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1.
The war between the Athenians and
Peloponnesians and the allies on either side now really begins.
For now all intercourse except through the medium of heralds ceased, and
hostilities were commenced and prosecuted without intermission.
The history follows the chronological order of events by summers and
winters.
2.
The thirty years' truce which was entered
into after the conquest of Euboea lasted fourteen years.
In the fifteenth, in the forty-eighth year of the priestess-ship of Chrysis
at Argos, in the Ephorate of Aenesias at Sparta, in the last month but two
of the Archonship of Pythodorus at Athens, and six months after the battle
of Potidaea, just at the beginning of spring, a Theban force a little over
three hundred strong, under the command of their Boeotarchs, Pythangelus,
son of Phyleides, and Diemporus, son of Onetorides, about the first watch of
the night, made an armed entry into Plataea, a town of Boeotia in alliance
with Athens.
[2]
The gates were opened to them by a Plataean called Naucleides, who, with
his party, had invited them in, meaning to put to death the citizens of the
opposite party, bring over the city to Thebes, and thus obtain power for
themselves.
[3]
This was arranged through Eurymachus, son of Leontiades, a person of great
influence at Thebes.
For Plataea had always been at variance with Thebes; and the latter, foreseeing that war was at hand, wished to surprise her old
enemy in time of peace, before hostilities had actually broken out.
Indeed this was how they got in so easily without being observed, as no
guard had been posted.
[4]
After the soldiers had grounded arms in the marketplace, those who had
invited them in wished them to set to work at once and go to their enemies'
houses.
This, however, the Thebans refused to do, but determined to make a
conciliatory proclamation, and if possible to come to a friendly
understanding with the citizens.
Their herald accordingly invited any who wished to resume their old place
in the confederacy of their countrymen to ground arms with them, for they
thought that in this way the city would readily join them.
3.
On becoming aware of the presence of the
Thebans within their gates, and of the sudden occupation of the town, the
Plataeans concluded in their alarm that more had entered than was really the
case, the night preventing their seeing them.
They accordingly came to terms, and accepting the proposal, made no
movement; especially as the Thebans offered none of them any violence.
[2]
But somehow or other, during the negotiations, they discovered the scanty
numbers of the Thebans, and decided that they could easily attack and
overpower them; the mass of the Plataeans being averse to revolting from Athens.
[3]
At all events they resolved to attempt it.
Digging through the party walls of the houses, they thus managed to join
each other without being seen going through the streets, in which they
placed wagons without the beasts in them, to serve as a barricade, and
arranged everything else as seemed convenient for the occasion.
[4]
When everything had been done that circumstances permitted, they watched
their opportunity and went out of their houses against the enemy.
It was still night, though daybreak was at hand: in daylight it was thought
that their attack would be met by men full of courage and on equal terms
with their assailants, while in darkness it would fall upon panic-stricken
troops, who would also be at a disadvantage from their enemy's knowledge of
the locality.
So they made their assault at once, and came to close quarters as quickly
as they could.
4.
The Thebans, finding themselves outwitted,
immediately closed up to repel all attacks made upon them.
[2]
Twice or thrice they beat back their assailants.
But the men shouted and charged them, the women and slaves screamed and
yelled from the houses and pelted them with stones and tiles; besides, it had been raining hard all night; and so at last their courage gave way, and they turned and fled through the
town.
Most of the fugitives were quite ignorant of the right ways out, and this,
with the mud, and the darkness caused by the moon being in her last quarter,
and the fact that their pursuers knew their way about and could easily stop
their escape, proved fatal to many.
[3]
The only gate open was the one by which they had entered, and this was shut
by one of the Plataeans driving the spike of a javelin into the bar instead
of the bolt; so that even here there was no longer any means of exit.
[4]
They were now chased all over the town.
Some got on the wall and threw themselves over, in most cases with a fatal
result.
One party managed to find a deserted gate, and obtaining an axe from a
woman, cut through the bar; but as they were soon observed only a few succeeded in getting out.
Others were cut off in detail in different parts of the city.
[5]
The most numerous and compact body rushed into a large building next to the
city wall: the doors on the side of the street happened to be open, and the
Thebans fancied that they were the gates of the town, and that there was a
passage right through to the outside.
[6]
The Plataeans, seeing their enemies in a trap, now consulted whether they
should set fire to the building and burn them just as they were, or whether
there was anything else that they could do with them;
[7]
until at length these and the rest of the Theban survivors found wandering
about the town agreed to an unconditional surrender of themselves and their
arms to the Plataeans.
