Book 5

Chapter 1

1 In the summer that followed, the year's truce had expired by the time of the Pythian games. During the armistice the Athenians expelled the Delians from Delos, judging that an ancient offense made them impure in their service to the god, and that their continued presence left the purification incomplete. I have already described that purification, and how the Athenians thought they had acted rightly in removing the tombs of the dead. The Delians settled at Adramyttium in Asia, which Pharnaces gave them, each going as he chose.

Chapter 2

1 Cleon, having persuaded the Athenians, sailed after the armistice for the places on the Thracian coast, with twelve hundred Athenian hoplites and three hundred cavalry, a larger number of allies, and thirty ships.

2 He first put in at Scione, which was still under siege, and took on additional hoplites from the besieging force; then he sailed into Cophus, the harbor of the Toronaeans, not far from their city.

3 There he learned from deserters that Brasidas was not in Torone and that its garrison was no match for him. He advanced against the city with his land army and sent ten ships around to sail into the harbor.

4 He came first to the outer circuit of fortifications, which Brasidas had added to the city to bring the suburb within the walls. By breaking through part of the old wall, Brasidas had made the whole a single city.

Chapter 3

1 Pasitelidas, the Lacedaemonian commander, and the garrison at hand came to the defense of the fortifications and resisted the Athenian assault. But when they were hard pressed, and the ships sent around to the harbor were coming into view at the same time, Pasitelidas feared that the fleet would seize the city before him while it lay undefended, and that he would be trapped if the fortifications fell. He abandoned them and ran for the city.

2 But the Athenians from the ships captured Torone before he could reach it, while the infantry followed close behind him and burst in with a shout through the breach in the old wall. They killed some of the Peloponnesians and Toronaeans at once in hand-to-hand fighting, and took the others alive, including Pasitelidas, their commander.

3 Brasidas was coming to the relief of Torone, but learned on the road that it had fallen and withdrew. He was about forty stades short of arriving in time.

4 Cleon and the Athenians set up two trophies, one by the harbor and the other at the fortifications. They enslaved the Toronaean women and children and sent the men, together with the Peloponnesians and any other Chalcidians present, to Athens—about seven hundred in all. Of these, the Peloponnesians were released later under the treaty that was concluded; the rest were recovered by the Olynthians in an exchange of man for man.

5 About the same time the Boeotians also took Panactum, an Athenian fortress on the frontier, through treachery.

6 Cleon established a garrison at Torone, then put to sea and sailed around Athos toward Amphipolis.

Chapter 4

1 About the same time Phaeax son of Erasistratus sailed for Italy and Sicily as one of three ambassadors whom the Athenians were sending in two ships.

2 After the Athenians had left Sicily following the settlement, the Leontines had enrolled many new citizens, and the people were planning a redistribution of the land.

3 The powerful men learned of this, brought in the Syracusans, and expelled the people. The exiles scattered as each could, while the powerful men came to terms with the Syracusans, left their city deserted, and settled at Syracuse with citizenship there.

4 Later some of them, dissatisfied, left Syracuse in turn and occupied a quarter of the city of Leontini called Phocaeae, and Bricinniae, a stronghold in Leontine territory. Most of the people who had been expelled at that time joined them, and, established within the fortifications, they carried on the war.

5 When the Athenians heard of this, they sent Phaeax to see whether they could save the people of Leontini by persuading their allies there, and the other Siceliots too if possible, to make a joint expedition against the Syracusans, on the grounds that they were building up their power.

6 On his arrival Phaeax won over the Camarinaeans and the Acragantines, but met with opposition at Gela. He went no farther to the other cities, realizing that he would not persuade them, but returned through the country of the Sicels to Catana. On his way he also visited Bricinniae and encouraged its defenders; then he sailed away.

Chapter 5

1 On his voyage to Sicily and again on his return, he negotiated with certain cities in Italy as well, concerning friendship with Athens. He encountered the Locrian settlers who had been expelled from Messene. After the settlement among the Siceliots, civil strife had broken out at Messene; one of the factions called in the Locrians, and these men were sent out as settlers, so that for a time Messene belonged to the Locrians.

2 Phaeax therefore did them no harm when he encountered them on their way home, for the Locrians had reached an agreement with him concerning a settlement with the Athenians.

3 They alone among the allies had not made a truce with the Athenians when the Siceliots came to terms; nor would they have done so even now, had they not been hard pressed by their war with the Hipponians and Medmaeans, their neighbors and their own colonists. Phaeax arrived back at Athens some time later.

Chapter 6

1 When Cleon had sailed around from Torone toward Amphipolis, he made Eion his base and attacked Stagirus, a colony of the Andrians, but failed to take it. He did, however, storm Alepsus, the Thasian colony.

2 He sent ambassadors to Perdiccas, asking him to bring an army in accordance with the alliance, and others into Thrace to Polles, king of the Odomantians, to bring as many Thracian mercenaries as possible. He himself remained at Eion, awaiting them.

3 Brasidas learned of this and took up a position opposite him at Cerdylium. This place belongs to the Argilians and stands on high ground across the river, not far from Amphipolis. Everything could be seen from there, so that Cleon could not move out with his army unobserved. Brasidas expected him to do just that: to despise the numbers of his opponents and advance against Amphipolis with the troops he already had.

4 Meanwhile Brasidas was making ready fifteen hundred Thracian mercenaries and calling out all the Edonians, both peltasts and cavalry. He also had a thousand Myrcinian and Chalcidian peltasts, besides those in Amphipolis.

5 The hoplites assembled numbered about two thousand in all, and there were three hundred Greek cavalry. With some fifteen hundred of these troops Brasidas held his position at Cerdylium; the rest were stationed in Amphipolis with Clearidas.

Chapter 7

1 For a time Cleon remained inactive; then he was compelled to do precisely what Brasidas expected.

2 His soldiers were chafing at their idleness and reflecting on the inexperience and weakness of their commander, set against the skill and daring he would face, and on their own reluctance to follow him when they left home. Cleon heard the murmuring, and, unwilling to let them grow discontented through sitting in one place, took up his army and led it forward.

3 He followed the same method whose success at Pylos had given him some confidence in his own understanding. He did not even expect anyone to come out against him in battle, but said that he was going up rather to inspect the ground. He was waiting for the larger force, not to assure himself of superiority if compelled to fight, but to surround the city and take it by force.

4 He came up and stationed his army on a strong hill before Amphipolis, while he himself examined the lake-like expanse of the Strymon and the lie of the city on its Thracian side.

5 He thought he could withdraw whenever he wished without a battle. Indeed, no one could be seen on the wall, no one was coming out through the gates, and all of them were closed. He even thought he had made a mistake in coming up without siege engines: so deserted did the city seem that he could have taken it.

Chapter 8

1 As soon as Brasidas saw the Athenians moving, he too came down from Cerdylium and entered Amphipolis.

2 He did not march out and draw up against the Athenians. He distrusted his own force and thought it inferior, not in numbers—for the two sides were roughly equal—but in quality: the Athenian contingent on this expedition was drawn wholly from their own citizens, together with the best troops of Lemnos and Imbros. Instead, he prepared to attack by a stratagem.

3 He thought that showing the enemy his numbers and the makeshift equipment of his men would give him no better chance of victory than keeping them from seeing his troops beforehand and finding solid grounds for contempt.

4 He therefore selected a hundred and fifty hoplites for himself and placed the rest under Clearidas. He planned a sudden attack before the Athenians withdrew, believing that he would never again catch them so isolated if their reinforcements happened to arrive. He called all the soldiers together and, wishing both to encourage them and to explain his plan, spoke as follows.

Chapter 9

1 “Men of the Peloponnese, let this brief reminder suffice: the country from which we come has always been free through its courage, and you are Dorians about to fight Ionians, whom you have been accustomed to defeat.

2 “I shall explain how I intend to make the attack, so that our engaging in small detachments, rather than all risking battle together, may not seem a weakness to anyone and rob him of courage.

3 “I judge that the enemy have advanced toward this position in contempt of us, never expecting anyone to come out and fight them, and that now, with their attention turned to inspecting the ground, they are careless and out of order.

4 “The man who most clearly detects such errors in his opponents, and adapts his attack to his own strength, preferring what suits the moment to an open advance in battle array, will achieve the greatest success.

5 “And those stratagems win the fairest renown which most thoroughly deceive the enemy and bring the greatest benefit to friends.

6 “While they are still unprepared in their confidence, and, to judge by what I see, have their minds more on slipping away than on standing their ground, while their purpose is relaxed and before they can gather their resolve, I shall take my own men and, seizing the initiative if I can, charge at the center of their army.

7 “You, Clearidas, must follow when you see me already upon them and, as is likely, throwing them into fear. Take your men, the Amphipolitans and the other allies, suddenly open the gates, rush out, and press on to join battle as quickly as possible.

8 “In this way we have the best hope of terrifying them: a force coming up later inspires more dread in the enemy than the one already before them and engaged.

9 “Prove yourself a brave man, as befits a Spartan; and you, men of the allied cities, follow courageously. Remember that good fighting has three essentials: willingness, a sense of shame, and obedience to commanders. Remember too that this day, if you prove your valor, will secure your freedom and the name of allies of the Lacedaemonians; otherwise you will be slaves of Athens—at best, if you escape being sold into slavery or put to death—in a servitude harsher than before, and you will have prevented the liberation of the rest of the Greeks.

10 “Do not falter, then, when you see how much is at stake in the contest. For my part, I shall show myself no less ready to advance in deed than to exhort others in words.”

Chapter 10

1 With these words Brasidas prepared for his own sortie and stationed the rest with Clearidas at the gates called the Thracian Gates, so that they could advance as he had directed.

2 Brasidas had been seen coming down from Cerdylium; within the city, which was visible from outside, he could also be seen sacrificing near the temple of Athena and making these arrangements. Cleon, who had meanwhile gone forward to inspect the ground, received word that the whole enemy army was plainly visible inside the city, and that beneath the gates many feet of horses and men could be made out, as though they were about to come out.

3 On hearing this he came up, and, when he saw for himself, he had no wish to risk a decisive battle before his reinforcements arrived. Thinking he could get away in time, he at once ordered the signal for retreat and directed the withdrawing troops to move off toward Eion by the left wing, the only way open to them.

4 When this seemed to him too slow, he himself wheeled the right wing around and led the army away, exposing its unshielded side to the enemy.

5 At that moment Brasidas saw his opportunity and the Athenian army on the move. He said to his own men and the rest, “These men will not stand against us. The movement of their spears and heads makes it plain: troops in that condition do not usually stand their ground against an attack. Open the gates I have named, and let us rush out at once with confidence.”

6 He came out through the gates facing the stockade and the first gates of the long wall that then existed, and ran straight along the road where the trophy now stands as one approaches the strongest part of the position. He struck the Athenians in the center of their army and routed them, already frightened by their own disorder and stunned by his daring.

7 At the same time Clearidas, as directed, came out through the Thracian Gates and charged with his army. The unexpected attack, falling suddenly upon the Athenians from both sides, threw them into confusion.

8 Their left wing, toward Eion, which had already moved ahead, immediately broke away and fled. As it was falling back, Brasidas moved forward on the right and was wounded. The Athenians did not notice his fall, but the men near him lifted him and carried him away.

9 The Athenian right held its ground better. Cleon, who from the first had had no intention of standing, fled at once, but a Myrcinian peltast overtook and killed him. The hoplites rallied there on the hill and repelled Clearidas, even when he attacked two or three times. They did not give way until the Myrcinian and Chalcidian cavalry and the peltasts surrounded them and drove them into flight with their javelins.

10 The whole Athenian army was now in flight. With difficulty, taking many different routes over the mountains, the survivors made their way back to Eion—all who had escaped death either in the immediate hand-to-hand fighting or at the hands of the Chalcidian cavalry and the peltasts.

11 Those who had lifted Brasidas from the battlefield brought him safely into the city, still breathing. He learned that his men were victorious, but died not long afterward.

12 The rest of the army returned from the pursuit with Clearidas, stripped the dead, and set up a trophy.

Chapter 11

1 Afterward all the allies followed Brasidas in arms as he was buried at public expense within the city, before what is now the marketplace. The Amphipolitans enclosed his tomb, and ever since have made blood offerings to him as a hero and honored him with games and yearly sacrifices. They credited him with the founding of their colony, tearing down Hagnon's buildings and obliterating anything that might survive as a memorial of his foundation. They considered Brasidas their savior, and for the present, in their fear of the Athenians, they were also cultivating the Lacedaemonian alliance. With Athens now their enemy, they thought it would no longer be either advantageous or agreeable for Hagnon to hold those honors.

2 They returned the dead to the Athenians. About six hundred Athenians had fallen, but only seven of their opponents, since the battle had been less a contest between armies drawn up against each other than an encounter of this kind, with one side terrified before it began.

3 After recovering their dead, the Athenians sailed home, while the others remained with Clearidas to put affairs at Amphipolis in order.

Chapter 12

1 About the same time, as summer was ending, the Lacedaemonians Rhamphias, Autocharidas, and Epicydidas were leading a reinforcement of nine hundred hoplites to the places on the Thracian coast. They reached Heraclea in Trachis and set about correcting whatever they thought amiss there.

2 While they lingered there this battle took place, and the summer ended.

Chapter 13

1 At the very beginning of the following winter, Rhamphias and his men advanced as far as Pierium in Thessaly. But the Thessalians barred their way, and Brasidas, to whom they were bringing the army, was dead; so they turned back home. They judged that the moment for action had passed, since the Athenians had left after their defeat and they themselves were not equal to carrying out any of the plans he too had conceived.

2 Their chief reason for returning was that they knew the Lacedaemonians had already been leaning toward peace when they set out.

Chapter 14

1 Immediately after the battle at Amphipolis and Rhamphias' retreat from Thessaly, neither side undertook any further act of war; their thoughts turned rather to peace. The Athenians had been struck at Delium and, soon afterward, again at Amphipolis, and no longer had the same assured confidence in their strength. That confidence had previously kept them from accepting a treaty, since they thought their current good fortune would bring them the upper hand.

2 They also feared that their allies, emboldened by these reverses, might revolt in greater numbers, and regretted not having reached a settlement after the success at Pylos, when the opportunity was favorable.

3 The Lacedaemonians, in turn, were finding that the war had gone against their expectations: they had thought they would destroy Athenian power within a few years if they ravaged its land. Instead they had suffered the disaster on the island, such as Sparta had never known before; their country was being raided from Pylos and Cythera; the Helots were deserting; and there was constant apprehension that those who remained, encouraged by the men outside, might once again seize upon their present circumstances to revolt.

4 It also happened that their thirty-year truce with the Argives was nearing its end, and the Argives would not make another unless the land of Cynuria was restored to them. It seemed impossible to fight both the Argives and the Athenians at once. They also suspected that some of the cities in the Peloponnese would defect to the Argives—as indeed they did.

Chapter 15

1 Both sides, then, considered these things and decided that a settlement must be made. The Lacedaemonians were no less eager, in their desire to recover the men captured on the island: the Spartans among them were men of the first rank and kinsmen of their own.

2 They had begun negotiations immediately after the men's capture, but the Athenians, while they were prospering, were in no mood to end the war on equal terms. As soon as the Athenians suffered their reverse at Delium, the Lacedaemonians, recognizing that they would now be more receptive, concluded the year's armistice, during which the two sides were to meet and discuss a longer settlement.

Chapter 16

1 The Athenians had now also been defeated at Amphipolis, and Cleon and Brasidas were dead, the two men who on either side had most opposed peace: Brasidas because war brought him success and honor, Cleon because he thought that in quiet times his wrongdoing would be more apparent and his slanders less credible. Now, therefore, the men most intent on leadership in their respective cities—Pleistoanax son of Pausanias, king of the Lacedaemonians, and Nicias son of Niceratus, whose record of success in command surpassed that of his contemporaries—pressed much more eagerly for peace. Nicias wished to preserve his good fortune while he was still unscathed and held in honor, to gain an immediate respite from toil for himself and his fellow citizens, and to leave to posterity a name for having passed through his career without bringing disaster upon the city. He thought this could be achieved by avoiding danger and entrusting oneself as little as possible to fortune, and that peace afforded such security. Pleistoanax, for his part, was being slandered by his enemies over his restoration from exile. Whenever the Lacedaemonians met with a reverse, these enemies kept bringing him to their notice, claiming that their misfortunes came from his unlawful restoration.

2 They accused him and his brother Aristocles of having persuaded the prophetess at Delphi to give the Lacedaemonian sacred envoys, whenever they came, the same response over a long period: they must bring back to their own land from foreign soil the offspring of the demigod son of Zeus; otherwise they would plow with a silver plowshare.

3 In time, they said, she had induced the Lacedaemonians to restore him in the nineteenth year of his exile, with the same dances and sacrifices as when they first founded Lacedaemon and established their kings. He had fled to Lycaeum on suspicion of having once withdrawn from Attica for a bribe, and was then living in a house half within the sanctuary of Zeus, for fear of the Lacedaemonians.

Chapter 17

1 Distressed by this accusation, he worked eagerly for a settlement. He thought that in peace, with no reverse occurring and the Lacedaemonians recovering their men, he himself would be beyond his enemies' reproach; but while war continued, those in leading positions must always be slandered on account of its disasters.

2 Throughout this winter they held discussions. As spring approached, the Lacedaemonians also brandished a threat of military preparations, sending orders around the cities for an expedition to establish a fortified post in enemy territory, so that the Athenians would listen more readily. At their meetings, after each side had advanced many claims against the other, they agreed to make peace by restoring what each had taken in the war, except that the Athenians should keep Nisaea. For when the Athenians demanded Plataea in return, the Thebans said they held it not by force or treachery, but through its inhabitants' voluntary surrender by agreement; the Athenians made the same claim for Nisaea. The Lacedaemonians then summoned their allies. All except the Boeotians, Corinthians, Eleans, and Megarians voted to end the war; these four disapproved of what was being done. The Lacedaemonians concluded the agreement, made a treaty with the Athenians, and swore to it, as the Athenians did in return, on the following terms.

Chapter 18

1 “The Athenians, the Lacedaemonians, and their allies made a treaty on the following terms and swore to it city by city.

2 “Concerning the sanctuaries held in common: whoever wishes shall be free to sacrifice, visit them, consult the oracles, and attend the festivals according to ancestral custom, traveling without fear by land or sea. Apollo's sanctuary and temple at Delphi, and the Delphians themselves, shall be autonomous, independent in taxation and jurisdiction, both in their own affairs and in those of their territory, according to ancestral custom.

3 “The treaty shall last fifty years between the Athenians and their allies and the Lacedaemonians and their allies, without deceit or injury, both by land and by sea.

4 “Neither the Lacedaemonians and their allies against the Athenians and their allies, nor the Athenians and their allies against the Lacedaemonians and their allies, shall be permitted to take up arms to inflict harm, whether by stratagem or by any contrivance whatever. If any dispute arises between them, they shall resort to justice and oaths, on whatever terms they agree.

5 “The Lacedaemonians and their allies shall restore Amphipolis to the Athenians. In all the cities handed over by the Lacedaemonians to the Athenians, the inhabitants shall be free to depart wherever they wish, taking their possessions with them. The cities shall be autonomous, paying the tribute assessed in the time of Aristides. After the treaty is concluded, the Athenians and their allies shall not be permitted to take up arms to harm them, so long as they pay the tribute. These cities are Argilus, Stagirus, Acanthus, Scolus, Olynthus, and Spartolus. They shall be allies of neither side, neither the Lacedaemonians nor the Athenians; but if the Athenians persuade the cities, they shall be permitted to make them allies of Athens with their consent.

6 “The Mecybernaeans, Sanaeans, and Singaeans shall inhabit their own cities on the same terms as the Olynthians and Acanthians.

7 “The Lacedaemonians and their allies shall restore Panactum to the Athenians. The Athenians in turn shall restore to the Lacedaemonians Coryphasium, Cythera, Methana, Pteleum, and Atalanta, and all Lacedaemonian men held in the Athenian public prison or in public custody anywhere else under Athenian rule. They shall also release the Peloponnesians besieged in Scione, all the other allies of the Lacedaemonians in Scione, all those whom Brasidas sent into it, and any ally of the Lacedaemonians held in the public prison at Athens or in public custody anywhere else under Athenian rule. The Lacedaemonians and their allies shall likewise restore all Athenians and allies of Athens whom they hold, on the same terms.

8 “As for the Scionaeans, Toronaeans, and Sermylians, and any other city the Athenians hold, the Athenians shall decide concerning them and the other cities as they see fit.

9 “The Athenians shall swear to the Lacedaemonians and their allies city by city. Seventeen men from each city on either side shall swear the strongest oath customary in their country. The oath shall be this: ‘I shall abide by this agreement and this treaty justly and without deceit.’ The Lacedaemonians and their allies shall swear to the Athenians in the same terms.

10 “Both sides shall renew the oath each year. They shall set up stone pillars at Olympia, Pytho, and the Isthmus, on the Acropolis at Athens, and in the Amyclaeum at Lacedaemon.

11 “If either side has overlooked anything, on any subject, both shall be free, consistently with their oaths and through just discussion, to alter the terms in whatever way both parties, the Athenians and the Lacedaemonians, agree.

Chapter 19

1 “The treaty takes effect at Lacedaemon under the ephor Pleistolas, on the fourth day from the end of the month Artemisius, and at Athens under the archon Alcaeus, on the sixth day from the end of the month Elaphebolion. The following men swore the oaths and concluded the treaty.

2 “On the Lacedaemonian side: Pleistoanax, Agis, Pleistolas, Damagetus, Chionis, Metagenes, Acanthus, Daithus, Ischagoras, Philocharidas, Zeuxidas, Antippus, Tellis, Alcinadas, Empedias, Menas, Laphilus. On the Athenian side, the following: Lampon, Isthmionicus, Nicias, Laches, Euthydemus, Procles, Pythodorus, Hagnon, Myrtilus, Thrasycles, Theagenes, Aristocrates, Iolcius, Timocrates, Leon, Lamachus, Demosthenes.”

Chapter 20

1 This treaty was concluded at the end of winter, as spring began, immediately after the City Dionysia. Ten full years had elapsed, with a difference of only a few days, since the first invasion of Attica and the beginning of this war.

2 One should examine the actual intervals of time, rather than put greater trust in a reckoning by the names of local magistrates or holders of some other office used to date past events. Such a reckoning is not exact: an event may have occurred at the beginning of a man's term, in the middle, or at any chance point in it.

3 But by counting summers and winters, as they are recorded here, with each of the two reckoned as half a year, one will find that this first war comprised ten summers and as many winters.

Chapter 21

1 The Lacedaemonians, on whom the lot had fallen to make restitution first, immediately released the prisoners of war in their hands. They also sent Ischagoras, Menas, and Philocharidas as envoys to the Thracian region, with orders for Clearidas to surrender Amphipolis to the Athenians, and for the others to accept the treaty on the terms prescribed for each.

2 These refused, judging the terms unfavorable. Nor did Clearidas surrender the city: to gratify the Chalcidians, he said that he could not hand it over against their will.

3 He himself went swiftly to Lacedaemon with envoys from the region, both to defend himself if Ischagoras and his colleagues accused him of disobedience, and to learn whether the agreement could still be altered. Finding the Lacedaemonians bound by it, he set out again in haste: they sent him back with orders, if possible, to surrender the place as well, but otherwise to withdraw all the Peloponnesians in it.

Chapter 22

1 The allies themselves happened to be at Lacedaemon, and the Lacedaemonians urged those who had not accepted the treaty to conclude it. But, on the same grounds as when they first rejected it, they declared that they would not accept unless a more equitable treaty were made.

2 When they would not listen, the Lacedaemonians dismissed them and proceeded to make an alliance with the Athenians. They thought that this would leave the Argives least able to threaten them and would best keep the rest of the Peloponnese quiet, since these states would, if they could, turn to the Athenians. The Argives had refused to renew their treaty when Ampelidas and Lichas came, believing that the Lacedaemonians without the Athenians were not formidable.

3 Athenian envoys were present; after discussion, agreement was reached, and the oaths were taken and the alliance made on the following terms.

Chapter 23

1 “The Lacedaemonians and Athenians shall be allies for fifty years on these terms. If any enemy enters Lacedaemonian territory and harms the Lacedaemonians, the Athenians shall assist the Lacedaemonians in the strongest manner within their power. If the enemy ravages the land and departs, that city shall be an enemy of the Lacedaemonians and Athenians and shall suffer at the hands of both; the two cities shall end the war jointly. These obligations shall be discharged justly, willingly, and without deceit.

2 “And if any enemy enters Athenian territory and harms the Athenians, the Lacedaemonians shall assist the Athenians in the strongest manner within their power. If the enemy ravages the land and departs, that city shall be an enemy of the Lacedaemonians and Athenians and shall suffer at the hands of both; the two cities shall end the war jointly.

3 “These obligations shall be discharged justly, willingly, and without deceit. If the slave population rises in revolt, the Athenians shall aid the Lacedaemonians with all the strength within their power.

