A General History for Colleges and High Schools

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CHANGES IN THE ATHENIAN CONSTITUTION.--The changes wrought by Solon in the
political constitution of Athens were equally wise and beneficent. He
divided all the citizens of Athens into four classes, according to their
income. Only members of the first class could hold the office of Archon;
and only those of the first three classes were eligible to the Council of
Elders; but every member of all the classes had the right to vote in the
popular assembly.

Thus property instead of birth was made the basis of political rights.
This completely changed the character of the government; it was no longer
an exclusive oligarchy.

A council known as the Council of the Four Hundred was created by Solon.
Its chief duties were to decide what matters might be discussed by the
public assembly, and to execute the resolutions of that body.

THE TRIBUNAL OF THE AREOPAGUS.--Solon also enlarged the jurisdiction of
the celebrated Tribunal of the Areopagus, a venerable council that from
time out of memory had been held on the Areopagus, or Mars' Hill, near the
Acropolis. The judges sat beneath the open sky, that they might not be
contaminated, it is said, by the breath of the criminals brought before
them. To this court was committed the care of morals and religion. It was
in the presence of this venerable tribunal, six hundred years after
Solon's time, that Paul stood when he made his eloquent defence of
Christianity.

THE PUBLIC ASSEMBLY.--The public assembly, under the constitution of
Solon, was made the most important of all the institutions of the state.
It was the fountain of all power. Contrary to the rule in Sparta, any
citizen had the right not only of voting, but of speaking on any question
which the assembly had a right to discuss. Six thousand citizens were
required to constitute a quorum to transact business in cases of special
importance. This popular assembly grew into vast importance in later
times. By it were discussed and decided questions affecting the entire
Hellenic world.

These laws and institutions of Solon laid the basis of the Athenian
democracy.

THE TYRANT PISISTRATUS (560-527 B.C.).--Solon had the misfortune of living
to see his institutions used to set up a tyranny, by an ambitious kinsman,
his nephew Pisistratus. This man courted popular favor, and called himself
the "friend of the people." One day, having inflicted many wounds upon
himself, he drove his chariot hastily into the public square, and
pretended that he had been thus set upon by the nobles, because of his
devotion to the people's cause. The people, moved with sympathy and
indignation, voted him a guard of fifty men. Under cover of raising this
company, Pisistratus gathered a much larger force, seized the Acropolis,
and made himself master of Athens. Though twice expelled from the city, he
as often returned, and finally succeeded in getting a permanent hold of
the government.

The rule of the usurper was mild, and under him Athens enjoyed a period of
great prosperity. He adorned the city with temples and other splendid
buildings, and constructed great aqueducts. Just beyond the city walls, he
laid out the Lyceum, a sort of public park, which became in after years
the favorite resort of the philosophers and poets of Athens. He was a
liberal patron of literature; and caused the Homeric poems to be collected
and edited. He died 527 B.C., thirty-three years after his first seizure
of the citadel. Solon himself said of him that he had no vice save
ambition.

EXPULSION OF THE TYRANTS FROM ATHENS (510 B.C.).--The two sons of
Pisistratus, Hippias and Hipparchus, succeeded to his power. At first they
emulated the example of their father, and Athens flourished under their
parental rule. But at length an unfortunate event gave an entirely
different tone to the government. Hipparchus, having insulted a young
noble, was assassinated. Hippias escaped harm, but the event caused him to
become suspicious and severe. His rule now became a tyranny indeed, and
was brought to an end in the following way.

After his last return to Athens, Pisistratus had sent the "accursed"
Alcmaeonidae into a second exile. During this period of banishment an
opportunity arose for them to efface the stain of sacrilege which was
still supposed to cling to them on account of the old crime of Megacles.
The temple at Delphi having been destroyed by fire, they contracted with
the Amphictyons to rebuild it. They not only completed the work in the
most honorable manner throughout, but even went so far beyond the terms of
their contract as to use beautiful Parian marble for the front of the
temple, when only common stone was required by the specifications.

By this act the exiled family won to such a degree the favor of the
priests of the sacred college, that they were able to influence the
utterances of the oracle. The invariable answer now of the Pythia to
Spartan inquirers at the shrine was, "Athens must be set free."

