THE BURNING OF ATHENS.
B.C. 480
The officers return to their vessels.--The Greek fleet retire to
Salamis.--The Thessalians.--Their hostility to the Phocaeans.--Defeat of
the Thessalians.--Phocaean stratagem.--A spectral army.--Thessalian
cavalry.--Pitfall for the cavalry.--They are caught in it.--Advance of
the army.--Cruelties and atrocities.--The sacred town of Delphi.--Mount
Parnassus.--Summit of Parnassus.--The Castalian spring.--The
oracle.--Architectural structures.--Works of art.--Inspiration of the
oracle.--Its discovery.--Panic of the Delphians.--They apply to the
oracle.--Response of the oracle.--The prodigy in the
temple.--Discomfiture of the Persians.--The spirit
warriors.--Consternation at Athens.--The inhabitants advised to
fly.--Scenes of misery.--Some of the inhabitants remain.--Situation of
the Acropolis.--Magnificent architectural structures.--Statue of
Minerva.--The Parthenon.--Xerxes at Athens.--Athens burned.--The citadel
taken and fired.--Exaltation of Xerxes.--Messenger sent to Susa.
When the officers of the Persian fleet had satisfied themselves with
examining the battle-field at Thermopylae, and had heard the narrations
given by the soldiers of the terrible combats that had been fought with
the desperate garrison which had been stationed to defend the pass, they
went back to their vessels, and prepared to make sail to the southward,
in pursuit of the Greek fleet. The Greek fleet had gone to Salamis. The
Persians in due time overtook them there, and a great naval conflict
occurred, which is known in history as the battle of Salamis, and was
one of the most celebrated naval battles of ancient times. An account of
this battle will form the subject of the next chapter. In this we are to
follow the operations of the army on the land.
As the Pass of Thermopylae was now in Xerxes's possession, the way was
open before him to all that portion of the great territory which lay
north of the Peloponnesus. Of course, before he could enter the
peninsula itself, he must pass the Isthmus of Corinth, where he might,
perhaps, encounter some concentrated resistance. North of the isthmus,
however, there was no place where the Greeks could make a stand. The
country was all open, or, rather, there were a thousand ways open
through the various valleys and glens, and along the banks of the
rivers. All that was necessary was to procure guides and proceed.
The Thessalians were very ready to furnish guides. They had submitted to
Xerxes before the battle of Thermopylae, and they considered themselves,
accordingly, as his allies. They had, besides, a special interest in
conducting the Persian army, on account of the hostile feelings which
they entertained toward the people immediately south of the pass, into
whose territories Xerxes would first carry his ravages. This people were
the Phocaeans. Their country, as has already been stated, was separated
from Thessaly by impassable mountains, except where the Straits of
Thermopylae opened a passage; and through this pass both nations had been
continually making hostile incursions into the territory of the other
for many years before the Persian invasion. The Thessalians had
surrendered readily to the summons of Xerxes, while the Phocaeans had
determined to resist him, and adhere to the cause of the Greeks in the
struggle. They were suspected of having been influenced, in a great
measure, in their determination to resist, by the fact that the
Thessalians had decided to surrender. They were resolved that they would
not, on any account, be upon the same side with their ancient and
inveterate foes.
The hostility of the Thessalians to the Phocaeans was equally implacable.
At the last incursion which they had made into the Phocaean territory,
they had been defeated by means of stratagems in a manner which tended
greatly to vex and irritate them. There were two of these stratagems,
which were both completely successful, and both of a very extraordinary
character.
The first was this. The Thessalians were in the Phocaean country in great
force, and the Phocaeans had found themselves utterly unable to expel
them. Under these circumstances, a body of the Phocaeans, six hundred in
number, one day whitened their faces, their arms and hands, their
clothes, and all their weapons, with chalk, and then, at the dead of
night--perhaps, however, when the moon was shining--made an onset upon
the camp of the enemy. The Thessalian sentinels were terrified and ran
away, and the soldiers, awakened from their slumbers by these
unearthly-looking troops, screamed with fright, and fled in all
directions, in utter confusion and dismay. A night attack is usually a
dangerous attempt, even if the assaulting party is the strongest, as, in
the darkness and confusion which then prevail, the assailants can not
ordinarily distinguish friends from foes, and so are in great danger,
amid the tumult and obscurity, of slaying one another. That difficulty
was obviated in this case by the strange disguise which the Phocaeans had
assumed. They knew that all were Thessalians who were not whitened like
themselves. The Thessalians were totally discomfited and dispersed by
this encounter.