4 “The same men on either side who swore to the other treaty shall swear to these terms. The oath shall be renewed annually, the Lacedaemonians going to Athens at the Dionysia, and the Athenians to Lacedaemon at the Hyacinthia.

5 “Each side shall erect a stone pillar: at Lacedaemon, beside Apollo in the sanctuary at Amyclae; at Athens, beside Athena on the Acropolis.

6 “If the Lacedaemonians and Athenians decide to add or remove anything concerning the alliance, whatever they decide shall be consistent with the oath for both parties.

Chapter 24

1 “The following Lacedaemonians swore the oath: Pleistoanax, Agis, Pleistolas, Damagetus, Chionis, Metagenes, Acanthus, Daithus, Ischagoras, Philocharidas, Zeuxidas, Antippus, Alcinadas, Tellis, Empedias, Menas, Laphilus; and the following Athenians: Lampon, Isthmionicus, Laches, Nicias, Euthydemus, Procles, Pythodorus, Hagnon, Myrtilus, Thrasycles, Theagenes, Aristocrates, Iolcius, Timocrates, Leon, Lamachus, Demosthenes.”

2 This alliance was concluded not long after the treaty. The Athenians returned to the Lacedaemonians the men captured on the island, and the summer of the eleventh year began. The foregoing account has described the first war, which continued without interruption through these ten years.

Chapter 25

1 After the treaty and alliance between the Lacedaemonians and Athenians, concluded after the ten-year war under Pleistolas as ephor at Lacedaemon and Alcaeus as archon at Athens, those who accepted them were at peace. But the Corinthians and some of the cities in the Peloponnese sought to unsettle the arrangements, and immediately a fresh disturbance arose in the relations between the allies and Lacedaemon.

2 At the same time, as time went on, the Athenians too grew suspicious of the Lacedaemonians, since in some respects they were not carrying out the stipulations of their agreement.

3 For six years and ten months they refrained from campaigning against each other's territory; outside it, however, under an insecure truce, they did each other the greatest possible harm. Then, compelled to break the treaty made after the ten years, they once more entered into open war.

Chapter 26

1 These events too were written down by the same Thucydides, an Athenian, in their successive order, as each occurred, by summers and winters, until the Lacedaemonians and their allies put an end to the Athenian empire and took possession of the Long Walls and Piraeus. To that point the war lasted twenty-seven years in all.

2 If anyone refuses to count the intervening agreement as war, his judgment will be mistaken. Let him examine the deeds, as they have been set out, and he will find that the period cannot reasonably be judged a peace. In it neither side restored or received everything stipulated; besides this, both committed violations in connection with the war at Mantinea and Epidaurus and in other matters. The allies in the Thracian region remained enemies as before, while the Boeotians maintained a ten-day truce.

3 Thus, counting the actual intervals of time, one will find that the first ten-year war, the mistrustful truce that followed, and the later war that grew out of it together amount to this number of years, with a difference of only a few days; and that, of the claims advanced on the strength of oracles, this alone was borne out with certainty.

4 For I remember that always, from the beginning of the war until its end, many people were repeating that it must last three times nine years.

5 I lived through the whole of it, old enough to understand events and applying my mind to them so as to gain exact knowledge. It also fell to me to spend twenty years in exile from my own country after my command at Amphipolis. With access to the affairs of both sides, and no less to those of the Peloponnesians because of my exile, I could gain a clearer understanding of them at leisure.

6 I shall therefore relate the dissension and confusion surrounding the treaty after the ten years, and how the war was fought thereafter.

Chapter 27

1 For after the fifty-year treaty had been concluded, and subsequently the alliance, the embassies from the Peloponnese that had been summoned for these negotiations left Lacedaemon.

2 The others went home, but the Corinthians turned toward Argos and first held discussions with some of the Argive officials. They said that, since the Lacedaemonians had made a treaty and alliance with the Athenians, previously their bitterest enemies, not for the good of the Peloponnese but to enslave it, the Argives must consider how the Peloponnese could be saved. They should decree that any Greek city wishing to do so, provided it was autonomous and submitted disputes to equal and impartial adjudication, might make an alliance with the Argives for the defense of one another's territory. They should appoint a small board with full powers, rather than bring the discussions before the people, so that those who failed to persuade the majority would not be exposed. Many, they said, would join out of hatred of the Lacedaemonians.

3 Having put forward these proposals, the Corinthians withdrew home.

Chapter 28

1 The Argive men who had heard them brought the proposals before the authorities and the people. The Argives passed the decree and chose twelve men with whom any Greeks who wished might conclude an alliance, except the Athenians and Lacedaemonians: neither of these could make a treaty without the consent of the Argive people.

2 The Argives welcomed these proposals all the more because they saw that war with the Lacedaemonians was coming—their treaty with them was nearing its end—and at the same time hoped to gain the leadership of the Peloponnese. For at this time Lacedaemon's reputation had sunk to its lowest, and its misfortunes had brought it into contempt, while the Argives were in excellent condition in every respect. They had taken no part in the Athenian war, but had instead profited from being at peace with both sides.

3 In this way the Argives admitted to their alliance any Greeks who wished to join.

Chapter 29

1 The Mantineans and their allies were the first to join them, through fear of the Lacedaemonians. While the war against the Athenians was still in progress, the Mantineans had subjected part of Arcadia to their rule, and they thought that the Lacedaemonians, now that they had leisure, would not allow them to retain their dominion. They therefore turned gladly to the Argives, whom they regarded as a great city, always at odds with the Lacedaemonians, and governed, like themselves, by a democracy.

2 With the defection of the Mantineans, the rest of the Peloponnese too began to murmur that they must do the same. They believed that the Mantineans had changed sides on the strength of some superior knowledge, and at the same time they were angry with the Lacedaemonians, among other reasons because the treaty with Athens stipulated that additions and removals could be made without violating the oath, whatever the two cities, Lacedaemon and Athens, might decide.

3 This clause above all alarmed the Peloponnesians and raised their suspicion that the Lacedaemonians wished to enslave them in concert with the Athenians. Any alteration, they thought, should in justice have been made subject to the consent of all the allies.

4 In their fear, most of them were therefore eager to go to the Argives and conclude an alliance, each on its own account.

Chapter 30

1 When the Lacedaemonians learned of this agitation in the Peloponnese, and that the Corinthians had instigated it and were themselves about to make a treaty with Argos, they sent envoys to Corinth, wishing to forestall the move. They accused the Corinthians of initiating the whole affair and declared that, if they abandoned them to become allies of the Argives, they would violate their oaths. They were already acting unjustly by refusing to accept the treaty with Athens, since it had been agreed that whatever the majority of the allies voted should be binding, unless some god or hero stood in the way.

2 The Corinthians answered the Lacedaemonians in the presence of those allies who had likewise refused the treaty, whom they had themselves summoned beforehand. They did not openly state the wrongs they had suffered—that the Lacedaemonians had recovered neither Sollium nor Anactorium for them from the Athenians, or whatever other disadvantages they believed they had sustained. Instead, they put forward their refusal to betray the allies in the Thracian region: they had sworn oaths to these separately when they first revolted with the Potidaeans, and further oaths afterward.

3 They were therefore not violating their oaths to the allies, they said, by declining to enter the treaty with Athens. Having pledged their faith to those people in oaths sworn by the gods, they could not betray them and remain true to their oaths. The stipulation was, “unless some god or hero stood in the way”; this, then, appeared to them a divine obstacle.

4 So much they said concerning the old oaths; as for the alliance with Argos, they would consult with their friends and do whatever was just.

5 The Lacedaemonian envoys returned home. Argive envoys also happened to be present at Corinth and urged the Corinthians to enter the alliance without delay; the Corinthians told them to attend the next meeting to be held in their city.

Chapter 31

1 An embassy from Elis arrived immediately afterward and first made an alliance with the Corinthians. Then, proceeding from there to Argos, they became allies of the Argives, as has already been related. They happened to be in dispute with the Lacedaemonians over Lepreum.

2 For once, when the Lepreans were at war with some Arcadians, they called in the Eleans as allies in return for half their land. After bringing the war to an end, the Eleans allowed the Lepreans themselves to cultivate the land, but required them to pay a talent to Olympian Zeus.

3 They continued to pay until the Athenian war. When they then stopped, using the war as a pretext, the Eleans tried to compel them, and they turned to the Lacedaemonians. The dispute was submitted to Lacedaemonian arbitration, but the Eleans, suspecting that they would not receive a fair judgment, abandoned the arbitration and ravaged the Lepreans' land.

4 The Lacedaemonians nevertheless ruled that the Lepreans were autonomous and the Eleans in the wrong. Since the Eleans had not abided by the arbitration, they sent a garrison of hoplites into Lepreum.

5 The Eleans considered that the Lacedaemonians had received a city that had revolted from them. They appealed to the agreement stipulating that whatever possessions each state held on entering the Athenian war it should also hold on leaving it; claiming that they had not received equal treatment, they defected to the Argives and, as already related, they too concluded the alliance.

6 Immediately after them the Corinthians and the Chalcidians in the Thracian region also became allies of the Argives. The Boeotians and Megarians, though professing the same views, remained inactive, left to themselves by the Lacedaemonians; being themselves governed by oligarchies, they thought the Argive democracy less congenial to them than the Lacedaemonian constitution.

Chapter 32

1 About the same time that summer, the Athenians took Scione by siege, killed the adult males, enslaved the women and children, and gave the land to the Plataeans to cultivate. They also restored the Delians to Delos, reflecting on their misfortunes in battle and acting on an oracle from the god at Delphi.

2 The Phocians and Locrians also began a war.

3 The Corinthians and Argives, now allies, went to Tegea to detach it from the Lacedaemonians. They saw that it carried great weight and believed that, if it joined them, they would command the whole Peloponnese.

4 But when the Tegeans declared that they would not oppose the Lacedaemonians in any respect, the Corinthians, who until then had pursued their aims eagerly, relaxed their efforts in the contest and began to fear that none of the others would now join them.

5 Nevertheless, they went to the Boeotians and urged them to become allies of themselves and the Argives and to act together in other matters. They also asked the Boeotians to accompany them to Athens and obtain for them too the ten-day truce which the Athenians and Boeotians had concluded with each other not long after [this] fifty-year treaty, [on the same terms as the Boeotians had]. If the Athenians refused, the Boeotians were to renounce their truce and in future make no treaty without the Corinthians.

6 In response to these requests, the Boeotians told the Corinthians to wait over the alliance with Argos. They went with them to Athens, but failed to obtain the ten-day truce: the Athenians answered that the Corinthians were covered by the treaty if they were allies of the Lacedaemonians.

7 The Boeotians did not, even so, renounce their ten-day truce, although the Corinthians demanded it and accused them of having agreed to do so. Between the Corinthians and Athenians there was a suspension of hostilities without a treaty.

Chapter 33

1 That same summer the Lacedaemonians marched out in full force, under their king Pleistoanax son of Pausanias, against the Parrhasians in Arcadia, who were subject to the Mantineans. A faction in their civil strife had called the Lacedaemonians in; at the same time the Lacedaemonians intended, if they could, to demolish the fort at Cypsela, which the Mantineans had built and themselves garrisoned. It lay in Parrhasian territory, threatening the district of Sciritis in Laconia.

2 The Lacedaemonians ravaged the Parrhasians' land. The Mantineans entrusted their city to Argive guards and themselves defended their allied territory; but, unable to save either the fort at Cypsela or the towns in Parrhasia, they withdrew.

3 The Lacedaemonians made the Parrhasians autonomous, demolished the fort, and returned home.

Chapter 34

1 That same summer, when the soldiers who had gone out with Brasidas had now returned from Thrace, brought back by Clearidas after the treaty, the Lacedaemonians decreed that the Helots who had fought with Brasidas should be free and might live wherever they wished. Not long afterward they settled them, together with the neodamodes, at Lepreum, on the border of Laconia and Elis; they were by now at odds with the Eleans.

2 But they deprived of civic rights their own men who had been captured on the island and surrendered their arms, some of whom were already holding office. They feared that, if these men retained their full rights, the belief that their misfortune would bring them inferior treatment might lead them to attempt a revolution. The deprivation was of this kind: they could neither hold office nor make any purchase or sale legally binding. Later, in time, their full rights were restored.

Chapter 35

1 That same summer the Dians also captured Thyssus, an Athenian ally on the Athos peninsula.

2 Throughout this summer the Athenians and Peloponnesians had dealings with one another; yet from immediately after the treaty the Athenians and Lacedaemonians distrusted each other because of the failure to restore the places each held.

3 For the Lacedaemonians, though the lot had fallen to them to make restitution first, had not restored Amphipolis or the other places; nor had they secured acceptance of the treaty by the allies in the Thracian region, the Boeotians, or the Corinthians. They kept saying that, if these refused, they would join with the Athenians in compelling them. They also fixed deadlines, without a written agreement, after which those who did not join were to be enemies of both sides.

4 Seeing none of this take effect in deed, the Athenians suspected that the Lacedaemonians had no intention of acting justly. They therefore refused to restore Pylos when the Lacedaemonians demanded it; indeed, they regretted having returned the prisoners from the island. They retained the other places as well, waiting until the Lacedaemonians too fulfilled their promises to them.

5 The Lacedaemonians said that they had done what they could: they had returned the Athenian prisoners in their hands, withdrawn the soldiers from the Thracian region, and done whatever else lay within their power. Amphipolis, they said, was not under their control to surrender; but they would try to bring the Boeotians and Corinthians into the treaty, recover Panactum, and bring back all the Athenians held prisoner in Boeotia.

6 Nevertheless, they demanded the restoration of Pylos, or, failing that, at least the withdrawal of the Messenians and Helots, just as they themselves had withdrawn their men from the Thracian region. The Athenians, if they wished, could garrison the place themselves.

7 After many discussions, repeated throughout this summer, they persuaded the Athenians to withdraw from Pylos the Messenians and the others, both Helots and all who had deserted from Laconia. The Athenians settled them at Cranii in Cephallenia.

8 Thus, during this summer there was quiet, and the two sides visited one another.

Chapter 36

1 In the following winter, different ephors were already in office from those under whom the treaty had been made, and some of them opposed it. Embassies arrived from the allied states, and Athenians, Boeotians, and Corinthians were present; after much discussion among them, no agreement was reached. As they were leaving for home, Cleobulus and Xenares, the two ephors most eager to dissolve the treaty, held private discussions with the Boeotians and Corinthians. They urged them to adhere as firmly as possible to this policy, and the Boeotians to try first to become allies of the Argives themselves, then to make the Argives, together with the Boeotians, allies of the Lacedaemonians. In this way the Boeotians would be least likely to be forced to enter the treaty with Athens: the Lacedaemonians would choose to secure the Argives as their friends and allies even at the cost of incurring the Athenians' hostility and dissolving the treaty. For they knew that the Lacedaemonians had always wanted Argos to stand on firm terms of friendship with them, believing that war outside the Peloponnese would then be easier.

2 They did, however, ask the Boeotians to arrange to hand over Panactum to the Lacedaemonians, so that, by recovering Pylos in exchange for it if they could, they might be in a better position to go to war with the Athenians.

Chapter 37

1 The Boeotians and Corinthians departed, each for home, charged by Xenares and Cleobulus and their other Lacedaemonian friends to report these proposals to their governments.

2 Two Argive holders of the highest magistracy waited to meet them along their homeward route. On meeting them, they entered into discussions about whether the Boeotians might somehow become their allies, as the Corinthians, Eleans, and Mantineans had done. If this were achieved, they thought they could then readily act with a common policy in making war or peace, with the Lacedaemonians if they wished, or with anyone else as need arose.

3 The Boeotian envoys were pleased with what they heard: by chance, the Argives were asking for precisely what their friends at Lacedaemon had instructed them to do. When the Argive men saw that they welcomed the proposal, they said that they would send envoys to Boeotia and departed.

4 On their arrival, the Boeotians reported to the Boeotarchs both the proposals from Lacedaemon and those of the Argives who had met them. The Boeotarchs approved and were much more eager because the approaches from both sides had coincided: their Lacedaemonian friends were asking for the same thing as the Argives were seeking.

5 Not long afterward Argive envoys arrived to press the proposals already mentioned. The Boeotarchs endorsed their arguments and sent them away with a promise to send envoys to Argos to discuss the alliance.

Chapter 38

1 Meanwhile the Boeotarchs, the Corinthians, the Megarians, and the envoys from Thrace decided first to swear oaths to one another: they would aid whichever party needed help in any emergency, and neither make war nor conclude an agreement with anyone without their common consent. Only then were the Boeotians and Megarians, who were acting together, to make a treaty with the Argives.

2 Before the oaths were sworn, however, the Boeotarchs laid these proposals before the four Boeotian councils, which hold full authority, and urged that oaths should be exchanged with any cities willing to swear a mutual undertaking for their benefit.

3 But the members of the Boeotian councils rejected the proposal, fearing that by swearing an oath with the Corinthians, who had broken with the Lacedaemonians, they would be acting against Lacedaemonian interests. The Boeotarchs had not told them what had come from Lacedaemon: that the ephors Cleobulus and Xenares, together with their friends, advised them first to become allies of the Argives and Corinthians and then to enter the alliance with the Lacedaemonians. They had assumed that, even without being told, the council would vote for whatever they themselves had settled beforehand and recommended.

4 When the proposal met this resistance, the Corinthians and the envoys from Thrace departed without accomplishing anything. The Boeotarchs had intended, if they carried these proposals, to try next to arrange the alliance with Argos; now they no longer brought the Argive question before the councils, nor sent to Argos the envoys they had promised. A certain neglect and delay settled over the whole undertaking.

Chapter 39

1 During this same winter the Olynthians made a sudden attack on Mecyberna and captured it, despite its Athenian garrison.

2 After this, since the Athenians and Lacedaemonians were continually discussing the places they held belonging to one another, the Lacedaemonians hoped that if the Athenians recovered Panactum from the Boeotians, they themselves would recover Pylos. They sent an embassy to the Boeotians and asked them to hand over Panactum and their Athenian prisoners, so that they could recover Pylos in exchange.

3 The Boeotians said they would not surrender them unless the Lacedaemonians made a separate alliance with them, as they had with the Athenians. The Lacedaemonians knew that they would be wronging the Athenians, since it had been stipulated that neither party should make a treaty or wage war without the other. Yet they wanted to receive Panactum in order to recover Pylos in exchange; and those eager to wreck the treaty were also pressing the Boeotian negotiations forward. They therefore concluded the alliance as winter was drawing to its close and spring approaching. Panactum was immediately demolished. And the eleventh year of this war, came to an end.

Chapter 40

1 At the first coming of spring in the following summer, the Argives found that the Boeotian envoys who had been promised had not arrived, and learned that Panactum was being demolished and that the Boeotians had made a separate alliance with the Lacedaemonians. They feared that they would be left isolated and the entire alliance would go over to Lacedaemon.

2 They supposed that the Lacedaemonians had persuaded the Boeotians both to demolish Panactum and to enter the treaty with Athens, and that the Athenians knew of these arrangements. This would leave them no prospect even of an alliance with Athens, although previously, because of the disagreements, they had hoped that, if their treaty with the Lacedaemonians did not hold, they would at least have the Athenians as allies.

3 Perplexed by this situation, and afraid that they might have to fight the Lacedaemonians and Tegeans, Boeotians and Athenians all at once, the Argives—who had previously refused the Lacedaemonian treaty and confidently expected to lead the Peloponnese—sent Eustrophus and Aeson to Lacedaemon as quickly as possible. These were the envoys they believed most welcome there. In the circumstances, they thought it best to secure peace by making a treaty with the Lacedaemonians on whatever terms they could obtain.

Chapter 41

1 Their envoys arrived and discussed with the Lacedaemonians the terms on which a treaty might be made.

2 At first the Argives demanded that the dispute over the Cynurian territory should be submitted to the arbitration of some city or private person. This borderland was a perpetual subject of contention; it contains Thyrea and the town of Anthene, and the Lacedaemonians occupy it. The Lacedaemonians would not allow the question even to be raised, but said that if the Argives wished to make a treaty on the former terms, they were ready. Nevertheless, the Argive envoys induced them to agree to this: they would now make a treaty for fifty years, but either side, after issuing a challenge, would be free to fight for this land whenever neither Lacedaemon nor Argos was suffering from disease or war, as they had fought once before, when each claimed the victory. Pursuit, however, would not be permitted beyond the frontiers toward Argos or Lacedaemon.

3 At first the Lacedaemonians thought this folly; afterward, so eager were they to have Argos friendly on any terms, they conceded the demands and put them in writing. Before anything was finalized, however, the Lacedaemonians told the envoys to return to Argos and lay the proposals before the people; if these were approved, they were to come to the Hyacinthia to swear the oaths. The envoys then withdrew.

Chapter 42

1 While the Argives were conducting these negotiations, the Lacedaemonian envoys Andromenes, Phaedimus, and Antimenidas, who were to receive Panactum and the prisoners from the Boeotians and restore them to the Athenians, found that the Boeotians themselves had demolished Panactum. Their pretext was that, in an earlier dispute over it, the Athenians and Boeotians had sworn ancient oaths that neither should inhabit the place, but both should use it in common. Andromenes and his colleagues received the Athenian prisoners of war held by the Boeotians, brought them to Athens, and handed them over. They also reported the demolition of Panactum, thinking that this too amounted to its restoration, since no enemy of the Athenians would ever again inhabit it.

2 The Athenians were outraged at this account. They considered themselves wronged by the Lacedaemonians in the demolition of Panactum, which should have been handed over intact; and they learned that the Lacedaemonians had also made a separate alliance with the Boeotians, though they had previously declared that together they would compel those who rejected the treaty to accept it. They examined all the other provisions of the agreement that the Lacedaemonians had failed to fulfill and felt that they had been deceived. They therefore gave the envoys a harsh answer and dismissed them.

Chapter 43

1 With the Lacedaemonians and Athenians thus at odds, those in Athens who, for their part, wanted to dissolve the treaty immediately pressed their attack.

2 Among them was Alcibiades son of Clinias, a man still young at that time by the standards of any other city, but honored for the distinction of his ancestry. He did believe that it was better to turn instead toward the Argives; yet wounded pride and rivalry also drove his opposition. The Lacedaemonians had negotiated the treaty through Nicias and Laches, overlooking him because of his youth and showing no regard for his family's old position as their public guest-friends. His grandfather had renounced that connection, but he himself had intended to renew it through the attentions he paid to their prisoners from the island.

3 Feeling slighted on every side, he had opposed the treaty from the outset, declaring that the Lacedaemonians were not to be trusted: they were making peace only so that they could remove the Argives from the conflict by a treaty, and then attack the Athenians alone once more. Now, when the disagreement arose, he immediately sent a private message to Argos, urging the Argives to come as quickly as possible with the Mantineans and Eleans and propose an alliance. The moment was favorable, he said, and he himself would give them every assistance.

Chapter 44

1 On receiving this message, and learning that the Boeotian alliance had been made without Athenian participation, and that the Athenians were instead in serious disagreement with the Lacedaemonians, the Argives lost interest in their envoys, who were then away in Lacedaemon negotiating the treaty, and turned their thoughts rather toward Athens. They reckoned that a city friendly to them from ancient times, governed like themselves by a democracy, and possessing great naval strength would fight beside them if they became involved in war.

2 They therefore immediately sent envoys to the Athenians to negotiate the alliance. The Eleans and Mantineans joined in the embassy.

3 Lacedaemonian envoys also arrived in haste: Philocharidas, Leon, and Endius, men thought to be well disposed toward the Athenians. The Lacedaemonians feared that in their anger the Athenians might make the alliance with Argos; at the same time, the envoys were to demand Pylos in exchange for Panactum and to defend the alliance with the Boeotians, explaining that it had not been made to Athens' detriment.

Chapter 45

1 They addressed the council on these matters and declared that they had come with full powers to settle every point of dispute. Alcibiades feared that if they said the same before the people, they might win over the multitude and the Argive alliance would be rejected.

2 Alcibiades therefore devised this stratagem against them. He persuaded the Lacedaemonians by giving them his assurance that, if they did not acknowledge before the people that they had come with full powers, he would restore Pylos to them—he himself would persuade the Athenians, just as he was now opposing its return—and settle the other differences.

3 He did this to detach them from Nicias, and to discredit them before the people as men who had no honest intentions and never told the same story twice, so that he could make the Argives, Eleans, and Mantineans allies. And so it happened.

4 When they came before the people and were questioned, they denied, contrary to what they had said in the council, that they had come with full powers. The Athenians would hear no more of them. Alcibiades denounced the Lacedaemonians far more vehemently than before, and the people listened; they were ready at once to bring forward the Argives and their companions and make them allies. But an earthquake occurred before anything was ratified, and this assembly was adjourned.

Chapter 46

1 At the assembly the next day, Nicias, though the Lacedaemonians themselves had been deceived and he too had been misled over their denial that they had come with full powers, nevertheless said that they should seek friendship with the Lacedaemonians instead. They should suspend the Argive negotiations, send another embassy to Lacedaemon, and learn what their intentions were. Postponing war, he argued, favored the Athenians and disadvantaged the Lacedaemonians: since their own affairs were prospering, it was best to preserve that prosperity as long as possible, whereas for the Lacedaemonians, in their misfortune, an early trial of arms would be a welcome opportunity.