Moved at last by the repeated injunctions of the oracle, the Spartans
resolved to drive Hippias from Athens. Their first attempt was
unsuccessful; but in a second they were so fortunate as to capture the two
children of the tyrant, who, to secure their release, agreed to leave the
city (510 B.C.). He retired to Asia Minor, and spent the rest of his life,
as we shall learn hereafter, seeking aid in different quarters to re-
establish his tyranny in Athens. The Athenians passed a decree of
perpetual exile against him and all his family.

THE REFORMS OF CLISTHENES (509 B.C.).--Straightway upon the expulsion of
the Tyrant Hippias, there arose a great strife between the people, who of
course wished to organize the government in accord with the constitution
of Solon, and the nobles, who desired to re-establish the old
aristocratical rule. Clisthenes, an aristocrat, espoused the cause of the
popular party. Through his influence several important changes in the
constitution, which rendered it still more democratical than under Solon,
were now effected.

Athenian citizenship was conferred upon _all the free inhabitants of
Attica_. This made such a radical change in the constitution in the
interest of the masses, that Clisthenes rather than Solon is regarded by
many as the real founder of the Athenian democracy.

OSTRACISM.--But of all the innovations or institutions of Clisthenes, that
known as _ostracism_ was the most characteristic. By means of this
process any person who had excited the suspicions or displeasure of the
people could, without trial, be banished from Athens for a period of ten
years. Six thousand votes cast against any person in a meeting of the
popular assembly was a decree of banishment. The name of the person whose
banishment was sought was written on a piece of pottery or a shell (in
Greek _ostrakon_), hence the term _ostracism_.

The original design of this institution was to prevent the recurrence of
such a usurpation as that of the Pisistratidae. The privilege and power it
gave the people were often abused, and many of the ablest and best
statesmen of Athens were sent into exile through the influence of some
demagogue who for the moment had caught the popular ear.

No stigma or disgrace attached to the person ostracized. The vote came to
be employed, as a rule, simply to settle disputes between rival leaders of
political parties. Thus the vote merely expressed political preference,
the ostracized person being simply the defeated candidate for popular
favor.

The institution was short-lived. It was resorted to for the last time
during the Peloponnesian War (417 B.C.). The people then, in a freak,
ostracized a man whom all admitted to be the meanest man in Athens. This
was regarded as such a degradation of the institution, as well as such an
honor to the mean man, that never thereafter did the Athenians degrade a
good man, or honor a bad one, by a resort to the measure.

SPARTA OPPOSES THE ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY.--The aristocratic party at Athens
was naturally bitterly opposed to all these democratic innovations. The
Spartans, also, viewed with disquiet and jealousy this rapid growth of the
Athenian democracy, and tried to overthrow the new government and restore
Hippias to power. But they did not succeed in their purpose, and Hippias
went away to Persia to seek aid of King Darius. His solicitations, in
connection with an affront which the Athenians just now offered the king
himself by aiding his revolted subjects in Ionia, led directly up to the
memorable struggle known as the Graeco-Persian wars.

[Illustration: GREEK WARRIORS PREPARING FOR BATTLE.]

CHAPTER XIII.

THE GRAECO-PERSIAN WARS.
(500-479 B.C.)

EXPEDITIONS OF DARIUS AGAINST GREECE.--In narrating the history of the
Persians, we told how Darius, after having subdued the revolt of his
Ionian subjects in Asia Minor, turned his armaments against the European
Greeks, to punish them for the part they had taken in the capture and
burning of Sardis. It will be recalled how ill-fated was his first
expedition, which was led by his son-in-law Mardonius (see p. 80).

Undismayed by this disaster, Darius issued orders for the raising and
equipping of another and stronger armament. Meanwhile he sent heralds to
the various Grecian states to demand earth and water, which elements among
the Persians were symbols of submission. The weaker states gave the tokens
required; but the Athenians and Spartans threw the envoys of the king into
pits and wells, and bade them help themselves to earth and water. By the
beginning of the year 490 B.C., another Persian army of 120,000 men had
been mustered for the second attempt upon Greece. This armament was
intrusted to the command of the experienced generals Datis and
Artaphernes; but was under the guidance of the traitor Hippias. A fleet of
six hundred ships bore the army from the coasts of Asia Minor over the
Aegean towards the Grecian shores.

