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Chapter Five - Hellas

A. The Revolt Of Ionia

Let us look more closely at the vast empire which the Persians had acquired within a generation. As we have said, it lasted for two hundred years, and it

gave millions of people better government than the world had hitherto seen. It took one of the greatest conquerors in the history of the world, Alexander

the Great, to overthrow it. It is therefore entitled to a certain amount of respect.

The subject races of the empire were expected to pay a certain sum in taxation each year, to send recruits to the army, and, of course, to recognise "the

Great King" as their master. If they carried out these duties, they were left pretty much to themselves, though naturally the heads of the government in

each province were Persians. The whole empire was divided into twenty natural districts. These were known as satrapies, and the governor, usually of

noble birth, was called the satrap. There was nobody above him but the king himself. But he was helped (or, if too ambitious, hindered!) by a royal

secretary, who read the king's orders before passing them to the satrap. There was also an inspector who went from province to province. His duties are

explained by his title, "The King's Eye." The king had a luxurious pleasure palace at Persepolis in Persia. For the conquest of Lydia and Babylonia had

put an end to the old Persian simplicity, when it had been enough for a young noble to learn how "to ride, shoot, and tell the truth." But a monarch who

personally directed such an empire was an extremely busy man. So he was usually at the ancient Elamite capital, Susa. If it grew too hot there he would

go up into the cool of the mountains at Ecbatana, the Median capital, and a cold winter would find him at Babylon.

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Chapter Five - Hellas

Courtyard Of The Palace Of Darius The First At Susa - Notice the wall decoration.

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Chapter Five - Hellas

Time Diagram For The Rise And Fall Of Israel, Assyria And Chaldea

It would have been impossible for the king to move about so much and keep in touch with his satraps if the Persians had not developed the best means of

communication that had yet been known. Good roads linked the far-flung provinces with Susa, along which were hostels about every thirteen miles. At

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Chapter Five - Hellas

each was a troop of mounted couriers ready to ride at any hour of the day or night with the king's despatches. "Neither snow, rain, fire nor the approach

of night," says the Greek historian, Herodotus, "prevents these messengers from fulfilling their allotted course." Ordinary travellers and traders too got

the benefit of these roads and hostels, though they were liable to be searched by the king's men. It is said that it took an ordinary traveller ninety days to

travel from Sardis to Susa, but a royal despatch would cover the distance in less than a week. Bridges were built over the larger rivers and ferries

arranged for the smaller ones. At wide intervals there were barracks for the royal garrisons. There were not many of these, for the empire did not depend

so much on force, but their position was very carefully chosen.

There are no great temple buildings to describe, for the chief religion of the Persians did not require them. They followed a great teacher named

Zoroaster, and believed that the world was the scene of a long struggle between the spirit of good, "The Right," and the spirit of evil, "The Lie." In the

distant future the Right was bound to triumph. Meanwhile, every person ought to enrol himself as a supporter of the Right. Otherwise he was considered

a supporter of the Lie. Fire-worship was connected with this religion. "Parsees" simply means "Persians."

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Chapter Five - Hellas

Map - The Persian Empire

In 516 B.C. Darius crossed the Dardanelles, and, pushing inland through Thrace, crossed the Danube and compelled the Scythians and other fierce

raiding tribes to submit. We do not really know yet why Darius carried out this big invasion of Europe, the first of its kind in History. It gave him control

of all the north side of the Sea of Marmora, but it was not a great success. And it encouraged his discontented Greek subjects of Ionia, which comprised

the west coast of Asia Minor and the islands off it, to rebel against him. The Greeks here were annoyed partly because their trade was in a bad way,

owing, as they thought, to Persian interference, and partly because the Persians allowed "tyrants" to rule in the Greek cities of Ionia after the Greeks on

the other side of the Aegean had abolished them. To understand what a "tyrant" was, we must leave Darius for some time and turn to the history of

Greece.

B. The Cities Of The Hellenes

We have already noticed how, somewhere round about 1200 BC., fierce tribes began to push slowly southwards and south-east down the Balkan

peninsula and destroy or weaken the old civilised states near the east end of the Mediterranean. One large group or series of tribes, united by similarity

of dialects, religion and race, after a very long and confused struggle, occupied not only what we now call the mainland of Greece, but also the islands of

the Aegean and the west coast of Asia Minor. We must always bear in mind the two latter divisions also, because Greek life and the Greek spirit were

just as vigorous there as on the mainland. In fact, for the earliest period of Greek history, they are the most important parts of "Greece." They were

nearer to the old civilisations, and their flourishing Bronze Age cities, though captured and no doubt sacked, were not utterly destroyed. As had

happened before in the Fertile Crescent, the tribes of fighting shepherds settled down in old-established cities. (The story of the siege of Troy by

"Achaean" chieftains who now ruled the ancient cities of eastern Greece probably belongs to this period.)

