History of the Peloponnesian War

The rest of the army, on returning with Clearidas from the pursuit, stripped the dead, and erected a trophy.

After this all the allies attended in arms, and interred Brasidas at the public expense in the city, in front of the present market-place. And ever since the Amphipolitans, having enclosed his tomb with a fence, have made offerings to him as to a hero, and have given him the honour of games and annual sacrifices. They also referred the settlement to him as its founder, demolishing the buildings of Hagnon, and obliterating whatever memorial of his founding the place was likely to remain: for they considered that Brasidas had been their preserver; and at the present time too, through fear of the Athenians, they courted the Lacedaemonians confederacy; while, on the other hand, they thought that Hagnon, in consequence of their hostility towards the Athenians, would not retain his honours either so beneficially or so agreeably to them.

The dead they restored to the Athenians. There were killed, of the Athenians, about six hundred; of their adversaries, only seven; because the battle was not fought with any regular order, but was rather brought on by such an accidental occurrence and previous alarm as has been described.

After taking up their dead, the Athenians sailed away home; while Clearidas and his party proceeded to settle matters about Amphipolis.

About the same time, towards the close of the summer, Ramphias, Autocharidas, and Epicydidas, Lacedaemonians, led a reinforcement of nine hundred heavy-armed to the Thraceward towns, and on their arrival at Heraclea in Trachinia arranged whatever appeared to them not to be on a good footing.

While they thus prolonged their stay in the place, this battle of Amphipolis happened to be fought; and so the summer ended

The following winter, Ramphias and his companions immediately passed through the country as far as Pierius in Thessaly; but as the Thessalians forbad their advance, and as Brasidas, moreover, was dead, to whom they were leading the force, they turned back home; thinking the time for action had gone by; as both the Athenians had departed in consequence of their defeat, and they were not competent to execute any of his designs.

But, most of all, they returned because they knew that the Lacedaemonians, at the time of their setting out, were more strongly disposed for peace.

It happened too, immediately after the battle of Amphipolis and the retreat of Ramphias from Thessaly, that neither party any longer applied themselves at all to the war, but they were rather inclined for peace. The Athenians were so, as having received a severe blow at Delium, and again shortly after at Amphipolis; and as no longer having that confident hope in their strength, through which they would not before accept the offered treaty, thinking, in consequence of their present success, that they should come off victorious in the struggle.

Besides, they were also afraid of their allies, lest they should be encouraged by their reverses to revolt on a larger scale; and they repented not having come to an arrangement, when they had a fine opportunity, after the events at Pylus.

The Lacedaemonians, on the other hand, wished for peace, because they found protracted beyond their expectation those hostilities by which they imagined that in a few years they should reduce the power of the Athenians, if they ravaged their land; and because they had met with the disaster on the island—such as had never yet befallen Sparta: and in consequence of their country being plundered from Pylus and Cythera; while their helots also were deserting, and there was a constant apprehension lest even those that remained in the country, trusting in the support of those who were out of it, should, on the strength of the present state of things, adopt some revolutionary designs against them, as on a former occasion.

It happened, too, that their thirty years' truce with the Argives was on the point of expiring, and the Argives would not renew it, unless the Cynurian territory were restored to them; so that it appeared impossible for them to carry on war at once with the Argives and Athenians. Besides, they suspected that some of the states in the Peloponnese would revolt from them to the Argives; as was really the case.

On these considerations both parties thought it best to conclude the arrangement; and particularly the Lacedaemonians, through the desire of recovering their men taken in the island; for those of them who were Spartans were of the highest rank, and connected with themselves in the same way.

They began therefore to negotiate immediately after their capture; but the Athenians, being so successful, would not yet make peace on fair terms. When, however, they had been defeated at Delium, immediately the Lacedaemonians, finding that they would now be more ready to accept their proposals, concluded the armistice for a year, during which they should meet together, and consult respecting a treaty for a longer period.

And when, moreover, the defeat at Amphipolis had befallen the Athenians, and Cleon and Brasidas were dead, who on each side were most opposed to the cause of peace-the one, because he was successful and honoured in consequence of the war; the other, because he thought, that if tranquillity were secured, he would be more easily detected in his evil practices, and less believed in his calumniations-then the individuals who in either country were most desirous of taking the lead, namely, Pleistoanax son of Pausanias, king of the Lacedaemonians, and Nicias son of Niceratus, who of all his contemporaries was most generally successful in his military commands, were much more anxious for peace than ever. Nicias was so, because he wished, while he had met with no disaster, and was in high repute, permanently to secure his good fortune; and both at present to obtain a respite from troubles himself and give his countrymen the same, and to hand down to futurity a name for having continued to the end without subjecting the state to any disaster; and he thought that such a result is secured by freedom from danger, and by a man's committing himself as little as possible to fortune, and that such freedom from danger is afforded by peace. Pleistoanax, on the other hand, took the same view, because he was calumniated by his enemies on the subject of his restoration, and was continually being brought forward by them as the object of religious scruple on the part of the Lacedaemonians, whenever they met with any defeat; as though it were owing to his illegal restoration that these things befell them.

