The development of the Athenian political sys tem was carried further than that of the Spartan system. The regular course of political history in the Greek States was this: The kingly form of government, which was prevalent in the Heroic Age, gave place at a later time to an oligarchy of birth; this in turn became transformed into a one-man power, or `tyranny'; and the 'tyranny' was finally replaced by a government of the peo ple, or democracy. The history of Athens illus trates this course of development, and the names of Solon (archon, B.C. 594), Clisthenes (about 508 B.c.), and Pericles (in the last half of the fifth century-n.c.) are landmarks in the develop ment of the Athenian democracy. Pisistratus and his sons (n.c. 560-510) mark the period of 'tyranny.' The chief, officers and bodies of the Athenian democracy were the nine archons, the Areopagus, the Senate, the Ecclesia, or public assembly, and the Helena, or law courts. By the side of Athens, Sparta, and Argos, Corinth early rose to prominence, developing into a great in dustrial, commercial, and colonizing centre.
The Greek settlements in Asia Minor were con quered by Crnsus, King of Lydia, in the early part of his reign (me. 560-546), and brought within the Lydian kingdom. In B.C. 546 Crcesus was overthrown by Cyrus the Great, King of Persia, and the Greek cities in Asia, as well as the islands along the coast, with the exception of Samos, were made subject to the Persians. In B.C. 500 the Ionians revolted against the Persian rule and were assisted by twenty Athenian and five Eretrian ships. Sardis, the capital of Lydia, was taken, sacked, and burned. The ire of Darius, the Persian King, was aroused, and he vowed vengeance both on his revolted subjects and on their supporters from across the sea. In B.C. 493 the rebellion was brought to an end, and in the following year Mardonius, son-in-law of Darius, was sent to Greece to take vengeance on the Athenians and the Eretrians. Three hun dred ships and 20,000 men were lost in a storm off Mount Athos, and Mardonius himself, who led an army by land, was so harassed by the tribes of Thrace that he was obliged to turn back. Two years later, in B.C. 490, a second ex pedition, consisting, according to ancient author ities, of 600 galleys, 100,000 foot and 10,000 horse, was sent across the iEgean, under the command of Datis and Artaphcrnes. After tak ing the city of Eretria, the Persians proceeded, under the guidance of the aged Hippias, to the plain of Marathon, 22 miles northeast of Athens. In the battle which there took place, 10,000 Athenians were assisted by 1000 heavy-armed soldiers and a few light-armed troops from Platna. A messenger had been sent for aid to Sparta, but, from a religious superstition, the Spartans were prevented from marching for five clays, and the crisis was then past. The Greeks, led by Miltiades, were overwhelmingly victorious; 6400 Persians were lost, while only 192 Athenians were killed. In the following year Athens found herself at war with ./Egina. This war taught her
the necessity of having a navy, and she was in duced by Theinistocles to construct a fleet of 200 vessels, and to add 20 new vessels thereto every year. In the meantime, Xerxes, the Per sian King, was preparing for an invasion of Greece on a grand scale. Troops and supplies were brought together from every quarter of his Empire, until the largest army of which history has a record was assembled. A bridge of boats was thrown across the Hellespont for the con venience of the land troops, a canal was cut through the neck of the peninsula of Athos for the passage of the ships, and in the spring of n.c. 480 the force was set in motion. The first stand was made by the Greeks at Thermopyhe. The pass was heroically defended by Leonidas and his 300 Spartans, but was finally taken through the treachery of a Greek. Athens was captured and burned, having been, at the approach of the Persians, abandoned by its inhabitants. In the meantime the Persian fleet, after undergoing severe losses in storms and in battle at Artemi sium, off the northern end of the island of Eubcea, proceeded to Salamis in pursuit of the Greek fleet. The number of the Persian vessels at Salamis was about 1200; that of the Greeks less than 400, 200 of which were Athenian. In the battle which took place in the narrow strait be tween the island and the mainland, and which Xerxes viewed from a golden throne erected on the slope of Mount IEgaleus, the Persians were completely defeated. Xerxes fled in alarm to Asia, leaving Mardonius with 350,000 men to bring the war to a close. In the following year ( B.C. 479) Mardonius was overwhelmed by 110, 000 Greeks, under Pausanias. at Platna and slain, and on the same day another Persian army was defeated, with loss of its fleet, at Mycale in Asia.
Athens was now, as a result of her patriotism and sacrifices, the first State in Greece, and her position was still further strengthened by the events that followed the Persian wars. The treachery of Pausanias, the commander-in-chief of the combined Athenian and Spartan fleet which was engaged in driving the Persians from the Greek cities in the Egean and in the neighbor I ood of the Hellespont, caused the fleet to put itself under the leadership of the Athenian com manders, and in n.e. 476 was formed the Con federacy of Delos, on which the future empire of Athens was to be built. This Confederacy was a voluntary coalition of Greek States formed for the purpose of prosecuting the war with Persia and driving the Persian power from the iEgean Sea and the lands washed thereby. The dele gates were to meet yearly on the island of Delos, and there was also to be the treasury. A fixed contribution in ships or money was assessed on each State. Gradual changes were, as time went on, wrought in the relation of the allies to one another, and the alliance of equal independent members was at length transformed into an em pire of dependent States, with Athens at the head.