused -a large pile to be raised; he then slew his children, his wife, his concubines, -and all his family and threw them into the fire; he next cast all the gold -and silver of the place from the walls into the Strymon; lastly, he leaped -himself into the flames. This man is, therefore, very deservedly extolled by -the Persians.</p> - -<p>Xerxes, in his progress from Doriscus to Greece, compelled all the people -among whom he came to join his army. All this tract of country, as far as -Thessaly, as we have before remarked, had been made tributary to the king, -first by Megabazus, and finally by Mardonius.</p> - -<p>Xerxes having passed the exhausted bed of the Lissus, continued his -march beyond the Grecian cities of Maronea, Dicæa, and Abdera. He proceeded -onward through the more midland cities, in one of which is a lake -almost of thirty stadia in circumference, full of fish, but remarkably salt: -the waters of this proved only sufficient for the beasts of burden. The name -of the city is Pistyrus. These Grecian and maritime cities were to the left -of Xerxes as he passed them.</p> - -<p>The nations of Thrace, through which he marched are these: the Pæti, -Cicones, Bistones, Sapæi, Dersæi, Edoni, and the Satræ. The inhabitants -of the maritime towns followed by sea; those inland were, except the Satræ, -compelled to accompany the army by land. The Satræ, as far as we know, -never were subdued.</p> - -<p>Xerxes continued to advance, and passed by two Pierian cities, one called -Phagra, the other Pergamus; to his right he left the mountain Pangæus, -keeping a westward direction, till he came to the river Strymon. To this -river the magi offered a sacrifice of white horses. After performing these -and many other religious rites to the Strymon, they proceeded through the -Edonian district of the Nine Ways, to where they found bridges thrown over -the Strymon: when they heard that this place was named the Nine Ways, they -buried there alive nine youths and as many virgins, natives of the country. -This custom of burying alive was common in Persia; and Amestris, the wife -of Xerxes, when she was of an advanced age, commanded fourteen Persian -children of illustrious birth to be interred alive in honour of that deity, who, -as they suppose, exists under the earth.</p> - -<p>On his arrival at Acanthus, the Persian monarch interchanged the rites -of hospitality with the people, and presented each with a Median vest: he -was prompted to this conduct by the particular zeal which they discovered -towards the war, and from their having completed the work of the canal.</p> - -<p>As soon as the royal will was made known by the heralds, the inhabitants of -the several cities divided the corn which they possessed, and employed many -months in reducing it to meal and flour. Some there were, who purchased -at a great price the finest cattle they could procure, for the purpose of fattening<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span> -them: others, with the same view of entertaining the army, provided -birds both of the land and the water, which they preserved in cages and in -ponds. Many employed themselves in making cups and goblets of gold and -silver, with other utensils of the table: these last-mentioned articles were -intended only for the king himself, and his more immediate attendants; -with respect to the army in general, it was thought sufficient to furnish them -with provision. On the approach of the main body, a pavilion was erected, -and properly prepared for the residence of the monarch, the rest of the -troops remained in the open air. From the commencement of the feast to -its conclusion, the fatigue of those who provided it is hardly to be expressed. -The guests, after satisfying their appetite, passed the night on the place; -the next morning, after tearing up the pavilion, and plundering its contents, -they departed, without leaving anything behind them.</p> - -<p>Upon this occasion the witty remark of Megacreon of Abdera, has been -handed down to posterity. If the Abderites, he observed, had been required -to furnish a dinner as well as a supper, they must either have prevented the -visit of the king by flight, or have been the most miserable of human beings.</p> - -<p>These people, severe as was the burden, fulfilled what had been enjoined -them. From Acanthus, Xerxes dismissed the commanders of his fleet, requiring -them to wait his orders at Therma. Therma is situated near the -Thermæan Gulf, to which it gives its name. He had been taught to suppose -this the most convenient road; by the command of Xerxes, the army -had marched from Doriscus to Acanthus, in three separate bodies: one went -by the seacoast, moving with the fleet, and was commanded by Mardonius -and Masistes; a second proceeded through the midst of the continent, under -the conduct of Tritantæchmes and Gergis; betwixt these went the third detachment, -with whom was Xerxes himself, and who were led by Smerdomenes -and Megabyzus.</p> - -<p>As soon as the royal mandate was issued, the navy entered the canal -which had been cut at Mount Athos, and which was continued to the gulf. -Taking on board a supply of troops from these places, the fleet advanced towards -the Thermæan Gulf, and doubling the Toronean promontory of -Ampelos, they proceeded by a short cut to the Canastrean cape, the point, -which of all the districts of Pallene, projects farthest into the sea. Coasting -onward to the station appointed, they supplied themselves with troops -from the cities in the vicinity of Pallene, and the Thermæan Gulf. From -Ænea the fleet went in a straight direction to the Thermæan Gulf, and the -coast of Mygdonia; it ultimately arrived at Therma, where they waited for -the king. Directing his march this way, Xerxes, with all his forces, left -Acanthus, and proceeded over the continent through Pæonia and Crestonia. -In the course of this march, the camels, which carried the provisions, were -attacked by lions: in the darkness of the night they left their accustomed -abode, and without molesting man or beast, fell upon the camels only. That -the lions should attack the camels alone, animals they had never been known -before to devour, or even by mistake to have seen, is a fact which we are -totally unable to explain.</p> - -<p>On his arrival at Therma, Xerxes halted with his army, which occupied -the whole of the coast from Therma and Mygdonia, as far as the rivers -Lydias and Haliacmon, which forming the limits of Bottiæis and Macedonia, -meet at last in the same channel. Here the barbarians encamped. -Xerxes, viewing from Therma, Olympus and Ossa, Thessalian mountains -of an extraordinary height, betwixt which was a narrow passage where the -Peneus poured its stream, and where was an entrance to Thessaly, he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span> -desirous of sailing to the mouth of this river. For the way he had determined -to march as the safest was through the high country of Macedonia, by -the Perrhæbi, and the town of Gonnus. He instantly however set about the -accomplishment of his wish. He accordingly went on board a Sidonian vessel, -for on such occasions he always preferred the ships of that country; leaving -here his land forces, he gave the signal for all the fleet to prepare to set sail. -Arriving at the mouth of the Peneus, he observed it with particular admiration, -and desired to know of his guides if it would not be possible to turn -the stream, and make it empty itself into the sea in some other place.</p> - -<p>Thessaly is said to have been formerly a marsh, on all sides surrounded -by lofty mountains<a name="FNanchor_25" id="FNanchor_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a>; to the east by Pelion and Ossa, whose bases meet each -other; to the north by Olympus, to the west by Pindus; to the south by -Othrys. The space betwixt these is Thessaly, into which depressed region -many rivers pour their waters.</p> - -<p>Xerxes inquiring of his guides whether the Peneus might be conducted -to the sea by any other channel, received from them, who were well acquainted -with the situation of the country, this reply: “As Thessaly, O King, is on -every side encircled by mountains, the Peneus can have no other communication -with the sea.” “The Thessalians,” Xerxes is said to have answered, -“are a sagacious people. They have been careful to decline a contest for -many reasons, and particularly as they must have discerned that their country -would afford an easy conquest to an invader. All that would be necessary -to deluge the whole of Thessaly, except the mountainous parts, would -be to stop up the mouth of the river, and thus throw back its waters upon -the country.” This observation referred to the sons of Aleuas, who were -Thessalians, and the first Greeks who submitted to the king. He presumed -that their conduct declared the general sentiments of the nation in his -favour. After surveying the place he returned to Therma.</p> - -<p>He remained a few days in the neighbourhood of Pieria, during which -interval a detachment of the third of his army was employed in clearing the -Macedonian mountain, to facilitate the passage of the troops into the country -of the Perrhæbi. The messengers who had been sent to require earth and -water of the Greeks returned, some with and some without it. Xerxes sent -no messengers either to Athens or to Sparta, for when Darius had before sent -to these places, the Athenians threw his people into their pit of punishment, -the Lacedæmonians into wells, telling them to get the earth and water -thence, and carry it to their king. A long time after the incident we have -related, the entrails of the victims continued at Sparta to bear an unfavourable -appearance, till the people, reduced to despondency, called a general -assembly, in which they inquired by their heralds, if any Lacedæmonian -would die for his country. Upon this Sperthies, son of Aneristus, and Bulis, -son of Nicolaus, Spartans of great accomplishments and distinction, offered -themselves to undergo whatever punishment Xerxes the son of Darius should -think proper to inflict on account of the murder of his ambassadors. These -men therefore the Spartans sent to the Medes, as to certain death.</p> - -<p>The magnanimity of these two men, as well as the words which they -used, deserve admiration. On their way to Susa they came to Hydarnes, a -native of Persia, and governor of the vanquished places in Asia near the -sea: he entertained them with much liberality and kindness, and addressed -them as follows: “Why, O Lacedæmonians, will you reject the friendship of -the king? From me, and from my condition, you may learn how well he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span> -knows to reward merit. He already thinks highly of your virtue, and if you -will but enter into his service, he will doubtless assign to each of you some -government in Greece.” “Hydarnes,” they replied, “your advice with respect -to us is inconsistent: you speak from the experience of your own but -with an entire ignorance of our situation. To you servitude is familiar; but -how sweet a thing liberty is, you have never known, if you had, you yourself -would have advised us to make all possible exertions to preserve it.”</p> - -<p>When introduced, on their arrival at Susa, to the royal presence, they -were first ordered by the guards to fall prostrate, and adore the king, and -some force was used to compel them. But this they refused to do, even if -they should dash their heads against the ground. They were not, they said, -accustomed to adore a man, nor was it for this purpose that they came. -After persevering in such conduct, they addressed Xerxes himself in these -and similar expressions: “King of the Medes, we are sent by our countrymen -to make atonement for those ambassadors who perished at Sparta.” -Xerxes with great magnanimity said he would not imitate the example of -the Lacedæmonians. They in killing his ambassadors had violated the laws -of nations; he would not be guilty of that with which he reproached them, -nor, by destroying their messengers, indirectly justify their crime.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_18c" id="enanchor_18c"></a><a href="#endnote_18c">c</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_25" id="Footnote_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> [Rennell<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_18d" id="enanchor_18d"></a><a href="#endnote_18d">d</a></span> remarks that this description of Thessaly and that of the Straits of Thermopylæ -prove how well Herodotus had considered the scenes of particular actions.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_18f" id="enanchor_18f"></a><!-- letter not in references list for this chapter -->f</span>]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-18.jpg" width="500" height="217" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-19.jpg" width="500" height="224" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XIX_THERMOPYLAE">CHAPTER XIX. THERMOPYLÆ</h3> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>Everything among the Spartans conduced to plant in their hearts -the most heroic courage, by the remembrance of their ancestors, whose -principles and sentiments were the spur to the noblest actions. The -lowest Spartans were exalted to a level with their greatest chiefs by a -glorious death; their memory was renewed by the most solemn offering -to the latest posterity, and their images were placed next to those of -the gods.—<i>Adapted from</i> <span class="smcap">Bonny</span>.</p> - -</div> - -<h4>THE FAMOUS STORY AS TOLD BY HERODOTUS</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[480 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Xerxes encamped in Trachinia at Melis; the Greeks, in the straits. -These straits the Greeks in general call Thermopylæ; the people of the -country Pylæ only. Here then were the two armies stationed, Xerxes occupying -all the northern region as far as Trachinia, the Greeks that of the -south. The Grecian army, which here waited the approach of the Persian, -was composed of three hundred Spartans in complete armour; five hundred -Tegeatæ, and as many Mantineans; one hundred and twenty men from -Orchomenos of Arcadia, a thousand men from the rest of Arcadia, four hundred -Corinthians, two hundred from Phlius, and eighty from Mycenæ. -The above came from the Peloponnesus: from Bœotia there were seven hundred -Thespians and four hundred Thebans.</p> - -<p>In addition to the above, the aid of all the Opuntian Locrians had been -solicited, together with a thousand Phocians. To obtain the assistance of -these the Greeks had previously sent emissaries among them, saying, that -they were the forerunners only of another and more numerous body, whose -arrival was every day expected. They added, that the defence of the sea -was confided to the people of Athens and Ægina, in conjunction with the -rest of the fleet; that there was no occasion for alarm, as the invader of -Greece was not a god, but a mere human being; that there never was nor -could be any mortal superior to the vicissitudes of fortune; that the most -exalted characters were exposed to the greatest evils; he therefore, a mortal, -now advancing to attack them, would suffer for his temerity. These arguments -proved effectual, and they accordingly marched to Trachis to join -their allies.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span></p> - -<h5><i>Leonidas and His Allies</i></h5> - -<p>These troops were commanded by different officers of their respective -countries: but the man most regarded, and entrusted with the chief command, -was Leonidas of Sparta. His ancestors were traced back to Hercules. -An accident had placed him on the throne of Sparta; for, as he had two -brothers older than himself, Cleomenes and Dorieus, he had entertained no -thoughts of the government; but Cleomenes dying without male issue, and -Dorieus not surviving (for he ended his days in Sicily) the crown came to -Leonidas, who was older than Cleombrotus, the youngest of the sons of -Anaxandrides, and who had married the daughter of Cleomenes. On the -present occasion he took with him to Thermopylæ a body of three hundred -chosen men, all of whom had children. To these he added the Theban -troops who were conducted by Leontiades, son of Eurymachus.<a name="FNanchor_26" id="FNanchor_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> Leonidas -had selected the Thebans to accompany him, because a suspicion generally -prevailed that they were secretly attached to the Medes. These therefore -he summoned to attend him, to ascertain whether they would actually contribute -their aid, or openly withdraw themselves from the Grecian league. -With hostile sentiments they nevertheless sent the assistance required.<a name="FNanchor_27" id="FNanchor_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> - -<p>The march of this body under Leonidas was accelerated by the Spartans, -that their example might stimulate their allies to action, and that they might -not make their delay a pretence for going over to the Medes. The celebration -of the Carnean festival<a name="FNanchor_28" id="FNanchor_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> protracted the march of their main body; but -it was their intention to follow with all imaginable expedition, leaving only -a small detachment for the defence of Sparta. The rest of the allies were -actuated by similar motives, for the Olympic games happened to recur at -this period; and as they did not expect an engagement would immediately -take place at Thermopylæ, they sent only a detachment before them.</p> - -<p>Such were the motives of the confederate body. The Greeks who were -already assembled at Thermopylæ were seized with so much terror on the -approach of the Persians that they consulted about a retreat. Those of the -Peloponnesus were in general of opinion that they should return and guard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span> -the isthmus; but as the Phocians and Locrians were exceedingly averse to -this measure, Leonidas prevailed on them to continue on their post. He -resolved however to send messengers round to all the states, requiring supplies, -stating that their number was much too small to oppose the Medes -with any effect.</p> - -<p>Whilst they thus deliberated, Xerxes sent a horseman to examine their -number and their motions. He had before heard, in Thessaly, that a small -band was collected at this passage, that they were led by Lacedæmonians, -and by Leonidas of the race of Hercules. The person employed performed -his duty: all those who were without the entrenchment he was able to -reconnoitre; those who were within for the purpose of defending it, eluded -his observation. The Lacedæmonians were at that period stationed without; -of these some were performing gymnastic exercises, whilst others were employed -in combing their hair. He was greatly astonished, but he leisurely -surveyed their number and employments, and returned without molestation, -for they despised him too much to pursue him. He related to Xerxes all -that he had seen.</p> - -<p>Xerxes, on hearing the above, was little aware of what was really the -case, that this people were preparing themselves either to conquer or to -die. The thing appeared to him so ridiculous, that he sent for Demaratus -the son of Ariston, who was then with the army. On his appearing, the -king questioned him on this behaviour of the Spartans, expressing his desire -to know what it might intimate. “I have before, Sir,” said Demaratus, -“spoken to you of this people, at the commencement of this expedition; -and as I remember, when I related to you what I knew you would have occasion -to observe, you treated me with contempt. I am conscious of the danger of -declaring the truth, in opposition to your prejudices; but I will nevertheless -do so. It is the determination of these men to dispute this pass with us, and -they are preparing themselves accordingly. It is their custom before any -enterprise of danger to adorn their hair. Of this you may be assured, that -if you vanquish these, and their countrymen in Sparta, no other nation will -presume to take up arms against you: you are now advancing to attack a -people whose realms and city are the fairest, and whose troops are the bravest -of Greece.” These words seemed to Xerxes preposterous enough; but he demanded -a second time, how so small a number could contend with his army. -“Sir,” said Demaratus, “I will submit to suffer the punishment of falsehood, -if what I say does not happen.”</p> - -<h5><i>Xerxes Assails the Pass</i></h5> - -<p>Xerxes was still incredulous; he accordingly kept his position without -any movement for four days, in expectation of seeing them retreat. On the -fifth day, observing that they continued on their post, merely as he supposed -from the most impudent rashness, he became much exasperated, and sent -against them a detachment of Medes and Cissians, with a command to bring -them alive to his presence. The Medes in consequence attacked them, and -lost a considerable number. A reinforcement arrived; but though the onset -was severe, no impression was made. It now became universally conspicuous, -and no less so to the king himself, that he had many troops, but few -men.<a name="FNanchor_29" id="FNanchor_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> The above engagement continued all day.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span></p> - -<p>The Medes, after being very roughly treated, retired, and were succeeded -by the band of Persians called by the king “the Immortal,” and commanded -by Hydarnes. These it was supposed would succeed without the smallest -difficulty. They commenced the attack, but made no greater impression -than the Medes: their superior numbers were of no advantage, on account -of the narrowness of the place; and their spears also were shorter than -those of the Greeks. The Lacedæmonians fought in a manner which deserves -to be recorded; their own excellent discipline, and the unskilfulness of their -adversaries, were in many instances remarkable, and not the least so when -in close ranks they affected to retreat. The barbarians seeing them retire, -pursued them with a great and clamorous shout; but on their near approach -the Greeks faced about to receive them. The loss of the Persians was prodigious, -and a few also of the Spartans fell. The Persians, after successive -efforts made with great bodies of their troops to gain the pass, were unable -to accomplish it and obliged to retire.</p> - -<p>It is said of Xerxes himself that, being a spectator of the contest, he was -so greatly alarmed for the safety of his men, that he leaped thrice from his -throne. On the following day, the barbarians succeeded no better than before. -They went to the onset as against a contemptible number, whose -wounds they supposed would hardly permit them to renew the combat: but -the Greeks, drawn up in regular divisions, fought each nation on its respective -post, except the Phocians, who were stationed on the summit of the -mountain to defend the pass. The Persians, experiencing a repetition of the -same treatment, a second time retired.</p> - -<h5><i>The Treachery of Ephialtes</i></h5> - -<p>Whilst the king was exceedingly perplexed what conduct to pursue in the -present emergence, Ephialtes, the son of Eurydemus, a Malian, demanded -an audience: he expected to receive some great recompense for showing him -the path which led over the mountain to Thermopylæ: and he indeed it -was who thus rendered ineffectual the valour of those Greeks who perished -on this station. This man, through fear of the Lacedæmonians, fled afterwards -into Thessaly; but the Pylagoræ, calling a council of the Amphictyons -at Pylæ for this express purpose, set a price upon his head, and he was -afterwards slain by Athenades, a Trachinian, at Anticyra, to which place he -had returned.</p> - -<p>The intelligence of Ephialtes gave the king infinite satisfaction, and he -instantly detached Hydarnes, with the forces under his command, to avail -himself of it. They left the camp at the first approach of evening; the -Malians, the natives of the country, discovered this path, and by it conducted -the Thessalians against the Phocians, who had defended it by an entrenchment, -and deemed themselves secure. It had never, however, proved of any -advantage to the Malians.</p> - -<p>The path of which we are speaking commences at the river Asopus. -This stream flows through an aperture of the mountain called Anopæa, -which is also the name of the path. This is continued through the whole -length of the mountain, and terminates near the town of Alpenus. Following -the track which has been described, the Persians passed the Asopus, and -marched all night, keeping the Œtean Mountains on the right, and the Trachinian -on the left. At the dawn of morning they found themselves at the -summit, where a band of a thousand Phocians in arms was stationed, both to -defend their own country and this pass.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> -<img src="images/p324.jpg" width="450" height="450" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">The Pass of Thermopylæ</span></p> -</div> - -<p>The approach of the Persians was discovered to the Phocians in this -manner: whilst they were ascending the mountain they were totally concealed -by the thick groves of oak; but from the stillness of the air they were -discovered by the noise they made by trampling on the leaves, a thing which -might naturally happen. The Phocians ran to arms, and in a moment the -barbarians appeared, who, seeing a number of men precipitately arming -themselves, were at first struck with astonishment. They did not expect an -adversary; and they had fallen in among armed troops. Hydarnes, apprehending -that the Phocians might prove to be Lacedæmonians, inquired of -Ephialtes who they were. When he was informed, he drew up the Persians -in order of battle. The Phocians, not able to sustain the heavy flight of -arrows, retreated up the mountain, imagining themselves the objects of this -attack, and expecting certain destruction: but the troops with Hydarnes -and Ephialtes did not think it worth their while to pursue them, and -descended rapidly down the opposite side of the mountain.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;"> -<img src="images/fp4.jpg" width="650" height="443" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">LEONIDAS (BY DAVID)</p> -</div> - -<p>To those Greeks stationed in the straits of Thermopylæ, Megistias the -soothsayer had previously, from inspection of the entrails, predicted that -death awaited them in the morning. Some deserters had also informed -them of the circuit the Persians had taken; and this intelligence was in the -course of the night circulated through the camp. All this was confirmed by -their sentinels, who early in the morning fled down the sides of the mountain. -In this predicament, the Greeks called a council, who were greatly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span> -divided in their opinions: some were for remaining on their station, others -advised a retreat. In consequence of their not agreeing, many of them dispersed -to their respective cities; a part resolved to continue with Leonidas.</p> - -<p>It is said, that those who retired only did so in compliance with the -wishes of Leonidas, who was desirous to preserve them: but he thought -that he himself, with his Spartans, could not without the greatest ignominy -forsake the post they had come to defend. Obedient to the direction of their -leader, the confederates retired. The Thespians and Thebans<a name="FNanchor_30" id="FNanchor_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> alone remained -with the Spartans, the Thebans indeed very reluctantly, but they were detained -by Leonidas as hostages. The Thespians were very zealous in the -cause, and refusing to abandon their friends, perished with them. The -leader of the Thespians was Demophilus, son of Diadromas.</p> - -<h5><i>The Final Assault</i></h5> - -<p>Xerxes early in the morning offered a solemn libation, then waiting till -the hour of full forum, he advanced from his camp: to the above measure -he had been advised by Ephialtes. The descent from the mountain is much -shorter than the circuitous ascent. The barbarians with Xerxes approached; -Leonidas and his Greeks proceeded, as to inevitable death, a much greater -space from the defile than they had yet done. Till now they had defended -themselves behind their entrenchment, fighting in the most contracted part -of the passage; but on this day they engaged on a wider space, and a multitude -of their opponents fell. Behind each troop of Persians, officers were -stationed with whips in their hands, compelling with blows their men to -advance. Many of them fell into the sea, where they perished; many were -trodden under foot by their own troops, without exciting the smallest pity -or regard. The Greeks, conscious that their destruction was at hand from -those who had taken the circuit of the mountain, exerted themselves with -the most desperate valour against their barbarian assailants.</p> - -<p>Their spears being broken in pieces, they had recourse to their swords. -Leonidas fell in the engagement, having greatly signalised himself; and -with him, many Spartans of distinction, as well as others of inferior note. -Many illustrious Persians also were slain, among whom were Abrocomes -and Hyperanthes, sons of Darius.</p> - -<p>These two brothers of Xerxes fell as they were contending for the body -of Leonidas: here the conflict was the most severe, till at length the Greeks -by their superior valour four times repelled the Persians, and drew aside -the body of their prince. In this situation they continued till Ephialtes -and his party approached. As soon as the Greeks perceived them at hand, -the scene was changed, and they retreated to the narrowest part of the pass. -Having repassed their entrenchment, they posted themselves, all except the -Thebans, in a compact body, upon a hill, which is at the entrance of the -straits, and where a lion of stone has been erected in honour of Leonidas. -In this situation, they who had swords left, used them against the enemy, the -rest exerted themselves with their hands and their teeth. The barbarians -rushing upon them, some in front, after overturning their wall, others -surrounding and pressing them in all directions, finally overpowered them.</p> - -<p>Such was the conduct of the Lacedæmonians and Thespians; but none<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span> -of them distinguished themselves so much as Dieneces the Spartan. A -speech of his is recorded, which he made before they came to any engagement. -A certain Trachinian having observed that the barbarians would -send forth such a shower of arrows that their multitude would obscure the -sun; he replied, like a man ignorant of fear, and despising the numbers -of the Medes, “our Trachinian friend promises us great advantages; if the -Medes obscure the sun’s light, we shall fight them in the shade, and be protected -from the heat.” Many other sayings have been handed down as -monuments of this man’s fame. Next to him, the most distinguished of the -Spartans were, Alpheus and Maron, two brothers, the sons of Orisiphantus; -of the Thespians, the most conspicuous was Dithyrambus, son of Harmatidas. -All these were interred in the place where they fell, together with such of -the confederates as were slain before the separation of the forces by Leonidas. -Upon their tomb was this inscription:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Here once, from Pelops’ seagirt region brought,</div> -<div class="verse">Four thousand men three hostile millions fought.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">This was applied to them all collectively. The Spartans were thus distinguished:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Go, stranger, and to list’ning Spartans tell,</div> -<div class="verse">That here, obedient to their laws, we fell.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">There was one also appropriated to the prophet Megistias:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“By Medes cut off beside Sperchius’ wave,</div> -<div class="verse">The seer Megistias fills this glorious grave:</div> -<div class="verse">Who stood the fate he well foresaw to meet,</div> -<div class="verse">And, link’d with Sparta’s leaders, scorn’d retreat.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">All these ornaments and inscriptions, that of Megistias alone excepted, -were here placed by the Amphictyons.</p> - -<p>Of these three hundred, there were two named Eurytus and Aristodemus; -both of them, consistently with the discipline of their country, might -have secured themselves by retiring to Sparta, for Leonidas had permitted -them to leave the camp; but they continued at Alpenus, being both afflicted -by a violent disorder of the eyes: or, if they had not thought proper to -return home, they had the alternative of meeting death in the field with their -fellow-soldiers. In this situation, they differed in opinion what conduct to -pursue. Eurytus having heard of the circuit made by the Persians, called -for his arms, and putting them on, commanded his helot to conduct him to -the battle. The slave did so, and immediately fled, whilst his master died -fighting valiantly. Aristodemus pusillanimously stayed where he was. If -either Aristodemus, being individually diseased, had retired home, or if they -had returned together, we cannot think that the Spartans could have shown -any resentment against them; but as one of them died in the field, which -the other, who was precisely in the same circumstances, refused to do, it was -impossible not to be greatly incensed against Aristodemus.</p> - -<p>Aristodemus, on his return, was branded with disgrace and infamy; no -one would speak with him; no one would supply him with fire; and the -opprobrious term of trembler was annexed to his name; but he afterwards, -at the battle of Platæa, effectually atoned for his former conduct. It is also -said that another of the three hundred survived; his name was Pantites, and -he had been sent on some business to Thessaly. Returning to Sparta, he felt -himself in disgrace, and put an end to his life.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span></p> - -<p>The Thebans, under the command of Leontiades, hitherto constrained by -force, had fought with the Greeks against the Persians; but as soon as they -saw that the Persians were victorious, when Leonidas and his party retired -to the hill, they separated themselves from the Greeks. In the attitude of -suppliants they approached the barbarians, assuring them, what was really -the truth, that they were attached to the Medes; that they had been among -the first to render earth and water; that they had only come to Thermopylæ -on compulsion, and could not be considered as accessory to the -slaughter of the king’s troops. The Thessalians confirming the truth of -what they had asserted, their lives were preserved. Some of them however -were slain; for as they approached, the barbarians put several to the sword; -but the greater part, by the order of Xerxes, had the royal marks impressed -upon them, beginning with Leontiades himself. Eurymachus his son was -afterwards slain at the head of four hundred Thebans, by the people of -Platæa, whilst he was making an attempt upon their city. In this manner -the Greeks fought at Thermopylæ.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_19b" id="enanchor_19b"></a><a href="#endnote_19b">b</a></span></p> - -<h4>DISCREPANT ACCOUNTS OF THE DEATH OF LEONIDAS</h4> - -<p>Such is the story of this memorable contest as Herodotus tells it. He is -our most important source by far, and his simple words give a more realistic -picture than is conveyed by any modern paraphrase. It is well to recall, however, -that there are discrepant accounts of the death of Leonidas. None of -these is so plausible as the description just given, but two of them are worth -citing, to illustrate the historical uncertainties that attach to the subject.<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span> -Plutarch, in his parallels between the Romans and Greeks, thus describes -the death of Leonidas: “Whilst they were at dinner, the barbarians fell -upon them: upon which Leonidas desired them to eat heartily, for they -were to sup with Pluto. Leonidas charged at the head of his troops, and -after receiving a multitude of wounds, got up to Xerxes himself, and snatched -the crown from his head. He lost his life in the attempt; and Xerxes, causing -his body to be opened, found his heart hairy. So says Aristides, in his -first book of his Persian History.” This fiction seems to have been taken -from the λασιόν κῆρ of Homer.</p> - -<p>Diodorus Siculus tells us that Leonidas, when he knew that he was circumvented, -made a bold attempt by night to penetrate to the tent of Xerxes; -but this the Persian king had forsaken on the first alarm. The Greeks however -proceeded in search of him from one side to the other, and slew a prodigious -multitude. When morning approached, the Persians perceiving the -Greeks so few in number, held them in contempt; but they still did not dare -to attack them in front; encompassing them on both sides, and behind, they -slew them all with their spears. Such was the end of Leonidas and his party.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_19c" id="enanchor_19c"></a><a href="#endnote_19c">c</a></span></p> - -<h4>AFTER THERMOPYLÆ</h4> - -<p>Where the Spartans fell, they were afterwards buried: their tomb, as -Simonides sang, was an altar; a sanctuary, in which Greece revered the -memory of her second founders.</p> - -<p>The inscription of the monument raised over the slain, who died from -first to last in defence of the pass, recorded that four thousand men from -the Peloponnesus had fought at Thermopylæ with three hundred myriads.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span> -We ought not to expect accuracy in these numbers: the list in Herodotus, if -the Locrian force is only supposed equal to the Phocian, exceeds six thousand -men: the Phocians, it must be remembered, were not engaged. But it is -not easy to reconcile either account with the historian’s statement, that the -Grecian dead amounted to four thousand, unless we suppose that the helots, -though not numbered, formed a large part of the army of Leonidas. The -lustre of his achievement is not diminished by their presence. He himself -and his Spartans no doubt considered their persevering stand in the post -entrusted to them, not as an act of high and heroic devotion, but of simple -and indispensable duty. Their spirit spoke in the lines inscribed upon their -monument, which bade the passenger tell their countrymen, that they had -fallen in obedience to their laws.</p> - -<p>The Persians are said to have lost twenty thousand men: among them -were several of royal blood. To console himself for this loss, and to reap -the utmost advantage from his victory, Xerxes sent over to the fleet, which, -having heard of the departure of the Greeks, was now stationed on the north -coast of Eubœa, and by public notice invited all who were curious, to see the -chastisement he had inflicted on the men who had dared to defy his power. -That he had previously buried the greater part of his own dead seems natural -enough, and such an artifice, so slightly differing from the universal -practice of both ancient and modern belligerents, scarcely deserved the name -of a stratagem. He is said also to have mutilated the body of Leonidas, and -as this was one of the foremost he found on a field which had cost him so -dear, we are not at liberty to reject the tradition on the ground that such -ferocity was not consistent with the respect usually paid by the Persians -to a gallant enemy.</p> - -<p>At Thermopylæ Xerxes learnt a lesson which he had refused to receive -from the warnings of Demaratus; and he inquired, with altered spirit, -whether he had to expect many such obstacles in the conquest of Greece. -The Spartan told him that there were eight thousand of his countrymen, who -would all be ready to do what Leonidas had done, and that at the isthmus -he would meet with a resistance more powerful and obstinate than at Thermopylæ. -But if, instead of attacking the Peloponnesus on this side, where he -would find its whole force collected to withstand him, he sent a detachment -of his fleet to seize the island of Cythera, and to infest the coast of Laconia, -the confederacy would be distracted, and its members, deprived of their -head and perhaps disunited, would successively yield to his arms. The -plan, whether Demaratus or Herodotus was the author, found no supporters -in the Persian council.</p> - -<p>He had now the key of northern Greece in his hands, and it only remained -to determine towards which side he should first turn his arms. The -Thessalians, who ever since his arrival in their country had been zealous in -his service, now resolved to make use of their influence, and to direct the -course of the storm to their own advantage. These Thessalians, who are -mentioned on this occasion by Herodotus without any more precise description, -were probably the same nobles who, against the wishes of their nation, -had invited and forwarded the invasion. They had now an opportunity of -gratifying either their cupidity or their revenge; and they sent to the Phocians -to demand a bribe of fifty talents, as the price at which they would -consent to avert the destruction which was impending over Phocis. The -Phocians however either did not trust their faith, or would not buy their -safety of a hated rival. The Thessalians then persuaded Xerxes to cross -that part of the Œtean chain which separates the vale of the Sperchius from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span> -the little valley of Doris. The Dorians were spared, as friends. Those of -the Phocians who had the means of escaping took refuge on the high plains -that lie under the topmost peaks of Parnassus, or at Amphissa. But on all -that remained in their homes, on the fields, the cities, the temples of the -devoted land, the fury of the invader, directed and stimulated by the malice -of the Thessalians, poured undistinguishing ruin. Fire and sword, the cruelty -and the lust of irritated spoilers, ravaged the vale of the Cephisus down -to the borders of Bœotia. The rich sanctuary of Apollo at Abæ was sacked -and burnt, and fourteen towns shared its fate. At Panopeus, Xerxes divided -his forces; or rather detached a small body round the foot of Parnassus to -Delphi, with orders to strip the temple of its treasures, and lay them at his -feet. He had learnt their value from the best authority at Sardis. The -great army turned off toward the lower vale of the Cephisus, to pursue its -march through Bœotia to Athens.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_19h" id="enanchor_19h"></a><a href="#endnote_19h">h</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_26" id="Footnote_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Beneath is the number of Greeks who appeared on this occasion, according to the different -representations of Herodotus, Pausanias, and Diodorus Siculus:</p> - -<table summary="Soldiers from the Peloponnesus"> - <tr> - <th></th> - <th><span class="smcap">Herodotus.</span></th> - <th><span class="smcap">Pausanias.</span></th> - <th colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Diodorus.</span></th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Spartans</td> - <td class="tdr">300</td> - <td class="tdr">300</td> - <td></td> - <td class="tdr">300</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Tegeatæ</td> - <td class="tdr">500</td> - <td class="tdr">500</td> - <td>Lacedæmonians</td> - <td class="tdr">700</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Mantineans</td> - <td class="tdr">500</td> - <td class="tdr">500</td> - <td rowspan="6">The other nations of the Peloponnesus</td> - <td rowspan="6">3,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Orchomenians</td> - <td class="tdr">120</td> - <td class="tdr">120</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Arcadians</td> - <td class="tdr">1,000</td> - <td class="tdr">1,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Corinthians</td> - <td class="tdr">400</td> - <td class="tdr">400</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Phliasians</td> - <td class="tdr">200</td> - <td class="tdr">200</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Mycenæans</td> - <td class="tdr">80</td> - <td class="tdr">80</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">Totals</td> - <td class="tdr total">3,100</td> - <td class="tdr total">3,100</td> - <td class="tdr"></td> - <td class="tdr total">4,000</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p>The above came from the Peloponnesus; those who came from the other parts of Greece -were, according to the authors above mentioned:</p> - -<table summary="Soldiers from the other parts of Greece"> - <tr> - <td>Thespians</td> - <td class="tdr">700</td> - <td class="tdr">700</td> - <td>Milesians</td> - <td class="tdr">1,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Thebans</td> - <td class="tdr">400</td> - <td class="tdr">400</td> - <td></td> - <td class="tdr">400</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Phocians</td> - <td class="tdr">1,000</td> - <td class="tdr">1,000</td> - <td></td> - <td class="tdr">1,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Opuntian Locrians</td> - <td></td> - <td class="tdr">6,000</td> - <td></td> - <td class="tdr">7,400</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">Totals</td> - <td class="tdr total">5,200</td> - <td class="tdr total">11,200</td> - <td></td> - <td class="tdr total">7,400<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_19c2" id="enanchor_19c2"></a><a href="#endnote_19c">c</a></span></td> - </tr> -</table> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_27" id="Footnote_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> [Plutarch upbraids Herodotus for thus slandering the Thebans; and Diodorus says, that -Thebes was divided into two parties, one of which sent four hundred men to Thermopylæ.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_19c3" id="enanchor_19c3"></a><a href="#endnote_19c">c</a></span>] -[Bury<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_19d" id="enanchor_19d"></a><a href="#endnote_19d">d</a></span> thinks it is certain that this tale was invented in the light of Thebes’ later Median policy.]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_28" id="Footnote_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> [This was continued for seven days at Sparta. Various reasons are assigned for its institution; -Theocritus says it commemorated the cessation of a pestilence.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_19c4" id="enanchor_19c4"></a><a href="#endnote_19c">c</a></span>]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_29" id="Footnote_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> [According to Plutarch, Leonidas being asked how he dared to encounter so prodigious a -multitude with so few men, replied: “If you reckon by number, all Greece is not able to oppose -a small part of that army; but if by courage, the number I have with me is sufficient.”]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_30" id="Footnote_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> [Diodorus Siculus speaks only of the Thespians. Pausanias says that the people of Mycenæ -sent eighty men to Thermopylæ, who had part in this glorious day; and in another place he -says that all the allies retired before the battle, except the Thespians and people of Mycenæ.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_19e" id="enanchor_19e"></a><a href="#endnote_19e">e</a></span>]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-19.jpg" width="500" height="286" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Remains of the Tomb of Leonidas of Sparta</span></p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-20.jpg" width="500" height="100" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Eleusis, Part of the Island of Salamis</span></p> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XX_THE_BATTLES_OF_ARTEMISIUM_AND">CHAPTER XX. THE BATTLES OF ARTEMISIUM AND -SALAMIS</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">A king sate on the rocky brow</div> -<div class="verse">Which looks o’er sea-born Salamis;</div> -<div class="verse">And ships, by thousands, lay below,</div> -<div class="verse">And men in nations;—all were his,</div> -<div class="verse">He counted them at break of day,</div> -<div class="verse">And when the sun set where were they?</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse right">—<span class="smcap">Byron.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="sidenote">[480 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The days of battle at Thermopylæ had been not less actively employed -by the fleets at Aphetæ and Artemisium. It has already been mentioned -that the Greek ships, having abandoned their station at the latter place and -retired to Chalcis, were induced to return, by the news that the Persian -fleet had been nearly ruined by the recent storm, and that, on returning -to Artemisium, the Grecian commanders felt renewed alarm on seeing the -enemy’s fleet, in spite of the damage just sustained, still mustering in overwhelming -number at the opposite station of Aphetæ. Such was the effect -of this spectacle, and the impression of their own inferiority, that they again -resolved to retire without fighting, leaving the strait open and undefended. -Great consternation was caused by the news of their determination among -the inhabitants of Eubœa, who entreated Eurybiades to maintain his position -for a few days, until they could have time to remove their families and their -property. But even such postponement was thought unsafe, and refused: -and he was on the point of giving orders for retreat, when the Eubœans -sent their envoy, Pelagon, to Themistocles, with the offer of thirty talents, -on condition that the fleet should keep its station and hazard an engagement -in defence of the island. Themistocles employed the money adroitly and -successfully, giving five talents to Eurybiades, with large presents besides to -the other leading chiefs: the most unmanageable among them was the -Corinthian Adimantus, who at first threatened to depart with his own -squadron alone, if the remaining Greeks were mad enough to remain. -His alarm was silenced, if not tranquillised, by a present of three talents.</p> - -<p>However Plutarch may be scandalised at such inglorious revelations preserved -to us by Herodotus respecting the underhand agencies of this memorable -struggle, there is no reason to call in question the bribery here described. -But Themistocles doubtless was only tempted to do, and enabled to do, by means -of the Eubœan money, that which he would have wished and had probably tried -to accomplish without the money—to bring on a naval engagement at Artemisium. -It was absolutely essential to the maintenance of Thermopylæ, and to -the general plan of defence, that the Eubœan strait should be defended against -the Persian fleet, nor could the Greeks expect a more favourable position to -fight in. We may reasonably presume that Themistocles, distinguished not -less by daring than by sagacity, and the great originator of maritime energies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span> -in his country, concurred unwillingly in the projected abandonment of -Artemisium: but his high mental capacity did not exclude that pecuniary -corruption which rendered the presents of the Eubœans both admissible and -welcome—yet still more welcome to him perhaps, as they supplied means -of bringing over the other opposing chiefs and the Spartan admiral. It was -finally determined, therefore, to remain, and if necessary, to hazard an -engagement in the Eubœan strait: but at any rate to procure for the inhabitants -of the island a short interval to remove their families. Had these -Eubœans heeded the oracles, says Herodotus, they would have packed up -and removed long before; for a text of Bacis gave them express warning; -but, having neglected the sacred writings as unworthy of credit, they were -now severely punished for such presumption.</p> - -<p>Among the Persian fleet at Aphetæ, on the other hand, the feeling prevalent -was one of sanguine hope and confidence in their superior numbers, -forming a strong contrast with the discouragement of the Greeks at -Artemisium. Had they attacked the latter immediately, when both fleets -first saw each other from their opposite stations, they would have gained an -easy victory, for the Greek fleet would have fled, as the admiral was on the -point of ordering, even without an attack. But this was not sufficient for -the Persians, who wished to cut off every ship among their enemies even -from flight and escape. Accordingly, they detached two hundred ships to -circumnavigate the island of Eubœa, and to sail up the Eubœan strait from -the south, in the rear of the Greeks,—and postponing their own attack in -front until this squadron should be in position to intercept the retreating -Greeks. But though the manœuvre was concealed by sending the squadron -round outside of the island of Sciathus, it became known immediately -among the Greeks, through a deserter—Scyllias of Scione. This man, the -best swimmer and diver of his time, and now engaged like other Thracian -Greeks in the Persian service, passed over to Artemisium, and communicated -to the Greek commanders both the particulars of the late destructive storm -and the despatch of the intercepting squadron.</p> - -<h4>BATTLE OF ARTEMISIUM</h4> - -<p>It appears that his communications, respecting the effects of the storm -and the condition of the Persian fleet, somewhat reassured the Greeks, who -resolved during the ensuing night to sail from their station at Artemisium -for the purpose of surprising the detached squadron of two hundred ships, -and who even became bold enough, under the inspirations of Themistocles, -to go out and offer battle to the main fleet near Aphetæ. Wanting to -acquire some practical experience, which neither leaders nor soldiers as yet -possessed, of the manner in which Phœnicians and others in the Persian -fleet handled and manœuvred their ships, they waited till a late hour of -the afternoon, when little daylight remained. Their boldness in thus advancing -out, with inferior numbers and even inferior ships, astonished the -Persian admirals, and distressed the Ionians and other subject Greeks who -were serving them as unwilling auxiliaries: to both it seemed that the victory -of the Persian fleet, which was speedily brought forth to battle, and was numerous -enough to encompass the Greeks, would be certain as well as complete. -The Greek ships were at first marshalled in a circle, with the sterns in the -interior, and presenting their prows in front at all points of the circumference; -in this position, compressed into a narrow space, they seemed to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span> -awaiting the attack of the enemy, who formed a larger circle around them: -but on a second signal given, their ships assumed the aggressive, rowed out -from the inner circle in direct impact against the hostile ships around, and -took or disabled no less than thirty of them; in one of which Philaon, brother -of Gorgus, despot of Salamis in Cyprus, was made prisoner. Such unexpected -forwardness at first disconcerted the Persians, who however rallied -and inflicted considerable damage and loss on the Greeks: but the near -approach of night put an end to the combat, and each fleet retired to its -former station—the Persians to Aphetæ, the Greeks to Artemisium.</p> - -<p>The result of this first day’s combat, though indecisive in itself, surprised -both parties and did much to exalt the confidence of the Greeks. But the -events of the ensuing night did yet more. Another tremendous storm was -sent by the gods to aid them. Though it was the middle of summer,—a -season when rain rarely falls in the climate of Greece,—the most violent -wind, rain, and thunder prevailed during the whole night, blowing right on -shore against the Persians at Aphetæ, and thus but little troublesome to the -Greeks on the opposite side of the strait. The seamen of the Persian fleet, -scarcely recovered from the former storm at Sepias Acte, were almost driven -to despair by this repetition of the same peril: the more so when they found -the prows of their ships surrounded, and the play of their oars impeded, by -the dead bodies and the spars from the recent battle, which the current -drove towards their shore. If this storm was injurious to the main fleet at -Aphetæ, it proved the entire ruin of the squadron detached to circumnavigate -Eubœa, who, overtaken by it near the dangerous eastern coast of that -island, called the Hollows of Eubœa, were driven upon the rocks and -wrecked. The news of this second conspiracy of the elements, or intervention -of the gods, against the schemes of the invaders, was highly -encouraging to the Greeks; and the seasonable arrival of fifty-three fresh -Athenian ships, which reinforced them the next day, raised them to a still -higher pitch of confidence. In the afternoon of the same day, they sailed -out against the Persian fleet at Aphetæ, and attacked and destroyed some -Cilician ships even at their moorings; the fleet having been too much -damaged by the storm of the preceding night to come out and fight.</p> - -<p>But the Persian admirals were not of a temper to endure such insults,—still -less to let their master hear of them. About noon on the ensuing -day, they sailed with their entire fleet near to the Greek station at Artemisium, -and formed themselves into a half moon; while the Greeks kept -near to the shore, so that they could not be surrounded, nor could the -Persians bring their entire fleet into action; the ships running foul of -each other, and not finding space to attack. The battle raged fiercely all -day, and with great loss and damage on both sides: the Egyptians bore -off the palm of valour among the Persians, the Athenians among the -Greeks. Though the positive loss sustained by the Persians was by far -the greater, and though the Greeks, being near their own shore, became -masters of the dead bodies as well as of the disabled ships and floating -fragments, still, they were themselves hurt and crippled in greater proportion -with reference to their inferior total: and the Athenian vessels -especially, foremost in the preceding combat, found one-half of their -number out of condition to renew it. The Egyptians alone had captured -five Grecian ships with their entire crews.</p> - -<p>Under these circumstances, the Greek leaders—and Themistocles, as -it seems, among them—determined that they could no longer venture to -hold the position of Artemisium, but must withdraw the naval force farther<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span> -into Greece: though this was in fact a surrender of the pass of Thermopylæ, -and though the removal which the Eubœans were hastening was still unfinished. -These unfortunate men were forced to be satisfied with the -promise of Themistocles to give them convoy for their boats and their -persons; abandoning their sheep and cattle for the consumption of the -fleet, as better than leaving them to become booty for the enemy. While -the Greeks were thus employed in organising their retreat, they received -news which rendered retreat doubly necessary. The Athenian Abronychus, -stationed with his ship near Thermopylæ, in order to keep up communication -between the army and fleet, brought the disastrous intelligence that -Xerxes was already master of the pass, and that the division of Leonidas -was either destroyed or in flight. Upon this the fleet abandoned Artemisium -forthwith, and sailed up the Eubœan strait; the Corinthian ships -in the van, the Athenians bringing up the rear. Themistocles, conducting -the latter, stayed long enough at the various watering-stations and landing-places -to inscribe on some neighbouring stones invitations to the Ionian -contingents serving under Xerxes: whereby the latter were conjured not -to serve against their fathers, but to desert, if possible—or at least, to -fight as little and as backwardly as they could. Themistocles hoped by -this stratagem perhaps to detach some of the Ionians from the Persian -side, or, at any rate, to render them objects of mistrust, and thus to -diminish their efficiency. With no longer delay than was requisite for -such inscriptions, he followed the remaining fleet, which sailed round the -coast of Attica, not stopping until it reached the island of Salamis.</p> - -<p>The news of the retreat of the Greek fleet was speedily conveyed by -a citizen of Histiæa to the Persians at Aphetæ, who at first disbelieved it, -and detained the messenger until they had sent to ascertain the fact. On -the next day, their fleet passed across to the north of Eubœa, and became -master of Histiæa and the neighbouring territory: from whence many of -them, by permission and even invitation of Xerxes, crossed over to Thermopylæ -to survey the field of battle and the dead. Respecting the number -of the dead, Xerxes is asserted to have deliberately imposed upon the -spectators: he buried all his own dead, except one thousand, whose bodies -were left out—while the total number of Greeks who had perished at -Thermopylæ, four thousand in number, were all left exposed, and in one -heap, so as to create an impression that their loss had been much more -severe than their own. Moreover, the bodies of the slain helots were -included in the heap, all of them passing for Spartans or Thespians in -the estimation of the spectators. We are not surprised to hear, however, -that this trick, gross and public as it must have been, really deceived -very few.</p> - -<p>The sentiment, alike durable and unanimous, with which the Greeks of -after-times looked back on the battle of Thermopylæ, and which they have -communicated to all subsequent readers, was that of just admiration for the -courage and patriotism of Leonidas and his band. But among the contemporary -Greeks that sentiment, though doubtless sincerely felt, was by no -means predominant: it was overpowered by the more pressing emotions of -disappointment and terror. So confident were the Spartans and Peloponnesians -in the defensibility of Thermopylæ and Artemisium, that when the -news of the disaster reached them, not a single soldier had yet been put in -motion: the season of the festival games had passed, but no active step had -yet been taken. Meanwhile the invading force, army, and fleet, was in its -progress towards Attica and the Peloponnesus, without the least preparations—and,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span> -what was still worse, without any combined and concerted plan—for -defending the heart of Greece. The loss sustained by Xerxes at Thermopylæ, -insignificant in proportion to his vast total, was more than compensated -by the fresh Grecian auxiliaries which he now acquired. Not merely the -Malians, Locrians, and Dorians, but also the great mass of the Bœotians, -with their chief town Thebes, all except Thespiæ and Platæa, now joined -him. Demaratus, his Spartan companion, moved forward to Thebes to -renew an ancient tie of hospitality with the Theban oligarchical leader, -Attaginus, while small garrisons were sent by Alexander of Macedon to -most of the Bœotian towns, as well to protect them from plunder as to -insure their fidelity. The Thespians, on the other hand, abandoned their city, -and fled into the Peloponnesus; while the Platæans, who had been serving -aboard the Athenian ships at Artemisium, were disembarked at Chalcis as -the fleet retreated, for the purpose of marching by land to their city, and -removing their families. Nor was it only the land-force of Xerxes which -had been thus strengthened; his fleet also had received some accessions from -Carystus in Eubœa, and from several of the Cyclades—so that the losses -sustained by the storm at Sepias and the fights at Artemisium, if not wholly -made up, were at least in part repaired, while the fleet remained still prodigiously -superior in number to that of the Greeks.</p> - -<p>At the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, near fifty years after these -events, the Corinthian envoys reminded Sparta that she had allowed Xerxes -time to arrive from the extremity of the earth at the threshold of the Peloponnesus, -before she took any adequate precautions against him; a reproach true -almost to the letter. It was only when roused and terrified by the news of -the death of Leonidas, that the Lacedæmonians and the other Peloponnesians -began to put forth their full strength. But it was then too late to -perform the promise made to Athens, of taking up a position in Bœotia so -as to protect Attica. To defend the isthmus of Corinth was all that they -now thought of, and seemingly all that was now open to them: thither they -rushed with all their available population under the conduct of Cleombrotus, -king of Sparta (brother of Leonidas), and began to draw fortifications -across it, as well as to break up the Scironian road from Megara to Corinth, -with every mark of anxious energy. The Lacedæmonians, Arcadians, -Eleans, Corinthians, Sicyonians, Epidaurians, Phliasians, Trœzenians, and -Hermionians, were all present here in full numbers; many myriads of men -(bodies of ten thousand each) working and bringing materials night and -day. As a defence to themselves against attack by land, this was an excellent -position: they considered it as their last chance, abandoning all hope -of successful resistance at sea. But they forgot that a fortified isthmus was -no protection even to themselves against the navy of Xerxes, while it professedly -threw out not only Attica, but also Megara and Ægina. And thus -rose a new peril to Greece from the loss of Thermopylæ: no other position -could be found which, like that memorable strait, comprehended and protected -at once all the separate cities. The disunion thus produced brought -them within a hair’s breadth of ruin.</p> - -<h4>ATHENS ABANDONED</h4> - -<p>If the causes of alarm were great for the Peloponnesians, yet more desperate -did the position of the Athenians appear. Expecting, according to -agreement, to find a Peloponnesian army in Bœotia ready to sustain Leonidas,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span> -or at any rate to co-operate in the defence of Attica, they had taken no -measures to remove their families or property: but they saw with indignant -disappointment as well as dismay, on retreating from Artemisium, that the -conqueror was in full march from Thermopylæ, that the road to Attica was -open to him, and that the Peloponnesians were absorbed exclusively in the -defence of their own isthmus and their own separate existence. The fleet -from Artemisium had been directed to muster at the harbour of Trœzen, there -to await such reinforcements as could be got together: but the Athenians -entreated Eurybiades to halt at Salamis, so as to allow them a short time -for consultation in the critical state of their affairs, and to aid them in the -transport of their families. While Eurybiades was thus staying at Salamis, -several new ships which had reached Trœzen came over to join him; and in -this way Salamis became for a time the naval station of the Greeks, without -any deliberate intention beforehand.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile Themistocles and the Athenian seamen landed at Phalerum, -and made their mournful entry into Athens. Gloomy as the prospect appeared, -there was little room for difference of opinion, and still less room for -delay. The authorities and the public assembly at once issued a proclamation, -enjoining every Athenian to remove his family out of the country in -the best way he could. We may conceive the state of tumult and terror -which followed on this unexpected proclamation, when we reflect that it -had to be circulated and acted upon throughout all Attica, from Sunium to -Oropus, within the narrow space of less than six days; for no longer interval -elapsed before Xerxes actually arrived at Athens, where indeed he might -have arrived even sooner.</p> - -<p>The whole Grecian fleet was doubtless employed in carrying out the helpless -exiles; mostly to Trœzen, where a kind reception and generous support -were provided for them,—the Trœzenian population being seemingly semi-Ionic, -and having ancient relations of religion as well as of traffic with -Athens,—but in part also to Ægina: there were, however, many who -could not, or would not, go farther than Salamis. Themistocles impressed -upon the sufferers that they were only obeying the oracle, which had directed -them to abandon the city and to take refuge behind the wooden -walls; and either his policy, or the mental depression of the time, gave circulation -to other stories, intimating that even the divine inmates of the -Acropolis were for a while deserting it. In the ancient temple of Athene -Polias on that rock, there dwelt, or was believed to dwell, as guardian to -the sanctuary and familiar attendant of the goddess, a sacred serpent, for -whose nourishment a honey cake was placed once in the month. The honey -cake had been hitherto regularly consumed; but at this fatal moment the -priestess announced that it remained untouched: the sacred guardian had -thus set the example of quitting the acropolis, and it behooved the citizens -to follow the example, confiding in the goddess herself for future return and -restitution.</p> - -<p>The migration of so many ancient men, women, and children, was a -scene of tears and misery inferior only to that which would have ensued on -the actual capture of the city.<a name="FNanchor_31" id="FNanchor_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> Some few individuals, too poor to hope for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span> -maintenance, or too old to care for life elsewhere,—confiding, moreover, -in their own interpretation of the wooden wall which the Pythian priestess -had pronounced to be inexpugnable,—shut themselves up in the Acropolis -along with the administrators of the temple, obstructing the entrance or -western front with wooden doors and palisades. When we read how great -were the sufferings of the population of Attica near half a century afterwards, -compressed for refuge within the spacious fortifications of Athens at -the first outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, we may form some faint idea -of the incalculably greater misery which overwhelmed an emigrant population, -hurrying, they knew not whither, to escape the long arm of Xerxes. -Little chance did there seem that they would ever revisit their homes except -as his slaves.</p> - -<p>In the midst of circumstances thus calamitous and threatening, neither -the warriors nor the leaders of Athens lost their energy—arm as well as -mind was strung to the loftiest pitch of human resolution. Political dissensions -were suspended: Themistocles proposed to the people a decree, and -obtained their sanction, inviting home all who were under sentence of temporary -banishment: moreover, he not only included but even specially designated -among them his own great opponent Aristides, now in the third year -of ostracism. Xanthippus the accuser, and Cimon, the son of Miltiades, -were partners in the same emigration: the latter, enrolled by his scale of -fortune among the horsemen of the state, was seen with his companions -cheerfully marching through the Ceramicus to dedicate their bridles in the -Acropolis, and to bring away in exchange some of the sacred arms there suspended, -thus setting an example of ready service on shipboard, instead of on -horseback. It was absolutely essential to obtain supplies of money, partly -for the aid of the poorer exiles, but still more for the equipment of the fleet; -there were no funds in the public treasury—but the senate of Areopagus, -then composed in large proportion of men from the wealthier classes, put forth -all its public authority as well as its private contributions and example to -others, and thus succeeded in raising the sum of eight drachmæ for every -soldier serving.</p> - -<p>This timely help was indeed partly obtained by the inexhaustible resource -of Themistocles, who, in the hurry of embarkation, either discovered or pretended -that the Gorgon’s head from the statue of Athene was lost, and -directing upon this ground every man’s baggage to be searched, rendered -any treasures, which private citizens might be carrying out, available to the -public service. By the most strenuous efforts, these few important days -were made to suffice for removing the whole population of Attica,—those of -military competence to the fleet at Salamis,—the rest to some place of -refuge,—together with as much property as the case admitted. So complete -was the desertion of the country, that the host of Xerxes, when it -became master, could not seize and carry off more than five hundred prisoners. -Moreover, the fleet itself, which had been brought home from -Artemisium partially disabled, was quickly repaired, so that, by the time the -Persian fleet arrived, it was again in something like fighting condition.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE FLEET AT SALAMIS</h4> - -<p>The combined fleet which had now got together at Salamis consisted of -three hundred and sixty-six ships,—a force far greater than at Artemisium. -Of these, no less than two hundred were Athenian; twenty among which, -however, were lent to the Chalcidians, and manned by them. Forty Corinthian -ships, thirty Æginetan, twenty Megarian, sixteen Lacedæmonian, -fifteen Sicyonian, ten Epidaurian, seven from Ambracia, and as many from -Eretria, five from Trœzen, three from Hermione, and the same number from -Leucas; two from Ceos, two from Styra, and one from Cythnos; four -from Naxos, despatched as a contingent to the Persian fleet, but brought by -the choice of their captains and seamen to Salamis;—all these triremes, -together with a small squadron of the inferior vessels called penteconters, -made up the total. From the great Grecian cities in Italy there appeared -only one trireme, a volunteer, equipped and commanded by an eminent citizen -named Phaÿllus, thrice victor at the Pythian games. The entire fleet -was thus a trifle larger than the combined force, three hundred and fifty-eight -ships, collected by the Asiatic Greeks at Lade, fifteen years earlier, -during the Ionic revolt. We may doubt, however, whether this total, -borrowed from Herodotus, be not larger than that which actually fought a -little afterwards at the battle of Salamis, and which Æschylus gives decidedly -as consisting of three hundred sail, in addition to ten prime and chosen -ships. That great poet, himself one of the combatants, and speaking in a -drama represented only seven years after the battle, is better authority on -the point even than Herodotus.</p> - -<p>Hardly was the fleet mustered at Salamis, and the Athenian population -removed, when Xerxes and his host overran the deserted country, his fleet -occupying the roadstead of Phalerum with the coast adjoining. His land -force had been put in motion under the guidance of the Thessalians, two or -three days after the battle of Thermopylæ, and he was assured by some -Arcadians who came to seek service, that the Peloponnesians were, even at -that moment, occupied with the celebration of the Olympic games. “What -prize does the victor receive?” he asked. Upon the reply made, that the -prize was a wreath of the wild olive, Tritantæchmes, son of the monarch’s -uncle Artabanus, is said to have burst forth, notwithstanding the displeasure -both of the monarch himself and of the bystanders: “Heavens, Mardonius, -what manner of men are these against whom thou hast brought us to fight! -men who contend not for money, but for honour!” Whether this be a -remark really delivered, or a dramatic illustration imagined by some contemporary -of Herodotus, it is not the less interesting as bringing to view a -characteristic of Hellenic life, which contrasts not merely with the manners -of contemporary Orientals, but even with those of the earlier Greeks themselves -during the Homeric times.</p> - -<p>Among all the various Greeks between Thermopylæ and the borders of -Attica, there were none except the Phocians disposed to refuse submission: -and they refused only because the paramount influence of their bitter enemies -the Thessalians made them despair of obtaining favourable terms. -Nor would they even listen to a proposition of the Thessalians, who, boasting -that it was in their power to guide as they pleased the terrors of the -Persian host, offered to insure lenient treatment to the territory of Phocis, -provided a sum of fifty talents were paid to them. The proposition being -indignantly refused, they conducted Xerxes through the little territory of -Doris, which <i>medised</i> and escaped plunder, into the upper valley of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span> -Cephisus, among the towns of the inflexible Phocians. All of them were -found deserted; the inhabitants having previously escaped either to the -wide-spreading summit of Parnassus, called Tithorea, or even still farther, -across that mountain into the territory of the Ozolian Locrians. Ten or -a dozen small Phocian towns, the most considerable of which were Elatea -and Hyampolis, were sacked and destroyed by the invaders, nor was the -holy temple and oracle of Apollo at Abæ better treated than the rest: all -its treasures were pillaged, and it was then burnt. From Panopeus Xerxes -detached a body of men to plunder Delphi, marching with his main army -through Bœotia, in which country he found all the towns submissive and -willing, except Thespiæ and Platæa: both were deserted by their citizens, -and both were now burnt. From hence he conducted his army into the -abandoned territory of Attica, reaching without resistance the foot of the -Acropolis at Athens.</p> - -<h4>XERXES AT DELPHI</h4> - -<p>Very different was the fate of that division which he had detached from -Panopeus against Delphi: Apollo defended his temple here more vigorously -than at Abæ. The cupidity of the Persian king was stimulated by -accounts of the boundless wealth accumulated at Delphi, especially the profuse -donations of Crœsus. The Delphians, in the extreme of alarm, while -they sought safety for themselves on the heights of Parnassus, and for their -families by transport across the gulf into Achaia, consulted the oracle -whether they should carry away or bury the sacred treasures. Apollo directed -them to leave the treasures untouched, saying that he was competent -himself to take care of his own property. Sixty Delphians alone ventured -to remain, together with Aceratus, the religious superior: but evidences of -superhuman aid soon appeared to encourage them. The sacred arms suspended -in the interior cell, which no mortal hand was ever permitted to -touch, were seen lying before the door of the temple; and when the Persians, -marching along the road called Schiste, up that rugged path under -the steep cliffs of Parnassus which conducts to Delphi, had reached the -temple of Athene Pronœa, on a sudden, dreadful thunder was heard, -two vast mountain crags detached themselves and rushed down with deafening -noise among them, crushing many to death, the war shout was also -heard from the interior of the temple of Athene. Seized with a panic terror, -the invaders turned round and fled; pursued not only by the Delphians, -but also, as they themselves affirmed, by two armed warriors of superhuman -stature and destructive arm. The triumphant Delphians confirmed this -report, adding that the two auxiliaries were the heroes Phylacus and Autonoüs, -whose sacred precincts were close adjoining: and Herodotus himself -when he visited Delphi, saw in the sacred ground of Athene the identical -masses of rock which had overwhelmed the Persians.<a name="FNanchor_32" id="FNanchor_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> Thus did the god -repel these invaders from his Delphian sanctuary and treasures, which remained<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span> -inviolate until one hundred and thirty years afterwards, when they -were rifled by the sacrilegious hands of the Phocian Philomelus. On this -occasion, as will be seen presently, the real protectors of the treasures were -the conquerors at Salamis and Platæa.</p> - -<h4>ATHENS TAKEN</h4> - -<p>Four months had elapsed since the departure from Asia when Xerxes -reached Athens, the last term of his advance. He brought with him the -members of the Pisistratid family, who doubtless thought their restoration -already certain, and a few Athenian exiles attached to their interest. -Though the country was altogether deserted, the handful of men collected -in the Acropolis ventured to defy him: nor could all the persuasions of the -Pisistratids, eager to preserve the holy place from pillage, induce them to -surrender.</p> - -<p>The Athenian Acropolis—a craggy rock rising abruptly about one hundred -and fifty feet, with a flat summit of about one thousand feet long from -east to west, by five hundred feet broad from north to south—had no practicable -access except on the western side: moreover, in all parts where there -seemed any possibility of climbing up, it was defended by the ancient fortification -called the Pelasgic wall. Obliged to take the place by force, the -Persian army was posted around the northern and western sides, and commenced -their operations from the eminence immediately adjoining on the -northwest, called Areopagus: from whence they bombarded, if we may venture -upon the expression, with hot missiles, the woodwork before the gates; -that is, they poured upon it multitudes of arrows with burning tow attached -to them. The wooden palisades and boarding presently took fire and were -consumed: but when the Persians tried to mount to the assault by the western -road leading up to the gate, the undaunted little garrison still kept them -at bay, having provided vast stones, which they rolled down upon them in the -ascent.</p> - -<p>For a time the Great King seemed likely to be driven to the slow process -of blockade; but at length some adventurous men among the besiegers tried -to scale the precipitous rock before them on its northern side, hard by the -temple or chapel of Aglaurus, which lay nearly in front of the Persian position, -but behind the gates and the western ascent. Here the rock was -naturally so inaccessible, that it was altogether unguarded, and seemingly -even unfortified: moreover, the attention of the little garrison was all -concentrated on the host which fronted the gates. Hence the separate escalading -party was enabled to accomplish their object unobserved, and to -reach the summit in the rear of the garrison; who, deprived of their last -hope, either cast themselves headlong from the walls, or fled for safety to -the inner temple. The successful escaladers opened the gates to the entire -Persian host, and the whole Acropolis was presently in their hands. Its defenders -were slain, its temples pillaged, and all its dwellings and buildings, -sacred as well as profane, consigned to the flames. The citadel of Athens -fell into the hands of Xerxes by a surprise, very much the same as that -which had placed Sardis in those of Cyrus.</p> - -<p>Thus was divine prophecy fulfilled: Attica passed entirely into the -hands of the Persians, and the conflagration of Sardis was retaliated upon -the home and citadel of its captors, as it also was upon their sacred temple -of Eleusis. Xerxes immediately despatched to Susa intelligence of the fact,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span> -which is said to have excited unmeasured demonstrations of joy, confuting, -seemingly, the gloomy predictions of his uncle Artabanus. On the next day -but one, the Athenian exiles in his suite received his orders, or perhaps obtained -his permission, to go and offer sacrifice amidst the ruins of the Acropolis, -and atone, if possible, for the desecration of the ground: they discovered -that the sacred olive tree near the chapel of Erechtheus, the special gift of -the goddess Athene, though burnt to the ground by the recent flames, had -already thrown out a fresh shoot of one cubit long,—at least the piety of -restored Athens afterwards believed this encouraging portent, as well as -that which was said to have been seen by Dicæus, an Athenian companion -of the Pisistratids, in the Thriasian plain.</p> - -<p>It was now the day set apart for the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries; -and though in this sorrowful year there was no celebration, nor -any Athenians in the territory, Dicæus still fancied that he beheld the -dust and heard the loud multitudinous chant, which was wont to accompany -in ordinary times the processional march from Athens to Eleusis. He would -even have revealed the fact to Xerxes himself, had not Demaratus deterred -him from doing so: but he as well as Herodotus construed it as an evidence -that the goddesses themselves were passing over from Eleusis to help the -Athenians at Salamis. But whatever may have been received in after times, -on that day certainly no man could believe in the speedy resurrection of conquered -Athens as a free city: not even if he had witnessed the portent of -the burnt olive tree suddenly sprouting afresh with preternatural vigour. So -hopeless did the circumstances of the Athenians then appear, not less to their -confederates assembled at Salamis than to the victorious Persians.</p> - -<p>About the time of the capture of the Acropolis, the Persian fleet also -arrived safely in the Bay of Phalerum, reinforced by ships from Carystus as -well as from various islands of the Cyclades, so that Herodotus reckons it to -have been as strong as before the terrible storm at Sepias Acte—an estimate -certainly not admissible.</p> - -<h4>XERXES INSPECTS HIS FLEET</h4> - -<p>Soon after their arrival, Xerxes himself descended to the shore to inspect -the fleet, as well as to take counsel with the various naval leaders about the -expediency of attacking the hostile fleet, now so near him in the narrow strait -between Salamis and the coasts of Attica. He invited them all to take their -seats in an assembly, wherein the king of Sidon occupied the first place and -the king of Tyre the second. The question was put to each of them separately -by Mardonius, and when we learn that all pronounced in favour of immediate -fighting, we may be satisfied that the decided opinion of Xerxes himself must -have been well known to them beforehand. One exception alone was found -to this unanimity,—Artemisia, queen of Halicarnassus in Caria; into whose -mouth Herodotus puts a speech of some length, deprecating all idea of fighting -in the narrow strait of Salamis, predicting that if the land-force were -moved forwards to attack the Peloponnesus, the Peloponnesians in the fleet at -Salamis would return for the protection of their own homes, and thus the -fleet would disperse, the rather as there was little or no food in the island, -and intimating, besides, unmeasured contempt for the efficacy of the Persian -fleet and seamen as compared with the Greek, as well as for the subject contingents -of Xerxes generally. That Queen Artemisia gave this prudent -counsel, there is no reason to question; and the historian of Halicarnassus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span> -may have had means of hearing the grounds on which her opinion rested: -but we find a difficulty in believing that she can have publicly delivered any -such estimate of the maritime subjects of Persia—an estimate not merely -insulting to all who heard it, but at the time not just, though it had come to -be nearer the truth at the time when Herodotus wrote, and though Artemisia -herself may have lived to entertain the conviction afterwards. Whatever may -have been her reasons, the historian tells us that friends as well as rivals -were astonished at her rashness in dissuading the monarch from a naval -battle, and expected that she would be put to death. But Xerxes heard the -advice with perfect good temper, and even esteemed the Carian queen the -more highly: though he resolved that the opinion of the majority, or his own -opinion, should be acted upon: and orders were accordingly issued for -attacking the next day, while the land-force should move forwards towards -the Peloponnesus.</p> - -<p>Whilst, on the shore of Phalerum, an omnipotent will compelled seeming -unanimity and precluded all real deliberation, great, indeed, was the contrast -presented by the neighbouring Greek armament at Salamis, among the -members of which unmeasured dissension had been reigning. It has already -been stated that the Greek fleet had originally got together at that island, -not with any view of making it a naval station, but simply in order to cover -and assist the emigration of the Athenians. This object being accomplished, -and Xerxes being already in Attica, Eurybiades convoked the chiefs to consider -what position was the fittest for a naval engagement. Most of them, -especially those from the Peloponnesus, were averse to remaining at Salamis, and -proposed that the fleet should be transferred to the isthmus of Corinth, where -it would be in immediate communication with the Peloponnesian land-force, -so that in case of defeat at sea, the ships would find protection on shore, and -the men would join in the land service—while if worsted in a naval action -near Salamis, they would be inclosed in an island from whence there were -no hopes of escape. In the midst of the debate, a messenger arrived with -news of the capture and conflagration of Athens and her Acropolis by the -Persians: and such was the terror produced by this intelligence, that some -of the chiefs, without even awaiting the conclusion of the debate and the -final vote, quitted the council forthwith, and began to hoist sail, or prepare -their rowers, for departure. The majority came to a vote for removing to -the isthmus, but as night was approaching, actual removal was deferred until -the next morning.</p> - -<p>Now was felt the want of a position like that of Thermopylæ, which had -served as a protection to all the Greeks at once, so as to check the growth of -separate fears and interests. We can hardly wonder that the Peloponnesian -chiefs—the Corinthian in particular, who furnished so large a naval contingent, -and within whose territory the land-battle at the isthmus seemed about -to take place—should manifest such an obstinate reluctance to fight at Salamis, -and should insist on removing to a position where, in case of naval -defeat, they could assist, and be assisted by, their own soldiers on land. -On the other hand, Salamis was not only the most favourable position, in -consequence of its narrow strait, for the inferior numbers of the Greeks, -but could not be abandoned without breaking up the unity of the allied fleet; -since Megara and Ægina would thus be left uncovered, and the contingents -of each would immediately retire for the defence of their homes, while the -Athenians also, a large portion of whose expatriated families were in Salamis -and Ægina, would be in like manner distracted from combined maritime -efforts at the isthmus. If transferred to the latter place, probably not even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span> -the Peloponnesians themselves would have remained in one body; for the -squadrons of Epidaurus, Trœzen, Hermione, etc., each fearing that the -Persian fleet might make a descent on one or other of these separate ports, -would go home to repel such a contingency, in spite of the efforts of Eurybiades -to keep them together. Hence the order for quitting Salamis and -repairing to the isthmus was nothing less than a sentence of extinction for -all combined maritime defence; and it thus became doubly abhorrent to all -those who, like the Athenians, Æginetans, and Megarians, were also led by -their own separate safety to cling to the defence of Salamis. In spite of all -such opposition, however, and in spite of the protest of Themistocles, the -obstinate determination of the Peloponnesian leaders carried the vote for -retreat, and each of them went to his ship to prepare for it on the following -morning.</p> - -<h4>SCHEMES OF THEMISTOCLES</h4> - -<p>When Themistocles returned to his ship, with the gloom of this melancholy -resolution full upon his mind, and with the necessity of providing for -removal of the expatriated Athenian families in the island as well as for that -of the squadron, he found an Athenian friend named Mnesiphilus, who asked -him what the synod of chiefs had determined. Concerning this Mnesiphilus, -who is mentioned generally as a sagacious practical politician, we unfortunately -have no particulars: but it must have been no common man whom -fame selected, truly or falsely, as the inspiring genius of Themistocles. On -learning what had been resolved, Mnesiphilus burst out into remonstrance -on the utter ruin which its execution would entail: there would presently -be neither any united fleet to fight, nor any aggregate cause and country to -fight for. He vehemently urged Themistocles again to open the question, -and to press by every means in his power for a recall of the vote for retreat, -as well as for a resolution to stay and fight at Salamis.</p> - -<p>Themistocles had already in vain tried to enforce the same view: but -disheartened as he was by ill success, the remonstrances of a respected friend -struck him so forcibly as to induce him to renew his efforts. He went instantly -to the ship of Eurybiades, asked permission to speak with him, and -being invited aboard, reopened with him alone the whole subject of the past -discussion, enforcing his own views as emphatically as he could. In this -private communication, all the arguments bearing upon the case were more -unsparingly laid open than it had been possible to do in an assembly of the -chiefs, who would have been insulted if openly told that they were likely to -desert the fleet when once removed from Salamis. Speaking thus freely and -confidentially, and speaking to Eurybiades alone, Themistocles was enabled -to bring him partially round, and even prevailed upon him to convene a fresh -synod. So soon as this synod had assembled, even before Eurybiades had -explained the object and formally opened the discussion, Themistocles addressed -himself to each of the chiefs separately, pouring forth at large his -fears and anxiety as to the abandonment of Salamis: insomuch that the -Corinthian Adimantus rebuked him by saying, “Themistocles, those who in -the public festival-matches rise up before the proper signal, are scourged.” -“True,” rejoined the Athenian, “but those who lag behind the signal win -no crowns.”</p> - -<p>Eurybiades then explained to the synod that doubts had arisen in his -mind, and that he called them together to reconsider the previous resolve: -upon which Themistocles began the debate, and vehemently enforced the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span> -necessity of fighting in the narrow sea of Salamis and not in the open waters -at the isthmus, as well as of preserving Megara and Ægina: contending -that a naval victory at Salamis would be not less effective for the defence of -the Peloponnesus than if it took place at the isthmus, whereas, if the fleet -were withdrawn to the latter point, they would only draw the Persians after -them. Nor did he omit to add, that the Athenians had a prophecy assuring -to them victory in this, their own island. But his speech made little impression -on the Peloponnesian chiefs, who were even exasperated at being again -summoned to reopen a debate already concluded, and concluded in a way -which they deemed essential to their safety. In the bosom of the Corinthian -Adimantus, especially, this feeling of anger burst all bounds. He sharply -denounced the presumption of Themistocles, and bade him be silent as a man -who had now no free Grecian city to represent, Athens being in the power -of the enemy: nay, he went so far as to contend that Eurybiades had no -right to count the vote of Themistocles, until the latter could produce some -free city as accrediting him to the synod.</p> - -<p>Such an attack, alike ungenerous and insane, upon the leader of more -than half of the whole fleet, demonstrates the ungovernable impatience of -the Corinthians to carry away the fleet to their isthmus: it provoked a -bitter retort against them from Themistocles, who reminded them that while -he had around him two hundred well-manned ships, he could procure for -himself anywhere both city and territory as good or better than Corinth. -But he now saw clearly that it was hopeless to think of enforcing his policy -by argument, and that nothing would succeed except the direct language of -intimidation. Turning to Eurybiades, and addressing him personally, he -said: “If thou wilt stay here, and fight bravely here, all will turn out well: -but if thou wilt not stay, thou wilt bring Hellas to ruin. For with us, all -our means of war are contained in our ships. Be thou yet persuaded by me. -If not, we Athenians shall migrate with our families on board, just as we -are, to Siris in Italy, which is ours from of old, and which the prophecies -announce that we are one day to colonise. You chiefs then, when bereft of -allies like us, will hereafter recollect what I am now saying.”</p> - -<p>Eurybiades had before been nearly convinced by the impressive pleading of -Themistocles. But this last downright menace clenched his determination, -and probably struck dumb even the Corinthian and Peloponnesian opponents: -for it was but too plain, that without the Athenians the fleet was -powerless. He did not, however, put the question again to vote, but took -upon himself to rescind the previous resolution and to issue orders for staying -at Salamis to fight. In this order all acquiesced, willing or unwilling; the -succeeding dawn saw them preparing for fight instead of for retreat, and -invoking the protection and companionship of the Æacid heroes of Salamis,—Telamon -and Ajax: they even sent a trireme to Ægina to implore Æacus -himself and the remaining Æacids. It seems to have been on this same day, -also, that the resolution of fighting at Salamis was taken by Xerxes, whose -fleet was seen in motion, towards the close of the day, preparing for attack -the next morning.</p> - -<p>But the Peloponnesians, though not venturing to disobey the orders of -the Spartan admiral, still retained unabated their former fears and reluctance, -which began again after a short interval to prevail over the formidable -menace of Themistocles, and were further strengthened by the advices from -the isthmus. The messengers from that quarter depicted the trepidation -and affright of their absent brethren while constructing their cross wall at that -point, to resist the impending land invasion. Why were they not there also,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span> -to join hands and to help in the defence,—even if worsted at sea,—at least -on land, instead of wasting their efforts in defence of Attica, already in the -hands of the enemy? Such were the complaints which passed from man to -man, with many a bitter exclamation against the insanity of Eurybiades: at -length the common feeling broke out in public and mutinous manifestation, -and a fresh synod of the chiefs was demanded and convoked. Here the -same angry debate, and the same irreconcilable difference, was again renewed; -the Peloponnesian chiefs clamouring for immediate departure, while the -Athenians, Æginetans, and Megarians were equally urgent in favour of -staying to fight. It was evident to Themistocles that the majority of votes -among the chiefs would be against him, in spite of the orders of Eurybiades; -and the disastrous crisis, destined to deprive Greece of all united maritime -defence, appeared imminent, when he resorted to one last stratagem to meet -the desperate emergency, by rendering flight impossible. Contriving a pretext -for stealing away from the synod, he despatched a trusty messenger -across the strait with a secret communication to the Persian generals. Sicinnus -his slave—seemingly an Asiatic Greek, who understood Persian, and -had perhaps been sold during the late Ionic revolt, but whose superior qualities -are marked by the fact that he had the care and teaching of the children -of his master—was instructed to acquaint them privately and in the name -of Themistocles, who was represented as wishing success at heart to the -Persians, that the Greek fleet was not only in the utmost alarm, meditating -immediate flight, but that the various portions of it were in such violent dissension, -that they were more likely to fight against each other than against -any common enemy. A splendid opportunity, it was added, was thus opened -to the Persians, if they chose to avail themselves of it without delay, first, to -inclose and prevent their flight, and then to attack a disunited body, many -of whom would, when the combat began, openly espouse the Persian cause.</p> - -<p>Such was the important communication despatched by Themistocles -across the narrow strait, only a quarter of a mile in breadth at the narrowest -part, which divides Salamis from the neighbouring continent on which the -enemy were posted. It was delivered with so much address as to produce -the exact impression which he intended, and the glorious success which -followed caused it to pass for a splendid stratagem: had defeat ensued, his -name would have been covered with infamy. What surprises us the most -is, that after having reaped signal honour from it in the eyes of the Greeks, -as a stratagem, he lived to take credit for it, during the exile of his latter -days, as a capital service rendered to the Persian monarch: nor is it improbable, -when we reflect upon the desperate condition of Grecian affairs at the -moment, that such facility of double interpretation was in part his inducement -for sending the message.</p> - -<p>It appears to have been delivered to Xerxes shortly after he had issued -his orders for fighting on the next morning: and he entered so greedily into -the scheme, as to direct his generals to close up the strait of Salamis on both -sides during the night, to the north as well as to the south of the town of -Salamis, at the risk of their heads if any opening were left for the Greeks to -escape. The station of the numerous Persian fleet was along the coast of -Attica,—its headquarters were in the Bay of Phalerum, but doubtless parts -of it would occupy those three natural harbours, as yet unimproved by art, -which belonged to the deme of Piræus,—and would perhaps extend besides -to other portions of the western coast southward of Phalerum: while the -Greek fleet was in the harbour of the town called Salamis, in the portion of -the island facing Mount Ægaleos, in Attica.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span></p> - -<p>During the night, a portion of the Persian fleet, sailing from Piræus -northward along the western coast of Attica, closed round to the north of -the town and harbour of Salamis, so as to shut up the northern issue from -the strait on the side of Eleusis: while another portion blocked up the other -issue between Piræus and the southeastern corner of the island, landing a -detachment of troops on the desert island of Psyttalea, near to that corner. -These measures were all taken during the night, to prevent the anticipated -flight of the Greeks, and then to attack them in the narrow strait close on -their own harbour the next morning.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, that angry controversy among the Grecian chiefs, in the midst -of which Themistocles had sent over his secret envoy, continued without abatement -and without decision. It was the interest of the Athenian general to -prolong the debate, and to prevent any concluding vote until the effect of his -stratagem should have rendered retreat impossible: nor was prolongation -difficult in a case so critical, where the majority of chiefs was on one side and -that of naval force on the other—especially as Eurybiades himself was -favourable to the view of Themistocles. Accordingly, the debate was still -unfinished at nightfall, and either continued all night, or was adjourned to -an hour before daybreak on the following morning, when an incident, interesting -as well as important, gave to it a new turn.</p> - -<p>The ostracised Aristides arrived at Salamis from Ægina. Since the -revocation of his sentence, proposed by Themistocles himself, he had had no -opportunity of revisiting Athens, and he now for the first time rejoined his -countrymen in their exile at Salamis; not uninformed of the dissensions -raging, and of the impatience of the Peloponnesians to retire to the isthmus. -He was the first to bring the news that such retirement had become impracticable -from the position of the Persian fleet, which his own vessel, in coming -from Ægina, had only eluded under favour of night. He caused Themistocles -to be invited out from the assembled synod of chiefs, and after a generous -exordium, wherein he expressed his hope that their rivalry would for the future -be only a competition in doing good to their common country, apprised him -that the new movement of the Persians excluded all hope of now reaching -the isthmus and rendered farther debate useless. Themistocles expressed -his joy at the intelligence, and communicated his own secret message whereby -he had himself brought the movement about, in order that the Peloponnesian -chiefs might be forced to fight at Salamis, even against their own consent. -He moreover desired Aristides to go himself into the synod, and communicate -the news: for if it came from the lips of Themistocles, the Peloponnesians -would treat it as a fabrication. So obstinate indeed was their incredulity, -that they refused to accept it as truth even on the assertion of Aristides: -nor was it until the arrival of a Tenian vessel, deserting from the Persian -fleet, that they at last brought themselves to credit the actual posture of -affairs and the entire impossibility of retreat. Once satisfied of this fact, -they prepared themselves at dawn for the impending battle.</p> - -<h4>THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS</h4> - -<p>Having caused his land-force to be drawn up along the shore opposite to -Salamis, Xerxes had erected for himself a lofty seat, or throne, upon one of -the projecting declivities of Mount Ægaleos, near the Heracleum, and immediately -overhanging the sea, from whence he could plainly review all -the phases of the combat and the conduct of his subject troops. He was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span> -persuaded himself that they had not done their best at Artemisium, in consequence -of his absence, and that his presence would inspire them with fresh -valour: moreover, his royal scribes stood ready by his side to take the names -both of the brave and of the backward combatants. On the right wing of -his fleet—which approached Salamis on the side of Eleusis, and was opposed -to the Athenians on the Grecian left—were placed the Phœnicians and -Egyptians; on his left wing the Ionians, approaching from the side of -Piræus, and opposed to the Lacedæmonians, Æginetans, and Megarians. -The seamen of the Persian fleet, however, had been on shipboard all night, -in making that movement which had brought them into their actual position: -while the Greek seamen now began without previous fatigue, fresh from the -animated harangues of Themistocles and the other leaders: moreover, just as -they were getting on board, they were joined by the triremes which had been -sent to Ægina to bring to their aid Æacus, with the other Æacid heroes. -Honoured with this precious heroic aid, which tended so much to raise the -spirits of the Greeks, the Æginetan trireme now arrived just in time to take -her post in the line, having eluded pursuit from the intervening enemy.</p> - -<p>The Greeks rowed forward from the shore to attack with the usual pæan, -or war-shout, which was confidently returned by the Persians; and the latter -were the most forward of the two to begin the fight: for the Greek seamen, -on gradually nearing the enemy, became at first disposed to hesitate, and -even backed water for a space, so that some of them touched ground on their -own shore: until the retrograde movement was arrested by a supernatural -feminine figure hovering over them, who exclaimed, with a voice that rang -through the whole fleet, “Ye worthies, how much farther are ye going to -back water?” The very circulation of this fable attests the dubious courage -of the Greeks at the commencement of the battle. The brave Athenian captains -Aminias and Lycomedes (the former, brother of the poet Æschylus) -were the first to obey either the feminine voice or the inspirations of their -own ardour: though according to the version current at Ægina, it was the -Æginetan ship, the carrier of the Æacid heroes, which first set this honourable -example. The Naxian Democritus was celebrated by Simonides as the -third ship in action. Aminias, darting forth from the line, charged with -the beak of his ship full against a Phœnician, and the two became entangled -so that he could not again get clear; other ships came in aid on both sides, -and the action thus became general. Herodotus, with his usual candour, -tells us that he could procure few details about the action, except as to what -concerned Artemisia, the queen of his own city: so that we know hardly -anything beyond the general facts. But it appears that, with the exception -of the Ionic Greeks, many of whom—apparently a greater number than -Herodotus likes to acknowledge—were lukewarm, and some even averse, the -subjects of Xerxes conducted themselves generally with great bravery: -Phœnicians, Cyprians, Cilicians, Egyptians, vied with the Persians and -Medes, serving as soldiers on shipboard, in trying to satisfy the exigent -monarch who sat on shore watching their behaviour.</p> - -<p>Their signal defeat was not owing to any want of courage, but, first, -to the narrow space which rendered their superior number a hindrance rather -than a benefit: next, to their want of orderly line and discipline as compared -with the Greeks: thirdly, to the fact that, when once fortune seemed to turn -against them, they had no fidelity or reciprocal attachment, and each ally -was willing to sacrifice or even to run down others, in order to effect his own -escape. Their numbers and absence of concert threw them into confusion, and -caused them to run foul of each other: those in the front could not recede,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span> -nor could those in the rear advance: the oar blades were broken by collision, -the steersmen lost control of their ships, and could no longer adjust the ship’s -course so as to strike that direct blow with the beak which was essential in -ancient warfare. After some time of combat, the whole Persian fleet was -driven back and became thoroughly unmanageable, so that the issue was no -longer doubtful, and nothing remained except the efforts of individual bravery -to protract the struggle.</p> - -<p>While the Athenian squadron on the left, which had the greatest resistance -to surmount, broke up and drove before them the Persian right, the -Æginetans on the right intercepted the flight of the fugitives to Phalerum: -Democritus, the Naxian captain, was said to have captured five ships of the -Persians with his own single trireme. The chief admiral, Ariabignes, brother -of Xerxes, attacked at once by two Athenian triremes, fell, gallantly trying -to board one of them, and the number of distinguished Persians and Medes -who shared his fate was great: the more so, as few of them knew how to -swim, while among the Greek seamen who were cast into the sea, the greater -number were swimmers, and had the friendly shore of Salamis near at hand. -It appears that the Phœnician seamen of the fleet threw the blame of defeat -upon the Ionic Greeks; and some of them, driven ashore during the heat of -the battle under the immediate throne of Xerxes, excused themselves by -denouncing the others as traitors. The heads of the Ionic leaders might -have been endangered if the monarch had not seen with his own eyes an act -of surprising gallantry by one of their number. An Ionic trireme from -Samothrace charged and disabled an Attic trireme, but was herself almost -immediately run down by an Æginetan. The Samothracian crew, as their -vessel lay disabled on the water, made such excellent use of their missile -weapons, that they cleared the decks of the Æginetan, sprung on board, and -became masters of her. This exploit, passing under the eyes of Xerxes himself, -induced him to treat the Phœnicians as dastardly calumniators, and to -direct their heads to be cut off: his wrath and vexation, Herodotus tells us, -were boundless, and he scarcely knew on whom to vent it.</p> - -<p>In this disastrous battle itself, as in the debate before the battle, the conduct -of Artemisia of Halicarnassus was such as to give him full satisfaction. -It appears that this queen maintained her full part in the battle until the -disorder had become irretrievable; she then sought to escape, pursued by -the Athenian trierarch, Aminias, but found her progress obstructed by the -number of fugitive or embarrassed comrades before her. In this dilemma, -she preserved herself from pursuit by attacking one of her own comrades; -she charged the trireme of the Carian prince, Damasithymus of Calynda, -ran it down and sunk it, so that the prince with all his crew perished. Had -Aminias been aware that the vessel which he was following was that of -Artemisia, nothing would have induced him to relax in the pursuit, for -the Athenian captains were all indignant at the idea of a female invader -assailing their city; but knowing her ship only as one among the enemy, -and seeing her thus charge and destroy another enemy’s ship, he concluded -her to be a deserter, turned his pursuit elsewhere, and suffered her to escape. -At the same time, it so happened that the destruction of the ship of Damasithymus -happened under the eyes of Xerxes and of the persons around him -on shore, who recognised the ship of Artemisia, but supposed the ship destroyed -to be a Greek. Accordingly they remarked to him, “Master, seest -thou not how well Artemisia fights, and how she has just sunk an enemy’s -ship?” Assured that it was really her deed, Xerxes is said to have replied, -“My men have become women; my women, men.” Thus was Artemisia<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span> -not only preserved, but exalted to a higher place in the esteem of Xerxes -by the destruction of one of his own ships, among the crew of which not a -man survived to tell the true story.</p> - -<p>Of the total loss of either fleet, Herodotus gives us no estimate; but -Diodorus states the number of ships destroyed on the Grecian side as forty, -on the Persian side as two hundred; independent of those which were made -prisoners with all their crews. To the Persian loss is to be added the destruction -of all those troops whom they had landed before the battle in the -island of Psyttalea: as soon as the Persian fleet was put to flight, Aristides -carried over some Grecian hoplites to that island, overpowered the enemy, -and put them to death to a man. This loss appears to have been much -deplored, as they were choice troops; in great proportion the native Persian -guards.</p> - -<h4>THE RETREAT OF XERXES</h4> - -<p>Great and capital as the victory was, there yet remained after it a sufficient -portion of the Persian fleet to maintain even maritime war vigorously, -not to mention the powerful land-force, as yet unshaken. And the Greeks -themselves, immediately after they had collected in their island, as well as -could be done, the fragments of shipping and the dead bodies, made themselves -ready for a second engagement. But they were relieved from this -necessity by the pusillanimity of the invading monarch, in whom the defeat -had occasioned a sudden revulsion from contemptuous confidence, not only -to rage and disappointment, but to the extreme of alarm for his own personal -safety. He was possessed with a feeling of mingled wrath and mistrust -against his naval force, which consisted entirely of subject nations—Phœnicians, -Egyptians, Cilicians, Cyprians, Pamphylians, Ionic Greeks, etc., -with a few Persians and Medes serving on board, in a capacity probably not -well suited to them. None of these subjects had any interest in the success -of the invasion, or any other motive for service except fear, while the sympathies -of the Ionic Greeks were even decidedly against it. Xerxes now -came to suspect the fidelity, or undervalue the courage, of all these naval -subjects; he fancied that they could make no resistance to the Greek fleet, -and dreaded lest the latter should sail forthwith to the Hellespont, so as to -break down the bridge and intercept his personal retreat; for, upon the -maintenance of that bridge he conceived his own safety to turn, not less -than that of his father Darius, when retreating from Scythia, upon the -preservation of the bridge over the Danube. Against the Phœnicians, from -whom he had expected most, his rage broke out in such fierce threats, that -they stole away from the fleet in the night, and departed homeward. Such a -capital desertion made future naval struggle still more hopeless, and Xerxes, -though at first breathing revenge, and talking about a vast mole or bridge -to be thrown across the strait to Salamis, speedily ended by giving orders to -the whole fleet to leave Phalerum in the night, not without disembarking, -however, the best soldiers who served on board. They were to make straight -for the Hellespont, and there to guard the bridge against his arrival.</p> - -<p>This resolution was prompted by Mardonius, who saw the real terror -which beset his master, and read therein sufficient evidence of danger to -himself. When Xerxes despatched to Susa intelligence of his disastrous -overthrow, the feeling at home was not simply that of violent grief for the -calamity, and fear for the personal safety of the monarch—it was farther -embittered by anger against Mardonius, as the instigator of this ruinous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span> -enterprise. That general knew full well that there was no safety for him -in returning to Persia with the shame of failure on his head: it was better -for him to take upon himself the chance of subduing Greece, which he had -good hopes of being yet able to do, and to advise the return of Xerxes -himself to a safe and easy residence in Asia. Such counsel was eminently -palatable to the present alarm of the monarch, while it opened to Mardonius -himself a fresh chance not only of safety, but of increased power and glory. -Accordingly, he began to reassure his master, by representing that the recent -blow was after all not serious—that it had only fallen upon the inferior -part of his force, and upon worthless foreign slaves, like Phœnicians, Egyptians, -etc., while the native Persian troops yet remained unconquered and -unconquerable, fully adequate to execute the monarch’s revenge upon -Hellas; that Xerxes might now very well retire with the bulk of his -army if he were disposed; and that he, Mardonius, would pledge himself to -complete the conquest, at the head of three hundred thousand chosen troops.</p> - -<p>This proposition afforded at the same time consolation for the monarch’s -wounded vanity, and safety for his person: his confidential Persians, and Artemisia -herself, on being consulted, approved of the step. The latter had -acquired his confidence by the dissuasive advice which she had given before -the recent deplorable engagement, and she had every motive now to encourage -a proposition indicating solicitude for his person, as well as relieving -herself from the obligation of further service. “If Mardonius desires to remain -(she remarked, contemptuously), by all means let him have the troops: -should he succeed, thou wilt be the gainer: should he even perish, the loss of -some of thy slaves is trifling, so long as thou remainest safe, and thy house -in power. Thou hast already accomplished the purpose of thy expedition, -in burning Athens.” Xerxes, while adopting this counsel, and directing the -return of his fleet, showed his satisfaction with the Halicarnassian queen, by -entrusting her with some of his children, directing her to transport them to -Ephesus.</p> - -<p>The Greeks at Salamis learned with surprise and joy the departure of the -hostile fleet from the Bay of Phalerum, and immediately put themselves in -pursuit; following as far as the island of Andros without success. Themistocles -and the Athenians are even said to have been anxious to push on forthwith -to the Hellespont, and there break down the bridge of boats, in order -to prevent the escape of Xerxes, had they not been restrained by the caution -of Eurybiades and the Peloponnesians, who represented that it was -dangerous to detain the Persian monarch in the heart of Greece. Themistocles -readily suffered himself to be persuaded, and contributed much to -divert his countrymen from the idea; while he at the same time sent the -faithful Sicinnus a second time to Xerxes, with the intimation that he, -Themistocles, had restrained the impatience of the Greeks to proceed without -delay and burn the Hellespontine bridge, and that he had thus, from -personal friendship to the monarch, secured for him a safe retreat. Though -this is the story related by Herodotus, we can hardly believe that, with the -great Persian land-force in the heart of Attica, there could have been any -serious idea of so distant an operation as that of attacking the bridge at -the Hellespont. It seems more probable that Themistocles fabricated the -intention, with a view of frightening Xerxes away, as well as of establishing -a personal claim upon his gratitude in reserve for future contingencies.</p> - -<p>Such crafty manœuvres and long-sighted calculations of possibility, seem -extraordinary: but the facts are sufficiently attested—since Themistocles -lived to claim as well as to receive fulfilment of the obligation thus conferred—and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span> -though extraordinary, they will not appear inexplicable, if we reflect, -first, that the Persian game, even now, after the defeat of Salamis, was not -only not desperate, but might perfectly well have succeeded, if it had been -played with reasonable prudence: next, that there existed in the mind of -this eminent man an almost unparalleled combination of splendid patriotism, -long-sighted cunning, and selfish rapacity. Themistocles knew better than -any one else that the cause of Greece had appeared utterly desperate, only -a few hours before the late battle; moreover, a clever man, tainted with such -constant guilt, might naturally calculate on being one day detected and punished, -even if the Greeks proved successful.</p> - -<p>He now employed the fleet among the islands of the Cyclades, for the -purpose of levying fines upon them as a punishment for adherence to the -Persian. He first laid siege to Andros, telling the inhabitants that he came -to demand their money, bringing with him two great gods—Persuasion and -Necessity. To which the Andrians replied, that “Athens was a great city, -and blest with excellent gods: but that they were miserably poor, and that -there were two unkind gods who always stayed with them and would never -quit the island—Poverty and Helplessness. In these gods the Andrians put -their trust, refusing to deliver the money required; for the power of Athens -could never overcome their inability.” While the fleet was engaged in contending -against the Andrians with their sad protecting deities, Themistocles -sent round to various other cities, demanding from them private sums of -money on condition of securing them from attack. From Carystus, Paros, -and other places, he thus extorted bribes for himself apart from the other -generals, but it appears that Andros was found unproductive, and after no -very long absence the fleet was brought back to Salamis.</p> - -<p>The intimation sent by Themistocles perhaps had the effect of hastening -the departure of Xerxes, who remained in Attica only a few days after the -battle of Salamis, and then withdrew his army through Bœotia into Thessaly, -where Mardonius made choice of the troops to be retained for his future -operations. He retained all the Persians, Medes, Sacæ, Bactrians, and -Indians, horse as well as foot, together with select detachments of the remaining -contingents: making in all, according to Herodotus, three hundred -thousand men. But as it was now the beginning of September, and as sixty -thousand out of his forces, under Artabazus, were destined to escort Xerxes -himself to the Hellespont, Mardonius proposed to winter in Thessaly, and to -postpone further military operations until the ensuing spring.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;"> -<img src="images/fp5.jpg" width="650" height="422" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">THE VICTORY OF SALAMIS (BY CORMOT)</p> -</div> - -<p>Having left most of these troops under the orders of Mardonius in Thessaly, -Xerxes marched away with the rest to the Hellespont, by the same -road as he had taken in his advance a few months before. Respecting his -retreat, a plentiful stock of stories were circulated, inconsistent with each -other, fanciful, and even incredible: Grecian imagination, in the contemporary -poet Æschylus, as well as in the Latin moralisers Seneca or Juvenal, -delighted in handling this invasion with the maximum of light and shadow, -magnifying the destructive misery and humiliation of the retreat so as to -form an impressive contrast with the superhuman pride of the advance, and -illustrating the antithesis with unbounded license of detail. The sufferings -from want of provision were doubtless severe, and are described as frightful -and death-dealing: the magazines stored up for the advancing march had -been exhausted, so that the retiring army were now forced to seize upon the -corn of the country through which they passed—an insufficient maintenance, -eked out by leaves, grass, the bark of trees, and other wretched substitutes -for food. Plague and dysentery aggravated their misery, and occasioned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span> -many to be left behind among the cities through whose territory the -retreat was carried; strict orders being left by Xerxes that these cities -should maintain and tend them. After forty-five days’ march from Attica, -he at length found himself at the Hellespont, whither his fleet, retreating -from Salamis, had arrived long before him. But the short-lived bridge had -already been knocked to pieces by a storm, so that the army was transported -on shipboard across to Asia, where it first obtained comfort and abundance, -and where the change from privation to excess engendered new maladies. -In the time of Herodotus, the citizens of Abdera still showed the gilt scimitar -and tiara, which Xerxes had presented to them when he halted there in -his retreat, in token of hospitality and satisfaction: and they even went the -length of affirming that never, since his departure from Attica, had he loosened -his girdle until he reached their city. So fertile was Grecian fancy in -magnifying the terror of the repulsed invader—who re-entered Sardis, with -a broken army and humbled spirit, only eight months after he had left it as -the presumed conqueror of the western world.</p> - -<h4>THE SPOILS OF VICTORY</h4> - -<p>Meanwhile the Athenians and Peloponnesians, liberated from the immediate -presence of the enemy either on land or sea, and passing from the extreme -of terror to sudden ease and security, indulged in the full delight and -self-congratulation of unexpected victory. On the day before the battle, -Greece had seemed irretrievably lost: she was now saved even against all -reasonable hope, and the terrific cloud impending over her was dispersed. -In the division of the booty, the Æginetans were adjudged to have distinguished -themselves most in the action, and to be entitled to the choice lot; -while various tributes of gratitude were also set apart for the gods. Among -them were three Phœnician triremes, which were offered in dedication to Ajax -at Salamis, to Athene at Sunium, and to Poseidon at the Isthmus of Corinth; -further presents were sent to Apollo at Delphi, who, on being asked whether -he was satisfied, replied, that all had done their duty to him except the Æginetans: -from them he required additional munificence on account of the prize -awarded to them, and they were constrained to dedicate in the temple four -golden stars upon a staff of brass, which Herodotus himself saw there. Next -to the Æginetans, the second place of honour was awarded to the Athenians; -the Æginetan Polycritus, and the Athenians Eumenes and Aminias, being -ranked first among the individual combatants.</p> - -<p>Besides the first and second prizes of valour, the chiefs at the isthmus tried -to adjudicate among themselves the first and second prizes of skill and wisdom. -Each of them deposited two names on the altar of Poseidon: and when these -votes came to be looked at, it was found that each man had voted for himself -as deserving the first prize, but that Themistocles had a large majority of -votes for the second. The result of such voting allowed no man to claim -the first prize, nor could the chiefs give a second prize without it; so that -Themistocles was disappointed of his reward, though exalted so much the -higher, perhaps, through that very disappointment, in general renown. He -went shortly afterwards to Sparta, where he received from the Lacedæmonians -honours such as were never paid before or afterwards to any foreigner. -A crown of olive was indeed given to Eurybiades as the first prize, but a like -crown was at the same time conferred on Themistocles as a special reward -for unparalleled sagacity; together with a chariot, the finest which the city<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span> -afforded. Moreover, on his departure, the three hundred select youths called -<i>hippeis</i>, who formed the active guard and police of the country, all accompanied -him in a body as escort of honour to the frontiers of Tegea. Such -demonstrations were so astonishing, from the haughty and immovable Spartans, -that they were ascribed by some authors to their fear lest Themistocles -should be offended by being deprived of the general prize.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_20b" id="enanchor_20b"></a><a href="#endnote_20b">b</a></span></p> - -<h4>SYRACUSAN VICTORY OVER CARTHAGE</h4> - -<p>On the very same day on which the Persians were defeated at Salamis, -another portion of the Hellenic race, the Sicilian Greeks, also obtained a -victory over an immense barbarian force. There is reason to believe that -the invasion of Sicily by the Carthaginians was concerted with Xerxes, and -that the simultaneous attack on two distinct Grecian peoples, by two -immense armaments, was not merely the result of chance. It was, however, -in the internal affairs of Sicily that the Carthaginians sought the pretext -and the opportunity for their invasion. About the year 481 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, Theron, -despot of Agrigentum, a relative of Gelo, the powerful ruler of Syracuse, -expelled Terillus from Himera, and took possession of that town. Terillus, -backed by some Sicilian cities which formed a kind of Carthaginian party, -applied to the Carthaginians to restore him. The Carthaginians complied -with the invitation; and in the year 480 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span>, Hamilcar landed at Panormus -with a force composed of various nations, which is said to have amounted to -the enormous sum of three hundred thousand men. Having drawn up his -vessels on the beach, and protected them with a rampart, Hamilcar proceeded -to besiege the Himeræans, who on their part prepared for an obstinate -defence. At the instance of Theron, Gelo marched to the relief of -the town with fifty thousand foot and five thousand horse. An obstinate -and bloody engagement ensued, which, by a stratagem of Gelo’s, was at -length determined in his favour. The ships of the Carthaginians were fired, -and Hamilcar himself slain. According to the statement of Diodorus, one -hundred and fifty thousand Carthaginians fell in the engagement, while the -greater part of the remainder surrendered at discretion, twenty ships alone -escaping with a few fugitives. This account may justly be regarded as an -exaggeration; yet it cannot be doubted that the victory was a decisive one, -and the number very great of the prisoners and slain.</p> - -<p>In Sicily, Greek taste made the sinews of the prisoners subserve the -purposes of art; and many of the public structures which adorned and -distinguished Agrigentum rose by the labour of the captive Carthaginians. -Thus were the arms of Greece victorious on all sides, and the outposts of -Europe maintained against the incursions of the semi-barbarous hordes of -Asia and Africa.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_20f" id="enanchor_20f"></a><a href="#endnote_20f">f</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_31" id="Footnote_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> In the years 1821 and 1822, during the struggle which preceded the liberation of Greece, the -Athenians were forced to leave their country and seek refuge in Salamis three several times. -These incidents are sketched in a manner alike interesting and instructive by Dr. Waddington, -in his <i>Visit to Greece</i> (London, 1825), Letters vi, vii, x. He states, p. 92, “Three times have -the Athenians emigrated in a body, and sought refuge from the sabre among the houseless rocks -of Salamis. Upon these occasions, I am assured, that many have dwelt in caverns, and many -in miserable huts, constructed on the mountain-side by their own feeble hands. Many have -perished too, from exposure to an intemperate climate; many, from diseases contracted through -the loathsomeness of their habitations; many, from hunger and misery. On the retreat of the -Turks, the survivors returned to their country. But to what a country did they return? To a -land of desolation and famine; and in fact, on the first reoccupation of Athens, after the departure -of Omer Brioni, several persons are known to have subsisted for some time on grass, till a -supply of corn reached the Piræus from Syra and Hydra.” In the war between the Turks and -Venetians in 1688, the population of Attica was forced to emigrate to Salamis, Ægina, and -Corinth.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_32" id="Footnote_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Compare the account given in Pausanias (X, 23) of the subsequent repulse of Brennus and -the Gauls from Delphi: in his account, the repulse is not so exclusively the work of the gods as -in that of Herodotus: there is a larger force of human combatants in defence of the temple, -though greatly assisted by divine intervention: there is also loss on both sides. A similar -descent of crags from the summit is mentioned. Many great blocks of stone and cliff are still to -be seen near the spot, which have rolled down from the top, and which remind the traveller of -these passages. The attack here described to have been made by order of Xerxes upon the -Delphian temple seems not easy to reconcile with the words of Mardonius: still less can it be -reconciled with the statement of Plutarch, who says that the Delphian temple was burnt by the -Medes.</p> - -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-21.jpg" width="500" height="115" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XXI_FROM_SALAMIS_TO_MYCALE">CHAPTER XXI. FROM SALAMIS TO MYCALE</h3> - -<p>The battle of Salamis is a watchword of Greek triumph, and yet it by no -means solved the problem of independence, for a great army was still in the -country, enjoying the confidence and aid of many Greek allies. The defeated -Persian fleet itself was still of sufficient power to be a lively danger.</p> - -<p>The remainder of the fleet of Xerxes, which, flying from Salamis, arrived -in Asia, after transporting the king and his forces from the Chersonesus to -Abydos, wintered at Cyme. In the commencement of the spring it assembled -at Samos, where some other vessels had continued during the winter. -This armament was principally manned by Persians and Medes, and was -under the conduct of Mardontes, the son of Bagæus, and Artayntes, son of -Artachæus, whose uncle Amitres had been joined to him as his colleague. -As the alarm of their former defeat was not yet subsided, they did not attempt -to advance farther west, nor indeed did any one impel them to do so. -Their vessels, with those of the Ionians, amounted to three hundred, and -they stationed themselves at Samos, to secure the fidelity of Ionia. They -did not think it probable that the Greeks would penetrate into Ionia, but -would be satisfied with defending their country. They were confirmed -in this opinion, as the Greeks, after the battle of Salamis, never attempted to -pursue them, but were themselves content to retire also.</p> - -<p>With respect to their affairs at sea, the Persians were sufficiently depressed; -but they expected that Mardonius would do great things by land. -Remaining on their station at Samos, they consulted how they might annoy -the enemy, and they anxiously attended to the progress and affairs of -Mardonius.</p> - -<p>The approach of the spring, and the appearance of Mardonius in Thessaly, -roused the Greeks. Their land army was not yet got together, but their -fleet, consisting of a hundred and ten ships, was already at Ægina, under the -command of Leotychides. He was descended in a right line from Hercules. -He was of the second royal family, and all his ancestors, except the two -named after Leotychides, had been kings of Sparta. The Athenians were -commanded by Xanthippus, son of Ariphron.</p> - -<p>When the fleet of the Greeks had arrived at Ægina, the same individuals -who had before been at Sparta to entreat the assistance of that people to -deliver Ionia, arrived among the Greeks. Herodotus, the son of Basilides, -was with them; they were in all seven, and had together concerted the -death of Strattis, tyrant of Chios. Their plot having been discovered by -one of the accomplices, the other six had withdrawn themselves to Sparta, -and now came to Ægina to persuade the Greeks to enter Ionia: they were -induced, though not without difficulty, to advance as far as Delos. All -beyond this, the Greeks viewed as full of danger, as well because they were -ignorant of the country, as because they supposed the enemy’s forces were in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span> -all these parts strong and numerous: Samos they considered as not less remote -than the pillars of Hercules. Thus the barbarians were kept by their -apprehensions from advancing beyond Samos, and the Greeks, notwithstanding -the solicitations of the Chians, would not move farther eastward than -Delos. Their mutual alarm thus kept the two parties at a distance from -each other.</p> - -<p>Whilst the Greeks thus moved to Delos, Mardonius, who had wintered -in Thessaly, began to break up his quarters. His first step was to send an -European, whose name was Mys, to the different oracles, ordering him to -use his endeavours, and consult them all.</p> - -<h4>MARDONIUS MAKES OVERTURES TO ATHENS</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[479 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>As soon as the oracular declarations had been conveyed to Mardonius, he -sent Alexander the Macedonian, son of Amyntas, ambassador to Athens. -His choice of him was directed from his being connected with the Persians -by ties of consanguinity and from his being a man of munificent and hospitable -spirit. For these reasons he deemed him the most likely to conciliate the -Athenians, who were represented to him as a valiant and numerous people, -and who had principally contributed to the defeats which the Persians had -sustained by sea. He reasonably presumed, that if he could prevail on them -to unite their forces with his own, he might easily become master of the sea. -His power by land was in his opinion superior to all resistance, and as -the oracles had probably advised him to make an alliance with the Athenians, -he hoped by these means effectually to subdue the Greeks.</p> - -<p>When Alexander arrived at Athens, as deputed by Mardonius, he delivered -the following speech: “Men of Athens, Mardonius informs you by -me, that he has received a commission from the king of the following import: -‘Whatever injuries the Athenians may have done me, I willingly -forgive: return them therefore their country; let them add to it from -any other they may prefer, and let them enjoy their own laws. If they -will consent to enter into an alliance with me, you have my orders to -rebuild all their temples which I have burned.’</p> - -<p>“It will be my business to do all this unless you prevent me. I will now -give you my own sentiments: What infatuation can induce you to continue -your hostilities against a king to whom you can never be superior, and -whom you cannot always resist: you already know the forces and exploits -of Xerxes: neither can you be ignorant of the army under me. If you -should even repel and conquer us, of which if you be wise you can indulge -no hope, another army not inferior in strength will soon succeed ours. Do -not, therefore, by endeavouring to render yourselves equal to so great a -king, risk not only the loss of your native country, but the security of your -persons: accept, therefore, of our friendship, and avail yourselves of the -present honourable opportunity of averting the indignation of Xerxes. -Be free, and let us mutually enter into a solemn alliance without fraud or -treachery. Let, then, my offers prevail with you as their importance merits, -for to you alone of all the Greeks, the king forgives the injuries he has -sustained, wishing to become your friend.”</p> - -<p>The Lacedæmonians having heard that this prince was gone to Athens -to invite the Athenians to an alliance with the Persians, were exceedingly -alarmed. They could not forget the oracle which foretold that they, with -the rest of the Dorians, should be driven from the Peloponnesus by a junction<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span> -of the Medes with the Athenians, to whom therefore they lost no time -in sending ambassadors. These were present at the Athenian council, for -the Athenians had endeavoured to gain time, well knowing that the Lacedæmonians -would learn that an ambassador was come to invite them to a confederacy -with the Persians, and would consequently send deputies to be -present on the occasion; they therefore deferred the meeting, that the -Lacedæmonians might be present at the declaration of their sentiments.</p> - -<p>When Alexander had finished speaking, the Spartan envoys made this -immediate reply: “We have been deputed by the Spartans, to entreat you -not to engage in anything which may operate to the injury of our common -country, nor listen to any propositions of Xerxes; such a conduct would not -be equitable in itself, and would be particularly base in you from various -reasons: you were the first promoters of this war, in opposition to our opinion; -it was first of all commenced in vindication of your liberties, though all Greece -was afterwards drawn into the contest. It will be most of all intolerable, -that the Athenians should become the instruments of enslaving Greece, who, -from times the most remote, have restored their liberties to many. Your -present condition does not fail to excite in us sentiments of the sincerest pity, -who, for two successive seasons, have been deprived of the produce of your -lands, and have so long seen your mansions in ruin. From reflecting on your -situation, we Spartans, in conjunction with your other allies, undertake to -maintain, as long as the war shall continue, not only your wives, but such -other parts of your families as are incapable of military service. Let not, -therefore, this Macedonian Alexander, softening the sentiments of Mardonius, -seduce you: the part he acts is consistent; a tyrant himself, he espouses the -interests of a tyrant. If you are wise you will always remember, that the -barbarians are invariably false and faithless.”</p> - -<p>After the above address of the Spartans, the Athenians made this reply -to Alexander: “It was not at all necessary for you to inform us, that the -power of the Persians was superior to our own: nevertheless, in defence of -our liberties, we will continue our resistance to the utmost of our abilities. -You may be assured that your endeavours to persuade us into an alliance -with the barbarians never will succeed: tell, therefore, Mardonius, on the -part of the Athenians, that as long as the sun shall continue its ordinary -course, so long will we avoid any friendship with Xerxes, and so long will -we continue to resist him. Tell him, we shall always look with confidence -to the protecting assistance of those gods and heroes whose shrines and temples -he has contemptuously destroyed. Hereafter do not you presume to enter -an Athenian assembly with overtures of this kind, lest whilst you appear to -mean us well, you prompt us to do what is abominable. We are unwilling -that you should receive any injury from us, having been our guest and our -friend.”</p> - -<p>The above was the answer given to Alexander; after which the Athenians -thus spoke to the Lacedæmonians: “That the Spartans should fear our entering -into an alliance with the barbarians seems natural enough; but in doing -this, as you have had sufficient testimonies of Athenian firmness, you certainly -did us injury. There is not upon earth a quantity of gold, nor any country -so rich or so beautiful, as to seduce us to take part with the Medes, or to act -injuriously to the liberties of Greece.</p> - -<p>“If of ourselves we were so inclined, there still exist many important circumstances -to deter us: in the first place, what is of all motives the most -powerful, the shrines and temples of our deities, consumed by fire, and levelled -with the ground, prompt us to the prosecution of a just revenge, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span> -manifestly compel us to reject every idea of forming an alliance with him -who perpetrated these impieties. In the next place, our common consanguinity, -our using the same language, our worship of the same divinities, and our -practice of the same religious ceremonies, render it impossible that the Athenians -should prove perfidious. If you knew it not before, be satisfied now, -that as long as one Athenian shall survive, we will not be friends with Xerxes; -in the mean time, your interest in our fortunes, your concern for the ruin of -our mansions, and your offers to provide for the maintenance of our families, -demand our gratitude, and may be considered as the perfection of generosity. -We will, however, bear our misfortunes as we may be able, and not be troublesome -to you; be it your care to bring your forces into the field as expeditiously -as possible; it is not probable that the barbarian will long defer his -invasion of our country, he will be upon us as soon as he shall be informed -that we have rejected his proposals: before he shall be able to penetrate into -Attica, it becomes us to advance to the assistance of Bœotia.”</p> - -<h4>MARDONIUS MOVES ON ATHENS</h4> - -<p>On receiving this answer from the Athenians, the ambassadors returned -to Sparta. As soon as Mardonius heard from Alexander the determination -of the Athenians, he moved from Thessaly, directing by rapid marches his -course towards Athens. Wherever he came, he furnished himself with supplies -of troops. The princes of Thessaly were so far from repenting of the -part they had taken, that they endeavoured still more to animate Mardonius. -Of these, Thorax of Larissa, who had attended Xerxes in his flight, now -openly conducted Mardonius into Greece.</p> - -<p>As soon as the army in its progress arrived at Bœotia, the Thebans -received Mardonius. They endeavoured to persuade him to fix his station -where he was, assuring him that a place more convenient for a camp, or -better adapted for the accomplishment of his purpose, could not be found. -They told him that by staying here he might subdue the Greeks without a -battle. He might be satisfied, they added, from his former experience, that -as long as the Greeks were united, it would be impossible for any body of -men to subdue them. “If,” said they, “you will be directed by our advice, -you will be able, without difficulty, to counteract their wisest counsels. -Send a sum of money to the most powerful men in each city: you will thus -create anarchy in Greece, and by the assistance of your partisans, easily -overcome all opposition.”</p> - -<p>This was the advice of the Thebans, which Mardonius was prevented -from following, partly by his earnest desire of becoming a second time master -of Athens, and partly by his pride. He was also anxious to inform the -king at Sardis, by means of fires disposed at certain distances along the -islands, that he had taken Athens. Proceeding therefore to Attica, he found -it totally deserted; the inhabitants, as he was informed, being either at -Salamis or on board the fleet. He then took possession of Athens a second -time, ten months after its capture by Xerxes. Whilst he continued at -Athens, he despatched to Salamis, Murichides, a native of the Hellespont, -with the same propositions that Alexander the Macedonian had before made -to the Athenians.</p> - -<p>Murichides went to the council, and delivered the sentiments of Mardonius. -A senator named Lycidas gave his opinion, that the terms offered by -Murichides were such as it became them to listen to, and communicate to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span> -the people; he said this, either from conviction, or seduced by the gold of -Mardonius; but he had no sooner thus expressed himself, than both the -Athenians who heard him, and those who were without, rushed with indignation -upon him, and stoned him to death.<a name="FNanchor_33" id="FNanchor_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> They dismissed Murichides without -injury. The Athenian women soon heard of the tumult which had been -excited at Salamis on account of Lycidas, when, in a body mutually stimulating -each other, they ran impetuously to his house, and stoned his wife -and his children.</p> - -<h4>ATHENS APPEALS TO SPARTA</h4> - -<p>These were the inducements with the Athenians for returning to Salamis: -as long as they entertained any expectation of assistance from the -Peloponnesus, they stayed in Attica; but when they found their allies careless -and inactive, and that Mardonius was already in Bœotia, they removed with -all their effects to Salamis. At the same time they sent envoys to Lacedæmon, -to complain that the Spartans, instead of advancing with them to meet -the barbarian in Bœotia, had suffered him to enter Attica. They told them -by what liberal offers the Persian had invited them to his friendship; and -they forewarned them, that if they were not speedy in their communication -of assistance, the Athenians must seek some other remedy. The Lacedæmonians -were then celebrating what are called the <i>hyacinthia</i>, which solemnity, -they deem of the highest importance; they were also at work upon the -wall of the isthmus, the battlements of which were already erected.</p> - -<p>The ephori heard the deputies, but deferred answering them till the next -day; when the morrow came, they put them off till the day following, and -this they did for ten days successively. In this interval, the Peloponnesians -prosecuted with great ardour on the isthmus, their work of the wall, which -they nearly completed. Why the Spartans discovered so great an anxiety -on the arrival of Alexander at Athens, lest the Athenians should come to -terms with the Medes, and why now they did not seem to concern themselves -about them, is more than we are able to explain, unless it was that -the wall of the Isthmus was unfinished, after which they did not want the -aid of the Athenians: but when Alexander arrived at Athens, this work -was not completed, although from terror of the Persians they eagerly pursued -it.</p> - -<p>The answer and motions of the Spartans were finally these: on the day -preceding that which was last appointed, a man of Tegea, named Chileus, -who enjoyed at Lacedæmon greater reputation than any other foreigner, -inquired from one of the ephori what the Athenians had said; which when -he knew, he thus addressed them: “Things, O ephori, are thus circumstanced. -If the Athenians, withdrawing from our alliance, shall unite with -the Persian, strong as our wall on the isthmus may be, the enemy will still -find an easy entrance into the Peloponnesus. Let us therefore hear them, -before they do anything which may involve Greece in ruin.”</p> - -<p>The ephori were so impressed by what Chileus had said, that without -communicating with the deputies of the different states, whilst it was yet -night, they sent away a detachment of five thousand Spartans, each accompanied -by seven helots, under the conduct of Pausanias, son of Cleombrotus.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span></p> - -<p>With these forces Pausanias left Sparta: the deputies, ignorant of the -matter, when the morning came went to the ephori, having previously -resolved to return to their respective cities: “You, O Lacedæmonians,” -they exclaimed, “lingering here, solemnise the <i>hyacinthia</i>, and are busy in -your public games, basely deserting your allies. The Athenians, injured by -you, and but little assisted by any, will make their peace with the Persians -on the best terms they can obtain. When the enmity betwixt us shall have -ceased, and we shall become the king’s allies, we shall fight with him wherever -he may choose to lead us: you may know therefore what consequences -you have to expect.”</p> - -<p>In answer to this declaration of the ambassadors, the ephori protested, -upon oath, that they believed their troops were already in Oresteum, on their -march against the strangers; by which expression they meant the barbarians. -The deputies, not understanding them, requested an explanation. -When the matter was properly represented to them, they departed with -astonishment to overtake them, accompanied by five thousand armed troops -from the neighbourhood of Sparta.</p> - -<p>Whilst these were hastening to the isthmus, the Argives, as soon as they -heard of the departure of Pausanias at the head of a body of troops from -Sparta, sent one of their fleetest messengers to Mardonius in Attica. They -had before undertaken to prevent the Lacedæmonians from taking the field. -When the herald arrived at Athens, “I am sent,” said he to Mardonius, “by -the Argives, to inform you that the forces of Sparta are already on their -march, and we have not been able to prevent them; avail yourself therefore -of this information.” Saying this, he returned.</p> - -<h4>MARDONIUS DESTROYS ATHENS AND WITHDRAWS</h4> - -<p>Mardonius, hearing this, determined to stay no longer in Attica. He -had continued until this time, willing to see what measures the Athenians -would take; and he had refrained from offering any kind of injury to the -Athenian lands, hoping they would still make peace with him. When it -was evident that this was not to be expected, he withdrew his army, before -Pausanias and his detachment arrived at the isthmus. He did not however -depart without setting fire to Athens,<a name="FNanchor_34" id="FNanchor_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> and levelling with the ground whatever -of the walls, buildings, or temples, still remained entire. He was -induced to quit his station, because the country of Attica was ill adapted for -cavalry, and because in case of defeat he had no other means of escape but -through straits where a handful of men might cut off his retreat. He therefore -determined to remove to Thebes, that he might have the advantage of -fighting near a confederate city and in a country convenient for his cavalry.</p> - -<p>Mardonius was already on his march, when another courier came in -haste to inform him, that a second body of a thousand Spartans was moving -towards Megara. He accordingly deliberated how he might intercept this -latter party. Turning aside towards Megara, he sent on his cavalry to -ravage the Megarian lands. These were the extreme limits on the western -parts of Europe, to which the Persian army penetrated.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span></p> - -<p>Another messenger now came to tell him, that the Greeks were assembled -with great strength at the isthmus; he therefore turned back through Decelea. -The Bœotian chiefs had employed their Asopian neighbours as guides, -who conducted Mardonius first to Sphendaleas, and thence to Tanagra. At -Tanagra, Mardonius passed the night, and the next day came to Scolos, in -the Theban territory. Here the lands of the Thebans, though the friends -and allies of the Medes, were laid waste, not from any enmity, but from the -urgent necessities of the army. The general was desirous to fortify his -camp, and to have some place of refuge in case of defeat. His camp extended -from Erythræ, by Hysiæ, as far as Platæa, on the banks of the Asopus. -It was protected by a wall, which did not continue the whole extent -of the camp, but which occupied a space of ten stadia in each of the four -fronts.