Such were the words of the Corinthians. They would have themselves preferred to see
neither her nor any other city in possession of a wall; though here
they acted principally at the instigation of their allies, who were
alarmed at the strength of her newly acquired navy and the valour
which she had displayed in the war with the Medes. The barbarians flocked in large numbers to their assistance,
the inhabitants of this part of the continent being old allies of
theirs. And we say inexpedient, because in our present
war with Corinth it has left us in a position of entire isolation,
and what once seemed the wise precaution of refusing to involve
ourselves in alliances with other powers, lest we should also involve
ourselves in risks of their choosing, has now proved to be folly and
weakness. There was no union of subject cities round a great state,
no spontaneous combination of equals for confederate expeditions;
what fighting there was consisted merely of local warfare between
rival neighbours. Last came forward Sthenelaidas,
one of the ephors for that year, and spoke to the Lacedaemonians as
follows: "The long speech of the Athenians I do not pretend to understand. For the Athenians also have a festival which is
called the grand festival of Zeus Meilichios or Gracious, viz., the
Diasia. In the sixth year of the truce, war broke out between the
Samians and Milesians about Priene. 38 "But such has not
been their conduct either towards others or towards us. But as soon as Minos
had formed his navy, communication by sea became easier, as he
colonized most of the islands, and thus expelled the malefactors. Ten years afterwards, the barbarian returned with the armada for the
subjugation of Hellas. changes, storing new additions in a versioning system. "I have many other reasons to hope for a favourable issue, if you
can consent not to combine schemes of fresh conquest with the conduct
of the war, and will abstain from wilfully involving yourselves in
other dangers; indeed, I am more afraid of our own blunders than of
the enemy's devices. To
this day the building shows signs of the haste of its execution; the
foundations are laid of stones of all kinds, and in some places not
wrought or fitted, but placed just in the order in which they were
brought by the different hands; and many columns, too, from tombs,
and sculptured stones were put in with the rest. The war marks a turning point in Ancient Greek history as the golden age of … For you cannot become their auxiliary
and remain our friend; if you join in their attack, you must share
the punishment which the defenders inflict on them. I have
added the section numbers (to facilitate specific citation or to find
a specific passage from a citation; these are displayed in
red, if your browser is capable of
understanding later versions of HTML) and the internal links (to
allow navigation); editions of the Greek texts have further
subdivisions, but these have not been added at this point. Summoning the allies, they told them that their
opinion was that Athens had been guilty of injustice, but that they
wished to convoke all the allies and put it to the vote; in order
that they might make war, if they decided to do so, on a common
resolution. The last act
before the war was the expulsion of the nobles by the people. Failing after
prolonged negotiation to obtain anything satisfactory from the
Athenians; being unable, for all they could say, to prevent the
vessels that were destined for Macedonia from also sailing against
them; and receiving from the Lacedaemonian government a promise to
invade Attica, if the Athenians should attack Potidaea, the
Potidaeans, thus favoured by the moment, at last entered into league
with the Chalcidians and Bottiaeans, and revolted. Sixteen of these went to Caria to look out for
the Phoenician fleet, and to Chios and Lesbos carrying round orders
for reinforcements, and so never engaged; but forty-four ships under
the command of Pericles with nine colleagues gave battle, off the
island of Tragia, to seventy Samian vessels, of which twenty were
transports, as they were sailing from Miletus. Indeed it was only shortly the Persian war, and
the death of Darius the successor of Cambyses, that the Sicilian
tyrants and the Corcyraeans acquired any large number of galleys. And it
was at a somewhat later stage of this development that they went on
the expedition against Troy. They took Chaeronea, and made slaves of
the inhabitants, and, leaving a garrison, commenced their return. Confidence might possibly be
felt in our superiority in heavy infantry and population, which will
enable us to invade and devastate their lands. Above all, it gave her most distinctly to
understand that war might be prevented by the revocation of the
Megara decree, excluding the Megarians from the use of Athenian
harbours and of the market of Athens. Indeed, this was
the reason of your receiving him with honours such as had never been
accorded to any foreign visitor. After the ambassadors from the
confederates had arrived and a congress had been convened, they all
spoke their minds, most of them denouncing the Athenians and
demanding that the war should begin. At the end of
the one stood Athens, at the head of the other Lacedaemon, one the
first naval, the other the first military power in Hellas. Meanwhile the Thasians
being defeated in the field and suffering siege, appealed to