For they charged him with having, in concert with Aristocles, his brother, prevailed on the prophetess at Delphi to give the following charge to such Lacedaemonians as went, during a long period, to consult the oracle; that they should bring back the seed of the demigod son of Jupiter from a foreign land to his own; else they would plough with a silver share.

And so they said that in the course of time, when he had gone as an exile to Lycaeum, (in consequence of his former return from Attica, which was thought to have been effected by bribery,) and had then, through fear of the Lacedaemonians, half his house within the sanctuary of Jupiter, he induced them, in the nineteenth year of his exile, to restore him with the same dances and sacrifices as when they appointed their kings on first settling in Lacedaemonian.

Being annoyed therefore by this calumny, and thinking that in time of peace, when no reverse was experienced, and when, moreover, the Lacedaemonians were recovering their men from the island, he too should give his enemies no handle against him; whereas, as long as there was war, the leading men must always be exposed to accusations from the occurrence of disasters; he was ardently desirous of the pacification.

And so during this winter they were meeting in conference; and when it was now close upon spring, The terrors of an armament, for which orders were sent round to the different states, as though for the purpose of building forts, were held forth by the Lacedaemonians, that the Athenians might the more readily listen to them. And when, after these conferences had been held. and they had urged many claims against each other, it was agreed that they should make peace on restoring what they had respectively taken during the war; but that the Athenians should keep Nisaea; (for on their demanding back Plataea, the Thebans said that it was not by force that they held the place, but in consequence of the inhabitants themselves having surrendered on definite terms, and not betrayed it to them; and the Athenians maintained that in the same way had they got possession of Nisaea;) then the Lacedaemonians convened their allies; and when all the rest, except the Boeotians, Corinthians, Eleans, and Megareans, who were displeased with what was being done, had voted for putting an end to the war, they concluded the arrangement, and made a treaty and bound themselves by oaths to the Athenians, and they to them, to the following effect:

1st, "The Athenians and Lacedaemonians, with their allies, made a treaty on the following terms, and swore to observe it, state by state. With regard to the temples common to the nation, that whoever wishes shall sacrifice, and go for that purpose, and consult the oracle, and attend the games, according to the custom of his fathers, whether proceeding by sea or land, without fear.

2nd, "That the temple and shrine of Apollo at Delphi, and the Delphians, shall be independent, self-taxed, and self judged, as regards both themselves and their territory, according to their hereditary usage.

3rd, "That the treaty shall be in force fifty years between the Athenians and their allies, and the Lacedaemonians and theirs, without guile or wrong, by land and by sea.

4th, "That it shall not be lawful to take the field for the purpose of inflicting injury, either for the Lacedaemonians and their allies against the Athenians and their allies, or for the Athenians and their allies against the Lacedaemonians and their allies, by any means whatever. But should any dispute arise between them, they must have recourse to justice and oaths, in whatever way they may arrange.

5th, "That the Lacedaemonians and their allies shall restore Amphipolis to the Athenians. That of all the cities, however, which the Lacedaemonians may restore to the Athenians, the inhabitants shall be allowed to depart wherever they please, themselves and their property with them; and the cities shall be independent, only paying the tribute that was paid in the time of Aristides. That it shall not be lawful for the Athenians, or their allies, to take the field against them for their injury, after the treaty has been concluded. The cities referred to are Argilus, Stagirus, Acanthus, Scolus, Olynthus, and Spartolus. That these shall be considered as allies to neither party, neither the Lacedaemonians nor the Athenians; but if the Athenians gain the consent of the cities, then it shall be lawful for them to make them their allies, with their own free will. That the Mecybernaeans, Samaeans, and Singaeans shall inhabit their own cities, like the Olynthians and Acanthians; but that the Lacedaemonians and their allies shall restore Panactum to the Athenians.

6th, "That the Athenians, also, shall restore to the Lacedaemonians Coryphasium, Cythera, Methone, Pteleum, and Atalanta, and all the Lacedaemonians that are in prison at Athens, or any where else in all the Athenian dominions; and shall release those of the Peloponnesians who are being besieged in Scione; and all others in that place who are allies of the Lacedaemonians; and whoever amongst the allies of the Lacedaemonians is in prison at Athens, or any where else in the Athenian dominions.

7th, "That the Lacedaemonians too, and their allies, shall in the same way restore whomever of the Athenians and their allies they may have in their hands.

8th, "That in the case of the Scionaeans, Toronaeans, and Sermylians, and whatever other city the Athenians have possession of, respecting these and the rest they shall adopt such measures as they please.

