Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/119

 The Repulse of Persia 75 Not only European Greece but Ionia too was saved from Asiatic despotism. For the Greek triremes crossed over to Asia Minor and drove out or destroyed the remnants of the Persian fleet. The Athenians now seized the Hellespont and held the crossing from Asia into Europe. Thus the grandsons of those Greeks who had seen Persia advance to the ^Egean (54) blocked her further progress in the West and thrust her back from Europe. Indeed, no Persian army ever set foot in European Greece again. II. THE RISE OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE 112. Rivalry of Athens and Sparta. As the Athenians re- turned to look out over the ashes of what was once Athens, amid which rose the smoke-blackened heights of the naked Acropolis, they began to realize the greatness of their deliverance and the magnitude of their victory. With the not too ready help of Sparta they had crushed the ancient power of Asia. They felt themselves masters of the world. The past seemed narrow and limited. A new and greater Athens dawned upon their vision. This was all very different from the feeling of the stolid Spar- tans. Sparta was little more than a large military club or camp. Living in a group of straggling villages, which could hardly be called a city, greatly attached to their own old customs, proud of their barbarous habits, still using only iron money, and refusing to build a wall around their city, the old-fashioned Spartans looked with misgivings upon the larger world which was opening to Greek life. Greece therefore fell into two camps as it were : Sparta, the home of tradition and privileges granted only to the military class; Athens, the champion of progress and the leadership of the people. Accordingly the brief union of Athens and Sparta against the Persians was followed by a fatal rivalry between these two leading states, which continued for another century and finally cost the Greeks the leadership of the ancient world. 113. The Delian League. Immediately after the repulse of the Persians the Athenians formed a league with the Greek cities of