Four Famous Men Of Athens

In the days of Croesus, the wealthiest of ancient kings, a citizen of

Athens, Alkmaeon by name, kindly lent his aid to the messengers sent by

the Lydian monarch to consult the Delphian oracle, before his war with

King Cyrus of Persia, This generous aid was richly rewarded by

Croesus, who sent for Alkmaeon to visit him at Sardis, richly

entertained him, and when ready to depart made him a present of as much

gold as he c uld carry from the treasury.



This offer the visitor, who seemed to possess his fair share of the

perennial thirst for gold, determined to make the most of. He went to

the treasure-chamber dressed in his loosest tunic and wearing on his

feet wide-legged buskins, both of which he filled bursting full with

gold. Not yet satisfied, he powdered his hair thickly with gold-dust,

and filled his mouth with this precious but indigestible food. Thus

laden, he waddled as well as he could from the chamber, presenting so

ludicrous a spectacle that the good-natured monarch burst into a loud

laugh on seeing him.



Croesus not only let him keep all he had taken, but doubled its value

by other presents, so that Alkmaeon returned to Athens as one of its

wealthiest men. Megacles, the son of this rich Athenian, was he who won

the prize of fair Agariste of Sicyon, in the contest which we have

elsewhere described. The son of Megacles and Agariste was named

Cleisthenes, and it is he who comes first in the list of famous men whom

we have here to describe.



It was Cleisthenes who made Attica a democratic state; and thus it came

about. The laws of Solon--which favored the aristocracy--were set aside

by despots before Solon died. After Hippias, the last of those despots,

was expelled from the state, the people rose under the leadership of

Cleisthenes, and, probably for the first time in the history of mankind,

a government "of the people, for the people, and by the people" was

established in a civilized state. The laws of Solon were abrogated, and

a new code of laws formed by Cleisthenes, which lasted till the

independence of Athens came to an end.



Before that time the clan system had prevailed in Greece. The people

were divided into family groups, each of which claimed to be descended

from a single ancestor,--often a supposed deity. These clans held all

the power of the state; not only in the early days, when they formed the

whole people, but later, when Athens became a prosperous city with many

merchant ships, and when numerous strangers had come from afar to settle

within its walls.



None of these strangers were given the rights of citizenship. The clans

remained in power, and the new people had no voice in the government.

But in time the strangers grew to be so numerous, rich, and important

that their claim to equal rights could no longer be set aside. They took

part in the revolution by which the despots were expelled, and in the

new constitution that was formed their demand to be made citizens of the

state had to be granted.



Cleisthenes, the leader of the people against the aristocratic faction,

made this new code of laws. By a system never before adopted he broke up

the old conditions. Before that time the people were the basis on which

governments were organized. He made the land the basis, and from that

time to this land has continued the basis of political divisions.



Setting aside the old division of the Attic people into tribes and

clans, founded on birth or descent, he separated the people into ten new

tribes, founded on land. Attica was divided by him into districts or

parishes, like modern townships and wards, which were called Demes, and

each tribe was made up of several demes at a distance from each other.

Every man became a citizen of the deme in which he lived, without regard

to his clan, the new people were made citizens, and thus every freeborn

inhabitant of Attica gained full rights of suffrage and citizenship, and

the old clan aristocracy was at an end. The clans kept up their ancient

organization and religious ceremonies, but they lost their political

control. It must be said here, however, that many of the people of

Attica were slaves, and that the new commonwealth of freemen was very

far from including the whole population.



One of the most curious of the new laws made by Cleisthenes was that

known as "ostracism," by which any citizen who showed himself dangerous

to the state could be banished for ten years if six thousand votes were

cast against him. This was intended as a means of preventing the rise of

future despots.



The people of Athens developed wonderfully in public spirit under their

new constitution. Each of them had now become the equal politically of

the richest and noblest in the state, and all took a more vital interest

in their country than had ever been felt before. It was this that made

them so earnest and patriotic in the Persian war. The poorest citizen

fought as bravely as the richest for the freedom of his beloved state.



Each tribe, under the new laws, chose its own war-leader, or general, so

that there were ten generals of equal power, and in war each of these

was given command of the army for a day; and one of the archons, or

civil heads of the state, was made general of the state, or war archon,

so that there were eleven generals in all.



The leading man in each tribe was usually chosen its general, and of

these we have the stories of three to tell,--Miltiades, the hero of

Marathon; Themistocles, who saved Greece at Salamis; and Aristides,

known as "the Just."



We have already told how two of these men gained great glory. We have

now to tell how they gained great disgrace. Ambition, the bane of the

leaders of states, led them both to ruin.



Miltiades was of noble birth, and succeeded his uncle as ruler of the

Chersonese country, in Thrace. Here he fell under the dominion of

Persia, and here, when Darius was in Scythia, he advised that the bridge

over the Danube should be destroyed. When Darius returned Miltiades had

to fly for his life. He afterwards took part in the Ionic revolt, and

captured from the Persians the islands of Lemnos and Imbros. But when

the Ionians were once more conquered Miltiades had again to fly for his

life. Darius hated him bitterly, and had given special orders for his

capture. He fled with five ships, and was pursued so closely that one of

them was taken. He reached Athens in safety with the rest.



