Did Themistocles Envision Building the Long Walls?

David H. Conwell (Baylor School, TN)

During the mid-fifth century B.C., the Athenians built three great fortification walls to connect the inland city of Athens with the ports of Phaleron and Piraeus. The structures belonged to the navy-centered military strategy developed under Themistocles during the early fifth century. Although Themistocles had been ostracized some ten years before the Athenians started building the Long Walls, some sources, both ancient and modern, associate him with the structures. Are those authorities correct?

The Athenians began turning to the sea as early as 493/2, during Themistocles’ archonship. At that time, they started to build a fortification wall around the then-undeveloped port of Piraeus. During the 480s their investment in naval affairs became manifest with the construction of a fleet. Themistocles had pushed this project, for he rightly believed that a strong navy would contribute to defeating the Persians. After the Persian Wars, Themistocles both fostered the construction of a fortification wall around Athens and persuaded the Athenians to complete the circuit around Piraeus. The arrangements led by Themistocles left the Athenians vulnerable, however, for, simply by occupying the coastal plain, an invader could cut Athens off from the ships on which the city depended.

By the end of the 460s, the Athenians had resolved to do away with this weakness in their defenses by building the Long Walls. The new structures created a huge fortified region encompassing Athens, its port cities, and the plain between them. So long as the Athenians could hold the fortifications against assault, they would retain communication with their ships. Control of the sea lanes meant that provisions would arrive regularly, so the Athenians could endure a siege indefinitely. In safeguarding communication between Athens and the sea, the Long Walls thus enhanced the maritime strategy which Themistocles had done so much to develop.

In fact the Long Walls might appear to represent a logical final step in the sea-oriented vision of Themistocles. Accordingly, the ancient evidence associating the statesman and general with the structures is initially attractive. On chronological grounds, Themistocles cannot have participated in building the Long Walls, but one might suppose that he had planned to build the structures in order to bind Athens safely with its harbors. Among the ancient written sources, however, the earlier testimony stems from the Athenian orators, whose historical statements are inherently questionable and suspiciously symmetrical, while the later sources have little to commend them. Moreover, Themistocles’ defensive strategy apparently precludes the existence of Long Walls, for Thucydides states that Themistocles had suggested abandoning Athens for Piraeus in the face of a strong land assault. Had the Long Walls been part of his vision, there would have been no need to evacuate Athens in such a situation. Themistocles, then, had not planned to build structures linking Athens with its harbors.