The year 490 B. C. closes the gradually-improving period in Grecian
history, or second period, as it has been termed; and now commenced an
era marked by the important event of an invasion from a powerful
Asiatic sovereign.
PERSIAN INVASION. Darius, king of Persia, having imagined the
possibility of conquering Greece, sent an immense army against it in
the year just mentioned. Greatly alarmed at the approach of such an
enemy, the Athenians applied to the Spartans for aid; but that people
had a superstition which prohibited their taking the field before the
moon was at the full, and as at the time of the application it still
wanted five days of that period, they therefore delayed the march of
their troops. Being thus refused all assistance from their neighbors,
the Athenians were left to depend entirely on their own courage and
resources. A more remarkable instance of a small state endeavoring to
oppose the wicked aggression of an overgrown power, has seldom
occurred in ancient or modern times; but the constant exercises and
training of the Athenian population enabled them to present a bold and
by no means contemptible front to the invader. War had been their
principal employment, and in the field they displayed their noblest
qualities. They were unacquainted with those highly-disciplined
evolutions which give harmony and concert to numerous bodies of men;
but what was wanting in skill they supplied by courage. The Athenian,
and also other Greek soldiers, marched to the field in a deep phalanx,
rushed impetuously to the attack, and bravely closed with their
enemies. Each warrior was firmly opposed to his antagonist, and
compelled by necessity to the same exertions of valor as if the
fortune of the day depended on his single arm. The principal weapon
was a spear, which, thrown by the nervous and well-directed vigor of a
steady hand, often penetrated the firmest shields and bucklers. When
they missed their aim, or when the stroke proved ineffectual through
want of force, they drew their swords, and summoning their utmost
resolution, darted impetuously on the foe. This mode of war was common
to the soldiers and generals, the latter being as much distinguished
in battle by their strength and courage as their skill and conduct.
The Greeks had bows, slings, and darts, intended for the practice of
distant hostility; but their chief dependence was on the spear and
sword. Their defensive armor consisted of a bright helmet, adorned
with plumes, and covering the head, a strong corslet defending the
breast, greaves of brass decending the leg to the feet, and an ample
shield, loosely attached to the left shoulder and arm, which turned in
all directions, and opposed its firm resistance to every hostile
assault. With men thus organized and accoutred, a battle consisted of
so many duels, and the combatants fought with all the keenness of
personal resentment. The slaughter in such engagements was
correspondingly great, the fight seldom terminating till one of the
parties was nearly destroyed, or at least greatly reduced in numbers.
It was a people so animated and prepared that the hosts of Persia were
about to encounter. Compelled to meet the invaders unassisted, the
Athenians were able to march an army of only 9000 men, exclusive of
about as many light-armed slaves, into the field. With Miltiades as
their leader and commander-in-chief, they met the Persians in battle
on the plain of Marathon, thirty miles from Athens, and by great skill
and courage, and the force of their close phalanx of spearmen,
completely conquered them. Upwards of 6000 Persians were slain on the
field, while the number killed of the Athenians was but 192. This is
reckoned by historians one of the most important victories in ancient
times, for it saved the independence of the whole of Greece. To the
disgrace of the fickle Athenians, they afterwards showed the greatest
ingratitude to Miltiades, and put him in prison on a charge of
favoring the Persians. He died there the year after his great victory.
Soon after, the citizens of Athens, on a plea equally unfounded,
banished Aristides, an able leader of the aristocratic party in the
state, and who, from his strict integrity and wisdom, was usually
entitled ‘Aristides the Just.’ On the banishment of this eminent
individual, Themistocles, a person who was more democratic in his
sentiments, became the leader of the councils of the Athenians.
Meanwhile the Grecian liberties were again menaced by the Persians.
