Early European History Part 23

slavery cast its blight over free industry.

COMMERCIAL ATHENS

The Athenian city was now the chief center of Greek commerce. [14] "The fruits of the whole earth," said Pericles, "flow in upon us; so that we enjoy the goods of other Commercial countries as freely as of our own."

[15] Exports of Athens wine and olive oil, pottery, metal wares, and objects of art were sent out from Piraeus [16] to every region of the Mediterranean. The imports from the Black Sea region, Thrace, and the Aegean included such commodities as salt, dried fish, wool, timber, hides, and, above all, great quant.i.ties of wheat. Very much as modern England, Athens was able to feed all her people only by bringing in food from abroad. To make sure that in time of war there should be no interruption of food supplies, the Athenians built the celebrated Long Walls, between the city and its port of Piraeus. (See the map below) Henceforth they felt secure from attack, as long as their navy ruled the Aegean.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, THE VICINITY OF ATHENS]

ARTISTIC AND INTELLECTUAL ATHENS

In the days of her prosperity Athens began to make herself not only a strong, but also a beautiful, city. The temples and other structures which were raised on the Acropolis during the Age of Pericles still excite, even in their ruins, the envy and wonder of mankind. [17] Athens at this time was also the center of Greek intellectual life. In no other period of similar length have so many admirable books been produced. No other epoch has given birth to so many men of varied and delightful genius. The greatest poets, historians, and philosophers of Greece were Athenians, either by birth or training. As Pericles himself said in a n.o.ble speech, Athens was "the school of h.e.l.las." [18]

36. THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR, 431-404 B.C.

INEVITABLENESS OF THE WAR

The brilliant Age of Pericles had not come to an end before the two chief powers in the h.e.l.lenic world became involved in a deadly war. It would seem that Athens and Sparta, the one supreme upon the sea, the other at the head of the Peloponnesus, might have avoided a struggle which was sure to be long and costly. But Greek cities were always ready to fight one another. When Athens and Sparta found themselves rivals for the leadership of Greece, it was easy for the smouldering fires of distrust and jealousy to flame forth into open conflict. "And at that time," says Thucydides, the Athenian historian who described the struggle, "the youth of Sparta and the youth of Athens were numerous; they had never seen war, and were therefore very willing to take up arms." [19]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, GREECE at Opening of the PELOPONNESIAN WAR 431 B.C.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE "MOURNING ATHENA" (Acropolis Museum, Athens) A tablet of Pentelic marble. Athena, leaning on her spear, is gazing with downcast head at a grave monument.]

ORIGIN OF THE WAR

The conflict was brought on by Corinth, one of the leading members of the Peloponnesian League and, next to Athens, the most important commercial power in Greece. She had already seen her once-profitable trade in the Aegean monopolized by Athens. That energetic city was now reaching out for Corinthian commerce in Italian and Sicilian waters. When the Athenians went so far as to interfere in a quarrel between Corinth and her colony of Corcyra, even allying themselves with the latter city, the Corinthians felt justly resentful and appealed to Sparta for aid. The Spartans listened to their appeal and, with the apparent approval of the Delphic oracle which a.s.sured them "that they would conquer if they fought with all their might," [20] declared war.

RESOURCES OF THE CONTESTANTS

The two antagonists were fairly matched. The one was strong where the other was weak. Sparta, mainly a continental power, commanded all the Peloponnesian states except Argos and Achaea, besides some of the smaller states of central Greece. Athens, mainly a maritime power, ruled all the subject cities of the Aegean. The Spartans possessed the most formidable army then in the world, but lacked money and ships. The Athenians had a magnificent navy, an overflowing treasury, and a city impregnable to direct attack. It seemed, in fact, as if neither side could seriously injure the other.

FIRST STAGE OF THE WAR, 431-421 B.C.

The war began in 431 B.C. Its first stage was indecisive. The Athenians avoided a conflict in the open field with the stronger Peloponnesian army, which ravaged Attica. They were crippled almost at the outset of the struggle by a terrible plague among the refugees from Attica, crowded behind the Long Walls. The pestilence slew at least one-fourth of the inhabitants of Athens, including Pericles himself. After ten years of fighting both sides grew weary of the war and made a treaty of peace to last for fifty years.

THE SICILIAN EXPEDITION, 4l5-4l3 B.C.

Not long after the conclusion of peace the Athenians were persuaded by a brilliant and ambitious politician, named Alcibiades, to undertake an expedition against Syracuse in Sicily. This city was a colony of Corinth, and hence was a natural ally of the Peloponnesian states. The Athenians, by conquering it, expected to establish their power in Sicily. But the siege of Syracuse ended in a complete failure. The Athenians failed to capture the city, and in a great naval battle they lost their fleet. Then they tried to retreat by land, but soon had to surrender. Many of the prisoners were sold as slaves; many were thrown by their inhuman captors into the stone quarries near Syracuse, where they perished from exposure and starvation. The Athenians, says Thucydides, "were absolutely annihilated--both army and fleet--and of the many thousands who went away only a handful ever saw their homes again." [21]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A SILVER COIN OF SYRACUSE The profile of the nymph Arethusa has been styled the most exquisite Greek head known to us.]

LAST STAGE OF THE WAR 413-404 B.C.

Athens never recovered from this terrible blow. The Spartans quickly renewed the contest, now with the highest hopes of success. The Athenians had to guard their city against the invader night and day; their slaves deserted to the enemy; and they themselves could do no farming except under the walls of the city. For supplies they had to depend entirely on their ships. For nearly ten years, however, the Athenians kept up the struggle. At length the Spartans captured an Athenian fleet near Aegospotami on the h.e.l.lespont. Soon afterwards they blockaded Piraeus and their army encamped before the walls of Athens. Bitter famine compelled the Athenians to sue for peace. The Spartans imposed harsh terms. The Athenians were obliged to destroy their Long Walls and the fortifications of Piraeus, to surrender all but twelve of their warships, and to acknowledge the supremacy of Sparta.

