The sea-fight began as the day dawned. Xerxes had erected a great throne for himself from which he could watch the events of the day; "and full in view of all the host the throne stood on a high knoll hard beside the sea."
Aeschylus, a great Athenian poet, who was himself present at the battle, wrote a play called thePersiansin which a messenger takes the news of Salamis to the mother of Xerxes, waiting at Susa for the return of her son. Never before had he been defeated, but now she must listen to a tale of woe:
'Twas this began all our disaster, Queen:A demon or fell fiend rose—who knows whence?—For from the Athenian host a Hellene came,And to thy son, to Xerxes, told this tale,That when the mirk of black night should be come,The Greeks would not abide, but, leaping straightUpon the galley thwarts, this way and thatIn stealthy flight would seek to save their lives.Soon as he heard, discerning neither guileIn that Greek, nor the jealousy of heaven,This word to all his captains he proclaims,That, when the sun should cease to scorch the earth,And gloom should fill the hallowed space of sky,In three lines should they range their throng of shipsTo guard each pass, each sea-ward surging strait;And others should enring all Aias' Isle:Since, if the Greeks should yet escape fell doom,And find their ships some privy path of flight,Doomed to the headsman all these captains were.Thus spake he, in spirit over-confident,Knowing not what the gods would bring to pass.With hearts obedient, in no disarray,Then supped our crews, and every marinerTo the well-rounded rowlock lashed his oar.But when the splendour faded of the sun,And night came on, each master of the oarA-shipboard went, and every man-at-arms.Then rank to rank of long ships passed the word:And, as was each appointed, so they sailed.So all night long the captains of the shipsKept all the sea-host sailing to and fro.And night passed by, yet did the Hellene hostEssay in no wise any secret flight.But when the day by white steeds chariot-borne,Radiant to see, flooded all earth with light,First from the Hellenes did a clamorous shoutRing for a triumphant chant; and wild and highPealed from the island rock the answering cheerOf Echo. Thrilled through all our folks dismayOf baffled expectation; for the GreeksNot as for flight that holy paean sang,But straining battleward with heroic hearts.The trumpet's blare set all their lines aflame.Straightway with chiming dip of dashing oarsThey smote the loud brine to the timing cry,And suddenly flashed they all full into view.Foremost their right wing seemly-ordered ledIn fair array; next, all their armamentBattleward swept on. Therewithal was heardA great shout—"On, ye sons of Hellas, on!Win for the home-land freedom!—freedom winFor sons, wives, temples of ancestral gods,And old sires' graves! this day are all at stake!"Yea, and from us low thunder of Persian cheersAnswered—no time it was for dallying!Then straightway galley dashed her beak of bronzeOn galley. 'Twas a Hellene ship beganThe onset, and shore all the figure-headFrom a Phoenician: captain charged on captain.At first the Persian navy's torrent-floodWithstood them; but when our vast fleet was crampedIn strait-space—friend could lend no aid to friend,—Then ours by fangs of allies' beaks of bronzeWere struck, and shattered all their oar-array;While with shrewd strategy the Hellene shipsSwept round, and rammed us, and upturned were hullsOf ships;—no more could one discern the sea,Clogged all with wrecks and limbs of slaughtered men:The shores, the rock-reefs, were with corpses strewn.Then rowed each bark in fleeing disarray,Yea, every keel of our barbarian host,They with oar-fragments and with shards of wrecksSmote, hacked, as men smite tunnies or a draughtOf fishes; and a moaning, all confusedWith shrieking, hovered wide o'er that sea-brineTill night's dark presence blotted out the horror.That swarm of woes, yea, though for ten days' spaceI should rehearse could I not tell in full.Yet know this well, that never in one dayDied such a host, such tale untold, of men.[10]
Xerxes, the Great King, was defeated, and his one desire now was to return home to Asia. He left hisgeneral, Mardonius, in Thessaly with a picked body of men, who should carry on the war in the spring, but he himself, with what was left of his army, marched back through Macedonia and Thrace, to the Hellespont and so back to his own land. It was a very different march from the triumphant one he had made earlier in the year. The inhabitants of the lands through which they had passed had no fear of a defeated King, and it was difficult to obtain provisions. The Persians seized what crops there were,
and if they found no crops, then they took the grass which was growing up from the earth, and stripped off the bark from the trees and plucked down the leaves, and devoured them. Then plague seized upon the army and some of them who were sick the King left behind.
In such manner did Xerxes return home.
In the meanwhile, Mardonius and his army spent the winter in Thessaly. When the spring came, (this was the spring of 479 B.C.), he sent a messenger to the Athenians who spoke these words to them:
Athenians, there has come a message from the King which speaks in this manner: I remit to you all the offences which were committed against me, and this I say: I will give you back your own land and any other in addition, and you shall remain independent; and I will rebuild all your temples, provided you will make a treaty with me.
The Spartans heard that this message had come, and they sent messengers to Athens imploring theAthenians to make no terms with the Barbarian, for they feared that if Athens became subject to Persia, there would be no safety left for them. They offered to send supplies to Athens to make up for the loss of their harvest, destroyed by the Persians, to support the families of those Athenians who had been slain, to do almost anything, in fact, if only the Athenians would stand firm.
The Spartans need not have feared. The freedom-loving Athenians were not likely to submit to a barbarian foe. They sent back to the Persian this answer:
So long as the sun goes on the same course by which he goes now, we will never make an agreement with Xerxes, but trusting to the gods and heroes as allies, we will go forth to defend ourselves against him.
To the Spartans they said:
It was natural, no doubt, that you should be afraid lest we should make a treaty with the Barbarian; but it was an unworthy fear for men who knew so well the spirit of the Athenians, namely that there is neither so great quantity of gold anywhere upon the earth, nor any land so beautiful, that we should be willing to accept it and enslave Hellas by taking the side of the Medes. Be assured of this, that so long as one of the Athenians remains alive, we will never make an agreement with Xerxes. We are grateful for your thought toward us, but we shall continue to endure as we may, and not be a trouble in any way to you. But send out an army as speedily as you may, for the Barbarian will be here invading our land at no far distant time. Thereforebefore he arrives here in Attica come to our rescue quickly in Boeotia.