</p> - -<p>Whilst Mardonius was stationed in Bœotia, all the Greeks who were -attached to the Persians supplied him with troops, and joined him in his -attack on Athens; the Phocians alone did not; these had indeed, and with -apparent ardour, favoured the Medes, not from inclination but necessity. -A few days after the entertainment given at Thebes, they arrived with a -thousand well-armed troops under the command of Harmocydes, one of their -most popular citizens. Mardonius, on their following him to Thebes, sent -some horsemen, commanding them to halt by themselves in the plain where -they were: at the same moment, all the Persian cavalry appeared in sight. -A rumour instantly circulated among those Greeks who were in the Persian -camp, that the Phocians were going to be put to death by the cavalry. The -same also spread through the Phocians, on which account their leader Harmocydes -thus addressed them:</p> - -<p>“My friends, I am convinced that we are destined to perish by the swords -of these men, and from the accusations of the Thessalians. Let each man -therefore prove his valour. It is better to die like men, exerting ourselves -in our own defence, than to suffer ourselves to be slain tamely and without -resistance: let these barbarians know, that the men whose deaths they meditate -are Greeks.”</p> - -<p>With these words Harmocydes animated his countrymen. When the -cavalry had surrounded them, they rode up as if to destroy them: they made -a show of hurling their weapons, which some of them probably did. The -Phocians upon this closed their ranks, and on every part fronted the enemy. -The Persians seeing this, faced about and retired. We are not able to decide -whether, at the instigation of the Thessalians, the Phocians were actually -doomed to death; or whether, observing them determined to defend themselves, -the Persians retired from the fear of receiving some injury themselves, -and as if they had been so ordered by Mardonius, merely to make experiment -of their valour. After the cavalry were withdrawn, a herald came to them -on the part of Mardonius: “Men of Phocis,” he exclaimed, “be not alarmed; -you have given a proof of resolution which Mardonius had been taught not -to expect; assist us therefore in the war with alacrity, for you shall neither -outdo me nor the king in generosity.”</p> - -<p>The Lacedæmonians arriving at the isthmus, fortified their camp. As soon -as this was known to the rest of the Peloponnesians, all were unwilling to -be surpassed by the Spartans, as well they who were actuated by a love of -their country, as they who had seen the Lacedæmonians proceed on their -march. The victims which were sacrificed having a favourable appearance, -they left the isthmus in a body, and came to Eleusis. The sacrifices at this -place being again auspicious, they continued to advance, having been joined<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span> -at Eleusis by the Athenians, who had passed over from Salamis. On their -arrival at Erythræ, in Bœotia, they learned that the barbarians were encamped -near the Asopus; then they marched to the foot of Mount Cithæron.</p> - -<h4>A PRELIMINARY SKIRMISH</h4> - -<p>As they did not descend into the plain<a name="FNanchor_35" id="FNanchor_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> Mardonius sent the whole of his -cavalry against them, under the command of Masistius, called by the Greeks -Macistius. He was a Persian of distinction, and was on this occasion -mounted on a Nisæan horse, decorated with a bridle of gold, and other -splendid trappings. When they came near the Greeks, they attacked them -in squadrons, did them considerable injury, and by way of insult called them -women. The situation of the Megarians being most easy of access, was most -exposed to the enemy’s attack. Being hardly pressed by the barbarians, -they sent a herald, who thus addressed the Grecian commanders: “We -Megarians, O allies, are unable to stand the shock of the enemy’s cavalry -in our present position: if you are not speedy in relieving us, we shall be -compelled to quit the field.”</p> - -<p>After this report of the heralds, Pausanias wished to see if any of the -Greeks would voluntarily offer themselves to take the post of the Megarians. -All refused, except a chosen band of three hundred Athenians, commanded -by Olympiodorus, the son of Lampon.</p> - -<p>This body, which took upon itself the defence of a post declined by all -the other Greeks encamped at Erythræ, brought with them a band of archers. -The engagement, after an obstinate dispute, terminated thus: The enemies’ -horse attacked in squadrons; the steed of Masistius, being conspicuous -above the rest, was wounded in the side by an arrow; it reared, and becoming -unruly from the pain of the wound, threw its rider. The Athenians -rushed upon him, seized the horse, and notwithstanding his resistance, -killed Masistius. In doing this, however, they had some difficulty, on -account of his armour. Over a purple tunic he wore a breastplate covered -with plates of gold. This repelled all their blows, which some person perceiving, -killed him by wounding him in the eye. The death of Masistius -was unknown to the rest of his troops; they did not see him fall from his -horse, and were ignorant of his fate, their attention being entirely occupied -by succeeding in regular squadrons to the charge. At length making a -stand, they perceived themselves without a leader. Upon this they rushed -in with united force to bring off the body of Masistius.</p> - -<p>The Athenians seeing them advance in a collected body, called out -for relief. While the infantry were moving to their support, the body of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span> -Masistius was vigorously disputed. While the three hundred were alone, -they were compelled to give ground, and recede from the body; but other -forces coming to their relief, the cavalry in their turn gave way, and, with -the body of their leader, lost a great number of their men. Retiring for the -space of two stadia, they held a consultation, and being without a commander, -determined to return to Mardonius. On their arrival at the camp, the death -of Masistius spread a general sorrow through the army, and greatly afflicted -Mardonius himself. They cut off the hair from themselves, their horses, -and their beasts of burden, and all Bœotia resounded with their cries and -lamentations. The man they had lost, was, next to Mardonius, most esteemed -by the Persians and the king.</p> - -<p>The Greeks having not only sustained but repelled the attacks of the -cavalry, were inspired with increasing resolution. The body of Masistius, -which from its beauty and size deserved admiration, they placed on a -carriage, and passed through the ranks, while all quitted their stations to -view it. They afterwards determined to remove to Platæa; they thought this -a more commodious place for a camp than Erythræ, as well for other reasons -as because there was plenty of water. To this place, near which is the fountain -of Gargaphia, they resolved to go and pitch a regularly fortified camp. -Taking their arms, they proceeded by the foot of Cithæron, and passing -Hysiæ, came to Platæa. They drew themselves up in regular divisions of -the different nations, near the fountain of Gargaphia and the shrine of the -hero Androcrates, some on a gently rising ground, others on the plain.</p> - -<p>In the arrangement of the several nations, a violent dispute arose betwixt -the Tegeatæ and Athenians, each asserting their claim to one of the wings, -in vindication of which they appealed to their former as well as more recent -exploits. The Tegeatæ spoke to this effect:</p> - -<p>“The post which we now claim has ever been given us by the joint -consent of the allies, in all the expeditions made beyond the Peloponnesus: -we not only speak of ancient but of less distant periods. After the death -of Eurystheus, when the Heraclidæ made an attempt to return to the -Peloponnesus, the rank we now vindicate was allowed us. With you, O -Lacedæmonians, we do not enter into competition, we are willing that you -should take your post in which wing you think proper; the command of -the other, which has so long been allowed us, we now claim. Not to -dwell upon the action we have recited, we are certainly more worthy of this -post than the Athenians. On your account, O Spartans, as well as for -the benefit of others, we have fought again and again with success and -glory. Let not then the Athenians be on this occasion preferred to us; -for they have never in an equal manner distinguished themselves in past -or in more recent periods.”</p> - -<p>The Athenians made this reply: “We are well aware, that the motive of -our assembling here is not to spend our time in altercations, but to fight the -barbarians; but since it has been thought necessary to urge on the part of -the Tegeatæ their ancient as well as more recent exploits, we feel ourselves -obliged to assert that right, which we receive from our ancestors, to be preferred -to the Arcadians as long as we shall conduct ourselves well. Those -Heraclidæ, whose leader they boast to have slain at the isthmus, after being -rejected by all the Greeks with whom they wished to take refuge from the -servitude of the people of Mycenæ, found a secure retreat with us alone. -In conjunction with them we chastised the insolence of Eurystheus, and obtained -a complete victory over those possessing the Peloponnesus. The -Argives, who under Polynices fought against Thebes, remaining unburied,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span> -we undertook an expedition against the Cadmeans, recovered the bodies, and -interred them in our country at Eleusis. A further instance of our prowess was -exhibited in our repulsion of the Amazons, who advanced from the river Thermodon -to invade Attica. We were no less conspicuous at the siege of Troy.</p> - -<p>“But this recital is vain and useless; the people who were then illustrious -might now be base, or dastards then, might now be heroes. Enough -therefore of the examples of our former glory, though we are still able to -introduce more and greater; for if any of the Greeks at the battle of Marathon -merited renown, we may claim this, and more also. On that day we -alone contended with the Persian, and after a glorious and successful contest -were victorious over an army of forty-six different nations; which action -must confessedly entitle us to the post we claim; but in the present state of -affairs, all dispute about rank is unseasonable; we are ready, O Lacedæmonians, -to oppose the enemy wherever you shall choose to station us. Wherever -we may be, we shall endeavour to behave like men. Lead us on therefore, -we are ready to obey you.”</p> - -<p>When the Athenians had thus delivered their sentiments, the Lacedæmonians -were unanimous in declaring that the Arcadians must yield to the -people of Athens the command of one of the wings. They accordingly took -their station in preference to the Tegeatæ.</p> - -<h4>PREPARATIONS FOR THE BATTLE OF PLATÆA</h4> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/p362.jpg" width="250" height="350" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Officer</span></p> -<p class="caption">(After Hope)</p> -</div> - -<p>The Greeks who came afterwards, with those who -were present before, were thus disposed. The -Lacedæmonians, to the number of ten thousand, -occupied the right wing; of these, five -thousand were Spartans, who were followed -by thirty-five thousand helots lightly armed, -allowing seven helots to each Spartan. The -Tegeatæ, to the number of fifteen hundred, -were placed by the Spartans next themselves, -in consideration of their valour, -and as a mark of honour. Nearest the -Tegeatæ were five thousand Corinthians, -who, in consequence of their request -to Pausanias, had contiguous to them -three hundred Potidæans of Pallene. Next -in order were six hundred Arcadians of Orchomnene, -three thousand Sicyonians, eight -hundred Epidaurians, and a thousand Trœzenians. -Contiguous to these last were two -hundred Lepreatæ; next to whom were -four hundred Mycenæans and Tirynthians. -Stationed by the Tirynthians were, in regular -succession, a thousand Phliasians, three hundred -Hermionians, six hundred Eretrians -and Styrians; next came four hundred Chalcidians, -five hundred Ambracians, eight -hundred Leucadians and Anactorians; to -whom two hundred Paleans of Cephallenia, and five hundred Æginetæ, -successively joined. Three thousand Megarians and six hundred Platæans<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span> -were contiguous to the Athenians, who to the number of eight thousand, -under the command of Aristides, son of Lysimachus, occupied the left wing -at the other extremity of the army.</p> - -<p>The amount of this army, independent of the seven helots to each Spartan, -was thirty-eight thousand seven hundred men, all of them completely -armed and drawn together to repel the barbarian. Of the light-armed -troops were the thirty-five thousand helots, each well prepared for battle, -and thirty-four thousand five hundred attendant on the Lacedæmonians and -other Greeks,<a name="FNanchor_36" id="FNanchor_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> reckoning a light-armed soldier to every man; the whole of -these therefore amounted to sixty-nine thousand five hundred.</p> - -<p>Thus the whole of the Grecian army assembled at Platæa, including both -the heavy-and light-armed troops, was one hundred and eight thousand two -hundred men; adding to these one thousand and eight hundred Thespians, -who were with the Greeks, but without arms, the complete number was one -hundred and ten thousand. These were encamped on the banks of the -Asopus.</p> - -<p>The barbarian army having ceased to lament Masistius, as soon as they -knew that the Greeks were advanced to Platæa, marched also to that part -of the Asopus nearest to it; where they were thus disposed by Mardonius. -Opposed to the Lacedæmonians were the Persians, who, as they were superior -in number, fronted the Tegeatæ also. Of this body the select part was -opposed to the Lacedæmonians, the less effective to the Tegeatæ. In making -which arrangement, Mardonius followed the advice of the Thebans. -Next to the Persians were the Medes, opposed to the Corinthians, Potidæans, -Orchomenians, and Sicyonians. The Bactrians were placed next, to encounter -the Epidaurians, Trœzenians, Lepreatæ, Tirynthians, Mycenæans, -and Phliasians. Contiguous to the Bactrians the Indians were disposed, in -opposition to the Hermionians, Eretrians, Styrians, and Chalcidians. The -Sacæ, next in order, fronted the Ambracians, Anactorians, Leucadians, -Paleans, and Æginetæ. The Athenians, Platæans, and Megarians were -ultimately faced by the Bœotians, Locrians, Melians, Thessalians, and a -thousand Phocians. All the Phocians did not assist the Medes; some of -them, about Parnassus, favoured the Greeks, and from that station attacked -and harassed both the troops of Mardonius and those of the Greeks who were -with him. The Macedonians and Thessalians were also opposed to the -Athenians.</p> - -<p>In this manner Mardonius arranged those nations who were the most -numerous and the most illustrious; with these were promiscuously mixed -bodies of Phrygians, Thracians, Mysians, Pæonians, and others. To the -above might be added the Ethiopians, and those Egyptians named Hermotybians -and Calasirians, who alone of that country follow the profession -of arms. These had formerly served on board the fleet, whence they had -been removed to the land-forces by Mardonius when at Phalerum: the -Egyptians had not been reckoned with those forces which Xerxes led -against Athens. We have before remarked, that the barbarian army consisted -of three hundred thousand men; the number of the Greek confederates -of Mardonius, as it was never taken, cannot be ascertained; but as far as -conjecture may determine, they amounted to about fifty thousand men. -Such was the arrangement of the infantry; the cavalry were posted apart -by themselves.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span></p> - -<p>Both armies being thus ranged in nations and squadrons, on the following -day offered sacrifices. The sacrifices promised victory to the Greeks if they -acted on the defensive, but the contrary if, passing the Asopus, they began -the fight. Mardonius, though anxious to engage, had nothing to hope from -the entrails, unless he acted on the defensive only. He had also sacrificed -according to the Grecian rites, using as his soothsayer Hegesistratus, an -Elean, and the most illustrious of the Telliadæ. The Spartans had formerly -seized this man, thrown him into prison, and menaced him with death, as -one from whom they had received many and atrocious injuries. In this -distress, alarmed not merely for his life, but with the idea of having -previously to suffer many severities, he accomplished a thing which can -hardly be told. He was confined in some stocks bound with iron, but -accidentally obtaining a knife, he perpetrated the boldest thing which -has ever been recorded.</p> - -<p>Calculating what part of the remainder he should be able to draw out, he -cut off the extremity of his foot; this done, notwithstanding he was guarded, -he dug a hole under the wall, and escaped to Tegea, travelling only by night, -and concealing himself in the woods during the day. Eluding the strictest -search of the Lacedæmonians, he came on the third night to Tegea, his keepers -being astonished at his resolution, for they saw the half of his foot, but could -not find the man. In this manner Hegesistratus escaped to Tegea, which -was not at that period in amity with Sparta. When his wound was healed -he procured himself a wooden foot, and became an avowed enemy to Sparta. -His animosity against the Lacedæmonians proved ultimately of no advantage -to himself; he was taken in the exercise of his office at Zacynthus, and put to -death. The fate of Hegesistratus was subsequent to the battle of Platæa: at -the time of which we were speaking, Mardonius, for a considerable sum, had -prevailed with him to sacrifice, which he eagerly did, as well from his hatred -of the Lacedæmonians, as from the desire of reward; but the appearance of -the entrails gave no encouragement to fight, either to the Persians or their -confederate Greeks, who also had their own appropriate soothsayer, Hippomachus -of Leucadia. As the Grecian army continually increased, Timagenidas -of Thebes, son of Herpys, advised Mardonius to guard the pass of Cithæron, -representing that he might thus intercept great bodies, who were every day -thronging to the allied army of the Greeks.</p> - -<p>The hostile armies had already remained eight days encamped opposite to -each other, when the above counsel was given to Mardonius. He acknowledged -its propriety, and immediately on the approach of night detached some -cavalry to that part of Cithæron leading to Platæa, a place called by the -Bœotians the “Three Heads,” by the Athenians the “Heads of Oak.” This -measure had its effect, and they took a convoy of five hundred beasts of burden, -carrying a supply of provisions from the Peloponnesus to the army: with -the carriages, they took also all the men who conducted them. Masters of this -booty, the Persians, with the most unrelenting barbarity, put both men and -beasts to death: when their cruelty was satiated, they returned with what -they had taken to Mardonius.</p> - -<p>After this event two days more passed, neither army being willing to -engage. The barbarians, to irritate the Greeks, advanced as far as the Asopus, -but neither army would pass the stream. The cavalry of Mardonius greatly -and constantly harassed the Greeks. The Thebans, who were very zealous in -their attachment to the Medes, prosecuted the war with ardour, and did everything -but join battle; the Persians and Medes supported them and performed -many illustrious actions.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span></p> - -<p>In this situation things remained for the space of ten days: on the -eleventh, the armies retaining the same position with respect to each other, -and the Greeks having received considerable reinforcements, Mardonius -became disgusted with their inactivity. He accordingly held a conference -with Artabazus, the son of Pharnaces, who was one of the few Persians -whom Xerxes honoured with his esteem: it was the opinion of Artabazus -that they should immediately break up their camp, and withdraw beneath -the walls of Thebes, where was already prepared a magazine of provisions -for themselves, and corn for their cavalry: here they might at their leisure -terminate the war by the following measures. They had in their possession -a great quantity of coined and uncoined gold, with an abundance of silver -and plate: it was recommended to send these with no sparing hand to the -Greeks, and particularly to those of greatest authority in their respective -cities. It was urged, that if this were done, the Greeks would soon surrender -their liberties, nor again risk the hazard of a battle. This opinion -was seconded by the Thebans, who thought that it would operate successfully. -Mardonius was of a contrary opinion, fierce, obstinate, and unyielding. -His own army he thought superior to that of the Greeks, and that -they should by all means fight before the Greeks received further supplies; -that they should give no importance to the declarations of Hegesistratus, -but without violating the laws of Persia, commence a battle in their usual -manner. This opinion of Mardonius nobody thought proper to oppose, for -to him, and not to Artabazus, the king had confided the supreme command -of the army. He therefore ordered that everything should be properly disposed -to commence the attack early in the morning.</p> - -<p>When the night was far advanced, and the strictest silence prevailed -through the army, which was buried in sleep, Alexander, son of Amyntas, -general and prince of the Macedonians, rode up to the Athenian outposts, -and earnestly desired to speak with their commanders. On hearing this, the -greater number continued on their posts, while some hastened to their officers, -whom they informed that a horseman was arrived from the enemy’s army, -who, naming the principal Greeks, would say nothing more than that he -desired to speak with them.</p> - -<p>The commanders lost no time in repairing to the advanced guard, where, -on their arrival, they were thus addressed by Alexander: “I am come, O -Athenians, to inform you of a secret which you must impart to Pausanias only, -lest my ruin ensue. Nor would I speak now, were not I anxious for the -safety of Greece. I from remote antiquity am of Grecian origin, and I -would not willingly see you exchange freedom for servitude: I have -therefore to inform you, that if Mardonius and his army could have drawn -favourable omens from their victims, a battle would long since have taken -place: intending to pay no further attention to these, it is his determination -to attack you early in the morning, being afraid, as I suppose, that your -forces will be yet more numerous. Be, therefore, on your guard; but if he -still defer his purpose of an engagement, do you remain where you are, for -he has provisions but for a few days more. If the event of this war shall be -agreeable to your wishes, it will become you to make some efforts to restore -my independence, who, on account of my partiality to the Greeks, have -exposed myself to so much danger in thus acquainting you with the intention -of Mardonius, to prevent the barbarians attacking you by surprise. I -am Alexander of Macedon.”</p> - -<p>When he had thus spoken, he returned to his station in the Persian -camp.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span></p> - -<p>The Athenian chiefs went to the right wing, and informed Pausanias of -what they had learned from Alexander. Pausanias, who stood in much awe -of the Persians, addressed them thus in reply:</p> - -<p>“As a battle is to take place in the morning, I think it advisable that you, -Athenians, should front the Persians, and we, those Bœotians and Greeks -who are now posted opposite to you. You have before contended with the -Medes, and know their mode of fighting by experience at Marathon; we -have never had this opportunity; but we have before fought the Bœotians, -and Thessalians; take, therefore, your arms, and let us exchange -situations.”</p> - -<p>“From the first,” answered the Athenians, “when we observed the Persians -opposed to you, we wished to make the proposal we now hear from -you; we have been only deterred by our fear of offending you: as the overture -comes from you, we are ready to comply with it.”</p> - -<p>This being agreeable to both, as soon as the morning dawned they -changed situations; this the Bœotians observed, and communicated to -Mardonius. The Persian general immediately exerted himself to oppose -the Lacedæmonians with his troops. Pausanias, on seeing his scheme thus -detected, again removed the Spartans to the right wing, as did Mardonius -instantly his Persians to the left.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/p366.jpg" width="500" height="321" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">The Field of Platæa</span></p> -</div> - -<h4>THE BATTLE OF PLATÆA</h4> - -<p>When the troops had thus resumed their former posts, Mardonius sent a -herald with this message to the Spartans: “Your character, O Lacedæmonians, -is highly celebrated among all these nations, as men who disdain to fly; -who never desert your ranks, determined either to slay your enemies or die. -Nothing of this is true: we perceive you in the act of retreating, and of -deserting your posts before a battle is commenced: we see you delegating to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span> -the Athenians the more dangerous attempt of opposing us, and placing yourselves -against our slaves, neither of which actions is consistent with bravery. -We are, therefore, greatly deceived in our opinion of you; we expected, that -from a love of glory you would have despatched a herald to us, expressing -yourselves desirous to combat with the Persians alone. Instead of this we -find you alarmed and terrified; but as you have offered no challenge to us, -we propose one to you. As you are esteemed the most illustrious of your -army, why may not an equal number of you on the part of the Greeks, and -of us on the part of the barbarians, contend for victory? If it be agreeable -to you, the rest of our common forces may afterwards engage; if this be unnecessary, -we will alone engage; and whichever conquers shall be esteemed -victorious over the whole of the adverse army.”</p> - -<p>The herald, after delivering his commission, waited some time for an answer; -not receiving any, he returned to Mardonius. He was exceedingly -delighted, and already anticipating a victory, sent his cavalry to attack the -Greeks; these with their lances and arrows materially distressed the Grecian -army, and forbade any near approach. Advancing to the Gargaphian fountain, -which furnished the Greeks with water, they disturbed and stopped it -up. The Lacedæmonians alone were stationed near this fountain, the other -Greeks, according to their different stations, were more or less distant, but -all of them in the vicinity of the Asopus; but as they were debarred from -watering here, by the missile weapons of the cavalry, they all came to the -fountain. In this predicament the leaders of the Greeks, seeing the army -cut off from the water, and harassed by the cavalry, came in crowds to -Pausanias on the right wing, to deliberate about these and other emergencies. -Unpleasant as the present incident might be, they were still more -distressed from their want of provision; their servants, who had been -despatched to bring this from the Peloponnesus, were prevented by the -cavalry from returning to the camp.</p> - -<p>The Grecian leaders, after deliberating upon the subject, determined, if -the Persians should for one day more defer coming to an engagement, to pass -to the island opposite to Platæa, and about ten stadia from the Asopus and -the fountain Gargaphia, where they were at present encamped. This island -is thus connected with the continent: the river, descending from Cithæron to -the plain, divides itself into two streams, which, after flowing separately for -about the distance of three stadia, again unite, thus forming the island which -is called Oëroë, who, according to the natives, is the daughter of Asopus.</p> - -<p>The Greeks by this measure proposed to themselves two advantages; first -to be secure of water, and secondly to guard against being further annoyed -by the enemy’s cavalry. They resolved to decamp at the time of the second -watch by night, lest the Persians, perceiving them, should pursue and harass -them with their cavalry. It was also their intention, when arrived at the -spot where the Asopian Oëroë is formed by the division of the waters flowing -from Cithæron, to detach one-half of their army to the mountain to relieve -a body of their servants, who, with a convoy of provisions, were there -encompassed.</p> - -<p>After taking the above resolutions, they remained all that day much incommoded -by the enemy’s horse: when these, at the approach of evening, -retired, and the appointed hour was arrived, the greater part of the Greeks -began to move with their baggage, but without any design of proceeding to -the place before resolved on. The moment they began to march, occupied -with no idea but that of escaping the cavalry, they retired towards Platæa, -and fixed themselves near the temple of Juno, which is opposite to the city,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span> -and at the distance of twenty stadia from the fountain of Gargaphia: in -this place they encamped.</p> - -<p>Pausanias, observing them in motion, gave orders to the Lacedæmonians -to take their arms, and follow their route, presuming they were proceeding -to the appointed station. The officers all showed themselves disposed to -obey the orders of Pausanias, except Amompharetus, the son of Poliadas, -captain of the band of Pitanatæ, who asserted that he would not fly before -the barbarians, and thus be accessory to the dishonour of Sparta: he had -not been present at the previous consultation, and knew not what was intended. -Pausanias and Euryanax, though indignant at his refusal to obey -the orders which had been issued, were still but little inclined to abandon the -Pitanatæ, on the account of their leader’s obstinacy; thinking, that by -their prosecuting the measure which the Greeks in general had adopted, -Amompharetus and his party must unavoidably perish. With these sentiments -the Lacedæmonians were commanded to halt, and pains were taken to -dissuade the man from his purpose, who alone, of all the Lacedæmonians and -Tegeatæ, was determined not to quit his post.</p> - -<p>At this crisis the Athenians determined to remain quietly on their posts, -knowing it to be the genius of the Lacedæmonians to say one thing and -think another. But as soon as they observed the troops in motion, they -despatched a horseman to learn whether the Lacedæmonians intended to -remove, and to inquire of Pausanias what was to be done. When the messenger -arrived, he found the men in their ranks, but their leaders in violent -altercation. Pausanias and Euryanax were unsuccessfully attempting to -persuade Amompharetus not to involve the Lacedæmonians alone in danger -by remaining behind, when the Athenian messenger came up to them. At -this moment, in the violence of dispute, Amompharetus took up a stone -with both his hands, and throwing it at the feet of Pausanias, exclaimed: -“There is my vote for not flying before the foreigners!”</p> - -<p>Pausanias, after telling him that he could be only actuated by frenzy, -turned to the Athenian, who delivered his commission. He afterwards desired -him to return, and communicate to the Athenians the state in which he -found them, and to entreat them immediately to join their forces, and act in -concert, as should be deemed expedient.</p> - -<p>The messenger accordingly returned to the Athenians, whilst the Spartan -chiefs continued their disputes till the morning. Thus far Pausanias remained -indecisive, but thinking, as the event proved, that Amompharetus -would certainly not stay behind, if the Lacedæmonians actually advanced, -he gave orders to all the forces to march forward by the heights, in which -they were followed by the Tegeans. The Athenians, keeping close to their -ranks, pursued a route opposite to that of the Lacedæmonians; these last, -who were in great awe of the cavalry, advanced by the steep paths which -led to the foot of Mount Cithæron; the Athenians marched over the plain.</p> - -<p>Amompharetus, never imagining that Pausanias would venture to abandon -them, made great exertions to keep his men on their posts; but when he saw -Pausanias advancing with his troops, he concluded himself effectually given -up; taking therefore his arms, he with his band proceeded slowly after the -rest of the army. These continuing their march for a space of ten stadia, -came to a place called Agriopius, near the river Moloës, where is a temple of -the Eleusinian Ceres, and there halted, waiting for Amompharetus and his -party. The motive of Pausanias in doing this was, that he might have the -opportunity of returning to the support of Amompharetus, if he should be -still determined not to quit his post. Here Amompharetus and his band<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span> -joined them; the whole force of the enemy’s horse continuing as usual to -harass them. As soon as the Barbarians discovered that the spot where the -Greeks had before encamped was deserted, they put themselves in motion, -overtook, and materially distressed them.</p> - -<p>Mardonius being informed that the Greeks had decamped by night, and -seeing their former station unoccupied, led the Persians over the Asopus, -and pursued the path which the Greeks had taken, whom he considered as -flying from his arms. The Lacedæmonians and Tegeatæ were the sole objects -of his attack, for the Athenians, who had marched over the plain, were -concealed by the hills from his view. The other Persian leaders seeing the -troops moving, as if in pursuit of the Greeks, raised their standards, and -followed the rout with great impetuosity, but without regularity or discipline; -they hurried on with tumultuous shouts, considering the Greeks as -absolutely in their power.</p> - -<p>When Pausanias found himself thus pressed by the cavalry, he sent a -horseman with the following message to the Athenians: “We are menaced, -O Athenians, by a battle, the event of which will determine the freedom or -slavery of Greece; and in this perplexity you, as well as ourselves, have, in -the preceding night, been deserted by our allies. It is nevertheless our determination -to defend ourselves to the last, and to render you such assistance -as we may be able. If the enemy’s horse had attacked you, we should have -thought it our duty to have marched with the Tegeatæ, who are in our rear, -and still faithful to Greece, to your support. As the whole operation of the -enemy seems directed against us, it becomes you to give us the relief we -materially want; but if you yourselves are so circumstanced, as to be unable -to advance to our assistance, at least send us a body of archers. We confess, -that in this war your activity has been far the most conspicuous, and we -therefore presume on your compliance with our request.”</p> - -<p>The Athenians, without hesitation, and with determined bravery, advanced -to communicate the relief which had been required. When they -were already on their march, the confederate Greeks, in the service of the -king, intercepted and attacked them: they were thus prevented from assisting -the Lacedæmonians, a circumstance which gave them extreme uneasiness. -In this situation the Spartans, to the amount of fifty thousand light-armed -troops, with three thousand Tegeatæ,<a name="FNanchor_37" id="FNanchor_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> who on no occasion were separated -from them, offered a solemn sacrifice, with the resolution of encountering -Mardonius.</p> - -<p>The victims, however, were not auspicious, and in the mean time many of -them were slain, and more wounded. The Persians, under the protection -of their bucklers, showered their arrows upon the Spartans with prodigious -effect. At this moment Pausanias, observing the entrails still unfavourable, -looked earnestly towards the temple of Juno at Platæa, imploring the interposition -of the goddess, and entreating her to prevent their disgrace and -defeat.</p> - -<p>Whilst he was in the act of supplicating the goddess, the Tegeatæ -advanced against the barbarians: at the same moment the sacrifices became -favourable, and Pausanias, at the head of his Spartans, went up boldly to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span> -enemy. The Persians, throwing aside their bows, prepared to receive them. -The engagement commenced before the barricade: when this was thrown -down, a conflict took place near the temple of Ceres, which was continued -with unremitted obstinacy till the fortune of the day was decided.</p> - -<p>The barbarians, seizing their adversaries’ lances, broke them in pieces, -and discovered no inferiority either in strength or courage; but their -armour was inefficient, their attack without skill, and their inferiority, with -respect to discipline, conspicuous. In whatever manner they rushed upon -the enemy, from one to ten at a time, they were cut in pieces by the -Spartans.</p> - -<h5><i>Mardonius Falls and the Day is Won</i></h5> - -<p>The Greeks were most severely pressed where Mardonius himself, on a -white horse, at the head of a thousand chosen Persians, directed his attack. -As long as he lived, the Persians, both in their attack and defence, conducted -themselves well, and slew great numbers of the Spartans; but as -soon as Mardonius was slain, and the band which fought near his person, -and which was the flower of the army, was destroyed, all the rest turned -their backs and fled. They were much oppressed and encumbered by their -long dresses, besides which, being lightly armed, they had to oppose men -in full and complete armour.</p> - -<p>On this day, as the oracle had before predicted, the death of Leonidas -was amply revenged upon Mardonius, and the most glorious victory which -has ever been recorded, was then obtained by Pausanias. Mardonius was -slain by Æmnestus, a Spartan of distinguished reputation. Æmnestus -long after this Persian war, together with three hundred men, was killed -in an engagement at Stenyclarus, in which he opposed the united force -of the Messenians.</p> - -<p>The Persians, routed by the Spartans at Platæa, fled in the greatest -confusion towards their camp, and to the wooden entrenchment which they -had constructed in the Theban territories. It seems somewhat surprising -that although the battle was fought near the grove of Ceres, not a single -Persian took refuge in the temple, nor was slain near it; but the greater part -of them perished beyond the limits of the sacred ground. Such was the -issue of the battle of Platæa.</p> - -<p>Artabazus, the son of Pharnaces, who had from the first disapproved -of the king’s leaving Mardonius behind him, and who had warmly, though -unsuccessfully, endeavoured to prevent a battle, determined on the following -measures. He was at the head of no small body of troops; they -amounted to forty thousand men: being much averse to the conduct of -Mardonius, and foreseeing what the event of an engagement must be, he -prepared and commanded his men to follow him wherever he should go, and -to remit or increase their speed by his example. He then drew out his army, -as if to attack the enemy; but he soon met the Persians flying from them: -he then immediately and precipitately fled with all his troops in disorder, not -directing his course to the entrenchment or to Thebes, but towards Phocis, -intending to gain the Hellespont with all possible speed.</p> - -<p>Of those Greeks who were in the royal army, all except the Bœotians, -from a preconcerted design, behaved themselves ill. The Bœotians fought -the Athenians with obstinate resolution: those Thebans who were attached -to the Medes made very considerable exertions, fighting with such courage, -that three hundred of their first and boldest citizens fell by the swords of the -Athenians. They fled at length, and pursued their way to Thebes, avoiding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span> -the route which the Persians had taken with the immense multitude of confederates, -who, so far from making any exertions, had never struck a blow.</p> - -<p>In the midst of all this tumult, intelligence was conveyed to those -Greeks posted near the temple of Juno, and remote from the battle, that -the event was decided, and Pausanias victorious. The Corinthians instantly, -without any regularity, hurried over the hills which lay at the foot of the -mountain, to arrive at the temple of Ceres. The Megarians and Phliasians, -with the same intentions, posted over the plain, the more direct and obvious -road. As they approached the enemy, they were observed by the Theban -horse, commanded by Asopodorus, son of Timander, who, taking advantage -of their want of order, rushed upon them and slew six hundred, driving -the rest towards Mount Cithæron. Thus did these perish ingloriously.</p> - -<p>The Persians, and a promiscuous multitude along with them, as soon as -they arrived at the entrenchment, endeavoured to climb the turrets before -the Lacedæmonians should come up with them. Having effected this, they -endeavoured to defend themselves as well as they could. The Lacedæmonians -soon arrived, and a severe engagement commenced.</p> - -<p>Before the Athenians came up, the Persians not only defended themselves -well, but had the advantage, as the Lacedæmonians were ignorant of the -proper method of attack; but as soon as the Athenians advanced to their -support, the battle was renewed with greater fierceness, and was long continued. -The valour and firmness of the Athenians finally prevailed. Having -made a breach they rushed into the camp: the Tegeatæ were the first -Greeks that entered, and were they who plundered the tent of Mardonius, -taking from thence, among other things, the manger from which his horses -were fed, made entirely of brass, and very curious. This was afterwards -deposited by the Tegeatæ in the temple of the Alean Minerva: the rest of -the booty was carried to the spot where the common plunder was collected. -As soon as their entrenchment was thrown down, the barbarians dispersed -themselves different ways, without exhibiting any proof of their former -bravery; they were, indeed, in a state of stupefaction and terror, from seeing -their immense multitude overpowered in so short a period.</p> - -<h4>AFTER THE BATTLE</h4> - -<p>So great was the slaughter made by the Greeks, that of this army, which -consisted of three hundred thousand men, not three thousand escaped, if we -except the forty thousand who fled with Artabazus. The Lacedæmonians of -Sparta lost ninety-one men; the Tegeatæ sixteen; the Athenians fifty-two.<a name="FNanchor_38" id="FNanchor_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p> - -<p>Of those who most distinguished themselves on the part of the barbarians, -are to be reckoned the Persian infantry, the Sacian cavalry, and lastly, -Mardonius himself. Of the Greeks, the Tegeatæ and Athenians were eminently -conspicuous; they were, nevertheless, inferior to the Lacedæmonians. -The most daring of the Spartans, was Aristodemus; the same who alone -returning from Thermopylæ fell into disgrace and infamy; next to him, -Posidonius, Phylocyon, and Amompharetus the Spartan, behaved the best. -Nevertheless, when it was disputed in conversation what individual had on -that day most distinguished himself, the Spartans who were present said, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span> -Aristodemus, being anxious to die conspicuously, as an expiation of his -former crime, in an emotion of fury had burst from his rank, and performed -extraordinary exploits; but that Posidonius had no desire to lose his life, and -therefore his behaviour was the more glorious: but this remark might have -proceeded from envy. All those slain on this day, were highly honoured, -except Aristodemus. To him, for the reason above mentioned, no respect was -paid, as having voluntarily sought death.</p> - -<p>Among the troops of the Æginetæ, assembled at Platæa, was Lampon, one -of their principal citizens, and son of Pytheas. This man went to Pausanias, -giving him the following most impious counsel: “Son of Cleombrotus, what -you have done is beyond comparison splendid, and deserving admiration. -The deity, in making you the instrument of Greece’s freedom, has placed -you far above all your predecessors in glory: in concluding this business so -conduct yourself that your reputation may be still increased, and that no -barbarian may ever again attempt to perpetrate atrocious actions against -Greece. When Leonidas was slain at Thermopylæ, Mardonius and Xerxes -cut off his head, and suspended his body from a cross. Do the same with -respect to Mardonius, and you will deserve the applause of Sparta and of -Greece, and avenge the cause of your uncle Leonidas.” Thus spake Lampon, -thinking he should please Pausanias.</p> - -<p>“Friend of Ægina,” replied Pausanias, “I thank you for your good -intentions, and commend your foresight; but what you say violates every -principle of equity.<a name="FNanchor_39" id="FNanchor_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> After elevating me, my country, and this recent victory, -to the summit of fame, you again depress us to infamy, in recommending -me to inflict vengeance on the dead. You say, indeed, that by such an -action I shall exalt my character; but I think it is more consistent with the -conduct of barbarians than of Greeks, as it is one of those things for which -we reproach them. I must therefore dissent from the Æginetæ, and all -those who approve their sentiments. For me, it is sufficient to merit the -esteem of Sparta, by attending to the rules of honour, both in my words and -actions: Leonidas, whom you wish me to avenge, has, I think, received the -amplest vengeance. The deaths of this immense multitude must sufficiently -have atoned for him, and for those who fell with him at Thermopylæ. I -would advise you in future, having these sentiments, to avoid my presence; -and I would have you think it a favour, that I do not punish you.”</p> - -<p>Pausanias afterwards proclaimed by a herald, that no person should touch -any of the booty; and he ordered the helots to collect the money into one -place. They, as they dispersed themselves over the camp, found tents decorated -with gold and silver, couches of the same, goblets, cups, and drinking -vessels of gold, besides sacks of gold, and silver cauldrons placed on carriages. -The dead bodies they stripped of bracelets, chains, and scimitars -of gold; to their habits of various colours they paid no attention. Many -things of value the helots secreted, and sold to the Æginetæ; others, unable -to conceal, they were obliged to produce. The Æginetæ from this became -exceedingly rich; for they purchased gold of the helots at the price of brass.</p> - -<p>From the wealth thus collected, a tenth part was selected for sacred purposes. -To the deity of Delphi was presented a golden tripod, resting on a -three-headed snake of brass: it was placed near the altar. To the Olympian -god they erected a Jupiter, ten cubits high: to the god of the isthmus, the -figure of Neptune, in brass, seven cubits high. When this was done, the -remainder of the plunder was divided among the army, according to their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span> -merits; it consisted of Persian concubines, gold, silver, beasts of burden, -with various riches. What choice things were given to those who most distinguished -themselves at Platæa, has never been mentioned, though certain -presents were made them. It is certain, that a tenth part of the whole was -given to Pausanias, consisting among other things of women, horses, talents, -and camels.</p> - -<p>It is further recorded, that when Xerxes fled from Greece, he left all his -equipage to Mardonius: Pausanias seeing this composed of gold, silver, and -cloth of the richest embroidery, gave orders to the cooks and domestics to -prepare an entertainment for him, as for Mardonius. His commands were -executed, and he beheld couches of gold and silver, tables of the same, and -everything that was splendid and magnificent. Astonished at the spectacle, -he again with a smile directed his servants to prepare a Lacedæmonian repast. -When this was ready the contrast was so striking, that he laughing sent for -the Grecian leaders: when they were assembled, he showed them the two -entertainments. “Men of Greece,” said he, “I have called you together to -bear testimony to the king of Persia’s folly, who forsook all this luxury to -plunder us who live in so much poverty.” These were the words which -Pausanias is said to have used to the Grecian leaders.</p> - -<p>In succeeding times, many of the Platæans found on the field of battle, -chests of gold, silver, and other riches. This thing also happened: when the -flesh had fallen from the bones of the dead bodies, the Platæans, in removing -them to some other spot, discovered a skull as one entire bone, without any -suture. Two jaw bones also were found with their teeth, which though divided -were of one entire bone, the grinders as well as the rest. The body of Mardonius -was removed the day after the battle; but it is not known by whom.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> -<img src="images/p373.jpg" width="450" height="141" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Sarcophagi at Platæa</span></p> -</div> - -<p>The Greeks, after the division of the plunder at Platæa, proceeded to -inter their dead, each nation by themselves. The Lacedæmonians sunk -three trenches: in the one they deposited the bodies of their priests; in the -second were interred the other Spartans; in the third, the helots. The -Tegeatæ were buried by themselves, but with no distinction: the Athenians -in like manner, and also the Megarians and Phliasians who were slain by the -cavalry. Mounds of earth were raised over the bodies of all these people. -With respect to the others shown at Platæa, they were raised by those, who -being ashamed of their absence from the battle, wished to secure the esteem -of posterity.</p> - -<h4>THE GREEKS ATTACK THEBES</h4> - -<p>Having buried their dead on the plain of Platæa, the Greeks, after serious -deliberation, resolved to attack Thebes, and demand the persons of those -who had taken part with the Medes. Of these the most distinguished were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span> -Timagenidas and Attaginus, the leaders of the faction. They determined, -unless these were given up, not to leave Thebes without utterly destroying it.</p> - -<p>On the eleventh day after the battle, they besieged the Thebans, demanding -the men whom we have named. They refused to surrender them, in -consequence of which their lands were laid waste and their walls attacked. -This violence being continued, Timagenidas, on the twentieth day, thus addressed -the Thebans: “Men of Thebes, since the Greeks are resolved -not to retire from Thebes till they shall either have destroyed it, or you -shall deliver us into their power, let not Bœotia on our account be farther -distressed. If their demand of our persons be merely a pretence to obtain -money, let us satisfy them from the wealth of the public, as not we alone -but all of us have been equally and openly active on the part of the Medes; -if their real object in besieging Thebes is to obtain our persons, we are -ready to go ourselves, and confer with them.” The Thebans approving his -advice, sent immediately a herald to Pausanias, saying they were ready to -deliver up the men. As soon as this measure was determined, Attaginus -fled, but his children were delivered to Pausanias, who immediately dismissed -them, urging that infants could not possibly have any part in the faction of -the Medes. The other Thebans who were given up, imagined they should -have the liberty of pleading for themselves, and by the means of money hoped -to escape. Pausanias suspecting that such a thing might happen, as soon -as he got them in his power, dismissed all the forces of the allies; then -removing the Thebans to Corinth, he there put them to death.</p> - -<h4>THE FLIGHT OF THE PERSIAN REMNANT</h4> - -<p>Artabazus son of Pharnaces fled from Platæa to the Thessalians. They -received him with great hospitality, and entirely ignorant of what had -happened, inquired after the remainder of the army. The Persian was fearful -that if he disclosed the whole truth, he might draw upon him the attack -of all who knew it, and consequently involve himself and army in the extremest -danger. This reflection had before prevented his communication of -the matter to the Phocians: and on the present occasion he thus addressed -the Thessalians:</p> - -<p>“I am hastening, as you perceive, with great expedition to Thrace, being -despatched thither from our camp with this detachment, on some important -business. Mardonius with his troops follows me at no great distance: show -him the rights of hospitality and every suitable attention. You will finally -have no occasion to repent of your kindness.”</p> - -<p>He then proceeded through Thessaly and Macedonia, immediately to -Thrace, with evident marks of being in haste. Directing his march through -the midst of the country, he arrived at Byzantium, with the loss of great -numbers of his men, who were either cut in pieces by the Thracians, or -quite worn out by fatigue and hunger. From Byzantium, he passed over -his army in transports, and thus effected his return to Asia.</p> - -<h4>CONTEMPORARY AFFAIRS IN IONIA</h4> - -<p>On the very day<a name="FNanchor_40" id="FNanchor_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> of the battle of Platæa, a victory was gained at Mycale -in Ionia. Whilst the Grecian fleet was yet at Delos, under the command -of Leotychides the Lacedæmonian, ambassadors came to them from Samos.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span> -On their arrival, they sought the Grecian leaders, whom Hegesistratus (one -of the ambassadors) addressed with various arguments. He urged that as -soon as they should show themselves, all the Ionians would shake off their -dependence, and revolt from the Persians; he told them that they might -wait in vain for the prospect of a richer booty. He implored also their -common deities, that being Greeks, they would deliver those who also were -Greeks from servitude, and avenge them on the barbarian. He concluded -by saying, that this might be easily accomplished, as the ships of the enemy -were slow sailers, and by no means equal to those of the Greeks.</p> - -<p>The Samians, with an oath, engaged to become the confederates of the -Greeks. Leotychides then dismissed them all excepting Hegesistratus, who, -on account of his name, he chose to take along with him. The Greeks, after -remaining that day on their station, on the next sacrificed with favourable -omens; Deiphonus, son of Evenius of Apollonia, in the Ionian Gulf, being -their minister.</p> - -<p>The Greeks having sacrificed favourably, set sail from Delos towards -Samos. On their arrival at Calami of Samos, they drew themselves up near -the temple of Juno, and prepared for a naval engagement. When the Persians -heard of their approach, they moved with the residue of their fleet towards -the continent, having previously permitted the Phœnicians to retire. -They had determined, after a consultation, not to risk an engagement, as -they did not think themselves a match for their opponents. They therefore -made towards the continent, that they might be covered by their land forces -at Mycale, to whom Xerxes had intrusted the defence of Ionia. These, to -the amount of sixty thousand, were under the command of Tigranes the Persian, -one of the handsomest and tallest of his countrymen. To these troops -the commanders of the fleet resolved to retire: it was also their intention to -draw their vessels on shore, and to throw up an intrenchment round them, -which might equally serve as a protection to their vessels and themselves. -After this resolution, they proceeded on their course, and were carried near -the temple of the Eumenidæ at Mycale. Here the Persians drew their ships -to land, defending them with an intrenchment formed of stones, branches -of fruit trees cut down upon the spot, and pieces of timber closely fitted -together. In this position they were ready to sustain a blockade, and with -hopes of victory, being prepared for either event.</p> - -<p>When the Greeks received intelligence that the barbarians were retired -to the continent, they considered them as escaped out of their hands. They -were exceedingly exasperated, and in great perplexity whether they should -return or proceed towards the Hellespont. Their ultimate determination -was to follow the enemy towards the continent. Getting therefore all -things ready for an engagement by sea, and providing themselves with -scaling ladders, and such other things as were necessary, they sailed to -Mycale. When they approached the enemy’s station, they perceived no one -advancing to meet them; but beheld the ships drawn on shore, secured -within an intrenchment, and a considerable body of infantry ranged along -the coast. Leotychides upon this advanced before all the rest in his ship, -and coming as near the shore as he could, thus addressed the Ionians by -a herald:</p> - -<p>“Men of Ionia, all you who hear me, listen to what I say, for the Persians -will understand nothing of what I tell you. When the engagement -shall commence, remember first of all our common liberties; in the next -place take notice, our watch-word is Hebe. Let those who hear me, inform -all who do not.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span></p> - -<p>The motive of this conduct was the same with that of Themistocles at -Artemisium. These expressions, if not intelligible to the barbarians, might -make the desired impression on the Ionians; or if explained to the former, -might render the fidelity of the latter suspected.</p> - -<p>When Leotychides had done this, the Greeks approached the shore, disembarked, -and prepared for battle. The Persians observing this, and knowing -the purport of the enemy’s address to the Ionians, took their arms from -the Samians, suspecting them of a secret attachment to the Greeks. The -Samians had purchased the freedom of five hundred Athenians, and sent -them back with provisions to their country, who having been left in Attica, -had been taken prisoners by the Persians, and brought away in the barbarian -fleet. The circumstance of their thus releasing five hundred of the enemies -of Xerxes, made them greatly suspected. To the Milesians, under pretence -of their knowledge of the country, the Persians confided the guard of the -paths to the heights of Mycale: their real motive was to remove them to -a distance. By these steps the Persians endeavoured to guard against those -Ionians, who might wish, if they had the opportunity, to effect a revolt. -They next heaped their bucklers upon each other, to make a temporary -rampart.</p> - -<h4>THE BATTLE OF MYCALE</h4> - -<p>The Greeks being drawn up, advanced to attack the barbarians: as they -were proceeding, a herald’s wand was discovered on the beach, and a rumour -circulated through the ranks, that the Greeks had obtained a victory over -the forces of Mardonius and Bœotia.<a name="FNanchor_41" id="FNanchor_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> On the same day that their enemies -were slaughtered at Platæa, and were about to be defeated at Mycale, the -rumour of the former victory being circulated to this distance, rendered the -Greeks more bold, and animated them against every danger. It appears -farther worthy of observation, that both battles took place near the temple -of the Eleusinian Ceres. The battle of Platæa, as we have before remarked, -was in the vicinity of the temple of Ceres; the one at Mycale was in a -similar situation.</p> - -<p>The Athenians, who with those that accompanied them, constituted one-half -of the army, advanced by the coast, and along the plain: the Lacedæmonians -and their auxiliaries made their way by the more woody and -mountainous places.</p> - -<p>Whilst the Lacedæmonians were making a circuit, the Athenians in the -other wing were already engaged. The Persians, as long as their entrenchment -remained uninjured, defended themselves well, and without any inferiority; -but when the Athenians, with those who supported them, increased -their exertions, mutually exhorting one another, that they and not the Lacedæmonians -might have the glory of the day, the face of things was changed; -the rampart was thrown down, and a sensible advantage was obtained over -the Persians. They sustained the shock for a considerable time, but finally -gave way, and retreated behind their entrenchments. The Athenians, Corinthians, -Sicyonians, and Trœzenians, rushed in with them; for this part of -the army was composed of these different nations.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span></p> - -<p>When the wall was carried, the barbarians gave no testimony of their -former prowess, but, except the Persians, indiscriminately fled. These last, -though few in number, vigorously resisted the Greeks, who poured in upon -them in crowds. Artayntes and Ithamitres, the commanders of the fleet, -saved themselves by flight: but Mardontes, and Tigranes the general of the -land-forces, were slain. Whilst the Persians still refused to give ground, -the Lacedæmonians and their party arrived, and put all who survived to -the sword. Upon this occasion many of the Greeks were slain, and among -a number of the Sicyonians, Perilaus their leader. The Samians, who were -in the Persian army, and from whom their weapons had been taken, no -sooner saw victory incline to the side of the Greeks, than they assisted them -with all their power. The other Ionians seeing this, revolted also, and -turned their arms against the barbarians. The Milesians had been ordered, -the better to provide for the safety of the Persians, to guard the paths to -the heights, so that in case of accident the barbarians, under their guidance, -might take refuge on the summits of Mycale; with this view, as well as to -remove them to a distance, and thus guard against their perfidy, the Milesians -had been so disposed; but they acted in direct contradiction to their -orders. Those who fled, they introduced directly into the midst of their -enemies, and finally were active beyond all the rest in putting them to the -sword. In this manner did Ionia a second time revolt from the Persian -power.</p> - -<h4>AFTER MYCALE</h4> - -<p>In this battle the Athenians most distinguished themselves, and next to -the Athenians, they who obtained the greatest reputation were the Corinthians, -Trœzenians, and Sicyonians. The greater number of the barbarians -being slain, either in the battle or in the pursuit, the Greeks burned their -ships, and totally destroyed their wall: the plunder they collected upon the -shore, among which was a considerable quantity of money. Having done -this, they sailed from the coast. When they came to Samos, they deliberated -on the propriety of removing the Ionians to some other place, wishing to -place them in some part of Greece where their authority was secure; but -they determined to abandon Ionia to the barbarians. They were well aware -both of the impossibility of defending the Ionians on every emergency, and -of the danger which these would incur from the Persians, if they did not. -The Peloponnesian magistrates were of opinion, that those nations who had -embraced the cause of the Medes should be expelled, and their lands given -to the Ionians. The Athenians would not consent that the Ionians should be -transported from their country, nor would they allow the Peloponnesians -to decide on the destruction of Athenian colonies. Seeing them tenacious -of this opinion, the Peloponnesians no longer opposed them. Afterwards the -people of Samos, Chios, Lesbos, and the other islands who had assisted with -their arms in the present exigence, were received into the general confederacy, -having by an oath, promised constant and inviolable fidelity. This -ceremony performed, they sailed towards the Hellespont, meaning to destroy -the bridge, which they expected to find in its original state.</p> - -<p>The barbarians who saved themselves by flight, came to the heights of -Mycale, and thence escaped in no great numbers to Sardis. During the retreat, -Masistes, son of Darius, who had been present at the late unfortunate -engagement, severely reproached Artayntes the commander-in-chief: among -other things, he said, that in the execution of his duty he had behaved more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span> -like a woman than a man, and had materially injured the interests of his -master. To say that a man is more dastardly than a woman is with the -Persians the most infamous of all reproaches. Artayntes, after bearing the -insult for some time, became at length so exasperated, that he drew his scimitar, -intending to kill Masistes. He was prevented by Xenagoras, son of Praxilaus, -a native of Halicarnassus, who happening to be behind Artayntes, seized -him by the middle, and threw him to the ground: at the same time the guards -of Masistes came up. Xenagoras by this action not only obtained the favour of -Masistes, but so much obliged Xerxes, by thus preserving his brother, that he -was honoured with the government of all Cilicia. Nothing further of consequence -occurred on their way to Sardis, where they found the king, who after -his retreat from Athens, and his ill success at sea, had there resided.</p> - -<p>The Greeks, sailing from Mycale towards the Hellespont, were obliged -by contrary winds to put in at Lectum: thence they proceeded to Abydos. -Here they found the bridge, which they imagined was entire, and which was -the principal object of their voyage, effectually broken down. They on this -held a consultation; Leotychides, and the Lacedæmonians with him, were for -returning to Greece; the Athenians, with their leader Xanthippus, advised -them to continue where they were, and make an attempt on the Chersonesus. -The Peloponnesians returned; but the Athenians, passing from Abydos to -the Chersonesus, laid siege to Sestus. To this place, as by far the strongest -in all that district, great numbers had retired from the neighbouring towns, -as soon as it was known that the Greeks were in the Hellespont: among -others was Œobazus of Cardia, a Persian who had previously collected here -all that remained of the bridge. The town itself was possessed by the -native Æolians, but they had with them a great number of Persians and -other allies. The governor of this place, under Xerxes, was Artayctes, a -Persian, of a cruel and profligate character.</p> - -<p>Whilst they were prosecuting the siege, the autumn arrived. The -Athenians, unable to make themselves masters of the place, and uneasy at -being engaged in an expedition so far from their country, entreated their -leaders to conduct them home. They refused to do this, till they should -either succeed in their enterprise, or be recalled by the people of Athens, -so intent were they on the business before them.</p> - -<p>The besieged, under Artayctes, were reduced to such extremity of -wretchedness, that they were obliged to boil for food the cords of which -their beds were composed. When these also were consumed, Artayctes, -Œobazus, and some other Persians, fled, under cover of the night, escaping -by an avenue behind the town, which happened not to be blockaded by the -enemy.</p> - -<p>When the morning came, the people of the Chersonesus made signals to -the Athenians from the turrets, and opened to them the gates. The greater -part commenced a pursuit of the Persians, the remainder took possession of -the town. Œobazus fled into Thrace; but he was here seized by the Absinthians, -and sacrificed, according to their rites, to their god Plistorus: his -followers were put to death in some other manner. Artayctes and his adherents, -who fled the last, were overtaken near the waters of Ægos, where, after -a vigorous defence, part were slain, and part taken prisoners. The Greeks -put them all in chains, Artayctes and his son with the rest, and carried them -to Sestus. Conducting him therefore to the shore where the bridge of Xerxes -had been constructed, they there crucified him; though some say this was -done upon an eminence near the city of Madytus. The son was stoned in -his father’s presence.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span></p> - -<p>The Athenians, after the above transactions, returned to Greece, carrying -with them, besides vast quantities of money, the fragments of the bridge, -to be suspended in their temples.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_21b" id="enanchor_21b"></a><a href="#endnote_21b">b</a></span></p> - -<h4>A REVIEW OF RESULTS</h4> - -<p>The disproportion between the immense host assembled by Xerxes, and -the little which he accomplished, naturally provokes both contempt for Persian -force and an admiration for the comparative handful of men by whom -they were so ignominiously beaten. Both these sentiments are just, but -both are often exaggerated beyond the point which attentive contemplation -of the facts will justify. The Persian mode of making war (which we may -liken to that of the modern Turks, now that the period of their energetic -fanaticism has passed away) was in a high degree disorderly and inefficient: -the men indeed, individually taken, especially the native Persians, were not -deficient in the qualities of soldiers, but their arms and their organisation -were wretched—and their leaders yet worse. On the other hand, the -Greeks, equal, if not superior, in individual bravery, were incomparably -superior in soldier-like order as well as in arms: but here too the leadership -was defective, and the disunion a constant source of peril. Those who, like -Plutarch (or rather the Pseudo-Plutarch) in his treatise on the malignity of -Herodotus, insist on acknowledging nothing but magnanimity and heroism -in the proceedings of the Greeks throughout these critical years, are forced -to deal very harshly with the inestimable witness on whom our knowledge -of the facts depends, and who intimates plainly that, in spite of the devoted -courage displayed, not less by the vanquished at Thermopylæ than by -the victors at Salamis, Greece owed her salvation chiefly to the imbecility, -cowardice, and credulous rashness of Xerxes. Had he indeed possessed -either the personal energy of Cyrus or the judgment of Artemisia, it may be -doubted whether any excellence of management, or any intimacy of union, -could have preserved the Greeks against so great a superiority of force; but -it is certain that all their courage as soldiers in line would have been unavailing -for that purpose, without a higher degree of generalship, and a more -hearty spirit of co-operation, than that which they actually manifested.</p> - -<h4>A GLANCE FORWARD</h4> - -<p>One hundred and fifty years after this eventful period, we shall see the -tables turned, and the united forces of Greece under Alexander of Macedon -becoming invaders of Persia. We shall find that in Persia no improvement -has taken place during this long interval, that the scheme of defence under -Darius Codomannus labours under the same defects as that of attack under -Xerxes, that there is the same blind and exclusive confidence in pitched -battles with superior numbers, that the advice of Mentor the Rhodian, -and of Charidemus, is despised like that of Demaratus and Artemisia, that -Darius Codomannus, essentially of the same stamp as Xerxes, is hurried into -the battle of Issus by the same ruinous temerity as that which threw away -the Persian fleet at Salamis, and that the Persian native infantry (not the -cavalry) even appear to have lost that individual gallantry which they displayed -so conspicuously at Platæa. But on the Grecian side, the improvement -in every way is very great: the orderly courage of the soldier has been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span> -sustained and even augmented, while the generalship and power of military -combination has reached a point unexampled in the previous history of mankind. -Military science may be esteemed a sort of creation during this interval, -and will be found to go through various stages: Demosthenes and -Brasidas, the Cyreian army and Xenophon, Agesilaus, Iphicrates, Epaminondas, -Philip of Macedon, Alexander: for the Macedonian princes are borrowers -of Greek tactics, though extending and applying them with a personal -energy peculiar to themselves, and with advantages of position such as no -Athenian or Spartan ever enjoyed. In this comparison between the invasion -of Xerxes and that of Alexander we contrast the progressive spirit of Greece, -serving as herald and stimulus to the like spirit in Europe, with the stationary -mind of Asia, occasionally roused by some splendid individual, but never -appropriating to itself new social ideas or powers, either for war or for peace.</p> - -<p>It is out of the invasion of Xerxes that those new powers of combination, -political as well as military, which lighten up Grecian history during the -next two centuries, take their rise. They are brought into agency through -the altered position and character of the Athenians—improvers, to a certain -extent, of military operations on land, but the great creators of marine tactics -and manœuvring in Greece, and the earliest of all Greeks who showed -themselves capable of organising and directing the joint action of numerous -allies and dependents, thus uniting the two distinctive qualities of the -Homeric Agamemnon—ability in command, with vigour in execution.</p> - -<p>In the general Hellenic confederacy, which had acted against Persia -under the presidency of Sparta, Athens could hardly be said to occupy any -ostensible rank above that of an ordinary member: the post of second dignity -in the line at Platæa had indeed been adjudged to her, but only after -a contending claim from Tegea. But without any difference in ostensible -rank, she was in the eye and feeling of Greece no longer the same power as -before. She had suffered more, and at sea had certainly done more, than all -the other allies put together: even on land at Platæa, her hoplites had -manifested a combination of bravery, discipline, and efficiency against the -formidable Persian cavalry superior even to the Spartans: nor had any -Athenian officer committed so perilous an act of disobedience as the Spartan -Amompharetus. After the victory of Mycale, when the Peloponnesians all -hastened home to enjoy their triumph, the Athenian forces did not shrink -from prolonged service for the important object of clearing the Hellespont, -thus standing forth as the willing and forward champions of the Asiatic -Greeks against Persia. Besides these exploits of Athens collectively, the -only two individuals gifted with any talents for command, whom this momentous -conquest had thrown up, were both of them Athenians: first, -Themistocles; next, Aristides. From the beginning to the end of the struggle, -Athens had displayed an unreserved Panhellenic patriotism, which -had been most ungenerously requited by the Peloponnesians; who had kept -within their isthmian walls, and betrayed Attica twice to hostile ravage; -the first time, perhaps, unavoidably, but the second time a culpable neglect, -in postponing their outward march against Mardonius. And the Peloponnesians -could not but feel, that while they had left Attica unprotected, -they owed their own salvation at Salamis altogether to the dexterity of Themistocles -and the imposing Athenian naval force.</p> - -<p>Considering that the Peloponnesians had sustained little or no mischief -by the invasion, while the Athenians had lost for the time even their city -and country, with a large proportion of their movable property irrecoverably -destroyed, we might naturally expect to find the former, if not lending<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span> -their grateful and active aid to repair the damage in Attica, at least cordially -welcoming the restoration of the ruined city by its former inhabitants. -Instead of this, we find the same selfishness again prevalent among them; -ill-will and mistrust for the future, aggravated by an admiration which they -could not help feeling, overlays all their gratitude and sympathy.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_21g" id="enanchor_21g"></a><a href="#endnote_21g">g</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_33" id="Footnote_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> A man of the name of Cyrsilus had ten months before met a similar fate for having advised -the people to stay in their city and receive Xerxes. The Athenian women in like manner stoned -his wife. During the French Revolution the women of Paris, better distinguished by the name -of <i>Poissardes</i>, in every particular imitated this brutality, and whoever differed with them in opinion -were exposed to the danger of the <i>Lanterne</i>.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_21c" id="enanchor_21c"></a><a href="#endnote_21c">c</a></span></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_34" id="Footnote_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> The fate of Athens has been various. It was first burned by Xerxes; the following year -by Mardonius; it was a third time destroyed in the Peloponnesian War; it received a Roman -garrison to protect it against Philip son of Demetrius, but was not long afterwards ravaged and -defaced by Sulla; in the reign of Arcadius and Honorius it was torn in pieces by Alaric, king of -the Goths.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_21c2" id="enanchor_21c2"></a><a href="#endnote_21c">c</a></span></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_35" id="Footnote_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Plutarch relates some particulars previous to this event, which are worth transcribing:</p> - -<p>Whilst Greece found itself brought to a most delicate crisis, some Athenian citizens of the -noblest families of the place, seeing themselves ruined by the war, and considering that with their -effects they had also lost their credit and their influence, held some secret meetings, and determined -to destroy the popular government of Athens; in which project if they failed, they resolved -to ruin the state, and surrender Greece to the barbarians. This conspiracy had already made -some progress, when it was discovered to Aristides. He at first was greatly alarmed, from the -juncture at which it happened; but as he knew not the precise number of conspirators, he -thought it expedient not to neglect an affair of so great importance, and yet not to investigate it -too minutely, in order to give those concerned opportunity to repent. He satisfied himself with -arresting eight of the conspirators; of these, two as the most guilty were immediately proceeded -against, but they contrived to escape. The rest he dismissed, that they might show their repentance -by their valour, telling them, that a battle should be the great tribunal to determine their -sincere and good intentions to their country.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_21c3" id="enanchor_21c3"></a><a href="#endnote_21c">c</a></span></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_36" id="Footnote_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Let it be remembered, to the honour of Greece, that on this occasion the Greeks, whose -number only amounted to one hundred and ten thousand, were opposed by fifty thousand of -their treacherous countrymen.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_21c4" id="enanchor_21c4"></a><a href="#endnote_21c">c</a></span></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_37" id="Footnote_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a></p> - -<table summary="Strength of the army"> - <tr> - <td>Of the Spartans there were</td> - <td class="tdr">5,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Seven helots to each Spartan</td> - <td class="tdr">35,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Lacedæmonians</td> - <td class="tdr">5,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>A light-armed soldier to each Lacedæmonian</td> - <td class="tdr">5,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Tegeatæ</td> - <td class="tdr">1,500</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Light-armed Tegeatæ</td> - <td class="tdr">1,500</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">Total</td> - <td class="tdr total">53,000<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_21c5" id="enanchor_21c5"></a><a href="#endnote_21c">c</a></span></td> - </tr> -</table> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_38" id="Footnote_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> The Greeks, according to Plutarch, lost in all 1360 men: all those who were slain of the -Athenians were of one particular tribe. Plutarch is much incensed at Herodotus for his account -of this battle; but the authority of our historian seems entitled to most credit.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_21c6" id="enanchor_21c6"></a><a href="#endnote_21c">c</a></span> [Bury, -however, thinks he gave the Athenians too large a share in the victory.]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_39" id="Footnote_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Pausanias altered materially afterwards. He aspired to the supreme power, became magnificent -and luxurious, fierce and vindictive.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_21e" id="enanchor_21e"></a><a href="#endnote_21e">e</a></span></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_40" id="Footnote_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> [Bury declares it to have been a few days later.]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_41" id="Footnote_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> It is unnecessary to remark, that the superstition of Herodotus is in this passage conspicuous. -Diodorus Siculus is most sagacious, when he says that Leotychides, and those who were -with him, knew nothing of the victory of Platæa; but that they contrived this stratagem to animate -their troops. Polyænus relates the same in his <i>Stratagemata</i>.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_21e2" id="enanchor_21e2"></a><a href="#endnote_21e">e</a></span> “These things which happen -by divine interposition,” says Herodotus, “are made known by various means.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-21.jpg" width="400" height="400" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Winged Victory</span></p> -<p class="caption">(From a Greek Statuette now in the British Museum)</p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-22.jpg" width="500" height="200" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">A Greek Drinking Horn</span></p> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XXII_THE_AFTERMATH_OF_THE_WAR">CHAPTER XXII. THE AFTERMATH OF THE WAR</h3> - -<p>When the Persians had retreated from Europe after being conquered both -by sea and land by the Greeks, and those of them had been destroyed who -had fled with their ships to Mycale, Leotychides, king of the Lacedæmonians, -returned home with the allies that were from the Peloponnesus, as -we have already noted; while the Athenians, and the allies from Ionia and -the Hellespont, who had now revolted from the king, stayed behind, and laid -siege to Sestus, of which the Medes were in possession. Having spent the -winter before it, they took it, after the barbarians had evacuated it; and -then sailed away from the Hellespont, each to his own city. And the people -of Athens, when they found the barbarians had departed from their country, -proceeded immediately to carry over their children and wives, and the -remnant of their furniture, from where they had put them out of the way; -and were preparing to rebuild their city and their walls. For short spaces -of the enclosure were standing, and, though the majority of the houses had -fallen, a few remained in which the grandees of the Persians had themselves -taken up their quarters.</p> - -<h4>ATHENS REBUILDS HER WALLS</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[478-476 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The Lacedæmonians, perceiving what they were about to do, sent an -embassy to them; partly because they themselves would have been more -pleased to see neither them nor any one else in possession of a wall; but -still more because the allies instigated them, and were afraid of their -numerous fleet, which before they had not had, and of the bravery they had -shown in the Persian War. And they begged them not to build their walls, -but rather to join them in throwing down those of the cities out of the -Peloponnesus; not betraying their real wishes, and their suspicious feelings -towards the Athenians; but representing that the barbarian, if he should -again come against them, would not then be able to make his advances from -any stronghold, as in the present instance he had done from Thebes; and -the Peloponnesus, they said, was sufficient for all, as a place to retreat into -and sally forth from. When the Lacedæmonians had thus spoken, the -Athenians, by the advice of Themistocles, answered that they would send -ambassadors to them concerning what they spoke of; and they immediately<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span> -dismissed them. And Themistocles advised them to send himself as quickly -as possible to Lacedæmon, and having chosen other ambassadors besides himself, -not to despatch them immediately, but to wait till such time as they -should have raised their wall to the height most absolutely necessary for -fighting from; and that the whole population in the city, men, women, and -children, should build it, sparing neither private nor public edifice, from -which any assistance towards the work would be gained, but throwing down -everything. After giving these instructions, and suggesting that he would -himself manage all other matters there, he took his departure. On his -arrival at Lacedæmon he did not apply to the authorities, but kept putting -off and making excuses. And whenever any of those who were in office -asked him why he did not come before the assembly, he said that he was -waiting for his colleagues; that owing to some engagement they had been -left behind; he expected, however, that they would shortly come, and -wondered that they were not already there.</p> - -<p>When they heard this, they believed Themistocles through their friendship -for him; but when every one else came and distinctly informed them -that the walls were building, and already advancing to some height, they did -not know how to discredit it. When he found this, he told them not to be -led away by tales, but rather to send men of their own body who were of -good character, and would bring back a credible report after inspection. -They despatched them therefore; and Themistocles secretly sent directions -about them to the Athenians, to detain them, with as little appearance of it -as possible, and not to let them go until they themselves had returned back; -(for by this time his colleagues, Abronychus, the son of Lysicles, and Aristides, -the son of Lysimachus, had also come to him with the news that the -wall was sufficiently advanced) for he was afraid that the Lacedæmonians, -when they heard the truth, might not then let them go. So the Athenians -detained the ambassadors, as was told them; and Themistocles, having come -to an audience of the Lacedæmonians, then indeed told them plainly that -their city was already walled, so as to be capable of defending its inhabitants; -and if the Lacedæmonians or the allies wished to send any embassy to them, -they should in future go as to men who could discern what were their own -and the general interests. For when they thought it better to abandon -their city and to go on board their ships, they said that they had made up -their minds, and had the courage to do it, without consulting them; and -again, on whatever matters they had deliberated with them, they had shown -themselves inferior to none in judgment. And so at the present time, likewise, -they thought it was better that their city should have a wall, and that -it would be more expedient for their citizens in particular, as well as for the -allies in general; for it was not possible for any one without equal resources -to give any equal or fair advice for the common good. Either all therefore, -he said, should join the confederacy without walls, or they should consider -that the present case also was as it ought to be.</p> - -<p>The Lacedæmonians, on hearing this, did not let their anger appear to the -Athenians; for they had not sent their embassy to obstruct their designs, -but to offer counsel, they said, to their state; and besides, they were at that -time on very friendly terms with them owing to their zeal against the -Mede; in secret, however, they were annoyed at failing in their wish. So -the ambassadors of each state returned home without any complaint being -made.</p> - -<p>In this way, Thucydides continues, the Athenians walled their city in -a short time. And the building shows even now that it was executed in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span> -haste; for the foundations are laid with stones of all kinds, and in some -places not wrought together, but as the several parties at any time brought -them to the spot: and many columns from tombs, and wrought stones, were -worked up in them.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_22b" id="enanchor_22b"></a><a href="#endnote_22b">b</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE NEW ATHENS</h4> - -<p>The first indispensable step, in the renovation of Athens after her temporary -extinction, was now happily accomplished: the city was made secure -against external enemies. But Themistocles, to whom the Athenians owed -the late successful stratagem, and whose influence must have been much -strengthened by its success, had conceived plans of a wider and more ambitious -range. He had been the original adviser of the great maritime start taken -by his countrymen, as well as of the powerful naval force which they had -created during the last few years, and which had so recently proved their -salvation. He saw in that force both the only chance of salvation for the -future, in case the Persians should renew their attack by sea,—a contingency -at that time seemingly probable,—and boundless prospects of future ascendency -over the Grecian coasts and islands: it was the great engine of defence, -of offence, and of ambition. To continue this movement required much less -foresight and genius than to begin it, and Themistocles, the moment that -the walls of the city had been finished, brought back the attention of his -countrymen to those wooden walls which had served them as a refuge against -the Persian monarch. He prevailed upon them to provide harbour-room at -once safe and adequate, by the enlargement and fortification of the Piræus. -This again was only the prosecution of an enterprise previously begun: for -he had already, while in office two or three years before, made his countrymen -sensible that the open roadstead of Phalerum was thoroughly insecure, and -had prevailed upon them to improve and employ in part the more spacious -harbours of Piræus and Munychia—three natural basins, all capable of being -closed and defended. Something had then been done towards the enlargement -of this port, though it had probably been subsequently ruined by the -Persian invaders: but Themistocles now resumed the scheme on a scale far -grander than he could then have ventured to propose—a scale which -demonstrates the vast auguries present to his mind respecting the destinies -of Athens.</p> - -<p>Piræus and Munychia, in his new plan, constituted a fortified space as large -as the enlarged Athens, and with a wall far more elaborate and unassailable. -The wall which surrounded them, sixty stadia in circuit [about seven and a -half miles], was intended by him to be so stupendous, both in height and -thickness, as to render assault hopeless, and to enable the whole military -population to act on shipboard, leaving only old men and boys as a garrison. -We may judge how vast his project was, when we learn that the wall, though -in practice always found sufficient, was only carried up to half the height -which he had contemplated. In respect to thickness, however, his ideas -were exactly followed: two carts meeting one another brought stones which -were laid together right and left on the outer side of each, and thus formed -two primary parallel walls, between which the interior space—of course, at -least as broad as the joint breadth of the two carts—was filled up, “not -with rubble, in the usual manner of the Greeks, but constructed, throughout -the whole thickness, of squared stones, cramped together with metal.” -The result was a solid wall, probably not less than fourteen or fifteen feet -thick, since it was intended to carry so very unusual a height. In the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span> -exhortations whereby he animated the people to this fatiguing and costly -work, he laboured to impress upon them that Piræus was of more value to -them than Athens itself, and that it afforded a shelter into which, if their -territory should be again overwhelmed by a superior land-force, they might -securely retire, with full liberty of that maritime action in which they were -a match for all the world. We may even suspect that if Themistocles could -have followed his own feelings, he would have altered the site of the city -from Athens to Piræus: the attachment of the people to their ancient and -holy rock doubtless prevented any such proposition. Nor did he at that -time, probably, contemplate the possibility of those long walls which in a -few years afterwards consolidated the two cities into one.</p> - -<p>Forty-five years afterwards, at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, -we shall hear from Pericles, who espoused and carried out the large ideas of -Themistocles, this same language about the capacity of Athens to sustain a -great power exclusively or chiefly upon maritime action. But the Athenian -empire was then an established reality, whereas in the time of Themistocles -it was yet a dream, and his bold predictions, surpassed as they were by the -future reality, mark that extraordinary power of practical divination which -Thucydides so emphatically extols in him. And it proves the exuberant -hope which had now passed into the temper of the Athenian people, when -we find them, on the faith of these predictions, undertaking a new enterprise -of so much toil and expense; and that too when just returned from exile -into a desolated country, at a moment of private distress and public impoverishment. -However, Piræus served other purposes besides its direct use -as a dockyard for military marine: its secure fortifications and the protection -of the Athenian navy, were well calculated to call back those metics, or -resident foreigners, who had been driven away by the invasion of Xerxes, -and who might feel themselves insecure in returning, unless some new and -conspicuous means of protection were exhibited.</p> - -<p>To invite them back, and to attract new residents of a similar description, -Themistocles proposed to exempt them from the <i>metoikion</i>, or non-freeman’s -annual tax: but this exemption can only have lasted for a time, and the -great temptation for them to return must have consisted in the new securities -and facilities for trade, which Athens, with her fortified ports and navy, now -afforded. The presence of numerous metics was profitable to the Athenians, -both privately and publicly: much of the trading, professional, and handicraft -business was in their hands: and the Athenian legislation, while it -excluded them from the political franchise, was in other respects equitable -and protective to them.</p> - -<p>We are further told that Themistocles prevailed on the Athenians to build -every year twenty new ships of the line—so we may designate the trireme. -Whether this number was always strictly adhered to, it is impossible to say; -but to repair the ships, as well as to keep up their numbers, was always regarded -among the most indispensable obligations of the executive government. -It does not appear that the Spartans offered any opposition to the -fortification of the Piræus, though it was an enterprise greater, more novel, -and more menacing, than that of Athens. But Diodorus tells us, probably -enough, that Themistocles thought it necessary to send an embassy to Sparta, -intimating that his scheme was to provide a safe harbour for the collective -navy of Greece, in the event of future Persian attack.</p> - -<p>Works on so vast a scale must have taken a considerable time, and absorbed -much of the Athenian force; yet they did not prevent Athens from -lending active aid towards the expedition which, in the year after the battle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span> -of Platæa (478 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>), set sail for Asia under the Spartan Pausanias. Twenty -ships from the various cities of the Peloponnesus were under his command: the -Athenians alone furnished thirty, under the orders of Aristides and Cimon: -other triremes also came from the Ionian and insular allies. They first sailed -to Cyprus, in which island they liberated most of the Grecian cities from the -Persian government: next, they turned to the Bosporus of Thrace, and -undertook the siege of Byzantium, which, like Sestus in the Chersonesus, was -a post of great moment, as well as of great strength—occupied by a considerable -Persian force, with several leading Persians and even kinsmen of -the monarch. The place was captured, seemingly after a prolonged siege: -it might probably hold out even longer than Sestus, as being taken less -unprepared. The line of communication between the Euxine Sea and Greece -was thus cleared of obstruction.</p> - -<h4>THE MISCONDUCT OF PAUSANIAS</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[478 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The capture of Byzantium proved the signal for a capital and unexpected -change in the relations of the various Grecian cities; a change, of which the -proximate cause lay in the misconduct of Pausanias, but towards which other -causes, deep-seated as well as various, also tended. In recounting the history -of Miltiades, we noticed the deplorable liability of the Grecian leading -men to be spoiled by success: this distemper worked with singular rapidity -on Pausanias. As conqueror of Platæa, he had acquired a renown unparalleled -in Grecian experience, together with a prodigious share of the -plunder: the concubines, horses, camels, and gold plate, which had thus -passed into his possession, were well calculated to make the sobriety -and discipline of Spartan life irksome, while his power also, though great -on foreign command, became subordinate to that of the ephors when he -returned home. His newly acquired insolence was manifested immediately -after the battle, in the commemorative tripod dedicated by his order at -Delphi, which proclaimed himself by name and singly, as commander of the -Greeks and destroyer of the Persians: an unseemly boast, of which the -Lacedæmonians themselves were the first to mark their disapprobation, by -causing the inscription to be erased, and the names of the cities who had -taken part in the combat to be all enumerated on the tripod. Nevertheless, -he was still sent on the command against Cyprus and Byzantium, and it was -on the capture of this latter place that his ambition and discontent first -ripened into distinct treason. He entered into correspondence with Gongylus -the Eretrian exile (now a subject of Persia, and invested with the -property and government of a district in Mysia), to whom he entrusted his -new acquisition of Byzantium, and the care of the valuable prisoners taken -in it. These prisoners were presently suffered to escape, or rather sent away -underhand to Xerxes; together with a letter from the hand of Pausanias, -himself, to the following effect: “Pausanias, the Spartan commander, having -taken these captives, sends them back, in his anxiety to oblige thee. I am -minded, if it so please thee, to marry thy daughter, and to bring under thy -dominion both Sparta and the rest of Greece: with thy aid, I think myself -competent to achieve this. If my proposition be acceptable, send some -confidential person down to the sea-board, through whom we may hereafter -correspond.”</p> - -<p>Xerxes, highly pleased with the opening thus held out, immediately sent -down Artabazus (the same who had been second in command in Bœotia)<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span> -to supersede Megabates in the satrapy of Dascylium; the new satrap, furnished -with a letter of reply bearing the regal seal, was instructed to further -actively the projects of Pausanias. The letter was to this purport: “Thus -saith King Xerxes to Pausanias. Thy name stands forever recorded in my -house as a well-doer, on account of the men whom thou hast saved for me -beyond sea at Byzantium: and thy propositions now received are acceptable -to me. Relax not either night or day in accomplishing that which thou -promisest, nor let thyself be held back by cost, either gold or silver, or numbers -of men, if thou standest in need of them, but transact in confidence thy -business and mine jointly with Artabazus, the good man whom I have now -sent, in such manner as may be best for both of us.”</p> - -<p>Throughout the whole of this expedition, Pausanias had been insolent -and domineering, degrading the allies at quarters and watering-places in the -most offensive manner as compared with the Spartans, and treating the whole -armament in a manner which Greek warriors could not tolerate, even in a -Spartan Heraclid, and a victorious general. But when he received the -letter from Xerxes, and found himself in immediate communication with -Artabazus, as well as supplied with funds for corruption, his insane hopes -knew no bounds, and he already fancied himself son-in-law of the Great -King, as well as despot of Hellas. Fortunately for Greece, his treasonable -plans were not deliberately laid and veiled until ripe for execution, but -manifested with childish impatience. He clothed himself in Persian attire—(a -proceeding which the Macedonian army, a century and a half afterwards, -could not tolerate, even in Alexander the Great),—he traversed -Thrace with a body of Median and Egyptian guards,—he copied the Persian -chiefs, both in the luxury of his table and in his conduct towards the -free women of Byzantium. Cleonice, a Byzantine maiden of conspicuous -family, having been ravished from her parents by his order, was brought to -his chamber at night: he happened to be asleep, and being suddenly awakened, -knew not at first who was the person approaching his bed, but seized -his sword and slew her. Moreover, his haughty reserve, with uncontrolled -bursts of wrath, rendered him unapproachable; and the allies at length -came to regard him as a despot rather than a general. The news of such outrageous -behaviour, and the manifest evidences of his alliance with the Persians, -were soon transmitted to the Spartans, who recalled him to answer for -his conduct, and seemingly the Spartan vessels along with him.</p> - -<p>In spite of the flagrant conduct of Pausanias, the Lacedæmonians acquitted -him on the allegations of positive and individual wrong; yet, mistrusting -his conduct in reference to collusion with the enemy, they sent out Dorcis -to supersede him as commander. But a revolution, of immense importance -for Greece, had taken place in the minds of the allies. The headship, or -hegemony, was in the hands of Athens, and Dorcis the Spartan found the -allies not disposed to recognise his authority.</p> - -<p>Even before the battle of Salamis, the question had been raised, whether -Athens was not entitled to the command at sea, in consequence of the preponderance -of her naval contingent. The repugnance of the allies to any -command except that of Sparta, either on land or water, had induced the -Athenians to waive their pretensions at that critical moment. But the subsequent -victories had materially exalted the latter in the eyes of Greece: while -the armament now serving, differently composed from that which had fought -at Salamis, contained a large proportion of the newly enfranchised Ionic -Greeks, who not only had no preference for Spartan command, but were -attached to the Athenians on every ground—as well from kindred race, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span> -from the certainty that Athens with her superior fleet was the only protector -upon whom they could rely against the Persians. Moreover, it happened -that the Athenian generals on this expedition, Aristides and Cimon, were -personally just and conciliating, forming a striking contrast with Pausanias. -Hence the Ionic Greeks in the fleet, when they found that the behaviour of -the latter was not only oppressive towards themselves but also revolting to -Grecian sentiment generally, addressed themselves to the Athenian commanders -for protection and redress, on the plausible ground of kindred race; -entreating to be allowed to serve under Athens as leader instead of Sparta. -The Spartan government about this time recalled Pausanias to undergo an -examination, in consequence of the universal complaints against him which -had reached them. He seems to have left no Spartan authority behind him,—even -the small Spartan squadron accompanied him home: so that the -Athenian generals had the best opportunity for insuring to themselves and -exercising that command which the allies besought them to undertake. So -effectually did they improve the moment, that when Dorcis arrived to replace -Pausanias, they were already in full supremacy; while Dorcis, having only -a small force, and being in no condition to employ constraint, found himself -obliged to return home.</p> - -<h4>ATHENS TAKES THE LEADERSHIP</h4> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 139px;"> -<img src="images/p388.jpg" width="139" height="200" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Type of Greek Helmet</span></p> -</div> - -<p>This incident, though not a declaration of -war against Sparta, was the first open renunciation -of her authority as presiding state among -the Greeks; the first avowed manifestation of -a competitor for that dignity, with numerous -and willing followers; the first separation of -Greece—considered in herself alone and apart -from foreign solicitations, such as the Persian -invasion—into two distinct organised camps, -each with collective interests and projects of its -own. In spite of mortified pride, Sparta was -constrained, and even in some points of view -not indisposed, to patient acquiescence. The -example of their king Leotychides, too, near -about this time, was a second illustration of the -same tendency. At the same time, apparently, -that Pausanias embarked for Asia to carry on -the war against the Persians, Leotychides was -sent with an army into Thessaly to put down -the Aleuadæ and those Thessalian parties who had sided with Xerxes and -Mardonius. Successful in this expedition, he suffered himself to be bribed, -and was even detected with a large sum of money actually on his person: in -consequence of which the Lacedæmonians condemned him to banishment, and -razed his house to the ground; he died afterwards in exile at Tegea. Two -such instances were well calculated to make the Lacedæmonians distrust the -conduct of their Heraclid leaders when on foreign service, and this feeling -weighed much in inducing them to abandon the Asiatic headship in favour -of Athens. It appears that their Peloponnesian allies retired from this contest -at the same time as they did, so that the prosecution of the war was thus -left to Athens as chief of the newly emancipated Greeks.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span></p> - -<p>It was from these considerations that the Spartans were induced to submit -to that loss of command which the misconduct of Pausanias had brought -upon them. Their acquiescence facilitated the immense change about to -take place in Grecian politics. According to the tendencies in progress -prior to the Persian invasion, Sparta had become gradually more and more -the president of something like a Panhellenic union, comprising the greater -part of the Grecian states. Such at least was the point towards which -things seemed to be tending; and if many separate states stood aloof from -this union, none of them at least sought to form any counter-union, if we -except the obsolete and impotent pretensions of Argos.</p> - -<p>But the sympathies of the Peloponnesians still clung to Sparta, while -those of the Ionian Greeks had turned to Athens: and thus not only the -short-lived symptoms of an established Panhellenic union, but even all tendencies -towards it from this time disappear. There now stands out a manifest -schism, with two pronounced parties, towards one of which nearly all the constituent -atoms of the Grecian world gravitate: the maritime states, newly enfranchised -from Persia, towards Athens—the land-states, which had formed -most part of the confederate army at Platæa, towards Sparta. Along with this -national schism and called into action by it, appears the internal political -schism in each separate city between oligarchy and democracy. Of course, -the germ of these parties had already previously existed in the separate states, -but the energetic democracy of Athens, and the pronounced tendency of -Sparta to rest upon the native oligarchies in each separate city as her chief -support, now began to bestow, on the conflict of internal political parties, an -Hellenic importance, and an aggravated bitterness, which had never before -belonged to it.</p> - -<h4>THE CONFEDERACY OF DELOS</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[478-476 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The general conditions of the confederacy of Delos were regulated in a -common synod of the members appointed to meet periodically for deliberative -purposes, in the temple of Apollo and Artemis at Delos—of old, the -venerated spot for the religious festivals of the Ionic cities, and at the same -time a convenient centre for the members. A definite obligation, either in -equipped ships of war or in money, was imposed upon every separate city; -and the Athenians, as leaders, determined in which form contribution should -be made by each: their assessment must of course have been reviewed by the -synod, nor had they at this time power to enforce any regulation not approved -by that body. It had been the good fortune of Athens to profit by the genius -of Themistocles on two recent critical occasions (the battle of Salamis and -the rebuilding of her walls), where sagacity, craft, and decision were required -in extraordinary measure, and where pecuniary probity was of less necessity: -it was no less her good fortune now—in the delicate business of assessing -a new tax and determining how much each state should bear, without -precedents to guide them, when unimpeachable honesty in the assessor was -the first of all qualities—not to have Themistocles; but to employ in his -stead the well-known, we might almost say the ostentatious probity of Aristides. -This must be accounted good fortune, since at the moment when -Aristides was sent out, the Athenians could not have anticipated that any -such duty would devolve upon him. His assessment not only found favour -at the time of its original proposition, when it must have been freely canvassed -by the assembled allies, but also maintained its place in general -esteem, after Athens had degenerated into an unpopular empire.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span></p> - -<p>Respecting this first assessment, we scarcely know more than one single -fact—the aggregate in money was four hundred and sixty talents [equal to -about £106,000 or $530,000].</p> - -<p>Of the items composing such aggregate, of the individual cities which -paid it, of the distribution of obligations to furnish ships and money, we are -entirely ignorant: the little information which we possess on these points -relates to a period considerably later, shortly before the Peloponnesian War, -under the uncontrolled empire then exercised by Athens. Thucydides, in his -brief sketch, makes us clearly understand the difference between presiding -Athens, with her autonomous and regularly assembled allies in 476 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, and -imperial Athens, with her subject allies in 432 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>; the Greek word equivalent -to ally left either of these epithets to be understood, by an ambiguity -exceedingly convenient to the powerful states,—and he indicates the general -causes of the change: but he gives us few particulars as to the modifying -circumstances, and none at all as to the first start. He tells us only that the -Athenians appointed a peculiar board of officers, called the <i>hellenotamiæ</i>, to -receive and administer the common fund,—that Delos was constituted the -general treasury, where the money was to be kept,—and that the payment -thus levied was called the <i>phorus</i>; a name which appears then to have been -first put into circulation, though afterwards usual, and to have conveyed at -first no degrading import, though it afterwards became so odious as to be -exchanged for a more innocent synonym.</p> - -<p>The public import of the name <i>hellenotamiæ</i>, coined for the occasion, -the selection of Delos as a centre, and the provision for regular meetings -of the members, demonstrate the patriotic and fraternal purpose which the -league was destined to serve. In truth, the protection of the Ægean Sea -against foreign maritime force and lawless piracy, as well as that of the -Hellespont and Bosporus against the transit of a Persian force, was a purpose -essentially public, for which all the parties interested were bound in -equity to provide by way of common contribution: any island or seaport -which might refrain from contributing, was a gainer at the cost of others: -and we cannot doubt that the general feeling of this common danger as well -as equitable obligation, at a moment when the fear of Persia was yet serious, -was the real cause which brought together so many contributing members, -and enabled the forward parties to shame into concurrence such as were -more backward.</p> - -<p>How it was that the confederacy came to be turned afterwards to the -purposes of Athenian ambition, we shall see at the proper time: but in its -origin it was an equal alliance, in so far as alliance between the strong and the -weak can ever be equal, not an Athenian empire: nay, it was an alliance in -which every individual member was more exposed, more defenceless, and more -essentially benefited in the way of protection, than Athens.</p> - -<p>We have here in truth one of the few moments in Grecian history -wherein a purpose at once common, equal, useful, and innocent, brought -together spontaneously many fragments of this disunited race, and overlaid -for a time that exclusive bent towards petty and isolated autonomy which -ultimately made slaves of them all. It was a proceeding equitable and prudent, -in principle as well as in detail; promising at the time the most beneficent -consequences, not merely protection against the Persians, but a standing -police of the Ægean Sea, regulated by a common superintending authority. -And if such promise was not realised, we shall find that the inherent defects -of the allies, indisposing them to the hearty appreciation and steady performance -of their duties as equal confederates, are at least as much chargeable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span> -with the failure as the ambition of Athens. We may add that, in -selecting Delos as a centre, the Ionic allies were conciliated by a renovation -of the solemnities which their fathers, in the days of former freedom, had -crowded to witness in that sacred island.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[477-470 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>At the time when this alliance was formed, the Persians still held not -only the important posts of Eion on the Strymon and Doriscus in Thrace, -but also several other posts in that country, which are not specified to us. We -may thus understand why the Greek cities on and near the Chalcidic peninsula,—Argilus, -Stagiras, Acanthus, Scolus, Olynthus, Spartolus, etc.,—which -we know to have joined under the first assessment of Aristides, were -not less anxious to seek protection in the bosom of the new confederacy, -than the Dorian islands of Rhodes and Cos, the Ionic islands of Samos and -Chios, the Æolic Lesbos and Tenedos, or continental towns such as Miletus -and Byzantium: by all of whom adhesion to this alliance must have been -contemplated, in 477 or 476 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, as the sole condition of emancipation from -Persia. Nothing more was required for the success of a foreign enemy -against Greece generally than complete autonomy of every Grecian city, -small as well as great—such as the Persian monarch prescribed and tried -to enforce ninety years afterwards, through the Lacedæmonian Antalcidas, -in the pacification which bears the name of the latter. Some sort of union, -organised and obligatory upon each city, was indispensable to the safety of -all. Nor was it by any means certain, at the time when the confederacy -of Delos was first formed, that, even with that aid, the Asiatic enemy would -be effectually kept out; especially as the Persians were strong, not merely -from their own force, but also from the aid of internal parties in many of -the Grecian states—traitors within, as well as exiles without.</p> - -<h4>THE TREASON OF PAUSANIAS</h4> - -<p>Among these, the first in rank as well as the most formidable, was the -Spartan Pausanias. Summoned home from Byzantium to Sparta, in order -that the loud complaints against him might be examined, he had been acquitted -of the charges of wrong and oppression against individuals; yet the -presumptions of <i>medism</i>, or treacherous correspondence with the Persians, -appeared so strong that, though not found guilty, he was still not reappointed -to the command. Such treatment seems to have only emboldened -him in the prosecution of his designs against Greece, and he came out with -this view to Byzantium in a trireme belonging to Hermione, under pretence -of aiding as a volunteer without any formal authority in the war. He there -resumed his negotiations with Artabazus: his great station and celebrity -still gave him a strong hold on men’s opinions, and he appears to have established -a sort of mastery in Byzantium, from whence the Athenians, already -recognised heads of the confederacy, were constrained to expel him by force: -and we may be very sure that the terror excited by his presence as well as by -his known designs tended materially to accelerate the organisation of the -confederacy under Athens. He then retired to Colonæ in the Troad, where -he continued for some time in the farther prosecution of his schemes, trying -to form a Persian party, despatching emissaries to distribute Persian gold -among various cities of Greece, and probably employing the name of Sparta -to impede the formation of the new confederacy: until at length the Spartan -authorities, apprised of his proceedings, sent a herald out to him, with peremptory -orders that he should come home immediately along with the herald:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span> -if he disobeyed, “the Spartans would declare war against him,” or constitute -him a public enemy.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[<i>ca.</i> 470 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>As the execution of this threat would have frustrated all the ulterior -schemes of Pausanias, he thought it prudent to obey; the rather, as he felt -entire confidence of escaping all the charges against him at Sparta by the -employment of bribes, the means for which were abundantly furnished to -him through Artabazus. He accordingly returned along with the herald, -and was, in the first moments of indignation, imprisoned by order of the -ephors; who, it seems, were legally competent to imprison him, even had he -been king instead of regent. But he was soon let out, on his own requisition, -and under a private arrangement with friends and partisans, to take his trial -against all accusers. Even to stand forth as accuser against so powerful a -man was a serious peril: to undertake the proof of specific matter of treason -against him was yet more serious: nor does it appear that any Spartan ventured -to do either. It was known that nothing short of the most manifest -and invincible proof would be held to justify his condemnation, and amidst -a long chain of acts carrying conviction when taken in the aggregate, there -was no single treason sufficiently demonstrable for the purpose. Accordingly, -Pausanias remained not only at large but unaccused, still audaciously -persisting both in his intrigues at home and his correspondence abroad with -Artabazus. He ventured to assail the unshielded side of Sparta by opening -negotiations with the helots, and instigating them to revolt; promising them -both liberation and admission to political privilege; with a view, first, to -destroy the board of ephors, and render himself despot in his own country, -next, to acquire through Persian help the supremacy of Greece. Some of -those helots to whom he addressed himself revealed the plot to the ephors, -who, nevertheless, in spite of such grave peril, did not choose to take measures -against Pausanias upon no better information—so imposing was still his -name and position. But though some few helots might inform, probably, -many others, both gladly heard the proposition and faithfully kept the secret: -we shall find, by what happened a few years afterwards, that there were a -large number of them who had their spears in readiness for revolt. Suspected -as Pausanias was, yet by the fears of some and the connivance of -others, he was allowed to bring his plans to the very brink of consummation: -and his last letters to Artabazus, intimating that he was ready for action, and -bespeaking immediate performance of the engagements concerted between -them, were actually in the hands of the messenger. Sparta was saved from -an outbreak of the most formidable kind, not by the prudence of her authorities, -but by a mere accident, or rather by the fact that Pausanias was not -only a traitor to his country, but also base and cruel in his private relations.</p> - -<p>The messenger to whom these last letters were entrusted was a native of -Argilus in Thrace, a favourite and faithful slave of Pausanias; once connected -with him by that intimate relation which Grecian manners tolerated, -and admitted even to the full confidence of his treasonable projects. It was -by no means the intention of this Argilian to betray his master; but, on receiving -the letter to carry, he recollected, with some uneasiness, that none of -the previous messengers had ever come back. Accordingly he broke the -seal and read it, with the full view of carrying it forward to its destination, -if he found nothing inconsistent with his own personal safety: he had further -taken the precaution to counterfeit his master’s seal, so that he could -easily reclose the letter. On reading it, he found his suspicions confirmed -by an express injunction that the bearer was to be put to death—a -discovery which left him no alternative except to deliver it to the ephors.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span> -But those magistrates, who had before disbelieved the helot informers, -still refused to believe even the confidential slave with his master’s autograph -and seal, and with the full account besides, which doubtless he would -communicate at the same time, of all that had previously passed in the -Persian correspondence. Partly from the suspicion which, in antiquity, -always attached to the testimony of slaves, except when it was obtained under -the pretended guarantee of torture, partly from the peril of dealing with -so exalted a criminal, the ephors would not be satisfied with any evidence -less than his own speech and their own ears. They directed the Argilian -slave to plant himself as a suppliant in the sacred precinct of Poseidon, near -Cape Tænarus, under the shelter of a double tent, or hut, behind which two -of them concealed themselves. Apprised of this unexpected mark of alarm, -Pausanias hastened to the temple, and demanded the reason: upon which the -slave disclosed his knowledge of the contents of the letter, and complained -bitterly that, after a long and faithful service,—with a secrecy never once -betrayed, throughout this dangerous correspondence,—he was at length rewarded -with nothing better than the same miserable fate which had befallen the -previous messengers. Pausanias, admitting all these facts, tried to appease -the slave’s disquietude, and gave him a solemn assurance of safety if he would -quit the sanctuary; urging him at the same time to proceed on the journey -forthwith, in order that the schemes in progress might not be retarded.</p> - -<p>All this passed within the hearing of the concealed ephors; who at length, -thoroughly satisfied, determined to arrest Pausanias immediately on his return -to Sparta. They met him in the public street, not far from the temple -of Athene Chalciœcus (or of the Brazen House); but as they came near, -either their menacing looks, or a significant nod from one of them, revealed -to this guilty man their purpose; and he fled for refuge to the temple, which -was so near that he reached it before they could overtake him. He planted -himself as a suppliant, far more hopeless than the Argilian slave whom he -had so recently talked over at Tænarus, in a narrow-roofed chamber belonging -to the sacred building; where the ephors, not warranted in touching -him, took off the roof, built up the doors, and kept watch until he was on -the point of death by starvation. According to a current story, not recognised -by Thucydides, yet consistent with Spartan manners, his own -mother was the person who placed the first stone to build up the door, in -deep abhorrence of his treason. His last moments being carefully observed, -he was brought away just in time to expire without, and thus to avoid the -desecration of the temple. The first impulse of the ephors was to cast his -body into the ravine, or hollow, called the Cæadas, the usual place of punishment -for criminals: probably, his powerful friends averted this disgrace, -and he was buried not far off, until, some time afterwards, under the mandate -of the Delphian oracle, his body was exhumed and transported to the exact -spot where he had died. Nor was the oracle satisfied even with this reinterment: -pronouncing the whole proceeding to be a profanation of the sanctity -of Athene, it enjoined that two bodies should be presented to her as an -atonement for the one carried away. In the very early days of Greece, or -among the Carthaginians, even at this period, such an injunction would -probably have produced the slaughter of two human victims: on the present -occasion, Athene, or Hicesius, the tutelary god of suppliants, was supposed -to be satisfied by two brazen statues; not, however, without some -attempts to make out that the expiation was inadequate.</p> - -<p>Thus perished a Greek who reached the pinnacle of renown simply from -the accidents of his lofty descent, and of his being general at Platæa, where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span> -it does not appear that he displayed any superior qualities. His treasonable -projects implicated and brought to disgrace a man far greater than himself, -the Athenian Themistocles.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[478-470 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The chronology of this important period is not so fully known as to enable -us to make out the full dates of particular events; but we are obliged—in -consequence of the subsequent events connected with Themistocles, -whose flight to Persia is tolerably well marked as to date—to admit an -interval of about nine years between the retirement of Pausanias from his -command at Byzantium, and his death. To suppose so long an interval -engaged in treasonable correspondence, is perplexing; and we can only -explain it to ourselves very imperfectly by considering that the Spartans -were habitually slow in their movements, and that the suspected regent may -perhaps have communicated with partisans, real or expected, in many parts -of Greece. Among those whom he sought to enlist as accomplices was Themistocles, -still in great power—though, as it would seem, in declining -power—at Athens: and the charge of collusion with the Persians connects -itself with the previous movement of political parties in that city.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/p394.jpg" width="500" height="289" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">The Dying Pausanias Carried from the Temple</span></p> -</div> - -<h4>POLITICAL CHANGES AT ATHENS</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[478-476 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The rivalry of Themistocles and Aristides had been greatly appeased -by the invasion of Xerxes, which had imposed upon both the peremptory -necessity of co-operation against a common enemy. Nor was it apparently -resumed, during the times which immediately succeeded the return of the -Athenians to their country: at least we hear of both in effective service, and -in prominent posts. Themistocles stands forward as the contriver of the -city walls and architect of Piræus: Aristides is commander of the fleet, -and first organiser of the confederacy of Delos. Moreover, we seem to -detect a change in the character of the latter: he had ceased to be the champion -of Athenian old-fashioned landed interest, against Themistocles as the -originator of the maritime innovations. Those innovations had now, since<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span> -the battle of Salamis, become an established fact; a fact of overwhelming -influence on the destinies and character, public as well as private, of the -Athenians. During the exile at Salamis, every man, rich or poor, landed -proprietor or artisan, had been for the time a seaman: and the anecdote of -Cimon, who dedicated the bridle of his horse in the Acropolis, as a token -that he was about to pass from the cavalry to service on shipboard, is a type -of that change of feeling which must have been impressed more or less upon -every rich man in Athens. From henceforward the fleet is endeared to every -man as the grand force, offensive and defensive, of the state, in which character -all the political leaders agree in accepting it.</p> - -<p>We see by the active political sentiment of the German people, after the -great struggles of 1813 and 1814, how much an energetic and successful -military effort of the people at large, blended with endurance of serious -hardship, tends to stimulate the sense of political dignity and the demand -for developed citizenship: and if this be the tendency even among a -people habitually passive on such subjects, much more was it to be expected -in the Athenian population, who had gone through a previous -training of near thirty years under the democracy of Clisthenes. At the -time when that constitution was first established, it was perhaps the most -democratical in Greece: it had worked extremely well and had diffused -among the people a sentiment favourable to equal citizenship and unfriendly -to avowed privilege: so that the impressions made by the struggle at -Salamis found the popular mind prepared to receive them. Early after the -return to Attica, the Clisthenean constitution was enlarged as respects -eligibility to the magistracy. According to that constitution, the fourth or -last class of the Solonian census, including the considerable majority of the -freemen, were not admissible to offices of state, though they possessed votes -in common with the rest: no person was eligible to be a magistrate unless -he belonged to one of the three higher classes. This restriction was now -annulled, and eligibility extended to all the citizens. We may appreciate -the strength of feeling with which such reform was demanded, when we -find that it was proposed by Aristides, a man the reverse of what is called -a demagogue, and a strenuous friend of the Clisthenean constitution. No -political system would work after the Persian War, which formally excluded -“the maritime multitude” from holding magistracy. We rather imagine -that election of magistrates was still retained, and not exchanged for drawing -lots until a certain time, though not a long time, afterwards. That -which the public sentiment first demanded was the recognition of the equal -and open principle: after a certain length of experience, it was found that -poor men, though legally qualified to be chosen, were in point of fact rarely -chosen: then came the lot, to give them an equal chance with the rich. -The principle of sortition, or choice by lot, was never applied, as we have -before remarked, to all offices at Athens—never, for example, to the strategi, -or generals, whose functions were more grave and responsible than those of -any other person in the service of the state, and who always continued to be -elected by show of hands.</p> - -<p>And it was probably about this period, during the years immediately -succeeding the battle of Salamis,—when the force of old habit and tradition -had been partially enfeebled by so many stirring novelties,—that the -archons were withdrawn altogether from political and military duties, and -confined to civil or judicial administration. At the battle of Marathon, the -polemarch is a military commander, president of the ten strategi: we know -him afterwards only as a civil magistrate, administering justice to the metics,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span> -or non-freemen, while the strategi perform military duties without him. -The special and important change which characterised the period immediately -succeeding the battle of Salamis, was the more accurate line drawn -between the archons and the strategi; assigning the foreign and military -department entirely to the strategi, and rendering the archons purely civil -magistrates,—administrative as well as judicial. It was by some such steps -that the Athenian administration gradually attained that complete development -which it exhibits in practise during the century from the Peloponnesian -War downward, to which nearly all our positive and direct information relates.</p> - -<h4>THE DOWNFALL OF THEMISTOCLES</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[476-472 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>With this expansion both of democratical feeling and of military activity -at Athens, Aristides appears to have sympathised; and the popularity thus -insured to him, probably heightened by some regret for his previous ostracism, -was calculated to acquire permanence from his straightforward and incorruptible -character, now brought into strong relief from his function as assessor -to the new Delian confederacy. On the other hand, the ascendency of -Themistocles, though so often exalted by his unrivalled political genius and -daring, as well as by the signal value of his public recommendations, was -as often overthrown by his duplicity of means and unprincipled thirst for -money. New political opponents sprang up against him, men sympathising -with Aristides, and far more violent in their antipathy than Aristides himself. -Of these, the chief were Cimon, son of Miltiades and Alcmæon; -moreover, it seems that the Lacedæmonians, though full of esteem for Themistocles -immediately after the battle of Salamis, had now become extremely -hostile to him—a change which may be sufficiently explained from his -stratagem respecting the fortifications of Athens, and his subsequent ambitious -projects in reference to the Piræus. The Lacedæmonian influence, then not -inconsiderable in Athens, was employed to second the political combinations -against him. He is said to have given offence by manifestations of personal -vanity, by continual boasting of his great services to the state, and by the -erection of a private chapel, close to his own house, in honour of Artemis -Aristobule, or Artemis of admirable counsel; just as Pausanias had irritated -the Lacedæmonians by inscribing his own single name on the Delphian tripod, -and as the friends of Aristides had displeased the Athenians by endless -encomiums upon his justice.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 457px;"> -<img src="images/fp6.jpg" width="457" height="650" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">ARISTIDES AND THE PEASANT</p> -</div> - -<p>But the main cause of his discredit was the prostitution of his great -influence for arbitrary and corrupt purposes. In the unsettled condition -of so many different Grecian communities, recently emancipated from Persia, -when there was past misrule to avenge, wrong-doers to be deposed and perhaps -punished, exiles to be restored, and all the disturbance and suspicions -accompanying so great a change of political condition as well as of foreign -policy, the influence of the leading men at Athens must have been great -in determining the treatment of particular individuals. Themistocles, placed -at the head of an Athenian squadron and sailing among the islands, partly -for the purposes of war against Persia, partly for organising the new confederacy, -is affirmed to have accepted bribes without scruple, for executing -sentences just and unjust, restoring some citizens, expelling others, and even -putting some to death. We learn this from a friend and guest of Themistocles, -the poet Timocreon of Ialysus in Rhodes, who had expected his own -restoration from the Athenian commander, but found that it was thwarted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span> -by a bribe of three talents from his opponents; so that he was still kept in -exile on the charge of <i>medism</i>. The assertions of Timocreon, personally -incensed on this ground against Themistocles, are doubtless to be considered -as passionate and exaggerated: nevertheless, they are a valuable memorial of -the feelings of the time, and are far too much in harmony with the general -character of this eminent man to allow of our disbelieving them entirely. -Timocreon is as emphatic in his admiration of Aristides as in his censure of -Themistocles, whom he denounces as “a lying and unjust traitor.”</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[472-471 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Such conduct as that described by this new Archilochus, even making -every allowance for exaggeration, must have caused Themistocles to be both -hated and feared among the insular allies, whose opinion was now of considerable -importance to the Athenians. A similar sentiment grew up partially -against him in Athens itself, and appears to have been connected with -suspicions of treasonable inclinations towards the Persians. As the Persians -could offer the highest bribes, a man open to corruption might naturally be -suspected of inclinations towards their cause; and if Themistocles had rendered -pre-eminent service against them, so also had Pausanias, whose conduct -had undergone so fatal a change for the worse. It was the treason of Pausanias, -suspected and believed against him by the Athenians even when he -was in command at Byzantium, though not proved against him at Sparta -until long afterwards, which first seems to have raised the presumption of -<i>medism</i> against Themistocles also, when combined with the corrupt proceedings -which stained his public conduct: we must recollect, also, that Themistocles -had given some colour to these presumptions, even by the stratagems in -reference to Xerxes, which wore a double-faced aspect, capable of being construed -either in a Persian or in a Grecian sense. The Lacedæmonians, hostile -to Themistocles since the time when he had outwitted them respecting the -walls of Athens, and fearing him also as a supposed accomplice of the suspected -Pausanias, procured the charge of <i>medism</i> to be preferred against him -at Athens; by secret instigations, and, as it is said, by bribes, to his political -opponents. But no satisfactory proof could be furnished of the accusation, -which Themistocles himself strenuously denied, not without emphatic appeals -to his illustrious services. In spite of violent invectives against him from -Alcmæon and Cimon, tempered, indeed, by a generous moderation on the -part of Aristides, his defence was successful. He carried the people with -him and was acquitted of the charge. Nor was he merely acquitted, but, as -might naturally be expected, a reaction took place in his favour: his splendid -qualities and exploits were brought impressively before the public mind, and -he seemed for the time to acquire greater ascendency than ever.</p> - -<p>Such a charge, and such a failure, must have exasperated to the utmost -the animosity between him and his chief opponents,—Aristides, Cimon, -Alcmæon, and others; nor can we wonder that they were anxious to get rid -of him by ostracism. In explaining this peculiar process, we have already -stated that it could never be raised against any one individual separately and -ostensibly, and that it could never be brought into operation at all, unless -its necessity were made clear, not merely to violent party men, but also to -the assembled senate and people, including, of course, a considerable proportion -of the more moderate citizens. We may well conceive that the conjuncture -was deemed by many dispassionate Athenians well suited for the -tutelary intervention of ostracism, the express benefit of which consisted in -its separating political opponents when the antipathy between them threatened -to push one or the other into extra-constitutional proceedings—especially -when one of those parties was Themistocles, a man alike vast in his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span> -abilities and unscrupulous in his morality. Probably also there were not a -few wished to revenge the previous ostracism of Aristides: and lastly, the -friends of Themistocles himself, elate with his acquittal and his seemingly -augmented popularity, might indulge hopes that the vote of ostracism would -turn out in his favour, and remove one or other of his chief political opponents. -From all these circumstances we learn without astonishment, that a -vote of ostracism was soon after resorted to. It ended in the temporary -banishment of Themistocles.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[471-466 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>He retired into exile, and was residing at Argos, whither he carried a considerable -property, yet occasionally visiting other parts of the Peloponnesus, -when the exposure and death of Pausanias, together with the discovery of -his correspondence, took place at Sparta. Among this correspondence were -found proofs, which Thucydides seems to have considered as real and sufficient, -of the privity of Themistocles. According to Ephorus and others, he -is admitted to have been solicited by Pausanias, and to have known his plans, -but to have kept them secret while refusing to co-operate in them, but -probably after his exile he took a more decided share in them than before; -being well-placed for that purpose at Argos, a city not only unfriendly to -Sparta, but strongly believed to have been in collusion with Xerxes at his -invasion of Greece. On this occasion the Lacedæmonians sent to Athens, -publicly to prefer a formal charge of treason against him, and to urge the -necessity of trying him as a Panhellenic criminal before the synod of the -allies assembled at Sparta. Whether this latter request would have been -granted, or whether Themistocles would have been tried at Athens, we cannot -tell: for no sooner was he apprised that joint envoys from Sparta and -Athens had been despatched to arrest him, than he fled forthwith from -Argos to Corcyra. The inhabitants of that island, though owing gratitude -to him and favourably disposed, could not venture to protect him against -the two most powerful states in Greece, but sent him to the neighbouring -continent.</p> - -<p>Here, however, being still tracked and followed by the envoys, he was -obliged to seek protection from a man whom he had formerly thwarted in -a demand at Athens, and who had become his personal enemy—Admetus, -king of the Molossians. Fortunately for him, at the moment when he -arrived, Admetus was not at home; and Themistocles, becoming a suppliant -to his wife, conciliated her sympathy so entirely, that she placed her child in -his arms, and planted him at the hearth in the full solemnity of supplication -to soften her husband. As soon as Admetus returned, Themistocles revealed -his name, his pursuers, and his danger, entreating protection as a helpless suppliant -in the last extremity. He appealed to the generosity of the Epirotic -prince not to take revenge on a man now defenceless, for offence given under -such very different circumstances; and for an offence too, after all, not of capital -moment, while the protection now entreated was to the suppliant a matter -of life or death. Admetus raised him up from the hearth with the child in -his arms, an evidence that he accepted the appeal and engaged to protect -him; refusing to give him up to the envoys, and at last only sending him away -on the expression of his own wish to visit the king of Persia. Two Macedonian -guides conducted him across the mountains to Pydna, in the Thermaic -Gulf, where he found a merchant ship about to set sail for the coast of Asia -Minor, and took a passage on board; neither the master nor the crew knowing -his name. An untoward storm drove the vessel to the island of Naxos, at -that moment besieged by an Athenian armament: had he been forced to land -there, he would of course have been recognised and seized, but his wonted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span> -subtlety did not desert him. Having communicated both his name and the -peril which awaited him, he conjured the master of the ship to assist in saving -him, and not to suffer any one of the crew to land; menacing that if by -any accident he were discovered, he would bring the master to ruin along -with himself, by representing him as an accomplice induced by money to -facilitate the escape of Themistocles: on the other hand, in case of safety, -he promised a large reward. Such promises and threats weighed with the -master, who controlled his crew, and forced them to beat about during a day -and a night off the coast, without seeking to land. After that dangerous -interval, the storm abated, and the ship reached Ephesus in safety.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[466-460 (?) <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Thus did Themistocles, after a series of perils, find himself safe on the -Persian side of the Ægean. At Athens, he was proclaimed a traitor, and -his property confiscated: nevertheless, as it frequently happened in cases of -confiscation, his friends secreted a considerable sum, and sent it over to him -in Asia, together with the money which he had left at Argos; so that he -was thus enabled liberally to reward the ship-captain who had preserved -him. With all this deduction, the property which he possessed of a character -not susceptible of concealment, and which was therefore actually seized, -was found to amount to eighty talents [about £16,000 or $80,000] according -to Theophrastus, to one hundred talents according to Theopompus. In -contrast with this large sum, it is melancholy to learn that he had begun his -political career with a property not greater than three talents. The poverty -of Aristides at the end of his life presents an impressive contrast to the -enrichment of his rival.</p> - -<p>The escape of Themistocles, and his adventures in Persia, appear to have -formed a favourite theme for the fancy and exaggeration of authors a century -afterwards: we have thus many anecdotes which contradict either -directly or by implication the simple narrative of Thucydides. Thus we are -told that at the moment when he was running away from the Greeks, the -Persian king also had proclaimed a reward of two hundred talents for his -head, and that some Greeks on the coast of Asia were watching to take him -for this reward: that he was forced to conceal himself strictly near the -coast, until means were found to send him up to Susa in a closed litter, -under pretence that it was a woman for the king’s harem: that Mandane, -sister of Xerxes, insisted upon having him delivered up to her as an expiation -for the loss of her son at the battle of Salamis: that he learned Persian -so well, and discoursed in it so eloquently, as to procure for himself an -acquittal from the Persian judges, when put upon his trial through the -importunity of Mandane: that the officers of the king’s household at Susa, -and the satraps on his way back, threatened him with still further perils: -that he was admitted to see the king in person, after having received a lecture -from the chamberlain on the indispensable duty of falling down before -him to do homage, etc., with several other uncertified details, which make us -value more highly the narrative of Thucydides. Indeed, Ephorus, Dinon, -Clitarchus, and Heraclides, from whom these anecdotes appear mostly to -be derived, even affirmed that Themistocles had found Xerxes himself alive -and seen him: whereas, Thucydides and Charon, the two contemporary -authors, for the former is nearly contemporary, asserted that he had found -Xerxes recently dead, and his son Artaxerxes on the throne.</p> - -<p>According to Thucydides, the eminent exile does not seem to have been -exposed to the least danger in Persia. He presented himself as a deserter -from Greece, and was accepted as such: moreover,—what is more -strange, though it seems true,—he was received as an actual benefactor of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span> -Persian king, and a sufferer from the Greeks on account of such dispositions, -in consequence of his communications made to Xerxes respecting the intended -retreat of the Greeks from Salamis, and respecting the contemplated destruction -of the Hellespontine bridge. He was conducted by some Persians on -the coast up to Susa, where he addressed a letter to the king couched in the -following terms, such as probably no modern European king would tolerate -except from a Quaker: “I, Themistocles, am come to thee, having done to -thy house more mischief than any other Greek, as long as I was compelled in -my own defence to resist the attack of thy father—but having also done -him yet greater good, when I could do so with safety to myself, and when -his retreat was endangered. Reward is yet owing to me for my past service: -moreover, I am now here, chased away by the Greeks, in consequence of my -attachment to thee, but able still to serve thee with great effect. I wish to -wait a year, and then to come before thee in person to explain my views.”</p> - -<p>Whether the Persian interpreters, who read this letter to Artaxerxes -Longimanus, exactly rendered its brief and direct expression, we cannot say. -But it made a strong impression upon him, combined with the previous reputation -of the writer, and he willingly granted the prayer for delay: though -we shall not readily believe that he was so transported as to show his joy by -immediate sacrifice to the gods, by an unusual measure of convivial indulgence, -and by crying out thrice in his sleep, “I have got Themistocles the -Athenian,”—as some of Plutarch’s authors informed him. In the course of -the year granted, Themistocles had learned so much of the Persian language -and customs as to be able to communicate personally with the king, and -acquire his confidence: no Greek, says Thucydides, had ever before attained -such a commanding influence and position at the Persian court. His ingenuity -was now displayed in laying out schemes for the subjugation of Greece -to Persia, which were eminently captivating to the monarch, who rewarded -him with a Persian wife and large presents, sending him down to Magnesia, -on the Mæander, not far from the coast of Ionia. The revenues of the district -round that town, amounting to the large sum of fifty talents [£10,000 -or $50,000] yearly, were assigned to him for bread: those of the neighbouring -seaport of Myus, for articles of condiment to his bread, which was -always accounted the main nourishment: those of Lampsacus on the Hellespont, -for wine. Not knowing the amount of these two latter items, we can -not determine how much revenue Themistocles received altogether: but -there can be no doubt, judging from the revenues of Magnesia alone, that -he was a great pecuniary gainer by his change of country. After having -visited various parts of Asia, he lived for a certain time at Magnesia, in -which place his family joined him from Athens. How long his residence -at Magnesia lasted we do not know, but seemingly long enough to acquire -local estimation and leave mementos behind him. He at length died of sickness, -when sixty-five years old, without having taken any step towards the -accomplishment of those victorious campaigns which he had promised to -Artaxerxes. That sickness was the real cause of his death, we may believe -on the distinct statement of Thucydides; who at the same time notices a -rumour partially current in his own time, of poison voluntarily taken, from -painful consciousness on the part of Themistocles himself that the promises -made could never be performed—a further proof of the general tendency -to surround the last years of this distinguished man with impressive adventures, -and to dignify his last moments with a revived feeling, not unworthy -of his earlier patriotism. The report may possibly have been designedly -circulated by his friends and relatives, in order to conciliate some tenderness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span> -towards his memory (his sons still continued citizens at Athens, and his -daughters were married there). These friends further stated that they had -brought back his bones to Attica, at his own express command, and buried -them privately without the knowledge of the Athenians; no condemned -traitor being permitted to be buried in Attic soil. If, however, we even suppose -that this statement was true, no one could point out with certainty the -spot wherein such interment had taken place: nor does it seem, when we -mark the cautious expressions of Thucydides, that he himself was satisfied of -the fact: moreover, we may affirm with confidence that the inhabitants of -Magnesia, when they showed the splendid sepulchral monument erected in -honour of Themistocles in their own market-place, were persuaded that his -bones were really enclosed within it.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[468 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Aristides died about three or four years after the ostracism of Themistocles; -but respecting the place and manner of his death, there were several -contradictions among the authors whom Plutarch had before him. Some -affirmed that he perished on foreign service in the Euxine Sea; others, that -he died at home, amidst the universal esteem and grief of his fellow-citizens. -A third story, confined to the single statement of Craterus, and strenuously -rejected by Plutarch, represents Aristides as having been falsely accused -before the Athenian judicature and condemned to a fine of fifty minæ [£180, -or $900], on the allegation of having taken bribes during the assessment of -the tribute on the allies—which fine he was unable to pay, and was therefore -obliged to retire to Ionia, where he died. Dismissing this last story, -we find nothing certain about his death except one fact,—but that fact at -the same time the most honourable of all,—that he died very poor. It is -even asserted that he did not leave enough to pay funeral expenses, that -a sepulchre was provided for him at Phalerum at the public cost, besides a -handsome donation to his son Lysimachus, and a dowry to each of his two -daughters. In the two or three ensuing generations, however, his descendants -still continued poor, and even at that remote day, some of them received -aid out of the public purse, from the recollection of their incorruptible ancestor. -Near a century and a half afterwards, a poor man, named Lysimachus, -descendant of the just Aristides, was to be seen at Athens, near the chapel of -Iacchus, carrying a mysterious tablet, and obtaining his scanty fee of two -oboli [3d. or 6 cents] for interpreting the dreams of the passers-by: Demetrius -the Phalerean procured from the people, for the mother and aunt of this -poor man, a small daily allowance.</p> - -<p>On all these points the contrast is marked when we compare Aristides -with Themistocles. The latter, having distinguished himself by ostentatious -cost at Olympia, and by a choregic victory at Athens, with little scruple as -to the means of acquisition, ended his life at Magnesia in dishonourable -affluence greater than ever, and left an enriched posterity both at that place -and at Athens. More than five centuries afterwards, his descendant, the -Athenian Themistocles, attended the lectures of the philosopher Ammonius -at Athens, as the comrade and friend of Plutarch himself.