37. THE SPARTAN AND THEBAN SUPREMACIES, 404-362 B.C.

SPARTAN DESPOTISM

Sparta was now the undisputed leader of Continental Greece and of the Aegean. As the representative of the liberty-loving Greeks she had humbled the pride and power of "tyrant" Athens. A great opportunity lay before her to reorganize the h.e.l.lenic world and to end the struggles for supremacy between rival cities. But Sparta entered upon no such glorious career. She had always stood as the champion of aristocracy against democracy, and now in her hour of triumph she began to overturn every democratic government that still existed in Greece. The Greek cities soon found they had exchanged the mild sway of Athens for the brutal despotism of Sparta.

THE FREEING OF THEBES 379 B.C.

But Spartan despotism provoked resistance. It was the Boeotian city of Thebes which raised the standard of revolt. Some of the liberty-loving Thebans, headed by Pelopidas, a patriotic n.o.ble, formed a conspiracy to drive the Spartans out of the city. Disguised as huntsmen, Pelopidas and his followers entered Thebes at nightfall, killed the tyrants whom Sparta had set over the people, and forced the Spartan garrison to surrender.

BATTLE OF LEUCTRA, 371 B.C.

The Thebans had now recovered their independence. Eight years later they totally defeated a superior Peloponnesian force at the battle of Leuctra and brought the supremacy of Sparta to an end. This engagement from a military standpoint is one of the most interesting in ancient history.

Epaminondas, the skilful Theban commander, ma.s.sed his best troops in a solid column, fifty men deep, and hurled it with terrific force against the Spartan ranks. The enemy, drawn up twelve men deep in the customary formation, could not withstand the impact of the Theban column; their lines gave way, and the fight was soon won. The battle destroyed once for all the legend of Spartan invincibility.

PELOPIDAS AND EPAMINONDAS

The sudden rise of Thebes to the position of the first city in Greece was the work of two men whose names are always linked together in the annals of the time. In Pelopidas and Epaminondas, bosom friends and colleagues, Thebes found the heroes of her struggle for independence. Pelopidas was a fiery warrior whose bravery and daring won the hearts of his soldiers.

Epaminondas was both an able general and an eminent statesman. No other Greek, save perhaps Pericles, can be compared with him. Even Pericles worked for Athens alone and showed no regard for the rest of Greece.

Epaminondas had n.o.bler ideals and sought the general good of the h.e.l.lenic race. He fought less to destroy Sparta than to curb that city's power of doing harm. He aimed not so much to make Thebes mistress of an empire as to give her a proper place among Greek cities. The Thebans, indeed, sometimes complained that Epaminondas loved h.e.l.las more than his native city.

BATTLE OF MANTINEA, 362 B.C.

By crippling Sparta, Epaminondas raised Thebes to a position of supremacy.

Had he been spared for a longer service, Epaminondas might have realized his dream of bringing unity and order into the troubled politics of his time. But circ.u.mstances were too strong for him. The Greek states, which had accepted the leadership of Athens and Sparta, were unwilling to admit the claims of Thebes to a position of equal power and importance. The period of Theban rule was filled, therefore, with perpetual conflict. Nine years after Leuctra Epaminondas himself fell in battle at Mantinea in the Peloponnesus, and with his death ended the brief glory of Thebes.

38. DECLINE OF THE CITY-STATE

WEAKNESS OF CITY-STATES

The battle of Mantinea proved that no single city--Athens, Sparta, or Thebes--was strong enough to rule Greece. By the middle of the fourth century B.C. it had become evident that a great h.e.l.lenic power could the not be created out of the little, independent city-states of Greece.

A RECORD OF ALMOST CEASELESS CONFLICT

The history of Continental h.e.l.las for more than a century after the close of the Persian War had been a record of almost ceaseless conflict. We have seen how Greece came to be split up into two great alliances, the one a naval league ruled by Athens, the other a confederacy of Peloponnesian cities under the leadership of Sparta. How the Delian League became the Athenian Empire; how Sparta began a long war with Athens to secure the independence of the subject states and ended it by reducing them to her own supremacy; how the rough-handed sway of Sparta led to the revolt of her allies and dependencies and the sudden rise of Thebes to supremacy; how Thebes herself established an empire on the ruins of Spartan rule-- this is a story of fruitless and exhausting struggles which sounded the knell of Greek liberty and the end of the city-state.

THE FUTURE

Far away in the north, remote from the noisy conflicts of Greek political life, a new power was slowly rising to imperial greatness--no insignificant city-state, but an extensive territorial state like those of modern times. Three years after the battle of Mantinea Philip II ascended the throne of Macedonia. He established h.e.l.lenic unity by bringing the h.e.l.lenic people within a widespread empire. Alexander the Great, the son of this king, carried Macedonian dominion and Greek culture to the ends of the known world. To this new period of ancient history we now turn.

STUDIES

1. On an outline map indicate the princ.i.p.al places mentioned in this chapter.

2. On an outline map indicate the Athenian allies and dependencies and those of Sparta at the opening of the Peloponnesian War.

3. What do you understand by a "decisive" battle? Why has Marathon been considered such a battle?

4. Why did Xerxes take the longer route through Thrace, instead of the shorter route followed by Datis and Artaphernes?

5. What was the importance of the Phoenician fleet in the Persian invasions?