Xerxes, son of Darius, marched an army across the Hellespont by a
bridge of boats from the Asiatic shore, and led it towards the
southern part of Greece. The utmost force that the confederate Greeks
could oppose to the countless host of Persians, did not exceed 60,000
men. Of these, a band of Spartans, numbering 8,000 soldiers, under
Leonidas their king, was posted at the pass of Thermopylae, to
intercept the enemy, and here they discomfited every successive column
of the Persians as it entered the defile. Ultimately, foreseeing
certain destruction, Leonidas commanded all to retire but 300, with
whom he proposed to give the Persians some idea of what the Greeks
could submit to for the sake of their country. He and his 300 were cut
off to a man. Xerxes took possession of Attica and Athens, but in the
naval battle with the Athenian fleet at Salamis, which occurred soon
after [October 20, 480 B. C.], his army was utterly routed, and its
scattered remains retreated into Asia.
By this splendid victory the naval power of Persia was almost
annihilated, and the spirit of its monarch so completely humbled, that
he durst no longer undertake offensive operations against Greece.
Here, therefore, the war ought to have terminated; but so great and
valuable had been the spoils obtained by the confederate forces, that
they were unwilling to relinquish such a profitable contest. The war,
therefore, was continued for twenty years longer, less, apparently,
for the chastisement of Persia, than for the plunder of her conquered
provinces.
But now that all danger was over, many of the smaller states, whose
population was scanty, began to grow weary of the contest, and to
furnish with reluctance their annual contingent of men to reinforce
the allied fleet. It was, in consequence, arranged that those states
whose citizens were unwilling to perform personal service, should send
merely their proportion of vessels, and pay into the common treasury
an annual subsidy, for the maintenance of the sailors with whom the
Athenians undertook to man the fleet. The unforeseen but natural
consequence of this was the establishment of the complete supremacy of
Athens. The annual subsidies gradually assumed the character of a
regular tribute, and were compulsorily levied as such; while the
recusant communities, deprived of their fleets, which had been given
up to the Athenians, were unable to offer effectual resistance to the
oppressive exactions of the dominant state. The Athenians were thus
raised to an unprecedented pitch of power and opulence, and enabled to
adorn their city, to live in dignified idleness, and to enjoy a
constant succession of the most costly public amusements, at the
expense of the vanquished Persians, and of the scarcely more
leniently-treated communities of the dependent confederacy.
PERICLES. We have arrived at the most flourishing period of Athenian
history, during which Pericles rose to distinction, and greatly
contributed to the beautifying of the capital. The talents of Pericles
were of the very first order, and they had been carefully cultivated
by the ablest tutorage which Greece could afford. After serving for
several years in the Athenian army, he ventured to take a part in the
business of the popular assembly, and his powerful eloquence soon
gained him an ascendancy in the national councils; and his power, in
fact, became as great as that of an absolute monarch (445 B. C.). Some
of the most interesting events of Grecian history now occurred. After
a number of years of general peace, a dispute between the state of
Corinth and its dependency the island of Corcyra (now Corfu), gave
rise to a war which again disturbed the repose of all the Grecian
states. Corcyra was a colony of Corinth, but having, by its maritime
skill and enterprise, raised itself to a higher pitch of opulence than
its parent city, it not only refused to acknowledge Corinthian
supremacy, but went to war with that state on a question respecting
the government of Epidammus, a colony which the Corcyreans had planted
on the coast of Illyria. Corinth applied for and obtained aid from
several of the Peloponnesian states to reduce the Corcyreans to
subjection; while Corcyra, on the other hand, concluded a defensive
alliance with Athens, which sent a fleet to assist the island in
vindicating its independence. By way of punishing the Athenians for
intermeddling in the quarrel, the Corinthians stirred up a revolt in
Potidæa, a town of Chalcidice, near the confines of Macedonia, which
had originally been a colony of Corinth, but was at this time a
tributary of Athens. The Athenians immediately despatched a fleet and
army for the reduction of Potidæa, and the Peloponnesians were equally
prompt in sending succors to the city. The Corinthians, meanwhile,
were actively engaged in endeavoring to enlist in their cause those
states which had not yet taken a decided part in the dispute. To
Lacedæmon, in particular, they sent ambassadors to complain of the
conduct of the Athenians, which they characterized as a violation of a
universally-recognised law of Grecian policy――that no state should
interfere between another and its dependencies. The efforts of the
Corinthians were successful, and almost all the Peloponnesian states,
headed by Sparta, together with many of those beyond the isthmus,
formed themselves into a confederacy for the purpose of going to war
with Athens. Argos and Achaia at first remained neuter. Corcyra,
Acarnania, some of the cities of Thessaly, and those of Platæa and
Naupactus, were all that took part with the Athenians.
