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SIX The Devastation of Attica during the Peloponnesian War The Spartan annual invasions and eventual occupation of Attica during the course of the Peloponnesian War are the best-known and bestdocumented examples of wartime destruction of agriculture in classical antiquity. So far I have emphasized the pragmatic difficulties of crop devastation in warfare and suggested that perlnanent destruction of farmland was often not achieved. Nowhere can the validity ofthese conclusions be better determined than in the countryside around Athens during the Peloponnesian War, when for over a generation the Spartans engaged in an unparalleled effort to ruin the agriculture of the Athenians. The contemporary works ofThucydides and Aristophanes both contain vivid and often moving accounts of the damage to the fields of Attica . The devastations, consequently, have usually been regarded by scholars as catastrophic: annual crops completely lost, orchards and vineyards permanently destroyed, farms looted and ruined. Often the entire history of fourth-century Athens is seen through the lens of agricultural ruin as a result of the war with Sparta, the destruction purportedly explaining the "decline" ofAthenian power, an ensuing class struggle , and the rise of a defeatist mentality. That the agriculture of Attica I 32 / Effectiveness ofAgricultural Devastation suffered during the Peloponnesian War cannot be doubted, but more needs to be known about the degree-and nature-of the damage. The devastations are often referred to and yet have been little studied. A wider sampling ofevidence must be collected, and both Thucydides and Aristophanes should be reexamined in light of what each says, or does not say, about the actual destruction. Practical questions too can be asked about the Peloponnesian ravaging: I. How much time was available to the Peloponnesian invaders? 2. How much territory in Attica was or could be covered? 3. Was the damage temporary (e.g., annual cereal crops), or more long lasting (e.g., olives and vines)? 4. Was rural productivity imperiled by damage to agriculture itself-trees, vines, and cereals-or by damage to infrastructure (buildings , fences, houses), the flight of rural slaves, and the evacuation and general dislocation of agrarian populations? 5. How effective were Athenian countermeasures? The inherent differences between the five temporary Peloponnesian invasions ofthe Archidamian War and the later constant Peloponnesian occupation ofDekeleia make separate studies ofthe agricultural damage desirable. THE ARCHIDAMIAN WAR (431-421 B.C.) The Five Enemy Invasions The Peloponnesians first invaded Attica in the early summer of 43 I B.C. under the command of the Spartan king Archidamos (Thuc. 2. 19.I ).1 They did not come directly to Eleusis through Megara, the I. Thucydides says "summer and the grain harvest coming on" (therous kai s/tou akmazontos). For this and other similar expressions, see Gomme 2: 145, 252,288; 3: 437· Garlan 1974, 23 n. I, contains a brief bibliography. Devastation ofAttica / r 33 shortest and most direct route,2 but rather descended from Oinoe.3 There Archidamos wasted precious time in a fruitless attempt to take the garrison, giving the Athenians ample opportunity in the process to evacuate Attica (2. r8.4). He also apparently still refrained from harming the countryside, and so bypassed the rich Mazi Plain around Oinoe. On arriving at Eleusis and the Thriasian Plain, the Peloponnesians first began to ravage the countryside seriously (2.r9.2). After a short cavalry skirmish there, they hastened on through the Parnes-Aigaleos gap4 to Acharnai, where they remained "some time" (2.20), devastating the land in hopes of drawing out the Athenian hoplite force. They had not, and would not, enter the fertile plain around the city itself. Instead, after another cavalry skirmish, this time at Phrygia, they left through the Kephissos Valley, ravaging "some other demes between Mt. Parnes and Mt. Brilessos [Pentelikos]" (2.23.r), but apparently leaving Dekeleia untouched (Hdt. 9.73). Graike was also ravaged as the enemy exited Attica through Oropos on their way to Boiotia (Thuc. 2.23.3). They had not been in Attica long, perhaps as little as twenty-five days, leaving when their provisions gave out.s Of the actual details of the devastations Thucydides tells us little, using only characteristically 2. Pleistoanax must have led the Spartans this way in 445 B.C. (Thuc. 1.114.2; cf. also Hdt. 5.74.2). On the route used by Archidamos that year, see Gomme 2: 66-69; Hammond 1954,112; Vanderpool 1978, 232. 3. The site ofancient Oinoe has been the source ofcontinuous debate. Chandler (1926, 8ff.) opted (rightly) for modern Myoupolis...

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