Piræus

Piræus (Gr. Peiraieus), called also PORT DRACO, the harbour of both ancient and modern Athens (q.v.). Planned by Themistocles and laid out by Hippodamus of Miletus, the Piræus was built in the glorious days of Pericles; this ruler and Cimon before him built the three 'long walls' that connected Athens with its port (5 miles to the south-west), and so ensured a free and safe passage from one to the other at all times. It was both a war harbour and a commercial port, many foreigners living within its walls. Its arsenal (built 347-323 B.C.) and fortifications were destroyed by Sulla in 86 B.C., and from that time the town sank into decay. The modern Piræus, which has grown up since 1834, is a regularly laid-out but mean-looking town, with a naval and a military school, arsenal depôts, and manufactures of cottons, flour, paper, iron, nails, carts, furniture, &c., and is growing rapidly. A railway (1869), 5½ miles long, connects it with Athens. The foreign trade (£4,000,000 annually) is half that of all Greece. The imports are mainly coal and railway plant, &c., from Britain, petroleum from the United States, and sheep and cattle from Russia; and the exports, tobacco, valonia, hides, bones, horns, cheese, wool, &c. A total of 6000 vessels of 2½ million tons enter annually, one-half the tonnage being in Greek bottoms. Pop. (1871) 11,000; (1879) 21,055; (1890) 36,000.