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Chapter Five - Hellas

Map - Hellas

The northern invaders and the old Aegean stock must have intermarried. And thus arose in time a new and fine race, whom we know as the ancient

Greeks. They called themselves Hellenes, and when they thought of the Greek world as one, they called it Hellas.

For Hellas never really became a single, united country, even in the last stages of its history, when it was conquered by great military empires. The

Greek always thought of himself as an active citizen of some particular city-state, which was usually quite free and independent. He felt at times a

certain kinship with the Greeks in other cities, but his supreme and, in fact, his only loyalty was to his own city. Its fate and government lay in his own

and his fellow-citizens' hands. He might hate and fight another Greek city not many miles away more fiercely than he fought and hated the Persians.

This strong and eternal jealousy between the Greek city-states, which affected the history of Hellas, was chiefly due to geography.

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Chapter Five - Hellas

Greece is not a large or a rich land. Most of it consists of mountains which, though not very high, are steep, and make travel slow and difficult. (Even to-

day you would not find it altogether a comfortable business to tour the interior of Greece.) The soil is thin and there are great masses of rock everywhere,

often beautifully coloured and delightful to look at, but not much use for food crops. The old civilisations we have read about depended on great level

stretches of fertile soil, which fed large populations, easily united. Only here and there in Greece were there stretches of fertile soil, in river valleys, for

corn- and cattle-raising. In most places the climate and the ground were suitable only for gnarled and twisted little olive trees with grey leaves, or vines

that produced the sweetest of wine-grapes. So there could be only a limited number of cities in Greece, with a limited population, in the few fertile

valleys or where the rocky coast bent to form a deep, convenient harbour. Nor was communication between the cities by sea always as easy as it may

seem from the map.

Gathering Olives In Ancient Greece

For there are many promontories on the mainland coast, haunted by dangerous winds and treacherous currents. So the men who lived two valleys or

three headlands away from your little province, or in the next island that was a blue smudge on the horizon, though they were Greeks, were sometimes

strangers and rivals, and perhaps your bitterest foes.

The same jealousy displayed itself within the city. Class and party feelings were fierce. In most cities there would be a powerful minority who wanted

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Chapter Five - Hellas

the government to be in the hands of a few nobly-born and wealthy men. Their opponents would be the mass of citizens who wanted power to be more

widely spread, for most Greeks were intelligent, independent and ambitious enough to want a share in their city's government. So there was a long-

drawn-out struggle between Aristocracy (Power for the Best People) and Democracy (Power for the Common People). According to legends, there were

kings in the cities in the early days. But these had long ago been abolished, except in the old-fashioned warrior-state of the south, Sparta, where there

were two kings at once to lead the army, even in historic times. After the kings, the cities had been ruled by noble families. Where this rule had been

harsh and selfish, a revolution often took place which resulted in a "tyrant" being appointed.

This word has come to mean a harsh despot. But at first among the Greeks it simply meant a dictator who suddenly arose to supreme power in his city by

crushing the nobles with the help of armed followers and the consent of the humbler citizens. At first the "tyrant" might be very popular in his city. The

poorer people would be relieved of some of their burdens. And the city would often be adorned and improved by the tyrant and made a more pleasant

place to live in. He might build new temples and greatly improve the old harbour, lay out a fine boulevard or encourage sculptors, poets, musicians,

philosophers. But very few men can exercise supreme power without being spoiled by it. The fear of a fall from power as sudden as his rise, made the

tyrant suspicious of all, and he and his armed followers came to be hated. Between 600 and 500 B.C. was the period of the tyrants in most Greek cities,

and you will remember that one of the grievances of the Ionian Greeks against their Persian overlords was that they were compelled to have tyrants

(who, of course, were friends of the satraps), when other Greek states had abolished them (p.108).

After the age of tyrants, the nobles never regained their privileged position in politics, though their private influence was still strong. By this time there

was a class of wealthy men who were not of noble birth, but who agreed with the nobles in wishing to keep the governing power in the hands of the

"upper classes." The opponents of the democrats were now called "oligarchs," i.e. those who believed in "Rule by the Few." After the period of the

tyrants some sort of balance was worked out between democracy and oligarchy, the more old-fashioned and agricultural states tending towards the latter,

the enterprising, commercial cities having a bias towards democracy. But always in the Greek cities there was in the background the possibility of a

fierce, if brief, civil war, in which the leaders would not hesitate to plot with the leaders of a similar party in another town, or even, later on in Greek

history, to get help from the Persians. These lines from an early poet, who was on the losing side in a revolution, give us some idea of the bitterness that

arose between men who jostled daily in the narrow streets and accused one another face to face at the Assembly in the market-square:

"Unchanged the walls, but, ah, how changed the folk!