Lacedaemon, and desired her to assist them by an invasion of Attica. He has represented it as consisting of
twelve hundred vessels; the Boeotian complement of each ship being a
hundred and twenty men, that of the ships of Philoctetes fifty. Among them came forward Pericles, son of Xanthippus, the first man of
his time at Athens, ablest alike in counsel and in action, and gave
the following advice: "There is one principle, Athenians, which I hold to through
everything, and that is the principle of no concession to the
Peloponnesians. According to them,
their old policy of refusing all offers of alliance was a policy of
moderation. They made an expedition against
Cyprus and subdued most of the island, and afterwards against
Byzantium, which was in the hands of the Medes, and compelled it to
surrender. He was
governor of the district, the King having given him Magnesia, which
brought in fifty talents a year, for bread, Lampsacus, which was
considered to be the richest wine country, for wine, and Myos for
other provisions. Of all that large host a few travelling
through Libya reached Cyrene in safety, but most of them perished. It is a common mistake in going to war to begin at the wrong
end, to act first, and wait for disaster to discuss the matter. It was marked by the
following undertakings in war and in administration during the
interval between the Median and the present war, against the
barbarian, against their own rebel allies, and against the
Peloponnesian powers which would come in contact with them on various
occasions. Commentary references to this page And the nature of the case first compelled us to advance our empire
to its present height; fear being our principal motive, though honour
and interest afterwards came in. After giving these instructions, and adding that he would be
responsible for all other matters there, he departed. So that if we strike the average of the
largest and smallest ships, the number of those who sailed will
appear inconsiderable, representing, as they did, the whole force of
Hellas. Urged by the taunts of the elders in
their city, the Corinthians made their preparations, and about twelve
days afterwards came and set up their trophy as victors. We need not refer to
remote antiquity: there we could appeal to the voice of tradition,
but not to the experience of our audience. Such were the words of Archidamus. It was now night, and
the Corcyraeans feared that they might be hostile vessels; but they
soon knew them, and the ships came to anchor. Now it is our
policy to be beforehand with her- that is, for Corcyra to make an
offer of alliance and for you to accept it; in fact, we ought to form
plans against her instead of waiting to defeat the plans she forms
against us. It was not till Hellen and his sons grew strong in
Phthiotis, and were invited as allies into the other cities, that one
by one they gradually acquired from the connection the name of
Hellenes; though a long time elapsed before that name could fasten
itself upon all. Eight hundred of the Corcyraeans
were slaves; these they sold; two hundred and fifty they retained in
captivity, and treated with great attention, in the hope that they
might bring over their country to Corinth on their return; most of
them being, as it happened, men of very high position in Corcyra. The best proof of this is furnished by Homer. On the other hand, we shall have much
greater cause to complain of you, if you do not comply with it; if
we, who are in peril and are no enemies of yours, meet with a repulse
at your hands, while Corinth, who is the aggressor and your enemy,
not only meets with no hindrance from you, but is even allowed to
draw material for war from your dependencies. Chapter 1: The State of Greece from the Earl iest Times to the Commencement of the Pelopo nnesian War Thucydides claims that the Peloponnesian war was the largest war in history to that point in time, and also mo re worthy of relating to And we acted thus at crises when, if
ever, men are wont in their efforts against their enemies to forget
everything for the sake of victory, regarding him who assists them
then as a friend, even if thus far he has been a foe, and him who
opposes them then as a foe, even if he has thus far been a friend;
indeed they allow their real interests to suffer from their absorbing
preoccupation in the struggle. There we have a far greater
deficiency. Admetus
happened not to be indoors, but his wife, to whom he made himself a
suppliant, instructed him to take their child in his arms and sit
down by the hearth. 28 When the Corcyraeans
heard of their preparations they came to Corinth with envoys from
Lacedaemon and Sicyon, whom they persuaded to accompany them, and
bade her recall the garrison and settlers, as she had nothing to do
with Epidamnus. 5 For in early times
the Hellenes and the barbarians of the coast and islands, as
communication by sea became more common, were tempted to turn
pirates, under the conduct of their most powerful men; the motives
being to serve their own cupidity and to support the needy. After the battle the Athenians set up a
trophy, and gave back their dead to the Potidaeans under truce. I know that the spirit which inspires men while they
are being persuaded to make war is not always retained in action;
that as circumstances change, resolutions change. But where the Corinthians themselves
were, on the left, they gained a decided success; the scanty forces
