Listed 18 sub titles with search on: Ancient literary sources for wider area of: "ATTICA, EAST Prefectural seat ATTIKI" .
VRAVRON (Ancient city) ATTICA, EAST
When the Pelasgians were driven out of Attica by the Athenians, whether justly
or unjustly I cannot say, beyond what is told; namely, that Hecataeus the son
of Hegesandrus declares in his history that the act was unjust; for when the Athenians
saw the land under Hymettus, formerly theirs, which they had given to the Pelasgians
as a dwelling-place in reward for the wall that had once been built around the
acropolis--when the Athenians saw how well this place was tilled which previously
had been bad and worthless, they were envious and coveted the land, and so drove
the Pelasgians out on this and no other pretext. But the Athenians themselves
say that their reason for expelling the Pelasgians was just. The Pelasgians set
out from their settlement at the foot of Hymettus and wronged the Athenians in
this way: Neither the Athenians nor any other Hellenes had servants yet at that
time, and their sons and daughters used to go to the Nine Wells (eneacrounos)
for water; and whenever they came, the Pelasgians maltreated them out of mere
arrogance and pride. And this was not enough for them; finally they were caught
in the act of planning to attack Athens. The Athenians were much better men than
the Pelasgians, since when they could have killed them, caught plotting as they
were, they would not so do, but ordered them out of the country. The Pelasgians
departed and took possession of Lemnos, besides other places. This is the Athenian
story; the other is told by Hecataeus.
These Pelasgians dwelt at that time in Lemnos and desired vengeance
on the Athenians. Since they well knew the time of the Athenian festivals, they
acquired fifty-oared ships and set an ambush for the Athenian women celebrating
the festival of Artemis at Brauron. They seized many of the women, then sailed
away with them and brought them to Lemnos to be their concubines. These women
bore more and more children, and they taught their sons the speech of Attica and
Athenian manners. These boys would not mix with the sons of the Pelasgian women;
if one of them was beaten by one of the others, they would all run to his aid
and help each other; these boys even claimed to rule the others, and were much
stronger. When the Pelasgians perceived this, they took counsel together; it troubled
them much in their deliberations to think what the boys would do when they grew
to manhood, if they were resolved to help each other against the sons of the lawful
wives and attempted to rule them already. Thereupon the Pelasgians resolved to
kill the sons of the Attic women; they did this, and then killed the boys' mothers
also. From this deed and the earlier one which was done by the women when they
killed their own husbands who were Thoas' companions, a ?Lemnian crime? has been
a proverb in Hellas for any deed of cruelty.(Hdt. 6.137.1-138.4)
Commentary:
The Pelasgians were driven into Attica by the Boeotian immigration, about sixty years after the Trojan war according to legend.
ANAGYRUS (Ancient demos) VARI
A deme of Attica.
SFITOS (Ancient demos) KROPIA
Deme of Attica.
SOUNIO (Cape) ATTIKI
Cape in Attica, the southern promontory of Attica, Menelaus puts in at, pilot of Menelaus dies at, crest of Athena's helmet on Acropolis visible to mariners sailing from, Athenian festival there, settlement of banished Aeginetans on Sunium, rounding of Sunium by Datis after Marathon, Greek trophy set up there, occupied by Macedonian garrison.
VRAVRON (Ancient city) ATTICA, EAST
Township of Attica, Athenian women carried off thence by Pelasgians, old image of Artemis at B. said to have been brought by Iphigenia from land of Taurians, image of Artemis at B. taken by Xerxes to Susa, afterwards given by Seleucus to Syrians of Laodicea.
MARATHON (Ancient demos) ATTICA, EAST
On the N.E. coast of Attica, the Cretan bull at, the Heraclids retire to, Herakles first worshipped as god at, the bull of, kills Androgeus, son of Minos, the bull of, Theseus sent against, Pisistratus' landing there after exile, Persian landing under Datis, preliminaries to the battle, and the battle itself, number of Athenians at battle of, Athenians who fell at Marathon buried on the field, people of M. worship the dead warriors, Athenians bury Medes at, Athenians proudest of victory at, picture of battle of, offerings from spoils taken at.
PARNITHA (Mountain) ATTIKI
Attic mountain, image and altars of Zeus on.
AFIDNES (Ancient demos) AFIDNES
Most of the demes, if not all, have numerous stories of a character both mythical and historical connected with them; Aphidna, for example, has the rape of Helen by Theseus, the sacking of the place by the Dioscuri and their recovery of their sister;
This extract is from: The Geography of Strabo (ed. H. L. Jones, 1924), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Sep 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
ANAFLYSTOS (Ancient demos) ANAVYSSOS
In the neighborhood of Anaphlystus is also the shrine of Pan, and the temple of Aphrodite Colias, at which place, they say, were cast forth by the waves the last wreckage of the ships after the Persian naval battle near Salamis, the wreckage concerning which Apollo predicted "the women of Colias will cook food with the oars".
