CHAPTER I.

ATHENS: ITS RISE AND FALL

by Edward Bulwer Lytton

VOLUME II.

CONTENTS.

BOOK III

CHAPTER

I The Character and Popularity of Miltiades.--Naval expedition.

--Siege of Paros.--Conduct of Miltiades.--He is Accused and

Sentenced.--His Death.

II The Athenian Tragedy.--Its Origin.--Thespis.--Phrynichus.--

Aeschylus.--Analysis of the Tragedies of Aeschylus.

III Aristides.--His Character and Position.--The Rise of

Themistocles.--Aristides is Ostracised.--The Ostracism

examined.--The Influence of Themistocles increases.--The

Silver--mines of Laurion.--Their Product applied by

Themistocles to the Increase of the Navy.--New Direction

given to the National Character.

IV The Preparations of Darius.--Revolt of Egypt.--Dispute for

The Succession to the Persian Throne.--Death of Darius.--

Brief Review of the leading Events and Characteristics of

his Reign.

V Xerxes conducts an Expedition into Egypt.--He finally resolves

on the Invasion of Greece.--Vast Preparations for the

Conquest of Europe.--Xerxes arrives at Sardis.--Despatches

Envoys to the Greek States, demanding Tribute.--The Bridge

of the Hellespont.--Review of the Persian Armament at

Abydos.--Xerxes encamps at Therme.

VI The Conduct of the Greeks.--The Oracle relating to Salamis.--

Art of Themistocles.--The Isthmian Congress.--Embassies to

Argos, Crete, Corcyra, and Syracuse.--Their ill Success.--

The Thessalians send Envoys to the Isthmus.--The Greeks

advance to Tempe, but retreat.--The Fleet despatched to

Artemisium, and the Pass of Thermopylae occupied.--Numbers

of the Grecian Fleet.--Battle of Thermopylae.

VII The Advice of Demaratus to Xerxes.--Themistocles.--Actions off

Artemisium.--The Greeks retreat.--The Persians invade

Delphi, and are repulsed with great Loss.--The Athenians,

unaided by their Allies, abandon Athens, and embark for

Salamis.--The irresolute and selfish Policy of the

Peloponnesians.--Dexterity and Firmness of Themistocles.--

Battle of Salamis.--Andros and Carystus besieged by the

Greeks.--Anecdotes of Themistocles.--Honours awarded to him

in Sparta.--Xerxes returns to Asia.--Olynthus and Potidaea

besieged by Artabazus.--The Athenians return Home.--The

Ostracism of Aristides is repealed.

VIII Embassy of Alexander of Macedon to Athens.--The Result of his

Proposals.--Athenians retreat to Salamis.--Mardonius

occupies Athens.--The Athenians send Envoys to Sparta.--

Pausanias succeeds Cleombrotus as Regent of Sparta.--Battle

of Plataea.--Thebes besieged by the Athenians.--Battle of

Mycale.--Siege of Sestos.--Conclusion of the Persian War.

BOOK IV

CHAPTER

I Remarks on the Effects of War.--State of Athens.--Interference

of Sparta with respect to the Fortifications of Athens.--

Dexterous Conduct of Themistocles.--The New Harbour of the

Piraeus.--Proposition of the Spartans in the Amphictyonic

Council defeated by Themistocles.--Allied Fleet at Cyprus

and Byzantium.--Pausanias.--Alteration in his Character.--

His ambitious Views and Treason.--The Revolt of the Ionians

from the Spartan Command.--Pausanias recalled.--Dorcis

replaces him.--The Athenians rise to the Head of the Ionian

League.--Delos made the Senate and Treasury of the Allies.--

Able and prudent Management of Aristides.--Cimon succeeds

To the Command of the Fleet.--Character of Cimon.--Eion

besieged.--Scyros colonized by Atticans.--Supposed Discovery

of the Bones of Theseus.--Declining Power of Themistocles.

--Democratic Change in the Constitution.--Themistocles

ostracised.--Death of Aristides.

II Popularity and Policy of Cimon.--Naxos revolts from the

Ionian League.--Is besieged by Cimon.--Conspiracy and

Fate of Pausanias.--Flight and Adventures of Themistocles.

--His Death.

III Reduction of Naxos.--Actions off Cyprus.--Manners of

Cimon.--Improvements in Athens.--Colony at the Nine Ways.