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_22c" id="enanchor_22c"></a><a href="#endnote_22c">c</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-22.jpg" width="500" height="89" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Grecian Seal Rings</span></p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-23.jpg" width="500" height="190" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Boat</span></p> -<p class="caption">(From a wall decoration)</p> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XXIII_THE_GROWTH_OF_THE_ATHENIAN_EMPIRE">CHAPTER XXIII. THE GROWTH OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Athens! thou birthplace of the great, the free!</div> -<div class="verse">Though bowed thy power, and dimmed thy name may be,</div> -<div class="verse">Though old Renown’s once dazzling sun hath set,</div> -<div class="verse">Fair beams the star of Memory o’er thee yet.</div> -<div class="verse">City! where sang the bard, and taught the sage,</div> -<div class="verse">Thy shrines may fall, thou ne’er wilt know old age;</div> -<div class="verse">Fresh shall thy image glow in every heart,</div> -<div class="verse">And but with Time’s last hour thy fame depart.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse right">—<span class="smcap">Nicholas Michell.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The history of this time with its rush of events and its startling changes -exhibits on the Athenian side a picture of astonishing and almost preternatural -energy.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_23b" id="enanchor_23b"></a><a href="#endnote_23b">b</a></span> The transition from the Athenian hegemony to the -Athenian empire was doubtless gradual, so that no one could determine -precisely where the former ends and the latter begins: but it had been -consummated before the thirty years’ truce, which was concluded fourteen -years before the Peloponnesian War, and it was in fact the substantial -cause of that war. Empire then came to be held by Athens,—partly as -a fact established, resting on acquiescence rather than attachment or consent -in the minds of the subjects,—partly as a corollary from necessity of union -combined with her superior force: while this latter point, superiority of -force as a legitimate title, stood more and more forward, both in the -language of her speakers and in the conceptions of her citizens. Nay, the -Athenian orators of the middle of the Peloponnesian War venture to affirm -that their empire had been of this same character ever since the repulse -of the Persians: an inaccuracy so manifest, that if we could suppose the -speech made by the Athenian Euphemus at Camarina in 415 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, to have -been heard by Themistocles or Aristides fifty years before, it would have been -alike offensive to the prudence of the one and to the justice of the other.</p> - -<p>The imperial state of Athens, that which she held at the beginning of -the Peloponnesian War, when her allies, except Chios and Lesbos, were -tributary subjects, and when the Ægean Sea was an Athenian lake, was -of course the period of her greatest splendour and greatest action upon the -Grecian world. It was also the period most impressive to historians, -orators, and philosophers, suggesting the idea of some one state exercising -dominion over the Ægean, as the natural condition of Greece, so that -if Athens lost such dominion, it would be transferred to Sparta, holding -out the dispersed maritime Greeks as a tempting prize for the aggressive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span> -schemes of some new conqueror, and even bringing up by association into -men’s fancies the mythical Minos of Crete, and others, as having been rulers -of the Ægean in times anterior to Athens.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[479-466 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Even those who lived under the full-grown Athenian empire had before -them no good accounts of the incidents between 479-450 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>; for we may -gather from the intimation of Thucydides, as well as from his barrenness of -facts, that while there were chroniclers both for the Persian invasion and for -the times before, no one cared for the times immediately succeeding. Hence, -the little light which has fallen upon this blank has all been borrowed—if -we except the careful Thucydides—from a subsequent age; and the Athenian -hegemony has been treated as a mere commencement of the Athenian -empire: credit has been given to Athens for a long-sighted ambition, aiming -from the Persian War downwards at results which perhaps Themistocles -may have partially divined, but which only time and successive accidents -opened even to distant view. But such systematic anticipation of subsequent -results is fatal to any correct understanding, either of the real agents -or of the real period; both of which are to be explained from the circumstances -preceding and actually present, with some help, though cautious and -sparing, from our acquaintance with that which was then an unknown future. -When Aristides and Cimon dismissed the Lacedæmonian admiral Dorcis, -and drove Pausanias away from Byzantium on his second coming out, they -had to deal with the problem immediately before them; they had to complete -the defeat of the Persian power, still formidable, and to create and organise -a confederacy as yet only inchoate. This was quite enough to occupy their -attention, without ascribing to them distant views of Athenian maritime -empire.</p> - -<p>In that brief sketch of incidents preceding the Peloponnesian War, which -Thucydides introduces as “the throwing off of his narrative,” he neither -gives, nor professes to give, a complete enumeration of all which actually -occurred. During the interval between the first desertion of the Asiatic allies -from Pausanias to Athens, in 477 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, and the revolt of Naxos in 466 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, -he recites three incidents only: first, the siege and capture of Eion, on -the Strymon, with its Persian garrison; next, the capture of Scyros, and -appropriation of the island to Athenian cleruchs, or out-citizens; thirdly, -the war with Carystus in Eubœa and reduction of the place by capitulation. -It has been too much the practice to reason as if these three events were the -full history of ten or eleven years. Considering what Thucydides states -respecting the darkness of this period, we might perhaps suspect that they -were all which he could learn about it on good authority: and they are all, -in truth, events having a near and special bearing on the subsequent history -of Athens herself; for Eion was the first stepping-stone to the important -settlement of Amphipolis, and Scyros in the time of Thucydides was the -property of outlying Athenian citizens, or cleruchs.</p> - -<p>Still, we are left in almost entire ignorance of the proceedings of Athens, -as conducting the newly established confederate force: for it is certain that -the first ten years of the Athenian hegemony must have been years of most -active warfare against the Persians. One positive testimony to this effect -has been accidentally preserved to us by Herodotus, who mentions, that -“before the invasion of Xerxes, there were Persian commanders and garrisons -everywhere in Thrace and the Hellespont, all of whom were conquered -by the Greeks after that invasion, with the single exception of Mascames, -governor of Doriscus, who could never be taken, though many different -Grecian attempts were made upon the fortress. Of those who were captured<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span> -by the Greeks, not one made any defence sufficient to attract the admiration -of Xerxes, except Boges, governor of Eion.” Boges, after bravely defending -himself, and refusing offers of capitulation, found his provisions exhausted, -and further resistance impracticable. He then kindled a vast funeral pile, -slew his wives, children, concubines, and family, and cast them into it, -threw his precious effects over the wall into the Strymon, and lastly, precipitated -himself into the flames. His brave despair was the theme of warm -encomium among the Persians, and his relatives in Persia were liberally rewarded -by Xerxes. This capture of Eion, effected by Cimon, has been -mentioned, as already stated, by Thucydides; but Herodotus here gives us -to understand that it was only one of a string of enterprises, all unnoticed by -Thucydides, against the Persians. Nay, it would seem from his language, -that Mascames maintained himself in Doriscus during the whole reign of -Xerxes, and perhaps longer, repelling successive Grecian assaults.</p> - -<p>The valuable indication here cited from Herodotus would be of itself a -sufficient proof that the first years of the Athenian hegemony were full of -busy and successful hostility against the Persians. And in truth this is -what we should expect: the battles of Salamis, Platæa, and Mycale, drove -the Persians out of Greece, and overpowered their main armaments, but did -not remove them at once from all the various posts which they occupied -throughout the Ægean and Thrace. Without doubt, the Athenians had to -clear the coasts and the islands of a great number of different Persian detachments: -an operation never short nor easy, with the then imperfect -means of siege, as we may see by the cases of Sestus and Eion; nor, indeed, -always practicable, as the case of Doriscus teaches us. The fear of these -Persians, yet remaining in the neighbourhood, and even the chance of a -renewed Persian invading armament, formed one pressing motive for Grecian -cities to join the new confederacy: while the expulsion of the enemy -added to it those places which he had occupied. It was by these years of -active operations at sea against the common enemy, that the Athenians first -established that constant, systematic, and laborious training, among their -own ships’ crews, which transmitted itself with continual improvements -down to the Peloponnesian War: it was by these, combined with the present -fear, that they were enabled to organise the largest and most efficient -confederacy ever known among Greeks, to bring together deliberative deputies, -to plant their own ascendency as enforcers of the collective resolutions, -and to raise a prodigious tax from universal contribution. Lastly, it was -by these same operations, prosecuted so successfully as to remove present -alarm, that they at length fatigued the more lukewarm and passive members -of the confederacy, and created in them a wish either to commute personal -service for pecuniary contribution, or to escape from the obligation of service -in any way. The Athenian nautical training would never have been -acquired, the confederacy would never have become a working reality, the -fatigue and discontents among its members would never have arisen, unless -there had been a real fear of the Persians, and a pressing necessity for vigorous -and organised operations against them, during the ten years between -477 and 466 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span></p> - -<p>But after a few years several of the confederates becoming weary of personal -military service, prevailed upon the Athenians to provide ships and -men in their place, and imposed upon themselves in exchange a money payment -of suitable amount. This commutation, at first probably introduced -to meet some special case of inconvenience, was found so suitable to the -taste of all parties that it gradually spread through the larger portion of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span> -confederacy. To unwarlike allies, hating labour and privation, it was a welcome -relief, while to the Athenians, full of ardour and patient of labour, as -well as discipline, for the aggrandisement of their country, it afforded constant -pay for a fleet more numerous than they could otherwise have kept -afloat. It is plain from the statement of Thucydides that this altered practice -was introduced from the petition of the confederates themselves, not -from any pressure or stratagem on the part of Athens. But though such -was its real source, it did not the less fatally degrade the allies in reference -to Athens, and extinguish the original feeling of equal rights and partnership -in the confederacy, with communion of danger as well as of glory, which had -once bound them together.</p> - -<p>The Athenians came to consider themselves as military chiefs and soldiers, -with a body of tribute-paying subjects, whom they were entitled to hold -in dominion, and restrict, both as to foreign policy and internal government, -to such extent as they thought expedient, but whom they were also bound -to protect against foreign enemies. The military force of these subject-states -was thus in a great degree transferred to Athens, by their own act, -just as that of so many of the native princes in India was made over to the -English.</p> - -<p>Under such circumstances several of the confederate states grew tired -even of paying their tribute, and averse to continuance as members. They -made successive attempts to secede, but Athens, acting seemingly in conjunction -with the synod, repressed their attempts one after the other, conquering, -fining, and disarming the revolters; which was the more easily done, -since in most cases their naval force had been in great part handed over -to her. As these events took place, not all at once, but successively -in different years, the number of mere tribute-paying allies as well as of -subdued revolters continually increasing, so there was never any one -moment of conspicuous change in the character of the confederacy: the -allies slid unconsciously into subjects, while Athens, without any predetermined -plan, passed from a chief into a despot. By strictly enforcing the -obligations of the pact upon unwilling members, and by employing coercion -against revolters, she had become unpopular in the same proportion as she -acquired new power, and that, too, without any guilt of her own. In this -position, even if she had been inclined to relax her hold upon the tributary -subjects, considerations of her own safety would have deterred her from -doing so; for there was reason to apprehend that they might place their -strength at the disposal of her enemies. It is very certain that she never -was so inclined; it would have required a more self-denying public morality -than has ever been practised by any state, either ancient or modern, even to -conceive the idea of relinquishing voluntarily an immense ascendency as well -as a lucrative revenue: least of all was such an idea likely to be conceived -by Athenian citizens, whose ambition increased with their power, and among -whom the love of Athenian ascendency was both passion and patriotism. -But though the Athenians were both disposed and qualified to push all the -advantages offered, and even to look out for new, we must not forget that -the foundations of their empire were laid in the most honourable causes: -voluntary invitation, efforts both unwearied and successful against a common -enemy, unpopularity incurred in discharge of an imperative duty, and -inability to break up the confederacy without endangering themselves as -well as laying open the Ægean Sea to the Persians.</p> - -<p>There were two causes, besides that which has just been adverted to, for -the unpopularity of imperial Athens. First, the existence of the confederacy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span> -imposing permanent obligations, was in conflict with the general instinct of -the Greek mind, tending towards separate political autonomy of each city, as -well as with the particular turn of the Ionic mind, incapable of that steady -personal effort which was requisite for maintaining the synod of Delos, on -its first large and equal basis. Next,—and this is the great cause of all,—Athens, -having defeated the Persians, and thrust them to a distance, began -to employ the force and the tribute of her subject-allies in warfare against -Greeks, wherein these allies had nothing to gain from success, everything -to apprehend from defeat, and a banner to fight for, offensive to Hellenic -sympathies. On this head, the subject-allies had great reason to complain -throughout the prolonged wars of Greek against Greek for the purpose of -sustaining Athenian predominance: but on the point of practical grievances -or oppression they had little ground for discontent and little feeling of actual -discontent. Among the general body of citizens in the subject-allied cities, -the feeling towards Athens was rather indifference than hatred: the movement -of revolt against her proceeded from small parties of leading men, acting -apart from the citizens, and generally with collateral views of ambition -for themselves; and the positive hatred towards her was felt chiefly by those -who were not her subjects.</p> - -<p>It is probable that the same indisposition to personal effort, which prompted -the confederates of Delos to tender money payment as a substitute for military -service, also induced them to neglect attendance at the synod. But we -do not know the steps whereby this assembly, at first an effective reality, -gradually dwindled into a mere form and vanished. Nothing, however, can -more forcibly illustrate the difference of character between the maritime -allies of Athens, and the Peloponnesian allies of Sparta, than the fact that, -while the former shrank from personal service, and thought it an advantage -to tax themselves in place of it, the latter were “ready enough with their -bodies,” but uncomplying and impracticable as to contributions. The contempt -felt by these Dorian landsmen for the military efficiency of the Ionians -recurs frequently, and appears even to have exceeded what the reality justified: -but when we turn to the conduct of the latter twenty years earlier, at -the battle of Lade, in the very crisis of the Ionic revolt from Persia, we detect -the same want of energy, the same incapacity of personal effort and -labour, as that which broke up the confederacy of Delos with all its beneficial -promise. To appreciate fully the indefatigable activity and daring, together -with the patient endurance of laborious maritime training, which characterised -the Athenians of that day, we have only to contrast them with -these confederates, so remarkably destitute of both. Amidst such glaring -inequalities of merit, capacity, and power, to maintain a confederacy of -equal members was impossible: it was in the nature of things that the -confederacy should either break up, or be transmuted into an Athenian -empire.</p> - -<p>It has already been mentioned that the first aggregate assessment of -tribute, proposed by Aristides, and adopted by the synod at Delos, was four -hundred and sixty talents in money (about £92,000, or $460,000). At -that time many of the confederates paid their quota, not in money but in -ships; but this practice gradually diminished, as the commutations above -alluded to, of money in place of ships, were multiplied, while the aggregate -tribute, of course, became larger. It was no more than six hundred talents -at the commencement of the Peloponnesian War, forty-six years after the -first formation of the confederacy; from whence we may infer that it was -never at all increased upon individual members during the interval. For the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span> -difference between four hundred and sixty talents and six hundred admits of -being fully explained by the numerous commutations of service for money, -as well as by the acquisitions of new members, which doubtless Athens had -more or less the opportunity of making. It is not to be imagined that the -confederacy had attained its maximum number, at the date of the first assessment -of tribute: there must have been various cities, like Sinope and Ægina, -subsequently added.</p> - -<p>Without some such preliminary statements as those just given, respecting -the new state of Greece between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars, beginning -with the Athenian hegemony, or headship, and ending with the Athenian -empire, the reader would hardly understand the bearing of those -particular events which our authorities enable us to recount; events unhappily -few in number, though the period must have been full of action, and -not well authenticated as to dates.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[470-468 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The first known enterprise of the Athenians in their new capacity,—whether -the first absolutely or not, we cannot determine,—between 476 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> -and 466 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, was the conquest of the important post of Eion, on the Strymon, -where the Persian governor, Boges, starved out after a desperate -resistance, destroyed himself rather than capitulate, together with his family -and precious effects, as has already been stated. The next events named -are their enterprises against the Dolopes and Pelasgi in the island of Scyros, -seemingly about 470 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, and the Dryopes in the town and district of -Carystus, in Eubœa. To the latter, who were of a different kindred from -the inhabitants of Chalcis and Eretria, and received no aid from them, they -granted a capitulation: the former were more rigorously dealt with, and -expelled from their island. Scyros was barren, and had little to recommend -it, except a good maritime position and an excellent harbour; while its -inhabitants, seemingly akin to the Pelasgian residents in Lemnos, prior to -the Athenian occupation of that spot, were alike piratical and cruel. Some -Thessalian traders, recently plundered and imprisoned by them, had raised -a complaint against them before the Amphictyonic synod, which condemned -the island to make restitution: the mass of the islanders threw the burden -upon those who had committed the crime; and these men, in order to evade -payment, invoked Cimon with the Athenian armament who conquered the -island, expelled the inhabitants, and peopled it with Athenian settlers.</p> - -<p>Such clearance was a beneficial act, suitable to the new character of Athens -as guardian of the Ægean Sea against piracy: but it seems also connected -with Athenian plans. The island lay very convenient for the communication -with Lemnos, which the Athenians had doubtless reoccupied after the expulsion -of the Persians, and became, as well as Lemnos, a recognised adjunct, -or outlying portion, of Attica: moreover, there were old legends which -connected the Athenians with it, as the tomb of their hero Theseus, whose -name, as the mythical champion of democracy, was in peculiar favour at the -period immediately following the return from Salamis. It was in the year -476 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, that the oracle had directed them to bring home the bones of -Theseus from Scyros, and to prepare for that hero a splendid entombment -and edifice in their new city: they had tried to effect this, but the unsocial -manners of the Dolopians had prevented a search, and it was only after -Cimon had taken the island that he found, or pretended to find, the body. -It was brought to Athens in the year 469 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, and after being welcomed by -the people in solemn and joyous procession, as if the hero himself had come -back, was deposited in the interior of the city; the monument called the -Theseum, with its sacred precinct being built on the spot, and invested with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span> -the privilege of a sanctuary for men of poor condition who might feel ground -for dreading the oppressions of the powerful, as well as for slaves in case -of cruel usage. Such were the protective functions of the mythical hero of -democracy, whose installation is interesting as marking the growing intensity -of democratical feeling in Athens since the Persian War.</p> - -<h4>THE VICTORIES OF CIMON</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[468-465 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>It was about two years or more -after this incident, that the first breach -of union in the confederacy of Delos -took place. The important island of -Naxos, the largest of the Cyclades,—an -island which thirty years before had -boasted a large marine force and eight -thousand hoplites,—revolted; on -what special ground we do not know: -but probably the greater islands fancied -themselves better able to dispense -with the protection of the confederacy -than the smaller—at the same time -they were more jealous of Athens. -After a siege of unknown duration by -Athens and the confederate force, it -was forced to surrender, and reduced -to the condition of a tributary subject; -its armed ships being doubtless -taken away, and its fortifications -razed: whether any fine or ulterior -penalty was levied, we have no information.</p> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/p408.jpg" width="250" height="310" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Helmet and Weapons</span></p> -<p class="caption">(In the British Museum)</p> -</div> - -<p>Though we know no particulars respecting operations against Persia, since -the attack on Eion, such operations must have been going on; but the expedition -under Cimon, undertaken not long after the Naxian revolt, was attended -with memorable results. That commander, having under him two hundred -triremes from Athens, and one hundred from the various confederates, was -despatched to attack the Persians on the southwestern and southern coast of -Asia Minor. He attacked and drove out several of their garrisons from various -Grecian settlements, both in Caria and Lycia: among others, the important -trading city of Phaselis, though at first resisting, and even standing a siege, was -prevailed upon by the friendly suggestions of the Chians in Cimon’s armament -to pay a contribution of ten talents and join in the expedition. From -the length of time occupied in these various undertakings, the Persian satraps -had been enabled to assemble a powerful force, both fleet and army, near the -mouth of the river Eurymedon, in Pamphylia, under the command of Tithraustes -and Pherendates, both of the regal blood. The fleet, chiefly Phœnician, -seems to have consisted of two hundred ships, but a further reinforcement -of eighty Phœnician ships was expected, and was actually near at hand, and -the commanders were unwilling to hazard a battle before its arrival. Cimon, -anxious for the same reason to hasten on the combat, attacked them vigorously: -partly from their inferiority of numbers, partly from discouragement -at the absence of the reinforcement, they seem to have made no strenuous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span> -resistance. They were put to flight and driven ashore, so speedily, and with so -little loss to the Greeks, that Cimon was enabled to disembark his men forthwith, -and attack the land-force which was drawn up on shore to protect them.</p> - -<p>The battle on land was long and gallantly contested, but Cimon at length -gained a complete victory, dispersed the army with the capture of many -prisoners, and either took or destroyed the entire fleet. As soon as his victory -and his prisoners were secured, he sailed to Cyprus for the purpose of -intercepting the reinforcement of eighty Phœnician ships in their way, and -was fortunate enough to attack them while yet they were ignorant of the -victories of the Eurymedon. These ships too were all destroyed, though -most of the crews appear to have escaped ashore on the island. Two great -victories, one at sea and the other on land, gained on the same day by the -same armament, counted with reason among the most glorious of all Grecian -exploits, and were extolled as such in the inscription on the commemorative -offering to Apollo, set up out of the tithe of the spoils. The number of prisoners, -as well as the booty taken by the victors, was immense.</p> - -<p>A victory thus remarkable, which thrust back the Persians to the region -eastward of Phaselis, doubtless fortified materially the position of the Athenian -confederacy against them; but it tended not less to exalt the reputation -of Athens, and even to popularise her with the confederates generally, -from the large amount of plunder divisible among them. Probably this -increased power and popularity stood her in stead throughout her approaching -contest with Thasos, and at the same time it explains the increasing fear -and dislike of the Peloponnesians.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_23c" id="enanchor_23c"></a><a href="#endnote_23c">c</a></span></p> - -<p>Athens, become, within a very few years, from the capital of a small -province, in fact though not yet in avowed pretension, the head of an empire, -exhibited a new and singular phenomenon in politics, a sovereign people; a -people, not, as in many other Grecian democracies, sovereign merely of that -state which themselves, maintained by slaves, composed, but supreme over -other people in subordinate republics, acknowledging a degree of subjection, -yet claiming to be free. Under this extraordinary political constitution philosophy -and the arts were beginning to make Athens their principal resort. -Migrating from Egypt and the east, they had long been fostered on the -western coast of Asia. In Greece itself they had owed some temporary encouragement -principally to those called tyrants; the Pisistratidæ at Athens, -and Periander at Corinth. But their efforts were desultory and comparatively -feeble till the communication with the Asian Greeks, checked -and interrupted by their subjection to Persia, was restored, and Athens, -chief of the glorious confederacy by whose arms the deliverance had been -effected, began to draw everything toward itself as a common centre, the -capital of an empire. Already science and fine taste were so far perfected -that Æschylus had exhibited tragedy in its utmost dignity, and Sophocles -and Euripides were giving it the highest polish, when Cimon returned in -triumph to his country.</p> - -<h4>MITFORD’S VIEW OF THE PERIOD</h4> - -<p>It was the peculiar felicity of Athens in this period that, of the constellation -of great men which arose there, each was singularly fitted for the situation -in which the circumstances of the time required him to act; and none -filled his place more advantageously than Cimon. But the fate of all those -great men, and the resources employed, mostly in vain, to avert it, sufficiently -mark, in this splendid era, a defective constitution, and law and justice<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span> -ill assured. Aristides, we are told, though it is not undisputed, had founded -his security upon extreme poverty: Cimon endeavoured to establish himself -by a splendid, and almost unbounded, yet politic liberality. To ward against -envy, and to secure his party with that tremendous tyrant, as the comic poet -not inaptly calls the sovereign people, he made a parade of throwing down -the fences of his gardens and orchards in the neighbourhood of Athens, and -permitted all to partake of their produce; a table was daily spread at his -house for the poorer citizens, but more particularly for those of his own -ward, whom he invited from the agora, the courts of justice, or the general -assembly; a bounty which both enabled and disposed them to give their -time at his call whenever his interest required their support. In going about -the city he was commonly attended by a large retinue, handsomely clothed; -and if he met an elderly citizen ill clad, he directed one of his attendants to -change cloaks with him. To the indigent of higher rank he was equally -attentive, lending or giving money, as he found their circumstances required, -and always managing his bounty with the utmost care that the object of it -should not be put to shame.<a name="FNanchor_42" id="FNanchor_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></p> - -<p>His conduct, in short, was a continual preparation for an election; not, -as in England, to decide whether the candidate should or should not be a -member of the legislature; but whether he should be head of the commonwealth -or an exile.<a name="FNanchor_43" id="FNanchor_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> In his youth he had affected a roughness of manners, -and a contempt for the elegances generally reckoned becoming his rank, and -which his fortune enabled him to command. In his riper years he discovered -that virtue and grossness have no natural connection: he became himself a -model of politeness, patronised every liberal art, and studied to procure elegant -as well as useful indulgences for the people. By him were raised the -first of those edifices which, for want of a more proper name, we call porticos, -under whose magnificent shelter, in their torrid climate, it became the -delight of the Athenians to assemble, and pass their leisure in promiscuous -conversation. The widely celebrated groves of Academia acknowledged him -as the founder of their fame. In the wood, before rude and without water, -he formed commodious and elegant walks, and adorned them with running -fountains. Nor was the planting of the agora, or great market-place of -Athens, with that beautiful tree, the oriental plane, forgotten as a benefit -from Cimon; while, ages after him, his trees flourished, affording an agreeable -and salutary shade to those who exposed their wares there, and to those -who came to purchase them. Much, if not the whole of these things, we are -given to understand, was done at his private expense; but our information -upon the subject is inaccurate. Those stores, with which his victories had -enriched the treasury, probably furnished the sums employed upon some of -the public works executed under his direction, as, more especially, the completion -of the fortification of the citadel, whose principal defence hitherto, -on the southern side, had been the precipitous form of the rock.</p> - -<p>While with this splendid and princely liberality Cimon endeavoured to -confirm his own interest, he was attentive to promote the general welfare, -and to render permanent the superiority of Athens among the Grecian republics. -The citizens of the allied states grew daily more impatient of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span> -requisitions regularly made to take their turn of service on shipboard, and -longed for uninterrupted enjoyment of their homes, in that security against -foreign enemies which their past labours had, they thought, now sufficiently -established. But that the common interest still required the maintenance -of a fleet was a proposition that could not be denied, while the Persian -empire existed, or while the Grecian seas offered temptation for piracy. -Cimon therefore proposed that any commonwealth of the confederacy might -compound for the personal service of its citizens, by furnishing ships, and -paying a sum of money to the common treasury: the Athenians would then -undertake the manning of the fleet. The proposal was at the moment -popular; most of the allies acceded to it, unaware or heedless of the consequences; -for, while they were thus depriving themselves of all maritime -force, making that of Athens irresistible, they gave that ambitious republic -claims upon them, uncertain in their nature, and which, as they might be -made, could now also be enforced, at its pleasure.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[465-463 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Having thus at the same time strengthened itself and reduced to impotence -many of the allied states, the Athenian government became less scrupulous -of using force against any of the rest which might dispute its sovereign -authority. The reduction of Eion, by the confederate arms under Cimon, -had led to new information of the value of the adjacent country; where -some mines of gold and silver, and a lucrative commerce with the surrounding -Thracian hordes, excited avidity. But the people of the neighbouring -island of Thasos, very anciently possessed of that commerce, and of the -more accessible mines, insisted that these, when recovered from the common -enemy by the arms of that confederacy of which they were members, should -revert entire to them. The Athenians, asserting the right of conquest, on -the contrary, claimed the principal share as their own. The Thasians, irritated, -renounced the confederacy. Cimon then was commanded to lead the -confederate armament against them. They venturing an action at sea, were -defeated; and Cimon, debarking his forces on the island, became quickly -master of everything but the principal town, to which he laid siege. The -Athenians then hastened to appropriate that inviting territory on the continent, -which was their principal object, by sending thither a colony of no -less than ten thousand men, partly Athenian citizens, partly from the allied -commonwealths.</p> - -<p>The Thasians had not originally trusted in their own strength alone for -the hope of final success. Early in the dispute they had sent ministers to -Lacedæmon, soliciting protection against the oppression of Athens. The -pretence was certainly favourable, and the Lacedæmonian government, no -longer pressed by domestic troubles, determined to use the opportunity for -interfering to check the growing power of the rival commonwealth, so long -an object of jealousy, and now become truly formidable. Without a fleet -capable of contending with the Athenian, they could not send succour immediately -to Thasos: but they were taking measures secretly for a diversion -in its favour, by invading Attica, when a sudden and extraordinary -calamity, an earthquake which overthrew the city of Sparta, and in its -immediate consequences threatened destruction to the commonwealth, compelled -them to confine all their attention at home. Nevertheless the siege, -carried on with great vigour, and with all the skill of the age under the -direction of Cimon, was, during three years, obstinately resisted. Even -then the Thasians obtained terms, severe indeed, but by which they obviated -the miseries, death often for themselves and slavery for their families, -to which Grecian people, less able to defend themselves, were frequently<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span> -reduced by Grecian arms. Their fortifications however were destroyed; -their ships of war were surrendered; they paid immediately a sum of money; -they bound themselves to an annual tribute; and they yielded all claim upon -the opposite continent, and the valuable mines there.</p> - -<p>The sovereignty of the Athenian people over the allied republics would -thus gain some present confirmation; but in the principal object their ambition -and avarice were, apparently through over-greediness, disappointed. -The town of Eion stood at the mouth of the river Strymon. For the new -settlement a place called the Nine Ways, a few miles up the river, was -chosen; commodious for the double purpose of communicating with the -sea, and commanding the neighbouring country. But the Edonian Thracians, -in whose territory it was, resenting the encroachment, infested the -settlers with irregular but continual hostilities. To put an end to so -troublesome a war the whole force of the colony marched against them. As -the Greeks advanced, the Edonians retreated; avoiding a general action, -while they sent to all the neighbouring Thracian tribes for assistance, as in -a common cause. When they were at length assembled in sufficient numbers, -having engaged the Greeks far within a wild and difficult country, -they attacked, overpowered, and cut in pieces their army, and annihilated -the colony.</p> - -<p>Cimon, on his return to Athens, did not meet the acclamations to which -he had been accustomed. Faction had been busy in his absence. Apparently -the fall of the colony of the Nine Ways furnished both instigation and -opportunity, perhaps assisted by circumstances of which no information -remains. A prosecution was instituted against him, on the pretence, according -to the biographers, that he ought to have extended the Athenian -dominion by conquest in Macedonia, and that bribes from Alexander, king -of that country, had stopped his exertions. The covetous ambition indeed -of the Athenian people, inflamed by interested demagogues, was growing -boundless. Cimon, indignant at the ungrateful return for a life divided between -performing the most important services to his country, and studying -how most to gratify the people, would enter little into particulars in refuting -a charge, one part of which he considered as attributing to him no crime, the -other as incapable of credit, and therefore beneath his regard. He told -the assembled people that “they mistook both him and the country which -it was said he ought to have conquered. Other generals have cultivated an -interest with the Ionians and the Thessalians, whose riches might make an -interference in their concerns profitable. For himself, he had never sought -any connection with those people; but he confessed he esteemed the Macedonians, -who were virtuous and brave, but not rich; nor would he ever -prefer riches to those qualities, though he had his satisfaction in having -enriched his country with the spoils of its enemies.” The popularity of -Cimon was yet great; his principal opponents apparently found it not -a time for pushing matters to extremity against him, and such a defence -sufficed to procure an honourable acquittal.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[464-462 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Meanwhile Lacedæmon had been in the utmost confusion and on the -brink of ruin. In the year 464 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> the earthquake came suddenly at mid-day, -with a violence before unheard of. The youths of the principal families, -assembled in the gymnasium at the appointed hour for exercise, were in -great numbers crushed by its fall: many of both sexes and of all ages were -buried under the ruins of other buildings: the shocks were repeated; the -earth opened in several places; vast fragments from the summits of Taygetus -were tumbled down its sides: in the end only five houses remained<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span> -standing in Sparta, and it was computed that twenty thousand lives were -lost.</p> - -<p>The first strokes of this awful calamity filled all ranks with the same apprehensions. -But, in the continuance of it, that wretched multitude, excluded -from all participation in the prosperity of their country, began to found hope -on its distress: a proposal, obscurely made, was rapidly communicated, and -the helots assembled from various parts with one purpose, of putting their -severe masters to death, and making the country their own. The ready -foresight and prudent exertion of Archidamus, who had succeeded his grandfather -Leotychides in the throne of the house of Procles, preserved Lacedæmon. -In the confusion of the first alarm, while some were endeavouring to -save their most valuable effects from the ruins of the city, others flying -various ways for personal safety, Archidamus, collecting what he could of -his friends and attendants about him, caused trumpets to sound to arms, as -if an enemy were at hand. The Lacedæmonians, universally trained to the -strictest military discipline, obeyed the signal; arms were the only necessaries -sought; and civil rule, dissipated by the magnitude of the calamity, -was, for the existing circumstances, most advantageously supplied by military -order. The helots, awed by the very unexpected appearance of a -regular army instead of a confused and flying multitude, desisted from their -meditated attempt; but, quitting the city, spread themselves over the country, -and excited their fellows universally to rebellion.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[462 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The greater part of those miserable men, whom the Lacedæmonians held -in so cruel a bondage, were descendants of the Messenians, men of the same -blood with themselves, Greeks and Dorians. Memory of the wars of their -ancestors, of their hero Aristomenes, and of the defence of Ithome, was not -obsolete among them. Ithome accordingly they seized and made their principal -post; and they so outnumbered the Lacedæmonians that, though deficiently -armed, yet, being not without discipline acquired in attendance upon -their masters in war, they were capable of being formidable even in the -field. Nor was it thus only that the rebellion was distressing.<a name="FNanchor_44" id="FNanchor_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> The Lacedæmonians, -singularly ready and able in the use of arms, were singularly -helpless in almost every other business. Deprived of their slaves they were -nearly deprived of the means of subsistence; agriculture stopped, and mechanic -arts ceased. Application was therefore made to the neighbouring -allies for succour. The zealous friendship of the Æginetans upon the occasion -we find afterwards acknowledged by the Lacedæmonian government, -and assistance came from as far as Platæa. Thus re-enforced the spirited and -well-directed exertions of Archidamus quickly so far reduced the rebellion -that the insurgents remaining in arms were blockaded in Ithome. But the -extraordinary natural strength of that place, the desperate obstinacy of the -defenders, and the deficiency of the assailants in the science of attack, giving -reason to apprehend that the business might not be soon accomplished, the -Lacedæmonians sent to desire assistance from the Athenians, who were -esteemed, beyond the other Greeks, experienced and skilful in the war of -sieges.</p> - -<p>This measure seems to have been on many accounts imprudent. There -was found at Athens a strong disposition to refuse the aid. But Cimon, who, -with a universal liberality, always professed particular esteem for the Lacedæmonians, -prevailed upon his countrymen to take the generous part; and a -considerable body of forces marched under his command into the Peloponnesus.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span> -Upon their arrival at the camp of the besiegers an assault upon the place -was attempted, but with so little success that recourse was again had to -the old method of blockade. It was in the leisure of that inactive and -tedious mode of attack that principally arose those heartburnings which first -occasioned an avowed national aversion between the Athenians and Lacedæmonians, -and led, not indeed immediately, but in a direct line, to the fatal -Peloponnesian War. All the prudence and all the authority of Cimon could -not prevent the vivacious spirit of the Athenians from exulting, perhaps -rather insultingly, in the new pre-eminence of their country; wherever -danger called, they would be ostentatiously forward to meet it; and an -assumed superiority, without a direct pretension to it, was continually -appearing.</p> - -<p>The Spartan pride was offended by their arrogance; the Spartan gravity -was disturbed by their lively forwardness: it began to be considered that, -though Greeks, they were Ionians, whom the Peloponnesians considered as an -alien race; and it occurred that if, in the continuance of the siege, any disgust -should arise, there was no security that they might not renounce their -present engagements, and even connect themselves with the helots; who, as -Greeks, had, not less than the Lacedæmonians, a claim to friendship and protection -from every other Grecian people. Mistrust thus arose on one side; -disgust became quickly manifest on both; and the Lacedæmonians shortly -resolved to dismiss the Athenian forces. This however they endeavoured to -do, as far as might be, without offence, by declaring that an “assault having -been found ineffectual, the assistance of the Athenians was superfluous for -the blockade, and the Lacedæmonians would not give their allies unnecessary -trouble.” All the other allies were however retained, and the Athenians -alone returned home; so exasperated by this invidious distinction that, on -their arrival at Athens, the party adverse to Cimon proposing a decree for -renouncing the confederacy with Lacedæmon, it was carried. An alliance -with Argos, the inveterate enemy of Sparta, immediately followed; and soon -after the Thessalians acceded to the new confederacy.</p> - -<p>While Lacedæmon was engaged with this dangerous insurrection, a -petty war arose in the Peloponnesus, affording one of the most remarkable, -among the many strong instances on record, of the miseries to which the -greater part of Greece was perpetually liable from the defects of its political -system. Argos, the capital of Argolis, and formerly of the Peloponnesus -under the early kings of the Danaan race, or perhaps before them, lost its preeminence, -as we have already seen, during the reigns of the Persidæan and -Pelopidæan princes, under whom Mycenæ became the first city of Greece. -On the return of the Heraclidæ, Temenus fixed his residence at Argos, -which thus regained its superiority. But, as the oppressions, arising from a -defective political system, occasioned very generally through Greece the -desire, so the troubles of the Argive government gave the means for the inferior -towns to become independent republics. Like the rest, or perhaps -more than the rest, generally oppressive, that government was certainly -often ill-conducted and weak; and Lacedæmon, its perpetual enemy, -fomented the rebellious disposition of its dependencies. During the ancient -wars of Sparta and Messenia, the Argives had expelled the people of their -towns of Asine and Nauplia, and forced them to seek foreign settlements; -a resource sufficiently marking a government both weak and oppressive. -Mycenæ was now a much smaller town than Argos; but its people, encouraged -by Lacedæmon, formed lofty pretensions. The far-famed temple -of Juno, the tutelar deity of the country, situated about five miles from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span> -Argos, and little more than one from Mycenæ, was considered by the Argives -as theirs; and, from the time, it was supposed, of the Heraclidæ, the -priestess had been appointed and the sacred ceremonies administered under -the protection of their government. Nevertheless the Mycenæans now -claimed the right to this superintendency. The games of Nemea, from their -institution, or, as it was called, their restoration, had been under the direction -of the Argives; but the Mycenæan government claimed also the prior -right to preside there. These however were but branches of a much more -important claim; for they wanted only power, or sufficient assistance from -Sparta, to assert a right of sovereignty over Argos itself and all Argolis; -and they were continually urging another pretension, not the less invidious -to Argos because better founded, a pretension to merit with all the Greek -nation for having joined the confederacy against Persia, while the Argives -allied themselves with the common enemy of Greece. The favourable opportunity -afforded by the helot rebellion was eagerly seized by the Argives for -ridding themselves of such troublesome and dangerous neighbours, whom -they considered as rebellious subjects. Laying siege to Mycenæ they took -the place, reduced the surviving people to slavery, and dedicating a tenth of -the spoil to the gods destroyed the town, which was never rebuilt.</p> - -<p>At Athens, after the banishment of Themistocles, Cimon remained long -in possession of a popularity which nothing could resist; and his abilities, -his successes, and his moderation, his connection with the aristocratical interest, -and his favour with the people, seemed altogether likely to insure, if -anything could insure, permanency and quiet to his administration. But -in Athens, as in every free government, there would always be a party adverse -to the party in the direction of public affairs: matters had been for -some time ripening for a change; and the renunciation of the Lacedæmonian -alliance was the triumph of the opposition.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_23d" id="enanchor_23d"></a><a href="#endnote_23d">d</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_42" id="Footnote_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Plutarch says that “Cimon’s house was a kind of common hall for all the people; the first -fruits of his lands were theirs; whatever the seasons produced of excellent and agreeable, they -freely gathered; nor were strangers in the least debarred from them: so that he in some measure -revived the community of goods, which prevailed in the reign of Saturn, and which the poets -tell so much of.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_43" id="Footnote_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Gorgias the Leontine gave him this character: “He got riches to use them, and used them -so as to be honoured on their account.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_44" id="Footnote_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> [This war has been called the Third Messenian War.]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-23.jpg" width="500" height="330" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Temple of Erechtheus</span></p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-24.jpg" width="500" height="272" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XXIV_THE_RISE_OF_PERICLES">CHAPTER XXIV. THE RISE OF PERICLES</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">This was the ruler of the land</div> -<div class="verse indent1">When Athens was the land of fame:</div> -<div class="verse">This was the light that led the band</div> -<div class="verse indent1">When earth was like a living flame;</div> -<div class="verse">The centre of earth’s noblest ring—</div> -<div class="verse">Of more than men the more than king.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse right">—<span class="smcap">George Croly.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Cimon was beyond dispute the ablest and most successful general of his -day: and his victories had shed a lustre on the arms of Athens, which almost -dimmed the glories of Marathon and Salamis. But while he was gaining -renown abroad, he had rivals at home, who were endeavouring to supplant -him in the affections of the people, and to establish a system of domestic and -foreign policy directly counter to his views, and were preparing contests for -him in which his military talents would be of little avail. While Themistocles -and Aristides were occupying the political stage, an extraordinary -genius had been ripening in obscurity, and was only waiting for a favourable -juncture to issue from the shade into the broad day of public life. Xanthippus, -the conqueror of Mycale, had married Agariste, a descendant of the -famous Clisthenes, and had left two sons, Ariphron and Pericles. Of Ariphron -little is known beside his name: but Pericles, to an observing eye, gave -early indications of a mind formed for great things, and a will earnestly bent -on them.</p> - -<p>In his youth he had not rested satisfied with the ordinary Greek education, -but had applied himself, with an ardour which was not even abated -by the lapse of years, nor stifled by his public avocations, to intellectual -pursuits, which were then new at Athens, and confined to a very narrow -circle of inquisitive spirits. His birth and fortune afforded him the means -of familiar intercourse with all the men most eminent in every kind of -knowledge and art, who were already beginning to resort to Athens as a -common seat of learning. Thus, though Pythoclides taught him to touch -the cithara, he sought the elements of a higher kind of music in the lessons -of Damon, who was believed to have contributed mainly to train -him for his political career: himself no ordinary person; for he was held -up by the comic poets to public jealousy, as a secret favourer of tyranny, -and was driven from Athens by the process of ostracism. But Pericles -also entered with avidity into the abstrusest philosophical speculations, -and even took pleasure in the arid subtleties of the Eleatic school, or at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span> -least in the ingenuity and the dialectic art with which they were unfolded -to him by Zeno. But his principal guide in such researches, and the man -who appears to have exercised the most powerful and durable influence on -his mind and character, was the philosopher Anaxagoras, with whom he -was long united in intimate friendship. Not only his public and private -deportment, and his habits of thought, but the tone and style of his -eloquence were believed to have been formed by his intercourse with Anaxagoras. -It was commonly supposed that this effect was produced by the -philosopher’s physical speculations, which, elevating his disciple above the -ignorant superstition of the vulgar, had imparted to him the serene condescension -and dignified language of a superior being. But we should be loth -to believe that it was the possession of such physical secrets as Anaxagoras -was able to communicate, that inspired Pericles with his lofty conceptions, -or that he was intoxicated with the little taste of science which had weaned -him from a few popular prejudices. We should rather ascribe so deep an -impression to the distinguishing tenet of the Anaxagorean system, by which -the philosopher himself was supposed to have acquired the title of Mind.</p> - -<p>It was undoubtedly not for the mere amusement of his leisure that -Pericles had enriched his mind with so many rare acquirements. All of -them were probably considered by him as instruments for the use of the -statesman: and even those which seemed most remote from all practical -purposes, may have contributed to the cultivation of that natural eloquence, -to which he owed so much of his influence. He left no specimens of his -oratory behind him, and we can only estimate it, like many other fruits of -Greek genius, by the effect it produced. The few minute fragments preserved -by Plutarch, which were recorded by earlier authors because they -had sunk deep in the mind of his hearers, seem to indicate that he loved -to concentrate his thoughts in a bold and vivid image: as when he called -Ægina the eyesore of Piræus, and said that he descried war lowering from -the Peloponnesus. But though signally gifted and accomplished for political -action, it was not without much hesitation and apprehension that he -entered on a field, where he saw ample room indeed for the display of his -powers, but also many enemies and great dangers. The very superiority -of which he could not but be conscious, suggested a motive for alarm, as -it might easily excite suspicion in the people of views adverse to their -freedom: and these fears were heightened by some circumstances, trifling -in themselves, but capable of awakening or confirming a popular prejudice.</p> - -<p>His personal appearance was graceful and majestic, notwithstanding a -remarkable disproportion in the length of his head, which became a subject -of inexhaustible pleasantry for the comic poets of this day: but the old men -who remembered Pisistratus, were struck by the resemblance which they -discovered between the tyrant and the young heir of the Alemæonids, and -not only in their features, but in the sweetness of voice, and the volubility -of utterance, with which both expressed themselves. Still, after the ostracism -of Themistocles, and the death of Aristides, while Cimon was engaged -in continual expeditions, Pericles began to present himself more and more to -the public eye, and was soon the acknowledged chief of a powerful party, -which openly aimed at counteracting Cimon’s influence, and introducing -opposite maxims into the public counsels.</p> - -<p>To some of the ancients indeed it appeared that the course of policy -adopted by Pericles was entirely determined by the spirit of emulation, -which induced him to take a different ground from that which he found -already occupied by Cimon: and that, as Cimon was at the head of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span> -aristocratical party which had been represented by Aristides, he therefore -placed himself in the front of that which had been led by Themistocles. The -difference between these parties, after the revolution by which the ancestor of -Pericles had undermined the power of the old aristocracy, was for some time -very faintly marked, and we have seen that Aristides himself was the author -of a very democratical measure, which threw the first officers of the state -open to all classes of the citizens. The aristocracy had no hope of recovering -what it had lost; but, as the commonalty grew more enterprising, it -became also more intent on keeping all that it had retained, and on stopping -all further innovation at home. Abroad too, though it was no longer a -question, whether Athens should continue to be a great maritime power, or -should reduce her navy to the footing of the old <i>naucraries</i>, and though -Cimon himself had actively pursued the policy of Themistocles, there was -room for great difference of opinion as to the course which was to be followed -in her foreign relations. The aristocratical party wished, for their -own sake at least as much as for that of peace and justice, to preserve the -balance of power as steady as possible in Greece, and directed the Athenian -arms against the Persian empire with the greater energy, in the hope of -diverting them from intestine warfare. The democratical party had other -interests, and concurred only with that part of these views which tended -towards enriching and aggrandising the state.</p> - -<p>It is difficult wholly to clear Pericles from the charge of having been -swayed by personal motives in the choice of his political system, as it would -be to establish it. But even if it were certain that his decision was not the -result of conviction, it might as fairly be attributed to a hereditary prepossession -in favour of the principles for which his ancestors had contended, -and which had probably been transmitted in his family, as to his competition -with Cimon, or to his fear of incurring the suspicion that he aimed at a -tyranny, or unconstitutional power; a suspicion to which he was much more -exposed in the station which he actually filled. But if his personal character -might seem better adapted to an aristocratical than to a democratical party, -it must also render us unwilling to believe, that he devoted himself to the -cause of the commonalty merely that he might make it the instrument of his -own ambition. There seems to be much better ground for supposing that -he deliberately preferred the system which he adopted, as the most consistent, -if not alone reconcilable, with the prosperity and safety of Athens: though his -own agency in directing and controlling it might be a prominent object in all -his views. But he might well think that the people had gone too far to remain -stationary, even if there was any reason why it should not seize the good -which lay within its reach. Its greatness had risen with the growth of the -commonalty, and, it might appear to him, could only be maintained and extended -by the same means: at home by a decided ascendency of the popular -interest over that of the old aristocracy, and every other class in the state; -abroad by an equally decided supremacy over the rest of Greece.</p> - -<p>The contest between the parties seems for some time to have been carried -on, without much violence or animosity, and rather with a noble emulation -in the service of the public, than with assaults on one another. Cimon -had enriched his country with the spoil and ransom of the Persians; and he -had also greatly increased his private fortune. His disposition was naturally -inclined to liberality, and he made a munificent use of his wealth.</p> - -<p>The state of things had undergone a great change at Athens in favour -of the poorer class, since Solon had been obliged to interpose, to protect -them from the rigour of creditors, who first impoverished, and then enslaved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span> -them. Since this time the aristocracy had found it expedient to court the -commonalty which it could no longer oppress, and to part with a portion of -its wealth for the sake of retaining its power. There were of course then, -as at all times, benevolent individuals, who only consulted the dictates of a -generous nature: but the contrast between the practice which prevailed -before and after the age of Solon, seems clearly to mark the spurious origin -of the ordinary beneficence. Yet Isocrates, when he extols the bounty of -the good old times, which prevented the pressure of poverty from being ever -felt, speaks of land granted at low rents, sums of money advanced at low -interest, and asserts that none of the citizens were then in such indigence, -as to depend on casual relief. Cimon’s munificence therefore must have -been remarkable, not only in its degree, but in its kind: and was not the -less that of a demagogue, because he sought popularity, not merely for his -own sake, but for that of his order and his party.</p> - -<p>Such was the light in which it was viewed by Pericles; and some of the -measures which most strongly marked his administration were adopted to -counteract its effects. He was not able to rival Cimon’s profusion, and he -even husbanded his private fortune with rigid economy, that he might keep -his probity in the management of public affairs free both from temptation and -suspicion. His friend Demonides is said first to have suggested the thought -of throwing Cimon’s liberality into the shade, and rendering it superfluous, -by proposing a similar application of the public revenue. Pericles perhaps -deemed it safer and more becoming, that the people should supply the poorer -citizens with the means of enjoyment out of its own funds, than that they should -depend on the bounty of opulent individuals. He might think that the generation -which had raised their country to such a pitch of greatness, was -entitled to reap the fruits of the sacrifice which their fathers had made, in -resigning the produce of the mines of Laurium to the use of the state.</p> - -<p>Very early therefore he signalised his appearance in the assembly by -becoming the author of a series of measures, all tending to provide for the -subsistence and gratification of the poorer class at the public expense. -But we must here observe, that, while he was courting the favour of the -multitude by these arts, he was no less studious to command its respect. -From his first entrance into public life, he devoted himself with unremitting -application to business; he was never to be seen out of doors, but on the -way between his house and the seat of council: and, as if by way of contrast -to Cimon’s convivial tastes, declined all invitations to the entertainments of -his acquaintance—once only during the whole period he broke through this -rule, to honour the wedding of his relative Euryptolemus with his presence—and -confined himself to the society of a very select circle of intimate -friends. He bestowed the most assiduous attention on the preparation of -his speeches, and so little disguised it, that he used to say he never mounted -the <i>bema</i>, without praying that no inappropriate word might drop from his -lips. The impression thus produced was heightened by the calm majesty -of his air and carriage, and by the philosophical composure which he maintained -under all provocations.<a name="FNanchor_45" id="FNanchor_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> And he was so careful to avoid the effect -which familiarity might have on the people, that he was sparing even in his -attendance at the assembly, and, reserving his own appearance for great -occasions, carried many of his measures through the agency of his friends<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[420]</a></span> -and partisans. Among them the person whose name is most frequently -associated with that of Pericles was Ephialtes, son of Sophonides, a person -not much less conspicuous for his rigid integrity than Aristides himself, and -who seems to have entered into the views of Pericles with disinterested -earnestness, and fearlessly to have borne the brunt of the conflict with the -opposite party.</p> - -<p>Immediately after the conquest of Thasos an occasion occurred for the -two parties to measure their strength. As has been described, Cimon had -received instructions, before he brought home his victorious armament, to -attempt some further conquest on the mainland between the newly conquered -district and Macedonia. Plutarch says, that he was expected to have invaded -Macedonia, and to have added a large tract of it to the dominions of Athens. -Yet it does not clearly appear how the conquest of Thasos afforded an opportunity -of effecting this with greater ease: nor is any motive suggested for such -an attack on the territories of Alexander. We might hence be inclined to suspect, -that the expedition which Cimon had neglected to undertake, though -called for by the people’s wishes, if not by their express orders, was to have been -directed, not against Macedonia, but against the Thracian tribes on its frontier, -who had so lately cut off their colonists on the Strymon: a blow which -the Athenians were naturally impatient to avenge, but which the king of -Macedonia might well be supposed to have witnessed without regret, even if -he did not instigate those who inflicted it. However this may be, Cimon’s -forbearance disappointed and irritated the people, and his adversaries inflamed -the popular indignation by ascribing his conduct to the influence of Macedonian -gold. This part of the charge at least was undoubtedly groundless; -and Pericles, though appointed by the people one of Cimon’s accusers, when -he was brought to trial for treason, seems to have entered into the prosecution -with reluctance. The danger however was great, and Elpinice came to the -house of Pericles to plead with him for her brother. Pericles, playfully, -though it would seem not quite so delicately as our manners would require, -reminded her that she was past the age at which female intercession is most -powerful; but in effect he granted her request; for he kept back the thunder -of his eloquence, and only rose once, for form’s sake, to second the accusation. -Plutarch says that Cimon was acquitted; and there seems to be no reason -for doubting the fact, except a suspicion, that this was the trial to which -Demosthenes alludes, when he says that Cimon narrowly escaped with his -life, and was condemned to a penalty of fifty talents: a singular repetition -of his father’s destiny.</p> - -<h4>THE AREOPAGUS</h4> - -<p>This however was only a prelude to a more momentous struggle, which -involved the principles of the parties, and excited much stronger feelings of -mutual resentment. It appears to have been about this time that Pericles -resolved on attacking the aristocracy in its ancient and revered stronghold, -the Areopagus. We have seen that this body, at once a council and a court -of justice, was composed, according to Solon’s regulation, of the ex-archons. -Its character was little altered after the archonship was filled by lot, so long -as it was open to none but citizens of the wealthiest class. But, by the innovation -introduced by Aristides, the poorest Athenian might gain admission -to the Areopagus. Still the change which this measure produced in its composition -was probably for a long time scarcely perceptible, and attended with -no effect on its maxims and proceedings. When Pericles made his attack<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[421]</a></span> -on it, it was perhaps as much as ever an aristocratical assembly. The greater -part of the members had come in under the old system, and most of those who -followed them probably belonged to the same class; for though in the eye of -the law the archonship had become open to all, it is not likely that many of -a lower station would immediately present themselves to take their chance. -But even if any such were successful, they could exert but little influence on -the general character of the council, which would act much more powerfully -on them. The poor man who took his seat among a number of persons of -superior rank, fortune, and education, would generally be eager to adopt the -tone and conform to the wishes of his colleagues; and hence the prevailing -spirit might continue for many generations unaltered. This may be the main -point which Isocrates had in view, when he observed that the worst men, as -soon as they entered the Areopagus, seemed to change their nature. Pericles -therefore had reason to consider it as a formidable obstacle to his plans. He -did not however attempt, or perhaps desire, to abolish an institution so hallowed -by tradition; but he aimed at narrowing the range of its functions, so -as to leave it little more than an august name. Ephialtes was his principal -coadjutor in this undertaking, and by the prominent part which he took in it -exposed himself to the implacable enmity of the opposite party, which appears -to have set all its engines in motion to ward off the blow.</p> - -<p>It is not certain whether this struggle had begun, or was only impending, -at the time of the embassy which came from Sparta to request the aid of the -Athenians against Ithome. But the two parties were no less at variance on -this subject than on the other. The aristocratical party considered Sparta -as its natural ally, and did not wish to see Athens without a rival in Greece. -Cimon was personally attached to Sparta, possessed the confidence of the -Spartans, and took every opportunity of expressing the warmest admiration -for their character and institutions; and, to mark his respect for them, gave -one of his sons the name of Lacedæmonius. He himself was in some degree -indebted to their patronage for his political elevation, and had requited their -favour by joining with them in the persecution of Themistocles. When -therefore Ephialtes dissuaded the people from granting the request of the -Spartans, and exclaimed against the folly of raising a fallen antagonist, Cimon -urged them “not to permit Greece to be lamed, and Athens to lose her yoke-fellow.” -This advice prevailed, and Cimon was sent with a large force to -assist the Spartans at the siege of Ithome.</p> - -<p>The first effect produced by the affront Sparta later gave to Athens, was, -as we have seen, a resolution to break off all connection with Sparta, and, to -make the rupture more glaring, they had entered into an alliance with -Sparta’s old rival, Argos.</p> - -<p>This turn of events was extremely agreeable to the democratical party at -Athens, not only in itself, on account of the assistance which they might -hope to receive from Argos, but because it immediately afforded them a great -advantage in their conflict with their domestic adversaries, and in particular -furnished them with new arms against Cimon. He instantly became obnoxious, -both as the avowed friend of Sparta, and as the author and leader -of the expedition which had drawn so rude an insult on his countrymen. -The attack on the authority of the Areopagus was now prosecuted with -greater vigour, and Cimon had little influence left to exert in its behalf. -Yet his party seems not by any means to have remained passive, but to have -put forth all its strength in a last effort to save its citadel: and it was supported -by an auxiliary which had in its possession some very powerful engines -to wield in its defence.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">[525-456 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>This was the poet Æschylus, who was attached to it by his character and -his early associations. Himself a Eupatrid, perhaps connected with the -priestly families of Eleusis, his deme, if not his birth-place, he gloried in -the laurels which he had won at Marathon, above all the honours earned by -his sword and by his pen, though he had also fought at Salamis, and had -founded a new era of dramatic poetry. He was an admirer of Aristides, -whose character he had painted in one of his tragedies, under the name of -an ancient hero, with a truth which was immediately recognised by the -audience.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/p422.jpg" width="500" height="239" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Æschylus</span></p> -</div> - -<p>The contest with Persia, which was the subject of one of his great -works, probably appeared to him the legitimate object for the energies of -Greece. Beside this general disposition to side with Cimon’s party, against -Pericles, the whole train of his poetical and religious feelings was nourished -by a study of the mythical and religious traditions of Greek antiquity. In -his tragedy, entitled the <i>Eumenides</i>, he exhibits the mythical origin of the -court and council of Areopagus, in the form which best suited his purpose, -tracing it to the cause first pleaded there between the Argive matricide -Orestes, who pledges his country to eternal alliance with Athens, and the -“dread goddesses,” who sought vengeance for the blood which he had shed. -The poet brings these terrible beings on the stage, as well as the tutelary -goddess of the city, who herself institutes the tribunal, “to last throughout -all ages,” and exhorts her people to preserve it as the glory and safeguard -of the city; and the spectators are led to consider the continuance of the -blessings which the pacified avengers promise to the land, as depending on -the permanence of the institution which had succeeded to their function.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_24b" id="enanchor_24b"></a><a href="#endnote_24b">b</a></span></p> - -<p>Owing to a misunderstanding as to the date of this tragedy, it was long -believed that Æschylus wrote it in reproof of Pericles for diminishing the -power of the Areopagus. When it became certain that the play was not -produced till 458, a new light was thrown on the affair, showing Æschylus -as a defender of the merely judicial function of the Areopagus, for Pericles -and Ephialtes left the Areopagus its judicial dignity and merely removed its -political weight, as will be more fully shown in a later chapter. Æschylus -therefore appears as one in no sense protesting, but rather as showing the -true origin and strictly judicial function of the Areopagus, and approving -Ephialtes who carried the day and reduced its pretensions.<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[423]</a></span></p> - -<h4>CIMON EXILED</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[461-460 <i>B.C.</i>]</div> - -<p>This triumph of Pericles and his party over the Areopagus seems to have -been immediately followed by the ostracism of Cimon, which took place about -two years after the return of the Athenians from Messenia: and it is therefore -not improbable that his exile may have been not so much an effect of -popular resentment, as a measure of precaution, which may have appeared -necessary even to the moderate men of both parties, for the establishment of -public tranquillity.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_24b2" id="enanchor_24b2"></a><a href="#endnote_24b">b</a></span></p> - -<p>The new character which Athens had assumed, as a competitor for landed -alliances not less than for maritime ascendency, came opportunely for the -protection of the neighbouring town of Megara. It appears that Corinth, -perhaps instigated like Argos by the helplessness of the Lacedæmonians, -had been making border encroachments—on the one side upon Cleonæ, -on the other side upon Megara: on which ground the latter, probably -despairing of protection from Lacedæmon, renounced the Lacedæmonian -connection, and obtained permission to enrol herself as an ally of Athens. -This was an acquisition of signal value to the Athenians, since it both -opened to them the whole range of territory across the outer Isthmus of -Corinth to the interior of the Crissæan gulf, on which the Megarian port of -Pegæ was situated, and placed them in possession of the passes of Mount -Geranea, so that they could arrest the march of a Peloponnesian army over -the isthmus, and protect Attica from invasion. It was moreover of great -importance in its effects on Grecian politics: for it was counted as a wrong -by Lacedæmon, gave deadly offence to the Corinthians, and lighted up the -flames of war between them and Athens; their allies the Epidaurians and -Æginetans taking their part. Though Athens had not yet been guilty of -unjust encroachment against any Peloponnesian state, her ambition and -energy had inspired universal awe; while the maritime states in the neighbourhood, -such as Corinth, Epidaurus, and Ægina, saw these terror-striking -qualities threatening them at their own doors, through her alliance with -Argos and Megara. Moreover, it is probable that the ancient feud between -the Athenians and Æginetans, though dormant since a little before the Persian -invasion, had never been appeased or forgotten: so that the Æginetans, -dwelling within sight of Piræus, were at once best able to appreciate, and -most likely to dread, the enormous maritime power now possessed by Athens. -Pericles was wont to call Ægina the eyesore of Piræus: but we may be sure -that Piræus, grown into a vast fortified port within the existing generation, -was in a much stronger degree the eyesore of Ægina.</p> - -<p>The Athenians were at this time actively engaged in prosecuting the -war against Persia, having a fleet of no less than two hundred sail, equipped -by or from the confederacy collectively, now serving in Cyprus and on the -Phœnician coast. Moreover the revolt of the Egyptians under Inarus -(about 460 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>) opened to them new means of action against the Great -King. Their fleet, by invitation of the rebels, sailed up the Nile to -Memphis, where there seemed at first a good prospect of throwing off the -Persian dominion. Yet in spite of so great an abstraction from their disposable -force, their military operations near home were conducted with -unabated vigour: and the inscription which remains—a commemoration of -their citizens of the Erechthid tribe who were slain in one and the same -year in Cyprus, Egypt, Phœnicia, the Halieis, Ægina, and Megara—brings -forcibly before us that remarkable energy which astonished and even alarmed -their contemporaries.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[424]</a></span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">[460-458 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Their first proceedings at Megara were of a nature altogether novel, in -the existing condition of Greece. It was necessary for the Athenians to protect -their new ally against the superiority of the Peloponnesian land-force, -and to insure a constant communication with it by sea. But the city (like -most of the ancient Hellenic towns) was situated on a hill at some distance -from the sea, separated from its port Nisæa by a space of nearly one mile. -One of the earliest proceedings of the Athenians was to build two lines of -wall, near and parallel to each other, connecting the city with Nisæa; so that -the two thus formed one continuous fortress, wherein a standing Athenian -garrison was maintained, with the constant means of succour from Athens in -case of need. These “Long Walls,” though afterwards copied in other places -and on a larger scale, were at that juncture an ingenious invention, and were -erected for the purpose of extending the maritime arm of Athens to an -inland city.</p> - -<h4>THE WAR WITH CORINTH</h4> - -<p>The first operations of Corinth however were not directed against Megara. -The Athenians, having undertaken a landing in the territory of the -Halieis (the population of the southern Argolic peninsula, bordering on -Trœzen and Hermione), were defeated on land by the Corinthian and Epidaurian -forces: possibly it may have been in this expedition that they -acquired possession of Trœzen, which we find afterwards in their dependance, -without knowing when it became so. But in a sea-fight which took -place off the island of Cecryphaleia (between Ægina and the Argolic peninsula) -the Athenians gained the victory. After this victory and defeat—neither -of them apparently very decisive—the Æginetans began to take -a more energetic part in the war, and brought out their full naval force -together with that of their allies—Corinthians, Epidaurians, and other -Peloponnesians: while Athens equipped a fleet of corresponding magnitude, -summoning her allies also; though we do not know the actual numbers on -either side.</p> - -<p>In the great naval battle which ensued off the island of Ægina, the superiority -of the new nautical tactics acquired by twenty years’ practice of -the Athenians since the Persian War—over the old Hellenic ships and seamen, -as shown in those states where at the time of the battle of Marathon -the maritime strength of Greece had resided—was demonstrated by a victory -most complete and decisive. The Peloponnesian and Dorian seamen -had as yet had no experience of the improved seacraft of Athens, and when -we find how much they were disconcerted with it even twenty-eight years -afterwards at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, we shall not wonder -at its destructive effect upon them in this early battle. The maritime -power of Ægina was irrecoverably ruined. The Athenians captured seventy -ships of war, landed a large force upon the island, and commenced the siege -of the city by land as well as by sea.</p> - -<p>If the Lacedæmonians had not been occupied at home by the blockade -of Ithome, they would have been probably induced to invade Attica as a -diversion to the Æginetans; especially as the Persian Megabazus came to -Sparta at this time on the part of Artaxerxes to prevail upon them to do so, -in order that the Athenians might be constrained to retire from Egypt. -This Persian brought with him a large sum of money, but was nevertheless -obliged to return without effecting his mission. The Corinthians and Epidaurians, -however, while they carried to Ægina a reinforcement of three<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[425]</a></span> -hundred hoplites, did their best to aid her further by an attack upon Megara; -which place, it was supposed, the Athenians could not possibly relieve without -withdrawing their forces from Ægina, inasmuch as so many of their -men were at the same time serving in Egypt. But the Athenians showed -themselves equal to all these three exigencies at one and the same time—to -the great disappointment of their enemies. Myronides marched from -Athens to Megara at the head of the citizens in the two extremes of military -age, old and young; these being the only troops at home. He fought the -Corinthians near the town, gaining a slight, but debatable advantage, which -he commemorated by a trophy, as soon as the Corinthians had returned home. -But the latter, when they arrived at home, were so much reproached by their -own old citizens, for not having vanquished the refuse of the Athenian military -force, that they returned back at the end of twelve days and erected a -trophy on their side, laying claim to a victory in the past battle. The Athenians, -marching out of Megara, attacked them a second time, and gained on -this occasion a decisive victory. The defeated Corinthians were still more -unfortunate in their retreat; for a body of them, missing their road, became -entangled in a space of private ground enclosed on every side by a deep -ditch and having only one narrow entrance. Myronides, detecting this -fatal mistake, planted his hoplites at the entrance to prevent their escape, -and then surrounded the enclosure with his light-armed troops, who with -their missile weapons slew all the Corinthian hoplites, without possibility -either of flight or resistance. The bulk of the Corinthian army effected their -retreat, but the destruction of this detachment was a sad blow to the city.</p> - -<h4>THE LONG WALLS</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[458 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Splendid as the success of the Athenians had been during this year, -both on land and at sea, it was easy for them to foresee that the power of their -enemies would presently be augmented by the Lacedæmonians taking the -field. Partly on this account—partly also from the more energetic phase -of democracy, and the long-sighted views of Pericles, which were now becoming -ascendant in the city—the Athenians began the stupendous undertaking -of connecting Athens with the sea by means of long walls. The idea -of this measure had doubtless been first suggested by the recent erection of -long walls, though for so much smaller a distance, between Megara and -Nisæa: for without such an intermediate stepping-stone, the project of a -wall forty stadia (about 4½ English miles) to join Athens with Piræus, and -another wall of thirty-five stadia (nearly 4 English miles) to join it with -Phalerum, would have appeared extravagant even to the sanguine temper of -Athenians—as it certainly would have seemed a few years earlier to Themistocles -himself. Coming as an immediate sequel of great recent victories, -and while Ægina, the great Dorian naval power, was prostrate and under -blockade, it excited the utmost alarm among the Peloponnesians—being -regarded as the second great stride, at once conspicuous and of lasting effect, -in Athenian ambition, next to the fortification of Piræus. But besides -this feeling in the bosom of enemies, the measure was also interwoven with -the formidable contention of political parties then going on at Athens. Cimon -had been recently ostracised; and the democratical movement pressed by -Pericles and Ephialtes (of which more presently) was in its full tide of -success; yet not without a violent and unprincipled opposition on the part -of those who supported the existing constitution.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[426]</a></span></p> - -<p>Now the Long Walls formed a part of the foreign policy of Pericles, continuing -on a gigantic scale the plans of Themistocles when he first schemed -the Piræus. They were framed to render Athens capable of carrying on -war against any superiority of land attack, and of bidding defiance to the -united force of Peloponnesus. But though thus calculated for contingencies -which a long-sighted man might see gathering in the distance, the new -walls were, almost on the same grounds, obnoxious to a considerable number -of Athenians: to the party recently headed by Cimon, which was attached -to the Lacedæmonian connection, and desired above all things to maintain -peace at home, reserving the energies of the state for anti-Persian enterprise: -to many landed proprietors in Attica, whom they seemed to threaten -with approaching invasion and destruction of their territorial possessions: to -the rich men and aristocrats of Athens, averse to a still closer contact and -amalgamation with the maritime multitude in Piræus: lastly, perhaps, to a -certain vein of old Attic feeling, which might look upon the junction of -Athens with the separate demes of Piræus and Phalerum as effacing the -special associations connected with the holy rock of Athene. When to all -these grounds of opposition we add the expense and trouble of the undertaking -itself, the interference with private property, the peculiar violence of -party which happened then to be raging, and the absence of a large proportion -of military citizens in Egypt, we shall hardly be surprised to find that -the projected long walls brought on a risk of the most serious character both -for Athens and her democracy. If any further proof were wanting of the -vast importance of these long walls, in the eyes both of friends and of enemies, -we might find it in the fact that their destruction was the prominent -mark of Athenian humiliation after the battle of Ægospotami, and their -restoration the immediate boon of Pharnabazus and Conon after the victory -of Cnidus.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[457 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Under the influence of the alarm now spread by the proceedings of -Athens, the Lacedæmonians were prevailed upon to undertake an expedition -out of Peloponnesus, although the helots in Ithome were not yet reduced -to surrender. Their force consisted of fifteen hundred troops of their own, -and ten thousand of their various allies, under the regent Nicomedes. The -ostensible motive, or the pretence, for this march, was the protection of the -little territory of Doris against the Phocians, who had recently invaded it -and taken one of its three towns. The mere approach of so large a force -immediately compelled the Phocians to relinquish their conquest, but it was -soon seen that this was only a small part of the objects of Sparta, and that -her main purpose, under instigation of the Corinthians, was, to arrest the -aggrandisement of Athens. It could not escape the penetration of Corinth, -that the Athenians might presently either enlist or constrain the towns of -Bœotia into their alliance, as they had recently acquired Megara, in addition -to their previous ally Platæa: for the Bœotian federation was at this time -much disorganised, and Thebes, its chief, had never recovered her ascendency -since the discredit of her support lent to the Persian invasion. To strengthen -Thebes and to render her ascendency effective over the Bœotian cities, was the -best way of providing a neighbour at once powerful and hostile to the Athenians, -so as to prevent their further aggrandisement by land: it was the -same policy as Epaminondas pursued eighty years afterwards, in organising -Arcadia and Messene against Sparta. Accordingly the Peloponnesian force -was now employed partly in enlarging and strengthening the fortifications of -Thebes herself, partly in constraining the other Bœotian cities into effective -obedience to her supremacy; probably by placing their governments in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[427]</a></span> -hands of citizens of known oligarchical politics, and perhaps banishing suspected -opponents. To this scheme the Thebans lent themselves with earnestness; -promising to keep down for the future their border neighbours, so as -to spare the necessity of armies coming from Sparta.</p> - -<p>But there was also a further design, yet more important, in contemplation -by the Spartans and Corinthians. The oligarchical opposition at -Athens was so bitterly hostile to the Long Walls, to Pericles, and to the -democratical movement, that several of them opened a secret negotiation -with the Peloponnesian leaders; inviting them into Attica, and entreating -their aid in an internal rising for the purpose not only of putting a stop to -the Long Walls, but also of subverting the democracy. The Peloponnesian -army, while prosecuting its operations in Bœotia, waited in hopes of seeing -the Athenian malcontents in arms, encamping at Tanagra on the very -borders of Attica for the purpose of immediate co-operation with them. -The juncture was undoubtedly one of much hazard for Athens, especially as -the ostracised Cimon and his remaining friends in the city were suspected of -being implicated in the conspiracy. But the Athenian leaders, aware of the -Lacedæmonian operations in Bœotia, knew also what was meant by the presence -of the army on their immediate borders—and took decisive measures -to avert the danger. Having obtained a reinforcement of one thousand -Argeians and some Thessalian horse, they marched out to Tanagra, with the -full Athenian force then at home; which must of course have consisted -chiefly of the old and the young, the same who had fought under Myronides -at Megara; for the blockade of Ægina was still going on.</p> - -<p>Near Tanagra a bloody battle took place between the two armies, wherein -the Lacedæmonians were victorious, chiefly from the desertion of the Thessalian -horse who passed over to them in the very heat of the engagement. -But though the advantage was on their side, it was not sufficiently decisive -to favour the contemplated rising in Attica. Nor did the Peloponnesians -gain anything by it except an undisturbed retreat over the high lands of -Geranea, after having partially ravaged the Megarid.</p> - -<h4>CIMON RECALLED</h4> - -<p>Though the battle of Tanagra was a defeat, yet there were circumstances -connected with it which rendered its effects highly beneficial to Athens. -The ostracised Cimon presented himself on the field, as soon as the army -had passed over the boundaries of Attica, requesting to be allowed to occupy -his station as a hoplite and fight in the ranks of his tribe—the Œneis. But -such was the belief, entertained by the members of the senate and by his -political enemies present, that he was an accomplice in the conspiracy known -to be on foot, that permission was refused and he was forced to retire. In -departing he conjured his personal friends, Euthippus (of the deme Anaphlystus) -and others, to behave in such a manner as might wipe away the -stain resting upon his fidelity, and in part also upon theirs. His friends -retained his panoply and assigned to it the station in the ranks which he -would himself have occupied: they then entered the engagement with desperate -resolution and one hundred of them fell side by side in their ranks. -Pericles, on his part, who was present among the hoplites of his own tribe -the Acamantii, aware of this application and repulse of Cimon, thought it -incumbent upon him to display not merely his ordinary personal courage, -but an unusual recklessness of life and safety, though it happened that he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[428]</a></span> -escaped unwounded. All these incidents brought about a generous sympathy -and spirit of compromise among the contending parties at Athens; while -the unshaken patriotism of Cimon and his friends discountenanced and disarmed -those conspirators who had entered into correspondence with the -enemy, at the same time that it roused a repentant admiration towards the -ostracised leader himself. Such was the happy working of this new sentiment -that a decree was shortly proposed and carried—proposed too by -Pericles himself—to abridge the ten years of Cimon’s ostracism, and permit -his immediate return.</p> - -<p>We may recollect that under circumstances partly analogous, Themistocles -had himself proposed the restoration of his rival Aristides from ostracism, -a little before the battle of Salamis: and in both cases, the suspension of -enmity between the two leaders was partly the sign, partly also the auxiliary -cause, of reconciliation and renewed fraternity among the general body of -citizens. It was a moment analogous to that salutary impulse of compromise, -and harmony of parties, which followed the extinction of the oligarchy -of Four Hundred, forty-six years afterwards, and on which Thucydides -dwells emphatically as the salvation of Athens in her distress—a moment -rare in free communities generally, not less than among the jealous competitors -for political ascendency at Athens.</p> - -<p>So powerful was this burst of fresh patriotism and unanimity after the -battle of Tanagra, which produced the recall of Cimon and appears to have -overlaid the pre-existing conspiracy, that the Athenians were quickly in a -condition to wipe off the stain of their defeat. It was on the sixty-second -day after the battle that they undertook an aggressive march under Myronides -into Bœotia: the extreme precision of this date (being the single -case throughout the summary of events between the Persian and Peloponnesian -Wars wherein Thucydides is thus precise) marks how strong an impression -it made upon the memory of the Athenians. At the battle of Œnophyta, -engaged against the aggregate Theban and Bœotian forces, or, if Diodorus -is to be trusted, in two battles, of which that of Œnophyta was the last, Myronides -was completely victorious. The Athenians became masters of Thebes -as well as of the remaining Bœotian towns; reversing all the arrangements -recently made by Sparta, establishing democratical governments, and forcing -the aristocratical leaders, favourable to Theban ascendency and Lacedæmonian -connection, to become exiles. Nor was it only Bœotia which the -Athenians thus acquired; Phocis and Locris were both successively added -to the list of their dependent allies, the former being in the main friendly -to Athens and not disinclined to the change, while the latter were so decidedly -hostile that one hundred of their chiefs were detained and sent to -Athens as hostages. The Athenians thus extended their influence, maintained -through internal party-management, backed by the dread of interference -from without in case of need, from the borders of the Corinthian -territory, including both Megara and Pegæ, to the strait of Thermopylæ.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[457-456 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>These important acquisitions were soon crowned by the completion of -the Long Walls and the conquest of Ægina. That island, doubtless starved -out by its protracted blockade, was forced to capitulate on condition of destroying -its fortifications, surrendering all its ships of war, and submitting -to annual tribute as a dependent ally of Athens. The reduction of this once -powerful maritime city marked Athens as mistress of the sea on the Peloponnesian -coast not less than on the Ægean. Her admiral Tolmides displayed -her strength by sailing round Peloponnesus, and even by the insult of burning -the Lacedæmonian ports of Methone and of Gythium. He took Chalcis,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[429]</a></span> -a possession of the Corinthians, and Naupactus belonging to the Ozolian -Locrians, near the mouth of the Corinthian Gulf, disembarked troops near -Sicyon, with some advantage in a battle against opponents from that town, -and either gained or forced into the Athenian alliance not only Zacynthus -and Cephallenia, but also some of the towns of Achaia; for we afterwards -find these latter attached to Athens without knowing when the connection -began. During the ensuing year the Athenians renewed their attack upon -Sicyon, with a force of one thousand hoplites under Pericles himself, sailing -from the Megarian harbour of Pegæ in the Crissæan Gulf. This eminent -man, however, gained no greater advantage than Tolmides, defeating the -Sicyonian forces in the field and driving them within their walls. He afterwards -made an expedition into Acarnania, taking the Achæan allies in addition -to his own forces, but miscarried in his attack on Œniadæ and accomplished -nothing. Nor were the Athenians more successful in a march undertaken -this same year against Thessaly, for the purpose of restoring Orestes, one of -the exiled princes or nobles of Pharsalus. Though they took with them an -imposing force, including their Bœotian and Phocian allies, the powerful -Thessalian cavalry forced them to keep in a compact body and confined -them to the ground actually occupied by their hoplites; while all their -attempts against the city failed, and their hopes of internal rising were -disappointed.</p> - -<p>Had the Athenians succeeded in Thessaly, they would have acquired to -their alliance nearly the whole of extra-Peloponnesian Greece. But even -without Thessaly their power was prodigious, and had now attained a maximum -height from which it never varied except to decline. As a counter-balancing -loss against so many successes, we have to reckon their ruinous -defeat in Egypt, after a war of six years against the Persians (460-455 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>). -At first they had gained brilliant advantages, in conjunction with the insurgent -prince Inarus; expelling the Persians from all Memphis except that -strongest part called the White Fortress. And such was the alarm of the -Persian king Artaxerxes at the presence of the Athenians in Egypt, that he -sent Megabazus with a large sum of money to Sparta, in order to induce -the Lacedæmonians to invade Attica. This envoy however failed, and an -augmented Persian force, being sent to Egypt under Megabyzus, son of Zopyrus, -drove the Athenians and their allies, after an obstinate struggle, out -of Memphis into the island of the Nile called Prosopitis. Here they were -blocked up for eighteen months, until at length Megabyzus turned the arm of -the river, laid the channel dry, and stormed the island by land. A very few -Athenians escaped by land to Cyrene: the rest were either slain or made -captive, and Inarus himself was crucified. And the calamity of Athens was -farther aggravated by the arrival of fifty fresh Athenian ships, which, coming -after the defeat, but without being aware of it, sailed into the Mendesian -branch of the Nile, and thus fell unawares into the power of the Persians -and Phœnicians, very few either of the ships or men escaping. The whole -of Egypt became again subject to the Persians, except Amyrtæus, who contrived -by retiring into the inaccessible fens still to maintain his independence. -One of the largest armaments ever sent forth by Athens and her confederacy -was thus utterly ruined.</p> - -<p>It was about the time of the destruction of the Athenian army in Egypt, -and of the circumnavigation of Peloponnesus by Tolmides, that the internal -war, carried on by the Lacedæmonians against the helots or Messenians at -Ithome, ended. These besieged men, no longer able to stand out against -a protracted blockade, were forced to abandon this last fortress of ancient<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[430]</a></span> -Messenian independence, stipulating for a safe retreat from the Peloponnesus -with their wives and families; with the proviso that if any one of them ever -returned to Peloponnesus, he should become the slave of the first person who -seized him. They were established by Tolmides at Naupactus (recently -taken by the Athenians from the Ozolian Locrians), where they will be -found rendering good service to Athens in the following wars.</p> - -<h4>THE FIVE-YEARS’ TRUCE</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[455-448 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>After the victory of Tanagra, the Lacedæmonians made no further expeditions -out of Peloponnesus for several succeeding years, not even to prevent -Bœotia and Phocis from being absorbed into the Athenian alliance. The -reason of this remissness lay, partly, in their general character; partly, in -the continuance of the siege of Ithome, which occupied them at home; but -still more perhaps, in the fact that the Athenians, masters of the Megarid, -were in occupation of the road over the high lands of Geranea, and could -therefore obstruct the march of any army out from Peloponnesus. Even -after the surrender of Ithome, the Lacedæmonians remained inactive for -three years, after which time a formal truce was concluded with Athens by -the Peloponnesians generally, for five years longer. This truce was concluded -in a great degree through the influence of Cimon, who was eager to -resume effective operations against the Persians; while it was not less suitable -to the political interest of Pericles that his most distinguished rival -should be absent on foreign service, so as not to interfere with his influence -at home. Accordingly Cimon, having equipped a fleet of two hundred triremes -from Athens and her confederates, set sail for Cyprus, from whence -he despatched sixty ships to Egypt, at the request of the insurgent prince -Amyrtæus, who was still maintaining himself against the Persians amidst -the fens—while with the remaining armament he laid siege to Citium. In -the prosecution of this siege, he died either of disease or of a wound. The -armament, under his successor Anaxicrates, became so embarrassed for want -of provisions that they abandoned the undertaking altogether, and went to -fight the Phœnician and Cilician fleet near Salamis in Cyprus. They were -here victorious, first on sea and afterwards on land, though probably not on the -same day, as at the Eurymedon; after which they returned home, followed -by the sixty ships which had gone to Egypt for the purpose of aiding -Amyrtæus.</p> - -<p>From this time forward no further operations were undertaken by Athens -and her confederacy against the Persians. And it appears that a convention -was concluded between them, whereby the Great King on his part promised -two things: To leave free, undisturbed, and untaxed, the Asiatic maritime -Greeks, not sending troops within a given distance of the coast: To refrain -from sending any ships of war either westward of Phaselis (others place the -boundary at the Chelidonean islands, rather more to the westward) or within -the Cyanean rocks at the confluence of the Thracian Bosporus with the -Euxine. On their side the Athenians agreed to leave him in undisturbed -possession of Cyprus and Egypt. This was called the Peace of Callias.</p> - -<p>We may believe in the reality of this treaty between Athens and Persia, -improperly called the Cimonian Treaty: improperly, since not only was it -concluded after the death of Cimon, but the Athenian victories by which it -was immediately brought on, were gained after his death. Nay more—the -probability is, that if Cimon had lived, it would not have been concluded at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[431]</a></span> -all. For his interest as well as his glory led him to prosecute the war -against Persia, since he was no match for his rival Pericles either as a statesman -or as an orator, and could only maintain his popularity by the same -means whereby he had earned it—victories and plunder at the cost of the -Persians. His death ensured more complete ascendency to Pericles whose -policy and character were of a cast altogether opposite.</p> - -<h4>THE CONFEDERACY BECOMES AN EMPIRE</h4> - -<p>Athens was now at peace both abroad and at home, under the administration -of Pericles, with a great empire, a great fleet, and a great accumulated -treasure. The common fund collected from the contributions of the confederates, -and originally deposited at Delos, had before this time been transferred -to the Acropolis at Athens. At what precise time such transfer took -place, we cannot state: nor are we enabled to assign the successive stages -whereby the confederacy, chiefly with the free will of its own members, -became transformed from a body of armed and active warriors under the -guidance of Athens, into disarmed and passive tribute-payers defended by -the military force of Athens: from allies free, meeting at Delos, and self-determining -into subjects isolated, sending their annual tribute, and awaiting -Athenian orders. But it would appear that the change had been made -before this time. Some of the more resolute of the allies had tried to secede, -but Athens had coerced them by force, and reduced them to the condition of -tribute-payers without ships or defence; and Chios, Lesbos, and Samos -were now the only allies free and armed on the original footing. Every -successive change of an armed ally into a tributary, every subjugation of a -seceder, tended of course to cut down the numbers, and enfeeble the -authority of the Delian synod; and, what was still worse, it materially -altered the reciprocal relation and feelings both of Athens and her allies—exalting -the former into something like a despot, and degrading the latter -into mere passive subjects.</p> - -<p>Of course the palpable manifestation of the change must have been the -transfer of the confederate fund from Delos to Athens. The only circumstance -which we know respecting this transfer is, that it was proposed by the -Samians—the second power in the confederacy, inferior only to Athens, and -least of all likely to favour any job or sinister purpose of the Athenians.</p> - -<p>Such transition, arising spontaneously out of the character and circumstances -of the confederates themselves, was thus materially forwarded by -the acquisitions of Athens extraneous to the confederacy. She was now not -merely the first maritime state in Greece, but perhaps equal to Sparta even -in land-power, possessing in her alliance Megara, Bœotia, Phocis, Locris, -together with Achaia and Trœzen in the Peloponnesus. Large as this aggregate -already was, both at sea and on land, yet the magnitude of the annual -tribute, and still more the character of the Athenians themselves, superior -to all Greeks in that combination of energy and discipline which is the grand -cause of progress, threatened still further increase. Occupying the Megarian -harbour of Pegæ, the Athenians had full means of naval action on both sides -of the Corinthian isthmus: but what was of still greater importance to them, -by their possession of the Megarid and of the high lands of Geranea, they -could restrain any land-force from marching out of the Peloponnesus, and -were thus (considering besides their mastery at sea) completely unassailable -in Attica. Ever since the repulse of Xerxes, Athens had been advancing in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[432]</a></span> -an uninterrupted course of power and prosperity at home, as well as of victory -and ascendency abroad—to which there was no exception except the -ruinous enterprise in Egypt.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[448-446 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Looking at the position of Greece therefore about 448 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>—after the -conclusion of five years’ truce between the Peloponnesians and Athens, and of -the so-called Cimonian Peace between Persia and Athens—a discerning -Greek might well calculate upon further aggrandisement of this imperial -state as the tendency of the age; and accustomed as every Greek was to the -conception of separate town-autonomy as essential to a freeman and a citizen, -such prospect could not but inspire terror and aversion. The sympathy of the -Peloponnesians for the islanders and ultra-maritime states, who constituted -the original confederacy of Athens, was not considerable. But when the -Dorian island of Ægina was subjugated also, and passed into the condition -of a defenceless tributary, they felt the blow sorely on every ground. The -ancient celebrity, and eminent service rendered at the battle of Salamis, of -this memorable island, had not been able to protect it; while those great -Æginetan families, whose victories at the sacred festival-games Pindar celebrates -in a large proportion of his odes, would spread the language of complaint -and indignation throughout their numerous “guests” in every Hellenic -city. Of course, the same anti-Athenian feeling would pervade those -Peloponnesian states which had been engaged in actual hostility with Athens—Corinth, -Sicyon, Epidaurus, etc., as well as Sparta, the once-recognised -head of Hellas, but now tacitly degraded from her pre-eminence, baffled -in her projects respecting Bœotia, and exposed to the burning of her port -at Gythium without being able even to retaliate upon Attica. Putting all -those circumstances together, we may comprehend the powerful feeling of -dislike and apprehension now diffused so widely over Greece against the -upstart despot-city; whose ascendency, newly acquired, maintained by superior -force, and not recognised as legitimate, threatened nevertheless still -further increase. Sixteen years hence, this same sentiment will be found -exploding into the Peloponnesian War. But it became rooted in the -Greek mind during the period which we have now reached, when Athens -was much more formidable than she had come to be at the commencement -of that war: nor shall we thoroughly appreciate the ideas of that later -period, unless we take them as handed down from the earlier date of the five -years’ truce (about 451-446 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>).</p> - -<h4>COMMENCEMENT OF DECLINE</h4> - -<p>Formidable as the Athenian empire both really was and appeared to be, -however, this widespread feeling of antipathy proved still stronger, so that -instead of the threatened increase, the empire underwent a most material -diminution. This did not arise from the attack of open enemies; for during -the five years’ truce, Sparta undertook only one movement, and that not -against Attica: she sent troops to Delphi, in an expedition dignified with -the name of the Sacred War—expelled the Phocians, who had assumed to -themselves the management of the temple—and restored it to the native -Delphians. To this the Athenians made no direct opposition, but as soon as -the Lacedæmonians were gone, they themselves marched thither and placed -the temple again in the hands of the Phocians, who were then their allies. -The Delphians were members of the Phocian league, and there was a dispute -of old standing as to the administration of the temple—whether it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[433]</a></span> -belonged to them separately or to the Phocians collectively. The favour -of those who administered it counted as an element of considerable moment -in Grecian politics; the sympathies of the leading Delphians led them to -embrace the side of Sparta, but the Athenians now hoped to counteract this -tendency by means of their preponderance in Phocis. We are not told -that the Lacedæmonians took any ulterior step in consequence of their -views being frustrated by Athens—a significant evidence of the politics of -that day.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[447 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The blow which brought down the Athenian empire from this its greatest -exaltation was struck by the subjects themselves. The Athenian ascendency -over Bœotia, Phocis, Locris, and Eubœa, was maintained, not by means of -garrisons, but through domestic parties favourable to Athens, and a suitable -form of government—just in the same way as Sparta maintained her influence -over her Peloponnesian allies. After the victory of Œnophyta, the -Athenians had broken up the governments in the Bœotian cities established -by Sparta before the battle of Tanagra, and converted them into democracies -at Thebes and elsewhere. Many of the previous leading men had thus been -sent into exile; and as the same process had taken place in Phocis and -Locris, there was at this time a considerable aggregate body of exiles, Bœotian, -Phocian, Locrian, Eubœan, Æginetan, etc., all bitterly hostile to -Athens, and ready to join in any attack upon her power. We learn further -that the democracy established at Thebes after the battle of Œnophyta was -ill conducted and disorderly, which circumstance laid open Bœotia still further -to the schemes of assailants on the watch for every weak point. These -various exiles, all joining their forces and concerting measures with their -partisans in the interior, succeeded in mastering Orchomenos, Chæronea, -and some other less important places in Bœotia.</p> - -<p>The Athenian general Tolmides marched to expel them, with one thousand -Athenian hoplites and an auxiliary body of allies. It appears that this -march was undertaken in haste and rashness. The hoplites of Tolmides principally -youthful volunteers and belonging to the best families of Athens, disdained -the enemy too much to await a larger and more commanding force: -nor would the people listen even to Pericles, when he admonished them that -the march would be full of hazard, and adjured them not to attempt it without -greater numbers as well as greater caution. Fatally indeed were his -predictions justified. Though Tolmides was successful in his first enterprise—the -recapture of Chæronea, wherein he placed a garrison—yet in -his march, probably incautious and disorderly, when departing from that -place, he was surprised and attacked unawares, near Coronea, by the united -body of exiles and their partisans.</p> - -<p>No defeat in Grecian history was ever more complete or ruinous. Tolmides -himself was slain, together with many of the Athenian hoplites, while -a large number of them were taken prisoners. In order to recover these -prisoners, who belonged to the best families in the city, the Athenians submitted -to a convention whereby they agreed to evacuate Bœotia altogether: -in all the cities of that country the exiles were restored, the democratical -government overthrown, and Bœotia was transformed from an ally of Athens -into her bitter enemy. Long indeed did the fatal issue of this action dwell -in the memory of the Athenians, and inspire them with an apprehension of -Bœotian superiority in heavy armour on land. But if the hoplites under -Tolmides had been all slain on the field, their death would probably have -been avenged and Bœotia would not have been lost—whereas in the case of -living citizens, the Athenians deemed no sacrifice too great to redeem them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[434]</a></span> -We shall discover hereafter in the Lacedæmonians a feeling very similar, respecting -their brethren captured at Sphacteria.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[447-445 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The calamitous consequences of this defeat came upon Athens in thick -and rapid succession. The united exiles, having carried their point in Bœotia, -proceeded to expel the philo-Athenian government both from Phocis and -Locris, and to carry the flame of revolt into Eubœa. To this important island -Pericles himself proceeded forthwith, at the head of a powerful force; but -before he had time to complete the reconquest, he was summoned home by -news of a still more formidable character. The Megarians had revolted from -Athens. By a conspiracy previously planned, a division of hoplites from -Corinth, Sicyon, and Epidaurus, was already admitted as garrison into their -city: the Athenian soldiers who kept watch over the Long Walls had been -overpowered and slain, except a few who escaped into the fortified port of -Nisæa. As if to make the Athenians at once sensible how seriously this -disaster affected them, by throwing open the road over Geranea, Plistoanax, -king of Sparta, was announced as already on his march for an invasion -of Attica. He did in truth conduct an army, of mixed Lacedæmonians -and Peloponnesian allies, into Attica, as far as the neighbourhood of Eleusis -and the Thriasian plain. He was a very young man, so that a Spartan of -mature years, Cleandridas, had been attached to him by the ephors as adjutant -and counsellor. Pericles, it is said, persuaded both the one and the -other, by means of large bribes, to evacuate Attica without advancing to -Athens. We may fairly doubt whether they had force enough to adventure -so far into the interior, and we shall hereafter observe the great precautions -with which Archidamus thought it necessary to conduct his invasion, during -the first year of the Peloponnesian War, though at the head of a more commanding -force. Nevertheless, on their return, the Lacedæmonians, believing -that they might have achieved it, found both of them guilty of corruption. -Both were banished: Cleandridas never came back, and Plistoanax himself -lived for a long time in sanctuary near the temple of Athene at Tegea, until -at length he procured his restoration by tampering with the Pythian priestess, -and by bringing her bought admonitions to act upon the authorities at Sparta.</p> - -<p>So soon as the Lacedæmonians had retired from Attica, Pericles returned -with his forces to Eubœa, and reconquered the island completely. With that -caution which always distinguished him as a military man, so opposite to the -fatal rashness of Tolmides, he took with him an overwhelming force of fifty -triremes and five thousand hoplites. He admitted most of the Eubœan towns -to surrender, altering the government of Chalcis by the expulsion of the -wealthy oligarchy called the <i>hippobotæ</i>. But the inhabitants of Histiæa at -the north of the island, who had taken an Athenian merchantman and massacred -all the crew, were more severely dealt with, the free population being -all or in great part expelled, and the land distributed among Athenian cleruchs -or out-settled citizens.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[445-440 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Yet the reconquest of Eubœa was far from restoring Athens to the position -which she had occupied before the fatal engagement of Coronea. Her -land-empire was irretrievably gone, together with her recently acquired influence -over the Delphian oracle; and she reverted to her former condition -of an exclusively maritime potentate. Moreover, the precarious hold which -she possessed over unwilling allies had been demonstrated in a manner likely -to encourage similar attempts among her maritime subjects; attempts which -would now be seconded by Peloponnesian armies invading Attica. The fear -of such a combination of embarrassments, and especially of an irresistible -enemy carrying ruin over the flourishing territory round Eleusis and Athens,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[435]</a></span> -was at this moment predominant in the Athenian mind. We shall find -Pericles, at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War fourteen years afterwards, -exhausting all his persuasive force, and not succeeding without great -difficulty, in prevailing upon his countrymen to endure the hardship of invasion—even -in defence of their maritime empire, and when events had -been gradually so ripening as to render the prospect of war familiar, if not -inevitable. But the late series of misfortunes had burst upon them so -rapidly and unexpectedly, as to discourage even Athenian confidence, and -to render the prospect of continued war full of gloom and danger. The -prudence of Pericles would doubtless counsel the surrender of their remaining -landed possessions or alliances, which had now become unprofitable, in -order to purchase peace; but we may be sure that nothing short of extreme -temporary despondency could have induced the Athenian assembly to listen -to such advice, and to accept the inglorious peace which followed. A truce -for thirty years was concluded with Sparta and her allies, in the beginning -of 445 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, whereby Athens surrendered Nisæa, Pegæ, Achaia, and Trœzen—thus -abandoning the Peloponnesus altogether, and leaving the Megarians -(with their full territory and their two ports) to be included among the -Peloponnesian allies of Sparta.</p> - -<p>It was to the Megarians, especially, that the altered position of Athens -after this truce was owing: it was their secession from Attica and junction -with the Peloponnesians, which laid open Attica to invasion. Hence arose -the deadly hatred on the part of the Athenians towards Megara, manifested -during the ensuing years—a sentiment the more natural, as Megara had -spontaneously sought the alliance of Athens a few years before as a protection -against the Corinthians, and had then afterwards, without any known -ill-usage on the part of Athens, broken off from the alliance and become her -enemy, with the fatal consequence of rendering her vulnerable on the land-side. -Under such circumstances we shall not be surprised to find the antipathy -of the Athenians against Megara strongly pronounced, insomuch that -the system of exclusion which they adopted against her was among the most -prominent causes of the Peloponnesian War.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_24d" id="enanchor_24d"></a><a href="#endnote_24d">d</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE GREATNESS OF PERICLES</h4> - -<p>Athens now rested six years, unengaged in any hostilities; a longer -interval of perfect peace than she had before known in above forty years -elapsed since she rose from her ashes after the Persian invasion. It is a -wonderful and singular phenomenon in the history of mankind, little -accounted for by anything recorded by ancient, or imagined by modern -writers, that, during this period of turbulence, in a commonwealth whose -whole population in free subjects amounted scarcely to thirty thousand -families, art, science, fine taste, and politeness should have risen to that -perfection which has made Athens the mistress of the world through all -succeeding ages. Some sciences indeed have been carried higher in modern -times, and art has put forth new branches, of which some have given new -helps to science: but Athens, in that age, reached a perfection of taste that -no country has since surpassed; but on the contrary all have looked up to, as -a polar star, by which, after sinking in the deepest barbarism, taste has been -guided in its restoration to splendour, and the observation of which will -probably ever be the surest preservative against its future corruption and -decay.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[436]</a></span></p> - -<p>One great point of the policy of Pericles was to keep the people always -either amused or employed. During peace an exercising squadron of sixty -trireme galleys was sent out for eight months in every year. Nor was this -without a further use than merely engaging the attention of the people, and -maintaining the navy in vigour. He sometimes took the command in person: -and, sailing among the distant dependencies of the empire, settled disputes -between them, and confirmed the power and extended the influence of -Athens. The Ægean and the Propontis did not bound his voyages: he -penetrated into the Euxine; and finding the distant Grecian settlement of -Sinope divided between Timesileus, who affected the tyranny, and an opposing -party, he left there Lamachus with thirteen ships, and a land-force with -whose assistance to the popular side the tyrant and those of his faction were -expelled. The justice of what followed may indeed appear questionable. -Their houses and property, apportioned into six hundred lots, were offered to -so many Athenian citizens; and volunteers were not wanting to accept the -offer, and settle at Sinope. To disburden the government at home, by providing -advantageous establishments, in distant parts, for the poor and discontented -among the sovereign citizens of Athens, was a policy more than once -resorted to by Pericles. It was during his administration, in the year, according -to Diodorus, in which the Thirty Years’ Truce was concluded, that -the deputation came from the Thessalian adventurers who had been expelled -by the Crotoniats from their attempted establishment in the deserted territory -of Sybaris, in consequence of which, under his patronage, the colony -was settled with which the historian Herodotus then, and afterward the -orator Lysias, passing to Thurii, both established themselves there.</p> - -<h4>A GREEK FEDERATION PLANNED</h4> - -<p>Plutarch has attributed to Pericles a noble project, unnoticed by any -earlier extant author, but worthy of his capacious mind, and otherwise also -bearing some characters of authenticity and truth. It was no less than to -unite all Greece under one great federal government, of which Athens should -be the capital. But the immediate and direct avowal of such a purpose would -be likely to raise jealousies so numerous and extensive as to form insuperable -obstacles to the execution. The religion of the nation was that alone in -which the Grecian people universally claimed a clear common interest; and -even in this every town and almost every family claimed something peculiar -to itself. In the vehemence of public alarm, during the Persian invasion, -vows had been, in some places, made to the gods for sacrifices, to an extent -beyond what the votaries, when blessed with deliverance beyond hope, were -able to perform; and some temples, destroyed by the invaders, were not yet -restored; probably because the means of those in whose territories they had -stood were deficient. Taking these circumstances then for his ground, -Pericles proposed that a congress of deputies from every republic of the -nation should be assembled at Athens, for the purpose first of inquiring concerning -vows for the safety of Greece yet unperformed, and temples, injured -by the barbarians, not yet restored; and then of proceeding to concert -measures for the lasting security of navigation in the Grecian seas, and for -the preservation of peace by land also between all the states composing the -Greek nation. The naval question, but still more the ruin which, in the -Persian invasion, had befallen northern Greece, and especially Attica, while -Peloponnesus had felt nothing of its evils, gave pretensions for Athens to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[437]</a></span> -take the lead in the business. On the motion of Pericles, a decree of the -Athenian people directed the appointment of ministers to invite every -Grecian state to send its deputies. Plutarch, rarely attentive to political -information, has not at all indicated what attention was shown, or what -participation proposed, for Lacedæmon. His prejudices indeed we find -very generally adverse to the Lacedæmonian government, and favouring the -Athenian democracy. But, judging from the friendship which, according -to the authentic information of Thucydides, subsisted between Pericles and -Archidamus, king of Lacedæmon, through life, it is little likely that, in -putting forward the project for the peace of Greece, Pericles would have -proposed anything derogatory to the just weight and dignity of Sparta; -which indeed would have been, with peace the pretence, only putting -forward a project of contest.</p> - -<p>Pericles, when he formed his coalition with Cimon, seems to have -entered heartily into the enlarged views of that great man; and, with the -hope that, through their coalition, both the oligarchical and the democratical -powers in Athens might be held justly balanced, had early in view to establish -the peace of Greece on a union between Athens and Lacedæmon. It is -however evident, from the narrative of Thucydides, that Archidamus rarely -could direct the measures of the Lacedæmonian government. On a view of -all information, then, it may seem probable that the project of Pericles was -concerted with Archidamus; and that the opposition of those in Lacedæmon, -of an adverse faction concurred with opposition from those in Athens, who -apprehended injury to their interests from a new coalition with the aristocratical -party, to compel the great projector to abandon his magnificent and -beneficent purpose.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_24f" id="enanchor_24f"></a><a href="#endnote_24f">f</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_45" id="Footnote_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> Plutarch tells a story—characteristic if not true—of a rude fellow who, after railing at -Pericles all day, as he was transacting business in public, followed him after dusk with abusive -language to his door, when Pericles ordered one of his servants to take a light, and conduct the -man home.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-24.jpg" width="500" height="200" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Ruins of Haliartus</span></p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[438]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-25.jpg" width="500" height="244" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XXV_ATHENS_AT_WAR">CHAPTER XXV. ATHENS AT WAR</h3> - -<p>Peace between Lacedæmon and Athens was indispensable towards the -quiet of the rest of the nation, but, in the want of such a union as Pericles -had projected, was unfortunately far from being insured; and, when war -began anywhere, though among the most distant settlements of the Grecian -people, how far it might extend was not to be foreseen. A dispute -between two Asiatic states of the Athenian confederacy led Athens into a -war which greatly endangered the truce made for thirty years, when it had -scarcely lasted six. Miletus and Samos, each claiming the sovereignty of -Priene, originally a free Grecian commonwealth, asserted their respective -pretensions by arms. The Milesians, not till they were suffering under -defeat, applied to Athens for redress, as of a flagrant injury done them. -The usual feuds within every Grecian state furnished assistance to their -clamour; for, the aristocracy prevailing at that time in Samos, the leaders -of the democratical party joined the enemies of their country in accusing -the proceedings of its government before the Athenian people.</p> - -<h4>THE SAMIAN WAR</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[440-439 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The opposition at Athens maliciously imputed the measures following to -the weak compliance of Pericles with the solicitations of Aspasia in favour of -her native city; but it appears clearly, from Thucydides, that no such motive -was needful: the Athenian government would of course take cognisance of -the cause; and, as might be expected, a requisition was sent to the Samian -administration to answer, by deputies at Athens, to the charges urged against -them. The Samians, unwilling to submit their claim to the arbitration of -those who they knew were always systematically adverse to the aristocratical -interest, refused to send deputies. A fleet of forty trireme galleys however -brought them to immediate submission; their government was changed to -a democracy, in which those who had headed the opposition of course took -the lead; and to insure permanent acquiescence from the aristocratical party, -fifty men and fifty boys, of the first families of the island, were taken as -hostages, and placed under an Athenian guard in the island of Lemnos.</p> - -<p>What Herodotus mentions, as an observation applicable generally, we -may readily believe was on this occasion experienced in Samos, “that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[439]</a></span> -lower people were most unpleasant associates to the nobles.” A number of -these, unable to support the oppression to which they found themselves -exposed, quitted the island, and applied to Pissuthnes, satrap of Sardis. -The project of conquering Greece by arms appears to have been abandoned -by the Persian government; but the urgency for constantly watching its -politics, and interfering, as occasion might offer, with a view to the safety, -if not to the extension, of the western border of the empire, was obvious; -and it appears that the western satraps were instructed accordingly. The -Samian refugees were favourably received by Pissuthnes. They corresponded -with many of their party yet remaining in the island, and they -engaged in their interest the city of Byzantium, itself a subject ally of -Athens. Collecting then about seven hundred auxiliary soldiers, they -crossed by night the narrow channel which separates Samos from the continent, -and, being joined by their friends, they surprised and overpowered -the new administration. Without delay they proceeded to Lemnos, and so -well conducted their enterprise that they carried off their hostages, together -with the Athenian guard set over them. To win then more effectually the -favour of the satrap, the Athenian prisoners were presented to him. Assured -of assistance from Byzantium, being also not without hopes from Lacedæmon, -they prepared to prosecute their success by immediately undertaking -an expedition against Miletus.</p> - -<p>Information of these transactions arriving quickly at Athens, Pericles, -with nine others, according to the ancient military constitution, joined with -him in command, hastened to Samos with a fleet of sixty trireme galleys. -Pericles met the Samian fleet and defeated it. He debarked his infantry on -the island of Samos, and laid siege to the city by land and sea.</p> - -<p>In the ninth month from the commencement of the siege, it capitulated: -the ships of war were surrendered, the fortifications were destroyed, the -Samians bound themselves to the payment of a sum of money by instalment -for the expenses of the war, and gave hostages as pledges of their fidelity -to the sovereign commonwealth of Athens. The Byzantines, not waiting the -approach of the coercing fleet, sent their request to be readmitted to their -former terms of subjection, which was granted.</p> - -<p>This rebellion, alarming and troublesome at the time to the administration -of Athens, otherwise little disturbed the internal peace of the commonwealth; -and, in the event, contributed rather to strengthen its command -over its dependencies. Pericles took occasion from it to acquire fresh popularity. -On the return of the armament to Athens the accustomed solemnities, -in honour of those who had fallen in the war, were performed with new -splendour; and, in speaking the funeral oration, he exerted the powers of -his eloquence very highly to the gratification of the people. As he descended -from the <i>bema</i>, the stand whence orations were delivered to the people, the -women presented him with chaplets; an idea derived from the ceremonies -of the public games, where the crowning with a chaplet was the distinction -of the victors, and, as something approaching to divine honour, was -held among the highest tokens of admiration, esteem, and respect.</p> - -<h4>THE WAR WITH CORCYRA</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[439-435 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The threatened renewal of general war in Greece having been obviated -by the determination of the Peloponnesian congress not to interfere between -the Athenians and their Asiatic allies, peace prevailed during the next three<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[440]</a></span> -years after the submission of the Samians; or, if hostilities occurred anywhere, -they were of so little importance that no account of them remains. -A fatal spark then, raising fire in a corner of the country hitherto little within -the notice of history, the blaze rapidly spread over the whole with inextinguishable -fury; insomuch that the further history of Greece, with some -splendid episodes, is chiefly a tale of calamities, which the nation, in ceaseless -exertions of misdirected valour and genius, brought upon itself.</p> - -<p>The island of Corcyra had been occupied, in an early age, by a colony -from Corinth. The political connection of colonies with the mother-country -will always depend upon their respective strength; and the Grecian colonies, -all having been the offspring of very small states, in many instances -acquired more than the parent’s force. Corcyra, already populous, had not -yet entirely broken its connection with Corinth, when the resolution was -taken by its government to settle a colony on the Illyrian coast. An embassy -was therefore sent, in due form, to desire a Corinthian for the leader. -Phaleus, of a family boasting its descent from Hercules, was accordingly -appointed to that honour: some Corinthians and others of Dorian race accompanied -him; and Phaleus thus became the nominal founder of Epidamnus, -which was however considered as a Corcyræan, not a Corinthian colony.</p> - -<p>But in process of time Epidamnus, growing populous and wealthy, -followed the example of its mother-country, asserted independency, and -maintained the claim. Like most other Grecian cities, it was then, during -many years, torn by sedition; and a war supervening with the neighbouring -barbarians, it fell much from its former flourishing state. But the -spirit of faction remaining in spite of misfortune untamed, the commonalty -at length expelled all the higher citizens. These, finding refuge among the -Illyrians, engaged with them in a predatory war, which was unremittingly -carried on against the city by land and sea. Unable thus to rest, and -almost to subsist, the Epidamnians in possession requested assistance from -Corcyra. This humble supplication however being rejected, they hastened -a deputation to Corinth.</p> - -<p>Fortunately for their object, though peace had not yet been broken, yet -animosity between Corinth and Corcyra had so risen that the Corcyræans, -who had long refused political dependency, now denied to the Corinthians all -those honours and compliments usually paid by Grecian colonies to their -parent states. Under stimulation thus from affront, and with encouragement -from the oracle, the prospect of an acquisition of dominion was too -tempting, and the proposal of the Epidamnians was accepted. But Corinth -had at this time only thirty ships of war, whereas Corcyra was able -to put to sea near four times the number; being, next to Athens, the most -powerful maritime state of Greece. Application for naval assistance was -therefore made to the republics with which Corinth was most bound in friendship, -and thus more than forty vessels were obtained. It had been the -settled policy of the Corcyræans, islanders and strong at sea, to engage in -no alliances. They had avoided both the Peloponnesian and the Athenian -confederacy; and hitherto with this policy they had prospered. But, -alarmed now at the combination formed against them, and fearing it might -still be extended, they sent ambassadors to Lacedæmon and Sicyon; who prevailed -so far that ministers from those two states accompanied them to -Corinth, as mediators in the existing differences. In presence of these the -Corcyræan ambassadors proposed to submit the matters in dispute to the -arbitration of any Peloponnesian states, or to the Delphian oracle, which -the Corinthians had supposed already favourable to them. The Corinthians<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[441]</a></span> -however, now prepared for war, and apparently persuaded that neither -Lacedæmon nor Sicyon would take any active part against them, refused -to treat upon any equal terms, and the Corcyræan ambassadors departed -(435 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>).</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[435-433 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The Corinthians then hastened to use the force they had collected. The -Corcyræans had manned those of their ships which were already equipped, -and hastily prepared some of those less in readiness, when their herald returned, -bearing no friendly answer. With eighty galleys then they quitted -their port, met the enemy off Actium, and gained a complete victory, destroying -fifteen ships. Returning to Corcyra, they erected their trophy on the -headland of Leucimme, and they immediately put to death all their prisoners, -except the Corinthians, whom, as pledges, they kept in bonds. Epidamnus -surrendered to their forces on the same day.</p> - -<p>The opportunities now open, for both revenge and profit, were not neglected -by the Corcyræans. During that year, unopposed on the sea, there -was scarcely an intermission of their smaller enterprises; by some of which -they gained booty, by others only gave alarm, but by all together greatly -distressed the Corinthians and their allies (434 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>).</p> - -<p>But since their misfortune off Actium the Corinthians had been unremittingly -assiduous in repairing their loss, and in preparing to revenge it. -Triremes were built, all necessaries for a fleet were largely collected, rowers -were engaged throughout Peloponnesus, and where else in any part of Greece -they could be obtained for hire. The Corcyræans, informed of these measures, -notwithstanding their past success were uneasy with the consideration -that their commonwealth stood single, while their enemies were members of -an extensive confederacy; of which, though a part only had yet been induced -to act, more powerful exertions were nevertheless to be apprehended. In -this state of things it appeared necessary to abandon their ancient policy, -and to seek alliances. Thucydides gives us to understand that they would -have preferred the Peloponnesian to the Athenian confederacy; induced, -apparently, both by their kindred origin, and their kindred form of government. -But they were precluded by the circumstances of the existing war, -Corinth being one of the most considerable members of the Peloponnesian -confederacy; and it was beyond hope that Lacedæmon could be engaged in -measures hostile to so old and useful an ally. It was therefore finally resolved -to send an embassy to Athens. As soon as the purpose of the Corcyræans -was known at Corinth, ambassadors were sent thence to Athens to -remonstrate against it.</p> - -<p>The Athenian people were assembled to receive the two embassies, each -of which, in presence of the other, made its proposition in a formal oration. -The point to be determined was highly critical for Athens. A truce existed, -but not a peace, with a confederacy inferior in naval force, but far superior -by land; and Attica, a continental territory, was open to attack by land. -But next to Athens Corcyra was the most powerful maritime republic; and -to prevent the accession of its strength, through alliance, or through conquest, -to the Peloponnesian confederacy, was, for the Athenian people, -highly important. In the articles of the truce moreover it was expressly -stipulated, that any Grecian state, not yet a member of either confederacy, -might at pleasure be admitted to either. But, notwithstanding this, it was -little less than certain that, in the present circumstances, an alliance with -Corcyra must lead to a rupture with the Peloponnesians; and this consideration -occasioned much suspense in the minds of the Athenians. Twice the -assembly was held to debate the question. On the first day, the arguments<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[442]</a></span> -of the Corinthian ambassadors had so far effect that nothing was decided: -on the second, the spirit of ambition, ordinary in democracy, prevailed, and -the question was carried for alliance with Corcyra.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[433 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Meanwhile the earnestness with which the Corinthians persevered in -their purpose of prosecuting war against the Corcyræans, now to be supported -by the power of Athens, appears to mark confidence in support, on -their side, from the Lacedæmonian confederacy; some members of which -indeed were evidently of ready zeal. The Corinthians increased their own -trireme galleys to ninety. The Eleans, resenting the burning of Cyllene, -had exerted themselves in naval preparation, and sent ten triremes completely -manned to join them. Assistance from Megara, Leucas, and Ambracia -made their whole fleet a hundred and fifty: the crews would hardly -be less than forty thousand men. With this large force they sailed to Chimerium, -a port of Thesprotia, over against Corcyra, where, according to the -practice of the Greeks, they formed their naval camp.</p> - -<p>The Athenian government meanwhile, desirous to confirm their new -alliance, yet still anxious to avoid a rupture with the Peloponnesian confederacy, -had sent ten triremes to Corcyra, under the command of Lacedæmonius, -son of Cimon; but with orders not to fight, unless a descent were made -on the island, or any of its towns were attacked. The Corcyræans, on -receiving intelligence that the enemy was approaching, put to sea with a -hundred and ten triremes, exclusive of the Athenian, and formed their naval -camp on one of the small islets called Sybota, the Sow-leas or Sow-pastures, -between their own island and the main. Their land-forces at the same time, -with a thousand auxiliaries from Zacynthus, encamped on the headland of -Leucimme in Corcyra, to be prepared against invasion; while on the opposite -coast of the continent the barbarians, long since friendly to Corinth, -assembled in large number. The Corinthians however, moving in the night, -perceived in the dawn the Corcyræan fleet approaching. Both prepared -immediately to engage.</p> - -<p>So great a number of ships had never before met in any action between -Greeks and Greeks. The onset was vigorous; and the battle was maintained, -on either side, with much courage but little skill. Both Corcyræan -and Corinthian ships were equipped in the ancient manner, very inartificially. -The decks were crowded with soldiers, some heavy-armed, some with missile -weapons; and the action, in the eye of the Athenians, trained in the discipline -of Themistocles, resembled a battle of infantry rather than a sea-fight. -Once engaged, the number and throng of the vessels made free motion -impossible: nor was there any attempt at the rapid evolution of the diecplus, -as it was called, for piercing the enemy’s line and dashing away his -oars, the great objects of the improved naval tactics; but the event -depended, as of old, chiefly upon the heavy-armed soldiers who fought on -the decks. Tumult and confusion thus prevailing everywhere, Lacedæmonius, -restrained by his orders from fighting, gave yet some assistance to the -Corcyræans, by showing himself wherever he saw them particularly pressed, -and alarming their enemies. The Corcyræans were, in the left of their line, -successful: twenty of their ships put to flight the Megarians and Ambracians -who were opposed to them, pursued to the shore, and, debarking, plundered -and burnt the naval camp. But the Corinthians, in the other wing, -had meanwhile been gaining an advantage which became decisive through -the imprudent forwardness of the victorious Corcyræans. The Athenians -now endeavoured, by more effectual assistance to their allies, to prevent -a total rout; but disorder was already too prevalent, and advantage of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[443]</a></span> -numbers too great against them. The Corinthians pressed their success; -the Corcyræans fled, the Athenians became mingled among them; and in the -confusion of a running fight acts of hostility passed between the Athenians -and Corinthians. The defeated however soon reached their own shore, -whither the conquerors did not think proper to follow.</p> - -<p>In the action several galleys had been sunk; most by the Corinthians, -but some by the victorious part of the Corcyræan fleet. The crews had -recourse, as usual, to their boats; and it was common for the conquerors, -when they could seize any of these, to take them in tow and make the men -prisoners: but the Corinthians, in the first moment of success, gave no quarter; -and, unaware of the disaster of the right of their fleet, in the hurry and -confusion of the occasion, not easily distinguishing between Greeks and -Greeks, inadvertently destroyed many of their unfortunate friends. When -pursuit ceased, and they had collected whatever could be recovered of the -wrecks and the dead, they carried them to a desert harbour, not distant, -on the Thesprotian coast, called, like the neighbouring islets, Sybota: and -depositing them under the care of their barbarian allies, who were there encamped, -they returned, on the afternoon of the same day, with the purpose -of renewing attack upon the Corcyræan fleet.</p> - -<p>The Corcyræans meanwhile had been considering the probable consequences -of leaving the enemy masters of the sea. They dreaded descents -upon their island, and consequent ravage of their lands. The return of -their victorious squadron gave them new spirits: Lacedæmonius encouraged -them with assurance that, since hostilities had already passed, he would no -longer scruple to afford them his utmost support; and they resolved upon -the bold measure of quitting their port and, though evening was already -approaching, again giving the enemy battle. Instantly they proceeded to -put this in execution. The pæan, the song of battle, was already sung, -when the Corinthians began suddenly to retreat. The Corcyræans were at -a loss immediately to account for this; but presently they discovered a -squadron coming round a headland, which had concealed it longer from them -than from the enemy. Still uncertain whether it might be friendly or hostile, -they also retreated into their port; but shortly, to their great joy, -twenty triremes under Glaucon and Andocides, sent from Attica, in the apprehension -that the small force under Lacedæmonius might be unequal to -the occurring exigencies, took their station by them.</p> - -<p>Next day the Corcyræans did not hesitate, with the thirty Athenian -ships, for none of those under Lacedæmonius had suffered materially in the -action, to show themselves off the harbour of Sybota, where the enemy lay, -and offer battle. The Corinthians came out of the harbour, formed for -action, and so rested. They were not desirous of risking an engagement -against the increased strength of the enemy, but they could not remain conveniently -in the station they had occupied, a desert shore, where they could -neither refit their injured ships, nor recruit their stock of provisions; and -they were encumbered with more than a thousand prisoners; a very inconvenient -addition to the crowded complements of their galleys. Their object -therefore was to return home: but they were apprehensive that the Athenians, -holding the truce as broken by the action of the preceding day, would -not allow an unmolested passage. It was therefore determined to try their -disposition by sending a small vessel with a message to the Athenian commanders, -without the formality of a herald. This was a service not without -danger. Those Corcyræans, who were near enough to observe what passed, -exclaimed, in the vehemence of their animosity, “that the bearers should be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[444]</a></span> -put to death;” which, considering them as enemies, would have been within -the law of war of the Greeks. The Athenian commanders however thought -proper to hold a different conduct. To the message delivered, which accused -them of breaking the truce, by obstructing the passage of Corcyra, they -replied that “it was not their purpose to break the truce, but only to protect -their allies. Wherever else the Corinthians chose to go, they might go -without interruption from them; but any attempt against Corcyra, or any -of its possessions, would be resisted by the Athenians to the utmost of their -power.”