Thasos

“ I myself have seen these mines; most marvellous by far were those of them that were found by the Phoenicians who came with Thasos and planted a settlement in this island, which is now called after that Phoenician Thasos. These Phoenician mines are between the place called Aenyra and Coenyra in Thasos, over against Samothrace; they are in a great hill that has been digged up in the searching. Thus much I have to say of this. The Thasians at the king’s command destroyed their walls and brought all their ships to Abdera. ”

“ I saw also at Tyre another temple of Heracles, with the surname Thasian; and I came to Thasos also and there I found a temple of Heracles set up by the Phenicians, who had sailed out to seek for Europa and had colonised Thasos; and these things happened full five generations of men before Heracles the son of Amphitryon was born in Hellas. ”

“ In front of this coast lie two islands, Lemnos and Thasos. Beyond the strait at Thasos is Abdera, with its fables. It was inhabited by Bistones, over whom ruled Diomed. The Nestus does not always keep within its banks, but frequently inundates the country. Then Dicæa, a city on the gulf, with a harbour. Above it is the lake Bistonis, 200 stadia in circumference. ”

“ A SERVANT-MAID TO PRAXAGORA (she comes from the banquet)
What happiness is the people's! what joy is mine, and above all that of my mistress! Happy are ye, who form choruses before our house! Happy all ye, both neighbours and fellow-citizens! Happy am I myself! I am but a servant, and yet I have poured on my hair the most exquisite essences. Let thanks be rendered to thee, oh, Zeus! But a still more delicious aroma is that of the wine of Thasos; its sweet bouquet delights the drinker for a long enough, whereas the others lose their bloom and vanish quickly. ”

“ Accordingly, the question which we have to put is, not whether Thucydidês did all that could be done, after he received the alarming express at Thasos, which is the part of the case that he sets prominently before us, but whether he and Euklês jointly took the best general measures for the security of the Athenian empire in Thrace; especially for Amphipolis, the first jewel of her empire. They suffer Athens to be robbed of that jewel, and how? Had they a difficult position to defend? Were they [p. 416] overwhelmed by a superior force? ”

“ This is an insufficient excuse, but it is better than anything which can be offered on behalf of Thucydidês; who had with him a paid Athenian force, and might just as well have kept it at Eion as at Thasos. We may be sure that the absence of Thucydidês with his fleet, at Thasos, was one essential condition in the plot laid by Brasidas with the Argilians.
To say, with Dr. Thirlwall, that “human prudence and activity could not have accomplished more than Thucydidês did, under the same circumstances,” is true as matter of fact, and creditable as far as it goes. ”

“ The Thasians, meanwhile, had a contest with Athens for some gold mines in Thrace. Cimon conducted a fleet to Thasos, gained a naval victory, and began a three years’ siege of the principal town. The Thasians sent to Sparta for help, and that state was preparing to render it with great alacrity, when her attention was suddenly absorbed at home by unforeseen calamities. An earthquake of unprecedented violence first destroyed the city. Great rocks from Mount Taygetus rolled into the streets, and multitudes of persons were engulfed or buried beneath the ruins of their houses. ”

“ Archilochus, taking advantage of the licence allowed at the feasts of Demeter, poured out his wounded feelings in unmerciful satire. He accused Lycambes of perjury, and his daughters of leading the most abandoned lives. Such was the effect produced by his verses, that Lycambes and his daughters are said to have hanged themselves. At Thasos the poet passed some unhappy years; his hopes of wealth were disappointed; according to him, Thasos was the meeting-place of the calamities of all Hellas. ”

“ Thasos, however, is the only island of the Archipelago where wooded mountains and verdant landscapes survive. Rains are abundant, and its vegetation luxuriant. Running streams of water murmur in every valley; large trees throw their shade over the hill-sides; the villages near the foot of the mountain are hidden by cypresses, walnut, and olive-trees; the valleys which radiate in all directions from the centre of the island abound in planes, laurels, yoke-elms, and vigorous oaks; and dark pine forests cover the higher slopes of the hills, the glittering barren summits of Mount St. ”