Pericles beheld without dismay the gathering of the storm, but his
countrymen were not equally undaunted. They perceived that they were
about to be called upon to exchange the idle and luxurious life they
were at present leading for one of hardship and danger, and they began
to murmur against their political leader for involving them in so
alarming a quarrel. They had not at first the courage to impeach
Pericles himself, but vented their displeasure against his friends and
favorites. Phidias, a very eminent sculptor, whom the great statesman
had appointed superintendent of public buildings, was condemned to
imprisonment on a frivolous charge; and the philosopher Anaxagoras,
the preceptor and friend of Pericles, was charged with disseminating
opinions subversive of the national religion, and banished from
Athens. Respecting another celebrated individual who at this time fell
under persecution, it becomes necessary to say a few words. Aspasia of
Miletus was a woman of remarkable beauty and brilliant talents, but
she wanted that chastity which is the greatest of feminine graces, and
by her dissolute life was rendered a reproach, as she would otherwise
have been an ornament, to her sex. This remarkable woman having come
to reside in Athens, attracted the notice of Pericles, who was so much
fascinated by her beauty, wit and eloquence, that, after separating
from his wife, with whom he had lived unhappily, he married Aspasïa.
It was generally believed that for the gratification of a private
grudge, she had instigated Pericles to quarrel with the Peloponnesian
states, and her unpopularity on this score was the true cause of her
being now accused, before the assembly of the people, of impiety and
grossly-immoral practices. Pericles conducted her defense in person,
and plead for her with so much earnestness, that he was moved even to
tears. The people, either finding the accusations to be really
unfounded, or unable to resist the eloquence of Pericles, acquitted
Aspasia. His enemies next directed their attack against himself. They
accused him of embezzling the public money; but he completely rebutted
the charge, and proved that he had drawn his income from no other
source than his private estate. His frugal and unostentatious style of
living must have of itself gone far to convince the Athenians of the
honesty with which he had administered the public affairs; for while
he was filling the city with temples, porticoes, and other magnificent
works of art, and providing many costly entertainments for the people,
his own domestic establishment was regulated with such strict
attention to economy, that the members of his family complained of a
parsimony which formed a marked contrast to the splendor in which many
of the wealthy Athenians then lived.
Confirmed in his authority by his triumphant refutation of the
slanders of his enemies, Pericles adopted the wisest measures for the
public defense against the invasion which was threatened by the
Peloponnesians. Unwilling to risk a battle with the Spartans, who were
esteemed not less invincible by land than the Athenians were by sea,
he caused the inhabitants of Attica to transport their cattle to Eubœa
and the neighboring islands, and to retire with as much of their other
property as they could take with them, within the walls of Athens. By
this provident care, the city was stored with provision sufficient for
the support of the multitudes which now crowded it; but greater
difficulty was found in furnishing proper accommodation for so vast a
population. Many found lodgings in the temples and other public
edifices, or in the turrets on the city walls, while great numbers
were obliged to construct for themselves temporary abodes in the
vacant space within the long walls extending between the city and the
port of Piræus.
