History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides [best free ebook reader TXT] 📗

CHAPTER IV

_From the end of the Persian to the beginning of the

Peloponnesian War - The Progress from Supremacy to Empire_

 

The way in which Athens came to be placed in the circumstances

under which her power grew was this. After the Medes had returned

from Europe, defeated by sea and land by the Hellenes, and after

those of them who had fled with their ships to Mycale had been

destroyed, Leotychides, king of the Lacedaemonians, the commander of

the Hellenes at Mycale, departed home with the allies from

Peloponnese. But the Athenians and the allies from Ionia and

Hellespont, who had now revolted from the King, remained and laid

siege to Sestos, which was still held by the Medes. After wintering

before it, they became masters of the place on its evacuation by the

barbarians; and after this they sailed away from Hellespont to their

respective cities. Meanwhile the Athenian people, after the departure

of the barbarian from their country, at once proceeded to carry over

their children and wives, and such property as they had left, from

the places where they had deposited them, and prepared to rebuild

their city and their walls. For only isolated portions of the

circumference had been left standing, and most of the houses were in

ruins; though a few remained, in which the Persian grandees had taken

up their quarters.

 

Perceiving what they were going to do, the Lacedaemonians sent an

embassy to Athens. They would have themselves preferred to see neither

her nor any other city in possession of a wall; though here they acted

principally at the instigation of their allies, who were alarmed at

the strength of her newly acquired navy and the valour which she had

displayed in the war with the Medes. They begged her not only to

abstain from building walls for herself, but also to join them in

throwing down the walls that still held together of the

ultra-Peloponnesian cities. The real meaning of their advice, the

suspicion that it contained against the Athenians, was not proclaimed;

it was urged that so the barbarian, in the event of a third

invasion, would not have any strong place, such as he now had in

Thebes, for his base of operations; and that Peloponnese would suffice

for all as a base both for retreat and offence. After the

Lacedaemonians had thus spoken, they were, on the advice of

Themistocles, immediately dismissed by the Athenians, with the

answer that ambassadors should be sent to Sparta to discuss the

question. Themistocles told the Athenians to send him off with all

speed to Lacedaemon, but not to dispatch his colleagues as soon as

they had selected them, but to wait until they had raised their wall

to the height from which defence was possible. Meanwhile the whole

population in the city was to labour at the wall, the Athenians, their

wives, and their children, sparing no edifice, private or public,

which might be of any use to the work, but throwing all down. After

giving these instructions, and adding that he would be responsible for

all other matters there, he departed. Arrived at Lacedaemon he did not

seek an audience with the authorities, but tried to gain time and made

excuses. When any of the government asked him why he did not appear in

the assembly, he would say that he was waiting for his colleagues, who

had been detained in Athens by some engagement; however, that he

expected their speedy arrival, and wondered that they were not yet

there. At first the Lacedaemonians trusted the words of

Themistocles, through their friendship for him; but when others

arrived, all distinctly declaring that the work was going on and

already attaining some elevation, they did not know how to

disbelieve it. Aware of this, he told them that rumours are deceptive,

and should not be trusted; they should send some reputable persons

from Sparta to inspect, whose report might be trusted. They dispatched

them accordingly. Concerning these Themistocles secretly sent word

to the Athenians to detain them as far as possible without putting

them under open constraint, and not to let them go until they had

themselves returned. For his colleagues had now joined him,

Abronichus, son of Lysicles, and Aristides, son of Lysimachus, with

the news that the wall was sufficiently advanced; and he feared that

when the Lacedaemonians heard the facts, they might refuse to let them

go. So the Athenians detained the envoys according to his message, and

Themistocles had an audience with the Lacedaemonians, and at last

openly told them that Athens was now fortified sufficiently to protect

its inhabitants; that any embassy which the Lacedaemonians or their

allies might wish to send to them should in future proceed on the

assumption that the people to whom they were going was able to

distinguish both its own and the general interests. That when the

Athenians thought fit to abandon their city and to embark in their

ships, they ventured on that perilous step without consulting them;

and that on the other hand, wherever they had deliberated with the

Lacedaemonians, they had proved themselves to be in judgment second to

none. That they now thought it fit that their city should have a wall,

and that this would be more for the advantage of both the citizens

of Athens and the Hellenic confederacy; for without equal military

strength it was impossible to contribute equal or fair counsel to

the common interest. It followed, he observed, either that all the

members of the confederacy should be without walls, or that the

present step should be considered a right one.