“ The Athenian government was not disposed to surrender a claim which proffered to avarice the temptation of mines of gold. The Thasians renounced the confederacy, and thus gave to the Athenians the very pretext for hostilities which the weaker state should never permit to the more strong. While the colony proceeded to its destination, part of the Athenian fleet, under Cimon, sailed to Thasos—gained a victory by sea—landed on the island—and besieged the city. ”

“ Therefore, long life to the wine-jars of Thasos! Pour yourselves out unmixed wine, it will cheer you the whole night through, if you choose the liquor that possesses most fragrance. But tell me, friends, where is my mistress's husband?
CHORUS
Wait for him here; he will no doubt pass this way.
MAID-SERVANT
Ah! there he is just going to dinner. Oh! master! what joy! what blessedness is yours!
BLEPYRUS
Ah! d'you think so?
MAID-SERVANT
None can compare his happiness to yours; you have reached its utmost height, you who, alone out of thirty thousand citizens, have not yet dined. ”

“ In the next year after this Dareios first sent a messenger to the men of Thasos, who had been accused by their neighbours of planning revolt, and bade them take away the wall around their town and bring their ships to Abdera. The Thasians in fact, as they had been besieged by Histiaios the Milesian and at the same time had large revenues coming in, were using their money in building ships of war and in surrounding their city with a stronger wall. ”

“ It was probably the discouragement which this defeat caused at Athens that emboldened Thasos to declare her secession from the Confederacy of Delos. She wished to save her Thracian trade, before Athens could make another attempt to divert it from her. The Thasians did not rely on their own resources alone; they enlisted the Thracians and Macedonians of the mainland, and sent to Sparta to endeavour to induce the ephors to declare war on Athens." The Spartans were well disposed to take up the cause of the Thasians ”

“ Samos furnished Greece with the best olive oil next to that of Attica. [2124]
But of all the minor islands none appear to have supplied so many articles to the coasting trade of Greece as Thasos, whose productions were singularly rich and varied. There, in the earlier ages, the Phœnicians discovered and worked gold mines which in after times became exhausted, but the fertility of the island and the industry of its inhabitants seem never to have failed. ”

“ It is said (Thuc. i. 101) that Thasos had appealed for aid to Sparta, and that the latter was prevented from responding only by earthquake and the Helot revolt. But this is both unproved and improbable. Sparta had so far no quarrel with Athens. Athens thus became mistress of the Aegean, while the synod at Delos had become practically, if not theoretically, powerless. It was at this time that Cimon (q.v.) , who had striven to maintain a balance between Sparta, the chief military, and Athens, the chief naval power, was successfully attacked by Ephialtes and Pericles. ”

“ The Greeks extended their power to the mainland, where they owned gold mines which were even more valuable than those on the island. From these sources the Thasians drew great wealth, their annual revenues amounting to 200 or even 300 talents. Herodotus, who visited Thasos, says that the best mines on the island were those which had been opened by the Phoenicians on the east side of the island, facing Samothrace. ”

“ Athens might fairly insist that the protection of the Aegean would become impossible if some of the chief islands were liable to be used as piratical strongholds, and further that it was only right that all should contribute in some way to the security which all enjoyed. The result was that, in the cases of Naxos and Thasos, for instance, the league’s resources were employed not against the Persians but against recalcitrant Greek islands, and that the Greek ideal of separate autonomy was outraged. ”

“ Help to Sparta and its ungracious requital. Fall and exile of Cimon. Rise of Pericles and the democratic anti-Spartan policy. Removal of the federal treasury from Delos. Building the Long Walls. "It was now evident to the whole body of the allies of Athens that by joining the league they had provided themselves with a mistress rather than a leader. ... Two years after the reduction of Naxos another powerful island-state broke out into rebellion against the supremacy of Athens. The people of Thasos had from very early times possessed territory on the mainland of Thrace opposite to their island. ”