--Siege of Thasos.--Earthquake in Sparta.--Revolt of Helots,

Occupation of Ithome, and Third Messenian War.--Rise and

Character of Pericles.--Prosecution and Acquittal of Cimon.

--The Athenians assist the Spartans at Ithome.--Thasos

Surrenders.--Breach between the Athenians and Spartans.--

Constitutional Innovations at Athens.--Ostracism of Cimon.

IV War between Megara and Corinth.--Megara and Pegae garrisoned

by Athenians.--Review of Affairs at the Persian Court.--

Accession of Artaxerxes.--Revolt of Egypt under Inarus.--

Athenian Expedition to assist Inarus.--Aegina besieged.--The

Corinthians defeated.--Spartan Conspiracy with the Athenian

Oligarchy.--Battle of Tanagra.--Campaign and Successes of

Myronides.--Plot of the Oligarchy against the Republic.--

Recall of Cimon.--Long Walls completed.--Aegina reduced.--

Expedition under Tolmides.--Ithome surrenders.--The

Insurgents are settled at Naupactus.--Disastrous Termination

of the Egyptian Expedition.--The Athenians march into

Thessaly to restore Orestes the Tagus.--Campaign under

Pericles.--Truce of five Years with the Peloponnesians.--

Cimon sets sail for Cyprus.--Pretended Treaty of Peace with

Persia.--Death of Cimon.

V Change of Manners in Athens.--Begun under the Pisistratidae.--

Effects of the Persian War, and the intimate Connexion with

Ionia.--The Hetaerae.--The Political Eminence lately

acquired by Athens.--The Transfer of the Treasury from Delos

to Athens.--Latent Dangers and Evils.--First, the Artificial

Greatness of Athens not supported by Natural Strength.--

Secondly, her pernicious Reliance on Tribute.--Thirdly,

Deterioration of National Spirit commenced by Cimon in the

Use of Bribes and Public Tables.--Fourthly, Defects in

Popular Courts of Law.--Progress of General Education.--

History.--Its Ionian Origin.--Early Historians.--Acusilaus.

--Cadmus.--Eugeon.--Hellanicus.--Pherecides.--Xanthus.--View

of the Life and Writings of Herodotus.--Progress of

Philosophy since Thales.--Philosophers of the Ionian and

Eleatic Schools.--Pythagoras.--His Philosophical Tenets and

Political Influence.--Effect of these Philosophers on

Athens.--School of Political Philosophy continued in Athens

from the Time of Solon.--Anaxagoras.--Archelaus.--Philosophy

not a thing apart from the ordinary Life of the Athenians.

BOOK V

CHAPTER

I Thucydides chosen by the Aristocratic Party to oppose

Pericles.--His Policy.--Munificence of Pericles.--Sacred

War.--Battle of Coronea.--Revolt of Euboea and Megara--

Invasion and Retreat of the Peloponnesians.--Reduction of

Euboea.--Punishment of Histiaea.--A Thirty Years' Truce

concluded with the Peloponnesians.--Ostracism of Thucydides.

II Causes of the Power of Pericles.--Judicial Courts of the

dependant Allies transferred to Athens.--Sketch of the

Athenian Revenues.--Public Buildings the Work of the People

rather than of Pericles.--Vices and Greatness of Athens had

the same Sources.--Principle of Payment characterizes the

Policy of the Period.--It is the Policy of Civilization.--

Colonization, Cleruchia.

III Revision of the Census.--Samian War.--Sketch of the Rise and

Progress of the Athenian Comedy to the Time of Aristophanes.

IV The Tragedies of Sophocles.

ATHENS: ITS RISE AND FALL.

BOOK III.

FROM THE BATTLE OF MARATHON TO THE BATTLES OF PLATAEA AND MYCALE,

B. C. 490--B. C. 479.

CHAPTER I.

The Character and Popularity of Miltiades.--Naval Expedition.--Siege

of Paros.--Conduct of Miltiades.--He is Accused and Sentenced.--His

Death.