</p> - -<p>Upon receiving this answer, the Corinthians, after erecting a trophy at -Sybota on the continent, proceeded homeward. In their way they took by -stratagem Anactorium, a town at the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf, which -had formerly been held in common by their commonwealth and the Corcyræans; -and, leaving a garrison there, proceeded to Corinth. Of their -prisoners they found near eight hundred had been slaves, and these they -sold. The remainder, about two hundred and fifty, were strictly guarded, -but otherwise treated with the utmost kindness. Among them were some -of the first men of Corcyra; and through these the Corinthians hoped, at -some future opportunity, to recover their ancient interest and authority in -the island.</p> - -<p>The Corcyræans meanwhile had gratified themselves with the erection of -a trophy on the island Sybota, as a claim of victory, in opposition to the -Corinthian trophy on the continent. The Athenian fleet returned home; and -thus ended, without any treaty, that series of actions which is distinguished -among Greek writers by the name of the Corcyræan, or, sometimes, the Corinthian war.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_25b" id="enanchor_25b"></a><a href="#endnote_25b">b</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE WAR WITH POTIDÆA AND MACEDONIA</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[433-432 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The Corinthians had incurred an immense cost, and taxed all their willing -allies, only to leave their enemy stronger than she was before. From -this time forward they considered the Thirty Years’ Truce as broken, and -conceived a hatred, alike deadly and undisguised, against Athens; so that -the latter gained nothing by the moderation of her admirals in sparing the -Corinthian fleet off the coast of Epirus. An opportunity was not long -wanting for the Corinthians to strike a blow at their enemy, through one -of her widespread dependencies.</p> - -<p>On the isthmus of that lesser peninsula called Pallene, which forms the -westernmost of the three prongs of the greater Thracian peninsula called -Chalcidice, between the Thermaic and the Strymonic gulfs, was situated -the Dorian town of Potidæa, one of the tributary allies of Athens, but -originally colonised from Corinth, and still maintaining a certain metropolitan -allegiance towards the latter: insomuch that every year certain Corinthians -were sent thither as magistrates under the title of Epidemiurgi. On -various points of the neighbouring coast, also, there were several small -towns belonging to the Chalcidians and Bottiæans, enrolled in like manner -in the list of Athenian tributaries. The neighbouring inland territory, -Mygdonia and Chalcidice, was held by the Macedonian king, Perdiccas, -son of that Alexander who had taken part, fifty years before, in the expedition -of Xerxes. These two princes appear gradually to have extended their -dominions, after the ruin of Persian power in Thrace by the exertions of -Athens, until at length they acquired all the territory between the rivers -Axius and Strymon. Now Perdiccas had been for some time the friend and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[445]</a></span> -ally of Athens; but there were other Macedonian princes, his brother -Philip, and Derdas, holding independent principalities in the upper country, -apparently on the higher course of the Axius near the Pæonian tribes, with -whom he was in a state of dispute. These princes having been accepted as -the allies of Athens, Perdiccas from that time became her active enemy, and -it was from his intrigues that all the difficulties of Athens on that coast took -their first origin. The Athenian empire was much less complete and secure -over the seaports on the mainland than over the islands: for the former were -always more or less dependent on any powerful land-neighbour, sometimes -more dependent on him than upon the mistress of the sea; and we shall find -Athens herself cultivating assiduously the favour of Sitalces and other strong -Thracian potentates, as an aid to her dominion over the seaports. Perdiccas -immediately began to incite and aid the Chalcidians and Bottiæans to revolt -from Athens, and the violent enmity against the latter, kindled in the -bosoms of the Corinthians by the recent events at Corcyra, enabled him -to extend the same projects to Potidæa. Not only did he send envoys to -Corinth in order to concert measures for provoking the revolt of Potidæa, -but also to Sparta, instigating the Peloponnesian league to a general declaration -of war against Athens. And he further prevailed on many of the Chalcidian -inhabitants to abandon their separate small town on the seacoast, for -the purpose of joint residence at Olynthus, which was several stadia from the -sea. Thus that town, as well as the Chalcidian interest, became much -strengthened, while Perdiccas further assigned some territory near Lake -Bolbe to contribute to the temporary maintenance of the concentrated -population.</p> - -<p>The Athenians were not ignorant either of his hostile preparations or of -the dangers which awaited them from Corinth after the Corcyræan sea-fight -immediately after which they sent to take precautions against the revolt -of Potidæa; requiring the inhabitants to take down their wall on the side of -Pallene, so as to leave the town open on the side of the peninsula, or on what -may be called the sea-side, and fortified only towards the mainland—requiring -them further both to deliver hostages and to dismiss the annual magistrates -who came to them from Corinth. An Athenian armament of thirty -triremes and one thousand hoplites, under Archestratus and ten others, despatched -to act against Perdiccas in the Thermaic gulf, was directed at the -same time to enforce these requisitions against Potidæa, and to repress any -dispositions to revolt among the neighbouring Chalcidians. Immediately on -receiving the requisitions, the Potidæans sent envoys both to Athens, for the -purpose of evading and gaining time, and to Sparta, in conjunction with -Corinth, in order to determine a Lacedæmonian invasion of Attica, in the -event of Potidæa being attacked by Athens. From the Spartan authorities -they obtained a distinct affirmative promise, in spite of the Thirty Years’ Truce -still subsisting: at Athens they had no success, and they accordingly openly -revolted (seemingly about midsummer 432 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>), at the same time that the -armament under Archestratus sailed. The Chalcidians and Bottiæans revolted -also, at the express instigation of Corinth, accompanied by solemn oaths and -promises of assistance. Archestratus with his fleet, on reaching the Thermaic -gulf, found them all in proclaimed enmity, but was obliged to confine himself -to the attack of Perdiccas in Macedonia, not having numbers enough to -admit of a division of his force. He accordingly laid siege to Therma, in -co-operation with the Macedonian troops from the upper country, under -Philip and the brothers of Derdas; after taking that place, he next proceeded -to besiege Pydna. But it would probably have been wiser had he turned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[446]</a></span> -his whole force instantly to the blockade of Potidæa; for during the period -of more than six weeks that he spent in the operations against Therma, the -Corinthians conveyed to Potidæa a reinforcement of sixteen hundred hoplites -and four hundred light-armed, partly their own citizens, partly Peloponnesians, -hired for the occasion—under Aristeus, son of Adimantus, a -man of such eminent popularity, both at Corinth and at Potidæa, that most -of the soldiers volunteered on his personal account. Potidæa was thus put -in a state of complete defence shortly after the news of its revolt reached -Athens, and long before any second armament could be sent to attack it. A -second armament, however, was speedily sent forth—forty triremes and two -thousand Athenian hoplites under Callias, son of Calliades, with four other -commanders—who on reaching the Thermaic gulf, joined the former body -at the siege of Pydna. After prosecuting the siege in vain for a short time, -they found themselves obliged to patch up an accommodation on the best -terms they could with Perdiccas, from the necessity of commencing immediate -operations against Aristeus and Potidæa. They then quitted Macedonia, -first crossing by sea from Pydna to the eastern coast of the Thermaic -Gulf—next attacking, though without effect, the town of Berœa—and then -marching by land along the eastern coast of the gulf, in the direction of -Potidæa. On the third day of easy march, they reached the seaport called -Gigonus, near which they encamped.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[432 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>In spite of the convention concluded at Pydna, Perdiccas, whose character -for faithlessness we shall have more than one occasion to notice, was -now again on the side of the Chalcidians, and sent two hundred horse to -join them, under the command of Iolaus. Aristeus posted his Corinthians -and Potidæans on the isthmus near Potidæa, providing a market without the -walls, in order that they might not stray in quest of provisions. His position -was on the side towards Olynthus—which was about seven miles off, -but within sight, and in a lofty and conspicuous situation. He here awaited -the approach of the Athenians, calculating that the Chalcidians from Olynthus -would, upon the hoisting of a given signal, assail them in the rear when -they attacked him. But Callias was strong enough to place in reserve his -Macedonian cavalry and other allies as a check against Olynthus; while with -his Athenians and the main force he marched to the isthmus and took position -in front of Aristeus. In the battle which ensued, Aristeus and the -chosen band of Corinthians immediately about him were completely successful, -breaking the troops opposed to them, and pursuing for a considerable -distance; but the remaining Potidæans and Peloponnesians were routed by -the Athenians and driven within the walls. On returning from pursuit, -Aristeus found the victorious Athenians between him and Potidæa, and was -reduced to the alternative either of cutting his way through them into the -latter town, or of making a retreating march to Olynthus. He chose the -former as the least of two hazards, and forced his way through the flank of -the Athenians, wading into the sea in order to turn the extremity of the -Potidæan wall, which reached entirely across the isthmus with a mole running -out at each end into the water: he effected this daring enterprise and -saved his detachment, though not without considerable difficulty and some -loss. Meanwhile, the auxiliaries from Olynthus, though they had begun -their march on seeing the concerted signal, had been kept in check by the -Macedonian horse, so that the Potidæans had been beaten and the signal -again withdrawn, before they could make any effective diversion: nor did -the cavalry on either side come into action. The defeated Potidæans and -Corinthians, having the town immediately in their rear, lost only three<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[447]</a></span> -hundred men, while the Athenians lost one hundred and fifty, together with -the general, Callias.</p> - -<p>The victory was, however, quite complete, and the Athenians, after having -erected their trophy and given up the enemy’s dead for burial, immediately -built their blockading wall across the isthmus on the side of the -mainland, so as to cut off Potidæa from all communication with Olynthus and -the Chalcidians. To make the blockade complete, a second wall across the -isthmus was necessary, on the other side towards Pallene: but they had not -force enough to detach a completely separate body for this purpose, until -after some time they were joined by Phormion with sixteen hundred fresh -hoplites from Athens. That general, landing at Aphytis, in the peninsula -of Pallene, marched slowly up to Potidæa, ravaging the territory in order to -draw out the citizens to battle: but the challenge not being accepted, he -undertook, and finished without obstruction, the blockading wall on the side -of Pallene, so that the town was now completely enclosed and the harbour -watched by the Athenian fleet. The wall once finished, a portion of the -force sufficed to guard it, leaving Phormion at liberty to undertake aggressive -operations against the Chalcidic and Bottiæan townships. The capture of -Potidæa being now only a question of more or less time, Aristeus, in order that -the provisions might last longer, proposed to the citizens to choose a favourable -wind, get on shipboard, and break out suddenly from the harbour, taking -their chance of eluding the Athenian fleet, and leaving only five hundred -defenders behind. Though he offered himself to be among those left, he -could not determine the citizens to so bold an enterprise, and therefore sallied -forth, in the way proposed, with a small detachment, in order to try and procure -relief from without—especially some aid or diversion from Peloponnesus. -But he was able to accomplish nothing beyond some partial warlike -operations among the Chalcidians, and a successful ambuscade against the -citizens of Sermyla, which did nothing for the relief of the blockaded town: -it had, however, been so well provisioned that it held out for two whole -years—a period full of important events elsewhere.</p> - -<p>From these two contests between Athens and Corinth, first indirectly at -Corcyra, next distinctly and avowedly at Potidæa, sprang those important -movements in the Lacedæmonian alliance which will be recounted later.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_25c" id="enanchor_25c"></a><a href="#endnote_25c">c</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-25.jpg" width="500" height="274" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Terra-cotta Figure</span></p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[448]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-26.jpg" width="500" height="243" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XXVI_IMPERIAL_ATHENS_UNDER_PERICLES">CHAPTER XXVI. IMPERIAL ATHENS UNDER PERICLES</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Athens the stately-walled, magnificent!—<span class="smcap">Pindar.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="sidenote">[460-430 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The judicial alterations effected at Athens by Pericles and Ephialtes, -described in a preceding chapter, gave to a large proportion of the citizens -direct jury functions and an active interest in the constitution, such as they -had never before enjoyed; the change being at once a mark of previous -growth of democratical sentiment during the past, and a cause of its further -development during the future. The Athenian people were at this time -ready for any personal exertion. The naval service especially was prosecuted -with a degree of assiduity which brought about continual improvement in -skill and efficiency; while the poorer citizens, of whom it chiefly consisted, -were more exact in obedience and discipline than any of the more opulent -persons from whom the infantry or the cavalry were drawn. The maritime -multitude, in addition to self-confidence and courage, acquired by this -laborious training an increased skill, which placed the Athenian navy every -year more and more above the rest of Greece: and the perfection of this -force became the more indispensable as the Athenian empire was now again -confined to the sea and seaport towns; the reverses immediately preceding -the Thirty Years’ Truce having broken up all Athenian land ascendency over -Megara, Bœotia, and the other continental territories adjoining to Attica.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;"> -<img src="images/fp7.jpg" width="650" height="446" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">RESTORATION OF THE PARTHENON</p> -</div> - -<p>Instead of trying to cherish or restore the feelings of equal alliance, Pericles -formally disclaimed it. He maintained that Athens owed to her subject -allies no account of the money received from them, so long as she performed -her contract by keeping away the Persian enemy, and maintaining the safety -of the Ægean waters. This was, as he represented, the obligation which -Athens had undertaken; and provided it were faithfully discharged, the allies -had no right to ask questions or institute control. That it was faithfully -discharged no one could deny: no ship of war except those of Athens and -her allies was ever seen between the eastern and western shores of the -Ægean. An Athenian fleet of sixty triremes was kept on duty in these waters, -chiefly manned by Athenian citizens, and beneficial as well from the protection -afforded to commerce as for keeping the seamen in constant pay and -training. And such was the effective superintendence maintained, that in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[449]</a></span> -the disastrous period preceding the Thirty Years’ Truce, when Athens lost -Megara and Bœotia, and with difficulty recovered Eubœa, none of her numerous -maritime subjects took the opportunity to revolt.</p> - -<p>The total of these distinct tributary cities is said to have amounted to -one thousand, according to a verse of Aristophanes, which cannot be under -the truth, though it may well be, and probably is, greatly above the truth. -The total annual tribute collected at the beginning of the Peloponnesian -War, and probably also for the years preceding it, is given by Thucydides at -about six hundred talents [£120,000 or $600,000]. Of the sums paid by -particular states, however, we have little or no information. It was placed -under the superintendence of the Hellenotamiæ; originally officers of the -confederacy, but now removed from Delos to Athens, and acting altogether -as an Athenian treasury-board. The sum total of the Athenian revenue, -from all sources, including this tribute, at the beginning of the Peloponnesian -War is stated by Xenophon at one thousand talents: customs, harbour, -and market-dues, receipt from the silver mines at Laurium, rents of public -property, fines from judicial sentences, a tax per head upon slaves, the annual -payment made by each metic, etc., may have made up a larger sum than four -hundred talents; which sum, added to the six hundred talents from tribute, -would make the total named by Xenophon. But a verse of Aristophanes, -during the ninth year of the Peloponnesian War, <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> 422, gives the general -total of that time as “nearly two thousand talents”: this is in all probability -much above the truth, though we may reasonably imagine that the amount -of tribute money levied upon the allies had been augmented during the interval. -Whatever may have been the actual magnitude of the Athenian -budget, however, prior to the Peloponnesian War, we know that during the -larger part of the administration of Pericles, the revenue including tribute, -was so managed as to leave a large annual surplus; insomuch that a treasure -of coined money was accumulated in the Acropolis during the years preceding -the Peloponnesian War—which treasure when at its maximum reached the -great sum of ninety-seven hundred talents [£1,940,000 or $9,700,000], and -was still at six thousand talents, after a serious drain for various purposes, -at the moment when that war began. This system of public economy, constantly -laying by a considerable sum year after year—in which Athens stood -alone, since none of the Peloponnesian states had any public reserve whatever—goes -far of itself to vindicate Pericles from the charge of having wasted the -public money in mischievous distributions for the purpose of obtaining popularity; -and also to exonerate the Athenian demos from that reproach of a -greedy appetite for living by the public purse which it is common to advance -against them. After the death of Cimon, no further expeditions were -undertaken against the Persians, and even for some years before his death, -not much appears to have been done. The tribute money thus remained -unexpended, and kept in reserve, as the presidential duties of Athens prescribed, -against future attack, which might at any time be renewed.</p> - -<p>Though we do not know the exact amount of the other sources of Athenian -revenue, however, we know that tribute received from allies was the -largest item in it. And altogether the exercise of empire abroad became a -prominent feature in Athenian life, and a necessity to Athenian sentiment, -not less than democracy at home. Athens was no longer, as she had been -once, a single city, with Attica for her territory: she was a capital or imperial -city—a despot-city, was the expression used by her enemies, and even -sometimes by her own citizens—with many dependencies attached to her, -and bound to follow her orders. Such was the manner in which not merely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[450]</a></span> -Pericles and the other leading statesmen, but even the humblest Athenian -citizen, conceived the dignity of Athens; and the sentiment was one which -carried with it both personal pride and stimulus to patriotism.</p> - -<p>To establish Athenian interests in the dependent territories, was one important -object in the eyes of Pericles, and while he discountenanced all distant -and rash enterprises, such as invasion of Egypt or Cyprus, he planted out many -cleruchies and colonies of Athenian citizens intermingled with allies, on -islands and parts of the coast. He conducted one thousand citizens to the -Thracian Chersonese, five hundred to Naxos, and two hundred and fifty to -Andros. In the Chersonese, he further repelled the barbarous Thracian invaders -from without, and even undertook the labour of carrying a wall of -defence across the isthmus, which connected the peninsula with Thrace; -since the barbarous Thracian tribes, though expelled some time before by -Cimon, had still continued to renew their incursions from time to time. -Ever since the occupation of the elder Miltiades, about eighty years before, -there had been in this peninsula many Athenian proprietors, apparently -intermingled with half-civilised Thracians: the settlers now acquired both -greater numerical strength and better protection, though it does not appear -that the cross-wall was permanently maintained. The maritime expeditions -of Pericles even extended into the Euxine Sea, as far as the important Greek -city of Sinope, then governed by a despot named Timesileus, against whom -a large proportion of the citizens were in active discontent.</p> - -<p>Lamachus was left with thirteen Athenian triremes to assist in expelling -the despot, who was driven into exile with his friends: the properties of -these exiles were confiscated, and assigned to the maintenance of six hundred -Athenian citizens, admitted to equal fellowship and residence with the Sinopians. -We may presume that on this occasion Sinope became a member of -the Athenian tributary alliance, if it had not been so before: but we do not -know whether Cotyora and Trapezus, dependencies of Sinope further eastward, -which the ten thousand Greeks found on their retreat fifty years afterwards, -existed in the time of Pericles or not. Moreover, the numerous and -well-equipped Athenian fleet, under the command of Pericles, produced an -imposing effect upon the barbarous princes and tribes along the coast, contributing -certainly to the security of Grecian trade, and probably to the acquisition -of new dependent allies.</p> - -<p>It was by successive proceedings of this sort that many detachments of -Athenian citizens became settled in various portions of the maritime empire -of the city—some rich, investing their property in the islands as more secure -(from the incontestable superiority of Athens at sea) even than Attica, which -since the loss of the Megarid could not be guarded against a Peloponnesian -land invasion—others poor, and hiring themselves out as labourers. The -islands of Lemnos, Imbros, and Scyros, as well as the territory of Histiæa, on -the north of Eubœa, were completely occupied by Athenian proprietors and -citizens: other places were partially so occupied. And it was doubtless advantageous -to the islanders to associate themselves with Athenians in trading -enterprises, since they thereby obtained a better chance of the protection of -the Athenian fleet. It seems that Athens passed regulations occasionally for -the commerce of her dependent allies, as we see by the fact that, shortly -before the Peloponnesian War, she excluded the Megarians from all their -ports. The commercial relations between Piræus and the Ægean reached -their maximum during the interval immediately preceding the Peloponnesian -War. Nor were these relations confined to the country east and north of -Attica: they reached also the western regions. The most important settlements<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[451]</a></span> -founded by Athens during this period were, Amphipolis in Thrace and -Thurii in Italy. Amphipolis was planted by a colony of Athenians and -other Greeks, under the conduct of the Athenian Agnon, in 437 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> It -was situated near the river Strymon in Thrace, on the eastern bank, and at -the spot where the Strymon resumes its river-course after emerging from the -lake above.</p> - -<p>The colony of Thurii on the coast of the Gulf of Tarentum in Italy, near -the site and on the territory of the ancient Sybaris, was founded by Athens -about seven years earlier than Amphipolis, not long after the conclusion of -the Thirty Years’ Truce with Sparta, 443 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span></p> - -<p>The fourteen years between the Thirty Years’ Truce and the breaking out -of the Peloponnesian War, are a period of full maritime empire on the part of -Athens—partially indeed resisted, but never with success. They are a -period of peace with all cities extraneous to her own empire; and of splendid -decorations to the city itself, emanating from the genius of Phidias and -others, in sculpture as well as in architecture. Since the death of Cimon, -Pericles had become, gradually but entirely, the first citizen in the commonwealth. -His qualities told for more, the longer they were known, and even -the disastrous reverses which preceded the Thirty Years’ Truce had not overthrown -him, since he had protested against that expedition of Tolmides into -Bœotia out of which they first arose. But if the personal influence of Pericles -had increased, the party opposed to him seems also to have become -stronger than before; and to have acquired a leader in many respects more -effective than Cimon—Thucydides, son of Melesias.</p> - -<p>The new chief was a relative of Cimon, but of a character and talents -more analogous to those of Pericles: a statesman and orator rather than a -general, though competent to both functions if occasion demanded, as every -leading man in those days was required to be. Under Thucydides, the -political and parliamentary opposition against Pericles assumed a constant -character and organisation such as Cimon, with his exclusively military aptitudes, -had never been able to establish. The aristocratical party in the -commonwealth—the “honourable and respectable” citizens, as we find them -styled, adopting their own nomenclature—now imposed upon themselves -the obligation of undeviating regularity in their attendance on the public -assembly, sitting together in a particular section, so as to be conspicuously -parted from the demos. In this manner, their applause and dissent, their -mutual encouragement to each other, their distribution of parts to different -speakers, was made more conducive to the party purposes than it had been -before when these distinguished persons were intermingled with the mass of -citizens. Thucydides himself was eminent as a speaker, inferior only to -Pericles—perhaps hardly inferior even to him.</p> - -<p>Such an opposition made to Pericles, in all the full license which a -democratical constitution permitted, must have been both efficient and embarrassing. -But the pointed severance of the aristocratical chiefs, which -Thucydides, son of Melesias, introduced, contributed probably at once to -rally the democratical majority round Pericles, and to exasperate the bitterness -of party conflict. As far as we can make out the grounds of the opposition, -it turned partly upon the pacific policy of Pericles towards the Persians, -partly upon his expenditure for home ornament. Thucydides contended -that Athens was disgraced in the eyes of the Greeks by having drawn the -confederate treasure from Delos to her own Acropolis, under pretence of -greater security—and then employing it, not in prosecuting war against -the Persians, but in beautifying Athens by new temples and costly statues.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[452]</a></span> -To this Pericles replied that Athens had undertaken the obligation, in consideration -of the tribute-money, to protect her allies and keep off from them -every foreign enemy,—that she had accomplished this object completely at -the present, and retained a reserve sufficient to guarantee the like security -for the future,—that under such circumstances she owed no account to her -allies of the expenditure of the surplus, but was at liberty to employ it for -purposes useful and honourable to the city. In this point of view it was an -object of great public importance to render Athens imposing in the eyes -both of the allies and of Hellas generally, by improved fortifications,—by -accumulated embellishment, sculptural and architectural,—and by religious -festivals, frequent, splendid, musical, and poetical.</p> - -<p>Such was the answer made by Pericles in defence of his policy against -the opposition headed by Thucydides. And considering the ground of the -debate on both sides, the answer was perfectly satisfactory. For when we -look at the very large sum which Pericles continually kept in reserve in the -treasury, no one could reasonably complain that his expenditure for ornamental -purposes was carried so far as to encroach upon the exigencies of defence. -What Thucydides and his partisans appear to have urged, was that -this common fund should still continue to be spent in aggressive warfare -against the Persian king, in Egypt and elsewhere—conformably to the projects -pursued by Cimon during his life. But Pericles was right in contending -that such outlay would have been simply wasteful; of no use either to -Athens or her allies, though risking all the chances of distant defeat, such -as had been experienced a few years before in Egypt.</p> - -<p>So bitter however was the opposition made by Thucydides and his party -to this projected expenditure—so violent and pointed did the scission of -aristocrats and democrats become—that the dispute came after no long -time to that ultimate appeal which the Athenian constitution provided for -the case of two opposite and nearly equal party-leaders—a vote of ostracism. -Of the particular details which preceded this ostracism, we are not -informed; but we see clearly that the general position was such as the ostracism -was intended to meet. Probably the vote was proposed by the -party of Thucydides, in order to procure the banishment of Pericles, the -more powerful person of the two and the most likely to excite popular jealousy. -The challenge was accepted by Pericles and his friends, and the -result of the voting was such that an adequate legal majority condemned -Thucydides to ostracism. And it seems that the majority must have been -very decisive, for the party of Thucydides was completely broken by it: -and we hear of no other single individual equally formidable, as a leader of -opposition, throughout all the remaining life of Pericles.</p> - -<p>The ostracism of Thucydides apparently took place about two years after -the conclusion of the Thirty Years’ Truce (443-442 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>), and it is to the -period immediately following, that the great Periclean works belong. The -southern wall of the Acropolis had been built out of the spoils brought by -Cimon from his Persian expeditions; but the third of the Long Walls connecting -Athens with the harbour was the proposition of Pericles, at what -precise time we do not know. The Long Walls originally completed (not -long after the battle of Tanagra, as has already been stated) were two, one -from Athens to Piræus, another from Athens to Phalerum: the space between -them was broad, and if in the hands of an enemy, the communication with -Piræus would be interrupted. Accordingly, Pericles now induced the people -to construct a third or intermediate wall, running parallel with the first wall -to Piræus, and within a short distance (seemingly near one furlong) from it:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[453]</a></span> -so that the communication between the city and the port was placed beyond -all possible interruption, even assuming an enemy to have got within the -Phaleric wall. It was seemingly about this time, too, that the splendid docks -and arsenal in Piræus, alleged by Isocrates to have cost one thousand talents -[£200,000 or $1,000,000] were constructed; while the town itself of Piræus -was laid out anew with straight streets intersecting at right angles. Apparently -this was something new in Greece—the towns generally, and Athens -itself in particular, having been built without any symmetry, or width, or -continuity of streets: and Hippodamus the Milesian, a man of considerable -attainments in the physical philosophy of the age, derived much renown as -the earliest town architect, for having laid out the Piræus on a regular plan. -The market-place, or one of them at least, permanently bore his name—the -Hippodamian agora. At a time when so many great architects were displaying -their genius in the construction of temples, we are not surprised to -hear that the structure of towns began to be regularised also. Moreover we -are told that the new colonial town of Thurii, to which Hippodamus went as -a settler, was also constructed in the same systematic form as to straight and -wide streets.</p> - -<p>The new scheme upon which the Piræus was laid out, was not without its -value as one visible proof of the naval grandeur of Athens. But the buildings -in Athens and on the Acropolis formed the real glory of the Periclean age. -A new theatre, termed the Odeon, was constructed for musical and poetical -representations at the great Panathenaic solemnity; next, the splendid temple -of Athene, called the Parthenon, with all its masterpieces of decorative sculpture, -friezes, and reliefs; lastly, the costly portals erected to adorn the entrance -of the Acropolis, on the western side of the hill, through which the solemn -processions on festival days were conducted. It appears that the Odeon and -the Parthenon were both finished between 445 and 437 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>: the Propylæa -somewhat later, between 437 and 431 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, in which latter year the Peloponnesian -War began. Progress was also made in restoring or reconstructing -the Erechtheion, or ancient temple of Athene Polias, the patron goddess of -the city—which had been burnt in the invasion of Xerxes. But the breaking -out of the Peloponnesian War seems to have prevented the completion of -this, as well as of the great temple of Demeter, at Eleusis, for the celebration -of the Eleusinian mysteries—that of Athene, at Sunium—and that of -Nemesis at Rhamnus. Nor was the sculpture less memorable than the -architecture; three statues of Athene, all by the hand of Phidias, decorated -the Acropolis, one colossal, forty-seven feet high, of ivory, in the -Parthenon, a second of bronze, called the Lemnian Athene, a third of colossal -magnitude, also in bronze, called Athene Promachos, placed between the -Propylæa, and the Parthenon, and visible from afar off, even to the navigator -approaching Piræus by sea.</p> - -<p>It is not, of course, to Pericles that the renown of these splendid productions -of art belongs; but the great sculptors and architects, by whom they -were conceived and executed, belonged to that same period of expanding -and stimulating Athenian democracy, which likewise called forth creative -genius in oratory, in dramatic poetry, and in philosophical speculation.</p> - -<p>Considering these prodigious achievements in the field of art only as -they bear upon Athenian and Grecian history, they are phenomena of -extraordinary importance. When we learn the profound impression which -they produced upon Grecian spectators of a later age, we may judge how -immense was the effect upon that generation which saw them both begun -and finished. In the year 480 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, Athens was ruined by the occupation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[454]</a></span> -of Xerxes: since that period, the Greeks had seen, first, the rebuilding and -fortifying of the city on an enlarged scale; next, the addition of Piræus -with its docks and magazines; thirdly, the junction of the two by the Long -Walls, thus including the most numerous concentrated population, wealth, -arms, ships, etc., in Greece; lastly, the rapid creation of so many new miracles -of art—the sculptures of Phidias as well as the paintings of the Thasian -painter Polygnotus, in the temple of Theseus, and in the portico called -Pœcile.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_26b" id="enanchor_26b"></a><a href="#endnote_26b">b</a></span></p> - -<p>Plutarch says: “That which was the chief delight of the Athenians and -the wonder of strangers, and which alone serves for a proof that the boasted -power and opulence of ancient Greece is not an idle tale, was the magnificence -of the temples and public edifices. Works were raised of an -astonishing magnitude, and inimitable beauty and perfection, every architect -striving to surpass the magnificence of the design with the elegance of the -execution; yet still the most wonderful circumstance was the expedition -with which they were completed. Phidias was appointed by Pericles superintendent -of all the public edifices.”<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_26f" id="enanchor_26f"></a><!-- letter not in references list for this chapter -->f</span></p> - -<p>It thus appears that the gigantic strides by which Athens had reached -her maritime empire were now immediately succeeded by a series of works -which stamped her as the imperial city of Greece, gave to her an appearance -of power even greater than the reality, and especially put to shame the -old-fashioned simplicity of Sparta. The cost was doubtless prodigious, and -could only have been borne at a time when there was a large treasure in -the Acropolis, as well as a considerable tribute annually coming in: if we -may trust a computation which seems to rest on plausible grounds, it cannot -have been much less than three thousand talents in the aggregate [£600,000 -or $3,000,000].</p> - -<p>The expenditure of so large a sum was, of course, a source of revenue -and of great private gain to all manner of contractors, tradesmen, merchants, -artisans of various descriptions, etc., concerned in it: in one way or -another, it distributed itself over a large portion of the whole city. And it -appears that the materials employed for much of the work were designedly -of the most costly description, as being most consistent with the reverence -due to the gods: marble was rejected as too common for the statue of -Athene, and ivory employed in its place; while the gold with which it was -surrounded weighed not less than forty talents [£8000 or $40,000]. A -large expenditure for such purposes, considered as pious towards the gods, -was at the same time imposing in reference to Grecian feeling, which regarded -with admiration every variety of public show and magnificence, and -repaid with grateful deference the rich men who indulged in it. Pericles -knew well that the visible splendour of the city, so new to all his contemporaries, -would cause her great power to appear greater still, and would thus -procure for her a real, though unacknowledged influence—perhaps even an -ascendency—over all cities of the Grecian name. And it is certain that -even among those who most hated and feared her, at the outbreak of the -Peloponnesian War, there prevailed a powerful sentiment of involuntary -deference.</p> - -<h4>JUDICIAL REFORMS OF PERICLES</h4> - -<p>Before Ephialtes advanced his main proposition for abridging the competence -of the senate of Areopagus, he appears to have been strenuous -in repressing the practical abuse of magisterial authority, by accusations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[455]</a></span> -brought against the magistrates at the period of their regular accountability. -After repeated efforts to check the practical abuse of these magisterial -powers, Ephialtes and Pericles were at last conducted to the proposition of -cutting them down permanently, and introducing an altered system.</p> - -<p>It was now that Pericles and Ephialtes carried their important scheme -of judicial reform. The senate of Areopagus was deprived of its discretionary -censorial power, as well as of all its judicial competence, except that -which related to homicide. The individual magistrates, as well as the -senate of Five Hundred, were also stripped of their judicial attributes (except -the power of imposing a small fine), which were transferred to the newly -created panels of salaried dicasts, lotted off in ten divisions from the aggregate -Heliæa. Ephialtes first brought down the laws of Solon from the -Acropolis to the neighbourhood of the market-place, where the dicasteries sat—a -visible proof that the judicature was now popularised.</p> - -<p>In the representation of many authors, the full bearing of this great -constitutional change is very inadequately conceived. What we are commonly -told is, that Pericles was the first to assign a salary to these numerous -dicasteries at Athens. He bribed the people with the public money (says -Plutarch), in order to make head against Cimon, who bribed them out of his -own private purse; as if the pay were the main feature in the case, and as -if all which Pericles did was, to make himself popular by paying the dicasts -for judicial service which they had before rendered gratuitously. The truth -is, that this numerous army of dicasts, distributed into ten regiments and -summoned to act systematically throughout the year, was now for the first -time organised: the commencement of their pay is also the commencement -of their regular judicial action. What Pericles really did was, to sever for -the first time from the administrative competence of the magistrates that -judicial authority which had originally gone along with it. The great men -who had been accustomed to hold these offices were lowered both in influence -and authority: while on the other hand a new life, habit, and sense of power, -sprung up among the poorer citizens. A plaintiff having cause of civil action, -or an accuser invoking punishment against citizens guilty of injury either to -himself or to the state, had still to address himself to one or other of the -archons, but it was only with a view of ultimately arriving before the dicastery -by whom the cause was to be tried.</p> - -<p>While the magistrates individually were thus restricted to simple administration, -they experienced still more serious loss of power in their capacity of -members of the Areopagus, after the year of archonship was expired. Instead -of their previous unmeasured range of supervision and interference, they were -now deprived of all judicial sanction beyond that small power of fining which -was still left both to individual magistrates, and to the senate of Five Hundred. -But the cognisance of homicide was still expressly reserved to them—for the -procedure, in this latter case religious not less than judicial, was so thoroughly -consecrated by ancient feeling, that no reformer could venture to disturb or -remove it.</p> - -<p>It was upon this same ground probably that the stationary party defended -all the prerogatives of the senate of Areopagus—denouncing the curtailments -proposed by Ephialtes as impious and guilty innovations. How -extreme their resentment became, when these reforms were carried,—and -how fierce was the collision of political parties at this moment,—we may -judge by the result. The enemies of Ephialtes caused him to be privately -assassinated, by the hand of a Bœotian of Tanagra named Aristodicus. Such -a crime—rare in the political annals of Athens, for we come to no known<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[456]</a></span> -instance of it afterwards until the oligarchy of the Four Hundred in 411 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>—marks -at once the gravity of the change now introduced, the fierceness of -the opposition offered, and the unscrupulous character of the conservative -party. Cimon was in exile and had no share in the deed. Doubtless the -assassination of Ephialtes produced an effect unfavourable in every way to -the party who procured it. The popular party in their resentment must have -become still more attached to the judicial reforms just assured to them, while -the hands of Pericles, the superior leader left behind and now acting singly, -must have been materially strengthened.</p> - -<p>It is from this point that the administration of that great man may be said -to date: he was now the leading adviser (we might almost say Prime Minister) -of the Athenian people. His first years were marked by a series of brilliant -successes—already mentioned—the acquisition of Megara as an ally, and -the victorious war against Corinth and Ægina. But when he proposed the -great and valuable improvement of the Long Walls, thus making one city -of Athens and Piræus, the same oligarchical party, which had opposed his -judicial changes and assassinated Ephialtes, again stood forward in vehement -resistance. Finding direct opposition unavailing, they did not scruple to -enter into treasonable correspondence with Sparta—invoking the aid of a -foreign force for the overthrow of the democracy: so odious had it become -in their eyes, since the recent innovations. How serious was the hazard -incurred by Athens, near the time of the battle of Tanagra, has been already -recounted; together with the rapid and unexpected reconciliation of parties -after that battle, principally owing to the generous patriotism of Cimon and -his immediate friends. Cimon was restored from ostracism on this occasion, -before his full time had expired; while the rivalry between him and Pericles -henceforward becomes mitigated, or even converted into a compromise, -whereby the internal affairs of the city were left to the one, and the conduct -of foreign expeditions to the other. The successes of Athens during the -ensuing ten years were more brilliant than ever, and she attained the maximum -of her power: which doubtless had a material effect in imparting -stability to the democracy as well as to the administration of Pericles—and -enabled both the one and the other to stand the shock of those great public -reverses, which deprived the Athenians of their dependent landed alliances, -in the interval between the defeat of Coronea and the Thirty Years’ Truce.</p> - -<p>Along with the important judicial revolution brought about by Pericles, -were introduced other changes belonging to the same scheme and system.</p> - -<p>Thus a general power of supervision both over the magistrates and over -the public assembly, was vested in seven magistrates, now named for the -first time, called nomophylaces, or law-guardians, and doubtless changed -every year. These nomophylaces sat alongside of the Proedri or presidents -both in the senate and in the public assembly, and were charged with the duty -of interposing whenever any step was taken or any proposition made contrary -to the existing laws: they were also empowered to constrain the magistrates -to act according to law.</p> - -<p>Another important change, which we may with probability refer to Pericles, -is the institution of the <i>nomothetæ</i>. These men were in point of fact -dicasts, members of the six thousand citizens annually sworn in that capacity. -But they were not, like the dicasts for trying causes, distributed into panels or -regiments known by a particular letter and acting together throughout the -entire year: they were lotted off to sit together only on special occasion and -as the necessity arose. According to the reform now introduced, the ecclesia -or public assembly, even with the sanction of the senate of Five Hundred,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[457]</a></span> -became incompetent either to pass a new law or to repeal a law already in -existence; it could only enact a psephism—that is, properly speaking, a decree -applicable only to a particular case; though the word was used at Athens in -a very large sense, sometimes comprehending decrees of general as well as -permanent application. In reference to laws, a peculiar judicial procedure -was established. The <i>thesmothetæ</i> were directed annually to examine the -existing laws, noting any contradictions or double laws on the same matter; -and in the first prytany (tenth part) of the Attic year, on the eleventh day, -an ecclesia was held, in which the first business was to go through the laws -<i>seriatim</i>, and submit them for approval or rejection; first beginning with the -laws relating to the senate, next coming to those of more general import, -especially such as determined the functions and competence of the magistrates. -If any law was condemned by the vote of the public assembly, or if -any citizen had a new law to propose, the third assembly of the prytany was -employed, previous to any other business, in the appointment of nomothetæ -and in the provision of means to pay their salary.</p> - -<p>The effect of this institution was to place the making or repealing of -laws under the same solemnities and guarantees as the trying of causes or -accusations in judicature.</p> - -<p>As an additional security both to the public assembly and the nomothetæ -against being entrapped into decisions contrary to existing law, another -remarkable provision has yet to be mentioned—a provision probably introduced -by Pericles at the same time as the formalities of law-making by means -of specially delegated nomothetæ. This was the <i>Graphe Paranomon</i>—indictment -for informality or illegality—which might be brought on certain -grounds against the proposer of any law or any psephism, and rendered him -liable to punishment by the dicastery. He was required in bringing forward -his new measure to take care that it should not be in contradiction with any -pre-existing law—or if there were any such contradiction, to give formal -notice of it, to propose the repeal of that which existed, and to write up publicly -beforehand what his proposition was—in order that there might never -be two contradictory laws at the same time in operation, nor any illegal -decree passed either by the senate or by the public assembly. If he neglected -this precaution, he was liable to prosecution under the Graphe Paranomon, -which any Athenian citizen might bring against him before the dicastery, -through the intervention and under the presidency of the thesmothetæ.</p> - -<p>That this indictment, as one of the most direct vents for such enmity, -was largely applied and abused at Athens, is certain. But though it probably -deterred unpractised citizens from originating new propositions, it did -not produce the same effect upon those orators who made politics a regular -business, and who could therefore both calculate the temper of the people, -and reckon upon support from a certain knot of friends. Aristophon, towards -the close of his political life, made it a boast that he had been thus -indicted and acquitted seventy-five times. Probably the worst effect which -it produced was that of encouraging the vein of personality and bitterness -which pervades so large a proportion of Attic oratory, even in its most illustrious -manifestations; turning deliberative into judicial eloquence, and interweaving -the discussion of a law or decree along with a declamatory harangue -against the character of its mover. We may at the same time add that the -Graphe Paranomon was often the most convenient way of getting a law or -a psephism repealed, so that it was used even when the annual period had -passed over, and when the mover was therefore out of danger, the indictment -being then brought only against the law or decree.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[458]</a></span></p> - -<p>Such were the great constitutional innovations of Pericles and Ephialtes,—changes -full of practical results,—the transformation, as well as the complement, -of that democratical system which Clisthenes had begun and to -which the tide of Athenian feeling had been gradually mounting up during -the preceding twenty years. The entire force of these changes is generally -not perceived, because the popular dicasteries and the nomothetæ are so often -represented as institutions of Solon, and as merely supplied with pay by -Pericles. This erroneous supposition prevents all clear view of the growth -of the Athenian democracy by throwing back its last elaborations to the -period of its early and imperfect start. To strip the magistrates of all their -judicial power, except that of imposing a small fine, and the Areopagus of all -its jurisdiction except in cases of homicide—providing popular, numerous, -and salaried dicasts to decide all the judicial business at Athens as well as to -repeal and enact laws—this was the consummation of the Athenian democracy. -No serious constitutional alteration (excepting the temporary interruptions -of the Four Hundred and the Thirty) was afterwards made until the -days of Macedonian interference. As Pericles made it, so it remained in the -days of Demosthenes—though with a sensible change in the character, and -abatement in the energies, of the people, rich as well as poor.</p> - -<p>In appreciating the practical working of these numerous dicasteries at -Athens, in comparison with such justice as might have been expected from -individual magistrates, we have to consider: first, that personal and pecuniary -corruption seems to have been a common vice among the leading men -of Athens and Sparta, when acting individually or in boards of a few members, -and not uncommon even with the kings of Sparta; next, that in the -Grecian cities generally, as we know even from the oligarchical Xenophon -(he particularly excepts Sparta), the rich and great men were not only insubordinate -to the magistrates, but made a parade of showing that they -cared nothing about them. We know also from the same unsuspected -source, that while the poorer Athenian citizens who served on shipboard -were distinguished for the strictest discipline, the hoplites or middling burghers -who formed the infantry were less obedient, and the rich citizens who -served on horseback the most disobedient of all.</p> - -<p>To make rich criminals amenable to justice has been found so difficult -everywhere, until a recent period of history, that we should be surprised -if it were otherwise in Greece. When we follow the reckless demeanour of -rich men like Critias, Alcibiades, and Midias, even under the full-grown -democracy of Athens, we may be sure that their predecessors under the -Clisthenean constitution would have been often too formidable to be punished -or kept down by an individual archon of ordinary firmness, even -assuming him to be upright and well-intentioned. Now the dicasteries -established by Pericles were inaccessible both to corruption and intimidation: -their number, their secret suffrage, and the impossibility of knowing -beforehand what individuals would sit in any particular cause, prevented -both the one and the other. And besides that the magnitude of their number, -extravagant according to our ideas of judicial business, was essential to -this tutelary effect—it served further to render the trial solemn and the -verdict imposing on the minds of parties and spectators, as we may see by the -fact that, in important causes the dicastery was doubled or tripled. Nor -was it possible by any other means than numbers to give dignity to an assembly -of citizens, of whom many were poor, some old, and all were despised -individually by rich accused persons who were brought before them—as -Aristophanes and Xenophon give us plainly to understand. If we except<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[459]</a></span> -the strict and peculiar educational discipline of Sparta, these numerous -dicasteries afforded the only organ which Grecian politics could devise, for -getting redress against powerful criminals, public as well as private, and for -obtaining a sincere and uncorrupt verdict.</p> - -<p>Taking the general working of the dicasteries, we shall find that they are -nothing but jury-trial applied on a scale broad, systematic, unaided, and -uncontrolled, beyond all other historical experience—and that they therefore -exhibit in exaggerated proportions both the excellences and the -defects characteristic of the jury system, as compared with decision by -trained and professional judges. All the encomiums, which it is customary -to pronounce upon jury-trial, will be found predicable of the Athenian dicasteries -in a still greater degree; all the reproaches, which can be addressed -on good ground to the dicasteries, will apply to modern juries also, though -in a less degree.</p> - -<h4>RHETORS AND SOPHISTS</h4> - -<p>The first establishment of the dicasteries is nearly coincident with the -great improvement of Attic tragedy in passing from Æschylus to Sophocles. -The same development of the national genius, now preparing splendid -manifestations both in tragic and comic poetry, was called with redoubled -force into the path of oratory, by the new judicial system. A certain power -of speech now became necessary, not merely for those who intended to take -a prominent part in politics, but also for private citizens to vindicate their -rights or repel accusations, in a court of justice. It was an accomplishment -of the greatest practical utility, even apart from ambitious purposes; hardly -less so than the use of arms or the practice of the gymnasium. Accordingly, -the teachers of grammar and rhetoric, and the composers of written speeches -to be delivered by others, now began to multiply and to acquire an unprecedented -importance—as well at Athens as under the contemporary democracy -of Syracuse, in which also some form of popular judicature was established. -Style and speech began to be reduced to a system, and so communicated; -not always happily, for several of the early rhetors adopted an artificial, -ornate, and conceited manner, from which Attic good taste afterwards liberated -itself. But the very character of a teacher of rhetoric as an art—a -man giving precepts and putting himself forward in show-lectures as a -model for others, is a feature first belonging to the Periclean age, and indicates -a new demand in the minds of the citizens.</p> - -<p>We begin to hear, in the generation now growing up, of the rhetor and the -sophist, as persons of influence and celebrity. These two names denoted -persons of similar moral and intellectual endowments, or often indeed the -same person, considered in different points of view; either as professing -to improve the moral character, or as communicating power and facility of -expression, or as suggesting premises for persuasion, illustrations on the -commonplaces of morals and politics, argumentative abundance on matters -of ordinary experience, dialectical subtlety in confuting an opponent, etc. -Antiphon of the deme Rhamnus in Attica, Thrasymachus of Chalcedon, -Tisias of Syracuse, Gorgias of Leontini, Protagoras of Abdera, Prodicus of -Ceos, Theodorus of Byzantium, Hippias of Elis, Zeno of Elea, were among -the first who distinguished themselves in these departments of teaching. -Antiphon was the author of the earliest composed speech really spoken in a -dicastery and preserved down to the later critics. These men were mostly not -citizens of Athens, though many of them belonged to towns comprehended<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[460]</a></span> -in the Athenian empire, at a time when important judicial causes belonging -to these towns were often carried up to be tried at Athens—while all of -them looked to that city as a central point of action and distinction. The -term “sophist,” which Herodotus applies with sincere respect to men of distinguished -wisdom such as Solon, Anacharsis, Pythagoras, etc., now came -to be applied to these teachers of virtue, rhetoric, conversation, and disputation; -many of whom professed acquaintance with the whole circle of human -science, physical as well as moral (then narrow enough), so far as was necessary -to talk about any portion of it plausibly, and to answer any question -proposed to them.</p> - -<p>Though they passed from one town to another, partly in the capacity of -envoys from their fellow-citizens, partly as exhibiting their talents to numerous -hearers, with much renown and large gain—they appear to have been -viewed with jealousy and dislike by a large portion of the public. For at -a time when every citizen pleaded his own cause before the dicastery, they -imparted, to those who were rich enough to purchase it, a peculiar skill in -the common weapons, which made them like fencing-masters or professional -swordsmen amidst a society of untrained duellists. Moreover Socrates—himself -a product of the same age, a disputant on the same subjects, and -bearing the same name of a sophist—but despising political and judicial -practice, and looking to the production of intellectual stimulus and moral -impressions upon his hearers—Socrates or rather Plato, speaking through -the person of Socrates—carried on throughout his life a constant polemical -warfare against the sophists and rhetors in that negative vein in which he -was unrivalled. And as the works of these latter have not remained, it is -chiefly from the observations of their opponents that we know them; so that -they are in a situation such as that in which Socrates himself would have -been if we had been compelled to judge of him only from the <i>Clouds</i> of Aristophanes, -or from those unfavourable impressions respecting his character -which we know, even from the <i>Apologia</i> of Plato and Xenophon, to have -been generally prevalent at Athens.</p> - -<p>This is not the opportunity, however, for trying to distinguish the good -from the evil in the working of the sophists and rhetors. At present it is -enough that they were the natural product of the age; supplying those wants, -and answering to that stimulus, which arose partly from the deliberations of -the ecclesia, but still more from the contentions before the dicastery—in -which latter a far greater number of citizens took active part, with or without -their own consent. The public and frequent dicasteries constituted by -Pericles opened to the Athenian mind precisely that career of improvement -which was best suited to its natural aptitude. They were essential to the -development of that demand out of which grew not only Grecian oratory, -but also, as secondary products, the speculative moral and political philosophy, -and the didactic analysis of rhetoric and grammar, which long survived -after Grecian creative genius had passed away. And it was one of the first -measures of the oligarchy of Thirty, to forbid by an express law, any teaching -of the art of speaking. Aristophanes derides the Athenians for their -love of talk and controversy, as if it had enfeebled their military energy; -but in his time, most undoubtedly, that reproach was not true—nor did it -become true, even in part, until the crushing misfortunes which marked the -close of the Peloponnesian War. During the course of that war, restless -and energetic action was the characteristic of Athens even in a greater degree -than oratory or political discussion, though before the time of Demosthenes -a material alteration had taken place.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[461]</a></span></p> - -<p>The establishment of these paid dicasteries at Athens was thus one of -the most important and prolific events in all Grecian history. The pay -helped to furnish a maintenance for old citizens, past the age of military service. -Elderly men were the best persons for such a service, and were preferred -for judicial purposes both at Sparta and, as it seems, in heroic Greece. -Nevertheless, we need not suppose that all the dicasts were either old or -poor, though a considerable proportion of them were so, and though Aristophanes -selects these qualities as among the most suitable subjects for his -ridicule. Pericles has been often censured for this institution, as if he had -been the first to insure pay to dicasts who before served for nothing, and -had thus introduced poor citizens into courts previously composed of citizens -above poverty. But in the first place, this supposition is not correct -in point of fact, inasmuch as there were no such constant dicasteries previously -acting without pay; next, if it had been true, the habitual exclusion -of the poor citizens would have nullified the popular working of these bodies, -and would have prevented them from answering any longer to the reigning -sentiment at Athens. Nor could it be deemed unreasonable to assign a regular -pay to those who thus rendered regular service. It was indeed an essential -item in the whole scheme and purpose, so that the suppression of the -pay of itself seems to have suspended the dicasteries, while the oligarchy of -Four Hundred was established—and it can only be discussed in that light. -As the fact stands, we may suppose that the six thousand heliasts who filled -the dicasteries were composed of the middling and poorer citizens indiscriminately; -though there was nothing to exclude the richer, if they chose to -serve.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_26b2" id="enanchor_26b2"></a><a href="#endnote_26b">b</a></span></p> - -<h4>PHIDIAS ACCUSED</h4> - -<p>The public works which were undertaken through the advice of Pericles -were executed under his inspection; the choice of the artists employed and -of the plans adopted, was probably entrusted in a great measure to his judgment; -and the large sums expended on them passed through his hands. -This was an office which it was scarcely possible to exercise at Athens without -either exciting suspicion or giving a handle for calumny. We find that -Cratinus in one of his comedies threw out some hints as to the tardiness with -which Pericles carried on the third of the Long Walls which he had persuaded -the people to begin. “He had been long professing to go on with it, but in -fact did not stir a step.” Whether the motives to which this delay was -imputed were such as to call his integrity into question, does not appear; -but in time his enemies ventured openly to attack him on this ground. Yet -the first blow was not aimed directly at himself, but was intended to wound -him through the side of a friend. Phidias, whose genius was the ruling principle -which animated and controlled every design for the ornament of the -city, had been brought, as well by conformity of taste as by the nature of -his engagement, into an intimate relation with Pericles. To ruin Phidias -was one of the readiest means both of hurting the feelings and of shaking -the credit of Pericles. If Phidias could be convicted of a fraud on the -public, it would seem an unavoidable inference that Pericles had shared the -profit. The ivory statue of the goddess in the Parthenon, which was enriched -with massy ornaments of pure gold, appeared to offer a groundwork -for a charge which could not easily be refuted. To give it the greater weight, -a man named Menon, who had been employed by Phidias in some of the details -of the work, was induced to seat himself in the agora with the ensigns of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[462]</a></span> -a suppliant, and to implore pardon of the people as the condition of revealing -an offence in which he had been an accomplice with Phidias. He accused -Phidias of having embezzled a part of the gold which he had received from -the treasury. But this charge immediately fell to the ground through a -contrivance which Pericles had adopted for a different end. The golden -ornaments had been fixed on the statue in such a manner, that they could be -taken off without doing it any injury, and thus afforded the means of ascertaining -their exact weight. Pericles challenged the accusers of Phidias to -use this opportunity of verifying their charge; but they shrank from the -application of this decisive test.</p> - -<p>Though however they were thus baffled in this part of their attempt, they -were not abashed or deterred; for they had discovered another ground, which -gave them a surer hold on the public mind. Some keen eye had observed -two figures among those with which Phidias had represented the battle between -Theseus and the Amazons on the shield of the goddess, in which it -detected the portraits of the artist himself, as a bald old man, and that of -Pericles in all the comeliness of his graceful person. To the religious feelings -of the Athenians this mode of perpetuating the memory of individuals, -by connecting their portraits with an object of public worship, appeared to -violate the sanctity of the place; and it was probably also viewed as an arrogant -intrusion, no less offensive to the majesty of the commonwealth. It -seems as if Menon’s evidence was required even to support this charge. -Phidias was committed to prison, and died there. The informer, who was a -foreigner, was rewarded with certain immunities; and, as one who in the -service of the state had provoked a powerful enemy, was placed by a formal -decree under the protection of the Ten Generals.</p> - -<h4>ASPASIA AT THE BAR</h4> - -<p>This success emboldened the enemies of Pericles to proceed. They had -not indeed established any of their accusations; but they had sounded the -disposition of the people, and found that it might be inspired with distrust -and jealousy of its powerful minister, or that it was not unwilling to see him -humbled. They seem now to have concerted a plan for attacking him, both -directly and indirectly, in several quarters at once; and they began with a -person in whose safety he felt as much concern as in his own, and who could -not be ruined without involving him in the like calamity.</p> - -<p>This was the celebrated Aspasia, who had long attracted almost as much -of the public attention at Athens as Pericles himself. She was a native of -Miletus, which was early and long renowned as a school for the cultivation -of female graces. She had come, it would seem, as an adventurer to Athens, -and by the combined charms of her person, manners, and conversation, won -the affections and the esteem of Pericles. Her station had freed her from the -restraints which custom laid on the education of the Athenian matron: and she -had enriched her mind with accomplishments which were rare even among the -men. Her acquaintance with Pericles seems to have begun while he was still -united to a lady of high birth, before the wife of the wealthy Hipponicus. -We can hardly doubt that it was Aspasia who first disturbed this union, -though it is said to have been dissolved by mutual consent. But after parting -from his wife, who had borne him two sons, Pericles attached himself to -Aspasia by the most intimate relation which the laws permitted him to contract -with a foreign woman; and she acquired an ascendency over him, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[463]</a></span> -soon became notorious, and furnished the comic poets with an inexhaustible -fund of ridicule, and his enemies with a ground for serious charges. On the -stage she was the Hera of the Athenian Zeus, the Omphale, or the Dejanira -of an enslaved or a faithless Hercules. The Samian War was ascribed to her -interposition on behalf of her birthplace; and rumours were set afloat which -represented her as ministering to the vices of Pericles by the most odious and -degrading of offices. There was perhaps as little foundation for this report, -as for a similar one in which Phidias was implicated; though among all the -imputations brought against Pericles this is that which it is the most difficult -clearly to refute.</p> - -<p>But we are inclined to believe that it may have arisen from the peculiar -nature of Aspasia’s private circles, which, with a bold neglect of established -usage, were composed not only of the most intelligent and accomplished men -to be found at Athens, but also of matrons, who it is said were brought by -their husbands, to listen to her conversation; which must have been highly -instructive as well as brilliant, since Plato did not hesitate to describe her as -the preceptress of Socrates, and to assert that she both formed the rhetoric of -Pericles, and composed one of his most admired harangues. The innovation -which drew women of free birth, and good condition, into her company for -such a purpose, must, even where the truth was understood, have surprised -and offended many; and it was liable to the grossest misconstruction. And -if her female friends were sometimes seen watching the progress of the works -of Phidias, it was easy, through his intimacy with Pericles, to connect this -fact with a calumny of the same kind.</p> - -<p>There was another rumour still more dangerous, which grew out of the -character of the persons who were admitted to the society of Pericles and -Aspasia. Athens had become a place of resort for learned and ingenious men -of all pursuits. None were more welcome at the house of Pericles than such -as were distinguished by philosophical studies, and especially by the profession -of new speculative tenets. He himself was never weary of discussing such -subjects; and Aspasia was undoubtedly able to bear her part in this, as well -as in any other kind of conversation. The mere presence of Anaxagoras, -Zeno, Protagoras, and other celebrated men, who were known to hold doctrines -very remote from the religious conceptions of the vulgar, was sufficient to -make a circle in which they were familiar pass for a school of impiety. Such -were the materials out of which the comic poet Hermippus, laying aside -the mask, framed a criminal prosecution against Aspasia. His indictment -included two heads: an offence against religion, and that of corrupting -Athenian women to gratify the passions of Pericles.</p> - -<h4>ANAXAGORAS ALSO ASSAILED</h4> - -<p>This cause seems to have been still pending, when one Diopithes procured -a decree, by which persons who denied the being of the gods, or taught doctrines -concerning the celestial bodies which were inconsistent with religion, -were made liable to a certain criminal process. This stroke was aimed immediately -at Anaxagoras—whose physical speculations had become famous, -and were thought to rob the greatest of the heavenly beings of their inherent -deity—but indirectly at his disciple and patron Pericles. When the discussion -of this decree, and the prosecution commenced against Aspasia, had disposed -the people to listen to other less probable charges, the main attack was -opened, and the accusation which in the affair of Phidias had been silenced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[464]</a></span> -by the force of truth, was revived in another form. A decree was passed on -the motion of one Dracontides, directing Pericles to give in his accounts to -the Prytanis, to be submitted to a trial, which was to be conducted with -extraordinary solemnity; for it was to be held in the citadel, and the jurors -were to take the balls with which each signified his verdict, from the top of -an altar. But this part of the decree was afterwards modified by an amendment -moved by Agnon, which ordered the cause to be tried in the ordinary -way, but by a body of fifteen hundred jurors. The uncertainty of the party -which managed these proceedings, and their distrust as to the evidence which -they should be able to procure, seem to be strongly marked by a clause in -this decree, which provided that the offence imputed to Pericles might be -described either as embezzlement, or by a more general name, as coming -under the head of public wrong.</p> - -<p>Yet all these machinations failed at least of reaching their main object. -The issue of those which were directed against Anaxagoras cannot be exactly -ascertained through the discrepancy of the accounts given of it. According -to some authors he was tried, and condemned either to a fine and -banishment or to death; but in the latter case made his escape from prison. -According to others he was defended by Pericles, and acquitted. Plutarch -says that Pericles, fearing the event of a trial, induced him to withdraw -from Athens; and it seems to have been admitted on all hands, that he -ended his long life in quiet and honour at Lampsacus. The danger which -threatened Aspasia was also averted; but it seems that Pericles, who pleaded -her cause, found need for his most strenuous exertions, and that in her behalf -he descended to tears and entreaties, which no similar emergency of his own -could ever draw from him. It was indeed probably a trial more of his personal -influence than of his eloquence; and his success, hardly as it was won, -may have induced his adversaries to drop the proceedings instituted against -himself, or at least to postpone them to a fitter season. After weathering -this storm he seems to have recovered his former high and firm position, -which to the end of his life was never again endangered, except by one very -transient gust of popular displeasure. He felt strong enough to resist the -wishes, and to rebuke the impatience of the people. Yet it was a persuasion -so widely spread among the ancients as to have lasted even to modern times, -that his dread of the persecution which hung over him, and his consciousness -that his expenditure of the public money would not bear a scrutiny, were -at least among the motives which induced him to kindle the war which put an -end to the Thirty Years’ Truce.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_26c" id="enanchor_26c"></a><a href="#endnote_26c">c</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-26.jpg" width="500" height="153" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Terra-cotta Heads</span></p> -<p class="caption">(In the British Museum)</p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[465]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-27.jpg" width="500" height="141" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Coins</span></p> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XXVII_MANNERS_AND_CUSTOMS_OF_THE_AGE">CHAPTER XXVII. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE AGE -OF PERICLES</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Hail, Nature’s utmost boast! unrivalled Greece!</div> -<div class="verse">My fairest reign! where every power benign</div> -<div class="verse">Conspired to blow the flower of human kind,</div> -<div class="verse">And lavished all that genius can inspire.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse right">—<span class="smcap">James Thomson.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<h4>COST OF LIVING AND WAGES</h4> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 150px;"> -<img src="images/p465.jpg" width="150" height="300" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Pericles</span></p> -</div> - -<div class="sidenote">[460-410 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Everywhere in the ancient world, but in a -higher or less degree in different countries, the -necessaries of life upon the whole were cheaper -than they are at the present day. But with regard -to particular articles, examples enough of the contrary -are found. The main causes of this comparative -cheapness were the less amount of money in -circulation, the uncommon fruitfulness of the -southern countries which the Greeks inhabited, -or with which they traded; countries which at -that time were cultivated with an extraordinary -degree of care, but are at present neglected; and -the impossibility of exportation to the distant regions -which had no intercourse, or but little, with -the countries lying on the Mediterranean Sea. -The last is especially the reason of the great cheapness -of wine. The large quantities of the same -which were produced in all southern regions, were -not distributed over so considerable an extent of the -earth as at present. Nevertheless in considering -the prices of commodities in ancient times the difference -of times and places must be well weighed. -In Rome and Athens wine was not, in the most -flourishing condition of the state, as cheap as it was in Upper Italy and in -Lusitania. In Upper Italy, the Sicilian medimnus of wheat, which was equal -to the Attic medimnus, and considerably less than the Prussian bushel (or -than 1½ English bushels), was worth, even in the times of Polybius, according -to the account of that historian, only four oboli. This price seems to rest -upon an inaccurate comparison of the Roman with the Greek coin, and particularly -upon the supposition that the modius, one-sixth of the medimnus, -was worth two asses, the medimnus, therefore, worth twelve asses; which,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[466]</a></span> -estimating the denarius to be equivalent to the drachma, would be equal to -4½ oboli. To this last amount four ancient oboli of the standard of Solon -(11.4 cents) may certainly be estimated as equivalent. The medimnus of -barley was worth the half of this price, the metretes of wine (about ten -English gallons), was worth as much as the medimnus of barley.</p> - -<p>In the time of Solon, indeed, an ox was worth only five drachmæ, a sheep -one drachma, and the medimnus of grain the same. But gradually the -prices increased five fold; of several articles seven, ten and twenty fold. -After the examples of modern times this will not appear strange. The -amount of ready money was not only increased, but by the increase of population, -and of intercourse, its circulation was accelerated: so that already in -the age of Socrates, Athens was considered an expensive place of residence.</p> - -<p>The cheapness of commodities, in ancient times, has generally been exaggerated -by some, who supposed the assumption, that prices were on an average -ten times lower than in the eighteenth century, to come the nearest to the -truth. The prices of grain, according to which the prices of many other -articles must be regulated, show the contrary. It is difficult to designate -average prices, however; since so few, and those only very casual accounts, -are extant. Letronne designates the value of the medimnus of grain at two -and a half drachmæ as the average price in Greece, in particular at the city of -Athens, about the year 400 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>; and in accordance with this, he assumes the -value of grain, compared with that of silver, to have been in the relation -of 1 to 3146; the same at Rome, fifty years before the Christian era, to have -been in the relation of 1 to 2681, in France, before the year 1520 in the relation -of 1 to 4320, and in the nineteenth century in the relation of 1 to 1050. -This estimation, according to which the present prices of grain are three times -as high as they were during the period of the most flourishing condition of -Greece, appears the most probable.</p> - -<p>The most temperate man needed daily, at least, an obolus for his food, -one-fourth of an obolus for a chœnix of grain, according to the price of barley -in the time of Socrates; together, annually, reckoning the year at 360 -days, 75 drachmæ; for clothes and shoes at least 15 drachmæ. A family, -therefore, of four adult persons must have needed at least 360 drachmæ -(£12 or $60) for these necessaries of life. The sum requisite, however, in -the time of Demosthenes, must have been 22½ drachmæ higher for each person; -for 4 persons, therefore, 90 drachmæ (£3 or $15) higher. To this must -be added the cost of a habitation, the value of which, estimated at least at -3 minæ, would involve, according to the common rate of interest (12 per -cent.), an annual expense of 36 drachmæ (£1 or $5). So that the poorest -family of 4 adult free persons, if they did not wish to live upon bread and -water, needed upon an average about £17 or $85 annually.</p> - -<p>Socrates did not have, as was falsely reported, two wives at the same -time, but one after the other; Myrto, who was poor when he married her, -and who probably had no dowry, and Xanthippe. He also had three children. -Of these, Lamprocles was already adult at the death of his father, -but Sophroniscus and Menexenus were minors. He prosecuted no manual -art after he had sacrificed the employment of his youth to the never-resting -effort to acquire wisdom. His teaching procured him no income. According -to Xenophon he lived upon his property, which, if it should have -found a good purchaser (ὡνητὴς), the house included, might easily have -brought, altogether, five minæ; and he needed only a small addition from -his friends. From this it has been inferred, that living was extraordinarily -cheap at Athens. It is evident, however, that Socrates with his family could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[467]</a></span> -not live upon the interest of so small an amount of property. For, however -poor the house may have been, its value can scarcely be estimated at less than -three minæ. So that, without taking the furniture into consideration, the -remainder of his property from which interest could be derived, could have -amounted to but two minæ, and the income from it, according to the common -rate of interest, to only twenty-four drachmæ. With this sum he could -not have procured even the amount of barley which was requisite for himself -and his wife, to say nothing of the other necessaries of life, and of the support -of his children.</p> - -<p>The history of the ancient sages is so entangled and garnished with traditions, -and the circumstances of their lives are so differently represented -even by contemporary writers, that we can seldom find firm ground on which -to stand. Thus, according to the defence of Socrates composed by Plato, -the former is represented to have affirmed that he could pay for his liberation -only about a mina of silver; and Eubulides says the same. According -to others, he estimated the amount which he should pay at twenty-five drachmæ, -and in the defence ascribed to Xenophon he is represented as neither -having himself estimated any amount, nor having allowed his friends to do -so. Thus the well-informed Demetrius of Phalerum affirmed, in opposition -to Xenophon, that Socrates had, beside his house, seventy minæ at interest -in the possession of Crito. And Libanius informs us that he had lost eighty -minæ, which he had inherited from his father, by the insolvency of a friend, -in whose hands he had placed it, and who certainly cannot have been, as -Schneider supposed, the wealthy Crito.</p> - -<p>But assuming that Xenophon’s account is perfectly correct, we must suppose -that the mother of the young boys supported herself and both the children, -either by labour or from her dowry, and that Lamprocles supported -himself, and that the famed economy of Socrates probably consisted, among -other things, in this also, that he kept them at work. And then, again, suppose -that he always lived upon his twenty-four drachmæ, with a small additional -sum from his friends, yet no one could live as he did. It is true, that -he is said to have frequently offered sacrifices at home, and upon the public -altars. But they were doubtless only baked dough, shaped into the forms -of animals, after the manner of the poor; properly bread, therefore, a great -part of which was at the same time eaten, and to which his family also contributed. -He lived in the strictest sense upon bread and water, except when -invited to entertainments at the tables of others, and could therefore be particularly -glad, as he is said to have been, on account of the cheapness of barley, -when four chœnices sold for an obolus. He wore no undergarment; -even his outside garment was poor, and the same one was worn both summer -and winter. He generally went barefooted, and his dress-sandals, which he -occasionally wore, may have lasted him his life-time. His walk for pleasure -and exercise before his house served him instead of a relish for his meal. -In short, no slave was so poorly maintained as was Socrates. The drachma -[about 8½d. or 17 cents] which he gave Prodicus was certainly the largest -sum ever spent by him at one time. And it may boldly be affirmed, without -wishing to disparage his exalted genius, that, in respect to his indigence, -and a certain cynicism in his character, the representation of Aristophanes -was not much exaggerated, but in the essential particulars was delineated -from the life.</p> - -<p>If in the time of Socrates four persons lived upon £17 or $85 a year, -they must have been satisfied with but a scanty allowance. He who wished -to live respectably, needed even then, and still more in the time of Demosthenes,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[468]</a></span> -a sum considerably larger. According to the speech against Phænippus, -there were left to the complainant and his brother by their father, -forty-five minæ to each, on which, it is said, one could not easily live, -namely, upon the interest of it, which amounted, according to the common -rate of interest, to 540 drachmæ (£19 or $95).</p> - -<p>Mantitheus in Demosthenes asserts that he could have been maintained -and educated upon the interest of his mother’s dowry, which amounted to a -talent; consequently, according to the usual rate of interest, upon 720 -drachmæ (£25 or $125), annually. For the maintenance of the young -Demosthenes himself, his sister still younger, and his mother, seven minæ -(£24 or $120) were annually paid, without reckoning anything for their -habitation, since they dwelt in their own house. The cost of the education -of Demosthenes was not included in this sum. For that the guardians -remained in debt. Lysias refers, in one of his speeches, to the knavish -account of the guardian of the children of Diodotus. He had, for example, -charged for clothing, shoes, and hair-cutting over a talent for a period of -less than eight years, and for sacrifices and festivals more than four thousand -drachmæ, and he ultimately would pay a balance of only two minæ of -silver, and thirty Cyzicene staters, whereby his wards had become impoverished. -Lysias remarks, that if he had charged more than any one in -the city had ever done before for two boys, and their sister, a pedagogue, -and a female servant, his account could not have amounted to more than a -thousand drachmæ (£35 or $175) annually. This would be not much less -than three drachmæ daily, and must certainly appear to have been too much -in the time of that orator for three children and two attendants.</p> - -<p>In the time of Solon one must certainly have been able to travel quite a -distance with an obolus, since that lawgiver forbid that a woman should take -with her upon a march, or a journey, a larger quantity of meat and drink -than could be purchased for that sum, and a basket of larger dimensions than -an ell in length. On the contrary, when the citizens of Trœzen, according to -Plutarch, resolved to give to each of the old men, women, and children who -fled from Athens upon the approach of Xerxes, two oboli daily, it appears to -be a large sum for the purpose. In the most flourishing period of the state, -however, even a single person could maintain himself but indifferently on two -or three oboli a day. Notwithstanding all this, the cheapness and facility of -living still remained very great. In accordance with the noble reverence of -the Greeks for the dead, the death of a man, his interment, and monument, -often occasioned more expense than many years of his life, since private -persons appropriated three, ten, fifty, and even 120 minæ, to that purpose.</p> - -<p>The value of the property of the Athenian people, excluding the property -of the state, and the mines, was according to a probable computation, -at thirty thousand to forty thousand talents. Of these if only twenty thousand -talents be considered productive property, every one of the twenty -thousand citizens would have had, if the property had been equally divided, -the interest of a talent, or, according to the common rate of interest, 720 -drachmæ as an annual income. On this, with the addition of the profit from -their labour, they might all have lived in a respectable manner. They would -in that case have realised what the ancient sages and statesmen considered -the highest prosperity of a state. But a considerable number of the citizens -were poor. Others possessed a large amount of property, on which they -could fare luxuriously on account of the cheapness of living, and the high -rate of interest, and yet at the same time could increase their means, because -property augmented exceedingly fast.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[469]</a></span></p> - -<p>This inequality corrupted the state, and the manners of the people. Its -most natural consequence was the submissiveness of the poor towards the -rich, although they believed that their rights were equal. The rich followed -the practice, afterwards so notorious and decried at Rome, of suing for the -favour of the people, sometimes in a nobler, sometimes in a baser manner.</p> - -<p>In proportion to the cheapness of the necessaries of life, the wages of -labour must have been less in ancient times than at present. And all the -multitude of those who sought labour as the means of subsistence must have -diminished its price, since competition everywhere produces this result. In -this number, beside the <i>thetes</i> and aliens under the protection of the state, -a great part of the slaves are to be included; so that the families of slaves -belonging to the rich, lessened the profit of the poorer class of citizens. The -Phocians, by whom the keeping of slaves is said to have been in the earlier -periods of their state prohibited, not unjustly reproached Mnason, who possessed -a thousand slaves and more, for depriving an equal number of poor -citizens of the means of subsistence. After the -Peloponnesian War even citizens who had been -accustomed to a higher standing were compelled -to support themselves, whatever it might have -cost them to submit to it, as day labourers, or -in some other way, by the labour of their hands. -For they had lost their landed property in foreign -states, and on account of the want of money, -and the decrease of the population, rents had -depreciated, and loans were not to be had.</p> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 200px;"> -<img src="images/p469.jpg" width="200" height="458" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Dress of a Greek Labourer</span></p> -<p class="caption">(After Hope)</p> -</div> - -<p>Nevertheless, we do not find that daily wages -were excessively low. Lucian represents the -daily wages of an agricultural labourer or gardener, -on a remote estate lying near the frontiers -of Attica, to have been, in the time of Timon, -four oboli (5¾d. or 11.4 cents). The wages of -a porter are the same in Aristophanes, and of a -common labourer, who carried dirt, they were -three oboli. When Ptolemy sent to the Rhodians -one hundred house builders, together with -350 labourers, in order to restore the buildings -destroyed by an earthquake, he gave them fourteen -talents annually for their food, three oboli -a day for each man. We know not, however, -by what standard the money was estimated. -This was, if they were slaves, for other aliment -beside grain; if they were free men, it was only -a part of their wages, since a man needs something -else besides his food. In 408 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, a sawyer -(πρίστης) who sawed for a public building, received -a drachma a day. A carpenter, who -worked on the same building, received five oboli a day. We find that in the -time of Pericles, as it seems, a drachma, as daily wages, was given to each -of a number of persons working by the day. It is not at all probable that -they were artisans, but only common labourers.</p> - -<p>Persons in higher stations, or those who laboured with the pen, were, -according to genuine democratic principles, not better paid. The architect -of the temple of Minerva Polias received no more than a stone sawyer,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[470]</a></span> -or common labourer engaged upon the building, namely, a drachma (8½d. -or 17 cents) daily. The undersecretary (ὑπογραμματεὺς) of the superintendents -of the public buildings received daily five oboli (7¼d. or 14.25 -cents). For particular services, in which a certain deference is manifested by -the labourer to the person served, a high price was paid in Athens, as is the -case in all large cities. When Bacchus in the <i>Frogs</i> of Aristophanes wishes -to have his bundle carried by a porter, the latter demands two drachmæ. -When the god offers the ghost nine oboli, he replies that before he will do -so, he must become alive again. If this conversation in the realm of departed -spirits is not a scene from real life, it has no point. A living porter at -Athens was probably just as shameless in his demands, and if less were -offered, he might have said: “I must die before I do it.”</p> - -<p>The fare for a voyage by sea, particularly for long voyages, was extraordinarily -low. For sailing from Ægina to the Piræus, more than sixteen -miles, two oboli (3d. or 6 cents) were paid in the time of Plato. For sailing -from Egypt, or Pontus, to the Piræus, a man, with his family and baggage, -paid in the same period at the most two drachmæ (1s. 5d. or 35 cents). -This is a proof that commerce was very lucrative, so that it was not found -necessary to take a high fare from passengers. In the time of Lucian four -oboli were given for being conveyed from Athens to Ægina. The freight -of timber seems to have been higher, according to Demosthenes, who mentions -that for transporting a ship-load from Macedonia to Athens, 1,750 -drachmæ were paid. The enormous vessel for conveying grain named <i>Isis</i>, -which in the time of the emperors brought so much grain from Egypt to -Italy, that, according to report, the cargo was sufficient to last the whole of -Attica a year, earned in freight at least twelve talents annually. The freight -of a talent in weight from Ceos, which lay directly opposite Sunium, to Athens, -was an obolus.</p> - -<p>The price of a bath, although it is not barely a compensation for labour -was two oboli. A delicate little gentleman is represented by Philemon to -have paid four persons each six chalci, as appears from a passage of Pollux, -for plucking out the hair of his body with pitch, that he might have a -feminine skin. Moreover, the rich had their own, and the Athenian people -public baths.</p> - -<p>The pay of the soldiers was different in different periods, and according -to circumstances. It fluctuated between two oboli, and, including the money -given for subsistence, two drachmæ for a hoplite and his servant. The -cavalry received from twice to fourfold the pay of the infantry; officers, -commonly twice, generals four fold the same. For, as in respect to -labour performed for daily wages, the higher station had not a relatively -higher estimation in the same degree, as at the present day. The money -given for subsistence was commonly equal in amount to the pay. For from -two to three oboli a day the soldier could maintain himself quite well, especially -since in many places living was much cheaper than in Athens. His -pay was partly as surplus, partly for clothes and weapons, and if booty were -added, he might become rich. This explains the saying of the comedian -Theopompus, that a man could support a wife on two oboli of pay daily; -with four oboli a day his fortune was made. The pay alone of the soldier is -here meant, without the money given him for subsistence.</p> - -<p>The pay of the judges, and of those who attended the assemblies of the -people (ἐκκλησιασταί) amounted at least to three oboli a day, and like -the theoricon served only as an additional supply for the subsistence of the -citizens. The heliast in Aristophanes shows clearly how difficult it was,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[471]</a></span> -with that sum, to procure bread, food, and wood for three persons. He -does not include clothing and habitation, because he sustained the expenses -for them out of his own property. The pay of senators and of ambassadors -was higher. Persons engaged in the liberal arts and sciences, and prostitutes, -were paid the highest prices.</p> - -<p>The ancient states maintained public, salaried physicians; for example, -Hippocrates is said to have been public physician at Athens. These, again, -had servants, particularly slaves, who attended to their masters’ business -among the poorer class, and among the slaves. The celebrated physician -Democedes, of Croton, received, about 540 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> notwithstanding there was -little money in circulation at that time, the high salary of a talent of silver -(£211:10 or $1026, since Attic money seems to be meant). When called -to Athens he received one hundred minæ (£350 or $1750), until Polycrates -of Samos gave him two talents. In like manner, no doubt, practitioners -in many other arts were paid by the state; as, for example, architects at -Rhodes and Cyzicus, and certainly in every place of importance. For it -cannot be supposed that all architects, particularly those invited from -foreign countries, would have exercised their art, as several did at Athens, -for daily wages.</p> - -<p>The compensation of musicians, and of theatrical performers, was very -high. Amœbeus, a singer of ancient Athens, received every time he sang in -public, an Attic talent. That the players on the flute demanded a high -price for their services, is well known. In a Corcyræan inscription, a late -one indeed, but executed before the dominion of the Romans was established -in that island, fifty Corinthian minæ were designated as the compensation, -beside their expensive maintenance, for the services of three players on the -flute, three tragedians, and three comedians at the celebration of a festival. -The compensation of distinguished theatrical performers was not less, although, -beside the period of their engagement at Athens, they earned large -sums in travelling, and performing at the various cities and places on their -route. For example, Polus or Aristodemus is said to have earned a talent -in two days, or even in one day, or for performing in a single drama. All -these artists received, in addition, prizes of victory. Also common itinerant -theatrical performers, jugglers, conjurers, fortune-tellers, enjoyed a competency; -although the sum paid by the individual spectator was small, a few -chalci, or oboli, but sometimes even a drachma. The custom of paying fees -for apprenticeship to the trades and arts, and also to the medical profession, -was established even in the time of Socrates. For a part of the instruction -in music, and for athletic exercises, it was the duty of the tribes in Athens -to provide. Each tribe had its own teachers, whose lessons the youth of the -whole tribe attended. In the other schools each individual paid for his -instruction; we know not how much. The legislation of Charondas, in -which the salaries of the teachers are said to have been permanently established, -would have made an exception, if the laws from which Diodorus -derived his information, had not been fictitious.</p> - -<p>The teachers of wisdom and eloquence, or sophists, were not paid by the -state until later times. But in earlier periods, they required large sums from -their scholars. In this they imitated the mercenary lyric poets, whose inspiration -frequently slumbered until incited by gold. Protagoras of Abdera -is said to have been the first who taught for money. He required from each -scholar, for a complete course of instruction, an hundred minæ (£350 or -$1750). Gorgias asked the same price, and yet his property at his death -amounted to only one thousand staters. Zeno of Elea, in other respects<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[472]</a></span> -unlike the sophists, required the same amount. Since the price for teaching -wisdom was so high, it was natural that there should be chaffering about it, -and that an agreement upon reasonable terms should be sought. Hippias -earned, while yet a young man, in connection with Protagoras, in a short -time, 150 minæ. Even from a small city he earned more than twenty minæ, -not by long courses of lessons, as it seems, but by a shorter method of proceeding. -But gradually the increased number of teachers reduced the price. -Evenus of Paros, as early as the time of Socrates, required, to the general -derision, only ten minæ (£35 or $175); while for the same sum Isocrates -taught the whole art of oratory. And this appears to have been in the -age of Lycurgus, the usual honorary of a teacher of eloquence. At length -the Socratic philosophers found it convenient to teach for a compensation. -Aristippus was the first who did so. Moreover, payment was also sometimes -required from each auditor for single discourses, as, for example, by Prodicus, -one, two, four, to fifty drachmæ. Antiphon was the first who wrote -speeches and orations for money. He required high prices for them.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_27b" id="enanchor_27b"></a><a href="#endnote_27b">b</a></span></p> - -<h4>SCHOOLS, TEACHERS, AND BOOKS</h4> - -<p>It is remarkable that the frequent notices which occur of schoolmasters -and their schools, supply so little clear information as to the habits or social -position of this important part of the community; nor does it appear -whether they were a distinct class, or merely a lower grade of sophists or -rhetors. They seem, however, to have belonged to the upper rank of citizens -in some states, and to have been received in the best circles. Such as they -were, the lessons they taught were limited to the Greek tongue. Instruction -in foreign languages was never esteemed in Greece either a necessary or an -important branch of general education. This is a peculiarity which forms -also a signal defect of Greek culture as compared with that of modern times.</p> - -<p>In Athens, and probably in other Greek republics, every citizen was under -at least a moral obligation to provide his sons with a competent knowledge -of letters. The discipline of the schools was also under state control. Yet -the government nowhere seems to have provided or maintained them, or to -have appointed or paid the schoolmasters, whose livelihood depended on the -fees of their pupils. The amount of those fees has not been recorded. But -more distinct notices have been transmitted of the charges made by literary -professors of the higher class. The fees said to have been paid for a course -of instruction to some of the earlier and more distinguished sophists and -philosophers are so extravagant as to be scarcely credible, even when attested, -as they are in some instances, by the best contemporaneous authority. Protagoras -is taunted by Plato as the first professor of the higher branches of -learning who taught for hire. If this imputation be well founded, his older -contemporaries, Zeno and Gorgias, must have been speedily led to follow his -example: for Zeno is said by Plato himself to have been paid 100 minæ, or -upwards of £400 [$2000], by each disciple, for a course of lectures; and Gorgias -also to have been richly remunerated by his pupils. The fees of both -Protagoras and Gorgias are rated by other authorities at the same amount -as those of Zeno. This sum, taking into account the high value of the -precious metals in ancient times, would be equal to about £2000, or $10,000. -But prices were afterwards greatly reduced, as the number of professors -increased, and the former blind veneration for their magic powers of communicating -knowledge, or for the value of the knowledge communicated, declined.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[473]</a></span> -Isocrates, the younger contemporary of Protagoras, and probably the better -master of the two, was satisfied with ten minæ [£40 or $200] for the course; -which sum seems afterwards to have remained the ordinary rate of payment.</p> - -<p>No distinct notice occurs of the existence, during the Attic period, either -at Athens or elsewhere, of a public library, in the familiar sense of a miscellaneous -collection of books for the use of the citizens; although, as in -the time of Pisistratus, standard editions of the popular works recited at -public solemnities, and more especially of the dramas of Æschylus, Sophocles, -and Euripides, were preserved at Athens under the charge of the city clerk. -Private libraries had, however, already become sufficiently voluminous or -curious to merit being specially recorded. Such were those of Euripides, -the poet, and of Plato, part of whose collection was purchased at Tarentum, -in Italy, from the heirs of its former proprietor, Philolaus, and another part -at Syracuse; those of Euthydemus mentioned by Xenophon, of Aristotle, -of Nicocrates of Cyprus, and of the Athenian archon, Euclides. The varied -character of the works stored in the library of a literary professor, towards -the close of this period, is illustrated by a scene in a comedy of Alexis, the -humour of which turns on the gluttony of Hercules, a hero habitually burlesqued -for that failing in Greek satirical literature. The youthful demigod, -when directed by his master, the poet Linus, to select the book he preferred -from his preceptor’s collection,—described as containing the poems of Homer, -Orpheus, Hesiod, Chœrilus, Epicharmus, the tragedians, and the popular prose -classics,—makes choice of a cookery book.</p> - -<p>That books of all kinds, then commonly in use, abounded during the -greater part of the Attic period appears, not only from the general familiarity -which the educated ranks possessed with the text of the national classics, -but still more from the absence of any allusion to a scarcity of copies as interposing -a serious obstacle to the attainment of such knowledge. The book -trade, as a distinct branch of commerce, seems indeed to have been still limited, -as in truth it was, comparatively, in every age prior to the invention of -printing; and remained, probably in a great measure, in the hands of professional -copyists.</p> - -<p>Booksellers, however, and a book mart at Athens, are mentioned by -authors flourishing during the Peloponnesian War; and occasional notices -occur of book scribes or copyists, and of bookbinding. A trade in books or -paper is also mentioned by Xenophon as having been carried on about the -same date, between Greece and the coasts of the Euxine Sea. A considerable -time, however, seems to have been required to bring the works, even of the -most popular authors, into general circulation; and the disciples of distinguished -philosophers, Hermodorus for example, a scholar of Plato, appear to -have made profit by being the first to transport copies of their masters’ -lectures into distant localities.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_27c" id="enanchor_27c"></a><a href="#endnote_27c">c</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE POSITION OF A WIFE IN ATHENS</h4> - -<p>It was generally the father who chose a wife for his son, looking less to -her person than to her family and dowry. This is one of the respects in -which the historic position of women differed from the heroic. No longer -does the man with splendid gifts win a wife from many suitors; the father -must dower his daughter appropriately in order to place her with a husband, -and so the daughter often appeared as a burden to the family; so, also, the -foundations of petticoat government in marriage were often laid, since the man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[474]</a></span> -was only the usufructuary, not the owner of the dowry. How much equality -of fortune was considered, and how much a poor family, unable to offer a -dowry itself, shrank from the proposals of a rich man, one may gather from -the <i>Trinummus</i> of Plautus, in which the whole action turns upon this point. -Lesbonicus, who is unable to dower his sister, says to the suitor in the play: -“I will not have you think how you can help my poverty; think, rather, -that I, though poor, am not dishonourable, so people shall not say that I -have let you have my own sister for a mistress, without any dowry like this, -rather than for a wife.”</p> - -<p>Very often young men were obliged by their fathers to marry, that they -might at last be reclaimed from a disorderly life, and thereby, also, discharging -their duty to the state. This is what happens, for instance, to the -libertine Lesbonicus in the same play by Plautus. Resignedly he receives -the news that he is betrothed: “I will have her, this one or that one, any -one you like”; whereon the father-in-law comments, “A hundred wives -would not be punishment enough for his sins!” The ancients themselves -felt the unkindness that lay in this treatment of girls. -The feeling is most strongly expressed in a fragment -of Sophocles, where young maidens complain:</p> - -<p>“But when, light of heart, we reach the time of -maidenhood, we are cast from the house and sold, far -from the home-gods and mother and father; and yet, -when the wedding is over, we must sing praises and -believe that it is right as it is.”</p> - -<p>We cannot wonder if in the early days of marriage -the atmosphere was often cold, the heavens clouded. -For this reason Plato wished that before marriage there -should be a nearer acquaintance between the interested -persons, so that no one should be deceived; and he -proposed the arranging of special games, in which -young men and maidens should perform dances. The -statement, however, that no free-born Athenian ever -married from love and passionate inclination is a gross -exaggeration, the outcome of a one-sided and prejudiced -view. In many comedies the plot turns on a young -man’s passion for a maiden who in the end is discovered -to be a citizen, and generally the lost daughter -of a rich man. And every one must remember the -glorified love of the prince’s son Hæmon for the heroic -Antigone. It is incredible that in these instances the -author presented situations that never occurred in the actual world. But -other indications are to be found. If we look up the life of Cimon, for -instance, in Plutarch, we shall find the following passages:</p> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 150px;"> -<img src="images/p474.jpg" width="150" height="331" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Woman</span></p> -<p class="caption">(From a vase)</p> -</div> - -<p>“But when Callias came, a rich Athenian who had fallen in love with -Elpinice, and begged that he might pay her father’s fine for him, she consented, -and her brother Cimon gave her to Callias for a wife. So much is -certain that Cimon loved his wife Isodice too passionately and made himself -too unhappy over her death, if one may judge by the elegies composed for -his consolation.”</p> - -<p>Only we must not think that such a passion was “romantic” in the -modern sense; its birth was more natural and sensual, and it did not rise to -a transcendent deification of the beloved. Sometimes it may well have happened -that love put in an appearance after marriage, as in <i>The Mother-in-law</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[475]</a></span> -of Terence, where Pamphilus, attracted by the noble qualities of the wife he -once despised, gradually becomes untrue to his mistress. The peculiarly -prosaic and cool relations that existed between man and wife, along with the -leading motive for marriage, is most clearly expressed in a document of the -highest interest to the historian of morals, the speech against the courtesan -Neæra, which is attributed to Demosthenes. “Mistresses,” he says, “are -kept for pleasure, and housekeepers for daily attendance and personal service; -but a man marries a woman that he may beget legitimate children, of the -same station on both sides, and have a faithful guardian in the house.”</p> - -<p>Companionable intercourse between man and wife was necessarily hindered -by the sharp division between their occupations, and reduced itself, -no doubt, to very few hours in the day. “Because,” Ischomachus says, “it -is better for a woman to stay in than to be away from home, whereas it is -ignominious for a man to stay at home and not concern himself with what -is going on in the world.” So, in the same piece of Xenophon, Socrates says -to Aristobulus: “Is there any one to whom you talk less than to your wife?” -And the disciple answers, “No one, or at least very few.” We learn, however, -from comedies and other sources, that in reality things did not wear so -sorry an aspect, and that feminine curiosity and jealousy led to all sorts of -questions and talks. On the other hand, there was no question of any intercourse -with other men; in fact a wife withdrew if her husband, by chance, -brought a guest home with him. If the husband were not at home it would -have been reckoned a gross incivility for another man to enter the house. -Indeed, Demosthenes mentions a case where a friend, who had been summoned -by a servant for help, did not venture into the house because the -master was away. So what Cornelius Nepos says about the Greek woman is -true: “She does not appear at dinner except among relatives; she stays in the -inner part of the house where no one is admitted but her nearest kinsmen.”</p> - -<p>Euripides, indeed, went so far as to forbid the visits of women among -themselves, for he writes in the <i>Andromache</i>: “Never, never—for I do not -say it only for this one occasion—ought intelligent men, who are married, -to allow other women to visit their wives, for they are the teachers of wickedness. -One corrupts the marriage because she gains something by it, another -wants a companion in sinning.” But things were not so bad on the whole -in this respect either. In the <i>Regiment of Women</i>, by Aristophanes, a neighbour -says to Blephyrus, who misses his wife when he gets up in the morning, -“What can it be? Do you think one of her friends has asked her to breakfast, -perhaps?” And the husband answers, “I think that must be it. -After all, she is not so bad as that comes to, so far as I know.”</p> - -<p>Phidias symbolised the solitariness of the home-keeping wife by the tortoise, -on whose back he set the statue of Aphrodite Urania in Elis. But -the acutest note of women’s relations to the outer world is in the <i>Thesmophoriazusæ</i> -of Aristophanes, where the women speak themselves: “If we are -an evil, why do you marry us, and allow us neither to go out, nor to be -caught looking from the windows, and insist on guarding the evil with so -much care? And if a woman goes out and you find her before the door, -you get into a rage, whereas you ought to be pleased and bring a thank offering, -if you were really rid of the evil and did not find her sitting there any -more when you came home. Then when we take a peep out of the window -every man wants to look at the evil, and when one blushes and draws in -one’s head, they all want all the more to see the evil peep out.” Even on -occasions when fear and necessity would break through conventional restrictions, -we find the women going no farther than the door of the house; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[476]</a></span> -the orator Lycurgus actually complains because after the battle of Chæronea, -the women inquired after the fate of their own men-folk from their doorways.</p> - -<p>Walking in the street was made a very difficult matter even for married -women. Even Solon left directions on this subject; and among other things -he said that no woman, when she went out, must have more than three pieces -of clothing, nor more than one obolus’ worth of food and drink with her, nor -must she carry any basket of more than two feet. Also she must not travel -by night, except in a carriage, and then have a light carried before her. In -the times of the Diadochi, indeed, special superintendents were appointed -in Athens to check the immorality and extravagance of women, such as were -already established in other cities, Syracuse, for example. Since the husband -generally did the marketing himself, and walks had not yet, it would -seem, become fashionable, although they were recommended by a woman disciple -of Pythagoras, Phintys, there were hardly any other motives left for -going out except the attendance at religious functions and the play.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_27d" id="enanchor_27d"></a><a href="#endnote_27d">d</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-27.jpg" width="350" height="467" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Priestess of Ceres</span></p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[477]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-28.jpg" width="500" height="300" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Ruins on Acropolis at Athens</span></p> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XXVIII_ART_OF_THE_PERICLEAN_AGE">CHAPTER XXVIII. ART OF THE PERICLEAN AGE</h3> - -<h4>ARCHITECTURE</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[460-430 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Policy united with natural inclination to induce Pericles to patronise the -arts, and call forth their finest productions for the admiration and delight of -the Athenian people. The Athenian people were the despotic sovereign; -Pericles the favourite and minister, whose business it was to indulge the -sovereign’s caprices that he might direct their measures; and he had the -skill often to direct even their caprices. That fine taste, which he possessed -eminently, was in some degree general among the Athenians; and the gratification -of that fine taste was one means by which he retained his influence. -Works were undertaken, according to the expression of Plutarch, in whose -time they remained still perfect, of stupendous magnitude, and in form and -grace inimitable; all calculated for the accommodation or in some way for -the gratification of the multitude. Phidias was superintendent of the works: -under him many architects and artists were employed, whose merit entitled -them to fame with posterity, and of whose labours (such is the hardness of -the Attic marble, their principal material, and the mildness of the Attic atmosphere) -relics, which have escaped the violence of men, still, after the -lapse of more than two thousand years, exhibit all the perfection of design, -and even of workmanship, which earned that fame.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_28c" id="enanchor_28c"></a><a href="#endnote_28c">c</a></span></p> - -<p>But the Greeks had not attained all at once to the architectural perfection -which we admire on the Acropolis. They had assigned their gods the crest -of the mountains or the deep forests for their first abode; they desired to -have them nearer to themselves and, from the earliest times, they built them -dwellings, at first rustic and clumsy, but which were gradually embellished -and attracted other arts with religious pomp; the poets celebrating the -gods and their native country, the philosophers raising the great problems of -nature and of the soul. The temple was the centre of Hellenic life.</p> - -<p>But the gods, like men, have to reckon with time. Before sending out -the radiations of their divine majesty from the midst of the wonders of art,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[478]</a></span> -those destined to become the glorious dwellers on Olympus were at first -obscure and indefinite personalities, inhabiting the trunk of an oak, then -wretched wooden structures, and later on houses of stone and sometimes of -brass, like the Athene Chalciœcus of Sparta. It was only with the progress -of civilised life that their habitation grew in size and loftiness. The true -temples, and the most ancient of them, those of Corinth, Samos, and Metapontum—date -only from the seventh century.</p> - -<p>The Greeks were acquainted neither with the pointed arch nor the dome. -Some have thought to find that at Tiryns and Mycenæ, but if some of the -bays and galleries end in a point, it is because the courses draw closer and -closer together and end by meeting at the top. The method is therefore -clumsy and barbarous; it was abandoned for the lintel and the pediment.</p> - -<p>All the Greek temples resemble one another in their general plan of construction; -and yet the architectural combinations might be very numerous, -inasmuch as they all differ in the nature of the material employed and the -ornamentation which decorates them, in the number of the columns and the -size of the intercolumniations, which determine the proportions of the edifice, -above all in the character peculiar to each of the three orders—the Doric, the -Ionic, and the Corinthian. A single member of the structure, the column with -the portion of the entablature which it supports, determines this character.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/p478.jpg" width="500" height="300" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Ruins of the Parthenon</span></p> -</div> - -<p>The first temples worthy of the name were in the Doric style. The walls -were large and heavy, the columns short and stunted without any base, like -the stake which had been the primitive support, but with flutings, a capital, -and a double pediment stretching above a wide face, like an eagle with outstretched -wings—the expression is Pindar’s. The whole edifice, built of -ordinary stone, was hidden, as in the case of many of the Egyptian temples, -under a coat of stucco which displayed vivid colours. The remains of this -are to be seen at Assus, on the coast of Asia; at Corinth, Delphi and Ægina -in Greece; at Syracuse, Agrigentum and Selinus in Sicily; at Metapontum -and especially at Pæstum in Italy, where the grandest ruins in the ancient -Doric order are to be found. The common characteristic of these buildings, -which nearly all belong to the seventh or sixth century, was their sturdy but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[479]</a></span> -heavy and thick-set appearance. The columns have a height of only four -diameters—four and two-thirds at most; and the stucco in coming off has -displayed the poverty of the material employed. Even the temple of -Olympia was built of a hard and porous tufa which the stucco had concealed -under a brilliant covering. That of Ægina was also of stone, not marble; -there remain of it at least some beautiful ruins.</p> - -<p>We must go to Athens to find Doric architecture in its severe elegance. -Even in the temple of Ægina the column is higher: five and a third diameters; -at the Theseum it is five and a half; at the Parthenon, six, and this -is the proportion which is most pleasing to the eye. Of these three temples -the first, in which we can still find traces of an archaic character, belongs to -the sixth century; the second, which has better proportions, to the first half -of the fifth; the third is the architectural triumph of the age of Pericles.</p> - -<p>The Parthenon, built entirely of Pentelic marble, is not the most vast of -the Greek temples, but its execution is more perfect and it is this which -made it the masterpiece of Hellenic art. A very small detail will show the -finish of the work. It is with difficulty and by the assistance of eye and -hand that one succeeds in discovering the joints of the tambours forming the -colonnade which surrounds the building, so skilfully have these enormous -masses been adjusted. Even in her masons Athens possessed artists.</p> - -<p>The interior of the Parthenon contained two halls: the smaller at the -back, the <i>opisthodomus</i>, enclosed the public treasure; the larger, or <i>cella</i>, contained -the statue of the goddess born without mother from the thought of -the master of the gods, and who was as the soul of which the Parthenon was -the material casing. Figures in high relief, about twice life size, adorned the -two pediments of the temple. The frieze, which ran round the <i>cella</i> and -<i>opisthodomus</i> at a height of thirteen metres (42 ft., 8 ins.), and to a length -of more than one hundred and sixty metres (525 ft.), represented the procession -of the great Panathenæa.</p> - -<p>The work was finished in 435 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> It is neither the centuries nor the -barbarians that have mutilated it. The Parthenon was still almost intact in -1687, when on the 27th of September Morosini bombarded the citadel. One -of the projectiles, setting fire to the barrels of powder stored in the temple, -blew up a part of it; then the Venetian desired that the statues should be -taken down from the pediment and he broke them. Lord Elgin, at the -beginning of the nineteenth century, tore down the bas-reliefs of the frieze -and the metopes: this was another disaster. The Ilissus or Cephisus, the -Hercules or Theseus, the Charities, “vernal goddesses”—called by some the -Three Fates, by others Demeter, Core, and Iris—are still, though somewhat -mutilated, the most precious of our relics of antiquity. In 1812 some other -Englishmen carried off the frieze of the temple of Phigalia (Bassæ), built by -Ictinus. All these fragments of masterpieces were sold for hard cash, and -it is under the damp and gloomy sky of England that we are reduced to -admiring the remains of that which was the imperial mantle which Pericles -wrapped about Pallas Athene. Thus to understand the incomparable magnificence -of the Parthenon, we must render back to it in imagination what -men have taken away, then place it on its lofty rock, one hundred and fifty-six -metres (512 ft.) high, whence a magic panorama is unrolled before the -eyes, and surround it with the buildings of the Acropolis; the Erechtheum, -which exhibited all the graces of art, beside the severe grandeur of the -principal temple; the bronze statue of Athene Promachus, “she who fought -in the front rank,” to which the artist gave a colossal height, so that the sailors -arriving from the high sea steered by the plume on her helmet and the gold<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[480]</a></span> -tip of her lance, <i>maris stella</i>; and lower down, at the only place by which -the rock was accessible, the wonderful vestibule of the Propylæa and the -temple of Victory which formed one of its wings; but, above all, it must be -seen wrapped in the blazing light of the eastern sky, compared to which our -clearest day is but a twilight.</p> - -<p>One thing has been observed in the Parthenon which proves the profound -artistic sense the Greeks possessed and how well they understood how to -correct geometry by taste. In all the Parthenon there is no surface which -is absolutely flat. As the columns owe their full beauty only to the fact that -they exhibit towards their centre a slight outward curve, of which the eye is -not aware, so the entire building, colonnades and walls, is inclined slightly -inwards towards an invisible point which would be lost in the region of the -clouds, and all the horizontal lines are convex. But all with such delicacy -that it is sufficient to allow the eye and the light to wander gently over the -surfaces and to give the monument at once the grace of art and the solidity -of strength; but not enough for it to assume the compressed and heavy -aspect of a truncated pyramid like the Egyptian temples. On the southern -façade the rise of the curve is only one hundred and twenty-three millimetres -(about 4½ inches).</p> - -<p>The Propylæa, the masterpiece of civil and military architecture, belonged, -like the Parthenon, to the Doric order, and stood at the only accessible point -of the Acropolis. The architect Mnesicles disposed its various parts in such -a manner as to give an aspect of grandeur to the entrance to the Holy of -Holies of pagan Athens and also to secure its defence. Epaminondas would -have transported it to Thebes to adorn the Cadmea: six centuries after, -Pausanias admired it more than the Parthenon, and Plutarch said: “These -works have preserved a freshness, a virginity which time cannot wither; -they appear still bright with youth as if a breath would animate them and -as if they had an immortal soul.”</p> - -<p>Athens had other monuments which were erected at very diverse epochs: -the Anaceum, the temple of Castor and Pollux, where the sale of slaves -took place; the Pantheon or temple of all the gods, the work of the emperor -Hadrian; the octagonal Tower of the Winds, an indifferent work built about -the first century before Christ. On each of its eight sides, corresponding to -the quarters of the principal winds, was sculptured the figure of one of them. -This tower still exists, as well as the choragic monument erected by the -choregus Lysicrates, in 334 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, on the occasion of the victory of the Acamantid -tribe in a chorus. The remains of the theatre of Bacchus are still to -be seen on the south-eastern slope of the citadel, some of the marble seats -bearing very beautiful sculptures. But the Stadium beyond the Ilissus, -according to Pausanias one of the wonders of Athens, has disappeared and -the excavations made there produced nothing remarkable.</p> - -<p>Like its capital, Attica too had monuments of victory, of patriotic pride, -and pious gratitude to the gods: and all these monuments were constructed -in the severe style whose principal models we have just studied. In the -sacred city of Eleusis, in sight of Salamis, a vast religious edifice was built, -capable of containing the multitude of those initiated into the mysteries of -Ceres. Rhamnus which overlooks the plain of Marathon, raised a sanctuary -to Nemesis, the goddess of just vengeance; and on the summit of Cape -Sunium, two temples consecrated to Poseidon and Athene, the tutelary -deities of Attica, signalised from afar, to sailors coming from the isles or the -coast of Asia, their approach to the ground where the Persians had found a -tomb and the Greeks liberty. When on the days of the sacred festivals, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[481]</a></span> -people arrived in long <i>theoria</i> (embassies) at the promontory now called Cape -Colonna, they saw extending at their feet that sea which had now become -their own domain, and fervently thanked the two divinities for having given -them: for their leaders, political wisdom; for their mariners, favourable winds. -At a later time philosophy was to take its seat near the temple of the gods, -and we, like it, believe that Sunium heard some of the discourses of Plato.</p> - -<p>The school of Athens extended her influence to distant places. It did -not build the temple of Olympia, but Phidias made the statue of Zeus; -Pæonius of Mende and Alcamenes of Lemnos have been credited, without -absolute proof, with the sculptures of the two pediments, on one of which -was represented the combat of Pelops and Œnomaus, and on the other the -contests of the Lapithæ and Centaurs at the nuptials of Pirithous.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> -<img src="images/p481.jpg" width="450" height="350" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Ruins of Temple of the Olympian Jove. Athens</span></p> -</div> - -<p>Time, barbarians, perhaps fire, destroyed the temple, and the Alpheus, -in overflowing its banks, covered the plain of Altis which Pausanias had -seen in such beauty with eight or ten metres (about 26 or 32 ft.) of alluvium. -Before the <i>Expédition de Morée</i>, which brought away some fragments for the -Louvre, even the spot in which so much magnificence stood was unknown. -The successful excavations of the German commission have brought to -light a victory of Pæonius, a Hermes of Praxiteles and other masterpieces.</p> - -<p>The Ionic style is also native to the coast of Asia, where the Doric had -preceded it. It was exhibited there in all its grace in the sixth century, -when the temple of Ephesus was erected. The Cretan Chersiphron and his -son Metagenes began its construction, which was carried on, like that of our -Gothic cathedrals, with a tardiness that extended it over two or three centuries. -Its columns, several of which were given by Crœsus, had a height -of eight diameters, with bases which lacked the Doric columns and voluted -capitals which the ancients compared to the drooping curls of a woman’s -hair. Of the Ionic temple at Samos, burned by the Persians, a single column<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[482]</a></span> -remains upright, and according to the diameter of the base it was sixteen -metres (about 52½ ft.) high. This temple was therefore a colossal structure. -At Athens the Erechtheum and the temple of the Wingless Victory are in -the same style, but of very small dimensions. The first contained the oldest -image of Athene: a statue of olive wood which was said to have fallen from -heaven. In the second was a warlike Minerva; in order to attach her permanently -to the fortunes of Athens, the sculptor had not given her the wings -which are the attributes of the fickle goddess of lucky battles.</p> - -<p>In the time of Pericles the Corinthian style has not yet appeared but is -about to do so. It is related that Callimachus, having seen on a child’s -tomb at Corinth, a basket filled with its playthings and enveloped in the -graceful curves of the leaves of an acanthus, took from it the idea of the -Corinthian capital. The date of his birth is unknown, but since Ictinus -after the plague of Athens, and Scopas in 396 constructed, the one at Phigalia, -the other at Tegea, two temples in which traces have been found of -the new style of architecture, its invention must have followed very soon -after the construction of the Propylæa.</p> - -<p>There is a question concerning Greek architecture which has only been -answered in our own day, that of polychromy. In spite of our very decided -preference for bare stone, we have been forced to recognise that the Greeks -had a different taste. Light and colour are the joy of the eyes; but their -rôle is not the same in countries in which the sky often appears like a shroud -suspended above the earth, and in those where that earth, animated by the -sun, sings, with its thousand voices, the poem of nature. In the north a -wan light casts gloom upon the monuments; thus we are not loath to build -them with materials which at first give them a dazzling whiteness. In the -south they are too vividly illuminated, and the dazzling brightness of the -marble would burn the eyes if the sun did not clothe the stone in a golden -tint which rests the gaze. Colour, unnecessary and somewhat incommoding -to the sculptor, whose main concern is with the form and truth of outline, -furnishes the architect on the contrary with a valuable means of animating -the great flat surfaces which in their nakedness would be cold and lifeless. -He does not, like the polychromic sculptor, seek to create a deceitful illusion; -colour and ornamentation make no false pretence, and are a charm the more -when, in the case of a building standing in the midst of a sacred wood, it -establishes a needful harmony between the work of art and that of nature.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 433px;"> -<img src="images/fp8.jpg" width="433" height="650" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">THE ERECHTHEUM</p> -</div> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 200px;"> -<img src="images/p483.jpg" width="200" height="436" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Head</span></p> -<p class="caption">(In the British Museum)</p> -</div> - -<p>Egypt and Asia were prodigal of colour, whether in painting or by the -use of enamelled faiences with which the monuments of Persia are still -covered. The most ancient inhabitants of Hellas passed under their influence. -Colour has been found on the walls of dwellings older than Homer -by ten centuries; it was to be seen at Tiryns, one of the capitals of the -heroic age, and on the prows of the first ships which ventured into the midst -of the waves. This usage continued through the epochs which succeeded; -but, as in every domain of art, the Greeks modified this legacy of their -ancestors and of the peoples which had preceded them in civilised life, -according to the requirements of a delicate taste. Hues more or less vivid -covered the stone of the temple, even the sculptures of the frieze, the -metopes, and the pediment; terra-cottas, whose colours mixed with a kind -of paste were indestructible, decorated the upper parts of the monument and -enlivened these severe structures. But a distinction must be drawn between -the polychromy of Athens in the time of Pericles and that of other Hellenic -countries. In Sicily, in greater Greece, even in Ægina, where the materials -which the architects had to dispose of were of a coarse description, it may be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[483]</a></span> -that the temples received a brilliant colouring. But at Athens the beautiful -Pentelic marble employed in the construction of the temples was certainly -not entirely concealed under crude and violent colours. The words of -Plutarch, quoted above, on the freshness -and youth preserved by the monuments of -the Acropolis, when six centuries had already -passed over them, does not allow us -to believe in more than a moderate colouration -for the columns and walls. At one -point only of the building there was certainly -greater variety. In all countries -women, who are ingenious artists, apply -themselves to adorning their heads, and -with reason: it is the stronghold from which -formidable arrows are shot. Ictinus also -decorated the upper portions of the Parthenon -with all the graces he could call into -play. Ornaments of gilt bronze fastened to -the draperies of the figures, inlaid enamels, -and magnificent carvings running all along -the frieze. On festival days treasures and -garlands were added, so that the edifice wore -on its brow, as it were, a crown of flowers -and foliage over a circlet of precious stones.</p> - -<p>Antiquity has preserved us no details -concerning the artists; we are ignorant of -even the native country of most of them. -For centuries their works spoke for them, -but the very ruins of the monuments they -raised have perished. Only the Parthenon -still proudly lifts its mutilated head above -the mass of rubbish.</p> - -<p>A great poet saw a gloomy vision of -Europe dying and Paris vanishing. Twenty-five -centuries before, Thucydides drew a less -poetic but more faithful fantasy for Athens -and Lacedæmon. Comparing the sterility -of the one to the fertility of the other, he -said: “Let both towns be destroyed and the mere débris of the monuments -and temples of Athens will reveal a glorious city; the ruins of Lacedæmon -will be only those of a large village.”</p> - -<h4>SCULPTURE</h4> - -<p>Art is a natural instinct which is to be found even amongst the -last of the savages who were the prehistoric inhabitants of Gaul, and which -the most intelligent of animals do not possess. This instinct is developed -or arrested, not, as has been said, according to race, but in response to the -social influences to which a people is subjected amidst melancholy and severe -or peaceful and smiling scenes which extinguish or call forth the creative -imagination. These influences, working through the centuries, predisposed -Hellas to change the paths which art had been pursuing in the East; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[484]</a></span> -habits which were easily acclimatised in Greece, but which could not have -had their birth on the banks of the Nile and Euphrates, favoured this slow -evolution.</p> - -<p>Thanks to a good system of education, to long-continued gymnastic -exercises and to a life in the open air, often without clothing and always -without a dress which could hamper the harmonious development of the -body, the Greeks became the most beautiful race under the sun. As they -had always before their eyes the <i>ephebi</i>, so agile in the -race, the wrestlers and the athletes, who displayed so -much virile grace, the æsthetic sense developed in them -with a strength which, when nature had given genius -to the artists, produced masterpieces. Religion still -further increased this tendency. Their gods having been -conceived in the image of man, as a superior humanity, the -sculptors, as the religious conscience grew more elevated -and taste was purified, took their ideal for -the representations of the dwellers on -Olympus from human beauty carried to perfection. -The people even looked upon it as -a gift of heaven, and after death men were -accorded heroic honours on account of their -beauty.</p> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 200px;"> -<img src="images/p484.jpg" width="200" height="373" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Minerva</span></p> -<p class="caption">(From a statue)</p> -</div> - -<p>Herodotus has preserved us a fact which exhibits the -Greek character: Philip of Croton was venerated as a -hero after his death, in a small building erected to him -because he was the most beautiful man of his time, and -the old historian agrees with the Egestans who had made -this singular kind of god. He does not ask if Xerxes -had truly royal qualities. “In his vast army,” he says, -“none was more worthy by his beauty of the sovereign -power.” In one of the choregiæ in which he often triumphed -by his magnificence, Nicias had given the part -of Dionysus to a young slave so perfectly handsome and -so nobly attired that on his appearance the people broke -into applause. Nicias liberated him at once, considering, -he said, that it was an impiety to retain in servitude -a man who had been hailed by the Athenians in the -character of a god. Nicias indeed was performing a very -popular act; it was the handsome <i>ephebus</i>, not the god, who had excited the -admiration of the spectators.</p> - -<p>From first to last Greece thought thus. Many a time in the <i>Odyssey</i>, -Ulysses and Telemachus fancy that they see a god when they unexpectedly -encounter a tall and beautiful man; and the cold and severe Aristotle writes: -“If amongst mortals any were born resembling the images of the gods, the -rest of mankind would agree in swearing to them an eternal obedience.” -Simonides, without going so far, made beauty the second of the four conditions -necessary to happiness, and Isocrates said: “Virtue is so honoured -only because it is moral beauty.” It was because he was the most beautiful -of the <i>ephebi</i> that Sophocles was charged, after Salamis, with the task of -leading the chorus which sung the hymn of victory; and it is said Phidias -engraved on the finger of Zeus at Olympia: “Pantarces is beautiful”—a -sacrilege which might have exposed him to great danger. We no longer -possess this inscription, but we find a similar one on a painted vase, where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[485]</a></span> -Victory is offering a crown to a handsome <i>ephebus</i>. The gods themselves -had the reputation of being sensible of this advantage, which had procured -many mortals the honour of their love. At Ægium Jupiter desired that his -priests should be chosen from among the young men who had carried off the -prize for beauty; for this merit Ganymede was snatched up to heaven, that -he might serve as cup-bearer to the gods, and Apollo admitted into his -sanctuary the statue of Phryne, the most admired of the courtesans of -Greece. It is notorious how Hyperides saved the beautiful <i>hetæra</i> from a -capital charge, when she was standing before -the judges, by simply tearing away at an appropriate -moment the veil which hid her -beauty. The recollection of these facts serves -to explain the divine honours paid to Antinoüs -by the most Grecian of the Roman emperors; -but they also show how much this -worship of beauty, of which the Greeks had -made a religion and from which Plato was to -weave a theory, went to form the artists, and, -to a certain extent, the philosophers of Greece. -Did not Plato utter words whence has been -legitimately derived the famous saying that -Beauty is the splendour of goodness? The -jurisconsults of the Roman empire called themselves -the priests of law; Phidias and Polyclitus -might have styled themselves the priests -of the beautiful; and this trait suffices to -mark the difference between the two civilisations, -the Greek and the Roman. Beauty -is the perpetual aspiration of the French spirit -which seeks it in everything, in the great -spectacles of nature or in the works of famous -writers and artists.</p> - -<p>Amongst the statues of which the ancients -were most proud, are some which amaze us by -their colossal height, and others which shock -our taste by the diversity of the colours and -materials employed. The Egyptians treated -their Pharaohs and their gods in a similar -fashion, as did the Persians their kings, the -Athenians the people or the senate personified, -and we ourselves do the same to translate certain ideas: the Saint Borromeo -of Lake Maggiore and the Liberty of New York are colossi. Executed -to be seen from afar, they strike the eye by their mass, and are -the expression in stone of elevated sentiments: of holiness, patriotism, or -independence. On the promontory where they are placed between earth -and heaven they appear as the very genius of the people which erected -them, a shining witness of their gratitude, and the figurative representation -of their inmost thought.</p> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 200px;"> -<img src="images/p485.jpg" width="200" height="429" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Apollo</span></p> -<p class="caption">(From a Statue now in the Museum at Naples)</p> -</div> - -<p>The art of colossal sculpture was at the service of the gods, and was in -its place in or near their temples. It was the same with the chryselephantine -sculpture, and for the same reasons. The most celebrated of these sculptures -and those which from ancient descriptions we know the best, were the Athene -of the Parthenon and the Zeus of Olympia.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[486]</a></span></p> - -<p>Reaching with her pedestal to a height of fifteen metres (about 49 ft.), -Minerva stood erect, enveloped in a talaric tunic, the dress of virgins. -In one hand she held a Victory, in the other the spear round which the -serpent Erichthonius was coiled. The draperies were of gold, the naked -parts of ivory, the head of Medusa, on the Ægis, in silver, the eyes being of -precious stones.</p> - -<p>How did this Minerva, which was seen by Julian as late as the fourth century -of our era, finally perish? The Christians have been charged with this, -but the accusation should be brought against her wealth. So much gold -could not escape the barbarians, whoever they were, whether invaders from -the north, needy princes, or ordinary thieves. The pillage of the Parthenon -had already begun in the time of Isocrates and the Athene of Julian must -have been only a ruin.</p> - -<p>Phidias was also summoned to Olympia. The treasures accumulated in -the temple from the offerings of all Greece, permitted him to execute a work -which surpassed that of the Parthenon. -On a throne of cedar wood, inlaid with -gold and ivory, ebony, and precious stones, -and covered with bas-reliefs and paintings, -Zeus was majestically seated. His thick -hair and beard were of gold; of gold and -ivory was the Victory he carried in his -right hand, in token that his will was -always triumphant; of gold, too, mingled -with other metals was the royal sceptre -surmounted by an eagle, which he held in -his left hand. On the head was the crown -of olive leaves, which was given to the -victors in the games, but, as was fitting, -that of the god was gold, as well as his -sandals and his mantle, which revealed -his naked breast in ivory. His visage had -the virile beauty proper to the father of -gods and men; his tranquil gaze was -indeed that of the all-powerful whom no -passion stirs and behind whose broad -forehead should reside the vast intelligence -of the orderer of worlds. Placed -at the back of the <i>naos</i>, at the point -where the trend of the architectural lines -attracted the gaze, the statue, fifteen or -sixteen metres (49 or 52 ft.) high, seemed -still more colossal than it was.</p> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 200px;"> -<img src="images/p486.jpg" width="200" height="378" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Minerva</span></p> -<p class="caption">(From a Greek vase)</p> -</div> - -<p>The Olympian Jupiter shared the fate -of the Minerva of the Parthenon; he was -too rich for an age grown too barbarous -and beliefs too hostile. It is said that in -393 Theodosius had it transported to Constantinople, where it perished some -years later in one of the great conflagrations that so often visited the new -capital of the Empire; it is not likely that it was so long respected. -Already in the second century Lucian laughs at this “honest fellow, the -exterminator of giants, who remained seated so quietly while brigands shaved -his golden hair.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">[487]</a></span></p> - -<p>Other towns besides Athens and Olympia had chryselephantine statues. -Costly materials were used for the Juno at Argos, the Æsculapius of Epidaurus, -and others.</p> - -<p>Phidias did not confine himself to representing gods, that is to say to -making colossi; with his own hands, or more often through those who -worked under his direction, he lavished less divine sculpture on the frieze, -the metopes, and the double pediment of the temple, the figures of which, as -seen from below, do not appear to be of more than ordinary height. Those -which he chiselled on Minerva’s shield and on her sandals, were still smaller. -The magnificent fragments which remain to us from the two pediments, -Demeter and Core, Iris and Cephisus, the Charities or Fates, the Hercules -or Theseus, are the works of his school and we may say of his mind. In -spite of their mutilations, these marbles, like those of the Victory untying -her sandal, may be ranged beside, if not above, the most glorious creations of -Renaissance sculpture in the purity of the style and the calm serenity of the -figures, which neither have their limbs twisted in violent action nor their -brows overcharged with thought, as happened when statuary strove to rival -painting. What a puissant life is in these divinities tranquilly seated in the -pediments, and how calm on their fiery horses are the riders in the Panathenaic -procession! Later on the school of grace and voluptuousness will -appear, with an Athenian, Praxiteles, as its chief; still later, passion will -agitate the marble: then the decay of art begins—such a drama as the -“Farnese bull”<a name="FNanchor_46" id="FNanchor_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> depicts may not fittingly be presented in stone.</p> - -<p>It is to the eternal honour of Phidias that he finally broke with hieratic -art, whose influence is still traceable in the beautiful statues of Ægina, with -their admirably studied but lifeless shapes and grinning heads exhibiting, -even in pain and death, the same idiotic smile. The great artist sought the -beauty which is the spiritual essence of things, whether it be in the soul seen -through the body; or nature contemplated in her most harmonious expansion; -and this ideal beauty he realised without making the effort visible. -This is supreme art; for there is no grandeur without simplicity.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/p487.jpg" width="500" height="182" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Lyres</span></p> -</div> - -<h4>PAINTING, MUSIC, ETC.</h4> - -<p>If the description in the <i>Iliad</i> of the shield of Achilles is a work of imagination, -those of the Athene of the Parthenon and the Zeus of Olympia, as -given by Pausanias after an attentive study of the works themselves, show<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">[488]</a></span> -that the school of Athens had carried the art of carving metal and ivory to a -high degree of perfection, as well as that of working hard stones for casts or -in relief. Yet this skill was borrowed from the school of Argos, where work -in bronze was held in high honour.</p> - -<p>It was not so with painting, which in Greece had never the perfection of -statuary, whatever may be said on the faith of anecdotes more famous than -veracious. Modern painting seeks to move; that of the ancients was rather -sculptural in its character, in the sense that it sacrificed colouring to design -and the effects of light and shade to form—a stranger to what might -be called, if we have Rembrandt in mind, the drama of light and shade, or, -in referring to the Venetians, the harmonious chant of colours. Sicyon -was the first Greek town which had a school -for design. Athens, Miletus, and subsequently -Corinth, followed this example. We shall see -presently that Greece had great painters, and -that those of Athenian origin did not occupy -the first rank in this art. But it would be -rash to speak of Greek painting except according -to the judgment of the ancients, since -nothing of it remains save painted vases, which -belong to industry rather than art; and the -mural decorations at Pompeii and Herculaneum, -which are too often mere conventional -productions, executed hurriedly and probably -for small payment by workmen rather than -artists. The Roman mosaics were also made -by Greek hands, but there is not one, except -the battle of Issus, which is of a high order -of art.