Story of the Greek and the Roman People
- Автор: Tappan Eva March
- Год: 1910
- Язык: английский
- Год: Heritage History
- Жанр: История
Электронная книга - «Story of the Greek and the Roman People». Краткое содержание книги:
Story of the Greek People
Story of the Roman People
All this while Athens was becoming stronger, partly because of the Delian League. This was constantly growing, for as soon as a city was freed, it became a member of the association. When the League was founded, it was agreed that the smaller states should pay their share of the expenses in money and the large ones in ships. Gradually, even many of the larger ones found it less trouble to pay in money. Athens had not the least objection. She took the money, built the ships, and added them to her navy. At length the treasury was removed from Delos to Athens, on the ground that it was not safe from the barbarians at Delos. It was some time before the other members realized that, although Athens was protecting them, they were growing poorer and weaker while she was growing richer and stronger. One after another attempted to leave the League, but Athens would not permit this and obliged them to pay a greater tribute. So it was that the League, which had been at first an association of states, became an empire with Athens as its tyrant-ruler.
THE 'TORTOISE'
(A MEANS OF SCALING A WALL)
Of course this did not please Sparta, and she would gladly have sent an army against her Attic neighbor. Instead of that, she had to send envoys and beg meekly, "O Athens, will you not come and help us?" Sparta was indeed in trouble. First she was so shaken by earthquakes that only five houses in the city were left standing and thousands of people were killed. This was a good time for the Helots to rebel, and they attacked Sparta. They were repulsed, but the Messenians now revolted, and they were not so easily suppressed. They shut themselves up in Ithome in Messenia, in which their ancestors had once stood against their Spartan masters. The Spartans were not wise in carrying on sieges, neither were the other Peloponnesian cities, but Athens had had much experience in that line; therefore Sparta concluded to appeal to Athens. The Athenians had not forgotten the time when they had asked Sparta for help and she had shown so little sympathy for them in their trouble. "Let us refuse," urged one party in Athens. The other party argued, "No, let not Greece be lamed and Athens deprived of her yoke-fellow." Cimon was the leader of this second party. It seemed to him far more reasonable for the Greek states to fight Persia than to quarrel with one another. The Athenians were proud of Cimon, and he had no great difficulty in persuading them to allow him to go to Messenia, to help the Spartans. But when the Spartans saw the force of four thousand men, with the greatest Athenian commander at their head, they began to suspect some trick. Ithome did not fall at once, as they had expected, and then they felt sure that Cimon had plotted with the Messenians to overthrow their state. They told him abruptly that they had no need of him and his forces and he might go home, although they asked the troops from the other cities to stay and help them. The Athenians were indignant at such an insult. They wanted to blame some one, and their wrath fell upon the popular commander. "He always admired the Spartans," said one. "He named one of his children Lacedæmonius," said another. "And when, any of the allies did not please him, he was always saying that the Spartans would not have done so," another added. At length Cimon was ostracized as Aristides and Themistocles had been. Sparta finally subdued the Messenians and drove them from the Peloponnesus, but Athens arranged for them to live at Naupactus. It was convenient for her to have an allied settlement on the northern side of the Gulf of Corinth; but this act did not make Sparta feel any more friendly.
PERICLES
(IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON)
Many of the Athenians had come to the conclusion before this that there was no use in trying to keep on good terms with Sparta, that war between the two states must come some day, and that the best course for Athens was to make herself as strong as possible. The leader of this party was named Pericles. He now became the most popular man in Athens, and the Athenians were ready to do whatever he advised. They made an alliance with Argos, then with Megara. This was coming to the very gates of the Spartans. The people of the Peloponnesus were not pleased, but the Athenians cared little whether they were pleased or not. They kept on making alliances and winning battles whenever matters came to battle, until the influence of Athens extended from Thermopylæ to the Isthmus, and as the head of the Delian League, or rather the Delian empire, she controlled also the cities and islands of the Ægean Sea.
ATHENS, RESTORED.
Athens was mighty on the land and mighty on the sea. She had a strongly walled city, and she had a perfectly protected harbor. Only one thing was needed, and that was a way of going from the city to the harbor in safety. To bring this about, two monstrous walls were built between the city and the sea, taking in not only the port of Piræus but also the old harbor of Phalerum. After a while a third wall was built, running between Athens and Piræus. These were not common walls, for they were sixty feet in height, and wide enough for two chariots to drive
abreast. So long as Athens held the walls, she could not be shut from the sea. Her ships could supply her with food, and it seemed as if at last a city had been made so strong that it could not conquered.
The power of Athens was at its height, but trouble soon came to her. At almost the same time several of the states subject to her revolted, and a Spartan army ventured into Attica, and began to kill, burn, and destroy. It was fortunate for Athens that she had so wise a leader as Pericles. He saw that, powerful as Athens was, she could not suppress these revolts and fight Sparta at the same time. He made a peace with Sparta, which was to last thirty years, called the Peace of Pericles; but in order to induce the Spartans to agree to it, Athens had to agree to give up all that she had gained in the Peloponnesus. This ended the possibility that Athens might some day control all Greece. She might have as strong a navy as she chose, but it was plain that she would never be permitted to rule the Greeks of the motherland as she ruled those of the Ægean.
Summary
The treasures of Salamis were shared between the victors and the gods.
Platæa was set apart as sacred ground.
The Athenians became the leaders of Greece. Even the Theban Pindar loved Athens. She was now surrounded by a wall a and Piræus was fortified.
The Greeks captured Byzantium.
The attempts of Pausanias to win favor with Xerxes resulted his downfall.
Themistocles ended his life at the Persian court.
Aristides founded the Delian League to free Greek cities from Persia. He will always be remembered as "the Just."
The command of the fleet fell into the hands of Cimon. He overcame the Persian fleet at the mouth of the Eurymedon, and also the Persian camp, then won a victory over some Persian ships. Athens was growing stronger, partly because of the Delian League. Sparta was not pleased, but a revolt of the Messenians forced her to ask Athens for aid. The Spartans insulted the Athenian troops. The Athenians foolishly blamed Cimon, and he was ostracized. By invitation of Athens, the Messenians made their home at Naupactus.