Siege of Athens and Piraeus (87–86 BC)

(Redirected from Sack of Athens (86 BC))

For similarly titled battles, see Siege of Athens.

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Siege of Athens and Piraeus

Part of the First Mithridatic War

Map of the Athenian city wall encompassing both Athens and Piraeus.

Date	Autumn 87 BC – 1 March 86 BC (Athens), Spring 86 BC (Piraeus)
Location	Athens, Greece
Result	Roman victory

Belligerents

Roman Republic

Kingdom of Pontus
Athenian City-State

Commanders and leaders

Lucius Cornelius Sulla
Lucius Licinius Lucullus
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Lucius Licinius Murena

Commander-in-chief:
Archelaus (commanding the defenders of Piraeus)

Commanders
Aristion (in command of Athens itself)

Strength

Total: 37,000–44,000

5 Roman legions (17,000–24,000 legionaires)
20,000 auxiliaries

Unknown

Casualties and losses

Low

400,000

200,000 dead
200,000 captured

v t e First Mithridatic War
River Amnias Mount Scorobas Protopachium Rhodes Delos Athens and Piraeus Chaeronea Tenedos Orchomenus

v t e Mithridatic Wars
First Second Third

The siege of Athens and Piraeus was a siege of the First Mithridatic War that took place from autumn of 87 BC to the spring of 86 BC. The battle was fought between the forces of the Roman Republic, commanded by Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix on the one hand, and the forces of the Kingdom of Pontus and the Athenian City-State on the other. The Greek and Pontic forces were commanded by Aristion and Archelaus.

Historical context

Main article: First Mithridatic War

The invasion of Mithridates VI of Pontus, the king of the Kingdom of Pontus into the Kingdom of Bithynia, an ally of Rome, coupled with the assassination of Roman Citizens in the Asiatic Vespers, caused war between Rome and Pontus. Allegedly, up to 80,000 Roman citizens were massacred. Asia was then occupied by the forces of Mithridates VI of Pontus under the command of Archelaus and before long, Mithridates VI had won over all the Greek city states who had previously been under Roman rule. In the spring of 87 BC Roman forces under Sulla landed at Dyrrachium, in Illyria. Sulla’s first target was Athens, ruled by a Mithridatic puppet; the tyrant Aristion. Sulla moved southeast, picking up supplies and reinforcements as he went. Sulla’s chief of staff was Lucullus, who went ahead of him to scout the way and negotiate with Bruttius Sura, the existing Roman commander in Greece. After speaking with Lucullus, Sura handed over the command of his troops to Sulla. At Chaeronea, ambassadors from all the major cities of Greece (except Athens) met with Sulla, who impressed on them Rome's determination to drive Mithridates from Greece and Asia Province. Sulla then advanced on Athens.

Siege

Sulla marched towards Athens and upon his arrival he encountered his first problem. The main outer wall that had surrounded the city, connecting the main city with its port at Piraeus, was in ruins. As such, Sulla was forced to conduct two separate sieges, throwing up siege works surrounding both Athens and its port Piraeus. A force commanded by Archelaus defended Piraeus whilst another commanded by Aristion took up the main defense of Athens. The sea defense was considerably easier as a Pontic fleet dominated the nearby sea, facilitating reinforcement and replenishment whenever necessary. Furthermore, Piraeus already had ample supplies from the onset while Athens did not.

Sulla decided to first concentrate his attacks on Piraeus, seeing as without its port, there was no way that Athens could be resupplied. He sent Lucius Licinius Lucullus to raise a fleet from the remaining Roman allies in the eastern Mediterranean to deal with the Pontic navy. The first attack on the city was entirely repulsed, so Sulla decided to build huge earthworks. Wood was also needed, so he cut down everything, including the sacred groves of Greece, up to 100 miles from Athens' main town. When more money was needed he “borrowed” from temples and Sibyls alike. The currency minted from this treasure was to remain in circulation for centuries and prized for its quality. Siege works were built to facilitate the next attack which was eventually successful in taking the outer wall of Piraeus.