</p> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 200px;"> -<img src="images/p488.jpg" width="200" height="426" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Lyre Player</span></p> -</div> - -<p>The Greeks possessed the merit of realising -that the highest intellectual culture is one of -the conditions of greatness in the individual -and the state; and they understood how to -utilise every means of attaining it. In their -plan of education, besides the study of poets -and philosophers to form the mind, and gymnastic -exercise to develop suppleness and -strength, they included music, which habituates -the mind to harmony, and dancing, which -bestows grace. These two secondary arts -were the chief ones at Lacedæmon; they also -ranked high among the Athenians, though -Athens did not set her mark on them as she did on architecture and the art -of statuary. They were indispensable auxiliaries at festivals, sacrifices, and -funerals, and played a part in the performance of religious rites. The marvellous -effects of the lyre of Orpheus were universally kept in mind, and -Achilles, the hero who was the ideal type of warlike courage, was represented -celebrating his exploits on the cithara; in the <i>Iliad</i> or the <i>Odyssey</i> there is -no feast to which a melodious singer is not invited. Down to the last days -of Greece the beneficent action of music was believed in: Polybius attributed -the misfortunes of the Arcadians to the neglect among them of the art which -calms the passions and which, by teaching the rules of harmony, trains the -learner not to violate public peace. Damon the musician, a friend of Pericles<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">[489]</a></span> -and of Socrates, held that musical methods could not be changed without -threatening the foundation of morality and the laws of the city. Plato thinks -the same, and Aristotle calls music “the greatest charm of life.” It is well -known how much importance was attached to it by the school of the Pythagoreans, -who professed to hear the music of the celestial spheres turning -harmoniously through infinite space.</p> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 200px;"> -<img src="images/p489.jpg" width="200" height="371" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Dancing Girl</span></p> -<p class="caption">(Hope)</p> -</div> - -<p>The Greeks also conceived of dancing in another fashion from ours, -for they had introduced into it number and measure, which in art are a -manifestation of beauty, but no longer remain so when whirling speed is -substituted for grace. With them the dance formed part of their religious -solemnities and military education. “The ancients,” says Plato in the -Seventh Book of the <i>Laws</i>, “have bequeathed us a great number of beautiful -dances.” In the Dorian cities dancing -was one of the necessary rites in the worship -of Apollo, and the gravest people participated. -Theseus, returning from Crete, -danced the γέρανος in the holy island of -Delos, to celebrate his victory over the -Minotaur; and the Spartans, in annual commemoration -of their triumph over the people -of Thyrea danced the γυμνοπαιδια before the -images of Apollo, Diana, and Latona, singing -verses of Aleman and the Cretan Thaletas. -The Bacchic dances, with thyrsi and -lighted torches, were a mimic representation -of the life of Dionysus.</p> - -<p>In the neighbourhood of Eleusis was to -be seen the fountain of beautiful dances, -Callichorum, where the initiated chanted the -invocation to Iacchus as they danced: “O -adored god, approach at our voice. Iacchus! -Iacchus! come and dance the sacred thiasus -in this meadow, thy well-beloved home; -strike the ground with a bold foot and mingle -in our free and joyous dances, inspired by the -graces who rule our consecrated chorus.”</p> - -<p>Plato, in his treatise on “Law,” which is -a kind of commentary on Athenian legislation -and customs, attaches extreme importance, -even for the moral education of youth, -to the possession by the <i>ephebi</i> of the “art of -choruses,” which includes song and dance.</p> - -<p>We may well believe that demoralising dances existed in Ionia and elsewhere. -At Sparta and Athens the Pyrrhic dance was a military exercise -and a patriotic training. The <i>ephebi</i> danced them at the greater and lesser -Panathenæa, imitating all the movements of a combat for attack, defence, or -the evasion of darts. And was not the heroic circle of the Suliote women a -recollection of these warlike dances? Having taken refuge on the summit -of a mountain to escape a harem or the yataghan of the Turks, they sang -their funeral hymn, joined hands and danced on this narrow peak, which was -surrounded by precipices. Each time that the ring approached the abyss, the -circle was narrowed, for one of their number detached herself from it to fling -herself down; and one after another, all threw themselves over.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">[490]</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE ARTISTS OF THE OTHER CITIES OF HELLAS</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[460-410 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The fifth century is the golden age of Greek art. We have told of the -artists whom Athens gave to the world; we shall now see what others the -rest of Hellas produced—such at least whose names have come down to us -with an indication of their works.</p> - -<p>Chersiphron and his son Metagenes of Knossos, in Crete, are outside the -period with which we are dealing, for they began the construction of the great -temple of Ephesus in the sixth century.</p> - -<p>The domain of statuary had a great artist whom the ancients have compared -to Phidias, Polyclitus of Sicyon or Argos. The artists of the century -of Pericles did not confine themselves to one corner of the regions of -art; they cultivated the whole. Polyclitus was as much a skilful architect -as a great sculptor. At Epidaurus he erected a circular monument, the Tholus, -and a theatre which was much admired by the ancients; at Argos his -Juno was the rival of the Minerva of the Parthenon, though it did not stand -as high, and was less costly. Phidias lived with the gods in spirit, Polyclitus -dwelt more among men. He even wrote on the proportions of the -human body, and applied his knowledge to his Doryphorus, which was called -the “canon,” or the “rule.” The ancients divided the palm for statuary -between the two great artists: giving it to the one for his gods; to the other -for his Canephorus, which Verres stole from the Sicilians, his Amazon, which -triumphed over that of Phidias in the famous competition at Ephesus, and -his statues of successful athletes, such as the Diadumenus and the two Astragalizontes, -or dice-players. Myron, whom we might have included among -the Athenian artists, went farther in his imitation of nature; his bronze -cow was famous, and still more so his Discobolus, whose attitude must have -been very difficult to render.</p> - -<p>Polygnotus of Thasos, whom Cimon brought from that town in 463, -lived for a long time on the banks of the Ilissus, and was given the rights of -an Athenian citizen as a reward for his labours in the decoration of the -temple of Theseus, the Anaceum, the Pœcile, and a part of the Propylæa. -There was some stiffness in the designs of Polygnotus; his was a sculptural -painting which, nevertheless, obtained great effects by very simple means. -The ancients lauded the expression and beauty of his figures, but they have -neither the grace nor the dramatic character which the painters of the period -that followed were to give to their works. The arts of painting and statuary -are two sisters who resemble each other, and both follow the variations of -taste: the first with a vivacity at times imprudent, the second with more reserve. -Zeuxis of Heraclea Pontica and his rival, Parrhasius of Ephesus, were -younger than Polygnotus. Their painting was already more scientific, less -ideal, and nearer reality. Aristotle reproaches Zeuxis with yielding too much -to Ionian effeminacy. If we are to believe anecdotes whose frequent repetition -does not make them more authentic, these painters even succeeded in -deceiving the eye: the one with a bunch of grapes which the birds came to -peck at, the other with a curtain which Zeuxis attempted to draw back, thinking -that it concealed the real picture. These would be triumphs of ingenuity -rather than art. It is to be noted that both men drew freely on the -abundant resources of ancient poetry. Both attained to great fame and -opulence. In spite of the misfortunes of the times, Greece still had gold -for her favourite painters. Archelaus, king of Macedon, paid four hundred -minæ for the painting of Zeuxis in his palace, and Parrhasius never appeared -in public without a robe of purple fringed with gold. He considered himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">[491]</a></span> -“master of the elegancies,” as well as of his art, so we need not wonder -at his having inclined to effeminate gracefulness. “His Theseus,” said -Ephranor, “is fed on roses; mine was fed on meat.” But it was at a -later time, with Lysippus and Pamphilus, that the school of Sicyon was to -have its full splendour.</p> - -<p>The sight of the sculptors and painters turning to Homer for their -inspiration, calls forth the remark that the <i>Iliad</i> was the Bible of Greece, -as much for art as for religion. As our churches of the Middle Ages constituted, -by means of their windows, a grand book of religious instruction, -so the walls and pediments of the Greek temples exhibited to the eye -legends which spoke of the divinities and heroes of the Hellenic race. -Thus, while in Rome art was to be merely a foreign importation, in -Greece it came from the very heart of the country; and this was the secret -of its greatness.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_28b" id="enanchor_28b"></a><a href="#endnote_28b">b</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_46" id="Footnote_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> A famous group now in the Museum at Naples.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 266px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-28.jpg" width="266" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Apollo Musagetes</span></p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">[492]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-29.jpg" width="500" height="262" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Sophocles</span></p> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XXIX_GREEK_LITERATURE">CHAPTER XXIX. GREEK LITERATURE</h3> - -<h4>ORATORY AND LYRIC POETRY</h4> - -<p>Of all branches of literature there is none more closely interwoven with -political life than oratory. This art could only have been developed among -the Ionians, for no other race had the same innate taste for vivacious utterance, -or the same feeling for fluency, copiousness, and brilliancy of speech. -Nor is there any doubt that the kind of oratory which aims at influencing -the feeling and directing the resolutions of the civic body was first practised -in the cities of Ionia. But it was at Athens that Greek oratory was brought -to its true perfection. There the public oration developed side by side with -freedom of speech and the duty of speaking which was encumbent on every -Attic citizen. It seemed so intimately connected with the life of Attica -that the state of Theseus was represented as founded by it.</p> - -<p>For this reason oratory was not the subject of a special study that could -be conceived of apart from public life, but the simple expression of practical -experience and statesman-like prudence; for at that period men could not -have imagined a popular leader who was not at the same time a statesman -proved in peace and war and had not won by his public career the right to -be listened to by his fellow citizens. And as oratory grew into a power -which dominated the life of the community, so language itself was advanced -to a new stage in development, when Athens became the centre of the world. -What grew out of the local dialect was a new idiom, in which the power -inherent in the Greek language first came to its full maturity by becoming -the vehicle of Attic culture.</p> - -<p>The Greek language had undergone a many-sided development in Ionia. -The Ionic dialect was the repository not only of the Homeric and post-Homeric -epics and hymns, but of the whole treasure of elegiac and iambic poetry. -Ionia was the first country to avail herself largely of the art of writing. -This was first put to use in connection with the art of the country; the epic -poems which had been composed without the aid of writing, and had become -the property of the nation, were by its aid disseminated, cast into permanent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">[493]</a></span> -form, and continued. Reading and writing were first introduced into the -schools of the Rhapsodists, which is the reason why Homer himself is represented -as a schoolmaster; and when the later epic poets—Arctinus, Lesches, -and others—who sang in Ionia after the beginning of the Olympiads, made -the great epic the starting-point of their own poems, in which they endeavoured -to amplify, supplement, and connect the substance of the <i>Iliad</i> and -the <i>Odyssey</i>, writing was a common accomplishment among poets, and the -rhapsodic art itself took on more of the character of a science in consequence.</p> - -<p>At this point, however, and in Ionia as before, there came into being a -wholly novel method of literary statement, intended, not to rouse the emotions -of a crowded audience, but to spread abroad the results of scientific -research. Philosophers and historians wrote for the public in prose, and in -the sixth century the taste for reading and writing spread with great rapidity -through the whole of Ionia, where Samos, in particular, became a school -for the cultivation of the art of writing.</p> - -<p>At this time, however, prose did not develop in contrast to poetry; as -yet no distinction was made between the two classes of composition. The -colloquial language of ordinary life, the lively popular note, was simply -adopted by writers of fables, and from the tales of Æsop the maxims of -homely wit and wisdom passed into literature. Archilochus was fond of using -them, so was Herodotus. Men were so accustomed to learn from the poets -that even speculative philosophers set forth their theories in poetic garb, like -Xenophanes, who wandered about reciting his doctrines in the form of a -rhapsody. The narratives of Herodotus are composed with a view to stirring -the listening crowd, and the poetic character of his descriptions is -unmistakable. His style flows on with the ease of an epic recitation, his -sentences hang together loosely; poet-like he sees around him the audience -which he desires to enchant and thrill with the charm of his story. Even -in philosophy no attempt was made to reproduce the sequence of ideas in clear -and exact terms. The teachings of Heraclitus bore the character of Sibylline -oracles; he delighted in figurative language which suggested rather than -followed up an idea, and apart from the abstruseness of his thought the construction -of his sentences was so far from plain that it was impossible to -determine precisely the grammatical sequence of his discourse.</p> - -<p>Thus, great as was the wealth of Ionian literature, it had as yet no prose, -while other parts of the country were even more backward. Generally speaking, -we may say that the distinction between poetry and prose as two separate -forms of literature was not recognised by the Greeks till late. We need only -recall the hymns of Pindar to see how phrases and ideas of an entirely prosaic -order occur side by side with the loftiest flights of poetic imagery. It was -reserved for Athenian literature to create a prose style. The language was -sufficiently new and supple to take and reproduce the peculiar impress of the -Attic spirit; and this, as compared with the Ionic spirit, manifests itself in -language, as in garb and manners, by greater simplicity and smoothness of -form.</p> - -<p>The dialect spoken in Attica occupied a sort of intermediate position -among the dialects of the various tribes of Greece, and was therefore admirably -fitted to become the medium of communication among all educated -Greeks. For, although closely akin to Ionic, the Attic dialect had remained -free from many Ionic peculiarities developed in the islands and on the further -coast—particularly from the tendency to soften the vowel sounds.</p> - -<p>Side by side with the eloquence which subserved political ends and was -designed to guide the masses, there developed in Athens the speech of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">[494]</a></span> -law courts, which from the outset was more strictly in accordance with regular -rules and bore more likeness to a literary exercise, by reason of the rise of a -class of writers who composed pleas for others. For it was the law in Attica -that every man must conduct his own case, so that even those who had their -speeches composed by counsel were themselves obliged to deliver them. -Accordingly the personality of the orator, which carried such weight in political -speeches, fell completely into the background; he was a mere writer of -orations (<i>logographos</i>), and dealt with public instead of private affairs. This -kind of oratory entered into much closer relations with sophistry, because the -latter aimed at giving the mind such versatility as would enable it to handle -with skill any subject presented to it and to discover in each the greatest -variety of interesting matter.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/p494.jpg" width="500" height="255" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">A Greek Orator</span></p> -</div> - -<p>A peculiar kind of public oration which attained to importance in the -Athens of Pericles was the speech in honour of citizens who had fallen in -battle. By a special statute which dates from the time of Cimon, a speech -of this character was associated with a public funeral; and it was the custom -to commission the most approved orator of the day to deliver this funeral -oration in the name of the community, as an honourable distinction and -acknowledgment of the public services of the deceased. Wordy and elaborate -eulogiums did not suit the taste of the time. At such moments, when the -citizens felt themselves smitten with grievous loss, it seemed a worthier task -to bid them take courage, to turn their mourning into thanksgiving, their -sorrow into joy and pride, by holding up before them the lofty interests of -the public service for which their fellow citizens had laid down their lives, -and to encourage the hearers to the same joyful self sacrifice.</p> - -<p>Considering that all the arts and sciences flourished most vigorously -during the period of the Persian wars, the fruits of which came to maturity -in the years of peace under Pericles, it may well surprise us that the lyric -art, the very one which is wont to be most closely associated with every spiritual -movement, did not keep pace with the development of the other arts; -and that the Wars of Liberation, so national, so just, and crowned, after -grievous trials, with such amazing success, found no fuller echo in popular -minstrelsy. Various circumstances combine to explain the fact.</p> - -<p>The home of Æolian lyric poetry was more remote from the agitations of -the times, and the inspiration which had called forth the poems of Alcæus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">[495]</a></span> -and Sappho a hundred years before had burnt low. Choral lyric poetry, on -the other hand, was too completely interwoven with religious worship and -earlier conditions of life, it was too much accustomed to put its art at the -service of the old families whose glories belonged to the past rather than the -present, to find itself at home in these changed times. The Theban bard, in -particular, was too deeply concerned for his native city—which had reaped -nothing but shame and misery from the Wars of Liberation—and for Delphi—which -had from the first looked with disfavour on the national aspirations -after liberty—to appreciate dispassionately the glories of the new era, though -he was too large hearted and liberal minded to refuse the victorious city of -Athens its meed of admiration and praise in song. The Thebans punished -Pindar for calling Athens “the pillar -of Hellas”; the Athenians rewarded -him, rightly esteeming his -tribute a triumph of the good cause. -In Sparta nothing was done to celebrate -the Wars of Liberation. The -Spartan constitution allowed no freedom -of intellectual life, and furnished -too little in the way of comfort and -contentment to prove a favourable -soil for poetry.</p> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/p495.jpg" width="250" height="400" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Comedian</span></p> -</div> - -<p>In the elegy, the oldest form of -Greek lyric—so perfect an expression -of the Ionic spirit in its varied measures -and uses—a new form had been -evolved in Ionia itself, side by side -with the older one in which Theognis -had expounded his party rancour and -Solon his statesman-like wisdom—a -lighter form which touched upon life -in accents untinged by grief, the song -of joyous conviviality, giving the gaiety -of the banquet a higher consecration -by the introduction of ethical -ideas. “To drink, to jest, to bear a -just mind,” sang Ion, and brought -public affairs gracefully into the conversation. -Dionysius the Athenian, -a statesman of note in the age of -Pericles, associated himself with Ion -in this form of verse, and the lighter kind of elegy so appealed to the -intellectual character of contemporary Athens that even Sophocles and Æschylus -composed elegies of this sort. The fifth century was so rich in life -and movement that these occasional verses were produced in great abundance; -the epigram itself is no more than a subsidiary kind of elegiac verse. -Its concise form was due to its original purpose, which was to serve as an inscription -on some public monument, and it is therefore more closely connected -with the great events of the time than any other kind of poetry. Simonides -of Ceos was esteemed above all other Greeks as a writer of occasional verse -in the best sense of the term, so much so that Sparta commissioned the -Ionian poet to sing the praise of her Leonidas. With inimitable felicity he -immortalised the events of the Wars of Liberation in brief pregnant epigrams<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">[496]</a></span> -inscribed on monuments of every sort, sang the praises of the fallen in elegies, -and celebrated the days of Artemisium and Marathon in grand cantatas which -were performed by festal choirs.</p> - -<p>The state did what it could to advance the cause of art. It offered poets -brilliant opportunities for distinguishing themselves at the celebrations held -in honour of its victories, and gave prizes for the best performances. As -Themistocles had been assisted by Simonides, so Cimon was assisted by -the genius of Ion, who in like manner laboured to hand down his fame to -posterity. Pericles was led by his own tastes as well as by political considerations -to do all that lay in his power to foster the art of song in Athens. -For this purpose he introduced the musical competitions at the Panathenæa, -and so summoned all men of talent to vie publicly one with another. He -himself was the organiser and lawgiver in this department, and settled with -profound artistic knowledge the manner in which the singers and cithara-players -should appear at the festivals. If in spite of all these efforts lyric -poetry did not take the place we might have anticipated in the Athens of -Pericles, and Simonides found no worthy successors, the principal reason -must be sought in the fact that another stronger and richer voice of poetry -arose, into which the lyric was merged and so lost its individual importance.</p> - -<p>Of all kinds of lyric poetry none was cultivated in Athens so admirably -and successfully as the dithyrambus, the chant in praise of the god Dionysus, -the giver of blessings—the branch of religious poetry which showed a capacity -for development beyond all others. Lasus of Hermione, the tutor of -Pindar, had changed this form of song (originally no more than the medium -of an enthusiastic nature worship) into an artistically constructed choral -chant and invested it with such splendour by bold and varied measures and -the rippling music of flutes, as to cast the fame of Arion, its original inventor, -into the shade. From the Peloponnesus Lasus brought the new art -to the court of the Pisistratidæ at Athens. At that time everything connected -with the worship of Dionysus was regarded with special favour, the -dithyrambus was introduced into state festivals, and wealthy citizens vied -with one another in equipping and training Bacchic choirs, composed of fifty -singers who danced circling the flaming altars of Dionysus; and no expense -was spared to procure new songs for the Attic Dionysia from the greatest -masters, such as Pindar and Simonides. The latter could boast that he had -won no less than fifty dithyrambic victories at Athens. But the evolution -of the dithyrambus did not stop there.</p> - -<p>The dithyrambus not only included every metre and rhythm known to -earlier kinds of lyric poetry, but it contained elements which tended to pass -beyond the limitations of the lyric. For the festal chorus regarded the god -whose praises they, sang as an immanent presence and, as it were, lived -through all that befell him, whether of persecution or victory; and it was -therefore but a short step to pass beyond the assumption that their audience -was acquainted with the events which formed the subject of their chants, and -to call them to mind by narration or set them forth by spectacular representation. -The leaders of the dithyrambic chorus accordingly interspersed their -singing with recitations, and thus epic and song were combined. The epic -recitation was then rendered more effective by the aid of action and costume, -the god himself was made visible in his suffering and triumph, the leader of -the chorus undertook the part, the dancers were transformed into satyrs—attendants -of the god and partakers of his fortunes; and thus from the union -of the old forms of poetry there sprang a new form, the drama, the richest -and most perfect of all.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">[497]</a></span></p> - -<p>The Greeks were by nature gifted with dramatic talent. Their natural -vivacity induced them to clothe every doubt or deliberation in the form of -a dialogue. Thus even in Homer we find the germ of the drama, which now -reaped the benefit of the entire evolution of the older art methods. For -all that dance and song had invented in the way of balanced rhythm, effective -metre, and poetic imagery, was here united, enlivened by the art of -mimicry, which made the person of the actor the instrument of artistic exposition, -and warmed by the joyous fires of the Bacchic festival.</p> - -<p>The cycle of representation could not but be limited so long as the -action was confined by ceremonial considerations to the subjects offered by -the worship of Bacchus. The Greeks therefore went a step farther and in -place of the fortunes of Bacchus took other subjects equally well calculated -to arouse lively sympathy, and thus (when this form of art had been invented) -there flowed in an abundance of materials and fertile themes, the -storehouse of Homeric and post-Homeric epos was flung open, the national -heroes were introduced to the nation in a novel and striking guise, and -a vast field of activity was opened to dramatic art.</p> - -<p>This advance had already been made beyond the borders of Attica; for -before the time of Clisthenes the hero Adrastus had been substituted for -Dionysus, and it may be that a similar enlargement of the scope of dithyrambic -poetry had also taken place at Corinth. But it was at Athens alone -that these rudiments of the drama reached their full development. As the -epic had mirrored the heroic days of old, as the lyric kept pace with the -development of the nation for three centuries after the decline of the epic, -so the drama was the form of poetry which began to flower at the moment -when Athens became the pivot of Greek history. Originating from humble -beginnings in the time of Solon, it grew in magnitude and importance with -the growth of the city’s greatness, and is associated with the history of -Athens in every stage of its development.</p> - -<h4>TRAGEDY</h4> - -<p>Thespis was the founder of Attic tragedy, for it was he who introduced -the alternation of recitation and song and arranged the stage and costumes. -The story goes that Solon had small liking for the new art, believing the -violent excitement of the emotions by the representation of imaginary -events to be prejudicial, but that the tyrants favoured this popular diversion, -like everything else connected with the democratic worship of Dionysus, -because it suited the purpose of their policy to provide brilliant -entertainments for the population at the expense of wealthy citizens. -About 550 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> they summoned the chorus leader from Icaria to the city, -competitions between rival tragic choruses were introduced, and the stage -near the black poplar in the market place became a centre of Attic festivity.</p> - -<p>With the restoration of peace all civic festivals took a higher flight, -the various constituents fell apart, tragedy rejected the baser elements of -Bacchic festivity and assumed greater dignity, it was cast into definite -artistic forms by Pratinas and Chœrilus, and became freer and freer in its -choice of subject. The old element was not abandoned for all that, the -rustic youth would not be deprived of their accustomed masquerade, and -the people were left their satyr choruses. But the two forms, which could -not be combined without mutual detriment, were separated, and thus the -satyr drama grows up side by side with tragedy. Pratinas, who migrated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">[498]</a></span> -to Athens from Phlius, gave these plays their typical form, and they retained -their original character of Bacchic jollity, their rustic and homely -features, and the merry rout of the satyrs with their wild dances and rude -jests. Thus these elements were preserved to literature and yet prevented -from molesting or hampering the further development of tragedy.</p> - -<p>The period in which Athens took her place as a great power and sent -her triremes across the sea to support the Ionian revolt, likewise constituted -an epoch in the history of Attic tragedy. About that time the wooden -scaffoldings from which the audience had looked on at the plays of Pratinas, -Chœrilus, Phrynichus, and the youthful Æschylus, gave way; and the -drama had already attained such consequence -in Athens that the building -of a magnificent theatre was taken in -hand. A permanent stage of stone -was built within the precincts sacred -to Dionysus on the southern declivity -of the citadel, and seats for spectators, -rising one above the other in semi-circular -rows, were built into the rock -of the Acropolis in such wise that the -audience commanded a view of Hymettus -and the Ilissus on the left and -of the harbour on the right.</p> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/p498.jpg" width="250" height="391" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Poet</span></p> -</div> - -<p>Meanwhile the artistic structure of -tragedy was steadily advancing towards -perfection. The subject-matter -grew more varied, music and the dance -were used in a greater variety of forms, -female characters were added. Nevertheless -the lyric element remained predominant -down to the time of the -Persian wars; and Phrynichus, the -greatest predecessor of Æschylus, was -most admired for his charming choral -songs. It was with the great drama -of the War of Liberation that the theatrical -drama began to unfold its full -powers, and nowhere do we perceive -more clearly the manifestation of the newly-acquired energy which pervaded -every department of Attic life.</p> - -<p>The man destined to give utterance in tragic art to the spirit of the great -age was Æschylus, the son of Euphorion of Eleusis, a scion of an ancient -family, through which he claimed association with one of the most venerable -sanctuaries of the land. This is why he calls himself the pupil of Demeter, -thus testifying that the solemn services of the temple at Eleusis had not -failed to exercise a lasting influence upon his mind. As a boy he witnessed -the fall of the tyrants: when come to man’s estate he fought at Marathon, -being then thirty-five years old, and he himself declared, in the inscription -on his tombstone, that he took pride, not in his tragedies, but in his share in -that great day, though there he had been but a citizen among citizens, while -as a poet he was without peer among his contemporaries. For it was he -whose creative genius laid the foundations of Attic tragedy, making all previous -achievements look like imperfect attempts.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">[499]</a></span></p> - -<p>He introduced a second actor on the stage, and thus made the play a real -drama, by which means lively colloquy first became possible. Dialogue, for -which the Athenians were singularly well qualified by their love of talking, -readiness and acute reasoning faculty, was thus transferred to the stage, and -this gave it a wholly novel interest. The language of the dialogue was in -the main that of ordinary life, while older phonetic principles prevailed in the -chorus, which was thus less familiar to the ear and produced an impression -of solemnity and dignity which suited well with its character of the oldest -element of tragedy and the religious centre about which it had crystallised. -The choruses were shortened to allow the action to proceed more vigorously, -the characters of the <i>dramatis personæ</i> were more sharply defined, a distinction -was made between leading and secondary parts, and the parts of -secondary characters of lower station bore the stamp of the common people, -as distinguished from the heroic figures of the play. The stage itself was -brought to a higher pitch of perfection. It was effectively fitted up as an -ideal scene by Agatharchus, the son of Eudemus, an artist from Samos, who -cultivated scene painting scientifically as a branch of art, and mechanism -was pressed into the service to raise shades from the depths of the earth or -cause gods to hover in the air by artificial means. The spectacle as a whole -gained in solemn dignity no less than in spiritual import and moral significance.</p> - -<p>The principal aim of the earlier poets had been to express and induce -emotional moods; but the object of the drama was to present the legends -of olden times completely in their general connection, and for this purpose -Attic drama was so arranged that three tragedies were joined to form a single -whole, in order to display upon a harmonious plan the successive developments -of the mythical story, and these three tragedies, which were so many -acts of one great drama, were followed by a Satyr-drama as afterpiece. This -led back from the affecting solemnity of the tragedies to the popular sphere -of the Dionysian festival, where the diverting adventures witnessed and enacted -by the satyrs restored the minds of the spectators to innocent mirth. -It was a healthy trait of popular sentiment which thus mingled jest and -earnest, and one of which we see other evidences in vase painting and the -sculptures of the temples.</p> - -<p>Such was the tetralogy of Attic drama, which, if not invented by Æschylus -yet received its artistic consummation at his hands. The dithyrambic -chorus was divided into groups, each consisting of twelve (and later of -fifteen) persons, so that there was a special chorus for each part of the tetralogy, -to follow sympathetically the action of the <i>dramatis personæ</i> and fill -up the pauses with dance and song. The <i>orchestra</i>, where the chorus was -placed, lay between the stage and the spectators, just as the chorus itself -symbolically occupied an intermediate position between the audience and -the heroes of the drama.</p> - -<p>The Greeks were accustomed to look upon the poets as their teachers, -and no man could gain recognition as a poet among them who had only -talent, imagination, and artistic skill to show as proofs of his poetic vocation; -this required a thorough education of heart and mind and clear insight into -things human and divine. Hence the calling of a poet laid claim to the -whole man and the man’s whole life, and none conceived of it more nobly -than Æschylus. Like Pindar he takes his hearers into the very heart of -the myth, drawing out its moral earnestness and illuminating it with the -light of historical experience. Humanity, as represented by Æschylus in -the Titan Prometheus, with its constancy through struggles and misery, its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500">[500]</a></span> -proud self-respect, its indefatigable inventive genius, with its tendency, too, -to rashness and arrogant boasting, is the generation of his own contemporaries, -with their reckless aspirations; but no wisdom avails man save that -which comes from Zeus, no skill and intelligence save that which is based -on devout morality. Thus, without petty premeditation the poet becomes -a true teacher of the people; in an age of incipient scepticism he endeavours -to uphold the religion of his forefathers, to purify popular conceptions and to -draw forth the kernel of wholesome truth from the many-hued tinsel of popular -fables. It was the mission of the poet to maintain harmony between -popular tradition and advancing knowledge.</p> - -<p>But the poets lived in the midstream of civic life, and it is not to be -supposed that, in a city like Athens, men who at public festivals set forth the -creations of their genius in the public eye, could remain indifferent to -the questions of their own day. They were obliged of necessity to belong -to one party or another, and if they were sincere and candid, their views as -to what was for the good of the commonwealth could not but appear in their -works. Their choice of subject was still limited in the main to mythology; -man’s strength of will, his deeds and sufferings, the contradiction between -laws human and divine, were still set forth by preference in the characters -of the Homeric age of which the tradition survived in the epos. These -were the prototypes of the human race, their sufferings were the sufferings -and entanglements incident to the whole human race; in contemplating -them the spectators were to be freed from what was personal in their -sorrows and cares, the narrow bounds of their self-consciousness were to -be widened, and they were to receive from the performance not only the -highest artistic pleasure, but a cheering and healing purification of their -hearts. These heroes of olden times were in harmony with the ideal character -which the dramatists were bent on giving to the whole world of the -stage; but the impression was none the less striking because the audience -was transported into a dim and legendary past. We feel the spirit of the -warrior of Marathon in the warlike plays of Æschylus, and the spectator of his -<i>Seven against Thebes</i> glowed with eagerness to strike a blow for his country.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile Phrynichus had ventured to put modern events on the stage, -and his <i>Fall of Miletus</i> and <i>Phœnissæ</i> were no doubt fraught with political -intention. Æschylus followed the example of his predecessor in a far -grander style when, four years after the production of the <i>Phœnissæ</i> of -Phrynichus, he produced his drama of the <i>Persæ</i>. He depicted the fall of -the Great King. But with fine artistic instinct he chose Persia, not Attica, -for the scene of his tragedy. He brings before our eyes the consequences -of the battle, its reaction upon the hostile empire, in its own capital. -Darius is conjured from the grave that in the person of the pious and -prudent ruler may be set forth the glory of the inviolate Persian empire, -while his successor returns from Hellas shorn of all dignity, a warning example -of the ruin which foolish arrogance brings upon all sovereign power. -The whole composition is pervaded by the idea of retribution, which had -been awakened in the Greek mind by the Persian wars.</p> - -<p>In the tragedy of Phrynichus, Themistocles is extolled above all other -men, while Æschylus only alludes to him in passing as the inventor of a -subtle stratagem. On the other hand the latter gives a detailed account of -the fight on Psyttalea, so exalting the fame of Aristides, who contributed -substantially to the victory of Salamis, not by sea, but by land.</p> - -<p>The <i>Persæ</i> was the middle play of a trilogy and comes to no final conclusion. -The shade of Darius hints at other defeats in the future, and at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_501" id="Page_501">[501]</a></span> -the struggles of Platæa. From <i>Glaucus</i>, the third play of the trilogy, an -allusion to Himera has been preserved. The first part, <i>Phineus</i>, takes its -name from the mythical seer who revealed to the Argonauts their coming -voyage to the land of the northern barbarians. Hence, it is extremely probable -that all three plays were linked together by a single idea, the idea -(present to all thinking men of the time) of the great struggle between barbarian -and Greek, between Asia and Europe, which had its mythical prelude -in the voyage of the Argonauts, and came to its glorious issue on the battlefields -of Greece and Sicily. In like manner Herodotus had conceived of the -Persian War as one link in a great chain of historical development, and Pindar -had associated Salamis, Platæa, and Himera as ranking equally among -the glorious days of the Greeks; and we may be sure that the trilogy of the -<i>Persæ</i> would not have been acted at the court of Hiero unless it had fully -satisfied the tyrant’s love of praise.</p> - -<p>Æschylus represented the legendary history of the house of Pelops in the -three plays of the <i>Oresteia</i>, and that of the royal house of Thebes and the -Thracian king, Lycurgus, each in a cycle of three dramas; he worked up -the legend of Prometheus so that the conflicts and discords of the several -parts find a satisfactory solution in a larger order of things; and thus the -poet wove legend and history into a single piece. Prehistoric and present -times, East and West, the mother-country and the colonies, all form parts -of a grand picture, of a chain of events linked together by prophecy and -reciprocal reaction. The poet looks forward and backward, and prophet-like -interprets the course of history, seeing the inner necessity revealed to the eye -of the spirit. He uplifts the hearts of his people by setting forth the waxing -power of the Greeks, the waning might of the barbarians on every side, without -a taint of scorn or malicious triumph to vitiate the moral majesty of his -work. At the same time he moderates the pride of victory, by pointing to -the guilt which brought about the Persian overthrow and to the eternal laws -of divine justice, the observance of which is the inexorable condition of the -prosperity of the Greeks.</p> - -<p>In the tragedies on mythical subjects there was no lack of passages which -permitted of or actually challenged application to the events of the day. -Next to Aristides, it was Cimon to whom the muse of Æschylus did homage. -Like Cimon, the poet was the champion of a common Hellenism, of -patriarchal customs, the rule of the best, the discipline of the good old times, -and so when the waves of popular agitation rose higher and higher till they -threatened the very Areopagus, the last bulwark, the septuagenarian poet led -his muse into the strife of conflicting parties and exerted his utmost powers -to impress upon his fellow-citizens the sacred dignity of the Areopagus as a -divine institution and to warn them of the consequences of sinful license. -The <i>Eumenides</i> of Æschylus is a brilliant example of the way in which a -great imaginative work may be made to serve a special purpose and express -a particular tendency without losing anything of its transparent lucidity or -of the sublimity which stamps it as a masterpiece for all time. But though -the Areopagus remained unmolested as a court of justice (and we should like -to fancy the poem of Æschylus an influential factor in the matter) the poet -felt alien and solitary in the city where democracy had completely gained the -ascendant. This was not the freedom for which he had bled in the field; -the band of those who had fought in the Wars of Liberation dwindled and -dwindled; the <i>Oresteia</i> was the last work he produced in Athens; and he -died in his seventieth year at Gela in Sicily (456 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>), after a residence -there of about two years.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502">[502]</a></span></p> - -<p>The day of the warriors of Marathon was past, and the new age, the age -of Pericles, found exponents in a younger generation, and on the Attic stage -in Sophocles. Like Æschylus he was of noble birth, as is indicated by his -appointment to be a priest of the hero, Halon, but his father was a craftsman -and the head of a great smithy for the manufacture of weapons. He -was born in the metalliferous district of Colonus about <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> 496 and grew -up amidst the delightful rural scenery of the valley of the Cephisus, in the -shade of the sacred olives that had witnessed the first beginnings of national -history, yet near the capital and near the sea, which he overlooked -from the crags of Colonus, and where he saw the port grow up during his -boyhood years. In the early bloom of youthful beauty he led the dance at -the festival held in honour of the victory of Salamis; twelve years later he -entered the lists as a rival of the great poet Æschylus, whose inspiring art -had attracted him to follow the same path to poetic fame. It was a day of -unwonted excitement throughout Athens when all men awaited the issue -of the contest between the ambitious young poet and Æschylus, then close -upon sixty years of age and twice already the wearer of the laurel crown. -The occasion was the same Dionysian festival on which Cimon, having brought -the Thracian campaign to a glorious close, came up from the Piræus and -offered his thank-offerings to the gods in the orchestra of the theatre. The -people were in raptures over the relics of Theseus which he had brought back, -and amidst the assenting acclamations of the assembled citizens the archon -Apsephion appointed Cimon and his fellow-generals umpires, as being the -worthiest representatives of the ten tribes. The result was that the prize was -awarded to the <i>Triptolemus</i> trilogy of Sophocles.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> -<img src="images/p502.jpg" width="450" height="239" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Representation of a Reception of Bacchus</span></p> -</div> - -<p>There was no opposition between the art of Sophocles and that of his -predecessor. The former looked up reverentially to the man whose original -genius had led the way to the consummation of tragic art. Envy and -jealousy were foreign to his lovable disposition. But he was an independent-minded -pupil of his great master, and a man of very different endowments. -His genius was gentler, simpler, and more tranquil, the extremes of pathos -and pomp were repugnant to his taste. Accordingly he toned down the force -of the theatrical diction which Æschylus had introduced, and, without degrading -his characters to the common level, tried to make them more human, so -that the spectators could feel more closely akin to them. This method is -intimately connected with the altered treatment of the subjects of tragedy.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503">[503]</a></span> -In the treatment of tragic legend Æschylus reached the greatest heights to -which the genius of Greece ever soared; in this sphere no man could surpass -him. But Sophocles realised that the legends could not always be presented -to the people with the same breadth of handling without their interest being -gradually exhausted. It was therefore necessary to develop more vital action -within the various tragedies, to conceive the characters more definitely, and -excite a more vivid psychological interest.</p> - -<p>Æschylus had already treated the trilogy in such a manner that it was -not bound to the thread of a single myth, and the combination, if not dissolved -by Sophocles, was so far loosened as to make each tragedy of the -three complete in itself, leading up to its appropriate close within the limits -of the action and capable of being judged as a separate composition. The -result was much greater freedom, the motive of each play could be treated -in fuller detail and the poetic picture enhanced by the prominence given -to secondary characters. Thus, in his treatment of the legend of Orestes, -Sophocles suffers the act of matricide and its perpetrator to fall into the -background and gives quite a new turn to the familiar subject by making -Electra the leading character in place of her brother Orestes, showing the whole -course of the action as reflected in her spirit, and thus securing an opportunity -of creating a study of varied emotion and a type of womanly heroism -to which the picture of her sister’s dissimilar temperament serves as an -admirable foil.</p> - -<p>In order to take full advantage of the resources of a more refined and -advanced style of art, Sophocles introduced a third actor on the stage and -thus opened the way to incomparably greater vividness of treatment no less -than to much greater variety of colouring and grouping in the <i>dramatis personæ</i>. -Moreover, Sophocles, though an adept in the song and dance, was -the first poet to abandon the practice of appearing in the parts he had created. -From that time the professions of poet and actor were distinct, and the art -of the latter acquired greater independent value. A less active part, outside -the scope of the action, was assigned to the chorus, and the dramatic -element became more significantly prominent as the nucleus of the tragedy. -Æschylus himself recognised the advance, for he not only adopted the improvements -in the outward setting of tragedy thus effected, but spurred on -by his younger rival, rose to the height of a maturer art in his dramas.</p> - -<p>To the influence of Sophocles was due the increased fondness for Attic -subjects; his <i>Triptolemus</i> extolled Attica as the home of a superior civilisation, -which spread victoriously from that centre to distant lands, he -brings the legend of Œdipus to an harmonious close on Attic soil, at -Colonus, his own birth-place, and even in the <i>Electra</i> he manifests the Athenian -point of view by taking the overthrow of unlawful dominion and the -successful struggle for liberty as the purpose of the action.</p> - -<p>His tragedies contributed more than any other works to give spiritual -significance, as Pericles strove to do, to the age of Athenian might and splendour. -Like Pericles, Sophocles endeavoured to maintain the ascendency of -the ancient worship and customs of the country, the unwritten precepts of -sacred law, while at the same time mastering every step of intellectual progress -and every enlargement of the bounds of knowledge. His diction bears -the stamp of a trained and powerful intellect, which often carries terseness -to the verge of obscurity; but with what skill does he preserve the charm -of graceful expression, what a spirit of felicitous harmony pervades all his -works! He was a man after Pericles’ own heart, and his personal intimacy -with the latter is proved by the gay and unaffected manner in which the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504">[504]</a></span> -statesman treats the poet as his colleague in the camp. Sophocles was never -a partisan or party writer in the same sense as Æschylus, and as Phrynichus -seems to have been, but his art was a mirror of the noblest tendencies of the -time, a glorified version of the Athens of Pericles. We meet with his clear -and sound judgment on civil affairs in every passage in which he praises -prudent counsel as the safeguard of states, and the Attic people rightly appreciated -him as the true poet of his age, for none ever won so many prizes -or enjoyed his fame so unmolested as Sophocles, nor could Euripides (who -though only fifteen or sixteen years his junior belonged to a totally different -era) gain any success as his rival until the age of Pericles was past. And -even to him Sophocles was never obliged to yield the palm.</p> - -<h4>COMEDY</h4> - -<p>Side by side with tragedy, and from the same germ, <i>i.e.</i>, from the Bacchic -festivities, comedy developed. It is full sister to tragedy, but grew up -longer in rustic freedom and fell much later under the discipline and training -of the city; and for that reason it retained more faithfully the character -of its source. For its origin was the jollity of the vintage, the merry-making -of country folk over the increase of another year, which is found in all wine-growing -districts. Swarms of masked holiday-makers sang the praises of -the genial god and in tipsy merriment played all kinds of jokes and tricks -on every one who met the procession and gave an opening for pranks and -raillery, the events of the day were freely exploited, and he who hit upon -the merriest quips was rewarded by the hearty laughter and applause of a -grateful audience.</p> - -<p>Thus the autumnal festival was kept in Attica in its day, and more particularly -in the district of Icaria, not far from Marathon. The worship of -Dionysus as there celebrated made it in a manner the nursery of the whole -body of Athenian drama, for Thespis came from Icaria. Thither, too, came -Susarion of Megara, bringing from his native place the rude wit of Megarian -farce and setting the fashion which remained in vogue for the time in Attica. -From his school arose Mæson, who was very popular in the time of the -Pisistratidæ. The next step was the transference of the rustic stage to the -capital, where it was recognised by the government as a part of the Dionysian -festival and supported out of the public funds. This took place in the -time of Cimon, after the Persian wars, and the energetic temper which at -that time pervaded the life of Athens proved its vigour by transforming the -rude, half-foreign farce into a well-organised form of art, full of significance -and thoroughly Attic in character, of which we must regard Chionides and -Magnes of Icaria as the founders.</p> - -<p>When once the Icarian drama was naturalised in the home of tragedy -many of the concomitants of the tragic drama were transferred to it, public -contests in comedy were instituted by the state, prizes were adjudicated and -awarded, and the cost of the chorus was defrayed from the public funds; -moreover it was similarly arranged in such matters as the stage, the dialogue, -the chorus, and the number of actors, without, however, forfeiting its peculiar -characteristics. For tragedy carried the spectators into a loftier sphere, and -strove by every means at her command to present figures and conditions on -a grander scale than that of ordinary life, while comedy maintained the -closest relations with contemporary and common life. It remained more -unaffected in dance, versification, and diction no less than in poetic design;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505">[505]</a></span> -nay, to such an extent did it retain its topical character and its adaptation -to the events of the hour that the poet used the choir to interrupt the course -of the action entirely in order to discuss his personal affairs or the burning -questions of the time with the audience in lengthy <i>parabases</i>.</p> - -<p>This kind of dramatic composition could only flourish in a democratic -atmosphere, and it was associated with the democracy in every stage of its -development. Occupied from the outset with the preposterous and ridiculous -side of life, it castigated all follies, defects, and weaknesses, and amidst the -variety and publicity of the civic life of Athens it could never lack either -subjects for mirth or a witty, ingenious, and laughter-loving audience ready -to catch at every allusion. But it also served the purpose of bringing abuses -and contradictions in public life to light. This was the serious side of its -calling, for unless inspired by a serious and patriotic temper its humour -would have grown dull, ineffective, and contemptible. The aim of the comic -poets was to be not mere frivolous provokers of mirth, but teachers of men, -and leaders of the people, even as the tragic poets were; and in an age of -feverish excitement the severest of their censures were directed against new-fangled -ways. Comedy was aristocratic in character, it championed native -custom against foreign ways, it ruthlessly denounced every evil tendency in -life and art, and every instance of misconduct or abuse of power. It cherished -the memory of the heroes of the Wars of Liberation and encouraged -others to emulate their example, and it was fond of subjects which had some -bearing on important contemporary events, as we see in the <i>Thracian Women</i> -of Cratinus, which was associated with the establishment of colonies in Thrace.</p> - -<p>The founders of comedy as an Attic art are Crates and Cratinus. Cratinus -was slightly younger than Æschylus, and like him was endowed with original -creative genius, but his taste for unrestrained freedom and his inexhaustible -fund of humour marked him out as a born comic poet, while his rude -veracity qualified him to make comedy a power in the state. It became so -about the time that Pericles came into power, and though Cratinus was not -the sort of man to commit himself unreservedly to one or other of the contesting -parties, we know that in his <i>Archilochi</i> (a comedy in which the -chorus was composed of scoffers like Archilochus) he brought an Attic -citizen upon the stage immediately after the death of Cimon and put in his -mouth a lament for “the divine man,” “the most hospitable, the best of all -Panhellenes, with whom he had hoped to spend a serene old age—but now -he had passed away before him.” The mighty Cratinus was succeeded by -Aristophanes and Eupolis, both unmistakably akin to him in mind and -feeling, but gentler, more moderate, and stricter in their adherence to the -rules of art. But Aristophanes alone combined with these qualities a wealth -of creative invention in nothing inferior to the genius of Cratinus.</p> - -<h4>THE GLORY OF ATHENS</h4> - -<p>All these men,—philosophers and historians, orators and poets,—each -one of whom marks an epoch in the development of art and science, were not -merely contemporaries, but lived together in the same city, some born there -and nourished from their youth on the glories of their native place, others -attracted thither by the same glory; nor was their association merely local, -they laboured, consciously or unconsciously, at a common task. For whether -they were personally intimate or not with the great statesman who was the -centre of the Attic world, nay, even if they were numbered among his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_506" id="Page_506">[506]</a></span> -opponents, they could not but render him substantial help in his life-work -of making Athens the intellectual capital of Greece.</p> - -<p>Here whatever germs of culture were introduced from foreign parts -gained new life, the Ionian study of countries and peoples became history -as soon as Herodotus came into touch with Athens; the Peloponnesian -dithyrambus grew into tragedy at Athens, the farce of Megara into Attic -comedy; here the philosophy of Ionia and Magna Græcia met to supplement -each other’s defects and prepare the way for the development of Attic -philosophy; even sophistry was nowhere turned to such account as at -Athens. In earlier times every district, city, and island had had its peculiar -school and tendencies, but now all vigorous intellectual movements -crowded together at Athens; local and tribal -peculiarities of temperament and dialect -were reconciled; and as the drama (the -most Attic of all the arts) absorbed all -art-methods into itself, to reproduce them -in organic harmony, so from all the achievements -of the genius of Greece there grew -a general culture which was at once the -heritage of Attica and of the Greek nation. -Vehemently as other states might oppose -the political predominance of Athens, none -could deny that the city where Æschylus, -Sophocles, Herodotus, Zeno, Anaxagoras, -Protagoras, Crates, and Cratinus all laboured -together, was the focus of all lofty aspirations, -the heart of the nation, Hellas in -Hellas.</p> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 200px;"> -<img src="images/p506.jpg" width="200" height="359" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Herodotus</span></p> -</div> - -<p>Slight as is our knowledge of the personal -relations of these great contemporaries, -there are a few traditions from which -we can gather some idea of the intercourse -of Pericles with the most eminent among -them and of their intercourse with one -another. We know that Pericles equipped -the chorus for a theatrical performance in -which Æschylus carried off the prize. We -know of the friendship of Herodotus and -Sophocles, and we actually possess the beginning of some occasional verses -addressed to Herodotus by the poet, then in the fifty-fifth year of his age; -a letter in elegiac metre dating from the time when the historian migrated -to Thurii, and withdrew from the delightful society of the best men of -Athens. Sophocles was before all things sociable, and we hear that he -formed a circle of men skilled in the fine arts and dedicated it to the -Muses, and that it held regular meetings. This reciprocal stimulus resulted -in a steady advance in all directions. In every branch of art we can trace -the epochs of development as surely as in the structure of the trimetre of the -drama. But as, generally speaking, Greek art owed its unfaltering progress -to the fact that the younger artists did not endeavour to gain a start by rash -attempts at originality, but held fast the good in all things and readily -adopted and perfected methods that had once gained acceptance, so in Athens -we see the elder masters gratefully praised and honoured by their pupils, -like Æschylus by Sophocles and Cratinus by Aristophanes.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_507" id="Page_507">[507]</a></span></p> - -<p>It is one of the most notable characteristics of the intellectual life of -Athens that her eminent men, however high a view they took of their own -calling, did not owe their pre-eminence in it to any narrow-minded restriction -of their interest to their own peculiar sphere. This versatility was -rendered possible by the vitality for which the contemporaries of Pericles -were remarkable, and it seems as though the brilliant prime of the Greek -nation manifested itself most plainly in the frequent combination of extraordinary -mental and physical powers. We cannot but admire the men who -retained their vital force unimpaired to extreme old age and advanced in -the practice of their art to the last.</p> - -<p>Sophocles, after having composed 113 dramas, is said to have read the -chorus of the <i>Œdipus at Colonus</i> aloud, to disprove the rumour that he was -incapable of managing his own affairs by reason of the infirmities of old age. -Cratinus was ninety-one when he produced <i>Dame Bottle</i>, the saucy comedy -with which he defeated Aristophanes, who had looked upon him as a rival -whose day was over. Simonides, Xenophanes, Parmenides, and Zeno, were -likewise examples of healthy and vigorous old age. Timocreon combined -the skill of an athlete with the profession of a poet. Polus, Sophocles’ -favourite actor, was competent to take the leading part in eight tragedies -in four days. Lastly, the sterling capacity and versatility of the masters -of those days is shown by the fact that though extraordinarily prolific -authors of imaginative works, they spared time to strive after scientific certainty -concerning the problems and resources of their art, and combined -absolute self-possession and the love of theoretical study with the enthusiasm -of the artist temperament. Thus Lasus, the inventor of the perfected -form of the dithyrambus, was at the same time an accomplished critic and one -of the first writers on the theory of music; and Sophocles himself wrote -a treatise on the tragic chorus, to set forth his views as to its place and -purpose in tragedy. In like manner the most distinguished architects -wrote scientific treatises on the principles of their art, Polyclitus worked -out the theory of numbers which lies at the root of plastic symmetry, and -Agatharchus the principles of optics, according to which he had arranged the -decoration of the stage. In so doing he took the first step towards the -teaching of perspective, which was subsequently developed by Democritus -and Anaxagoras.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_29b" id="enanchor_29b"></a><a href="#endnote_29b">b</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-29.jpg" width="500" height="233" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Aristophanes</span></p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_508" id="Page_508">[508]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-30.jpg" width="500" height="262" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XXX_THE_OUTBREAK">CHAPTER XXX. THE OUTBREAK -OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR</h3> - -<p>No admirer of Greek civilisation can turn -from the peaceful age of Pericles and follow -the next step in Grecian history without a -feeling of sadness, for he has to see the most cultured people of antiquity torn -by internal dissensions and interstate jealousies; he has to see the people who -represent the acme of culture harassed for a generation by an imbecile strife, -which shall leave it so weakened that it will become an easy prey to outside -foes. In every succeeding generation, when men have studied the history -of classical times, the same feeling of amazement has prevailed, and has often -found expression in contemplating this period of the Peloponnesian War; -but it remained for John Ruskin to invent the vivid phrase which in three -words epitomises the entire story, when he speaks of this amazing conflict as -the “suicide of Greece.” It was in truth nothing less than that.</p> - -<p>There was no great question at issue between the Athenian and Spartan -peoples that must be decided by the arbitrament of arms or otherwise. -There was no reason outside the temperament of the people themselves why -the Athenians on the one hand, and the Spartans on the other, might not -have gone on indefinitely, each people pre-eminent in its own territory, and -each standing aloof from the other; but that interstate jealousy which was -responsible for so many things in Grecian history came as a determining influence -which at last could not longer be controlled. Persian might, which -dared not re-enter Greece, but which longed for the overthrow of an old -enemy, urged on one side or the other, as seemed for the moment best to -serve that end. The remaining Grecian cities took sides with Athens or -Sparta according to their predilections, or their own personal enmities and -jealousies, and there resulted a war which involved practically all the cities -of Greece, and which, after continuing for a full generation, brought Hellas -as a whole to destruction.</p> - -<h4>OUR SOURCES</h4> - -<p>The history of this war has been preserved to posterity in far greater detail -than has the history of any preceding conflict anywhere in the world. -The Athenian general Thucydides, who himself took an active part in the -earlier stages of the war, commanding forces in the field until finally he suffered -the displeasure of the Athenians, determined from the outset, as he -himself tells us, to write a complete history of the conflict which he believed -would be the most memorable of all in the annals of history. The work<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_509" id="Page_509">[509]</a></span> -which he produced has probably been more widely celebrated and more universally -applauded than any other piece of historical composition that was -ever written. All manner of extravagant things have been said about it. -Every one has heard, for example, of Macaulay’s saying that he felt he might -perhaps equal any other piece of historical writing that had ever been done -except the seventh book of Thucydides, before which he felt himself helpless. -This eulogy is of a piece with much more that has been said in similar kind -by a multitude of other critics. It has even been alleged that no historian -of a later period has ever dealt out such impartial judgment as is to be found -in the pages of Thucydides. Seemingly forgetful of the meaning of words, -critics have even assured us that no period of like extent of the world’s -history, ancient or modern, is so fully known to us as this period of the -Peloponnesian War through the history of Thucydides.</p> - -<p>To any one, who himself will take up the history of Thucydides, either -in the original or in such a translation as the admirable one of Dale, two -things will at once be apparent; in the first place it will not long be open to -doubt, to any one who is familiar with the literature of antiquity, that this -work of Thucydides, considered in relation to the time in which it was -written, is really an extraordinary production; but, in the second place, -it will be equally clear that if we are to consider the work not in comparison -with the writings of ancient authors but as a part of world-literature, -then much that has been said of it must be regarded as fulsome eulogy.</p> - -<p>To say that this work covers the period of the Peloponnesian War as no -modern period of history has been covered; to say that no modern historian -has dealt with his topic with the calm impartiality of Thucydides; to say -that no writer can hope to produce an historical narrative comparable to the -seventh book, or to any other book, of Thucydides—to say such things as -these is to abandon the broad impartial view from which alone criticism -worthy of the name is possible, and to come under the spell of other minds. -<i>The History of the Peloponnesian War</i> is a great book; as an historical composition -it is one of the greatest ever written: but when one has said that one -has said enough. Its style, by common consent, is not such as to make it a -model, and its matter is very largely the recital of bald facts with evidence -of an insight into the political motives beneath the surface, which seems extraordinary -only because the predecessors of Thucydides and some of his successors -had seemed so woefully to lack such insight. As to the impartiality -of the narrative, we must not overlook the significance of Professor Mahaffy’s -remark, that for most of the period covered in the history of Thucydides this -history itself is our sole authority. That it does, nevertheless, evince a high -degree of impartiality and a broad sweep of intellect on the part of its author -will not be questioned; but Professor Mahaffy makes an estimate, which no -one who is not fully under the spell of antiquity would think of disputing, -when he asserts his belief that such modern historians as, for example, Thirlwall, -must be accredited with at least as high a degree of impartiality as -Thucydides can claim.</p> - -<p>But all this must not be taken as in any sense denying that the work of -Thucydides is a marvellous production. Considering the time when it was -written, and that its author was a participant in many of the events which -he describes, it is astonishing that his work should be measurably free from -partiality. That it is so was, perhaps, at least in some measure, due to the -fact that Thucydides was banished from Athens, and hence wrote his history -not so much from the Athenian standpoint, as from the standpoint of a man -without a country, who was at enmity with both Spartans and Athenians.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_510" id="Page_510">[510]</a></span> -But, partial or impartial, the history of Thucydides remains, and presumably -must always remain, the sole contemporary record open to posterity of that -great struggle through which Greece, as it were, voluntarily threw away her -prestige and her power.</p> - -<p>Thucydides, to be sure, did not complete his history of the war, or, if he -did, his later chapters have not been preserved to us. The former supposition -is doubtless the correct one, because the thread of the narrative, which -Thucydides dropped so abruptly, was taken up by Xenophon, also a contemporary. -It was a not unusual custom among the ancient authors to write -important works as explicit continuations of the works of other writers. -Xenophon’s narrative of the events of the later years of the Peloponnesian -War is such a work. Like the history of Thucydides it is practically our -sole authority for the period that it covers, but, by common consent of -critics, it takes a much lower level than the work which it supplements.</p> - -<p>Xenophon was also an exile from Athens; but he differed from Thucydides -in being an ardent friend of Sparta, and his prejudices are well known -to readers of his works. One must suppose, however, that the favourite -pupil of Socrates may be depended upon for reasonable impartiality when -he deals with matters of fact. But, be this as it may, it is Xenophon, and -Xenophon alone, who tells us most that we know at first hand, not alone of -the closing years of the Peloponnesian War, but of many in the period succeeding. -We shall constantly support our narrative of the events of this period, -therefore, by references to the pages of Xenophon, as well as to those of -Thucydides.<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE ORIGIN OF THE WAR</h4> - -<p>Even before the recent hostilities at Corcyra and Potidæa, it had been -evident to reflecting Greeks that prolonged observance of the Thirty Years’ -Truce was becoming uncertain, and that the mingled hatred, fear, and admiration -which Athens inspired throughout Greece would prompt Sparta and -the Spartan confederacy to seize any favourable opening for breaking down -the Athenian power. That such was the disposition of Sparta was well understood -among the Athenian allies, however considerations of prudence and -general slowness in resolving might postpone the moment of carrying it into -effect. Accordingly not only the Samians when they revolted had applied -to the Spartan confederacy for aid, which they appear to have been prevented -from obtaining chiefly by the pacific interests then animating the -Corinthians—but also the Lesbians had endeavoured to open negotiations -with Sparta for a similar purpose, though the authorities to whom alone the -proposition could have been communicated, since it long remained secret and -was never executed—had given them no encouragement.</p> - -<p>The affairs of Athens had been administered, under the ascendency of -Pericles, without any view to extension of empire or encroachment upon -others, though with constant reference to the probabilities of war, and with -anxiety to keep the city in a condition to meet it. But even the splendid -internal ornaments, which Athens at that time acquired, were probably not -without their effect in provoking jealousy on the part of other Greeks as to -her ultimate views. The only known incident, wherein Athens had been -brought into collision with a member of the Spartan confederacy prior to the -Corcyræan dispute, was her decree passed in regard to Megara, prohibiting -the Megarians, on pain of death, from all trade or intercourse as well -with Athens as with all ports within the Athenian empire. This prohibition<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_511" id="Page_511">[511]</a></span> -was grounded on the alleged fact, that the Megarians had harboured runaway -slaves from Athens, and had appropriated and cultivated portions of -land upon her border; partly land, the property of the goddesses of Eleusis; -partly a strip of territory disputed between the two states, and therefore -left by mutual understanding in common pasture without any permanent -enclosure. In reference to this latter point, the Athenian herald Anthemocritus -had been sent to Megara to remonstrate, but had been so rudely dealt -with, that his death shortly afterwards was imputed to the Megarians. We -may reasonably suppose that ever since the revolt of Megara fourteen -years before—which caused to Athens an irreparable mischief—the -feeling prevalent between the two cities had been one of bitter enmity, -manifesting itself in many ways, but so much exasperated by recent -events as to provoke Athens to a signal revenge. Exclusion -from Athens and all the ports in her empire, comprising -nearly every island and seaport in the Ægean, was so ruinous -to the Megarians, that they loudly complained of it at -Sparta, representing it as an infraction of -the Thirty Years’ Truce; though it was -undoubtedly within the legitimate right of -Athens to enforce, and was even less harsh -than the systematic expulsion of foreigners -by Sparta, with which Pericles compared it.</p> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 200px;"> -<img src="images/p511.jpg" width="200" height="400" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Attendant of a Greek Warrior</span></p> -<p class="caption">(From a vase)</p> -</div> - -<div class="sidenote">[432 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>These complaints found increased attention after -the war of Corcyra and the blockade of Potidæa by -the Athenians. The sentiments of the Corinthians -towards Athens had now become angry and warlike -in the highest degree. It was not simply resentment -for the past which animated them, but also the anxiety -farther to bring upon Athens so strong a hostile pressure -as should preserve Potidæa and its garrison from -capture. Accordingly they lost no time in endeavouring -to rouse the feelings of the Spartans against -Athens, and in inducing them to invite to Sparta all -such of the confederates as had any grievances against -that city. Not merely the Megarians, but several -other confederates, came thither as accusers; while -the Æginetans, though their insular position made it -perilous for them to appear, made themselves vehemently -heard through the mouths of others, complaining -that Athens withheld from them the autonomy to which they were -entitled under the truce.</p> - -<p>According to the Lacedæmonian practice, it was necessary first that the -Spartans themselves, apart from their allies, should decide whether there -existed a sufficient case of wrong done by Athens against themselves or -against Peloponnesus—either in violation of the Thirty Years’ Truce, or in -any other way. If the determination of Sparta herself were in the negative, -the case would never even be submitted to the vote of the allies; but if it -were in the affirmative, then the latter would be convoked to deliver their -opinion also: and assuming that the majority of votes coincided with the -previous decision of Sparta, the entire confederacy stood then pledged to the -given line of policy—if the majority was contrary, the Spartans would stand -alone, or with such only of the confederates as concurred. Even in the oligarchy -of Sparta, such a question as this could only be decided by a general<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_512" id="Page_512">[512]</a></span> -assembly of Spartan citizens, qualified both by age, by regular contribution -to the public mess, and by obedience to Spartan discipline. To the assembly -so constituted the deputies of the various allied cities addressed themselves, -each setting forth his case against Athens. The Corinthians chose to reserve -themselves to the last, after the assembly had been inflamed by the previous -speakers.</p> - -<p>Of this important assembly, on which so much of the future fate of -Greece turned, Thucydides has preserved an account unusually copious. -First, the speech delivered by the Corinthian envoys. Next, that of some -Athenian envoys, who happening to be at the same time in Sparta on some -other matters, and being present in the assembly so as to have heard the -speeches both of the Corinthians and of the other complainants, obtained -permission from the magistrates to address the assembly in their turn. -Thirdly, the address of the Spartan king Archidamus, on the course of -policy proper to be adopted by Sparta. Lastly, the brief, but eminently -characteristic, address of the ephor, Sthenelaidas, on putting the question for -decision. These speeches, the composition of Thucydides himself, contain -substantially the sentiments of the parties to whom they are ascribed. -Neither of them is distinctly a reply to that which has preceded, but each -presents the situation of affairs from a different point of view.</p> - -<p>To dwell much upon specific allegations of wrong, would not have suited -the purpose of the Corinthian envoy; for against such, the Thirty Years’ -Truce expressly provided that recourse should be had to amicable arbitration—to -which recourse he never once alludes. He knew that, as between -Corinth and Athens, war had already begun at Potidæa; and his business, -throughout nearly all of a very emphatic speech, is to show that the Peloponnesian -confederacy, and especially Sparta, is bound to take instant part -in it, not less by prudence than by duty. He employs the most animated -language to depict the ambition, the unwearied activity, the personal effort -abroad as well as at home, the quick resolves, the sanguine hopes never -dashed by failure—of Athens, as contrasted with the cautious, home-keeping, -indolent, scrupulous routine of Sparta. He reproaches the Spartans -with their backwardness and timidity, in not having repressed the -growth of Athens before she reached this formidable height, especially in -having allowed her to fortify her city after the retreat of Xerxes and afterwards -to build the Long Walls from the city to the sea. The Spartans (he -observes) stood alone among all Greeks in the notable system of keeping -down an enemy, not by acting, but by delaying to act—not arresting his -growth, but putting him down when his force was doubled. Falsely indeed -had they acquired the reputation of being sure, when they were in reality -merely slow. In resisting Xerxes, as in resisting Athens, they had always -been behindhand, disappointing and leaving their friends to ruin; while both -these enemies had only failed of complete success through their own mistakes.</p> - -<p>After half apologising for the tartness of these reproofs—which however, -as the Spartans were now well disposed to go to war forthwith, would be -well-timed and even agreeable—the Corinthian orator vindicates the necessity -of plain-speaking by the urgent peril of the emergency and the formidable -character of the enemy who threatened them. “You do not reflect” he -says “how thoroughly different the Athenians are from yourselves. They -are innovators by nature, sharp both in devising, and in executing what they -have determined: you are sharp only in keeping what you have got, in determining -on nothing beyond, and in doing even less than absolute necessity -requires. They again dare beyond their means, run risks beyond their own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_513" id="Page_513">[513]</a></span> -judgment, and keep alive their hopes in desperate circumstances: your -peculiarity is, that your performance comes short of your power, you have -no faith even in what your judgment guarantees, when in difficulties you -despair of all escape. They never hang back, you are habitual laggards: -they love foreign service, you cannot stir from home: for they are always -under the belief that their movements will lead to some further gain, while -you fancy that new products will endanger what you already have. When -successful, they make the greatest forward march; when defeated, they fall -back the least. Moreover they task their bodies on behalf of their city as if -they were the bodies of others, while their minds are most of all their own, -for exertion in her service. When their plans for acquisition do not come -successfully out, they feel like men robbed of what belongs to them: yet -the acquisitions when realised appear like trifles compared with what remains -to be acquired. If they sometimes fail in an attempt, new hopes arise -in some other direction to supply the want; for with them alone the possession -and the hope of what they aim at are almost simultaneous, from their -habit of quickly executing all that they have once resolved. And in this -manner do they toil throughout all their lives amidst hardship and peril, -disregarding present enjoyment in the continual thirst for increase, knowing -no other festival recreation except the performance of active duty, and -deeming inactive repose a worse condition than fatiguing occupation. To -speak the truth in two words, such is their inborn temper that they will -neither remain at rest themselves nor allow rest to others.</p> - -<p>“Such is the city which stands opposed to you, Lacedæmonians—yet ye -still hang back from action. Your continual scruples and apathy would -hardly be safe, even if ye had neighbours like yourselves in character: -but as to dealings with Athens, your system is antiquated and out of date. -In politics as in art, it is the modern improvements which are sure to come -out victorious; and though unchanged institutions are best, if a city be not -called upon to act, yet multiplicity of active obligations requires multiplicity -and novelty of contrivance. It is through these numerous trials that -the means of Athens have acquired so much more new development than -yours.”</p> - -<p>The Corinthians concluded by saying, that if, after so many previous -warnings, now repeated for the last time, Sparta still refused to protect her -allies against Athens, if she delayed to perform her promise made to the -Potidæans of immediately invading Attica, they (the Corinthians) would -forthwith look for safety in some new alliance, which they felt themselves -fully justified in doing. They admonished her to look well to the case, and -to carry forward Peloponnesus, with undiminished dignity, as it had been -transmitted to her from her predecessors.</p> - -<p>Such was the memorable picture of Athens and her citizens, as exhibited -by her fiercest enemy before the public assembly at Sparta. It was calculated -to impress the assembly, not by appeal to recent or particular misdeeds, but -by the general system of unprincipled and endless aggression which was -imputed to Athens during the past, and by the certainty held out that the -same system, unless put down by measures of decisive hostility, would be -pushed still farther in future, to the utter ruin of Peloponnesus. And -to this point did the Athenian envoy (staying in Sparta about some other -negotiation and now present in the assembly) address himself in reply, after -having asked and obtained permission from the magistrates. The empire of -Athens was now of such standing that the younger men present had no personal -knowledge of the circumstances under which it had grown up, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_514" id="Page_514">[514]</a></span> -what was needed as information for them would be impressive as a reminder -even to their seniors.</p> - -<p>In her position, he asserted, no Grecian power either would or could have -acted otherwise—no Grecian power, certainly not Sparta, would have acted -with so much equity and moderation or given so little ground of complaint -to her subjects. Worse they had suffered, while under Persia; worse they -would suffer, if they came under Sparta, who held her own allies under the -thraldom of an oligarchical party in each city; and if they hated Athens -this was only because subjects always hated the present dominion, whatever -that might be.</p> - -<p>Having justified both the origin and the working of the Athenian empire, -the envoy concluded by warning Sparta to consider calmly, without being -hurried away by the passions and invectives of others, before she took a step -from which there was no retreat, and which exposed the future to chances -such as no man on either side could foresee. He called on her not to break -the truce mutually sworn to, but to adjust all differences, as Athens was -prepared to do, by the amicable arbitration which that truce provided. -Should she begin war, the Athenians would follow her lead and resist her, -calling to witness those gods under whose sanction the oaths were taken. At -any time previous to the affair of Corcyra, the topics insisted upon by the -Athenian would probably have been profoundly listened to at Sparta. But -now the mind of the Spartans was made up. Having cleared the assembly -of all “strangers,” and even all allies, they proceeded to discuss and determine -the question among themselves. Most of their speakers held but one -language—expatiating on the wrongs already done by Athens, and urging -the necessity of instant war. There was however one voice, and that a -commanding voice, raised against this conclusion: the ancient and respected -king Archidamus opposed it.</p> - -<p>The speech of Archidamus is that of a deliberate Spartan, who, setting -aside both hatred to Athens and blind partiality to allies, looks at the question -with a view to the interests and honour of Sparta only. He reminded -them of the wealth, the population (greater than that of any other Grecian -city), the naval force, the cavalry, the hoplites, the large foreign dominion -of Athens—and then asked by what means they proposed to put her down. -Ships, they had few; trained seamen, yet fewer; wealth, next to none. -They could indeed invade and ravage Attica, by their superior numbers and -land-force. But the Athenians had possessions abroad sufficient to enable -them to dispense with the produce of Attica, while their great navy would -retaliate the like ravages upon Peloponnesus. To suppose that one or two -devastating expeditions into Attica would bring the war to an end, would -be a deplorable error; such proceedings would merely enrage the Athenians, -without impairing their real strength, and the war would thus be prolonged, -perhaps for a whole generation. Before they determined upon war, it was -absolutely necessary to provide more efficient means for carrying it on; and -to multiply their allies not merely among the Greeks, but among foreigners -also. While this was in process, envoys ought to be sent to Athens to -remonstrate and obtain redress for the grievances of the allies. If the Athenians -granted this—which they very probably would do, when they saw the -preparations going forward, and when the ruin of the highly-cultivated soil -of Attica was held over them <i>in terrorem</i> without being actually consummated—so -much the better: if they refused, in the course of two or three -years, war might be commenced with some hopes of success. Archidamus -reminded his countrymen that their allies would hold them responsible for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_515" id="Page_515">[515]</a></span> -the good or bad issue of what was now determined; admonishing them, in -the true spirit of a conservative Spartan, to cling to that cautious policy which -had been ever the characteristic of the state, despising both taunts on their -tardiness and panegyric on their valour.</p> - -<p>The speech of Archidamus was not only in itself full of plain reason and -good sense, but delivered altogether from the point of view of a Spartan; -appealing greatly to Spartan conservative feeling and even prejudice. But -in spite of all this, and in spite of the personal esteem entertained for the -speaker, the tide of feeling in the opposite direction was at that moment -irresistible. Sthenelaidas, one of the five ephors to whom it fell to put -the question for voting, closed the debate. His few words mark at once -the character of the man, the temper of the assembly, and the simplicity -of speech, though without the wisdom of judgment, for which Archidamus -had taken credit to his countrymen.</p> - -<p>“I don’t understand,” he said, “these long speeches of the Athenians. -They have praised themselves abundantly, but they have never rebutted -what is laid to their charge—that they are guilty of wrong against our -allies and against Peloponnesus. Now if in former days they were good men -against the Persians, and are now evil-doers against us, they deserve double -punishment as having become evil-doers instead of good. But we are the -same now as we were then: we know better than to sit still while our allies -are suffering wrong: we shall not adjourn our aid, while they cannot adjourn -their sufferings. Others have in abundance wealth, ships, and horses—but -we have good allies, whom we are not to abandon to the mercy of the -Athenians: nor are we to trust our redress to arbitration and to words, -when our wrongs are not confined to words. We must help them speedily -and with all our strength. Nor let any one tell us that we can with honour -deliberate when we are actually suffering wrong—it is rather for those who -intend to do the wrong, to deliberate well beforehand. Resolve upon war -then, Lacedæmonians, in a manner worthy of Sparta. Suffer not the Athenians -to become greater than they are: let us not betray our allies to ruin, -but march with the aid of the gods against the wrong-doers.”</p> - -<p>With these few words, so well calculated to defeat the prudential admonitions -of Archidamus, Sthenelaidas put the question for the decision of -the assembly—which at Sparta was usually taken neither by show of hands, -nor by deposit of balls in an urn, but by cries analogous to the ay or no of -the English House of Commons—the presiding ephor declaring which of -the cries predominated. On this occasion the cry for war was manifestly the -stronger. Yet Sthenelaidas affected inability to determine which of the two -was the louder, in order that he might have an excuse for bringing about -a more impressive manifestation of sentiment and a stronger apparent majority—since -a portion of the minority would probably be afraid to show their -real opinions as individuals openly. He therefore directed a division—like -the speaker of the English House of Commons when his decision in favour -of ay or no is questioned by any member—“Such of you as think that the -truce has been violated and that the Athenians are doing us wrong, go to -that side; such as think the contrary, to the other side.” The assembly -accordingly divided, and the majority was very great on the warlike side of -the question.</p> - -<p>The first step of the Lacedæmonians, after coming to this important -decision, was to send to Delphi and inquire of the oracle whether it would -be beneficial to them to undertake the war. The answer brought back -(Thucydides seems hardly certain that it was really given) was—that if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_516" id="Page_516">[516]</a></span> -they did their best they would be victorious, and that the gods would help -them, invoked or uninvoked. They at the same time convened a general -congress of their allies to Sparta, for the purpose of submitting their recent -resolution to the vote of all.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[432-431 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>If there were any speeches delivered at this congress in opposition to the -war, they were not likely to be successful in a cause wherein even Archidamus -had failed. After the Corinthian had concluded, the question was -put to the deputies of every city, great and small indiscriminately: and the -majority decided for war. This important resolution was adopted about the -end of 432 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, or the beginning of January 431 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>: the previous decision -of the Spartans separately, may have been taken about two months earlier, -in the preceding October or November 432 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span></p> - -<p>Reviewing the conduct of the two great Grecian parties at this momentous -juncture, with reference to existing treaties and positive grounds of complaint, -it seems clear that Athens was in the right. She had done nothing -which could fairly be called a violation of the Thirty Years’ Truce: while for -such of her acts as were alleged to be such, she offered to submit them to that -amicable arbitration which the truce itself prescribed. The Peloponnesian -confederates were manifestly the aggressors in the contest; and if Sparta, -usually so backward, now came forward in a spirit so decidedly opposite, we -are to ascribe it partly to her standing fear and jealousy of Athens, partly to -the pressure of her allies, especially of the Corinthians. Thucydides, recognising -these two as the grand determining motives, and indicating the alleged -infractions of truce as simple occasions or pretexts, seems to consider the fear -and hatred of Athens as having contributed more to determine Sparta than -the urgency of her allies. That the extraordinary aggrandisement of Athens, -during the period immediately succeeding the Persian invasion, was well-calculated -to excite alarm and jealousy in Peloponnesus, is indisputable. But -if we take Athens as she stood in 432 <i>B.C.</i>, it deserves notice that she had -neither made, nor (so far as we know) tried to make, a single new acquisition -during the whole fourteen years which had elapsed since the conclusion -of the Thirty Years’ Truce—and moreover that that truce marked an epoch -of signal humiliation and reduction of her power. The triumph which Sparta -and the Peloponnesians then gained, though not sufficiently complete to remove -all fear of Athens, was yet great enough to inspire them with the hope -that a second combined effort would subdue her. This mixture of fear and -hope was exactly the state of feeling out of which war was likely to grow.</p> - -<p>Moreover the confident hopes of the Peloponnesians were materially -strengthened by the widespread sympathy in favour of their cause, proclaiming -as it did the intended liberation of Greece from a despot city.</p> - -<p>To Athens, on the other hand, the coming war presented itself in a very -different aspect; holding out scarcely any hope of possible gain, and the -certainty of prodigious loss and privation—even granting that at this heavy -cost, her independence and union at home, and her empire abroad, could be -upheld. By Pericles, and by the more long-sighted Athenians, the chance of -unavoidable war was foreseen even before the Corcyræan dispute. But -Pericles was only the first citizen in a democracy, esteemed, trusted, and listened -to, more than any one else by the body of citizens, but warmly opposed -in most of his measures, under the free speech and latitude of individual -action which reigned at Athens—and even bitterly hated by many active -political opponents. The formal determination of the Lacedæmonians, to -declare war, must of course have been made known at Athens, by those Athenian -envoys who had entered an unavailing protest against it in the Spartan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_517" id="Page_517">[517]</a></span> -assembly. No steps were taken by Sparta to carry this determination into -effect until after the congress of allies and their pronounced confirmatory -vote. Nor did the Spartans even then send any herald, or make any formal -declaration. They despatched various propositions to Athens, not at all with -a view of trying to obtain satisfaction, or of providing some escape from the -probability of war; but with the contrary purpose—of multiplying demands, -and enlarging the grounds of quarrel. Meanwhile the deputies retiring -home from the congress to their respective cities carried with them the general -resolution for immediate warlike preparations to be made with as little -delay as possible.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<img src="images/p517.jpg" width="400" height="150" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Helmets and Standard</span></p> -</div> - -<h4>PREPARATIONS FOR THE CONFLICT</h4> - -<p>The first requisition addressed by the Lacedæmonians to Athens was a -political manœuvre aimed at Pericles, their chief opponent in that city. His -mother Agariste belonged to the great family of the Alemæonids, who were -supposed to be under an inexorable hereditary taint, in consequence of the -sacrilege committed by their ancestor Megacles nearly two centuries before, -in the slaughter of the Cylonian suppliants near the altar of the Venerable -Goddesses. Ancient as this transaction was, it still had sufficient hold on -the mind of the Athenians to serve as the basis of a political manœuvre: -about seventy-seven years before, shortly after the expulsion of Hippias -from Athens, it had been so employed by the Spartan king Cleomenes, who -at that time exacted from the Athenians a clearance of the ancient sacrilege, -to be effected by the banishment of Clisthenes (the founder of the democracy) -and his chief partisans. This demand, addressed by Cleomenes to the -Athenians at the instance of Isagoras, the rival of Clisthenes, had been -then obeyed, and had served well the purposes of those who sent it. A -similar blow was now aimed by the Lacedæmonians at Pericles (the grand-nephew -of Clisthenes), and doubtless at the instance of his political enemies: -religion required, it was pretended, that “the abomination of the -goddess should be driven out.” If the Athenians complied with this demand, -they would deprive themselves, at this critical moment, of their ablest -leader. But the Lacedæmonians, not expecting compliance, reckoned at all -events upon discrediting Pericles with the people, as being partly the cause -of the war through family taint of impiety; and this impression would -doubtless be loudly proclaimed by his political opponents in the assembly.</p> - -<p>The influence of Pericles with the Athenian public had become greater -and greater as their political experience of him was prolonged. But the -bitterness of his enemies appears to have increased along with it; and not -long before this period, he had been indirectly assailed, as we have seen,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_518" id="Page_518">[518]</a></span> -through the medium of accusations against three different persons, all more -or less intimate with him—his mistress Aspasia, the philosopher Anaxagoras, -and the sculptor Phidias. It is said also that Dracontides proposed -and carried a decree in the public assembly, that Pericles should be called on -to give an account of the money which he had expended, and that the dicasts, -before whom the account was rendered, should give their suffrage in the -most solemn manner from the altar: this latter provision was modified by -Agnon, who, while proposing that the dicasts should be fifteen hundred in -number, retained the vote by pebbles in the urn according to ordinary custom.</p> - -<p>If Pericles was ever tried on such a charge, there can be no doubt that -he was honourably acquitted: for the language of Thucydides respecting -his pecuniary probity is such as could not have been employed if a verdict -of guilty on a charge of peculation had been publicly pronounced. But we -cannot be certain that he ever was tried; indeed, another accusation urged -by his enemies, and even by Aristophanes in the sixth year of the Peloponnesian -War, implies that no trial took place: for it was alleged that Pericles, -in order to escape this danger, “blew up the Peloponnesian War,” and involved -his country in such confusion and peril as made his own aid and -guidance indispensably necessary to her, especially that he passed the decree -against the Megarians by which the war was really brought on. We know -enough, however, to be certain that such a supposition is altogether inadmissible. -The enemies of Pericles were far too eager, and too expert in -Athenian political warfare, to have let him escape by such a stratagem. -Moreover, we learn from the assurance of Thucydides that the war depended -upon far deeper causes—that the Megarian decree was in no way the real -cause of it; that it was not Pericles, but the Peloponnesians, who brought -it on, by the blow struck at Potidæa.</p> - -<p>All that we can make out, amidst these uncertified allegations, is that, -in a year or two immediately preceding the Peloponnesian War, Pericles was -hard pressed by the accusations of political enemies—perhaps even in his -own person, but certainly in the persons of those who were most in his confidence -and affection. And it was in this turn of his political position, that -the Lacedæmonians sent to Athens the above-mentioned requisition, that the -ancient Cylonian sacrilege might be at length cleared out; in other words, -that Pericles and his family might be banished. Doubtless his enemies, as -well as the partisans of Lacedæmon at Athens, would strenuously support this -proposition. And the party of Lacedæmon at Athens was always strong, even -during the middle of the war; to act as proxenus to the Lacedæmonians was -accounted an honour even by the greatest Athenian families. On this occasion, -however, the manœuvre did not succeed, nor did the Athenians listen -to the requisition for banishing the sacrilegious Alcmæonids. On the contrary, -they replied that the Spartans too had an account of sacrilege to clear -off: for they had violated the sanctuary of Poseidon at Cape Tænarus, in -dragging from it some helot suppliants; and the sanctuary of Athene -Chalciœcus at Sparta, in blocking up and starving to death the guilty regent -Pausanias. To require that Laconia might be cleared of these two acts of -sacrilege, was the only answer which the Athenians made to the demand -sent for the banishment of Pericles. Probably the actual effect of that demand -was to strengthen him in the public esteem—very different from the -effect of the same manœuvre when practised before by Cleomenes against -Clisthenes.</p> - -<p>Other Spartan envoys shortly afterwards arrived with fresh demands. -The Athenians were now required: (1) to withdraw their troops from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_519" id="Page_519">[519]</a></span> -Potidæa; (2) to replace Ægina in its autonomy; (3) to repeal the bill of -exclusion against the Megarians.</p> - -<p>It was upon the latter that the greatest stress was laid; an intimation -being held out that the war might be avoided if such repeal were granted. -We see plainly from this proceeding that the Lacedæmonians acted in -concert with the anti-Periclean leaders at Athens. To Sparta and her -confederacy the decree against the Megarians was of less importance than -the rescue of the Corinthian troops now blocked up in Potidæa; but on the -other hand, the party opposed to Pericles would have much better chance of -getting a vote of the assembly against him on the subject of the Megarians: -and this advantage, if gained, would serve to enfeeble his influence generally. -No concession was obtained however on either of the three points: even in -respect to Megara, the decree of exclusion was vindicated and upheld -against all the force of opposition. At length the Lacedæmonians—who -had already resolved upon war and had sent three envoys in mere compliance -with the exigencies of ordinary practice, not with any idea of bringing about -an accommodation—sent a third batch of envoys with a proposition which -at least had the merit of disclosing their real purpose without disguise. -Rhamphias and two other Spartans announced to the Athenians the simple -injunction: “The Lacedæmonians wish the peace to stand; and it may stand, -if you will leave the Greeks autonomous.” Upon this demand, so very different -from the preceding, the Athenians resolved to hold a fresh assembly -on the subject of war or peace, to open the whole question anew for discussion, -and to determine once for all on a peremptory answer.</p> - -<p>The last demands presented on the part of Sparta, which went to nothing -less than the entire extinction of the Athenian empire—combined with the -character, alike wavering and insincere, of the demands previously made, -and with the knowledge that the Spartan confederacy had pronounced peremptorily -in favour of war—seemed likely to produce unanimity at Athens, -and to bring together this important assembly under the universal conviction -that war was inevitable. Such however was not the fact.</p> - -<p>The reluctance to go to war was sincere amidst the majority of the assembly, -while among a considerable portion of them it was so preponderant, -that they even now reverted to the opening which the Lacedæmonians -had before held out about the anti-Megarian decree, as if that were the -chief cause of the war. There was much difference of opinion among -the speakers, several of whom insisted upon the repeal of this decree, treating -it as a matter far too insignificant to go to war about, and denouncing -the obstinacy of Pericles for refusing to concede such a trifle. Against this -opinion Pericles entered his protest, in an harangue decisive and encouraging, -which Dionysius of Halicarnassus ranks among the best speeches in -Thucydides: the latter historian may probably himself have heard the -original speech.</p> - -<p>“I continue, Athenians, to adhere to the same conviction, that we must -not yield to the Peloponnesians. Now let none of you believe that we shall -be going to war about a trifle if we refuse to rescind the Megarian decree—which -they chiefly put forward, as if its repeal would avert the war—let -none of you take blame to yourselves as if we had gone to war about a small -matter. For this small matter contains in itself the whole test and trial of -your mettle: if ye yield it, ye will presently have some other greater exaction -put upon you, like men who have already truckled on one point from fear: -whereas if ye hold out stoutly, ye will make it clear to them that they must -deal with you upon a footing of equality.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_520" id="Page_520">[520]</a></span></p> - -<p>Pericles then examined the relative strength of parties and the chances of -war. The Peloponnesians were a self-working population, with few slaves, -and without wealth, either private or public: they had no means of carrying -on distant or long-continued war: they were ready to expose their persons, -but not at all ready to contribute from their very narrow means: in a border-war -or a single land battle, they were invincible, but for systematic warfare -against a power like Athens, they had neither competent headship, nor habits -of concert and punctuality, nor money to profit by opportunities, always rare -and accidental, for successful attack. They might perhaps establish a fortified -post in Attica, but it would do little serious mischief; while at sea, their -inferiority and helplessness would be complete, and the irresistible Athenian -navy would take care to keep it so. Nor would they be able to reckon on tempting -away the able foreign seamen from Athenian ships by means of funds -borrowed from Olympia or Delphi. For besides that the mariners of the -dependent islands would find themselves losers even by accepting a higher -pay, with the certainty of Athenian vengeance afterwards, Athens herself -would suffice to man her fleet in case of need, with her own citizens and -metics: she had within her own walls steersmen and mariners better, as well -as more numerous, than all Greece besides. There was but one side on -which Athens was vulnerable: Attica unfortunately was not an island—it -was exposed to invasion and ravage. To this the Athenians must submit, -without committing the imprudence of engaging a land battle to avert it: -they had abundant lands out of Attica, insular as well as continental, to supply -their wants, and they could in their turn, by means of their navy, ravage -the Peloponnesian territories, whose inhabitants had no subsidiary lands to -recur to.</p> - -<p>“Mourn not for the loss of land and house,” continued the orator: “reserve -your mourning for men: houses and land acquire not men, but men -acquire them. Nay, if I thought I could prevail upon you, I would exhort -you to march out and ravage them yourselves, and thus show to the Peloponnesians -that for them at least ye will not truckle. And I could exhibit -many further grounds for confidently anticipating success, if ye will only be -willing not to aim at increased dominion when we are in the midst of war, -and not to take upon yourself new self-imposed risks; for I have ever been -more afraid of our own blunders than of the plans of our enemy. But these -are matters for further discussion, when we come to actual operations: for -the present, let us dismiss these envoys with the answer—That we will permit -the Megarians to use our markets and harbours, if the Lacedæmonians -on their side will discontinue their summary expulsions of ourselves and our -allies from their own territory; for there is nothing in the truce to prevent -either one or the other: That we will leave the Grecian cities autonomous, -if we had them as autonomous at the time when the truce was made; and as -soon as the Lacedæmonians shall grant to their allied cities autonomy such -as each of them shall freely choose, not such as is convenient to Sparta: -That while we are ready to give satisfaction according to the truce, we will -not begin war, but will repel those who do begin it. Such is the reply at once -just and suitable to the dignity of this city. We ought to make up our minds -that war is inevitable: the more cheerfully we accept it, the less vehement -shall we find our enemies in their attack: and where the danger is greatest, -there also is the final honour greatest, both for a state and for a private -citizen. Assuredly our fathers, when they bore up against the Persians—having -no such means as we possess to start from, and even compelled to -abandon all that they did possess—both repelled the invader and brought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_521" id="Page_521">[521]</a></span> -matters forward to our actual pitch, more by advised operation than by good -fortune, and by a daring courage greater than their real power. We ought -not to fall short of them: we must keep off our enemies in every way, and -leave an unimpaired power to our successors.”</p> - -<p>These animating encouragements of Pericles carried with them the -majority of the assembly, so that answer was made to the envoys, such as he -recommended, on each of the particular points in debate. It was announced -to them, moreover, on the general question of peace or war, that the Athenians -were prepared to discuss all the grounds of complaint against them, -pursuant to the truce, by equal and amicable arbitration, but that they -would do nothing under authoritative demand. With this answer the envoys -returned to Sparta, and an end was put to negotiation.</p> - -<p>It seems evident, from the account of Thucydides, that the Athenian -public was not brought to this resolution without much reluctance, and great -fear of the consequences, especially destruction of property in Attica; and -that a considerable minority took opposition on the Megarian decree—the -ground skilfully laid by Sparta for breaking the unanimity of her enemy, -and strengthening the party opposed to Pericles. But we may also decidedly -infer from the same historian—especially from the proceedings of Corinth -and Sparta as he sets them forth—that Athens could not have avoided the -war without such an abnegation both of dignity and power as no nation under -any government will ever submit to, and as would have even left her without -decent security for her individual rights. It is common to ascribe the -Peloponnesian War to the ambition of Athens, but this is a partial view of -the case.</p> - -<p>The aggressive sentiment, partly fear and partly hatred, was on the side -of the Peloponnesians, who were not ignorant that Athens desired the continuance -of peace, but were resolved not to let her stand as she was at the -conclusion of the Thirty Years’ Truce. It was their purpose to attack her -and break down her empire, as dangerous, wrongful, and anti-Hellenic. -The war was thus partly a contest of principle, involving the popular proclamation -of the right of every Grecian state to autonomy, against Athens: -partly a contest of power, wherein Spartan and Corinthian ambition was not -less conspicuous, and far more aggressive in the beginning than Athenian.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[431 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Conformably to what is here said, the first blow of the war was struck, -not by Athens, but against her. After the decisive answer given to the -Spartan envoys, taken in conjunction with the previous proceedings, and -the preparations actually going on, among the Peloponnesian confederacy, -the truce could hardly be said to be in force, though there was no formal -proclamation of rupture.</p> - -<p>A few weeks undoubtedly passed in restricted and mistrustful intercourse; -though individuals who passed the borders did not think it necessary -to take a herald with them, as in time of actual war. Had the -excess of ambition been on the side of Athens compared with her enemies, -this was the time for her to strike the first blow, carrying with it of course -greater probability of success, before their preparations were completed. -But she remained strictly within the limits of the truce, while the disastrous -series of mutual aggressions, destined to tear in pieces the entrails of Hellas, -was opened by her enemy and her neighbour.</p> - -<p>The little town of Platæa, still hallowed by the memorable victory over -the Persians as well as by the tutelary consecration received from Pausanias, -was the scene of this unforeseen enterprise which marks the opening of hostilities -in the Peloponnesian war.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_30b" id="enanchor_30b"></a><a href="#endnote_30b">b</a></span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_522" id="Page_522">[522]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/p522.jpg" width="500" height="163" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Helmets</span></p> -</div> - -<h4>THE SURPRISE OF PLATÆA</h4> - -<p>War had been only threatened, not declared; and peaceful intercourse, -though not wholly free from distrust, was still kept up between the subjects -of the two confederacies. But early in the following spring, 431 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, in -the fifteenth year of the Thirty Years’ Truce, an event took place which -closed all prospects of peace, precipitated the commencement of war, embittered -the animosity of the contending parties, and prepared some of the -most tragical scenes of the ensuing history. In the dead of night the city -of Platæa was surprised by a body of three hundred Thebans, commanded -by two of the great officers called Bœotarchs. They had been invited by -a Platæan named Nauclides, and others of the same party, who hoped with -the aid of the Thebans to rid themselves of their political opponents, and to -break off the relation in which their city was standing to Athens, and transfer -its alliance to Thebes. The Thebans, foreseeing that a general war was -fast approaching, felt the less scruple in strengthening themselves by this -acquisition, while it might be made with little cost and risk. The gates -were unguarded, as in time of peace, and one of them was secretly opened -to the invaders, who advanced without interruption into the marketplace. -Their Platæan friends wished to lead them at once to the houses of their -adversaries, and to glut their hatred by a massacre. But the Thebans were -more anxious to secure the possession of the city, and feared to provoke resistance -by an act of violence. Having therefore halted in the marketplace, -they made a proclamation inviting all who were willing that Platæa should -become again, as it had been in former times, a member of the Bœotian body, -to join them.</p> - -<p>The Platæans who were not in the plot, imagined the force by which -their city had been surprised to be much stronger than it really was, and, as -no hostile treatment was offered to them, remained quiet, and entered into a -parley with the Thebans. In the course of these conferences they gradually -discovered that the number of the enemy was small, and might be easily -overpowered; and, as they were in general attached to the Athenians, or at -least strongly averse to an alliance with Thebes, they resolved to make the -attempt, while the darkness might favour them, and perplex the strangers. -To avoid suspicion they met to concert their plan of operation by means of -passages opened through the walls of their houses; and having barricaded -the streets with wagons, and made such other preparations as they thought -necessary, a little before daybreak they suddenly fell upon the Thebans.</p> - -<p>The little band made a vigorous defence, and twice or thrice repulsed -the assailants; but as these still returned to the charge, and were assisted by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_523" id="Page_523">[523]</a></span> -the women and slaves, who showered stones and tiles from the houses on the -enemy, all at the same time raising a tumultuous clamour, and a heavy rain -increased the confusion caused by the darkness, they at length lost their -presence of mind, and took to flight. But most were unable to find their -way in the dark through a strange town, and several were slain as they -wandered to and fro in search of an outlet. The gate by which they were -admitted had in the meanwhile been closed, and no other was open. Some, -pressed by their pursuers, mounted the walls, and threw themselves down -on the outside, but for the most part were killed by the fall. A few were -fortunate enough to break open one of the gates in a lone quarter, with an -axe which they obtained from a woman, and to effect their escape. The -main body, which had kept together, entered a large building adjoining the -walls, having mistaken its gates, which they found open, for those of -the town, and were shut in. The Platæans at first thought of setting fire -to the building; but at length the men within, as well as the rest of the -Thebans who were still wandering up and down the streets, surrendered at -discretion.</p> - -<p>Before their departure from Thebes it had been concerted that as large -a force as could be raised should march the same night to support them. -The distance between the two places was not quite nine miles, and these -troops were expected to reach the gates of Platæa before the morning; but -the Asopus, which crossed their road, had been swollen by the rain, and the -state of the ground and the weather otherwise retarded them, so that they -were still on their way when they heard of the failure of the enterprise. -Though they did not know the fate of their countrymen, as it was possible -that some might have been taken prisoners, they were at first inclined to -seize as many of the Platæans as they could find without the walls, and -to keep them as hostages. The Platæans anticipated this design, and were -alarmed, for many of their fellow citizens were living out of the town in the -security of peace, and there was much valuable property in the country. -They therefore sent a herald to the Theban army to complain of their treacherous -attack, and call upon them to abstain from further aggression, and to -threaten that, if any was offered, the prisoners should answer for it with -their lives. The Thebans afterwards alleged that they had received a promise, -confirmed by an oath, that, on condition of their retiring from the Platæan -territory, the prisoners should be released; and Thucydides seems -disposed to believe this statement. The Platæans denied that they had -pledged themselves to spare the lives of the prisoners, unless they should -come to terms on the whole matter with the Thebans; but it does not seem -likely that, after ascertaining the state of the case, the Thebans would have -been satisfied with so slight a security. It is certain however that they -retired, and that the Platæans, as soon as they had transported their movable -property out of the country into the town, put to death all the prisoners—amounting -to 180, and including Eurymachus, the principal author -of the enterprise, and the man who possessed the greatest influence in -Thebes.</p> - -<p>On the first entrance of the Thebans into Platæa a messenger had been -despatched to Athens with the intelligence, and the Athenians had immediately -laid all the Bœotians in Attica under arrest; and when another messenger -brought the news of the victory gained by the Platæans, they sent a -herald to request that they would reserve the prisoners for the disposal of -the Athenians. The herald came too late to prevent the execution: and the -Athenians, foreseeing that Platæa would stand in great need of defence, sent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_524" id="Page_524">[524]</a></span> -a body of troops to garrison it, supplied it with provisions, and removed the -women and children and all persons unfit for service in a siege.</p> - -<p>After this event it was apparent that the quarrel could only be decided -by arms. Platæa was so intimately united with Athens, that the Athenians -felt the attack which had been made on it as an outrage offered to themselves, -and prepared for immediate hostilities. Sparta, too, instantly sent notice to -all her allies to get their contingents ready by an appointed day for the invasion -of Attica. Two-thirds of the whole force which each raised were -ordered to march, and when the time came assembled in the isthmus, where -King Archidamus put himself at their head. An army more formidable, both -in numbers and spirit, had never issued from the peninsula; and Archidamus -thought it advisable, before they set out, to call the principal officers -together, and to urge the necessity of proceeding with caution and maintaining -exact discipline, as soon as they should have entered the enemy’s territory; -admonishing them not to be so far elated by their superior numbers -as to believe that the Athenians would certainly remain passive spectators of -their inroads. And though all except himself were impatient to move, he -would not yet take the decisive step, without making one attempt more to -avert its necessity. He still cherished a faint hope, that the resolution of -the Athenians might be shaken by the prospect of the evils of war which -were now so imminent, and he sent Melesippus to sound their disposition. -But the envoy was not able to obtain an audience from the people, nor so -much as to enter the walls. A decree had been made, at the instigation of -Pericles, to receive no embassy from the Spartans while they should be under -arms. Melesippus was informed that if his government wished to treat with -Athens, it must first recall its forces. He himself was ordered to quit Attica -that very day, and persons were appointed to conduct him to the frontier, to -prevent him from holding communication with any one by the way. On -parting with his conductors he exclaimed, “This day will be the beginning -of great evils to Greece.”</p> - -<p>Such a prediction might well occur to any one, who reflected on the nature -of the two powers which were now coming into conflict, and on the great -resources of both, which, though totally different in kind, were so evenly -balanced that no human eye could perceive in which scale victory hung; -and the termination of the struggle could seem near only to one darkened -by passion. The strength of Sparta, as was implied in the observation of -Sthenelaidas, lay in the armies which she could collect from the states of her -confederacy. The force which she could thus bring into the field is admitted -by Pericles, in one of the speeches ascribed to him by Thucydides, to be capable -of making head against any that could be raised by the united efforts of the rest -of Greece. Within the isthmus her allies included all the states of Peloponnesus, -except Achaia and Argos; and the latter was bound to neutrality by a -truce which still wanted several years of its term. Hence the great contest -now beginning was not improperly called the Peloponnesian War. Beyond -the isthmus she was supported by Megara and Thebes, which drew the rest -of Bœotia along with it; and Attica would thus have been completely surrounded -on the land side by hostile territories, if Platæa and Oropus had not -been politically attached to it. The Locrians of Opus, the Dorians of the -mother-country, and the Phocians (though these last were secretly more -inclined to the Athenians, who had always taken their part in their quarrels -with Delphi, the stanch friend of Sparta) were also on her side. Thessaly, -Acarnania, and the Amphilochian Argos, were in alliance with her enemy; -but for this very reason, and more especially from their hostility to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_525" id="Page_525">[525]</a></span> -Messenians of Naupactus, the Ætolians were friendly to her; and she could -also reckon on the Corinthian colonies, Anactorium, Ambracia, and Leucas.</p> - -<p>The power which Sparta exerted over her allies was much more narrowly -limited than that which Athens had assumed over her subjects. The Spartan -influence rested partly on the national affinity by which the head was united -to the Dorian members of the confederacy, but still more on the conformity, -which she established or maintained among all of them, to her own oligarchical -institutions. This was the only point in which she encroached on the -independence of any. Every state had a voice in the deliberations by which -its interests might be affected; and if Sparta determined the amount of the -contributions required by extraordinary occasions, she was obliged carefully -to adjust it to the ability of each community. So far was she from enriching -herself at the expense of the confederacy, that at the beginning of the war -there was, as we have seen, no common treasure belonging to it, and no regular -tribute for common purposes. But, to compensate for these defects, her -power stood on a more durable basis of goodwill than that of Athens; and -though in every state there was a party attached to the Athenian interest on -political grounds, yet on the whole the Spartan cause was popular throughout -Greece; and while Athens was forced to keep a jealous eye on all her -subjects, and was in continual fear of losing them, Sparta, secure of the loyalty -of her own allies, could calmly watch for opportunities of profiting by -the disaffection of those of her rival.</p> - -<p>At home indeed her state was far from sound, and the Athenians were -well aware of her vulnerable side; but abroad, and as chief of the Peloponnesian -confederacy, she presented the majestic and winning aspect of the -champion of liberty against Athenian tyranny and ambition: and hence -she had important advantages to hope from states which were but remotely -connected with her, and were quite beyond the reach of her arms. Many -powerful cities in Italy and Sicily were thus induced to promise her their -aid, and it was on this she founded her chief expectations of forming a navy, -which might face that of Athens. Her allies in this quarter engaged to -furnish her with money and ships, which, it was calculated, would amount -to no less than five hundred, though for the present it was agreed that they -should wear the mask of neutrality, and admit single Athenian vessels into -their ports. But as she was conscious that she should still be deficient in -the sinews of war, she already began to turn her eyes to the common enemy -of Greece, who was able abundantly to supply this want, and would probably -be willing to lavish his gold for the sake of ruining Athens, the object of his -especial enmity and dread.</p> - -<p>The extent of the Athenian empire cannot be so exactly computed. In -the language of the comic stage, it is said to comprehend a thousand cities; -and it is difficult to estimate what abatement ought to be made from this -playful exaggeration. The subjects of Athens were in general more opulent -than the allies of Sparta, and their sovereign disposed of their revenues at -her pleasure. The only states to which she granted more than a nominal -independence were some islands in the western seas, Corcyra, Zacynthus, -and Cephallenia—points of peculiar importance to her operations and prospects -in that quarter, though even there she was more feared than loved. At -the moment of the revolt of Potidæa her empire had reached its widest -range, and her finances were in the most flourishing condition; and at the -outbreak of the war her naval and military strength was at its greatest -height. Pericles, as one of the ten regular generals, or ministers of war, -before the Peloponnesian army had reached the frontier, held an assembly,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_526" id="Page_526">[526]</a></span> -in which he gave an exact account of the resources which the republic had -at her disposal.</p> - -<p>Her finances, beside the revenue which she drew from a variety of sources, -foreign and domestic, were nourished by the annual tribute of her allies, -which now amounted to six hundred talents [£120,000 or $600,000]. Six -thousand, in money, still remained in the treasury, after the great expenditure -incurred on account of the public buildings, and the siege of Potidæa, before -which the sum had amounted to nearly ten thousand. But to this, Pericles -observed, must be added the gold and silver which, in various forms of -offerings, ornaments, and sacred utensils, enriched the temples or public -places, which he calculated at five hundred talents, without reckoning the -precious materials employed in the statues of the gods and heroes. The -statue of Athene in the Parthenon alone contained forty talents’ weight of -pure gold, in the ægis, shield, and other appendages. If they should ever -be reduced to the want of such a supply, there could be no doubt that their -tutelary goddess would willingly part with her ornaments for their service, -on condition that they were replaced at the earliest opportunity.</p> - -<p>They could muster a force of 13,000 heavy-armed, beside those who -were employed in their various garrisons, and in the defence of the city itself, -with the long walls and the fortifications of its harbours, who amounted -to 16,000 more; made up, indeed, partly of the resident aliens, and partly -of citizens on either verge of the military age. The military force also included -1200 cavalry and 1600 bowmen, beside some who were mounted; and -they had 300 galleys in sailing condition.</p> - -<h4>PERICLES’ RECONCENTRATION POLICY</h4> - -<p>After rousing the confidence of the Athenians by this enumeration, -Pericles urged them without delay to transport their families and all their -movable property out of the enemy’s reach, and, as long as the war should -last, to look upon the capital as their home. To encourage a patriotic spirit -by his example, and at the same time to secure himself from imputations to -which he might be exposed, either by the Spartan cunning, or by an indiscreet -display of private friendship, he publicly declared, that if Archidamus, -who was personally attached to him by the ties of hospitality, should, -either from this motive, or in compliance with orders which might be given -in an opposite intention, exempt his lands from the ravages of war, they -should from that time become the property of the state.</p> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;"> -<img src="images/p527.jpg" width="150" height="415" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Officers’ Helmets</span></p> -</div> - -<p>To many of his hearers that which he required was a very painful sacrifice. -Many had been born, and had passed all their lives, in the country. -They were attached to it, not merely by the profit or the pleasure of rural -pursuits, but by domestic and religious associations. For though the -incorporation of the Attic townships had for ages extinguished their political -independence, it had not interrupted their religious traditions, or effaced -the peculiar features of their local worship; and hence the Attic countryman -clung to his deme with a fondness which he could not feel for the great -city. In the period of increasing prosperity which had followed the Persian -invasion, the country had been cultivated and adorned more assiduously -than ever. All was now to be left or carried away. Reluctantly they -adopted the decree which Pericles proposed; and, with heavy hearts, as if -going into exile, they quitted their native and hereditary seats. If the rich -man sighed to part from his elegant villa, the husbandman still more deeply<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_527" id="Page_527">[527]</a></span> -felt the pang of being torn from his home, and of abandoning his beloved -fields, the scenes of his infancy, the holy places where his forefathers had -worshipped, to the ravages of a merciless invader. All however was removed: -the flocks and cattle to Eubœa and other adjacent islands; all -beside that was portable, and even the timber of the houses, into Athens, -to which they themselves migrated with their families.</p> - -<p>The city itself was not prepared for the sudden influx of so many new -inhabitants. A few found shelter under the roofs of relatives or friends; -but the greater part, on their arrival, found themselves houseless as well as -homeless. Some took refuge in such temples as were usually open; others -occupied the towers of the walls; others raised temporary -hovels on any vacant ground which they could find -in the city, and even resorted for this purpose to a site -which had hitherto been guarded from all such uses by -policy, aided by a religious sanction. It was the place -under the western wall of the citadel, called, from the -ancient builders of the wall, the Pelasgicum: a curse had -been pronounced on any one who should tenant it; and -men remembered some words of an oracle, which declared -it <i>better untrodden</i>. The real motive for the prohibition -was probably the security of the citadel; but all police -seems to have been suspended by the urgency of the occasion. -It was some time before the newcomers bethought -themselves of spreading over the vacant space between -the long walls, or of descending to Piræus. But this -foretaste of the evils of war did not damp the general -ardour, especially that of the youthful spirits, which began -at Athens, as elsewhere, to be impatient of repose. Numberless -oracles and predictions were circulated, in which -every one found something that accorded with the tone -of his feelings. Even those who had no definite hopes, -fears, or wishes shared the excitement of men on the eve -of a great crisis. The holy island of Delos had been -recently shaken by an earthquake. It was forgotten, or -was never known out of Delos itself, that this had happened -already, just before the first Persian invasion. It was deemed a -portent, which signified new and extraordinary events, and it was soon -combined with other prodigies, which tended to encourage similar forebodings. -Such was the state in which the Athenians awaited the advance -of the Peloponnesian army.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_30c" id="enanchor_30c"></a><a href="#endnote_30c">c</a></span></p> - -<p>Adolf Holm<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_30e" id="enanchor_30e"></a><a href="#endnote_30e">e</a></span> compares the Periclean policy of voluntary reconcentration -with the acts of the Dutch, when in the sixteenth century they let the -Spanish destroy their crops, and then opened the dikes and flooded their -own country. We may compare also the compulsory reconcentration of the -country people in the cities as carried out by General Weyler in Cuba, in -1897, and by Lord Kitchener in South Africa, in 1901.<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE FIRST YEAR’S RAVAGE</h4> - -<p>Archidamus, as soon as the reception of his last envoy was made known -to him, continued his march from the isthmus into Attica—which territory -he entered by the road of Œnoe, the frontier Athenian fortress of Attica<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_528" id="Page_528">[528]</a></span> -towards Bœotia. His march, was slow, and he thought it necessary to make -a regular attack on the fort of Œnoe, which had been put in so good a -state of defence that, after all the various modes of assault—in which the -Lacedæmonians were not skilful—had been tried in vain, and after a delay -of several days before the place, he was compelled to renounce the attempt.</p> - -<p>The want of enthusiasm on the part of the Spartan king, his multiplied -delays, first at the isthmus, next in the march, and lastly before Œnoe, -were all offensive to the fiery impatience of the army, who were loud in -their murmurs against him. He acted upon the calculation already laid -down in his discourse at Sparta—that the highly cultivated soil of Attica -was to be looked upon as a hostage for the pacific dispositions of the -Athenians, who would be more likely to yield when devastation, though -not yet inflicted, was nevertheless impending and at their doors. In this -point of view, a little delay at the border was no disadvantage; and perhaps -the partisans of peace at Athens may have encouraged him to hope that -it would enable them to prevail.</p> - -<p>After having spent several days before Œnoe without either taking the -fort or receiving any message from the Athenians, Archidamus marched -onward to Eleusis and the Thriasian plain—about the middle of June, -eighty days after the surprise of Platæa. His army was of irresistible -force, not less than sixty thousand hoplites, according to the statement of -Plutarch, or of one hundred thousand, according to others. Considering -the number of constituent allies, the strong feeling by which they were -prompted, and the shortness of the expedition combined with the chance -of plunder, even the largest of these two numbers is not incredibly great, -if we take it to include not hoplites only, but cavalry and light armed -also. But as Thucydides, though comparatively full in his account of this -march, has stated no general total, we may presume that he had heard none -upon which he could rely.</p> - -<p>As the Athenians had made no movement towards peace, Archidamus -anticipated that they would come forth to meet him in the fertile plain of -Eleusis and Thria, which was the first portion of territory that he sat down -to ravage. Yet no Athenian force appeared to oppose him, except a -detachment of cavalry, who were repulsed in a skirmish near the small -lakes called Rheiti. Having laid waste this plain without any serious -opposition, Archidamus did not think fit to pursue the straight road which -from Thria conducted directly to Athens across the ridge of Mount Ægaleos, -but turned off to the eastward, leaving that mountain on his right hand -until he came to Cropia, where he crossed a portion of the line of Ægaleos -over to Acharnæ.</p> - -<p>He was here about seven miles from Athens, on a declivity sloping down -into the plain which stretches westerly and northwesterly from Athens, and -visible from the city walls; and here he encamped, keeping his army in -perfect order for battle, but at the same time intending to damage and ruin -the place and its neighbourhood. Acharnæ was the largest and most populous -of all the demes in Attica, furnishing no less than three thousand -hoplites to the national line, and flourishing as well by its corn, vines, and -olives, as by its peculiar abundance of charcoal burning from the forests of -ilex on the neighbouring hills. Moreover, if we are to believe Aristophanes, -the Acharnian proprietors were not merely sturdy “hearts of oak,” but -peculiarly vehement and irritable. It illustrates the condition of a Grecian -territory under invasion, when we find this great deme, which could not -have contained less than twelve thousand free inhabitants of both sexes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_529" id="Page_529">[529]</a></span> -and all ages, with at least an equal number of slaves, completely deserted. -Archidamus calculated that when the Athenians actually saw his troops so -close to their city, carrying fire and sword over their wealthiest canton, -their indignation would become uncontrollable, and they would march out -forthwith to battle. The Acharnian proprietors especially (he thought) -would be foremost in inflaming this temper, and insisting upon protection to -their own properties—or if the remaining citizens refused to march out -along with them, they would, after having been thus left undefended to -ruin, become discontented and indifferent to the general weal.</p> - -<p>Though his calculation was not realised, it was nevertheless founded upon -most rational grounds. What Archidamus anticipated was on the point of -happening, and nothing prevented it except the personal ascendency of Pericles, -strained to its very utmost. So long as the invading army was engaged -in the Thriasian plain, the Athenians had some faint hope that it might (like -Plistoanax fourteen years before) advance no farther into the interior. But -when it came to Acharnæ within sight of the city walls—when the ravagers -were actually seen destroying buildings, fruit trees, and crops, in the plain of -Athens, a sight strange to every Athenian eye except to those very old men -who recollected the Persian invasion—the exasperation of the general body -of citizens rose to a pitch never before known. The Acharnians first of all—next -the youthful citizens, generally—became madly clamorous for arming -and going forth to fight. Knowing well their own great strength, but -less correctly informed of the superior strength of the enemy, they felt -confident that victory was within their reach. Groups of citizens were -everywhere gathered together, angrily debating the critical question of the -moment; while the usual concomitants of excited feeling—oracles and -prophecies of diverse tenor, many of them doubtless promising success -against the enemy at Acharnæ—were eagerly caught up and circulated.</p> - -<p>In this inflamed temper of the Athenian mind, Pericles was naturally the -great object of complaint and wrath. He was denounced as the cause of all -the existing suffering: he was reviled as a coward for not leading out the -citizens to fight, in his capacity of general: the rational convictions as to -the necessity of the war and the only practical means of carrying it on, which -his repeated speeches had implanted, seemed to be altogether forgotten. This -burst of spontaneous discontent was of course fomented by the numerous -political enemies of Pericles, and particularly by Cleon,<a name="FNanchor_47" id="FNanchor_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> now rising into importance -as an opposition-speaker; whose talent for invective was thus first -exercised under the auspices of the high aristocratical party, as well as of an -excited public.</p> - -<p>But no manifestations, however violent, could disturb either the judgment -or the firmness of Pericles. He listened unmoved to all the declarations made -against him, resolutely refusing to convene a public assembly, or any meeting -invested with an authorised character, under the present irritated temper -of the citizens. It appears that he as general, or rather the board of ten -generals among whom he was one, must have been invested constitutionally -with the power not only of calling the ecclesia when they thought fit, but -also of preventing it from meeting, and of postponing even those regular<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_530" id="Page_530">[530]</a></span> -meetings which commonly took place at fixed times, four times in the prytany. -No assembly accordingly took place, and the violent exasperation of -the people was thus prevented from realising itself in any rash public resolution. -That Pericles should have held firm against this raging force, is but -one among the many honourable points in his political character; but it is -far less wonderful than the fact that his refusal to call the ecclesia was efficacious -to prevent the ecclesia from being held. The entire body of Athenians -were now assembled within the walls, and if he refused to convoke the -ecclesia, they might easily have met in the Pnyx without him; for which it -would not have been difficult at such a juncture to provide plausible justification. -The inviolable respect which the Athenian people manifested on this -occasion for the forms of their democratical constitution—assisted doubtless -by their long-established esteem for Pericles, yet opposed to an excitement -alike intense and pervading, and to a demand apparently reasonable, in so far -as regarded the calling of an assembly for discussion—is one of the most -memorable incidents in their history.</p> - -<p>While Pericles thus decidedly forbade any general march out for battle he -sought to provide as much employment as possible for the compressed eagerness -of the citizens. The cavalry were sent forth, together with the Thessalian -cavalry their allies, for the purpose of restraining the excursions of the -enemy’s light troops, and protecting the lands near the city from plunder. -At the same time he fitted out a powerful expedition, which sailed forth to -ravage Peloponnesus, even while the invaders were yet in Attica. Archidamus, -after having remained engaged in the devastation of Acharnæ long -enough to satisfy himself that the Athenians would not hazard a battle, turned -away from Athens in a northwesterly direction towards the demes between -Mount Brilessus and Mount Parnes, on the road passing through Decelea. -The army continued ravaging these districts until their provisions were exhausted, -and then quitted Attica by the northwestern road near Oropus, -which brought them into Bœotia. As the Oropians, though not Athenians, -were yet dependent upon Athens—the district of Græa, a portion of their -territory, was laid waste; after which the army dispersed and retired back -to their respective homes. It would seem that they quitted Attica towards -the end of July, having remained in the country between thirty and forty -days.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, the Athenian expedition, under Caranus, Proteas, and Socrates, -joined by fifty Corcyræan ships and by some other allies, sailed round -Peloponnesus, landing in various parts to inflict damage, and among other -places at Methone (Modon), on the southwestern peninsula of the Lacedæmonian -territory. The place, neither strong nor well-garrisoned, would -have been carried with little difficulty, had not Brasidas, the son of Tellis—a -gallant Spartan now mentioned for the first time, but destined to great -celebrity afterwards—who happened to be on guard at a neighbouring post, -thrown himself into it with one hundred men by a rapid movement, before -the dispersed Athenian troops could be brought together to prevent him. -He infused such courage into the defenders of the place that every attack -was repelled, and the Athenians were forced to re-embark—an act of prowess -which procured for him the first public honours bestowed by the Spartans -during this war. Sailing northward along the western coast of Peloponnesus, -the Athenians landed again on the coast of Elis, a little south of the promontory -called Cape Ichthys: they ravaged the territory for two days, defeating -both the troops in the neighbourhood and three hundred chosen men from -the central Elean territory. Strong winds on a harbourless coast now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_531" id="Page_531">[531]</a></span> -induced the captains to sail with most of the troops round Cape Ichthys, -in order to reach the harbour of Phea on the northern side of it; while the -Messenian hoplites, marching by land across the promontory, attacked Phea -and carried it by assault. When the fleet arrived, all were re-embarked—the -full force of Elis being under march to attack them. They then sailed -northward, landing on various other spots to commit devastation, until they -reached Sollium, a Corinthian settlement on the coast of Acarnania. They -captured this place, which they handed over to the inhabitants of the neighbouring -Acarnanian town of Palærus, as well as Astacus, from whence they -expelled the despot Euarchus, and enrolled the town as a member of the -Athenian alliance. From hence they passed over to Cephallenia, which they -were fortunate enough also to acquire as an ally of Athens without any compulsion—with -its four distinct towns or districts, Pale, Cranii, Same, and -Proni. These various operations took up near three months from about the -beginning of July, so that they returned to Athens towards the close of -September—the beginning of the winter half of the year, according to -the distribution of Thucydides.</p> - -<p>This was not the only maritime expedition of the summer. Thirty more -triremes, under Cleopompus, were sent through the Euripus to the Locrian -coast opposite to the northern part of Eubœa. Some disembarkations were -made, whereby the Locrian towns of Thronium and Alope were sacked, and -further devastation inflicted; while a permanent garrison was planted, and a -fortified post erected, in the uninhabited island of Atalante opposite to the -Locrian coast, in order to restrain privateers from Opus and the other Locrian -towns in their excursions against Eubœa. It was further determined to -expel the Æginetan inhabitants from Ægina, and to occupy the island with -Athenian colonists. This step was partly rendered prudent by the important -position of the island midway between Attica and Peloponnesus. But a -concurrent motive, and probably the stronger motive, was the gratification -of ancient antipathy and revenge against a people who had been among the -foremost in provoking the war and in inflicting upon Athens so much suffering. -The Æginetans, with their wives and children, were all put on ship-board -and landed in Peloponnesus, where the Spartans permitted them to -occupy the maritime district and town of Thyrea, their last frontier towards -Argos; some of them, however, found shelter in other parts of Greece. The -island was made over to a detachment of Athenian cleruchs, or citizen proprietors, -sent hither by lot.</p> - -<p>To the sufferings of the Æginetans, which we shall hereafter find still -more deplorably aggravated, we have to add those of the Megarians. Both -had been most zealous in kindling the war, but upon none did the distress of -war fall so heavily. Both probably shared the premature confidence felt -among the Peloponnesian confederacy, that Athens could never hold out -more than a year or two, and were thus induced to overlook their own undefended -position against her. Towards the close of September, the full force -of Athens, citizens and metics, marched into the Megarid, under Pericles, -and laid waste the greater part of the territory; while they were in it, the -hundred ships which had been circumnavigating Peloponnesus, having arrived -at Ægina on their return, joined their fellow citizens in the Megarid, -instead of going straight home. The junction of the two formed -the largest Athenian force that had ever yet been seen together; there -were ten thousand citizen hoplites (independent of three thousand others -who were engaged in the siege of Potidæa), and three thousand metic hoplites, -besides a large number of light troops. Against so large a force the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_532" id="Page_532">[532]</a></span> -Megarians could make no head, so that their territory was all laid waste, even -to the city walls. For several years of the war, the Athenians inflicted this -destruction once, and often twice in the same year. A decree was proposed -in the Athenian ecclesia by Charinus, though perhaps not carried, to the effect -that the strategi every year should swear, as a portion of their oath of office, -that they would twice invade and ravage the Megarid. As the Athenians at -the same time kept the port of Nisæa blocked up, by means of their superior -naval force and of the neighbouring coast of Salamis, the privations imposed -on the Megarians became extreme and intolerable. Not only their corn and -fruits, but even their garden vegetables were rooted up, and their situation -was that of a besieged city pressed by famine. Even in the time of Pausanias, -many centuries afterward, the miseries of the town during these years were -remembered and communicated to him, being assigned as the reason why one -of their most memorable statues had never been completed.