lay in her ships. In order to settle the question the opposing statesmen were put to the test of ostracism.1 The vote went against Aristides, who was obliged to withdraw into exile. Themistocles, now master of the situation, persuaded the citizens to use the revenues from some silver mines in Attica for the upbuilding of a fleet. When the Persians came, the Athenians were able to oppose them with nearly two hundred triremes 2 the largest navy in Greece.

33. Xerxes and the Great Persian War

"Ten years after Marathon," says a Greek historian, "the 'barbarians' returned with the vast armament which was to enslave Hellas." 3

Darius was now

Preparations

of Persia

dead, but his son Xerxes had determined to complete his task. Vast quantities of provisions were collected; the Hellespont was bridged with boats; and the rocky promontory of Mount Athos, where a previous fleet had suffered shipwreck, was pierced with a canal. An army of several hundred

EMISOOK LES
OPEAPPIQ

A THEMISTOCLES OSTRAKON

British Museum, London

A fragment of a potsherd found in 1897 A.D., near the Acropolis of Athens. This ostrakon was used to vote for the ostracism of Themistocles, either in 483 B.C. when he was victorious against Aristides, or some ten years later, when Themistocles was himself defeated and forced into exile.

thousand men was brought together from all parts of the Great King's domain. He evidently intended to crush the Greeks by sheer weight of numbers.

Xerxes did not have to attack a united Greece. His mighty preparations frightened many of the Greek states into yielding, when Persian heralds came to demand "earth and Greek water," the customary symbols of submission. preparations Some of the other states, such as Thebes, which was jealous of Athens, and Argos, equally jealous of Sparta, did nothing to help the loyal Greeks throughout the struggle. But Athens and Sparta with their allies remained joined for resistance to Thucydides, i, 18.

1 See page 87.

2 See the illustration, page 99.

Battle of

480 B.C.

the end. Upon the suggestion of Themistocles a congress of representatives from the patriotic states assembled at the isthmus of Corinth in 481 B.C. Measures of defense were taken, and Sparta was put in command of the allied fleet and army. The campaigns of the Great Persian War have been described, once for all, in the glowing pages of the Greek historian, Herodotus. Early in the year 480 B.C. the Persian host Thermopylæ, moved out of Sardis, crossed the Hellespont, and advanced to the pass of Thermopyla, commanding the entrance to central Greece. This position, one of great natural strength, was held by a few thousand Greeks under the Spartan king, Leonidas. For two days Xerxes hurled his best soldiers against the defenders of Thermopylæ, 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." 112

After

After the disaster at Thermopylæ nearly all the states of central Greece submitted to the Persians. They marched rapidly through Boeotia and Attica to Athens, Thermopylæ 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

1 See page 272.

2 Herodotus, vii, 228.

on the ships. The Athenian fleet took up a position in the strait separating the island of Salamis from Attica and awaited the enemy.1

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 oppos- Battle of Saling ship, in order to disable or sink it. A sea amis, 480 B.C. fight became a series of maneuvers; and victory depended as

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.

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.

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.

1 See the map on page 107.

Battles of
Platea 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 Plataa 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 Plataa 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.

Hellas

The Great Persian War was much more than a conflict between two rival states. It was a struggle between East Victorious 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.

Themistocles

34. Athens under Themistocles, Aristides, and Cimon After the battle of Platæa the Athenians, with their wives and children, returned to Attica and began the restoration of their city, which the Persians had burned. Their and the forti- first care was to raise a wall so high and strong that Athens in future would be impregnable to attack. Upon the suggestion of Themistocles it Iwas 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 Piræus, the

fication of Athens

port of Athens. That harbor town now became the center of Athenian industry and commerce.

While the Athenians were rebuilding their city, important events were taking place in the Egean. After the battle of Mycale the Greek states in Asia Minor and on Aristides and the islands once more rose in revolt against the the Delian Persians. Aided by Sparta and Athens, they gained several successes and removed the immediate danger of another Persian attack. It was clearly

League, 477

B.C.

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.

necessary, however, for the Greek cities in Asia Minor and the Ægean 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,1 the allies formed a union known as the Delian 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 Constitution presidency of the league, and Athenian officials of the league collected the revenues, which were placed in a treasury on the