Between
these, at a later period, a third wall was built, running parallel to
the northern wall at a distance of about two hundred feet, and known
as the Southern or Middle Wall.
Many years elapsed before these important works were completed; and in
the meantime great events had been happening in other parts of the
Greek world, tending more and more to realise the dream of
Themistocles, and make his beloved city the undisputed mistress of the
sea. After the defeat of the Persian armies and fleets at Salamis,
Plataea, and Mycale, much hard work remained to be done, in reducing
the outlying cities on the coasts of Thrace and in the eastern corners
of the Aegaean, which held out for the Great King. The Spartans were
still nominal leaders of the allied Greek navy; but after a year of
service they resigned this position, which they owed to their
acknowledged supremacy in land warfare, to the Athenians. They were
induced to take this step, partly by their own aversion to foreign
enterprises, and partly by the misconduct of their general Pausanias,
who had disgusted the allies serving under him in the fleet by his
intolerable arrogance and tyranny. The field was thus left open to the
Athenians, who willingly assumed the command offered them by the
maritime cities of Greece, with the object of prosecuting the war
vigorously against Persia.
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