</p> - -<p>To the various military operations of Athens during the course of this -summer, some other measures of moment are to be added. Moreover, Thucydides -notices an eclipse of the sun, which modern astronomical calculations -refer to the third of August; had this eclipse happened three months earlier, -immediately before the entrance of the Peloponnesians into Attica, it might -probably have been construed as an unfavourable omen, and caused the postponement -of the scheme. Expecting a prolonged struggle, the Athenians -now made arrangements for placing Attica in a permanent state of defence, -both by sea and land; what these arrangements were, we are not told in -detail, but one of them was sufficiently remarkable to be named particularly. -They set apart one thousand talents [£200,000 or $1,000,000] out of the treasure -in the Acropolis as an inviolable reserve, not to be touched except on the -single contingency of a hostile naval force about to assail the city, with no -other means at hand to defend it. They further enacted that if any citizen -should propose, or any magistrate put the question, in the public assembly, -to make any different application of this reserve, he should be punishable -with death. Moreover, they resolved every year to keep back one hundred -of their best triremes, and trierarchs to command and equip them, for the same -special necessity. It may be doubted whether this latter provision was placed -under the same stringent sanction, or observed with the same rigour, as that -concerning the money; which latter was not departed from until the twentieth -year of the war, after all the disasters of the Sicilian expedition, and on -the terrible news of the revolt of Chios. It was on that occasion that the -Athenians first repealed the sentence of capital punishment against the proposer -of this forbidden change, and next appropriated the money to meet the -then imminent peril of the commonwealth.</p> - -<p>The resolution here taken about this sacred reserve, and the rigorous -sentence interdicting contrary propositions, is pronounced by Mitford<a name="FNanchor_48" id="FNanchor_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_533" id="Page_533">[533]</a></span> -be an evidence of the indelible barbarism of democratical government. But -we must recollect, first, that the sentence of capital punishment was one -which could hardly by possibility come into execution; for no citizen would -be so mad as to make the forbidden proposition while this law was in force. -Whoever desired to make it would first begin by proposing to repeal the -prohibitory law, whereby he would incur no danger, whether the assembly -decided in the affirmative or negative; and if he obtained an affirmative -decision he would then, and then only, proceed to move the re-appropriation -of the fund. To speak the language of English parliamentary procedure, he -would first move the suspension or abrogation of the standing order whereby -the proposition was forbidden; next, he would move the proposition itself; -in fact, such was the mode actually pursued, when the thing at last came to -be done. But though the capital sentence could hardly come into effect, the -proclamation of it <i>in terrorem</i> had a very distinct meaning. It expressed -the deep and solemn conviction which the people entertained of the importance -of their own resolution about the reserve; it forewarned all assemblies -and all citizens to come of the danger of diverting it to any other purpose; -it surrounded the reserve with an artificial sanctity, which forced every man -who aimed at the re-appropriation to begin with a preliminary proposition -formidable on the very face of it, as removing a guarantee which previous -assemblies had deemed of immense value, and opening the door to a contingency -which they had looked upon as treasonable. The proclamation of a -lighter punishment, or a simple prohibition without any definite sanction -whatever, would neither have announced the same emphatic conviction, nor -produced the same deterring effect. The assembly of 431 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> could not in -any way enact laws which subsequent assemblies could not reverse; but it -could so frame its enactments, in cases of peculiar solemnity, as to make its -authority strongly felt upon the judgment of its successors, and to prevent -them from entertaining motions for repeal except under necessity at once -urgent and obvious.</p> - -<p>Far from thinking that the law now passed at Athens displayed barbarism, -either in the end or in the means, we consider it principally remarkable -for its cautious and long-sighted view of the future—qualities the exact -reverse of barbarism—and worthy of the general character of Pericles, who -probably suggested it. Athens was just entering into a war which threatened -to be of indefinite length, and was certain to be very costly. To prevent -the people from exhausting all their accumulated fund, and to place -them under a necessity of reserving something against extreme casualties, -was an object of immense importance. Now the particular casualty, which -Pericles (assuming him to be the proposer) named as the sole condition of -touching this one thousand talents, might be considered as of all others the -most improbable, in the year 431 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> So immense was then the superiority -of the Athenian naval force, that to suppose it defeated, and a Peloponnesian -fleet in full sail for Piræus, was a possibility which it required a statesman -of extraordinary caution to look forward to, and which it is truly wonderful -that the people generally could have been induced to contemplate. -Once tied up to this purpose, however, the fund lay ready for any other -terrible emergency: and we shall find the actual employment of it incalculably -beneficial to Athens, at a moment of the gravest peril, when she could -hardly have protected herself without some such special resource. The -people would scarcely have sanctioned so rigorous an economy, had it not -been proposed to them at a period so early in the war that their available -reserve was still much larger. But it will be forever to the credit of their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_534" id="Page_534">[534]</a></span> -foresight as well as constancy, that they should first have adopted such a -precautionary measure, and afterwards adhered to it for nineteen years, -under severe pressure for money, until at length a case arose which rendered -further abstinence really, and not constructively, impossible.</p> - -<p>To display their force and take revenge by disembarking and ravaging -parts of the Peloponnesus, was doubtless of much importance to Athens during -this first summer of the war: though it might seem that the force so -employed was quite as much needed in the conquest of Potidæa, which still -remained under blockade, and of the neighbouring Chalcidians in Thrace, -still in revolt. It was during the course of this summer that a prospect -opened to Athens of subduing these towns, through the assistance of Sitalces, -king of the Odrysian Thracians. That prince had married the sister of -Nymphodorus, a citizen of Abdera; who engaged to render him, and his son -Sadocus, allies of Athens. Sent for to Athens and appointed proxenus of -Athens at Abdera, which was one of the Athenian subject allies, Nymphodorus -made this alliance, and promised in the name of Sitalces that a sufficient -Thracian force should be sent to aid Athens in the reconquest of her -revolted towns: the honour of Athenian citizenship was at the same time -conferred upon Sadocus. Nymphodorus further established a good understanding -between Perdiccas II of Macedonia and the Athenians, who were -persuaded to restore to him Therma, which they had before taken from him. -The Athenians had thus the promise of powerful aid against the Chalcidians -and Potidæans: yet the latter still held out, with little prospect of immediate -surrender. Moreover, the town of Astacus in Acarnania, which the -Athenians had captured during the summer, in the course of their expedition -round Peloponnesus, was recovered during the autumn by the deposed -despot Euarchus, assisted by forty Corinthian triremes and one thousand -hoplites. This Corinthian armament, after restoring Euarchus, made some -unsuccessful descents both upon other parts of Acarnania and upon the -island of Cephallenia: in the latter they were entrapped into an ambuscade -and obliged to return home with considerable loss.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_30b2" id="enanchor_30b2"></a><a href="#endnote_30b">b</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_47" id="Footnote_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> “Cleon,” says Thucydides, “attacked him with great acrimony, making use of the general -resentment against Pericles, as a means to increase his own popularity, as Hermippus testifies in -these verses: -</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“‘Sleeps then, thou king of Satyrs, sleeps the spear,</div> -<div class="verse">While thundering words make war? Why boast thy prowess,</div> -<div class="verse">Yet shudder at the sound of sharpened swords,</div> -<div class="verse">Spite of the flaming Cleon?’”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_48" id="Footnote_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> “A measure followed which, taking place at the time when Thucydides wrote and Pericles -spoke, and while Pericles held the principal influence in the administration, strongly marks,” says -Mr. Mitford, “both the inherent weakness and the indelible barbarism of democratical government. -A decree of the people directed that a thousand talents should be set apart in the treasury in -the citadel, as a deposit, not to be touched unless the enemy should attack the city by sea; a circumstance -which implied the prior ruin of the Athenian fleet, and the only one, it was supposed, which -could superinduce the ruin of the commonwealth. But in a decree so important, sanctioned only by -the present will of that giddy tyrant, the multitude of Athens, against whose caprices, since the depression -of the court of Areopagus, no balancing power remained, confidence so failed that the denunciation -of capital punishment was added against whosoever should propose, and whosoever should -concur in, any decree for the disposal of that money to any other purpose, or in any other circumstances. -It was at the same time ordered, by the same authority, that a hundred triremes should -be yearly selected, the best of the fleet, to be employed on the same occasion only.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-30.jpg" width="500" height="190" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Terra-cotta</span></p> -<p class="caption">(In the British Museum)</p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_535" id="Page_535">[535]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-31.jpg" width="500" height="227" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XXXI_THE_PLAGUE_AND_THE_DEATH_OF">CHAPTER XXXI. THE PLAGUE; AND THE DEATH OF -PERICLES</h3> - -<h4>THE ORATION OF PERICLES</h4> - -<p>It was towards the close of autumn that Pericles, chosen by the people -for the purpose, delivered the funeral oration at the public interment of -those warriors who had fallen during the campaign, on the occasion of the -conquest of Samos. One of the remarkable features in this discourse is its -business-like, impersonal character: it is Athens herself who undertakes to -commend and to decorate her departed sons, as well as to hearten up and -admonish the living.</p> - -<p>After a few words on the magnitude of the empire and on the glorious -efforts as well as endurance whereby their forefathers and they had acquired -it—Pericles proceeds to sketch the plan of life, the constitution, and the -manners, under which such achievements were brought about.</p> - -<p>“We live under a constitution such as noway to envy the laws of our -neighbours,—ourselves an example to others, rather than mere imitators. -It is called a democracy, since its permanent aim tends towards the Many -and not towards the Few: in regard to private matters and disputes, the -laws deal equally with every man; while looking to public affairs, and to -claims of individual influence, every man’s chance of advancement is determined -not by party favour but by real worth, according as his reputation -stands in his own particular department: nor does poverty, or obscure station, -keep him back, if he really has the means of benefiting the city. And -our social march is free, not merely in regard to public affairs, but also in -regard to intolerance of each other’s diversity of daily pursuits. For we -are not angry with our neighbour for what he may do to please himself, nor -do we ever put on those sour looks, which, though they do no positive damage, -are not the less sure to offend. Thus conducting our private social intercourse -with reciprocal indulgence, we are restrained from wrong on public -matters by fear and reverence of our magistrates for the time being and of -our laws—especially such laws as are instituted for the protection of wrongful -sufferers, and even such others as, though not written, are enforced by -a common sense of shame.</p> - -<p>“Besides this, we have provided for our minds numerous recreations from -toil, partly by our customary solemnities of sacrifice and festival throughout -the year, partly by the elegance of our private establishments, the daily<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_536" id="Page_536">[536]</a></span> -charm of which banishes the sense of discomfort. From the magnitude of -our city, the products of the whole earth are brought to us, so that our enjoyment -of foreign luxuries is as much our own and assured as those which we -grow at home. In respect to training for war, we differ from our opponents -(the Lacedæmonians) on several material points. First, we lay open our city -as a common resort: we apply no <i>xenelasia</i> to exclude even an enemy either -from any lesson or any spectacle, the full view of which he may think advantageous -to him; for we trust less to manœuvres and quackery than to our -native bravery, for warlike efficiency. Next, in regard to education, while -the Lacedæmonians even from their earliest youth subject themselves to an -irksome exercise for the attainment of courage, we with our easy habits of -life are not less prepared than they, to encounter all perils within the measure -of our strength. The proof of this is, that the Peloponnesian confederates -do not attack us one by one, but with their whole united force; while -we, when we attack them at home, overpower for the most part all of them -who try to defend their own territory. None of our enemies has ever met -and contended with our entire force; partly in consequence of our large -navy—partly from our dispersion in different simultaneous land expeditions. -But when they chance to be engaged with any part of it, if victorious, they -pretend to have vanquished us all—if defeated, they pretend to have been -vanquished by all.</p> - -<p>“Now if we are willing to brave danger, just as much under an indulgent -system as under constant toil, and by spontaneous courage as much as under -force of law—we are gainers in the end by not vexing ourselves beforehand -with sufferings to come, yet still appearing in the hour of trial not less daring -than those who toil without ceasing.</p> - -<p>“In other matters, too, as well as in these, our city deserves admiration. -For we combine elegance of taste with simplicity of life, and we pursue -knowledge without being enervated: we employ wealth not for talking and -ostentation, but as a real help in the proper season: nor is it disgraceful to -any one who is poor to confess his poverty, though he may rather incur -reproach for not actually keeping himself out of poverty. The magistrates -who discharge public trusts fulfil their domestic duties also—the private -citizen, while engaged in professional business, has competent knowledge on -public affairs: for we stand alone in regarding the man who keeps aloof -from these latter not as harmless, but as useless. Moreover, we always hear -and pronounce on public matters, when discussed by our leaders—or perhaps -strike out for ourselves correct reasonings about them: far from accounting -discussion an impediment to action, we complain only if we are not -told what is to be done before it becomes our duty to do it. For in truth -we combine in the most remarkable manner these two qualities—extreme -boldness in execution with full debate beforehand on that which we are -going about: whereas with others, ignorance alone imparts boldness—debate -introduces hesitation. Assuredly those men are properly to be -regarded as the stoutest of heart, who, knowing most precisely both the -terrors of war and the sweets of peace, are still not the less willing to encounter -peril.</p> - -<p>“In fine, I affirm that our city, considered as a whole, is the schoolmistress -of Greece; while, viewed individually, we enable the same man to furnish -himself out and suffice to himself in the greatest variety of ways and with -the most complete grace and refinement. This is no empty boast of the -moment, but genuine reality; and the power of the city, acquired through -the dispositions just indicated, exists to prove it. Athens alone of all cities<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_537" id="Page_537">[537]</a></span> -stands forth in actual trial greater than her reputation: her enemy when he -attacks her will not have his pride wounded by suffering defeat from feeble -hands—her subjects will not think themselves degraded as if their obedience -were paid to an unworthy superior. Having thus put forth our power, not -uncertified, but backed by the most evident proofs, we shall be admired not -less by posterity than by our contemporaries. Nor do we stand in need -either of Homer or of any other panegyrist, whose words may for the moment -please, while the truth when known would confute their intended meaning. -We have compelled all land and sea to become accessible to our courage, and -have planted everywhere imperishable monuments of our kindness as well -as of our hostility.</p> - -<p>“Such is the city on behalf of which these warriors have nobly died in -battle, vindicating her just title to unimpaired rights—and on behalf of -which all of us here left behind must willingly toil. It is for this reason -that I have spoken at length concerning the city, at once to draw from it the -lesson that the conflict is not for equal motives between us and enemies who -possess nothing of the like excellence—and to demonstrate by proofs the -truth of my encomium pronounced upon her.”</p> - -<p>Pericles pursues at considerable additional length the same tenor of -mixed exhortation to the living and eulogy of the dead; with many special -and emphatic observations addressed to the relatives of the latter, who were -assembled around and doubtless very near him. But the extract which we -have already made is so long, that no further addition would be admissible: -yet it was impossible to pass over lightly the picture of the Athenian commonwealth -in its glory, as delivered by the ablest citizen of the age. The -effect of the democratical constitution, with its diffused and equal citizenship, -in calling forth not merely strong attachment, but painful self sacrifice, on -the part of all Athenians—is nowhere more forcibly insisted upon than in -the words above cited of Pericles, as well as in others afterwards. “Contemplating -as you do daily before you the actual power of the state, and -becoming passionately attached to it, when you conceive its full greatness, -reflect that it was all acquired by men daring, acquainted with their duty, -and full of an honourable sense of shame in their actions”—such is the -association which he presents between the greatness of the state as an object -of common passion, and the courage, intelligence, and mutual esteem, of -individual citizens, as its creating and preserving causes; poor as well as -rich being alike interested in the partnership.</p> - -<p>But the claims of patriotism, though put forward as essentially and deservedly -paramount, are by no means understood to reign exclusively, or to -absorb the whole of the democratical activity. Subject to these, and to -those laws and sanctions which protect both the public and individuals -against wrong, it is the pride of Athens to exhibit a rich and varied fund of -human impulse—an unrestrained play of fancy and diversity of private -pursuit coupled with a reciprocity of cheerful indulgence between one individual -and another—and an absence even of those “black looks” which -so much embitter life, even if they never pass into enmity of fact. This -portion of the speech of Pericles deserves particular attention, because it -serves to correct an assertion, often far too indiscriminately made, respecting -antiquity as contrasted with modern societies—an assertion that the ancient -societies sacrificed the individual to the state, and that only in modern times -has individual agency been left free to the proper extent. This is preeminently -true of Sparta—it is also true in a great degree of the ideal -societies depicted by Plato and Aristotle: but it is pointedly untrue of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_538" id="Page_538">[538]</a></span> -Athenian democracy, nor can we with any confidence predicate it of the -major part of the Grecian cities.</p> - -<p>Connected with this reciprocal indulgence of individual diversity, was -not only the hospitable reception of all strangers at Athens, which Pericles -contrasts with the <i>xenelasia</i> or jealous expulsion practised at Sparta—but -also the many-sided activity, bodily and mental, visible in the former, so -opposite to that narrow range of thought, exclusive discipline of the body, -and never-ending preparation for war, which formed the system of the -latter. His assertion that Athens was equal to Sparta even in her own solitary -excellence—efficiency on the field of battle—is doubtless untenable. -But not the less impressive is his sketch of that multitude of concurrent -impulses which at this same time agitated and impelled the Athenian mind—the -strength of one not implying the weakness of the remainder: the relish -for all pleasures of art and elegance, and the appetite for intellectual expansion, -coinciding in the same bosom with energetic promptitude as well as -endurance: abundance of recreative spectacles, yet noway abating the cheerfulness -of obedience even to the hardest calls of patriotic duty: that combination -of reason and courage which encountered danger the more willingly -from having discussed and calculated it beforehand: lastly, an anxious interest, -as well as a competence of judgment, in public discussion and public -action, common to every citizen rich and poor, and combined with every -man’s own private industry. So comprehensive an ideal of many-sided social -development, bringing out the capacities for action and endurance, as well -as those for enjoyment, would be sufficiently remarkable, even if we supposed -it only existing in the imagination of a philosopher: but it becomes still -more so when we recollect that the main features of it at least were drawn -from the fellow citizens of the speaker. It must be taken however as belonging -peculiarly to the Athens of Pericles and his contemporaries; nor -would it have suited either the period of the Persian War fifty years before, -or that of Demosthenes seventy years afterwards.</p> - -<p>At the former period, the art, letters, philosophy, adverted to with pride -by Pericles, were as yet backward, while even the active energy and democratical -stimulus, though very powerful, had not been worked up to the pitch -which they afterwards reached: at the latter period, although the intellectual -manifestations of Athens subsist in full or even increased vigour, we shall -find the personal enterprise and energetic spirit of her citizens materially -abated. As the circumstances, which we have already recounted, go far to -explain the previous upward movement, so those which fill the coming chapters, -containing the disasters of the Peloponnesian War, will be found to -explain still more completely the declining tendency shortly about to commence. -Athens was brought to the brink of entire ruin, from which it is -surprising that she recovered at all—but noway surprising that she recovered -at the expense of a considerable loss of personal energy in the character -of her citizens.</p> - -<p>And thus the season at which Pericles delivered his discourse lends to -it an additional and peculiar pathos. It was delivered at a time when -Athens was as yet erect and at her maximum: for though her real power -was doubtless much diminished compared with the period before the Thirty -Years’ Truce, yet the great edifices and works of art, achieved since then, -tended to compensate that loss, in so far as the sense of greatness was concerned; -and no one, either citizen or enemy, considered Athens as having -at all declined. It was delivered at the commencement of the great struggle -with the Peloponnesian confederacy, the coming hardships of which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_539" id="Page_539">[539]</a></span> -Pericles never disguised either to himself or to his fellow citizens, though -he fully counted upon eventual success. Attica had been already invaded; -it was no longer “the unwasted territory,” as Euripides had designated it -in his tragedy <i>Medea</i>, represented three or four months before the march -of Archidamus—and a picture of Athens in her social glory was well -calculated both to arouse the pride and nerve the courage of those individual -citizens, who had been compelled once, and would be compelled again and -again, to abandon their country residences and fields for a thin tent or confined -hole in the city. Such calamities might indeed be foreseen: but there -was one still greater calamity, which, though actually then impending, -could not be foreseen.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_31b" id="enanchor_31b"></a><a href="#endnote_31b">b</a></span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">[430 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>At the very beginning of the next summer the Peloponnesians and their -allies, with two-thirds of their forces, as on the first occasion, invaded Attica, -under the command of Archidamus, the son of Zeuxidamus, king of the -Lacedæmonians; and after encamping, they laid waste the country. When -they had not yet been many days in Attica, the plague first began to show -itself among the Athenians; though it was said to have previously lighted -on many places, about Lemnos and elsewhere. Such a pestilence, however, -and loss of life as this, was nowhere remembered to have happened. For -neither were physicians of any avail at first, treating it as they did, in -ignorance of its nature,—nay, they themselves died most of all, inasmuch -as they most visited the sick,—nor any other art of man. And as to the -supplications that they offered in their temples, or the divinations, and -similar means, that they had recourse to, they were all unavailing; and at -last they ceased from them, being overcome by the pressure of the calamity.</p> - -<h4>THUCYDIDES’ ACCOUNT OF THE PLAGUE</h4> - -<p>It is said to have first begun in the part of Ethiopia above Egypt, and -then to have come down into Egypt, and Libya, and the greatest part of the -king’s territory.<a name="FNanchor_49" id="FNanchor_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> On the city of Athens it fell suddenly, and first attacked -the men in the Piræus; so that it was even reported by them that the Peloponnesians -had thrown poison into the cisterns; for as yet there were no fountains -there. Afterwards it reached the upper city also; and then they died -much more generally. Now let every one, whether physician or unprofessional -man, speak on the subject according to his views; from what source -it was likely to have arisen, and the causes which he thinks were sufficient -to have produced so great a change from health to universal sickness. I, -however, shall only describe what was its character; and explain those symptoms -by reference to which one might best be enabled to recognise it through -this previous acquaintance, if it should ever break out again; for I was both -attacked by it myself, and had personal observation of others who were suffering -with it.</p> - -<p>That year then, as was generally allowed, happened to be of all years -the most free from disease, so far as regards other disorders; and if any -one had any previous sickness, all terminated in this. Others, without any -ostensible cause, but suddenly, while in the enjoyment of health, were seized -at first with violent heats in the head, and redness and inflammation of the -eyes; and the internal parts, both the throat and the tongue, immediately<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_540" id="Page_540">[540]</a></span> -assumed a bloody tinge, and emitted an unnatural and fetid breath. Next -after these symptoms, sneezing and hoarseness came on; and in a short time -the pain descended to the chest, with a violent cough. When it settled in -the stomach, it caused vomiting; and all the discharges of bile that have -been mentioned by physicians succeeded, and those accompanied with great -suffering. An ineffectual retching also followed in most cases, producing a -violent spasm, which in some cases ceased soon afterwards, in others not -until a long time later.</p> - -<p>Externally the body was not very hot to the touch, nor was it pale; but -reddish, livid, and broken out -in small pimples and sores. -But the internal parts were -burnt to such a degree that -they could not bear clothing -or linen of the very lightest -kind to be laid upon them, nor -to be anything else but stark -naked; but would most gladly -have thrown themselves into -cold water if they could. Indeed -many of those who were -not taken care of did so, plunging -into cisterns in the agony -of their unquenchable thirst: -and it was all the same whether -they drank much or little. -Moreover, the misery of restlessness -and wakefulness continually -oppressed them. The -body did not waste away so -long as the disease was at its -height, but resisted it beyond -all expectation: so that they -either died in most cases on -the ninth or the seventh day, -through the internal burning, -while they had still some degree -of strength; or if they -escaped that stage of the disorder, -then, after it had further -descended into the bowels, and violent ulceration was produced in them, -and intense diarrhœa had come on, the greater part were afterwards carried -off through the weakness occasioned by it. For the disease, which was -originally seated in the head, beginning from above, passed throughout the -whole body; and if any one survived its most fatal consequences, yet it -marked him by laying hold of his extremities; for it settled on the pudenda, -and fingers, and toes, and many escaped with the loss of these, while some -also lost their eyes. Others, again, were seized on their first recovery with -forgetfulness of everything alike, and did not know either themselves or -their friends.</p> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 300px;"> -<img src="images/p540.jpg" width="300" height="431" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Funeral Pyre</span></p> -</div> - -<p>For the character of the disorder surpassed description; and while in -other respects also it attacked every one in a degree more grievous than -human nature could endure, in the following way, especially, it proved itself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_541" id="Page_541">[541]</a></span> -to be something different from any of the diseases familiar to man.<a name="FNanchor_50" id="FNanchor_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> All the -birds and beasts that prey on human bodies, either did not come near them, -though there were many lying unburied, or died after they had tasted them. -As a proof of this, there was a marked disappearance of birds of this kind, -and they were not seen either engaged in this way, or in any other; while -the dogs, from their domestic habits, more clearly afforded opportunity of -marking the result I have mentioned.</p> - -<p>The disease, then, to pass over many various points of peculiarity, as it -happened to be different in one case from another, was in its general nature -such as I have described. And no other of those to which they were accustomed -afflicted them besides this at that time; or whatever there was, it -ended in this. And of those who were seized by it some died in neglect, -others in the midst of every attention. And there was no one settled remedy, -so to speak, by applying which they were to give them relief: for what did -good to one, did harm to another. And no constitution showed itself fortified -against it, in point either of strength or weakness: but it seized on -all alike, even those that were treated with all possible regard to diet. But -the most dreadful part of the whole calamity was the dejection felt whenever -any one found himself sickening (for by immediately falling into a feeling -of despair, they abandoned themselves much more certainly to the disease, -and did not resist it), and the fact of their being charged with infection -from attending on one another, and so dying like sheep. And it was this -that caused the greatest mortality amongst them; for if through fear they -were unwilling to visit each other, they perished from being deserted, and -many houses were emptied for want of some one to attend to the sufferers; -or if they did visit them, they met their death, and especially such as made -any pretensions to goodness; for through a feeling of shame they were -unsparing of themselves, in going into their friends’ houses when deserted -by all others; since even the members of the family were at length worn -out by the very moanings of the dying, and were overcome by their excessive -misery. Still more, however, than even these, did such as had escaped the -disorder show pity for the dying and the suffering, both from their previous -knowledge of what it was, and from their being now in no fear of it themselves: -for it never seized the same person twice, so as to prove actually -fatal. And such persons were felicitated by others; and themselves, in the -excess of their present joy, entertained for the future also, to a certain -degree, a vain hope that they would never now be carried off even by any -other disease.</p> - -<p>In addition to the original calamity, what oppressed them still more was -the crowding into the city from the country, especially the newcomers. For -as they had no houses, but lived in stifling cabins at the hot season of -the year, the mortality amongst them spread without restraint; bodies lying -on one another in the death agony, and half-dead creatures rolling about in -the streets and round all the fountains, in their longing for water. The -sacred places also in which they had quartered themselves, were full of the -corpses of those that died there in them: for in the surpassing violence -of the calamity, men not knowing what was to become of them, came to -disregard everything, both sacred and profane, alike. And all the laws -were violated which they before observed respecting burials; and they -buried them as each one could. And many from want of proper means, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_542" id="Page_542">[542]</a></span> -consequence of so many of their friends having died, had recourse to shameless -modes of sepulture; for on the piles prepared for others, some, anticipating -those who had raised them, would lay their own dead relatives and -set fire to them; and others, while the body of a stranger was burning, would -throw on the top of it the one they were carrying, and go away.</p> - -<p>In other respects also the plague was the origin of lawless conduct in -the city, to a greater extent than it had before existed. For deeds which -formerly men hid from view, so as not to do them just as they pleased, they -now more readily ventured on; since they saw the change so sudden in the -case of those who were prosperous and quickly perished, and of those who -before had had nothing, and at once came into possession of the property of -the dead. So they resolved to take their enjoyment quickly, and with a sole -view to gratification; regarding their lives and their riches alike as things -of a day. As for taking trouble about what was thought honourable, no -one was forward to do it; deeming it uncertain whether, before he had -attained to it, he would not be cut off; but everything that was immediately -pleasant, and that which was conducive to it by any means whatever, -this was laid down to be both honourable and expedient. And fear of gods, -or law of men, there was none to stop them; for with regard to the former -they esteemed it all the same whether they worshipped them or not, from seeing -all alike perishing; and with regard to their offences against the latter, -no one expected to live till judgment should be passed on him, and so to -pay the penalty of them; but they thought a far heavier sentence was impending -in that which had already been passed upon them; and that before -it fell on them, it was right to have some enjoyment of life.</p> - -<p>Such was the calamity which the Athenians had met with, and by which -they were afflicted, their men dying within the city, and their land being -wasted without. In their misery they remembered this verse amongst other -things, as was natural they should; the old men saying that it had been -uttered long ago:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“A Dorian war shall come, and plague with it.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">Now there was a dispute amongst them, and some asserted that it was not -“a plague” (<i>loimos</i>), that had been mentioned in the verse by the men of -former times, but “a famine” (<i>limos</i>): the opinion, however, at the present -time naturally prevailed that “a plague” had been mentioned: for men -adapted their recollections to what they were suffering. But, I suppose, in -case of another Dorian war ever befalling them after this, and a famine -happening to exist, in all probability they will recite the verse accordingly. -Those who were acquainted with it recollected also the oracle given to the -Lacedæmonians, when on their inquiring of the god whether they should go -to war, he answered, “that if they carried it on with all their might, they would -gain the victory; and that he would himself take part with them in it.” -With regard to the oracle then, they supposed that what was happening -answered to it. For the disease had begun immediately after the Lacedæmonians -had made their incursion; and it did not go into the Peloponnesus, -worth even speaking of, but ravaged Athens most of all, and next to it the -most populous of the other towns. Such were the circumstances that -occurred in connection with the plague.</p> - -<p>The Peloponnesians, after ravaging the plain, passed into the Paralian -territory, as it is called, as far as Laurium, where the gold mines of the -Athenians are situated. And first they ravaged the side which looks towards -Peloponnesus; afterwards, that which lies towards Eubœa and Andros.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_543" id="Page_543">[543]</a></span> -Pericles being general at that time as well as before, maintained the same -opinion as he had in the former invasion, about the Athenians not marching -out against them.</p> - -<p>While they were still in the plain, before they went to the Paralian -territory, he was preparing an armament of a hundred ships to sail against -the Peloponnesus; and when all was ready, he put out to sea. On board the -ships he took four thousand heavy-armed of the Athenians, and three hundred -cavalry in horse transports, then for the first time made out of old -vessels: a Chian and Lesbian force also joined the expedition with fifty -ships. When this armament of the Athenians put out to sea, they left the -Peloponnesians in the Paralian territory of Attica. On arriving at Epidaurus, -in the Peloponnesus, they ravaged the greater part of the land, and having -made an assault on the city, entertained some hope of taking it; but -did not, however, succeed. After sailing from Epidaurus, they ravaged the -land belonging to Trœzen, Haliœ, and Hermione; all which places are on -the coast of the Peloponnesus. Proceeding thence they came to Prasiæ, a -maritime town of Laconia, and ravaged some of the land, and took the town -itself, and sacked it. After performing these achievements, they returned -home; and found the Peloponnesians no longer in Attica, but returned.</p> - -<p>Now all the time that the Peloponnesians were in the Athenian territory, -and the Athenians were engaged in the expedition on board their ships, the -plague was carrying them off both in the armament and in the city, so that it -was even said that the Peloponnesians, for fear of the disorder, when they -heard from the deserters that it was in the city, and also perceived them performing -the funeral rites, retired the quicker from the country. Yet in this invasion -they stayed the longest time, and ravaged the whole country: for they -were about forty days in the Athenian territory.</p> - -<p>The same summer Hagnon, son of Nicias, and Cleopompus, son of Clinias, -who were colleagues with Pericles, took the army which he had employed, and -went straightway on an expedition against the Chalcidians Thrace-ward, -and Potidæa, which was still being besieged: and on their arrival they -brought up their engines against Potidæa, and endeavoured to take it by -every means. But they neither succeeded in capturing the city, nor in their -other measures, to any extent worthy of their preparations: for the plague -attacked them, and this indeed utterly overpowered them there, wasting -their force to such a degree, that even the soldiers of the Athenians who -were there before were infected with it by the troops which came with -Hagnon, though previously they had been in good health. Phormion, however, -and his sixteen hundred, were no longer in the neighbourhood of the -Chalcidians (and so escaped its ravages). Hagnon therefore returned with -his ships to Athens, having lost by the plague fifteen hundred out of four -thousand heavy-armed, in about forty days. The soldiers who were there -before still remained in the country, and continued the siege of Potidæa.</p> - -<p>After the second invasion of the Lacedæmonians, the Athenians, when their -land had been again ravaged, and the disease and the war were afflicting -them at the same time, changed their views, and found fault with Pericles, -thinking that he had persuaded them to go to war, and that it was through -him that they had met with their misfortunes; and they were eager to come -to terms with the Lacedæmonians. Indeed they sent ambassadors to them, -but did not succeed in their object. And their minds being on all sides -reduced to despair, they were violent against Pericles. He therefore, seeing -them irritated by their present circumstances, and doing everything that he -himself expected them to do, called an assembly, (for he was still general)<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_544" id="Page_544">[544]</a></span> -wishing to cheer them, and by drawing off the irritation of their feelings to -lead them to a calmer and more confident state of mind.</p> - -<p>The Lacedæmonians and their allies the same summer made an expedition -with a hundred ships against the island of Zacynthus, which lies over -against Elis. The inhabitants are a colony of the Achæans of the Peloponnesus, -and were in alliance with the Athenians. On board the fleet were a -thousand heavy-armed of the Lacedæmonians, and Cnemus, a Spartan, as -admiral. Having made a descent on the country, they ravaged the greater -part of it; and when they did not surrender, they sailed back home.</p> - -<p>At the end of the same summer, Aristeus, a Corinthian, Aneristus, -Nicolaus, and Stratodemus, ambassadors of the Lacedæmonians, Timagoras, -a Tegean, and Pollis, an Argive in a private capacity, being on their -way to Asia, to obtain an interview with the king, if by any means they -might prevail on him to supply money and join in the war, went first to -Thrace, to Sitalces the son of Teres, wishing to persuade him, if they -could, to withdraw from his alliance with the Athenians. He gave orders -to deliver them up to the Athenian ambassadors; who, having received -them, took them to Athens. On their arrival the Athenians, being afraid -that if Aristeus escaped he might do them still more mischief (for even -before this he had evidently conducted all the measures in Potidæa and -their possessions Thrace-ward) without giving them a trial, though they -requested to say something in their own defence, put them to death that -same day, and threw them into pits; thinking it but just to requite them -in the same way as the Lacedæmonians had begun with; for they had -killed and thrown into pits the merchants, both of the Athenians and their -allies, whom they had taken on board trading vessels about the coast of -the Peloponnesus. Indeed all that the Lacedæmonians took on the sea at -the beginning of the war, they butchered as enemies, both those who were -confederates of the Athenians and those who were neutral.</p> - -<p>The following winter, the Athenians sent twenty ships round the Peloponnese, -with Phormion as commander, who, making Naupactus his station, -kept watch that no one either sailed out from Corinth and the Crissæan Bay, -or into it. Another squadron of six they sent towards Caria and Lycia, -with Melesander as commander, to raise money from those parts, and to hinder -the privateers of the Peloponnesians from making that their rendezvous, -and interfering with the navigation of the merchantmen from Phaselis and -Phœnicia, and the continent in that direction. But Melesander, having gone -up the country into Lycia with a force composed of the Athenians from the -ships and the allies, and being defeated in a battle, was killed, and lost a -considerable part of the army.</p> - -<p>The same winter, when the Potidæans could no longer hold out against -their besiegers, the inroads of the Peloponnesians into Attica having had no -more effect towards causing the Athenians to withdraw, and their provisions -being exhausted, and many other horrors having befallen them in their -straits for food, and some having even eaten one another; under these circumstances, -they made proposals for a capitulation to the generals of the -Athenians who were in command against them, Xenophon, son of Euripides, -Histiodorus, son of Aristoclides, and Phanomachus, son of Callimachus; -who accepted them, seeing the distress of their army in so exposed a position, -and the state having already expended 2000 talents [£400,000 or -$2,000,000] on the siege. On these terms therefore they came to an agreement; -that themselves, their children, wives, and auxiliaries, should go out -of the place with one dress each—but the women with two—and with a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_545" id="Page_545">[545]</a></span> -fixed sum of money for their journey. According to this treaty, they went -out to Chalcidice, or where each could: but the Athenians blamed the generals -for having come to an agreement without consulting them; for they -thought they might have got possession of the place on their own terms; -and afterwards they sent settlers of their own to Potidæa and colonised -it. These were the transactions of the winter; and so ended the second -year of this war.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_31c" id="enanchor_31c"></a><a href="#endnote_31c">c</a></span></p> - -<h4>LAST PUBLIC SPEECH OF PERICLES</h4> - -<p>In his capacity of strategus, Pericles convoked a formal assembly of the -people, for the purpose of vindicating himself publicly against the prevailing -sentiment, and recommending perseverance in his line of policy. The -speeches made by his opponents, assuredly very bitter, are not given by -Thucydides; but that of Pericles himself is set down at considerable length, -and a memorable discourse it is. It strikingly brings into relief both the -character of the man and the impress of actual circumstances—an impregnable -mind conscious not only of right purposes but of just and reasonable -anticipations, and bearing up with manliness, or even defiance, against the -natural difficulty of the case, heightened by an extreme of incalculable misfortune. -He had foreseen, while advising the war originally, the probable -impatience of his countrymen under its first hardships, but he could not -foresee the epidemic by which that impatience had been exasperated into -madness; and he now addressed them not merely with unabated adherence -to his own deliberate convictions, but also in a tone of reproachful remonstrance -against their unmerited change of sentiment towards him—seeking -at the same time to combat that uncontrolled despair which, for the moment, -overlaid both their pride and their patriotism. Far from humbling himself -before the present sentiment, it is at this time that he sets forth his titles to -their esteem in the most direct and unqualified manner, and claims the continuance -of that which they had so long accorded, as something belonging -to him by acquired right.</p> - -<p>His main object, throughout this discourse, is to fill the minds of his audience -with patriotic sympathy for the weal of the entire city, so as to counterbalance -the absorbing sense of private woe. If the collective city -flourishes (he argues), private misfortunes may at least be borne: but no -amount of private prosperity will avail, if the collective city falls (a proposition -literally true in ancient times and under the circumstances of ancient -warfare—though less true at present). “Distracted by domestic calamity, -ye are now angry both with me who advised you to go to war, and with -yourselves who followed the advice. Ye listened to me, considering me -superior to others in judgment, in speech, in patriotism, and in incorruptible -probity—nor ought I now to be treated as culpable for giving such advice, -when in point of fact the war was unavoidable and there would have been -still greater danger in shrinking from it. I am the same man, still unchanged—but -ye in your misfortunes cannot stand to the convictions which -ye adopt when yet unhurt. Extreme and unforeseen, indeed, are the sorrows -which have fallen upon you: yet inhabiting as ye do a great city and -brought up in dispositions suitable to it, ye must also resolve to bear up -against the utmost pressure of adversity, and never to surrender your dignity. -I have often explained to you that ye have no reason to doubt of -eventual success in the war, but I will now remind you, more emphatically -than before, and even with a degree of ostentation suitable as a stimulus to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_546" id="Page_546">[546]</a></span> -your present unnatural depression—that your naval force makes you masters -not only of your allies, but of the entire sea—one-half of the visible -field for action and employment. Compared with so vast a power as this, -the temporary use of your houses and territory is a mere trifle—an ornamental -accessory not worth considering: and this too, if ye preserve your -freedom, ye will quickly recover. It was your fathers who first gained this -empire, without any of the advantages which ye now enjoy; ye must not -disgrace yourselves by losing what they acquired. Delighting as ye all do in -the honour and empire enjoyed by the city, ye must not shrink from the toils -whereby alone that honour is sustained: moreover ye now fight, not merely -for freedom instead of slavery, but for empire against loss of empire, with -all the perils arising out of imperial unpopularity. It is not safe for you -now to abdicate, even if ye chose to do so; for ye hold your empire like -a despotism—unjust perhaps in the original acquisition, but ruinous to -part with when once acquired. Be not angry with me, whose advice ye followed -in going to war, because the enemy have done such damage as might -be expected from them; still less on account of this unforeseen distemper: -I know that this makes me an object of your special present hatred, though -very unjustly, unless ye will consent to give me credit also of any unexpected -good luck which may occur. Our city derives its particular glory -from unshaken bearing up against misfortune: her power, her name, her -empire of Greeks over Greeks, are such as have never before been seen: and -if we choose to be great, we must take the consequence of that temporary -envy and hatred which is the necessary price of permanent renown. Behave -ye now in a manner worthy of that glory; display that courage which is -essential to protect you against disgrace at present, as well as to guarantee -your honour for the future. Send no further embassy to Sparta, and bear -your misfortunes without showing symptoms of distress.”</p> - -<p>The irresistible reason, as well as the proud and resolute bearing of this -discourse, set forth with an eloquence which it was not possible for Thucydides -to reproduce—together with the age and character of Pericles—carried -the assent of the assembled people; who, when in the Pnyx and -engaged according to habit on public matters, would for a moment forget -their private sufferings in considerations of the safety and grandeur of -Athens. Possibly indeed, those sufferings, though still continuing, might -become somewhat alleviated when the invaders quitted Attica, and when it -was no longer indispensable for all the population to confine itself within the -walls. Accordingly, the assembly resolved that no further propositions -should be made for peace, and that the war should be prosecuted with -vigour. But though the public resolution thus adopted showed the ancient -habit of deference to the authority of Pericles, the sentiments of individuals -taken separately were still those of anger against him as the author of that -system which had brought them into so much distress. His political opponents—Cleon, -Simmias, or Lacratidas, perhaps all three in conjunction—took -care to provide an opportunity for this prevalent irritation to manifest -itself in act, by bringing an accusation against him before the dicastery. -The accusation is said to have been preferred on the ground of pecuniary -malversation, and ended by his being sentenced to pay a considerable fine, -fifteen, fifty, or eighty talents, according to different authors.<a name="FNanchor_51" id="FNanchor_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_547" id="Page_547">[547]</a></span></p> - -<p>The accusing party thus appeared to have carried their point, and to have -disgraced, as well as excluded from re-election, the veteran statesman. But -the event disappointed their expectations. The imposition of the fine not -only satiated all the irritation of the people against him, but even occasioned -a serious reaction in his favour, and brought back as strongly as ever the -ancient sentiment of esteem and admiration. It was quickly found that -those who had succeeded Pericles as generals neither possessed nor deserved -in an equal degree the public confidence and he was accordingly soon re-elected, -with as much power and influence as he had ever in his life enjoyed.</p> - -<p>But that life, long, honourable, and useful, had already been prolonged -considerably beyond the sixtieth year, and there were but too many circumstances, -besides the recent fine, which tended to hasten as well as to embitter -its close. At the very moment when Pericles was preaching to his countrymen, -in a tone almost reproachful, the necessity of manful and unabated -devotion to the common country, in the midst of private suffering—he was -himself among the greatest of sufferers, and most hardly pressed to set the -example of observing his own precepts. The epidemic carried off not merely -his two sons (the only two legitimate, Xanthippus and Paralus), but also his -sister, several other relatives, and his best and most useful political friends. -Amidst this train of domestic calamities, and in the funeral obsequies of so -many of his dearest friends, he remained master of his grief, and maintained -his habitual self command, until the last misfortune—the death of his -favourite son Paralus, which left his house without any legitimate representative -to maintain the family and the hereditary sacred rites. On this -final blow, though he strove to command himself as before, yet at the obsequies -of the young man, when it became his duty to place a wreath on the -dead body, his grief became uncontrollable, and he burst out, for the first -time in his life, into profuse tears and sobbing.</p> - -<p>In the midst of these several personal trials he received the intimation, -through Alcibiades and some other friends, of the restored confidence of the -people towards him, and his re-election to the office of strategus. But it -was not without difficulty that he was persuaded to present himself again at -the public assembly, and resume the direction of affairs. The regret of the -people was formally expressed to him for the recent sentence—perhaps -indeed the fine may have been repaid to him, or some evasion of it permitted, -saving the forms of law—in the present temper of the city; which was -further displayed towards him by the grant of a remarkable exemption from -a law of his own original proposition. He had himself, some years before, -been the author of that law, whereby the citizenship of Athens was restricted -to persons born both of Athenian fathers and Athenian mothers, under -which restriction several thousand persons, illegitimate on the mother’s side, -are said to have been deprived of the citizenship, on occasion of a public distribution -of corn. Invidious as it appeared to grant, to Pericles singly, an -exemption from a law which had been strictly enforced against so many -others, the people were now moved not less by compassion than by anxiety -to redress their own previous severity. Without a legitimate heir, the house -of Pericles, one branch of the great Alcmæonid gens by his mother’s side, -would be left deserted, and the continuity of the family sacred rites would -be broken—a misfortune painfully felt by every Athenian family, as calculated -to wrong all the deceased members, and provoke their posthumous displeasure -towards the city. Accordingly, permission was granted to Pericles -to legitimise, and to inscribe in his own gens and phratry, his natural son by -Aspasia, who bore his own name.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_548" id="Page_548">[548]</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE END AND GLORY OF PERICLES</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[430-429 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>It was thus that Pericles was reinstated in his post of strategus as well -as in his ascendency over the public counsels—seemingly about August or -September—430 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> He lived about one year longer, and seems to have -maintained his influence as long as his health permitted. Yet we hear -nothing of him after this moment, and he fell a victim, not to the violent -symptoms of the epidemic, but to a slow and wearing fever, which undermined -his strength as well as his capacity. To a friend who came to ask -after him when in this disease, Pericles replied by showing a charm or -amulet which his female relations had hung about his neck—a proof how -low he was reduced, and how completely he had become a passive subject in -the hands of others. And according to another anecdote which we read, yet -more interesting and equally illustrative of his character—it was during his -last moments, when he was lying apparently unconscious and insensible, that -the friends around his bed were passing in review the acts of his life, and the -nine trophies which he had erected at different times for so many victories. -He heard what they said, though they fancied that he was past hearing, and -interrupted them by remarking, “What you praise in my life, belongs partly -to good fortune; and is, at best, common to me with many other generals. -But the peculiarity of which I am most proud, you have not noticed: no -Athenian has ever put on mourning through any action of mine.”</p> - -<p>Such a cause of self-gratulation, doubtless more satisfactory to recall at -such a moment than any other, illustrates that long-sighted calculation, -aversion to distant or hazardous enterprise, and economy of the public force, -which marked his entire political career; a career long, beyond all parallel -in the history of Athens—since he maintained a great influence, gradually -swelling into a decisive personal ascendency, for between thirty and forty -years. His character has been presented in very different lights by different -authors, both ancient and modern, and our materials for striking the balance -are not so good as we could wish. But his immense and long-continued -supremacy, as well as his unparalleled eloquence, are facts attested not less -by his enemies than by his friends—nay, even more forcibly by the former -than by the latter. The comic writers, who hated him, and whose trade it -was to deride and hunt down every leading political character, exhaust their -powers of illustration in setting forth both the one and the other: Telecleides, -Cratinus, Eupolis, Aristophanes, all hearers and all enemies, speak -of him like Olympian Zeus hurling thunder and lightning—like Hercules -and Achilles—as the only speaker on whose lips persuasion sat and who -left his sting in the minds of his audience: while Plato the philosopher, -who disapproved of his political working and of the moral effects which he -produced upon Athens, nevertheless extols his intellectual and oratorical -ascendency—“his majestic intelligence.” There is another point of eulogy, -not less valuable, on which the testimony appears uncontradicted: throughout -his long career, amidst the hottest political animosities, the conduct of -Pericles towards opponents was always mild and liberal.<a name="FNanchor_52" id="FNanchor_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_549" id="Page_549">[549]</a></span></p> - -<p>The conscious self-esteem and arrogance of manner, with which the -contemporary poet Ion reproached him, contrasting it with the unpretending -simplicity of his own patron Cimon, though probably invidiously exaggerated, -is doubtless in substance well founded, and those who read the last -speech just given out of Thucydides will at once recognise in it this -attribute. His natural taste, his love of philosophical research, and his -unwearied application to public affairs, all contributed to alienate him from -ordinary familiarity, and to make him careless, perhaps improperly careless, -of the lesser means of conciliating public favour.</p> - -<p>But admitting this latter reproach to be well founded, as it seems to be, -it helps to negative that greater and graver political crime which has been -imputed to him, of sacrificing the permanent well-being and morality of the -state to the maintenance of his own political power—of corrupting the people -by distributions of the public money. “He gave the reins to the people.” -in Plutarch’s words, “and shaped his administration for their immediate -spectacle or festival or procession, thus nursing up the city in elegant pleasures—and -by sending out every year sixty triremes manned by citizen-seamen -on full pay, who were thus kept in practice and acquired nautical skill.”</p> - -<p>The charge here made against Pericles, and supported by allegations in -themselves honourable rather than otherwise—of a vicious appetite for -immediate popularity, and of improper concessions to the immediate feelings -of the people against their permanent interests—is precisely that which -Thucydides in the most pointed manner denies; and not merely denies, but -contrasts Pericles with his successors in the express circumstance that they -did so, while he did not. The language of the contemporary historian well -deserves to be cited: “Pericles, powerful from dignity of character as well -as from wisdom, and conspicuously above the least tinge of corruption, held -back the people with a free hand, and was their real leader instead of being -led by them. For not being a seeker of power from unworthy sources, he -did not speak with any view to present favour, but had sufficient sense of -dignity to contradict them on occasion, even braving their displeasure. -Thus whenever he perceived them insolently and unseasonably confident, -he shaped his speeches in such a manner as to alarm and beat them down; -when again he saw them unduly frightened, he tried to counteract it and -restore their confidence; so that the government was in name a democracy, -but in reality an empire exercised by the first citizen in the state. But -those who succeeded after his death, being more equal one with another, and -each of them desiring pre-eminence over the rest, adopted the different -course of courting the favour of the people and sacrificing to that object -even important state interests. From whence arose many other bad measures, -as might be expected in a great and imperial city, and especially the -Sicilian expedition.”</p> - -<p>It will be seen that the judgment here quoted from Thucydides contradicts, -in the most unqualified manner, the reproaches commonly made -against Pericles of having corrupted the Athenian people—by distributions -of the public money, and by giving way to their unwise caprices—for the -purpose of acquiring and maintaining his own political power. Nay, the -historian particularly notes the opposite qualities—self-judgment, conscious -dignity, indifference to immediate popular applause or wrath when -set against what was permanently right and useful—as the special characteristic -of that great statesman. A distinction might indeed be possible, -and Plutarch professes to note such distinction, between the earlier and the -later part of his long political career. Pericles began (so that biographer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_550" id="Page_550">[550]</a></span> -says) by corrupting the people in order to acquire power; but having -acquired it, he employed it in an independent and patriotic manner, so that -the judgment of Thucydides, true respecting the later part of his life, -would not be applicable to the earlier.</p> - -<p>The internal political changes at Athens, respecting the Areopagus and -the dicasteries, took place when Pericles was a young man, and when he -cannot be supposed to have yet acquired the immense personal weight which -afterwards belonged to him (Ephialtes in fact seems in those early days to -have been a greater man than Pericles, if we may judge by the fact that he -was selected by his political adversaries for assassination)—so that they might -with greater propriety be ascribed to the party with which Pericles was connected, -rather than to that statesman himself. But next, we have no reason -to presume that Thucydides considered these changes as injurious, or as -having deteriorated the Athenian character. All that he does say as to the -working of Pericles on the sentiment and actions of his countrymen is -eminently favourable.</p> - -<p>Though Thucydides does not directly canvass the constitutional changes -effected in Athens under Pericles, yet everything which he does say leads us -to believe that he accounted the working of that statesman, upon the whole, -on Athenian power as well as on Athenian character, eminently valuable, and -his death as an irreparable loss. And we may thus appeal to the judgment -of an historian who is our best witness in every conceivable respect, as a -valid reply to the charge against Pericles of having corrupted the Athenian -habits, character, and government. If he spent a large amount of the public -treasure upon religious edifices and ornaments, and upon stately works for -the city—yet the sum which he left untouched, ready for use at the beginning -of the Peloponnesian War, was such as to appear more than sufficient for -all purposes of defence, or public safety, or military honour. It cannot be -shown of Pericles that he ever sacrificed the greater object to the less—the -permanent and substantially valuable, to the transitory and showy—assured -present possessions, to the lust of new, distant, or uncertain conquests. If -his advice had been listened to, the rashness which brought on the defeat -of the Athenian Tolmides at Coronea in Bœotia would have been avoided, -and Athens might probably have maintained her ascendency over Megara -and Bœotia, which would have protected her territory from invasion, and -given a new turn to the subsequent history.</p> - -<p>Pericles is not to be treated as the author of the Athenian character: he -found it with its very marked positive characteristics and susceptibilities, -among which, those which he chiefly brought out and improved were the -best. The lust of expeditions against the Persians, which Cimon would -have pushed into Egypt and Cyprus, he repressed, after it had accomplished -all which could be usefully aimed at: the ambition of Athens he moderated -rather than encouraged: the democratical movement of Athens he regularised, -and worked out into judicial institutions which ranked among the -prominent features of Athenian life, and worked with a very large balance -of benefit to the national mind as well as to the individual security, in -spite of the many defects in their direct character as tribunals. But that -point in which there was the greatest difference between Athens, as Pericles -found it and as he left it, is unquestionably, the pacific and intellectual -development—rhetoric, poetry, arts, philosophical research, and -recreative variety. To which, if we add great improvement in the cultivation -of the Attic soil, extension of Athenian trade, attainment and laborious -maintenance of the maximum of maritime skill (attested by the battles of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_551" id="Page_551">[551]</a></span> -Phormion), enlargement of the area of complete security by construction -of the Long Walls, lastly, the clothing of Athens in her imperial mantle, -by ornaments architectural and sculptural—we shall make out a case of -genuine progress realised during the political life of Pericles, such as the -evils imputed to him, far more imaginary than real, will go but little way -to alloy. How little, comparatively speaking, of the picture drawn by -Pericles in his funeral harangue of 431 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, would have been correct, if -the harangue had been delivered over those warriors who fell at Tanagra -twenty-seven years before!</p> - -<p>Taking him altogether, with his powers of thought, speech, and action, -his competence civil and military, in the council as well as in the field, his -vigorous and cultivated intellect, and his comprehensive ideas of a community -in pacific and many-sided development, his incorruptible public morality, -caution, and firmness, in a country where all those qualities were rare, -and the union of them in the same individual of course much rarer—we -shall find him without a parallel throughout the whole course of Grecian -history.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_31b2" id="enanchor_31b2"></a><a href="#endnote_31b">b</a></span></p> - -<h4>WILHELM ONCKEN’S ESTIMATE OF PERICLES</h4> - -<p>Among the important personages of antiquity, there is none on whom -posterity has so fully agreed in its judgment, as on Pericles. When we -meet with this name in modern works, we find but one general voice -acknowledging his greatness, one voice of admiration for the unusual -qualities which distinguished him.</p> - -<p>Even the opposers of his political administration were just to him, even -those who, in the great rising of Athenian democracy, saw the beginning -of a splendid misery, did not deny their respect to the man, who by this -development was assigned a place in the first rank. Without wishing to do -so they heaped praise on him, in which we must decline to join, although we -are the last to wish to rob him of his well-deserved fame. In the political -revolution which resulted in the sovereignty of the constitutional demos, -and in checking the ruin which only too soon followed, they credited him -with so much blame and merit, as even had he divided it with Ephialtes and -others, would still have surpassed the power of any mortal, though he were -the greatest of the great.</p> - -<p>Such great political events as those here mentioned, are not the work of -individual men, not the act of a party, however great may be the aggregate -of the particular forces it may have at command. They have their root in -the nature of the conditions, in the disposition of the circumstances, in the -requirements of society, in alliance with which the individual, like Antæus, -derives fresh strength out of every defeat, and without which he is but rolling -the stone of Sisyphus.</p> - -<p>For such a deeply rooted change in the forms of political life in a community, -whether that change be for good or evil, elementary forces are -necessary which are neither subject to the command nor to the violence -of the individual, which human will can neither loose nor arrest, and in the -present case we have to deal with a revolution to effect which the agitators -employed but a single lever, a single weapon, the convincing word, the -power of oratory, the weight of reason.</p> - -<p>Also the advent of the internal decay which, as is supposed, followed so -rapidly on the violent exertion of the power of the Athenian mob at home, -would not, had the times really been ripe for it, have awaited the death of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_552" id="Page_552">[552]</a></span> -Pericles, an event usually regarded, in flattering enough recognition of the -greatness of the man, as the thunderbolt which struck and came to set fire -to the heaped-up seeds of corruption.</p> - -<p>But the unsought-for praise which springs from this misunderstanding -again strikingly proves how universally spread, how deeply rooted is the -respect of posterity for this one great Athenian. It is remarkable, however, -that his immediate and more remote contemporaries, held an opinion quite -different. In examining their judgments on this statesman, we see that with -all the deplorable incompleteness of tradition an almost complete unanimity -of opinion is found, but this unanimity is not for, but against, Pericles. To -our great surprise we discover that the most diverse channels which voiced -public opinion, the most various representatives of the universal judgment, -seem to have entered into a regular conspiracy against the memory of this -man, against the fame of his public and of his personal character.</p> - -<p>Highly gifted comic poets such as Cratinus and Eupolis, not to mention -others, frivolous anecdote-mongers such as Stesimbrotus of Thasos and -Idomeneus of Lampsacus, rhetorical historians like Ephorus, whom Diodorus -follows, and earnest philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, are unanimous in -repudiating and condemning Pericles. One would understand if they satisfied -themselves with a truly Greek disparagement of his great qualities, and -exaggeration of his defects, although one might wonder at the unanimity of -this proceeding: but they do not stop at this; some at least even go so far -as to stamp Pericles as a criminal.</p> - -<p>Idomeneus of Lampsacus reproached him with an assassination of the -worst kind, committed on his true friend and confederate Ephialtes. -Ephorus accused him of embezzling public money and of extensive thefts of -public property entrusted to his administration; and comparatively speaking -Plato’s judgment is mild, when he consigns him to the ranks of those -common demagogues who are not particular as to their means of fraudulently -obtaining the favour of the populace. And Aristotle who had cleared him -of many serious accusations does not admit him among the statesmen and -patriots of the highest rank, but gives preference to such men as Nicias, -Thucydides, and even Theramenes.</p> - -<p>The reason of this extraordinary fact lies in the partisan spirit which -though notorious is not always rightly estimated, and by which the overwhelming -majority of the Greek writers whose works have come down to us -were animated against the Athenian democracy, so that the champion of -popular government which they condemned in principle, cannot possibly -find favour in their sight.</p> - -<p>On what then does the judgment of posterity repose, a judgment that is -in direct opposition to such an imposing number of authorities? Is it a conjecture -to which a tacit agreement of competent judges gave a legal authority? -Is it the result of an arbitrary process which on grounds of innate probability -and by an undisputed verdict clears the historical kernel of all the -dross with which the hate and envy, mistakes and calumnies of contemporaries -had surrounded it? Or if this judgment is based on the authentic -foundation of evidence, is it surely not merely commended, by its innate -rectitude, but also confirmed by an unequivocal testimony?</p> - -<p>The latter is the case. Our judgment of Pericles is based on the immovable -foundation of a testimony which stands alone, not only in this respect -but also in the whole of Greek literature, the testimony of Thucydides. It -is to Thucydides that his greatest contemporary owes the honour accorded -to his name by posterity. His summing up amounts to this: Pericles owes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_553" id="Page_553">[553]</a></span> -the authoritative position which he occupies in the Athenian state, neither -to cunning nor force, but exclusively to the trust of his fellow citizens: -their trust in the tried greatness of his spirit, the universally recognised -purity of his character, the immovable firmness of his will.</p> - -<p>He stood, in truth, above the people, whom he ruled as a prince; raised -even above the suspicion of dishonesty, raised above the reproach of cringing -submissiveness, he stood firm in his superior influence on the resolution -of the multitude, because he had not gained possession of it by the employment -of unseemly means, but through the esteem of the citizens for his aptitude -for government. He did not give way to the pressure of the changing -fancies and moods of the moment. He met the anger of the multitude with -unflinching pride, he brought the insolent to their senses, and encouraged -the faint hearted to self-confidence. It was a democracy in appearance only, -in deed and truth it was the rule of an individual man, of the greatest of the -great, over the people.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_31e" id="enanchor_31e"></a><a href="#endnote_31e">e</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_49" id="Footnote_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> At the same time a plague was raging in Rome. The pestilence is believed to have been -carried along the Carthaginian trade routes. It brought the population of Athens from 100,000 -down below 80,000.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_50" id="Footnote_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> According to Grote, “Diodorus mentions similar distresses in the Carthaginian army besieging -Syracuse, during the terrible epidemic with which it was attacked in 395 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>; and Livy, -respecting the epidemic at Syracuse when it was besieged by Marcellus and the Romans.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_51" id="Footnote_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> Bury<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_31d" id="enanchor_31d"></a><a href="#endnote_31d">d</a></span> says: “He was found guilty of ‘theft’ to the trifling amount of five talents; the verdict -was a virtual acquittal, though he had to pay a fine of ten times the amount.” But as an -Attic talent was equal to £200 or $1000, the theft of five talents was hardly trifling and a fine of -£10,000 or $50,000 was a rather unsatisfactory “acquittal.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_52" id="Footnote_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> “Pericles,” says Plutarch,<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_31h" id="enanchor_31h"></a><a href="#endnote_31h">h</a></span> “undoubtedly deserved admiration, not only for the candour -and moderation which he ever retained, amidst the distractions of business and the rage of his -enemies, but for that noble sentiment which led him to think it his most excellent attainment, -never to have given way to envy or anger, notwithstanding the greatness of his power, nor to -have nourished an implacable hatred against his greatest foe. In my opinion, this one thing, I -mean his mild and dispassionate behaviour, his unblemished integrity and irreproachable conduct -during his whole administration, makes his appellation of Olympius, which would otherwise be -vain and absurd, no longer exceptionable; nay, gives it a propriety.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-31.jpg" width="300" height="500" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_554" id="Page_554">[554]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-32.jpg" width="500" height="300" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek War Galley</span></p> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XXXII_THE_SECOND_AND_THIRD_YEARS_OF">CHAPTER XXXII. THE SECOND AND THIRD YEARS OF -THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR</h3> - -<p>Among students of Greek history the little town of Platæa takes a large -hold upon the affections. We have seen how its old time devotion to Athens -brought upon it a sudden descent from the arch-enemy Thebes at the very -outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. It was a case of Greek against Greek, -of Theban duplicity versus Platæan wile. The success of Platæa was so neat -and exasperating as to inspire a desperate revenge. Now it was no longer -a playtime for trickery, and on both sides the sterner elements of human -nature were put to test. The siege of Platæa lasted from the summer of the -third year of the war (429 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>) to the summer of the fifth year (427 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>) -but it seems better to tell it in isolated continuity. Accordingly three separate -portions of Thirlwall’s vivid history are here brought together.<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">[429 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>In the beginning of the summer 429 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, a Peloponnesian army was -again assembled at the isthmus, under the command of Archidamus. -But instead of invading Attica, which was perhaps thought dangerous on -account of the pestilence, he gratified the wishes of the Thebans, by marching -into the territory of Platæa, where he encamped, and prepared to lay it -waste. But before he had committed any acts of hostility, envoys from -Platæa demanded an audience, and, being admitted, made a solemn remonstrance -against his proceedings in the name of religion. They reminded the -Spartans that, after the glorious battle which secured the liberty of Greece, -Pausanias in the presence of the allied army, and in the public place of -Platæa, where he had just offered a sacrifice in honour of the victory, formally -reinstated the Platæans in the independent possession of their city and -territory, which he placed under the protection of all the allies, with whom -they had shared the common triumph, to defend them from unjust aggression. -They complained that the Spartans were now about to violate this well-earned -privilege, which had been secured to Platæa by solemn oaths, at the instigation -of her bitterest enemies, the Thebans. And they adjured him, by the gods -who had been invoked to witness the engagement of Pausanias, as well as by -those of Sparta, and of their violated territory, to desist from his enterprise.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_555" id="Page_555">[555]</a></span></p> - -<p>Archidamus in reply admitted the claim of the Platæans, but desired them -to reflect that the rights on which they insisted implied some corresponding -duties; that, if the Spartans were pledged to protect their independence, -they were themselves no less bound to assist the Spartans in delivering those -who had once been their allies in the struggle with Persia, from the tyranny -of Athens. Yet Sparta, as she had already declared, did not wish to force -them to take a part in the war which she was waging for the liberties of -Greece, but would be satisfied if they would remain neutral, and would admit -both parties alike to amicable intercourse, without aiding either. The envoys -returned with this answer, and, after laying it before the people, came back, -instructed to reply: that it was impossible for them to accede to the proposal -of Archidamus, without the consent of the Athenians, who had their -wives and children in their hands; and they should have reason to fear either -the resentment of their present allies, who on the retreat of the Spartans -might come and deprive them of their city; or the treachery of the -Thebans, who under the cover of neutrality, might find another opportunity -of surprising them. But the Spartan, without noticing the ties that bound -them to Athens, met the last objection with a new offer.</p> - -<p>“Let them commit their city, houses, and lands, to the custody of the -Spartans, with an exact account of the boundaries, the number of their trees, -and all other things left behind, which it was possible to number. Let them -withdraw, and live elsewhere until the end of the war. The Spartans would -then restore the deposit entrusted to them, and in the meanwhile would provide -for the cultivation of the land, and pay a fair rent.”</p> - -<p>It is possible that this proposal may have been honestly meant; though -it is as likely that it was suggested by the malice of the Thebans. For it -was evident that the Platæans could not accept it without renouncing the -friendship of the Athenians, to whom they had committed their families, and -in the most favourable contingency, which would be the fall of their old ally, -casting themselves upon the honour of an enemy for their political existence; -while nevertheless the speciously liberal offer, if rejected, would afford a pretext -for treating them with the utmost rigour. This the Platæans probably -perceived; and therefore, when their envoys returned with the proposal of -the Spartans, requested an armistice, that they might lay it before the Athenians, -promising to accept it if they could obtain their consent.</p> - -<p>Archidamus granted their request; but the answer brought from Athens -put an end, as might have been expected, to the negotiation. It exhorted -them to keep their faith with their ally, and to depend upon Athenian protection. -Thus urged and emboldened, they resolved, whatever might befall -them, to adhere to the side of Athens, and to break off all parley with the -enemy, by a short answer, delivered not through envoys, but from the walls: -that it was out of their power to do as the Spartans desired.<a name="FNanchor_53" id="FNanchor_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> Archidamus, -on receiving this declaration, prepared for attacking the city. But first, -with great solemnity, he called upon the gods and heroes of the land to witness, -that he had not invaded it without just cause, but after the Platæans -had first abandoned their ancient confederates; and that whatever they -might hereafter suffer would be a merited punishment of the perverseness -with which they had rejected his equitable offers.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_556" id="Page_556">[556]</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE SPARTANS AND THEBANS ATTACK PLATÆA</h4> - -<p>His first operation, after ravaging the country, was to invest the city -with a palisade, for which the fruit trees cut down by his troops furnished -materials. This slight inclosure was sufficient for his purpose, as he hoped -that the overwhelming superiority of his numbers would enable him to take -the place by storm. The mode of attack which he chiefly relied upon, was -the same which we have seen employed by the Persians against the Ionian -cities. He attempted to raise a mound to a level with the walls. It was -piled up with earth and rubbish, wood and stones, and was guarded on either -side by a strong lattice-work of forest timber. For seventy days and seventy -nights the troops, divided into parties which constantly relieved each -other, were occupied in this labour without intermission, urged to their tasks -by the Lacedæmonians who commanded the contingents of the allies. But -as the mound rose, the besieged devised expedients for averting the danger.</p> - -<p>First they surmounted the opposite part of their wall with a superstructure -of brick—taken from the adjacent houses which were pulled down for -the purpose—secured in a frame of timber, and shielded from fiery missiles -by a curtain of raw hides and skins, which protected the workmen and their -work. But as the mound still kept rising as fast as the wall, they set about -contriving plans for reducing it. And first, issuing by night through an -opening made in the wall, they scooped out and carried away large quantities -of the earth from the lower part of the mound. But the Peloponnesians, on -discovering this device, counteracted it, by repairing the breach with layers -of stiff clay, pressed down close on wattles of reed. Thus baffled, the besieged -sank a shaft within the walls, and thence working upon a rough estimate, -dug a passage under ground as far as the mound, which they were -thus enabled to undermine. And against this contrivance the enemy had -no remedy, except in the multitude of hands, which repaired the loss almost -as soon as it was felt.</p> - -<p>But the garrison, fearing that they should not be able to struggle long -with this disadvantage, and that their wall would at length be carried by -force of numbers, provided against this event, by building a second wall, in -the shape of a half-moon, behind the raised part of the old wall, which was -the chord of the arc. Thus in the worst emergency they secured themselves -a retreat, from which they would be able to assail the enemy to great advantage, -and he would have to recommence his work under the most unfavourable -circumstances. This countermure drove the besiegers to their last -resources. They had already brought battering engines to play upon the -walls. But the spirit and ingenuity of the besieged had generally baffled -these assaults; though one had given an alarming shock to the superstructure -in front of the half-moon. Sometimes the head of an engine was caught -up by means of a noose; sometimes it was broken off by a heavy beam, suspended -by chains from two levers placed on the wall.</p> - -<p>Now, however, after the main hope of the Peloponnesians, which rested -on their mound, was completely defeated by the countermure, Archidamus -resolved to try a last extraordinary experiment. He caused the hollow between -the mound and the wall, and all the space which he could reach on the -other side, to be filled up with a pile of faggots, which, when it had been -steeped in pitch and sulphur, was set on fire. The blaze was such as had -perhaps never before been kindled by the art of man; Thucydides compares -it to a burning forest. It penetrated to a great distance within the city; -and if it had been seconded, as the besiegers hoped, by a favourable wind,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_557" id="Page_557">[557]</a></span> -would probably have destroyed it. The alarm and confusion which it -caused for a time in the garrison were great; a large tract of the city was inaccessible. -Yet it does not appear that Archidamus made any attempt to -take advantage of their consternation and disorder. He waited; but the -expected breeze did not come to spread the flames, and—according to a -report which the historian mentions, but does not vouch for—a sudden -storm of thunder and rain arose to quench them.</p> - -<p>Thus thwarted and disheartened, and perhaps unable to keep the whole of -his army any longer in the camp, he reluctantly determined to convert the -siege to a blockade, which it was foreseen would be tedious and expensive. -A part of the troops were immediately sent home: the remainder set about -the work of circumvallation, which was apportioned to the contingents of -the confederates. Two ditches were dug round the town, and yielded materials -for a double line of walls, which were built in the intermediate space -on the edge of each trench. The walls were sixteen feet asunder; but the -interval was occupied with barracks for the soldiers, so that the whole might -be said to form one wall. At the distance of ten battlements from each -other were large towers, which covered the whole breadth of the rampart. -At the autumnal equinox the lines were completed, and were left, one-half -in the custody of the Bœotians, the other in that of their allies. The troops -who were not needed for this service were then led back to their homes. The -garrison of the place at this time consisted of four hundred Platæans, and -eighty Athenians; and 110 women who had been retained, when all the useless -hands were sent to Athens, to minister to the wants of the men.</p> - -<h4>PART OF THE PLATÆANS ESCAPE; THE REST CAPITULATE</h4> - -<p>Athens could do nothing for the relief of Platæa. The brave garrison -had begun to suffer from the failure of provisions; and, as their condition -grew hopeless, two of their leading men, Theænetus a soothsayer, and -Eupompidas, one of the generals, conceived the project of escaping across -the enemy’s lines. When it was first proposed, it was unanimously adopted: -but as the time for its execution approached, half of the men shrank from -the danger, and not more than 220 adhered to their resolution. The contrivers -of the plan took the lead in the enterprise. Scaling ladders of a -proper height were the first requisite; and they were made upon a measurement -of the enemy’s wall, for which the besieged had no other basis than -the number of layers of brick, which were sedulously counted over and over -again by different persons, until the amount, and consequently the height of -the wall, was sufficiently ascertained. A dark and stormy night, in the -depth of winter, was chosen for the attempt; it was known that in such -nights the sentinels took shelter in the towers, and left the intervening -battlements unguarded; and it was on this practice that the success of the -adventure mainly depended. It was concerted, that the part of the garrison -which remained behind should make demonstrations of attacking the enemy’s -lines on the side opposite to that by which their comrades attempted to -escape. And first a small party, lightly armed, the right foot bare, to give -them a surer footing in the mud, keeping at such a distance from each other -as to prevent their arms from clashing, crossed the ditch, and planted their -ladders, unseen and unheard; for the noise of their approach was drowned -by the wind. The first who mounted were twelve men armed with short -swords, led by Ammeas son of Corœbus. His followers, six on each side,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_558" id="Page_558">[558]</a></span> -proceeded immediately to secure the two nearest towers. Next came another -party with short spears, their shields being carried by their comrades behind -them. But before many more had mounted, the fall of a tile, broken off -from a battlement by one of the Platæans, as he laid hold of it, alarmed -the nearest sentinels, and presently the whole force of the besiegers was -called to the walls. But no one knew what had happened, and the general -confusion was increased by the sally of the besieged. All therefore remained -at their posts; only a body of three hundred men, who were always in readiness -to move toward any quarter where they might be needed, issued from -one of the gates in search of the place from which the alarm had arisen. In -the meanwhile the assailants had made themselves masters of the two towers -between which they scaled the wall, and, after cutting down the sentinels, -guarded the passages which led through them, while others mounted by -ladders to the roofs, and thence discharged their missiles on all who -attempted to approach the scene of action. The main body of the fugitives -now poured through the opening thus secured, applying more ladders, -and knocking away the battlements: and as they gained the other side of -the outer ditch, they formed upon its edge, and with their arrows and -javelins protected their comrades, who were crossing, from the enemy above. -Last of all, and with some difficulty—for the ditch was deep, the water high, -and covered with a thin crust of ice—the parties which occupied the towers -effected their retreat; and they had scarcely crossed, before the three hundred -were seen coming up with lighted torches. But their lights, which -discovered nothing to them, made them a mark for the missiles of the Platæans, -who were thus enabled to elude their pursuit, and to move away in -good order.</p> - -<p>All the details of the plan seem to have been concerted with admirable -forethought. On the first alarm fire signals were raised by the besiegers to -convey the intelligence to Thebes. But the Platæans had provided against -this danger, and showed similar signals from their own walls, so as to render -it impossible for the Thebans to interpret those of the enemy. This precaution -afforded additional security to their retreat. For instead of taking the -nearest road to Athens, they first bent their steps toward Thebes, while they -could see their pursuers with their blazing torches threading the ascent of -Cithæron. After they had followed the Theban road for six or seven furlongs, -they struck into that which led by Erythræ and Hysiæ to the Attic -border, and arrived safe at Athens. Out of the 220 who set out together, -one fell into the enemy’s hands, after he had crossed the outer ditch. Seven -turned back panic-struck, and reported that all their companions had been -cut off: and at daybreak a herald was sent to recover their bodies. The -answer revealed the happy issue of the adventure.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[427 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>By this time the remaining garrison of Platæa was reduced to the last -stage of weakness. The besiegers might probably long before have taken -the town without difficulty by assault. But the Spartans had a motive of -policy for wishing to bring the siege to a different termination. They -looked forward to a peace which they might have to conclude upon the ordinary -terms of a mutual restitution of conquests made in the war. In this -case, if Platæa fell by storm, they would be obliged to restore it to Athens; -but if it capitulated, they might allege that it was no conquest. With this -view their commander protracted the blockade, until at length he discovered -by a feint attack that the garrison was utterly unable to defend the walls. -He then sent a herald to propose that they should surrender, not to the -Thebans, but to the Spartans, on condition that Spartan judges alone should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_559" id="Page_559">[559]</a></span> -decide upon their fate. These terms were accepted, the town delivered up, -and the garrison, which was nearly starved, received a supply of food. In a -few days five commissioners came from Sparta to hold the promised trial. -But instead of the usual forms of accusation and defence, the prisoners found -themselves called upon to answer a single question: Whether in the course -of the war they had done any service to Sparta and her allies. The spirit -which dictated such an interrogatory was clear enough. The prisoners however -obtained leave to plead for themselves without restriction; their defence -was conducted by two of their number, one of whom, Lacon son of Aimnestus, -was <i>proxenus</i> of Sparta.</p> - -<p>The arguments of the Platæan orators, as reported by Thucydides, are -strong, and the address which he attributes to them is the only specimen he -has left of pathetic eloquence. They could point out the absurdity of sending -five commissioners from Sparta, to inquire whether the garrison of a -besieged town were friends of the besiegers; a question which, if retorted -upon the party which asked it, would equally convict them of a wanton -aggression. They could appeal to their services and sufferings in the Persian -War, when they alone among the Bœotians remained constant to the -cause of Greece, while the Thebans had fought on the side of the barbarians -in the very land which they now hoped to make their own with the consent -of Sparta. They could plead an important obligation which they had more -recently conferred on Sparta herself, whom they had succoured with a third -part of their whole force, when her very existence was threatened by the -revolt of the Messenians after the great earthquake. They could urge that -their alliance with Athens had been originally formed with the approbation, -and even by the advice, of the Spartans themselves; that justice and honour -forbade them to renounce a connection which they had sought as a favour, -and from which they had derived great advantages; and that, as far as lay -in themselves, they had not broken the last peace, but had been treacherously -surprised by the Thebans, while they thought themselves secure in the faith -of treaties. Even if their former merits were not sufficient to outweigh any -later offence which could be imputed to them, they might insist on the Greek -usage of war, which forbade proceeding to the last extremity with an enemy -who had voluntarily surrendered himself; and as they had proved, by the -patience with which they had endured the torments of hunger, that they -preferred perishing by famine to falling into the hands of the Thebans, they -had a right to demand that they should not be placed in a worse condition -by their own act, but if they were to gain nothing by their capitulation, should -be restored to the state in which they were when they made it.</p> - -<p>But unhappily for the Platæans they had nothing to rely upon but the -mercy or the honour of Sparta: two principles which never appear to have -had the weight of a feather in any of her public transactions; and though -the Spartan commissioners bore the title of judges, they came in fact only to -pronounce a sentence which had been previously dictated by Thebes. Yet -the appeal of the Platæans was so affecting, that the Thebans distrusted the -firmness of their allies, and obtained leave to reply. They very judiciously -and honestly treated the question as one which lay entirely between the -Platæans and themselves. They attributed the conduct of their ancestors -in the Persian War, to the compulsion of a small, dominant faction, and -pleaded the services which they had themselves since rendered to Sparta. -They depreciated the patriotic deeds of the Platæans, as the result of their -attachment to Athens, whom they had not scrupled to abet in all her undertakings -against the liberties of Greece. They defended the attempt which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_560" id="Page_560">[560]</a></span> -they had made upon Platæa during the peace, on the ground that they had -been invited by a number of its wealthiest and noblest citizens, and they -charged the Platæans with a breach of faith in the execution of their Theban -prisoners, whose blood called for vengeance as loudly as they for mercy.</p> - -<p>These were indeed reasons which fully explained and perhaps justified -their own enmity to Platæa, and did not need to be aided by so glaring a falsehood, -as the assertion that their enemies were enjoying the benefit of a fair -trial. But the only part of their argument, that bore upon the real question, -was that in which they reminded the Spartans that Thebes was their most -powerful and useful ally. This the Spartans felt; and they had long determined -that no scruples of justice or humanity should endanger so valuable -a connection. But it seems that they still could not devise any more ingenious -mode of reconciling their secret motive with outward decency, than the -original question, which implied that if the prisoners were their enemies, -they might rightfully put them to death; and in this sophistical abstraction -all the claims which arose out of the capitulation, when construed according -to the plainest rules of equity, were overlooked. The question was again -proposed to each separately, and when the ceremony was finished by his -answer or his silence, he was immediately consigned to the executioner. -The Platæans who suffered amounted to two hundred; their fate was shared -by twenty-five Athenians, who could not have expected or claimed milder -treatment, as they might have been fairly excepted from the benefit of the -surrender. The women were all made slaves. If there had been nothing -but inhumanity in the proceeding of the Spartans, it would have been so -much slighter than that which they had exhibited towards their most unoffending -prisoners from the beginning of the war, as scarcely to deserve -notice. All that is very signal in this transaction is the baseness of their -cunning, and perhaps the dullness of their invention.</p> - -<p>The town and its territory were, with better right, ceded to the Thebans. -For a year they permitted the town to be occupied by a body of exiles from -Megara, and by the remnant of the Platæans belonging to the Theban party. -But afterwards—fearing perhaps that it might be wrested from them—they -razed it to the ground, leaving only the temples standing. But on the -site, and with the materials of the demolished buildings, they erected an -edifice 200 feet square, with an upper story, the whole divided into apartments, -for the reception of the pilgrims who might come to the quinquennial -festival, or on other sacred occasions. They also built a new temple, which -together with the brass and the iron found in the town, which were made -into couches, they dedicated to Hera, the goddess to whom Pausanias was -thought to have owed his victory. The territory was annexed to the Theban -state lands, and let for a term of ten years. So, in the ninety-third year -after Platæa had entered into alliance with Athens, this alliance became the -cause of its ruin.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_32b" id="enanchor_32b"></a><a href="#endnote_32b">b</a></span></p> - -<h4>NAVAL AND OTHER COMBATS</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[429 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>While Archidamus was holding Platæa by the throat, other enterprises -were meeting with varied success. Athens sent 2000 hoplites and 200 -horse to Chalcidian Thrace under the Xenophon to whom Potidæa had -surrendered. He made an assault on the town of Spartolus, only to lose a -desperate battle, and to be crushed on his retreat; Xenophon and two associated -generals were killed, and with them 430 hoplites, a loss of about -25 per cent.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_561" id="Page_561">[561]</a></span></p> - -<p>In Thrace, Sitalces, king of an immense realm, came to the aid of Athens -against the double-dealing Macedonian king, Perdiccas. He invaded Macedonia -and the Chalcidian territory, and voyaged far and wide until the -severity of winter and the failure of Athenian aid led him to retire.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, the Spartans had tried to wrest the Ionian Sea from Athens. -Their expedition against Cephallenia and Zacynthus in 430 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> had failed, -but now a powerful horde was gathered against Acarnania. Sparta sent a -thousand hoplites under the admiral Cnemus. Corinth, Leucadia, Anactorium, -and Ambracia furnished troops, and other bodies came from barbaric Epirots -and Macedonian tribes otherwise obscure, including 1000 Chaonians, 1000 -Orestæ besides Thesprotians, Molossians, Atintanes, and Paravæi. Even -the Macedonian king, Perdiccas, a professed ally of Athens, sent 1000 Macedonians. -These arrived, however, too late; fortunately for them, since the -troops, without waiting for the fleet, marched against the Acarnanian city -of Stratus in such disorderly pride that they fell into ambush, and, after a -chaotic retreat, dispersed.</p> - -<p>The fleet which was to have collaborated in the campaign hoped to evade -the vigilance of the Athenian fleet as Cnemus had done, but the imperial -fleet was under the command of the great and cunning Phormion, who was -not deterred from attack by inferiority of numbers. Interesting naval chess-play -followed.<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span></p> - -<p>Now the fleet from Corinth and the rest of the confederates coming from -the Crissæan Bay, which ought to have joined Cnemus, in order to prevent -the Acarnanians on the coast from succouring their countrymen in the -interior, did not do so; but they were compelled, about the same time as -the battle was fought at Stratus, to come to an engagement with Phormion -and the twenty Athenian vessels that kept guard at Naupactus. For Phormion -kept watching them as they coasted along out of the gulf, wishing to -attack them in the open sea. But the Corinthians and the allies were not -sailing to Acarnania with any intention to fight by sea, but were equipped -more for land service. When, however, they saw them sailing along opposite -to them, as they themselves proceeded along their own coast, and on -attempting to cross over from Patræ in Achaia to the mainland opposite, on -their way to Acarnania observed the Athenians sailing against them from -Chalcis and the river Evenus (for they had not escaped their observation -when they had endeavoured to bring to secretly during the night); under -these circumstances they were compelled to engage in the mid passage. -They had separate commanders for the contingents of the different states -that joined the armament, but those of the Corinthians were Machaon, -Isocrates, and Agatharcidas.</p> - -<p>And now the Peloponnesians ranged their ships in a circle, as large as -they could without leaving any opening, with their prows turned outward -and their sterns inward; and placed inside all the small craft that accompanied -them, and their five best sailers, to advance out quickly and strengthen -any point on which the enemy might make his attack.</p> - -<p>On the other hand, the Athenians, ranged in a single line, kept sailing -round them, and reducing them into a smaller compass; continually brushing -past them, and making demonstrations of an immediate onset; though -they had previously been commanded by Phormion not to attack them till he -himself gave the signal. For he hoped that their order would not be maintained -like that of a land-force on shore, but that the ships would fall foul -of each other, and that the other craft would cause confusion; and if the -wind should blow from the gulf, in expectation of which he was sailing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_562" id="Page_562">[562]</a></span> -round them, and which usually rose towards morning, that they would not -remain steady an instant. He thought, too, that it rested with him to make -the attack, whenever he pleased, as his ships were the better sailers; and -that then would be the best time for making it. So when the wind came -down upon them, and their ships, being now brought into a narrow compass, -were thrown into confusion by the operation of both causes—the violence -of the wind, and the small craft dashing against them—and when ship was -falling foul of ship, and the crews were pushing them off with poles, and in -their shouting, and trying to keep clear, and abusing each other, did not -hear a word either of their orders or the boatswains’ directions; while, -through inexperience, they could not lift their oars in the swell of the sea, -and so rendered the vessels less obedient to the helmsmen; just then, at that -favourable moment, he gave the signal.</p> - -<p>And the Athenians attacked them, and first of all sank one of the -admiral-ships, then destroyed all wherever they went, and reduced them to -such a condition, that owing to their confusion none of them thought of -resistance, but they fled to Patræ and Dyme, in Achaia. The Athenians -having closely pursued them, and taken twelve ships, picking up most of the -men from them, and putting them on board their own vessels, sailed off to -Molycrium; and after erecting a trophy at Rhium, and dedicating a ship to -Neptune, they returned to Naupactus. The Peloponnesians also immediately -coasted along with their remaining ships from Dyme and Patræ to -Cyllene, the arsenal of the Eleans; and Cnemus and the ships that were at -Leucas, which were to have formed a junction with these, came thence, after -the battle of Stratus, to the same port.</p> - -<p>Then the Lacedæmonians sent to the fleet, as counsellors to Cnemus, -Timocrates, Brasidas, and Lycophron; commanding him to make preparations -for a second engagement more successful than the former, and not to -be driven off the sea by a few ships. For the result appeared very different -from what they might have expected (particularly as it was the first sea-fight -they had attempted); and they thought that it was not so much their -fleet that was inferior, but that there had been some cowardice; for they -did not weigh the long experience of the Athenians against their own short -practice of naval matters. They despatched them, therefore, in anger; and -on their arrival they sent round, in conjunction with Cnemus, orders for -ships to be furnished by the different states, while they refitted those they -already had, with a view to an engagement. Phormion, too, on the other -hand, sent messengers to Athens to acquaint them with their preparations, -and to tell them of the victory they had gained; at the same time desiring -them to send him quickly the largest possible number of ships, for he was -in daily expectation of an immediate engagement. They despatched to him -twenty; but gave additional orders to the commander of them to go first to -Crete. For Nicias, a Cretan of Gortyn, who was their <i>proxenus</i>, persuaded -them to sail against Cydonia, telling them that he would reduce it under -their power; for it was at present hostile to them. His object, however, in -calling them in was, that he might oblige the Polichnitæ, who bordered on -the Cydonians. The commander, therefore, of the squadron went with it -to Crete, and in conjunction with the Polichnitæ laid waste the territory of -the Cydonians; and wasted no little time in the country, owing to adverse -winds and the impossibility of putting to sea.</p> - -<p>During the time that the Athenians were thus detained on the coast of -Crete, the Peloponnesians at Cyllene, having made their preparations for an -engagement, coasted along to Panormus in Achaia, where the land-force of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_563" id="Page_563">[563]</a></span> -the Peloponnesians had come to support them. Phormion, too, coasted along -to the Rhium near Molycrium, and dropped anchor outside of it, with twenty -ships, the same as he had before fought with. This Rhium was friendly to -the Athenians; the other, namely, that in the Peloponnesus, is opposite to it; -the distance between the two being about seven stadia of sea, which forms the -mouth of the Crissæan Gulf. At the Rhium in Achaia, then, being not far -from Panormus, where their land-force was, the Peloponnesians also came -to anchor with seventy-seven ships, when they saw that the Athenians had -done the same. And for six or seven days they lay opposite each other, -practising and preparing for the battle; the Peloponnesians intending not to -sail beyond the Rhia into the open sea, for they were afraid of a disaster like -the former; the Athenians, not to sail into the straits, for they thought that -fighting in a confined space was in favour of the enemy.</p> - -<p>Now when the Athenians did not sail into the narrow part of the gulf to -meet them, the Peloponnesians, wishing to lead them on even against their -will, weighed in the morning, and having formed their ships in a column -four abreast, sailed to their own land towards the inner part of the gulf, -with the right wing taking the lead, in which position also they lay at anchor. -In this wing they had placed their twenty best sailers; that if Phormion, supposing -them to be sailing against Naupactus, should himself also coast along -in that direction to relieve the place, the Athenians might not, by getting -outside their wing, escape their advance against them, but that these ships -might shut them in. As they expected, he was alarmed for the place in -its unprotected state; and when he saw them under weigh, against his will, -and in great haste too, he embarked his crews and sailed along shore; while -the land-forces of the Messenians at the same time came to support him. -When the Peloponnesians saw them coasting along in a single file, and already -within the gulf and near the shore (which was just what they wished), at -one signal they suddenly brought their ships round and sailed in a line, as -fast as each could, against the Athenians, hoping to cut off all their ships. -Eleven of them, however, which were taking the lead, escaped the wing of -the Peloponnesians and their sudden turn into the open gulf; but the rest -they surprised, and drove them on shore, in their attempt to escape, and destroyed -them, killing such of the crews as had not swum out of them. Some -of the ships they lashed to their own and began to tow off empty, and one -they took men and all; while in the case of some others, the Messenians, -coming to their succour, and dashing into the sea with their armour, and -boarding them, fought from the decks, and rescued them when they were -already being towed off.</p> - -<p>To this extent then the Peloponnesians had the advantage, and destroyed -the Athenian ships; while their twenty vessels in the right wing were in pursuit -of those eleven of the enemy that had just escaped their turn into the -open gulf. They, with the exception of one ship, got the start of them -and fled for refuge to Naupactus; and facing about, opposite the temple -of Apollo, prepared to defend themselves, in case they should sail to shore -against them. Presently they came up, and were singing the pæan as they -sailed, considering that they had gained the victory; and the one Athenian -vessel that had been left behind was chased by a single Leucadian far in advance -of the rest. Now there happened to be a merchant vessel moored out -at sea, which the Athenian ship had time to sail round, and struck the Leucadian -in pursuit of her amidship, and sunk her. The Peloponnesians therefore -were panic-stricken by this sudden and unlooked-for achievement; and -moreover, as they were pursuing in disorder, on account of the advantage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_564" id="Page_564">[564]</a></span> -they had gained, some of the ships dropped their oars, and stopped in their -course, from a wish to wait for the rest—doing what was unadvisable, considering -that they were observing each other at so short a distance—while -others even ran on the shoals, through their ignorance of the localities.</p> - -<p>The Athenians, on seeing this, took courage, and at one word shouted for -battle, and rushed upon them. In consequence of their previous blunders -and their present confusion, they withstood them but a short time and then -fled to Panormus, whence they had put out. The Athenians pursued them -closely, and took six of the ships nearest to them, and recovered their own, -which the enemy had disabled near the shore and at the beginning of the -engagement, and had taken in tow. Of the men, they put some to death, -and made others prisoners. Now on board the Leucadian ship, which went -down off the merchant vessel, was Timocrates the Lacedæmonian; who, when -the ship was destroyed, killed himself, and falling overboard was floated into -the harbour of Naupactus. On their return, the Athenians erected a trophy -at the spot from which they put out before gaining the victory; and all the -dead and the wrecks that were near their coast they took up, and gave back -to the enemy theirs under truce. The Peloponnesians also erected a trophy, -as victors, for the defeat of the ships they had disabled near the shore; and -the ship they had taken they dedicated at Rhium, in Achaia, by the side of -the trophy. Afterwards, being afraid of the reinforcement from Athens, all -but the Leucadians sailed at the approach of night into the Crissæan Bay and -the port of Corinth. Not long after their retreat, the Athenians from Crete -arrived at Naupactus, with the twenty ships that were to have joined Phormion -before the engagement. And thus ended the summer.</p> - -<p>Before, however, the fleet dispersed which had retired to Corinth and the -Crissæan Bay, Cnemus, Brasidas, and the rest of the Peloponnesian commanders -wished, at the suggestion of the Megarians, to make an attempt -upon Piræus, the port of Athens; which, as was natural from their decided -superiority at sea, was left unguarded and open. It was determined, therefore, -that each man should take his oar, and cushion, and <i>tropoter</i>, and go by -land from Corinth to the sea on the side of Athens; and that after proceeding -as quickly as possible to Megara, they should launch from its port, Nisæa, -forty vessels that happened to be there, and sail straightway to Piræus. For -there was neither any fleet keeping guard before it, nor any thought of the -enemy ever sailing against it in so sudden a manner; and as for their venturing -to do it openly and deliberately, they supposed that either they would -not think of it, or themselves would not fail to be aware beforehand, if they -should. Having adopted this resolution, they proceeded immediately to -execute it; and when they had arrived by night, and launched the vessels -from Nisæa, they sailed, not against Athens as they had intended, for they -were afraid of the risk (some wind or other was also said to have prevented -them), but to the headland of Salamis looking towards Megara; where there -was a fort, and a guard of three ships to prevent anything from being taken -in or out of Megara. So they assaulted the fort, and towed off the triremes -empty; and making a sudden attack on the rest of Salamis, they laid it waste.</p> - -<p>Now fire signals of an enemy’s approach were raised towards Athens, and -a consternation was caused by them not exceeded by any during the whole -war. For those in the city imagined that the enemy had already sailed into -Piræus; while those in Piræus thought that Salamis had been taken, and -that they were all but sailing into their harbours: which indeed, if they -would but have not been afraid of it, might easily have been done; and it -was not a wind that would have prevented it. But at daybreak the Athenians<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_565" id="Page_565">[565]</a></span> -went all in a body to Piræus to resist the enemy; and launched their -ships, and going on board with haste and much uproar, sailed with the fleet -to Salamis, while with their land-forces they mounted guard at Piræus. -When the Peloponnesians saw them coming to the rescue, after overrunning -the greater part of Salamis, and taking both men and booty, and the three -ships from the port of Budorum, they sailed for Nisæa as quickly as they -could; for their vessels too caused them some alarm, as they had been -launched after lying idle a long time, and were not at all water-tight. On -their arrival at Megara they returned again to Corinth by land. When the -Athenians found them no longer on the coast of Salamis, they also sailed -back; and after this alarm they paid more attention in future to the safety -of Piræus, both by closing the harbours, and by all other precautions.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[429-428 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>During this winter, after the fleet of the Peloponnesians had dispersed, -the Athenians at Naupactus under the command of Phormion, after coasting -along to Astacus, and there disembarking, marched into the interior of -Acarnania, with four hundred heavy-armed of the Athenians from the ships -and four hundred of the Messenians. From Stratus, Coronta, and some -other places, they expelled certain individuals who were thought to be -untrue to them; and having restored Cynes, son of Theolytus, to Coronta, -returned again to their vessels and sailed home to Athens at the return of -spring, taking with them such of the prisoners from the naval battles as were -freemen (who were exchanged man for man), and the ships they had captured. -And so ended this winter, and the third year of the war.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_32c" id="enanchor_32c"></a><a href="#endnote_32c">c</a></span></p> - -<p>Bury, following Grote, says, that after this, Phormion “silently drops out -of history, and as we find his son Asopius sent out in the following summer -at the request of the Acarnanians, we must conclude that his career had -been cut short by death”: Duruy says he died in 428 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, and that “the city -gave him an honourable funeral and placed his tomb beside that of Pericles.” -Asopius after failing in an assault on Œniadæ, was killed before Leucas.<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_53" id="Footnote_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> [In the words of Thucydides,<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_32c2" id="enanchor_32c2"></a><a href="#endnote_32c">c</a></span> “Never to desert the Athenians, to bear any devastation of -their lands, nay, if such be the case, to behold it with patience, and to suffer any extremities to -which their enemies might reduce them; that, further, no person should stir out of the city, -but an answer be given from the walls; that it was impossible for them to accept the terms -proposed by the Lacedæmonians.”]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-32.jpg" width="500" height="166" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_566" id="Page_566">[566]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-33.jpg" width="500" height="156" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XXXIII_THE_FOURTH_TO_THE_TENTH_YEARS_AND">CHAPTER XXXIII. THE FOURTH TO THE TENTH YEARS—AND -PEACE</h3> - -<p>The fourth year of the war, 428 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, opened with the third invasion of -Attica by Archidamus, but the Periclean policy of remaining within the -walls was continued. Athens herself remaining impregnable, revolt broke -out among her allies.<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span></p> - -<p>One of the most remarkable events in the history of the Peloponnesian -war is the revolt of Mytilene. The island of Lesbos contained five Æolian -towns, which were indeed connected in a certain way, but were yet perfectly -independent of one another; Mytilene, however, by the advantages of its -position and by its excellent harbour, had risen far above the other four -towns. The three smaller ones among them, Pyrrha, Eresus, and Antissa, -had absolutely joined Mytilene, and were guided by it; but Methymna had -not done so, and the relation in which the Lesbians stood to Athens was still -very favourable: their contingent consisted in ships commanded by Lesbians, -and they paid no tribute. But the fate of Samos had warned the few places -standing in the same relation, Chios and Lesbos, and had rendered them -suspicious of the intentions of the Athenians; and they feared lest the -Athenians should treat them as they had treated the smaller islands, and -should reduce them to the same state of dependence as Samos, by ordering -them to deliver up their ships and pay tribute. But the more such places -became aware of their importance, and the more they felt that by going over -to the other side, they would cast a great weight into the scale, the more -they naturally became inclined to revolt. Thus the Mytileneans were prepared -for the step they took, and the revolt spread thence over the whole of -Lesbos, with the exception of Methymna, which, as is always the case in confederations -of states, from jealousy of Mytilene, sided with the Athenians, -and directed their attention to the fact that treasonable plots were formed -in Lesbos, and that a revolt was near at hand.</p> - -<h4>THE REVOLT OF MYTILENE</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[428-427 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>At first the Athenians, with incredible carelessness, paid little attention -to the information, a neglect which was the consequence of the strange anarchical -condition of Athens, where the government had in reality no power. -There was no magistracy to take the initiative, or to form a preliminary resolution -or <i>probuleuma</i> in such cases. The people might indeed meet, and did -meet every day, and any demagogue might propose a measure; but when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_567" id="Page_567">[567]</a></span> -this was not done, there was no authority on which it was incumbent to introduce -such measures, and nothing was done. At Mytilene, on the other hand, -although under the supremacy of Athens democracy everywhere gained the -upper hand, there seems to have been a powerful aristocratic element, and -the government must have been very strong. Everything was carefully -and cautiously prepared, and was kept profoundly secret. The revolt was -determined upon, and public opinion was in favour of it. But as they wished -to proceed safely, and provide themselves sufficiently with arms and provisions, -the undertaking was delayed, and the Athenians, who at first had -neglected everything, at last fitted out an expedition which was to take -Mytilene by surprise.</p> - -<p>But on this occasion it became evident how injurious it was to Athens, -down to the end of the war, that at such times of urgent necessity the government -still continued to be as before, and that there had not been instituted -a separate magistrate for war to take such measures in time. As all proceedings -were public, and neither the preparations nor their object could be kept -secret, all the plans were known to everybody, as they were discussed in the -popular assembly. It was indeed resolved there to surprise Mytilene; but -this decree was ludicrous, and its consequences might be foreseen.</p> - -<p>A Mytilenean, who was staying at Athens, or some one else anxious to do -them a service, on hearing of it, went to Eubœa, took a boat, and informed -the Mytileneans of the danger that was threatening them. Had this not been -done, the revolt would have been prevented, and that for the good of the -Mytileneans themselves. The intention of the Athenians was to surprise the -city during the celebration of a festival, which the Mytileneans solemnised -at a considerable distance from their city, in conjunction with the other Lesbians. -Knowing the design of the Athenians, they did not go out to the -festival, and determined to raise the standard of revolt at once. They quickly -applied to the Peloponnesians, with whom they had, no doubt, been already -negotiating, and requested the Spartans to send them succour of some kind or -another. The Spartans sent them a commander without a force, which was -anything but what they would have liked. He undertook the command in the -city, and exhorted them to be courageous and persevering. They were expected -to undergo the hardships of famine for the sake of the Spartans, but -the general did not bring them any additional strength to repel the Athenians. -They had nothing but their own forces.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[427 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The Athenian fleet now arrived and blockaded the city; after several little -engagements the Mytileneans were reduced to extremities. Their envoys -had at length prevailed upon the Peloponnesians to send them a motley fleet -to relieve Mytilene. But it set sail with the usual slowness of the Spartans, -and did not arrive until Mytilene, compelled by famine, had surrendered. -Such was the care shown to save Mytilene! The long endurance of famine, -shows how strongly the Mytileneans were bent upon escaping from the -dominion of their enemies. How fearful it must have been, may be inferred -from the fact, that in the end they preferred surrendering at discretion to an -enraged enemy. The courage of the Mytileneans was like that of the Campanians -in the Hannibalic War: they allowed themselves to be shut up like -sheep in a fold, to be starved, and thus there remained nothing for them in -the end, but to surrender. Many of those who had been most conspicuous, -were taken prisoners by Paches, the Athenian general. The capitulation -contained nothing else but a promise that the Athenian commander would -not, on his own authority, order any one to be put to death, and that he -would leave the decision to the people of Athens.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_568" id="Page_568">[568]</a></span></p> - -<p>The war had already assumed the most fearful character: Alcidas, the -Spartan admiral of the Peloponnesian fleet, which went to the relief of the -Mytileneans, had, on his voyage, indulged in the most cruel piracy; he had -captured all the ships he met with, without any regard as to what place -they belonged to, and had thrown into the sea the crews of the allies and -subjects of the Athenians, for whose deliverance the Spartans pretended to -be anxious, as well as those of Athenian vessels. This barbarous mode of -warfare was practised by the Spartans from the very beginning of the war. -They not only captured the Athenian ships which sailed round Peloponnesus, -but mutilated the crews, chopping off the hands of the sailors, and then -drowned them.</p> - -<p>This inhuman cruelty of the Spartans excited in the minds of the Athenians -a desire to make reprisals; and thus it unfortunately became quite a -natural feeling among the Athenians to devise inhuman vengeance upon the -Mytileneans. They felt that Athens had given the Mytileneans no cause for -revolt, that the alliance with them had been left unaltered as it had been -before, and that if the Mytileneans had succeeded in joining the Spartans, -they would have brought Athens into great danger, partly by their power, -and partly by their example. It was, moreover, thought necessary to terrify -Chios by a striking example, in order that the oligarchical party there might -not attempt a similar undertaking. Those who did not see the necessity for -such a measure, at least imagined that they saw it, for reasons of this kind -are never anything else than an evil pretext. With all enticements of this -description, the people were induced to despatch orders to the general Paches -to avenge on the Mytileneans what the Spartans had done to the Athenians. -He was to put to death all the men capable of bearing arms, and to sell -women and children into slavery.</p> - -<p>But the minds of the Athenians were too humane for such a design to be -entertained by them for any length of time; and although it had been possible -to carry out such a decree, through the existing confusion of ideas about -morality, yet the better voice had not yet died away in their bosoms. The -historian need not tell us that thousands could not close their eyes during -the night in consequence of the terrible decree; and that through fear lest -it should be carried into effect, they assembled early in the morning, even -before sunrise. The morning after the day on which the decree had been -passed, all the people met earlier than usual, and demanded of the prytanes -once more to put the question to the vote, to see whether the decree should -be carried into effect or not. This was done, and although the ferocious -Cleon struggled with all fury to obtain the sanction of the first decree, yet -humanity prevailed at this second voting.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_33b" id="enanchor_33b"></a><a href="#endnote_33b">b</a></span></p> - -<p>It is in this debate that Cleon first appears in the pages of Thucydides; -he was opposed by Diodotus who, by calm logic rather than impassioned -appeal, won the Athenians over to mercy. It is thus that Thucydides -describes the escape of the Mytileneans:<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span></p> - -<p>“And they immediately despatched another trireme with all speed, that -they might not find the city destroyed through the previous arrival of the -first; which had the start by a day and a night. The Mytilenean ambassadors -having provided for the vessel wine and barley-cakes, and promising -great rewards if they should arrive first, there was such haste in their course, -that at the same time as they rowed they ate cakes kneaded with oil and -wine; and some slept in turn while others rowed. And as there happened -to be no wind against them, and the former vessel did not sail in any haste -on so horrible a business, while this hurried on in the manner described;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_569" id="Page_569">[569]</a></span> -though the other arrived so much first that Paches had read the decree, and -was on the point of executing the sentence, the second came to land after it, -and prevented the butchery. Into such imminent peril did Mytilene come.</p> - -<p>“The other party, whom Paches had sent off as the chief authors of the -revolt, the Athenians put to death, according to the advice of Cleon, amounting -to rather more than one thousand. They also dismantled the walls of -the Mytileneans, and seized their ships.”<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_33c" id="enanchor_33c"></a><a href="#endnote_33c">c</a></span></p> - -<p>It was resolved that only the leaders of the rebellion should be taken to -account and conveyed to Athens, but that no harm should be done to the -other Mytileneans. The Mytileneans were, of course, obliged to deliver up -all their ships and arms; and their territory, with that of the other towns, -except Methymna, made a cleruchia: that is, it was divided into equal lots, -and given to Athenian citizens as fiefs. But this was, in point of fact, nothing -else than the imposition of a permanent land-tax upon the former owners; -for the Athenians let out their lots to the ancient proprietors for a small -rent. The number of rebels who were carried to Athens and executed there, -was, indeed, very great, sadly great; but they were real rebels, and their -blood did not come upon the heads of the Athenians.</p> - -<p>In the declamations of the sophists, we hear much of the evils of the -Athenian democracy, of the misfortunes of the most distinguished men: and -that of Paches is regarded as one of the most conspicuous cases. The people, -it is said, were ungrateful towards Paches, the conqueror of Mytilene, who -had, even before that conquest, distinguished himself as a general; and they -now took him to account for the manner in which he had conducted the -war; and he, in order to escape condemnation, made away with himself. -This story is believed to have been related by the father of all sophists and -declaimers, Isocrates, and is mentioned also by the sophists of later times, -and by a Roman writer on military affairs. But the true account may be -learnt from a poem of the <i>Greek Anthology</i>, where Paches is said to have -abused his power in subduing the island: he dishonoured two noble ladies -of Mytilene, who went to Athens to appeal to the sense of justice of the -Athenian people.</p> - -<p>On that occasion the Athenians showed their true humanity, for they -forgot how dangerous enemies the Mytileneans had been to them, and notwithstanding -the victory of Paches, they were inexorable towards him, and -had he not put an end to his life, he would certainly have been condemned -and handed over to the Eleven. Of this deed the friends of Athens need -not be ashamed.</p> - -<p>The conduct of the commander of the Spartan fleet, which appeared on -the coast of Ionia, shows the Spartans in the same light in which they always -appear, as immensely awkward and slow in all they undertook. It was in -vain that the Corinthians and other enterprising people advised them to attack -Mytilene, because the Athenians were in a newly-conquered city, and the -appearance of a superior force of Peloponnesians would be sufficient to create -a revolt in the city, and to crush the small force of the Athenians. But Alcidas, -in torpid Spartan laziness, was immovable, and returned to Peloponnesus -without undertaking or having effected anything, except that he -received on board the suppliants who threw themselves into the sea, and carried -on the most cruel piracy. The Spartans followed the principle of not -punishing their generals, which was the very opposite to that of the Athenians, -who often made their commanders responsible when fortune had been -against them; and when they had neglected an opportunity, or been guilty -of any crime, they never escaped unpunished.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_33b2" id="enanchor_33b2"></a><a href="#endnote_33b">b</a></span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_570" id="Page_570">[570]</a></span></p> - -<p>It was shortly after the fate of Mytilene was sealed, that Platæa fell into -the power of ruthless Sparta, as described previously. The affair of Mytilene -was followed by an internal war in the island of Corcyra. In describing -this sedition Thucydides is unwontedly vivid and his final moralising -upon the bloody event, as Grote says, “will ever remain memorable as the -work of an analyst and a philosopher.”<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span></p> - -<h4>THUCYDIDES’ ACCOUNT OF THE REVOLT OF CORCYRA</h4> - -<p>Now the forty ships of the Peloponnesians which had gone to the relief -of the Lesbians, (and which were flying, at the time we referred to them, -across the open sea, and were pursued by the Athenians, and caught in a -storm off Crete, and from that point had been dispersed,) on reaching the -Peloponnese, found at Cyllene thirteen ships of the Leucadians and Ambracians, -with Brasidas, son of Tellis, who had lately arrived as counsellor to -Alcidas. For the Lacedæmonians wished, as they had failed in saving -Lesbos, to make their fleet more numerous, and to sail to Corcyra, which was -in a state of sedition; as the Athenians were stationed at Naupactus with -only twelve ships; and in order that they might have the start of them, -before any larger fleet reinforced them from Athens. So Brasidas and -Alcidas proceeded to make preparations for these measures.</p> - -<p>For the Corcyræans began their sedition on the return home of the -prisoners taken in the sea-fights off Epidamnus, who had been sent back by -the Corinthians, nominally on the security of eight hundred talents given for -them by their <i>proxeni</i>, but in reality, because they had consented to bring -over Corcyra to the Corinthians. These men then were intriguing, by visits -to each of the citizens, to cause the revolt of the city from the Athenians. -On the arrival of a ship from Athens and another from Corinth, with envoys -on board, and on their meeting for a conference, the Corcyræans voted to -continue allies of the Athenians according to their agreement, but to be on -friendly terms with the Peloponnesians, as they had formerly been.</p> - -<p>Now there was one Pithias, a volunteer <i>proxenus</i> of the Athenians, and -the leader of the popular party; him these men brought to trial, on a charge -of enslaving Corcyra to the Athenians. Having been acquitted, he brought -to trial in return the five richest individuals of their party, charging them -with cutting stakes in the ground sacred to Jupiter, and to the hero Alcinous; -the penalty affixed being a stater for every stake. When they had -been convicted, and, owing to the amount of the penalty, were sitting as -suppliants in the temples, that they might be allowed to pay it by instalments, -Pithias, who was a member of the council also, persuades that body -to enforce the law. So when they were excluded from all hope by the -severity of the law, and at the same time heard that Pithias was likely, -while he was still in the council, to persuade the populace to hold as friends -and foes the same as the Athenians did, they conspired together, and took -daggers, and, having suddenly entered the council, assassinated Pithias and -others, both counsellors and private persons, to the number of sixty. Some -few, however, of the same party as Pithias, took refuge on board the Athenian -trireme, which was still there.</p> - -<p>Having perpetrated this deed, and summoned the Corcyræans to an -assembly, they told them that this was the best thing for them, and that so -they would be least in danger of being enslaved by the Athenians; and they -moved, that in future they should receive neither party, except coming in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_571" id="Page_571">[571]</a></span> -quiet manner with a single ship, but should consider a larger force as hostile. -As they moved, so also they compelled them to adopt their motion. They -likewise sent immediately ambassadors to Athens, to show, respecting what -had been done, that it was for their best interests, and to prevail on the -refugees there to adopt no measure prejudicial to them, that there might not -be any reaction.</p> - -<p>On their arrival, the Athenians arrested as revolutionists both the -ambassadors and all who were persuaded by them, and lodged them in custody -in Ægina. In the meantime, on the arrival of a Corinthian ship and -some Lacedæmonian envoys, the dominant party of the Corcyræans attacked -the commonalty, and defeated them in battle. When night came on, the -commons took refuge in the citadel, and on the eminences in the city, and -there established themselves in a body, having possession also of the Hyllaic -harbour; while the other party occupied the market-place, where most of -them dwelt, with the harbour adjoining it, looking towards the mainland.</p> - -<p>The next day they had a few skirmishes, and both parties sent about into -the country, inviting the slaves, and offering them freedom. The greater -part of them joined the commons as allies; while the other party was reinforced -by eight hundred auxiliaries from the continent.</p> - -<p>After the interval of a day, a battle was again fought, and the commons -gained the victory, having the advantage both in strength of position and in -numbers: the women also boldly assisted them, throwing at the enemy with -the tiling from the houses, and standing the brunt of the mêlée beyond what -could have been expected from their nature. About twilight the rout of -the oligarchical party was effected; and fearing that the commons might -carry the arsenal at the first assault, and put them to the sword, they fired -the houses round about the market-place, and the lodging-houses, to stop -their advance, sparing neither their own nor other people’s; so that much -property belonging to the merchants was consumed, and the whole city was in -danger of being destroyed, if, in addition to the fire, there had been a wind -blowing on it. After ceasing from the engagement, both sides remained -quiet, and kept guard during the night. On victory declaring for the commons, -the Corinthian ship stole out to sea; while the greater part of the -auxiliaries passed over unobserved to the continent.</p> - -<p>The day following, Nicostratus son of Diïtrephes, a general of the Athenians, -came to their assistance from Naupactus with twelve ships and five -hundred heavy-armed, and wished to negotiate a settlement, persuading -them to agree with each other to bring to trial the ten chief authors of the -sedition (who immediately fled), and for the rest to dwell in peace, having -made an arrangement with each other, and with the Athenians, to have the -same foes and friends. After effecting this he was going to sail away; but -the leaders of the commons urged him to leave them five of his ships, that -their adversaries might be less on the move; and they would themselves -man and send with him an equal number of theirs. He consented to do so, -and they proceeded to enlist their adversaries for the ships. They, fearing -that they should be sent off to Athens, seated themselves as suppliants -in the temple of the Dioscuri; while Nicostratus was trying to persuade -them to rise, and to encourage them. When he did not prevail on them, the -commons, having armed themselves on this pretext, alleged that they had -no good intentions, as was evident from their mistrust in not sailing with -them; and removed their arms from their houses, and would have despatched -some of them whom they met with, if Nicostratus had not prevented it. -The rest, seeing what was going on, seated themselves as suppliants in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_572" id="Page_572">[572]</a></span> -temple of Juno, their number amounting to not less than four hundred. -But the commons, being afraid of their making some new attempt, persuaded -them to rise, and transferred them to the island in front of the temple, and -provisions were sent over there for them.</p> - -<p>When the sedition was at this point, on the fourth or fifth day after the -transfer of the men to the island, the ships of the Peloponnesians, three-and-fifty -in number, came up from Cyllene, having been stationed there since -their return from Ionia. The commander of them, as before, was Alcidas, -Brasidas sailing with him as counsellor. After coming to anchor at Sybota, -a port on the mainland, as soon as it was morning they sailed towards -Corcyra.</p> - -<p>The Corcyræans, being in great confusion, and alarmed both at the state -of things in the city and at the advance of the enemy, at once proceeded to -equip sixty vessels, and to send them out, as they were successively manned, -against the enemy; though the Athenians advised them to let them sail out -first, and afterwards to follow themselves with all their ships together. On -their vessels coming up to the enemy in this scattered manner, two immediately -went over to them, while in others the crews were fighting amongst -themselves, and there was no order in their measures. The Peloponnesians, -seeing their confusion, drew up twenty of their ships against the Corcyræans, -and the remainder against the twelve of the Athenians, amongst which were -the two celebrated vessels, <i>Salaminia</i> and <i>Paralus</i>.</p> - -<p>The Corcyræans, coming to the attack in bad order, and by few ships at -a time, were distressed through their own arrangements; while the Athenians, -fearing the enemy’s numbers and the chance of their surrounding them, -did not attack their whole fleet, or even the centre of the division opposed to -themselves, but took it in flank, and sank one ship. After this, when the -Peloponnesians had formed in a circle, they began to sail round them, and -endeavoured to throw them into confusion. The division which was opposed -to the Corcyræans perceiving this, and fearing that the same thing might -happen as had at Naupactus, advanced to their support. Thus the whole -united fleet simultaneously attacked the Athenians, who now began to retire, -rowing astern; at the same time wishing the vessels of the Corcyræans to -retreat first, while they themselves drew off as leisurely as possible, and -while the enemy were still ranged against them. The sea-fight then, having -been of this character, ended at sunset.</p> - -<p>The Corcyræans, fearing that the enemy, on the strength of his victory, -might sail against the city, and either rescue the men in the island, or proceed -to some other violent measures, carried the men over again to the sanctuary -of Juno, and kept the city under guard. The Peloponnesians, however, -though victorious in the engagement, did not dare to sail against the city, -but withdrew with thirteen of the Corcyræan vessels to the continent, whence -they had put out. The next day they advanced none the more against the -city, though the inhabitants were in great confusion, and though Brasidas, it -is said, advised Alcidas to do so, but was not equal to him in authority; -but they landed on the promontory of Leucimne, and ravaged the country.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, the commons of the Corcyræans, being very much alarmed -lest the fleet should sail against them, entered into negotiation with the suppliants -and the rest for the preservation of the city. And some of them -they persuaded to go on board the ships; for, notwithstanding the general -dismay, they still manned thirty, in expectation of the enemy’s advance -against them. But the Peloponnesians, after ravaging the land till mid-day, -sailed away; and at nightfall the approach of sixty Athenian ships<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_573" id="Page_573">[573]</a></span> -from Leucas was signalled to them, which the Athenians had sent with -Eurymedon son of Thucles, as commander, on hearing of the sedition, and -of the fleet about to go to Corcyra with Alcidas.</p> - -<p>The Peloponnesians then immediately proceeded homeward by night with -all haste, passing along shore; and having hauled their ships over the -isthmus of Leucas, that they might not be seen doubling it, they sailed back. -The Corcyræans, on learning the approach of the Athenian fleet and the -retreat of the enemy, took and brought into the city the Messenians, who -before had been without the walls: and having ordered the ships they had -manned to sail round into the Hyllaic harbour, while they were going round, -they put to death any of their opponents they might have happened to -seize; and afterwards despatched, as they landed them from the ships, all -that they had persuaded to go on board. They also went to the sanctuary -of Juno, and persuaded about fifty men to take their trial, and condemned -them all to death. The majority of the suppliants, who had not been prevailed -on by them, when they saw what was being done, slew one another -there on the sacred ground; while some hanged themselves on the trees, -and others destroyed themselves as they severally could. During seven days -that Eurymedon stayed after his arrival with his sixty ships, the Corcyræans -were butchering those of their countrymen whom they thought hostile to -them; bringing their accusations, indeed, against those only who were for -putting down the democracy; but some were slain for private enmity also, -and others for money owed them by those who had borrowed it. Every -mode of death was thus had recourse to; and whatever ordinarily happens -in such a state of things, happened then, and still more. For father murdered -son, and they were dragged out of the sanctuaries, or slain in them; -while in that of Bacchus some were walled up and perished. So savagely -did the sedition proceed; while it appeared to do so all the more from its -being amongst the earliest.<a name="FNanchor_54" id="FNanchor_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a></p> - -<p>For afterwards, even the whole of Greece, so to say, was convulsed; -struggles being everywhere made by the popular leaders to call in the -Athenians, by the oligarchical party, the Lacedæmonians. Now they would -have had no pretext for calling them in, nor have been prepared to do so, in -time of peace. But when pressed by war, and when an alliance also was -maintained by both parties for the injury of their opponents and for their -own gain therefrom, occasions of inviting them were easily supplied to such -as wished to effect any revolution. And many dreadful things befell the -cities through this sedition, which occur, and will always do so, as long as -human nature is the same, but in a more violent or milder form, and varying -in their phenomena, as the several variations of circumstances may in each -case present themselves.</p> - -<p>For in peace and prosperity both communities and individuals had better -feelings, through not falling into urgent needs; whereas war, by taking away -the free supply of daily wants, is a violent master, and assimilates most men’s -tempers to their present condition. The states then were thus torn by -sedition, and the later instances of it in any part, from having heard what -had been done before, exhibited largely an excessive refinement of ideas, -both in the eminent cunning of their plans, and the monstrous cruelty of -their vengeance. The ordinary meaning of words was changed by them as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_574" id="Page_574">[574]</a></span> -they thought proper. For reckless daring was regarded as courage that was -true to its friends; prudent delay, as specious cowardice; moderation, as a -cloak for unmanliness; being intelligent in everything, as being useful for -nothing. Frantic violence was assigned to the manly character; cautious -plotting was considered a specious excuse for declining the contest.</p> - -<p>The advocate for cruel measures was always trusted; while his opponent -was suspected. He that plotted against another, if successful, was reckoned -clever; he that suspected a plot, still cleverer; but he that forecasted for -escaping the necessity of all such things, was regarded as one who broke up -his party, and was afraid of his adversaries. In a word, the man was commended -who anticipated one going to do an evil deed, or who persuaded to -it one who had no thought of it. Moreover, kindred became a tie less close -than party, because the latter was more ready for unscrupulous audacity. -For such associations have nothing to do with any benefit from established -laws, but are formed in opposition to those institutions by a spirit of rapacity. -Again, their mutual grounds of confidence they confirmed not so much by -any reference to the divine law as by fellowship in some act of lawlessness. -The fair professions of their adversaries they received with a cautious eye to -their actions, if they were stronger than themselves, and not with a spirit of -generosity.