After receiving the submission of the most important of the Cyclades, and
capturing and sacking the city of Eretria upon the island of Euboea, the
Persians landed at Marathon, barely one day's journey from Athens. Here is
a sheltered bay, which is edged by a crescent-shaped plain, backed by the
rugged ranges of Parnes and Pentelicus. Upon this level ground the Persian
generals drew up their army, flushed and confident with their recent
successes.

THE BATTLE OF MARATHON (490 B.C.).--The Athenians were nerved by the very
magnitude of the danger to almost superhuman energy. Slaves were
transformed into soldiers by the promise of liberty. A fleet runner,
Phidippides by name, was despatched to Sparta for aid. In just thirty-six
hours he was in Sparta, which is one hundred and fifty miles from Athens.
But it so happened that it lacked a few days of the full moon, during
which interval the Spartans, owing to an old superstition, were averse to
setting out upon a military expedition. They promised aid, but moved only
in time to reach Athens when all was over. The Plataeans, firm and grateful
friends of the Athenians, on account of some former service, no sooner
received the latter's appeal for help than they responded to a man.

The Athenians and their faithful allies, numbering about ten thousand in
all, under the command of Miltiades, were drawn up in battle array just
where the hills of Pentelicus sink down into the plain of Marathon. The
vast host of the Persians filled the level ground in their front. The fate
of Greece and the future of Europe were in the keeping of Miltiades and
his trusty warriors. Without waiting for the attack of the Persians, the
Greeks charged and swept like a tempest from the mountain over the plain,
pushed the Persians back towards the shore, and with great slaughter drove
them to their ships.

Miltiades at once despatched a courier to Athens with intelligence of his
victory. The messenger reached the city in a few hours, but so breathless
from his swift run that, as the people thronged eagerly around him to hear
the news he bore, he could merely gasp, "Victory is ours," and fell dead.

But the danger was not yet past. The Persian fleet, instead of returning
to the coast of Asia, bore down upon Athens. Informed by watchers on the
hills of the movements of the enemy, Miltiades immediately set out with
his little army for the capital, which he reached just at evening, the
battle at Marathon having been won in the forenoon of that same day. The
next morning, when the Persian generals would have made an attack upon the
city, they found themselves confronted by the same men who but yesterday
had beaten them back from the plains of Marathon. Shrinking from another
encounter with these citizen-soldiers of Athens, the Persians spread their
sails, and bore away towards the Ionian shore.

Thus the cloud that had lowered so threateningly over Hellas was for a
time dissipated. The most imposing honors were accorded to the heroes who
had achieved the glorious victory, and their names and deeds were
transmitted to posterity, in song and marble. And as the gods were
believed to have interposed in behalf of Greece, suitable recognition of
their favor was made in gifts and memorials. A considerable part of the
brazen arms and shields gathered from the battle-field was melted into a
colossal statue of Athena, which was placed upon the Acropolis, as the
guardian of Athens.

RESULTS OF THE BATTLE OF MARATHON.--The battle of Marathon is reckoned as
one of the "decisive battles of the world." It marks an epoch, not only in
the life of Greece, but in that of Europe. Hellenic civilization was
spared to mature its fruit, not for itself alone, but for the world. The
battle decided that no longer the despotism of the East, with its
repression of all individual action, but the freedom of the West, with all
its incentives to personal effort, should control the affairs and mould
the ideas and institutions of the future. It broke the spell of the
Persian name, and destroyed forever the prestige of the Persian arms. It
gave the Hellenic peoples that position of authority and pre-eminence that
had been so long enjoyed by the successive races of the East. It
especially revealed the Athenians to themselves. The consciousness of
resources and power became the inspiration of their future acts. They
performed great deeds thereafter because they believed themselves able to
perform them.

MILTIADES FALLS INTO DISGRACE.--The distinguished services Miltiades had
rendered his country, made him the hero of the hour at Athens. Taking
advantage of the public feeling in his favor, he persuaded the Athenians
to put in his hands a fleet for an enterprise respecting the nature of
which no one save himself was to know anything whatever. Of course it was
generally supposed that he meditated an attack upon the Persians or their
allies, and with full faith in the judgment as well as in the integrity of
their favorite, the Athenians gave him the command he asked.

