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The Athenian Globe tribune
All the News Athenians Need to Know
Tuesday, April 27, 404 BC
Athens, Greece
Athens Surrenders, Ending 27 Year War
Victorious Spartans Order Destruction of Fleet and Walls
By Georgienius Robinistocles
The end of the long and bitter
Peloponnesian War finally came today
when the city of Athens surrendered
to two Spartan kings, Agis and
Pausanias. With a reported 100,000
citizens starving in the besieged city,
officials felt they had no choice but to
accept defeat. As one devastated
elderly man reported, “I never thought
we would come to this – our once
glorious city brought to ruin. Pericles
promised us so much 30 years ago,
and now we have lost it all.”
The terms of surrender were
brutal. Athens had already lost more
than 500 of its once proud ships, but
the Spartans ordered the destruction
of all of Athens’ ships. Athenians
watched with great sadness today as
the remainder of their fleet was set
afire and burned in the Paierus
Harbor. Angelina Thebesius recalled
that her grandfather had been an
oarsman on one of the triremes that
had smashed the ships of the Persians
in the Battle of Salamis. She cried as
she watched the ships burn today and
said, “My grandfather earned his
rights as a citizen by rowing that ship;
he would be devastated to know that
the Spartans are making us give up
our democracy too.”
The victorious Spartans also
decreed that the Long Walls which
connect Athens to its port at the
harbor must also be torn down.
These walls are four miles long.
Today, Thucydides reported, “The
Peloponnesians with great zeal pulled
down the Long Walls to the music of
flute-girls, thinking that this day was
the beginning of freedom for the
Greeks.”
Antony Greco, a survivor of the
plague that killed 80,000 Athenians in
the early years of the war, watched
from the hilltop as the Spartans
cheered the destruction. “I burned
with fever then, and thought my heart
would break as my family died around
me. I fought side by side with my
fellow hoplites. My heart broke again
as my comrades fell in battle. But
today, my heart breaks one more time
for my city as it seems to die.”
The Ruins of the Temple of Poseidon