9th, "That the Athenians shall take the oaths to the Lacedaemonians and their allies, state by state; and that every man shall swear by the most binding oath of his country, according to his respective state. That the oath must be to this effect: 'I will abide by these arrangements and articles of the treaty, honestly and without guile.' That in the same way an oath shall be taken by the Lacedaemonians and their allies to the Athenians;

and that on both sides the oath shall be renewed yearly. That the contracting parties shall erect pillars at Olympia, Pythia, the Isthmus, at Athens in the citadel, and at Lacedaemon in the temple of Apollo at Amyclae.

That if they forget any thing, whatever it may be, and on whatever point, it shall be consistent with their oaths for both parties, Athenians and Lacedaemonians, by means of fair discussion, to change it in such manner as they please.

The treaty commences from the ephoralty of Pleistolas, on the 27th of the month Artemisium, and from the archonship of Alcaeus at Athens, on the 25th of the month Elaphebolion. Those who took the oaths and subscribed the treaty were as follows:

on the side of the Lacedaemonians, [Pleistoanax, Agis,] Pleistolas, Damagetus, Chionis, Metagenes, Acanthus, Daithus, Ischagoras, Philocharidas, Zeuxidas, Antippus, Tellis, Alcinidas, Empedias, Menas, and Laphilus: on the side of the Athenians, Lampon, Isthmionicus, Nicias, Laches, Laches, Euthydemus, Procles, Pythodorus, Hagnon, Myrtilus, Thrasycles, Theogenes, Aristocrates, Iolcius, Timocrates. Leon, Lamachus, and Demosthenes.

This treaty was concluded at the end of the winter, when the spring was commencing, immediately after the city festival of Bacchus, when just ten years had elapsed with the variation of a few days, since the invasion of Attica was first made, and this war commenced.

But let every one regard this with reference to the periods of time, and not, as placing greater confidence in such a view, with respect to the enumeration of the public officers in the several places, or of the titles derived from any honourable appointment which serve to mark past events. For that gives no definite idea, as to who were in the commencement of their office, or in the middle of it, or whatever part it might be, when any event occurred.

But if he reckon by summers and winters, as I have written my history, he will find that while each of these amounts to half a year, there were ten summers and as many winters included in this first war.

Now the Lacedaemonians (for it fell to their lot to be the first to restore what they held) immediately released the men who were prisoners in their country; and sending as ambassadors to the countries Thrace-ward, Ischagoras, Menas, and Philocharidas, commanded Clearidas to restore Amphipolis to the Athenians, and the rest of the states to accept the treaty, as it had been severally arranged for them.

They, however, would not, as they thought it not favourable to them; nor did Clearidas restore the city, wishing to oblige the Chalcidians, and declaring that he could not give it up in opposition to them.

He, however, went in haste to Lacedaemon with ambassadors from that place, to defend himself, if Ischagoras and his party should bring any charge against him for not obeying; and at the same time from a wish to know whether the arrangement might still be altered: but when he found the treaty secured, being sent back again himself by the Lacedaemonians, and ordered to deliver up the place, if possible, but if not, to bring out all the Peloponnesians that were in it, he set out with all speed.

Now the allies happened themselves to be at Lacedaemon, and those of them who had not accepted the treaty were commanded by the Lacedaemonians to adopt it. They, however, on the same grounds as they had at first rejected it, refused to accept it, unless they made a more equitable one than that.

So when they did not listen to them, they sent them away, and themselves proceeded to conclude an alliance with the Athenians; thinking that the Argives ( since they refused, on Ampelidas and Lichas going to them, to make a fresh treaty) would be by no means formidable without the support of the Athenians, and that the rest of the Peloponnese would be most disposed to remain quiet; whereas they would have gone over to the Athenians, if they had had the power.

Ambassadors, therefore, having come from the Athenians, and a conference having been held, they came to an agreement, and oaths were taken, and this alliance concluded, on the following terms:

"The Lacedaemonians shall be allies of the Athenians for fifty years.

2nd, "That should any come as enemies against the territory of the Lacedaemonians, and do them injury, the Athenians shall assist them in such manner as they can most efficiently, to the utmost of their power. That should they have ravaged the land and departed, that state shall be considered as hostile to the Lacedaemonians and Athenians, and be punished by both of them; and that both states shall make peace at the same

time. That these conditions shall be observed honestly, heartily, and sincerely.

3rd, "That, again, should any come as enemies against the country of the Athenians, and injure them, the Lacedaemonians shall assist them in whatever manner they can most efficiently, to the utmost of their power. That should they have ravaged the land and departed, that state shall be considered as hostile to the Lacedaemonians and Athenians, and punished by both of them; and that both states shall make peace at the

same time. That these conditions shall be observed honestly, heartily, and sincerely.