Not long afterwards Miltiades revenged himself on Darius for this

pursuit by his great victory at Marathon, which for the time made him

the idol of the state and the most admired man in all Greece.



But the glory of Miltiades was quickly followed by disgrace, and the end

of his career was near at hand. He was of the true soldierly

temperament, stirring, ambitious, not content to rest and rust, and as a

result his credit with the fickle Athenians quickly disappeared. His

head seems to have been turned by his success, and he soon after asked

for a fleet of seventy ships of war, to be placed under his command. He

did not say where he proposed to go, but stated only that whoever should

come with him would be rewarded plentifully with gold.



The victor at Marathon had but to ask to obtain. The people put

boundless confidence in him, and gave him the fleet without a question.

And the golden prize promised brought him numbers of eager volunteers,

not one of whom knew where he was going or what he was expected to do.

Miltiades was in command, and where Miltiades chose to lead who could

hesitate to follow?



The purpose of the admiral of the fleet was soon revealed. He sailed to

the island of Paros, besieged the capital, and demanded a tribute of one

hundred talents. He based this claim on the pretence that the Parians

had furnished a ship to the Persian fleet, but it is known that his real

motive was hatred of a citizen of Paros.



As it happened, the Parians were not the sort of people to submit easily

to a piratical demand. They kept their foe amused by cunning diplomacy

till they had repaired the city walls, then openly defied him to do his

worst. Miltiades at once began the assault, and kept it up for

twenty-six days in vain. The island was ravaged, but the town stood

intact. Despairing of winning by force, he next attempted to win by

fraud. A woman of Paros promised to reveal to him a secret which would

place the town in his power, and induced him to visit her at night in a

temple to which only women were admitted. Miltiades accepted the offer,

leaped over the outer fence, and approached the temple. But at that

moment a panic of superstitious fear overcame him. Doubtless fancying

that the deity of the temple would punish him terribly for this

desecration, he ran away in the wildest terror, and sprang back over the

fence in such haste that he badly sprained his thigh. In this state he

was found and carried on board ship, and, the siege being raised, the

fleet returned to Athens.



Here Miltiades found the late favor of the citizens changed to violent

indignation, in which his recent followers took part. He was accused of

deceiving the people, and of committing a crime against the state worthy

of death. The dangerous condition of his wound prevented him from saying

a word in his own defence. In truth, there was no defence to make; the

utmost his friends could do was to recall his service at Marathon. No

Athenian tribunal could adjudge to death, however great the offence, the

conqueror of Lemnos and victor at Marathon. But neither could

forgiveness be adjudged, and Miltiades was fined fifty talents, perhaps

to repay the city the expense of fitting out the fleet.



This fine he did not live to pay. His wounded thigh mortified and he

died, leaving his son Cimon to pay the penalty incurred through his

ambition and personal grudge. Some writers say that he was put in prison

and died there, but this is not probable, considering his disabled

state.



Miltiades had belonged to the old order of things, being a born

aristocrat, and for a time a despot. Themistocles and Aristides were

children of the new state, democrats born, and reared to the new order

of things. They were not the equals of Miltiades in birth, both being

born of parents of no distinction. But, aside from this similarity, they

differed essentially, alike in character and in their life records;

Themistocles being aspiring and ambitious, Aristides, his political

opponent, quiet and patriotic; the one considering most largely his own

advancement, the other devoting his whole life to the good of his native

city.



Themistocles displayed his nature strongly while still a boy. Idleness

and play were not to his taste, and no occasion was lost by him to

improve his mind and develop his powers in oratory. He cared nothing for

accomplishments, but gave ardent attention to the philosophy and

learning of his day. "It is true I cannot play on a flute, or bring

music from the lute," he afterwards said; "all I can do is, if a small

and obscure city were put into my hands, to make it great and glorious."






Of commanding figure, handsome face, keen eyes, proud and erect posture,

sprightly and intellectual aspect, he was one to attract attention in

any community, while his developed powers of oratory gave him the

greatest influence over the speech-loving Athenians. In his eagerness to

win distinction and gain a high place in the state, he cared not what

enemies he might make so that he won a strong party to his support. So

great was his thirst for distinction that the victory of Miltiades at

Marathon threw him into a state of great depression, in which he said,

"The glory of Miltiades will not let me sleep."



Themistocles was not alone ambitious and declamatory. He was far-sighted

as well; and through his power of foreseeing the future he was enabled

to serve Athens even more signally than Miltiades had done. Many there

were who said that there was no need to dread the Persians further, that

the victory at Marathon would end the war. "It is only the beginning of

the war," said Themistocles; "new and greater conflicts will come; if

Athens is to be saved, it must prepare."



