Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Athens: Its Rise and Fall, Book IV
    Athens: Its Rise and Fall, Book IV
    Athens: Its Rise and Fall, Book IV
    Ebook135 pages2 hours

    Athens: Its Rise and Fall, Book IV

    By Edward Bulwer-Lytton

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Edward Bulwer-Lytton was a well known English novelist in the 19th century, and he's been immortalized for coining famous phrases like  "pursuit of the almighty dollar" and "the pen is mightier than the sword".


    In addition to being a politician, he wrote across all genres, from horror stories to historical fiction and action titles.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherKrill Press
    Release dateFeb 4, 2016
    ISBN9781518395161
    Athens: Its Rise and Fall, Book IV
    Author

    Edward Bulwer-Lytton

    Edward Bulwer-Lytton, engl. Romanschriftsteller und Politiker, ist bekannt geworden durch seine populären historischen/metaphysischen und unvergleichlichen Romane wie „Zanoni“, „Rienzi“, „Die letzten Tage von Pompeji“ und „Das kommende Geschlecht“. Ihm wird die Mitgliedschaft in der sagenumwobenen Gemeinschaft der Rosenkreuzer nachgesagt. 1852 wurde er zum Kolonialminister von Großbritannien ernannt.

    Read more from Edward Bulwer Lytton

    Related to Athens

    Related ebooks

    Ancient History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Armed And Dangerous

      Aug 5, 2021

      Armed And Dangerous
      5 min read

    • Article

      The End Of Empire

      Jun 17, 2020

      The End Of Empire
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Man Who Sacked Rome

      Jun 9, 2020

      The Man Who Sacked Rome
      7 min read

    • Article

      Making Athens Great Again

      Mar 11, 2017

      Making Athens Great Again
      13 min read

    • Article

      Living (and Dying) By The Sword

      Nov 26, 2020

      Living (and Dying) By The Sword
      10 min read

    • Article

      Success By Treachery

      Jun 2, 2023

      Success By Treachery
      7 min read

    • Article

      Empire Of The Greats

      Apr 14, 2022

      Empire Of The Greats
      9 min read

    • Article

      Death Within The Walls

      Jan 24, 2023

      Death Within The Walls
      10 min read

    • Article

      Modern Echoes Of Ancient History

      Jun 30, 2022

      IF 2020 MARKED THE 2,500th anniversary of the beginning, in 480BC, of the invasion of Greece by the Persian King Xerxes, 2022 could be said to mark 2,500 years from its conclusion at the siege of Sestos in 478. Though the pandemic meant celebrations

      5 min read

    • Article

      Debunking The Spartans

      Aug 5, 2021

      Debunking The Spartans
      5 min read

    • Article

      Evolution Of The Knight

      Mar 27, 2020

      Evolution Of The Knight
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Enemy Within

      Mar 2, 2020

      The Enemy Within
      6 min read

    • Article

      The First Crusade Had Been Defeated?

      Apr 22, 2021

      Professor of Global History at Oxford University, Director of the Centre for Byzantine Research and Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College. Author of The First Crusade: The Call From The East, and The Silk Roads: A New History Of The World Who w

      5 min read

    • Article

      Roman Mass Communication

      Jun 2, 2023

      Roman Mass Communication
      6 min read

    • Article

      ‘The Enemies Of Rome’ Shows The Underdogs’ View Of The Empire

      Jan 27, 2020

      Stephen P. Kershaw tells of a thousand years of resistance to Rome, with portraits of the most celebrated adversaries from across the known world.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Rebel With A Lost Cause

      Mar 5, 2019

      Rebel With A Lost Cause
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Franks Had Lost The Battle Of Tours

      Nov 30, 2023

      Having established a strong Islamic foothold in the Iberian Peninsula, aspirations of territory and power north of the Pyrenees was perhaps a logical step to take. But the region between Poitiers and Tours was not just a step, it was a giant leap, an

      5 min read

    • Article

      An Adventurer’s Idol

      Oct 24, 2023

      An Adventurer’s Idol
      6 min read

    • Article

      The New American Empire

      Jan 24, 2019

      The New American Empire
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Athens

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Athens - Edward Bulwer-Lytton

      ATHENS: ITS RISE AND FALL, BOOK IV

      ..................

