Story of the Greek and the Roman People

(FROM A BAS-RELIEF FOUND ON THE ACROPOLIS AT ATHENA)

Now came the time when Athens might well have wished that her allies were her friends, for news came to her that Mytilene a city on the island of Lesbos, had revolted. Mytilene had a large fleet, therefore her loss would be of much importance. Athenian forces were sent at once to besiege the city, the Spartan ships that had been promised were slow in coming to her aid, and finally Mytilene was forced to yield. She had surrendered to a cruel master, for the Athenians were not only indignant at the revolt, but also much alarmed lest there should be other revolts. With hardly a moment's thought they decreed that every man in Mytilene should be put to death and every woman and child sold as a slave. If Pericles had been alive, no such inhuman decree would have been passed, but the Athenians were now much influenced by a man named Cleon. "Do not be merciful to them," he said; "punish them as they would have punished you. Be forgiving and virtuous if you like, but wait till forgiveness and virtue are no longer dangerous." The decree was passed, though the better part of the Athenians were so ashamed of it that the following morning they called another meeting and annulled it. But the trireme that carried the decree had sailed the previous night. Would it be possible to overtake it? "We will provide wine and barley for the crew," the envoys of the Mytileneans cried eagerly, "and every man shall have a generous reward if they reach the island first." The rowers sprang to their seats. Half of them rowed by day and half by night, and they ate their barley, kneaded with wine and oil, as they rowed. Nevertheless, the first vessel had too long a start. The decree had been read aloud, and the order to carry it out at once was on the point of being given when the second vessel touched the land. An envoy rushed up the shore to the commander, and the Athenians were saved from the shame of such a barbarous slaughter. The punishment that they did inflict was terrible enough, for they put to death one thousand of the who had been most prominent among the rebels, took away the ships of the Mytileneans, and gave their land to Athenian citizens for a settlement.

Such was the mercy of the Athenians. That same year the mercy of the Spartans was shown at Platæa. They had set out to conquer Platæa because the little city was so faithful a friend to Athens. "But the Spartans together with the other state took a solemn oath that our city should be forever independent," declared the Platæans. "What you say is just," returned the Spartans. "Enjoy your independence, but help us to free the states that are now ruled by Athens." Platæa, however, would not desert the Athenians, and the siege began. Thucydides wrote the history of the Peloponnesian War, and in it is an account of this siege written in his usual clear, accurate, interesting fashion. First, the Spartans cut down trees and made a palisade around the city, so that no one could get in or out. They wanted a mound high enough to enable them to shoot down into the city, and they began to make one near the wall by piling up logs crosswise and filling the empty spaces with stones and earth and pieces of wood. Night and day they worked for ten long weeks. Somehow the mound did not grow as fast as they thought it should, and at length they discovered that the Platæans had made a hole at the base of the wall and were quietly drawing the loose earth from the mound into the city. Meanwhile, they were also making the wall higher by building it up with brick and timber from their houses. The Spartans could have set this work afire with burning arrows, but the Platæans were wise enough to keep heavy curtains of hides and skins in front of it. The besiegers were determined that there should be no more stealing from their mound and so instead of filling it in with loose dirt, they now used masses of clay and reeds bound together. Still the mound did not grow. What could be the matter, they wondered. Finally, some one discovered that those wily Platæans had dug a tunnel from the city to the mound, and were drawing in the bundles of clay and reeds at their leisure. This was not all, for they were building an inner wall in the shape of a crescent. The horns touched the outer wall, and the curve was toward the city. If the Spartans should take the outer wall, they would still have the crescent to capture, and this would not be easy with the Platæans in front and on both sides of them. The Spartans thought of that, of course, and they brought up immense battering-rams; but the Platæans had two ways of managing rams. One way was to drop a noose over them and draw them up. The other was to hang heavy beams directly over them and at right angles to them. When the engine was in good position and ready to give a tremendous blow upon the wall, down went the beam, and off went the head of the ram. Then the Spartans decided to burn the city. They threw quantities of wood over the wall and piled masses of wood between the mound and the wall. They daubed sticks with pitch and brimstone, set them afire, and hurled them after the wood. Such a blaze as there was! Thucydides says that so great a fire had never before been made by the hands of man. There would have been no help for the Platæans had not a sudden storm put out the flames. Then the Spartans built two walls sixteen feet apart entirely around the city. Between these walls were the lodgings for the soldiers; so that, when the work was done, it looked like one very thick wall with a moat on either side. As soon as this was finished, the main army went away but left a strong guard behind.