Part 11 (1/2)

[*]As in the siege of Potidea (432-429 B.C.), when if Athens had failed to take the place, her hold upon her whole empire would have been jeopardized.

97. The Introduction of New Tactics.--Greek battles are thus very simple things as a rule. It is the general who, accepting the typical conditions as he finds them, and avoiding any gross and obvious blunders, can put his men in a state of perfect fitness, physical and moral, that is likely to win the day. Of late there has come indeed a spirit of innovation. At Leuctra (371 B.C.) Epaminodas the Theban defeated the Spartans by the unheard-of device of ma.s.sing a part of his hoplites fifty deep (instead of the orthodox eight or twelve) and crus.h.i.+ng the Spartan right wing by the sheer weight of his charge, before the rest of the line came into action at all. If the experiment had not succeeded, Epaminondas would probably have been denounced by his own countrymen as a traitor, and by the enemy as a fool, for varying from the time-honored long, ”even line” phalanx; and the average general will still prefer to keep to the old methods; then if anything happens, HE at least will not be blamed for any undue rashness. Only in Macedon, King Philip II (who is just about to come to the throne) will not hesitate to study the new battle tactics of Epaminondas, and to improve upon them.

The Athenians will tell us that their citizen hoplites are a match for any soldiers in Greece, except until lately the Spartans, and now (since Leuctra) possibly the Thebans. But Corinthians, Argives, Sicyonians, they can confront more readily. They will also add, quite properly, that the army of Athens is in the main for home defense. She does not claim to be a preeminently military state.

The glory of Athens has been the mastery of the sea. Our next excursion must surely be to the Peiraeus.

Chapter XIV. The Peiraeus and the s.h.i.+pping.

98. The ”Long Walls” down to the Harbor Town.--It is some five miles from the city to the Peiraeus, and the most direct route this time lies down the long avenue laid between the Long Walls, and running almost directly southwest.[*] The ground is quite level.

If we could catch glimpses beyond the walls, we would see fields, seared brown perhaps by the summer sun, and here and there a bright-kerchiefed woman gleaning among the wheat stubble. The two walls start from Athens close together and run parallel for some distance, then they gradually diverge so as to embrace within their open angle a large part of the circ.u.mference of the Peiraeus. This open s.p.a.ce is built up with all kinds of shops, factories, and houses, usually of the less aristocratic kind. In fact, all the noxious sights and odors to be found in Athens seem tenfold multiplied as we approach the Peiraeus.

[*]These were the walls whereof a considerable section was thrown down by Lysander after the surrender of Athens [404 B.C.]. The demolition was done to the ”music of flute girls,” and was fondly thought by the victors to mean the permanent crippling of Athens, and therefore ”the first day of the liberty of Greece.” In 393 B.C., by one of the ironies of history, Conon, an Athenian admiral, but in the service of the king of Persia, who was then at war with Sparta, appeared in the Peiraeus, and WITH PERSIAN MEN AND MONEY rebuilt the walls amid the rejoicings of the Athenians.

The straight highroad is swarming with traffic: clumsy wagons are bringing down marble from the mountains; other wains are headed toward Athens with lumber and bales of foreign wares. Countless donkeys laden with panniers are being flogged along. A great deal of the carrying is done by half-naked sweating porters; for, after all, slave-flesh is almost as cheap as beast-flesh. So by degrees the two walls open away from us: before us now expands the humming port town; we catch the sniff of the salt brine, and see the tangle of spars of the multifarious s.h.i.+pping. Right ahead, however, dominating the whole scene, is a craggy height,--the hill of Munychia, crowned with strong fortifications, and with houses rising terrace above terrace upon its slopes. At the very summit glitters in its white marble and color work the temple of Artemis Munychia, the guardian G.o.ddess of the port town and its citadel.[*]

[*]This fortress of Munychia, rather than the Acropolis in Athens was the real citadel of Attica. It dominated the all-important harbors on which the very life of the state depended.

99. Munychia and the Havens of Athens.--Making our way up a steep lane upon the northwestern slope, we pa.s.s within the fortifications, the most formidable near Athens. A band of young ephebi of the garrison eye us as we enter; but we seem neither Spartans nor Thebans and are not molested. From a convenient crag near the temple, the whole scheme of the harbors of Athens is spread out before us, two hundred and eighty odd feet below. Behind us is the familiar plain of Athens with the city, the Acropolis, and the guardian mountains. Directly west lies the expanse of roof of the main harbor town, and then beyond is the smooth blue expanse of the ”Port of the Peiraeus,” the main mercantile harbor of Athens.

Running straight down from Munychia, southwest, the land tapers off into a rocky promontory, entirely girt with strong fortifications.