of the Corcyraeans being further weakened by the want of the twenty
ships absent on the pursuit. The sea-fight was an obstinate one, though not remarkable
for its science; indeed it was more like a battle by land. And after his second
voyage out in the ship of Hermione, without their orders, he gave
proofs of similar behaviour. And even these, although so many generations had
elapsed since the Trojan war, seem to have been principally composed
of the old fifty-oars and long-boats, and to have counted few galleys
among their ranks. Assuredly they will not be disturbed
either by the lays of a poet displaying the exaggeration of his
craft, or by the compositions of the chroniclers that are attractive
at truth's expense; the subjects they treat of being out of the reach
of evidence, and time having robbed most of them of historical value
by enthroning them in the region of legend. Attacked on the land side by the troops, and from the sea by the
Phoenician navy, most of the ships were destroyed; the few remaining
being saved by retreat. Another HTML version, with no numeration, but with each chapter as an
individual document if you prefer this, is available at the
Internet
Classics Archive from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The subsequent books narrate the course of the war
itself. 48 When the Corinthian
preparations were completed, they took three days' provisions and put
out from Chimerium by night, ready for action. asked him the reason of his suppliant position; and the man
reproached him with the order that he had written concerning him, and
one by one declared all the rest of the circumstances, how he who had
never yet brought him into any danger, while employed as agent
between him and the King, was yet just like the mass of his servants
to be rewarded with death. "But the principal point is the hindrance that they will
experience from want of money. 19 The policy of
Lacedaemon was not to exact tribute from her allies, but merely to
secure their subservience to her interests by establishing
oligarchies among them; Athens, on the contrary, had by degrees
deprived hers of their ships, and imposed instead contributions in
money on all except Chios and Lesbos. Besides, their geographical situation makes them
independent of others, and consequently the decision in cases where
they injure any lies not with judges appointed by mutual agreement,
but with themselves, because, while they seldom make voyages to their
neighbours, they are constantly being visited by foreign vessels
which are compelled to put in to Corcyra. Once again it is a fantastic book which I highly recommend. The Corinthians had been victorious
in the sea-fight until night; and having thus been enabled to carry
off most wrecks and dead, they were in possession of no fewer than a
thousand prisoners of war, and had sunk close upon seventy vessels. There were
many who came forward and made their several accusations; among them
the Megarians, in a long list of grievances, called special attention
to the fact of their exclusion from the ports of the Athenian empire
and the market of Athens, in defiance of the treaty. The manoeuvre of breaking
the line was not tried; in short, strength and pluck had more share
in the fight than science. In the face of this great danger, the command
of the confederate Hellenes was assumed by the Lacedaemonians in
virtue of their superior power; and the Athenians, having made up
their minds to abandon their city, broke up their homes, threw
themselves into their ships, and became a naval people. The Athenians
consented to do so. Having thus gained their point, the delegates returned
home at once; the Athenian envoys a little later, when they had
dispatched the objects of their mission. Vote
therefore, Lacedaemonians, for war, as the honour of Sparta demands,
and neither allow the further aggrandizement of Athens, nor betray
our allies to ruin, but with the gods let us advance against the
aggressors.". There he met with
a merchantman on the point of starting for Ionia. On
the return of the herald without any peaceful answer from the
Corinthians, their ships being now manned, they put out to sea to
meet the enemy with a fleet of eighty sail (forty were engaged in the
siege of Epidamnus), formed line, and went into action, and gained a
decisive victory, and destroyed fifteen of the Corinthian vessels. But our subjects are so habituated to associate with us as
equals that any defeat whatever that clashes with their notions of
justice, whether it proceeds from a legal judgment or from the power
which our empire gives us, makes them forget to be grateful for being
allowed to retain most of their possessions, and more vexed at a part
being taken, than if we had from the first cast law aside and openly
gratified our covetousness. Slow in
assembling, they devote a very small fraction of the time to the
consideration of any public object, most of it to the prosecution of
their own objects. This at least is certain. Sailing with a fleet to Thasos,
the Athenians defeated them at sea and effected a landing on the
island. Themistocles told the Athenians to send him off with all speed to
Lacedaemon, but not to dispatch his colleagues as soon as they had
selected them, but to wait until they had raised their wall to the
height from which defence was possible. To describe their character in a word, one might
