EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

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28. THE GROWTH OF ATHENS (to 500 B.C.)

ATHENS AS A CITY-STATE

The district of Attica, though smaller than our smallest American
commonwealth, was early filled with a number of independent city-states.
It was a great step in advance when, long before the dawn of Greek
history, these tiny communities were united with Athens. The inhabitants
of the Attic towns and villages gave up their separate governments and
became members of the one city-state of Athens. Henceforth a man was a
Athenian citizen, no matter in what part of Attica he lived.

OPPRESSIVE RULE OF THE NOBLES

At an earlier period, perhaps, than elsewhere in Greece, monarchy at
Athens disappeared before the rising power of the nobles. The rule of the
nobility bore harshly on the common people. Popular discontent was
especially excited at the administration of justice. There were at first
no written laws, but only the long-established customs of the community.
Since all the judges were nobles, they were tempted to decide legal cases
in favor of their own class. The people, at length, began to clamor for a
written code. They could then know just what the laws were.

DRACO'S CODE, 621 B.C.

After much agitation an Athenian named Draco was employed to write out a
code for the state. The laws, as published, were very severe. The penalty
for most offenses, even the smallest theft, was death. The Athenians used
to declare that the Draconian code had been written, "not in ink, but in
blood." Its publication, however, was a popular triumph and the first step
toward the establishment of Athenian democracy.

LEGISLATION OF SOLON, 594-593 B.C.

The second step was the legislation of Solon. This celebrated Athenian was
accounted among the wisest men of his age. The people held him in high
honor and gave him power to make much-needed reforms. At this time the
condition of the Attic peasants was deplorable. Many of them had failed to
pay their rent to the wealthy landowners, and according to the old custom
were being sold into slavery. Solon abolished the custom and restored to
freedom all those who had been enslaved for debt. He also limited the
amount of land which a noble might hold. By still another law he admitted
even the poorest citizens to the popular assembly, where they could vote
for magistrates and judge of their conduct after their year of office was
over. By giving the common people a greater share in the government, Solon
helped forward the democratic movement at Athens.

TYRANNY OF PISISTRATUS, 560-527 B.C.

Solon's reforms satisfied neither the nobility nor the commons. The two
classes continued their rivalry until the disorder of the times enabled an
ambitious politician to gain supreme power as a tyrant. [24] He was
Solon's own nephew, a noble named Pisistratus. The tyrant ruled with
moderation and did much to develop the Athenian city-state. He fostered
agriculture by dividing the lands of banished nobles among the peasants.
His alliances with neighboring cities encouraged the rising commerce of
Athens. The city itself was adorned with handsome buildings by architects
and sculptors whom Pisistratus invited to his court from all parts of
Greece.

REFORMS OF CLISTHENES, 508-507 B.C.

Pisistratus was succeeded by his two sons, but the Athenians did not take
kindly to their rule. Before long the tyranny came to an end. The
Athenians now found a leader in a noble named Clisthenes, who proved to be
an able statesman. He carried still further the democratic movement begun
by Draco and Solon. One of his reforms extended Athenian citizenship to
many foreigners and emancipated slaves ("freedmen") then living in Attica.
This liberal measure swelled the number of citizens and helped to make the
Athenians a more progressive people. Clisthenes, it is said, also
established the curious arrangement known as ostracism. Every year, if
necessary, the citizens were to meet in assembly and to vote against any
persons whom they thought dangerous to the state. If as many as six
thousand votes were cast, the man who received the highest number of votes
had to go into honorable exile for ten years. [25] Though ostracism was
intended as a precaution against tyrants, before long it came to be used
to remove unpopular politicians.

ATHENS A DEMOCRATIC STATE

There were still some steps to be taken before the rule of the people was
completely secured at Athens. But, in the main, the Athenians by 500 B.C.
had established a truly democratic government, the first in the history of
the world. The hour was now rapidly approaching when this young and
vigorous democracy was to show forth its worth before the eyes of all
Greece.