Thus the Athenians made answer, and upon that the envoys went away back to Sparta.
When the messengers returned to Mardonius with the answer from Athens, the Persian general marched out of Thessaly down through Boeotia into Attica, and for the second time the Barbarian burnt Athens. Xerxes had left but little to burn, Mardonius left nothing. He then marched back into Boeotia and set up his camp in the region between Thebes and Plataea. Here he waited for the Greeks. There was some delay before they came, for the Spartans made various excuses for not setting out, but at length under their King, Pausanias, they marched out and joined the Athenians. And then at Plataea was fought the last great battle in this great war. All day long it raged, and at first it seemed as if the Persians were gaining, but whilst the outcome of the battle was still in doubt, Mardonius was killed, and with him fled all the hopes of the Persians. They took to flight, but were pursued and overtaken by the Greeks and very few were left alive. The Greeks then entered the camp of the Persians, and they gazed in astonishment at the riches they found there. There were "tents furnished with gold and silver, and beds overlaid with gold and silver, and mixing bowls of gold, and cups and other drinking vessels." One tenth of this rich plunder was sent to Delphi and the rest divided amongst those who had fought the battle. A bronze statue of Zeus was sent as anoffering to Olympia, and one of Poseidon was sent to the Isthmus. It was further resolved that the land belonging to Plataea should be held sacred for ever, and that never again should fighting take place on it.
After the Persians had taken the Pass of Thermopylae, the body of Leonidas had been taken and cruelly used in revenge for his having dared to withstand the Great King, and to slaughter so many of his Persian soldiers. It was suggested to Pausanias that he should take vengeance for this barbarous act by mutilating the body of Mardonius who had fallen in the battle.
Stranger [he answered], thou holdest me as nought by advising me to do such a thing. These things it is more fitting for Barbarians to do than for Hellenes, and even with them we find fault for doing so. I do not desire in any such manner as this to please those who like such things. As for Leonidas, he has been greatly avenged already by the unnumbered lives which have been taken of these men. As for thee, come not again to me with such a proposal, nor give me such advice; and be thankful, moreover, that thou hast no punishment for it now.
In the Persian camp, the Greeks found the tent of Xerxes himself, which he had left for Mardonius, not wishing to be cumbered with too much baggage in his flight from Greece. When Pausanias saw it, he,
seeing the furniture of Mardonius furnished with gold and silver and hangings of different colours, ordered thebakers and the cooks to prepare a meal as they were used to do for Mardonius. Then when they did this as they had been commanded, it is said that Pausanias seeing the couches of gold and of silver with luxurious coverings, and the tables of gold and silver, and the magnificent apparatus of the feast, was astonished at the good things set before him, and for sport he ordered his own servants to prepare a Laconian meal; and as, when the banquet was served, the difference between the two was great, Pausanias laughed and sent for the commanders of the Hellenes; and when these had come together, Pausanias said, pointing to the preparation of the two meals severally: "Hellenes, for this reason I assembled you together, because I desired to show you the senselessness of this leader of the Medes, who having such fare as this, came to us who have such sorry fare as ye see here, in order to take it away from us." Thus it is said that Pausanias spoke to the commanders of the Hellenes.
After the battle of Salamis, the Persian ships had withdrawn to Samos, and those of the Greeks to Delos, where they had spent the winter. In the spring, when the armies were marching out to meet at Plataea, the fleets moved slowly towards the Ionian coast, and on the same day as the battle of Plataea, so Herodotus tells us, they met in a fierce sea-fight, in which the Persians were completely routed. Thus on the same day, by land and sea, the Barbarian was defeated and Greece was free. She had proved that right was greater than might, and that in the cause of freedom the weaker might stand against the stronger and prevail.
[1] Except where otherwise noted, Chapter IX is taken or adapted from theHistory of Herodotus.
[2] See p. 385.
[3] See p. 227.
[4] Plutarch:Life of Themistocles.
[5] Thucydides, I.
[6] Plutarch:Life of Themistocles.
[7] Plutarch:Life of Aristeides.
[8] Plutarch:Life of Aristeides.
[9] From the translation inGreek History for Young Readersby Alice Zimmern.
[10] Aeschylus: The Persians, translated by A. S. Way.
The Persian had been defeated, and Greece was free. The Athenians had suffered more than any other state, for they had been forced to leave their city to be occupied by the enemy, and twice it had been burnt to the ground. Now, however, they were free to return. The city was utterly destroyed, but a great hope for the future filled their hearts when they found that the sacred olive tree on the Acropolis, which had been burnt by the Persians, was not dead after all, but had sent up fresh green shoots. Athena had not deserted them.
Themistocles was now the acknowledged leader of Athens, and the hero of all Greece.
At the next Olympic Games, when he entered the course, the spectators took no further heed of those who were contesting for the prizes, but spent the whole day in looking at him, showing him to the strangers, admiring him, and applauding him by clapping their hands, and other expressions of joy, so that he himself, muchgratified, confessed to his friends that he then reaped the fruit of all his labours for the Greeks.[1]
He was by nature a great lover of honours and glory, and he liked to appear superior to other people. After the battle of Salamis when numbers of the Persian dead were washed ashore, "he perceived bracelets and necklaces of gold about them, yet passed on, only showing them to a friend that followed him, saying, 'Take you these things, for you are not Themistocles.'"[2]
It was this man who had given Athens her navy by means of which she had defeated the Barbarian, and he now realized that if she was to keep her independence, the city must be well fortified. The Athenians were more than willing to follow his advice, and everyone in the city, men, women and even children worked hard to rebuild the walls. Now the Spartans were becoming more and more jealous of the increasing power of the Athenians, and when they heard of the new walls that were rising all round Athens, they sent envoys there to tell the Athenians that they held any such fortification of their city unnecessary. They thought it wiser that there should be no strongly-walled city in Attica, for should an enemy ever capture it, the citadel could be used as a base from which the enemy would go out and conquer other places. If war should come again, and the Athenians should feel insecure in their city, Sparta would gladly welcome them in thePeloponnesus. Themistocles suggested that he should go to Sparta and talk everything over with the Spartan leaders, and he set out accordingly. He left instructions that during his absence the work on the walls should go on with all possible speed and that messengers were to be sent to tell him when the work was finished. But the Spartans were not satisfied with the excuses and explanations given them by Themistocles, so he suggested that they should send messengers to Athens to find out the truth for themselves. They had hardly started when the Athenian messengers arrived with the news that the walls were built. Themistocles then told the whole truth to the Spartans, telling them that Athens was in every way the equal of Sparta and would take no orders from her as to what she should do or not do in her own land. The Spartans were angry, but they did not show it at that time, and Themistocles returned home to Athens.
