GREECE 191 charged with the administration of the com- mon fund were appointed by the Athenians, and bore the name of Hellenotamise. The city was rebuilt on a larger scale than before, and rapidly became the leading maritime and com- mercial power of Greece. It was strongly for- tified, and the harbors of Piraeus and Munychia were protected by a wall along their shores, and chains supported by towers at their en- trance, and the fleet was annually increased by the addition of 20 triremes, under the advice of Themistocles ; the constitution was also made still more popular. The rising prosperity of the Athenian state, even at this early pe- riod, began to excite the jealousy of Sparta, which attempted to interfere, but was checked by the superior craft of Themistocles. In 465, however, an expedition against Thasos pre- sented the opportunity for a hostile manifesta- tion on the part of the Spartans. The Thasians applied to the Lacedaemonians, who agreed to make a diversion in their favor by invading Attica ; a promise they were only prevented from keeping by an earthquake in 464, which laid their capital in ruins, destroyed more than 20,000 citizens, and encouraged the helots to revolt. The Messenians, taking advantage of these calamities which had befallen their an- cient oppressors, fortified themselves on Mt. Ithome, and held out more than two years, when the Lacedaemonians finally dislodged them with the assistance of their allies. Athens continued to increase in power, while Sparta was declining. The foreign policy of Pericles, now chief of the Athenian state, carried out the political principles of Themistocles, and aimed to render this the leading power of Greece. In 458-457 he began the long walls, which connected Piraaus and Phalerum with Athens, thus enclosing the city and the ports in one uninterrupted series of fortifications. The Spartans, whose jealousy of Athens was still further increased, endeavored to check her power by marching into Bceotia and increasing the power of Thebes ; and in consequence of intrigues of the oligarchical party in Athens, they sent an army to Tanagra, on the borders of Attica. A battle followed, in which the Lacedaemonians had the advantage, but were not decisively victorious. In 456 the battle of (Enophyta was fought, and Thebes and oth- er Boeotian towns fell under the dominion of Athens. Phocis and Locris came next. In 155 the long walls were completed, and JEgina reduced to the condition of a tributary ally. In 452 the Lacedasmonians concluded a five rears' truce with Athens, which was soon after oollowed by the pacification known as the 'peace of Cimon." (See CIMON.) The cus- tody of the common fund at Delos was now -ransferred to Athens, which had rapidly be- some the imperial head instead of an equal nember of the league. The height of her )ower may be dated about 448. In the fol- ,owing year she lost her ascendancy in Bceotia, D hocis, and Locris, and a revolt broke out in 373 VOL. viii. 13 Euboea and Megara. Eubcea, however, was soon reduced by Pericles; but Athens never recovered her other possessions, while a for- midable confederacy was organizing against her in the Peloponnesus. In 445 the Athenians concluded a truce with Sparta and her allies for 30 years. Pericles still pursued his policy of aggrandizing and embellishing Athens ; but. for a time he had a powerful opponent in Thucydides, the leader of the conservative party, whose banishment soon afterward left Pericles almost the undisputed master of the state. It was at this period that the city was adorned with the grand works of statuary, architecture, and painting, which made her not only the glory of Greece but the school of the world. Pericles enlarged the empire of Athens by colonization, from the shores of the Euxine to Italy. He increased the sum of the contributions to more than double the original amount. The Athenians now considered them- selves the sovereign head of the league. All the important questions, all public suits, and all private suits in which an Athenian was one of the parties, were decided at Athens; and the city began to be called " the despot." The Peloponnesian war had its remote origin in the jealousies that had long been growing between Sparta and Athens, which were strengthened by the antagonism between the Ionian and Dorian institutions, the former represented by Athens and the latter by Sparta ; but the im- mediate occasion of the commencement of this ruinous conflict was a quarrel between Corinth and her former colony Corcyra, in relation to Epidamnus, a colony established by the latter on the coast of Illyria. The Corcyrasan fleet defeated the Corinthians in a battle near Ac- tium, in 435. The Corinthians spent two years in preparing to avenge this disgrace; and the Corcyraeans applied to Athens for aid. Under the counsels of Pericles, who foresaw that war was inevitable in the end, a defensive alliance was concluded with Corcyra, and a fleet of 10 triremes was despatched for the sup- port of that island in case of its territory being invaded. A naval battle took place off the coast of Epirus in 432, in which the Corinthi- ans were victorious. At first the victors re- solved to renew the attack and effect a landing at Corcyra ; but the appearance of 20 Athenian sail in the distance caused them to change their purpose, and they returned to Corinth with about 1,050 prisoners, 800 of whom were sold as slaves, and the remainder, who belonged to the first families of Corcyra, were kept as hos- tages. The Corinthians, offended with the part taken by the Athenians in these affairs, assisted the Potidaeans, their colonists, now tributary to Athens, who had been stirred up by Perdic- cas, king of Macedon, to revolt against the im- perial city. A general meeting of the Pelopon- nesian confederacy was called at Sparta, and deputies from the several states appeared (432). Their charges against Athens were answered by an ambassador who happened to be resident