29. COLONIAL EXPANSION OF GREECE (ABOUT 750-500 B.C.)

THE GREAT AGE OF COLONIZATION

While Athens, Sparta, and their sister states were working out the
problems of government, another significant movement was going on in the
Greek world. The Greeks, about the middle of the eighth century B.C.,
began to plant numerous colonies along the shores of the Mediterranean and
of the Black Sea. The great age of colonization covered more than two
hundred years. [26]

REASONS FOR FOUNDING COLONIES

Several reasons led to the founding of colonies. Trade was an important
motive. The Greeks, like the Phoenicians, [27] could realize large profits
by exchanging their manufactured goods for the food and raw materials of
other countries. Land hunger was another motive. The poor soil of Greece
could not support many inhabitants and, when population increased,
emigration afforded the only means of relieving the pressure of numbers. A
third motive was political and social unrest. Greek cities at this period
contained many men of adventurous disposition who were ready to seek in
foreign countries a refuge from the oppression of nobles or tyrants. They
hoped to find in their new settlements more freedom than they had at home.

CHARACTER OF THE GREEK COLONY

A Greek colony was not simply a trading post; it was a center of Greek
life. The colonists continued to be Greeks in customs, language, and
religion. Though quite independent of the parent state, they always
regarded it with reverence and affection: they called themselves "men away
from home." Mother city and daughter colony traded with each other and in
time of danger helped each other. A symbol of this unity was the sacred
fire carried from the public hearth of the old community to the new
settlement.

COLONIZATION IN THE NORTH AND EAST

The Greeks planted many colonies on the coast of the northern Aegean and
on both sides of the long passage between the Mediterranean and the Black
Sea. Their most important colony was Byzantium, upon the site where
Constantinople now stands. They also made settlements along the shores of
the Black Sea. The cities founded here were centers from which the Greeks
drew their supplies of fish, wood, wool, grain, metals, and slaves. The
immense profits to be gained by trade made the Greeks willing to live in a
cold country so unlike their own and among barbarous peoples.

COLONIZATION IN THE WEST

The western lands furnished far more attractive sites for colonization.
The Greeks could feel at home in southern Italy, where the genial climate,
pure air, and sparkling sea recalled their native land. At a very early
date they founded Cumae, on the coast just north of the bay of Naples.
Emigrants from Cumae, in turn, founded the city of Neapolis (Naples),
which in Roman times formed a home of Greek culture and even to-day
possesses a large Greek population. To secure the approaches from Greece
to these remote colonies, two strongholds were established on the strait
of Messina: Regium (modern Reggio) on the Italian shore and Messana
(modern Messina) on that of Sicily. Another important colony in southern
Italy was Tarentum (modern Taranto).

[Illustration: "TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE," PAESTUM
Paestum, the Greek Poseidonia, was a colony of Sybaris The malarial
atmosphere of the place led to its desertion in the ninth century of our
era. Hence the buildings there were not used as quarries for later
structures. The so called "Temple of Neptune" at Paestum is one of the
best preserved monuments of antiquity.]

THE SICILIAN COLONIES

Greek settlements in Sicily were mainly along the coast. Expansion over
the entire island was checked by the Carthaginians, who had numerous
possessions at its western extremity. The most celebrated colony in Sicily
was Syracuse, established by emigrants from Corinth. It became the largest
of Greek cities.

OTHER MEDITERRANEAN COLONIES

In Corsica, Sardinia, and on the coast of Spain Carthage also proved too
obstinate a rival for the Greeks to gain much of a foothold. The city of
Massilia (Marseilles), at the mouth of the Rhone, was their chief
settlement in ancient Gaul. Two colonies on the southern shore of the
Mediterranean were Cyrene, west of Egypt, and Naucratis, in the Delta of
the Nile. From this time many Greek travelers visited Egypt to see the
wonders of that strange old country.

RESULTS OF COLONIZATION

Energetic Greeks, the greatest colonizers of antiquity, thus founded
settlements from the Black Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. "All the Greek
colonies" says an ancient writer, "are washed by the waves of the sea,
and, so to speak, a fringe of Greek earth is woven on to foreign lands."
[28] To distinguish themselves from the foreigners, or "barbarians," [29]
about them, the Greeks began to call themselves by the common name of
Hellenes. Hellas, their country, came to include all the territory
possessed by Hellenic peoples. The life of the Greeks, henceforth, was
confined no longer within the narrow limits of the Aegean. Wherever rose a
Greek city, there was a scene of Greek history.

