Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/67

 ATHENS AND SPARTA 55 ships and men which were thus paid for, and thus the Athenian ships multiplied until Athens became incomparably the strongest of the states by sea. That is to say, whenever any of the states chose to substitute money payment for naval service, the payment really went to increase the Athenian navy. We can easily see how the habit of making a money payment was gradually turned into the payment of a tribute, so that the Delian League ceased to be a confederacy or i ncrea sing union of states free and equal except for differences Power of in their size and wealth, and became instead a * enS- group of states of which only a few remained independent, while the majority were tributaries and practically subjects of Athens. There were two things which prevented Sparta from inter- fering while the Athenian power was growing in this way. One was the revolt of the Helots or slave population of the Spartan state, who were kept in a cruel subjection by the ruling race ; the other was that the great city of Thebes, an ancient rival of Athens, had been weakened and punished for deserting the Greek cause and helping the Persians; whereas Plataea and Thespiae, both friendly to Athens, had displayed distinguished bravery, and had been deservedly strengthened. About twenty years after the expulsion of the Persians, the great Athenian statesman Pericles had become the leading man in the state, and remained in that position — although of course he had powerful rivals — for thirty years. It Pericles, was the deliberate aim of Pericles to make Athens 460-429 B.C. the head of the Greek world, the most powerful state politically, the most splendid, and the most cultivated. In his time were erected at Athens some of the most beautiful buildings ever seen, adorned with the most exquisite sculptures and statuary. Most notable was the Parthenon, the work of the sculptor and architect, Phidias. The Greek drama achieved its greatest glory with the last tragedies of Aeschylus, and the great works of Sophocles and Euripides. It was about the time of the death of Pericles that Aristophanes, the first of comedians, began to write. Athens had extended her power among the Greek states