The other stratagem was of a different character, and was directed
against a troop of cavalry. The Thessalian cavalry were renowned
throughout the world. The broad plains extending through the heart of
their country contained excellent fields for training and exercising
such troops, and the mountains which surrounded it furnished grassy
slopes and verdant valleys, that supplied excellent pasturage for the
rearing of horses. The nation was very strong, therefore, in this
species of force, and many of the states and kingdoms of Greece, when
planning their means of internal defense, and potentates and conquerors,
when going forth on great campaigns, often considered their armies
incomplete unless there was included in them a corps of Thessalian
cavalry.
A troop of this cavalry had invaded Phocis, and the Phocaeans, conscious
of their inability to resist them in open war, contrived to entrap them
in the following manner. They dug a long trench in the ground, and then
putting in baskets or casks sufficient nearly to fill the space, they
spread over the top a thin layer of soil. They then concealed all
indications that the ground had been disturbed, by spreading leaves over
the surface. The trap being thus prepared, they contrived to entice the
Thessalians to the spot by a series of retreats, and at length led them
into the pitfall thus provided for them. The substructure of casks was
strong enough to sustain the Phocaeans, who went over it as footmen, but
was too fragile to bear the weight of the mounted troops. The horses
broke through, and the squadron was thrown into such confusion by so
unexpected a disaster, that, when the Phocaeans turned and fell upon
them, they were easily overcome.
These things had irritated and vexed the Thessalians very much. They
were eager for revenge, and they were very ready to guide the armies of
Xerxes into the country of their enemies in order to obtain it.
The troops advanced accordingly, awakening every where, as they came on,
the greatest consternation and terror among the inhabitants, and
producing on all sides scenes of indescribable anguish and suffering.
They came into the valley of the Cephisus, a beautiful river flowing
through a delightful and fertile region, which contained many cities and
towns, and was filled every where with an industrious rural population.
Through this scene of peace, and happiness, and plenty, the vast horde
of invaders swept on with the destructive force of a tornado. They
plundered the towns of every thing which could be carried away, and
destroyed what they were compelled to leave behind them. There is a
catalogue of twelve cities in this valley which they burned. The
inhabitants, too, were treated with the utmost cruelty. Some were
seized, and compelled to follow the army as slaves; others were slain;
and others still were subjected to nameless cruelties and atrocities,
worse sometimes than death. Many of the women, both mothers and maidens,
died in consequence of the brutal violence with which the soldiers
treated them.
The most remarkable of the transactions connected with Xerxes's advance
through the country of Phocis, on his way to Athens, were those
connected with his attack upon Delphi. Delphi was a sacred town, the
seat of the oracle. It was in the vicinity of Mount Parnassus and of the
Castalian spring, places of very great renown in the Greek mythology.
Parnassus was the name of a short mountainous range rather than of a
single peak, though the loftiest summit of the range was called
Parnassus too. This summit is found, by modern measurement, to be about
eight thousand feet high, and it is covered with snow nearly all the
year. When bare it consists only of a desolate range of rocks, with
mosses and a few Alpine plants growing on the sheltered and sunny sides
of them. From the top of Parnassus travelers who now visit it look down
upon almost all of Greece as upon a map. The Gulf of Corinth is a silver
lake at their feet, and the plains of Thessaly are seen extending far
and wide to the northward, with Olympus, Pelion, and Ossa, blue and
distant peaks, bounding the view.
Parnassus has, in fact, a double summit, between the peaks of which a
sort of ravine commences, which, as it extends down the mountain,
becomes a beautiful valley, shaded with rows of trees, and adorned with
slopes of verdure and banks of flowers. In a glen connected with this
valley there is a fountain of water springing copiously from among the
rocks, in a grove of laurels. This fountain gives rise to a stream,
which, after bounding over the rocks, and meandering between mossy banks
for a long distance down the mountain glens, becomes a quiet lowland
stream, and flows gently through a fertile and undulating country to the
sea. This fountain was the famous Castalian spring. It was, as the
ancient Greek legends said, the favorite resort and residence of Apollo
and the Muses, and its waters became, accordingly, the symbol and the
emblem of poetical inspiration.
The city of Delphi was built upon the lower declivities of the
Parnassian ranges, and yet high above the surrounding country. It was
built in the form of an amphitheater, in a sort of _lap_ in the hill
where it stood, with steep precipices descending to a great depth on
either side. It was thus a position of difficult access, and was
considered almost impregnable in respect to its military strength.
Besides its natural defenses, it was considered as under the special
protection of Apollo.
Delphi was celebrated throughout the world, in ancient times, not only
for the oracle itself, but for the magnificence of the architectural
structures, the boundless profusion of the works of art, and the immense
value of the treasures which, in process of time, had been accumulated
there. The various powers and potentates that had resorted to it to
obtain the responses of the oracle, had brought rich presents, or made
costly contributions in some way, to the service of the shrine. Some had
built temples, others had constructed porches or colonnades. Some had
adorned the streets of the city with architectural embellishments;
others had caused statues to be erected; and others had made splendid
donations of vessels of gold and silver, until at length the wealth and
magnificence of Delphi was the wonder of the world. All nations resorted
to it, some to see its splendors, and others to obtain the counsel and
direction of the oracle in emergencies of difficulty or danger.
