Part 7

The Corinthians and several other allies, especially the Thebans, insisted that it was absolutely necessary to destroy the city without hearkening any further to a treaty. But the Lacedemonians, preferring the glory and safety of Greece to their own grandeur, made answer, that they would never be reproached with having destroyed a city that had rendered such great services to all Greece; the remembrance of which ought to have much greater weight with the allies than the remembrance of private injuries received from it. A peace was, therefore, concluded under these conditions:--"that the fortifications of the Piræus, with the long wall that joined that port to the city, should be demolished; that the Athenians should deliver up all their galleys, twelve only excepted; that they should abandon all the cities they had seized, and content themselves with their own lands and country." The deputies, on their return, were surrounded by an innumerable throng of people, who apprehended that nothing had been concluded; for they were not able to hold out any longer, such multitudes dying of famine. The next day they reported the success of their negociation; the treaty was ratified, and Lysander, followed by the exiles, entered the port. It was on the very day the Athenians had formerly gained the famous battle of Salamis. He caused the works to be demolished to the sound of flutes and trumpets, as if all Greece had that day regained its liberty. Thus ended the Peloponnesian war, after having continued during the space of twenty-seven years.

The walls, thus demolished, were rebuilt by Conon. He did more; he restored Athens to its former splendour, and rendered it more formidable to its enemies than it had ever been before.

Philip[50] having gained the battle of Cheronæa, Greece, and above all, Athens, received a blow from which she never recovered. It was generally expected, that Philip would avail himself of this opportunity of entirely crushing his inveterate enemy. That prudent prince, however, foresaw that powerful obstacles were yet to be encountered, and that there was still a spirit in the Athenian people which might render it difficult to hold them in subjection. It would appear, also, says an elegant writer, as if the genius and fame of Athens had, in the hour of her calamity, thrown a shield over her: for Philip is reported to have said, "Have I done so much for glory, and shall I destroy the theatre of that glory?" A treaty, in consequence, was entered into; and thus the Athenians, though reluctant to exist by Philip's clemency, were permitted to retain the whole Attic territory.

The number of men able to bear arms at Athens, in the reign of Cecrops, was computed at twenty thousand; and there appears to have been no considerable augmentation in the more civilised age of Pericles; but in the time of Demetrius Phalareus, there were found twenty-one thousand citizens, ten thousand foreigners, and forty thousand slaves.

Philip[51], son of Demetrius of Macedon, seems to have been one of the most inveterate enemies by whom Athens was ever ravaged. With unsparing cruelty he destroyed almost every thing which had either escaped the Persian invaders, or which had been erected after their final expulsion. Livy tells us, that, not content with burning and destroying the temples of the gods, he ordered that the very stones should be broken into small pieces, that they might no longer serve to repair the buildings; and Diodorus Siculus asserts, that even the inviolability of the sepulchres could not command his respect, or repress his violence.

Athens, however, still recovered some portion of its power; for when Sylla arrived before the Piræus, he found the walls to be sixty feet high, and entirely of hewn stone. The work was very strong, and had been raised by order of Pericles in the Peloponnesian war: when, the hopes of victory depending solely upon this port, he had fortified it to the utmost of his power.

The height of the walls did not deter Sylla. He employed all sorts of engines in battering them, and made continual assaults. He spared neither danger, attacks, nor expense, to hasten the conclusion of the war. Without enumerating the rest of the warlike stores and equipage, twenty thousand mules were perpetually employed in working the machines only. Wood happening to fall short, from the great consumption made of it in the machines, which were often either broken or spoiled by the vast weight they carried, or burned by the enemy, he did not spare the sacred groves. He cut down the trees in the walks of the Academy and Lycæum, which were the finest and best planted in the suburbs, and caused the high walls that joined the port to the city to be demolished, in order to make use of the ruins in erecting his works, and carrying on his operations.