</p> - -<p>To be avenged on another was deemed of greater consequence than to -escape being first injured oneself. As for oaths, if in any case exchanged -with a view to a reconciliation, being taken by either party with regard to -their immediate necessity, they only held good so long as they had no resources -from any other quarter; but he that first, when occasion offered, -took courage to break them, if he saw his enemy off his guard, wreaked -his vengeance on him with greater pleasure for his confidence, than he would -have done in an open manner; taking into account both the safety of the -plan, and the fact that by taking a treacherous advantage of him he also -won a prize for cleverness. And the majority of men, when dishonest, more -easily get the name of talented, than, when simple, that of good; and of the -one they are ashamed, while of the other they are proud. Now the cause of -all these things was power pursued for the gratification of covetousness and -ambition, and the consequent violence of parties when once engaged in contention.</p> - -<p>For the leaders in the cities, having a specious profession on each side, -put forward, respectively, the political equality of the people, or a moderate -aristocracy, while in word they served the common interests, in truth -they made them their prizes. And while struggling by every means to -obtain an advantage over each other, they dared and carried out the most -dreadful deeds; heaping on still greater vengeance, not only so far as was -just and expedient for the state, but to the measure of what was pleasing to -either party in each successive case: and whether by an unjust sentence of -condemnation, or on gaining the ascendency by the strong hand, they were -ready to glut the animosity they felt at the moment. Thus piety was in -fashion with neither party; but those who had the luck to effect some odious -purpose under fair pretences were the more highly spoken of. The neutrals -amongst the citizens were destroyed by both parties; either because they did -not join them in their quarrel, or for envy that they should so escape.</p> - -<p>Thus every kind of villainy arose in Greece from these seditions. Simplicity, -which is a very large ingredient in a noble nature, was laughed -down and disappeared; and mutual opposition of feeling, with a want of -confidence, prevailed to a great extent. For there was neither promise that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_575" id="Page_575">[575]</a></span> -could be depended on, nor oath that struck them with fear, to put an end -to their strife; but all being in their calculations more strongly inclined to -despair of anything proving trustworthy, they looked forward to their own -escape from suffering more easily than they could place confidence in -arrangements with others. And the men of more homely wit, generally -speaking, had the advantage; for through fearing their own deficiency and -the cleverness of their opponents, lest they might be worsted in words, and -be first plotted against by means of the versatility of their enemy’s genius, -they proceeded boldly to deeds. Whereas their opponents, arrogantly thinking -that they should be aware beforehand, and that there was no need for -their securing by action what they could by stratagem, were unguarded and -more often ruined.</p> - -<p>It was in Corcyra then that most of these things were first ventured on; -both the deeds which men who were governed with a spirit of insolence, -rather than of moderation, by those who afterwards afforded them an opportunity -of vengeance, would do as the retaliating party; or which those who -wished to rid themselves of their accustomed poverty, and passionately -desired the possession of their neighbours’ goods, might unjustly resolve on; -or which those who had begun the struggle, not from covetousness, but on a -more equal footing, might savagely and ruthlessly proceed to, chiefly through -being carried away by the rudeness of their anger. Thus the course of life -being at that time thrown into confusion in the city, human nature, which -is wont to do wrong even in spite of the laws, having then got the mastery -of the law, gladly showed itself to be unrestrained in passion, above regard -for justice, and an enemy to all superiority. They would not else have preferred -vengeance to religion, and gain to innocence; in which state envy -would have had no power to hurt them. And so men presume in their acts -of vengeance to be the first to violate those common laws on such questions, -from which all have a hope secured to them of being themselves rescued from -misfortune; and they will not allow them to remain, in case of any one’s -ever being in danger and in need of some of them.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_33c2" id="enanchor_33c2"></a><a href="#endnote_33c">c</a></span></p> - -<h4>DEMOSTHENES AND SPHACTERIA</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[426-425 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>These massacres at Corcyra, Mytilene, Platæa, and Melos were doubly -disastrous; iniquity always striking back at its perpetrators, thus making -two victims. Through such reversions to the barbarity of former days the -sense of right, of justice will everywhere become enfeebled until it finally -disappears.</p> - -<p>As though nature herself had wished to take part in the general disorder, -earthquakes visited Attica, Eubœa, and all of Bœotia, particularly Orchomenos. -Pestilence had never made its appearance in the Peloponnesus: now -for a year it raged among the Athenians with terrible mortality. Since -its outbreak it had carried off forty-three hundred hoplites, three hundred -horsemen, and innumerable victims among the general population. -This was the last blow fate dealt the Athenians. To appease the god to -whom all pollution was an offence, they caused the island of Apollo to be -thoroughly purified as had already been done by the Pisistratidæ. Birth -and death being alike forbidden at Delos, the remains of the dead buried there -were exhumed and sent elsewhere, and the sick were transported to Rhenea, a -neighbouring island. Finally, there were instituted in honour of Apollo -games and horse-races which were to be celebrated every four years, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_576" id="Page_576">[576]</a></span> -Greeks as well as the Romans thinking to gain thus the protection of a god, -whom they caused to be represented by images at these festivals.</p> - -<p>The Ionians, excluded from the Peloponnesian solemnities, flocked to -those of Delos, where Nicias, at the first celebration, made himself remarkable -for the magnificence of his gifts. In one night he caused to be constructed -between Delos and Rhenea a bridge seven hundred metres long, -carpeted and decorated with wreaths, across which was to pass the procession -of the dead exiled in the name of religion from the holy island -(425 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>).</p> - -<p>It is a proof of the part taken by the people of Athens in the great things -accomplished by Pericles, that in the four years passed without his enlightened -counsel, they had displayed under the double scourge of plague and -war that steadfastness he had particularly enjoined upon them: no disturbances -took place in the city and no pettiness of spirit was shown in the -choice of military chiefs. In vain Cleon thundered from the tribune. Into -the hands of none but tried generals, were they noble, rich, or friends of -peace, like Nicias and Demosthenes, was given the command of their armies. -At Mytilene and Corcyra those who had placed their trust in Lacedæmon -had perished; the destruction of Platæa was the only check received by -Athens. She began to turn her gaze toward Sicily; soon she sent there -twenty galleys to aid the Leontini against Syracuse. Her pretext was community -of origin with the Leontini, but in reality she wished to prevent -the exportation of Sicilian grain into the Peloponnesus.</p> - -<p>Demosthenes was a true general, able and bold; to him war was a science -made up of difficult combinations as well as courage. Leaving to his -colleague, Nicias, the seas near Athens he set out for western waters, to destroy -the influence of Corinth even in the gulf that bears his name. Aided -by the Acarnanians he had the preceding year (426) vanquished in the -land-battle of Olpæ, by force of superior tactics, the Peloponnesians, who -lost so many men that the general had three hundred panoplies, his share of -the plunder, consecrated in the temple at Athens. But this Acarnanian -War, related at such length by Thucydides, could not have very serious -results. An audacious enterprise by Demosthenes seemed, at one moment, -to have brought it to a close. Struck, while navigating around the Peloponnesus, -by the advantageous position of Pylos a promontory on the coast of -Messene which commands the present harbour of Navarino, the best sea-port -of the peninsula, left deserted by the Spartans since the Messenian -War, the idea came to him that if he could occupy it with Messenians he would -be “attaching a burning torch to the flank of the Peloponnesus.” He -obtained from the people permission to act on this idea; but when the fleet -which had set out for Corcyra and Italy arrived at Pylos, the generals commanding -it shrank from the project and refused to execute it. The winds -interposed in Demosthenes’ behalf, by driving the ships on to the coast and -forcing the Athenians to land. Once on shore the soldiers, with that industry -that characterised the Athenians, set to work to construct walls and fortifications, -without either tools for cutting stone or hods for carrying mortar. -At the end of six days the rampart was about finished and Demosthenes, -with six galleys, took up his position on the point (425).</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[425 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Sparta was with reason alarmed at this move, the place chosen by Demosthenes -at the west of the Peloponnesus, forming an excellent station for -hostile fleets, and from Pylos the Athenians would be able to spread agitation -through all Messene, perhaps even to incite the helots to fresh revolt. -The Peloponnesian army was at once recalled from Attica where it had only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_577" id="Page_577">[577]</a></span> -arrived two weeks before, and also the fleet from Corcyra with the end in -view of blockading Pylos by land and by sea. At the entrance to this harbour -was an island fifteen stadia [not quite two miles] long called Sphacteria. -The Lacedæmonians landed on this island a force of four hundred and twenty -hoplites, and barred the channel on either side with vessels having their prows -turned outward. Pylos had no other defence seaward than the difficulty of -effecting a landing on her shores, but it was on this side that the attack began. -It lasted two days and was unsuccessful. Brasidas, who had displayed great -valour, was covered with wounds and lost his shield, which the waters carried -over to the Athenians. There was still hope for the Lacedæmonians; -but at this point forty Athenian galleys arriving from Zacynthus, assailed -their fleet and after a furious combat drove their ships upon the land. -Thus Sphacteria was surrounded by an armed circle that kept close guard -about her night and day.</p> - -<p>Sparta was thrown into consternation by the news of this defeat. Her -population that in Lycurgus’ time numbered nine thousand was reduced in -the year of the battle of Platæa to five thousand, which in another quarter -of a century had dwindled to seven hundred; hence she could not support -the loss of the men now held under siege by the Athenians. The ephors -went in person to Pylos to examine the condition of affairs and saw no -other way to preserve the lives of their fellow-citizens than to conclude an -armistice with the Athenian generals. It was agreed that Laconia should -send ambassadors to Athens, and that she should immediately surrender all -the vessels, sixty galleys, that she had in the port of Pylos; Athens to continue -the blockade of Sphacteria but allowing to pass in daily, two Attic -phœnices of flour, two cotyles of wine, and a portion of meat per soldier, with -half that allowance for the menials.</p> - -<p>The Lacedæmonian deputies appeared in the assembly at Athens and, -contrary to their usual custom, delivered a long discourse offering peace in -exchange for the Spartan prisoners and adding that the treaty once made, -all other cities would follow their example and lay down arms. Where now -were all the causes of complaint held against Athens at the commencement -of the war? The Spartans deserted their allies and the cause they had -formerly held so just for the sake of some fellow-citizens in danger. But -had they not also the preceding year betrayed the Ambracians after the -defeat at Olpæ? Unfortunately Pericles was no longer there to urge upon -the people a prudent generosity. Cleon exhorted the assembly to demand -the restitution of the towns ceded when the Thirty Years’ Truce was concluded, -and the deputies, unable to accept such terms, retired without having -accomplished anything.</p> - -<p>The armistice ceased with their return; but the Athenians, pretending -the violation of certain conditions, refused to give up the Spartan vessels, -which was an entirely gratuitous breach of faith since the ships were no -longer of any use to the Spartans. Famine was the greatest danger the -besieged had to fear; the island, thickly wooded as it was, offering peril -to the enemy that would attempt to take it by force. Freedom was promised -each helot who would carry provisions through the blockade, and many attempting -and succeeding, the four hundred and twenty were enabled to hold -out till the approach of winter.</p> - -<p>The Athenians at Pylos had also to fear for themselves the difficulty of -obtaining provisions through the severe season. The army already suffered, -and this fact became known at Athens. Cleon, who had rejected the overtures -of the Lacedæmonians, laid the blame on the generals. It was because<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_578" id="Page_578">[578]</a></span> -of their lack of resolution, he said, that hostilities were so prolonged. In -this he was right, the Athenians at Pylos numbering ten thousand men as -against four hundred and twenty Spartans. Nicias, in a constant state of -alarm, believed success even with their superior force impossible, and to -silence the demagogue proposed to him to go himself to Sphacteria.</p> - -<p>Cleon hesitated, but the impatient people took the general at his word, -and Cleon was obliged to go; promising that in twenty days all trouble -would be at an end. In truth this was time enough to effect his purpose -when he once seriously set to work. He first prudently requested that -Demosthenes co-operate with him, and was wise enough to take counsel of -this able man at every step. Shortly after his arrival at Pylos a fire -lighted on Sphacteria to cook food and imperfectly extinguished, was fanned -by a violent wind into a blaze that destroyed the whole forest. This accident -removed the principal obstacle in the way of an attack. Demosthenes -made the preparations aided by Cleon, and one night they fell upon the -island with their entire force. Having among their troops many that were -lightly armed, they were able to reach the highest points and from there -sorely harass the Lacedæmonians who were unused to the methods of attack -of an enemy that uttered wild cries and fled as soon as they had struck. -The ashes of the recently consumed forest rose into the air and blinded the -besieged men, and unable longer to distinguish objects they stood motionless -in one place and received from every side projectiles that their felt -cuirasses were ill-fitted to turn aside. To render the combat a little less -unequal they retired in a body to an elevated fort at the extremity of the -island. This position gave them a decided advantage, and they were beginning -to repulse their assailants when there appeared upon the rocks above -them a corps of Messenians who had outflanked them.</p> - -<p>They saw the necessity of surrendering, but named a condition: that -they be allowed to consult with the Lacedæmonians who were stationed on -the neighbouring coast. Their compatriots replied: “You are free to act as -you think best provided you incur no dishonour.” At this they laid down -their arms and surrendered; the course wherein dishonour formerly lay for -Sparta apparently containing it no more. One hundred and twenty-eight -were killed in the engagement: of the two hundred and ninety-two survivors -one hundred and twenty belonged to the noblest families of Sparta. -Some one praised in the hearing of one of the prisoners the courage of those -of his companions who had been slain: “It would be impossible,” he said, -“to esteem the darts too highly if they are capable of distinguishing a -brave man from a coward.” This retort was, for a Spartan, very Athenian -in spirit. The blockade had lasted fifty-two days.</p> - -<p>His victory at Sphacteria raised Cleon high in the estimation of the people. -A decree gave him the right to live in the Prytaneum at the cost of the -republic, and to perpetuate the memory of his success a statue of Victory -was erected on the Acropolis. Aristophanes in revenge presented six months -later his comedy of the <i>Knights</i>, in which Cleon as the “Paphlagonian,” -the slave who ingratiates himself with Demos for the purpose of robbing him, -causes blows to rain upon the faithful servants Nicias and Demosthenes, and -finally serves up to his master the cake of Pylos that Demosthenes alone has -prepared. We will only say in conclusion that though all the honour of the -affair may go to Demosthenes, Cleon manifested in it an energy that was not -without effect; that even in the account of Thucydides he does not appear -to have borne himself discreditably as captain or soldier; and lastly, that all -that he promised he performed.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_579" id="Page_579">[579]</a></span></p> - -<p>The balance of power was now disturbed, fortune leaned to the side of the -Athenians. Nevertheless, while the Lacedæmonians were taking their land-forces -economically over into Attica from Laconia, Athens was ruining herself -by maintaining fleets in all the seas of Greece, recruiting at heavy cost -the rowers to man them. Her annual expenses amounted to twenty-five -hundred talents. In 425 the reserved funds amassed by Pericles being -exhausted, it became necessary to increase both the tribute paid her by her -allies and the tax laid upon the revenues of her citizens. One of these -measures was to cause disaffection later, and the other, that which weighed -upon the rich, was to give rise to plots against the popular government, germs -of disaster that the future was to bring to fruition.</p> - -<h4>FURTHER ATHENIAN SUCCESSES</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[425-424 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The Athenians had as yet no forebodings, but applied rare vigour to the -following up of their success. Nicias, at the head of a considerable armament, -landed on the isthmus and defeated the Corinthians, then he proceeded to -the capture of Methone between Trœzen and Epidaurus on the peninsula, -and extending towards Ægina. A garrison was left behind a wall that closed -the isthmus, and from this post which communicated by fire signals with -Piræus the Athenians made frequent raids into Argolis (425). The following -year Nicias took the island of Cythera which, situated near the southern -coast of the Peloponnesus, offered great facility for making raids into that -district and for waylaying ships bound there. It commanded, moreover, the -seas of Crete and Sicily in both of which Athens had stationed fleets for the -support of the cities at war with Syracuse.</p> - -<p>After having ravaged Laconia for seven days with impunity, Nicias -returned to Thyrea in Cynuria, where the Spartans had established the -Æginetans. He took the city despite the proximity of a Lacedæmonian -army which did not venture to aid it, and his prisoners were sent to Athens -and there put to death. This new-born national greatness, if such a return -to savagery can merit the name, increased constantly in power: the foe was -a criminal meriting punishment and his defeat equivalent to a sentence of -death. In just this period occurred a tragedy, the story of which we would -refuse to receive were it not for Thucydides’ direct affirmation; the massacre -of two thousand of the bravest helots for the sole purpose of weakening the -corps and of frightening those of their companions to whom the success of -Athens might have given the idea of revolt. Overwhelmed by so many -reverses and fearful of seeing war established permanently around Laconia, -at Pylos, Cythera, and Cynuria, the Spartans shrank from further action. -Whatever step they took might lead them into error and having never learned -the lessons of misfortune, they remained irresolute and timid. The Athenians, -on the contrary, were full of confidence in their good fortune. The -Greeks in Sicily having brought their wars to a close by a general reconciliation, -the generals sent to that country by the Athenians allowed themselves -to be included in the treaty. On their return the people condemned two of -them to exile and one to a heavy fine, on the pretext that they had it in their -power to subjugate Sicily but had been bought off by presents. The Athenian -people believed themselves to be irresistible, and in the loftiness of their -aspirations denied to any enterprise, whether practicable or not, the possibility -of defeat. This was the forerunner of the fatal madness that seized -them when Alcibiades planned the unfortunate expedition into Sicily.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_580" id="Page_580">[580]</a></span></p> - -<p>Athens was thus taking everywhere the offensive, and Sparta, paralysed, -had entirely ceased to act; she had recourse again to Darius, begging aid -more insistently than ever, thus betraying the cause of all Greece and dimming -the glory of their deeds at Thermopylæ. The Athenians intercepted -the Persian Artaphernes in Thrace. In the letter this envoy bore, the -king set forth that not being able to grasp the meaning of the Spartans—no -two of their envoys delivering to him the same message—he had thought -best in order to come to a clear understanding, to send them a deputy. -Athens at once took steps to neutralise Sparta’s measures; perhaps even to -supplant her in the favour of the Great King, and sent Artaphernes back -honourably accompanied by ambassadors. From now on Greece was to witness -the shameful spectacle offered by the descendants of the victors of Salamis -and Platæa bowing down to the successors of Xerxes. At Ephesus the -embassy learnt of the death of the Great King and went no further; but -Athens had none the less been false, in intent if not in deed, to all the traditions -of her past, and was to expiate her sin without delay.</p> - -<h4>A CHECK TO ATHENS; BRASIDAS BECOMES AGGRESSIVE</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[424 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Demosthenes’ able plan had succeeded; the Peloponnesus was encircled -by hostile posts; there now remained but to shut off the isthmus and imprison -the Spartans in their retreat. One way of doing this was to occupy -Megara, but a still better method would be to obtain an alliance with Bœotia. -The attempt on Megara having failed, Demosthenes turned his attention -to Bœotia. He held secret communication with the inhabitants of -Chæronea, who promised to deliver over the city to a body of Athenians -who were to leave Naupactus unseen, aided by the Phocians, while he himself -was to storm Siphæ on the Gulf of Crissa, the Athenian general Hippocrates -being charged with the capture of Delium, on the Eubœan side. -These three enterprises were to be executed the same day, and if they succeeded, -Bœotia, like the Peloponnesus, would be encircled by a hostile ring, -and Thebes would be separated from Lacedæmon. But too many were -in the secret to allow of its being kept, the enemy was warned and the three -Athenian forces, failing to act in concert, lost the advantage that would have -lain in a simultaneous attack.</p> - -<p>The enterprise against Siphæ and Chæronea failed also and Hippocrates, -delayed a few days in his advance, found arrayed against him in one body -all the Bœotian forces that he and his colleagues had plotted to divide. He -succeeded in occupying Delium and fortified the temple of Apollo found -there. To the Bœotians it was profanation to turn a temple into a fortress, -and this scruple was shared by many of the Athenians who entered but half-heartedly -into the combat. A thousand hoplites with their chief perished in -the action; contrary to sacred usage Thebes let the bodies of the dead lie -without sepulture seventeen days, until the taking of Delium; holding them -to be sacrilegious evil-doers whose wandering souls were to receive punishment -in the infernal world.</p> - -<p>Socrates had taken part in this battle. In company with his friend -Laches and some others equally brave, he had held his ground to the last, -retreating step by step before the Theban cavalry. Simultaneously with -this display of heroism Aristophanes was writing his comedy, the <i>Clouds</i>.</p> - -<p>Sparta possessed but one man of ability, Brasidas, who had saved Megara, -menaced Piræus, and almost defeated Demosthenes at Pylos. Clear-sighted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_581" id="Page_581">[581]</a></span> -and brave to the point of audacity, he possessed an additional weapon, one -that was capable of inflicting cruel wounds, and that the Spartans had hitherto -known little how to use, eloquence. The sea being closed to him, he decided -that it would be possible to injure Athens seriously both in fortune and -renown without leaving the land. The very policy she had used against -Sparta, Pylos, Cythera, and Methone, could now be turned against her in -Chalcidice and Thrace. At the commencement of the war she had forced -Perdiccas, king of Macedonia, to enter her alliance and had gained the friendship -of Sitalces the powerful king of the Odrysians, whose territory extended -from the Ægean Sea to the Danube, and from Byzantium to the source of the -Strymon, a distance not to be covered under thirty days’ travel.</p> - -<p>At Athens’ instigation Sitalces had in 429 invaded Macedonia, but since -then his zeal had cooled. Perdiccas, on his side, had never lost an opportunity -of secretly injuring the Athenians. Even at this moment he was urging -Sparta to send an expedition to Chalcidice and the coast of Thrace. To -deprive Athens of these regions whence she obtained her timber was to -attack her in her navy, and to carry at the same time the centre of hostilities -towards the north, was to draw her away from the Peloponnesus which -had lately suffered so many ills. Brasidas was charged with the enterprise, -but Sparta refused to engage in it deeply. He raised a force of seven hundred -helots who were armed as hoplites, to which were added a thousand -Peloponnesians attracted by Perdiccas’ promises. This was little; but -Brasidas held in reserve the treacherous but magical word, Liberty, that -was to open for him many gates.</p> - -<p>He took possession in this way of Acanthus, Stagira, and Amphipolis itself -fell into his power, he having entered one of its suburbs by stealth, and won -over all the inhabitants by the generosity of his conditions. Amphipolitans -and Athenians alike he permitted to remain with retention of all their rights -and property; he also accorded to those who wished to leave, five days in -which to carry away all their belongings. Not for an age had war been -carried on with such humanity, and it was a Spartan who was setting the -example! We must also note the lack of eagerness shown by Athens’ allies -to cast off her yoke which, viewed in the light of facts, takes on an aspect -much less odious than that in which it is represented by rhetoricians.</p> - -<h4>THE BANISHMENT OF THUCYDIDES</h4> - -<p>The approach of so active an enemy as Brasidas, and the blows he had -dealt, should have led the Athenian generals in that region to concentrate -their forces on the continent not far from Amphipolis, which was Athens’ -principal stronghold on that side. One of these commanders had gone with -seven galleys to Thasos, where there was no need of his presence, the island -being secure from menace. Though too late to save Amphipolis he arrived in -time to save the port, Eion. At the suggestion of Cleon the people punished -this act of negligence by a twenty years’ sentence of exile. It is to this -sentence that posterity owes a masterwork in which vigorous thoughts are -expressed in a style of great conciseness, the exiled one being Thucydides, who -employed his leisure in writing the history of the Peloponnesian War. The -real culprit was Eucles, the commander of Amphipolis, who had allowed -himself to be taken by surprise.</p> - -<p>In according liberty to the towns he took, Brasidas deprived Athens of -many subjects without bestowing any on Lacedæmonia who had no desire for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_582" id="Page_582">[582]</a></span> -conquest in such distant regions; hence the success of the adventurous general -astonished Greece without arousing great enthusiasm in Sparta; neither -did it cause much vexation at Athens after the first outburst of anger to -which Thucydides fell a victim. Deprived of a few cities of importance, -Athens retained her island empire; the loss of Amphipolis being her most -serious reverse.</p> - -<p>King Plistoanax, exiled in 445 from Sparta for having lent ear to the -propositions of Pericles, had taken refuge on Mount Lycæus in Arcadia -near the temple of Zeus, and had dwelt there nineteen years. The partisans -of peace recalled the exile, who returned to his native land filled with -the determination to end the war. Neither was Athens, for the moment, -in a bellicose mood.</p> - -<h4>A TRUCE DECLARED; TWO TREATIES OF PEACE</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[423-421 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Her desire to reduce expenses and Sparta’s to recover captives that -belonged to her most influential families brought about, in fact, a sort of -union between the two nations. In March, 423, a truce of one year was -declared, the conditions being that each side should retain all its possessions. -The population forming the Peloponnesian league were authorised -to navigate the waters surrounding their own coasts and those of their -allies, but they were forbidden the use of war-galleys. The signers of the -treaty must guarantee to all free access to the temple and oracle of Pythian -Apollo, must harbour no refugees, free or slave, must protect all heralds -and deputies journeying by land or sea, must, in a word, aid by every -means in their power the conclusion of permanent peace.</p> - -<p>While the treaty was being concluded at Athens, Brasidas entered -Scione, on the peninsula of Pallene where he was received with open arms, -the inhabitants decreeing him a golden crown, and binding his head with -fillets as though he had been a victorious athlete. This victory being -achieved two days after the conclusion of peace, the conquered territory -ought to have been given back; this Sparta refused to do and hostilities -broke out again. Nicias, arriving with a considerable force, took Scione, -then Mende, which was delivered over to him by the people, and persuaded -Perdiccas to ally himself again with Athens. Brasidas failed in an enterprise -against Potidæa. The following year Cleon was named general. He -urged Athens and with reason to repeat against Potidæa the vigour of -her action at Pylos, it being necessary to check the advance of Brasidas. -He first seized Torone and Galepsus, then established himself at Eion to -await the auxiliaries that were on their way to him from Thrace and -Macedonia. But his soldiers carried him along with them in a rush to -Amphipolis, where Brasidas was stationed. This latter took advantage of -a false move on the part of the Athenians to attack them by surprise, and -won a victory that cost him his life. Cleon also fell in this action. In -the account of Thucydides Cleon was one of the first to seek flight, but -according to Diodorus he died bravely. Brasidas, mourned by all his -allies who took part, fully armed, in his funeral procession, was interred -with the ceremonies accorded to one of the ancient heroes. His tomb was -enclosed within a consecrated circle and in his honour were instituted annual -games and sacrifices (422).</p> - -<p>The death of these two men facilitated the conclusion of peace; Brasidas -by his activity and success, Cleon by his discourses having been for long<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_583" id="Page_583">[583]</a></span> -the chief sustainers of war. Athens, which had experienced a serious check, -lost confidence, as did also Sparta, the victory of Amphipolis having been -gained not by her native troops but by a body of mercenaries upon whom -no reliance could be placed; the war she had lightly undertaken against -Athens had lasted ten years, with the menace of another contest in the near -future; the Thirty Years’ Truce concluded with the Argives was on the -point of expiring, and lastly her naval ports were still in the hands of the -enemy and her citizens were still held captive. In both cities the balance -of influence was on the side of the peace partisans, prudent Nicias in -Athens, and the easy-going Plistoanax in Lacedæmon. There were two -treaties of peace which were finally concluded in 421.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[421 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The first treaty guaranteed to the Greeks, according to usage, the right -to offer sacrifices at Delphi, to consult its oracle and to attend its festivals. -It was agreed that each side should restore the cities taken in war; Thebes -alone was to be allowed to retain Platæa, in exchange for which the Athenians -would keep Nisæa in the Megarid, and Anactorium and Sollium in -Acarnania. It was stipulated that “what was decreed for the majority of -the allies should bind them all, unless hindrances should occur on the part -of the gods and heroes.” All the allies save Corinth, Megara, and the -Eleans, accepted these conditions. It was finally decided that peace should -be ratified by an oath renewed each year and inscribed upon the columns of -Olympia and Delphi, of the temple of Poseidon on the isthmus, in the citadel -at Athens, and the Amyclæum at Sparta.</p> - -<p>One of the articles of the treaty read that prisoners should be restored -on both sides. When those of Sphacteria arrived, they were degraded from -their rights as citizens, that the stain on Spartan courage might be removed -by showing that Lacedæmon recognised no compromise with duty, even -in the face of death. It is true that shortly after, these same citizens were -reinstated in their former position.</p> - -<p>The first of these treaties which brought temporary cessation to the ills -the people had suffered for the last ten years, bore the name of the honourable -man who had been instrumental in having it drawn, Nicias. Who had -profited by all the blood that had been shed? Sparta had increased neither -in strength nor in glory, while Greece simply retained her original empire, -her people not for a moment renouncing the hatred that had armed them -against each other. No side had gained, and civilisation had lost what ten -years of peace would have added to the brilliancy of the Age of Pericles.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_33e" id="enanchor_33e"></a><a href="#endnote_33e">e</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_54" id="Footnote_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> [Over five hundred of the oligarchical party escaped to Mount Istone, and when the Athenian -fleet sailed away proceeded to make frequent raids upon the democratic strongholds, till in 425 -the Athenian fleet on the way to Sicily paused in Corcyra and aided the people to storm Istone. -The prisoners left to the mob were foully butchered and the oligarchical party annihilated.]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-33.jpg" width="500" height="262" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_584" id="Page_584">[584]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-34.jpg" width="500" height="153" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XXXIV_THE_RISE_OF_ALCIBIADES">CHAPTER XXXIV. THE RISE OF ALCIBIADES</h3> - -<p>Thucydides remarks that after the Peace of Nicias, there was but one -of the predictions current at the commencement of the Peloponnesian War -that was reputed to have received its fulfilment: it was the one which declared -that the war would last three times nine years. There were indeed -three acts in this war; we have seen the first: the second was the uneasy -truce which extends from 421 to 413 when, though there was no general -war, war was everywhere. The last, from 413 to 404, includes the catastrophe -and the train of circumstances which brought it about.</p> - -<p>The first period is filled with Pericles; his policy survives him, and in -spite of Cleon his spirit governs Athens; the second and third are entirely -taken up by Alcibiades, his passions, his services, and his crimes.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[450-421 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Alcibiades whose descent was derived from Ajax, was connected on his -mother’s side with the Alemæonids. The death of his father Clinias, killed -at Coronea, left him to the guardianship of his relatives, Pericles and Ariphron, -who, on his attaining his majority, handed him over one of the great -fortunes in Athens. With wealth and noble blood, he joined that beauty -which in the estimation of this artist-people added to the brilliance of -talents and virtue on the brows of Sophocles and Pericles, and always -seemed a gift of the gods, even on the features of an athlete. Parasites, -flatterers, all who are attracted by fortune, grace, and boldness, thronged -round the footsteps of this rich and witty young man, who had become -what in Athens was a power, namely the ruler of fashion. Accustomed in -the midst of this train to find himself applauded for his wild actions, Alcibiades -dared everything, and all with impunity. The force and flexibility -of his temperament rendered him capable of vice and virtue, abstinence and -debauchery, according to the hour, the day, or the place. In the city of -Lycurgus there was no Spartan more harsh towards his body; in Asia he -outdid the satraps in luxury and self-indulgence. But his audacity and his -indomitable petulance compromised the long meditated plans of his ambition -for the sake of a jest or an orgy. Lively and diverse passions carried him -now in one direction, now in another, and always to excess, while in the -stormy versatility of his character he did not find the curb which might have -restrained him, namely, the sense of right and duty.</p> - -<p>One day he was to be seen with Socrates, welcoming with avidity the -noble lessons of the philosopher, and weeping with admiration and enthusiasm; -but on the morrow he would be crossing the agora with a trailing -robe and indolent, dissolute mien, and would go with his too complacent -friends to plunge into shameful pleasures. Yet the sage contended for him, -and sometimes with success, against the crowd of his corruptors. In the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_585" id="Page_585">[585]</a></span> -early wars they shared the same tent. Socrates saved Alcibiades at Potidæa, -and at Delium Alcibiades protected the retreat of Socrates.</p> - -<p>From his childhood he exhibited the half heroic, half savage nature of his -mind. He was playing at dice on the public way when a chariot approached; -he told the charioteer to wait; the latter paid no heed and continued to advance; -Alcibiades flung himself across the road and called out, “Now pass -if you dare.” He was wrestling with one of his comrades and not being -the strongest, he bit the arm of his adversary. “You bite like a woman.” -“No, but like a lion,” he answered. He had caused a Cupid throwing a -thunderbolt to be engraved on his shield.</p> - -<p>He had a superb dog which had cost him more than seven thousand -drachmæ. When all the town had admired it he cut off its tail, its finest -ornament, that it might be talked of still more. “Whilst the Athenians -are interested in my dog,” he said, “they will say nothing worse concerning -me.” One day he was passing in the public square; the assembly was -tumultuous and he inquired the cause; he was told that a distribution of -money was on hand; he advanced and threw some himself amid the applause -of the crowd: but according to the fashion among the exquisites of the day -he was carrying a pet quail under his mantle: the terrified bird escaped -and all the people ran, shouting, after it, that they might bring it back to its -master. Alcibiades and the people of Athens were made to understand one -another. “They detest him,” said Aristophanes, “need him and cannot do -without him.”</p> - -<p>One day he laid a wager to give a blow in the open street to Hipponicus, -one of the most eminent men in the town; he won his bet, but the next day -he presented himself at the house of the man he had so grossly insulted, removed -his garments and offered himself to receive the chastisement he had -deserved. He had married Hipparete, a woman of much virtue, and responded -to her eager affection only by outrageous conduct. After long -endurance she determined to lay a petition for divorce before the archon. -Alcibiades, hearing this, hurried to the magistrate’s house and under the -eyes of a cheering crowd carried off his wife in his arms across the public -square, she not daring to resist; and brought her back to his house where she -remained, well-pleased with this tender violence.</p> - -<p>Alcibiades treated Athens as he did Hipponicus and Hipparete, and -Athens, like Hipparete and Hipponicus, often forgave this medley of faults -and amiable qualities in which there was always something of that wit and -audacity which the Athenians prized above everything. His audacity indeed -made sport alike of justice and religion. He may be excused for beating a -teacher in whose school he had not found the <i>Iliad</i>: but at the <i>Dionysia</i> he -struck one of his adversaries, in the very middle of the spectacle, regardless -of the solemnity; and at another time, in order the better to celebrate a -festival, he carried off the sacred vessel which was required at that very -moment for a public and religious service. A painter having refused to -work for him he kept him prisoner until he had finished decorating his -house, but dismissed him loaded with presents. On one occasion when a -poet was pursued by justice, he tore the act of indictment from the public -archives. In a republic these actions were not very republican. But all Greece -had such a weakness for Alcibiades! At Olympia he had seven chariots competing -at once, thus eclipsing the magnificence of the kings of Syracuse and -Cyrene; and he carried off two prizes in the same race, while another of his -chariots came in fourth. Euripides sang of his victory and cities joined together -to celebrate it. The Ephesians erected him a magnificent pavilion;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_586" id="Page_586">[586]</a></span> -the men of Chios fed his horses and provided him with a great number of -victims; the Lesbians gave him wine and the whole assembly of Olympia -took their seats at festive tables to which a private individual had invited -them. Posterity, less indulgent than contemporaries, whilst recognising the -eminent qualities of the man, will condemn the bad policy which made the -expedition to Sicily, and the bad citizen who so many times gave the scandalous -example of violating the laws and who dared to arm against his own -country, to raise his hand against his mother. Alcibiades will remain the -type of the most brilliant, but the most immoral and consequently the most -dangerous citizen of a republic.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[421-420 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>In spite of his birth which classed him among the Eupatrids, Alcibiades, -like Pericles, went over to the side of the people, and made himself the -adversary of a man very different from himself, the -superstitious Nicias, who was also a noble, rich and -tried by long services. But Alcibiades had the advantage -of him in audacity, fascination, and eloquence. -Demosthenes regards him as the first orator -of his time; not that he had a great flow of language; -on the contrary, as his phrases did not come quickly -enough, he frequently repeated the last words of his -sentences; but the force and elegance of his speech -and a certain lisp which was not displeasing, rendered -him irresistible. His first political act was an -unwelcome measure. He suggested an increase of -the tribute of the allies, an imprudence which Pericles -would not have committed. But Alcibiades had -different schemes and different doctrines. He believed -in the right of might and he made use of it; -he looked forward to gigantic enterprises and he prepared -the necessary means in advance. His inaction -began to weigh on him. He was thirty-one years -old and had as yet done nothing; so he bestirred -himself considerably on the occasion of the treaty of -421. He would have liked to supplant Nicias and -win the honour of the peace for himself. His flatteries -to the prisoners of Sphacteria met with no -success; the Spartans relied more on the old general, and Alcibiades bore -them a grudge in consequence.</p> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;"> -<img src="images/p586.jpg" width="150" height="321" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Alcibiades</span></p> -</div> - -<p>There was no lack of men opposed to this treaty. It was signed amidst -the applause of the old, the rich, and the cultivators, but in it Athens, through -Nicias’ fault, had allowed herself to be ignominiously tricked. The merchants -who during the war had seen the sea closed to their rivals and open to their -own vessels, the sailors, the soldiers, and all the people of the Piræus who -lived on their pay or their booty, formed a numerous party. Alcibiades -constituted himself its chief. The warlike spirit which was to disappear -only with Greece itself soon gave him allies from outside.</p> - -<p>What Sparta and Athens were doing on a large scale was being done by -other towns on a small one. Strong or weak, obscure or illustrious, all had -the same ambition: all desired subjects. The Eleans had subdued the Lepreatæ, -Mantinea and the towns in her neighbourhood; Thebes had knocked -down the walls of Thespiæ in order to keep that town at her mercy; and -Argos had transferred within her own walls the inhabitants of several townships -of Argos, though in doing so she granted them civil rights. Sparta<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_587" id="Page_587">[587]</a></span> -watched with annoyance this movement for the concentration of lesser cities -round more powerful ones. She proclaimed the independence of the Lepreatæ, -and secretly encouraged the defection of the subjects of Mantinea -and the hatred of Epidaurus against Argos. But since Sphacteria she had -lost her prestige. At Corinth, at Megara, in Bœotia, it was openly said -that she had basely sacrificed the interests of her allies; indignation was -especially felt at her alliance with Athens. The Peloponnesian league -was in fact dissolved; one people dreamed of reconstituting it for their -own advantage.</p> - -<p>The repose and prosperity of Argos in the midst of the general conflict -had increased her resources and her liberal policy towards the towns of the -district had augmented her strength. But the new-comers were a powerful -reinforcement to the democratic party whose influence impelled Argos on a -line of policy opposed to that of the Spartans. This town therefore might -and wished to become the centre of an anti-Lacedæmonian league. Mantinea, -where the democracy predominated; the Eleans, who had been offended -by Lacedæmon; Corinth, which, by the treaty of Nicias, lost two important -towns in Acarnania, were ready to join their grudges and their forces. The -Argives skilfully seized the opportunity; twelve deputies were sent to all -the Greek cities which desired to form a confederation from which the two -cities which were equally menacing to the common liberty, namely Sparta -and Athens, should be excluded. But an agreement could not be arrived -at. A league of the northern states was thus rendered abortive; nothing -could yet be done without Sparta or Athens.</p> - -<p>Between these two towns there were many grounds for discontent. The -lot had decided that Sparta should be the first to make the restitutions -agreed on at the treaty of 421. For Athens the most valuable of these restitutions -was that of Amphipolis and the towns of Chalcidice. Sparta withdrew -her garrisons but did not restore the towns; and yet Nicias, deceived -by the ephors, led the people to commit the mistake of not keeping the -pledges which they had in their possession until Lacedæmon should have put -an end to her bad faith. Sparta had negotiated for all her allies; and the -most powerful were refusing to observe her engagements. The Bœotians -restored Panactum, but kept the Athenian prisoners and only agreed to a -truce of ten days. Athens, which had thought to win peace, was, ten days -later, again at war with the Bœotians and uninterruptedly with Chalcidice. -As regards the latter she had just given a terrible example of her anger. -The whole male population of Scione had been put to death as a punishment -for its recent revolt, in virtue of a decree of the people which the generals -had carried with them.</p> - -<p>All this furnished material which Alcibiades might work up into a war. -First, he prevented the Athenians from evacuating Pylos. The helots and -Messenians were simply withdrawn thence at the instance of Lacedæmon -and were transported to Cephallenia. Then, warned by his friends at Argos -that Sparta was seeking to draw that city into her alliance, he answered that -Athens herself was quite ready to join the Argives. Athens at once concluded -an offensive and defensive alliance with the Argives, the Mantineans -and the Eleans. In the ardour of hatred against Sparta it was agreed that -the alliance should last a hundred years; a long period for such spirits (420). -We here remark a new and important point; it is that the alliance was -concluded on a perfect footing of equality. The command of the allied -troops was to belong to the people which should demand aid and on whose -territory war should be made.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_588" id="Page_588">[588]</a></span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">[420-418 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The neutrality of the Argolid and of the centre of the Peloponnesus had -hitherto preserved Lacedæmon from a continental invasion. War, after having -long hovered on the outskirts of the peninsula, had not ventured, within -the last few years, to do more than lay hold of certain points on the coasts to -the west, south, and east, which were quite remote from Sparta, at Pylos, -Cythera, and Methone. But now the Argives, the Mantineans and the -Eleans were about to introduce it into the heart of the Peloponnesus, to -bring it in the very face of the helots. Sparta became once more the patient, -deliberate city of former days, even to the point of submitting to outrageous -insults. On account of the despatch of the helots to Lepreum during the -sacred truce, the Eleans had condemned the Lacedæmonians to a fine of two -thousand minæ, and on their refusal to pay had excluded them by decree from -the Olympic games. A Spartan of distinction, named Lichas, had however -a chariot competing in the same race in which Alcibiades had displayed so -much magnificence and obtained wreaths. When the judges learnt his name -they had him ignominiously driven away with blows. Sparta did not avenge -this outrage; she had ceased to believe in herself. At last Alcibiades passed -over into the Peloponnesus with a few troops.</p> - -<p>At Argos he persuaded the people to seize a port on the Saronic Gulf -from the Epidaurians; from thence the Argives might the more easily receive -succours from Athens which was in possession of Ægina opposite -Epidaurus. But the Lacedæmonians sent this town three hundred hoplites -who arrived by sea and repelled all attacks. At this news the Athenians -wrote at the base of the column on which the treaty had been engraved, that -Sparta had violated the peace, and the war began (419).</p> - -<p>It was in vain that Aristophanes produced about this time his comedy -entitled the <i>Peace</i>, resuming the theme he had taken up seven years -before in the <i>Acharnians</i>. It was to no purpose that he personified War -as a giant who crushes the towns in a mortar, using the generals for his -pestles, and showed that with the return of Peace, drawn at last from the -cavern in which she has been captive for thirteen years, banquets and feasts -will recommence, the whole town will be given up to joy, and the armourers -only will be in despair; he persuaded no one, not even the judges of the -competition, who refused him the first prize.</p> - -<p>The Lacedæmonians, under the command of Agis, entered the Argolid -with the contingents of Bœotia, Megara, Corinth, Phlius, Pellene, and -Tegea. The Argive general, cut off from the town by a clever manœuvre, -proposed a truce which Agis accepted. This was not what was desired by -the Athenians, who arrived shortly after, to the number of a thousand -hoplites and three hundred horsemen; Alcibiades spoke in presence of the -people of Argos and prevailed with them: the truce was broken, a march -was made on Orchomenos and it was taken. The blame of the rupture fell -on Agis. The Spartans, angry at his having given their enemies time to -make this conquest, wished first to demolish his house and condemn him -to a fine of a hundred thousand drachmæ; his prayers won his pardon; but -it was determined that in future the kings of Sparta should be assisted in -the war by a council of ten Spartans.</p> - -<p>To repair his mistake, Agis went in search of the allies; he encountered -them near Mantinea. “The two armies,” says Thucydides, “advanced -against each other; the Argives with impetuosity, the Lacedæmonians -slowly and, according to their custom, to the sound of a great number of -pipes which beat time and kept them in line.” The Lacedæmonian left was -driven in, but the right, commanded by the king, retrieved the fight and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_589" id="Page_589">[589]</a></span> -carried the day (418). This battle, which cost the allies eleven hundred -men and the Spartans about three hundred, is regarded by Thucydides as -the most important which the Greeks had fought for a long time. It -restored the reputation of Sparta in the Peloponnesus, and in Argos the -preponderance of the wealthy who suppressed the popular commune, put its -leaders to death and made an alliance with Lacedæmon.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[418-416 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>This treaty broke up the confederation recently agreed on with Athens, -Elis, and Mantinea. The last-named town even thought itself sufficiently -endangered by the defection of Argos to consent to descend once more to -the rank of an ally of the Spartans. A treaty, dictated by the latter, decreed -that all the states, great and small, should be free and should keep their -national laws with their independence. Sparta desired nothing but divisions -and weakness round her. To the policy of concentration advocated by -Athens, she opposed the policy of isolation which was to put all Greece at -her feet, but would also afterwards place her, with Sparta herself, at the feet -of Macedonia and of the Romans (417).</p> - -<p>The victory of Agis was that of the oligarchy. At Sicyon, in Achaia, it -again raised its head or established itself more firmly. We have just seen -how it resumed power in Argos. But in that town, if we are to believe -Pausanias, a crime analogous to those which founded the liberties of the -people in Rome brought about the fall of the tyrants three months later. -Expelled by an insurrection, the chief citizens retired to Sparta, whilst the -people appealed to the Athenians, and men, women, and children laboured -to join Argos with the sea by means of long walls. Alcibiades hurried -thither with masons and carpenters to aid in the work; but the Lacedæmonians, -under the guidance of the exiles, dispersed the workers. Argos, -exhausted by these cruel discords, did not recover herself; and with her fell -that idea of a league of secondary states which might perhaps have spared -Greece many misfortunes by imposing peace and a certain caution on the -two great states (417).</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[416 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The Athenians, who were acting weakly in Chalcidice, had recently lost -two towns there and had seen the king of Macedon withdraw from their -alliance; they resolved to avenge themselves for all their embarrassments -on the Dorian island of Melos, which was insulting their maritime empire by -its independence. At Naxos and Samos they had shown themselves merciful, -because they were amongst the Ionians where they could reckon on a democratic -party; at Melos, an outpost of the Dorians in the Cretan Sea, they -were implacable because the blow struck at these islanders, faithful to their -metropolis, was to find a mournful echo in Lacedæmon. A squadron of -thirty-eight galleys summoned the town to submit, and on its refusal an -army besieged it, took it, and exterminated all the adult male population. -The women and children were sold (416). Before the attack a conference -had taken place with the Melians.</p> - -<p>“In order to obtain the best possible result for our negotiations,” said -the Athenians, “let us start from a principle with which both sides shall be -really satisfied, a principle which we know well and would employ with -people who are as well acquainted with it as we are: it is that business -between men is regulated by the laws of justice when an equal necessity -obliges them to submit to it; but that those who have the advantage in -strength do all that is in their power and that it is the part of the weak to -yield,” and further: “nor do we fear that the divine protection will forsake -us. In our principles and in our actions we neither depart from the idea -which men have conceived of the Divinity nor from the line of conduct<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_590" id="Page_590">[590]</a></span> -which they preserve amongst themselves. We believe, according to the -received opinion, that the gods, and we know very well that men, by a -necessity of nature, dominate wherever they have force. This is not a law -that we have made; it is not we who have first applied it; we profit by it -and shall transmit it to times to come; you yourselves, with the power -which we enjoy, would follow the same course.”</p> - -<p>The theory of force has rarely been so distinctly expressed. The -reputation of the Athenians has suffered by it, without their having derived -the slightest profit from this evil deed. But let us observe, even while we -think with horror of the sanguinary act performed at Melos, that the practice, -if not the theory of this right of the strongest is a very old one; it is -the principle on which the whole of antiquity is based; it is nothing but the -famous law, <i>salus populi suprema lex</i>, so many times evoked to justify odious -enterprises or iniquitous cruelties; and it must be acknowledged with sadness -that in all times and in almost all places men have thought with -Euripides, “that wisdom and glory are: to hold a victorious hand over the -head of one’s enemies.” Force is as old as the world, it is right which -emerges slowly: can we believe that its reign will not come?</p> - -<p>The Dorian colonists of Melos had counted on the support of Sparta. -“She will abandon you,” the Athenians had answered; and the prudent city -which, for its part regarded all things from the point of view of utility, had -sent neither ship nor soldier. This inertia inflated the hopes of Athens: -she believed that the moment had come for annexing to her empire the great -island of the West where internal divisions had roused in several cities the -desire for foreign protection.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_34b" id="enanchor_34b"></a><a href="#endnote_34b">b</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-34.jpg" width="300" height="300" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">From a Greek Vase</span></p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_591" id="Page_591">[591]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-35.jpg" width="500" height="210" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XXXV_THE_SICILIAN_EXPEDITION">CHAPTER XXXV. THE SICILIAN EXPEDITION</h3> - -<p>The largest island in the Mediterranean, Sicily has been a stepping-stone -between African, Asiatic, and European nations. Freeman<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_35e" id="enanchor_35e"></a><a href="#endnote_35e">e</a></span> has compared -it with Great Britain in its “geographical and historical position.” -Its original inhabitants seem to have been the Sicans who were invaded -first by the Elymians and then by the Sicels. Relations with Sicily were -begun as early as the Mycenæan age, and jars of Ægean ware have been -unearthed in the tombs of Syracuse. The Phœnicians established factories -and trading places in Sicily, and then came the Greeks overflowing the -island and founding many a city and stronghold. As we have seen in a -previous chapter, Sicily became one of the earliest and most important of the -Greek colonies.</p> - -<h4>SICILIAN HISTORY</h4> - -<p>The African city of Carthage, which we think of chiefly along with -Roman history, early took up the grievances of the Phœnicians against the -Greeks. In the sixth century <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, various settlements had fallen by the -ears with one another. About 580 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> the Greek adventurer Pentathlus -threatened the Phœnician settlements, but was defeated and slain. Carthage, -however, was awakened to the danger from Greek land-hunger, and -about 560 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> sent an expedition under Malchus, who gave a severe check -to Greek encroachment and an encouragement to Carthaginian ambition. -Finally, by 480 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, the Carthaginians were ready to combine with the -Persians against Greek prosperity and independence. While Xerxes assailed -the mother-country, Carthage by agreement sent an enormous expedition -against the Sicilian Greeks. Their general was Hamilcar, and the magnificence -of his host has been as splendidly exaggerated as that of Xerxes. -His success was equal to that of the Persian, except that Xerxes escaped -alive, while Hamilcar perished.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[481-447 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The chief instruments of the Sicilian victory were the tyrants who had -gathered to themselves supreme power in their own cities or groups of -cities as the tyrants of the mother-country had previously done. In Sicily -there were four powerful masters of four chief cities: Anaxilaus of Rhegium -in Italy, who crossing the straits, took possession of Zancle; his father-in-law -Terillus of Himera; Gelo of Syracuse and his father-in-law, Theron of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_592" id="Page_592">[592]</a></span> -Acragas. It was a quarrel between Theron and Terillus that gave the -Carthaginians their immediate excuse for invading Sicily. Terillus being -thwarted by Theron played a treacherous part like that of Hippias, and -begged the Persians to attack Acragas. Terillus called in Carthage to his -aid against Theron. There is a tradition that the defeat of the Carthaginians -happened on the same day as the battle of Salamis. Such traditions -are always subject to scepticism, and yet the coincidence of Vicksburg and -Gettysburg in American history is hardly more incredible.</p> - -<p>Theron had called on Gelo to aid him in expelling the Carthaginians, -and Gelo had won the greater glory. He died two years later leaving his -younger brother Hiero to succeed him. It was Hiero’s privilege to thwart -the ambition of the Etruscans as his elder brother had foiled Carthage. The -naval battle of Cyme was the brilliant victory which led Pindar to write -one of his loftiest songs. He and Simonides, Æschylus, and Bacchylides, -were all received with honour at the opulent court of Hiero. The glitter -of court life, however, was small compensation for the tyranny of the various -despots of Sicily. Their ambitions clashed at the least pretext, always at -the cost of the blood of their subjects. They had a curious way of deporting -the inhabitants of an entire city to some other place to suit their own -whims. And gradually time took its revenge upon them. Theron left as -his heir a weak son, Thrasydæus who went to battle with Hiero, and, losing -the battle, lost also his prestige and his power, for the cities Himera and -Acragas formed themselves into democracies. Five years later, in 467 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, -Hiero died, and his tyranny fell to his brother Thrasybulus whose blood-thirsty -and tax-hungry cruelties aroused a revolution. He was besieged in -Syracuse, compelled to surrender and sent into exile.</p> - -<p>Life in Sicily is not to this day so quiet as in certain other portions -of the globe, and it was inevitable in the change from despotism to -democracy that there should be much friction and bloodshed, but the cities -lost none of the prosperity they had acquired under the tyrants. Syracuse -continued to be the principal city and power in the island; Agrigentum, as -the Romans named Acragas, being the second in power.</p> - -<p>Now a new source of danger appeared, this time not from a foreign -invasion, or from the ambition of such pretenders as had tried to re-establish -the power of Gelo. The new threat came from a racial jealousy. The -old inhabitants, the Sicels, who had been crowded into the interior, gave -birth to a Napoleonic ambition. A young man named Ducetius who first -appeared in 461, having fed upon certain small successes in acquiring power, -showed his ingenuity in 453 by forming a federation of Sicel towns with -himself as prince. He seized an early opportunity to assail the Greeks, and -justified the fidelity of the Sicels by capturing the towns of Morgantium, -Ætna, and the Acragantine stronghold of Motya, building a new city—Palice. -He now became important enough to merit the anger of Syracuse, and -a large force from Syracuse and Agrigentum marched against him. The toy -Napoleon met his little Waterloo. His partisans deserted him and he found -himself alone. A desperate resolve occurred to him as the only means of -saving his life. He rode by night to the gates of Syracuse, entered the city -secretly, and sat himself down before the altar in the market place. He -was soon surrounded by a crowd who had too keen a sense of the dramatic -not to forgive him and let him off with the easy exile to Corinth. From -this Elba this Napoleon soon emerged. He violated his parole laying the -blame on an oracle, and took a body of colonists to Sicily where he founded -the city of Calacta (or Kale Akte). He began gradually to reach out for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_593" id="Page_593">[593]</a></span> -more power, but his death in 440 ended his schemes and left his federation -as a prize for Syracuse.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[440-431 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>While Syracuse was beginning to plume itself upon its leadership and to -dream of more definite control, the city of Athens was building an empire, -not over one island but many. It was only natural that she should wish to -stand well with the rich cities of Sicily. At first there could hardly have -been any thought of conquest, and Grote<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_35f" id="enanchor_35f"></a><a href="#endnote_35f">f</a></span> points out that Plutarch is mistaken -and is contradicted by Thucydides, when he implies that even as late -as the quarrel between Corinth and Corcyra, the Athenians had thought of -dominion over Sicily. Professor Bury<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_35d" id="enanchor_35d"></a><a href="#endnote_35d">d</a></span> however sees a distinct desire to have -influence, if not conquest, from a very early day. He says:</p> - -<p>“During the fifth century the eyes of Athenian statesmen often wandered -to western Greece beyond the seas. We can surprise some oblique glances, -as early as the days of Themistocles; and we have seen how under Pericles -a western policy definitely began. An alliance was formed with the Elymian -town of Segesta, and subsequently treaties of alliance (the stone records -are still partly preserved) were concluded with Leontini and Rhegium. -One general object of Athens was to support the Ionian cities against the -Dorian, which were predominant in number and power, and especially against -Syracuse, the daughter and friend of Corinth. The same purpose of counter-acting -the Dorian predominance may be detected in the foundation of Thurii. -But Thurii did not effect this purpose. The colonists were a mixed body; -other than Athenian elements gained the upper hand; and, in the end, -Thurii became rather a Dorian centre and was no support to Athens. It -is to be observed that at the time of the foundation of Thurii, and for nigh -thirty years more, Athens is seeking merely influence in the west, she has no -thought of dominion. The growth of her connection with Italian and Sicilian -affairs was forced upon her by the conditions of commerce and the rivalry -of Corinth.” Adolph Holm<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_35b" id="enanchor_35b"></a><a href="#endnote_35b">b</a></span> is equally positive in accusing the Athenians of -an early desire to obtain a footing in Sicily.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[431-425 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The outbreak of the Peloponnesian War in 431 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> found Sicily in a high -state of prosperity, political equality, and intellectual health. According as -the various cities had been founded by Dorian or Ionian colonists their family -prejudices inclined them towards Sparta or Athens. The war in fact, according -to Müller,<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_35h" id="enanchor_35h"></a><a href="#endnote_35h">h</a></span> was called by the oracles, the Doric War. The preponderance -in Sicily was largely toward Sparta and Corinth, for Corinth had been the -mother-city to Syracuse. Grote<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_35f2" id="enanchor_35f2"></a><a href="#endnote_35f">f</a></span> thus discusses the feelings of the various -cities at this time:</p> - -<p>“In that struggle the Italian and Sicilian Greeks had no direct concern, -nor anything to fear from the ambition of Athens; who, though she had -founded Thurii in 443 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, appears never to have aimed at any political -ascendency even over that town—much less anywhere else on the coast. -But the Sicilian Greeks, though forming a system apart in their own island, -from which it suited the dominant policy of Syracuse to exclude all foreign -interference, were yet connected by sympathy, and one side even by alliances, -with the two main streams of Hellenic politics. Among the allies of Sparta -were numbered all or most of the Dorian cities of Sicily—Syracuse, Camarina, -Gela, Agrigentum, Selinus, perhaps Himera and Messana—together -with Locri and Tarentum in Italy; among the allies of Athens, perhaps, the -Chalcidic or Ionic Rhegium in Italy. Whether the Ionic cities in Sicily—Naxos, -Catana, and Leontini—were at this time united with Athens by any -special treaty, is very doubtful. But if we examine the state of politics prior -to the breaking out of the war, it will be found that the connection of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_594" id="Page_594">[594]</a></span> -Sicilian cities on both sides with central Greece was rather one of sympathy -and tendency, than of pronounced obligation and action. The Dorian Sicilians, -though sharing the antipathy of the Peloponnesian Dorians to Athens, -had never been called upon for any co-operation with Sparta; nor had the -Ionic Sicilians yet learned to look to Athens for protection against Syracuse.”</p> - -<p>Sparta counted apparently upon the active assistance of Syracuse, and -demanded that the Dorians in Italy and Sicily should contribute to her both -ships and money. She realised no ships, a little money, and profuse expressions -of interest and sympathy. The awakening of the old Dorio-Ionic -blood feud suggested to the Syracusans, however, that while the Peloponnesian -War was remote from them both geographically and commercially, it -yet furnished a good excuse for attacking such cities in Sicily as were in any -way attached to Athens. Naxos, Catana, and Leontini were looked upon as -the first prizes to be seized. These towns were so far from being able to -send aid to Athens that they were compelled to ask aid of her. They succeeded -in forming an alliance with Camarina, which was a Dorian city but -jealous of Syracuse, and with the town of Rhegium in Italy. The friendship -of Rhegium brought over to Syracuse the Italian city of Locri. With -the aid of Locri and practically all the Dorian cities, Syracuse was so strong -that the Ionic allies were soon in desperate straits. They sent their eloquent -orator Gorgias to implore the Athenians for aid and to advise them to grant -it, lest when Syracuse had conquered all Sicily she should send her troops -and ships to the aid of the Spartans and Corinthians. The Athenians sent -twenty triremes under Laches, who after various minor successes fell under -suspicion as to his honesty and efficiency, and was called home.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[425-416 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The Ionians sent another appeal to Athens, and received the promise of -forty more triremes. In the spring of 425 this fleet left Athens under command -of Eurymedon and Sophocles. It was this fleet which, almost accidentally, -paused on the Spartan coast at Pylos with the result that it gained -for Athens the renowned victory of Sphacteria, as previously described. -This victory was very profitable to Athens in its immediate glory, but was -of very gloomy purport in the Sicilian matter, for the fleet having delayed -to take part in the victory, and later pausing at Corcyra, did not reach Sicily -before September. This delay had given the Syracusan allies time to undo -what little had been achieved by Laches. He had won the friendship of the -town of Messana, thus giving Athens command of the straits. The delay -however had weakened the friendship of Messana, and lost its alliance. -Furthermore, the cities which Athens had come to aid were found to be in a -decided humour to put an end to the civil war. A congress of Sicilian cities -was called at Gela.</p> - -<p>This congress at Gela takes on a decided importance in political history -because of the theories brought forward there by a Syracusan orator, Hermocrates, -whose political creed has been compared to the Monroe Doctrine of -the United States. The creed was not successfully carried out, and as has -often happened in the history of the United States, the promulgators of the -doctrine were by no means consistent in their actions. Hermocrates pleaded -for a policy, which in modern phrase would be called “Sicily for the Sicilians.” -He wished Sicily to regard herself as an entity, considering all -foreigners to be outsiders, and all interference to be meddling. He was not -rash enough or un-Grecian enough to deny the Sicilian cities the luxury of -fighting with one another; but he called for unity against the invader or the -intriguer from other shores. From his speech, as imagined by Thucydides,<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_35i" id="enanchor_35i"></a><a href="#endnote_35i">i</a></span> -the peroration is worth quoting for its cool common sense:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_595" id="Page_595">[595]</a></span></p> - -<p>“And I call on you all, of your own free will, to act in the same manner -as myself, and not to be compelled to do it by your enemies. For there is -no disgrace in connections giving way to connections, whether a Dorian to a -Dorian, or a Chalcidian to those of the same race; in a word, all of us who -are neighbours, and live together in one country, and that an island, and are -called by the one name of Sicilians. For we shall go to war again, I suppose, -when it may so happen, and come to terms again amongst ourselves by means -of general conferences; but to foreign invaders we shall always, if we are -wise, offer united resistance, inasmuch as by our separate losses we are collectively -endangered; and we shall never in future call in any allies or -mediators. For by acting thus we shall at the present time avoid depriving -Sicily of two blessings—riddance both of the Athenians and of civil war—and -shall in future enjoy it by ourselves in freedom, and less exposed to the -machinations of others.”</p> - -<p>The Athenian expedition having been coldly received by the cities it -came to rescue, returned to Athens, where Eurymedon was fined and Sophocles -banished on a charge of bribery. And now the reservation made by -Hermocrates as to the right of the Sicilian cities to war upon one another, -was soon justified. And to such an extent that the Ionic cities began to -realise that the Syracusans had been chiefly anxious to expel the foreign -invader, in order that the island might be left entirely to Syracusan ambition. -In the city of Leontini the aristocrats crushed the democrats, and -turned the city into a Syracusan fort after destroying the greater portion of -it. The common people appealed to Athens, and received in reply two triremes -under Phæax in <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> 422. Before he had accomplished anything the -Peace of Nicias put a temporary close to the war.</p> - -<p>In 417 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> the two Sicilian cities of Selinus and Segesta (or Egesta) -quarrelled over a bit of territory. Syracuse aided Selinus, and Segesta, after -appealing in vain to Agrigentum and to Carthage, sent envoys to Athens. -The Leontine people also reminded Athens that Syracuse, having destroyed -Leontini and assailed Segesta, was planning and accomplishing the gradual -reduction of all Sicilian cities favourable to Athens, and thus building up an -empire which would give Sparta unlimited aid. The people of Segesta asked -only for men and ships, and promised to provide ample money for expenses.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[416-415 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The idea of such an armada delighted the fire-brand Alcibiades, who saw -in it a chance to be a leader and to find an abundance of the things he most -desired—adventure, notoriety, and money. The cautious Nicias opposed -the scheme, and secured a delay until ambassadors could be sent to Segesta -to learn if the city were really wealthy enough to pay as it promised. And -now it was a case of Greek meeting Sicilian. The people of Segesta had sent -secret expeditions to all their friendly towns, Phœnician or Grecian, to -borrow all the treasure they could wheedle out of their prospective allies. -When the Athenian envoys appeared, they were taken to the temple of -Venus and shown a great array of gifts, “bowls, wine ladles, censers, and -other articles of furniture in no small quantity.” These were all silver or of -silver gilt, and made a far greater showing than they merited. Then the -Athenians were put through a round of entertainments. In each case the -host displayed all his own plate, and in addition a large portion of the common -fund, which was passed from house to house surreptitiously. The gullible -Athenians were overwhelmed by the evident opulence of the private -citizens of Segesta, and when sixty talents of uncoined silver (valued at -over £12,000 or $60,000) were handed over to the Athenians for the first -month’s expenses of the fleet, the embassy was thoroughly duped, and returned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_596" id="Page_596">[596]</a></span> -to Athens glowing with enthusiasm for an alliance with such a western Golconda. -Then followed a tug of war between Nicias and Alcibiades. Nicias -was to be one of the commanders of the expedition, and he could well claim -that it was no fear of bodily danger that made him averse to it. He opposed -it purely as a piece of folly. Alcibiades replied in favour of the expedition, -and it was so evident that the people were determined to send the fleet that -Nicias in a last effort tried to alarm the city by magnifying the difficulties -of the task and demanding a tremendous force. To the Athenians, in their -drunkenness for empire, and in that frenzy of “Westward Ho!” which, in -the fifteenth century, attacked all Europe, the opposition of Nicias was only -wind on flame. They rejoiced the more at the magnificence of the problem.</p> - -<p>To decide upon sending a fleet of one hundred triremes instead of the -sixty asked for, was folly enough; but to elect Nicias as the commander of -the expedition, and to ally with him his bitter opponent, Alcibiades, was -pure delirium. Still, Athens had just conquered Melos, and no task was too -gigantic for her hopes.<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> -<img src="images/p596.jpg" width="450" height="137" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Door Keys</span></p> -</div> - -<h4>THE MUTILATION OF THE HERMÆ</h4> - -<p>For the two or three months immediately succeeding the final resolution -taken by the Athenians to invade Sicily, the whole city was elate and bustling -with preparation. The prophets, circulators of oracles, and other accredited -religious advisers, announced generally the favourable dispositions -of the gods, and promised a triumphant result. All classes in the city, rich -and poor,—cultivators, traders, and seamen,—old and young, all embraced -the project with ardour; as requiring a great effort, yet promising unparalleled -results, both of public aggrandisement and individual gain. Each man -was anxious to put down his own name for personal service; so that the three -generals, Nicias, Alcibiades, and Lamachus, when they proceeded to make -their selection of hoplites, instead of being forced to employ constraint or -incur ill-will, as happened when an expedition was adopted reluctantly with -many dissentients, had only to choose the fittest among a throng of eager -volunteers.</p> - -<p>Such efforts were much facilitated by the fact that five years had now -elapsed since the Peace of Nicias, without any considerable warlike operations. -While the treasury had become replenished with fresh accumulations, -and the triremes increased in number, the military population, reinforced by -additional numbers of youth, had forgotten both the hardships of the war -and the pressure of epidemic disease. Hence the fleet now got together, -while it surpassed in number all previous armaments of Athens, except a -single one in the second year of the previous war under Pericles, was incomparably -superior even to that, and still more superior to all the rest in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_597" id="Page_597">[597]</a></span> -the other ingredients of force, material as well as moral, in picked men, -universal ardour, ships as well as arms in the best condition, and accessories -of every kind in abundance. Such was the confidence of success, that many -Athenians went prepared for trade as well as for combat; so that the private -stock, thus added to the public outfit and to the sums placed in the hands of -the generals, constituted an unparalleled aggregate of wealth. After between -two and three months of active preparations, the expedition was -almost ready to start, when an event happened which fatally poisoned the -prevalent cheerfulness of the city. This was the mutilation of the Hermæ, -one of the most extraordinary events in all Grecian history.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[415 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The Hermæ, or half-statues of the god Hermes, were blocks of marble -about the height of the human figure. The upper part was cut into a head, -face, neck, and bust; the lower part was left as a quadrangular pillar, broad -at the base, without arms, body, or legs, but with the significant mark of the -male sex in front. They were distributed in great numbers throughout -Athens, and always in the most conspicuous situations. The religious feeling -of the Greeks considered the god to be planted or domiciliated where his -statue stood, so that the companionship, sympathy, and guardianship of -Hermes became associated with most of the manifestations of conjunct life -at Athens, political, social, commercial, or gymnastic.</p> - -<p>About the end of May 415 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, in the course of one and the same night, -all these Hermæ, one of the most peculiar marks of the city, were mutilated -by unknown hands. Their characteristic features were knocked off or levelled, -so that nothing was left except a mass of stone with no resemblance to humanity -or deity. All were thus dealt with in the same way, save and except -very few: nay, Andocides affirms that there was but one which escaped -unharmed. If we take that reasonable pains, which is incumbent on those who -study the history of Greece, to realize in our minds the religious and political -associations of the Athenians,—noted in ancient times for their superior piety, -as well as for their accuracy and magnificence about the visible monuments -embodying that feeling,—we shall in part comprehend the intensity of -mingled dismay, terror, and wrath, which beset the public mind, on the -morning after this nocturnal sacrilege, alike unforeseen and unparalleled. -Amidst all the ruin and impoverishment which had been inflicted by the Persian -invasion of Attica, there was nothing which was so profoundly felt or so -long remembered as the deliberate burning of the statues and temples of the -gods. If we could imagine the excitement of a Spanish or Italian town, on -finding that all the images of the Virgin had been defaced during the same -night, we should have a parallel, though a very inadequate parallel, to what -was now felt at Athens—where religious associations and persons were far -more intimately allied with all civil acts and with all the proceedings of every-day -life—where, too, the god and his efficiency were more forcibly localised, -as well as identified with the presence and keeping of the statue. To the -Athenians, when they went forth on the following morning, each man seeing -the divine guardian at his doorway dishonoured and defaced, and each man -gradually coming to know that the devastation was general,—it would seem -that the town had become as it were godless—that the streets, the market-place, -the porticoes, were robbed of their divine protectors; and what was -worse still, that these protectors, having been grossly insulted, carried away -with them alienated sentiments—wrathful and vindictive instead of tutelary -and sympathising.</p> - -<p>Such was the mysterious incident which broke in upon the eager and -bustling movement of Athens a few days before the Sicilian expedition was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_598" id="Page_598">[598]</a></span> -in condition for starting. In reference to that expedition, it was taken to -heart as a most depressing omen. The mutilation of the Hermæ, however, -was something much more ominous than the worst accident. It proclaimed -itself as the deliberate act of organised conspirators, not inconsiderable in -number, whose names and final purpose were indeed unknown, but who had -begun by committing sacrilege of a character flagrant and unheard of. For -intentional mutilation of a public and sacred statue, where the material -afforded no temptation to plunder, is a case to which we know no parallel: -much more, mutilation by wholesale—spread by one band and in one night -throughout the entire city. Though neither the parties concerned, nor their -purposes, were ever more than partially made out, the concert and conspiracy -itself is unquestionable.</p> - -<p>It seems probable, as far as we can form an opinion, that the conspirators -had two objects, perhaps some of them one and some the other—to ruin -Alcibiades—to frustrate or delay the expedition. Indeed the two objects -were intimately connected with each other; for the prosecution of the enterprise, -while full of prospective conquest to Athens, was yet more pregnant -with future power and wealth to Alcibiades himself. Such chances would -disappear if the expedition could be prevented; nor was it at all impossible -that the Athenians, under the intense impression of religious terror consequent -on the mutilation of the Hermæ, might throw up the scheme altogether.</p> - -<p>Few men in Athens either had, or deserved to have, a greater number of -enemies, political as well as private, than Alcibiades; many of them being -among the highest citizens, whom he offended by his insolence, and whose -liturgies and other customary exhibitions he outshone by his reckless expenditure. -His importance had been already so much increased and threatened -to be so much more increased by the Sicilian enterprise, that they no -longer observed any measures in compassing his ruin. That which the -mutilators of the Hermæ seemed to have deliberately planned, his other -enemies were ready to turn to profit.</p> - -<p>While the senate of Five Hundred were invested with full powers of -action, Diognetus, Pisander, Charicles, and others, were named commissioners -for receiving and prosecuting inquiries: and public assemblies were held -nearly every day to receive reports. The first informations received, however, -did not relate to the grave and recent mutilation of the Hermæ, but to -analogous incidents of older date; to certain defacements of other statues, -accomplished in drunken frolic—and above all, to ludicrous ceremonies -celebrated in various houses, by parties of revellers caricaturing and divulging -the Eleusinian mysteries. It was under this latter head that the first -impeachment was preferred against Alcibiades.</p> - -<p>But Alcibiades saw full well the danger of having such charges hanging -over his head, and the peculiar advantage which he derived from his accidental -position at the moment. He implored the people to investigate the -charges at once; proclaiming his anxiety to stand trial and even to suffer -death, if found guilty,—accepting the command only in case he should be -acquitted,—and insisting above all things on the mischief to the city of -sending him on such an expedition with the charge undecided, as well as on -the hardship to himself of being aspersed by calumny during his absence, -without power of defence. Such appeals, just and reasonable in themselves, -and urged with all the vehemence of a man who felt that the question was -one of life or death to his future prospects, were very near prevailing. His -enemies could only defeat them by the trick of putting up fresh speakers, -less notorious for hostility to Alcibiades. These men affected a tone of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_599" id="Page_599">[599]</a></span> -candour, deprecated the delay which would be occasioned in the departure -of the expedition, if he were put upon his trial forthwith; and proposed -deferring the trial until a certain number of days after his return. Such -was the determination ultimately adopted: the supporters of Alcibiades -probably not fully appreciating its consequences, and conceiving that the -speedy departure of the expedition was advisable even for his interest, as -well as agreeable to their own feelings. And thus his enemies, though -baffled in their first attempt to bring on his immediate ruin, carried a postponement -which insured to them leisure for thoroughly poisoning the public -mind against him, and choosing their own time for his trial. They took -care to keep back all farther accusation until he and the armament had -departed.</p> - -<h4>THE FLEET SAILS</h4> - -<p>The spectacle of its departure was indeed so imposing, and the moment -so full of anxious interest, that it banished even the recollection of the recent -sacrilege. The entire armament was not mustered at Athens; for it had -been judged expedient to order most of the allied contingents to rendezvous -at once at Corcyra. But the Athenian force alone was astounding to behold. -The condition, the equipment, the pomp both of wealth and force, visible -in the armament, were still more impressive than the number. At day-break -on the day appointed, when all the ships were ready in Piræus for -departure, the military force was marched down in a body from the city -and embarked. They were accompanied by nearly the whole population, -metics and foreigners as well as citizens, so that the appearance was that of -a collective emigration like the flight to Salamis sixty-five years before. -While the crowd of foreigners, brought thither by curiosity, were amazed -by the grandeur of the spectacle—the citizens accompanying were moved -by deeper and more stirring anxieties. Their sons, brothers, relatives, and -friends, were just starting on the longest and largest enterprise which Athens -had ever undertaken; against an island extensive as well as powerful, known -to none to them accurately, and into a sea of undefined possibilities—glory -and profit on the one side, but hazards of unassignable magnitude on -the other. At this final parting, ideas of doubt and danger became far more -painfully present than they had been in any of the preliminary discussions; -and in spite of all the reassuring effect of the unrivalled armament before -them, the relatives now separating at the water’s edge could not banish -the dark presentiment that they were bidding each other farewell for the -last time.</p> - -<p>The moment immediately succeeding this farewell—when all the soldiers -were already on board and the <i>celeustes</i> was on the point of beginning his -chant to put the rowers in motion—was peculiarly solemn and touching. -Silence having been enjoined and obtained, by sound of trumpet, the crews -in every ship, and the spectators on shore, followed the voice of the herald -in praying to the gods for success, and in singing the pæan. On every deck -were seen bowls of wine prepared, out of which the officers and the <i>epibatæ</i> -made libations, with goblets of silver and gold. At length the final signal -was given, and the whole fleet quitted Piræus in single file—displaying -the exuberance of their yet untried force by a race of speed as far as Ægina. -Never in Grecian history was an invocation more unanimous, emphatic, and -imposing, addressed to the gods; never was the refusing nod of Zeus more -stern or peremptory.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_35f3" id="enanchor_35f3"></a><a href="#endnote_35f">f</a></span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_600" id="Page_600">[600]</a></span></p> - -<p>The customary libations were poured out; and, after the triumphant pæan -had been sung, the whole fleet set sail, and contended for the prize of naval -skill and celerity, until they reached the shores of Ægina, from whence they -enjoyed a prosperous voyage to their confederates at Corcyra.</p> - -<p>At Corcyra the commanders reviewed the strength of the armament, -which consisted of a hundred and thirty-four ships of war, with a proportional -number of transports and tenders. The heavy-armed troops, exceeding -five thousand, were attended with a sufficient body of slingers and -archers. The army, abundantly provided with every other article, was -extremely deficient in horses, which amounted to no more than thirty. But, -at a moderate computation, we may estimate the whole military and naval -strength, including slaves and servants, at twenty thousand men.<a name="FNanchor_55" id="FNanchor_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a></p> - -<p>With this powerful host, had the Athenians at once surprised and assailed -the unprepared security of Syracuse, the expedition, however adventurous -and imprudent, might, perhaps, have been crowned with success. But the -timid mariners of Greece would have trembled at the proposal of trusting -such a numerous fleet on the broad expanse of the Ionian Sea. They determined -to cross the narrowest passage between Italy and Sicily, after coasting -along the eastern shores of the former, until they reached the strait of -Messana. That this design might be executed with the greater safety, they -despatched three light vessels to examine the disposition of the Italian -cities, and to solicit admission into their harbours. Neither the ties of consanguinity, -nor the duties acknowledged by colonies towards their parent -state, could prevail on the suspicious Thurians to open their gates, or even -to furnish a market, to their Athenian ancestors. The towns of Tarentum -and Locri prohibited them the use of their harbours, and refused to supply -them with water; and they coasted the whole extent of the shore, from the -promontory of Iapygia to that of Rhegium, before any one city would allow -them to purchase the commodities for which they had immediate use. The -magistrates of Rhegium granted this favour, but they granted nothing more.</p> - -<p>A considerable detachment was sent to examine the preparations and the -strength of Syracuse, and to proclaim liberty, and offer protection, to all the -captives and strangers confined within its walls.</p> - -<p>With another detachment Alcibiades sailed to Naxos, and persuaded the -inhabitants to accept the alliance of Athens. The remainder of the armament -proceeded to Catana, which refused to admit the ships into the harbour, -or the troops into the city. But on the arrival of Alcibiades, the Catanians -allowed him to address the assembly, and propose his demands. The artful -Athenian transported the populace, and even the magistrates themselves, by -the charms of his eloquence; the citizens flocked from every quarter, to -hear a discourse which was purposely protracted for several hours; the -soldiers forsook their posts; and the enemy, who had prepared to avail -themselves of this negligence, burst through the unguarded gates, and became -masters of the city. Those of the Catanians who were most attached to -the interests of Syracuse, fortunately escaped death by the celerity of their -flight. The rest accepted the proffered friendship of the Athenians. This -success would probably have been followed by the surrender of Messana, -which Alcibiades had filled with distrust and sedition. But when the plot -was ripe for execution, the man who had contrived, and who alone could conduct -it, was disqualified from serving his country. The arrival of the -Salaminian galley recalled Alcibiades to Athens, that he might stand trial -for his life.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_601" id="Page_601">[601]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/p601.jpg" width="500" height="109" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek City Seals</span></p> -</div> - -<h4>ALCIBIADES TAKES FLIGHT</h4> - -<p>Alcibiades escaped to Thurii, and afterwards to Argos; and when he -understood that the Athenians had set a price on his head, he finally took -refuge in Sparta, where his active genius seized the first opportunity to -advise and promote those fatal measures, which, while they gratified his -private resentment, occasioned the ruin of his country.</p> - -<p>The removal of Alcibiades soon appeared in the languid operations of the -Athenian armament. The cautious timidity of Nicias, supported by wealth, -eloquence, and authority, gained an absolute ascendant over the more warlike -and enterprising character of Lamachus, whose poverty exposed him -to contempt. Instead of making a bold impression on Selinus or Syracuse, -Nicias contented himself with taking possession of the inconsiderable colony -of Hyccara. He ravaged, or laid under contribution, some places of smaller -note, and obtained thirty talents from the Segestans, which, added to the -sale of the booty, furnished about thirty thousand pounds sterling, a sum -that might be usefully employed in the prosecution of an expensive war. -But this advantage did not compensate for the courage inspired into the -Syracusans by delay, and for the dishonour sustained by the Athenian -troops, in their unsuccessful attempts against Hybla and Himera, as well -as for their dejection at being confined, during the greatest part of the summer, -in the inactive quarters of Naxos and Catana.</p> - -<p>Ancient Syracuse, of which the ruined grandeur still forms an object -of admiration, was situated on a spacious promontory, washed on three sides -by the sea, and defended on the west by abrupt and almost inaccessible mountains. -The town was built in a triangular form, whose summit may be -conceived on the lofty mountain Epipolæ. Adjacent to these natural fortifications, -the western or inland division of the city was distinguished by -the name of Tyche, or Fortune, being adorned by a magnificent temple of -that flattering divinity. The triangle gradually widening towards the base, -comprehended the vast extent of Achradina, reaching from the northern -shore of the promontory to the southern island, Ortygia. This small island, -composing the whole of modern Syracuse, formed but the third and least -extensive division of the ancient; which was fortified by walls eighteen -miles in circuit, enriched by a triple harbour, and peopled by above two -hundred thousand warlike citizens or industrious slaves.</p> - -<p>When the Syracusans heard the first rumours of the Athenian invasion, -they despised, or affected to despise them, as idle lies invented to amuse the -ignorance of the populace. The hostile armament had arrived at Rhegium -before they could be persuaded, by the wisdom of Hermocrates, to provide -against a danger which their presumption painted as imaginary. But when -they received undoubted intelligence that the enemy had reached the -Italian coast, when they beheld their numerous fleet commanding the sea -of Sicily and ready to make a descent on their defenceless island, they were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_602" id="Page_602">[602]</a></span> -seized with a degree of just terror and alarm proportional to their false -security. The dilatory operations of the enemy not only removed the recent -terror and trepidation of the Syracusans, but inspired them with unusual -firmness. They requested the generals, whom they had appointed to the -number of fifteen, to lead them to Catana, that they might attack the hostile -camp. Their cavalry harassed the Athenians by frequent incursions, beat -up their quarters, intercepted their convoys, destroyed their advanced posts, -and even proceeded so near to the main body, that they were distinctly heard -demanding, with loud insults, whether those boasted lords of Greece had -left their native country, that they might form a precarious settlement at -the foot of Mount Ætna.</p> - -<h4>NICIAS TRIES STRATEGY</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[415-414 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Provoked by these indignities, and excited by the impatient resentment -of his own troops, Nicias was still restrained from an open attempt against -Syracuse by the difficulties attending that enterprise. He employed a stratagem. -A citizen of Catana, whose subtile and daring genius, prepared alike -to die or to deceive, ought to have preserved his name from oblivion, appeared -in Syracuse as a deserter from his native city; the unhappy fate of -which, in being subjected to the imperious commands, or licentious disorder -of the Athenians, he lamented with perfidious tears, and with the plaintive -accents of well-dissembled sorrow. “The Athenians,” he said, “spurned the -confinement of the military life; their posts were forsaken, their ships unguarded, -they disdained the duties of the camp, and indulged in the pleasures -of the city. On an appointed day it would be easy for the Syracusans, -assisted by the conspirators of Catana, to attack them unprepared, to mount -their undefended ramparts, to demolish their encampment, and to burn their -fleet.” This daring proposal well corresponded with the keen sentiments -of revenge which animated the inhabitants of Syracuse. The day was -named; the plan of the enterprise was concerted, and the treacherous Catanian -returned home to revive the hopes, and to confirm the resolution, of -his pretended associates.</p> - -<p>The success of this intrigue gave the utmost satisfaction to Nicias, whose -armament prepared to sail for Syracuse on the day appointed by the inhabitants -of that city for assaulting, with their whole force, the Athenian camp. -Already had they marched, with this view, to the fertile plain of Leontini, -when, after twelve hours’ sail, the Athenian fleet arrived in the great harbour, -disembarked their troops, and fortified a camp without the western -wall, near to a celebrated temple of Olympian Jupiter, a situation which -had been pointed out by some Syracusan exiles, and which was well adapted -to every purpose of accommodation and defence. Meanwhile the cavalry -of Syracuse, having proceeded to the walls of Catana, had discovered, to -their infinite regret, the departure of the Athenians. The unwelcome intelligence -was conveyed, with the utmost expedition, to the infantry, who -immediately marched back to protect Syracuse. The rapid return of the -war-like youth restored the courage of the aged Syracusans. They were -joined by the forces of Gela, Selinus, and Camarina; and it was determined -to attack the hostile encampment.</p> - -<p>The attack was begun with fury, and continued with perseverance for -several hours. Both sides were animated by every principle that can inspire -and urge the utmost vigour of exertion, and victory was still doubtful, when -a tempest suddenly arose, accompanied with unusual peals of thunder. This<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_603" id="Page_603">[603]</a></span> -event, which little affected the Athenians, confounded the unexperienced -credulity of the enemy, who were broken and put to flight. The Syracusans -escaped to their city, and the Athenians returned to their camp. In such -an obstinate conflict the vanquished lost two hundred and sixty, the victors -only fifty men.</p> - -<p>The voyage, the encampment, and the battle, employed the dangerous -activity, and gratified the impetuous ardour of the Athenians, but did not -facilitate the conquest of Syracuse. Without more powerful preparations, -Nicias despaired of taking the place, either by assault, or by a regular siege. -Soon after his victory he returned with the whole armament to Naxos and -Catana. Nicias had reason to expect that his victory over the Syracusans -would procure him respect and assistance from the inferior states of Sicily. -His emissaries were diffused over that island and the neighbouring coast of -Italy. Messengers were sent to Tuscany, where Pisa and other cities had -been founded by Greek colonies. An embassy was despatched to Carthage, -the rival and enemy of Syracuse. Nicias gave orders to collect materials for -circumvallation, iron, bricks, and all necessary stores. He demanded horses -from the Segestans; and required from Athens reinforcements and a large -pecuniary supply; and neglected nothing that might enable him to open the -ensuing campaign with vigour and effect.</p> - -<p>While the Athenians thus prepared for the attack of Syracuse, the -citizens of that capital displayed equal activity in providing for their own -defence. By the advice of Hermocrates, they appointed himself, Heraclides, -and Sicanus; three, instead of fifteen generals. The commanders newly -elected, both in civil and military affairs, were invested with unlimited power, -which was usefully employed to purchase or prepare arms, daily to exercise -the troops, and to strengthen and extend the fortifications of Syracuse. -They likewise despatched ambassadors to the numerous cities and republics -with which they had been connected in peace, or allied in war, to solicit the -continuance of their friendship, and to counteract the dangerous designs of -the Athenians.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile the expected reinforcements arrived from Athens. In addition -to his original force, Nicias had likewise collected a body of six hundred -cavalry, and the sum of four hundred talents; and, in the eighteenth summer -of the war, the activity of the troops and workmen had completed all necessary -preparations for undertaking the siege of Syracuse.</p> - -<p>The plan which Nicias adopted for conquering the city, was to draw a -wall on either side. When these circumvallations had surrounded the place -by land, he expected, by his numerous fleet, to block up the wide extent of -the Syracusan harbours. The whole strength of the Athenian armament -was employed in the former operations; and as all necessary materials had -been provided with due attention, the works rose with a rapidity which -surprised and terrified the besieged. Their former as well as their recent -defeats deterred them from opposing the enemy in a general engagement; -but the advice of Hermocrates persuaded them to raise walls which might -traverse and interrupt those of the Athenians. The imminent danger urged -the activity of the workmen; the hostile bulwarks approached each other; -frequent skirmishes took place, in one of which the brave Lamachus unfortunately -fell a victim to his rash valour; but the Athenian troops maintained -their usual superiority.</p> - -<p>Encouraged by success, Nicias pushed the enemy with vigour. The -Syracusans lost hopes of defending their new works, or of preventing the -complete circumvallation of their city. New generals were named in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_604" id="Page_604">[604]</a></span> -room of Hermocrates and his colleagues; and this injudicious alteration -increased the calamities of Syracuse, which at length prepared to capitulate.</p> - -<p>While the assembly deliberated concerning the execution of a measure, -which, however disgraceful, was declared to be necessary, a Corinthian galley, -commanded by Gongylus, entered the central harbour of Ortygia, which -being strongly fortified, and penetrating into the heart of the city, served as -the principal and most secure station for the Syracusan fleet. Gongylus -announced a speedy and effectual relief to the besieged city. He acquainted -the Syracusans, that the embassy, sent the preceding year to crave the assistance -of Peloponnesus, had been crowned with success. His own countrymen -had warmly embraced the cause of their kinsmen, and most respectable -colony. They had fitted out a considerable fleet, the arrival of which might -be expected every hour. The Lacedæmonians also had sent a small squadron, -and the whole armament was conducted by the Spartan Gylippus, an officer -of tried valour and ability.</p> - -<p>While the desponding citizens of Syracuse listened to this intelligence -with pleasing astonishment, a messenger arrived by land from Gylippus -himself. That experienced commander, instead of pursuing a direct course, -which might have been intercepted by the Athenian fleet, had landed with -four galleys on the western coast of the island. The name of a Spartan general -determined the wavering irresolution of the Sicilians. The troops of -Himera, Selinus, and Gela flocked to his standard; and he approached Syracuse -on the side of Epipolæ, where the line of contravallation was still unfinished, -with a body of several thousand men.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<img src="images/p604.jpg" width="400" height="114" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Medal</span></p> -</div> - -<h4>SPARTAN AID</h4> - -<p>The most courageous of the citizens sallied forth to meet this generous -and powerful protector. The junction was happily effected; the ardour of -the troops kindled into enthusiasm; and they distinguished that memorable -day by surprising several important Athenian posts. This first success -reanimated the activity of the soldiers and workmen. The traverse wall -was extended with the utmost diligence, and a vigorous sally deprived the -enemy of the strong castle of Labdalum. Nicias, perceiving that the interest -of the Athenians in Sicily would be continually weakened by delay, wished -to bring the fortune of the war to the decision of a battle. Nor did -Gylippus decline the engagement. The first action was unfavourable to the -Syracusans, who had been imprudently posted in the defiles between their -own and the enemy’s walls, which rendered of no avail their superiority in -cavalry and archers. The magnanimity of Gylippus acknowledged this -error, for which he completely atoned by his judicious conduct in the -succeeding engagements.</p> - -<p>The Syracusans soon extended their works beyond the line of circumvallation, -so that it was impossible to block up their city, without forcing their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_605" id="Page_605">[605]</a></span> -ramparts. The besiegers, while they maintained the superiority of their -arms, had been abundantly supplied with necessaries from the neighbouring -territory; but every place was alike hostile to them after their defeat. The -soldiers who went out in quest of wood and water, were unexpectedly attacked -and cut off by the enemy’s cavalry, or by the reinforcements which -arrived from every quarter to the assistance of Syracuse; and they were at -length reduced to depend for every necessary supply on the precarious -bounty of the Italian shore.</p> - -<p>Nicias, whose sensibility deeply felt the public distress, wrote a most -desponding letter to the Athenians. He honestly described, and lamented, -the misfortunes and disorders of his army. The slaves deserted in great -numbers; the mercenary troops, who fought only for pay and subsistence, -preferred the more secure and lucrative service of Syracuse. He therefore -exhorted the assembly either to call them home without delay, or to send -immediately a second armament, not less powerful than the first.</p> - -<p>The principal squadrons of Syracuse lay in the harbour of Ortygia, -separated, by an island of the same name, from the station of the Athenian -fleet. While Hermocrates sailed forth with eighty galleys, to venture a -naval engagement, Gylippus attacked the hostile fortifications at Plemmyrium, -a promontory opposite to Ortygia, which confined the entrance of the -Great Harbour. The defeat of the Syracusans at sea, whereby they lost -fourteen vessels, was balanced by their victory on land, in which they took -three fortresses, containing a large quantity of military and naval stores, -and a considerable sum of money. In some subsequent actions, which -scarcely deserve the name of battles, their fleet was still unsuccessful; but -as they engaged with great caution, and found everywhere a secure retreat -on a friendly shore, their loss was extremely inconsiderable. The want of -success, in their first attempt, did not abate their resolution to gain the -command at sea.</p> - -<p>By unexampled assiduity the Syracusans at length prevailed in a general -engagement, which was fought in the Great Harbour. Seven Athenian -ships were sunk, many more were disabled, and Nicias saved the remains of -his shattered and dishonoured armament by retiring behind a line of merchantmen -and transports, from the masts of which had been suspended huge -masses of lead, named dolphins from their form, sufficient to crush by their -falling weight the stoutest galleys of antiquity. This unexpected obstacle -arrested the progress of the victors; but the advantages already obtained -elevated them with the highest hopes, and reduced the enemy to despair.</p> - -<h4>ALCIBIADES AGAINST ATHENS</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[414-413 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The Athenian misfortunes in Sicily were attended by misfortunes at -home still more dreadful. In the eighteenth year of the war, Alcibiades -accompanied to Sparta the ambassadors of Corinth and Syracuse, who had -solicited and obtained assistance to the besieged city. On that occasion the -Athenian exile first acquired the confidence of the Spartans, by condemning, -in the strongest terms, the injustice and ambition of his ungrateful countrymen, -“whose cruelty towards himself equalled their inveterate hostility to -the Lacedæmonian republic; but that republic might, by following his -advice, disarm their resentment. The town of Decelea was situated on the -Attic frontier, at an equal distance of fifteen miles from Thebes and Athens. -This place, which commanded an extensive and fertile plain, might be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_606" id="Page_606">[606]</a></span> -surprised and fortified by the Spartans, who, instead of harassing their foes by -annual incursions, might thus infest them by a continual war. The wisdom -of Sparta had too long neglected such a salutary and decisive measure, especially -as the existence of a similar design had often been suggested by the -fears of the enemy, who trembled even at the apprehension of seeing a -foreign garrison in their territory.”</p> - -<p>This advice first proposed, and often urged, by Alcibiades, was adopted -in the commencement of the ensuing spring, when the warlike Agis led a -powerful army into Attica. The defenceless inhabitants of the frontier fled -before his irresistible arms; but instead of pursuing them, as usual, into the -heart of the country, he stopped short at Decelea. As all necessary materials -had been provided in great abundance, the place was speedily fortified -on every side, and the walls of Decelea, which might be distinctly seen -across the intermediate plain, bid defiance to those of Athens.</p> - -<p>The latter city was kept in continual alarm by the watchful hostility of -a neighbouring garrison. The open country was entirely laid waste, and -the usual communication with the valuable island of Eubœa was interrupted, -from which, in seasons of scarcity, or during the ravages of war, the Athenians -commonly derived their supplies of corn, wine, and oil, and whatever -is most necessary to life. Harassed by the fatigues of unremitting service, -and deprived of daily bread, the slaves murmured, complained, and revolted -to the enemy; and their defection robbed the state of twenty thousand useful -artisans. Since the latter years of Pericles, the Athenians had not been -involved in such distress.</p> - -<p>The domestic calamities of the republic did not, however, prevent the -most vigorous exertions abroad. Twenty galleys, stationed at Naupactus, -watched the motions of the Peloponnesian fleet destined to the assistance -of Syracuse; thirty carried on the war in Macedonia, to reduce the rebellion -of Amphipolis; a considerable squadron collected tribute, and levied soldiers, -in the colonies of Asia; another, still more powerful, ravaged the coast of -Peloponnesus. Never did any kingdom or republic equal the magnanimity -of Athens; never in ancient or modern times did the courage of any state, -entertain an ambition so far superior to its power, or exert efforts so disproportionate -to its strength. Amidst the difficulties and dangers which -encompassed them on every side, the Athenians persisted in the siege of -Syracuse, a city little inferior to their own; and, undaunted by the actual -devastation of their country, unterrified by the menaced assault of their -walls, they sent, without delay, such a reinforcement into Sicily, as afforded -the most promising hopes of success in their expedition against that island.</p> - -<h4>ATHENIAN REINFORCEMENTS</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[413 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The Syracusans had scarcely time to rejoice at their victory, or Nicias to -bewail his defeat, when a numerous and formidable armament appeared on -the Sicilian coast. The foremost galleys, their prows adorned with gaudy -streamers, pursued a secure course towards the harbour of Syracuse. The -emulation of the rowers was animated by the mingled sounds of trumpet -and clarion; and the regular decoration, the elegant splendour, which distinguished -every part of the equipment, exhibited a pompous spectacle of -naval triumph. Their appearance, even at a distance, announced the country -to which they belonged; and both the joy of the besiegers and the terror of -the besieged, testified that Athens was the only city in the world capable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_607" id="Page_607">[607]</a></span> -of sending to the sea such a beautiful and magnificent contribution. The -Syracusans employed not unavailing efforts to check the progress, or to -hinder the approach, of the hostile armament; which, besides innumerable -foreign vessels and transports, consisted of seventy-three Athenian galleys, -commanded by the experienced valour of Demosthenes and Eurymedon. -The pikemen on board exceeded five thousand; the light-armed troops were -nearly as numerous; and, including the rowers, workmen, and attendants, -the whole strength may be reckoned equal to that originally sent with -Nicias, which amounted to above twenty thousand men.</p> - -<p>The misfortunes hitherto attending the operations in Sicily had lowered -the character of the general; and this circumstance, as well as the superior -abilities of Demosthenes, entitled him to assume the tone of authority in -their conjunct deliberations. After ravaging the banks of the Anapus, and -making some ineffectual attempts against the fortifications on that side, -Demosthenes chose the first hour of a moonlit night, to proceed with the -flower of the army to seize the fortresses in Epipolæ. The march was performed -with successful celerity; the outposts were surprised, the guards -put to the sword; and three separate encampments, of the Syracusans, the -Sicilians, the allies, formed a feeble opposition to the Athenian ardour. -As if their victory had already been complete, the assailants began to pull -down the wooden battlements, or to urge the pursuit with a rapidity which -disordered their ranks.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, the vigilant activity of Gylippus had assembled the whole -force of Syracuse. At the approach of the enemy his vanguard retired. -The Athenians were decoyed within the intricate windings of the walls, -and their irregular fury was first checked by the firmness of a Theban -phalanx. A resistance so sudden and unexpected might alone have been -decisive; but other circumstances were adverse to the Athenians: their -ignorance of the ground, the alternate obscurity of night, and the deceitful -glare of the moon, which, shining in the front of the Thebans, illumined -the splendour of their arms, and multiplied the terror of their numbers. -The foremost ranks of the pursuers were repelled; and, as they retreated -to the main body, encountered the advancing Argives and Corcyræans, -who, singing the pæan in their Doric dialect and accent, were unfortunately -taken for enemies. Fear, and then rage, seized the Athenians, who, thinking -themselves encompassed on all sides, determined to force their way, and -committed much bloodshed among their allies, before the mistake could be -discovered.</p> - -<p>To prevent the repetition of this dreadful error, their scattered bands -were obliged at every moment to demand the watchword, which was at -length betrayed to their adversaries. The consequence of this was doubly -fatal. At every rencounter the silent Athenians were slaughtered without -mercy, while the enemy, who knew their watchword, might at pleasure join, -or decline, the battle, and easily oppress their weakness, or elude their -strength. The terror and confusion increased; the rout became general; -Gylippus pursued in good order with his victorious troops. The vanquished -could not descend in a body with the celerity of fear, by the narrow passages -through which they had mounted. Many abandoned their arms, and explored -the unknown paths of the rocky Epipolæ. Others threw themselves -from precipices, rather than await the pursuers. Several thousands were -left dead or wounded on the scene of action; and in the morning the -greater part of the stragglers were intercepted and cut off by the Syracusan -cavalry.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_608" id="Page_608">[608]</a></span></p> - -<h4>ATHENIAN DISASTER</h4> - -<p>This dreadful and unexpected disaster suspended the operations of the -siege. The Athenian generals spent the time in fruitless deliberations concerning -their future measures, while the army lay encamped on the marshy -and unhealthy banks of the Anapus. A general sickness broke out in the -camp. Demosthenes urged this calamity as a new reason for hastening their -departure, while it was yet possible to cross the Ionian Sea, without risking -the danger of a winter’s tempest. But Nicias opposed the design of leaving -Sicily until they should be warranted to take this important step by the -positive authority of the republic. The colleagues of Nicias were confounded -with the firmness of an opposition so unlike the flexible timidity of his ordinary -character, but they submitted to his opinion, an opinion equally fatal -to himself and to them, and to the armament which they commanded.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile the prudence of Gylippus profited by the fame of his victory, -to draw a powerful reinforcement from the Sicilian cities; and the transports, -so long expected from Peloponnesus, finally arrived in the harbour of Ortygia. -This squadron formed the last assistance sent to either of the contending -parties, and nothing further was required to complete the actors in the -scene; for by the accession of the Cyrenians, Syracuse was either attacked or -defended by all the various divisions of the Grecian name, which formed, in -that age, the most civilised portion of the inhabitants of Asia, Africa, and -Europe. The arrival of such powerful auxiliaries to the besieged, and the -increasing force of the malady, totally disconcerted the Athenians. Even -Nicias agreed to set sail. Every necessary preparation was made for this purpose, -and the cover of night was chosen, as most proper for concealing their -own disgrace, and for eluding the vengeance of the enemy. But the night -appointed for their departure was distinguished by an inauspicious eclipse of -the moon. The voyage was deferred till the mystical number of thrice nine -days. But before the expiration of that time it was no longer practicable; -for the design was soon discovered to the Syracusans, and this discovery, added -to the encouragement derived from the circumstances of which we have already -taken notice, increased their eagerness to attack the enemy by sea and -land. Their attempts failed to destroy, by fire-ships, the Athenian fleet. -They were more successful in employing superior numbers to divide the -strength and to weaken the resistance of an enfeebled and dejected foe. -During three days there was a perpetual succession of military and naval exploits. -On the first day fortune hung in suspense; the second deprived the -Athenians of a considerable squadron commanded by Eurymedon; and this -misfortune was embittered on the third day, by the loss of eighteen galleys, -with their crews.</p> - -<p>A design, suggested by the wisdom of Hermocrates, was eagerly adopted -by the active zeal of his fellow-citizens, who strove, with unremitting ardour, -to throw a chain of vessels across the mouth of the Great Harbour, about a -mile in breadth. The labour was complete before Nicias, totally occupied -by other objects, attempted to interrupt it. After repeated defeats, and -although he was so miserably tormented by the stone, that he had frequently -solicited his recall, that virtuous commander, whose courage rose in adversity, -used the utmost diligence to retrieve the affairs of his country. The shattered -galleys were speedily refitted, and again prepared, to the number of a hundred -and ten, to risk the event of a battle. As they had suffered greatly, on -former occasions, by the hardness and massive solidity of the Syracusan prows, -Nicias provided them with grappling-irons, fitted to prevent the recoil of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_609" id="Page_609">[609]</a></span> -their opponents, and the repetition of the hostile stroke. The decks were -crowded with armed men, and the contrivance to which the enemy had -hitherto chiefly owed their success, of introducing the firmness and stability -of a military, into a naval engagement, was adopted in its full extent by the -Athenians. When Gylippus and the Syracusan commanders were apprised -of the designs of the enemy, they hastened to the defence of the bar which -had been thrown across the entrance of the harbour. Even the Athenian -grappling-irons had not been overlooked; to elude the dangerous grasp of -these instruments, the prows of the Syracusan vessels were covered with wet -and slippery hides.</p> - -<p>The first impression of the Athenians was irresistible; they burst through -the passage of the bar, and repelled the squadrons on either side. As the -entrance widened, the Syracusans, in their turn, rushed into the harbour, -which was more favourable than the open sea to their mode of fighting. -Thither the foremost of the Athenians returned, either compelled by superior -force, or that they might assist their companions. The engagement became -general in the mouth of the harbour; and in this narrow space two hundred -galleys fought, during the greatest part of the day, with an obstinate and -persevering valour. It would require the expressive energy of Thucydides, -and the imitative, though inimitable, sounds and expressions of the Grecian -tongue, to describe the noise, the tumult, and the ardour of the contending -squadrons. The battle was not long confined to the shock of adverse prows, -and to the distant hostility of darts and arrows. The nearest vessels grappled, -and closed with each other, and their decks were soon converted into a field -of blood. While the heavy-armed troops boarded the enemy’s ships, they -left their own exposed to a similar misfortune; the fleets were divided into -massive clusters of adhering galleys; and the confusion of their mingled -shouts overpowered the voice of authority. The singular and tremendous -spectacle of an engagement more fierce and obstinate than any that had ever -been beheld in the Grecian seas, totally suspended the powers of the numerous -and adverse battalions which encircled the coast.</p> - -<p>Hope, fear, the shouts of victory, the shrieks of despair, the anxious solicitude -of doubtful success, animated the countenances, the voice, and the gestures -of the Athenians, whose whole reliance centred in their fleet. When at -length their galleys evidently gave way on every side, the contrast of alternate, -and the rapid tumult of successive passions, subsided in a melancholy -calm. This dreadful pause of astonishment and terror was followed by the -disordered trepidation of flight and fear; many escaped to the camp; others -ran, uncertain whither to direct their steps; while Nicias, with a small, but -undismayed band, remained on the shore to protect the landing of their unfortunate -galleys. But the retreat of the Athenians could not probably have -been effected, had it not been favoured by the actual circumstances of the -enemy, as well as by the peculiar prejudices of ancient superstition. In this -well-fought battle, the vanquished had lost fifty and the victors forty vessels. -It was incumbent on the latter to employ their immediate and most strenuous -efforts to recover the dead bodies of their friends, that they might be -honoured with the sacred and indispensable rites of funeral. The day was -far spent; the strength of the sailors had been exhausted by a long continuance -of unremitting labour; and both they and their companions on shore -were more desirous to return to Syracuse to enjoy the fruits of victory, than -to irritate the dangerous despair of the vanquished Athenians.</p> - -<p>It is observed by the Roman orator Cicero, with no less truth than -elegance, that not only the navy of Athens, but the glory and the empire of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_610" id="Page_610">[610]</a></span> -that republic, suffered shipwreck in the fatal harbour of Syracuse. The -despondent degeneracy which immediately followed this ever memorable -engagement was testified in the neglect of a duty which the Athenians had -never neglected before, and in denying a part of their national character, -which it had hitherto been their greatest glory to maintain. They abandoned -to insult and indignity the bodies of the slain; and when it was -proposed to them by their commanders to prepare next day for a second engagement, -since their vessels were still more numerous than those of the enemy, -they, who had seldom avoided a superior, and who had never declined the -encounter of an equal force, declared, that no motive could induce them to -withstand the weaker armament of Syracuse. Their only desire was to escape -by land, under cover of the night, from a foe whom they had not courage to -oppose, and from a place where every object was offensive to their sight, and -most painful to their reflection.</p> - -<p>The behaviour of the Syracusans might have proved extremely favourable -to this design. The coincidence of a festival and a victory demanded -an accumulated profusion of such objects as soothe the senses and please the -fancy. Amidst these giddy transports, the Syracusans lost all remembrance -of an enemy whom they despised; even the soldiers on guard joined the dissolute -or frivolous amusements of their companions; and, during the greatest -part of the night, Syracuse presented a mixed scene of secure gayety, of -thoughtless jollity, and of mad and dangerous disorder.</p> - -<p>The firm and vigilant mind of Hermocrates alone withstood, but was -unable to divert, the general current. It was impossible to rouse to the -fatigues of war men buried in wine and pleasure, and intoxicated with -victory; and, as he could not intercept by force, he determined to retard -by stratagem, the intended retreat of the Athenians, whose numbers and -resentment would still render them formidable to whatever part of Sicily -they might remove their camp. A select band of horsemen, assuming -the character of traitors, fearlessly approached the hostile ramparts, and -warned the Athenians of the danger of departing that night, as many -ambuscades lurked in the way, and all the most important passes were -occupied by the enemy. The frequency of treason gained credit to the -perfidious advice; and the Athenians, having changed their first resolution, -were persuaded by Nicias to wait two days longer, that such measures might -be taken as seemed best adapted to promote the safety and celerity of their -march.</p> - -<p>The superior rank of Nicias entitled him to a pre-eminence of toil and -of woe; and he deserves the regard of posterity by his character and sufferings, -and still more by the melancholy firmness of his conduct.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_35j" id="enanchor_35j"></a><a href="#endnote_35j">j</a></span></p> - -<p>Few pages of history are more eloquent than those wherein Thucydides -describes the epic miseries of the defeated host of Athens. They have furthermore -the merit of great accuracy. The rest of this chapter may therefore -be given over to his vivid and tragic picture of the retreat.<span class="enanchor"><a href="#endnote_a">a</a></span></p> - -<h4>THUCYDIDES’ FAMOUS ACCOUNT OF THE FINAL DISASTERS</h4> - -<p>When Nicias and Demosthenes thought they were sufficiently prepared, -the removal of the army took place, on the third day after the sea-fight. It -was a wretched scene then, not on account of the single circumstance alone, -that they were retreating after having lost all their ships, and while both -themselves and their country were in danger, instead of being in high hope;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_611" id="Page_611">[611]</a></span> -but also because, on leaving their camp, every one had grievous things both -to behold with his eyes and to feel in his heart. For as the dead lay unburied, -and any one saw a friend on the ground, he was struck at once with grief and -fear. And the living who were being left behind, wounded or sick, were to -the living a much more sorrowful spectacle than the dead, and more piteous -than those who had perished. For having recourse to entreaties and wailings, -they reduced them to utter perplexity, begging to be taken away, and -appealing to each individual friend or relative that any of them might anywhere -see; or hanging on their comrades, as they were now going away; or -following as far as they could, and when in any case the strength of their -body failed, not being left behind without many appeals to heaven and many -lamentations. So that the whole army, being filled with tears and distress -of this kind, did not easily get away, although from an enemy’s country, and -although they had both suffered already miseries too great for tears to express, -and were still afraid for the future, lest they might suffer more. There -was also amongst them much dejection and depreciation of their own strength. -For they resembled nothing but a city starved out and attempting to escape; -and no small one too, for of their whole multitude there were not less than -forty thousand on the march.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/p611.jpg" width="500" height="216" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Sepulchral Structures at Athens</span></p> -</div> - -<p>Of these, all the rest took whatever each one could that was useful, and -the heavy-armed and cavalry themselves, contrary to custom, carried their -own food under their arms, some for want of servants, others through distrusting -them; for they had for a long time been deserting, and did so in -greatest numbers at that moment. And even what they carried was not sufficient; -for there was no longer any food in the camp. Nor, again, was their -other misery, and their equal participation in sufferings (though it affords -some alleviation to endure with others), considered even on that account -easy to bear at the present time; especially, when they reflected from what -splendour and boasting at first they had been reduced to such an abject termination. -For this was the greatest reverse that ever befell a Grecian army; -since, in contrast to their having come to enslave others, they had to depart -in fear of undergoing that themselves; and instead of the prayers and hymns, -with which they sailed from home, they had to start on their return with -omens the very contrary; going by land, instead of by sea, and relying on a -military rather than a naval force. But nevertheless, in consequence of the -greatness of the danger still impending, all these things seemed endurable to -them.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_612" id="Page_612">[612]</a></span></p> - -<p>Nicias, seeing the army dejected, and greatly changed, passed along the -ranks, and encouraged and cheered them, as well as existing circumstances -allowed; speaking still louder than before, as he severally came opposite to -them, in the earnestness of his feeling, and from wishing to be of service -to them by making himself audible to as many as possible. If he saw them -anywhere straggling, and not marching in order, he collected and brought -them to their post; while Demosthenes also did no less to those who were -near him, addressing them in a similar manner. They marched in the form -of a hollow square, the division under Nicias taking the lead, and that of -Demosthenes following; while the baggage bearers and the main crowd of -camp followers were enclosed within the heavy-armed.</p> - -<p>When they had come to the river Anapus, they found drawn up a body of -the Syracusans and allies; but having routed these, and secured the passage, -they proceeded onwards; while the Syracusans pressed them with charges -of horse, as their light-armed did with their missiles. On that day the -Athenians advanced about five miles, and then halted for the night on a hill. -The day following, they commenced their march at an early hour, and having -advanced about two and a half miles, descended into a level district, and there -encamped, wishing to procure some eatables from the houses (for the place -was inhabited), and to carry on with them water from it, since for many -miles before them, in the direction they were to go, it was not plentiful. The -Syracusans, in the meantime, had gone on before, and were blocking up the -pass in advance of them. For there was there a steep hill, with a precipitous -ravine on either side of it, called the Acræum Lepas. The next day the -Athenians advanced, and the horse and dart-men of the Syracusans and allies, -each in great numbers, impeded their progress, hurling their missiles upon -them, and annoying them with cavalry charges. The Athenians fought for -a long time, and then returned again to the same camp, no longer having provisions -as they had before; and it was no more possible to leave their position, -because of the cavalry.</p> - -<p>Starting early, they began their march again, and forced their way to the -hill which had been fortified; where they found before them the enemy’s -infantry drawn up for the defence of the wall many spears deep; for the pass -was but narrow. The Athenians charged and assaulted the wall, but being -annoyed with missiles by a large body from the hill, which was steep (for -those on the heights more easily reached their aim), and not being able to -force a passage, they retreated again, and rested. There happened also to -be at the same time some claps of thunder and rain, as is generally the case -when the year is now verging on autumn; in consequence of which the -Athenians were still more dispirited, and thought that all these things also -were conspiring together for their ruin. While they were resting, Gylippus -and the Syracusans sent a part of their troops to intercept them again with a -wall on their rear, where they had already passed: but they, on their side -also, sent some of their men against them, and prevented their doing it. After -this, the Athenians returned again with all their army into the more level -country, and there halted for the night. The next day they marched forward, -while the Syracusans discharged their weapons on them, surrounding them on -all sides, and disabled many with wounds; retreating if the Athenians advanced -against them, and pressing on them if they gave way; most especially -attacking their extreme rear, in the hope that by routing them little by little, -they might strike terror into the whole army. The Athenians resisted this -mode of attack for a long time, but then, after advancing five or six furlongs, -halted for rest on the plain; while the Syracusans went to their camp.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_613" id="Page_613">[613]</a></span></p> - -<p>During the night, their troops being in a wretched condition, both from -the want of all provisions which was now felt, and from so many men being -disabled by wounds in the numerous attacks that had been made upon them -by the enemy, Nicias and Demosthenes determined to light as many fires as -possible, and then lead off the army, no longer by the same route as they had -intended, but in the opposite direction to where the Syracusans were watching -for them, namely, to the sea. Now the whole of this road would lead -the armament, not towards Catana, but to the other side of Sicily, to Camarina, -and Gela, and the cities in that direction, whether Grecian or barbarian. -They kindled therefore many fires, and began their march in the night.</p> - -<p>And as all armies, especially the largest, are liable to have terrors and -panics amongst them, particularly when marching at night, and through -an enemy’s country, and with the enemy not far off; so they also were thrown -into alarm; and the division of Nicias, taking the lead as it did, kept -together and got a long way in advance; while that of Demosthenes, containing -about half or more, was separated from the others, and proceeded in -greater disorder. By the morning, nevertheless, they arrived at the seacoast, -and entering on what is called the Helorine road, continued their -march, in order that when they had reached the river Cacyparis, they might -march up along its banks through the interior; for they hoped also that -in this direction the Sicels, to whom they had sent, would come to meet -them. But when they had reached the river, they found a guard of the -Syracusans there too, intercepting the pass with a wall and a palisade, having -carried which, they crossed the river, and marched on again to another -called the Erineus; for this was the route which their guides directed them -to take.</p> - -<h5><i>Demosthenes Surrenders His Detachment</i></h5> - -<p>In the meantime the Syracusans and allies, as soon as it was day, and -they found that the Athenians had departed, most of them charged Gylippus -with having purposely let them escape; and pursuing with all haste by -the route which they had no difficulty in finding they had taken, they overtook -them about dinner-time. When they came up with the troops under -Demosthenes, which were behind the rest, and marching more slowly and -disorderly, ever since they had been thrown into confusion during the night, -at the time we have mentioned, they immediately fell upon and engaged -them; and the Syracusan horse surrounded them with greater ease from -their being divided, and confined them in a narrow space.</p> - -<p>The division of Nicias was six miles in advance; for he led them on more -rapidly, thinking that their preservation depended, under such circumstances, -not on staying behind, if they could help it, and on fighting, but on retreating -as quickly as possible, and only fighting as often as they were compelled. -Demosthenes, on the other hand, was, generally speaking, involved in more -incessant labour (because, as he was retreating in the rear, he was the first -that the enemy attacked), and on that occasion, finding that the Syracusans -were in pursuit, he was not so much inclined to push on, as to form his men -for battle; until, through thus loitering, he was surrounded by them, and -both himself and the Athenians with him were thrown into great confusion. -Being driven back into a certain spot which had a wall all round it, with -a road on each side, and many olive trees growing about, they were annoyed -with missiles in every direction. This kind of attack the Syracusans naturally -adopted, instead of close combat; since risking their lives against men -reduced to despair was no longer for their advantage, so much as for that of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_614" id="Page_614">[614]</a></span> -the Athenians. Besides, after success which was now so signal, each man -spared himself in some degree, that he might not be cut off before the end -of the business. They thought too that, even as it was, they should by this -kind of fighting subdue and capture the Athenians.</p> - -<p>At any rate, when, after plying the Athenians and their allies with missiles -all day from every quarter, they saw them now distressed by wounds -and other sufferings, Gylippus with the Syracusans and allies made a proclamation, -in the first place, that any of the islanders who chose should come -over to them, on condition of retaining his liberty; and some few states -went over. Afterwards, terms were made with all the troops under Demosthenes, -that they should surrender their arms, and that no one should be put -to death, either by violence or imprisonment, or want of such nourishment -as was most absolutely requisite. Thus there surrendered, in all, to the number -of six thousand; and they laid down the whole of the money in their possession, -throwing it into the hollow of shields, four of which they filled with -it. These they immediately led back to the city, while Nicias and his division -arrived that day on the banks of the river Erineus; having crossed -which, he posted his army on some high ground.</p> - -<h5><i>Nicias Parleys, Fights, and Surrenders</i></h5> - -<p>The Syracusans, having overtaken him the next day, told him that -Demosthenes and his division had surrendered themselves, and called on -him also to do the same. Being incredulous of the fact, he obtained a truce -to enable him to send a horseman to see. When he had gone, and brought -word back again that they had surrendered, Nicias sent a herald to Gylippus -and the Syracusans, saying that he was ready to agree with the Syracusans, -on behalf of the Athenians, to repay whatever money the Syracusans had -spent on the war, on condition of their letting his army go; and that until -the money was paid, he would give Athenians as hostages, one for every -talent. The Syracusans and Gylippus did not accede to these proposals, but -fell upon this division also, and surrounded them on all sides, and annoyed -them with their missiles until late in the day. And they too, like the others, -were in a wretched plight for want of food and necessaries. Nevertheless, -they watched for the quiet of the night, and then intended to pursue their -march. And they were now just taking up their arms, when the Syracusans -perceived it and raised their pæan. The Athenians, therefore, finding that they -had not eluded their observation, laid their arms down again; excepting -about three hundred men who forced their way through the sentinels, and -proceeded, during the night, how and where they could.</p> - -<p>As soon as it was day, Nicias led his troops forward; while the Syracusans -and allies pressed on them in the same manner, discharging their missiles -at them, and striking them down with their javelins on every side. The -Athenians were hurrying on to reach the river Assinarus, being urged to -this at once by the attack made on every side of them by the numerous cavalry -and the rest of the light-armed multitude (for they thought they should -be more at ease if they were once across the river), and also by their weariness -and craving for drink. When they reached its banks, they rushed into -it without any more regard for order, every man anxious to be himself the -first to cross it; while the attack of the enemy rendered the passage more -difficult. For being compelled to advance in a dense body, they fell upon -and trod down one another; and some of them died immediately on the javelins -and articles of baggage, while others were entangled together, and floated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_615" id="Page_615">[615]</a></span> -down the stream. On the other side of the river, too, the Syracusans lined -the bank, which was precipitous, and from the higher ground discharged -their missiles on the Athenians, while most of them were eagerly drinking in -confusion amongst themselves in the hollow bed of the stream. The Peloponnesians, -moreover, charged them and butchered them, especially those in -the river. And thus the water was immediately spoiled; but nevertheless -it was drunk by them, mud and all, and bloody as it was, it was even fought -for by most of them.</p> - -<p>At length, when many dead were now heaped one upon another in the -river, and the army was destroyed, either at the river, or, if any part had -escaped, by the cavalry, Nicias surrendered himself to Gylippus, placing -more confidence in him than in the Syracusans; and desired him and the -Lacedæmonians to do what they pleased with himself, but to stop butchering -the rest of the soldiers. After this, Gylippus commanded to make prisoners; -and they collected all that were alive, excepting such as they concealed for -their own benefit (of whom there was a large number). They also sent a -party in pursuit of the three hundred, who had forced their way through -the sentinels during the night, and took them. The part of the army, then, -that was collected as general property, was not large, but that which was -secreted was considerable; and the whole of Sicily was filled with them, -inasmuch as they had not been taken on definite terms of surrender, like -those with Demosthenes. Indeed no small part was actually put to death; -for this was the most extensive slaughter, and surpassed by none of all that -occurred in this Sicilian war. In the other encounters also, which were -frequent on their march, no few had fallen. But many also escaped; some -at the moment, others after serving as slaves, and running away subsequently. -These found a place of refuge at Catana.</p> - -<h5><i>The Fate of the Captives</i></h5> - -<p>When the Syracusans and allies were assembled together, they took with -them as many prisoners as they could, with the spoils, and returned to the -city. All the rest of the Athenians and the allies that they had taken, -they sent down into the quarries, thinking this the safest way of keeping -them; but Nicias and Demosthenes they executed, against the wish of -Gylippus. For he thought it would be a glorious distinction for him, in -addition to all his other achievements, to take to the Lacedæmonians the -generals who had commanded against them. And it so happened, that one -of these, namely Demosthenes, was regarded by them as their most inveterate -enemy, in consequence of what had occurred on the island and at Pylos; -the other, for the same reasons, as most in their interest; for Nicias had -exerted himself for the release of the Lacedæmonians taken from the island, -by persuading the Athenians to make a treaty. On this account the Lacedæmonians -had friendly feelings towards him; and indeed it was mainly for -the same reasons that he reposed confidence in Gylippus, and surrendered -himself to him. But certain of the Syracusans (as it was said) were afraid, -some of them, since they had held communication with him, that if put to -the torture, he might cause them trouble on that account in the midst of -their success; others, and especially the Corinthians, lest he might bribe -some, as he was rich, and effect his escape, and so they should again incur -mischief through his agency; and therefore they persuaded the allies, and -put him to death. For this cause then, or something very like it, he was -executed, having least of all the Greeks deserved to meet with such a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_616" id="Page_616">[616]</a></span> -misfortune, on account of his devoted attention to the practice of every -virtue.</p> - -<p>As for those in the quarries, the Syracusans treated them with cruelty -during the first period of their captivity. For as they were in a hollow -place, and many in a small compass, the sun, as well as the suffocating closeness, -distressed them at first, in consequence of their not being under cover; -and then, on the contrary, the nights coming on autumnal and cold, soon -worked in them an alteration from health to disease, by means of the change. -Since, too, in consequence of their want of room, they did everything in the -same place; and the dead, moreover, were piled up on one another—such -as died from their wounds, and from the change they had experienced, and -such like. There were, besides, intolerable stenches; while at the same time -they were tormented with hunger and thirst, for during eight months they -gave each of them daily only a <i>cotyle</i><a name="FNanchor_56" id="FNanchor_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> of water, and two of corn. And of -all the other miseries which it was likely that men thrown into such a place -would suffer, there was none that did not fall to their lot. For some seventy -days they thus lived all together; then the rest of them were sold, except -the Athenians, and whatever Siceliots or Italians had joined them in the -expedition.</p> - -<p>The total number of those who were taken, though it were difficult to -speak with exactness, was still not less than seven thousand. “And this,” -says Thucydides in conclusion, “was the greatest Grecian exploit of all that -were performed in this war; nay, in my opinion, of all Grecian achievements -that we have heard of also; and was at once most splendid for the conquerors, -and most disastrous for the conquered. For being altogether vanquished -at all points, and having suffered in no slight degree in any respect, they -were destroyed (as the saying is) with utter destruction, both army, and -navy, and everything; and only a few out of many returned home. Such -were the events which occurred in Sicily.”