4th, "That should the slave population rise up against them, the Athenians shall assist the Lacedaemonians with all their might, according to their ability.

5th, That these articles shall be sworn to by the same persons as swore to the other

treaty, on both sides. That they shall be renewed every year, by the Lacedaemonians going to Athens at the Dionysian festival, and by the Athenians going to

Lacedaemon at the Hyacinthian. That they shall each erect a pillar, that at Lacedaemon near the statue of Apollo in the Amyclaeum, and that at Athens in the citadel, near

the statue of Minerva. That should the Lacedaemonians and Athenians choose to add to, or take away from, these terms of alliance, whatever they please so to do shall be consistent with the oaths of both parties.

The oath was sworn by the following on the side of the Lacedaemonians: Pleistoanax, Agis, Pleistolas, Damagetus, Chionis, Metagenes, Acanthus, Daithus, Ischagoras, Philocharidas, Zeuxidas, Antippus, Alcinadas, Tellis, Empedias, Menas, and Laphilus: and on the side of the Athenians, by Lampon, Isthmionicus, Laches, Nicias, Euthydemus, Procles, Pythodorus, Hagnon, Myrtilus, Thrasycles, Theogenes, Aristocrates, Iolcius, Timocrates, Leon, Lamachus, and Demosthenes

This alliance was entered into not long after the treaty, and the Athenians restored to the Lacedaemonians the men taken from the

island; and thus began the summer of the eleventh year. During these ten years, then, the first war was carried on continuously, and such is the history of it.

After the treaty, and the alliance between the Lacedaemonians and Athenians, which were concluded at the end of the ten years' war, in the ephoralty of Pleistolas at Lacedaemon, and the archonship of Alcaeus at Athens, those who had acceded to them were at peace; but the Corinthians, and some of the states in the Peloponnese, were trying to alter what had been done; and another disturbance immediately arose on the part of the allies against Lacedaemon.

Moreover, the Lacedaemonians, as time went on, became suspected by the Athenians also, through not performing in some respects what had been agreed on, according to the treaty.

And though for six years and ten months they abstained from marching against each other's territory, yet out of it, during the existence of a doubtful suspension of arms, they were doing one another the greatest possible damage. Subsequently, however, they were compelled to break the treaty concluded after the ten years' war, and again proceeded to open hostilities.

And the same Thucydides the Athenian has also written the history of these transactions in order, as they severally happened, by summers and winters, until the Lacedaemonians and their allies put an end to the sovereignty of the Athenians, and took the long walls and Piraeus. To the time of that event there were spent in the war seven and twenty years in all. With regard to the intervening arrangement, if any one shall object to consider it as a state of war, he will not estimate it rightly.

For let him regard it as it is characterized by the facts of the case, and he will find that there is no reason for its being deemed a state of peace; since during it they neither gave nor received back all they had arranged to do; and besides this, there were offences committed on both sides, as in the case of the Mantinean and Epidaurian wars, and other instances; and the Thrace-ward allies were in no respect less at war than before; while the Boeeotians had only a truce from one ten days to another.

Including, therefore, the first war of ten years, the suspicious cessation of hostilities which followed it, and the subsequent war which succeeded to that, any one will find that the number of years was what I have mentioned, (reckoning by the great divisions of time,) with only a few days' difference; and that such as positively asserted any thing on the strength of oracles, found this the only fact which proved true.

At least I, for my own part, remember that all along, both at the beginning of the war, and till it was brought to a conclusion, it was alleged by many that it was to last thrice nine years.

And I lived on through the whole of it, being of an age to comprehend events, and paying attention, in order to gain accurate knowledge on each point. It was also my lot to be banished my country twenty years after my command at Amphipolis; and thus, by being present at the transactions of either party, and especially of the Peloponnesians, in consequence of my banishment, to gain at my leisure a more perfect acquaintance with each of them.

The difference, then, which arose after the ten years, and the breaking up of the treaty, and the subsequent course of hostilities, I will now relate.

When, then, the fifty years' treaty had been concluded, and the alliance afterwards, the embassies from the Peloponnese, which had been summoned for that business, returned from Lacedaemon. Accordingly the rest went home;

but the Corinthians repaired to Argos, and in the first place held communications with some of the Argives who were in office, to the effect that, since the Lacedaemonians, not for the good, but for the subjugation of the Peloponnese, had entered into treaty and alliance with the Athenians, who were before their bitterest enemies; the Argives ought to consider how the Peloponnese might be preserved; and to pass a decree, that any city of the Greeks that wished, being independent, and giving judicial satisfaction for wrongs, on fair and equal terms, might enter into alliance with the Argives, on condition of defending each other's country: and that they should appoint a few persons as commissioners with full powers, instead of the discussion of the measure being held before the people; in order that those might not be known who had failed to persuade the multitude. And they asserted that many would come over to them for hatred of the Lacedaemonians.