I. History is rarely more than the biography of great men. Through a

succession of individuals we trace the character and destiny of

nations. THE PEOPLE glide away from us, a sublime but intangible

abstraction, and the voice of the mighty Agora reaches us only through

the medium of its representatives to posterity. The more democratic

the state, the more prevalent this delegation of its history to the

few; since it is the prerogative of democracies to give the widest

competition and the keenest excitement to individual genius: and the

true spirit of democracy is dormant or defunct, when we find no one

elevated to an intellectual throne above the rest. In regarding the

characters of men thus concentrating upon themselves our survey of a

nation, it is our duty sedulously to discriminate between their

qualities and their deeds: for it seldom happens that their renown in

life was unattended with reverses equally signal--that the popularity

of to-day was not followed by the persecution of to-morrow: and in

these vicissitudes, our justice is no less appealed to than our pity,

and we are called upon to decide, as judges, a grave and solemn cause

between the silence of a departed people, and the eloquence of

imperishable names.

We have already observed in the character of Miltiades that astute and

calculating temperament common to most men whose lot it has been to

struggle for precarious power in the midst of formidable foes. We

have seen that his profound and scheming intellect was not accompanied

by any very rigid or high-wrought principle; and placed, as the chief

of the Chersonese had been from his youth upward, in situations of

great peril and embarrassment, aiming always at supreme power, and, in

his harassed and stormy domain, removed far from the public opinion of

the free states of Greece, it was natural that his political code

should have become tempered by a sinister ambition, and that the

citizen of Athens should be actuated by motives scarcely more

disinterested than those which animated the tyrant of the Chersonese.

The ruler of one district may be the hero, but can scarcely be the

patriot, of another. The long influence of years and custom--the

unconscious deference to the opinion of those whom our youth has been

taught to venerate, can alone suffice to tame down an enterprising and

grasping mind to objects of public advantage, in preference to designs

for individual aggrandizement: influence of such a nature had never

operated upon the views and faculties of the hero of Marathon.

Habituated to the enjoyment of absolute command, he seemed incapable

of the duties of civil subordination; and the custom of a life urged

him onto the desire of power [1]. These features of his character

fairly considered, we shall see little to astonish us in the later

reverses of Miltiades, and find additional causes for the popular

suspicions he incurred.

II. But after the victory of Marathon, the power of Miltiades was at

its height. He had always possessed the affection of the Athenians,

which his manners as well as his talents contributed to obtain for

him. Affable and courteous--none were so mean as to be excluded from

his presence; and the triumph he had just achieved so largely swelled

his popularity, that the most unhesitating confidence was placed in

all his suggestions.

In addition to the victory of Marathon, Miltiades, during his tyranny

in the Chersonese, had gratified the resentment and increased the

dominion of the Athenians. A rude tribe, according to all authority,

of the vast and varied Pelasgic family, but essentially foreign to,

and never amalgamated with, the indigenous Pelasgians of the Athenian

soil, had in very remote times obtained a settlement in Attica. They

had assisted the Athenians in the wall of their citadel, which

confirmed, by its characteristic masonry, the general tradition of

their Pelasgic race. Settled afterward near Hymettus, they refused to

blend with the general population--quarrels between neighbours so near

naturally ensued--the settlers were expelled, and fixed themselves in

the Islands of Lemnos and Imbros--a piratical and savage horde. They

kept alive their ancient grudge with the Athenians, and, in one of

their excursions, landed in Attica, and carried off some of the women

while celebrating a festival of Diana. These captives they subjected

to their embraces, and ultimately massacred, together with the

offspring of the intercourse. "The Lemnian Horrors" became a

proverbial phrase--the wrath of the gods manifested itself in the

curse of general sterility, and the criminal Pelasgi were commanded by

the oracle to repair the heinous injury they had inflicted on the

Athenians. The latter were satisfied with no atonement less than that

of the surrender of the islands occupied by the offenders. Tradition

thus reported the answer of the Pelasgi to so stern a demand--

"Whenever one of your vessels, in a single day and with a northern

wind, makes its passage to us, we will comply."

Time passed on, the injury was unatoned, the remembrance remained--

when Miltiades (then in the Chersonese) passed from Elnos in a single

day and with a north wind to the Pelasgian Islands, avenged the cause

of his countrymen, and annexed Lemnos and Imbros to the Athenian sway.

The remembrance of this exploit had from the first endeared Miltiades

to the Athenians, and, since the field of Marathon, he united in

himself the two strongest claims to popular confidence--he was the

deliverer from recent perils, and the avenger of hereditary wrongs.

