Story of the Greek and the Roman People

TOMBSTONE FOUND IN THE RUINS OF A WALL BUILT BY THEMISTOCLES.

The events of the war had made it clear that Athens ought to be strong, not only on land but also on the water. She must have a large fleet and she must also have a safe harbor that would protect her ships from storm or the attack of an enemy. Phalerum was the old harbor, but even before the war Themistocles had fixed his eyes upon the harbor of Piraeus, four or five miles from Athens, and had begun to fortify it. This harbor was a basin large enough to hold three hundred ships. Around it curved a peninsula ending in a mass of rock, so that only a narrow entrance was left. Along this peninsula the Athenians built seven miles of wall. And what a wall it was! Thirty feet high, wide enough for two chariots to drive abreast, and all made of solid stone clamped together with iron.

All this was done between 479 and 477 B.C. Other work was also going on during that time, for in one way the Persian war had not yet come to an end. The Ionian colonies had been freed at the time of the battle of Mycale, but the Persians held many other places along the coast of Asia Minor and Thrace. The most important was Byzantium, better known as Constantinople. There could be no safety so long as the Persians had strongholds near Greece, where they could assemble troops and ships, and from which they could sally forth to attack the Greeks. More over, Greece needed more grain than she could raise. It had been brought to her through the Propontis, which is now the Sea of Marmora; but while the Persians held Byzantium, no grain could find its way to Greece from that direction. A fleet was now sent out which besieged and captured Byzantium.

MODERN VIEW OF THE PIRÆUS

Aristides commanded the Athenian vessels; but the Spartan Pausanias, who had led the troops at Platæa, was admiral of the fleet. If Pausanias had been killed at Platæa, he would have been remembered as a brave and patriotic general; now he is remembered as a traitor. After the victory at Platæa, he behaved as if no one but himself had struck a blow; and after the capture of Byzantium, he seemed to think himself the greatest man in the world. Greece was a small country for so mighty a general, he thought; his glory would be much better appreciated in the vast realm of Persia. He set to work to win the regard of Xerxes by sending back to him the men of highest rank who had been captured at Byzantium. Worse than that, he sent with them a letter to Xerxes saying in effect, "If you will give me your daughter in marriage, I will conquer Greece for you." Xerxes did not promise to give his daughter, but, he agreed to provide whatever men and money might be needed for the conquest. Then Pausanias lost his senses completely. He began to act as if he were a high official of Persia. There was no more Spartan simplicity for him; he wore the richest of Persian dress and lived as luxuriously as possible. When Aristides objected, he turned away, saying that he had no time to listen to him.

When the Spartans heard of Pausanias's behavior, they ordered him to come home. They could not prove that he was plotting treason, but after a while it was shown that he was arousing the Helots to rise against their masters. He fled to a room adjoining the temple of Athene, and there was shut in by the Spartans, to starve. To win Athene's forgiveness for the pollution of her temple, they presented her with two bronze statues.

The last years of Themistocles's life were hardly more honorable than those of Pausanias. After his trickery in connection with the walls of Athens, the Spartans hated him; and it is possible that they had something to do with his ostracism, which occurred about a year before the death of Pausanias. There was reason to believe that he had joined in Pausanias's plot to conquer Greece for the Persians. It was well known that he had taken bribes; and people began to talk about his advice at the close of the war, not to pursue Xerxes or destroy the Hellespont bridge. "It is true that he said it would be better to get the Persians out of Europe and then attack them in Asia," they reasoned; "but it would be easy for him to persuade Xerxes that this plan was urged as a favor to him." This was exactly what Themistocles was doing. He had fled from one place to another, and finally to the court of Xerxes. He reminded the king of this former favor, and ended his appeal with, "If you destroy me, you destroy the enemy of Greece." The king had not thought of destroying him. He was delighted to have so brilliant a man at his court, and he exclaimed, "May the spirit of evil ever put it into the hearts of my enemies to banish their greatest men!" Three times that night he started up in his sleep, crying, "I have Themistocles the Athenian."

Themistocles became a great favorite of the king, and learned Persian, that they might talk together without an interpreter. Three cities were put into his hands to provide him with "bread, wine, and meat"—which seems to have meant that he was free to get as much from them Its possible. He spent his last years in luxury and idleness. Finally the king asked him to lead an expedition against the fleet of the Greeks. He could not make up his mind to do this; yet he could not refuse the king. He decided that the only way of escape was to take his own life. So died the man whom the Greeks had so greatly admired that, when he appeared at the Olympian games, the whole vast assembly forgot the contests and turned to gaze upon him and point him out to those who not recognize him.

Themistocles was a most able man and he did much for Athens and for all Greece; but even in the days of his greatest glory the Greeks never trusted him as they did Aristides. He once told the Athenians that he had a plan for making their city the most powerful in Greece, but that he could not tell it to so large an assembly. "Tell it to Aristides," the people bade. "If he approves, it shall be carried out." Aristides reported that the plan would indeed give Athens the first place among the Greeks, but that it was grossly treacherous; and the matter was dropped at once.

When Pausanias was recalled, the command of the fleet fell into the hands of Aristides. He founded the famous Delian League, so called because the meetings were held at Delos, and there the money of the League was kept. The object of this association was to free the Greek cities that were still in the power of the Persians, and to keep the Ægean Sea free from pirates. Nearly all the cities on the islands and on the northern and eastern shores of the Ægean Sea joined the League. Athens was to be the leader in the association, but was to have no more power than the other members. How much each state was to contribute was left to Aristides to decide. Another thing that Aristides did for Athens was to increase the power of the fourth class of citizens. By his influence a law was passed allowing members of this class to be chosen as magistrates. A few years after founding Delian League Aristides died. He had had every opportunity become rich by taking bribes, yet he died a poor man. The state built his tomb and cared for his children and grandchildren. He was a wise statesman and a skillful general, but greater than these titles is that by which he will always be remembered, "the Just."

ATHENIAN BALLOTS.

When Aristides gave up the command of the fleet, it passed into the hands of a man after his own heart, Cimon, the son of Miltiades. It was rumored in Greece that the Persians were bringing their ships and men together in large numbers at the mouth of the Eurymedon in Pamphylia. That looked as if they were planning another invasion of Greece. Cimon sailed straight to Pamphylia and found the Persian fleet hovering about the mouth of the river. They expected eighty more vessels, and did not care to fight till these ships had come. Unfortunately for them, Cimon did not ask what they preferred, but attacked them on the instant. The men fled from the ships and made for the shore. There lay the camp of the Persian army; but Cimon and his men burst upon it like a whirlwind. After some hard fighting the Greeks won the day. They had captured two hundred ships and were victors on both sea and land. Most men would have been satisfied with two victories in one day, but Cimon did not propose to go home until he had met those other eighty vessels. He set out on a ship hunt, found them, fought with them, and soon he had won his third victory. The Persians in their flight had left an immense amount of treasure behind them. The Greeks packed this into their vessels and started for home. "I love to enrich my country at the expense of its enemies," Cimon once said; and Athens was indeed enriched with these loads of treasure.