Siege of Athens and Piraeus (87–86 BC) cities that returned to Roman dominance as their tyrant Aristion, imposed by Mithridates VI was not disposed to capitulate to the invaders. Sulla marched towards Athens and upon his arrival he encountered his first problem. The main outer wall that had surrounded the city, connecting the main city with its port at Piraeus was in ruins. As such, Sulla was forced to raise two separate sieges, throwing up siege works surrounding both Athens and Piraeus. A force commanded by Archelaus defended Piraeus whilst another commanded by Aristion took up the main defense of Athens. The sea defense was considerably easier
Port of Piraeus for top 100 container ports in 2015 Piraeus ranked 8th in Europe and 3rd the Mediterranean sea. The port of Piraeus is expected to become the busiest port of the Mediterranean in terms of container traffic by 2019. Until the 3rd millennium BC, Piraeus was a rocky island connected to the mainland by a low-lying stretch of land that was flooded with sea water most of the year. It was then that the area was increasingly silted and flooding ceased, thus permanently connecting Piraeus to Attica and forming its ports, the main port of Cantharus and the two smaller of