30. BONDS OF UNION AMONG THE GREEKS

LANGUAGE AS A UNIFYING FORCE

The Greek colonies, as we have seen, were free and independent. In Greece
itself the little city-states were just as jealous of their liberties.
Nevertheless ties existed, not of common government, but of common
interests and ideals, which helped to unite the scattered sections of the
Greek world. The strongest bond of union was, of course, the one Greek
speech. Everywhere the people used the same beautiful and expressive
language. It is not a "dead" language, for it still lives in modified form
on the lips of nearly three million people in the Greek peninsula,
throughout the Mediterranean, and even in remote America.

LITERATURE AS UNIFYING FORCE; HOMER

Greek literature, likewise, made for unity. The _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_
were recited in every Greek village for centuries. They formed the
principal textbook in the schools; an Athenian philosopher calls Homer the
"educator of Hellas." It has been well said that these two epics were at
once the Bible and the Shakespeare of the Greek people.

RELIGION AS A UNIFYING FORCE; AMPHICTYONIES

Religion formed another bond of union. Everywhere the Greeks worshiped the
same gods and performed the same sacred rites. Religious influences were
sometimes strong enough to bring about federations known as amphictyonies,
or leagues of neighbors. The people living around a famous sanctuary would
meet to observe their festivals in common and to guard the shrine of their
divinity. The Delphic amphictyony was the most noteworthy of these local
unions. It included twelve tribes and cities of central Greece and
Thessaly. They established a council, which took the shrine of Apollo
under its protection and superintended the athletic games at Delphi.

A NEW AGE

The seventh and sixth centuries before Christ form a noteworthy epoch in
Greek history. Commerce and colonization were bringing their educating
influence to bear upon the Greeks. Hellenic cities were rising everywhere
along the Mediterranean shores. A common language, literature, and
religion were making the people more and more conscious of their unity as
opposed to the "barbarians" about them.

THE GREEK WORLD, 500 B.C.

Greek history has now been traced from its beginnings to about 500 B.C. It
is the history of a people, not of one country or of a united nation. Yet
the time was drawing near when all the Greek communities were to be
brought together in closer bonds of union than they had ever before known.

STUDIES

1. On the map facing page 66 see what regions of Europe are less than 500
feet above sea level; less than 3000 feet; over 9000 feet.

2. Why was Europe better fitted than Asia to develop the highest
civilization? Why not so well fitted as Asia to originate civilization?

3. "The tendency of mountains is to separate, of rivers to unite, adjacent
peoples." How can you justify this statement by a study of European
geography?

4. Why has the Mediterranean been called a "highway of nations"?

5. Locate on the map several of the natural entrances into the basin of
the Mediterranean.

6. At what points is it probable that southern Europe and northern Africa
were once united?

7. Compare the position of Crete in relation to Egypt with that of Sicily
in relation to the north African coast.

8. Why was the island of Cyprus a natural meeting place of Egyptian,
Syrian, and Greek peoples?

9. What modern countries are included within the limits of the Balkan
peninsula?

10. Describe the island routes across the Aegean (map between pages 68-
69).

11. What American states lie in about the same latitude as Greece?

12. Compare the boundaries of ancient Greece with those of the modern
kingdom.

13. What European countries in physical features closely resemble Greece?
What state of our union?

14. Why is Greece in its physical aspects "the most European of European
lands"?

15. What countries of Greece did not touch the sea?

16. Tell the story of the _Iliad_ and of the _Odyssey_.

17. Explain the following terms: oracle; amphictyony; helot; Hellas;
Olympiad; and ephors.

18. Give the meaning of our English words "ostracism" and "oracular."

19. Explain the present meaning and historical origin of the following
expressions: "a Delphic response"; "Draconian severity"; "a laconic
speech."

20. What is the date of the first recorded Olympiad? of the expulsion of
the last tyrant of Athens?

21. Describe the Lions' Gate (illustration, page 70) and the Francois
Vase (illustration, page 77).

22. Compare Greek ideas of the future life with those of the Babylonians.

23. Why has the Delphic oracle been called "the common hearth of Hellas"?

24. What resemblances do you discover between the Olympian festival and
one of our great international expositions?

25. Define and illustrate these terms: monarchy; aristocracy; tyranny;
democracy.

26. Why are the earliest laws always unwritten?

27. What differences existed between Phoenician and Greek colonization?

28. Why did the colonies, as a rule, advance more rapidly than the mother
country in wealth and population?

29. What is the origin of the modern city of Constantinople? of
Marseilles? of Naples? of Syracuse in Sicily?

FOOTNOTES

[1] Webster, _Readings in Ancient History_, chapter iii, "Early Greek
Society as Pictured in the Homeric Poems"; chapter iv, "Stories from Greek
Mythology"; chapter v, "Some Greek Tyrants"; chapter vi, "Spartan
Education and Life."