Themistocles next set to work to fortify the harbour of the Peiraeus. Athens is a few miles inland from the sea, and the Peiraeus is her harbour. It is a peninsula with a deep bay on one side, in which ships can lie safely at anchor. A strong wall was built all round this peninsula, and the narrow entrance to the harbour was made secure by chains which could easily be drawn across in such a way as to prevent, whenever necessary, the entrance of any ships. The city and the harbour were then connected by Long Walls, which practically formed a fortified road down to the sea. This gave Athens all the advantages of a seaport, and an enemy wouldfind it as difficult to take Athens as it had been to take Miletus.
The Persians had been defeated in Greece, but the Ionian Greeks in Asia Minor were still subject to the Great King. Now that the war was over, these Greeks appealed to the states on the mainland to help them. Athens took a special interest in these Ionian colonies as they had been settled by men of close kinship to the Athenians. So the
Hellenes deliberated about removing the inhabitants of Ionia, and considered where they ought to settle them in those parts of Hellas of which they had command, leaving Ionia to the Barbarians: for it was evident to them that it was impossible on the one hand for them to be always stationed as guards to protect the Ionians, and, on the other hand, if they were not stationed to protect them, they had no hope that the Ionians would escape from the Persians. Therefore it seemed good to these of the Peloponnesians who were in authority that they should remove the inhabitants of the trading ports which belonged to those peoples of Hellas who had taken the side of the Medes, and give that land to the Ionians to dwell in; but the Athenians did not think it good that the inhabitants of Ionia should be removed at all, nor that the Peloponnesians should consult about Athenian colonies; and as these vehemently resisted the proposal, the Peloponnesians gave way.[3]
The Spartans not only gave way, but when an Athenian fleet set sail for the Hellespont, the Spartans sent twenty ships with Pausanias, the general who had commanded at Plataea, to join theexpedition. The combined fleets took Sestos and then in the following year Byzantium. Pausanias was left in command at Byzantium, and soon after a strange change was observed in him. His manner became overbearing and proud, and he gave up his Spartan habits of simple living, and adopted Persian ways, even dressing as a Persian. All this was so suspicious that he was recalled to Sparta, but as nothing was proved against him, he returned to Byzantium. Here he entered into correspondence with Xerxes and offered, in return for gold and the Great King's daughter as his bride, to betray Greece to the Persians. Though this was not known in Sparta till later, his conduct became sufficiently suspicious for the Spartans to recall him a second time, but at first they could find no definite proofs of his treachery. At last one of his slaves gave evidence against him. For some time Pausanias had been sending messengers to Asia Minor, and this particular slave had noticed that none of these messengers ever returned. When in time it became his turn to be sent, instead of bearing the message to the East, he took it to one of the Ephors, who opened it and found in it proofs of treachery and betrayal of Greece to the Barbarian, with instructions to kill the slave who brought the message. The news that his messenger had been intercepted reached Pausanias, who immediately fled from his house and took refuge in a chamber adjoining the shrine in one of the temples. Here he was secure, but the Ephors, in order to prevent his escape, gave orders that the doorway should be blocked up, and, imprisoned in the little chamber,Pausanias slowly starved to death. He was only taken out when he was just at the point of death, in order that the body of a traitor might not profane the temple.
Whilst these things had been taking place in Sparta, Themistocles had been at the head of affairs in Athens. He had many enemies amongst the Athenians, and they accused him of many wrong acts. These were never definitely proved against him, and the records of the end of his career are so scanty that it is difficult to know how much truth there was in the accusations, but there were undoubtedly a number of suspicious facts of which his enemies made use. Amongst other things he was accused of taking bribes. He denied it, yet when he left Athens, he possessed a strangely large fortune, the sources of which were never explained. Themistocles had a very biting tongue, and when his enemies attacked him, he would remind them, much oftener than was necessary, of the great services he had performed for Greece and for Athens in particular, and this arrogant boasting made him hated by many people who might otherwise have been his friends. A last serious accusation brought against him was that he was in communication with the Persians and was about to play the traitor. There was no proof of this, but Themistocles believed in the policy of making peace with the Persians. There was no fear that they would again attack the Greeks, and Themistocles saw that wealth and prosperity would most surely come to Athens through her trade, and so he advocated peaceful relations withthe great empire of the East, in order that Athenian merchants might go safely in and out of her trading ports, and so add to the wealth and importance of Athens. But this was a very unpopular policy to hold in Athens, and feeling grew more and more bitter against Themistocles, until at last he was ostracized. He left Athens and wandered from place to place. No city would give him a welcome, partly because he was feared, and partly because Athens was now a powerful state, and no one wanted to offend her by giving shelter to one of her exiles. Sometimes he was forced to flee for his life, and once the only way in which he could safely be sent out of a city was to hide him in a litter which was placed in a closed carriage in the manner in which ladies usually travelled, and so "he was carried on his journey, and those who met or spoke with the driver upon the road were told that he was conveying a young Greek woman out of Ionia to a nobleman at court."[4]
After this and similar adventures, homeless, a wanderer from city to city, Themistocles the man who had saved Greece, who had laid the foundations of the greatness of Athens, who had been the bitterest and most relentless enemy of the Persians, this man came to Susa, and prostrating himself before Artaxerxes, who had succeeded Xerxes as King, he said to him:
"O King, I am Themistocles the Athenian, driven into banishment by the Greeks. The evils that I have doneto the Persians are numerous, but I come with a mind suited to my present calamities; prepared alike for favours or for anger. If you save me, you will save your suppliant; if otherwise, you will destroy an enemy of the Greeks."[5]
The King rejoiced greatly over the arrival of Themistocles, and he "was so well pleased, that in the night, in the middle of his sleep, he cried out for joy three times, 'I have Themistocles the Athenian.'"[6] The courtiers around the King were less pleased, and they spoke of Themistocles as "a subtle Greek serpent."