The chief of the Chersonese was not slow to avail himself of the

advantage of his position. He promised the Athenians a yet more

lucrative, if less glorious enterprise than that against the Persians,

and demanded a fleet of seventy ships, with a supply of men and money,

for an expedition from which he assured them he was certain to return

laden with spoil and treasure. He did not specify the places against

which the expedition was to be directed; but so great was the belief

in his honesty and fortune, that the Athenians were contented to grant

his demand. The requisite preparations made, Miltiades set sail.

Assuming the general right to punish those islands which had sided

with the Persian, he proceeded to Paros, which had contributed a

trireme to the armament of Datis. But beneath the pretext of national

revenge, Miltiades is said to have sought the occasion to prosecute a

selfish resentment. During his tyranny in the Chersonese, a Parian,

named Lysagoras, had sought to injure him with the Persian government,

and the chief now wreaked upon the island the retaliation due to an

individual.

Such is the account of Herodotus--an account not indeed inconsistent

with the vindictive passions still common to the inhabitants of the

western clime, but certainly scarce in keeping with the calculating

and politic character of Miltiades: for men go backward in the career

of ambition when revenging a past offence upon a foe that is no longer

formidable.

Miltiades landed on the island, laid vigorous siege to the principal

city, and demanded from the inhabitants the penalty of a hundred

talents. The besieged refused the terms, and worked day and night at

the task of strengthening the city for defence. Nevertheless,

Miltiades succeeded in cutting off all supplies, and the city was on

the point of yielding; when suddenly the chief set fire to the

fortifications he had erected, drew off his fleet, and returned to

Athens, not only without the treasure he had promised, but with an

ignominious diminution of the glory he had already acquired. The most

probable reason for a conduct [2] so extraordinary was, that by some

accident a grove on the continent was set on fire--the flame, visible

equally to the besiegers and the besieged, was interpreted alike by

both: each party imagined it a signal from the Persian fleet--the one

was dissuaded from yielding, and the other intimidated from

continuing the siege. An additional reason for the retreat was a

severe wound in the leg which Miltiades had received, either in the

course of the attack, or by an accident he met with when attempting

with sacrilegious superstition to consult the infernal deities on

ground dedicated to Ceres.

III. We may readily conceive the amazement and indignation with

which, after so many promises on the one side, and such unbounded

confidence on the other, the Athenians witnessed the return of this

fruitless expedition. No doubt the wily and equivocal parts of the

character of Miltiades, long cast in shade by his brilliant qualities,

came now more obviously in view. He was impeached capitally by

Xanthippus, an Athenian noble, the head of that great aristocratic

faction of the Alcmaeonids, which, inimical alike to the tyrant and

the demagogue, brooked neither a master of the state nor a hero with

the people. Miltiades was charged with having accepted a bribe from

the Persians [3], which had induced him to quit the siege of Paros at

the moment when success was assured.

The unfortunate chief was prevented by his wound from pleading his own

cause--he was borne into the court stretched upon his couch, while his

brother, Tisagoras, conducted his defence. Through the medium of his

advocate, Miltiades seems neither vigorously to have refuted the

accusation of treason to the state, nor satisfactorily to have

explained his motives for raising the siege. His glory was his

defence; and the chief answer to Xanthippus was "Marathon and Lemnos."

The crime alleged against him was of a capital nature; but, despite

the rank of the accuser, and the excitement of his audience, the

people refused to pronounce sentence of death upon so illustrious a

man. They found him guilty, it is true--but they commuted the capital

infliction to a fine of fifty talents. Before the fine was paid,

Miltiades expired of the mortification of his wound. The fine was

afterward paid by his son, Cimon. Thus ended a life full of adventure

and vicissitude.

The trial of Miltiades has often been quoted in proof of the

ingratitude and fickleness of the Athenian people. No charge was ever

more inconsiderately made. He was accused of a capital crime, not by

the people, but by a powerful noble. The noble demanded his death--

appears to have proved the charge--to have had the law which imposed

death wholly on his side--and "the favour of the people it was," says

Herodotus, expressly, "which saved his life." [4] When we consider

all the circumstances of the case--the wound to the popular vanity--

the disappointment of excited expectation--the unaccountable conduct

of Miltiades himself--and then see his punishment, after a conviction

which entailed death, only in the ordinary assessment of a pecuniary

fine [5], we cannot but allow that the Athenian people (even while

vindicating the majesty of law, which in all civilized communities

must judge offences without respect to persons) were not in this

instance forgetful of the services nor harsh to the offences of their

great men.