The memorable contest of twenty-seven years’ duration, called ‘the
Peloponnesian War,’ now commenced (431 B. C.). The Spartan king,
Archidamus, entered Attica at the head of a large army of the
confederates, and meeting with no opposition, proceeded along its
eastern coast, burning the towns, and laying waste the country in his
course. When the Athenians saw the enemy ravaging the country almost
up to their gates, it required all the authority of Pericles to keep
them within their fortifications. While the confederates were wasting
Attica with fire and sword, the Athenian and Corcyrean fleets were, by
the direction of Pericles, avenging the injury by ravaging the almost
defenseless coasts of the Peloponnesus. This, together with a scarcity
of provisions, soon induced Archidamus to lead his army homewards. He
retired by the western coast, continuing the work of devastation as he
went along.
Early in the summer of the following year, the confederates returned
to Attica, which they were again permitted to ravage at their
pleasure, as Pericles still adhered to his cautious policy of
confining his efforts to the defense of the capital. But an enemy far
more terrible than the Peloponnesians attacked the unfortunate
Athenians. A pestilence, supposed to have originated in Ethiopia, and
which had gradually spread over Egypt and the western parts of Asia,
broke out in the town of Piræus, the inhabitants of which at first
supposed their wells to have been poisoned. The disease rapidly
advanced into Athens, where it carried off a great number of persons.
It is described as having been a species of infectious fever,
accompanied with many painful symptoms, and followed, in those who
survived the first stages of the disease, by ulcerations of the bowels
and limbs.
Historians mention, as a proof of the singular virulence of this
pestilence, that the birds of prey refused to touch the unburied
bodies of its victims, and that the dogs which fed upon the poisonous
relics perished.
The mortality was dreadful, and was of course greatly increased by the
overcrowded state of the city. The prayers of the devout, and the
skill of the physicians, were found equally unavailing to stop the
progress of the disease; and the miserable Athenians, reduced to
despair, believed themselves to be forgotten or hated by their gods.
The sick were in many cases left unattended, and the bodies of the
dead allowed to lie unburied, while those whom the plague had not yet
reached, openly sat at defiance all laws, human and divine, and rushed
into every excess of criminal indulgence.
Pericles was in the meantime engaged, with a fleet of 150 ships, in
wasting with fire and sword the shores of Peloponnesus. At his return
to Athens, finding that the enemy had hastily retired from Attica,
through fear of the contagion of the plague, he despatched the fleet
to the coast of Chalcidice, to assist the Athenian land forces who
were still engaged in the siege of Potidæa――an unfortunate measure,
productive of no other result than the communication of the pestilence
to the besieging army, by which the majority of the troops were
speedily swept away. Maddened by their sufferings, the Athenians now
became loud in their murmurs against Pericles, whom they accused of
having brought upon them at least a portion of their calamities, by
involving them in the Peloponnesian war. An assembly of the people was
held, in which Pericles entered upon a justification of his conduct
and exhorted them to courage and perseverance in defense of their
independence. The hardships to which they had been exposed by the war,
were, he observed, only such as he had in former addresses prepared
them to expect; and as for the pestilence, it was a calamity which no
human prudence could either have foreseen or averted. He reminded them
that they still possessed a fleet which that of no potentate on earth
could equal or cope with, and that, after the present evil should have
passed away, their navy might yet enable them to acquire universal
empire. ‘What we suffer from the gods,’ continued he, ‘we should bear
with patience; what from our enemies, with manly firmness; and such
were the maxims of our forefathers. From unshaken fortitude in
misfortune has arisen the present power of this commonwealth, together
with that glory which, if our empire, according to the lot of all
earthly things, decay, shall still survive to all posterity.’
