The Story of Greece and Rome for boys and girls
- Автор: Macgregor Mary
- Год: 1914
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Зарубежная литература для детей
Электронная книга - «The Story of Greece and Rome for boys and girls». Краткое содержание книги:
The Story of Greece: Told to Boys and Girls от Mary Macgregor
The Story of Rome, From the Earliest Times to the Death of Augustus, Told to Boys and Girls от Mary Esther Miller MacGregor
When hunger had all but done its work, Pausanias was carried out of the sacred place to breathe his last, lest the temple should be polluted by the death of a traitor.
CHAPTER LIV
THEMISTOCLES DECEIVES THE SPARTANS
After the battle of Plataea, the Athenians brought their wives and children back to the city, which the Persians had again left in ruins. Not only were the temples and the houses burned, but of the city wall scarce a trace was to be found.
Themistocles encouraged the citizens to rebuild the city, and this they did with good will. More beautiful temples, better houses, soon sprang up under the eager hands of the citizens.
The wall they determined to make so strong and so high that they would be able to defend their city against any attack rather than be compelled again to forsake her.
But Sparta was alarmed at her neighbour’s industry; she was more than alarmed, she was suspicious and angry. Athens was making herself too strong, the Spartans murmured in ungenerous mood.
The wall had risen but a little way from the ground when the Spartans sent to ask the Athenians not to go on with their work. The reason they gave was a selfish one, for they said, ‘If the Persians return and take a strongly walled town so near to Peloponnesus, our cities will not be safe.’ They then promised to offer shelter to the Athenians, should they again be forced to leave their city, but only on condition that they would stop building a wall round Athens. They even asked the Athenians to help them to destroy the walls that already surrounded the other cities of Greece.
The Athenians were in a dilemma. They were determined to finish the wall, yet they dared not anger the Spartans, lest they attacked their city while the wall was still unfinished.
In their perplexity they turned to Themistocles, who had before now saved them by craft when open defiance threatened to ruin them.
Themistocles was not long in solving the difficulty. He said that he would go as an ambassador to Sparta to talk over the matter. Other ambassadors were to follow him only when the walls were nearly complete, and meanwhile men, women and children, all must work day and night, so that the wall might grow apace.
When Themistocles reached Sparta, he at once said to the council that he could do nothing until his fellow ambassadors arrived, and he pretended that he expected them every day.
He refused to attend the council alone, and when the Spartans grumbled, he assured them that the Athenians were not going on with the wall. When they grew impatient he amused them so well by his clever speeches that they forgot for a little while to be angry with him.
But when day after day passed and still the other ambassadors did not come, the Spartans did not hide their suspicion that they were being deceived. When a rumour reached them that the Athenians had never ceased to build the wall, which was now nearly complete, they were angry indeed, and going to Themistocles they demanded that he should tell them the truth.
He still denied that the citizens had been building the wall in his absence, but if they doubted his word, he bade them send ambassadors to Athens, that they might see for themselves whether he was deceiving them or not.
So the Spartans sent ambassadors to Athens, and then Themistocles bade his colleagues join him, for he knew that now both he and they would be safe. The Spartan ambassadors would be hostages for their lives.
The first thing the Spartans saw as they approached Athens was a high, strong wall. Then they knew that they had been deceived, and they sent a messenger to tell their countrymen that Themistocles had played them false.
Themistocles was no coward. He went into the council and boldly told the Spartans that it was true he had deceived them, so that the walls of Athens might be built before they could interfere.
Indignant as the Spartans were and ashamed of their own folly in being deceived by the crafty Athenian, they dared not harm the ambassadors lest their own messengers should not return in safety.
So they sent them away, and Themistocles and his fellows returned in triumph to Athens.
Soon after this the city wall was finished, and Themistocles then urged the people to build another great wall round the Piraeus. When this was done, Athens had the largest and safest harbour in Greece.
The other states now appointed her to be the head of the allied fleet, and no one was more proud of this than Themistocles. For it was he who had first persuaded the Athenians to make themselves into a great sea-power.
CHAPTER LV
THEMISTOCLES IS OSTRACISED
For many years Themistocles had been a favourite with the Athenians. But soon after the walls of the city were complete he began to grow less popular.
Perhaps this was his own fault, for he tired the people by boasting continually of the good he had done to the city. It was known too that he did not hesitate to take bribes, and the citizens were indignant that he should have grown rich in this dishonourable way.
One day, as he was talking in public with Aristides, he said, ‘The chief excellence of a statesman is to be able to prove and frustrate the designs of public enemies.’ Aristides answered, ‘Another very excellent and necessary quality in a statesman is to have clean hands.’ And those who listened applauded Aristides the Just, for they knew well that he had never soiled his hands with the gold of his country’s foes.
In 471 B.C., the people determined to ostracise Themistocles, so weary had they grown of the claims he made upon their gratitude. At the time of Pausanias’ death he was living at Argos, which city lies south of Corinth. When the papers of the traitor were read it was found that Themistocles had written to him. There was nothing in his letters to show that he had meant to help Pausanias to betray his country, yet he was accused of treason.
When he heard of the charge that was brought against him, he wrote to the council at Athens, ‘I, Themistocles, who was born to command and not to serve others, could not sell myself, and Greece with me, into servitude to the enemy.’
These proud words only angered the Athenians the more, and the council sent men to arrest him. But Themistocles did not wait to be captured. He fled from Greece to Epirus, where he hoped that King Admetus, whom he had once befriended, would shelter him from his foes.
Admetus was not at home when the exile reached the palace, so he threw himself upon the mercy of the queen.
She bade him take her little son in his arms and go sit by the hearth until her lord returned.
Then, when the king arrived, Themistocles arose, and begged Admetus to protect him, while the little prince stretched out suppliant arms to his royal father.
This was the most sacred way to proffer a request, and according to the custom of his country the king was pleased to do as Themistocles asked. He refused to give him up to the Athenians, and sent him in safety to the Persian court, where Artaxerxes now reigned.
Themistocles begged one of the officers to take him to Artaxerxes, saying that he was a Greek who had come to see the king on important matters.
‘If you will promise to prostrate yourself before the monarch, as is the custom in my country, I will do as you wish,’ answered the Persian.
Some Greeks would have refused to prostrate themselves before any king, but it was easy for Themistocles to conform to the customs of the country in which he found himself.
‘I that come hither,’ he said, ‘to increase the power and glory of the king, will not only submit myself to his laws, but will also cause many more to be worshippers and adorers of the king.’
‘Who shall we tell him you are?’ asked the officer, ‘for your words signify you to be no ordinary person.’