The ancient world, from the earliest times to 800 AD . s, stung by shame, made a sec-ond, more determined attempt, and were again repulsed withgreat slaughter. It was at this time, too, that the city com-pleted her fortifications, by building the Lorig Walls fromAthens to her ports (maps, pages 180 and 189). These wallswere 30 feet high and 12 feet thick. They made Athens abso-lutely safe from a siege, so long as she kept her supremacy onthe sea; and they added to the city a large open space wherethe country people might take refuge in case of invasion. 201. Loss of the Land Empire. — How one
The ancient world, from the earliest times to 800 AD . s, stung by shame, made a sec-ond, more determined attempt, and were again repulsed withgreat slaughter. It was at this time, too, that the city com-pleted her fortifications, by building the Lorig Walls fromAthens to her ports (maps, pages 180 and 189). These wallswere 30 feet high and 12 feet thick. They made Athens abso-lutely safe from a siege, so long as she kept her supremacy onthe sea; and they added to the city a large open space wherethe country people might take refuge in case of invasion. 201. Loss of the Land Empire. — How one city could carryon all these activities is almost beyond comprehension. Butthe resources of Athens were severely strained, and a suddenseries of stunning blows well-nigh exhausted her. The expedi-tion to Egypt had at first been brilliantly successful,^ but un-foreseen disaster followed, and the 250 ships and the whole 1 Athenian success here would have shut Persia off completely from theMediterranean, and so from all possible contact with Europe. I. §203] THE POWER OF ATHENS 199 army in Egypt were lost.^ This stroke would have annihilatedany other Greek state, and it was followed by others. Megara,which had itself invited an Athenian garrison, now treacher-ously massacred it and joined the Peloponnesian league. ASpartan army then entered Attica through Megara; and, atthe same moment, Euboea burst into revolt. All Boeotia, too,except Plataea, fell away. The oligarchs won the upper handin its various cities, and joined themselves to Sparta. 202. The Thirty Years* Truce. — The activity and skill ofPericles saved Attica and Euboea; but the inland possessionsand alliances were for the most part lost, and in 445 aThirty Years^ Truce was concluded with Sparta. A little be-fore this, the long war with Persia had closed. For fifteen years Athens had almost unbroken peace. Thenthe truce between Sparta and Athens was broken, and thegreat Peloponnesian War began (§§ 241 ff.). T
Size: 1268px × 1972px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjecthistoryancient, booky
