Early European History. Hutton Webster
the Spartan king, Leonidas. For two days Xerxes hurled his best soldiers against the defenders of Thermopylae, only to find that numbers did not count in that narrow defile. There is no telling how long the handful of Greeks might have kept back the Persian hordes, had not treachery come to the aid of the enemy. A traitor Greek revealed to Xerxes the existence of an unfrequented path, leading over the mountain in the rear of the pass. A Persian detachment marched over the trail by night and took up a position behind the Greeks. The latter still had time to escape, but three hundred Spartans and perhaps two thousand allies refused to desert their post. While Persian officers provided with whips lashed their unwilling troops to battle, Leonidas and his men fought till spears and swords were broken, and hands and teeth alone remained as weapons. Xerxes at length gained the pass—but only over the bodies of its heroic defenders. Years later a monument to their memory was raised on the field of battle. It bore the simple inscription: "Stranger, go tell the Spartans that we lie here in obedience to their commands." [7]
AFTER THERMOPYLAE
After the disaster at Thermopylae nearly all the states of central Greece submitted to the Persians. They marched rapidly through Boeotia and Attica to Athens, but found a deserted city. Upon the advice of Themistocles the non-combatants had withdrawn to places of safety, and the entire fighting force of Athens had embarked on the ships. The Athenian fleet took up a position in the strait separating the island of Salamis from Attica and awaited the enemy. [8]
BATTLE OF SALAMIS, 480 B.C.
The battle of Salamis affords an interesting example of naval tactics in antiquity. The trireme was regarded as a missile to be hurled with sudden violence against the opposing ship, in order to disable or sink it. A sea fight became a series of maneuvers; and victory depended as much on the skill of the rowers and steersmen as on the bravery of the soldiers. The Persians at Salamis had many more ships than the Greeks, but Themistocles rightly believed that in the narrow strait their numbers would be a real disadvantage to them. Such proved to be the case. The Persians fought well, but their vessels, crowded together, could not navigate properly and even wrecked one another by collision. After an all-day contest what remained of their fleet withdrew from the strait.
[Illustration: AN ATHENIAN TRIREME (Reconstruction) A trireme is supposed to have had three tiers or banks of oars, placed one above the other. Each tier thus required an oar about a yard longer than the one immediately beneath it. There were about two hundred rowers on a trireme.]
AFTER SALAMIS
The victory at Salamis had important results. It so crippled the Persians that henceforth they lost command of the sea. Xerxes found it difficult to keep his men supplied with provisions and at once withdrew with the larger part of his force to Asia. The Great King himself had no heart for further fighting, but he left Mardonius, with a strong body of picked troops, to subjugate the Greeks on land. So the real crisis of the war was yet to come.
BATTLES OF PLATAEA AND MYCALE, 479 B.C.
Mardonius passed the winter quietly in Thessaly, preparing for the spring campaign. The Greeks in their turn made a final effort. A strong Spartan army, supported by the Athenians and their allies, met the Persians near the little town of Plataea in Boeotia. Here the heavy-armed Greek soldiers, with their long spears, huge shields, and powerful swords, easily overcame the enormous masses of the enemy. The success at Plataea showed how superior to the Persians were the Greeks in equipment, leadership, and fighting power. At the same time as this battle the remainder of the Persian fleet suffered a crushing defeat at Mycale, a promontory off the Ionian coast. These two battles really ended the war. Never again was Persia to make a serious effort to secure dominion over Continental Greece.
VICTORIUS HELLAS
The Great Persian War was much more than a conflict between two rival states. It was a struggle between East and West; between Oriental despotism and Occidental individualism. On the one side were all the populous, centralized countries of Asia; on the other side, the small, disunited states of Greece. In the East was the boundless wealth, in men and money, of a world-wide empire. In the West were the feeble resources of a few petty communities. Nevertheless Greece won. The story of her victory forms an imperishable record in the annals of human freedom.
34. ATHENS UNDER THEMISTOCLES, ARISTIDES, AND CIMON
THEMISTOCLES AND THE FORTIFICATIONS OF ATHENS
After the battle of Plataea the Athenians, with their wives and children, returned to Attica and began the restoration of their city, which the Persians had burned. Their first care was to raise a wall so high and strong Athens in future would be impregnable to attack. Upon the suggestion of Themistocles it was decided to include within the fortifications a wide area where all the country people, in case of another invasion, could find a refuge. Themistocles also persuaded the Athenians to build a massive wall on the land side of Piraeus, the port of Athens. That harbor town now became the center of Athenian industry and commerce.
ARISTIDES AND THE DELIAN LEAGUE, 477 B.C.
While the Athenians were rebuilding their city, important events were taking place in the Aegean. After the battle of Mycale the Greek states in Asia Minor and on the islands once more rose in revolt against the Persians. Aided by Sparta and Athens, they gained several successes and removed the immediate danger of another Persian attack. It was clearly necessary, however, for the Greek cities in Asia Minor and the Aegean to remain in close alliance with the Continental Greeks, if they were to preserve their independence. Under the guidance of Aristides, the old rival of Themistocles, [9] the allies formed a union known as the Delian League.
[Illustration: "THESEUM" An Athenian temple formerly supposed to have been constructed by Cimon to receive the bones of the hero Theseus. It is now believed to have been a temple of Hephaestus and Athena erected about 440 B.C. The 'Theseum' owes its almost perfect preservation to the fact that during the Middle Ages it was used as a church.]
CONSTITUTION OF THE LEAGUE
The larger cities in the league agreed to provide ships and crews for a fleet, while the smaller cities were to make their contributions in money. Athens assumed the presidency of the league, and Athenian officials collected the revenues, which were placed in a treasury on the island of Delos. As head of this new federation Athens now had a position of supremacy in the Aegean like that which Sparta enjoyed in the Peloponnesus. [10]
CIMON AND THE WAR AGAINST PERSIA
The man who succeeded Themistocles and Aristides in leadership of the Athenians was Cimon, son of Miltiades, the hero of Marathon. While yet a youth his gallantry at the battle of Salamis gained him a great reputation, and when Aristides introduced him to public life the citizens welcomed him gladly. He soon became the head of the aristocratic or conservative party in the Athenian city. To Cimon the Delian League entrusted the continuation of the war with Persia. The choice was fortunate, for Cimon had inherited his father's military genius. No man did more than he to humble the pride of Persia. As the outcome of Cimon's successful campaigns the southern coast of Asia Minor was added to the Delian League, and the Greek cities at the mouth of the Black Sea were freed from the Persian yoke. Thus, with Cimon as its leader, the confederacy completed the liberation of the Asiatic Greeks.
THE DELIAN LEAGUE BECOMES SUBJECT TO ATHENS, ABOUT 454 B.C.
While the Greeks were gaining these victories, the character of the Delian League was being transformed. Many of the cities, instead of furnishing ships, had taken the easier course of making all their contributions in money. The change really played into the hands of Athens, for the tribute enabled the Athenians to build the ships themselves and add them to their own navy. They soon had a fleet powerful enough to coerce any city that failed to pay its assessments or tried to withdraw from the league. Eventually the common treasure was transferred from