But Miltiades abused the confidence imposed in him. He led the expedition
against the island of Paros, simply to avenge some private wrong. The
undertaking was unsuccessful, and Miltiades, severely wounded, returned to
Athens, where he was brought to trial for his conduct. His never-to-be-
forgotten services at Marathon pleaded eloquently for him, and he escaped
being sentenced to death, but was subjected to a heavy fine. This he was
unable to pay, and in a short time he died of his wound. The unfortunate
affair left an ineffaceable blot upon a fame otherwise the most
resplendent in Grecian story.

ATHENS PREPARES FOR PERSIAN VENGEANCE.--Many among the Athenians were
inclined to believe that the battle of Marathon had freed Athens forever
from the danger of a Persian invasion. But there was at least one among
them who was clear-sighted enough to see that that battle was only the
beginning of a great struggle. This was Themistocles, a sagacious,
versatile, and ambitious statesman, who labored to persuade the Athenians
to strengthen their navy, in order to be ready to meet the danger he
foresaw.

Themistocles was opposed in this policy by Aristides, called the Just, a
man of the most scrupulous integrity, who feared that Athens would make a
serious mistake if she converted her land force into a naval armament. The
contention grew so sharp between them that the ostracism was called into
use to decide the matter. Six thousand votes were cast against Aristides,
and he was sent into exile.

It is related that while the vote that ostracized him was being taken in
the popular assembly, an illiterate peasant, who was a stranger to
Aristides, asked him to write the name of Aristides upon his tablet. As he
placed the name desired upon the shell, the statesman asked the man what
wrong Aristides had ever done him. "None," responded the voter; "I don't
even know him; but I am tired of hearing him called 'the Just.'"

After the banishment of Aristides, Themistocles was free to carry out his
naval policy without any serious opposition, and soon Athens had the
largest fleet of any Greek city, with a harbor at Piraeus.

XERXES' PREPARATIONS TO INVADE GREECE.--No sooner had the news of the
disaster at Marathon been carried to Darius than he began to make gigantic
preparations to avenge this second defeat and insult. It was in the midst
of these plans for revenge that, as we have already learned, death cut
short his reign, and his son Xerxes came to the throne (see p. 80).

Urged on by his nobles, as well as by exiled Greeks at his court, who
sought to gratify ambition or enjoy revenge in the humiliation and ruin of
their native land, Xerxes, though at first disinclined to enter into a
contest with the Greeks, at length ordered the preparations begun by his
father to be pushed forward with the utmost energy. For eight years all
Asia resounded with the din of preparation. Levies were made upon all the
provinces that acknowledged the authority of the Great King, from India to
the Hellespont. Vast contingents of vessels were furnished by the coast
countries of the Mediterranean. Immense stores of provisions, the harvests
of many years, were gathered into great storehouses along the intended
line of march.

While all these preparations were going on in Asia itself, Phoenician and
Egyptian architects were employed in spanning the Hellespont with a double
bridge of boats, which was to unite the two continents as with a royal
highway. At the same time, the isthmus at Mount Athos, in rounding which
promontory the admirals of Mardonius had lost their fleet, was cut by a
canal, traces of which may be seen at this day. Three years were consumed
in these gigantic works. With them completed, or far advanced, Xerxes set
out from his capital to join the countless hosts that from all quarters of
the compass were gathering at Sardis, in Asia Minor.

DISUNION OF THE GREEKS: CONGRESS AT CORINTH (481 B.C.).--Startling rumors
of the gigantic preparations that the Persian king was making to crush
them were constantly borne across the Aegean to the ears of the Greeks in
Europe. Finally came intelligence that Xerxes was about to begin his
march. Something must now be done to meet the impending danger. Mainly
through the exertions of Themistocles, a council of the Greek cities was
convened at Corinth in the fall of 481 B.C.

But on account of feuds, jealousies, and party spirit, only a small number
of the states of Hellas could be brought to act in concert. Argos would
not join the proposed confederation through hatred of Sparta; Thebes,
through jealousy of Athens. The Cretans, to whom an embassy had been sent
soliciting aid, refused all assistance. Gelon, the Tyrant of Syracuse,
offered to send over a large armament, provided that he were given the
chief command of the allied forces. His aid on such terms was refused.