At the end of a year Themistocles was able to speak the Persian language quite easily and he became very intimate with the King, who honoured him above all strangers who came to the court.
There are no records to tell us of all the many things that must have passed through the heart and mind of Themistocles, exiled from Greece and living with the Persian, but tradition has handed down to us the hope that at the end his ancient love and loyalty to Athens triumphed, for it is said that the Great King summoned him to help the Persians in an expedition against Greece, but that Themistocles, rather than sink to such a depth of shame, drank poison, and so put an end to his own life. It was a tragic end to a great man, who had done great deeds for his country. But his character was not strongenough to stand the strain of the continued accusations, insults and injustices of his enemies, and in the hour of testing he failed and turned his back upon his country. Though almost certainly innocent of the worst of that of which he was accused while still in Athens, his later actions place him, if not with those who became actual traitors to their country, at least with those whose loyalty and honour have been indelibly stained.
This flaw in the character of Themistocles was one that was very common in Greece. The Greeks were not a grateful people. They, and the Athenians in particular, were always afraid that too much power in the hands of one man would lead them back to a Tyranny, and so they frequently failed to recognize or reward in a way that was fitting or lasting those who had done great deeds for them. The Greek patriot loved his state passionately, yet it was a love that not uncommonly turned to hate, if it was met by ingratitude, and the saddest pages in Greek history are those on which are recorded the names of Greek traitors.
Athens could never have become the great state she did, but for the work of Themistocles, and in spite of all that he did in the closing years of his life, one would like to believe that the story preserved by Plutarch is true. He tells us that long years after the death of Themistocles, there was a tomb near the haven of Peiraeus, where the sea is always calm, which was reputed to be that of the great Athenian statesman, and that it was said of it:
Thy tomb is fairly placed upon the strand,Where merchants still shall greet it with the land;Still in and out 'twill see them come and go,And watch the galleys as they race below.[7]
Was it, perhaps, possible that the Athenians of a later generation, recognizing what Themistocles had done for Athens, forgave him, and brought his body home to rest near the great harbour which he himself had made?
The recall of Pausanias from Byzantium left the Spartans in Asia Minor with no commander. Sparta had never been very much in earnest about freeing the Ionians, and the Ionians, very naturally, felt more confidence in a sea-power than in one whose strength lay chiefly in her army, and so they turned to Athens for leadership.
Themistocles was in exile, and his old rival Aristeides was now the most powerful leader in Athens. He believed that it was the duty of the Athenians to do all in their power to free their kinsmen in the Ionian cities from the Persian rule, and to this end, he and the Ionian leaders formed a league, known as the Confederacy or League of Delos. It took its name from the island of Delos where the meetings were held, and where the treasury of the League was kept. Delos was chosen because it could easily be reached by all the members of the League, and also because it was a place specially honoured by Apollo,for legend said he had been born there, and before Delphi had become so important, his chief sanctuary had been in his island birthplace.
The object of the League was the freeing of all Hellenes in Asia Minor and the islands of the Aegean from the Persians, and, having secured their liberty to help them maintain their independence. For this purpose money and ships were needed. "By the good will of the allies, the Athenians obtained the leadership. They immediately fixed which of the cities should supply money and which of them ships for the war against the Barbarians,"[8] and as they were
desirous to be rated city by city in their due proportion, they gave Aristeides command to survey the countries and to assess everyone according to their ability and what they were worth; and he laid the tax not only without corruption and injustice but to the satisfaction and convenience of all. Aristeides, moreover, made all the people of Greece swear to keep the league, and himself took the oath in the name of the Athenians, flinging wedges of red-hot iron into the sea, after curses against such as should break their vow.[9]
The contributions were collected every spring by ten specially appointed men, called Hellenic Stewards, who brought the money to Delos where it was placed in the treasury of the League. The League began its work at once, and one by one the Greek cities in Asia Minor and the islands in the Aegean were set free, until at length not one was left under the rule of Persia. As each city became independent,it joined the League, which grew in strength and importance as its numbers increased. Athens was its acknowledged leader; not only did she determine the amount each member should contribute, but the Hellenic Stewards were all Athenians, and affairs of the League were governed by Athenian law. Slowly the relationship of Athens to the other members of the League changed. At first the states had regarded themselves as allies of each other and of Athens, but as the power of Athens grew, she began to look upon these Greek states less as allies than as subjects who were bound to follow her lead and do her bidding. At length this relationship was so well-recognized that in some states Athens exacted this oath of allegiance from those who enjoyed her protection as members of the Delian League:
I will not revolt from the people of the Athenians in any way or shape, in word or deed, or be an accomplice in revolt. If any one revolts I will inform the Athenians. I will pay the Athenians the tribute, and I will be a faithful and true ally to the utmost of my power. I will help and assist the Athenian people if anyone injures them; and I will obey their commands.[10]
In name, Athens together with all the island states in the Aegean and the Ionian cities in Asia Minor, were allies and independent. Their envoys still met at Delos, supposedly to take counsel with each other, but in fact they were subject to Athens and obeyed her commands. The League had been formed in 477 B.C. and for twenty-three years Delos was itsheadquarters. Then it was suggested that the treasury should be moved to Athens, and that the meetings should in future be held there. No longer was Athens merely the leading state amongst her allies. The removal of the treasury from Delos to Athens made her in name as well as in fact not simply the leading state of a Confederation, but the Athenian Empire.
