Attack on Melos
In 416
an Athenian force beseiged the tiny city-state on the island of
Melos1 situated in the Mediterranean south
of the Peloponnese, a
community sympathetic to Sparta2 that had taken no active part in the war, although it may have made a monetary
contribution to the Spartan war effort. In any case, that Athens considered Melos an
enemy had been made clear earlier when
Nicias had led an unsuccessful attack on
the island in 426.3 Now once again Athens in 416 demanded that Melos support its alliance
voluntarily or face destruction, but the Melians refused to submit despite the
overwhelming superiority of Athenian force. When Melos eventually had to surrender to
the beseiging army,
its men were killed and its women and children sold into
slavery.4 An Athenian community was then established on the island. Thucydides portrays
Athenian motives in the affair of Melos as concerned exclusively with the amoral
politics of the use of force, while the Melians he shows as relying on a concept of
justice to govern relations between states. He represents the leaders of the opposing
sides as participating in a private meeting to discuss their views of what issues are
at stake.
This passage in his history5, called the Melian Dialogue, offers a chillingly realistic insight into the
clash between ethics and power in international politics.
