DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1004#0124
RUINS OF DECELEA.
are. It stands at a distance of twelve miles to the north-east of Athens,
and is dearly visible from it. It also commands a view of the whole
Athenian plain.
These ruined walls of which we speak are the remains of the celebrated
fortress of Decelea. In the year b.c. 413, the nineteenth of the
Peloponnesian war, this hill was fortified by the Lacedaemonians, at the
instigation of Alcibiades, and under the command of their general, Agis.
From that time forth to the conclusion of the war, they remained during the
winter months within the Athenian frontier, instead of retiring from it at
that season, as they had formerly done, with the intention of returning to
invade it again at the commencement of spring.
The particular position also which they occupied on this eminence of
Mount Parnes, furnished them with the opportunity of laying waste the
most productive parts of the Athenian plain, and of maintaining themselves
with its resources: it enabled them also to intercept the supplies which were
conveyed from Eubosa to Athens, and to reduce their enemies to the neces-
sity of abandoning the direct and expeditious route across the mountain
passes of Parnes, for the dangerous and circuitous passage round the Sunian
promontory.
From these circumstances it arose, that nine years after its occupation
by the Lacedaemonians this small hill proved fatal to the liberty of Athens.
are. It stands at a distance of twelve miles to the north-east of Athens,
and is dearly visible from it. It also commands a view of the whole
Athenian plain.
These ruined walls of which we speak are the remains of the celebrated
fortress of Decelea. In the year b.c. 413, the nineteenth of the
Peloponnesian war, this hill was fortified by the Lacedaemonians, at the
instigation of Alcibiades, and under the command of their general, Agis.
From that time forth to the conclusion of the war, they remained during the
winter months within the Athenian frontier, instead of retiring from it at
that season, as they had formerly done, with the intention of returning to
invade it again at the commencement of spring.
The particular position also which they occupied on this eminence of
Mount Parnes, furnished them with the opportunity of laying waste the
most productive parts of the Athenian plain, and of maintaining themselves
with its resources: it enabled them also to intercept the supplies which were
conveyed from Eubosa to Athens, and to reduce their enemies to the neces-
sity of abandoning the direct and expeditious route across the mountain
passes of Parnes, for the dangerous and circuitous passage round the Sunian
promontory.
From these circumstances it arose, that nine years after its occupation
by the Lacedaemonians this small hill proved fatal to the liberty of Athens.