ATHENa 



ATHENS. 



designed to maintain the chief political power just where it was in 

 the hand* of the rich whom he divided into three classes according 

 to their property, and to them alone he gave the privilege of filling 

 public offices ; but by allowing the fourth, or poorest class, to be 

 members of the eoclesia, and to be the dicasta or jurymen in the 

 court* of justice, he laid perhaps unintentionally the foundation of a 

 pure democracy. Besides the nine archong the administration was 

 managed by the senate (6ou\ti) of 400, each of the four tribes supply- 

 ing 100 members. The usurpation of Pisistratus (B.C. 560), who by 

 fraud and force seized on the supreme executive power, did not change 

 the laws of Solon, it is said, though it certainly must have changed 

 for the time at least a great part of the constitutional forms of Athens. 

 Under the title of tyrant (ri/ponvt), a term at that time not necessarily 

 implying the abuse of power, Pisistratus governed with equity and 

 moderation. He was twice expelled from Athena, but a battle on the 

 field of Marathon at last secured his power, which he transmitted to 

 his son Hipping. His successor had neither the ability nor the good 

 fortune of his father, and he was finally driven out of Athens (B.C. 510) 

 by the aristocratical faction of the Alcnuconidio, who by corrupting 

 the oracle of Delphi brought against Hippias the power of Lacedoo- 

 mon. Cleomenes, the mad king of the Lacedaemonians, was employed 

 on this business. Hippias being expelled retired with his family to 

 Sigeium on the Hellespont, a possession which had been acquired by 

 the arms of his father. Pisistratus and his son held the tyranny of 

 Athens for 86 years (Herod, v. 65), during which tjme we may reason- 

 ably infer that all tendency towards a democratical form of govern- 

 ment was suppressed ; but the arts began to flourish under their rule, 

 and the foundation of the temples of Apollo Pythius and Jupiter 

 Olympius is assigned to the period of their government. The 

 Dionysiac Theatre was commenced about B.C. 500. The downfall of 

 this ancient (Herod, v. 65) and powerful family was the signal for the 

 commencement of party strife, and for the consequent development 

 of the democratical principle. 



Two factions now divided Athens, headed respectively by Cleisthenes 

 of the family of the Alcnuoouida?, and Isagoros the son of Tisander. 

 Cleisthenes changed the number of tribes ((puAo!) from four to ten, and 

 by that and other measures he gained the favour of the people. The 

 senate (floi/M) of 400 was changed into one of 500, fifty members being 

 annually chosen from each tribe. His rival called in to his aid Cleo- 

 menes. who though at first successful was finally baffled in his attempts 

 on Athens. This invasion of Cleomenes is worthy of notice for having 

 led to the first recorded communication between the Athenians and 

 Persians. The Athenians wishing to strengthen themselves against 

 another threatened invasion sent ambassadors to Artaphernes, the 

 Persian governor of Sardis. The haughty satrap, after asking who the 

 Athenians were and where they lived, promised help on condition of 

 their giving to the king of Persia earth and water, the usual signs of 

 submission required by the great king. The ambassadors incautiously 

 assented, and on their return home were well abused for their pains. 



The issue of the Spartan attack which was so much apprehended by 

 the Athenians was more favourable than they had anticipated : the 

 Corinthians, who had joined in the invasion, changed their minds and 

 went home ; the two Lacedaemonian kings Cleomenes and his colleague 

 Demaratus quarrelled at Eleusisjust before a battle was expected, and 

 the Peloponnesian army consequently dispersed ; and the Athenians 

 were thus left at liberty to deal with the Boeotians and Chalci.lians, 

 who acting in concert with the Peloponnesjans had crossed the frontier. 

 The Athenians gained a complete victory over the Boootians and Chal- 

 cidUns, crossed into Euboea, and placed 4000 Athenian colonists in the 

 territory of Chalcis. Thus the Athenians, who were said to have 

 originally colonised Chalcis, got a firmer footing in this fertile island, 

 which was on subsequent occasions considered more important than 

 most of their foreign possessions. 



About this time Hippias the exiled tyrant came to the Peloponnesus, 

 on the invitation of the Lacedtcmonians, and urged his claims to be 

 restored to the sovereignty of Athens. Though supported by the 

 leading state of Peloponnesus, Hippias failed in obtaining the consent 

 of the rest of the Peloponnesian confederacy, and he retired to Sigeium, 

 where he endeavoured to maintain his desperate cause by. 

 ArUphernen against the Athenians. An event soon happened which 

 was favourable to his views. The Athenians, at the instigation of 

 Aristagoras of Miletus, sent twenty ships, to which the Kretrians of 

 Eubcoa added five, to assist the Ionian Greeks, who had revolted 

 against Darius. The confederate forces succeeded in burning Sardis, 

 which was the immediate cause of the invasion of Greece. An immense 

 armament, under the command of Datis and ArUpheraes, crossed the 

 ^Ggean, besieged and took Eretria in Eubco*, and landed on the oppo- 

 site coast of Attica, The aged exile Hippias led the Persians to the 

 plain of Marathon, the scene of his father's victory, a spot well adapted 

 for the movements of the cavalry in the Asiatic army. The Athe- 

 nian*, supported only by the Plateaus, under the command of M iltiades, 

 defeated the formidable army of the invaders (B.O. 490), who retreated 

 in their ships across the vEgean. 