Notwithstanding all disadvantages, the Athenians defended themselves like lions. They found means either to burn most of the machines erected against the walls, or by undermining them, to throw them down and break them to pieces. The Romans, on their side, behaved with no less vigour. Sylla, discouraged by so obstinate a defence, resolved to attack the Piræus no longer, and confined himself to reduce the place by famine. The city was now at the last extremity; a bushel of barley having been sold in it for a thousand drachms (about 25_l._ sterling). In the midst of the public misery, the governor, who was a lieutenant of Mithridates, passed his days and nights in debauch. The senators and priests went to throw themselves at his feet, conjuring him to have pity on the city, and to obtain a capitulation from Sylla; he dispersed them with arrow-shot, and in that manner drove them from his presence.

He did not demand a cessation of arms, nor send deputies to Sylla, till reduced to the last extremity. As those deputies made no proposals, and asked nothing of him to the purpose, but ran on in praising and extolling Theseus, Eumolpus, and the exploits of the Athenians against the Medes, Sylla was tired of their discourse, and interrupted them by saying,--"Gentlemen haranguers, you may go back again, and keep your rhetorical flourishes to yourselves. For my part, I was not sent to Athens to be informed of your ancient prowess, but to chastise your modern revolt."

During this audience, some spies having entered the city, overheard by chance some old men talking of the quarter called Ceramicus (the public place at Athens), and blaming the tyrant exceedingly for not guarding a certain part of the wall that was the only place by which the enemy could scale the walls. At their return into the camp, they related what they heard to Sylla. The parley had been to no purpose. Sylla did not neglect the intelligence given him. The next night he went in person to take a view of the place; and finding the wall actually accessible, he ordered ladders to be raised against it, began the attack there, and, having made himself master of the wall, after a weak resistance, entered the city. He would not suffer it to be set on fire, but abandoned it to be plundered by his soldiers, who, in several houses, found human flesh, which had been dressed to be eaten. A dreadful slaughter ensued. The next day all the slaves were sold by auction, and liberty was granted to the citizens who had escaped the swords of the soldiers, who were a very small number. He besieged the citadel the same day, where Aristion and those who had taken refuge there, were soon so much reduced by famine, that they were forced to surrender themselves. The tyrant, his guards, and all who had been in any office under him, were put to death. Some ten days after, Sylla made himself master of the Piæaus, and burned all its fortifications.

The reputation for learning, military valour, and polished elegance, which Athens enjoyed during the splendid administration of Pericles, was tarnished by the corruption which that celebrated person introduced. Prosperity was the forerunner of luxury and universal dissipation; every delicacy was drawn from distant nations; the wines of Cyprus, and the snows of Thrace, garlands of roses, perfumes, and a thousand arts of buffoonery, which disgraced a Persian court, were introduced; instead of the coarse meals, the herbs and plain bread, which the laws of Solon had recommended, and which had nourished the heroes of Marathon and Salamis.

Sylla's assault was the final termination of the power and greatness of Athens; she became a portion of the Roman empire; but in the reign of Hadrian and the Antonines, she resumed, at least in outward appearance, no small portion of her former splendour. Hadrian built several temples, and, above all, he finished that of Jupiter Olympius, the work of successive kings, and one of the greatest productions of human art. He founded, also, a splendid library; and bestowed so many privileges, that an inscription, placed on one of the gates, declared Athens to be no longer the city of Theseus, but of Hadrian. In what manner it was regarded too in the time of Trajan, may be gathered from Pliny's letter to a person named Maximus, who was sent thither as governor.

"Remember," said he, "that you are going to visit Achaia, the proper and true Greece; that you are appointed to govern a state of free cities, who have maintained liberty by their valour. Take not away any thing of their privileges, their dignity; no, nor yet of their presumption; but consider it is a country that hath of long time given laws, and received none; that it is to Athens thou goest, where it would be thought a barbarous cruelty in thee to deprive them of that shadow and name of liberty which still remaineth to them."