We have elsewhere told how he induced the Athenians to build a fleet,

and how this fleet, under his shrewd management, defeated the great

flotilla of Xerxes and saved Greece from ruin and subjection. All that

Themistocles did before and during this war it is not necessary to

state. It will suffice here to say that he had no longer occasion to

lose sleep on account of the glory of Miltiades. He had won a higher

glory of his own; and in the end ambition ruined him, as it had his

great predecessor.



To complete the tale of Themistocles we must take up that of another of

the heroes of Greece, the Spartan Pausanias, the leader of the

victorious army at Plataea. He, too, allowed ambition to destroy him.

After taking the city of Byzantium, he fell in love with Oriental luxury

and grew to despise the humble fare and rigid discipline of Sparta. He

offered to bring all Greece under the domain of Persia if Xerxes would

give him his daughter for wife, and displayed such pompous folly and

extravagance that the Spartans ordered him home, where he was tried for

treason, but not condemned.



He afterwards conspired with some of the states of Asia Minor, and when

again brought home formed a plot with the Helots to overthrow the

government. His treason was discovered, and he fled to a temple for

safety, where he was kept till he starved to death.



Thus ambition ended the careers of two of the heroes of the Persian war.

A third, Themistocles, ended his career in similar disgrace. In fact,

he grew so arrogant and unjust that the people of Athens found him

unfit to live with. They suspected him also of joining with Pausanias in

his schemes. So they banished him by ostracism, and he went to Argos to

live. While there it was proved that he really had taken part in the

treason of Pausanias, and he was obliged to fly for his life.



The fugitive had many adventures in this flight. He was pursued by

envoys from Athens, and made more than one narrow escape. While on

shipboard he was driven by storm to the island of Naxos, then besieged

by an Athenian fleet, and escaped only by promising a large reward to

the captain if he would not land. Finally, after other adventures, he

reached Susa, the capital of Persia, where he found that Xerxes was

dead, and his son Artaxerxes was reigning in his stead.



He was well received by the new king, to whom he declared that he had

been friendly to his father Xerxes, and that he proposed now to use his

powers for the good of Persia. He formed schemes by which Persia might

conquer Greece, and gained such favor with the new monarch that he gave

him a Persian wife and rich presents, sent him to Magnesia, near the

Ionian coast, and granted him the revenues of the surrounding district.

Here Themistocles died, at the age of sixty-five, without having kept

one of his alluring promises to the Persian king.



And thus, through greed and ambition, the three great leaders of Greece

in the Persian war ended their careers in disgrace and death. We have

now the story of a fourth great Athenian to tell, who through honor and

virtue won a higher distinction than the others had gained through

warlike fame.



Throughout the whole career of the brilliant Themistocles he had a

persistent opponent, Aristides, a man, like him, born of undistinguished

parents, but who by moral strength and innate power of intellect won the

esteem and admiration of his fellow-citizens. He became the leader of

the aristocratic section of the people, as Themistocles did of the

democratic, and for years the city was divided between their adherents.

But the brilliancy of Themistocles was replaced in Aristides by a staid

and quiet disposition. He was natively austere, taciturn, and

deep-revolving, winning influence by silent methods, and retaining it by

the strictest honor and justice and a hatred of all forms of falsehood

or political deceit.



For years these two men divided the political power of Athens between

them, until in the end Aristides said that the city would have no peace

until it threw the pair of them into the pit kept for condemned

criminals. So just was Aristides that, on one of his enemies being

condemned by the court without a hearing, he rose in his seat and begged

the court not to impose sentence without giving the accused an

opportunity for defence.



Aristides was one of the generals at Marathon, and was left to guard the

spoils on the field of battle after the defeat of the Persians. At a

later date, by dint of false reports, Themistocles succeeded in having

him ostracized, obtaining the votes of the rabble against him. One of

these, not knowing Aristides, asked him to write his own name on the

tile used as a voting tablet. He did so, but first inquired, "Has

Aristides done you an injury?" "No," was the answer; "I do not even know

him, but I am tired of hearing him always called 'Aristides the Just.'"

On leaving the city Aristides prayed that the people should never have

any occasion to regret their action.



This occasion quickly came. In less than three years he was recalled to

aid his country in the Persian invasion. Landing at Salamis, he served

Athens in the manner we have already told. The command of the army which

Aristides surrendered to Miltiades at the battle of Marathon fell to

himself in the battle of Plataea, for on that great day he led the

Athenians and played an important part in the victory that followed. He

commanded the Athenian forces in a later war, and by his prudence and

mildness won for Athens the supremacy in the Greek confederation that

was afterwards formed.



At a later date, leader of the aristocrats as he was, to avert a

revolution he proposed a change in the constitution that made Athens

completely democratic, and enabled the lowliest citizen to rise to the

highest office of the state. In 468 B.C. died this great and noble

citizen of Athens, one of the most illustrious of ancient statesmen and

patriots, and one of the most virtuous public men of any age or nation.

He died so poor that it is said he did not leave enough money to pay his

funeral expenses, and for several generations his descendants were kept

at the charge of the state.