Thus, through different causes, many of the Greek cities held aloof from
the confederation, so that only about fifteen or sixteen states were
brought to unite their resources against the Barbarians; and even the
strength of many of those cities that did enter into the alliance was
divided by party spirit. The friends of aristocratical government were
almost invariably friends of Persia, because a Persian victory in Greece
proper meant what it had already meant in Ionia,--a suppression of the
democracies as incompatible with the Persian form of government. Thus for
the sake of a party victory, the aristocrats were ready to betray their
country into the hands of the Barbarians. Furthermore, the Delphian
oracle, aristocratical in its sympathies, was luke-warm and wavering, if
not actually disloyal, and by its timid responses, disheartened the
patriot party.

But under the inspiration of Themistocles the patriots in convention at
Corinth determined upon desperate resistance to the Barbarians. It was at
first decided to concentrate a strong force in the Vale of Tempe, and at
that point to dispute the advance of the enemy; but this being found
impracticable, it was resolved that the first stand against the invaders
should be made at the pass of Thermopylae.

The Spartans were given the chief command of both the land and the naval
forces. The Athenians might fairly have insisted upon their right to the
command of the allied fleet, but they patriotically waived their claim,
for the sake of harmony.

THE HELLESPONTINE BRIDGES BROKEN.--As the vast army of Xerxes was about to
move from Sardis, intelligence came that the bridges across the Hellespont
had been wrecked by a violent tempest. It is said that Xerxes, in great
wrath, ordered the architects to be put to death, and the sea to be bound
with fetters and scourged. The scourgers faithfully performed their duty,
at the same time gratuitously cursing the traitorous and rebellious
Hellespont with what Herodotus calls "non-Hellenic and blasphemous terms."

Other architects spanned the channel with two stronger and firmer bridges.
Each roadway rested upon a row of from three to four hundred vessels, all
securely anchored like modern pontoons. The bridges were each about one
mile in length, and furnished with high parapets, that the horses and
cattle might not be rendered uneasy at sight of the water.

PASSAGE OF THE HELLESPONT.--With the first indications of the opening
spring of 480 B.C., just ten years after the defeat at Marathon, the vast
Persian army was astir and concentrating from all points upon the
Hellespont. The passage of this strait, as pictured to us in the
inimitable narration of Herodotus, is one of the most dramatic of all the
spectacles afforded by history.

Before the passage commenced, the bridges were strewn with the sacred
myrtle and perfumed with incense from golden censers, while the sea was
placated with libations poured by the king himself. As the east reddened
with the approach of day, prayers were offered, and the moment the rays of
the sun touched the bridges the passage began. To avoid accidents and
delays, the trains of baggage wagons and the beasts of burden crossed by
one causeway, leaving the other free for the march of the army. The first
of the host to cross was the sacred guard of the Great King, the Ten
Thousand Immortals, all crowned with garlands as in festival procession.
Preceding the king, the gorgeous Chariot of the Sun moved slowly, drawn by
eight milk-white steeds. Herodotus affirms that for seven days and seven
nights the bridges groaned beneath the living tide that Asia was pouring
into Europe. [Footnote: According to Herodotus, the land and naval forces
of Xerxes amounted to 2,317,000 men, besides about 2,000,000 slaves and
attendants. It is believed that these figures are a great exaggeration,
and that the actual number of the Persian army could not have exceeded
900,000 men.]

BATTLE OF THERMOPYLAE (480 B.C.).--Leading from Thessaly into Central
Greece is a narrow pass, pressed on one side by the sea and on the other
by rugged mountain ridges. At the foot of the cliffs break forth several
hot springs, whence the name of the pass, Thermopylae, or "Hot Gates."

At this point, in accordance with the decision of the Corinthian Congress,
was offered the first resistance to the progress of the Persian army.
Leonidas, king of Sparta, with three hundred Spartan soldiers and about
six thousand allies from different states of Greece, held the pass. As the
Greeks were about to celebrate the Olympian games, which their religious
scruples would not allow them to postpone, they left this handful of men
unsupported to hold in check the army of Xerxes until the festival days
should be past.

The Spartans could be driven from their advantageous position only by an
attack in front, as the Grecian fleet prevented Xerxes from landing a
force in their rear. Before assaulting them, Xerxes summoned them to give
up their arms. The answer of Leonidas was, "Come and take them." For two
days the Persians tried to storm the pass. The Asiatics were driven to the
attack by their officers armed with whips. But every attempt to force the
way was repulsed; even the Ten Thousand Immortals were hurled back from
the Spartan front like waves from a cliff.

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