Sulla's Sack of Athens

On 1 March 86 BC, the Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla captured Athens after a long and brutal siege, ending the city's revolt in support of Mithridates VI of Pontus. Athens, under the rule of Aristion, had sided with Mithridates, and a Pontic army under the general Archelaus held the port of Piraeus. Sulla besieged both. Inside Athens, famine became so severe that people were reduced to eating leather and grass. To build siege works, Sulla's soldiers cut down the sacred groves of the Academy and the Lyceum, where Plato and Aristotle had taught. When his troops finally broke through the walls at night, Sulla allowed a massacre. According to Plutarch, so much blood flowed that it poured out through the city gates. Sulla eventually stopped the killing, reportedly saying he spared the living for the sake of the dead, meaning the glorious Athenians of the past. Aristion was executed. Soon after, Sulla captured Piraeus and destroyed its harbor and arsenal. Athens was left impoverished, but it remained a respected center of philosophy and education.