The Antonines trod in the steps of Hadrian. Under them Herodes Atticus devoted an immense fortune to the embellishment of the city and the promotion of learning.

But when the Roman world felt the wand of adversity, and her power began to decline, Athens felt her share; she had enjoyed a long respite from foreign war, but in the reign of Arcadius and Honorius a dreadful tempest burst upon her.

Alaric, after over-running the rest of Greece, advanced into Attica, and found Athens without any power of defence. The whole country was converted into a desert; but it seems uncertain, whether he plundered the city, or whether he accepted the greater part of its wealth as a ransom. Certain, however, it is, that it suffered severely, and a contemporary compared it to the mere skin of a slaughtered victim.

It is reported that, during their stay in the city, the barbarians, having collected all the libraries of Athens, were preparing to burn them; but one of their number diverted them from their design, by suggesting the propriety of leaving to their enemies what appeared to be the most effectual instrument for cherishing and promoting their unwarlike spirit.

After the devastations of Alaric, and, still more, after the shutting up of her schools, Athens ceased almost entirely to attract the attention of mankind. These schools were suppressed by an edict of Justinian; an edict which excited great grief and indignation among the few remaining votaries of Grecian science and superstition. Seven friends and philosophers,[52] who dissented from the religion of their sovereign, resolved to seek in a foreign land the freedom of which they were deprived in their native country. Accordingly, the seven sages sought an asylum in Persia, under the protection of Chosroes; but, disgusted and disappointed, they hastily returned, and declared that they had rather die on the borders of the empire than enjoy the wealth and favour of the barbarian. These associates ended their lives in peace and obscurity; and as they left no disciples, they terminate the long list of philosophers who may be justly praised, notwithstanding their defects, as the wisest and most virtuous of their times[53].

After the taking of Constantinople by the Latins, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, the western powers began to view Greece as an object of ambition. In the division of the Greek empire, which they made among themselves, Greece and Macedonia fell to the share of the Marquis of Montferrat, who bestowed Athens and Thebes on one of his followers, named Otho de la Roche. This prince reigned with the title of Duke of Athens, which remained for a considerable time[54].

It was afterwards seized by a powerful Florentine family, named Acciaioli, one of whom sold it to the Venetians; but his son seized it again, and it remained in that family till A.D. 1455, when it surrendered to Omar, a general of Mahomet II., and thus formed one of the two hundred cities which that prince took from the Christians. He settled a colony in it, and incorporated it completely with the Turkish empire. What has occurred of late years has not been embodied in any authentic history; but the consequences of the tumults of Greece may be in some degree imagined, from what is stated by a recent traveller in regard to Athens[55]. "When I sallied forth to explore the wonders of Athens, alas! they were no longer to be seen. The once proud city of marble was literally a mass of ruins--the inglorious ruins of mud-houses and wretched mosques forming in all quarters such indistinguishable piles, that in going about I was wholly unable to fix upon any peculiarities of streets or buildings, by which I might know my way from one part of the capital to another. With the exception of the remains of the Forum, the temple of Theseus, which is still in excellent preservation, the celebrated columns of the temple of Jupiter Olympius, and the Parthenon, nothing now exists at Athens of all the splendid edifices with which it was so profusely decorated in the days of its glory."

It has been well observed, that, associated in the youthful mind with all that is noble in patriotism, exalted in wisdom, excelling in art, elegant in literature, luminous in science, persuasive in eloquence, and heroic in action, the beautiful country of Greece, and its inhabitants, must, under every circumstance, even of degradation, be an interesting object of study. "We can all feel, or imagine," says Lord Byron, "the regret with which the ruins of cities, once the capital of empires, are beheld. But never did the littleness of man, and the vanity of his very best virtues, of patriotism to exalt and of valour to defend his country, appear more conspicuous than in the record of what Athens once was, and the certainty of what she now is."