MARATHON (Ancient demos) ATTICA, EAST
One of these sons, Dorus, united the Dorians about Parnassus into one state, and at his death left them named after himself; another, Xuthus, who had married the daughter of Erechtheus, founded the Tetrapolis of Attica, consisting of Oenoe, Marathon, Probalinthus, and Tricorynthus.
Now Eurystheus made an expedition to Marathon against Iolaus and the sons of Heracles, with the aid of the Athenians, as the story goes, and fell in the battle, and his body was buried at Gargettus, except his head, which was cut off by Iolaus, and was buried separately at Tricorynthus near the spring Marcaria below the wagon road.
PSAFIS (Ancient demos) OROPOS
After Marathon one comes to Tricorynthus; then to Rhamnus, the sanctuary of Nemesis; then to Psaphis, the land of the Oropians. In the neighborhood of Psaphis is the Amphiaraeium, an oracle once held in honor, where in his flight Amphiaraus, as Sophocles says, "with four-horse chariot, armour and all, was received by a cleft that was made in the Theban dust."
SOUNIO (Cape) ATTIKI
On doubling the cape of Sunium one comes to Sunium, a noteworthy deme;
TRINEMIA (Ancient demos) ANIXI
The rivers of Attica are the Cephissus, which has its source in the deme Trinemeis (Strabo 9.1,24)
VRAVRON (Ancient city) ATTICA, EAST
It suffices, then, to add thus much: According to Philochorus, when the country was being devastated, both from the sea by the Carians, and from the land by the Boeotians, who were called Aonians, Cecrops first settled the multitude in twelve cities, the names of which were Cecropia, Tetrapolis, Epacria, Deceleia, Eleusis, Aphidna (also called Aphidnae, in the plural), Thoricus, Brauron, Cytherus, Sphettus, Cephisia. And at a later time Theseus is said to have united the twelve into one city, that of today.
DEKELIA (Ancient demos) ACHARNES
...The Corinthians, Syracusans, and Alcibiades, pressing all the same request
in the assembly of the Lacedaemonians, succeeded in persuading them; but as the
Ephors and the authorities, although resolved to send envoys to Syracuse to prevent
their surrendering to the Athenians, showed no disposition to send them any assistance,
Alcibiades now came forward and inflamed and stirred the Lacedaemonians by speaking
as follows: (Thuc. 6.88.10)
'... Meanwhile you must carry on the war here more openly, that the Syracusans
seeing that you do not forget them, may put heart into their resistance, and that
the Athenians may be less able to reinforce their armament. You must fortify Decelea
in Attica, the blow of which the Athenians are always most afraid and the only
one that they think they have not experienced in the present war; the surest method
of harming an enemy being to find out what he most fears, and to choose this means
of attacking him, since every one naturally knows best his own weak points and
fears accordingly. The fortification in question, while it benefits you, will
create difficulties for your adversaries, of which I shall pass over many, and
shall only mention the chief. Whatever property there is in the country will most
of it become yours, either by capture or surrender; and the Athenians will at
once be deprived of their revenues from the silver mines at Laurium, of their
present gains from their land and from the law courts, and above all of the revenue
from their allies, which will be paid less regularly, as they lose their awe of
Athens, and see you addressing yourselves with vigour to the war. (Thuc.+6.91.5-7)
'The zeal and speed with which all this shall be done depends, Lacedaemonians,
upon yourselves; as to its possibility, I am quite confident, and I have little
fear of being mistaken. Meanwhile I hope that none of you will think any the worse
of me if after having hitherto passed as a lover of my country, I now actively
join its worst enemies in attacking it, or will suspect what I say as the fruit
of an outlaw's enthusiasm. I am an outlaw from the iniquity of those who drove
me forth, not, if you will be guided by me, from your service: my worst enemies
are not you who only harmed your foes, but they who forced their friends to become
enemies; and love of country is what I do not feel when I am wronged, but what
I felt when secure in my rights as a citizen. Indeed I do not consider that I
am now attacking a country that is still mine; I am rather trying to recover one
that is mine no longer; and the true lover of his country is not he who consents
to lose it unjustly rather than attack it, but he who longs for it so much that
he will go all lengths to recover it. For myself, therefore, Lacedaemonians, I
beg you to use me without scruple for danger and trouble of every kind, and to
remember the argument in every one's mouth, that if I did you great harm as an
enemy, I could likewise do you good service as a friend, inasmuch as I know the
plans of the Athenians, while I only guessed yours. For yourselves I entreat you
to believe that your most capital interests are now under deliberation; and I
urge you to send without hesitation the expeditions to Sicily and Attica; by the
presence of a small part of your forces you will save important cities in that
island, and you will destroy the power of Athens both present and prospective;
after this you will dwell in security and enjoy the supremacy over all Hellas,
resting not on force but upon consent and affection.' (Thuc. 6.92.1-5)