The eloquent harangue of Pericles diminished, but did not remove, the
alarm and irritation of the Athenians, and they not only dismissed him
from all his offices, but imposed upon him a heavy fine. Meanwhile
domestic afflictions were combining with political anxieties and
mortifications to oppress the mind of this eminent man, for the
members of his family were one by one perishing by the plague. Still,
however, he bore himself up with a fortitude which was witnessed with
admiration by all around him; but at the funeral of the last of his
children, his firmness at length gave way; and while he was, according
to the custom of the country, placing a garland of flowers on the head
of the corpse, he burst into loud lamentations, and shed a torrent of
tears. It was not long till his mutable countrymen repented of their
harshness towards him, and reinvested him with his civil and military
authority. He soon after followed his children to the grave, falling,
like them, a victim to the prevailing pestilence (429 B. C.). The
concurrent testimony of the ancient writers assigns to Pericles the
first place among Grecian statesmen for wisdom and eloquence. Though
ambitious of power, he was temperate in its exercise; and it is
creditable to his memory, that, in an age and country so little
scrupulous in the shedding of blood, his long administration was as
merciful and mild as it was vigorous and effective. When constrained
to make war, the constant study of this eminent statesman was, how to
overcome his enemies with the least possible destruction of life, as
well on their side as on his own. It is related that, when he was
lying at the point of death, and while those who surrounded him were
recounting his great actions, he suddenly interrupted them by
expressing his surprise that they should bestow so much praise on
achievements in which he had been rivaled by many others, while they
omitted to mention what he considered his highest and peculiar
honor――namely, _that no act of his had ever caused any Athenian to put
on mourning_.
After the death of Pericles, the war was continued, without
interruption, for seven years longer, but with no very decisive
advantage to either side. During this period the Athenian councils
were chiefly directed by a coarse-minded and unprincipled demagogue
named Cleon, who was at last killed in battle under the walls of
Amphipolis, a Macedonian city, of which the possession was disputed by
the Athenians and Lacedæmonians. Cleon was succeeded in the direction
of public affairs by Nicias, the leader of the aristocratic party, a
man of virtuous but unenterprising character, and a military officer
of moderate abilities. Under his auspices a peace for fifty years,
commonly known by the name of the ‘Peace of Nicias,’ was concluded in
the tenth year of the war (421 B. C.). It was not long, however, till
the contest was resumed. Offended that its allies had given up a
contest undertaken for the assertion of its alleged rights, Corinth
refused to be a party to the treaty of peace, and entered into a new
quadruple alliance with Argos, Elis, and Mantinæa, a city of Arcadia;
the ostensible object of which confederation was the defense of the
Peloponnesian states against the aggressions of Athens and Sparta.
This end seemed not difficult of attainment, as fresh distrust had
arisen between the two last-mentioned republics, on account of the
reluctance felt and manifested by both to give up certain places which
they had bound themselves by treaty mutually to surrender. The
jealousies thus excited were fanned into a violent flame by the artful
measures of Alcibiades, a young Athenian, who now began to rise into
political power, and whose genius and character subsequently exercised
a strong influence upon the affairs of Athens.
ALCIBIADES. Alcibiades was the son of Clinias, an Athenian of high
rank. Endowed with uncommon beauty of person, and talents of the very
highest order, he was unfortunately deficient in that unbending
integrity which is an essential element of every character truly
great, and his violent passions sometimes impelled him to act in a
manner which has brought disgrace on his memory. While still very
young, Alcibiades served in the Athenian army, and became the
companion and pupil of Socrates, one of the wisest and most virtuous
of the Grecian sages. Having rendered some service to his country in a
protracted and useless war with Lacedæmon, and being possessed of a
talent for addressing the passions of the multitude, Alcibiades, as
others had done before him, became the undisputed head of public
affairs in Athens. But this preëminence was not of long continuance.