2 He persuaded them to send envoys, himself among them, to tell the Lacedaemonians that, if they intended to act justly, they must restore Panactum intact, restore Amphipolis, and abandon the Boeotian alliance unless the Boeotians entered the treaty, in accordance with the stipulation that neither party should make an agreement with anyone without the other.

3 The envoys were also instructed to say that, if the Athenians themselves had wished to act unjustly, they would already have made the Argives their allies: the Argives were present for that very purpose. They entrusted Nicias and his fellow envoys with all their other complaints as well, and sent them off.

4 When they arrived, they delivered their other messages and concluded by saying that, unless the Lacedaemonians abandoned their alliance with the Boeotians if these refused to enter the treaty, the Athenians too would make the Argives and their companions allies. The Lacedaemonians refused to abandon the Boeotian alliance: the ephor Xenares and his supporters, together with the others who shared their views, prevailed in securing this decision. At Nicias' request, however, they renewed the oaths. He feared that if he returned with nothing accomplished, he would be attacked—as indeed he was—because he was held responsible for the treaty with the Lacedaemonians.

5 When he returned and the Athenians heard that nothing had been achieved at Lacedaemon, they were immediately enraged. Believing themselves wronged, they concluded the following treaty and alliance with the Argives and their allies, who happened to be present and whom Alcibiades brought before the assembly.

Chapter 47

1 “The Athenians, Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans have made a treaty with one another for a hundred years, on behalf of themselves and the allies over whom each exercises authority, without fraud or injury, by land and by sea.

2 “Neither the Argives, Eleans, Mantineans, and their allies shall be permitted to take up arms to harm the Athenians and the allies over whom the Athenians exercise authority, nor the Athenians and the allies over whom the Athenians exercise authority to harm the Argives, Eleans, Mantineans, and their allies, by any artifice or contrivance whatever.

3 “The Athenians, Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans shall be allies for a hundred years on the following terms. If enemies invade the territory of the Athenians, the Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans shall come to the aid of Athens when summoned by the Athenians, with the greatest force they can muster, to the extent of their ability. If the enemy departs after ravaging the land, that city shall be an enemy of the Argives, Mantineans, Eleans, and Athenians, and shall be attacked by all these cities. No city shall be permitted to end the war against that city unless all agree.

4 “The Athenians shall likewise come to the aid of Argos, Mantinea, and Elis if enemies invade the territory of the Argives, Mantineans, or Eleans, when summoned by these cities, with the greatest force they can muster, to the extent of their ability. If the enemy departs after ravaging the land, that city shall be an enemy of the Athenians, Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans, and shall be attacked by all these cities. No city shall be permitted to end the war against that city unless all [the cities] agree.

5 “They shall not allow armed men on a hostile expedition to pass through their own territory or that of the allies over whom each exercises authority, nor by sea, unless all the cities—the Athenians, Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans—have voted to grant passage.

6 “For forces coming to give aid, the city that sends them shall provide food for up to thirty days after their arrival in the city that has summoned them, and likewise on their return. If the city that summoned them wishes to employ the army for a longer period, it shall provide a food allowance of three Aeginetan obols each day for every hoplite, light-armed soldier, and archer, and one Aeginetan drachma for every cavalryman.

7 “The city that summoned the army shall have command when the war is in its own territory. If all the cities decide to undertake a campaign together elsewhere, all the cities shall share equally in the command.

8 “The Athenians shall swear to the treaty on behalf of themselves and their allies; the Argives, Mantineans, Eleans, and their allies shall swear city by city. Each shall swear its most binding local oath over full-grown sacrificial victims. The oath shall be this: ‘I shall abide by the alliance according to the agreed terms, justly and without injury or deceit, and shall not transgress it by any artifice or contrivance whatever.’

9 “At Athens the council and the magistrates resident in the city shall swear, and the prytanes shall administer the oath. At Argos the council, the Eighty, and the artynae shall swear, and the Eighty shall administer the oath. At Mantinea the demiurges, the council, and the other magistrates shall swear, and the theori and polemarchs shall administer the oath. At Elis the demiurges, those holding the chief offices, and the Six Hundred shall swear, and the demiurges and guardians of the laws shall administer the oath.

10 “The Athenians shall go to Elis, Mantinea, and Argos to renew the oaths thirty days before the Olympic festival; the Argives, Eleans, and Mantineans shall go to Athens ten days before the Great Panathenaea.

11 “The agreements concerning the treaty, the oaths, and the alliance shall be inscribed on a stone stele: by the Athenians on the Acropolis, by the Argives in the sanctuary of Apollo in the marketplace, and by the Mantineans in the sanctuary of Zeus in the marketplace. They shall also jointly erect a bronze stele at Olympia at the present Olympic festival.

12 “If these cities think it better to add anything to the agreed terms, whatever all the cities decide upon in common deliberation shall be binding.”

Chapter 48

1 Such were the terms on which the treaty and alliance were made. The treaty and alliance between the Lacedaemonians and Athenians were not on that account renounced by either party.

2 The Corinthians, though allies of the Argives, did not enter this agreement. Nor had they sworn to the alliance previously made by the Eleans, Argives, and Mantineans, which required them to make war and peace with the same states. They said that the original defensive alliance was enough for them: they would help one another, but join no one in an offensive campaign.

3 Thus the Corinthians drew apart from their allies and turned their thoughts once more toward the Lacedaemonians.

Chapter 49

1 The Olympic games were held that summer, at which Androsthenes the Arcadian won his first victory in the pancration. The Eleans excluded the Lacedaemonians from the sanctuary, forbidding them to sacrifice or compete, because they had not paid the fine imposed upon them by the Eleans under Olympic law. The charge was that they had taken up arms against the Eleans at the fort of Phyrcus and sent hoplites of their own into Lepreum during the Olympic truce. The fine was two thousand minas, two minas for each hoplite, as the law prescribed.

2 The Lacedaemonians sent envoys to contest the judgment as unjust, saying that the truce had not yet been proclaimed at Lacedaemon when they sent in the hoplites.

3 The Eleans replied that the truce was already in force among themselves, since they proclaimed it first to their own people. They had therefore been keeping quiet and expecting no attack, as they were under truce, when the Lacedaemonians struck them unawares in violation of it.

4 The Lacedaemonians countered that the Eleans ought not then to have proclaimed the truce at Lacedaemon if they already regarded them as offenders: their proclamation showed that they did not regard them so. Nor, they added, had they since taken up arms against the Eleans anywhere.

5 The Eleans held to their argument: they would not be persuaded that the Lacedaemonians had done no wrong. But if the Lacedaemonians were willing to restore Lepreum to them, they would remit their own share of the money and themselves pay on the Lacedaemonians' behalf the portion due to the god.

Chapter 50

1 When the Lacedaemonians would not agree, the Eleans made a further proposal: they need not restore Lepreum if they did not wish to, but, since they were eager to use the sanctuary, they should ascend the altar of Olympian Zeus and swear before the Greeks that they would indeed pay the fine later.

2 When they refused this too, the Lacedaemonians remained excluded from the sanctuary [from sacrifices and contests] and sacrificed at home. The rest of the Greeks, except the Lepreans, attended the festival.

3 Nevertheless, the Eleans feared that the Lacedaemonians might force their way in to sacrifice, and kept a guard of their younger men under arms. A thousand Argives and a thousand Mantineans also came to their aid, along with Athenian cavalry, who waited at Harpina during the festival.

4 The festival gathering was greatly afraid that the Lacedaemonians would come in arms, especially after Lichas son of Arcesilaus, a Lacedaemonian, was beaten by the rod-bearers at the games. His own team had won, but because he was forbidden to compete, it had been proclaimed as an entry of the Boeotian state. He had then come forward into the arena and placed a ribbon on the charioteer, wishing to show that the chariot was his. This made everyone much more alarmed, and they expected some fresh disturbance. The Lacedaemonians, however, kept quiet, and the festival passed off for them in this way.

5 After the Olympic games the Argives and their allies came to Corinth to ask the Corinthians to join them. Lacedaemonian envoys happened also to be present. Much was said, but in the end nothing was accomplished; an earthquake occurred, and they broke up and each returned home. And the summer came to an end.

Chapter 51

1 During the following winter the people of Heraclea in Trachis fought a battle against the Aenianians, Dolopians, Malians, and some of the Thessalians.

2 These neighboring peoples were hostile to the city, for it was on their own land, and no one else's, that the fortified settlement had been built. From the moment of its foundation they had opposed it, doing as much damage as they could; now they defeated the Heracleans in battle. Xenares son of Cnidis, their Lacedaemonian governor, was killed, and other Heracleans perished as well. And the winter came to an end, and the twelfth year of this war, came to an end.

Chapter 52

1 At the very beginning of the following summer the Boeotians took over Heraclea, which had been suffering severely since the battle, and expelled the Lacedaemonian Hagesippidas on the ground that he was governing badly. They took possession of the place because they feared that, while the Lacedaemonians were distracted by troubles in the Peloponnese, the Athenians might seize it. The Lacedaemonians, however, were angry with them.

2 That same summer Alcibiades son of Clinias, now an Athenian general, came to the Peloponnese with a few Athenian hoplites and archers, with the cooperation of the Argives and the allies. Taking additional troops from the local allies, he marched through the Peloponnese with his army, helping to put the affairs of the alliance in order. He persuaded the people of Patrae to extend their walls down to the sea, and himself intended to build another fort at Achaean Rhium. But the Corinthians and Sicyonians, together with those who would be harmed by its fortification, came to the rescue and prevented it.

Chapter 53

1 During the same summer war broke out between the Epidaurians and Argives, ostensibly over the sacrificial victim due to Apollo Pythaeus, which the Epidaurians were obliged to deliver as a payment for grazing but had not sent. The Argives held the chief authority over the sanctuary. Even without this grievance, however, Alcibiades and the Argives thought it desirable to bring Epidaurus over to their side if they could, both to keep Corinth quiet and to give the Athenians a shorter route for bringing aid from Aegina than sailing around Scyllaeum. The Argives therefore prepared to invade Epidaurian territory themselves to exact the sacrificial offering.

Chapter 54

1 At about the same time the Lacedaemonians also marched out with their entire force to Leuctra, on their own frontier toward Mount Lycaeum, under the command of their king Agis son of Archidamus. No one knew their destination, not even the cities from which troops had been sent.

2 But when the sacrifices for crossing the frontier proved unfavorable, they returned home and sent word to their allies to prepare for a campaign after the coming month. This was Carneus, a sacred month for the Dorians.

3 After their withdrawal the Argives marched out on the fourth day from the end of the month preceding Carneus. Continuing to reckon it as that same day throughout, they invaded Epidaurian territory and ravaged it.

4 The Epidaurians appealed to their allies. Some pleaded the sacred month as an excuse; others actually came to the borders of Epidaurian territory but took no action.

Chapter 55

1 While the Argives were in Epidaurian territory, embassies from the cities gathered at Mantinea at the Athenians' invitation. In the discussions Euphamidas the Corinthian said that their words did not accord with their deeds: they were sitting together to discuss peace, while the Epidaurians and their allies stood under arms against the Argives. Delegates from both sides must therefore first go and disband the armies; then they could discuss peace again.

2 They accepted his advice, went, and brought the Argives out of Epidaurian territory. Later they met again in the same place, but even then could reach no agreement; instead, the Argives once more invaded Epidaurian territory and ravaged it.

3 The Lacedaemonians also marched out to Caryae, but when the sacrifices for crossing the frontier proved unfavorable there too, they withdrew.

4 After laying waste about a third of Epidaurian territory, the Argives returned home. A thousand Athenian hoplites also came to their aid, with Alcibiades as general. He had heard that the Lacedaemonians had taken the field; when the Athenians were no longer needed, he withdrew. And so the summer passed.

Chapter 56

1 During the following winter the Lacedaemonians, without the Athenians' knowledge, sent three hundred men by sea to garrison Epidaurus, with Hagesippidas as commander.

2 The Argives came to Athens and complained that, although the treaty stipulated that each party should prevent enemies from passing through its territory, the Athenians had allowed them to sail past by sea. Unless the Athenians in their turn brought the Messenians and Helots to Pylos to act against the Lacedaemonians, the Argives would consider themselves wronged.

3 Persuaded by Alcibiades, the Athenians added an inscription beneath the text on the Lacedaemonian treaty stele, stating that the Lacedaemonians had not kept their oaths. They brought the Helots from Cranii to Pylos to carry out raids, but otherwise took no action.

4 Throughout this winter, while the Argives and Epidaurians were at war, there was no pitched battle, but ambushes and raids, in which men on either side were killed as chance determined.

5 As winter was ending and spring already approaching, the Argives came against Epidaurus with ladders, intending to storm it by force, since it had been left deserted because of the war. They withdrew without accomplishing anything. And the winter came to an end, and the thirteenth year of this war, came to an end.

Chapter 57

1 At the midpoint of the following summer, the Lacedaemonians saw their allies the Epidaurians hard pressed, while elsewhere in the Peloponnese some states had revolted and others were unsettled. Believing that, unless they forestalled the danger at once, it would spread still further, they marched against Argos in full force, citizens and Helots alike. Agis son of Archidamus, king of the Lacedaemonians, commanded them.

2 With them marched the Tegeans and all the other Arcadians allied to the Lacedaemonians. Their allies from the rest of the Peloponnese and from outside it assembled at Phlius: five thousand Boeotian hoplites, as many light-armed troops, five hundred cavalry and an equal number of infantry trained to fight alongside the horsemen; two thousand Corinthian hoplites; and the contingents of the other states. The Phliasians served with their entire force, since the army was in their territory.

Chapter 58

1 The Argives had received advance warning of the Lacedaemonian preparations; when the Lacedaemonians moved toward Phlius to join the others, they too took the field. The Mantineans came to their aid with their own allies, as did three thousand Elean hoplites.

2 On their advance they met the Lacedaemonians at Methydrium in Arcadia. Each army occupied a hill. The Argives prepared to give battle while the Lacedaemonians were isolated, but Agis broke camp during the night and slipped away to join the other allies at Phlius.

3 When the Argives discovered this, they set out at dawn, first for Argos and then for the road through Nemea, by which they expected the Lacedaemonians and their allies to descend.

4 Agis, however, did not take the route they expected. He gave his orders to the Lacedaemonians, Arcadians, and Epidaurians, and led them along another, difficult road down into the Argive plain. The Corinthians, Pellenians, and Phliasians took a different, steep road. The Boeotians, Megarians, and Sicyonians had orders to descend by the road through Nemea, where the Argives were stationed, so that, if the Argives went down to the plain to oppose Agis and his men, they could follow and bring their cavalry into play.

5 Having made these dispositions and entered the plain, Agis laid waste Saminthus and other places.

Chapter 59

1 On learning this, the Argives marched to the rescue from Nemea, by now in daylight. They encountered the Phliasian and Corinthian force and killed a few Phliasians, but themselves lost a somewhat greater number to the Corinthians.

2 The Boeotians, Megarians, and Sicyonians advanced toward Nemea as they had been ordered, but no longer found the Argives there. The Argives had descended and, seeing their own land being ravaged, were drawing up for battle. The Lacedaemonians in turn prepared to face them.

3 The Argives were caught between the enemy forces. In the plain the Lacedaemonians and their companions cut them off from the city; above them stood the Corinthians, Phliasians, and Pellenians; and toward Nemea the Boeotians, Sicyonians, and Megarians. They had no cavalry with them, for the Athenians alone among their allies had not yet arrived.

4 The mass of the Argives and their allies did not think their present situation so dangerous. They believed instead that they would fight at an advantage, and had trapped the Lacedaemonians in their own country and close to their city.

5 But two Argives, Thrasyllus, one of the five generals, and Alciphron, the Lacedaemonians' representative at Argos, approached Agis when the armies were on the very point of meeting and urged him not to give battle. The Argives, they said, were ready to submit to and seek arbitration on equal and reciprocal terms over any charges the Lacedaemonians had against them, and to conclude a treaty and keep the peace thereafter.

Chapter 60

1 These Argives spoke on their own initiative, without instructions from the people. Agis too accepted their proposals on his own authority: he did not consult the larger body, but communicated only with one of the officials accompanying the army. He concluded a truce for four months, within which they were to fulfill the terms discussed, and immediately led his army away without telling any of the other allies.

2 The Lacedaemonians and their allies followed his lead, as the law required, but among themselves they bitterly blamed Agis. They believed they had been offered a fine opportunity to fight, with the enemy hemmed in on every side by cavalry and infantry, yet were departing without having achieved anything worthy of their preparations.

3 For this was indeed the finest Greek army yet assembled. It was seen to best advantage while still concentrated at Nemea: the Lacedaemonians were there with their full levy, and with them Arcadians, Boeotians, Corinthians, Sicyonians, Pellenians, Phliasians, and Megarians, all picked men from their respective states. They seemed a match not only for the Argive alliance, but even for any further force that might join it.

4 Thus the army withdrew, blaming Agis, and dispersed, each contingent to its own home.

5 The Argives themselves blamed far more bitterly those who had made the truce without the people's consent. They too believed that they could never have had a finer opportunity, yet had let the Lacedaemonians escape: the contest would have taken place close to their own city, with many brave allies at their side.

6 On their return they began to stone Thrasyllus in the Charadrus, where they judge offenses committed on campaign before entering the city. He escaped death by taking refuge at the altar; his property, however, they confiscated.

Chapter 61

1 After this, a thousand Athenian hoplites and three hundred cavalry arrived to help, commanded by Laches and Nicostratus. The Argives, still reluctant to break their truce with the Lacedaemonians, told them to leave and would not bring them before the people when they asked to address it, until the Mantineans and Eleans, who were still there, compelled them by their entreaties.

2 With Alcibiades present as ambassador, the Athenians told the Argives and their allies that the truce had been wrongly concluded without the other allies, and that now, since they themselves had arrived at an opportune moment, they ought to take up the war.

3 Their arguments persuaded the allies, and all except the Argives immediately advanced against Orchomenus in Arcadia. The Argives, though persuaded, at first remained behind, but later they too came.

4 They all sat down before Orchomenus, besieging it and making assaults. They wished to win it over in any case, and in addition the Lacedaemonians had deposited hostages from Arcadia there.

5 The Orchomenians, alarmed at the weakness of their wall and the size of the army, and afraid that with no one coming to their aid they would perish before help arrived, agreed to become allies, to give the Mantineans hostages of their own, and to surrender those the Lacedaemonians had placed there.

Chapter 62

1 Now that they held Orchomenus, the allies debated which of their remaining objectives they should attack first. The Eleans urged Lepreum, the Mantineans Tegea; and the Argives and Athenians sided with the Mantineans.

2 Angry that the vote had gone against an attack on Lepreum, the Eleans withdrew home. The other allies made preparations in Mantinean territory to march on Tegea. Some of the inhabitants of that city were also working to betray it to them.

Chapter 63

1 After withdrawing from Argos under the four-month truce, the Lacedaemonians bitterly blamed Agis for failing to bring Argos into their power when, as they believed, the opportunity had been better than ever before. It was no easy matter, they said, to assemble so many allies of such quality.

2 When news also came that Orchomenus had fallen, their anger grew far fiercer. In their fury, contrary to their usual temper, they immediately considered razing his house and fining him a hundred thousand drachmas.

3 He begged them to do neither: on another campaign he would wipe out the charges against him by a worthy deed; otherwise they could then do as they pleased.

4 They suspended the fine and the demolition, but for the present enacted a law without precedent among them. They appointed ten Spartans as his advisers, without whose consent he was to have no authority to lead an army out of the city.

Chapter 64

1 Meanwhile a message reached them from their friends in Tegea: unless they came at once, Tegea would revolt from them to the Argives and their allies; indeed, it was all but in revolt already.

2 The Lacedaemonians thereupon marched to its relief, citizens and Helots in full force, with a speed and urgency never seen before.

3 They advanced to Orestheum in Maenalia, having instructed their Arcadian allies to assemble and follow close behind them to Tegea. Their whole force went as far as Orestheum; from there they sent home a sixth of their own men, comprising the oldest and youngest, to guard their homeland, and reached Tegea with the rest of the army. Not long afterward their Arcadian allies arrived.

4 They also sent to Corinth and to the Boeotians, Phocians, and Locrians, ordering them to come with all speed to Mantinea. But these allies had little notice, and could not easily cross the enemy territory unless they waited for one another and marched together, for it barred their passage. They nevertheless pressed forward.

5 Taking with them the Arcadian allies who were present, the Lacedaemonians invaded Mantinean territory, encamped by the sanctuary of Heracles, and ravaged the land.

Chapter 65

1 When the Argives and their allies saw them, they occupied a strong position, difficult of approach, and drew up for battle.

2 The Lacedaemonians immediately advanced against them and came within a stone's throw or a javelin's cast. Then one of the older men, seeing them approach a formidable position, shouted to Agis that he was planning to cure one evil with another. He meant that Agis wished to make amends for his much-blamed withdrawal from Argos by this ill-timed eagerness now.

3 Whether because of this shout, or because some other thought, or the same thought, suddenly struck him, Agis quickly led the army back before the forces clashed.

4 Reaching the borders of Tegean territory, he began diverting the water into Mantinean land. This water, which usually damaged whichever territory it entered, was a cause of war between the Mantineans and Tegeans. His purpose was to bring [the Argives and their allies] down from the hill to counter the diversion when they learned of it, and to fight the battle on level ground.

5 He remained there that day, occupied in diverting the water. The Argives and their allies were at first astonished by the enemy's sudden retreat from so close at hand, and could not understand it. Then, when the retreating army disappeared and they themselves remained idle without following, they again began blaming their generals: previously they had let the Lacedaemonians go when they had them well caught near Argos; now no one pursued them as they slipped away, but the enemy were quietly saving themselves while they were being betrayed.

6 The generals were thrown into confusion at first, but afterward led them down from the hill and advanced onto the level ground, where they encamped, intending to move against the enemy.

Chapter 66

1 On the following day the Argives and their allies drew up in order, prepared to fight if they met the enemy. As the Lacedaemonians returned from the water to their former camp by the sanctuary of Heracles, they suddenly saw the enemy close at hand, already fully arrayed and advanced from the hill.

2 Never within their memory had the Lacedaemonians been more startled than at this moment. They had only the briefest interval in which to prepare; at once, in haste, they took up their accustomed formation, King Agis directing each movement according to established practice.

3 For when a king commands, all authority rests with him. He tells the polemarchs what must be done; they tell the regimental commanders; these tell the divisional commanders; they in turn tell the company commanders, and these the company.

4 Any orders they wish to give pass along the same channels and are quickly transmitted. For almost the entire Lacedaemonian army, with few exceptions, consists of officers commanding officers, and responsibility for carrying out a task rests with many men.

Chapter 67

1 On this occasion the Sciritae held their left wing, a position which, alone among the Lacedaemonians, they always occupy as a separate corps. Beside them stood the soldiers of Brasidas who had returned from Thrace, with the newly enfranchised Helots alongside them. Next the Lacedaemonians themselves formed their regiments in succession; beside them were the Heraeans of Arcadia, then the Maenalians. On the right wing were the Tegeans, with a few Lacedaemonians at the extreme end; their cavalry stood on either wing.

2 Such was the Lacedaemonian formation. Opposite them, the Mantineans held the right wing, since the battle was being fought in their country. Beside them stood their Arcadian allies, then the thousand picked Argives, whom the city had long trained for war at public expense. Next to these were the other Argives, followed by their allies, the Cleonaeans and Orneatae. Last came the Athenians, holding the extreme left wing, with their own cavalry beside them.

Chapter 68

1 Such were the order and equipment of the two armies; the Lacedaemonian force appeared the larger.

2 I could not give an exact account of the numbers on either side, whether by contingent or in all. The size of the Lacedaemonian force was unknown because of the secrecy of their government; the other's numbers were untrustworthy because people are naturally prone to boast of their own strength. Yet the following calculation makes it possible to estimate how many Lacedaemonians were present on this occasion.

3 Seven regiments fought, besides the six hundred Sciritae. Each regiment contained four divisions, each division four companies. Each company had four men fighting in its front rank. They did not all draw up to the same depth, but each regimental commander arranged it as he wished; in general, however, they stood eight deep. Along the whole line, excluding the Sciritae, the first rank numbered four hundred and forty-eight men.

Chapter 69

1 When they were now about to meet, each contingent received exhortations of this kind from its own generals. The Mantineans were told that the battle would be for their homeland, and at the same time for dominion or slavery: they must not let the one be taken from them without a struggle, or taste the other again. The Argives were urged not to endure perpetual exclusion from their ancient leadership and the equal standing they had once enjoyed in the Peloponnese, and at the same time to avenge the many wrongs done them by men who were both their enemies and their neighbors. The Athenians were told that it would be honorable, fighting beside so many brave allies, to fall behind none of them; and that, if they defeated the Lacedaemonians in the Peloponnese, they would make their empire both more secure and greater, and no enemy would ever again invade their land.