“ And now the party of advancing democracy possessed a leader, the ablest and greatest that it was ever to possess. Pericles was about thirty years of age. ... He was related to great families through both father and mother, and to great families that had championed the democratic side. His father Zanthippus had prosecuted Miltiades, the father of Cimon. ... To lead the party of advanced democracy was to attack Cimon, against whom he had hereditary hostility. ... When in 465 Thasos rebelled from Athens, defeat was certain unless she found allies. She applied to Sparta for assistance. ”

“ Athens and Sparta were still nominally allies, for the creation of the Delian League had not openly destroyed the alliance that had subsisted between them since the days of the Persian war. But the Thasians hoped that Sparta's jealousy of Athens might induce her to disregard the alliance. And they reckoned rightly. The Spartan fleet was so weak that no interference upon the sea could be thought of, but if Attica were attacked by land the Athenians would be forced to draw off some part of their armament from Thasos. Sparta gave a secret promise that this attack should be made. ”

“ Thasos furnished the sculptors of Greece with a fine white marble which constituted the material of two celebrated statues of the Emperor Adrian 368at Athens. [2255] The marble of Chios was dead black, like the obsidian stone, and slightly transparent.
Cerinthos in Eubœa, furnished a sort of light dry earth, [2256] used to preserve corn in granaries. Malta supplied the idle and luxurious ladies of Greece with a domestic kind of lap-dogs. [2257] Sciathos was famous for its mullets; Melos exported kids; [2258] Naxos and Scyros, milch goats and lobsters; [2259] Leros, guinea fowl; Samos, peacocks ”

“ ATOSSA.
And what hath she, besides her men? enow of wealth in store?
CHORUS.
A mine of treasure in the earth, a fount of silver ore!
ATOSSA.
Is it in skill of bow and shaft that Athens’ men excel?
CHORUS.
Nay, they bear bucklers in the fight, and thrust the spear-point well.
ATOSSA.
And who is shepherd of their host and holds them in command?
CHORUS.
To no man do they bow as slaves, nor own a master’s hand.
ATOSSA.
How should they bide our brunt of war, the East upon the West?
CHORUS.
That could Darius’ valiant horde in days of yore attest! ”

“ The monk rose, and continued in solemn tones —
"Know then, O Nicias, that, with the aid of God, I will snatch this woman Thaïs from the unclean affections of the world, and give her as a spouse to Jesus Christ. If the Holy Spirit does not forsake me, Thaïs will leave this city and enter a nunnery."
"Beware of offending Venus," replied Nicias. "She is a powerful goddess; she will be angry with you if you take away her chief minister."
"God will protect me," said Paphnutius. "May He also illumine thy heart, O Nicias, and draw thee out of the abyss in which thou art plunged." ”

“ No hero was credited with more wonderful performances than Theseus both by land and sea, and even in the underground world, though his efforts there were not so successful. His most memorable exploit in the eyes of the Athenians was the destruction of the Minotaur, a monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull, which was kept at Knossus, the capital of the Cretan empire of Minos, and to which Athens had to devote a sacrifice of seven youths and seven maidens every nine years. ”

“ If a Thasian citizen believed himself aggrieved by the historian Thucydidês, either as commander of the Athenian fleet off the station, or as proprietor of gold mines in Thrace, he had his remedy against the latter [p. 41] by accusation before the Athenian dikasteries, to which the most powerful Athenian was amenable not less than the meanest Thasian. To a citizen of any allied city, it might be an occasional hardship to be sued before the courts at Athens, but it was also often a valuable privilege to him to be able to sue before those courts others whom else he could not have reached. ”

“ The chief men came to Athens from the little towns in the country, and begged Theseus to be their lord, and they would be his men, and he would lead their people if any enemy came up against them. They would even pay tribute to be used for buying better arms, and making strong walls, and providing ships, for then the people of Athens had no navy. Theseus received them courteously, and promised all that they asked, for he did not know that soon he himself would be sent away as part of the tribute which the Athenians paid every nine years to King Minos of Crete. ”