Once the outer wall was taken, Sulla discovered that Archelaus had built more walls inside the city. Despite the complete encirclement of Athens and its port, and several attempts by Archelaus to raise the siege, a stalemate developed. Roman attention was temporarily shifted towards Athens, which was starving. Inside the city, the population was reduced to eating shoe leather and grass. A delegation from Athens was sent to treat with Sulla, but instead of serious negotiations they expounded on the glory of their city. Sulla sent them away saying: “I was sent to Athens, not to take lessons, but to reduce rebels to obedience.”

Soon Sulla's camp was to fill with refugees from Rome, fleeing the massacres of Marius and Cinna. These also included his wife and children, as well as those of the Optimate party who had not been killed. With his political enemies having taken power in Rome, Sulla realized that the money and reinforcements he believed were coming to bolster his forces could no longer be counted on. Thus, Sulla ordered the sacking of every temple and religious site in the vicinity. The chronicles state that one of the people sent on such a sacking mission became afraid due to ominous voices having been heard upon entering the temple. Deciding not to continue sacking the temple, the soldier returned to Sulla, who ordered him back, stating that he had heard laughter because the gods would be pleased with his victory.

With Athens on the verge of starvation, Aristion grew less popular by the day. Greek deserters informed Sulla that Aristion was neglecting the Heptachalcum (part of the city wall). Sulla immediately sent sappers to undermine the wall. Nine hundred feet of wall was brought down between the Sacred and Piraeic gates on the southwest side of the city.

On 1 March 86 BC, after five months under siege, a midnight sack of Athens began. After Aristion's taunts, Sulla was not in a mood to be magnanimous. Blood was said to have literally flowed in the streets, it was only after the entreaties of a couple of his Greek friends (Midias and Calliphon) and the pleas of the Roman Senators in his camp that Sulla decided enough was enough. After setting fire to large portions of the city, Aristion and his forces fled to the Acropolis, where they had gathered a store of supplies over the preceding few weeks.

At the same time, Archelaus abandoned the city of Piraeus and concentrated his forces in the city's citadel. Sulla, in a bid to stop an escape by Archelaus, who would surely join his reinforcement army sent by Mithridates VI elsewhere in Greece, left the taking of the Acropolis to Gaius Scribonius Curio Burbulieus. In any case, Sulla, not having a navy, was powerless to stop the escape of Archelaus, who was able to rejoin his relief army. Sulla then advanced into Boeotia to take on Archelaus's armies and remove them from Greece. Before leaving the area however, he burnt the city of Piraeus to the ground.

While Aristion and his party were able to stave off the Roman attackers for some time, they eventually surrendered after their water ran out and they had heard of the Pontic defeat at the Battle of Chaeronea. They were all executed shortly after their surrender.

Consequences

After routing the Pontic army at the Battle of Chaeronea, Sulla had another victory at the Battle of Orchomenus the following year. Sulla and Mithridates VI of Pontus finally got together in 85 BC to sign the Treaty of Dardanos, concluding the First Mithridatic War.

Sulla's army took Athens on the Kalends of March, in the consulate of Marius and Cinna, February 12 86 BC. The siege of Athens was a long and brutal campaign, Sulla's rough battle hardened legions, veterans of the Social War thoroughly devastated the city. Athens had chosen the wrong side in this struggle, portrayed as a war of Greek freedom against Roman domination.

It was punished severely, a show of vengeance that ensured Greece would remain docile during later civil wars and Mithridatic wars.

References

Philip Matyszak, Mithridates the Great, Rome's Indomitable Enemy, p. 55; Tom Holland, Rubicon, p. 69.
We do not know if Sulla's legions were at full strength, we do know that at the subsequent Battle of Chaeronea Sulla commanded 17,000 Romans.
Plutarchus, Lucius Mestrius. The Life of Sulla. Book 12. p. 2.
Velleius Paterculus, Marcus. Historiae Romanae ad M. Vinicium Libri Duo, II, 23.3.
Plutarchus, Lucius Mestrius. The Life of Sulla. Book 12. p. 1.
Appianus Alexandrinus. The Mithridatic War. Rome. p. 22. Archived from the original on 2015-11-16. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
Appianus Alexandrinus. The Mithridatic War. Rome. p. 22. Archived from the original on 2015-11-16. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
Livius Patavinus, Titus. Periochae Ab Urbe Condita Libri, 78.1 (in Latin). Rome.
Plutarchus, Lucius Mestrius. The Life of Sulla. Book 14. p. 7.
Plutarchus, Lucius Mestrius. The Life of Sulla. Book 14. p. 6.
Plutarchus, Lucius Mestrius. The Life of Sulla. Book 14. p. 7.