Athens was now an Empire and was recognized as such. The island states in the Aegean as well as the Ionian cities on the mainland of Asia Minor were bound to her by ties of allegiance. The heart of the Empire was Athens, and settlers from many different places were welcomed there, if they brought with them something that contributed to the welfare of the city: the sculptor, the worker in gold, silver or other metals, the potter, the dyer, the leather-worker, and the merchant who brought costly wares from distant lands, all these and many more were welcomed.
PERICLES. British Museum.PERICLES.British Museum.
Themistocles had been exiled, Aristeides was dead, and a statesman named Pericles now took the leading part in Athenian affairs. His boyhood had been spent during some of the most thrilling years of Athenian history. As a child he had become a hero-worshipper of the men who had fought at Marathon; he must have been amongst the older children who were forced to flee from Athens on the approach of Xerxes; and though not old enough tofight, he was old enough to understand how much hung upon the outcome of the battle of Salamis, and he probably spent that great day in sound, if not also in sight, of the conflict between the two hostile fleets. His father was the commander of the fleet which in the following year defeated the Persian on the same day on which was fought the battle of Plataea and one can imagine the youth, returning to his beloved Athens, glorying in the deeds of his father and his countrymen, and resolved to take his part in making Athens a great and glorious city.
Pericles belonged to a noble family, and he had been educated by some of the great philosophers of his day. Like Thales of Miletus, these men believed that nature was governed by laws that had nothing to do with the good-will or anger of the gods, and one of them, though still believing in the existence of many gods, held the belief that the world had been created by one Mind alone, and he taught Pericles to share this belief. This helped to free the mind of Pericles from superstition, and on several occasions he tried to free others from the fears which superstition brings. He was once on board his ship when an eclipse of the sun took place. The darkness filled everyone with terror, and it was looked upon as a sign of the wrath of the gods.
Pericles, therefore, perceiving the steersman seized with fear and at a loss what to do, took his cloak and held it up before the man's face, and, screening him with it so that he could not see, asked him whether he imagined there was great hurt, or the sign of any great hurt in this,and he answering no, "What," said he, "does that differ from this, only that which has caused that darkness there, is something greater than a cloak."[11]
Although by birth belonging to the nobles, Pericles took the side of the people in Athens, partly, at first, because he did not want to do anything that might make it even seem that he was aiming at the sole power of a Tyrant. He soon became the acknowledged leader, and he then
entered on quite a new course and management of his time. For he was never seen to walk in any street but that which led to the market-place and the council hall, and he avoided invitations of friends to supper, and all friendly visiting and intercourse whatever. He also presented himself at intervals only, not coming at all times into the Assembly, but reserving himself for great occasions.[12]
In many ways Pericles showed himself superior to the men around him, and because of this superiority and for his great power in public affairs he was given the surname of the Olympian. Like Zeus, he was said to speak with
thundering and lightning, and to wield a dreadful thunderbolt in his tongue. Pericles, however, was very careful what and how he was to speak, insomuch that whenever he was to speak in the Assembly, he prayed the gods that no one word might unawares slip from him unsuitable to the matter and the occasion.[13]
Under the leadership of Pericles, Athens rose to be a great state. The Age of Pericles was a short one, lasting only for about fifty years in the last part of the fifth century B.C., but it was a period which was great not only in material prosperity, but also in every form of intellectual and artistic beauty. The work of Pericles
which gave most pleasure and ornament to the city of Athens, and the greatest admiration and even astonishment to all strangers, and that which is now Greece's only evidence that the power she boasted of and her ancient wealth are no romance or idle story, was his construction of the public and sacred buildings.[14]
The story of these buildings will be told in its own place; for more than two thousand years they have testified to the greatness of the people who built them.
By the laws Pericles made it became possible for every free-born Athenian citizen, no matter how poor he was, to take an active part in the government of the State, thus completing the work of the earlier lawgivers and making Athens a democracy, a state ruled by the many.
It was the custom in Athens, that the bodies of Athenians who had been slain in battle should be brought home, and buried in special tombs which were situated in a very beautiful spot outside the walls. Only after the battle of Marathon were the dead, in recognition of their great valour against the Barbarian, buried on the field. All others werebrought home and given a public funeral. There was always buried with them an empty coffin, as a symbol of all those whose bodies were missing and could not be recovered after the battle. It was believed that this wish to do honour to the dead and to give them fitting burial would ensure their happiness in the life after death, which every Greek believed to be imperilled if there was lack of proper burial. At the close of the funeral ceremonies, some great orator was always asked to deliver a suitable oration. On one such occasion, Pericles was the orator, and in the great Funeral Speech he made, he set forth to the Athenians what he considered Athens stood for in the world. There are no better words in which to describe the greatness of Athens at this time and the ideals at which she aimed, so listen to the words of Pericles, describing the city he loved:
Our form of government does not enter into rivalry with the institutions of others. We do not copy our neighbours, but are an example to them. It is true that we are called a democracy, for the administration is in the hands of the many and not of the few. But while the law secures equal justice to all alike in their private disputes, the claim of excellence is also recognized; and when a citizen is in any way distinguished, he is preferred to the public service, not as a matter of privilege, but as the reward of merit. Neither is poverty a bar, but a man may benefit his country whatever the obscurity of his condition.... A spirit of reverence pervades our public acts; we are prevented from doing wrong by respect for authority and for the laws, havingan especial regard to those which are ordained for the protection of the injured as well as to those unwritten laws which bring upon the transgressor of them the reprobation of the general sentiment.
