There were many thousands of slaves in Athens and Attica at this period. Their number was so great and their labor so cheap that we may think of them as taking the place of modern machines. It was the slaves who did most of the work on the large estates owned by wealthy men, who toiled in the mines and quarries, and who served as oarsmen on the ships. The system of slavery enabled many an Athenian to live a life of leisure, but it lowered the dignity of labor and tended to prevent the rise of the poorer citizens to positions of responsibility. In Greece, as in the Orient, [13] slavery cast its blight over free industry.
COMMERCIAL ATHENS
The Athenian city was now the chief center of Greek commerce. [14] "The fruits of the whole earth," said Pericles, "flow in upon us; so that we enjoy the goods of other Commercial countries as freely as of our own." [15] Exports of Athens wine and olive oil, pottery, metal wares, and objects of art were sent out from Piraeus [16] to every region of the Mediterranean. The imports from the Black Sea region, Thrace, and the Aegean included such commodities as salt, dried fish, wool, timber, hides, and, above all, great quantities of wheat. Very much as modern England, Athens was able to feed all her people only by bringing in food from abroad. To make sure that in time of war there should be no interruption of food supplies, the Athenians built the celebrated Long Walls, between the city and its port of Piraeus. (See the map below) Henceforth they felt secure from attack, as long as their navy ruled the Aegean.
[Illustration: Map, THE VICINITY OF ATHENS]
ARTISTIC AND INTELLECTUAL ATHENS
In the days of her prosperity Athens began to make herself not only a strong, but also a beautiful, city. The temples and other structures which were raised on the Acropolis during the Age of Pericles still excite, even in their ruins, the envy and wonder of mankind. [17] Athens at this time was also the center of Greek intellectual life. In no other period of similar length have so many admirable books been produced. No other epoch has given birth to so many men of varied and delightful genius. The greatest poets, historians, and philosophers of Greece were Athenians, either by birth or training. As Pericles himself said in a noble speech, Athens was "the school of Hellas." [18]
36. THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR, 431-404 B.C.
INEVITABLENESS OF THE WAR
The brilliant Age of Pericles had not come to an end before the two chief powers in the Hellenic world became involved in a deadly war. It would seem that Athens and Sparta, the one supreme upon the sea, the other at the head of the Peloponnesus, might have avoided a struggle which was sure to be long and costly. But Greek cities were always ready to fight one another. When Athens and Sparta found themselves rivals for the leadership of Greece, it was easy for the smouldering fires of distrust and jealousy to flame forth into open conflict. "And at that time," says Thucydides, the Athenian historian who described the struggle, "the youth of Sparta and the youth of Athens were numerous; they had never seen war, and were therefore very willing to take up arms." [19]
[Illustration: Map, GREECE at Opening of the PELOPONNESIAN WAR 431 B.C.]