DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0181
ARISTION AND A PELL I CON.
103
contrived to return, and joined Aristion. By him he was despatched to
plunder Delos; but through his blundering, the enterprise completely
miscarried, and Apellicon himself nearly fell into the hands of the
Eomans.1 In these events, as well as in their earlier history, we see
how prone the Athenians were to be led away and deceived by any
clever and specious intriguer.
These and other machinations of the king of Pontus against the
Eomans, brought on the Mithridatic war, the conduct of which was in-
trusted to Sulla. Landing in Greece, he marched through Bceotia.
Thebes, which had also thrown off its allegiance, now submitted without
striking a blow. Sulla then arrived in Attica, and telling off part of his
army to invest Athens, he himself undertook the siege of Peiraeeus; into
which Mithridates' general, Archelaus, had thrown himself with a con-
siderable force. An attempt to escalade the walls having failed, Sulla
found himself compelled to institute a regular siege, which lasted many
months, and obliged him during the winter to construct a fortified
camp at Eleusis. Archelaus made a most vigorous defence, burning
Sulla's machines as soon as they were erected before the walls; so that
to construct new ones he cut down the timber in the sacred groves
of the Academy and Lyceum. Provoked at this obstinacy, Sulla
turned the siege into a blockade; and directing all his force against
Athens, which was now suffering the extremities of famine, took it by
assault (b.c. 86). The attack was made, as we have already had occasion
to observe,2 between the Dipylon and the Peirai'c Gate, near the monu-
ment called Heptachalcum. Then followed a dreadful massacre, which
spared neither sex nor age, and inundated the streets and agora with
blood.
During the siege Aristion with a few followers had taken refuge in
the Acropolis, having first burnt the Odeium of Pericles, lest its materials
might assist the Eomans to scale and capture the citadel. Here his
1 Such is the account of Athenams, v.
53; hut Appiah relates that Archelaus,
having reduced Polos, which had revolted
from the Athenians, sent the sacred trea-
sure to Athens by Aristion, along with
2000 soldiers, and that he was thus enahled
to seize the tyranny (Bell. Mithr.p. 13D).
And this perhaps is the more probable-
account.
2 Ahove, p. 93.
M 2
103
contrived to return, and joined Aristion. By him he was despatched to
plunder Delos; but through his blundering, the enterprise completely
miscarried, and Apellicon himself nearly fell into the hands of the
Eomans.1 In these events, as well as in their earlier history, we see
how prone the Athenians were to be led away and deceived by any
clever and specious intriguer.
These and other machinations of the king of Pontus against the
Eomans, brought on the Mithridatic war, the conduct of which was in-
trusted to Sulla. Landing in Greece, he marched through Bceotia.
Thebes, which had also thrown off its allegiance, now submitted without
striking a blow. Sulla then arrived in Attica, and telling off part of his
army to invest Athens, he himself undertook the siege of Peiraeeus; into
which Mithridates' general, Archelaus, had thrown himself with a con-
siderable force. An attempt to escalade the walls having failed, Sulla
found himself compelled to institute a regular siege, which lasted many
months, and obliged him during the winter to construct a fortified
camp at Eleusis. Archelaus made a most vigorous defence, burning
Sulla's machines as soon as they were erected before the walls; so that
to construct new ones he cut down the timber in the sacred groves
of the Academy and Lyceum. Provoked at this obstinacy, Sulla
turned the siege into a blockade; and directing all his force against
Athens, which was now suffering the extremities of famine, took it by
assault (b.c. 86). The attack was made, as we have already had occasion
to observe,2 between the Dipylon and the Peirai'c Gate, near the monu-
ment called Heptachalcum. Then followed a dreadful massacre, which
spared neither sex nor age, and inundated the streets and agora with
blood.
During the siege Aristion with a few followers had taken refuge in
the Acropolis, having first burnt the Odeium of Pericles, lest its materials
might assist the Eomans to scale and capture the citadel. Here his
1 Such is the account of Athenams, v.
53; hut Appiah relates that Archelaus,
having reduced Polos, which had revolted
from the Athenians, sent the sacred trea-
sure to Athens by Aristion, along with
2000 soldiers, and that he was thus enahled
to seize the tyranny (Bell. Mithr.p. 13D).
And this perhaps is the more probable-
account.
2 Ahove, p. 93.
M 2