The former state of Athens is thus described by Barthelemy. "There is not a city in Greece which presents so vast a number of public buildings and monuments as Athens. Edifices, venerable for their antiquity, or admirable for their elegance, raise their majestic heads on all sides. Masterpieces of sculpture are extremely numerous, even in the public places, and concur with the finest productions of the pencil to embellish the porticoes of temples. Here every thing speaks to the eyes of the attentive spectator."

To describe Athens entire would be to fill a volume. We shall, therefore, only give an account of the chief monuments of antiquity as they existed till very lately; the rest, as they give one little or no sort of idea of their ancient magnificence, were better omitted than mentioned.

The Piræus[56] is one of the finest ports in Greece, and, being bounded by rocks, has experienced hardly any change in its form or dimensions. The sea, however, appears to have encroached a little, as some ruins are seen under water. The general depth of the port is from two to ten fathoms, in some places twenty. The Piræus was decorated with a theatre, several temples, and a great number of statues. As the existence of Athens depended on the safety of this harbour, Themistocles secured it against sudden attack by building a wall, sixty stadia in length, and forty cubits high. As to its thickness, it was greater than the space occupied by two waggons. It was built of huge square stones, fastened together on the outside by iron and leaden cramps. Without the gate was a cenotaph, erected in honour of Euripides, on which was inscribed "The glory of Euripides has all Greece for a monument."

The old city of Athens was seated on the top of a rock in the midst of a pleasant plain, which, as the number of inhabitants increased, became full of buildings, which induced the distinction of Acro and Catapolis, _i. e._, of the upper and lower city.

The inside of the citadel was adorned with a multitude of edifices. The flat space on the rock of the Acropolis is not more than eight hundred feet in length, and about four hundred feet in breadth,--a small extent for the site of the primitive city of the Athenians; but an area of great size, when considered as the base only of temples and marble palaces, containing not a single structure which might not be denominated a masterpiece of art[57]. The most remarkable of these were a magnificent temple of Minerva, styled Parthenon, because that goddess was a virgin--this the Persians destroyed, out it was rebuilt with still greater splendour by Pericles--the temple of Neptune and Minerva jointly; a temple dedicated to Victory, adorned with paintings, principally the work of Polygnotus, and constructed of white marble. Within the citadel, also, was an immense number of statues, erected by religion and gratitude, on which the chisels of Myron, Phidias, Alcamenes, and other artists of renown, seemed to have bestowed animation. Of these statues, some were those of famous Athenian generals; such as Pericles, Phormio, Iphicrates, and Timotheus; and others, those of the gods.

It appears surprising that so many temples should have been crowded together within the narrow compass of the Athenian Acropolis; but the Roman Capitol, though not much more spacious, contained at least thirty temples[58].

"In its pride and glory," says Chandler, "the Acropolis appeared as one entire offering to the deity, surpassing in excellence, and astonishing in richness. Heliodorus employed on it fifteen books. The curiosities of various kinds, with the pictures, statues, and pieces of sculpture, were so many and so remarkable, as to supply Polemo Periegetes with matter for four volumes; and Strabo affirms, that as many more would be required in treating of Athens and of Attica.

As the stranger draws near to the present entrance of the citadel, he passes before the façade of the Propylea; the old entrance to the Acropolis, between its Doric pillars, being walled up. Pausanias says, "There is only one entrance to the Acropolis of Athens; it being in every remaining part of its circuit a precipice, and fortified by strong walls. This entrance was fronted by a magnificent building, called the Propylea, covered with roofs of white marble, which surpassed, for beauty and the dimensions of the marble, all that I have seen." This is now in ruins.

This was the most expensive work undertaken by Pericles, and is said to have cost 2,500 talents (£452,700). It took five years in building, and was completed B.C. 437.