Such were the words of Alcibiades. The Lacedaemonians, who had themselves before
intended to march against Athens, but were still waiting and looking about them,
at once became much more in earnest when they received this particular information
from Alcibiades, and considered that they had heard it from the man who best knew
the truth of the matter. (Thuc.+6.93.1-3)
...In the meantime the Lacedaemonians prepared for their invasion of Attica, in
accordance with their own previous resolve, and at the instigation of the Syracusans
and Corinthians, who wished for an invasion to arrest the reinforcements which
they heard that Athens was about to send to Sicily. Alcibiades also urgently advised
the fortification of Decelea, and a vigorous prosecution of the war. (Thuc. 7.18.1)
...In the first days of the spring following, at an earlier period than usual,
the Lacedaemonians and their allies invaded Attica, under the command of Agis,
son of Archidamus, king of the Lacedaemonians. They began by devastating the parts
bordering upon the plain, and next proceeded to fortify Decelea, dividing the
work among the different cities. Decelea is about thirteen or fourteen miles from
the city of Athens, and the same distance or not much further from Boeotia; and
the fort was meant to annoy the plain and the richest parts of the country, being
in sight of Athens. (Thuc. 7.19.1-2)
...This same summer arrived at Athens thirteen hundred targeteers, Thracian swordsmen
of the tribe of the Dii, who were to have sailed to Sicily with Demosthenes. Since
they had come too late, the Athenians determined to send them back to Thrace,
whence they had come; to keep them for the Decelean war appearing too expensive,
as the pay of each man was a drachma a day. Indeed since Decelea had been first
fortified by the whole Peloponnesian army during this summer, and then occupied
for the annoyance of the country by the garrisons from the cities relieving each
other at stated intervals, it had been doing great mischief to the Athenians;
in fact this occupation, by the destruction of property and loss of men which
resulted from it, was one of the principal causes of their ruin. Previously the
invasions were short, and did not prevent their enjoying their land during the
rest of the time: the enemy was now permanently fixed in Attica; at one time it
was an attack in force, at another it was the regular garrison overrunning the
country and making forays for its subsistence, and the Lacedaemonian king, Agis,
was in the field and diligently prosecuting the war; great mischief was therefore
done to the Athenians. They were deprived of their whole country: more than twenty
thousand slaves had deserted, a great part of them artisans, and all their sheep
and beasts of burden were lost; and as the cavalry rode out daily upon excursions
to Decelea and to guard the country, their horses were either lamed by being constantly
worked upon rocky ground, or wounded by the enemy. (Thuc. 7.27.1-5)
Besides, the transport of provisions from Euboea, which had before
been carried on so much more quickly over land by Decelea from Oropus, was now
effected at great cost by sea round Sunium; everything the city required had to
be imported from abroad, and instead of a city it became a fortress. Summer and
winter the Athenians were worn out by having to keep guard on the fortifications,
during the day by turns, by night all together, the cavalry excepted, at the different
military posts or upon the wall. But what most oppressed them was that they had
two wars at once, and had thus reached a pitch of frenzy which no one would have
believed possible if he had heard of it before it had come to pass. For could
any one have imagined that even when besieged by the Peloponnesians entrenched
in Attica, they would still, instead of withdrawing from Sicily, stay on there
besieging in like manner Syracuse, a town (taken as a town) in no way inferior
to Athens, or would so thoroughly upset the Hellenic estimate of their strength
and audacity, as to give the spectacle of a people which, at the beginning of
the war, some thought might hold out one year, some two, none more than three,
if the Peloponnesians invaded their country, now seventeen years after the first
invasion, after having already suffered from all the evils of war, going to Sicily
and undertaking a new war nothing inferior to that which they already had with
the Peloponnesians? These causes, the great losses from Decelea, and the other
heavy charges that fell upon them, produced their financial embarrassment; and
it was at this time that they imposed upon their subjects, instead of the tribute,
the tax of a twentieth upon all imports and exports by sea, which they thought
would bring them in more money; their expenditure being now not the same as at
first, but having grown with the war while their revenues decayed. (Thuc.7.28.1-4)
...While both parties were thus engaged, and were as intent upon preparing for
the war as they had been at the outset, the Euboeans first of all sent envoys
during this winter to Agis to treat of their revolting from Athens. Agis accepted
their proposals, and sent for Alcamenes, son of Sthenelaidas, and Melanthus from
Lacedaemon, to take the command in Euboea. These accordingly arrived with some
three hundred Neodamodes, and Agis began to arrange for their crossing over. But