And we have not forgotten to provide for our weary spirits many relaxations from toil; we have regular games and sacrifices throughout the year; at home the style of our life is refined; and the delight which we daily feel in all these things helps to banish melancholy. Because of the greatness of our city the fruits of the whole earth flow in upon us; so that we may enjoy the goods of other countries as freely as of our own.... We are lovers of the beautiful, yet simple in our tastes, and we cultivate the mind without loss of manliness. Wealth we employ, not for talk and ostentation, but when there is a real use for it. To avow poverty with us is no disgrace; the true disgrace is in doing nothing to avoid it. An Athenian citizen does not neglect the state because he takes care of his own household; and even those of us who are engaged in business have a very fair idea of politics. We alone regard a man who takes no interest in public affairs, not as a harmless, but as a useless character; and if few of us are originators, we are all sound judges of a policy.... In doing good, again, we are unlike others; we make our friends by conferring, not by receiving favours.... To sum up, I say that Athens is the school of Hellas ... for in the hour of trial Athens alone among her contemporaries is superior to the report of her.... We have compelled every land and every sea to open a path for our valour, and have everywhere planted eternal memorials of our friendship and of our enmity. Such is the city for whose sake these men nobly fought and died; they could not bear the thought that she might be taken from them; and every one of us who survives should gladly toil on herbehalf.... Day by day fix your eyes on the greatness of Athens, until you become filled with the love of her; and when you are impressed by the spectacle of her glory, reflect that this empire has been acquired by men who knew their duty and had the courage to do it....
And now, when you have duly lamented, everyone his own dead, you may depart.[15]
[1] Plutarch:Life of Themistocles.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Herodotus, IX.
[4] Plutarch:Life of Themistocles.
[5] Plutarch:Life of Themistocles.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Plutarch:Life of Themistocles.
[8] Thucydides, I.
[9] Plutarch:Life of Aristeides.
[10] From W. Warde Fowler:City-State of the Greeks and Romans.
[11] Plutarch:Life of Pericles.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Plutarch:Life of Pericles.
[15] Thucydides, II.
Almost in the centre of Attica lies a plain surrounded in the distance by hills: towards the East, Mount Hymettus, the home of goats, purple with thyme and filled with the murmur of bees; and to the North, Mount Pentelicus, famous for its shining white marble, that gleamed a rosy-red when the sun went down. Rising straight out of the plain is a great oval-shaped rock, the famous Acropolis of Athens, once its citadel and fortress, but transformed by Pericles into a great shrine for Athena. From this rock the land sloped gently to the sea. The plain was watered by the Cephisus, the only stream in Attica which did not run dry in the summer, and along its banks were olive groves, adding their touch of dark grey-green to the landscape. In the centre of this plain, at the foot of the Acropolis, was Athens.
ATHENS, WITH THE ACROPOLIS.ATHENS, WITH THE ACROPOLIS.
Roads from all directions led to Athens, but the Greeks, unlike the Romans, were not great road-makers, and except for those used for processionson festivals, such as the Sacred Way that led to Eleusis, the roads in Attica were not in good repair, and foot-passengers when they went on a journey generally preferred the shorter paths over the hills. In the early morning, the roads outside the city were thronged with people coming in from the country on various kinds of business. Chief of these were the farmers, bringing their fruit and vegetables and other produce to sell in the market, but merchants from distant lands were also to be seen bringing their wares along the road from the Peiraeus. The city was entered by gates in the great wall which had been built by Themistocles after the Persian Wars, and from the gates, the streets all led to the Market Place, or Agora, as it was called by the Greeks. The streets were narrow, crooked and dark, and were not paved, and the houses on each side presented a very dull appearance, for the windows rarely faced the street. The streets were dirty, too, for all kinds of refuse were thrown into them. This absence of light and air did not make for health, and so very often pictures of Apollo, the Bringer of Health, were painted on the walls. The Athenians spent their wealth on their great public buildings, and there was very little to distinguish one private house from another. Demosthenes, writing at a later time, said of the Athenians of the age of Pericles:
The public buildings they constructed for us; the number and beauty of the temples, and of the offerings they contained, are such that their successors can neversurpass them; but in private life they practised so great a moderation, that even if any of you knew which was the house of Aristeides or Miltiades or any of the famous men of old, you would find it no more pretentious than those of its neighbours.
The water in Athens came from wells and springs and fountains, many of which were at the street corners, and it was the task of the slave maidens to draw the water from the fountain and to carry it home in vessels which they carried on their heads.
It is evident that Athens was a city very different from a well-equipped modern city, and that it lacked a great deal of what we consider necessary. But the Athenian of the fifth century B.C. had extraordinarily little use forthings, and he laid no stress on comfort. He was content to have houses without drains, beds without sheets or springs, and rooms as cold or as hot as the open air. He could tell the time without a clock, cross the sea without a compass, fasten his clothes (or rather his two pieces of cloth) with two pins instead of rows of buttons, and wear sandals without stockings or even go barefoot. He warmed himself over a pot of ashes, judged law-suits in the open air on a cold winter's morning, studied poetry without books, learned geography without maps, and politics without a newspaper. The Athenians were civilized without being comfortable.[1] Of course much of this simple life was possible because of the climate, and modernstandards of cleanliness need in no way conflict with a simple life; nevertheless it is the glory of the Athenians that they not only believed but practised the belief, that the things of the mind and spirit are greater than those of the body.
The daily life of Athens centred in the Agora. If the streets approaching it were mean and dirty, the Agora itself, the centre of public life, was wide and spacious and surrounded by dignified and beautiful buildings. In shape it was a great open square, two sides of which were taken up with public buildings and temples. On the remaining sides were the Stoas or Porches. These consisted of a roof supported by a row of columns in front and a wall at the back. Each stoa was a covered walk, protected from the glare of the sun, the biting of the cold wind, and from the rain, and whatever the weather might be, the Athenian could always find a pleasant sheltered place where he could walk and talk with his friends. One of these Porches was known as the King's Porch. It was used as one of the law-courts, and on the wall at the back were inscribed the laws of Solon, and it was here that every archon had to take his oath of office. The most frequented of the stoas was thePainted Porch, so called because its wall was decorated with frescoes, one of which was a great painting of the battle of Marathon.
The centre of the Agora was a great open space, part of it free for the public to walk in, and part of it full of booths and stalls where was sold everything needed by the Athenians.
There were three classes of people in Athens: the citizens, who were all free-born Athenians; the foreign residents who were called metics; and the slaves. In outward appearance there was often very little difference between them, but only the citizens might vote, and they alone had any privileges. The metics were generally well-to-do; they were merchants and bankers and helped very largely to create the wealth which made Athens great.
