THE PIRÆUS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3030, 10 April 1912, Page 81

THE PIRÆUS.

By Edith Searle Ghossmann, M.A. No. 11. After all there is a good deal of history mingled with the dust of this plain, i.ie Piraeus suffers by comparison with the more thrilling associations of such places as Athens and Olympia, Delphi and Eleusis. While sailing round Akte I saw not only the ancient moles, but the remains of the old Greek wall built in classic times, round the sea-front of the peninsula. It borders the Royal Park, and inside the park is the tomb of Miaulis, admiral of the Greek fleet during the War of Independence. Miaulis played a nart on the surrounding seas something like that of Karaiskakis on the mainland, only a more important one. Throughout the greater part of the war his fleet hovered round the coasts, and was the hope of one beleaguered seaport after another.

On the northern shore of the entrance opposite Akte, and a little distance inland, is an ancient tumulus, which has been identified as the Tomb of Themistocles. That name brings us right back to the origin of the Piraeus. It is owing to Themistocles that the Athenian fleet first came into being, and that Athens began to be a naval Power. He got the Athenians to devote the proceeds of the silver mines at Laurium to building ships and constructing a harbour. The work was completed by Perikles. Besides the Tomb of Themistocles the pilgrim student can still see the remains of the Long Walls. These stretched ""right to Athens in antiquity, and joined the two cities with one, so that the capital of Attika had a sea outlet, and was protected from invading foreign hosts. The building of these walls must have been one of the Herculean labours of the ancients. It was natural that in the seaport, where foreigners, freedmen, and the lower classes congregated, the Democratic party should prevail, while Athens was the home of the Conservative party, formed by the original free citizens. When the Spartans overthrew Athens they had the Long Walls destroyed. Later on they were restored, until finally the Romans, under Sulla, made a wreck of the whole Piraeus. The hill of Munychia, which occupies a prominent and commanding position, has been the scene of a good deal of fighting. It was held by Hippias, son of Pisistralos, and one of the tyrants of Athens, and afterwards by Thrasybulus, who had been driven out of Athens. Thrasybulus got possession of the Piraeus, and 'then overthrew the tyrants. After the days of the Romans the Pineus never recovered until after the War of Independence. As my Baedeker informs me, its very name was forgotten. In the ancient seaport of Themistocles there was, under the Turks, only a small group of fishermen's huts, known as Porto Leone, from the figure of a lion, which had stood on the shore until the Venetians carried it off to their own city. From the time when the Greeks were' delivered from the Turks the Piraeus began to revive. If it is only a second-rate place, like most modern towns of Greece, we must remember that the country has still remained in a circumscribed and tributary condition. Greece is still a dependent freedmen amongst the nations of Em-ope, not allowed to act or to spend at its own will, and regarded with open contempt by its lordly masters and protectors, who exploit it and its needs for their own benefit. These are not favourable conditions for a renewed nationality to develop in.

Round the Peninsula of Akte, as I sailed back from Salamis, I was looking at the masonry of the Long Walls, when a motor rushed past on the new road alongside of them. It was the Crown Prince, as my boatman told me with some excitement. He represented the latest order of affairs in Hellas. Twenty-three centuries and more since the days of Themistocles and Kimon and Perikles 1