DOI Artikel:
Waldstein, Charles: [Excavations and discoveries at Eretria, 1891-1895]
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8681#0075
ERETRIA: HISTORICAL SKETCH.
63
we hear of them. They do not appear to have done service either at
Marathon or before Athens.16
Left alone, the Eretrians voted down the suggestion of retiring to
the mountains, and, deciding not to risk an engagement in the open,
retired within their walls and defended themselves for six days, incur-
ring and inflicting great losses. On the seventh day, two traitors,
Euphorbus and Philagrus, betrayed the city to the Persians, who de-
stroyed the temples and enslaved all the inhabitants, who, after wit-
nessing the discomfiture of the Persians at Marathon from an island
near by, were taken away on the Persian fleet and settled in the heart
of the Persian dominion.
Yet Eretria did not lose its corporate existence, for ten years later
its seven ships appear in the lists of the Greeks who fought at Arte-
misium and Salamis.17 At Plataea also it furnished with Styra (which
was probably an insignificant appendage, as it sent only two ships to
the Greek fleet; Herod., vir. 1) a contingent of six hundred men drawn
up in line next to the four hundred Chalcidians.18 Its name was carved
on the tripod-standard of serpents, set up at Delphi, that roll of honor
of the victorious Greeks. It is still "plain for all folks to see," on
the fourth inscribed coil, reckoning from the bottom. Probably
there were refugees enough to form a nucleus of a city immedi-
ately after the withdrawal of the Persians from Marathon.19 Hero-
dotus does not say that anything was destroyed except its temples. Greek
dwellings, for that matter, if destroyed, were soon replaced. Whatever
walls then existed could not easily have been overthrown. A gate or
two might have been broken down, but the Persians surely had no
time and probably no tools to wreck such walls as those the remains
of which are now to be seen on the acropolis of Eretria. They waited
only o\//ya? rjfiepas, and then went on to Marathon.
10 Wecklein, Tradition der Perserkriege, p. 39, supposes that Herodotus has here,
as usual, colored his narrative in the interest of the Athenians, in inserting the story
of an Eretrian, Aesehines, sending word to the Athenian allies that traitors were go-
ing to give Eretria to the Persians, and that it was time to act on the principle sunve
qui peat. The fear of " the men clad in the Persian garb " was probably still strong
enough to induce these allies to get across to Oropus as soon as possible without being
sent away.
17 Herod., vm. 1 and 46. 18 Herod., ix. 28, 31.
19 Considering the great talk of taking refuge in the mountains and of the likelihood
that the city was to be betrayed, it would be very strange if many at least of the non-
combatants had not taken refuge individually according to the suggestion.
63
we hear of them. They do not appear to have done service either at
Marathon or before Athens.16
Left alone, the Eretrians voted down the suggestion of retiring to
the mountains, and, deciding not to risk an engagement in the open,
retired within their walls and defended themselves for six days, incur-
ring and inflicting great losses. On the seventh day, two traitors,
Euphorbus and Philagrus, betrayed the city to the Persians, who de-
stroyed the temples and enslaved all the inhabitants, who, after wit-
nessing the discomfiture of the Persians at Marathon from an island
near by, were taken away on the Persian fleet and settled in the heart
of the Persian dominion.
Yet Eretria did not lose its corporate existence, for ten years later
its seven ships appear in the lists of the Greeks who fought at Arte-
misium and Salamis.17 At Plataea also it furnished with Styra (which
was probably an insignificant appendage, as it sent only two ships to
the Greek fleet; Herod., vir. 1) a contingent of six hundred men drawn
up in line next to the four hundred Chalcidians.18 Its name was carved
on the tripod-standard of serpents, set up at Delphi, that roll of honor
of the victorious Greeks. It is still "plain for all folks to see," on
the fourth inscribed coil, reckoning from the bottom. Probably
there were refugees enough to form a nucleus of a city immedi-
ately after the withdrawal of the Persians from Marathon.19 Hero-
dotus does not say that anything was destroyed except its temples. Greek
dwellings, for that matter, if destroyed, were soon replaced. Whatever
walls then existed could not easily have been overthrown. A gate or
two might have been broken down, but the Persians surely had no
time and probably no tools to wreck such walls as those the remains
of which are now to be seen on the acropolis of Eretria. They waited
only o\//ya? rjfiepas, and then went on to Marathon.
10 Wecklein, Tradition der Perserkriege, p. 39, supposes that Herodotus has here,
as usual, colored his narrative in the interest of the Athenians, in inserting the story
of an Eretrian, Aesehines, sending word to the Athenian allies that traitors were go-
ing to give Eretria to the Persians, and that it was time to act on the principle sunve
qui peat. The fear of " the men clad in the Persian garb " was probably still strong
enough to induce these allies to get across to Oropus as soon as possible without being
sent away.
17 Herod., vm. 1 and 46. 18 Herod., ix. 28, 31.
19 Considering the great talk of taking refuge in the mountains and of the likelihood
that the city was to be betrayed, it would be very strange if many at least of the non-
combatants had not taken refuge individually according to the suggestion.