The morning life of Athens centred in the Agora, but when the afternoon came, this was gradually deserted, and the Athenians who had gathered there earlier in the day went along the roads that led out of the city to the different Gymnasia. These were originally places devoted to the games practised by all Athenians, but they gradually became used more as parks, where the young men played games and the older men watched and talked. The Academy was the greatest of the gymnasia, and philosophers used to frequent it, and with their pupils discuss all the many things in which the keen and adventurous minds of the Athenians were interested. Plato, one of the greatest of the philosophers, was a well-known figure at the Academy.
Rising above the city, watching over it and guarding it, was the Acropolis, crowned by temples and statues. A great statue of Athena looked down upon the city at her feet, at the busy Agora and the public buildings in which the government of the state was carried on, at the narrow streets lined with the houses of the citizens, and, beyond thewalls, at the pleasant roads leading, on one side, out to the gymnasia and the country beyond, and, on the other, down to the harbour busy with the trade of Athens and where the galleys went in and out on their voyages all over the Mediterranean world.
A visitor to the Agora in the morning would have found Athenians of all kinds going about their daily business and he would have had opportunity to see how they dressed. The morning crowd in the Agora consisted almost entirely of men; to see Athenian women a stranger would have to be invited to their houses, a rare privilege but seldom accorded, or to have visited Athens during a festival, when women were allowed to take part in the great processions which went up to the shrine of Athena on the Acropolis. But men of all classes could be seen every day in the Agora: the working-man going to his work, the countryman selling the produce of his farm, slaves doing the daily marketing for the household, and men of leisure walking about and talking to their friends.
The chief garment worn by all these men was thechitonor tunic. It was made by taking an oblong piece of cloth, cutting it the required length and then folding it round the body, so that it hung from the neck to the knees. It was fastened at the neck with a pin, sometimes beautifully wrought in gold, in such a way that arm-holes were made, and oneside was always left open. A girdle kept the folds of the chiton in place, and it was generally tight enough to disguise the fact that one side was open. A man's chiton seldom came below his knees, but the wearer could always regulate the length, and workmen and all those engaged in active occupations were generallywell-girded, that is, they pulled up the chiton, so that it was short, with part of it hanging over the girdle. Older men usually allowed the chiton to hang to its full length.
In the house, the chiton was the only garment required, and workmen and all young men engaged in active pursuits seldom wore anything else out of doors, but out of the house, the older men generally added a mantle known as thehimation. This was another oblong piece of cloth, but larger than that used for the chiton, which was thrown over the left shoulder, brought round under the right arm to the front of the body, and then thrown again over the left shoulder. The himation was not, as a rule, pinned and so it had to be very carefully adjusted in order that its folds might hang well. It was a very difficult thing to put on a himation gracefully, and it was often the work of a special slave to arrange it before his master went out of doors. The folds had to hang well, and it had to be of the right length, for if it was too short, the Athenian thought the wearer looked like a rustic come to the city for the first time, and to wear it too long was a sign of ostentation and needless display.
The only other garment sometimes worn by men was thechlamys, a short cloak worn by theyoung men. It was circular, gathered round the neck and fastened by a pin or clasp, and hung over the back and left shoulder reaching to the waist. The chlamys was generally of a bright colour; the chiton and himation were more often white, though sometimes colours were used, but beautifully designed borders were frequently embroidered in colours on both the chiton and himation, and an Athenian crowd presented a bright and gay scene.
Athenian men seldom wore anything on their heads, unless they were travelling, when they wore a close-fitting cap, either with or without a brim, but they generally wore sandals on their feet, though this was not considered absolutely necessary.
The dress of the Athenian women consisted, like that of the men, of a chiton and himation, but the woman's chiton was longer; it reached to her feet and was fuller, and it often had short sleeves. No Athenian woman could ever appear out of doors without her himation, and this was often so arranged that it was drawn over her head, forming a hood. This was generally the only form of head covering worn by Athenian women, though if they went out in the sun they sometimes took parasols.
Athenian women probably used more colours in their dress than the men; a particularly beautiful saffron-yellow was a favourite colour, especially for their bridal dresses, and on such occasions their dress was enriched by gold ornaments, necklaces, bracelets and rings. Ornaments of various kinds were freely used by the Athenian women in their dress, but the Greeks disliked anything that had nopurpose but show, and their jewels were so arranged as to enrich their appearance without taking away from its simple dignity and beauty.
"I do not spend my days indoors," said an Athenian once, "my wife is quite capable of managing our domestic affairs without my aid."[2] This probably expressed the feeling of most Athenian men, for they gave very little time to their houses. These were the places where the women of the family spent nearly all their hours, but where the men did little more than sleep and have their meals. In the summer time an Athenian house was probably a pleasant place, though we should have found it lacking in nearly everything that we consider necessary, but in the winter it would have been uncomfortably chilly and draughty.
It has already been noticed that an Athenian house usually presented a blank wall to the street, for it was built round a court on to which all the rooms opened. The houses were generally of one story only, though a few occasionally had more, and the rooms drew all their light and air from the court. Socrates once said that a perfect house should be one that was cool in summer and warm in winter, and of such a convenient size that the owner could keep all his possessions in it with ease and security.
The front door was always kept carefully shut andbolted, but a knocker, often in the form of a ring in a lion's mouth, announced the visitor, who was admitted by the porter, a slave who sat in a small room just inside the door. The door opened into a courtyard, which in a good-sized house would be fairly large, but badly paved. This was the men's court. A row of columns all round the sides supported a roof which made a kind of verandah, from which small rooms opened. These rooms do not seem to have had any light or air except that which entered from the court, and they must have been dark and uncomfortable. They were used only by the grown sons of the family and by the male slaves.
In the middle of the court stood an altar to Zeus the Protector of the Home, on which fragrant incense always burned, and fresh garlands of flowers and leaves would be placed on it every day.
