Page:EB1911 - Volume 21.djvu/820

Rh those which lie to the south of the Plata, there was for the six years ending with 1899 an annual average of 14,000,000 tons for the overseas commerce and 11,000,000 tons for the river and coasting trade. On the other, or northern, bank of the stream the chief port is Montevideo; and its foreign commerce increased from an aggregate of 50,000 tons in 1822 to 150,000 tons in 1854 and to 4,069,870 tons in 1898, the river and coasting trade having increased from 50,000 tons in 1822 to 150,000 tons in 1854 and to 3,915,421 tons in 1898. The total foreign trade of the Plata valley thus increased from over 157,000 tons in 1822 to nearly 18,100,000 tons in 1898-1899. Its growth since the opening of the 20th century has been phenomenal and promises to become gigantic. The Andes on the west, the interior of South America on the north, great rivers, and the Brazilian mountains on the east of the Plata basin are obstacles which compel the rich and varied products of at least 1,500,000 sq. m. of fertile country to seek access to the ocean by a single avenue—the Plata estuary.

 PLATAEA, or, an ancient Greek city of Boeotia, situated close under Mt Cithaeron, near the passes leading from Peloponnesus and Attica to Thebes, and separated from the latter city's territory by the river Asopus. Though one of the smallest Boeotian towns, it stubbornly resisted the centralizing policy of Thebes. In 519 it invoked Sparta's help against its powerful neighbour, but was referred by king Cleomenes to Athens (for the date, see Grote's History of Greece, ed. 1907, p. 82, note 4). The Athenians secured Plataea's independence, and thus secured its enduring friendship. In 490 the Plataeans sent their full levy to the assistance of the Athenians at Marathon, and during the invasion of Xerxes they joined eagerly in the national defence. At Artemisium they volunteered to man several Athenian ships, and subsequently abandoned their town to be burnt by Xerxes. In 479 they fought against the Persians under Mardonius in the decisive battle which bears the name of the city. In this campaign the Persian commander, retiring from Attica before the combined Peloponnesian and Athenian levy, had encamped in the Asopus plain in order to give battle on ground suited to his numerous cavalry. The Greeks under the Spartan regent Pausanias at first did not venture beyond the spurs of Cithaeron, but, encouraged by successful skirmishing, advanced towards the river and attempted a flanking movement so as to cut Mardonius off from his base at Thebes. The operation miscarried, and in their exposed condition the Greeks were severely harassed by the enemy's horse, which also blocked the Cithaeron passes against their supply columns. Pausanias thereupon ordered a night retreat to the hilly ground near Plataea, but the movement was badly executed, for whereas the Peloponnesians in the centre retired beyond their proper station, the Spartans and Athenians on the wings were still in the plain at daybreak. The Persians immediately fell upon these isolated contingents, but the Spartan infantry bore the brunt of the attack with admirable steadiness, and both wings ultimately rolled back their opponents upon the camp. When this was stormed the enemy's resistance collapsed, and Mardonius's army was almost annihilated. This great victory was celebrated by annual sacrifices and a Festival of Liberation (Eleutheria) in every fourth year at Plataea, whose territory moreover was declared inviolate.

In spite of this guarantee Plataea was attacked by Thebes at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War (431) and formally besieged by the Peloponnesians (429-27). The garrison after capitulating was put to death, and the city razed by the Thebans. The remaining Plataeans received a qualified franchise in Athens, and in 421 were settled on the territory of Scione. Expelled by Lysander in 404 they returned to Athens, until in 387 Sparta restored them in their native town as a check upon Thebes. The city was again destroyed by Thebes in 373, and the inhabitants once more became citizens of Athens. Plataea was rebuilt by Philip and Alexander of Macedon, and during the rest of antiquity enjoyed a safe but obscure existence. It continued to flourish in Byzantine and Frankish times. The walls of the town, which at various periods occupied different portions of the triangular ledge on which it stood, remain partly visible. Recent excavations have discovered the Heraeum; but the temple of Athena the Warlike, built from the Persian spoils and adorned by the most famous artists, has not been identified.

 PLATE. The word “plate” (connected with Gr., flat, Late Lat. plata=lamina, and Span. plata, silver), in the sense to which it is restricted in the following article, is employed to denote works in silver or gold which belong to any class other than those of personal ornaments or coins. As implying a thin sheet of metal, the term has come to be used in various technical connexions, and has been transferred by analogy to other materials (e.g. glass). A “plate,” as the common name for the table utensil (of whatever material), derives its usage partly from the metal prototype and partly from an etymological connexion with French plat, dish, Latin plattus, flat. (See also ; ; .)

On account of the ease with which gold can be worked and the pure state in which it is generally found, it is probable that this was the first metal used by man; and it is certain that, in some countries at least, he attained to the most marvellous skill in its manipulation at a time when the other arts were in a very elementary condition. As an instance of this we may mention a sword of the bronze age, found in a barrow near Stonehenge, and placed in the museum at Devizes. The hilt of this sword is covered with the most microscopically minute gold mosaic. A simple design is formed by fixing tesserae, or rather pins, of red and yellow gold into the wooden core of the handle. Incredible as it may appear, there are more than two thousand of these gold tesserae to the square inch. The use of silver appears to belong to a rather later period, probably because, though a widely spread metal in almost all parts of the world, it is usually found in a less pure state than gold, and requires some skill to smelt and refine it. Though both these precious metals were largely and skilfully used by prehistoric races, they were generally employed as personal ornaments or decorations for weapons. Except in Scandinavian countries, but little that can be called “plate” has been discovered in the early barrows of the prehistoric period in western Europe.

Ancient Egypt.—An enormous amount of the precious metals was annually brought as tribute to the Egyptian kings; according to Diodorus, who quotes the authority of Hecataeus, the yearly produce of the royal gold and silver mines amounted to 32 millions of minae—that is, about 133 millions sterling of modern money. Though this estimate is probably an exaggeration, the amount must have been very great. The gold chiefly came from the Nubian mines in the western desert in the Wadi ‛Alāḳi and the neighbouring valleys. A map of these mines, dating from the time of Rameses II. (1300 ), has been preserved. Silver was not mined in Egypt itself, and came mostly from Asia Minor even at the earliest period. Then gold was comparatively common, silver a great rarity. Later, gold appears to have been relatively more abundant than silver, and the difference in value between them was very much less than it is now.

In the language of the hieroglyphs silver is called “white gold,” and gold is the generic name for money—unlike most languages, in which silver usually has this special meaning—a fact which points strongly to the priority of the use of gold, which archaeological discoveries have rendered very probable. Among the treasures of the “royal tombs” at Abydos, dating to the Ist and IInd Dynasties, much gold was found, but no