2 Such were the exhortations to the Argives and their allies. The Lacedaemonians, individually and together with the martial songs they knew, called upon one another to remember their training and prove themselves brave. They understood that long practice in deeds brings greater safety than a fine exhortation in words delivered at short notice.

Chapter 70

1 After this the armies met. The Argives and their allies advanced with force and fury; the Lacedaemonians slowly, to the music of the many flute players stationed throughout their ranks—not for religious reasons, but so that they might approach with an even, rhythmic tread and their formation might not break apart, as large armies commonly do when advancing.

Chapter 71

1 While the armies were still approaching, King Agis decided on the following maneuver. All armies tend to do this: as they advance to meet, they push outward toward their right wings, and each side's right extends beyond the enemy's left. Fear makes each man draw his unshielded side as close as possible to the shield of the man stationed on his right, believing that the closer the ranks lock together, the better his protection. The front-rank man at the outer end of the right wing sets this movement going, always eager to keep his own unshielded side out of the enemy's reach; the rest follow from the same fear.

2 On this occasion the Mantineans' wing extended far beyond the Sciritae, while the Lacedaemonians and Tegeans extended still farther beyond the Athenians, in proportion to the greater size of their army.

3 Agis feared that his left wing would be encircled, and thought the Mantineans' overlap excessive. He therefore signaled the Sciritae and the soldiers of Brasidas to move outward from his own line and draw level with the Mantineans. To fill the resulting gap, he ordered the polemarchs Hipponoidas and Aristocles to bring their two regiments across from the right wing and take position there. He believed that his own right would still have strength to spare, while the line facing the Mantineans would be more secure.

Chapter 72

1 But since he gave these orders during the advance itself and at short notice, Aristocles and Hipponoidas refused to move across—a charge for which they were later banished from Sparta, being judged guilty of cowardice—and the enemy closed before the maneuver could be made. When the regiments did not come across, Agis ordered the Sciritae to rejoin his line; but by then they too could no longer close the gap.

2 Yet, on an occasion when their skill failed them more completely than ever, the Lacedaemonians proved no less victorious through courage.

3 For when they came to close quarters with the enemy, the Mantinean right routed their Sciritae and the soldiers of Brasidas. The Mantineans, their allies, and the thousand picked Argives poured into the gap that had not been closed, slaughtered the Lacedaemonians, surrounded and routed them, drove them back to the wagons, and killed some of the older men posted there.

4 On this side the Lacedaemonians were defeated. But with the rest of their army, and above all the center, where King Agis stood with the three hundred men around him known as the Horsemen, they fell upon the older Argives, known as the five regiments, the Cleonaeans, the Orneatae, and the Athenians drawn up beside them, and put them to flight. Most did not even wait for hand-to-hand fighting, but gave way as soon as the Lacedaemonians advanced; some were even trampled underfoot because they could not escape being overtaken.

Chapter 73

1 As the army of the Argives and their allies gave way here, its line was now breaking on either side. At the same time the overlapping right wing of the Lacedaemonians and Tegeans wheeled around the Athenians, who were threatened from both directions: on one side they were being encircled, on the other their line had already been defeated. They would have suffered more than any other part of the army had their cavalry not been there to help them.

2 It happened that Agis, on learning that his left wing was in trouble against the Mantineans and the thousand Argives, ordered his whole army to move toward the defeated part of his line.

3 When this happened and the army moved across and turned away from them, the Athenians escaped unmolested, along with the defeated Argives beside them. The Mantineans, their allies, and the picked Argives no longer thought of pressing the enemy: seeing their own side defeated and the Lacedaemonians bearing down on them, they turned to flight.

4 A greater number of the Mantineans were killed, but most of the picked Argives escaped. Yet the flight and withdrawal were neither hard pressed nor prolonged. Until they have routed an enemy, the Lacedaemonians fight long and steadfastly, holding their ground; once they have routed them, they pursue for only a short time and no great distance.

Chapter 74

1 Such, or as nearly as possible such, was the course of the battle: the greatest fought among Greeks for a very long time, and joined by the most important cities.

2 The Lacedaemonians set out the arms of the enemy dead, immediately erected a trophy, and stripped the bodies. They collected their own dead and carried them to Tegea, where they were buried, and returned those of the enemy under a truce.

3 Seven hundred Argives, Orneatae, and Cleonaeans were killed, two hundred Mantineans, and two hundred Athenians together with Aeginetans, as well as both generals. The Lacedaemonians' allies had not suffered enough to lose any considerable number. As for the Lacedaemonians themselves, the truth was difficult to discover, but about three hundred were said to have died.

Chapter 75

1 As the battle was about to take place, Pleistoanax, the other king, also marched to their aid with the older and younger men. He reached Tegea, but on learning of the victory withdrew.

2 The Lacedaemonians sent messengers to turn back the allies coming from Corinth and beyond the Isthmus. They themselves returned home, dismissed their allies, and celebrated the festival, for the time of the Carnea had come.

3 By this single deed they cleared themselves of the charges the Greeks were then bringing against them: cowardice because of the disaster on the island, and lack of judgment and slowness on other occasions. They had, it seemed, been humbled by fortune, but in resolve they were still the same men.

4 On the day before this battle, the Epidaurians had happened to invade Argive territory with their whole force, believing it undefended. They killed many of the Argive guards who had been left behind and had come out against them.

5 After the battle, three thousand Elean hoplites came to the aid of the Mantineans, together with a thousand Athenians in addition to those already there. All these allies at once marched against Epidaurus while the Lacedaemonians were celebrating the Carnea, divided the circuit of the city among themselves, and began building a wall around it.

6 The others abandoned the work, but the Athenians at once completed their assigned task of walling off the promontory where the sanctuary of Hera stood. They all contributed a garrison to this fortification, and then withdrew, each to their own city. And the summer ended.

Chapter 76

1 At the very beginning of the following winter, after celebrating the Carnea, the Lacedaemonians took the field and reached Tegea, from where they sent proposals for a settlement ahead to Argos.

2 They had already had friends there who wished to overthrow the democracy at Argos. Now that the battle had been fought, these men were far better able to persuade the mass of the people to accept an agreement. Their plan was first to make a treaty with the Lacedaemonians, then later an alliance, and only then to attack the democracy.

3 Lichas son of Arcesilaus, the Argives' representative at Sparta, came from the Lacedaemonians to Argos carrying two proposals: one setting out the terms if they wished to make war, the other if they wished to keep the peace. There was much debate, for Alcibiades too happened to be present; but the men working for the Lacedaemonians, now daring to act openly as well, persuaded the Argives to accept the proposal for a settlement. It was as follows.

Chapter 77

1 “The assembly of the Lacedaemonians resolves to make an agreement with the Argives on these terms: they are to restore the children to the Orchomenians, the men to the Maenalians, and the men in Mantinea to the Lacedaemonians; they are to withdraw from Epidaurus and demolish the wall.

2 “If the Athenians do not withdraw from Epidaurus, they are to be enemies of the Argives and Lacedaemonians and of the allies of both.

3 “If the Lacedaemonians hold any children, they are to restore them to their respective cities.

4 “As for the offering to the god, if they wish, they are to leave the oath to the Epidaurians; otherwise they are to swear it themselves.

5 “The cities in the Peloponnese, small and great alike, are all to be independent according to their ancestral customs.

6 “If anyone from outside the Peloponnese enters Peloponnesian territory with hostile intent, they are to take counsel together and repel him in whatever way the Peloponnesians judge most just.

7 “The allies of the Lacedaemonians outside the Peloponnese are to enjoy the same terms as the Lacedaemonians, and the allies of the Argives the same terms as the Argives, retaining their own territory.

8 “They are to lay the terms before their allies and conclude the agreement if the allies approve. If the allies have any proposal to make, they are to send it home.”

Chapter 78

1 The Argives first accepted this proposal, and the Lacedaemonian army withdrew from Tegea to return home. After this, with intercourse between the two sides now restored, the same men soon arranged for the Argives to abandon their alliance with the Mantineans, Athenians, and Eleans and make a treaty and alliance with the Lacedaemonians. Its terms were these.

Chapter 79

1 “The Lacedaemonians and Argives have resolved to maintain a treaty and alliance for fifty years, submitting their disputes to judgment on equal and reciprocal terms according to ancestral custom. The other cities in the Peloponnese are to share in the treaty and alliance as independent, self-governing cities, retaining their own territory and submitting their disputes to judgment on equal and reciprocal terms according to ancestral custom.

2 “The allies of the Lacedaemonians outside the Peloponnese are to enjoy the same terms as the Lacedaemonians; the allies of the Argives are to enjoy the same terms as the Argives, retaining their own territory.

3 “If a joint expedition is required anywhere, the Lacedaemonians and Argives are to take counsel and decide upon the course most just to their allies.

4 “If any of the cities, whether inside or outside the Peloponnese, have disputed claims about boundaries or anything else, these are to be adjudicated. If one allied city is at variance with another, they are to submit to a city which both regard as impartial. Private persons are to have their cases judged according to ancestral custom.”

Chapter 80

1 Such was the treaty and alliance they had made; they also settled all questions arising from possessions taken from one another in war, and any other outstanding matters. Now conducting their affairs jointly, they voted to receive neither herald nor embassy from the Athenians unless they withdrew from the Peloponnese, abandoning the fortifications, and to make no agreement with anyone, nor wage war, except together.

2 They pursued their other business with vigor, and both sent envoys to the places on the Thracian coast and to Perdiccas, whom they persuaded to join them in a sworn agreement. He did not, however, immediately break with the Athenians, but was considering it, seeing that the Argives too had done so; he himself was originally of Argive descent. They also renewed their old oaths with the Chalcidians and swore others.

3 The Argives also sent envoys to the Athenians, ordering them to abandon the fort at Epidaurus. The Athenians, seeing that their own men were few compared with the others sharing the garrison, sent Demosthenes to bring their men out. On his arrival, he arranged an athletic contest outside the fort as a pretext, and when the rest of the garrison had gone out, he shut the gates against them. Later the Athenians themselves renewed their treaty with the Epidaurians and handed over the fort.

Chapter 81

1 After the Argives withdrew from the alliance, the Mantineans too, though they held out at first, proved unable to continue without them; they also came to terms with the Lacedaemonians and relinquished their rule over the cities.

2 The Lacedaemonians and Argives made a joint expedition, a thousand men from each. The Lacedaemonians first went by themselves to Sicyon and placed its government in the hands of a still smaller number; afterward the two contingents together overthrew the democracy at Argos as well, and an oligarchy friendly to the Lacedaemonians was established. These events took place as spring approached and winter was ending, and the fourteenth year of this war, came to an end.

Chapter 82

1 The following summer the Dians on Athos revolted from the Athenians to the Chalcidians, and the Lacedaemonians were settling affairs in Achaea, where the situation had previously been unfavorable to them.

2 Meanwhile the people of Argos gradually banded together, recovered their confidence, and attacked the oligarchs, choosing the very time of the Lacedaemonians' Gymnopaediae festival. A battle took place in the city; the people prevailed, killing some of their opponents and driving others into exile.

3 The Lacedaemonians had long failed to come while their friends were summoning them, but at last postponed the Gymnopaediae and set out to help. At Tegea they learned that the oligarchs had been defeated and refused to advance any farther, despite the entreaties of those who had escaped. They returned home and celebrated the Gymnopaediae.

4 Later, when envoys arrived both from those in the city [messengers] and from the Argives outside it, the allies were present, and much was said on either side. The Lacedaemonians judged those in the city to be in the wrong and resolved to march against Argos, but delays and postponements followed.

5 Meanwhile the people of Argos, fearing the Lacedaemonians and once more seeking an alliance with the Athenians, which they believed would help them most, began building long walls to the sea. Thus, if they were cut off from their land, they could benefit from supplies brought in by sea with Athenian assistance.

6 Some of the cities in the Peloponnese were also privy to the building of the walls. The Argives worked with their whole population—the men themselves, the women, and the slaves—and carpenters and stonemasons came to them from Athens. And the summer ended.

Chapter 83

1 The following winter, when the Lacedaemonians learned that the walls were being built, they marched against Argos with their allies except the Corinthians. They also had some negotiations already under way within Argos itself. The army was commanded by Agis son of Archidamus, king of the Lacedaemonians.

2 The plans on which they believed they could count within the city made no further progress. They captured and demolished the walls under construction, took Hysiae, a place in Argive territory, and killed all the free men they captured there; then they withdrew and dispersed to their respective cities.

3 After this the Argives in turn marched into Phliasian territory, ravaged it, and departed, because the Phliasians had received their exiles, most of whom had settled there.

4 That same winter the Athenians also imposed a blockade on the Macedonians. They charged Perdiccas both with the sworn agreement he had made with the Argives and Lacedaemonians and with having betrayed his alliance when they had prepared to lead an army against the Chalcidians on the Thracian coast and Amphipolis under the command of Nicias son of Niceratus: the expedition had broken up chiefly because he withdrew. He was therefore an enemy. And this winter ended, and the fifteenth year of this war, came to an end.

Chapter 84

1 The following summer Alcibiades sailed to Argos with twenty ships and seized three hundred Argive men who were still considered suspect and sympathetic to the Lacedaemonians; the Athenians confined them on the neighboring islands under their rule. The Athenians also undertook an expedition against the island of Melos, with thirty ships of their own, six Chian and two Lesbian ships, and twelve hundred of their own hoplites, three hundred archers, and twenty mounted archers, together with about fifteen hundred hoplites from their allies and the islanders.

2 The Melians are colonists of the Lacedaemonians and were unwilling to submit to the Athenians as the other islanders had. At first they remained neutral and kept quiet; afterward, when the Athenians tried to force them by ravaging their land, they entered into open war.

3 The generals, Cleomedes son of Lycomedes and Tisias son of Tisimachus, encamped in Melian territory with this force, but before doing any damage to the land they first sent envoys to open negotiations. The Melians did not bring these before the people, but instructed them to state the purpose of their visit before the magistrates and the few.

Chapter 85

1 The Athenian envoys spoke as follows. “Since our discussions are not to take place before the people, evidently to prevent the multitude from being deceived by hearing us deliver a persuasive and unchallenged speech all at once—for we understand that this is the intention behind our being brought before the few—you who sit here should make the procedure safer still. Do not yourselves reply in a single speech either, but consider each point in turn, immediately interrupting anything we say that seems unsatisfactory. First tell us whether this proposal pleases you.”

Chapter 86

1 The Melian representatives answered: “We do not fault the fairness of calmly explaining our positions to one another. But the realities of war, already here and not merely impending, seem at odds with it. We see that you have come as judges of what will be said, and that the likely outcome is war for us if our just case prevails and we refuse to yield because of it, but slavery if we are persuaded.”

Chapter 87

1 Athenians: “If you have assembled to reckon with suspicions about the future, or for any purpose other than to deliberate on your city's preservation in the light of present circumstances and what you see before you, we might as well stop. If that is your purpose, we may proceed.”

Chapter 88

1 Melians: “It is natural, and pardonable, for men in our position to turn to many arguments and many thoughts. Yet this meeting is indeed concerned with our preservation. Let the discussion proceed, if you wish, in the manner you propose.”

Chapter 89

1 Athenians: “We, then, will not offer you a long, unconvincing argument dressed in noble language—claiming either that we deserve our empire because we overthrew the Mede, or that we are now attacking you because we have been wronged. Nor do we expect you to think you can persuade us by saying that, though colonists of the Lacedaemonians, you have not joined their campaigns, or that you have done us no wrong. Rather, we should work toward what is possible on the basis of what each side truly thinks. You know as well as we do that in human deliberations questions of justice are decided where the constraint on either side is equal; where power is unequal, the stronger carry through what they can, and the weak give way.”

Chapter 90

1 Melians: “As we see it, at least, it is useful—for we must speak of advantage, since you have laid down that we should discuss it rather than justice—that you should not destroy the good common to all: that anyone who finds himself in danger should have the benefit of reasonable and just treatment, and that a man who makes a persuasive case should gain something even when his case falls short of the strictest standard. This concerns you no less than us, since, if you fell, your punishment would be the greatest and you would become an example to others.”

Chapter 91

1 Athenians: “Even if our empire should end, we are not disheartened by the prospect of its fall. It is not those who rule over others, such as the Lacedaemonians, who are to be feared by the defeated—and our contest is not with the Lacedaemonians—but subjects who might themselves attack their former rulers and overcome them.

2 Athenians: “Let us bear that risk. We shall show you that we are here to benefit our empire and that what we now say is intended to preserve your city: we wish to rule you without trouble, and for you to survive to the advantage of us both.”

Chapter 92

1 Melians: “And how could being enslaved prove as advantageous to us as ruling us would be to you?”

Chapter 93

1 Athenians: “Because you would submit before suffering the worst, while we would profit by not destroying you.”

Chapter 94

1 Melians: “Would you not accept our remaining at peace, friends rather than enemies, but allies of neither side?”

Chapter 95

1 Athenians: “No: your enmity does us less harm than your friendship, which would be displayed to our subjects as evidence of our weakness, while your hatred would be evidence of our strength.”

Chapter 96

1 Melians: “Do your subjects judge what is reasonable so indiscriminately that they put those who have no connection with you on the same footing as those whom you have subdued—most of them your colonists, some of them rebels?”

Chapter 97

1 Athenians: “They think neither group lacks a claim of right, but that some preserve their freedom through their strength, and that fear keeps us from attacking them. Thus your subjection would give us security as well as an extension of our rule, especially if you, islanders weaker than others, failed to hold out against us, the masters of the sea.”

Chapter 98

1 Melians: “And do you see no security in the other course? Here again, since you have driven us away from arguments of justice and urge us to submit to your advantage, we too must explain what is useful to us and try to persuade you, if it happens to coincide with your interest. For how will you avoid making enemies of all who are now allied with neither side, when they look at this and conclude that one day you will come against them too? In doing so, what else are you doing but strengthening your existing enemies and bringing against you, unwillingly, men who had never even intended to become your enemies?”

Chapter 99

1 Athenians: “We do not regard as the more dangerous those on the mainland who, because they are free, will long put off taking precautions against us. We fear rather the islanders who, like you, are outside our rule, and those already embittered by its compulsion. These are the men most likely to abandon themselves to recklessness and bring both themselves and us into manifest danger.”

Chapter 100

1 Melians: “Then surely, if you run such risks to keep your empire, and those already enslaved run them to escape it, it would be great baseness and cowardice for us, who are still free, not to try everything before becoming slaves.”

Chapter 101

1 Athenians: “Not if you deliberate sensibly. Yours is not an equal contest in valor, in which you must avoid incurring disgrace; your deliberation concerns survival rather than honor—not resisting those far stronger than yourselves.”

Chapter 102

1 Melians: “But we know that the fortunes of war sometimes allow a more equal chance than the disparity in numbers would suggest. For us, yielding means the immediate loss of hope; while we still act, there is hope that we may yet stand upright.”

Chapter 103

1 Athenians: “Hope offers comfort in danger. Those who draw on it from a position of abundance it may injure, but does not destroy. Yet for those who stake their entire resources on it—for it is by nature extravagant—it reveals its character only when they fall, and leaves no means by which, once they have learned its nature, they may still guard against it.

2 Athenians: “You are weak, and your fate hangs on a single turn: do not choose this experience. Do not resemble the many who, while they could still save themselves by human means, find their visible hopes deserting them under pressure and turn instead to invisible ones—to divination, oracles, and everything of that kind which brings ruin together with hope.”

Chapter 104

1 Melians: “We too, be assured, think it hard to contend against your power and against fortune, if fortune is not to be impartial. Nevertheless, we trust that the divine dispensation will not leave us worse off in fortune, since we stand as righteous men against the unjust; and that what we lack in strength will be supplied by our alliance with the Lacedaemonians, who are bound to help us, if for no other reason, at least through kinship and a sense of shame. Our confidence is not, then, altogether so irrational.”

Chapter 105

1 Athenians: “We too believe that we shall not fall short in divine favor. For neither our claims nor our actions depart from what men believe about the gods or desire for themselves.

2 Athenians: “We believe of the divine, and know with certainty of mankind, that by an unvarying compulsion of nature they rule wherever they have the strength. We neither established this law nor were the first to use it once established; we found it in existence and shall leave it to exist forever, and we make use of it, knowing that you too, and anyone else who possessed the same power as we do, would act in just the same way.

3 Athenians: “As far as the divine is concerned, then, we have reasonable grounds not to fear being at a disadvantage. As for your opinion of the Lacedaemonians, and your trust that a sense of shame will indeed make them help you, we congratulate you on your innocence but do not envy your folly.

4 Athenians: “In their dealings with one another and in their observance of their country's customs, the Lacedaemonians practice virtue to the highest degree. Much could be said of how they treat others, but the clearest summary is this: of all men known to us, they most conspicuously regard what pleases them as honorable and what profits them as just. Yet such an outlook does nothing to support the deliverance you now hope for so unreasonably.”

Chapter 106

1 Melians: “On this very ground we place our greatest trust in their self-interest: they will not wish to betray the Melians, their own colonists, and so prove untrustworthy to the Greeks who favor them and useful to their enemies.”

Chapter 107

1 Athenians: “Do you not think that advantage goes with safety, while justice and honor are practiced at a risk? And such risks the Lacedaemonians are, as a rule, least willing to take.”

Chapter 108

1 Melians: “But we believe they would be more willing to undertake risks on our behalf, and would consider them more secure than risks for others, since for military operations we lie close to the Peloponnese, while in loyalty our kinship makes us more trustworthy than others.”

Chapter 109

1 Athenians: “What gives men confidence when they join a struggle is not the goodwill of those who call them in, but a large superiority in effective strength. The Lacedaemonians attend to this even more than others: distrust of their own resources leads them to attack even their neighbors with many allies. They are therefore unlikely to cross over to an island while we command the sea.”

Chapter 110

1 Melians: “They could also send others. The Cretan Sea is wide, and across it interception is harder for those who control the waters than safe passage is for those who wish to escape notice.

2 “And if they failed in this, they could turn against your land and against the rest of your allies, those whom Brasidas did not attack. Your struggle would then be not so much for a land with no connection to you as for your own territory and your alliance, which concern you more closely.”

Chapter 111

1 Athenians: “You too might learn something of this by experience, though you know already that the Athenians have never yet withdrawn from a single siege through fear of others.

2 Athenians: “But we observe that, though you said you would deliberate on your preservation, in all this discussion you have said nothing on which men might rely and believe they would be saved. Your strongest supports lie in the future, objects of hope, while your present resources are too slight to overcome what is already arrayed against you. You display great irrationality of judgment, unless, after asking us to withdraw, you still arrive at some wiser decision than this.

3 Athenians: “Surely you will not turn to that sense of shame which so often destroys men amid dangers both disgraceful and plain to see. For many, even while foreseeing where they were being carried, have been drawn on by what is called disgrace: conquered by the seductive power of a word, they have willingly fallen into irreparable disasters in deed, and incurred through folly a shame more shameful than any brought by misfortune.

4 Athenians: “You will guard against this if you deliberate well. You will not think it unbecoming to yield to the greatest city when it offers moderate terms—to become its allies, retaining your own land and paying tribute—nor, when offered a choice between war and safety, will you insist upon the worse. Those who do not yield to their equals, who deal well with their superiors, and who are moderate toward those beneath them are the most likely to prosper.

5 Athenians: “Consider this, then, even after we have withdrawn, and reflect repeatedly that you are deciding the fate of your country. You have only one, and upon a single decision will depend its good fortune or its ruin.”

Chapter 112

1 The Athenians withdrew from the discussion. Left to themselves, the Melians reached much the same decision as they had maintained in argument, and answered as follows.

2 “Our judgment, Athenians, is no different from what it was at first. We will not, in a brief moment, strip of its freedom a city that has now been inhabited for seven hundred years. Trusting in the divinely granted fortune that has preserved it until now, and in the help of men, the Lacedaemonians, we shall try to save ourselves.

3 “We invite you to let us be friends, but enemies of neither side, and to withdraw from our land after making a treaty on terms that seem suitable to us both.”

Chapter 113

1 Such was the Melians' answer. As the Athenians now broke off the discussion, they said: “To judge from these decisions, you alone, it seems to us, regard the future as more certain than what is before your eyes, and see the unseen as already happening simply because you wish it so. You have staked most on the Lacedaemonians, on fortune, and on hopes; and because you have trusted most, you will suffer the greatest fall.”

Chapter 114

1 The Athenian envoys returned to the army. Since the Melians would make no concession, the generals at once turned to war and, dividing the work among the contingents from the different cities, enclosed the Melians with a wall on every side.

2 Later the Athenians left a guard of their own men and their allies, both on land and at sea, and withdrew with the greater part of the army. Those left behind remained and besieged the place.

Chapter 115

1 At about the same time the Argives invaded Phliasian territory and were ambushed by the Phliasians and their own exiles; about eighty of them were killed.

2 The Athenians operating from Pylos took much plunder from the Lacedaemonians. In response, the Lacedaemonians waged war on them without even then renouncing the treaty, and proclaimed that any of their people who wished could plunder the Athenians.