Leading out of the men's court was the dining-hall. There would be no table, for the guest did not go to the table, but the table, a low one, was brought to him as he sat or reclined on a beautifully carved couch. The most sacred spot in the house was in this room, the altar of Hestia, on which burned the sacred fire of the family hearth. There might be a row of large vases against one wall, and if one of them bore the inscription, "I am from the Games at Athens," the family would take care to preserve it as one of their greatest treasures, for the words meant that the vase had been a prize won by some member of the family in the Athenian Games.
A door opposite that which led from the men'scourt into the dining room, opened into another court, that of the women. This was similar to the men's court, but more often planted with flowers and shrubs. The women's rooms, nearly as small and dark and uncomfortable as those of the men, opened from the women's court, and the kitchen was probably at the back of it. On one side of this court there was a large chamber, the best furnished in the house, where the master and mistress slept.
All the furniture in these rooms was simple, but of beautiful design. The chief things used were couches, footstools, low chairs and tables and chests. The latter took the place of closets and cupboards. There were lamps and bronze candelabra, and large numbers of cases used by the Athenians as ordinary water-jugs, wine jars and drinking cups, all of the most graceful shapes and forms and beautifully painted.
The life of the Athenian house centred in the women's court, though during the daytime when the men of the house were absent, the women used the men's court almost as much as their own. The moment, however, they heard the sound of the knocker on the front door, they fled to their own part of the house, lest they should be caught unawares by a male visitor.
Such was probably the house of a well-to-do Athenian, a very much more comfortable and well-furnished house than that of the Spartan, yet lacking in almost everything that we associate with the idea of comfort. But the Athenian succeeded in being civilized without being comfortable; hiswell-being was in no way dependent onthings, and believing that his wealth was something to be used for the good of the whole community, he spent it on the temples and public buildings of the city rather than on his own private dwelling. It may be true that the little use the Athenian made of his own house made him less interested in it than in the other buildings of the city, but whether he carried it to an extreme or not, it was his public-spirited point of view that gave him that greater interest in the public welfare than in his own private affairs.
The earlier Greeks believed that a state should be self-supporting, that the farmers should produce enough food, and the craftsmen everything needed in daily life. But from the time of Solon onwards this became increasingly difficult in Athens, for owing to the arrival of settlers who came from many different places, attracted by the possibilities of work in the growing state, the population increased, and it became impossible to produce enough food. This had a very important influence on Athens, for instead of being self-sufficing and secure within her own walls, she became dependent for her life on the food supplies, and especially on the corn, that came to her from Egypt and the Black Sea colonies, and in the time of war it was absolutely necessary that the routes to these places should be kept open. Very strict laws were passed to regulate the corn trade and to make sure that enough would alwaysbe brought to Athens. No Athenian merchant might take corn to any other harbour than the Peiraeus, and none might leave Egypt or the Black Sea ports unless he had a certain amount of corn on board his ship.
The fact that the Athenian merchant had to go to distant places for corn increased his trade in other articles. He was at home on the sea, and his many-oared ship passed swiftly over the waters of the Aegean, stopping at many places: at the ports of Ionian colonies, where he found his kinsfolk, eager to hear the latest news from the mainland and especially from Athens; at the ports of the Barbarians, where he rejoiced that he was a Greek and did not dwell amongst these strangers. The Athenian merchant sailed in his own ship, and beyond his final destination, generally had no definite route in mind. He was guided by the favourable winds, or by rumours of suitable trading ports where he would find good opportunities for exchanging his goods. He left Athens with oil, honey from Hymettus, and the far-famed Athenian pottery, the chief exports, and he exchanged these for the corn and fish of the Black Sea ports, the wool of Miletus, the perfumes and spices of Syria, the linen and papyrus and the all-important corn of Egypt, the wine of Chios, the cypress wood of Crete, the dates of Phoenicia, the rugs and cushions of Carthage; while in such ports as Carthage and Miletus he found articles which had reached these places by caravans from still more distant lands. In Carthage he obtained ivory and ebony from Africa,and in Miletus richly woven carpets and rugs from Babylon.
All this trade brought wealth to Athens, and it taught the quick Athenian mind, always alert and interested in any new thing, "new ways of enjoying life."
Most of the industries carried on in any large city were to be found in Athens, but the industry for which she was best known throughout the Mediterranean world was that of the potter, and Athenian vases were exported in very large quantities. But these vases were not mere ornaments; each had its own particular use as a household utensil, an offering to a god, or as an offering at a tomb.
Vases for different purposes were made of different shapes; each was beautiful in form, but with its beauty it combined usefulness. The handles on the water jars are placed just where they are most needed, the oil pours out of the narrow neck of the oil jug drop by drop so that the quantity could be easily regulated, and the drinking cup has a slight curve to the rim, so that one can drink out of it quite easily without spilling the liquid.
There are certain well known forms of these vases: the Amphora is a large two-handled vase which was used for storing oil and other liquids; the Hydria has three handles and was used for carrying water; the Krater is a large vase in which wine and water were mixed; the Lekythos is a jugwith a narrow neck used for pouring out oil slowly in small quantities; and the Kylix is a wide and shallow drinking cup. A large amphora, often full of oil, was given as a prize for some of the athletic contests at the Panathenaic games held in Athens. Such an amphora can always be recognized, as it bears on one side the figure of Athena with the inscription: "I am from the Games at Athens," and on the other a painting depicting the contest for which the vase was a prize.
The quarter in Athens given up to the potters was known as the Cerameicus, and here there were a number of workshops owned by different vase-makers. At the head of each establishment was the master; but he was a craftsman as well as manager and was able to do everything connected with the industry: he could not only make the vase, but also design and paint it. His workmen, however, did most of the turning, shaping and polishing of the vases. When the vase had been made, it was given to the artist who painted the design on it, after which it had to be dried, baked and glazed. The black glaze that was used in Athens was one of the great discoveries of the ancient potters' art. Time never spoiled it, and it seems as fresh today as when it was first put on the vases. In some cases it has peeled off in small flakes, but that only happens when the clay beneath is damp; otherwise it remains unchanged.