ATHENS, 



4i 



Athens, 



A. C 268. 



Athens 



joins 



Rome 



against 

 Macedon. 



tentates, enjoyed, for some time, a precarious inde- 

 pendence. This, such as it was, seems to have in- 

 fused a portion of her ancient spirit. An inunda- 

 tion of Gauls, under the command of Brennus, poured 

 down upon Greece, which they prepared to enter by 

 the straits of Thermopylae. The Athenians took the 

 lead in the confederacy of Grecian states formed to 

 oppose them ; and Brennus, after a desperate effort, 

 found the barbarous strength of his troops insufficient 

 to contend with the superior skiH and valour of the 

 Greeks. He was forced to relinquish his enter- 

 prize, and to content himself with laying waste the 

 northern districts. 



This last glimmering, however, of her ancient 

 glory, wa6 quickly extinguished. Antigonus, the 

 son of Demetrius, having ascended the throne of Ma- 

 cedon, determined to avenge on Athens the injuries 

 of his father: he laid siege to it therefore with a 

 powerful army ; and, notwithstanding the efforts made 

 by the other states, and even by Ptolemy of Egypt, 

 he at length succeeded in compelling it to receive a 

 Macedonian garrison. 



The Achaian republic now began its splendid 

 career ; during the whole of which, Athens remained 

 in inglorious tranquillity. In the wars, however, 

 which immediately succeeded between Rome and 

 Macedon, she makes some small figure. She even gave 

 occasion to the second Macedonian war. Two Acar- 

 nanian youths had been put to death by the Athe- 

 nians, for some venial offence committed at their sa- 

 cred rites. The Acarnanians, having in vain demand- 

 ed satisfaction, obtained permission from Philip to lay 

 waste Attica, in which they were aided by some Ma- 

 cedonian troops. The Athenians, without making 

 any attempt to defend themselves, appealed to the 

 Romans, who, eager for a pretence to make war upon 

 Philip, availed themselves of this event. Attalus and 

 the Rhodian ambassadors, then in alliance with Rome, 

 happening to pass near Athens, appeared in the city, 

 and were received with the most extravagant honours. 



Athens, however, took little share in the war which 

 she had kindled, but derived a precarious security 

 from the hostility of contending powers. The form 

 of liberty was for a time confirmed to her, by that 

 decree which gave freedom to all the Grecian states. 

 But when Rome, having reduced Macedon to sub- 

 jection, no longer kept terms with the other states, 

 Athens, albng with them, was reduced into a province, 

 under the title of Achaia. She does not even ap- 

 pear to have shared in the gallant resistance made by 

 the Achaian republic. What followed, however, 

 some time after, shewed, that there was still some 

 remnant of her ancient spirit. Mithridates, the re- 

 nowned enemy of Rome, had openly raised the stand- 

 ard against that power, and had commenced hostili- 

 ties by an indiscriminate massacre of all the Romans 

 who were settled in Asia. From that moment, 

 Athens hailed him as her deliverer. Rome, distract- 

 ed by faction, was supposed to be in no condition to 

 enforce her dominion. The complete triumph, how- 

 ever, of Sylla over Marius, fatally deceived this ex- 

 pectation. The former general marched directly into 

 Greece, inflamed with the most furious thirst of ven- 

 geance. All the states submitted, except Athens; 

 and therefore against it the Roman general advanced 



VOL. ill. PAKT I. 



without delay. Athens made a resistance beyond Athens, 

 expectation, and not unworthy of her ancient fame. ' ; "v -' 

 The city and the Piraeus, which formed separate for- ^ ie S e of 

 tresses, were then in different hands. The former c v iif n9 

 was commanded by Aristion, who is represented as a 

 violent and profligate character, but who appears A. C 86. 

 evidently to have possessed great energy and activity. 

 The Piraeus was held by Archelaus, an officer of 

 Mithridates, possessed of distinguished merit and abi- 

 lity. Sylla spared no efforts to overcome this un- 

 expected resistance. To construct his machines, he 

 levelled all the sacred groves around Athens, nor 

 spared even the Academy and the Lyceum. He 

 plundered the treasures of Delphi, without regard to 

 the sanctity which had so long been attached to them. 

 Yet every attempt which he made to reduce the 

 place by storm, was completely baffled, and he was 

 compelled to have recourse to blockade. Having 

 succeeded in demolishing part of the long walls 

 which joined Athens to the Piraeus, the city, deprived 

 of communication with its harbour, soon began to be 

 straitened for subsistence. Treachery completed what 

 force had begun ; the supplies of Athens were en- 

 tirely cut off; and she began to experience all the 

 horrors of famine. Aristion desperately resisted 

 every proposal of surrender ; but at length the citi- 

 zens, either through fatigue or disaffection, ceased to 

 keep the same strict watch as formerly. Sylla, ob- 

 serving this, prepared a midnight attack, which, find- 

 ing them completely unprepared, soon made him 

 master of the city. Exasperated at their long de- 

 fence, he gave full vent to the ferocity of his charac- 

 ter. Not only was the city given up to indiscriminate 

 plunder ; but orders were issued, that every Athe- 

 nian, of every age and sex, should be put to the 

 sword. The city streamed with Athenian blood ; and 

 scarcely, of her whole population, did a feeble rem- 

 nant survive. Archelaus, seeing the city lost, judged 

 it necessary to evacuate the Piraeus. Sylla, thus de- 

 prived of human victims, vented his impious fury on 

 the structures, the pride of Athens and of Greece, 

 with which that port was adorned. The fairest edi- 

 fices of the city had been defaced ; but the Piraeus 

 was completely levelled with the ground. 



On the few occasions in which the Athenians took 

 any share in the civil wars of Rome, they were still 

 faithful to the cause of liberty. They espoused the 

 part of Pompey against Caesar ; and again, on the 

 death of Cxsar, they threw down his statues, and in 

 their stead set up those of Brutus and Cassius, which 

 last they placed next to those of Harmodius and Aris- 

 togiton. After the battle of Philippi, when there 

 remained no longer any party friendly to liberty, 

 Athens, in the division of the empire between Oc- 

 tavius and Antony, fell to the share of the latter. 

 The profuse and thoughtless gaiety of his character, 

 seems even to have conciliated the affections of the 

 people. After his last departure from Rome, he fixed 

 his residence for some time among them, and was 

 received with all that servile flattery which they 

 were accustomed to lavish on the favourite of the 

 moment. By a refinement of adulation, they pro- 

 posed his marriage with Minerva, their tutelar deity ; 

 to which Antony, with artful waggery, consented, 

 on condition that she should bring him a portion of 