3 The Corinthians also fought the Athenians over certain disputes of their own, while the other Peloponnesians remained quiet.

4 The Melians made a night attack and captured the part of the Athenians' encircling wall facing the marketplace. They killed some men, brought in grain and as many other useful supplies as they could, then withdrew and remained quiet. Thereafter the Athenians made better arrangements for their guard. And the summer ended.

Chapter 116

1 The following winter the Lacedaemonians intended to invade Argive territory, but when their crossing sacrifices [sacrifices at the frontier] proved unfavorable, they turned back. Because of this intention the Argives suspected certain men within the city and arrested some of them, while others escaped them.

2 At about the same time the Melians again captured another part of the Athenians' encircling wall, where few of the guards were present.

3 Afterward, as these things were happening, another army arrived from Athens under Philocrates son of Demeas. Now besieged with full force, and with some treachery also at work, the Melians surrendered voluntarily to the Athenians, leaving them to decide their fate.

4 The Athenians killed all the Melian men of fighting age whom they captured, and enslaved the children and women. They settled the place themselves, later sending five hundred colonists.

Chapter 1

1 By the Pythian Games in the following summer, the one-year truce had ended. During the truce the Athenians expelled the Delians from Delos. They thought an old offense made the Delians too impure to perform sacred duties. They also thought their purification of the island was incomplete without this step. As I explained earlier, they had believed they were acting correctly when they removed the graves of the dead. Pharnaces gave the Delians Adramyttium in Asia to live in, and they settled there as each chose.

Chapter 2

1 After the truce, Cleon persuaded the Athenians to send him to the towns in the Thracian region. He sailed with 1,200 Athenian hoplites and 300 cavalry, a larger number of allied troops, and thirty ships.

2 He first put in at Scione, which was still under siege. He took additional hoplites from the forces guarding it and sailed to Cophus, a harbor in Torone's territory not far from the city.

3 There he learned from deserters that Brasidas was not in Torone and that the men inside could not put up an effective fight. He advanced on the city with his land army and sent ten ships around to sail into the harbor.

4 He first reached the outer wall. Brasidas had built this addition to the city's defenses to enclose the suburb. By taking down part of the old wall, he had made the whole place a single city.

Chapter 3

1 Pasitelidas, the Lacedaemonian commander, and the garrison there came to defend the outer wall and resisted the Athenian attack. They were being forced back, while the ships sent around to the harbor were sailing in. Pasitelidas feared that the ships would capture the undefended city first and that he would be trapped if the outer wall fell. He abandoned it and ran back to the city.

2 The Athenians from the ships reached Torone first and captured it. Their land army followed close behind the defenders and rushed in with a shout through the gap in the old wall. They killed some of the Peloponnesians and Toronaeans in the immediate hand-to-hand fighting. They captured the others alive, including the commander Pasitelidas.

3 Brasidas was coming to help Torone. On the way he learned that it had fallen and turned back. He had been about forty stades away when he failed to arrive in time.

4 Cleon and the Athenians set up two victory monuments, one by the harbor and the other near the outer wall. They enslaved the Toronaean women and children. They sent the men, the Peloponnesians, and any other Chalcidians who were there to Athens, about seven hundred prisoners in all. The Peloponnesians among them were later released under the peace treaty. The Olynthians recovered the rest through an exchange of one prisoner for another.

5 At about the same time, the Boeotians captured Panactum, an Athenian fort on the border, through treachery.

6 Cleon posted a garrison in Torone, put to sea, and sailed around Athos toward Amphipolis.

Chapter 4

1 At about the same time, the Athenians sent Phaeax son of Erasistratus as one of three ambassadors to Italy and Sicily. He sailed with two ships.

2 After the agreement and the Athenian withdrawal from Sicily, the Leontines had enrolled many new citizens. The people were planning to redistribute the land.

3 When the powerful men learned this, they called in the Syracusans and drove the people out. The expelled people scattered wherever each could go. The powerful men reached an agreement with the Syracusans, left their city empty, and settled in Syracuse with citizenship rights.

4 Later, some of them were dissatisfied and left Syracuse again. They occupied a part of the city of Leontini called Phocaeae, as well as Bricinniae, a stronghold in Leontine territory. Most of the people expelled earlier joined them. They established themselves there and fought from behind the walls.

5 When the Athenians heard about this, they sent Phaeax. They hoped to save the people of Leontini by persuading their allies there, and if possible the other Sicilian Greeks, to join in attacking the Syracusans, on the grounds that Syracuse was building up its power.

6 On his arrival Phaeax persuaded the Camarinaeans and Acragantines. But his efforts met resistance at Gela, and he went no farther to the other cities, realizing that he would not persuade them. He returned through the country of the Sicels to Catana. On the way he also visited Bricinniae and encouraged its people. Then he sailed away.

Chapter 5

1 On his voyage to Sicily and on his return, he also negotiated with some cities in Italy about friendship with Athens. He encountered some Locrian settlers who had been driven out of Messene. After the agreement among the Sicilian Greeks, civil strife had broken out in Messene. One side had called in the Locrians, who sent these men as settlers. Messene was under Locrian control for a time.

2 Phaeax did not harm these men when he met them on their voyage home. The Locrians had already reached an understanding with him about an agreement with Athens.

3 They alone among the allies had not made a truce with Athens when the Sicilian Greeks settled their differences. They would not have done so even now, if they had not been tied down by a war with the Hipponians and Medmaeans, their neighbors and colonists. Phaeax arrived back in Athens some time later.

Chapter 6

1 After sailing around from Torone toward Amphipolis, Cleon made Eion his base. He attacked Stagirus, a colony of Andros, but failed to capture it. He did, however, take Galepsus, a colony of Thasos, by force.

2 He sent ambassadors to Perdiccas, asking him to bring an army as required by their alliance. He sent others to Thrace, to Polles, king of the Odomantians, to hire and bring back as many Thracians as possible. He himself stayed at Eion and waited.

3 When Brasidas learned this, he took up a position against him at Cerdylium. This place belongs to the Argilians and stands on high ground across the river, not far from Amphipolis. Everything could be seen from there, so Cleon could not move out with his army without Brasidas noticing. Brasidas expected him to do just that: dismiss the numbers on their side and march up to Amphipolis with the army he already had.

4 Meanwhile, Brasidas was also gathering 1,500 Thracian mercenaries and calling up all the Edonian peltasts and cavalry. He had a thousand Myrcinian and Chalcidian peltasts as well as those in Amphipolis.

5 The hoplites assembled numbered about two thousand in all. There were also three hundred Greek cavalry. Brasidas held his position at Cerdylium with about 1,500 of these troops. The others were stationed in Amphipolis with Clearidas.

Chapter 7

1 For a time Cleon stayed where he was. Then he was forced to do what Brasidas expected.

2 The soldiers were annoyed at sitting idle. They contrasted the enemy's experience and daring with their own commander's ignorance and timidity. They also recalled how unwillingly they had followed him from home. Cleon heard their complaints. He did not want them to become resentful because he kept them in the same place, so he took them out and led them forward.

3 He used the same approach as at Pylos, where success had made him believe he had some understanding of war. He did not expect anyone to come out and fight him. He said he was going up mainly to inspect the place. He was waiting for his larger force, not to give himself a safe advantage if forced to fight, but to surround the city and capture it by force.

4 He arrived and stationed his army on a strong hill in front of Amphipolis. He himself examined the lake formed by the Strymon and the layout of the city on the side facing Thrace.

5 He thought he could leave whenever he wanted without a fight. No one could be seen on the wall, and no one came out through the gates, which were all closed. He even thought he had made a mistake by not bringing siege engines up with him: he could have taken the city because it was undefended.

Chapter 8

1 As soon as Brasidas saw the Athenians moving, he too came down from Cerdylium and entered Amphipolis.

2 He did not march out and form a battle line against the Athenians. He was worried about his own forces and thought they were inferior, not in numbers, which were roughly equal, but in quality. The Athenian contingent on the expedition was a select force, and the men from Lemnos and Imbros were their best troops. Instead, he prepared to use a trick to attack them.

3 He thought that showing the enemy his troops' numbers and makeshift equipment would not improve his chances of victory. He would do better if they had not seen his men beforehand and had no real basis for looking down on them.

4 So he chose 150 hoplites for himself and put the rest under Clearidas. He planned to attack suddenly before the Athenians left. He did not think he would get another chance to catch them on their own in the same way if their reinforcements arrived. He called all the soldiers together to encourage them and explain his plan, and spoke as follows.

Chapter 9

1 “Men of the Peloponnese, a brief reminder is enough about the country we come from: its courage has always kept it free. And you are Dorians about to fight Ionians, whom you have usually beaten.

2 “But I will explain how I intend to make the attack. Otherwise, attacking with a few men rather than risking everyone at once might look inadequate and make some of you lose courage.

3 “I think the enemy came up to this position because they looked down on us and did not expect anyone to come out and fight them. Now they have turned their attention to looking around, without keeping formation, and are being careless.

4 “A commander is most likely to succeed if he spots mistakes like these in the enemy and adapts his attack to his own strength. He must not insist on coming out into the open and fighting in battle formation. Instead, he must do what works best in the situation.

5 “The tricks that deserve the greatest respect are those that do the most to deceive the enemy and bring the greatest benefit to one's own side.

6 “They are still unprepared but confident. From what I can see, they are thinking more of slipping away than of staying. So while their minds are relaxed, before they gather their thoughts more firmly, I will take my men and, if I can get there first, charge at the center of their army.

7 “Then, Clearidas, when you see that I am already attacking and, as is likely, frightening them, suddenly open the gates. Lead out the men with you, the Amphipolitans and the other allies. Charge out and hurry to join the fight as quickly as you can.

8 “That is the best way to frighten them. A force coming up later is more alarming to the enemy than the one already there fighting them.

9 “Show your courage, as a Spartan should. And you, men of the allied forces, follow bravely. Remember the three things that make a good soldier: eagerness, a sense of shame, and obedience to commanders. If you fight well today, you will be free and will be called allies of the Lacedaemonians. Otherwise, you will be slaves of the Athenians, in a slavery harsher than before. That is the best you can expect if you escape being sold as slaves or killed. You will also have prevented the rest of the Greeks from being set free.

10 “Do not lose courage when you see how much is at stake in this fight. For my part, I will show that I can not only encourage others but also go into action myself.”

Chapter 10

1 After speaking, Brasidas prepared to go out himself. He stationed the other troops with Clearidas at the gates called the Thracian Gates, so that they could come out as ordered.

2 Brasidas had been seen coming down from Cerdylium. He could also be seen from outside the city as he made a sacrifice near Athena's sanctuary and carried out these preparations. Cleon had moved farther forward to inspect the place. A report reached him that the enemy's whole army was visible in the city and that many horses' and men's feet could be seen beneath the gates, as though they were about to come out.

3 When he heard this, he went over to look. After seeing it for himself, he did not want to fight a decisive battle before his reinforcements arrived, and thought he could get away in time. He immediately ordered the signal for retreat. He told the departing troops to move toward Eion by the left wing, the only possible way.

4 But he thought this was taking too long. He turned the right wing around himself and led the army away, exposing its unshielded side to the enemy.

5 Brasidas saw his opportunity as the Athenian army began to move. He said to his own men and the others, “These men will not stand up to us. You can tell from the movement of their spears and heads. Troops who move like that do not usually stand their ground against an attack. Open the gates I ordered, someone, and let us charge out as fast as we can, with confidence.”

6 He went out through the gates toward the stockade and the first gates of the long wall that stood there then. He ran straight down the road, where a victory monument now stands as you approach the strongest part of the position. He attacked the Athenians in the center of their army and put them to flight. They were already frightened by their own disorder and shocked by his daring.

7 At the same time Clearidas led his army out through the Thracian Gates, as ordered, and charged. The unexpected, sudden attack from both directions threw the Athenians into confusion.

8 Their left wing, on the side toward Eion, had already moved ahead. It immediately broke away and fled. As it was retreating, Brasidas advanced against the right wing and was wounded. The Athenians did not notice him fall. The men near him picked him up and carried him away.

9 The Athenian right wing held its ground more firmly. Cleon had never intended to stand and fight. He fled at once, but a Myrcinian peltast caught and killed him. The hoplites rallied on the hill there and resisted Clearidas, even after he attacked them two or three times. They did not give way until the Myrcinian and Chalcidian cavalry and the peltasts surrounded them, threw javelins at them, and put them to flight.

10 The whole Athenian army was now in flight. Some were killed in the immediate hand-to-hand fighting, others by the Chalcidian cavalry and the peltasts. The survivors made their way back to Eion with difficulty, taking many different routes over the mountains.

11 The men who had picked Brasidas up from the battlefield brought him safely into the city while he was still breathing. He learned that his side was winning, but died soon afterward.

12 The rest of the army returned from the pursuit with Clearidas, stripped the dead, and set up a victory monument.

Chapter 11

1 After this, all the allies followed Brasidas' funeral procession under arms. They buried him at public expense inside the city, in front of what is now the marketplace. Since then, the Amphipolitans have enclosed his tomb and offered sacrifices to him as a hero. They have honored him with games and annual sacrifices and have credited him with founding the colony. They pulled down the buildings associated with Hagnon and removed anything that might survive as a reminder of his founding of the city. They considered Brasidas their savior. Also, because they feared the Athenians, they wanted for the present to maintain the goodwill of their Lacedaemonian allies. Since the Athenians were now their enemies, they thought honoring Hagnon would no longer be as useful or as welcome to them.

2 They returned the dead to the Athenians. About six hundred Athenians died, but only seven on the other side. This was because the fighting had come about not so much between armies in battle formation as through this sudden encounter and the fear it caused before the fight began.

3 After recovering their dead, the Athenians sailed home. Clearidas and his men settled affairs around Amphipolis.

Chapter 12

1 At about the same time, as summer was ending, the Lacedaemonians Rhamphias, Autocharidas, and Epicydidas were leading nine hundred hoplites as reinforcements to the Thracian region. They reached Heraclea in Trachis and put right whatever they thought was wrong there.

2 While they were staying there, this battle took place, and the summer ended.

Chapter 13

1 At the start of the following winter, Rhamphias and his men marched as far as Pierium in Thessaly. The Thessalians stopped them from going farther. Brasidas, to whom they were taking the army, was also dead, so they turned back for home. They thought there was no longer any opportunity to act. The Athenians had left after their defeat, and they themselves were not strong enough to carry out any of the plans Brasidas had had in mind.

2 Their main reason for leaving was that, when they had set out, they knew the Lacedaemonians were becoming more inclined toward peace.

Chapter 14

1 Immediately after the battle at Amphipolis and Rhamphias' withdrawal from Thessaly, neither side took any further military action. Both were now more inclined toward peace. The Athenians had suffered a blow at Delium and then, soon afterward, another at Amphipolis. They could no longer rely on their hopes of success through their own strength. These hopes had previously made them refuse a truce, because they thought their current good fortune would give them the upper hand.

2 They also feared that their setbacks would encourage their allies to rebel on a larger scale. They regretted not making peace after the events at Pylos, when they had had a good opportunity.

3 For the Lacedaemonians, in turn, the war had not gone as expected. They had thought they could destroy Athenian power in a few years by ravaging Athenian land. Instead, they had suffered the disaster on the island, unlike anything Sparta had experienced before. Their land was being raided from Pylos and Cythera, and the Helots were deserting. They also lived in constant fear that the Helots still in the country might count on help from outside and rebel against the existing government, as they had done before.

4 Their thirty-year truce with the Argives was also about to expire. The Argives would not make another unless the land of Cynuria was returned to them. Fighting both the Argives and the Athenians at once seemed impossible. They also suspected that some cities in the Peloponnese would break away and join the Argives, as in fact happened.

Chapter 15

1 After considering these points, both sides thought they should reach an agreement. The Lacedaemonians were at least as eager as the Athenians, because they wanted to recover the men captured on the island. The Spartans among these prisoners were leading citizens and relatives of men at home.

2 They had begun negotiations immediately after the capture. But the Athenians, who were doing well, were not yet at all willing to end the war on equal terms. Immediately after the Athenians' defeat at Delium, the Lacedaemonians realized they would now be more receptive and made the one-year truce. During it they were to meet and discuss a longer agreement.

Chapter 16

1 Now the Athenians had also been defeated at Amphipolis, and Cleon and Brasidas were dead. These two had been the strongest opponents of peace on their respective sides. Brasidas opposed it because war brought him success and honor. Cleon thought that in peacetime his wrongdoing would be easier to see and his accusations against others less believable. So the men most eager for leadership in each city now worked much harder for peace. They were Pleistoanax son of Pausanias, king of the Lacedaemonians, and Nicias son of Niceratus, who had enjoyed more success as a general than anyone else at the time. Nicias wanted to preserve his good fortune while he was still free from misfortune and held in respect. He wanted an immediate end to the hardships for himself and his fellow citizens. He also wanted to leave a name for the future as a man who had gone through life without causing his city any setback. He thought this could be achieved by avoiding danger and leaving as little as possible to chance. Peace would provide that safety. Pleistoanax, for his part, was being attacked by his enemies over his return from exile. Whenever the Lacedaemonians suffered a setback, these enemies kept reminding them of him. They claimed that these things happened because his return had broken religious law.

2 They accused him and his brother Aristocles of persuading the priestess at Delphi to give the same response repeatedly to the Lacedaemonian sacred envoys who came there. She told them to bring the offspring of Zeus's demigod son back from a foreign land to their own. Otherwise they would have to plow with a silver plowshare.

3 In time, they said, she had persuaded the Lacedaemonians to bring him back in the nineteenth year of his exile. He had fled to Lycaeum because his earlier withdrawal from Attica had been suspected of being bought by bribes. For fear of the Lacedaemonians, he had been living there with half his house inside Zeus's sanctuary. They brought him back with the same dances and sacrifices they had used when they first founded Lacedaemon and installed their kings.

Chapter 17

1 He resented these accusations and worked hard for an agreement. He thought that if there was peace, with no setbacks and with the Lacedaemonians recovering their men, his enemies would have nothing to criticize him for. But while war continued, leading men were bound to be blamed for disasters.

2 They held talks throughout this winter. As spring approached, the Lacedaemonians also made a show of preparing for war. They sent announcements around the cities that they intended to build a fort in enemy territory, to make the Athenians more willing to listen. At their meetings both sides put forward many claims. Eventually they agreed to make peace by returning what each had captured in the war, except that the Athenians would keep Nisaea. When the Athenians demanded Plataea in return, the Thebans said they held it not by force but by agreement: its people had submitted voluntarily, and the place had not been betrayed to them. The Athenians made the same argument about Nisaea. The Lacedaemonians then summoned their allies. All except the Boeotians, Corinthians, Eleans, and Megarians voted to end the war. Those four were dissatisfied with the arrangements. The Lacedaemonians made the agreement and swore to observe the following terms with the Athenians, who swore the same to them.

Chapter 18

1 “The Athenians, the Lacedaemonians, and their allies made a peace treaty on the following terms, and swore to it city by city.

2 “At the sanctuaries shared by all, anyone who wishes may offer sacrifices, visit, consult the oracles, and attend festivals according to ancestral custom. They may travel safely by land and sea. Apollo's sanctuary and temple at Delphi, and the Delphians themselves, shall have their own laws, manage their own finances, and exercise their own jurisdiction over themselves and their land, according to ancestral custom.

3 “The treaty shall last fifty years between the Athenians and their allies and the Lacedaemonians and their allies. There shall be no deceit or acts of harm, either on land or at sea.

4 “The Lacedaemonians and their allies shall not take up arms to harm the Athenians and their allies, nor shall the Athenians and their allies do so against the Lacedaemonians and their allies. Neither side shall do this through any trick or scheme. If they have a dispute, they shall settle it by legal judgment and oaths, under terms they agree on.

5 “The Lacedaemonians and their allies shall return Amphipolis to the Athenians. In all the cities the Lacedaemonians have handed over to the Athenians, the inhabitants may leave for wherever they wish, taking their belongings with them. The cities shall have their own laws and pay the tribute assessed in the time of Aristides. Once the treaty has been made, the Athenians and their allies shall not take up arms to harm these cities, as long as they pay the tribute. These cities are Argilus, Stagirus, Acanthus, Scolus, Olynthus, and Spartolus. They shall be allies of neither the Lacedaemonians nor the Athenians. But if the Athenians persuade them, they may become allies of Athens of their own free will.

6 “The Mecybernaeans, Sanaeans, and Singaeans shall live in their own cities on the same terms as the Olynthians and Acanthians.

7 “The Lacedaemonians and their allies shall return Panactum to the Athenians. The Athenians shall return to the Lacedaemonians Coryphasium, Cythera, Methana, Pteleum, and Atalanta, and all the Lacedaemonian men held in the public prison at Athens or in a public prison anywhere else under Athenian rule. They shall release the Peloponnesians besieged in Scione, the other allies of the Lacedaemonians who are in Scione, all those Brasidas sent in, and any allies of the Lacedaemonians held in the public prison at Athens or in a public prison anywhere else under Athenian rule. The Lacedaemonians and their allies shall likewise return any Athenians and Athenian allies they hold.

8 “The Athenians may decide as they wish about the people of Scione, Torone, and Sermyle, and about any other cities they hold.

9 “The Athenians shall swear an oath to the Lacedaemonians and their allies, dealing with each city separately. On each side, seventeen men from each city shall swear the most binding oath used in their country. The oath shall be: ‘I will keep these agreements and this treaty fairly and without deceit.’ The Lacedaemonians and their allies shall swear the same oath to the Athenians.

10 “Both sides shall renew the oath every year. They shall set up stone tablets at Olympia, Pytho, the Isthmus, on the Acropolis at Athens, and in the Amyclaeum at Lacedaemon.

11 “If either side has forgotten anything, on any matter, they may discuss it fairly and make whatever changes both sides, the Athenians and the Lacedaemonians, agree to. Such changes will not break either side's oath.

Chapter 19

1 “The treaty takes effect at Lacedaemon in the term of the ephor Pleistolas, on the fourth day from the end of the month Artemisius. At Athens it takes effect in the term of the archon Alcaeus, on the sixth day from the end of the month Elaphebolion. The following men swore the oaths and made the treaty.

2 “On the Lacedaemonian side: Pleistoanax, Agis, Pleistolas, Damagetus, Chionis, Metagenes, Acanthus, Daithus, Ischagoras, Philocharidas, Zeuxidas, Antippus, Tellis, Alcinadas, Empedias, Menas, and Laphilus. On the Athenian side: Lampon, Isthmionicus, Nicias, Laches, Euthydemus, Procles, Pythodorus, Hagnon, Myrtilus, Thrasycles, Theagenes, Aristocrates, Iolcius, Timocrates, Leon, Lamachus, and Demosthenes.”

Chapter 20

1 This treaty was made as winter ended and spring began, immediately after the City Dionysia. Exactly ten years had passed since the first invasion of Attica and the start of this war, with a difference of only a few days.

2 Anyone checking the dates should look at the actual periods of time. They should not put more trust in counting the names of officials in different places, or of people whose offices are used to date past events. That is not an exact method. An event might occur at the start of someone's term, in the middle, or at any other point in it.

3 But if they count by summers and winters, as this account does, with each season representing half a year, they will find that this first war lasted ten summers and the same number of winters.

Chapter 21

1 The Lacedaemonians had drawn the lot requiring them to return what they held first. They immediately released the prisoners of war in their custody. They also sent Ischagoras, Menas, and Philocharidas as envoys to the Thracian region. They ordered Clearidas to hand Amphipolis over to the Athenians, and the others to accept the treaty on the terms laid down for each of them.

2 But the others refused, because they thought the terms did not suit them. Clearidas did not hand over the city either. He wanted to please the Chalcidians, and said he could not hand it over against their will.

3 He hurried to Lacedaemon himself with envoys from the region. He wanted to defend himself if Ischagoras and his colleagues accused him of disobedience, and also to find out whether the agreement could still be changed. He found that the Lacedaemonians were committed to it. They sent him back with orders to hand over the place if at all possible, or otherwise to withdraw all the Peloponnesians in it. He set off back at once.

Chapter 22

1 The allies themselves happened to be at Lacedaemon. The Lacedaemonians told those who had not accepted the treaty to do so. But they repeated the objection on which they had first rejected it. They said they would not accept a treaty unless its terms were fairer than these.

2 When the allies would not listen, the Lacedaemonians sent them away and began making an alliance with the Athenians themselves. They thought this was the best way to keep the Argives from troubling them and to keep the rest of the Peloponnese quiet. The Argives had refused to renew their treaty when Ampelidas and Lichas came, because they thought the Lacedaemonians were no threat without the Athenians. The other Peloponnesians, too, would turn to the Athenians if they had the chance.

3 Athenian envoys were there, so discussions took place and an agreement was reached. The oaths were sworn, and the alliance had the following terms.