truly say that they were born into the world to take no rest
themselves and to give none to others. And we must not be hurried into deciding in a
day's brief space a question which concerns many lives and fortunes
and many cities, and in which honour is deeply involved- but we must
decide calmly. 43 It is now our turn to
benefit by the principle that we laid down at Lacedaemon, that every
power has a right to punish her own allies. No irritation that we may feel for the former must provoke
us to a battle with the numerical superiority of the Peloponnesians. They dismantled
the walls of the Tanagraeans, took a hundred of the richest men of
the Opuntian Locrians as hostages, and finished their own long walls. We are both warlike and wise, and it
is our sense of order that makes us so. And yet if they were the
honest men they pretend to be, the less hold that others had upon
them, the stronger would be the light in which they might have put
their honesty by giving and taking what was just. Meanwhile Orestes, son of Echecratidas, the Thessalian king, being
an exile from Thessaly, persuaded the Athenians to restore him. The
bulk of her army continued its retreat home. Now it was clear before that
Lacedaemon entertained designs against us; it is still more clear
now. Book 1, Chapter 1: In Book 1, Chapter 1 Thucydides (c. 460–00 BCE) introduces his History of the Peloponnesian War. And it was not we who set the example, for it has
always been law that the weaker should be subject to the stronger. That good turn,
and the line we took on the Samian question, when we were the cause
of the Peloponnesians refusing to assist them, enabled you to conquer
Aegina and to punish Samos. They replied by inviting them to come forward. And so, instead of calling these allies together
before the blow fell, you have delayed to do so till we are smarting
under it; allies among whom we have not the worst title to speak, as
having the greatest complaints to make, complaints of Athenian
outrage and Lacedaemonian neglect. 117 But in the meantime
the Samians made a sudden sally, and fell on the camp, which they
found unfortified. He could also excellently divine the good and
evil which lay hid in the unseen future. In short, if they had stuck to the
siege, the capture of Troy would have cost them less time and less
trouble. Full search Three years afterwards a truce was made between the Peloponnesians
and Athenians for five years. Upon this they also
retired; for it was now getting dark, and the retreat of the
Corinthians had suspended hostilities. We say inconsistent, because a power
which has never in the whole of her past history been willing to ally
herself with any of her neighbours, is now found asking them to ally
themselves with her. But it was when they stood firmest
that they should have made overtures to you, and not at a time when
we have been wronged and they are in peril; nor yet at a time when
you will be admitting to a share in your protection those who never
admitted you to a share in their power, and will be incurring an
equal amount of blame from us with those in whose offences you had no
hand. Advertisement was made for volunteer settlers, and a force of
Ambraciots, Leucadians, and Corinthians was dispatched. In the
retreat of the vanquished army, a considerable division, pressed by
the pursuers and mistaking the road, dashed into a field on some
private property, with a deep trench all round it, and no way out. The absence of romance in my history will, I fear, detract
somewhat from its interest; but if it be judged useful by those
inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the
interpretation of the future, which in the course of human things
must resemble if it does not reflect it, I shall be content. They arrived in Thrace
forty days after the revolt of Potidaea. Anxious above everything to avoid suspicion, and confident that he
could quash the charge by means of money, he returned a second time
to Sparta. The best proof of this was furnished by the invader himself. For the
past, you are a good turn in my debt"- here he mentioned the warning
sent to Xerxes from Salamis to retreat, as well as his finding the
bridges unbroken, which, as he falsely pretended, was due to him-
"for the present, able to do you great service, I am here, pursued by
the Hellenes for my friendship for you. If they had brought plenty of
supplies with them, and had persevered in the war without scattering
for piracy and agriculture, they would have easily defeated the
Trojans in the field, since they could hold their own against them
with the division on service. In our action during that
war we ran great risk to obtain certain advantages: you had your
share in the solid results, do not try to rob us of all share in the
good that the glory may do us. But the Athenians have
plenty of other land in their empire, and can import what they want
by sea. The place was taken by treachery, being common ground
to the Corcyraeans and Corinthians. On hearing
the speeches they thought themselves called upon to come before the
Lacedaemonians. Others
have much money and ships and horses, but we have good allies whom we
must not give up to the Athenians, nor by lawsuits and words decide
the matter, as it is anything but in word that we are harmed, but
render instant and powerful help. Eurystheus had been killed in Attica by the Heraclids. Defeated at sea, the Corinthians and their allies