      Edward Bulwer-Lytton

      PALATINE PRESS

      Thank you for reading. In the event that you appreciate this book, please consider sharing the good word(s) by leaving a review, or connect with the author.

      This book is a work of nonfiction and is intended to be factually accurate.

      All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.

      Copyright © 2016 by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

      Interior design by Pronoun

      Distribution by Pronoun

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      BOOK IV.: FROM THE END OF THE PERSIAN INVASION TO THE DEATH OF CIMON. B. C. 479—B. C. 449.: CHAPTER I.

      CHAPTER II.

      CHAPTER III.

      CHAPTER IV.

      CHAPTER V.

      Athens: Its Rise and Fall, Book IV

      By

      Edward Bulwer-Lytton

      Athens: Its Rise and Fall, Book IV

      Published by Palatine Press

      New York City, NY

      First published circa 1873

      Copyright © Palatine Press, 2015

      All rights reserved

      Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

      About Palatine Press

      Palatine Press is a digital publishing company that has reproduced the greatest works ever written by and about the ancient world, from the poetry of Homer and Virgil to the philosophy of Plato and Marcus Aurelius, as well as seminal histories of antiquity written by eminent scholars like Edward Gibbon.

      BOOK IV.: FROM THE END OF THE PERSIAN INVASION TO THE DEATH OF CIMON. B. C. 479—B. C. 449.: CHAPTER I.

      ..................

      Remarks on the Effects of War.—State of Athens.—Interference of

      Sparta with respect to the Fortifications of Athens.—Dexterous

      Conduct of Themistocles.—The New Harbour of the Piraeus.—Proposition

      of the Spartans in the Amphictyonic Council defeated by Themistocles.

      —Allied Fleet at Cyprus and Byzantium.—Pausanias.—Alteration in his

      Character.—His ambitious Views and Treason.—The Revolt of the

      Ionians from the Spartan Command.—Pausanias recalled.—Dorcis

      replaces him.—The Athenians rise to the Head of the Ionian League.—

      Delos made the Senate and Treasury of the Allies.—Able and prudent

      Management of Aristides.—Cimon succeeds to the Command of the Fleet.

      —Character of Cimon.—Eion besieged.—Scyros colonized by Atticans.—

      Supposed Discovery of the Bones of Theseus.—Declining Power of

      Themistocles.—Democratic Change in the Constitution.—Themistocles

      ostracised.—Death of Aristides.

      I. It is to the imperishable honour of the French philosophers of the last century, that, above all the earlier teachers of mankind, they advocated those profound and permanent interests of the human race which are inseparably connected with a love of PEACE; that they stripped the image of WAR of the delusive glory which it took, in the primitive ages of society, from the passions of savages and the enthusiasm of poets, and turned our contemplation from the fame of the individual hero to the wrongs of the butchered millions. But their zeal for that HUMANITY, which those free and bold thinkers were the first to make the vital principle of a philosophical school, led them into partial and hasty views, too indiscriminately embraced by their disciples; and, in condemning the evils, they forgot the advantages of war. The misfortunes of one generation are often necessary to the prosperity of another. The stream of blood fertilizes the earth over which it flows, and war has been at once the scourge and the civilizer of the world: sometimes it enlightens the invader, sometimes the invaded; and forces into sudden and brilliant action the arts and the virtues that are stimulated by the invention of necessity—matured by the energy of distress. What adversity is to individuals, war often is to nations: uncertain in its consequences, it is true that, with some, it subdues and crushes, but with others it braces and exalts. Nor are the greater and more illustrious elements of character in men or in states ever called prominently forth, without something of that bitter and sharp experience which hardens the more robust properties of the mind, which refines the more subtle and sagacious. Even when these—the armed revolutions of the world—are most terrible in their results—destroying the greatness and the liberties of one people— they serve, sooner or later, to produce a counteracting rise and progress in the fortunes of another; as the sea here advances, there recedes, swallowing up the fertilities of this shore to increase the territories of that; and fulfilling, in its awful and appalling agency, that mandate of human destinies which ordains all things to be changed and nothing to be destroyed. Without the invasion of Persia, Greece might have left no annals, and the modern world might search in vain for inspirations from the ancient.

