Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/68

 56 ATHENS These were frustrated by the policy of The- mistocles. The city was surrounded by mas- sive walls, the fleet was increased, and the harbors of Piraeus and Munychia were forti- fied with walls and towers, vast ruins of which remain to this day. The progress of Athens in letters and arts in the time of her hegemony was wonderful ; but her most bril- liant period was that of Pericles, who came forward as a popular leader in 469. With slight interruptions, his administration lasted from 469 till his death in 429, though he held no perma- nent office. The names of ^Eschylus, Sopho- cles, Euripides, and Aristophanes in dramatic poetry, of Phidias and his school in plastic art, and of Anaxagoras and Socrates in philos- ophy, are connected with this period. The treasury of Delos was removed to Athens, and the amount of contributions increased beyond the assessment of Aristides. Public buildings of extraordinary splendor were erected. The great structures of the Periclean age were the Odeon, finished in 444 ; the Parthenon, 387 ; the Propyleea, 432 ; and the Erechtheum, which was not quite completed at the break- ing out of the Peloponnesian war. This mag- nificent system of public works was under the general superintendence of the sculptor Phidias. The architects of the Parthenon were Ictinus and Callicrates. Mnesicles was the builder of the Propylsaa. The Peloponnesian war broke out in 431. The Lacedemonian troops ravaged the plain of Athens, and the inhabit- ants of the country crowded into the city. In the next year a second invasion took place, and the plague carried off not less than a fourth of the inhabitants. The disasters in the field were accompanied by violent changes in the city. (See GREECE.) After the defeat of the Athenians at ^Egospotami and the sur- render of the city in 404 to the Spartan general Lysander, the democracy, which had been restored, was again abolished, and a government of thirty established, under the control of Sparta, known in history as the thirty tyrants. The walls of Athens were demolished by the Lacedsemonians, and the arsenals and docks at Piraeus destroyed. The Spartan rule was overthrown by a body of exiles, headed by Thrasybulus, who restored the reign of the ancient laws. But Athens never regained her leadership in Greece. The period between 403 and 360 B. C., usually designated as that of the Spartan and Theban supremacy, is signalized by the adventures of Xenophon, the Athenian, in the expedition of Cyrus the Younger, and the retreat of the 10,000; the war of the Lacedsemonians, under Agesilaus, in Asia Minor ; the Corinthian war ; the peace negotiated by Antalcidas and bear- ing his name in history, 387; the partial re- organization of the Athenian confederacy on the basis of the confederacy of Delos ; and by numerous distant expeditions, both by the Lacedemonians and the Athenians. In 361 a general peace was concluded by consent of all parties except the Lacedaemonians ; but in the following year the Athenians went to war with the Olynthians for the possession of Am- phipolis, and this war brought them into collision with Macedonia under the lead of Philip, and after his death under that of his son Alexander. As the Macedonian successes increased, a party grew up in Athens which favored a conciliation of the conquerors. Until the death of Philip and the accession of Alex- ander, Demosthenes and the true Athenian patriots of his school were able to make a vigorous opposition to this movement ; but when Alexander destroyed Thebes, and the Athenians could only protect themselves against him by almost complete submission, the Macedonian party triumphed, and in spite of the efforts of the great orator Athens sank into entire subjection to the invaders. A tran- quil period, one of the most inglorious in the political history of the city, now ensued. When the news of Alexander's death arrived (323), a fresh attempt was made to overturn the Mace- donian supremacy. Leosthenes, the Athenian, defeated the army of Antipater, the Mace- donian general, at Lamia, a short distance N. of the pass of Thermopylae ; but the defeat of the Greek forces at Crannon m Thessaly once more placed the Macedonians in the ascendant. The Lamian war closed with the unconditional surrender of Athens to Antipater. From this time Athens became the victim of the con- tending chiefs of Macedonia. Demetrius Pha- lereus ruled the city ten years, supported by a Macedonian garrison ; but in 307 Demetrius Poliorcetes was sent from Ephesus by his fa- ther, and compelled his namesake, the Pha- lerean, to surrender the city. The conqueror announced to the people the restoration of their ancient constitution, and was the object of extraordinary honors, though he did nothing to really elevate Athens, and his rule only added to her degradation. Athens continued under the Macedonian influence down to the conquest of Greece by the Romans, though nominally governed by her own laws, and pre- serving her ancient customs, rites, and cere- monies of every description. In 200 the last Philip of Macedon was involved in a war with Rome, and Athens, having taken sides with the Romans, suffered from his barbarism. The city was relieved by a Roman fleet ; but before Philip withdrew from the siege he laid waste the gardens and suburbs, including the lyceum and the tombs of the Attic heroes, and destroyed the temples that stood on the Attic plain. Philip was defeated at the battle of Cynoscephalse in 197, and in the following year Greece was declared free by the Roman consul Flamininus, at tlie Isthmian games. War was renewed by Perseus, and the Macedonian em- pire was finally overthrown by Lucius ^Emilius Paulus in 168. In 147 war broke out between the Achaean league and Rome, but it was closed with the capture and sack of Corinth by the consul Mummius in the following year,