repaired home, and left the Corcyraeans masters of all the sea about
those parts. They had taken one of these towns, when the Lacedaemonians under
Nicomedes, son of Cleombrotus, commanding for King Pleistoanax, son
of Pausanias, who was still a minor, came to the aid of the Dorians
with fifteen hundred heavy infantry of their own, and ten thousand of
their allies. He said that he could not determine
which was the loudest acclamation (their mode of decision is by
acclamation not by voting); the fact being that he wished to make
them declare their opinion openly and thus to increase their ardour
for war. On being
informed that Aristeus and his reinforcements were on their way, they
sent two thousand heavy infantry of their own citizens and forty
ships against the places in revolt, under the command of Callias, son
of Calliades, and four colleagues. The Byzantines also agreed to be subject as before. Thucydides of Athens, one of the greatest of historians, was born about 471 BCE. Nor were the Corinthians on the mainland without their
allies. The naval strength which they
possess shall be raised by us from our respective antecedent
resources, and from the moneys at Olympia and Delphi. Could there be a clearer guarantee of our good faith than is
offered by the fact that the power which is at enmity with you is
also at enmity with us, and that that power is fully able to punish
defection? 88 The Lacedaemonians
voted that the treaty had been broken, and that the war must be
declared, not so much because they were persuaded by the arguments of
the allies, as because they feared the growth of the power of the
Athenians, seeing most of Hellas already subject to them. 61 The Athenians also
immediately received the news of the revolt of the cities. Let us also reflect that if it was merely a number of
disputes of territory between rival neighbours, it might be borne;
but here we have an enemy in Athens that is a match for our whole
coalition, and more than a match for any of its members; so that
unless as a body and as individual nationalities and individual
cities we make an unanimous stand against her, she will easily
conquer us divided and in detail. However, fancying he had chosen the right
time, he made the attempt. Whenever
they charged each other, the multitude and crush of the vessels made
it by no means easy to get loose; besides, their hopes of victory lay
principally in the heavy infantry on the decks, who stood and fought
in order, the ships remaining stationary. And not satisfied with their own
misconduct there, they appear here now requiring you to join with
them not in alliance but in crime, and to receive them in spite of
their being at enmity with us. "And the slowness and procrastination, the parts of our character
that are most assailed by their criticism, need not make you blush. You must also remember that your
decision is for Athens no less than Corcyra, and that you are not
making the best provision for her interests, if at a time when you
are anxiously scanning the horizon that you may be in readiness for
the breaking out of the war which is all but upon you, you hesitate
to attach to your side a place whose adhesion or estrangement is
alike pregnant with the most vital consequences. nothing on a great scale, either in war or in other matters. The rule of the sea is indeed a great matter. On Point Leukimme they posted their land forces, and a
thousand heavy infantry who had come from Zacynthus to their
assistance. History of the Peloponnesian War/Book 6. Meanwhile they
proceeded to man their ships, all of which had been equipped for
action, the old vessels being undergirded to make them seaworthy. However, the story shall be told not
so much to deprecate hostility as to testify against it, and to show,
if you are so ill advised as to enter into a struggle with Athens,
what sort of an antagonist she is likely to prove. Written in the 5th Century BC, the events of the war between the Peloponnesian and Delian leagues are detailed by Thucydides. As it
happened, his recall came just at the time when the hatred which he
had inspired had induced the allies to desert him, the soldiers from
Peloponnese excepted, and to range themselves by the side of the
Athenians. Meanwhile a
relieving squadron of fifty vessels had sailed from Athens and the
rest of the confederacy for Egypt. Our abatement of our rights in the contract trials with our
allies, and our causing them to be decided by impartial laws at
Athens, have gained us the character of being litigious. However, I desire a year's
grace, when I shall be able to declare in person the objects of my
coming.". Thucydides: History of the Peloponnesian War, IV, Books VII and VIII (Loeb Classical Library No. The Mede, we ourselves know, had time to come
from the ends of the earth to Peloponnese, without any force of yours
worthy of the name advancing to meet him. It was carried on without heralds, but not
without suspicion, as events were occurring which were equivalent to
a breach of the treaty and matter for war. The most powerful
victims of war or faction from the rest of Hellas took refuge with
the Athenians as a safe retreat; and at an early period, becoming
naturalized, swelled the already large population of the city to such
a height that Attica became at last too small to hold them, and they
had to send out colonies to Ionia.
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