[2] See pages 16-17.

[3] For the island routes see the map between pages 68-69.

[4] See page 42.

[5] See the illustration, page 10.

[6] See the plate facing page 70.

[7] See pages 29, 48.

[8] See page 5.

[9] See the map, page 76.

[10] The Greek name of the Black Sea.

[11] _Iliad_, xviii, 607.

[12] _Odyssey_, xiv, 83-84.

[13] _Odyssey_, xi, 488-491.

[14] See page 227.

[15] See pages 88,90.

[16] Herodotus, i, 53.

[17] See page 37.

[18] The first recorded celebration occurred in 776 B.C. The four-year
period between the games, called an Olympiad, became the Greek unit for
determining dates. Events were reckoned as taking place in the first,
second, third, or fourth year of a given Olympiad.

[19] _Iliad_, ii, 243.

[20] _Aristocracy_ means, literally, the "government of the best." The
Greeks also used the word _oligarchy_--"rule of the few"--to describe a
government by citizens who belong to the wealthy class.

[21] "Pelops's island," a name derived from a legendary hero who settled
in southern Greece.

[22] Xenophon, _Polity of the Lacedaemonians_, 13.

[23] The Spartans believed that their military organization was the work
of a great reformer and law-giver named Lycurgus. He was supposed to have
lived early in the ninth century B.C. We do not know anything about
Lycurgus, but we do know that some existing primitive tribes, for
instance, the Masai of East Africa, have customs almost the same as those
of ancient Sparta. Hence we may say that the rude, even barbarous,
Spartans only carried over into the historic age the habits of life which
they had formed in prehistoric times.

[24] See page 82.

[25] The name of an individual voted against was written on a piece of
pottery (Greek _ostrakon_), whence the term _ostracism_. See the
illustration, page 97.

[26] See the map facing page 50.

[27] See page 49.

[28] Cicero, _De republica_, ii, 4.

[29] Greek _barbaroi_, "men of confused speech."

CHAPTER V

THE GREAT AGE OF THE GREEK REPUBLICS TO 362 B.C. [1]

31. THE PERILS OF HELLAS

ASIATIC GREEKS CONQUERED BY CROESUS

The history of the Greeks for many centuries had been uneventful--a
history of their uninterrupted expansion over barbarian lands. But now the
time was approaching when the independent and isolated Greek communities
must meet the attack of the great despotic empires of Asia. The Greek
cities of Asia Minor were the first part of the Hellenic world to be
involved. Their conquest by the Lydian king, Croesus, about the middle of
the sixth century B.C., showed how grave was the danger to Greek
independence from the ambitious designs of Oriental monarchs.

CONQUESTS OF CYRUS AND CAMBYSES

As we have already learned, Croesus himself soon had to submit to a
foreign overlord, in the person of Cyrus the Great. The subjugation of
Lydia and the Greek seaboard by Cyrus extended the Persian Empire to the
Mediterranean. The conquest of Phoenicia and Cyprus by Cambyses added the
Phoenician navy to the resources of the mighty empire. Persia had now
become a sea power, able to cope with the Greeks on their own element. The
subjection of Egypt by the same king led naturally to the annexation of
the Greek colonies on the north African shore. The entire coast of the
eastern Mediterranean had now come under the control of a new, powerful,
and hostile state.

[Illustration: CROESUS ON THE PYRE
Painting on an Athenian vase of about 490 B.C. According to the legend
Cyrus the Great, having made Croesus prisoner, intended to burn him on a
pyre. But the god Apollo, to whose oracle at Delphi Croesus had sent rich
gifts, put out the blaze by a sudden shower of rain. The vase painting
represents the Lydian king sitting enthroned upon the pyre, with a laurel
wreath on his head and a scepter in one hand. With the other hand he pours
a libation. He seems to be performing a religious rite, not to be
suffering an ignominious death.]