<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_35i2" id="enanchor_35i2"></a><a href="#endnote_35i">i</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_55" id="Footnote_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> [Adolph Holm rates it at thirty thousand men.]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_56" id="Footnote_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> The <i>cotyle</i> was a little more than half an English pint; and the allowance of food here -mentioned was only half of that commonly given to a slave.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-35.jpg" width="500" height="319" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">The Groves of the Academy</span></p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_617" id="Page_617">[617]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-36.jpg" width="500" height="195" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h3 id="CHAPTER_XXXVI_CLOSE_OF_THE_PELOPONNESIAN_WAR">CHAPTER XXXVI. CLOSE OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR</h3> - -<p>In the populous and extensive kingdoms of modern Europe, the revolutions -of public affairs seldom disturb the humble obscurity of private life; -but the national transactions of Greece involved the interest of every family, -and deeply affected the fortune and happiness of every individual. Had the -arms of the Athenians proved successful in Sicily, each citizen would have -derived from that event an immediate accession of wealth, as well as of -power, and have felt a proportional increase of honour and security. But -their proud hopes perished forever in the harbour of Syracuse. The succeeding -disasters shook to the foundation the fabric of their empire.</p> - -<p>In one rash enterprise they lost their army, their fleet, the prudence of -their experienced generals, and the flourishing vigour of their manly youth—irreparable -disasters which totally disabled them to resist the confederacy -of Peloponnesus, reinforced by the resentment of a new and powerful -enemy. While a Lacedæmonian army invested their city, they had reason -to dread that a Syracusan fleet should assault the Piræus; that Athens must -finally yield to these combined attacks, and her once prosperous citizens -destroyed by the sword, or dragged into captivity, atone by their death or -disgrace for the cruelties which they had recently inflicted on the wretched -republics of Melos and Scione.</p> - -<h4>ATHENS AFTER THE SICILIAN DÉBACLE</h4> - -<p>The dreadful alternative of victory and defeat, renders it little surprising -that the Athenians should have rejected intelligence, which they must have -received with horror. The first messengers of such sad news were treated -with contempt; but it was impossible long to withhold belief from the -miserable fugitives, whose squalid and dejected countenances too faithfully -attested the public calamity. Such evidence could not be refused; the -arrogance of incredulity was abashed, and the whole republic thrown into -consternation, or seized with despair. The venerable members of the Areopagus -expressed the majesty of silent sorrow; but the piercing cries of woe -extended many a mile along the lofty walls which joined the Piræus to the city; -and the licentious populace raged with unbridled fury against the diviners -and orators, whose blind predictions, and ambitious harangues, had promoted -an expedition eternally fatal to their country.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_618" id="Page_618">[618]</a></span></p> - -<p>The Athenian allies, or rather subjects, scattered over so many coasts and -islands, prepared to assert their independence; the confederates of Sparta, -among whom the Syracusans justly assumed the first rank, were unsatisfied -with victory, and longed for revenge: even those communities which had -hitherto declined the danger of a doubtful contest, meanly solicited to -become parties in a war, which they expected must finally terminate in the -destruction of Athens. Should all the efforts of such a powerful confederacy -still prove insufficient to the ruin of the devoted city, there was yet another -enemy behind, from whose strength and animosity the Athenians had everything -to fear.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[425-413 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The long and peaceful reign of Artaxerxes expired four hundred and -twenty-five years before the Christian era. There followed a rapid succession -of kings, Xerxes, Sogdianus, Ochus; the last of whom assumed the name -of Darius, to which historians have added the epithet of Nothus, the bastard, -to distinguish this effeminate prince from his illustrious predecessor. But in -the ninth year of his reign Darius was roused from his lethargy by the revolt -of Egypt and Lydia. The defection of the latter threatened to tear from his -dominion the valuable provinces of Asia Minor; a consequence which he determined -to prevent by employing the bravery of Pharnabazus, and the policy -of the crafty Tissaphernes, to govern respectively the northern and southern -districts of that rich and fertile peninsula. The abilities of these generals -not only quelled the rebellion in Lydia, but extended the arms of their master -towards the shores of the Ægean, as well as of the Hellespont and Propontis; -in direct opposition to the treaty which forty years before had been ratified -between the Athenians, then in the height of their prosperity, and the unwarlike -Artaxerxes. But the recent misfortunes of that ambitious people flattered -the Persian commanders with the hope of restoring the whole Asiatic -coast to the Great King, as well as of inflicting exemplary punishment on the -proud city, which had resisted the power, dismembered the empire, and -tarnished the glory of Persia.</p> - -<p>The terror of such a formidable combination might have reduced the -Athenians to despair. Their disasters and disgrace in Sicily destroyed at -once the real and the ideal supports of their power; the loss of one-third of -their citizens made it impossible to supply, with fresh recruits, the exhausted -strength of their garrisons in foreign parts; the terror of their fleet was no -more; and their multiplied defeats, before the walls of Syracuse, had converted -into contempt that admiration in which Athens had been long held -by Greeks and barbarians.</p> - -<p>But in free governments there are many latent resources which public -calamities alone can bring to light; and adversity, which to individuals endowed -with inborn vigour of mind is the great school of virtue and of heroism, -furnishes also to the enthusiasm of popular assemblies the noblest field -for the display of national honour and magnanimity. Had the measures of -the Athenians depended on one man, or even on a few, it is probable that the -selfish timidity of a prince, and the cautious prudence of a council, would have -sunk under the weight of misfortunes, too heavy for the unsupported strength -of ordinary minds. But the first spark of generous ardour, which the love -of virtue, of glory, and the republic, or even the meaner motives of ambition -and vanity, excited in the assembled multitude, was diffused and increased -by the natural contagion of sympathy; the patriotic flame was communicated -simultaneously to every breast. With one mind and resolution the Athenians -determined to brave the severity of fortune, and to withstand the assaults of -the enemy.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_619" id="Page_619">[619]</a></span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">[412 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>In the year following the unfortunate expedition into Sicily, the Spartans -prepared a fleet of a hundred sail, of which twenty-five galleys were furnished -by their own seaports. This armament was destined to encourage -and support the revolt of the Asiatic subjects of the Athenians. The islands -of Chios and Lesbos, as well as the city Erythræ on the continent, solicited -the Spartans to join them with their naval force. Their request was enforced -by Tissaphernes, who promised to pay the sailors, and to victual the ships. -At the same time, an ambassador from Cyzicus, a populous town situate on -an island of the Propontis, entreated the Lacedæmonian armament to sail -to the safe and capacious harbours which had long formed the wealth and -the ornament of that city, and to expel the Athenian garrisons, to which the -Cyzicenes and their neighbours reluctantly submitted. The Persian Pharnabazus -seconded their proposal; offered the same conditions with Tissaphernes; -and so little harmony subsisted between the lieutenants of the -Great King, that each urged his particular demand with a total unconcern -about the important interests of their common master. The Lacedæmonians -held many consultations amongst themselves, and with their allies; hesitated, -deliberated, resolved, and changed their resolution; and at length were persuaded -by Alcibiades to prefer the overture of Tissaphernes and the Ionians -to that of the Hellespontines and Pharnabazus.</p> - -<p>The delay occasioned by this deliberation was the principal, but not the -only cause which hindered the allies from acting expeditiously, at a time -when expedition was of the utmost importance. A variety of private views -diverted them from the general aim of the confederacy; and the season was -far advanced before the Corinthians, who had been distinguished by excess -of antipathy to Athens, were prepared to sail. The Athenians anticipated -the designs of the rebels of Chios, and carried off seven ships as pledges of -their fidelity. The squadron which returned from this useful enterprise, -intercepted the Corinthians as they sailed through the Saronic Gulf; and -having attacked and conquered them, pursued and blocked them up in their -harbours. Meanwhile the Spartans sent to the Ionian coast such squadrons -as were successively ready for sea, under the conduct of Alcibiades, Chalcideus, -and Astyochus. The first of these commanders sailed to the isle of -Chios, which was distracted by contending factions. The Athenian partisans -were surprised and compelled to submit; and the city, which possessed forty -galleys, and yielded in wealth and populousness to none of the neighbouring -colonies, became an accession to the Peloponnesian confederacy. The strong -and rich town of Miletus followed the example: Erythræ and Clazomenæ -surrendered to Chalcideus; several places of less note were conquered by -Astyochus.</p> - -<p>When the Athenians received the unwelcome intelligence of these events, -they voted the expenditure of a thousand talents, which in more prosperous -times, they had deposited in the citadel, under the sanction of a decree of -the senate and people, to reserve it for an occasion of the utmost danger. -This seasonable supply enabled them to increase the fleet, which sailed under -Phrynichus and other leaders, to the isle of Lesbos. Having secured the -fidelity of the Lesbians, who were ripe for rebellion, they endeavoured to -recover their authority in Miletus, anciently regarded as the capital of the -Ionic coast. A bloody battle was fought before the walls of that place, between -the Athenians and Argives on one side, and the Peloponnesians, -assisted by the troops of Tissaphernes and the revolted Milesians, on the -other. The Athenian bravery defeated, on this occasion, the superior number -of Greeks and barbarians to whom they were opposed; but their Argive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_620" id="Page_620">[620]</a></span> -auxiliaries were repulsed by the gallant citizens of Miletus so that in both -parts of the engagement, the Ionic race, commonly reckoned the less war-like, -prevailed over their Dorian rivals and enemies. Elevated with the joy -of victory, the Athenians prepared to assault the town, when they were -alarmed by the approach of a fleet of fifty-five sail which advanced in two -divisions, the one commanded by the celebrated Hermocrates, the other by -Theramenes the Spartan. Phrynichus prudently considered, that his own -strength only amounted to forty-eight galleys, and refused to commit the -last hope of the republic to the danger of an unequal combat. His firmness -despised the clamours of the Athenian sailors, who insulted, under the name -of cowardice, the caution of their admiral; and he calmly retired with his -whole force to the isle of Samos, where the popular faction having lately -treated the nobles with shocking injustice and cruelty, too frequent in Grecian -democracies, were ready to receive with open arms the patrons of that -form of government.</p> - -<p>The retreat of the Athenian fleet acknowledged the naval superiority of -the enemy; a superiority which was alone sufficient either to acquire or to -maintain the submission of the neighbouring coasts and islands. In other -respects too, the Peloponnesians enjoyed the most decisive advantages. Their -galleys were victualled, their soldiers were paid by Tissaphernes, and they -daily expected a reinforcement of a hundred and fifty Phœnician ships. But, -in this dangerous crisis, fortune seemed to respect the declining age of Athens, -and, by a train of accidents, singular and almost incredible, enabled Alcibiades, -so long the misfortune and the scourge, to become the defence and the -saviour of his country.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/p620.jpg" width="500" height="115" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Sandals</span></p> -</div> - -<h4>ALCIBIADES AGAIN TO THE FORE</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[415-412 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>During his long residence in Sparta, Alcibiades assumed the outward -gravity of deportment, and conformed himself to the spare diet, and laborious -exercises, which prevailed in that austere republic; but his character and -his principles remained as licentious as ever. His intrigue with Timæa, the -spouse of king Agis, was discovered by an excess of female levity. The -queen, vain of the attachment of so celebrated a character, familiarly gave -the name of Alcibiades to her son Leotychides; a name which, first confined -to the privacy of her female companions, was soon spread abroad in the world. -Alcibiades punished her folly by a most mortifying but well-merited declaration, -boasting that he had solicited her favours from no other motive but -that he might indulge the ambitious desire of giving a king to Sparta. The -offence itself, and the shameless avowal, still more provoking than the offence, -excited the keenest resentment in the breast of the injured husband. The -magistrates and generals of Sparta, jealous of the fame, and envious of the -merit of a stranger, readily sympathised with the misfortune, and encouraged -the revenge of Agis; and, as the horrid practice of assassination was still<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_621" id="Page_621">[621]</a></span> -disgracing the manners of Greece, orders were sent to Astyochus, who commanded -in chief the Peloponnesian forces in Asia, secretly to destroy -Alcibiades, whose power defied those laws which in every Grecian republic -condemned adulterers to death. But the active and subtile Athenian had -secured too faithful domestic intelligence in the principal families of Sparta -to become the victim of this execrable design. With his usual address he -eluded all the snares of Astyochus: his safety, however, required perpetual -vigilance and caution, and he determined to escape from the situation, which -subjected him to such irksome restraint.</p> - -<p>Publicly banished from Athens, secretly persecuted by Sparta, he had -recourse to the friendship of Tissaphernes, who admired his accomplishments, -and respected his abilities, which, though far superior in degree, were similar -in kind to his own. Tissaphernes was of a temper the more readily to -serve a friend, in proportion as he less needed his services. Alcibiades, therefore, -carefully concealed from him the dangerous resentment of the Spartans. -In the selfish breast of the Persian no attachment could be durable unless -founded on interest; and Alcibiades, who had deeply studied his character, -began to flatter his avarice, that he might insure his protection. He -informed him, that by allowing the Peloponnesian sailors a drachma, or -sevenpence sterling, of daily pay, he treated them with a useless and even -dangerous liberality: that the pay given by the Athenians, even in the most -flourishing times, amounted only to three oboli. Should the sailors prove -dissatisfied with this equitable reduction, the Grecian character afforded an -easy expedient for silencing their licentious clamours. It would be sufficient -to bribe the naval commanders and a few mercenary orators, and the careless -and improvident seamen would submit, without suspicion, the rate of -their pay, as well as every other concern, to the influence and the authority -of those who were accustomed to govern them.</p> - -<p>Tissaphernes heard this advice with all the attention of an avaricious -man to every proposal for saving his money; and so true a judgment had -Alcibiades formed of the Greeks, that Hermocrates the Syracusan was the -only officer who disdained, meanly and perfidiously, to betray the interest -of the men under his command: yet through the influence of his colleagues, -the plan of economy was universally adopted.</p> - -<p>The intrigues of Alcibiades sowed jealousy and distrust in the Peloponnesian -fleet: they alienated the minds of the troops both from Tissaphernes -and from their commanders: the Persian was ready to forsake those whom -he had learned to despise; and Alcibiades profited by this disposition to -insinuate that the alliance of the Lacedæmonians was equally expensive -and inconvenient for the Great King and his lieutenants.</p> - -<p>These artful representations produced almost an open breach between -Tissaphernes and his confederates. The advantage which Athens would -derive from this rupture might have paved the way for Alcibiades to return -to his country: but he dreaded to encounter that popular fury, whose -effects he had fatally experienced, and whose mad resentment no degree of -merit could appease; he therefore applied secretly to Pisander, Theramenes, -and other persons of distinction in the Athenian camp. To them -he deplored the desperate state of public affairs, expatiated on his own -credit with Tissaphernes, and insinuated that it might be yet possible to -prevent the Phœnician fleet from sailing to assist the enemy. Assuming -gradually more boldness, he finally declared that the Athenians might obtain -not merely the neutrality, but perhaps the assistance of Tissaphernes, should -they consent to abolish their turbulent democracy, so odious to the Persians,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_622" id="Page_622">[622]</a></span> -and to entrust the administration of government to men worthy to negotiate -with so mighty a monarch.</p> - -<p>When the illustrious exile proposed this measure, it is uncertain whether -he was acquainted with the secret cabals which had been already formed, -both in the city and in the camp, for executing the design which he suggested. -One man, the personal enemy of Alcibiades, alone opposed the -general current. But this man was Phrynichus. The courage with which -he invited dangers many have equalled, but none ever surpassed the boldness -with which he extricated himself from difficulties. When he perceived -that his colleagues were deaf to every objection against recalling the friend -of Tissaphernes, he secretly informed the Spartan admiral Astyochus, of -the intrigues which were carrying on to the disadvantage of his country. -Daring as this treachery was, Phrynichus addressed a traitor not less -perfidious than himself. Astyochus was become the pensioner and creature -of Tissaphernes, to whom he communicated the intelligence. The Persian -again communicated it to his favourite Alcibiades, who complained in -strong terms to the Athenians of the baseness and villainy of Phrynichus.</p> - -<p>The latter exculpated himself with address; but as the return of Alcibiades -might prove fatal to his safety, he ventured, a second time, to write -to Astyochus, gently reproaching him with his breach of confidence, and -explaining by what means he might surprise the whole Athenian fleet -at Samos; an exploit that must forever establish his fame and fortune. -Astyochus again betrayed the secret to Tissaphernes and Alcibiades; but -before their letters could be conveyed to the Athenian camp, Phrynichus, -who, by some unknown channel, was informed of this second treachery, -anticipated the dangerous discovery, by apprising the Athenians of their -enemy’s design to surprise their fleet. They had scarcely employed the -proper means to counteract that purpose when messengers came from -Alcibiades to announce the horrid perfidy of a wretch who had basely -sacrificed to private resentment the last hope of his country. But the -messengers arrived too late; the prior information of Phrynichus, as well -as the bold and singular wickedness of his design, which no common -degree of evidence was thought sufficient to prove, were sustained as -arguments for his exculpation; and it was believed that Alcibiades had -made use of a stratagem most infamous in itself, but not unexampled -among the Greeks, for destroying a man whom he detested.</p> - -<p>The opposition of Phrynichus, though it retarded the designs of -Alcibiades, prevented not the measures of Pisander and his associates -for abolishing the democracy. The soldiers at Samos were induced, by -reasons above mentioned, to acquiesce in the resolution of their generals. -But a more difficult task remained; to deprive the people of Athens of -their liberty which, since the expulsion of the family of Pisistratus, they -had enjoyed a hundred years. Pisander headed the deputation which was -sent from the camp to the city to effect this important revolution. He -acquainted the extraordinary assembly, summoned on that occasion in the -theatre of Bacchus, of the measures which had been adopted by their -soldiers and fellow-citizens at Samos. The compact band of conspirators -warmly approved the example; but loud murmurs of discontent resounded -in different quarters of that spacious theatre. Pisander asked the reason of -this disapprobation. “Had his opponents anything better to propose? -If they had, let them come forward and explain the grounds of their -dissent: but, above all, let them explain how they could save themselves, -their families, and their country, unless they complied with the demand of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_623" id="Page_623">[623]</a></span> -Tissaphernes. The imperious voice of necessity was superior to law; and -when the actual danger had ceased, they might re-establish their ancient -constitution.” The opponents of Pisander were unable or afraid to reply: -and the assembly passed a decree, investing ten ambassadors with full powers -to treat with the Persian satrap.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[412 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Soon after the arrival of the Peloponnesian fleet on the coast of Asia, -the Spartan commanders had concluded, in the name of their republic, a -treaty with Tissaphernes; in which it was stipulated, that the subsidies should -be regularly paid by the king of Persia, and that the Peloponnesian forces -should employ their utmost endeavours to recover, for that monarch, all -the dominions of his ancestors, which had been long unjustly usurped, and -cruelly insulted, by the Athenians. This treaty seemed so honourable to -the Great King, that his lieutenant could not venture openly to infringe it. -Alarmed at the decay of his influence with the Persians, on which he had -built the flattering hopes of returning to his country, Alcibiades employed -all the resources of his genius to conceal his disgrace. By solicitations, -entreaties, and the meanest compliances, he obtained an audience for his fellow-citizens. -As the agent of Tissaphernes, he then proposed the conditions -on which they might obtain the friendship of the Great King. Several -demands were made, demands most disgraceful to the name of Athens: to -all of which the ambassadors submitted. They even agreed to surrender the -whole coast of Ionia to its ancient sovereign. But when the artful Athenian -(fearful lest they should, on any terms, admit the treaty which Tissaphernes -was resolved on no terms to grant) demanded that the Persian fleets should -be allowed to sail, undisturbed, in the Grecian seas, the ambassadors, well -knowing that should this condition be complied with, no treaty could hinder -Greece from becoming a province of Persia, expressed their indignation in -very unguarded language, and left the assembly in disgust.</p> - -<p>This imprudence enabled Alcibiades to affirm, with some appearance of -truth, that their own anger and obstinacy, not the reluctance of Tissaphernes, -had obstructed the negotiation, which was precisely the issue of the affair -most favourable to his views. His artifices succeeded, but were not attended -with the consequences expected from them. The Athenians, both in the -camp and city, perceived, by this transaction, that his credit with the Persians -was less than he represented it; and the aristocratical faction were glad to -get rid of a man, whose restless ambition rendered him a dangerous associate. -They persisted, however, with great activity, in executing their purpose; of -which Phrynichus, who had opposed them only from hatred of Alcibiades, -became an active abettor. When persuasion was ineffectual, they had recourse -to violence. Androcles, Hyperbolus, and other licentious demagogues, -were assassinated. The people of Athens, ignorant of the strength of the conspirators, -and surprised to find in the number many whom they least suspected, -were restrained by inactive timidity, or fluctuated in doubtful suspense. The -cabal alone acted with union and with vigour; and difficult as it seemed to -subvert the Athenian democracy, which had subsisted a hundred years with -unexampled glory, yet this design was undertaken and accomplished by the -enterprising activity of Pisander, the artful eloquence of Theramenes, the firm -intrepidity of Phrynichus, and the superintending wisdom of Antiphon.</p> - -<p>He it was who formed the plan, and regulated the mode of attack, which -was carried on by his associates. Pisander and his party boldly declared, -that neither the spirit nor the forms of the established constitution (which -had recently subjected them to such a weight of misfortunes) suited the -present dangerous and alarming crisis. That it was necessary to new-model<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_624" id="Page_624">[624]</a></span> -the whole fabric of government; for which purpose five persons (whose -names he read) ought to be appointed by the people, to choose a hundred -others; each of whom should select three associates; and the four hundred -thus chosen, men of dignity and opulence, who would serve their country -without fee or reward, ought immediately to be invested with the majesty -of the republic. They alone should conduct the administration uncontrolled, -and assemble, as often as seemed proper, five thousand citizens, whom they -judged most worthy of being consulted in the management of public affairs. -This extraordinary proposal was accepted without opposition: the partisans -of democracy dreaded the strength of the cabal; and the undiscerning multitude, -dazzled by the imposing name of five thousand, a number far exceeding -the ordinary assemblies of Athens, perceived not that they surrendered -their liberties to the artifice of an ambitious faction.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_36b" id="enanchor_36b"></a><a href="#endnote_36b">b</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE OVERTHROW OF THE DEMOCRACY: THE FOUR HUNDRED</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[411 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Full liberty being thus granted to make any motion, however anti-constitutional, -and to dispense with all the established formalities, such as preliminary -authorisation by the senate, Pisander now came forward with his -substantive propositions to the following effect:</p> - -<p>(1) All the existing democratical magistracies were suppressed at once, -and made to cease for the future. (2) No civil functions whatever were -hereafter to be salaried. (3) To constitute a new government, a committee -of five persons were named forthwith, who were to choose a larger body of -one hundred; that is, one hundred including the five choosers themselves. -Each individual out of this body of one hundred, was to choose three persons. -(4) A body of Four Hundred was thus constituted, who were to take -their seat in the senate house, and to carry on the government with unlimited -powers, according to their own discretion. (5) They were to convene -the Five Thousand, whenever they might think fit. All was passed without -a dissentient voice.</p> - -<p>The invention and employment of this imaginary aggregate of Five -Thousand was not the least dexterous among the combinations of Antiphon. -No one knew who these Five Thousand were: yet the resolution just adopted -purported—not that such a number of citizens should be singled out and -constituted, either by choice, or by lot, or in some determinate manner which -should exhibit them to the view and knowledge of others—but that the -Four Hundred should convene the Five Thousand, whenever they thought -proper: thus assuming the latter to be a list already made up and notorious, -at least to the Four Hundred themselves. The real fact was that the Five -Thousand existed nowhere except in the talk and proclamations of the conspirators, -as a supplement of fictitious auxiliaries. They did not even exist -as individual names on paper, but simply as an imposturous nominal aggregate. -The Four Hundred, now installed, formed the entire and exclusive -rulers of the state. But the mere name of the Five Thousand, though it -was nothing more than a name, served two important purposes for Antiphon -and his conspiracy. First, it admitted of being falsely produced, -especially to the armament at Samos, as proof of a tolerably numerous and -popular body of equal, qualified, concurrent citizens, all intended to take -their turn by rotation in exercising the powers of government; thus lightening -the odium of extreme usurpation to the Four Hundred, and passing them off -merely as the earliest section of the Five Thousand, put into office for a few<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_625" id="Page_625">[625]</a></span> -months, and destined at the end of that period to give place to another equal -section. Next, it immensely augmented the means of intimidation possessed -by the Four Hundred at home, by exaggerating the impression of their supposed -strength. For the citizens generally were made to believe that there -were five thousand real and living partners in the conspiracy; while the fact -that these partners were not known and could not be individually identified, -rather aggravated the reigning terror and mistrust; since every man, suspecting -that his neighbour might possibly be among them, was afraid to -communicate his discontent or propose means for joint resistance. In both -these two ways, the name and assumed existence of the Five Thousand lent -strength to the real Four Hundred conspirators. It masked their usurpation, -while it increased their hold on the respect and fears of the citizens.</p> - -<p>As soon as the public assembly at Colonus had, with such seeming unanimity, -accepted all the propositions of Pisander, they were dismissed; and -the new regiment of Four Hundred were chosen and constituted in the form -prescribed. It now only remained to install them in the senate house. -But this could not be done without force, since the senators were already -within it; having doubtless gone thither immediately from the assembly, -where their presence, at least the presence of the prytanes, or senators of the -presiding tribe, was essential as legal presidents. They had to deliberate -what they would do under the decree just passed, which divested them of all -authority. Nor was it impossible that they might organise armed resistance; -for which there seemed more than usual facility at the present moment, since -the occupation of Decelea by the Lacedæmonians kept Athens in a condition -like that of a permanent camp, with a large proportion of the citizens day -and night under arms. Against this chance the Four Hundred made provision. -They selected that hour of the day when the greater number of -citizens habitually went home, probably to their morning meal, leaving the -military station, with the arms piled and ready, under comparatively thin -watch. While the general body of hoplites left the station at this hour, -according to the usual practice, the hoplites—Andrian, Tenian, and others—in -the immediate confidence of the Four Hundred, were directed, by private -order, to hold themselves prepared and in arms, at a little distance off; so -that if any symptoms should appear of resistance being contemplated, they -might at once interfere and forestall it.</p> - -<p>The Four Hundred then marched to the senate house, each man with a -dagger concealed under his garment, and followed by their special bodyguard -of 120 young men from various Grecian cities, the instruments of the -assassinations ordered by Antiphon and his colleagues. In this array they -marched into the senate house, where the senators were assembled, and -commanded them to depart; at the same time tendering to them their pay -for all the remainder of the year—seemingly about three months or more -down to the beginning of <i>Hecatombæon</i>, the month of new nominations—during -which their functions ought to have continued. The senators were -no way prepared to resist the decree just passed under the forms of legality, -with an armed body now arrived to enforce its execution. They obeyed and -departed, each man as he passed the door receiving the salary tendered to -him. That they should yield obedience to superior force, under the circumstances, -can excite neither censure nor surprise; but that they should accept, -from the hands of the conspirators, this anticipation of an unearned salary, -was a meanness which almost branded them as accomplices, and dishonoured -the expiring hour of the last democratical authority. The Four Hundred -now at last found themselves triumphantly installed in the senate house,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_626" id="Page_626">[626]</a></span> -without the least resistance, either from within its walls or even from without, -by any portion of the citizens.</p> - -<p>Thus perished, or seemed to perish, the democracy of Athens, after an -uninterrupted existence of nearly one hundred years since the revolution of -Clisthenes. So incredible did it appear that the numerous, intelligent, and -constitutional citizens of Athens should suffer their liberties to be overthrown -by a band of four hundred conspirators, while the great mass of them -not only loved their democracy, but had arms in their hands to defend it, -that even their enemy and neighbour Agis, at Decelea, could hardly imagine -the revolution to be a fact accomplished.</p> - -<p>The ulterior success of the conspiracy—when all prospect of Persian -gold, or improved foreign position, was at an end—is due to the combinations, -alike nefarious and skillful, of Antiphon, wielding and organising the -united strength of the aristocratical classes at Athens; strength always exceedingly -great, but under ordinary circumstances working in fractions -disunited and even reciprocally hostile to each other—restrained by the -ascendent democratical institutions—and reduced to corrupt what it could -not overthrow. Antiphon, about to employ this anti-popular force in one -systematic scheme, and for the accomplishment of a predetermined purpose, -keeps still within the same ostensible constitutional limits. He raises no -open mutiny: he maintains inviolate the cardinal point of Athenian political -morality—respect to the decision of the senate and political assembly, as -well as to constitutional maxims.</p> - -<p>He knows, however, that the value of these meetings, depends upon freedom -of speech; and that, if that freedom be suppressed, the assembly itself -becomes a nullity, or rather an instrument of positive imposture and mischief. -Accordingly, he causes all the popular orators to be successively -assassinated, so that no man dares to open his mouth on that side; while on -the other hand, the anti-popular speakers are all loud and confident, cheering -one another on, and seeming to represent all the feeling of the persons -present. By thus silencing each individual leader, and intimidating every -opponent from standing forward as spokesman, he extorts the formal sanction -of the assembly and the senate to measures which the large majority of the -citizens detest. That majority, however, are bound by their own constitutional -forms; and when the decision of these, by whatever means obtained, -is against them, they have neither the inclination nor the courage to resist. -In no part of the world has this sentiment of constitutional duty, and submission -to the vote of a legal majority, been more keenly and universally -felt, than it was among the citizens of democratical Athens.<a name="FNanchor_57" id="FNanchor_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> Antiphon thus -finds means to employ the constitutional sentiment of Athens as a means of -killing the constitution: the mere empty form, after its vital and protective -efficacy has been abstracted, remains simply as a cheat to paralyse individual -patriotism.</p> - -<p>As Grecian history has been usually written, we are instructed to believe -that the misfortunes, and the corruption, and the degradation of the democratical -states are brought upon them by the class of demagogues, of whom -Cleon, Hyperbolus, Androcles, etc., stand forth as specimens. These men -are represented as mischief makers and revilers, accusing without just cause, -and converting innocence into treason. Now the history of this conspiracy -of the Four Hundred presents to us the other side of the picture. It shows<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_627" id="Page_627">[627]</a></span> -that the political enemies, against whom the Athenian people were protected -by their democratical institutions, and by the demagogues as living -organs of those institutions, were not fictitious but dangerously real. It -reveals the continued existence of powerful anti-popular combinations, ready -to come together for treasonable purposes when the moment appeared safe -and tempting. It manifests the character and morality of the leaders, to -whom the direction of the anti-popular force naturally fell. It proves that -these leaders, men of uncommon ability, required nothing more than the -extinction or silence of the demagogues, to be enabled to subvert the popular -securities and get possession of the government. We need no better proof -to teach us what was the real function and intrinsic necessity of these demagogues -in the Athenian system, taking them as a class, and apart from the -manner in which individuals among them may have performed their duty. -They formed the vital movement of all that was tutelary and public spirited in -democracy. Aggressive in respect to official delinquents, they were defensive -in respect to the public and the constitution.</p> - -<p>If that force, which Antiphon found ready made, had not been efficient, -at an earlier period in stifling the democracy, it was because there were demagogues -to cry aloud, as well as assemblies to hear and sustain them. If -Antiphon’s conspiracy was successful, it was because he knew where to aim -his blows, so as to strike down the real enemies of the oligarchy and the real -defenders of the people. We here employ the term demagogue because it is -that commonly used by those who denounce the class of men here under -review: the proper neutral phrase, laying aside odious associations, would be -to call them popular speakers, or opposition speakers. But, by whatever -name they may be called, it is impossible rightly to conceive their position -in Athens, without looking at them in contrast and antithesis with those anti-popular -forces against which they formed the indispensable barrier, and -which come forth into such manifest and melancholy working under the -organising hands of Antiphon and Phrynichus.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_36c" id="enanchor_36c"></a><a href="#endnote_36c">c</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/p627.jpg" width="500" height="117" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Seals</span></p> -</div> - -<h4>THE REVOLT FROM THE FOUR HUNDRED</h4> - -<p>The conduct of the Four Hundred tyrants (for historians have justly -adopted the language of Athenian resentment) soon opened the eyes and -understanding of the most thoughtless. They abolished every vestige of -ancient freedom; employed mercenary troops levied from the small islands -of the Ægean, to overawe the multitude, and to intimidate, in some instances -to destroy, their real or suspected enemies. Instead of seizing the opportunity -of annoying the Peloponnesians, enraged at the treachery of Tissaphernes, -and mutinous for want of pay and subsistence, they sent ambassadors to -solicit peace from the Spartans on the most dishonourable terms. Their -tyranny rendered them odious in the city, and their cowardice made them -contemptible in the camp at Samos. Their cruelty and injustice were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_628" id="Page_628">[628]</a></span> -described and exaggerated by the fugitives who continually arrived in that -island. Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus, two officers of high merit and distinction, -though not actually entrusted with a share in the principal command, -gave activity and boldness to the insurgents. The abettors of the new government -were attacked by surprise: thirty of the most criminal were put to -death, several others were banished, democracy was re-established in the -camp, and the soldiers were bound by oath to maintain their hereditary government -against the conspiracy of domestic foes, and to act with vigour -against the public enemy.</p> - -<p>Thrasybulus, who headed this successful and meritorious sedition, had -a mind to conceive, a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute the most -daring designs. He exhorted the soldiers not to despair of effecting in the -capital the same revolution which they had produced in the camp. Their -most immediate concern was to recall Alcibiades, who had been deceived -and disgraced by the tyrants, and who not only felt with peculiar sensibility, -but could resent with becoming dignity, the wrongs of his country and his -own. The advice of Thrasybulus was approved; soon after he sailed to -Magnesia, and returned in company with Alcibiades.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/p628.jpg" width="500" height="109" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Seals</span></p> -</div> - -<p>Though the army immediately saluted him general, Alcibiades left the care -of the troops to his colleagues Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus, and withdrew himself -from the applauses of his admiring countrymen, on pretence of concerting -with Tissaphernes the system of their future operations. But his principal -motive was to show himself to the Persian, in the new and illustrious character -with which he was invested; for having raised his authority among the Athenians -by his influence with the satrap, he expected to strengthen this influence by -the support of that authority. Before he returned to the camp, ambassadors -had been sent by the tyrants, to attempt a negotiation with the partisans of -democracy, who, inflamed by continual reports of the indignities and cruelties -committed in Athens, prepared to sail thither to protect their friends -and take vengeance on their enemies. Alcibiades judiciously opposed this -rash resolution which must have left the Hellespont, Ionia, and the islands, -at the mercy of the hostile fleet. But he commanded the ambassadors to deliver -to their masters a short but pithy message: “That they must divest -themselves of their illegal power, and restore the ancient constitution. If -they delayed obedience, he would sail to the Piræus, and deprive them of their -authority and their lives.”</p> - -<p>When this message was reported at Athens, it added to the disorder and -confusion in which that unhappy city was involved. The Four Hundred who -had acted with unanimity in usurping the government, soon disagreed about -the administration, and split into factions, which persecuted each other as -furiously as both had persecuted the people. Theramenes and Aristocrates -condemned and opposed the tyrannical measures of their colleagues. The -perfidious Phrynichus was slain: both parties prepared for taking arms; -and the horrors of a Corcyrean sedition were ready to be renewed in Athens,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_629" id="Page_629">[629]</a></span> -when the old men, the children, the women, and strangers, interposed for the -safety of a city which had long been the ornament of Greece, the terror of -Persia, and the admiration of the world.</p> - -<p>Had the public enemy availed themselves of this opportunity to assault -the Piræus, Athens could not have been saved from immediate destruction. -But the Peloponnesian forces at Miletus, long clamorous and discontented, -had broken out into open mutiny, when they heard of the recall of Alcibiades, -and the hostile intentions of Tissaphernes. They destroyed the Persian -fortifications in the neighbourhood of Miletus; they put the garrisons to the -sword; their treacherous commander, Astyochus, saved his life by flying to -an altar; nor was the tumult appeased until the guilty were removed from -their sight, and Mindarus, an officer of approved valour and fidelity, arrived -from Sparta to assume the principal command.</p> - -<p>The dreadful consequences which must have resulted to the Athenians, -if, during the fury of their sedition, the enemy had attacked them with a -fleet of a hundred and fifty sail, may be conceived by the terror inspired by -a much smaller Peloponnesian squadron of only forty-two vessels commanded -by the Spartan Agesandridas. The friends of the constitution had assembled -in the spacious theatre of Bacchus. The most important matters were in -agitation, when the alarm was given that some Peloponnesian ships had been -seen on the coast. All ranks of men hastened to the Piræus; and prepared -thirty-six vessels for taking the sea. When Agesandridas perceived the -ardent opposition which he must encounter in attempting to land, he doubled -the promontory of Sunium, and sailed towards the fertile island of Eubœa, -from which, since the fortification of Decelea, the Athenians had derived far -more plentiful supplies than from the desolated territory of Attica. To defend -a country which formed their principal resource, they sailed in pursuit -of the enemy, and observed them next day near the shore of Eretria, the most -considerable town in the island.</p> - -<p>The Eubœans, who had long watched an opportunity to revolt, supplied -the Peloponnesian squadron with all necessaries in abundance; but instead -of furnishing a market to the Athenians, they retired from the coast -on their approach. The commanders were obliged to weaken their strength -by despatching several parties into the country to procure provisions; -Agesandridas seized this opportunity to attack them: most of the ships -were taken; the crews swam to land; many were cruelly murdered by the -Eretrians, from whom they expected protection; and such only survived as -took refuge in the Athenian garrisons scattered over the island.</p> - -<p>The news of this misfortune were most alarming to the Athenians. Neither -the invasion of Xerxes, nor even the defeat in Sicily, occasioned such terrible -consternation. They dreaded the immediate defection of Eubœa; they -had no more ships to launch; no means of resisting their multiplied enemies: -the city was divided against the camp, and divided against itself. Yet the -magnanimous firmness of Theramenes did not allow the friends of liberty to -despair. He encouraged them to disburden the republic of its domestic foes, -who had summoned, or who were at least believed to have summoned, the -assistance of the Lacedæmonian fleet, that they might be enabled to enslave -their fellow citizens. Antiphon, Pisander, and the most obnoxious, seasonably -escaped; the rest submitted. A decree was passed, recalling Alcibiades, -and approving the conduct of the troops at Samos. The sedition ceased. -The democracy, which had been interrupted four months, was restored; and -such are the resources of a free government, that even this violent fermentation -was not unproductive of benefit to the state.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_630" id="Page_630">[630]</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE TRIUMPHS OF ALCIBIADES</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[411-409 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The Spartans, who formerly rejected the friendship, now courted the protection -of Pharnabazus; to whose northern province they sailed with the -principal strength of their armament, proceeded northwards in pursuit of -the enemy; and the important straits, which join the Euxine and Ægean seas, -became, and long continued, the scene of conflict. In the twenty-first winter -of the war, a year already distinguished by the dissolution and revival of -their democracy, the Athenians prevailed in three successive engagements, -including Cynossema, the event of which became continually more decisive.</p> - -<p>The Spartans yielded possession of the sea, which they hoped soon to -recover, and retired to the friendly harbours of Cyzicus, to repair their shattered -fleet; while the Athenians profited by the fame of their victory, and by -the terror of their arms, to demand contributions from the numerous and -wealthy towns in that neighbourhood. It was determined, chiefly by the -advice of Alcibiades, to attack the enemy at Cyzicus; for which purpose they -sailed, with eighty galleys, to the small island of Proconnesus, near the -western extremity of the Propontis, and ten miles distant from the station of -the Peloponnesian fleet. Alcibiades surprised sixty vessels on a dark and -rainy morning, as they were manœuvring at a distance from the harbour, and -skilfully intercepted their retreat. As the day cleared up, the rest sailed -forth to their assistance; the action became general; the Athenians obtained -a complete victory, and their valour was rewarded by the capture of the -whole Peloponnesian fleet, except the Syracusan ships, which were burned, -in the face of a victorious enemy, by the enterprising Hermocrates. The -Peloponnesians were assisted by Pharnabazus in equipping a new fleet; but -were deprived of the wise counsels of Hermocrates, whose abilities were -well fitted both to prepare and to employ the resources of war. The success -of the Asiatic expedition had not corresponded to the sanguine hopes of his -countrymen; the insolent populace accused their commanders of incapacity; -and a mandate was sent from Syracuse, depriving them of their office, and -punishing them with banishment.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile Thrasyllus obtained at Athens the supplies which he had gone -to solicit; supplies far more powerful than he had reason to expect. With -these forces, Thrasyllus sailed to Samos. He took Colophon, with several -places of less note, in Ionia; penetrated into the heart of Lydia, burning the -corn and villages; and returned to the shore, driving before him a numerous -body of slaves, and other valuable booty. His courage was increased by the -want of resistance on the part of Tissaphernes, whose province he had -invaded; of the Peloponnesian forces at Miletus; and of the revolted colonies -of Athens. He resolved, therefore, to attack the beautiful and flourishing -city of Ephesus, which was then the principal ornament and defence of -the Ionic coast. The Athenians were defeated, with the loss of three hundred -men; and retiring from the field of battle, they sought refuge in their -ships, and prepared to sail towards the Hellespont.</p> - -<p>During the voyage thither, they fell in with twenty Sicilian galleys, of -which they took four, and pursued the rest to Ephesus. Having soon afterwards -reached the Hellespont, they found the Athenian armament at Lampsacus, -where Alcibiades thought proper to muster the whole military and naval -forces. They made a conjunct expedition against Abydos. Pharnabazus -defended the place with a numerous body of Persian cavalry. The disgraced -troops of Thrasyllus rejoiced in an opportunity to retrieve their honour. They -attacked, repelled, and routed the enemy.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_631" id="Page_631">[631]</a></span></p> - -<div class="sidenote">[408-407 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>For several years the measures of the Athenians had been almost uniformly -successful; but the twenty-fourth campaign was distinguished by -peculiar favours of fortune. The Athenians returned in triumph to attack -the fortified cities, which still declined submission; an undertaking in which -Alcibiades displayed the wonderful resources of his extraordinary genius. -By gradual approaches, by sudden assaults, by surprise, by treason, or by -stratagem, he in a few months became master of Chalcedon, Selymbria, and -at last of Byzantium itself. His naval success was equally conspicuous. -The Athenians again commanded the sea. The small squadrons fitted out -by the enemy successively fell into their power. It was computed by the -partisans of Alcibiades, that, since assuming the command, he had taken or -destroyed two hundred Syracusan and Peloponnesian galleys; and his superiority -of naval strength enabled him to raise such contributions, both in -the Euxine and Mediterranean, as abundantly supplied his fleet and army -with every necessary article of subsistence and accommodation.</p> - -<p>While the Athenian arms were crowned with such glory abroad, the Attic -territory was continually harassed by King Agis, and the Lacedæmonian troops -posted at Decelea. Their bold and sudden incursions frequently threatened -the safety of the city itself; the desolated lands afforded no advantage to the -ruined proprietors; nor could the Athenians venture without their walls, -to celebrate their accustomed festivals. Alcibiades, animated by his foreign -victories, hoped to relieve the domestic sufferings of his country; and after -an absence of many years, distinguished by such a variety of fortune, eagerly -longed to revisit his native city, and enjoy the rewards and honours usually -bestowed by the Greeks on successful valour. This celebrated voyage, which -several ancient historians studiously decorated with every circumstance of -naval triumph, was performed in the twenty-fifth summer of the war. Notwithstanding -all his services, the cautious son of Clinias, instructed by -adversity, declined to land in the Piræus, until he was informed that the -assembly had repealed the decrees against him, formally revoked his banishment, -and prolonged the term of his command. Even after this agreeable -intelligence he was still unable to conquer his well-founded distrust of the -variable and capricious humours of the people; nor would he approach the -crowded shore, till he observed, in the midst of the multitude, his principal -friends and relations inviting him by their voice and action. He then landed -amidst the universal acclamations of the spectators, who, unattentive to the -naval pomp, and regardless of the other commanders, fixed their eyes only -on Alcibiades. Next day an extraordinary assembly was summoned, by -order of the magistrates, that he might explain and justify his apparent -misconduct, and receive the rewards due to his acknowledged merit.</p> - -<p>Before judges so favourably disposed to hear him, Alcibiades found no -difficulty to make his defence. He was appointed commander-in-chief by sea -and land. A hundred galleys were equipped, and transports were prepared -for fifteen hundred heavy-armed men, with a proportional body of cavalry.</p> - -<p>Several months had passed in these preparations, when the Eleusinian -festival approached; a time destined to commemorate and to diffuse the -temporal and spiritual gifts of the goddess Ceres, originally bestowed on -the Athenians, and by them communicated to the rest of Greece.</p> - -<p>Besides the mysterious ceremonies of the temple, the worship of that -bountiful goddess was celebrated by vocal and instrumental music, by public -shows, and exhibitions, which continued during several days, and above all, -by the pompous procession, which marched for ten miles along the sacred -road leading from Athens to Eleusis. This important part of the solemnity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_632" id="Page_632">[632]</a></span> -had formerly been intermitted, because the Athenians, after the loss of -Decelea, were no longer masters of the road, and were compelled, contrary -to established custom, to proceed by sea to the temple of Ceres. Alcibiades -determined to wipe off the stain of impiety which had long adhered to his -character, by renewing, in all its lustre, this venerable procession. After -sufficient garrisons had been left to defend the Athenian walls and fortresses, -the whole body of heavy-armed troops were drawn out to protect the -Eleusinian procession, which marched along the usual road to the temple, -and afterwards returned to Athens, without suffering any molestation from -the Lacedæmonians; having united, on this occasion alone, all the splendour -of war with the pomp of superstition.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[407 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Soon after this meritorious enterprise, Alcibiades prepared to sail for -Lesser Asia, accompanied by the affectionate admiration of his fellow -citizens, who flattered themselves that the abilities and fortune of their -commander would speedily reduce Chios, Ephesus, Miletus, and the other -revolted cities and islands. The general alacrity, however, was somewhat -abated by the reflection, that the arrival of Alcibiades in Athens coincided -with the anniversary of the <i>plynteria</i>, a day condemned to melancholy idleness, -from a superstitious belief that nothing undertaken on that day could -be brought to a prosperous conclusion.</p> - -<p>While the superstitious multitude trembled at the imaginary anger of -Minerva, men of reflection and experience dreaded the activity and valour -of Lysander, who, during the residence of Alcibiades at Athens, had taken the -command of the Peloponnesian forces in the East. Years had added experience -to his valour, and enlarged the resources, without abating the ardour, -of his ambitious mind. In his transactions with the world, he had learned -to soften the harsh asperity of his national manners; to gain by fraud what -could not be effected by force; and, in his own figurative language, to “eke -out the lion’s with the fox’s skin.” This mixed character admirably suited -the part which he was called to act.</p> - -<p>Since the decisive action at Cyzicus, the Peloponnesians, unable to resist -the enemy, had been employed in preparing ships on the coast of their own -peninsula, as well as in the harbours of their Persian and Grecian allies. -The most considerable squadrons had been equipped in Cos, Rhodes, Miletus, -and Ephesus; in the last of which the whole armament, amounting to ninety -sail, was collected by Lysander. But the assembling of such a force was a -matter of little consequence, unless proper measures should be taken for -holding it together, and for enabling it to act with vigour. It was necessary, -above all, to secure pay for the seamen; for this purpose, Lysander, -accompanied by several Lacedæmonian ambassadors, repaired to Sardis, to -congratulate the happy arrival of Cyrus, a generous and valiant youth of -seventeen, who had been entrusted by his father Darius with the government -of the inland parts of Lesser Asia. Lysander excited the warmest -emotions of friendship in the youthful breast of Cyrus, who drinking his -health after the Persian fashion, desired him to ask a boon, with full -assurance that nothing should be denied him. Lysander replied, with -his usual address, “That he should ask what it would be no less useful for -the prince to give, than for him to receive: the addition of an obolus a day -to the pay of the mariners; an augmentation which, by inducing the Athenian -crews to desert, would not only increase their own strength, but enfeeble -the common enemy.” Struck with the apparent disinterestedness of this -specious proposal, Cyrus ordered him immediately ten thousand darics -(above five thousand pounds sterling); with which he returned to Ephesus,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_633" id="Page_633">[633]</a></span> -discharged the arrears due to his troops, gave them a month’s pay in advance, -raised their daily allowance, and seduced innumerable deserters from -the Athenian fleet.</p> - -<p>While Lysander was usefully employed in manning his ships, and preparing -them for action, Alcibiades attacked the small island of Andros. -The resistance was more vigorous than he had reason to expect; and the -immediate necessity of procuring pay and subsistence for the fleet, obliged -him to leave his work imperfect. With a small squadron he sailed to raise -contributions on the Ionian or Carian coast, committing the principal armament -to Antiochus, a man totally unworthy of such an important trust. -Even the affectionate partiality of Alcibiades seems to have discerned the -unworthiness of his favourite, since he gave him strict orders to continue, -during his own absence, in the harbour of Samos, and by no means to risk an -engagement. This injunction, as it could not prevent the rashness, might -perhaps provoke the vain levity of the vice-admiral, who after the departure -of his friend, sailed to Notium near Ephesus, approached Lysander’s ships, -and with the most licentious insults challenged him to battle. The prudent -Spartan delayed the moment of attack, until the presumption of his enemies -had thrown them into scattered disorder. He then commanded the Peloponnesian -squadrons to advance. His manœuvres were judicious, and executed -with a prompt obedience. The battle was not obstinate, as the -Athenians, who scarcely expected any resistance, much less assault, sunk at -once from the insolence of temerity into the despondency of fear. They -lost fifteen vessels, with a considerable part of their crews. The remainder -retired disgracefully to Samos; while the Lacedæmonians profited by their -victory by the taking of Eion and Delphinium. Though fortune thus -favoured the prudence of Lysander, he declined to venture a second engagement -with the superior strength of Alcibiades, who, having resumed the -command, employed every artifice and insult that might procure him an -opportunity to restore the tarnished lustre of the Athenian fleet.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/p633.jpg" width="500" height="121" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Buckles</span></p> -<p class="caption">(In the British Museum)</p> -</div> - -<h4>ALCIBIADES IN DISFAVOUR AGAIN</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[407-406 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>But such an opportunity he could never again find. The people of -Athens, who expected to hear of nothing but victories and triumphs, were -mortified to the last degree, when they received intelligence of such a -shameful defeat. As they could not suspect the abilities, they distrusted -the fidelity, of their commander. Their suspicions were increased and confirmed -by the arrival of Thrasybulus, who, whether actuated by a laudable zeal -for the interest of the public service, or animated by a selfish jealousy of -the fame and honours that had been so liberally heaped on a rival, formally -impeached Alcibiades in the Athenian assembly. “His misconduct<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_634" id="Page_634">[634]</a></span> -had totally ruined the affairs of his country. A talent for low buffoonery -was a sure recommendation to his favour. His friends were, partially, selected -from the meanest and most abandoned of men, who possessed no -other merit than that of being subservient to his passions. To such unworthy -instruments the fleet of Athens was entrusted; while the commander-in-chief -revelled in debauchery with the harlots of Abydos and -Ionia, or raised exorbitant contributions on the dependent cities, that he -might defray the expense of a fortress on the coast of Thrace, in the neighbourhood -of Byzantium, which he had erected to shelter himself against the -just vengeance of the republic.”</p> - -<p>In the assembly, Alcibiades was accused, and almost unanimously condemned; -and that the affairs of the republic might not again suffer by the -abuse of undivided power, ten commanders were substituted in his room; -among whom were Thrasyllus, Leon, Diomedon; Conon, a character as yet -but little known, but destined, in a future period, to eclipse the fame of his -contemporaries; and Pericles, who inherited the name, the merit, and the -bad fortune, of his illustrious father. The new generals immediately sailed -to Samos; and Alcibiades sought refuge in his Thracian fortress.</p> - -<p>They had scarcely assumed the command, when an important alteration -took place in the Peloponnesian fleet. Lysander’s year had expired, and -Callicratidas, a Spartan of a very opposite character, was sent to succeed -him.</p> - -<p>Lysander reluctantly resigned his employment; but determined to render -it painful, and if possible, too weighty for the abilities of his successor. -For this purpose he returned to the court of Cyrus, to whom he restored a -considerable sum of money still unexpended in the service of the Grecian -fleet, and to whom he misrepresented, under the names of obstinacy, ignorance, -and rusticity, the unaffected plainness, the downright sincerity, and -the other manly, but uncomplying, virtues of the generous Callicratidas. -When that commander repaired to Sardis to demand the stipulated pay, he -could not obtain admission to the royal presence.</p> - -<p>But Callicratidas could not, with honour or safety, return to the fleet at -Ephesus, without having collected money to supply the immediate wants -of the sailors. He proceeded, therefore, to Miletus and other friendly -towns of Ionia; and having met the principal citizens, in their respective -assemblies, he explained openly and fully the mean jealousy of Lysander, -and the disdainful arrogance of Cyrus. By those judicious and honourable -expedients, Callicratidas, without fraud or violence, obtained such considerable, -yet voluntary contributions, as enabled him to gratify the importunate -demands of the sailors, and to return with honour to Ephesus, in order to -prepare for action. His first operations were directed against the isle of -Lesbos, or rather against the strong and populous towns of Methymna and -Mytilene, which respectively commanded the northern and southern divisions -of that island. Methymna was taken by storm, and subjected to the depredations -of the Peloponnesian troops.</p> - -<h4>CONON WINS AT ARGINUSÆ</h4> - -<p>Meanwhile Conon, the most active and enterprising of the Athenian -commanders, had put to sea with a squadron of seventy sail, in order to -protect the coast of Lesbos. But this design was attempted too late; nor, -had it been more early undertaken, was the force of Conon sufficient to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_635" id="Page_635">[635]</a></span> -accomplish it. Callicratidas observed his motions, discovered his strength, and, -with a far superior fleet, intercepted his retreat to the armament of Samos. -The Athenians fled towards the coast of Mytilene, but were prevented from -entering the harbour of that place by the resentment of the inhabitants, -who rejoiced in an opportunity to punish those who had so often conquered, -and so long oppressed, their city. In consequence of this unexpected -opposition, the Athenian squadron was overtaken by the enemy. The -engagement was more sharp and obstinate than might have been expected in -such an inequality of strength. Thirty empty ships (for the most of the men -swam to land) were taken by the Peloponnesians. The remaining forty -were hauled up under the walls of Mytilene; Callicratidas recalled his -troops from Methymna, received a reinforcement from Chios, and blocked up -the Athenians by sea and land.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[406 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The Athenians reinforced their domestic strength with the assistance -of their allies; all able-bodied men were pressed into the service; and, in a -few weeks, they had assembled at Samos a hundred and fifty sail, which -immediately took the sea, with a resolution to encounter the enemy.</p> - -<p>Callicratidas did not decline the engagement. Having left fifty ships -to guard the harbour of Mytilene, he proceeded with a hundred and twenty -to Cape Malea, the most southern point of Lesbos. The Athenians had -advanced, the same evening, to the islands or rather rocks, of Arginusæ, -four miles distant from that promontory. The night passed in bold stratagems -for mutual surprise, which were rendered ineffectual by a violent -tempest of rain and thunder. The fight was long and bloody; passing, -successively, through all the different gradations, from disciplined order -and regularity to the most tumultuous confusion. The Spartan commander -was slain charging in the centre of the bravest enemies. The hostile -squadrons fought with various fortune in different parts of the battle, and -promiscuously conquered, pursued, surrendered, or fled. Thirteen Athenian -vessels were taken by the Peloponnesians; but, at length, the latter gave -way on all sides: seventy of their ships were captured, the rest escaped to -Chios and Phocæa.</p> - -<p>The Athenian admirals, though justly elated with their good fortune, cautiously -deliberated concerning the best means of improving their victory. -Several advised that the fleet should steer its course to Mytilene, to -surprise the Peloponnesian squadron which blocked up the harbour of that -city. Diomedon recommended it as a more immediate and essential object -of their care to recover the bodies of the slain, and to save the wreck of -twelve vessels which had been disabled in the engagement. Thrasybulus -observed, that by dividing their strength, both purposes might be effected. -His opinion was approved. The charge of preserving the dying, and -collecting the bodies of the dead, was committed to Theramenes and Thrasybulus. -Fifty vessels were destined to that important service, doubly recommended -by humanity and superstition. The remainder sailed to the isle -of Lesbos, in quest of the Peloponnesians on that coast, who narrowly escaped -destruction through the well-conducted stratagem of Eteonicus, the Spartan -vice-admiral.</p> - -<p>While the prudent foresight of Eteonicus saved the Peloponnesian -squadron at Mytilene, the violence of a storm prevented Theramenes and -Thrasybulus from saving their unfortunate companions, all of whom, excepting -one of the admirals and a few others who escaped by their extraordinary -dexterity in swimming, were overwhelmed by the waves of a -tempestuous sea; nor could their dead bodies ever be recovered. These<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_636" id="Page_636">[636]</a></span> -unforeseen circumstances were the more disagreeable and mortifying to the -commanders, because, immediately after the battle, they had sent an advice-boat -to Athens, acquainting the magistrates with the capture of seventy -vessels; mentioning their intended expeditions to Mytilene, Methymna, and -Chios, from which they had reason to hope the most distinguished success; -and particularly taking notice that the important charge of recovering the -bodies of the drowned or slain had been committed to Theramenes and Thrasybulus, -two captains of approved conduct and fidelity.</p> - -<p>The joy with which the Athenians received this flattering intelligence -was converted into disappointment and sorrow, when they understood that -their fleet had returned to Samos, without reaping the expected fruits of -victory. They were afflicted beyond measure with the total loss of the -wreck, by which their brave and victorious countrymen had been deprived -of the sacred rites of funeral; a circumstance viewed with peculiar horror, -because it was supposed, according to a superstition consecrated by the -belief of ages, to subject their melancholy shades to wander a hundred years -on the gloomy banks of the Styx, before they could be transported to the -regions of light and felicity. The relations of the dead lamented their -private misfortunes; the enemies of the admirals exaggerated the public -calamity; both demanded an immediate and serious examination into the -cause of this distressful event, that the guilty might be discovered and -punished.</p> - -<h4>THE TRIAL OF THE GENERALS</h4> - -<p>Amidst the ferment of popular discontents, Theramenes sailed to Athens, -with a view to exculpate himself and his colleague, Thrasybulus. The -letter sent thither before them had excited their fear and their resentment; -since it rendered them responsible for a duty which they found it impossible -to perform. Theramenes accused the admirals of having neglected the -favourable moment to save the perishing, and to recover the bodies of the -dead; and, after the opportunity of this important service was irrecoverably -lost, of having devolved the charge on others, in order to screen their -own misconduct. The Athenians greedily listened to the accusation, and -cashiered the absent commanders. Conon, who during the action remained -blocked up at Mytilene, was entrusted with the fleet. Protomachus and -Aristogenes chose a voluntary banishment. The rest returned home to -justify measures which appeared so criminal.</p> - -<p>Archedemus, an opulent and powerful citizen, and Callixenus, a seditious -demagogue, partly moved by the entreaties of Theramenes, and partly excited -by personal envy and resentment, denounced the admirals to the senate. -The accusation was supported by the relatives of the deceased, who appeared -in mourning robes, their heads shaved, their arms folded, their eyes bathed -in tears, piteously lamenting the loss and disgrace of their families, deprived -of their protectors, who had been themselves deprived of those last and solemn -duties to which all mankind are entitled. A false witness swore in court, -that he had been saved, almost by miracle, from the wreck, and that his companions, -as they were ready to be drowned, charged him to acquaint his -country how they had fallen victims to the neglect of their commanders.</p> - -<p>An unjust decree, which deprived the commanders of the benefits of a -separate trial, of an impartial hearing, and of the time as well as the means -necessary to prepare a legal defence, was approved by a majority of the -senate, and received with loud acclamations by the people, whose levity,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_637" id="Page_637">[637]</a></span> -insolence, pride, and cruelty, all eagerly demanded the destruction of the -admirals. The senators were intimidated into a reluctant compliance with -measures which they disapproved, and by which they were for ever to be -disgraced. Yet the philosophic firmness of Socrates disdained to submit. -He protested against the tameness of his colleagues, and declared that -neither threats, nor danger, nor violence, could compel him to conspire with -injustice for the destruction of the innocent.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/p637.jpg" width="500" height="140" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Grecian Galley</span></p> -</div> - -<p>But what could avail the voice of one virtuous man amidst the licentious -madness of thousands? The commanders were accused, tried, condemned, -and, with the most irregular precipitancy, delivered to the executioner. -Before they were led to death, Diomedon addressed the assembly in a short -but ever-memorable speech: “I am afraid, Athenians, lest the sentence -which you have passed on us, prove hurtful to the republic. Yet I would -exhort you to employ the most proper means to avert the vengeance of -heaven. You must carefully perform the sacrifices which, before giving -battle at Arginusæ, we promised to the gods in behalf of ourselves and of -you. Our misfortunes deprive us of an opportunity to acquit this just debt, -and to pay the sincere tribute of our gratitude. But we are deeply sensible -that the assistance of the gods enabled us to obtain that glorious and signal -victory.” The disinterestedness, the patriotism, and the magnanimity of -this discourse, must have appeased (if anything had been able to appease) -the tumultuous passions of the vulgar. But their headstrong fury defied -every restraint of reason or of sentiment. They persisted in their bloody -purpose, which was executed without pity: yet their cruelty was followed -by a speedy repentance, and punished by the sharp pangs of remorse, the -intolerable pain of which they vainly attempted to mitigate by inflicting a -well-merited vengeance on the detestable Callixenus.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_36b2" id="enanchor_36b2"></a><a href="#endnote_36b">b</a></span></p> - -<p>This complication of injustice and ingratitude seemed to give the finishing -blow to the Athenian state; they struggled for a while, after their defeat -at Syracuse; but from hence they were entirely sunk.</p> - -<p>The enemy, after their last defeat, had once more recourse to Lysander, -who had so often led them to conquest: on him they placed their chief confidence, -and ardently solicited his return. The Lacedæmonians, to gratify -their allies, and yet to observe their laws, which forbade that honour being -conferred twice on the same person, sent him with an inferior title, but with -the power of admiral. Thus appointed, Lysander sailed towards the Hellespont, -and laid siege to Lampsacus: the place was carried by storm, and -abandoned by Lysander to the mercy of the soldiers. The Athenians, who -followed him close, upon the news of his success, steered forward towards -Sestus, and from thence, sailing along the coast, halted over against the -enemy at Ægospotami, a place fatal to the Athenians.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_638" id="Page_638">[638]</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE BATTLE OF ÆGOSPOTAMI</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[405 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The Hellespont is not above two thousand -yards broad in that place. The two armies seeing -themselves so near each other, expected only to -rest the day, and were in hopes of coming to a -battle on that next. But Lysander had another -design in view: he commanded the seamen and -pilots to go on board their galleys, as if they were -in reality to fight the next morning at break of -day, to hold themselves in readiness, and to wait -his orders in profound silence. He ordered the -land army, in like manner, to draw up in battle -upon the coast, and to wait the day without any -noise. On the morning, as soon as the sun was -risen, the Athenians began to row towards them -with their whole fleet in one line, and to bid them -defiance. Lysander, though his ships were ranged -in order of battle, with their heads towards the -enemy, lay still without making any movement. -In the evening, when the Athenians withdrew, he -did not suffer his soldiers to go ashore, till two -or three galleys, which he had sent out to observe -them, were returned with advice that they had -seen the enemy land. The next day passed in the -same manner, as did the third and fourth. Such -a conduct, which argued reserve and apprehension, -extremely augmented the security and boldness -of the Athenians, and inspired them with a -high contempt for an army, which fear prevented -from showing themselves or attempting anything.</p> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 150px;"> -<img src="images/p638.jpg" width="150" height="379" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Candelabrum</span></p> -<p class="caption">(After Hope)</p> -</div> - -<p>Whilst this passed, Alcibiades, who was near -the fleet, took horse, and came to the Athenian -generals, to whom he represented, that they came upon a very disadvantageous -coast, where there were neither ports nor cities in the neighbourhood; -that they were obliged to bring their provisions from Sestus, with -great danger and difficulty; and that they were very much in the wrong -to suffer the soldiers and mariners of the fleet, as soon as they were ashore, -to straggle and disperse themselves at their pleasure, whilst the enemy’s -fleet faced them in view, accustomed to execute the orders of their general -with instant obedience, and upon the slightest signal.</p> - -<p>He offered also to attack the enemy by land, with a strong body of Thracian -troops, and to force a battle. The generals, especially Tydeus and -Menander, jealous of their command, did not content themselves with refusing -his offers, from the opinion, that, if the event proved unfortunate, the -whole blame would fall upon them, and, if favourable, that Alcibiades would -engross the whole honour of it; but rejected also with insult his wise and -salutary counsel: as if a man in disgrace lost his sense and abilities with the -favour of the commonwealth. Alcibiades withdrew.</p> - -<p>The fifth day, the Athenians presented themselves again, and offered -battle, retiring in the evening according to custom, with a more insulting air -than the days before. Lysander, as usual, detached some galleys to observe -them, with orders to return with the utmost diligence when they saw the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_639" id="Page_639">[639]</a></span> -Athenians landed, and to put a bright buckler<a name="FNanchor_58" id="FNanchor_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> at each ship’s head, as soon -as they reached the middle of the channel. Himself, in the meantime, ran -through the whole line in his galley, exhorting the pilots and officers to hold -the seamen and soldiers in readiness to row and fight on the first signal.</p> - -<p>As soon as the bucklers were put up in the ships’ heads, and the admiral’s -galley had given the signal by the sound of trumpet, the whole fleet set forwards, -in good order. The land army, at the same time, made all possible -haste to the top of the promontory, to see the battle. The strait that -separates the two continents in this place is about fifteen stadia, or two -miles in breadth, which space was presently cleared, through the activity -and diligence of the rowers. Conon, the Athenian general, was the first who -perceived from shore the enemy’s fleet advancing in good order to attack -him, upon which he immediately cried out for the troops to embark. In the -height of sorrow and perplexity, some he called to by their names, some he -conjured, and others he forced to go on board their galleys: but all his endeavours -and emotion were ineffectual, the soldiers being dispersed on all -sides. For they were no sooner come on shore, than some were run to the -sutlers, some to walk in the country, some to sleep in their tents, and others -had begun to dress their suppers. This proceeded from the want of vigilance -and experience in their generals, who, not suspecting the least danger, indulged -themselves in taking their repose, and gave their soldiers the same -liberty.</p> - -<p>The enemy had already fallen on with loud cries, and a great noise of -their oars, when Conon, disengaging himself with nine galleys, of which -number was the sacred ship, stood away for Cyprus, where he took refuge -with Evagoras. The Peloponnesians, falling upon the rest of the fleet, took -immediately the galleys which were empty, and disabled and destroyed such -as began to fill with men. The soldiers, who ran without order or arms to -their relief, were either killed in the endeavour to get on board, or flying on -shore, were cut in pieces by the enemy, who landed in pursuit of them. -Lysander took three thousand prisoners, with all their generals, and the -whole fleet. After having plundered the camp, and fastened the enemy’s -galleys to the sterns of his own, he returned to Lampsacus, amidst the -sounds of flutes and songs of triumph. It was his glory to have achieved -one of the greatest military exploits recorded in history, with little or no -loss, and to have terminated a war, in the small space of an hour, which had -already lasted seven-and-twenty years, and which perhaps, without him, had -been of much longer continuance. Lysander immediately sent despatches -with this agreeable news to Sparta.</p> - -<p>The three thousand prisoners taken in this battle having been condemned -to die, Lysander called upon Philocles, one of the Athenian generals, who -had caused all the prisoners taken in two galleys, the one of Andros, the -other of Corinth, to be thrown from the top of a precipice, and had formerly -persuaded the people of Athens to make a decree for cutting off the thumb -of the right hand of all the prisoners of war, in order to disable them from -handling the pike, and that they might be fit only to serve at the oar. -Lysander, therefore, caused him to be brought forth, and asked him what -sentence he would pass upon himself, for having induced his city to pass -that cruel decree. Philocles, without departing from his haughtiness in the -least, notwithstanding the extreme danger he was in, made answer: “Accuse -not people of crimes, who have no judges; but, as you are victors, use your<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_640" id="Page_640">[640]</a></span> -right, and do by us as we had done by you, if we had conquered.” At the -same instant he went into a bath, put on afterwards a magnificent robe, and -marched foremost to the execution. All the prisoners were put to the sword, -except Adimantus,<a name="FNanchor_59" id="FNanchor_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> who had opposed the decree.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_36e" id="enanchor_36e"></a><a href="#endnote_36e">e</a></span></p> - -<h4>THE FALL OF ATHENS</h4> - -<p>When he had arranged matters at Lampsacus, Lysander -sailed against Byzantium and Chalcedon; where -the inhabitants admitted him, after sending away the -Athenian garrison under treaty. The party that had -betrayed Byzantium to Alcibiades, at that time fled to -Pontus, and afterwards to Athens, and became citizens -there. The garrison troops of the Athenians, and whatever -other Athenians he found anywhere, Lysander sent -to Athens, giving them safe conduct so long as they -were sailing to that place alone, and to no other; knowing -that the more people were collected in the city and -Piræus, the sooner there would be a want of provisions. -And now, leaving Sthenelaus as Lacedæmonian harmost -of Byzantium and Chalcedon, he himself sailed away to -Lampsacus, and refitted his ships.</p> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;"> -<img src="images/p640.jpg" width="150" height="300" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Vase</span></p> -</div> - -<p>At Athens, on the arrival of the <i>Paralus</i> in the -night, the tale of their disaster was told; and the lamentation -spread from the Piræus up the Long Walls into -the city, one man passing on the tidings to another: so -that no one went to bed that night, not only through their mourning for the -dead, but much more still because they thought they should themselves -suffer the same things as they had done to the Melians (who were a colony -from Lacedæmon), when they had reduced them by blockade, and to the -Histiæans, Scionæans, Toronæans, Æginetans, and many others of the -Greeks. But the next day they convened an assembly, at which it was -resolved to block up the harbours, with the exception of one, and to put -the walls in order, and mount guard upon them, and in every other way to -prepare the city for a siege.</p> - -<p>Lysander, having come with two hundred ships from the Hellespont to -Lesbos, regulated both the other cities in the island, and especially Mytilene; -while he sent Eteonicus with ten ships to the Athenian possessions -Thraceward, who brought over all the places there to the Lacedæmonians. -And all the rest of Greece too revolted from Athens immediately after the -sea-fight, except the Samians; they massacred the notables amongst them, -and kept possession of the city. Afterwards Lysander sent word to Agis -at Decelea, and to Lacedæmon, that he was sailing up with two hundred -ships. And the Lacedæmonians went out to meet him <i>en masse</i>, and all -the rest of the Peloponnesians but the Argives, at the command of the -other Spartan king, Pausanias. When they were all combined, he took -them to the city and encamped before it, in the academy—the gymnasium -so called. Then Lysander went to Ægina, and restored the city to the -Æginetans, having collected as many of them as he could; and so likewise -to the Melians, and as many others as had been deprived of their city. After<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_641" id="Page_641">[641]</a></span> -this, having ravaged Salamis, he came to anchor off the Piræus, with a hundred -and fifty ships, and prevented all vessels from sailing into it.</p> - -<p>The Athenians, being thus besieged by land and by sea, were at a loss -what to do, as they had neither ships, nor allies, nor provisions; and they -thought nothing could save them from suffering what they had done to -others, not in self-defence, but wantonly wronging men of smaller states, on -no other single ground, but their being allies of the Lacedæmonians. Wherefore -they restored to their privileges those who had been degraded from them, -and held out resolutely; and though many in the city were dying of starvation, -they spoke not a word of coming to terms. But when their corn had -now entirely failed, they sent ambassadors to Agis, wishing to become allies -of the Lacedæmonians, while they retained their walls and the Piræus, and -on these conditions to make treaty with them. He told them to go to -Lacedæmon, as he had himself no power to treat. When the ambassadors -delivered this message to the Athenians, they sent them to Lacedæmon. -But when they were at Sellasia, near the Laconian territory, and the ephors -heard what they proposed, which was the same as they had done to Agis, -they bade them return from that very spot, and if they had any wish at all -for peace, to come back after taking better advice.</p> - -<p>When the ambassadors came home, and reported this in the city, dejection -fell on all; for they thought they would be sold into slavery; and that -even while they were sending another embassy, many would die of famine. -But with respect to the demolition of their walls, no one would advise it: -for Archestratus had been thrown into prison for saying in the council, that -it was best to make peace with the Lacedæmonians on the terms they offered, -which were, that they should demolish ten furlongs of each of the Long Walls; -and a decree was then made, that it should not be allowed to advise on that -subject. Such being the case, Theramenes said in the assembly, that if they -would send him to Lysander, he would come back with full knowledge -whether it was from a wish to enslave the city that the Lacedæmonians held -out on the subject of the walls, or to have a guarantee for their good faith. -Having been sent, he remained with Lysander three months and more, -watching to see when the Athenians, from the failure of all their food, would -agree to what any one might say. On his return in the fourth month, he -reported in the assembly that Lysander had detained him all that time, and -then told him to go to Lacedæmon. After this he was chosen ambassador -to Lacedæmon with full powers, together with nine others. Now Lysander -had sent, along with some others who were Lacedæmonians, Aristoteles, -an Athenian exile, to carry word to the ephors that he had answered Theramenes, -that it was they who were empowered to decide on the question of -peace or war. So when Theramenes and the rest of the ambassadors were -at Sellasia, being asked on what terms they had come, they replied that they -had full powers to treat for peace; the ephors then ordered them to be called -onward. Upon their arrival they convened an assembly, at which the Corinthians -and Thebans contended most strenuously, though many others of -the Greeks did so too, that they should conclude no treaty with the Athenians, -but make away with them.</p> - -<p>The Lacedæmonians, however, said they would not reduce to bondage a -state which had done great good at the time of the greatest dangers that -had ever befallen Greece; but they offered to make peace, on condition of -their demolishing the Long Walls and Piræus, giving up all their ships but -twelve, restoring their exiles, having the same friends and foes as the Lacedæmonians, -and following, both by land and by sea, wherever they might<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_642" id="Page_642">[642]</a></span> -lead. Theramenes and his fellow-ambassadors carried back these terms to -Athens. On their entering the city, a great multitude poured round them, -afraid of their having returned unsuccessful: for it was no longer possible -to delay, owing to the great numbers who were dying of famine. The next -day the ambassadors reported on what conditions the Lacedæmonians were -willing to make peace; and Theramenes, as their spokesman, said that they -should obey the Lacedæmonians, and destroy the walls. When some had -opposed him, but far more agreed with him, it was resolved to accept the -peace. Subsequently Lysander sailed into the Piræus, and the exiles were -restored; and they dug down the walls with much glee, to the music of -women playing the flute, considering that day to be the beginning of liberty -to Greece.</p> - -<p>And so ended the year in the middle of which Dionysius the son of Hermocrates, -the Syracusan, became tyrant, after the Carthaginians, though -previously defeated in battle by the Syracusans, had reduced Agrigentum.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_36f" id="enanchor_36f"></a><a href="#endnote_36f">f</a></span></p> - -<h4>A REVIEW OF THE WAR</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[478-404 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>The confederacy of Delos was formed by the free and spontaneous association -of many different towns, all alike independent; towns which met in -synod and deliberated by equal vote—took by their majority resolutions -binding upon all—and chose Athens as their chief to enforce these resolutions, -as well as to superintend generally the war against the common enemy.</p> - -<p>Now the only way by which the confederacy was saved from falling to -pieces, was by being transformed into an Athenian empire. Such transformation -(as Thucydides plainly intimates) did not arise from the ambition or -deep-laid projects of Athens, but from the reluctance of the larger confederates -to discharge the obligations imposed by the common synod, and from the -unwarlike character of the confederates generally—which made them desirous -to commute military service for money-payment, while Athens on her part -was not less anxious to perform the service and obtain the money. By gradual -and unforeseen stages, Athens thus passed from consulate to empire; in -such manner that no one could point out the precise moment of time when -the confederacy of Delos ceased, and when the empire began.</p> - -<p>But the Athenian empire came to include (between 460-446 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>) other -cities not parties to the confederacy of Delos. Athens had conquered her -ancient enemy the island of Ægina, and had acquired supremacy over -Megara, Bœotia, Phocis, and Locris, and Achaia in Peloponnesus. Her -empire was now at its maximum; and had she been able to maintain it—or -even to keep possession of the Megarid separately, which gave her the means -of barring out all invasions from the Peloponnesus—the future course of -Grecian history would have been materially altered. But her empire on land -did not rest upon the same footing as her empire at sea. The exiles in -Megara and Bœotia, etc., and the anti-Athenian party generally in those -places—combined with the rashness of her general Tolmides at Coronea—deprived -her of all her land-dependencies near home, and even threatened -her with the loss of Eubœa. The peace concluded in 445 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> left her with -all her maritime and insular empire (including Eubœa), but with nothing -more; while by the loss of Megara she was now open to invasion from the -Peloponnesus.</p> - -<p>On this footing she remained at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War -fourteen years afterwards. That war did not arise (as has been so often<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_643" id="Page_643">[643]</a></span> -asserted) from aggressive or ambitious schemes on the part of Athens, but -that, on the contrary, the aggression was all on the side of her enemies, who -were full of hopes that they could put her down with little delay; while she -was not merely conservative and defensive, but even discouraged by the certainty -of destructive invasion, and only dissuaded from concessions, alike -imprudent and inglorious, by the extraordinary influence and resolute wisdom -of Pericles. That great man comprehended well both the conditions -and the limits of Athenian empire. Athens was now understood (especially -since the revolt and reconquest of the -powerful island of Samos in 440 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>) -by her subjects and enemies as well as -by her own citizens, to be mistress of -the sea. It was the care of Pericles to -keep that belief within definite boundaries, -and to prevent all waste of the -force of the city in making new or distant -acquisitions which could not be -permanently maintained. But it was -also his care to enforce upon his countrymen -the lesson of maintaining their -existing empire unimpaired, and shrinking -from no effort requisite for that end. -Though their whole empire was now -staked upon the chances of a perilous -war, he did not hesitate to promise them -success, provided that they adhered to -this conservative policy.</p> - -<div class="sidenote">[431-413 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 200px;"> -<img src="images/p643.jpg" width="200" height="386" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Part of the Ancient Greek Wall at -Ferentinum with superimposed Modern Structure</span></p> -</div> - -<p>Following the events of the war, we -shall find that Athens did adhere to it -for the first seven years; years of suffering -and trial, from the destructive -annual invasion, the yet more destructive -pestilence, and the revolt of Mytilene—but -years which still left her -empire unimpaired, and the promises of -Pericles in fair chance of being realised. -In the seventh year of the war occurred -the unexpected victory at Sphacteria -and the capture of the Lacedæmonian -prisoners. This placed in the hands of -the Athenians a capital advantage, imparting -to them prodigious confidence -of future success, while their enemies -were in a proportional degree disheartened. It was in this temper that -they first departed from the conservative precept of Pericles.</p> - -<p>Down to the expedition against Syracuse the empire of Athens (except -the possessions in Thrace) remained undiminished, and her general power -nearly as great as it had ever been since 445 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> That expedition was the -one great and fatal departure from the Periclean policy, bringing upon Athens -an amount of disaster from which she never recovered; and it was doubtless -an error of over-ambition.</p> - -<p>After the Syracusan disaster, there is no longer any question about adhering -to, or departing from the Periclean policy. Athens is like Patroclus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_644" id="Page_644">[644]</a></span> -in the <i>Iliad</i>, after Apollo has stunned him by a blow on the back and -loosened his armour. Nothing but the slackness of her enemies allowed -her time for a partial recovery, so as to make increased heroism a substitute -for impaired force, even against doubled and tripled difficulties. And the -years of struggle which she now went through are among the most glorious -events in her history. These years present many misfortunes, but no serious -misjudgment; not to mention one peculiarly honourable moment, after the -overthrow of the Four Hundred. And after all, they were on the point of -partially recovering themselves in 408 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>, when the unexpected advent -of Cyrus set the seal to their destiny.</p> - -<p>The bloodshed after the recapture of Mytilene and Scione, and still more -that which succeeded the capture of Melos, are disgraceful to the humanity -of Athens, and stand in pointed contrast with the treatment of Samos when -reconquered by Pericles. But they did not contribute sensibly to break -down her power; though, being recollected with aversion after other incidents -were forgotten, they are alluded to in later times as if they had caused -the fall of the empire. Her downfall had one great cause—we may almost -say, one single cause—the Sicilian expedition.<a name="FNanchor_60" id="FNanchor_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> The empire of Athens both -was, and appeared to be, in exuberant strength when that expedition was -sent forth; strength more than sufficient to bear up against all moderate -faults or moderate misfortunes, such as no government ever long escapes. -But the catastrophe of Syracuse was something overpassing in terrific calamity -all Grecian experience and all power of foresight. It was like the -Russian campaign of 1812 to the Emperor Napoleon, though by no means -imputable, in an equal degree, to vice in the original project. No Grecian -power could bear up against such a death wound; and the prolonged struggle -of Athens after it is not the least wonderful part of the whole war.</p> - -<h4>GROTE’S ESTIMATE OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE</h4> - -<div class="sidenote">[460-404 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span>]</div> - -<p>Nothing in the political history of Greece is so remarkable as the Athenian -empire; taking it as it stood in its completeness, from about 460-413 -<span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> (the date of the Syracusan catastrophe), or still more, from -460-424 <span class="smcapuc">B.C.</span> (the date when Brasidas made his conquests in Thrace). -After the Syracusan catastrophe, the conditions of the empire were altogether -changed; it was irretrievably broken up, though Athens still continued -an energetic struggle to retain some of the fragments. But if we -view it as it had stood before that event, during the period of its integrity, -it is a sight marvellous to contemplate, and its working must be pronounced, -in my judgment, to have been highly beneficial to the Grecian world. No -Grecian state except Athens could have sufficed to organise such a system,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_645" id="Page_645">[645]</a></span> -or to hold, in partial, though regulated, continuous and specific communion, -so many little states, each animated with that force of political repulsion -instinctive in the Grecian mind. This was a mighty task, worthy of Athens, -and to which no state except Athens was competent. We have already -seen in part, and we shall see still farther, how little qualified Sparta was to -perform it: and we shall have occasion hereafter to notice a like fruitless -essay on the part of Thebes.</p> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;"> -<img src="images/p645.jpg" width="150" height="400" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Athenian Woman</span></p> -<p class="caption">(After Hope)</p> -</div> - -<p>As in regard to the democracy of Athens generally, so in regard to her -empire—it has been customary with historians to take notice of little except -the bad side. But the empire of Athens was not harsh and -oppressive, as it is commonly depicted. Under the circumstances -of her dominion—at a time when the whole transit -and commerce of the Ægean was under one maritime system, -which excluded all irregular force—when Persian ships of -war were kept out of the waters, and Persian tribute-officers -away from the seaboard—when the disputes -inevitable among so many little communities could -be peaceably redressed by the mutual right of application -to the tribunals at Athens—and when these tribunals -were also such as to present to sufferers a refuge -against wrongs done even by individual citizens of Athens -herself (to use the expression of the oligarchical Phrynichus)—the -condition of the maritime Greeks was materially -better than it had been before, or than it will be seen -to become afterwards. Her empire, if it did not inspire -attachment, certainly provoked no antipathy, among the -bulk of the citizens of the subject-communities, as is shown -by the party-character of the revolts against her. If in -her imperial character she exacted obedience, she also fulfilled -duties and insured protection—to a degree incomparably -greater than was ever realised by Sparta. And -even if she had been ever so much disposed to cramp the -free play of mind and purpose among her subjects—a disposition -which is no way proved—the very circumstances -of her own democracy, with its open antithesis of political -parties, universal liberty of speech, and manifold individual -energy, would do much to prevent the accomplishment of -such an end, and would act as a stimulus to the dependent -communities even without her own intention.</p> - -<p>Without being insensible either to the faults or to the -misdeeds of imperial Athens, I believe that her empire was -a great comparative benefit, and its extinction a great loss, to her own subjects. -But still more do I believe it to have been a good, looked at with -reference to Panhellenic interests. Its maintenance furnished the only possibility -of keeping out foreign intervention, and leaving the destinies of -Greece to depend upon native, spontaneous, untrammelled Grecian agencies. -The downfall of the Athenian empire is the signal for the arms and corruption -of Persia again to make themselves felt, and for the re-enslavement of -the Asiatic Greeks under her tribute-officers. What is still worse, it leaves -the Grecian world in a state incapable of repelling any energetic foreign -attack, and open to the overruling march of “the man of Macedon” half -a century afterwards. For such was the natural tendency of the Grecian -world to political non-integration or disintegration, that the rise of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_646" id="Page_646">[646]</a></span> -Athenian empire, incorporating so many states into one system, is to be -regarded as a most extraordinary accident. Nothing but the genius, energy, -discipline, and democracy of Athens, could have brought it about; nor even -she, unless favoured and pushed on by a very peculiar train of antecedent -events. But having once got it, she might perfectly well have kept it; -and had she done so, the Hellenic world would have remained so organised -as to be able to repel foreign intervention, either from Susa or from Pella. -When we reflect how infinitely superior was the Hellenic mind to that of -all surrounding nations and races; how completely its creative agency was -stifled as soon as it came under the Macedonian dictation; and how much -more it might perhaps have achieved, if it had enjoyed another century or -half-century of freedom, under the stimulating headship of the most progressive -and most intellectual of all its separate communities—we shall look -with double regret on the ruin of the Athenian empire, as accelerating, -without remedy, the universal ruin of Grecian independence, political action, -and mental grandeur.<span class="enanchor"><a name="enanchor_36c2" id="enanchor_36c2"></a><a href="#endnote_36c">c</a></span></p> - -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_57" id="Footnote_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> This striking and deep-seated regard of the Athenians for all the forms of an established -constitution, makes itself felt even by Mitford (History of Greece vol. iv. sect. v. ch. xix. -p. 235).</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_58" id="Footnote_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> [An early form of heliograph.]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_59" id="Footnote_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> [He, with others, was accused of treachery, not without cause.]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_60" id="Footnote_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> [Manso, in his <i>Sparta</i> is so far from ascribing the downfall of Athens to the Sicilian -fiasco, that he sees no connection between them. Thirlwall disagrees with this though he thinks -the empire was doomed to disintegration. He says, “Syracuse was their Moscow; but if it had -not been so they would have found one elsewhere.” He imputes the fall to internal discord. -Mitford sees in the war less a civil strife than a contest between the oligarchical and democratical -interests throughout the Grecian commonwealths, in every one of which was a party friendly -to the public enemy. He says of the fight with Sicily, “Democracy here was opposed to democracy,” -and he credits the fate of Athens to “the ruin, which such a government hath an eternal -tendency to bring upon itself.” He rejoices that the slaves at least of the various governments -had a little respite from cruelty. Cox, like Grote, sees in the crumbling of the Athenian empire, -in spite of all its crimes, such a cosmic misfortune as set back the progress of the world beyond -our power of estimation.]</p> - -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 385px;"> -<img src="images/footer-greece-36.jpg" width="385" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Greek Cavalry</span></p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_647" id="Page_647">[647]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/header-greece-references.jpg" width="500" height="227" alt="(decorative)" /> -</div> - -<h2 id="BRIEF_REFERENCE-LIST_OF_AUTHORITIES_BY_CHAPTERS">BRIEF REFERENCE-LIST OF AUTHORITIES BY CHAPTERS</h2> - -<p class="center" id="endnote_a">[The letter <span class="enanchor">a</span> is reserved for Editorial Matter.]</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter I. Land and People</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_1b" id="endnote_1b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_1b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">Connop Thirlwall</span>, <i>The History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_1c" id="endnote_1c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_1c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">John B. Bury</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_1d" id="endnote_1d"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_1d">d</a></span> <span class="smcap">William Ridgeway</span>, <i>The Early Age of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_1e" id="endnote_1e"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_1e">e</a></span> <span class="smcap">Gustav F. Hertzberg</span>, <i>Geschichte der -Griechen im Alterthum</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_1f" id="endnote_1f"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_1f">f</a></span> <span class="smcap">Strabo</span>, <i>Γεωγραφικά</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_1g" id="endnote_1g"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_1g">g</a></span> <span class="smcap">Thucydides</span>, <i>History of the Peloponnesian -War</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_1h" id="endnote_1h"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_1h">h</a></span> <span class="smcap">Pausanias</span>, <i>General Description of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_1i" id="endnote_1i"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->i</span> <span class="smcap">Herodotus</span>, <i>History</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter II. The Mycenæan Age</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_2b" id="endnote_2b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_2b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">D. G. Hogarth</span>, article on “<i>Mycenæan Civilisation</i>,” in the New Volumes of the Ninth -Edition of the <i>Encyclopædia Britannica</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_2c" id="endnote_2c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_2c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">Henry Schliemann</span>, <i>Mycenæ</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_2d" id="endnote_2d"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_2d">d</a></span> <span class="smcap">C. Tsountas</span> -and <span class="smcap">J. Irving Manatt</span>, <i>The Mycenæan Age</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_2e" id="endnote_2e"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_2e">e</a></span> <span class="smcap">Percy Gardner</span>, <i>New Chapters of Greek History</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_2f" id="endnote_2f"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_2f">f</a></span> <span class="smcap">Wolfgang Helbig</span>, <i>Die Italiker in der Po-Ebene</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_2g" id="endnote_2g"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_2g">g</a></span> <span class="smcap">Pigorini</span>, <i>In Atti dell’Accademia -dei Lincei</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_2h" id="endnote_2h"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_2h">h</a></span> <span class="smcap">C. Schuchhardt</span>, <i>Schliemann’s Excavations</i> (translated by E. Sellers).</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_2i" id="endnote_2i"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_2i">i</a></span> <span class="smcap">Julius Beloch</span>, <i>Griechische Geschichte</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter III. The Heroic Age</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_3b" id="endnote_3b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_3b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">George Grote</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_3c" id="endnote_3c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_3c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">Connop Thirlwall</span>, <i>The History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_3d" id="endnote_3d"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_3d">d</a></span> <span class="smcap">Friedrich C. Schlosser</span>, <i>Weltgeschichte</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_3f" id="endnote_3f"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_3f">f</a></span> <span class="smcap">Plassman</span>, quoted in <i>Thirlwall’s Notes</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_3h" id="endnote_3h"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_3h">h</a></span> <span class="smcap">William Mitford</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_3i" id="endnote_3i"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_3i">i</a></span> <span class="smcap">L. A. Prévost-Paradol</span>, <i>Essai sur l’Histoire -Universelle</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_3k" id="endnote_3k"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_3k">k</a></span> <span class="smcap">Friedrich August Wolf</span>, <i>Prolegomena ad Homerum</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_3l" id="endnote_3l"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_3l">l</a></span> <span class="smcap">Henry Schliemann</span>, -<i>Troja</i>.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_648" id="Page_648">[648]</a></span></p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter IV. The Transition to Secure History</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_4c" id="endnote_4c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_4c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">Julius Beloch</span>, <i>Griechische Geschichte</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter V. The Dorians</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_5b" id="endnote_5b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_5b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">Karl O. Müller</span>, <i>The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_5c" id="endnote_5c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_5c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">Ernst Curtius</span>, -<i>Griechische Geschichte</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_5d" id="endnote_5d"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->d</span> <span class="smcap">Eugamon</span>, <i>Telegonia</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_5e" id="endnote_5e"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->e</span> <span class="smcap">Xanthus</span>, <i>Lydiaca</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter VI. Sparta and Lycurgus</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_6b" id="endnote_6b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_6b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">W. Assmann</span>, <i>Handbuch der Allgemeinen Geschichte</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_6c" id="endnote_6c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_6c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">Plutarch</span>, <i>Lives of Illustrious -Men</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_6d" id="endnote_6d"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_6d">d</a></span> <span class="smcap">Victor Duruy</span>, <i>Histoire grecque</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_6e" id="endnote_6e"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->e</span> <span class="smcap">John B. Bury</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_6f" id="endnote_6f"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->f</span> <span class="smcap">Philoste-Phanus, Timæus, Sosibius, and Demetrius Phalereus</span>, as quoted by Plutarch.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_6g" id="endnote_6g"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->g</span> <span class="smcap">Aristotle</span>, -<i>Politics</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_6h" id="endnote_6h"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->h</span> <span class="smcap">Plato</span>, <i>Republic</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter VII. The Messenian Wars of Sparta</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_7b" id="endnote_7b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_7b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">George Grote</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_7c" id="endnote_7c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_7c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">Pausanias</span>, <i>General Description of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_7d" id="endnote_7d"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->d</span> <span class="smcap">Tyrtæus</span>, <i>Fragments</i>, 5, 6.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_7e" id="endnote_7e"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->e</span> <span class="smcap">Isocrates</span>, <i>Archidamus</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_7f" id="endnote_7f"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->f</span> <span class="smcap">Diodorus Siculus</span>, <i>Historical -Library</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter VIII. The Ionians</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_8b" id="endnote_8b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_8b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">Gustav F. Hertzberg</span>, <i>Geschichte der Griechen im Alterthum</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_8c" id="endnote_8c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_8c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">E. G. Bulwer-Lytton</span>, -<i>Athens: Its Rise and Fall</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_8d" id="endnote_8d"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_8d">d</a></span> <span class="smcap">William Mitford</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_8e" id="endnote_8e"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_8e">e</a></span> <span class="smcap">Connop Thirlwall</span>, -<i>The History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_8f" id="endnote_8f"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->f</span> <span class="smcap">Plutarch</span>, <i>Lives of Illustrious Men</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_8g" id="endnote_8g"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->g</span> <span class="smcap">Strabo</span>, <i>Γεωγραφικά</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_8h" id="endnote_8h"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->h</span> <span class="smcap">Thucydides</span>, <i>History of the Peloponnesian War</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter IX. Some Characteristic Institutions</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_9b" id="endnote_9b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_9b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">Connop Thirlwall</span>, <i>The History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_9c" id="endnote_9c"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->c</span> <span class="smcap">William Mitford</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_9d" id="endnote_9d"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->d</span> <span class="smcap">Diodorus Siculus</span>, <i>Historical Library</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_9e" id="endnote_9e"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->e</span> <span class="smcap">Strabo</span>, <i>Γεωγραφικά</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_9f" id="endnote_9f"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->f</span> <span class="smcap">Pausanias</span>, <i>General -Description of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_9g" id="endnote_9g"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->g</span> <span class="smcap">Aristotle</span>, <i>Politics</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter X. The Smaller Cities and States</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_10b" id="endnote_10b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_10b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">Connop Thirlwall</span>, <i>The History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_10c" id="endnote_10c"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->c</span> <span class="smcap">Eugène Lerminier</span>, <i>Histoire des legislatures -et des constitutions de la Grèce ancienne</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_10d" id="endnote_10d"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->d</span> <span class="smcap">Aristotle</span>, <i>Politics</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_10e" id="endnote_10e"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->e</span> <span class="smcap">Strabo</span>, <i>Γεωγραφικά</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_10f" id="endnote_10f"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->f</span> <span class="smcap">Pausanias</span>, <i>General Description of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_10g" id="endnote_10g"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->g</span> <span class="smcap">Polybius</span>, <i>General History</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_10h" id="endnote_10h"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->h</span> <span class="smcap">Herodotus</span>, <i>History</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_10i" id="endnote_10i"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->i</span> <span class="smcap">Theognis</span>, <i>Poems</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_10j" id="endnote_10j"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->j</span> <span class="smcap">Thucydides</span>, <i>History of the Peloponnesian War</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XI. Crete and the Colonies</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_11b" id="endnote_11b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_11b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">Eugène Lerminier</span>, <i>Histoire des legislatures et des constitutions de la Grèce ancienne</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_11c" id="endnote_11c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_11c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">Julius Beloch</span>, <i>Griechische Geschichte</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_11d" id="endnote_11d"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->d</span> <span class="smcap">Aristotle</span>, <i>Politics</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XII. Solon the Lawgiver</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_12b" id="endnote_12b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_12b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">George Grote</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_12c" id="endnote_12c"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->c</span> <span class="smcap">Connop Thirlwall</span>, <i>The History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_12d" id="endnote_12d"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_12d">d</a></span> <span class="smcap">Plutarch</span>, <i>Lives of Illustrious Men</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_12e" id="endnote_12e"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_12e">e</a></span> <span class="smcap">John B. Bury</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XIII. Pisistratus the Tyrant</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_13b" id="endnote_13b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_13b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">E. G. Bulwer-Lytton</span>, <i>Athens: Its Rise and Fall</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_13c" id="endnote_13c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_13c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">Herodotus</span>, <i>History</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_13d" id="endnote_13d"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_13d">d</a></span> <span class="smcap">Ernst -Curtius</span>, <i>Griechische Geschichte</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XIV. Democracy Established at Athens</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_14b" id="endnote_14b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_14b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">George Grote</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_14c" id="endnote_14c"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->c</span> <span class="smcap">Victor Duruy</span>, <i>Histoire grecque</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_14d" id="endnote_14d"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->d</span> <span class="smcap">Thucydides</span>, -<i>History of the Peloponnesian War</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_14e" id="endnote_14e"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->e</span> <span class="smcap">Herodotus</span>, <i>History</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_14f" id="endnote_14f"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->f</span> <span class="smcap">Plutarch</span>, <i>Lives of Illustrious -Men</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_14g" id="endnote_14g"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->g</span> <span class="smcap">Aristotle</span>, <i>Politics</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_14h" id="endnote_14h"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->h</span> <span class="smcap">Diodorus Siculus</span>, <i>Historical Library</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XV. The First Foreign Invasion</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_15b" id="endnote_15b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_15b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">Ernst Curtius</span>, <i>Griechische Geschichte</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_15c" id="endnote_15c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_15c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">Herodotus</span>, <i>History</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_15d" id="endnote_15d"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_15d">d</a></span> <span class="smcap">Victor Duruy</span>, -<i>Histoire grecque</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_15e" id="endnote_15e"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->e</span> <span class="smcap">E. G. Bulwer-Lytton</span>, <i>Athens: Its Rise and Fall</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_15f" id="endnote_15f"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_15f">f</a></span> <span class="smcap">G. B. Grundy</span>, <i>The -Persian War</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_15g" id="endnote_15g"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_15g">g</a></span> <span class="smcap">Georg Busolt</span>, <i>Griechische Geschichte</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_15h" id="endnote_15h"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_15h">h</a></span> <span class="smcap">J. A. R. Munro</span>, in the <i>Journal -of Hellenic Studies</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_15i" id="endnote_15i"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->i</span> <span class="smcap">F. C. H. Kruse</span>, <i>Hellas</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_15j" id="endnote_15j"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_15j">j</a></span> <span class="smcap">John P. Mahaffy</span>, <i>Rambles and Studies -in Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_15k" id="endnote_15k"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_15k">k</a></span> <span class="smcap">George Grote</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_649" id="Page_649">[649]</a></span></p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XVI. Miltiades and the Alleged Fickleness of Republics</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_16b" id="endnote_16b"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->b</span> <span class="smcap">George Grote</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_16c" id="endnote_16c"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->c</span> <span class="smcap">Herodotus</span>, <i>History</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_16d" id="endnote_16d"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->d</span> <span class="smcap">Diodorus Siculus</span>, -<i>Historical Library</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_16e" id="endnote_16e"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->e</span> <span class="smcap">Cornelius Nepos</span>, <i>Lives</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_16f" id="endnote_16f"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->f</span> <span class="smcap">Plutarch</span>, <i>Lives of Illustrious Men</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XVII. The Plans of Xerxes</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_17b" id="endnote_17b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_17b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">Herodotus</span>, <i>History</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_17c" id="endnote_17c"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->c</span> <span class="smcap">Plutarch</span>, <i>Lives of Illustrious Men</i>; also his <i>Moralia</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_17d" id="endnote_17d"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_17d">d</a></span> <span class="smcap">P. H. -Larcher</span>, translation of Herodotus into French.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_17e" id="endnote_17e"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_17e">e</a></span> <span class="smcap">James Rennel</span>, <i>The Geographical System -of Herodotus</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_17f" id="endnote_17f"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_17f">f</a></span> <span class="smcap">William Beloe</span>, in his translation of Herodotus.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_17g" id="endnote_17g"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->g</span> <span class="smcap">Diodorus Siculus</span>, -<i>Historical Library</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_17h" id="endnote_17h"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->h</span> <span class="smcap">John B. Bury</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XVIII. Proceedings in Greece from Marathon to Thermopylæ</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_18b" id="endnote_18b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_18b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">George Grote</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_18c" id="endnote_18c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_18c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">Herodotus</span>, <i>History</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_18d" id="endnote_18d"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_18d">d</a></span> <span class="smcap">James Rennel</span>, <i>The -Geographical System of Herodotus</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XIX. Thermopylæ</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_19b" id="endnote_19b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_19b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">Herodotus</span>, <i>History</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_19c" id="endnote_19c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_19c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">William Beloe</span>, in his translation of Herodotus.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_19d" id="endnote_19d"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_19d">d</a></span> <span class="smcap">John B. -Bury</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_19e" id="endnote_19e"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_19e">e</a></span> <span class="smcap">P. H. Larcher</span>, translation of Herodotus into French.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_19f" id="endnote_19f"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->f</span> <span class="smcap">Diodorus -Siculus</span>, <i>Historical Library</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_19g" id="endnote_19g"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->g</span> <span class="smcap">Plutarch</span>, <i>Lives of Illustrious Men</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_19h" id="endnote_19h"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_19h">h</a></span> <span class="smcap">Connop -Thirlwall</span>, <i>The History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_19i" id="endnote_19i"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->i</span> <span class="smcap">Pausanias</span>, <i>General Description of Greece</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XX. The Battles of Artemisium and Salamis</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_20b" id="endnote_20b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_20b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">George Grote</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_20c" id="endnote_20c"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->c</span> <span class="smcap">Colonel Leake</span>, <i>Topography of Athens</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_20d" id="endnote_20d"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->d</span> <span class="smcap">Herodotus</span>, -<i>History</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_20e" id="endnote_20e"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->e</span> <span class="smcap">Diodorus Siculus</span>, <i>Historical Library</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_20f" id="endnote_20f"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_20f">f</a></span> <span class="smcap">William Smith</span>, <i>History of -Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_20g" id="endnote_20g"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->g</span> <span class="smcap">Plutarch</span>, <i>Lives of Illustrious Men</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_20h" id="endnote_20h"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->h</span> <span class="smcap">William H. Waddington</span>, <i>Visit to Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_20i" id="endnote_20i"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->i</span> <span class="smcap">Pausanias</span>, -<i>General Description of Greece</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XXI. From Salamis to Mycale</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_21b" id="endnote_21b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_21b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">Herodotus</span>, <i>History</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_21c" id="endnote_21c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_21c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">William Beloe</span>, in his translation of Herodotus.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_21d" id="endnote_21d"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->d</span> <span class="smcap">Plutarch</span>, -<i>Lives of Illustrious Men</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_21e" id="endnote_21e"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_21e">e</a></span> <span class="smcap">P. H. Larcher</span>, translation of Herodotus into French.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_21f" id="endnote_21f"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->f</span> <span class="smcap">John -B. Bury</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_21g" id="endnote_21g"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_21g">g</a></span> <span class="smcap">George Grote</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XXII. The Aftermath of the War</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_22b" id="endnote_22b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_22b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">Thucydides</span>, <i>History of the Grecian War</i> (translated by Henry Dale).</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_22c" id="endnote_22c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_22c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">George Grote</span>, -<i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_22d" id="endnote_22d"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->d</span> <span class="smcap">Plutarch</span>, <i>Lives of Illustrious Men</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_22e" id="endnote_22e"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->e</span> <span class="smcap">Cornelius Nepos</span>, <i>Lives</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XXIII. The Growth of the Athenian Empire</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_23b" id="endnote_23b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_23b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">George W. Cox</span>, <i>The Athenian Empire</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_23c" id="endnote_23c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_23c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">George Grote</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_23d" id="endnote_23d"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_23d">d</a></span> <span class="smcap">William -Mitford</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_23e" id="endnote_23e"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->e</span> <span class="smcap">Plutarch</span>, <i>Lives of Illustrious Men</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_23f" id="endnote_23f"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->f</span> <span class="smcap">Connop Thirlwall</span>, -<i>The History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_23g" id="endnote_23g"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->g</span> <span class="smcap">Cornelius Nepos</span>, <i>Lives</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_23h" id="endnote_23h"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->h</span> <span class="smcap">Thucydides</span>, <i>History of the -Grecian War</i> (translated by Henry Dale).</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XXIV. The Rise of Pericles</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_24b" id="endnote_24b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_24b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">Connop Thirlwall</span>, <i>The History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_24c" id="endnote_24c"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->c</span> <span class="smcap">Plutarch</span>, <i>Lives of Illustrious Men</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_24d" id="endnote_24d"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_24d">d</a></span> <span class="smcap">George -Grote</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_24e" id="endnote_24e"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->e</span> <span class="smcap">Thucydides</span>, <i>History of the Grecian War</i> (translated -by Henry Dale).</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_24f" id="endnote_24f"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_24f">f</a></span> <span class="smcap">William Mitford</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_24g" id="endnote_24g"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->g</span> <span class="smcap">Diodorus Siculus</span>, <i>Historical -Library</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_24h" id="endnote_24h"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->h</span> <span class="smcap">Herodotus</span>, <i>History</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XXV. Athens at War</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_25b" id="endnote_25b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_25b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">William Mitford</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_25c" id="endnote_25c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_25c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">George Grote</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_25d" id="endnote_25d"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->d</span> <span class="smcap">Connop -Thirlwall</span>, <i>The History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_25e" id="endnote_25e"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->e</span> <span class="smcap">Plutarch</span>, <i>Lives of Illustrious Men</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_25f" id="endnote_25f"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->f</span> <span class="smcap">Herodotus</span>, -<i>History</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XXVI. Imperial Athens under Pericles</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_26b" id="endnote_26b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_26b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">George Grote</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_26c" id="endnote_26c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_26c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">Connop Thirlwall</span>, <i>The History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_26d" id="endnote_26d"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->d</span> <span class="smcap">Thucydides</span>, <i>History of the Grecian War</i> (translated by Henry Dale).</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_26e" id="endnote_26e"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->e</span> <span class="smcap">Xenophon</span>, -<i>Hellenics</i>.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_650" id="Page_650">[650]</a></span></p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XXVII. Manners and Customs of the Age of Pericles</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_27b" id="endnote_27b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_27b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">A. Boekh</span>, <i>Public Economy of the Athenians</i> (translated by A. Lamb).</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_27c" id="endnote_27c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_27c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">William -Mure</span>, <i>Grecian Literature</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_27d" id="endnote_27d"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_27d">d</a></span> <span class="smcap">H. Goll</span>, <i>Kulturbilder aus Hellas und Rom</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XXVIII. Art of the Periclean Age</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_28b" id="endnote_28b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_28b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">Victor Duruy</span>, <i>Histoire grecque</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_28c" id="endnote_28c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_28c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">William Mitford</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XXIX. Greek Literature</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_29b" id="endnote_29b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_29b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">Ernst Curtius</span>, <i>Griechische Geschichte</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XXX. The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_30b" id="endnote_30b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_30b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">George Grote</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_30c" id="endnote_30c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_30c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">Connop Thirlwall</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_30d" id="endnote_30d"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->d</span> <span class="smcap">Thucydides</span>, -<i>History of the Grecian War</i> (translated by Henry Dale).</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_30e" id="endnote_30e"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_30e">e</a></span> <span class="smcap">Adolph Holm</span>, <i>History of -Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_30f" id="endnote_30f"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->f</span> <span class="smcap">William Mitford</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_30g" id="endnote_30g"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->g</span> <span class="smcap">John Ruskin</span>, <i>Præterita</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_30h" id="endnote_30h"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->h</span> <span class="smcap">Xenophon</span>, -<i>Hellenics</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXI. The Plague; and the Death of Pericles</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_31b" id="endnote_31b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_31b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">George Grote</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_31c" id="endnote_31c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_31c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">Thucydides</span>, <i>History of the Grecian War</i> (translated -by Henry Dale).</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_31d" id="endnote_31d"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_31d">d</a></span> <span class="smcap">John B. Bury</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_31e" id="endnote_31e"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_31e">e</a></span> <span class="smcap">William Oncken</span>, <i>Athen und -Hellas</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_31f" id="endnote_31f"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->f</span> <span class="smcap">Titus Livius</span>, <i>Roman History</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_31g" id="endnote_31g"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->g</span> <span class="smcap">Diodorus Siculus</span>, <i>Historical Library</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_31h" id="endnote_31h"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_31h">h</a></span> <span class="smcap">Plutarch</span>, <i>Lives of Illustrious Men</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXII. The Second and Third Years of the Peloponnesian War</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_32b" id="endnote_32b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_32b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">Connop Thirlwall</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_32c" id="endnote_32c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_32c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">Thucydides</span>, <i>History of the Grecian War</i> -(translated by Henry Dale).</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_32d" id="endnote_32d"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->d</span> <span class="smcap">John B. Bury</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_32e" id="endnote_32e"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->e</span> <span class="smcap">Pausanias</span>, <i>General -Description of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_32f" id="endnote_32f"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->f</span> <span class="smcap">George Grote</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXIII. The Fourth to the Tenth Years</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_33b" id="endnote_33b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_33b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">Barthold G. Niebuhr</span>, <i>Lectures on Ancient History</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_33c" id="endnote_33c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_33c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">Thucydides</span>, <i>History of the -Grecian War</i> (translated by Henry Dale).</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_33d" id="endnote_33d"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->d</span> <span class="smcap">George Grote</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_33e" id="endnote_33e"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_33e">e</a></span> <span class="smcap">Victor -Duruy</span>, <i>Histoire grecque</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_33f" id="endnote_33f"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->f</span> <span class="smcap">Diodorus Siculus</span>, <i>Historical Library</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXIV. The Rise of Alcibiades</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_34b" id="endnote_34b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_34b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">Victor Duruy</span>, <i>Histoire grecque</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_34c" id="endnote_34c"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->c</span> <span class="smcap">Thucydides</span>, <i>History of the Grecian War</i> (translated -by Henry Dale).</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXV. The Sicilian Expedition</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_35b" id="endnote_35b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_35b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">Adolf Holm</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_35c" id="endnote_35c"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->c</span> <span class="smcap">Julius Beloch</span>, <i>Griechische Geschichte</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_35d" id="endnote_35d"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_35d">d</a></span> <span class="smcap">John B. -Bury</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_35e" id="endnote_35e"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_35e">e</a></span> <span class="smcap">Edward A. Freeman</span>, article on “Sicily” in the Ninth Edition -of the <i>Encyclopædia Britannica</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_35f" id="endnote_35f"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_35f">f</a></span> <span class="smcap">George Grote</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_35g" id="endnote_35g"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->g</span> <span class="smcap">Victor Duruy</span>, -<i>Histoire grecque</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_35h" id="endnote_35h"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_35h">h</a></span> <span class="smcap">Karl O. Müller</span>, <i>The Dorians</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_35i" id="endnote_35i"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_35i">i</a></span> <span class="smcap">Thucydides</span>, <i>History of the Grecian -War</i> (translated by Henry Dale).</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_35j" id="endnote_35j"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_35j">j</a></span> <span class="smcap">John Gillies</span>, <i>History of Ancient Greece</i>.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXVI. Close of the Peloponnesian War</span></h4> - -<p><a name="endnote_36b" id="endnote_36b"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_36b">b</a></span> <span class="smcap">J. Gillies</span>, <i>History of Ancient Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_36c" id="endnote_36c"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_36c">c</a></span> <span class="smcap">George Grote</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_36d" id="endnote_36d"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->d</span> <span class="smcap">William -Mitford</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_36e" id="endnote_36e"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_36e">e</a></span> <span class="smcap">Oliver Goldsmith</span>, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_36f" id="endnote_36f"></a><span class="enanchor"><a href="#enanchor_36f">f</a></span> <span class="smcap">Xenophon</span>, <i>Hellenics</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_36g" id="endnote_36g"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->g</span> <span class="smcap">Johann K. F. Manso</span>, <i>Sparta</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_36h" id="endnote_36h"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->h</span> <span class="smcap">Connop Thirlwall</span>, <i>The History of Greece</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="endnote_36i" id="endnote_36i"></a><span class="enanchor"><!-- no anchor in text -->i</span> <span class="smcap">George W. Cox</span>, <i>The Athenian Empire</i>.</p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 205px;"> -<a href="images/map1.jpg"><img src="images/map1-thumbnail.jpg" width="205" height="300" alt="Map" /></a> -<p class="caption">GREECE (Ancient)</p> -<p class="caption">Longitude East 22° from Greenwich</p> -</div> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 205px;"> -<a href="images/map2.jpg"><img src="images/map2-thumbnail.jpg" width="205" height="300" alt="Map" /></a> -<p class="caption">GREECE (Ancient)</p> -<p class="caption">Longitude East 27° from Greenwich</p> -</div> - -</div> - - - -<p style="clear: both;"></p> - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Historians' History of the World -in Twenty-Five Volumes, Volume 3, by Various - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE WORLD, VOL 3 *** - -***** This file should be named 55195-h.htm or 55195-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/5/1/9/55195/ - -Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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