      II. When the deluge of the Persian arms rolled back to its Eastern bed, and the world was once more comparatively at rest, the continent of Greece rose visibly and majestically above the rest of the civilized earth. Afar in the Latian plains, the infant state of Rome was silently and obscurely struggling into strength against the neighbouring and petty states in which the old Etrurian civilization was rapidly passing to decay. The genius of Gaul and Germany, yet unredeemed from barbarism, lay scarce known, save where colonized by Greeks, in the gloom of its woods and wastes. The pride of Carthage had been broken by a signal defeat in Sicily; and Gelo, the able and astute tyrant of Syracuse, maintained in a Grecian colony the splendour of the Grecian name.

      The ambition of Persia, still the great monarchy of the world, was permanently checked and crippled; the strength of generations had been wasted, and the immense extent of the empire only served yet more to sustain the general peace, from the exhaustion of its forces. The defeat of Xerxes paralyzed the East.

      Thus Greece was left secure, and at liberty to enjoy the tranquillity it had acquired, and to direct to the arts of peace the novel and amazing energies which had been prompted by the dangers and exalted by the victories of war.

      III. The Athenians, now returned to their city, saw before them the arduous task of rebuilding its ruins and restoring its wasted lands. The vicissitudes of the war had produced many silent and internal as well as exterior changes. Many great fortunes had been broken; and the ancient spirit of the aristocracy had received no inconsiderable shock in the power of new families; the fame of the baseborn and democratic Themistocles, and the victories which a whole people had participated, broke up much of the prescriptive and venerable sanctity attached to ancestral names and to particular families. This was salutary to the spirit of enterprise in all classes. The ambition of the great was excited to restore, by some active means, their broken fortunes and decaying influence—the energies of the humbler ranks, already aroused by their new importance, were stimulated to maintain and to increase it. It was the very crisis in which a new direction might be given to the habits and the character of a whole people; and to seize all the advantages of that crisis, fate, in Themistocles, had allotted to Athens a man whose qualities were not only pre-eminently great in themselves, but peculiarly adapted to the circumstances of the time. And, as I have elsewhere remarked, it is indeed the nature and prerogative of free states to concentrate the popular will into something of the unity of despotism, by producing, one after another, a series of representatives of the wants and exigences of the hour— each leading his generation, but only while he sympathizes with its will; and either baffling or succeeded by his rivals, not in proportion as he excels or he is outshone in genius, but as he gives or ceases to give to the widest range of the legislative power the most concentrated force of the executive; thus uniting the desires of the greatest number under the administration of the narrowest possible control; the constitution popular—the government absolute, but, responsible.

      IV. In the great events of the late campaign, we have lost sight of the hero of Salamis [116]. But the Persian war was no sooner ended than we find Themistocles the most prominent citizen of Athens—a sufficient proof that his popularity had not yet diminished, and that his absence from Plataea was owing to no popular caprice or party triumph.

      V. In the sweeping revenge of Mardonius, even private houses had been destroyed, excepting those which had served as lodgments for the Persian nobles [117]. Little of the internal city, less of the outward walls was spared. As soon as the barbarians had quitted their territory, the citizens flocked back with their slaves and families from the various places of refuge; and the first care was to rebuild the city. They were already employed upon this necessary task, when ambassadors arrived from Sparta, whose vigilant government, ever jealous of a rival, beheld with no unreasonable alarm the increasing navy and the growing fame of a people hitherto undeniably inferior to the power of Lacedaemon. And the fear that was secretly cherished by that imperious nation was yet more anxiously nursed by the subordinate allies [118]. Actuated by their own and the general apprehensions, the Spartans therefore now requested the Athenians to desist from the erection of their walls. Nor was it without a certain grace, and a plausible excuse, that the government of a city, itself unwalled, inveighed against the policy of walls for Athens. The Spartan ambassadors urged that fortified towns would become strongholds to the barbarian, should he again invade them; and the walls of Athens might be no less useful to him than he had found the ramparts of Thebes. The Peloponnesus, they asserted, was the legitimate retreat and the certain resource of all; and, unwilling to appear exclusively jealous of Athens, they requested the Athenians not only to desist from their own fortifications, but to join with them in razing every fortification without the limit of the Peloponnesus.

      It required not a genius so penetrating as that of Themistocles to divine at once the motive of the demand, and the danger of a peremptory refusal. He persuaded the Athenians to reply that they would send ambassadors to debate the affair; and dismissed the Spartans without further explanation. Themistocles next recommended to the senate [119] that he himself might be one

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1