Chapter 23

1 “The Lacedaemonians and Athenians will be allies for fifty years on these terms. If any enemy invades Lacedaemonian territory and harms the Lacedaemonians, the Athenians must help them as strongly as they can, using whatever means are within their power. If the enemy ravages the land and then leaves, that city must be an enemy of both the Lacedaemonians and the Athenians, and both must attack it. The two cities must make peace with it together. They must carry out these terms fairly, willingly, and without deception.

2 “If any enemy invades Athenian territory and harms the Athenians, the Lacedaemonians must help them as strongly as they can, using whatever means are within their power. If the enemy ravages the land and then leaves, that city must be an enemy of both the Lacedaemonians and the Athenians, and both must attack it. The two cities must make peace with it together.

3 “They must carry out these terms fairly, willingly, and without deception. If the slave population rises in revolt, the Athenians must help the Lacedaemonians with all the strength they can provide.

4 “The same men on each side who swore to the other treaty will swear to these terms. The oath must be renewed every year. The Lacedaemonians must go to Athens for the Dionysia, and the Athenians to Lacedaemon for the Hyacinthia.

5 “Each side must set up a stone pillar: one at Lacedaemon beside Apollo's temple at Amyclae, and the other at Athens on the Acropolis beside Athena's temple.

6 “If the Lacedaemonians and Athenians decide to add anything to this alliance or remove anything from it, whatever they agree on will not violate either side's oath.

Chapter 24

1 “The following Lacedaemonians swore the oath: Pleistoanax, Agis, Pleistolas, Damagetus, Chionis, Metagenes, Acanthus, Daithus, Ischagoras, Philocharidas, Zeuxidas, Antippus, Alcinadas, Tellis, Empedias, Menas, and Laphilus. The Athenians were Lampon, Isthmionicus, Laches, Nicias, Euthydemus, Procles, Pythodorus, Hagnon, Myrtilus, Thrasycles, Theagenes, Aristocrates, Iolcius, Timocrates, Leon, Lamachus, and Demosthenes.”

2 This alliance was made not long after the peace treaty. The Athenians returned the men captured on the island to the Lacedaemonians, and the summer of the eleventh year began. The account so far has covered these ten years, during which the first war continued without a break.

Chapter 25

1 The treaty and alliance between the Lacedaemonians and Athenians came after the ten-year war, when Pleistolas was ephor at Lacedaemon and Alcaeus was archon at Athens. Those who accepted them were now at peace. But the Corinthians and some of the cities in the Peloponnese tried to overturn the settlement. Trouble immediately began again between the allies and Lacedaemon.

2 At the same time, as time passed, the Athenians also grew suspicious of the Lacedaemonians. On some points they were not doing what the agreement required.

3 For six years and ten months the two sides did not invade each other's territory. But during this uncertain truce they did each other as much harm as possible elsewhere. Then they were forced to break the treaty made after the ten years and return to open war.

Chapter 26

1 The same Thucydides of Athens also wrote the account of these events in the order they happened, by summers and winters. It continues until the Lacedaemonians and their allies ended the Athenians' rule and took possession of the Long Walls and Piraeus. By that point the war had lasted twenty-seven years in all.

2 Anyone who refuses to count the intervening settlement as part of the war will be judging incorrectly. Look at the events as they have been set out, and it will be clear that this period cannot reasonably be called a peace. Neither side returned or received everything agreed on. Besides this, both sides committed violations during the war at Mantinea and Epidaurus and in other matters. The allies in the Thracian region were just as hostile as before, and the Boeotians had a truce lasting ten days at a time.

3 So if someone calculates the actual time, adding the first ten-year war, the uneasy truce that followed, and the later war that grew out of it, they will find this total of years, with a difference of only a few days. Of all the predictions people insisted on making from oracles, this alone came true exactly.

4 I remember that throughout the war, from its beginning to its end, many people kept saying that it was bound to last three times nine years.

5 I lived through the whole war. I was old enough to understand events, and paid close attention so that I could get accurate knowledge of them. After my command at Amphipolis, I spent twenty years in exile from my own country. This let me follow affairs on both sides. Because of my exile, I could follow the Peloponnesian side at least as closely as the Athenian side. I could learn more about events without distraction.

6 I will therefore describe the disputes after the ten years, the breakdown of the treaty, and how the war was fought afterward.

Chapter 27

1 For after the fifty-year treaty and the later alliance were made, the envoys from the Peloponnese who had been invited to discuss them left Lacedaemon.

2 The others went home, but the Corinthians went to Argos. They first spoke to some of the Argive officials. They said the Lacedaemonians had made a treaty and alliance with the Athenians, previously their bitterest enemies, not for the Peloponnese's benefit but to enslave it. The Argives must therefore consider how to save the Peloponnese. They should vote to let any Greek city that wished join an alliance with them, provided it was independent and settled disputes on equal and fair terms. The alliance would require each side to defend the other's territory. The Argives should appoint a small group of men with full authority to conduct the talks, rather than put them before the people. This would keep the identity of anyone who failed to persuade the majority from becoming known. They said that many would join out of hatred for the Lacedaemonians.

3 After setting out these proposals, the Corinthians went home.

Chapter 28

1 The Argive men who had heard them brought their proposals before the officials and the people. The Argives approved them and elected twelve men. Any Greeks who wished could make an alliance through these men, except for the Athenians and Lacedaemonians. No treaty could be made with either of those without the approval of the Argive people.

2 The Argives were all the more ready to accept these proposals because they saw that war with the Lacedaemonians was coming: their treaty with them was about to expire. They also hoped to become leaders of the Peloponnese. At this time Lacedaemon's reputation was at its lowest, and its misfortunes had brought it into contempt. The Argives, by contrast, were doing very well in every way. They had not taken part in the Athenian war. Instead, they had been at peace with both sides and had profited from it.

3 So the Argives began admitting any Greeks who wanted to join the alliance on these terms.

Chapter 29

1 The Mantineans and their allies were the first to join, because they feared the Lacedaemonians. While the war with Athens was still going on, the Mantineans had brought part of Arcadia under their rule. They thought the Lacedaemonians would not let them keep ruling it now that their hands were free. So they gladly turned to the Argives. They saw Argos as a large city, always at odds with the Lacedaemonians, and a democracy like themselves.

2 When the Mantineans broke away, the rest of the Peloponnese began talking about doing the same. They thought the Mantineans must know something more than they did to have changed sides. They were also angry with the Lacedaemonians for several reasons. One was the clause in the treaty with Athens stating that the two cities, Lacedaemon and Athens, could agree on any additions or removals without breaking their oaths.

3 This clause caused particular alarm in the Peloponnese. It made people suspect that the Lacedaemonians wanted to join with the Athenians to enslave them. They thought the right to change the treaty should have been written as applying to all the allies.

4 As a result, most of them were afraid and eager to make separate alliances with the Argives themselves.

Chapter 30

1 The Lacedaemonians learned of this talk in the Peloponnese, and that the Corinthians had started it and were themselves about to make a treaty with Argos. They sent envoys to Corinth, hoping to stop this before it happened. They blamed the Corinthians for proposing the whole scheme. They said that if the Corinthians broke away and allied with the Argives, they would violate their oaths. They were already in the wrong by refusing to accept the treaty with Athens. The rule was that whatever the majority of the allies voted for was binding, unless a god or hero stood in the way.

2 The Corinthians had with them the allies who had likewise refused to accept the treaty; they had invited them earlier. They answered the Lacedaemonians without openly stating their grievances: the failure to get Sollium and Anactorium back for them from the Athenians, and any other losses they thought they had suffered. Instead, they gave as their reason that they would not betray the people in the Thracian region. They had sworn oaths to them separately when they first revolted along with the Potidaeans, and others later.

3 So, they said, refusing to join the treaty with Athens did not break their oaths to the allies. They had sworn pledges to those people in the gods' names, and betraying them would break those oaths. The rule said, “Unless a god or hero stands in the way.” In their view, this was a divine obstacle.

4 That was their answer about the earlier oaths. As for the alliance with Argos, they said they would consult their friends and do whatever was right.

5 The Lacedaemonian envoys went home. Argive envoys also happened to be at Corinth. They urged the Corinthians to join the alliance without delay. The Corinthians told them to come to the next meeting to be held in their city.

Chapter 31

1 An embassy from Elis also arrived immediately. It first made an alliance with the Corinthians. Then the envoys went on to Argos and became allies of the Argives, as already mentioned. The Eleans were at odds with the Lacedaemonians over Lepreum.

2 The Lepreans had once been at war with some Arcadians. They had invited the Eleans to ally with them in exchange for half their land. When the Eleans ended the war, they left the Lepreans themselves in possession of the land but required them to pay one talent to Olympian Zeus.

3 The Lepreans made these payments until the Athenian war. Then they stopped, using the war as an excuse. The Eleans tried to force them to pay, and they turned to the Lacedaemonians. The dispute was referred to the Lacedaemonians for judgment. But the Eleans suspected they would not receive fair treatment, so they withdrew from the arbitration and ravaged the Lepreans' land.

4 The Lacedaemonians went ahead and ruled that the Lepreans were independent and that the Eleans were in the wrong. Because the Eleans had not abided by the arbitration, they sent a garrison of hoplites into Lepreum.

5 The Eleans thought the Lacedaemonians had taken in a city that had broken away from them. They pointed to the agreement stating that each party should emerge from the Athenian war holding what it had held when it entered it. Believing they had been treated unfairly, they broke away and turned to the Argives. They too made the alliance, as already mentioned.

6 Immediately after them, the Corinthians and the Chalcidians in the Thracian region also became allies of the Argives. The Boeotians and Megarians spoke in the same terms but took no action. The Lacedaemonians left them alone. Since they themselves were governed by oligarchies, they thought the Argive democracy suited them less well than the Lacedaemonian system of government.

Chapter 32

1 At about the same time that summer, the Athenians captured Scione after a siege. They killed the men of military age, enslaved the women and children, and gave the land to the Plataeans to farm. They also brought the Delians back to Delos. They did this with their defeats in battle in mind, and because the god at Delphi had given an oracle.

2 The Phocians and Locrians also began a war.

3 The Corinthians and Argives, now allies, went to Tegea to make it break away from the Lacedaemonians. They saw that it was an important part of the Peloponnese. They thought that if it joined them, they would have the whole Peloponnese on their side.

4 But the Tegeans said they would do nothing against the Lacedaemonians. The Corinthians, who had worked eagerly up to this point, gave up their struggle. They began to fear that none of the others would now join them.

5 Even so, they went to the Boeotians and asked them to become allies of themselves and the Argives and to act together in other matters. The Athenians and Boeotians had made a truce lasting ten days at a time, not long after [this] fifty-year treaty. The Corinthians asked the Boeotians to accompany them to Athens and arrange the same truce for them too, [like the one the Boeotians had]. If the Athenians refused, the Boeotians should cancel their truce and make no further treaty without the Corinthians.

6 In answer to these requests, the Boeotians told the Corinthians to wait over the alliance with Argos. They went to Athens with them, but did not obtain the ten-day truce. Instead, the Athenians replied that the Corinthians were already covered by the treaty, if they were allies of the Lacedaemonians.

7 The Boeotians did not cancel their ten-day truce, despite the Corinthians' demands and their complaint that the Boeotians had agreed to do so. The Corinthians had a suspension of hostilities with the Athenians, but no treaty.

Chapter 33

1 That same summer the Lacedaemonians marched out with their whole army under their king, Pleistoanax son of Pausanias, against the Parrhasians in Arcadia, who were subject to the Mantineans. A faction involved in civil strife had invited them in. They also intended, if possible, to destroy the fort at Cypsela, which the Mantineans had built and garrisoned themselves. It stood in Parrhasian territory on the border with Sciritis in Laconia.

2 The Lacedaemonians ravaged the Parrhasians' land. The Mantineans left their own city in the care of Argive guards and went to defend their allied territory themselves. But they could not save either the fort at Cypsela or the cities among the Parrhasians, and withdrew.

3 The Lacedaemonians made the Parrhasians independent, demolished the fort, and went home.

Chapter 34

1 That same summer the soldiers who had gone out with Brasidas returned from Thrace. Clearidas brought them back after the treaty. The Lacedaemonians voted that the Helots who had fought with Brasidas should be free and could live wherever they wished. Not long afterward they settled them at Lepreum alongside the other newly freed men. Lepreum lay on the border between Laconia and Elis, and the Lacedaemonians were now at odds with the Eleans.

2 As for their own men who had been captured on the island and had surrendered their weapons, the Lacedaemonians were afraid. The men still had their full citizen rights, and the Lacedaemonians feared they might expect to lose their standing because of their misfortune and start a revolt. So they took away their rights, even though some already held office. This loss of rights meant they could neither hold office nor make a legally valid purchase or sale. Later, after some time, their rights were restored.

Chapter 35

1 That same summer the Dians captured Thyssus on the Acte peninsula of Athos. It was an ally of the Athenians.

2 Throughout this summer the Athenians and Peloponnesians had dealings with each other. But the Athenians and Lacedaemonians had distrusted each other ever since the treaty, because they had not returned the places they held to one another.

3 The Lacedaemonians had drawn the lot requiring them to make the first return, but they had not returned Amphipolis or the other places. Nor had they made the allies in the Thracian region, the Boeotians, or the Corinthians accept the treaty. They kept saying that if these people refused, they would join the Athenians in forcing them. They had also set deadlines, though not in writing, after which those who did not join the treaty were to be enemies of both sides.

4 The Athenians saw that none of this was actually happening and suspected that the Lacedaemonians had no intention of acting fairly. So they refused the Lacedaemonians' demand to return Pylos. They even regretted having returned the prisoners from the island. They kept the other places they held, waiting for the Lacedaemonians to carry out their promises to them as well.

5 The Lacedaemonians said they had done what they could. They had returned the Athenian prisoners in their custody, withdrawn the soldiers from the Thracian region, and done whatever else was within their control. They said they did not control Amphipolis and so could not hand it over. But they would try to bring the Boeotians and Corinthians into the treaty, recover Panactum, and bring back all the Athenians held prisoner in Boeotia.

6 They still insisted that Pylos should be returned to them. If not, at least the Messenians and Helots should be withdrawn, just as they themselves had withdrawn their troops from the Thracian region. The Athenians could garrison the place themselves if they wished.

7 After many lengthy discussions during this summer, they persuaded the Athenians to withdraw the Messenians, the other Helots, and all who had deserted from Laconia from Pylos. The Athenians settled them at Cranii in Cephallenia.

8 So this summer was peaceful, with visits between the two sides.

Chapter 36

1 In the following winter, new ephors were already in office, replacing those under whom the treaty had been made, and some of them opposed it. Envoys came from the allies. Athenians, Boeotians, and Corinthians were present, and there was much discussion between them, but no agreement. As they were leaving for home, Cleobulus and Xenares held private talks with the Boeotians and Corinthians. These were the ephors most eager to break up the treaty. They urged them to agree with this policy as fully as possible. The Boeotians should try to become allies of the Argives first, and then bring the Argives, along with themselves, into an alliance with the Lacedaemonians. This would be the best way for the Boeotians to avoid being forced into the treaty with Athens. The Lacedaemonians would choose to gain the Argives as friends and allies even if that meant making enemies of the Athenians and breaking the treaty. They knew that the Lacedaemonians had always wanted a friendly relationship with Argos on favorable terms. The Lacedaemonians thought this would make a war outside the Peloponnese easier.

2 But they asked the Boeotians to arrange to hand Panactum over to the Lacedaemonians. They hoped to get Pylos back in exchange for it if they could, and so be in a better position to go to war with the Athenians.

Chapter 37

1 The Boeotians and Corinthians went home, each carrying these instructions from Xenares, Cleobulus, and their other friends among the Lacedaemonians to report to their public authorities.

2 Two Argive men who belonged to the highest governing body waited to meet them along their route as they left. They met and discussed whether the Boeotians might become allies of Argos, like the Corinthians, Eleans, and Mantineans. The Argives said that if this succeeded, they thought it would then be easy to act together in making war or peace, with the Lacedaemonians if they wished, or with anyone else they needed to.

3 The Boeotian envoys liked what they heard. By chance, the Argives were asking for exactly what their friends at Lacedaemon had instructed them to do. When the Argive men saw that the proposal was welcome, they said they would send envoys to Boeotia, and left.

4 When the Boeotians arrived home, they reported to the Boeotarchs both the proposals from Lacedaemon and those from the Argives they had met. The Boeotarchs approved and were much more eager to act because the approaches from the two sides matched. Their Lacedaemonian friends were asking for the same things that the Argives were trying to achieve.

5 Not long afterward, Argive envoys arrived to make the proposals already discussed. The Boeotarchs approved their proposals and sent them away, promising to send envoys to Argos to discuss the alliance.

Chapter 38

1 Meanwhile, the Boeotian governors, the Corinthians, the Megarians, and the envoys from Thrace first decided to exchange oaths. They would help any of the others who needed it in whatever situation arose. They would neither make war nor reach an agreement with anyone without everyone's approval. After that, the Boeotians and Megarians would make a treaty with the Argives, since the two states acted together.

2 Before the oaths were taken, the Boeotian governors put these proposals before the four Boeotian councils, which hold all the authority. They recommended exchanging oaths with any cities willing to join them in a sworn agreement for their mutual benefit.

3 The members of the Boeotian councils rejected the proposal. They feared that exchanging oaths with the Corinthians, who had broken away from the Lacedaemonians, would mean acting against the Lacedaemonians. The Boeotian governors had not told them about the messages from Lacedaemon. The ephors Cleobulus and Xenares and their friends were urging them to become allies of the Argives and Corinthians first, and then join the Lacedaemonians. The governors thought that, even without being told this, the council would vote for whatever they had already decided to recommend.

4 When the plan met this resistance, the Corinthians and the envoys from Thrace left without achieving anything. The Boeotian governors had intended, if they won approval for these proposals, to try next to arrange the alliance with the Argives. Now they did not even put the question of Argos before the councils. Nor did they send the envoys they had promised to Argos. The whole business suffered from neglect and delay.

Chapter 39

1 During this same winter, the Olynthians made a sudden attack on Mecyberna and captured it, although it had an Athenian garrison.

2 After this, the Lacedaemonians hoped that if the Athenians recovered Panactum from the Boeotians, they themselves could recover Pylos. The Athenians and Lacedaemonians were constantly discussing the places and prisoners each held that belonged to the other. So the Lacedaemonians sent envoys to the Boeotians. They asked them to hand over Panactum and the Athenian prisoners, so that they could recover Pylos in exchange.

3 The Boeotians said they would not hand them over unless the Lacedaemonians made a separate alliance with them, as they had with the Athenians. The Lacedaemonians knew this would wrong the Athenians. They had agreed not to make a treaty or go to war with anyone without each other's consent. But they wanted to take over Panactum so they could recover Pylos in exchange. Also, those who were working to wreck the treaty strongly supported the arrangement with the Boeotians. So they made the alliance as winter was ending and spring approaching. The demolition of Panactum began immediately. And the eleventh year of this war, came to an end.

Chapter 40

1 As soon as spring came, at the start of the next summer, the Argives grew afraid. The Boeotian envoys who were supposed to come had not arrived. They also learned that Panactum was being demolished and that the Boeotians had made a separate alliance with the Lacedaemonians. They feared they would be left alone and the whole alliance would go over to the Lacedaemonians.

2 They thought the Lacedaemonians had persuaded the Boeotians to demolish Panactum and join the treaty with the Athenians. They also thought the Athenians knew about this. That would mean they could no longer make an alliance even with Athens. Previously they had hoped that the disagreements would at least let them become allies of the Athenians, if their own treaty with the Lacedaemonians did not last.

3 These problems left the Argives at a loss. They feared they might have to fight the Lacedaemonians and Tegeans, the Boeotians and Athenians, all at once. Previously they had rejected a treaty with the Lacedaemonians, confidently expecting to lead the Peloponnese themselves. Now they sent Eustrophus and Aeson to Lacedaemon as quickly as possible. They thought these men were the envoys most welcome there. In their present situation, they thought it best to make a treaty with the Lacedaemonians on whatever terms they could get, and stay out of trouble.

Chapter 41

1 Their envoys arrived and discussed with the Lacedaemonians the terms on which they could make a treaty.

2 At first the Argives asked to submit their dispute over Cynurian territory to arbitration by some city or individual. This border territory had always been disputed. It includes Thyrea and the town of Anthene, and the Lacedaemonians occupy it. The Lacedaemonians would not let them bring up the question. They said they were ready for a treaty if the Argives wanted one on the old terms. Even so, the Argive envoys persuaded them to agree to the following conditions. For the present, they would make a treaty for fifty years. But either side could challenge the other to fight over this territory, provided neither Lacedaemon nor Argos was suffering from disease or war. This would be like the earlier occasion when each side had claimed victory. Pursuit would not be allowed beyond the borders toward Argos or Lacedaemon.

3 At first the Lacedaemonians thought this was foolish. But they were determined to have Argos as a friend, so they accepted the proposed terms and put them in writing. Before anything was finalized, however, the Lacedaemonians told the envoys to go back to Argos and show the agreement to the people. If they approved, the envoys were to return at the Hyacinthia festival to take the oaths. So they went back.

Chapter 42

1 While the Argives were carrying on these negotiations, the Lacedaemonian envoys Andromenes, Phaedimus, and Antimenidas were supposed to collect Panactum and the prisoners from the Boeotians and return them to the Athenians. They found that the Boeotians themselves had demolished Panactum. The Boeotians' stated reason was that, after an old dispute over it, they and the Athenians had sworn that neither side would settle the place, but that they would use the land together. Andromenes and his fellow envoys took over the Athenian prisoners of war held by the Boeotians, brought them to Athens, and handed them back. They also told the Athenians about the demolition of Panactum. They thought this too amounted to returning it, since no enemy of the Athenians would live there anymore.

2 The Athenians reacted angrily to this news. They felt the Lacedaemonians had wronged them by demolishing Panactum, which should have been handed over intact. They also learned of the separate alliance with the Boeotians. Previously, the Lacedaemonians had said they would join the Athenians in forcing those who rejected the treaty to accept it. The Athenians reviewed all the other terms of the agreement that the Lacedaemonians had failed to carry out, and felt they had been deceived. They gave the envoys a harsh reply and sent them away.

Chapter 43

1 With the Lacedaemonians and Athenians now at odds in this way, those in Athens who wanted to end the treaty immediately pressed their case.

2 Among them was Alcibiades son of Clinias. At that time he was still young by the standards of other cities, but his family's standing brought him respect. He thought an agreement with the Argives was the better course. But personal pride and rivalry also drove his opposition. The Lacedaemonians had arranged the treaty through Nicias and Laches, passing him over because of his youth. They had also failed to honor his family's old role as their representatives in Athens. His grandfather had given up that role, but Alcibiades had intended to renew it by looking after their men captured on the island.

3 He thought he was being slighted in every way. From the start he had opposed the treaty, saying the Lacedaemonians could not be trusted. He claimed they were making peace so they could first make a treaty with the Argives, remove them as a threat, and then attack the Athenians alone once more. Now that the disagreement had arisen, he immediately sent a private message to Argos. He urged the Argives to come as quickly as possible, together with the Mantineans and Eleans, to propose an alliance. The time was right, he said, and he would give them all the help he could.

Chapter 44

1 The Argives heard this message and learned that the Boeotian alliance had not been arranged with Athenian involvement. Instead, the Athenians were now in a serious dispute with the Lacedaemonians. So they paid little attention to their envoys, who happened to be away in Lacedaemon negotiating the treaty. They turned their thoughts more toward the Athenians. Athens, they reasoned, had been friendly to them for a long time and was a democracy like their own. It also had great naval power and would fight alongside them if they went to war.

2 So they immediately sent envoys to the Athenians to discuss the alliance. The Eleans and Mantineans sent envoys with them.

3 Lacedaemonian envoys also arrived in a hurry: Philocharidas, Leon, and Endius, who were thought to be well liked by the Athenians. The Lacedaemonians feared the Athenians might make an alliance with the Argives out of anger. The envoys also came to demand Pylos in exchange for Panactum and to defend their alliance with the Boeotians. They said they had not made it to harm the Athenians.

Chapter 45

1 They spoke about these matters in the council and said they had come with full authority to settle all the disagreements. This alarmed Alcibiades. He feared that if they said the same things before the people, they might win them over and the alliance with the Argives would be rejected.

2 Alcibiades devised this trick against them. He persuaded the Lacedaemonians not to admit before the people that they had come with full authority. He gave them his assurance that, if they did this, he would get Pylos returned to them and settle the other disputes. He himself would persuade the Athenians, he said, just as he was now opposing them.

3 His aim was to draw them away from Nicias. He also wanted to attack them before the people as men who had no honest intentions and never told the same story twice. Then he could make the Argives, Eleans, and Mantineans allies. And that is what happened.

4 When the envoys appeared before the people and were questioned, they denied having come with full authority, contrary to what they had said in the council. The Athenians lost patience. Alcibiades attacked the Lacedaemonians far more loudly than before, and the Athenians listened to him. They were ready to bring the Argives and their companions forward immediately and make them allies. But an earthquake occurred before anything was ratified, and this assembly was adjourned.

