News update 29/04/2022 7

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rybalc...@gmail.com

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Apr 29, 2022, 9:55:48 AM4/29/22
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The state treasury was replenished by contributions. As Themistocles had supposed, Piraeus, thanks to the maritime power of Athens, soon became the trading center of the entire Greek world in the east, and its lively trade gave income to a mass of people, both rich and poor.


Each foreigner (metek) who moved to Athens, after a certain period of time, had to take part in the defense of the country and make an appropriate contribution. Some meteks served as hoplites, others as rowers; in 431 BC e. their number exceeded 10,000. The meteks who had earned the rights received the rights of Athenian citizens.

Great wealth accumulated in the city, and soon there was no trace of the former Greek simplicity. The desire for pleasure, immorality and the desire to live well, without working at all or very little, have become universal. Arrogance, a desire for power and an exaggeratedly high opinion of the power of the state developed excessively, but it was forgotten that the fleet, on which the power, good, and the very existence of the state depended, should be protected and used with great care. Ambition so possessed some that they began to dream of conquering Sicily, southern Italy and Egypt, Carthage and the entire coast of Africa.


All this was fatal for Athens, which needed selfless and disinterested people who had sufficient intelligence and discretion to keep the state and citizens at the height of the situation. It was necessary to take care of maintaining a decisive advantage and hegemony at sea and to interest citizens in this

None of the branches of government requires such skillful, continuous and careful care as the fleet, so that it is at the height of its position and is a reliable weapon.

Both creators of the maritime union, which laid the foundation for the maritime power of Athens, Themistocles and Aristides, died almost at the same time, shortly before the battle of the Eurymedon. By this time, the appearance of a person whose name was respected more than anyone else in the heyday of Athens, but its bearer, along with merits in the field of art, the monuments of which cause the well-deserved surprise of the whole world, brought his homeland more harm than any other citizen. This is Pericles.
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