Bibliography

Contemporary sources

Appian (1995). Lendering, Jona (ed.). Appian, The Mithridatic Wars. Translated by White, Horace. Livius.org. Archived from the original on 2015-11-16. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
Florus (2018). Thayer, William (ed.). Florus: Epitome of Roman History. Translated by Forster, E.S. penelope.uchicago.edu.
Livy (2014). The History of Rome. Translated by Baker, George. University of Adelaide. Archived from the original on 2019-08-10. Retrieved 2018-01-31.
Plutarch (2012). Thayer, William (ed.). The Life of Sulla. Translated by Perrin, Bernadotte. penelope.uchicago.edu.
Velleius (2018). Thayer, William (ed.). Velleius Paterculus: The Roman History. Translated by Shipley, Frederick W. penelope.uchicago.edu.

Modern sources

Antonelli, Giuseppe (1992). Mitridate, il nemico mortale di Roma (in Italian). in Il Giornale - Biblioteca storica. Milan. p. 49.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Brizzi, Giovanni (1997). Storia di Roma. 1. Dalle origini ad Azio (in Italian). Bologna.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Dowling, M.B. (2000). "The Clemency of Sulla". Historia. 49 (3): 303–340.
Eckert, A. (2016). Lucius Cornelius Sulla in der antiken Erinnerung. Jener Mörder, der sich Felix nannte. Berlin/New York.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Hoff, M.C. (1997). "Laceratae Athenae. Sulla's Siege of Athens in 87/6 B.C. and its Aftermath". In Hoff, M.C.; Rotroff, S.I. (eds.). The Romanization of Athens. Oxford. pp. 33–51.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Kuin, Inger N.I. (2018). "Sulla and the Invention of Roman Athens". Mnemosyne. 71 (4): 616–639. doi:10.1163/1568525X-12342370. S2CID 165670272.
Piganiol, André (1927). La conquête romaine (in French).
Ruggeri, C. (2006). "Silla e la conquista di Atene nell' 86 a.C.". In Amann, P.; Pedrazzi, M.; Taeuber, H. (eds.). Italo-Tusco-Romana. Festschrift für Luciana Aigner-Foresti zum 70. Geburtstag am 30. Juli 2006. Vienna. pp. 315–324.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Santangelo, F. (2007). Sulla, the Elites and the Empire. A Study of Roman Policies in Italy and the Greek East. Leiden.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Thein, A. (2014). "Reflecting on Sulla's Clemency". Historia. 63 (2): 166–186. doi:10.25162/historia-2014-0009. S2CID 159609145.

External links

"First Mithridatic War (89 BC-85 BC)". HistoryofWar.org. Retrieved 8 January 2011.
"The First Mithridatic War (88 BC-84 BC)". Roman-Empire.info. Retrieved 8 January 2011.
"The Siege of Athens (Autumn del 87 BC-Summer 86 BC)". HistoryofWar.org. Retrieved 8 January 2011.
"The Siege of Piraeus (Autumn 87 BC-Spring 86 BC)". HistoryofWar.org. Retrieved 8 January 2011.

Sulla

Military career

Early campaigns	Jugurthine War (2nd Cirta) Cimbrian War (Vercellae) Social War (Nola) March on Rome
First Mithridatic War	Siege of Athens Chaeronea Orchomenus Treaty of Dardanos
Civil War	Mount Tifata Sacriportus Sena Gallica Clusium Colline Gate

Legislative activity

Works

Family

Wives	Julia Aelia Cloelia Caecilia Valeria
Children	Cornelia Faustus Fausta Cornelia Cornelia Postuma
Other	Nicopolis (mistress) Metrobius (lover) Epicadus (freedman) Chrysogonus (freedman)

Legacy

Parallel Lives (Sulla)
Silla (Handel)
Silla (Graun)
Lucio Silla (Mozart)
Masters of Rome (The First Man in Rome, The Grass Crown)

Category

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