Chapter 46

1 At the assembly the next day, Nicias still argued that they should choose friendship with the Lacedaemonians instead. The Lacedaemonian envoys had themselves been deceived into denying that they had come with full authority, and he too had been misled about this. Even so, he urged the Athenians to put the Argive negotiations on hold and send another embassy to find out the Lacedaemonians' intentions. He said that delaying the war would preserve the Athenians' good position and leave the Lacedaemonians in a poor one. Things were going well for the Athenians, so their best course was to keep that success safe as long as possible. The Lacedaemonians, by contrast, were doing badly and stood to gain by taking a risk as soon as possible.

2 He persuaded them to send envoys, including himself. They were to tell the Lacedaemonians that, if they meant to act fairly, they must return Panactum intact, return Amphipolis, and end their alliance with the Boeotians unless the Boeotians joined the treaty. For they had agreed not to make an agreement with anyone without each other's consent.

3 The Athenians also instructed the envoys to say that, if they themselves had wanted to act unfairly, they would already have made the Argives allies. The Argives were there for that very purpose. They gave Nicias and his fellow envoys instructions about all their other complaints too, and sent them away.

4 The envoys arrived and delivered the other messages. Finally they said that, unless the Lacedaemonians ended their alliance with the Boeotians if those refused to join the treaty, the Athenians too would make the Argives and their companions allies. The Lacedaemonians refused to end their Boeotian alliance. The ephor Xenares and his supporters, together with everyone else who shared their views, prevailed on this point. But at Nicias's request they renewed the oaths. He feared he might leave without achieving anything at all and then be attacked politically, as indeed he was, since he was regarded as responsible for the treaty with the Lacedaemonians.

5 When Nicias returned and the Athenians heard that nothing had been achieved in Lacedaemon, they immediately became angry. They felt they were being wronged. The Argives and their allies happened to be there, and Alcibiades brought them forward. The Athenians made the following treaty and alliance with them.

Chapter 47

1 “The Athenians, Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans have made a treaty with one another for a hundred years, on behalf of themselves and the allies each rules. They will act honestly and cause no harm to one another, either on land or at sea.

2 “The Argives, Eleans, Mantineans, and their allies must not take up arms to harm the Athenians or the allies the Athenians rule. Nor may the Athenians and the allies they rule do so against the Argives, Eleans, Mantineans, and their allies, by any trick or scheme whatever.

3 “The Athenians, Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans will be allies for a hundred years on the following terms. If enemies invade Athenian territory, the Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans will send help to Athens as the Athenians request, with the strongest force they can provide. If the invaders leave after damaging the land, their city will be an enemy of the Argives, Mantineans, Eleans, and Athenians, and all these cities will attack it. None of the cities may end the war with that city unless they all agree.

4 “The Athenians will likewise send help to Argos, Mantinea, and Elis if enemies invade the territory of the Argives, Mantineans, or Eleans. They will respond as these cities request, with the strongest force they can provide. If the invaders leave after damaging the land, their city will be an enemy of the Athenians, Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans, and all these cities will attack it. None of the cities may end the war with that city unless all [the cities] agree.

5 “They must not allow armed forces on their way to war to pass through their own territory or that of the allies each rules, or to pass by sea, unless all the cities—the Athenians, Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans—have voted to allow passage.

6 “The city sending help will provide its troops with food for up to thirty days after they arrive at the city that called for help, and will do the same on their return journey. If the city that called them wishes to use the army for longer, it will provide a food allowance: three Aeginetan obols each day for every hoplite, light-armed soldier, and archer, and one Aeginetan drachma for every cavalryman.

7 “The city that called in the army will command it when the war is in its own territory. If all the cities decide to undertake a joint campaign somewhere, all will share equally in the command.

8 “The Athenians will swear to the treaty on behalf of themselves and their allies. The Argives, Mantineans, Eleans, and their allies will swear city by city. Each will take the most binding oath used in its own country, over fully grown sacrificial animals. The oath will be as follows: ‘I will keep to the alliance on the agreed terms, fairly, without harm or dishonesty, and I will not break it by any trick or scheme whatever.’

9 “At Athens, the council and the officials serving in the city will take the oath, and the presiding councilors will administer it. At Argos, the council, the Eighty, and the artynae will swear, and the Eighty will administer the oath. At Mantinea, the chief magistrates, the council, and the other officials will swear, and the sacred officials and military commanders will administer the oath. At Elis, the chief magistrates, those holding the highest offices, and the Six Hundred will swear, and the chief magistrates and guardians of the laws will administer the oath.

10 “The Athenians will renew the oaths by traveling to Elis, Mantinea, and Argos thirty days before the Olympic festival. The Argives, Eleans, and Mantineans will travel to Athens ten days before the Great Panathenaea.

11 “The Athenians will have the terms of the treaty, oaths, and alliance inscribed on a stone slab on the Acropolis. The Argives will do the same in the temple of Apollo in the marketplace, and the Mantineans in the temple of Zeus in their marketplace. They will also jointly set up a bronze slab at Olympia at the coming Olympic festival.

12 “If these cities think it would be better to add anything to the agreed terms, whatever all the cities decide after discussing it together will be binding.”

Chapter 48

1 That was how the treaty and alliance were made. Neither side, however, renounced the treaty and alliance between the Lacedaemonians and Athenians on this account.

2 Although the Corinthians were allies of the Argives, they did not join this agreement. Nor had they sworn to an earlier alliance between the Eleans, Argives, and Mantineans, which required them to make war and peace with the same parties. They said their original defensive alliance was enough for them. Under it they were to help one another, but not join in attacking anyone.

3 In this way the Corinthians withdrew from their allies and turned their thoughts back toward the Lacedaemonians.

Chapter 49

1 The Olympic games took place that summer. Androsthenes of Arcadia won his first victory in the combined wrestling and boxing contest. The Eleans barred the Lacedaemonians from the sanctuary, so they could neither sacrifice nor compete. They had not paid the fine the Eleans had imposed on them under Olympic law. The Eleans charged that they had attacked the fort of Phyrcus in Elean territory and sent their hoplites into Lepreum during the Olympic truce. The fine was two thousand minas, at two minas for each hoplite, as the law prescribed.

2 The Lacedaemonians sent envoys to protest that the judgment against them was unfair. They said the truce had not yet been announced at Lacedaemon when they sent in the hoplites.

3 The Eleans replied that the truce was already in force among themselves, since they announce it to themselves first. They had been keeping quiet and expecting no attack because of the truce, and the Lacedaemonians had taken advantage of this to wrong them without warning.

4 The Lacedaemonians replied that the Eleans should not have gone on to announce the truce at Lacedaemon if they already thought the Lacedaemonians had broken it. By doing so, they had shown they did not think that. The Lacedaemonians also said they had not attacked the Eleans anywhere after that announcement.

5 The Eleans stood by their position. They would not be persuaded that the Lacedaemonians had done nothing wrong. But if they were willing to return Lepreum, the Eleans would cancel their own share of the fine and pay the god's share themselves on the Lacedaemonians' behalf.

Chapter 50

1 When the Lacedaemonians would not agree, the Eleans made another proposal. They need not return Lepreum if they did not want to. But since they were eager to use the sanctuary, they should go up to the altar of Olympian Zeus and swear before the Greeks that they would pay the fine later.

2 They would not agree to this either. So the Lacedaemonians remained barred from the sanctuary [from sacrifices and contests] and sacrificed at home. All the other Greeks except the Lepreans attended the festival.

3 Even so, the Eleans feared the Lacedaemonians might force their way in to sacrifice. They kept their younger men on guard under arms. The Argives and Mantineans also came to help them, a thousand of each, along with Athenian cavalry, who stayed at Harpina during the festival.

4 The crowd at the festival was very afraid the Lacedaemonians would come in arms. Their fear grew especially strong after the rod-bearing officials beat Lichas son of Arcesilaus, a Lacedaemonian, at the games. His team of horses had won, but because he was not allowed to compete, it was announced as belonging to the Boeotian state. He had gone onto the course and put a victory ribbon on the driver to show that the chariot was his. This made everyone much more afraid, and they expected some trouble. The Lacedaemonians, however, kept quiet, and that was how the festival passed for them.

5 After the Olympic games, the Argives and their allies went to Corinth to ask the Corinthians to come over to their side. Lacedaemonian envoys also happened to be there. There was much discussion, but in the end nothing was achieved. An earthquake occurred, and the different parties broke up and went home. And the summer ended.

Chapter 51

1 During the following winter, the people of Heraclea in Trachis fought a battle against the Aenianians, Dolopians, Malians, and some of the Thessalians.

2 These peoples lived near the city and were hostile to it, since the fortified settlement had been built on their land, not anyone else's. From the moment the city was founded they had opposed it, doing as much damage as they could. Now they defeated the Heracleans in battle. Xenares son of Cnidis, the Lacedaemonian who governed them, was killed, and other Heracleans also died. And the winter ended, and the twelfth year of this war, came to an end.

Chapter 52

1 At the very beginning of the next summer, the Boeotians took over Heraclea, which had been in a badly weakened state since the battle. They expelled the Lacedaemonian Agesippidas on the grounds that he was governing it badly. They took over the place because they feared the Athenians might capture it while the Lacedaemonians were distracted by the troubles in the Peloponnese. The Lacedaemonians, however, were angry with them.

2 During the same summer, Alcibiades son of Clinias, serving as an Athenian general, came to the Peloponnese with a small force of Athenian hoplites and archers. The Argives and their allies cooperated with him. He added some of the local allies to his army and traveled through the Peloponnese, helping to organize the alliance in other ways as well. He persuaded the people of Patrae to extend their walls down to the sea. He also intended to build another fort himself at Rhium in Achaea. But the Corinthians, Sicyonians, and others whom the fort would have harmed came to oppose him and prevented it.

Chapter 53

1 During the same summer, war broke out between the Epidaurians and Argives. The stated reason concerned the sacrifice owed to Apollo Pythaeus. The Epidaurians had not sent the offering they were required to provide for grazing, and the Argives had the chief authority over the sanctuary. But even without this complaint, Alcibiades and the Argives thought it would be useful to gain control of Epidaurus if they could. It would help keep Corinth quiet, and Athenian reinforcements would have a shorter route from Aegina than by sailing around Scyllaeum. So the Argives prepared to invade Epidaurian territory on their own, to collect the offering.

Chapter 54

1 At about the same time, the Lacedaemonians also marched out with their full forces to Leuctra, on their own frontier toward Mount Lycaeum. King Agis son of Archidamus commanded them. No one knew where they were campaigning, not even the cities that had sent troops.

2 But the sacrifices they offered before crossing the border did not give favorable signs. They went home and sent instructions around to their allies to prepare for a campaign after the coming month. That month was Carneus, a sacred month for the Dorians.

3 After they withdrew, the Argives marched out on the fourth day from the end of the month before Carneus. They kept counting it as that same day throughout the campaign. They invaded Epidaurian territory and damaged the land.

4 The Epidaurians called on their allies. Some used the sacred month as an excuse not to come. Others reached the borders of Epidaurian territory but took no action.

Chapter 55

1 While the Argives were in Epidaurian territory, envoys from the cities met at Mantinea at the Athenians' invitation. During the discussions, Euphamidas the Corinthian said their words did not match their actions. They were sitting there talking about peace, while the Epidaurians and their allies were lined up under arms against the Argives. Representatives of both sides should first go and get the armies disbanded. Then they could discuss peace again.

2 They accepted his advice, went off, and got the Argives to withdraw from Epidaurian territory. Later they met again in the same place, but even then could not reach agreement. So the Argives invaded Epidaurian territory again and damaged the land.

3 The Lacedaemonians also marched out to Caryae. When the sacrifices before crossing the border were unfavorable there too, they withdrew.

4 After destroying the crops on about a third of Epidaurian territory, the Argives went home. A thousand Athenian hoplites also came to help them, under the general Alcibiades. He had heard that the Lacedaemonians had marched out. Now that the Athenians were no longer needed, he left. That was how the summer passed.

Chapter 56

1 During the following winter, without the Athenians finding out, the Lacedaemonians sent three hundred garrison troops by sea to Epidaurus, with Agesippidas as their commander.

2 The Argives came to the Athenians and complained. The treaty said that each party must not let enemies pass through its territory, yet the Athenians had allowed them to sail past by sea. Unless the Athenians in turn brought the Messenians and Helots to Pylos to act against the Lacedaemonians, the Argives said they would be wronged.

3 At Alcibiades' urging, the Athenians added an inscription to the slab recording their treaty with Lacedaemon, stating that the Lacedaemonians had not kept their oaths. They also brought the Helots from Cranii to Pylos to make raids. In other respects they took no action.

4 During this winter, the Argives and Epidaurians remained at war, but fought no planned battle. There were ambushes and raids, in which men on either side were killed as chance decided.

5 As winter was ending and spring approaching, the Argives came against Epidaurus with ladders. They intended to take it by force, believing the war had left it without defenders. But they left without achieving anything. And the winter ended, and the thirteenth year of this war, came to an end.

Chapter 57

1 In the middle of the following summer, the Lacedaemonians saw that their allies at Epidaurus were in trouble. Elsewhere in the Peloponnese, some places had broken away and others were unsettled. They thought that unless they moved quickly to stop this, it would spread further. So they marched against Argos with their entire force of Lacedaemonians and Helots. Their king, Agis son of Archidamus, led them.

2 The Tegeans and all the other Arcadians allied with the Lacedaemonians joined the campaign. The allies from the rest of the Peloponnese and from outside it gathered at Phlius. The Boeotians sent 5,000 hoplites, the same number of light-armed troops, 500 cavalry, and an equal number of infantry who fought alongside the cavalry. The Corinthians sent 2,000 hoplites. The other allies sent their separate contingents. The Phliasians turned out with their whole army, since the allied force was in their territory.

Chapter 58

1 The Argives had learned about the Lacedaemonian preparations from the start. When the Lacedaemonians began moving toward Phlius to join the others, the Argives also marched out. The Mantineans came to help them, bringing their own allies, along with 3,000 Elean hoplites.

2 As they advanced, they met the Lacedaemonians at Methydrium in Arcadia. Each side occupied a hill. The Argives prepared to fight the Lacedaemonians while they were on their own. But Agis got his army up during the night and slipped away unnoticed toward Phlius to join the other allies.

3 When the Argives discovered this, they set out at dawn. First they went to Argos. Then they moved to the road through Nemea, where they expected the Lacedaemonians and their allies to come down.

4 Agis did not take the road they expected. He gave orders to the Lacedaemonians, Arcadians, and Epidaurians and took another, difficult route down into the Argive plain. The Corinthians, Pellenians, and Phliasians took a different, steep road. The Boeotians, Megarians, and Sicyonians had orders to come down by the Nemea road, where the Argives were stationed. If the Argives moved into the plain to defend it against Agis, these troops were to follow them and use their cavalry against them.

5 After arranging his forces in this way, Agis entered the plain and began ravaging Saminthus and other places.

Chapter 59

1 When the Argives learned this, they set out from Nemea to defend their land. It was already daylight. They ran into the Phliasian and Corinthian force and killed a few of the Phliasians. The Corinthians killed a slightly larger number of Argives.

2 The Boeotians, Megarians, and Sicyonians advanced toward Nemea as ordered, but no longer found the Argives there. The Argives had come down and, seeing their own land being ravaged, were drawing up for battle. The Lacedaemonians also prepared to face them.

3 The Argives were trapped in the middle. In the plain, the Lacedaemonians and their companions cut them off from the city. The Corinthians, Phliasians, and Pellenians were on the higher ground, and the Boeotians, Sicyonians, and Megarians were on the Nemea side. The Argives had no cavalry with them. The Athenians were the only allies who had not yet arrived.

4 Most of the Argives and their allies did not think their situation was so dangerous. Instead, they thought the battle would be fought on favorable terms. They believed they had trapped the Lacedaemonians in Argive territory, close to Argos.

5 But two Argives approached Agis just as the armies were about to meet. They were Thrasyllus, one of the five generals, and Alciphron, who represented Lacedaemonian interests in Argos. They asked him not to fight. The Argives, they said, were ready to submit any Lacedaemonian complaints against them to a fair and equal settlement by arbitration, with each side accepting the same obligations. They would also make a treaty and remain at peace in the future.

Chapter 60

1 These Argives spoke on their own initiative, without instructions from the people. Agis accepted their proposal on his own as well. He did not hold a general consultation, but discussed the matter with just one of the officials accompanying the army. He agreed to a truce of four months, during which the Argives were to carry out what they had promised. He immediately led the army away, without telling any of the other allies.

2 The Lacedaemonians and their allies followed his lead, as the law required. But among themselves they strongly criticized Agis. They thought they had had a good chance to fight, with the enemy shut in on every side by cavalry and infantry. Instead, they were leaving without having done anything worthy of their preparations.

3 This was in fact the finest Greek army that had come together up to that time. Its strength was most apparent while it was still assembled at Nemea. It included the entire Lacedaemonian army, along with Arcadians, Boeotians, Corinthians, Sicyonians, Pellenians, Phliasians, and Megarians. All these were picked men from their respective states. They seemed capable of taking on not only the Argive alliance but even another force added to it.

4 So the army withdrew, criticizing Agis in this way, and broke up as each contingent went home.

5 The Argives themselves were even angrier with the men who had made the truce without consulting the people. They too believed they would never have a better opportunity against the Lacedaemonians, yet had let them escape. They would have fought near their own city, supported by many strong allies.

6 On their return they began stoning Thrasyllus at the Charadrus. This is where they hear cases arising from a campaign before entering the city. He escaped death by taking refuge at the altar. They did, however, confiscate his property.

Chapter 61

1 After this, 1,000 Athenian hoplites and 300 cavalry arrived to help, under the command of Laches and Nicostratus. The Argives were still reluctant to break their truce with the Lacedaemonians. They told the Athenians to leave and would not bring them before the people, although they wanted to speak. The Mantineans and Eleans, who were still there, finally forced the Argives to let them speak by pressing their request.

2 With Alcibiades present as an ambassador, the Athenians told the Argives and their allies that it had been wrong even to make the truce without the other allies. Now they should resume the war, since the Athenians had arrived at the right moment.

3 Their arguments persuaded the allies. All of them except the Argives immediately marched against Orchomenus in Arcadia. Even though the Argives had been persuaded, they stayed behind at first. Later they too joined the others.

4 They all took up positions around Orchomenus, besieged it, and made assaults. They wanted to bring it over to their side in any case, and there were also hostages from Arcadia being held there by the Lacedaemonians.

5 The Orchomenians were frightened by the weakness of their wall and the size of the army. With no one coming to help them, they feared they would be destroyed before help arrived. They agreed to become allies, give hostages of their own to the Mantineans, and hand over the hostages the Lacedaemonians had placed there.

Chapter 62

1 Now that they controlled Orchomenus, the allies discussed which of the remaining places they should attack first. The Eleans urged them to go against Lepreum, but the Mantineans urged Tegea. The Argives and Athenians supported the Mantineans.

2 The Eleans were angry that the vote had gone against an attack on Lepreum, and went home. The other allies stayed in Mantinean territory and prepared to march against Tegea. Some people inside Tegea itself were also working to hand the city over to them.

Chapter 63

1 After withdrawing from Argos with the four-month truce agreed, the Lacedaemonians sharply criticized Agis for not having brought Argos under their control. They believed the opportunity had been better than any they had ever had before. It was not easy, they said, to assemble so many allies of such quality.

2 When news came that Orchomenus too had fallen, they grew much angrier. In their anger they immediately began considering measures quite unlike their usual practice: demolishing Agis's house and fining him 100,000 drachmas.

3 He begged them not to do either. He would lead a campaign and clear himself of the charges by some military success. Otherwise, they could then do whatever they wanted to him.

4 They held back from imposing the fine and demolishing his house. But for the time being they passed a law of a kind they had never had before. They selected ten Spartans to act as his advisers, without whose consent he was not authorized to lead an army out of the city.

Chapter 64

1 Meanwhile, a message reached them from their supporters at Tegea. Unless the Lacedaemonians came quickly, Tegea would break away to the Argives and their allies. It was already on the point of doing so.

2 The Lacedaemonians then rushed to help with their entire force of citizens and Helots, moving faster than ever before.

3 They marched to Orestheum in Maenalia. They instructed their Arcadian allies to assemble and follow right behind them to Tegea. The whole Lacedaemonian force went as far as Orestheum. From there they sent a sixth of their own men back home, including the oldest and youngest, to guard things there. They reached Tegea with the rest of the army. Their Arcadian allies arrived not much later.

4 They also sent to Corinth and to the Boeotians, Phocians, and Locrians, telling them to come to Mantinea as quickly as possible to help. But these allies had little notice. It was also hard for them to cross enemy territory unless they waited for one another and moved as a single force, since that territory lay across their route. Still, they hurried.

5 The Lacedaemonians took with them the Arcadian allies who had arrived and invaded Mantinean territory. They camped near the sanctuary of Heracles and ravaged the land.

Chapter 65

1 When the Argives and their allies saw them, they occupied a strong position that was hard to approach and drew up for battle.

2 The Lacedaemonians immediately advanced against them. They had come within range of stones and javelins when one of the older men saw that they were moving against a strong position and called out to Agis that he was trying to cure one mistake with another. He meant that Agis was trying to make up for his much-criticized retreat from Argos with this badly timed eagerness to attack.

3 Whether because of this shout, or because something else or the same idea suddenly occurred to him, Agis quickly led his army back before the two sides met.

4 He reached the border of Tegean territory and began diverting the water into Mantinean territory. The Mantineans and Tegeans fight over this water, because it usually damages whichever territory it flows into. He wanted to bring [the Argives and their allies] down from the hill to stop the diversion once they heard of it, and fight the battle on level ground.

5 He stayed there that day, working to divert the water. At first the Argives and their allies were stunned by the enemy's sudden retreat from so close by, and did not know what to make of it. Then the retreating army disappeared from view, while they themselves stayed still and did not follow. They began blaming their own generals again. Previously they had had the Lacedaemonians trapped near Argos, but had let them go. Now they were running away and no one was pursuing them. The enemy was escaping undisturbed, while they themselves were being betrayed.

6 The generals were alarmed at first. Later they led the men down from the hill, advanced onto the plain, and camped there, intending to march against the enemy.

Chapter 66

1 The next day the Argives and their allies formed up, ready to fight if they met the enemy. Meanwhile, the Lacedaemonians left the water and returned toward their former camp near the sanctuary of Heracles. They suddenly saw the enemy close by, already fully drawn up for battle and out beyond the hill.

2 The Lacedaemonians were more startled at that moment than they could ever remember being. They had very little time to prepare. They immediately hurried into their usual formation, with King Agis giving each order as the law prescribed.

3 When a king leads the army, everything is under his command. He tells the senior commanders what needs to be done. They tell the company commanders, who tell the platoon commanders. These in turn tell the squad commanders, and they tell their squads.

4 Any orders they want to issue pass down the same chain and travel quickly. Almost the whole Lacedaemonian army, with few exceptions, consists of officers commanding other officers. Many men therefore share responsibility for carrying out each action.

Chapter 67

1 On this occasion the Sciritae took their position on the left wing. They alone among the Lacedaemonians always have this post as their own separate unit. Beside them were Brasidas's soldiers from Thrace, with the men newly given citizen status alongside them. Next the Lacedaemonians themselves formed up, company after company. Beside them were the Heraeans from Arcadia, then the Maenalians. On the right wing were the Tegeans, with a few Lacedaemonians at the very end. Their cavalry were on both wings.

2 That was the Lacedaemonian formation. On the other side the Mantineans held the right wing, because the battle was taking place in their territory. Beside them were their Arcadian allies. Next came the 1,000 picked Argives, whom the city had for a long time provided with military training at public expense. Beside these were the other Argives, followed by their allies from Cleonae and Orneae. Finally the Athenians held the far end of the left wing, with their own cavalry beside them.

Chapter 68

1 These were the formations and preparations on each side. The Lacedaemonian army appeared to be the larger one.

2 I could not give exact numbers for the separate contingents on either side or for their totals. The number of Lacedaemonians was unknown because their political system is secretive. The figures given by the other side were unreliable because people tend to boast about their own numbers. Still, the following calculation allows an estimate of the Lacedaemonian force present on this occasion.

3 Seven companies fought, not counting the 600 Sciritae. Each company contained four platoons, and each platoon four squads. Each squad had four men fighting in its front rank. They did not all form up to the same depth: each company commander chose his own. Overall, though, they were eight deep. The front rank along the whole line, excluding the Sciritae, numbered 448 men.

Chapter 69

1 As the armies were about to meet, the generals of each contingent encouraged their men in the following terms. The Mantineans were told that they would be fighting for their homeland, and also that rule or slavery was at stake. They must not lose their rule without a fight or experience slavery again. The Argives were told not to accept being deprived forever of their old leadership and the equal standing they had once enjoyed in the Peloponnese. They should also punish their enemies and neighbors for their many wrongs. The Athenians were told that it would be an honor to fall behind no one while fighting alongside so many strong allies. If they defeated the Lacedaemonians in the Peloponnese, they would make their empire more secure and larger, and no one else would ever invade their land.