[Illustration: PERSIAN ARCHERS (Louvre, Paris)
A frieze of enameled brick from the royal palace at Susa. It is a
masterpiece of Persian art and shows the influence of both Assyrian and
Greek design. Each archer carries a spear, in addition to the bow over the
left shoulder and the quiver on the back. These soldiers probably served
as palace guards, hence the fine robes worn by them.]

CONQUESTS OF DARIUS

The accession of Darius to the Persian throne only increased the dangers
that overshadowed Hellas. He aimed to complete the work of Cyrus and
Cambyses by extending the empire wherever a natural frontier had not been
reached. Accordingly, about 512 B.C., Darius invaded Europe with a large
army, annexed the Greek colonies on the Hellespont (the modern
Dardanelles), and subdued the wild tribes of Thrace and Macedonia. The
Persian dominions now touched those of the Greeks. [2]

[Illustration: Map, GREECE at opening of the PERSIAN WARS 400 B.C.]

THE IONIAN REVOLT, 499-493 B.C.

Not long after this European expedition of Darius, the Ionian cities of
Asia Minor revolted against the Persians. Unable to face their foes
single-handed, they sought aid from Sparta, then the chief military power
of Greece. The Spartans refused to take part in the war, but the
Athenians, who realized the menace to Greece in the Persian advance, sent
ships and men to fight for the Ionians. Even with this help the Ionian
cities could not hold out against the vast resources of the Persians. One
by one they fell again into the hands of the Great King.

32. EXPEDITIONS OF DARIUS AGAINST GREECE

FIRST EXPEDITION, 492 B.C.

No sooner was quiet restored in Asia Minor than Darius began preparations
to punish Athens for her part in the Ionian Revolt. The first expedition
under the command of Mardonius, the son-in-law of the Persian monarch, was
a failure. Mardonius never reached Greece, because the Persian fleet, on
which his army depended for provisions, was wrecked off the promontory of
Mount Athos.

SECOND EXPEDITION, 490 B.C.

Darius did not abandon his designs, in consequence of the disaster. Two
years later a second fleet, bearing a force of perhaps sixty thousand men,
set out from Ionia for Greece. Datis and Artaphernes, the Persian leaders,
sailed straight across the Aegean and landed on the plain of Marathon,
twenty-six miles from Athens.

[Illustration: GRAVESTONE OF ARISTON (National Museum, Athens)
Found near Marathon in 1838 A.D. Belongs to the late sixth century B.C.
Incorrectly called the "Warrior of Marathon"]

BATTLE OF MARATHON, 490 B.C.

The situation of the Athenians seemed desperate. They had scarcely ten
thousand men with whom to face an army far larger and hitherto invincible.
The Spartans promised support, but delayed sending troops at the critical
moment. Better, perhaps, than a Spartan army was the genius of Miltiades,
one of the Athenian generals. Relying on Greek discipline and Greek valor
to win the day, he decided to take the offensive. His heavy armed soldiers
made a smashing charge on the Persians and drove them in confusion to
their ships. Datis and Artaphernes then sailed back to Asia with their
errand of vengeance unfulfilled.

[Illustration: GREEK SOLDIERS IN ARMS
Painting on a Greek vase]

POLICIES OF ARISTIDES AND THEMISTOCLES

After the battle of Marathon the Athenians began to make preparations to
resist another Persian invasion. One of their leaders, the eminent
Aristides, thought that they should increase their army and meet the enemy
on land. His rival, Themistocles, urged a different policy. He would
sacrifice the army to the navy and make Athens the strongest sea power in
Greece. The safety of Athens, he argued, lay in her ships. In order to
settle the question the opposing statesmen were put to the test of
ostracism. [3] 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 [4]--the largest navy in
Greece.

33. XERXES AND THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR

PREPARATIONS OF PERSIA

"Ten years after Marathon," says a Greek historian, "the 'barbarians'
returned with the vast armament which was to enslave Hellas." [5] Darius
was now 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
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.

[Illustration: 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.]

GREEK PREPARATIONS

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 water," the customary symbols of submission.
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 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.

BATTLE OF THERMOPYLAE, 480 B.C.

The campaigns of the Great Persian War have been described, once for all,
in the glowing pages of the Greek historian, Herodotus. [6] Early in the
year 480 B.C. the Persian host moved out of Sardis, crossed the
Hellespont, and advanced to the pass of Thermopylae, 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
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]