In this stretch of land are two deep round indentations. Cups of bright water they seem, communicating with the outer sea only by narrow entrances which are dominated by stout castles. ”Zea”

is the name of the more remote; the ”haven” of ”Munychia” is that which seems opening almost at our feet. These both are full of the naval s.h.i.+pping, whereof more hereafter. To the eastward, and stretching down the coast, is a long sandy beach whereon the blue ripples are crumbling between the black fis.h.i.+ng boats drawn up upon the strand. This is Phaleron, the old harbor of Athens before Themistocles fortified the ”Peiraeus”--merely an open roadstead in fact, but still very handy for small craft, which can be hauled up promptly to escape the tempest.

100. The Glorious View from the Hill of Munychia.--These are the chief points in the harbors; but the view from Munychia is most extensive. Almost everything in sight has its legend or its story in sober history. Ten miles away to the southward rise the red rocky hills of aegina, Athens' old island enemy; and the tawny headlands of the Argolic coasts are visible yet farther across he horizon. Again as we follow the purplish ridge of Mount aegaleos as it runs down the Attic coast to westward, we come to a headland then to a belt of azure water, about a mile wide, then the reddish hills of an irregular island. Every idler on the citadel can tell us all the story. On that headland on a certain fateful morning sat Xerxes, lord of the Persians, with his sword-hands and mighty men about him and his s.h.i.+ps before him, to look down on the naval spectacle and see how his slaves would fight. The island beyond is ”holy Salamis,” and in this narrow strip of water has been the battle which saved the life of h.e.l.las. Every position in the contest seems clearly in sight, even the insignificant islet of Psytteleia, where Aristeides had landed his men after the battle, and ma.s.sacred the Persions stationed there ”to cut off the Greeks who tried to escape.”

The water is indescribably blue, matching the azure of the sky.

s.h.i.+ps of all kinds under sails or oars are moving lightly over the havens and the open Saronic bay. It is matchless spectacle--albeit very peaceful. We now descend to the Peiraeus proper and examine the merchant s.h.i.+pping and wharves, leaving the navy yards and the fighting triremes till later.

101. The Town of Peiraeus.--The Peiraeus has all the life of the Athenian Agora many times multiplied. Everywhere there is work and bustle. Aristophanes has long since described the impression it makes on strangers,[*]--sailors clamoring for pay, rations being served out, figureheads being burnished, men trafficking for corn, for onions, for leeks, for figs,--”wreaths, anchovies, flute girls, blackened eyes, the hammering of oars from the dock yards, the fitting of rowlocks, boatswains' pipes, fifes, and whistling.”

There is such confusion one can hardly a.n.a.lyze one's surroundings.

However, we soon discover the Peiraeus has certain advantages over Athens itself. The streets are much wider and are quite straight,[+]

crossing at right angles, unlike the crooked alleys of old Athens which seem nothing but built-up cow trails. Down at the water front of the main harbor (”the Peiraeus” harbor to distinguish it from Zea and Munychia) we find about one third, nearest the entrance pa.s.sage and called the Cantharus, reserved for the use of the war navy. This section is the famous ”Emporium,” which is such a repository of foreign wares that Isocrates boasts that here one can easily buy all those things which it is extremely hard to purchase anywhere else in h.e.l.las. Along the sh.o.r.e run five great stoas or colonnades, all used by the traders for different purposes;--among them are the Long Stoa (Makra' Stoa'), the ”Deigma” (see section 78) used as a sample house by the wholesalers, and the great Corn Exchange built by Pericles. Close down near the wharves stands also a handsome and frequented temple, that of Athena Euploia (Athena, Giver of good Voyages), to whom many a s.h.i.+pman offers prayer ere hoisting sail, and many another comes to pay grateful vows after surviving a storm.[&] Time fails us for mentioning all the considerable temples farther back in the town. The Peiraeus in short is a semi-independent community; with its shrines, its agoras, its theaters, its court rooms, and other public buildings. The population contains a very high percentage of metics, and downright Barbarians,--indeed, long-bearded Babylonians, clean bronze Egyptians, grinning Ethiopians, never awaken the least comment, they are so familiar.

[*]”Acharn.” 54 ff.

[+]Pericles employed the famous architect Hippodamus to lay out the Peiraeus. It seems to have been arranged much like many of the newer American cities.

[&]There seems to have been still another precinct, sacred to ”Zeus and Athena the Preservers,” where it was very proper to offer thanksgivings after a safe voyage.

102. The Merchant s.h.i.+pping.--We can now cast more particular eyes upon the s.h.i.+pping. Every possible type is represented. The fis.h.i.+ng craft just now pulling in with loads of s.h.i.+ning tunnies caught near aegina are of course merely broad open boats, with only a single dirty orange sail swinging in the lagging breeze. Such vessels indeed depend most of the time upon their long oars. Also just now there goes across the gla.s.sy surface of the harbor a slim graceful rowing craft, pulling eight swiftly plying oars to a side.