in the meanwhile arrived some Lesbians, who also wished to revolt; and these being
supported by the Boeotians, Agis was persuaded to defer acting in the matter of
Euboea, and made arrangements for the revolt of the Lesbians, giving them Alcamenes,
who was to have sailed to Euboea, as governor, and himself promising them ten
ships, and the Boeotians the same number. All this was done without instructions
from home, as Agis while at Decelea with the army that he commanded had power
to send troops to whatever quarter he pleased, and to levy men and money. During
this period, one might say, the allies obeyed him much more than they did the
Lacedaemonians in the city, as the force he had with him made him feared at once
wherever he went. (Thuc. 8.5.1-3)
...Upon the Council withdrawing in this way without venturing any objection, and
the rest of the citizens making no movement, the Four Hundred entered the council
chamber, and for the present contented themselves with drawing lots for their
Prytanes, and making their prayers and sacrifices to the gods upon entering office,
but afterwards departed widely from the democratic system of government, and except
that on account of Alcibiades they did not recall the exiles, ruled the city by
force; putting to death some men, though not many, whom they though it convenient
to remove, and imprisoning and banishing others. They also sent to Agis, the Lacedaemonian
king, at Decelea, to say that they desired to make peace, and that he might reasonably
be more disposed to treat now that he had them to deal with instead of the inconstant
commons.
Agis, however, did not believe in the tranquillity of the city, or
that the commons would thus in a moment give up their ancient liberty, but thought
that the sight of a large Lacedaemonian force would be sufficient to excite them
if they were not already in commotion, of which he was by no means certain. He
accordingly gave to the envoys of the Four Hundred an answer which held out no
hopes of an accommodation, and sending for large reinforcements from Peloponnese,
not long afterwards, with these and his garrison from Decelea, descended to the
very walls of Athens; hoping either that civil disturbances might help to subdue
them to his terms, or that, in the confusion to be expected within and without
the city, they might even surrender without a blow being struck; at all events
he thought he would succeed in seizing the Long Walls, bared of their defenders.
However, the Athenians saw him come close up, without making the least disturbance
within the city; and sending out their cavalry, and a number of their heavy infantry,
light troops, and archers shot down some of his soldiers who approached too near,
and got possession of some arms and dead. Upon this Agis, at last convinced, led
his army back again, and remaining with his own troops in the old position at
Decelea, sent the reinforcement back home, after a few days' stay in Attica. After
this the Four Hundred persevering sent another embassy to Agis, and now meeting
with a better reception, at his suggestion despatched envoys to Lacedaemon to
negotiate a treaty, being desirous of making peace. (Thuc. 8.70.1-71.3)
This extract is from: Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War (ed. Richard Crawley, 1910). Cited July 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
ANAFLYSTOS (Ancient demos) ANAVYSSOS
Thoricus and Anaphlystus were the fortresses that protected the Laurian mines
VISSA (Ancient demos) LAVREOTIKI
But I reckon that, even in the event of war, the mines (of Laurion) need not be
abandoned. There are, of course, two fortresses in the mining district, one at
Anaphlystus on the south side, the other at Thoricus on the north. The distance
between them is about seven miles and a half. Now suppose that we had a third
stronghold between them on the highest point of Besa. The works would then be
linked up by all the fortresses, and at the first intimation of a hostile movement,
every man would have but a short distance to go in order to reach safety. In case
an enemy came in force, he would, no doubt, seize any corn or wine or cattle that
he found outside; but the silver ore, when he had got it, would be of as much
use to him as a heap of stones. And how could an enemy ever go for the mines?
The distance between Megara, the nearest city, and the silver mines, is of course
much more than five hundred furlongs; and Thebes, which is next in proximity,
lies at a distance of much more than six hundred furlongs from them. Let us assume,
then, that an enemy is marching on the mines from some such point. He is bound
to pass Athens; and if his numbers are small, he is likely to be destroyed by
our cavalry and patrols. On the other hand, to march on them with a large force,
leaving his own property unprotected, is no easy matter; for when he arrived at
the mines the city of Athens would be much nearer to his own states than he himself
would be. But even supposing that he should come, how is he to stay without supplies?
And to send part of their forces in search of food may mean destruction to the
foraging party and failure to achieve the ends for which he is contending; or
if the whole force is continually foraging it will find itself blockaded instead
of blockading.
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