Walls and forts during the Peloponnesian War

[Grey]

I’m reading Donald Kagan’s The Peloponnesian War and was wondering about the forts and walls built by the Athenians.

What were the Athenian walls like? Where they simple stone and mortar or limestone blocks or rammed earth? The long wall reached down to the harbour, about 5 miles away. The forts built by the Athenians were finished in 3-6 days! Now I understand that a lot of bored soldiers can build fairly quickly but less than 1 week for a fort? What kind of construction was it?

[Kizarvexius]

I’m not sure how formidable the walls really were, but I suspect they must have been fairly substantial. The Spartans did demand that they be torn down as part of the peace treaty, IIRC. There’s also the fact that Greece is a very rocky region. No shortage of material for throwing together some pretty strong walls in a hurry. My WAG would be raw stone and mortar.

[Grey]

So the long walls to Athen’s harbour would’ve been made the same way the forts were? Stone and mortar?

[Grey]

Well I was hoping for more replies. Still, would anyone know if the construction methods in Vitruvius’ Ten Books on Architecture would be similar to those of the Greeks back in 430 BC?

[Bookkeeper]

The Long Walls were pretty substantial stone fortifications. Description from this site:

The Long Walls were built to protect the road between Athens and Piraeus. They ran in parallel, 1 stade (160 metres) apart, for 6000 metres between the two cities, with the road between them. Thucydides described the fortifications, and the distances have been confirmed by I. Travlos. Pericles ordered the construction of the south wall; the north wall had been built during the time of Themistocles. Between the two was a temple to Theseus. The walls remained intact for 54 years; they were destroyed in 404 BC, when the Spartans occupied Athens, and rebuilt by Conon (393 BC), who strengthened them with towers and other fortifications. Sections of the walls remained standing until the 19th century. They were described by travellers Wheeler and Stuart in 1676, who recorded that the walls were built of large square blocks of stone on a solid rock foundation, the whole (foundations and superstructure) being 4 metres thick. The walls began at the city gate of Piraeus, and followed a line more or less corresponding to the present-day Piraeus Road. They rose to a height of 20 metres, and were punctuated at frequent intervals by towers. Three octagonal towers in the south wall were still standing at that time, the easternmost 10 metres tall and 5 metres wide, the other two somewhat smaller (8 x 5).

I don’t know about forts constructed in the field, but these would almost certainly been earth ditch/wall types, possibly with wooden stake palisades (if timber was available). Any stone field forts would have been of an expedient nature (“Let’s demolish this house/barn/sheepfold and add the stones to our fort”), as anything else would have required a lot of time and resources.

[Agent_Cooper]

20 metres high and 4 thick!? Holy cow! Now THAT is a wall. China be damned. Am I alone in finding those dimensions to be … well … overkill? Even if that’s just a few high parts … still.

[Grey]

No kidding! I’m digging about for an engraving or some sort of illustration.

Looks like wooden walls were used at least once. I’ve hit a part where the Boetians improvise a flamethrower to get rid of an Athenian outpost.