In the time of Xerxes, Delphi had been for several hundred years in the
enjoyment of its fame as a place of divine inspiration. It was said to
have been originally discovered in the following manner. Some herdsmen
on the mountains, watching their flocks, observed one day a number of
goats performing very strange and unaccountable antics among some
crevices in the rocks, and, going to the place, they found that a
mysterious wind was issuing from the crevices, which produced an
extraordinary exhilaration on all who breathed it. Every thing
extraordinary was thought, in those days, to be supernatural and divine,
and the fame of this discovery was spread every where, the people
supposing that the effect produced upon the men and animals by breathing
the mysterious air was a divine inspiration. A temple was built over the
spot, priests and priestesses were installed, a city began to rise, and
in process of time Delphi became the most celebrated oracle in the
world; and as the vast treasures which had been accumulated there
consisted mainly of gifts and offerings consecrated to a divine and
sacred service, they were all understood to be under divine protection.
They were defended, it is true, in part by the inaccessibleness of the
position of Delphi, and by the artificial fortifications which had been
added from time to time to increase the security, but still more by the
feeling which every where prevailed, that any violence offered to such a
shrine would be punished by the gods as sacrilege. The account of the
manner in which Xerxes was repulsed, as related by the ancient
historians, is somewhat marvelous. We, however, in this case, as in all
others, transmit the story to our readers as the ancient historians give
it to us.
The main body of the army pursued its way directly southward toward the
city of Athens, which was now the great object at which Xerxes aimed. A
large detachment, however, separating from the main body, moved more to
the westward, toward Delphi. Their plan was to plunder the temples and
the city, and send the treasures to the king. The Delphians, on hearing
this, were seized with consternation. They made application themselves
to the oracle, to know what they were to do in respect to the sacred
treasures. They could not defend them, they said, against such a host,
and they inquired whether they should bury them in the earth, or attempt
to remove them to some distant place of safety.
The oracle replied that they were to do nothing at all in respect to the
sacred treasures. The divinity, it said, was able to protect what was
its own. They, on their part, had only to provide for themselves, their
wives, and their children.
On hearing this response, the people dismissed all care in respect to
the treasures of the temple and of the shrine, and made arrangements for
removing their families and their own effects to some place of safety
toward the southward. The military force of the city and a small number
of the inhabitants alone remained.
When the Persians began to draw near, a prodigy occurred in the temple,
which seemed intended to warn the profane invaders away. It seems that
there was a suit of arms, of a costly character doubtless, and highly
decorated with gold and gems--the present, probably, of some Grecian
state or king--which were hung in an inner and sacred apartment of the
temple, and which it was sacrilegious for any human hand to touch. These
arms were found, on the day when the Persians were approaching, removed
to the outward front of the temple. The priest who first observed them
was struck with amazement and awe. He spread the intelligence among the
soldiers and the people that remained, and the circumstance awakened in
them great animation and courage.
Nor were the hopes of divine interposition which this wonder awakened
disappointed in the end; for, as soon as the detachment of Persians came
near the hill on which Delphi was situated, loud thunder burst from the
sky, and a bolt, descending upon the precipices near the town, detached
two enormous masses of rock, which rolled down upon the ranks of the
invaders. The Delphian soldiers, taking advantage of the scene of panic
and confusion which this awful visitation produced, rushed down upon
their enemies and completed their discomfiture. They were led on and
assisted in this attack by the spirits of two ancient heroes, who had
been natives of the country, and to whom two of the temples of Delphi
had been consecrated. These spirits appeared in the form of tall and
full-armed warriors, who led the attack, and performed prodigies of
strength and valor in the onset upon the Persians; and then, when the
battle was over, disappeared as mysteriously as they came.
In the mean time the great body of the army of Xerxes, with the monarch
at their head, was advancing on Athens. During his advance the city had
been in a continual state of panic and confusion. In the first place,
when the Greek fleet had concluded to give up the contest in the
Artemisian Channel, before the battle of Thermopylae, and had passed
around to Salamis, the commanders in the city of Athens had given up the
hope of making any effectual defense, and had given orders that the
inhabitants should save themselves by seeking a refuge wherever they
could find it. This annunciation, of course, filled the city with
dismay, and the preparations for a general flight opened every where
scenes of terror and distress, of which those who have never witnessed
the evacuation of a city by its inhabitants can scarcely conceive.