An opinion arose among the people that he designed to subvert the
constitution, and his fall was as quick as his promotion. Many of his
friends were put to death, and he, while absent on an expedition,
deprived of his authority. Being thus left without a public director
of affairs, Athens, as usual, was torn by internal discords: the
aristocratic faction succeeded in overthowing the democratic
government (411 B. C.), and establishing a council of 400 individuals
to administer the affairs of state, with the power of convoking an
assembly of 5000 of the principal citizens for advice and assistance
in any emergency. These 400 tyrants, as they were popularly called,
were no sooner invested with authority, than they annihilated every
remaining portion of the free institutions of Athens. They behaved
with the greatest insolence and severity towards the people, and
endeavored to confirm and perpetuate their usurped power, by raising a
body of mercenary troops in the islands of the Ægean, for the purpose
of overawing and enslaving their fellow-citizens. The Athenian army
was at this period in the island of Samos, whither it had retired
after an expedition against the revolted cities of Asia Minor. When
intelligence arrived of the revolution in Athens, and the tyrannical
proceedings of the oligarchical faction, the soldiers indignantly
refused to obey the new government, and sent an invitation to
Alcibiades to return among them, and assist in reëstablishing the
democratic constitution. He obeyed the call; and as soon as he arrived
in Samos, the troops elected him their general. He then sent a message
to Athens, commanding the 400 tyrants to divest themselves immediately
of their unconstitutional authority, if they wished to avoid
deposition and death at his hands.
This message reached Athens at a time of the greatest confusion and
alarm. The 400 tyrants had quarreled among themselves, and were about
to appeal to the sword: the island of Eubœa, from which Athens had for
some time been principally supplied with provisions, had revolted, and
the fleet which had been sent to reduce it had been destroyed by the
Lacedæmonians, so that the coasts of Attica, and the port of Athens
itself, were now without defense. In these distressing circumstances,
the people, roused to desperation, rose upon their oppressors,
overturned the government of the 400, after an existence of only a few
months, and reëstablished their ancient institutions. Alcibiades was
now recalled; but before revisiting Athens, he was desirous of
performing some brilliant military exploit, which might obliterate the
recollection of his late connection with the Spartans, and give his
return an air of triumph. He accordingly joined the Athenian fleet,
then stationed at the entrance of the Hellespont, and soon obtained
several important victories over the Lacedæmonians, both by sea and
land. He then returned to Athens, where he was received with
transports of joy. Chaplets of flowers were showered upon his head,
and amidst the most enthusiastic acclamations he proceeded to the
place of assembly, where he addressed the people in a speech of such
eloquence and power, that at its conclusion a crown of gold was placed
upon his brow, and he was invested with the supreme command of the
Athenian forces, both naval and military. His forfeited property was
restored, and the priests were directed to revoke the curses which had
formerly been pronounced upon him.
This popularity of Alcibiades was not of long continuance. Many of the
dependencies of Athens being in a state of insurrection, he assumed
the command of an armament intended for their reduction. But
circumstances arose which obliged him to leave the fleet for a short
time in charge of one of his officers, named Antiochus, who, in
despite of express orders to the contrary, gave battle to the
Lacedæmonians during the absence of the commander-in-chief, and was
defeated. When intelligence of this action reached Athens, a violent
clamor was raised against Alcibiades: he was accused of having
neglected his duty, and received a second dismissal from all his
offices. On hearing of this, he quitted the fleet, and retiring to a
fortress he had built in the Chersonesus of Thrace, he collected
around him a band of military adventurers, with whose assistance he
carried on a predatory warfare against the neighboring Thracian
tribes.
Alcibiades did not long survive his second disgrace with his
countrymen. Finding his Thracian residence insecure, on account of the
increasing power of his Lacedæmonian enemies, he crossed the
Hellespont, and settled in Bithynia, a country on the Asiatic side of
the Propontis. Being there attacked and plundered by the Thracians, he
proceeded into Phrygia, and placed himself under the protection of
Pharnabasus, the Persian satrap of that province. But even thither the
unfortunate chief was followed by the unrelenting hatred of the
Lacedæmonians, by whose directions he was privately and foully
assassinated. Thus perished, about the fortieth year of his age (403
B. C.), one of the ablest men that Greece ever produced. Distinguished
alike as a warrior, an orator, and a statesman, and in his nature
noble and generous, Alcibiades would have been truly worthy of our
admiration if he had possessed probity; but his want of principle, and
his unruly passions, led him to commit many grievous errors, which
contributed not a little to produce or aggravate those calamities
which latterly overtook him.