"To a person who has seen the ruins of Rome," says Dr. Clarke, "the first suggestion, made by a sight of the buildings in the Acropolis, is that of the infinite superiority of the Athenian architecture. It possesses the greatness and majesty of the Egyptian or of the ancient Etruscan style, with all the elegant proportion, the rich ornaments, and the discriminating taste of the most splendid era of the arts." Its present condition is thus described by Mr. Williams. "The scene of desolation in the Acropolis is complete; the heaps of ruins of wretched houses, and various buildings, are constructed part with clay and marble, the marble looking doleful through the mud. On entering the temple one is struck by the worn steps, and curved or circular marks of the great doors of old; the pavement, too, that had been trodden by the luminaries of Greece."

The walls of the Acropolis[59] exhibit three distinct periods of construction; that is to say, the masonry of _modern_ times in the repairs,--a style of building which can only be referred to the age of _Cimon_, or of _Pericles_;--and the ancient _Pelasgic_ work, as mentioned by Lucian. The _modern_ walls of the city are about ten feet high, and not two in thickness. They were constructed about the year 1780, as a defence against pirates and hordes of Arnauts, who sometimes entered the town at night, and threatened to pillage it. The walls embrace a circuit of nearly three miles, and enclose not only the town and citadel, but also some open spaces for cattle. They were built in seventy-five days, all hands being employed night and day. All kinds of materials which were at hand were employed in their construction, and in some places they exhibit large blocks of stone and marble, and several fragmental inscriptions[60].

The lower city had thirteen gates, and among the principal edifices which adorned it were, 1. The Olympian temple, erected in honour of Athens and all Greece. 2. The Pantheon, dedicated to all the gods; a noble structure, supported by one hundred and twenty marble pillars, and having over its great gateway two horses, carved by Praxiteles. 3. The temple of Theseus; a noble structure, of Pentelic marble.

The Gymnasia of Athens were many, but the most remarkable were the Lyceum, Academia, and Cynosarges. The Lyceum stood on the banks of the Ilissus; some say it was built by Pisistratus; others by Pericles; others by Lycurgus.

The Academy was so called from Academus. The Cynosarges was a place in the suburbs, not far from the Lyceum.

The Areopagus is situated a few hundred feet west of the Acropolis. It consists of an insulated rock, precipitous, and broken towards the south; on the north side it slopes gently down towards the temple of Theseus, and is rather lower than the Acropolis. "Higher up, ascending a hill covered with thistles and red pebbles, you arrive," says M. La Martine, "at the Pnyx; the scene of the stormy assemblies of the people of Athens, and of the fluctuating triumphs of its orators or its favourites; enormous masses of black stone, some of which measure twelve or thirteen cubic feet, lie upon one another, and support the terrace, upon which the people collected. Still higher up, at the distance of about fifty paces, we perceive a huge square block, wherein steps have been cut, which probably served for the orator to mount his tribunal, which thus overlooked the people, the city, and the sea. This possesses not the character of the people of Pericles, but seems Roman. The recollections it inspires are, however, delightful. Demosthenes spoke from thence, and roused or calmed that popular sea, more stormy than the Ægean, which he could also hear roll behind him."

"From the odeum of Regilla," says Dr. Clarke, "we went to the Areopagus, wishing to place our feet upon a spot where it is so decidedly known that St. Paul had himself stood; and to view with our own eyes the same scene which he beheld, when he declared unto the Athenians the nature of the UNKNOWN GOD, whom they so ignorantly worshipped. * * * We ascended to the top by means of steps cut within the natural stone, which is of breccia. The sublime scene here exhibited is so striking, that a brief description of it may prove how truly it offers to us a commentary upon St. Paul's words, as they were delivered upon the spot. Before him there was spread a glorious prospect of mountains, islands, seas, and skies; behind him towered the lofty Acropolis, crowned with all its marble temples. This very object, whether in the face of nature, or among the works of art, conspired to elevate the mind, and to fill it with reverence towards that BEING, 'who made and governs the world;' who sitteth in that light which no mortal eye can approach, and yet is nigh unto the meanest of his creatures; 'in whom we live, and move, and have our being.'"