Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/241

* GREECE. 209 GREECE. was finally replaced by a government of the peo- ple, or democracy. The history of Athens illus- trates this course of davelopment, and the names of Solon (archon, B.C. 594), Clisthcnes (about 508 B.C.), and Pericles (in the last half of the fifth century B.C.) are landmarks in the develop ment of the Athenian democracy. Pisislratus and his sons (B.C. 500-510) mark the period of 'tyranny.' The chief olliccrs and bodies of the Athenian democracy were the nine archons, the Areopagus, the Senate, the Eeclesia, or public assembly, and the Helcipa. or law courts. By the side of Athens. Sparta, and Argos, Corinth early rose to prominence, developing into a great in- dustrial, commercial, and colonizing centre. The Greek settlements in Asia Minor were con- quered by CriEsus, King of Lydia, in the early part of his reign (B.C. 560-546), and brought within the Lydian kingdom. In B.C. 546 Croesus was overthrown by Cyrus the Great, King of Persia, and the Greek cities in Asia, as well as the islands along the coast, with the exception of Sanios. were made subject to the Persians. In B.C. 500 the lonians revolted against the Persian rule and were assisted by twenty Athenian and five Eretrian ships. Sardis. the capital of Lydia, was taken, sacked, and burned. The ire of Darius, the Persian King, was aroused, and he vowed vengeance both on his revolted subjects and on their sup])orters from across the sea. In B.C. 493 the rebellion was brought to an end, and in the following year Mardonius, son-in-law of Darius, was sent to Greece to take vengeance on the Athenians and the Eretrians. Three hun- dred ships and 20,000 men were lost in a, storm oflf Moimt Athos. and JIardonius himself, who led an army by land, was so harassed by the tribes of Thrace that he was obliged to turn liack. Two years later, in B.C. 490, a second ex- pedition, consisting, according to ancient author- ities, of 600 galleys, 100,000 foot and 10,000 horse, was sent across the .-Egean, under the command of Datis and Artaphernes. After tak- ing the city of Eretria-, the Persians proceeded, under the guidance of the aged Hippias, to the plain of Marathon, 22 miles northeast of Athens. In the battle which there took place, 10.000 Athenians were assisted by 1000 heavy-armed soldiers and a few light-armed troops from Plataea. A messenger had been sent for aid to Sparta, but. from a religious superstition, the Spartans were prevented from marching for five days, and the crisis was then past. The Greeks, led by Miltiades, were overwhelmingly victorious; 6400 Persians were lost, while only 192 Athenians were killed. In the following year Athens found herself at war with .-Egina. This war taught her the necessity of having a navy, and she was in- duced by Themistocles to construct a fleet of 200 vessels, and to add 20 new vessels thereto every year. In the meantime, Xerxes, the Per- sian King, was preparing for an invasion of Greece on a grand scale. Troops and supplies were brought together from every quarter of his Empire, until the largest army of which history has a record was assembled. A bridge of boats was thrown across the Hellespont for the con- venience of the land troops, a canal was cut through the neck of the peninsula of Atjios for the passage of the ships, and in the spring of B.C. 480 the force was set in motion. The first stand was made by the Greeks at Thermopylae. The pass was heroically defended by Leouidas and his .300 Spartans, but was finally taken through the treachery of a Greek. Athens was captured and burned, having been, at tlic approach of the Persians, abandoned by its inhabitants. In the meantime the Persian fieet, after undergoing severe losses in storms and in battle at Artemi- sium, off the northern end of the island of Euboea, proceeded to Salamis in pursuit of the Greek fleet. The number of the Persian vessels at Salamis was about 1200; that of the Greeks less than 400, 200 of which were Athenian. In the battle W'hich took place in the narrow strait be- tween the island and the mainland, and which Xerxes viewed from a golden throne erected on the slope of Mount -Egaleus, the Persians were completely defeated. Xerxes fled m alarm to Asia, leaving Mardonius with 350.000 men to bring the war to a close. In the following year (B.C. 479) Mardonius was overwhelmed by 110,- 000 Greeks, under Pausanias. at Plata>a and slain, and on the same day another Persian army was defeated, with loss of its fleet, at Mycale in • Asia. Athens was now, as a result of her patriotism and sacrifices, the first State in Greece, and her position was still further strengthened by the events that followed the Persian wars. The treachery of Pausanias, the commander-in-chief of the combined Athenian and Spartan fieet which was engaged in driving the Persians from the Greek cities in the ^Egean and in the neighbor- hood of the Hellespont, caused the fleet to put itself under the leadership of the Athenian com- manders, and in B.C. 476 was formed the Con- federacy of Delos, on hieli the future empire of Athens was to be built. This Confederacy was a voluntary coalition of Greek States formed for the purpo.se of prosecuting the war with Persia and driving the Persian power from the -Egean Sea and the lands washed thereby. The dele- gates were to meet yearly on the island of Delos, and there was also to be the treasury. A fixed contribution in .ships or money was assessed on each State. Gradual changes were, as time went on, wrought in the relation of the allies to one another, and the alliance of equal independent members was at length transformed into an em- pire of de])endent States, with Athens at the head. The period between B.C. 479 and 431, the year of the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, was the most brilliant in the history of Athens. The latter part of this period, called the age of Pericles, saw the complete democratization of the Athenian constitution. The Long Walls, con- necting Athens with the port of Pirseus, were now built, the city was beautified with many public buildings, the Propyl.Ta, the Parthenon, the Theseum, and others, and sculpture, art, and literature flourished. But irritation at the op- pression of Athenian control, and the old spirit of indepeTidence, which always stood in the way of Greek unity, were silently at work; the height of Athenian power is marked by the battle of ffinophyta (B.C. 456) and the conquest of Bceotia ; in B.C. 447 Bneotia revolted and the Athenians were defeated at Coronea. By the treaty which was then made, the Athenians en- gaged not to interfere further in Boeotian afTairs, and by the Thirty Years' Truce, concluded two years later (b.c. 445), they acknowledged the leadership of Sparta in all Peloponnesian mat- ters. The. situation of affairs in Greece at the time