Ten years later Xerxes the son of Darius led in person against 

 Greece one of the largest forces of which we have any trustworthy 

 record. The army, accompanied by the fleet which attended its 

 movements along the coast, advanced through Thrace, Macedonia, and 

 ThesssJy, to the pass of ThermopyUv, where the gallantry of Leonidas 



for a short time opposed its progress. The treachery of the Boeotians, 

 and the cowardice or lukewarmnesn of the Peloponnesians, allowed 

 the Persian army to march unopposed through Bocotia and Attica, 

 while the fleet followed the coast and took its station near Salamis. 

 The Athenians were compelled to leave their city to the invaders, 

 and embark on board their navy. Fortunately for them in this con- 

 tingency they had already a considerable naval force, which at the 

 advice of Themistocles they had raised for the purpose of contending 

 with their troublesome neighbours in the island of -Kgino. In the 

 sea-fight of Salamis (B.C. 480), the Persian fleet was entirely ruined 

 by the combined naval force of the Athenians and the other Greeks, 

 and the Persian king made an inglorious and hasty retreat into Asia, 

 leaving behind him Mardonius with about 300,000 men. Mardonius 

 having entered Athens a second time with the Persians, and made a 

 second vain attempt to detach the Athenians from the alliance, burnt 

 and destroyed all that Xerxes had left untouched, and reduced Athens 

 almost to a heap of ruins. In the year after the battle of Salamis, 

 Mardonius was completely defeated at Platica by the combined Grecian 

 forces under the command of Pausonias the Lacedemonian. 



The period between the battle of Platsoa (B.C. 479) and the com- 

 mencement of the Peloponnesian war (ac. 431), is one of the most 

 interesting in Athenian history, but it has not been transmitted to us 

 with that accuracy or detail which we desire. Though the Persians 

 reduced Athens almost to a heap of ruins, it is probable that they did 

 not completely destroy all the public buildings. Herodotus (v. 77 1 

 saw the fetters of the vanquished Ba-otians and Chalcidians suspended 

 on some walls on the Acropolis, which were scorched with the Persian 

 flames. Still we may consider the city as substantially rebuilt after 

 the year B.C. 479, and it would be difficult to point out any monument 

 now existing at Athens of a date prior to the invasion of Xerxes 

 (though there were some existing in the time of Pausanias), except 

 it may be the north wall of the Acropolis, which is called the Pelas- 

 gicum. Under the direction of Themistocles the walls of Athens were 

 rebuilt, the Peincus was fortified, and the Athenians were taught to 

 look to their navy as the true means of defence against their enemies. 

 By a law of Aristides, passed B.C. 479, the constitutional forms were so 

 far changed that every citizen was eligible, to all the offices in the 

 state, and thus the democratical principle received a still further 

 development : its direction and control belonged to the orator and the 

 successful commander, in whose persons from this time forward, and 

 indeed probably from a still earlier period, was centered the real 

 executive power. 



After the battles of Platea and Mycale, and the capture of Sestos 

 on the Hellespont, it was still thought desirable among the confederate 

 Greeks to prosecute the war against Persia. The Lacedaemonians, 

 hitherto considered the head of the confederation, were little disposed 

 for foreign service, and Pausanias, their commander on the Hellespont, 

 completely alienated all the allies by bis absurd and tyrannical beha- 

 viour. The lead was thus transferred to the Athenians (B.C. 477), 

 who in a short time contrived to turn this to their own profit. A 

 certain quota or rating of men and ships had been fixed for all the 

 allies ; some who were averse to service commuted their contingent 

 of men and ships for a regular money payment, with which the 

 Athenians formed and maintained a force by which they ultimately 

 reduced many (who were hitherto allies) to the condition of dependent 

 and tributary states. 



Thus arose the Athenian naval supremacy, which for a time gave 

 them a more extensive empire than any Grecian state ever acquired, 

 till the time of Philip and his son Alexander. The efforts and the 

 success of this little state till the thirty years' truce (B.C. 446) were 

 truly surprising. Cimon the son of Miltiades took Eion on the 

 Strymon, defeated the Persians (B.C. 466) in a great battle on the 

 Eurymedon in Pamphylia, took Naxos, and carried the Athenian 

 arms as far as Cyprus, where he died (B.C. 450). For six years 

 (ac. 460-455) the Athenians aided the Egyptians in their rixing 

 against the Persian*, in the reign of Artaxerxes. They got possession 

 of a large part of Memphis, the capital of Lower Egypt, and were at 

 one time actually masters of the country. Their final defeat was 

 apparently owing to the want of a vigorous commander, and partly 

 no doubt to the want of supplies, which Athens could ill afford to 

 send to such a distance, while constantly engaged in wars with her 

 immediate neighbours. 



The wealth which both the state and individuals acquired during 

 this period led to the extension and embellishment of Athens. ('i>nn 

 built that temple of Theseus which still exists, and embellished the 

 Academy and the Agora. During the time of his greatest in!! 

 probably after the battle of Eurymedon, the Long Walls were built. 

 Next to Themistocles and Cimon in order of time, and before them 

 as the beautifier of his native city, we must place Pericles the son 

 of Xanthippus. Under him were built the Parthenon, the Propylaca 

 of the Armpolix, and the great temple of Dcmeter at Eleusis. The 

 genius of Callicrates, Ictinus, and Phidias executed the noble plan* 

 of the orator, statesman, and warrior, who now wielded the power of 

 the democracy ; and from the united efforts of the architect and the 

 nnilpt'ir arose the most finished buildings that the world has ever 

 seen. Athens, which hitherto does not appear to have had any prc- 

 i-min'wc in tin- imitative arts, was now adorned with public edifices, 

 in which architecture and its sinter sculpture, with painting, contri- 