The immediate object of the general terror was, at this time, the
Persian fleet; for the Greek fleet, having determined to abandon the
waters on that side of Attica, left the whole coast exposed, and the
Persians might be expected at any hour to make a landing within a few
miles of the city. Scarcely, however, had the impending of this danger
been made known to the city, before the tidings of one still more
imminent reached it, in the news that the Pass of Thermopylae had been
carried, and that, in addition to the peril with which the Athenians
were threatened by the fleet on the side of the sea, the whole Persian
army was coming down upon them by land. This fresh alarm greatly
increased, of course, the general consternation. All the roads leading
from the city toward the south and west were soon covered with parties
of wretched fugitives, exhibiting as they pressed forward, weary and
wayworn, on their toilsome and almost hopeless flight, every possible
phase of misery, destitution, and despair. The army fell back to the
isthmus, intending to make a stand, if possible, there, to defend the
Peloponnesus. The fugitives made the best of their way to the sea-coast,
where they were received on board transport ships sent thither from the
fleet, and conveyed, some to AEgina, some to Salamis, and others to other
points on the coasts and islands to the south, wherever the terrified
exiles thought there was the best prospect of safety.
Some, however, remained at Athens. There was a part of the population
who believed that the phrase "wooden walls," used by the oracle,
referred, not to the ships of the fleet, but to the wooden palisade
around the citadel. They accordingly repaired and strengthened the
palisade, and established themselves in the fortress with a small
garrison which undertook to defend it.
The citadel of Athens, or the Acropolis, as it was called, was the
richest, and most splendid, and magnificent fortress in the world. It
was built upon an oblong rocky hill, the sides of which were
perpendicular cliffs, except at one end, where alone the summit was
accessible. This summit presented an area of an oval form, about a
thousand feet in length and five hundred broad, thus containing a space
of about ten acres. This area upon the summit, and also the approaches
at the western end, were covered with the most grand, imposing, and
costly architectural structures that then existed in the whole European
world. There were temples, colonnades, gateways, stairways, porticoes,
towers, and walls, which, viewed as a whole, presented a most
magnificent spectacle, that excited universal admiration, and which,
when examined in detail, awakened a greater degree of wonder still by
the costliness of the materials, the beauty and perfection of the
workmanship, and the richness and profusion of the decorations, which
were seen on every hand. The number and variety of statues of bronze and
of marble which had been erected in the various temples and upon the
different platforms were very great. There was one, a statue of Minerva,
which was executed by Phidias, the great Athenian sculptor, after the
celebrated battle of Marathon, in the days of Darius, which, with its
pedestal, was sixty feet high. It stood on the left of the grand
entrance, towering above the buildings in full view from the country
below, and leaning upon its long spear like a colossal sentinel on
guard. In the distance, on the right, from the same point of view, the
great temple called the Parthenon was to be seen, a temple which was, in
some respects, the most celebrated in the world. The ruins of these
edifices remain to the present day, standing in desolate and solitary
grandeur on the rocky hill which they once so richly adorned.
When Xerxes arrived at Athens, he found, of course, no difficulty in
obtaining possession of the city itself, since it had been deserted by
its inhabitants, and left defenseless. The people that remained had all
crowded into the citadel. They had built the wooden palisade across the
only approach by which it was possible to get near the gates, and they
had collected large stones on the tops of the rocks, to roll down upon
their assailants if they should attempt to ascend.
[Illustration: THE CITADEL AT ATHENS.]
Xerxes, after ravaging and burning the town, took up a position upon a
hill opposite to the citadel, and there he had engines constructed to
throw enormous arrows, on which tow that had been dipped in pitch was
wound. This combustible envelopment of the arrows was set on fire before
the weapon was discharged, and a shower of the burning missiles thus
formed was directed toward the palisade. The wooden walls were soon set
on fire by them, and totally consumed. The access to the Acropolis was,
however, still difficult, being by a steep acclivity, up which it was
very dangerous to ascend so long as the besiegers were ready to roll
down rocks upon their assailants from above.
At last, however, after a long conflict and much slaughter, Xerxes
succeeded in forcing his way into the citadel. Some of his troops
contrived to find a path by which they could climb up to the walls.
Here, after a desperate combat with those who were stationed to guard
the place, they succeeded in gaining admission, and then opened the
gates to their comrades below. The Persian soldiers, exasperated with
the resistance which they had encountered, slew the soldiers of the
garrison, perpetrated every imaginable violence on the wretched
inhabitants who had fled there for shelter, and then plundered the
citadel and set it on fire.
The heart of Xerxes was filled with exultation and joy as he thus
arrived at the attainment of what had been the chief and prominent
object of his campaign. To plunder and destroy the city of Athens had
been the great pleasure that he had promised himself in all the mighty
preparations that he had made. This result was now realized, and he
dispatched a special messenger immediately to Susa with the triumphant
tidings.