Such was the famous battle of Platæa, which freed Greece from her Persian invaders. Mounds were raised over the heroic and illustrious dead. The soil of Platea became a second "Holy Land," whither embassies from the Grecian states went every year to offer sacrifices to Zeus, the deliverer, and games were celebrated every fifth year in honor of liberty. The Plateans themselves were thereafter exempt from military service, and became the guardians of the sacred ground, and it was decreed to be sacrilege to attack them.

Commemora

tion of the

Greek Victory.

Naval

Battle of

On the very day of the battle of Platæa-September 22, B. C. 479 -a sea-fight occurred at the promontory of Mycalé, in Asia Minor, Mycale. between the Grecian and Persian fleets, ending in the utter destruction of the latter. There a Persian land force under Tigránes had been stationed by Xerxes to protect the coast, and thither the Persian fleet retired before the advance of the Greek fleet. The Persians drew their ships to land, protecting them by intrenchments and formidable earthworks. When the Greeks discovered the sea-coast deserted, they approached so close that the voice of a herald could be heard. This herald exhorted the Ionians in the Persian army to remember that they also had a share in the liberties of Greece. The Persians, who did not understand the language of the herald, began to distrust their Ionian allies. They deprived the Samians of their arms, and placed the Milésians at a distance from the front to guard the path leading to the heights of Mycalé. After the Greeks had landed they drove the Persians from the shore to their intrenchments, and the Athenians stormed the barricades. The native Persians fought desperately, even after Tigránes was slain, and finally fell within their camp. All the Greek islands which had aided the Persians were now permitted to enter the Hellenic League, and gave solemn pledges never again to desert it.

ance of

Greece.

Thus while the battle of Platea delivered European Greece from the DeliverPersian invaders, the simultaneous land and naval battle at Mycalé liberated the Ionian cities of Asia Minor from the Persian yoke. Thus ended in disgrace and humiliation the Medo-Persian attempt to conquer the Hellenic race and subvert the liberties of Europe. The preservation of Grecian independence involved the preservation of European civilization.

SECTION II.-SUPREMACY OF ATHENS AND AGE OF

PERICLES.

on the

De

ALTHOUGH the great battles of Salamis, Platæa and Mycalé had freed Persians Greece from all danger of foreign conquest, the struggle with Persia continued thirty years longer in the Medo-Persian dominions; and dur- fensive. ing this period the Greeks from being the assailed became themselves the

Destruc

tion of Persian Naval Power.

tium.

assailants, and the Persians who had commenced the struggle on the offensive were compelled to act on the defensive; so that instead of trying to conquer the Greeks, they were now obliged to protect their dominions against Hellenic conquest.

The Persian power in the Mediterranean was so completely destroyed by the battles of Salamis and Mycalé that no Persian fleet ventured to oppose the naval power of the Greeks for twelve years. The Greeks were thus enabled to revenge themselves upon the Persians for the injuries inflicted upon them, and they did not allow their discomfited foes

to rest.

Recovery The Greeks prepared a fleet of fifty vessels to deliver every Grecian of Cyprus and city in Europe and Asia which still felt the Persian power. The AtheByzan- nians furnished most of the ships, but the Spartan leader, Pausánias, commanded the fleet. Pausánias first wrested the island of Cyprus from the Persians, after which he sailed to Byzantium (now Constantinople) and liberated that city also from the Persian yoke, and established his residence there for seven years.

Grecian

Siege and Capture of

Sestos.

Athenian Democracy.

The Athenians determined upon recovering the colony of Sestos, which Miltíades had founded in the Chersonésus. The entire remaining force of the Persians made a final stand at Sestos, and withstood a siege so obstinate that they even consumed the leather of their harness and bedding when pressed for want of food. They ultimately succumbed to the besieging Grecks, who were gladly welcomed by the inhabitants. The Athenians returned home in triumph, laden with treasures and secured in a well-carned peace. Among the relics long seen in the Athenian temples were the broken fragments and cables of the Hellespontine bridge of Xerxes.

While Athens was thus becoming the leading state of Greece, internal changes in her constitution made her government still more democratic. The power of the people steadily increased, while that of the old archons declined until it became a mere phantom. The rulers of Athens were the people themselves, who met in a body in their general assembly in the Agora, to pass or reject the legislative measures proposed by the Senate, or Council of State. In the meantime the power of the great aristocratic families was broken; and the masses, who had borne the brunt of the hardships and the dangers of the contest with Proposal Persia, were recognized as an important element in the state. Aristídes, the leader of the aristocratic party, proposed an amendment and secured its adoption, giving the people, without distinction of rank or property, a share in the government of the republic, with no other requisites than intelligence and good moral character. The archonship, hitherto restricted to the Eupatrids, was now thrown open to all classes (B. C. 478).

of Aristides.

tion of

Athens.

Spartan Embassy

to

Athens.

Themistocles was the great popular leader in Athens. He first de- Fortificavoted himself to rebuilding the walls of the city, and obtained the means for this enterprise by levying contributions upon the islands which had furnished assistance to the Persians. This proceeding aroused the jealousy of the Spartans, who sent ambassadors to remonstrate against the fortification of Athens, declaring that its walls would not be able to protect it, and would only make it an important stronghold for the Persians in case of another invasion of Greece. The Athenians, unwilling to quarrel with the Lacedæmonians, or to relinquish their project of fortifying their city, adopted a temporizing policy, reminding the Spartans that the exposed position of Athens on the sea-coast made it necessary to fortify the city with walls to protect it from the attacks of pirates, but denying that they meditated the construction of such fortifications as would endanger the liberties of Greece, and promising to send ambassadors to Sparta, thus showing that they were doing nothing to give any just cause for alarm.

to

Sparta.

Accordingly Themistocles, Aristides and Abronycus were appointed Athenian to proceed to Sparta. As the object of the Athenians was to gain time Embassy to push forward the fortification of their city, Themistocles first went to Sparta, arranging that Aristides and Abronycus should not follow him until the walls should have been built to a considerable height. After arriving at Sparta, Themistocles stated that he was not author- Artifice of ized to give the promised explanations until his colleagues had arrived; and by this pretext and also by means of bribes, he managed to gain so much time that the fortifications were well advanced before the Lacedæmonians had become impatient. The Athenians labored night and day, even the women and children aiding to the utmost of their ability in the important task.

Themistocles.

erous

Act of

Themistocles.

Eventually the Spartans received accounts of the exertions of the TreachAthenians in the work of fortification. Themístocles, being unable to calm the alarm which these rumors excited, advised the Spartans not to give any credence to mere rumors, but to send some persons of rank and character to Athens to ascertain by personal observation what was actually transpiring there. The Spartans acted on his advice, but as soon as the Spartan deputies reached Athens they were arrested under the secret orders of Themistocles himself, and were detained as hostages for the safety of Themistocles and his colleagues, who had by this time also arrived at Sparta. As the fortifications of Athens were now well advanced, Themístocles boldly avowed the artifice by which he had gained time. Seeing that they had been outwitted, the Lacedæmonians dissembled their resentment, and allowed Themistocles and his colleagues to return to Athens unmolested; but they never forgave him, and their subsequent animosity contributed considerably to accomplish his ruin.