ABSTRACT
The strength of the landed interest was very considerable. Thucydides, describing the removal of the country folk into Athens, says that it was very painful, because the Athenians, more than any other Hellenic people, had always been accustomed to live on the soil. They had just restored their country houses after the Persian invasion, and now they were called upon to forsake their ancient manner of life and leave the village which to them was a city. The new factor in fifth-century politics is the Piraeus. The port had been created by Themistocles, who substituted for the exposed, sandy bay of Phalerum the rock-defended harbour on the other side of Acte. It had been fortified, and the new town was laid out on the best modern principles by Hippodamus. By the beginning of the Peloponnesian war it had become the chief commercial centre of the Greek world.