The Base, who knew erstwhile nor law nor right,

But dwelled like deer, with goatskin for a cloak,

Are now ennobled; and, Oh sorry plight!

The nobles are made base in all men's sight!"

We can see, then, that in their earlier days the Greek cities had to face the problem of limited space and food supply, growing population, and fierce

party strife. One way in which they solved it was to send out "colonies," just as an over-crowded hive of bees throws off a swarm to settle elsewhere.

Greek traders were successfully competing against the Phoenicians (p. 85) and carrying all over the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea their

excellent olive oil (in universal demand as a food and for lighting), their strong, sweet wines, pottery made from island clays, tastefully designed and

decorated, and fine woollen goods manufactured in the coast towns of Asia Minor from the fleeces of sheep bred on the hills of the interior.

They brought back metal ores and goods, corn and dried fish. The very useful invention of coinage was spread by them in the form chiefly of artistic

silver coins, each city of course having its own design, and the ancient method of barter declined. The early Greek merchant-ships had a high, curved

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Chapter Five - Hellas

stern, like all ancient vessels, but the bows went straight down or even sloped backward, and contained the hole for the anchor cable to slide through. A

gangway ladder was slung across the top of the stern and a little distance along the side was mounted the large paddle for steering. As a rule there was

not a complete deck, but a platform at either end, joined by a passage with railings along the centre of the ship. There was only one mast, secured by two

fore-stays and a back-stay. Across the mast was slung the yard, composed of two slightly curved poles lashed together, and from it hung the broad

rectangular sail. This was composed of about eight vertical strips, with rings along the seams through which ran the ropes for reefing or letting out the

sail. (For a vivid picture of the trade-rivalry between Greeks and Phoenicians, read the last two stanzas of Arnold's poem "The Scholar Gipsy").

Greek traders no doubt brought back information as to favourable sites for new cities, wherever there were good harbours or fertile areas not already

occupied. After solemn ceremonies the emigrants departed from the mother-city to found far-off a new city of their own, which might or might not

remain on friendly terms with their old home, but was, in any case, completely independent of it. Some went to the shores of the Black Sea and the

waterways connecting it with the Mediterranean, whence came metal ores, corn and great quantities of dried or salted fish. The legend of Jason and the

Golden Fleece is perhaps an echo of the first visit of Greeks to the remote eastern shore of the Black Sea.

Greek Merchant Ship - From a Black-figure Vase at the British Museum.

There were two colonies on the north coast of Africa, one at the mouth of the Nile, Naucratis, and one on the great bulge due south of Greece, Cyrene.

There were so many Greek colonies in south Italy that it came to be known by the Greeks and the Romans as "Great Greece," and the Greek cities of east

Sicily were among the most renowned in the whole Greek world. That the sites of the Greek colonies were well chosen is proved by the fact that many

of them are useful harbours to-day, and some are still of first-rate importance.

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Chapter Five - Hellas

Map - Greek Colonies

Among these are Sinope, Trebizond and Constantinople [Istanbul] in the Black Sea area; Taranto, Reggio and Naples in south Italy; Messina, Catania

and Syracuse on the east coast of Sicily; and Marseilles, which, by way of the Rhone valley, was their gateway to north-western Europe. Most of the

colonies were founded roughly between 700 and 600 B.C.

C. The Persian Wars And After

It is high time now to return to the story of the revolt of the Ionian cities against their Persian overlords and the "tyrants" whom the latter supported. Not

all the Greek cities of the Asian coast joined, by any means. There were actually just a few in the central district led by the proud city of Miletus. They

appealed for help to the Hellenes of the mainland across the Aegean Sea. Only two cities answered their appeal, Athens, and Eretria, a small town on the

inner coast of the large island of Euboea. They believed themselves to belong to the same great division of Greek tribes as the Ionians, and they sent

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ChapterFive-HellasChapterFive-HellasA.TheRevoltOfIoniaLetuslookmorecloselyatthevastempirewhichthePersianshadacqui edwithinageneration.Aswehavesaid,itlastedfortwohundredyears,anditgavemillionsofpeoplebettergovernmentthantheworldhadhithertoseen.Ittookoneofthegreatestconquerorsinthehistoryoftheworld,...

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