Greece -- History; Greece -- Politics and government; Imperialism
This computation takes no account of the demands of naval warfare. In
the Athenian dockyards lay ready for action four hundred battleships,
from which the requisite number was selected for each particular
expedition. If two hundred and fifty vessels were mobilized, as
occasionally happened, nearly fifty thousand additional sailors were
required. With the use of every possible citizen Athens could not
produce such a number. She commonly did her utmost and called upon the
allies for the rest.
It is true that tribute was collected from the allies to enable Athens
to build the ships and pay the sailors; but it is also true that, in
addition, huge sums were contributed for mobilization expenses by rich
Athenians and were advanced for heavy war expenses by the Athenian
treasury. And Athens gave freely not only of her money but also of her
blood. The death roll of one of the ten corps into which the Athenians
were divided for army and navy purposes is extant for the year 459
B.C. "Of the Erechtheid _phyle_," it runs, "these are they who died
in the war, in Cyprus, in Egypt, in Phoenicia, at Halieis, in Ægina,
at Megara, in the same year";[31] and one hundred and seventy-two
names follow. It was not the year of a great battle, or of an Athenian
disaster, yet in it the death rate must have been nearly twice as great
as the birth rate; so costly in lives was the empire to its lords in
war-time.
* * * * *
On three specific points and on one general ground, contemporaries
both within and without Athens assailed the treatment accorded by
the Periclean democracy to its subjects. In no instance, however, is
the charge of misbehavior established conclusively, though in this
matter, as in so many others in the history of Greece, our judgment is
dependent upon the point at which we transfer our sympathy from the
city-states, which were the bearers of culture in the Greek Middle
Ages, to the whole people, for whose progress and independence urban
particularism was finally fatal. "Surely Hellas is insulted with a
dire insult," declared the opponents of Pericles,[32] "and manifestly
subjected to tyranny when she sees that, with her own enforced
contributions for the war, we are gilding and bedizening our city,
which, for all the world like a wanton woman, adds to her wardrobe
precious stones and costly statues and temples worth their millions."
To this accusation the proper retort was, not that having provided
adequate protection against Persia, Athens was free to spend the money
contributed by the subjects in any way she pleased; for the logical
inference was then that the contributions were excessive. Pericles
may not have cared to be logical, but he could not ignore forms. Had
he been able to show, as has been claimed recently, that he used for
building purposes only the sixtieth of the tribute, which had been
dedicated as the first fruits to Athena, he would never have been
attacked at all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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