[8]
While such was the fate of the party in
Plataea,
5.
the rest of the Thebans who were to have joined them with all their forces
before daybreak, in case of anything miscarrying with the body that had
entered, received the news of the affair on the road, and pressed forward to
their succor.
[2]
Now Plataea is nearly eight miles from Thebes, and their march was delayed
by the rain that had fallen in the night, for the river Asopus had risen and
was not easy of passage;
[3]
and so, having to march in the rain, and being hindered in crossing the
river, they arrived too late, and found the whole party either slain or
captive.
[4]
When they learned what had happened, there at once formed a design against
the Plataeans outside the city.
As the attack had been made in time of peace, and was perfectly unexpected,
there were of course men and stock in the fields; and the Thebans wished if possible to have some prisoners to exchange
against their countrymen in the town, should any chance to have been taken
alive.
[5]
Such was their plan.
But the Plataeans suspected their intention almost before it was formed,
and becoming alarmed for their fellow-citizens outside the town, sent a
herald to the Thebans, reproaching them for their unscrupulous attempt to
seize their city in time of peace, and warning them against any outrage on
those outside.
Should the warning be disregarded, they threatened to put to death the men
they had in their hands, but added that, on the Thebans retiring from their
territory, they would surrender the prisoners to their friends.
[6]
This is the Theban account of the matter, and they say that they had an
oath given them.
The Plataeans, on the other hand, do not admit any promise of an immediate
surrender, but make it contingent upon subsequent negotiation: the oath they
deny altogether.
[7]
Be this as it may, upon the Thebans retiring from their territory without
committing any injury, the Plataeans hastily got in whatever they had in the
country and immediately put the men to death.
The prisoners were a hundred and eighty in number; Eurymachus, the person with whom the traitors had negotiated, being one.
6.
This done, the Plataeans sent a messenger to
Athens, gave back the dead to the Thebans under a truce, and arranged things
in the city as seemed best to meet the present emergency.
[2]
The Athenians meanwhile, having had word of the affair sent them
immediately after its occurrence, had instantly seized all the Boeotians in
Attica, and sent a herald to the Plataeans to forbid their proceeding to
extremities with their Theban prisoners without instructions from Athens.
The news of the men's death had of course not arrived;
[3]
the first messenger having left Plataea just when the Thebans entered it,
the second just after their defeat and capture; so there was no later news.
Thus the Athenians sent their orders in ignorance of the facts; and the herald on his arrival found the men slain.
[4]
After this the Athenians marched to Plataea and brought in provisions, and
left a garrison in the place, also taking away the women and children and
such of the men as were least efficient.
7.
After the affair at Plataea the treaty had
been broken by an overt act, and Athens at once prepared for war, as did
also Lacedaemon and her allies.
They resolved to send embassies to the king and to such other of the
barbarian powers as either party could look to for assistance, and tried to
ally themselves with the independent states at home.
[2]
Lacedaemon, in addition to the existing marine, gave orders to the states
that had declared for her in Italy and Sicily to build vessels up to a grand
total of five hundred, the quota of each city being determined by its size,
and also to provide a specified sum of money.
Till these were ready they were to remain neutral and to admit single
Athenian ships into their harbors.
[3]
Athens on her part reviewed her existing confederacy, and sent embassies to
the places more immediately round Peloponnese, Corcyra, Cephallenia,
Acarnania, and Zacynthus; perceiving that if these could be relied on she could carry the war all
round Peloponnese.
8.
And if both sides nourished the boldest hopes
and put forth their utmost strength for the war, this was only natural.
Zeal is always at its height at the commencement of an undertaking; and on this particular occasion Peloponnese and Athens were both full of
young men whose inexperience made them eager to take up arms, while the rest
of Hellas stood straining with excitement at the conflict of its leading
cities.
[2]
Everywhere predictions were being recited and oracles being chanted by such
persons as collect them, and this not only in the contending cities.
[3]
Further, some while before this, there was an earthquake at Delos, for the
first time in the memory of the Hellenes.
This was said and thought to be ominous of the events impending; indeed, nothing of the kind that happened was allowed to pass without
remark.
[4]
The good wishes of men made greatly for the Lacedaemonians, especially as
they proclaimed themselves the liberators of
Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War. London, J. M. Dent; New York, E. P. Dutton. 1910.
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