 

The Lacedaemonians did not betray any open signs of anger against

the Athenians at what they heard. The embassy, it seems, was

prompted not by a desire to obstruct, but to guide the counsels of

their government: besides, Spartan feeling was at that time very

friendly towards Athens on account of the patriotism which she had

displayed in the struggle with the Mede. Still the defeat of their

wishes could not but cause them secret annoyance. The envoys of each

state departed home without complaint.

 

In this way the Athenians walled their city in a little while. To

this day the building shows signs of the haste of its execution; the

foundations are laid of stones of all kinds, and in some places not

wrought or fitted, but placed just in the order in which they were

brought by the different hands; and many columns, too, from tombs, and

sculptured stones were put in with the rest. For the bounds of the

city were extended at every point of the circumference; and so they

laid hands on everything without exception in their haste.

Themistocles also persuaded them to finish the walls of Piraeus, which

had been begun before, in his year of office as archon; being

influenced alike by the fineness of a locality that has three

natural harbours, and by the great start which the Athenians would

gain in the acquisition of power by becoming a naval people. For he

first ventured to tell them to stick to the sea and forthwith began to

lay the foundations of the empire. It was by his advice, too, that

they built the walls of that thickness which can still be discerned

round Piraeus, the stones being brought up by two wagons meeting

each other. Between the walls thus formed there was neither rubble nor

mortar, but great stones hewn square and fitted together, cramped to

each other on the outside with iron and lead. About half the height

that he intended was finished. His idea was by their size and

thickness to keep off the attacks of an enemy; he thought that they

might be adequately defended by a small garrison of invalids, and

the rest be freed for service in the fleet. For the fleet claimed most

of his attention. He saw, as I think, that the approach by sea was

easier for the king’s army than that by land: he also thought

Piraeus more valuable than the upper city; indeed, he was always

advising the Athenians, if a day should come when they were hard

pressed by land, to go down into Piraeus, and defy the world with

their fleet. Thus, therefore, the Athenians completed their wall,

and commenced their other buildings immediately after the retreat of

the Mede.

 

Meanwhile Pausanias, son of Cleombrotus, was sent out from

Lacedaemon as commander-in-chief of the Hellenes, with twenty ships

from Peloponnese. With him sailed the Athenians with thirty ships, and

a number of the other allies. They made an expedition against Cyprus

and subdued most of the island, and afterwards against Byzantium,

which was in the hands of the Medes, and compelled it to surrender.

This event took place while the Spartans were still supreme. But the

violence of Pausanias had already begun to be disagreeable to the

Hellenes, particularly to the Ionians and the newly liberated

populations. These resorted to the Athenians and requested them as

their kinsmen to become their leaders, and to stop any attempt at

violence on the part of Pausanias. The Athenians accepted their

overtures, and determined to put down any attempt of the kind and to

settle everything else as their interests might seem to demand. In the

meantime the Lacedaemonians recalled Pausanias for an investigation of

the reports which had reached them. Manifold and grave accusations had

been brought against him by Hellenes arriving in Sparta; and, to all

appearance, there had been in him more of the mimicry of a despot than

of the attitude of a general. As it happened, his recall came just

at the time when the hatred which he had inspired had induced the

allies to desert him, the soldiers from Peloponnese excepted, and to

range themselves by the side of the Athenians. On his arrival at

Lacedaemon, he was censured for his private acts of oppression, but

was acquitted on the heaviest counts and pronounced not guilty; it

must be known that the charge of Medism formed one of the principal,

and to all appearance one of the best founded, articles against him.

The Lacedaemonians did not, however, restore him to his command, but

sent out Dorkis and certain others with a small force; who found the

allies no