2 This was the encouragement given to the Argives and their allies. The Lacedaemonians, both individually and with their familiar military music, reminded one another to be brave. They knew that long practice in action did more to keep men safe than a well-delivered speech of encouragement given at short notice.

Chapter 70

1 After this the armies moved to meet. The Argives and their allies advanced hard and angrily. The Lacedaemonians moved slowly to the sound of many flute players stationed throughout their ranks. This was not for religious reasons. It was to let them move forward evenly, keeping time, so that their formation would not break up, as large armies often do when they advance.

Chapter 71

1 While they were still approaching, King Agis decided to make the following move. All armies tend to do the same thing: as they advance to meet the enemy, they drift toward their own right wing. Each army's right then extends beyond the enemy's left. Fear makes each man bring his unprotected side as close as possible to the shield of the man stationed on his right. They think that closing up tightly gives the best protection. This starts with the man at the end of the front rank on the right wing. He keeps trying to move his own unprotected side out beyond the enemy's reach. The others follow for the same reason: fear.

2 On this occasion the Mantinean wing extended far beyond the Sciritae. The Lacedaemonians and Tegeans extended still further beyond the Athenians, because their army was larger.

3 Agis feared that his left wing would be surrounded and thought the Mantineans extended too far beyond it. He signaled the Sciritae and Brasidas's men to move outward away from the rest of the line until they were level with the Mantineans. He ordered two companies from the right wing, commanded by the senior officers Hipponoidas and Aristocles, to move across into the resulting gap and fill it. He thought his right wing would still have men to spare and that his line facing the Mantineans would be more secure.

Chapter 72

1 But he gave the order during the advance itself, at short notice. As a result, Aristocles and Hipponoidas refused to move across. They were later exiled from Sparta on this charge, having been judged cowardly. The enemy reached them before the move could be completed. When the companies failed to move across to the Sciritae, Agis ordered the Sciritae to rejoin the main line. But by then they too were unable to close the gap.

2 The Lacedaemonians had been thoroughly outmaneuvered in every respect. Yet their courage proved just as effective in securing victory.

3 When the armies came to close combat, the Mantinean right wing routed the Sciritae and Brasidas's men. The Mantineans, their allies, and the 1,000 picked Argives charged into the gap that had not been closed. They killed Lacedaemonians, surrounded and routed them, and drove them back to the wagons. They also killed some of the older men assigned to guard them.

4 Here the Lacedaemonians were being beaten. But the rest of their army routed the enemy. The center was especially effective: King Agis stood there, surrounded by the 300 men called the Horsemen. They attacked the older Argives and the units known as the five companies, along with the Cleonaeans, Orneatae, and Athenians stationed beside them. Most did not even wait to fight at close quarters. They gave way as soon as the Lacedaemonians advanced. Some were even trampled because they could not escape being overtaken.

Chapter 73

1 Once the Argive and allied army had given way here, its line began breaking apart on both sides. At the same time the Lacedaemonian and Tegean right wing, which extended beyond the Athenians, began wheeling around them. The Athenians faced danger from both directions: on one side they were being surrounded, while on the other their side had already been defeated. They would have suffered more than any other part of the army if their cavalry had not been there to help them.

2 Then Agis realized that his left wing, facing the Mantineans and the 1,000 Argives, was in trouble. He ordered the whole army to move toward the part that was being beaten.

3 When this happened, the army moved across and turned away from the Athenians. The Athenians then escaped undisturbed, along with the defeated Argives who were with them. The Mantineans, their allies, and the picked Argives no longer thought of pressing the enemy. They saw that their own side had been beaten and that the Lacedaemonians were advancing against them, and they turned and fled.

4 More of the Mantineans were killed, but most of the picked Argives escaped. The flight and retreat were not hard-pressed or prolonged. The Lacedaemonians stand their ground and fight long, determined battles until they rout the enemy. Once they have done that, they pursue only briefly and not very far.

Chapter 74

1 That was how the battle went, or as close to that as possible. It was the largest battle between Greeks for a very long time, and armies from the most important cities took part.

2 The Lacedaemonians laid out the arms taken from the enemy dead and immediately set up a trophy. They stripped the bodies, collected their own dead, and took them to Tegea, where they were buried. They returned the enemy's dead under a truce.

3 The Argives, Orneatae, and Cleonaeans lost 700 men. The Mantineans lost 200, and the Athenians, including the Aeginetans, lost 200 and both their generals. The Lacedaemonian allies did not suffer any significant losses. It was hard to find out the true number of Lacedaemonian dead, but it was reported to be about 300.

Chapter 75

1 Just before the battle, the other king, Pleistoanax, also marched out to help, bringing the older and younger men. He reached Tegea, but returned when he heard of the victory.

2 The Lacedaemonians sent messengers to turn back their allies from Corinth and from beyond the Isthmus. They themselves went home and dismissed their allies. It happened to be the time of their Carnea festival, and they celebrated it.

3 By this single action they cleared themselves of the charges the Greeks were then making against them: cowardice because of their disaster on the island, and poor judgment and slowness in other matters. People now saw that bad luck had made them appear weak, but that their determination was still the same.

4 It also happened that, on the day before this battle, the Epidaurians invaded Argive territory with their entire force, thinking it had been left undefended. They killed many of the Argive guards who had remained behind and came out against them.

5 After the battle, 3,000 Elean hoplites came to help the Mantineans, along with 1,000 Athenians in addition to the earlier force. All these allies immediately marched against Epidaurus while the Lacedaemonians were celebrating the Carnea. They divided up the work and began building a wall around the city.

6 The others stopped work, but the Athenians immediately finished fortifying the headland called the Heraeum, as they had been assigned to do. They all contributed men to a garrison left in this fort, then returned to their separate cities. And the summer ended.

Chapter 76

1 Right at the beginning of the following winter, after celebrating the Carnea, the Lacedaemonians marched out. They reached Tegea and sent proposals for a settlement ahead to Argos.

2 They already had supporters there who wanted to overthrow the democracy at Argos. Since the battle, these men had been much more able to persuade the people to accept an agreement. They wanted first to make peace with the Lacedaemonians, then later an alliance, and only then attack the democracy.

3 Lichas son of Arcesilaus, who represented Argive interests in Lacedaemon, arrived at Argos from the Lacedaemonians with two proposals: one setting out terms if the Argives wanted war, the other if they wanted peace. There was much argument, since Alcibiades also happened to be there. The men working for the Lacedaemonians now dared to act openly as well. They persuaded the Argives to accept the proposal for a settlement. It was as follows.

Chapter 77

1 “The assembly of the Lacedaemonians has decided to make an agreement with the Argives on these terms. The Argives must return the boys to the Orchomenians, the men to the Maenalians, and the men at Mantinea to the Lacedaemonians. They must withdraw from Epidaurus and tear down the wall.

2 “If the Athenians do not withdraw from Epidaurus, they will be enemies of the Argives, the Lacedaemonians, and the allies of both.

3 “If the Lacedaemonians hold any boys, they must return them to their respective cities, without exception.

4 “As for the offering to the god, if the Argives wish, they may leave it to the Epidaurians to swear an oath. Otherwise they must swear themselves.

5 “All the cities in the Peloponnese, large and small, must govern themselves according to their ancestral customs.

6 “If anyone from outside the Peloponnese attacks Peloponnesian territory, they must consult together and defend it in whatever way the Peloponnesians consider fairest.

7 “The Lacedaemonians' allies outside the Peloponnese will have the same standing as the Lacedaemonians. The Argives' allies will have the same standing as the Argives and keep their own territory.

8 “These terms must be shown to the allies, and an agreement made if they approve. If the allies have a proposal, it must be sent home.”

Chapter 78

1 The Argives first accepted this proposal, and the Lacedaemonian army left Tegea and went home. After this, the two sides were once again in contact. Before long, the same men arranged for the Argives to abandon their alliance with the Mantineans, Athenians, and Eleans and make a treaty and alliance with the Lacedaemonians. These were its terms.

Chapter 79

1 “The Lacedaemonians and Argives have agreed to a treaty and alliance for fifty years. Each side must submit disputes to judgment on equal and reciprocal terms, according to ancestral custom. The other cities in the Peloponnese may share in the treaty and alliance. They will govern themselves as independent cities, keep their own territory, and submit disputes to judgment on equal and reciprocal terms, according to ancestral custom.

2 “The Lacedaemonians' allies outside the Peloponnese will have the same standing as the Lacedaemonians. The Argives' allies will have the same standing as the Argives and keep their own territory.

3 “If a joint military expedition is needed anywhere, the Lacedaemonians and Argives must discuss how to carry it out in the way they judge fairest to the allies.

4 “If any cities, inside or outside the Peloponnese, have a dispute about borders or anything else, it must be settled by arbitration. If one allied city has a dispute with another, they must refer it to a city that both consider impartial. Private citizens must have their cases judged according to ancestral custom.”

Chapter 80

1 This was the treaty and alliance that they made. They also settled any matters arising from territory or other property that either side had taken from the other in war or otherwise. They now acted together and voted not to admit any herald or delegation from Athens unless the Athenians left the Peloponnese and abandoned their forts. They also agreed not to make peace or war with anyone except jointly.

2 They pursued their other plans with energy. Both sent envoys to the places along the Thracian coast and to Perdiccas, and persuaded Perdiccas to join their agreement by oath. He did not break with the Athenians immediately, but he intended to do so, partly because he saw that the Argives had done so. His own family originally came from Argos. They also renewed their old oaths with the Chalcidians and swore additional ones.

3 The Argives also sent envoys to the Athenians, telling them to abandon the fort at Epidaurus. The Athenians saw that their men were outnumbered by the other troops sharing the garrison, and sent Demosthenes to bring their men out. When he arrived, he used an athletic competition outside the fort as a pretext. Once the rest of the garrison had gone out, he shut the gates against them. Later the Athenians themselves renewed the treaty with the Epidaurians and handed the fort back to them.

Chapter 81

1 After the Argives left the alliance, the Mantineans at first held out. But they could not manage without the Argives. They too came to terms with the Lacedaemonians and gave up their rule over the cities.

2 The Lacedaemonians and Argives went on a joint expedition with a thousand men each. The Lacedaemonians first went to Sicyon on their own and put power there more firmly into the hands of a small group. After that, both forces together overthrew the democracy at Argos, and an oligarchy friendly to the Lacedaemonians was set up. This happened as spring approached and winter ended. The fourteenth year of the war came to an end.

Chapter 82

1 In the following summer, the people of Dium on Mount Athos broke away from the Athenians and joined the Chalcidians. The Lacedaemonians also reorganized affairs in Achaea, where things had previously been unfavorable to them.

2 Meanwhile, the ordinary people at Argos gradually organized themselves and regained their confidence. They waited for the Lacedaemonians' festival of the Gymnopaediae and attacked the oligarchs. Fighting broke out in the city. The people won, killed some of the oligarchs, and drove the others out.

3 The Lacedaemonians had long failed to come when their friends asked them for help. They now postponed the Gymnopaediae and set out to support them. But at Tegea they learned that the oligarchs had lost. Despite the pleas of those who had escaped, they refused to go any farther. They went home and celebrated the Gymnopaediae.

4 Later, envoys came from those in the city [messengers] and from the Argives outside it. The allies were present, and both sides spoke at length. The Lacedaemonians decided that the people inside the city were in the wrong and voted to march against Argos. But there were delays and postponements.

5 In the meantime, the people of Argos were afraid of the Lacedaemonians. They were again seeking an alliance with Athens and thought it would be their best source of help. They began building long walls down to the sea. If they were cut off from their farmland, supplies brought in by sea with Athenian help could then support them.

6 Some of the cities in the Peloponnese also knew about the building of the walls. The whole Argive population worked on them: the men themselves, the women, and the slaves. Carpenters and stonemasons also came to help them from Athens. The summer ended.

Chapter 83

1 The following winter, when the Lacedaemonians learned that the walls were being built, they marched against Argos with their allies, except the Corinthians. They also had a scheme being organized in their support inside Argos itself. Agis son of Archidamus, king of the Lacedaemonians, commanded the army.

2 The scheme inside the city, which they had expected to help them, came to nothing. But they captured and demolished the walls under construction. They also took Hysiae, a place in Argive territory, and killed all the free men they captured there. Then they withdrew, and the troops dispersed to their own cities.

3 After this, the Argives also marched into Phliasian territory. They laid it waste and then went home. They did this because the Phliasians had taken in their exiles; most of them had settled there.

4 During the same winter the Athenians also blockaded Macedonia. They accused Perdiccas of entering into the sworn agreement with the Argives and Lacedaemonians. They also charged that, when they had prepared an army under Nicias son of Niceratus to attack the Chalcidians on the Thracian coast and Amphipolis, he had broken his obligations as an ally. His withdrawal had been the main reason the expedition broke up. So he was now an enemy. This winter ended, and the fifteenth year of the war came to an end.

Chapter 84

1 The next summer, Alcibiades sailed to Argos with twenty ships and arrested three hundred Argives who were still suspected of favoring the Lacedaemonians. The Athenians placed them on nearby islands under their control. The Athenians also sent an expedition against the island of Melos. Their force consisted of thirty of their own ships, six Chian ships, and two Lesbian ships; twelve hundred of their own hoplites, three hundred archers, and twenty mounted archers; and about fifteen hundred hoplites from their allies and the islanders.

2 The Melians were colonists from Lacedaemon. They would not submit to the Athenians as the other islanders had. At first they remained neutral and kept out of the fighting. But when the Athenians tried to force them to submit by devastating their land, they entered into open war.

3 The generals, Cleomedes son of Lycomedes and Tisias son of Tisimachus, landed this force and camped in Melian territory. Before doing any damage to the land, they sent envoys to talk first. The Melians did not bring them before the general population. Instead, they told them to state their business before the magistrates and the small governing group.

Chapter 85

1 The Athenian envoys spoke as follows. “We are not speaking before the general population. Presumably this is to stop us from misleading the people with an uninterrupted speech, in which they would hear all our persuasive claims at once without being able to challenge them. We understand that this is why you have brought us before this small group. You who are sitting here can make yourselves even safer. Do not give a single speech yourselves either. Take each point separately, and interrupt us immediately whenever we say something you think is unsatisfactory. First, tell us whether this procedure suits you.”

Chapter 86

1 The Melian representatives answered, “We have no objection to the fairness of explaining our views to each other calmly. But your preparations for war are already here, not something still to come, and they seem inconsistent with that. We can see that you have come to judge what we say yourselves. The likely outcome is that if we win the argument on justice and therefore refuse to give in, it will bring us war; if we let you persuade us, it will bring slavery.”

Chapter 87

1 Athenians: “If you have met to make guesses about the future, or for any purpose other than to discuss your city's survival in the light of the present facts that you can see, we should stop. If survival is what you are here for, we should talk.”

Chapter 88

1 Melians: “In a situation like ours, it is natural and understandable that our words and thoughts should turn in many directions. Still, this meeting is indeed about our survival. If you agree, let the discussion proceed in the way you suggest.”

Chapter 89

1 Athenians: “We will not make a long, unconvincing speech using impressive claims: that our empire is justified because we defeated the Persians, or that we are now attacking because we have been wronged. Nor should you expect to persuade us by saying that, although you are Lacedaemonian colonists, you did not join their campaigns, or that you have done us no harm. Instead, we should try to get what is possible, on the basis of what each side really thinks. You know as well as we do that, in human negotiations, questions of justice are decided only when the two sides have equal power to compel each other. Those with greater power do what they can, and the weak give way.”

Chapter 90

1 Melians: “As we see it, it is in your interest not to destroy a protection that benefits everyone. We have to speak of interest, since you have made that, rather than justice, the basis of discussion. Anyone who is in danger should still be able to appeal to what is reasonable and fair. Someone who makes a persuasive case should be allowed some benefit even if the case falls short of strict proof. This concerns you no less than anyone else. If you fall, you would face the harshest punishment and become an example to others.”

Chapter 91

1 Athenians: “Even if our empire ends, we are not discouraged by the thought of its final outcome. People who rule over others, as the Lacedaemonians do, are not the ones who pose the greatest danger to a defeated power. And our contest is not with the Lacedaemonians. The danger is if the subjects of an empire attack their former rulers themselves and defeat them.

2 Athenians: “Leave us to take that risk. We will explain that we have come to benefit our empire, and that what we are now going to say is intended to save your city. We want to rule you without trouble and to keep you safe in a way that benefits both of us.”

Chapter 92

1 Melians: “How could it be as useful for us to be enslaved as it is for you to rule?”

Chapter 93

1 Athenians: “Because you would submit before suffering the worst, and we would profit by not destroying you.”

Chapter 94

1 Melians: “Would you not accept us keeping out of the war, as your friends rather than your enemies, but allied to neither side?”

Chapter 95

1 Athenians: “No. Your hostility does us less harm than your friendship would. To our subjects, friendship with you would signal our weakness, while your hatred would show our strength.”

Chapter 96

1 Melians: “Is that how your subjects judge what is reasonable? Do they put people with no connection to you in the same category as those who are mostly your own colonists, some of whom rebelled and were then brought under your control?”

Chapter 97

1 Athenians: “They think that neither group lacks arguments to justify its position. But they think that those who stay independent do so because they are strong, and that we do not attack them because we are afraid. So, quite apart from adding to the people we rule, your conquest would make us safer. This is especially true because you are islanders and we control the sea. You are weaker than other peoples, and it is important that you should not hold out against us.”

Chapter 98

1 Melians: “But do you not see safety in the other course? Here too, we must try to persuade you. You have ruled out arguments about justice and urge us to submit to your interests. So we must explain what benefits us and try to persuade you if it turns out to benefit you as well. All those who are now allied to neither side will look at this and think that you will one day attack them too. How will you avoid making enemies of them? Will you not simply strengthen your existing enemies and force others to become your enemies against their will, when they had never intended to do so?”

Chapter 99

1 Athenians: “We do not think the people on the mainland are the greater danger to us. Their freedom will allow them to put off taking precautions against us for a long time. The danger comes instead from independent islanders like you and from those already made angry by the constraints of our empire. These are the people most likely to act without thinking and bring both themselves and us into obvious danger.”

Chapter 100

1 Melians: “Then surely, if you take such great risks to keep your empire, and those already enslaved take them to escape it, it would be very dishonorable and cowardly for us, who are still free, not to try everything before becoming slaves.”

Chapter 101

1 Athenians: “Not if you make a sensible decision. This is not an equal contest in courage, where you must avoid disgrace. Your discussion is about survival instead, and about not standing up to people who are much stronger.”

Chapter 102

1 Melians: “But we know that war sometimes gives each side a more equal chance than the difference in their numbers would suggest. If we give in, we lose all hope immediately. If we act, there is still hope that we can stand our ground.”

Chapter 103

1 Athenians: “Hope gives comfort in danger. People who have resources to spare can use it and, even if it hurts them, it does not destroy them. But hope is costly by nature. Those who stake everything they have on it only discover what it is when they have already fallen. Once they recognize it, it leaves them nothing with which to protect themselves against it.

2 Athenians: “You are weak, and a single turn can decide your fate. Do not choose to suffer this. Do not be like most people, who could still save themselves by ordinary human means, but, once they are under pressure and their visible grounds for hope give out, turn to invisible ones: divination, oracles, and all the other things that offer hope and bring ruin.”

Chapter 104

1 Melians: “We too understand, you may be sure, how hard it is to fight your power, and also luck, unless it treats us equally. Still, we trust that the gods will not give us worse luck, because we are standing up as people who respect them against people who are unjust. As for our lack of strength, we expect our alliance with the Lacedaemonians to make up for it. They are bound to help us, if for no other reason, because we are related and they would be ashamed not to. So our confidence is not altogether unreasonable.”

Chapter 105

1 Athenians: “We do not think we will lack the gods' favor either. Nothing we claim or do falls outside what people believe about the gods or want for themselves.

2 Athenians: “We believe this about the gods, and know it for certain about people: nature always compels them to rule wherever they have the power. We did not establish this rule, nor were we the first to use it once it existed. We found it already in place and will leave it to last forever. We use it knowing that you, or anyone else with the same power as us, would do the same.

3 Athenians: “So, as far as the gods are concerned, we reasonably expect not to be at a disadvantage. As for your opinion of the Lacedaemonians, you trust that shame will make them help you. We congratulate you on your innocence, but we do not envy your foolishness.

4 Athenians: “In their dealings with each other and with the customs of their own country, the Lacedaemonians show a great deal of good conduct. Much could be said about how they treat outsiders, but the clearest summary is this: more openly than anyone else we know, they consider what pleases them honorable and what benefits them just. That way of thinking hardly supports your present unreasonable hope of survival.”

Chapter 106

1 Melians: “But it is precisely their own interest that gives us our greatest confidence. They will not want to betray the Melians, who are their colonists, and so lose the trust of friendly Greeks and help their enemies.”

Chapter 107

1 Athenians: “Do you not see, then, that pursuing your interests goes with staying safe, whereas doing what is just and honorable involves danger? The Lacedaemonians are generally very unwilling to take that risk.”

Chapter 108

1 Melians: “But we think they would be more willing to take risks for us, and would consider them safer than risks taken for others. For military operations, we are close to the Peloponnese. And because we are related, they can trust our loyalty more than that of others.”

Chapter 109

1 Athenians: “People considering whether to join a fight do not find security in the goodwill of those asking for help. They look for a large advantage in actual military strength. The Lacedaemonians consider this even more carefully than others. They distrust their own resources so much that even when they attack their neighbors, they take many allies with them. So they are unlikely to cross to an island while we control the sea.”

Chapter 110

1 Melians: “But they could also send other people. The Cretan Sea is wide. Across it, those who control the sea have a harder time catching ships than people trying to slip past have in getting through safely.

2 “And if they failed at that, they could turn against your own territory and the rest of your allies, those whom Brasidas did not attack. Then you would have to concern yourselves less with a country that has nothing to do with you than with your own land and allies, who are much closer to you.”

Chapter 111

1 Athenians: “You too may gain some experience of this, though you already know that the Athenians have never yet abandoned a single siege for fear of trouble elsewhere.

2 Athenians: “We notice that, although you said you would discuss your survival, in all this talk you have said nothing that people could rely on and expect to survive. The things you count on most are hopes for the future. What you actually have is too little to defeat the forces already drawn up against you. You are showing very poor judgment, unless you now ask us to leave and come to some more sensible decision.

3 Athenians: “Surely you will not turn to that sense of shame which so often destroys people when they face dangers that are both disgraceful and obvious. Many people can still see where they are heading. But the thing called disgrace, through the force of its seductive name, draws them on. Overpowered by the word, they willingly fall into disasters from which they cannot recover. Their foolishness then brings them a disgrace worse than anything bad luck could have brought.

4 Athenians: “If you think sensibly, you will avoid that. You will not consider it degrading to give way to the greatest city when its terms are moderate: become its allies, keep your own land, and pay tribute. Given a choice between war and safety, do not stubbornly insist on the worse option. Those who do not give way to their equals, deal properly with their superiors, and treat weaker people moderately are the most likely to succeed.

5 Athenians: “Consider this after we leave too. Keep reminding yourselves that you are deciding about your homeland. You have only one, and whether it does well or badly will depend on this single decision.”

Chapter 112

1 The Athenians withdrew from the discussion. Left on their own, the Melians reached much the same decision as they had expressed in their replies. They gave this answer.

2 “Athenians, our view has not changed from the beginning. We will not, in a short time, take away the freedom of a city that has now been inhabited for seven hundred years. Instead, we will try to save ourselves. We trust in the good fortune the gods have given the city, which has preserved it until now, and in help from people, including the Lacedaemonians.

3 “We ask to be your friends and the enemies of neither side. Make a treaty on terms that seem suitable to both of us, and leave our land.”

Chapter 113

1 That was the Melians' answer. As the Athenians were now ending the discussion, they said, “To judge by these decisions, you seem to us the only people who consider the future more certain than what you can see, and who look at things that are not visible as if your wishes had already made them happen. You have staked the most on the Lacedaemonians, luck, and hope. With that much trust in them, you will suffer the greatest fall.”

Chapter 114

1 The Athenian envoys returned to the army. Since the Melians would not submit at all, the generals immediately began military operations. They divided the work among the contingents from each city and built a wall all the way around the Melians.

2 Later, the Athenians left a force of their own men and allies to keep watch on land and at sea, and withdrew with most of the army. The troops who stayed continued the siege.

Chapter 115

1 At about the same time, the Argives invaded Phliasian territory. The Phliasians and the Argive exiles ambushed them, killing about eighty.

2 The Athenians at Pylos also took a large amount of plunder from the Lacedaemonians. In response, the Lacedaemonians went to war with them, though they still did not cancel the treaty. They also proclaimed that anyone on their side who wished could raid the Athenians.

3 The Corinthians went to war with the Athenians over certain disputes of their own. The other Peloponnesians stayed out of the fighting.

4 The Melians also attacked at night and captured the part of the Athenian siege wall facing the marketplace. They killed some men and brought in grain and as many useful supplies as they could. Then they withdrew and made no further move. After that, the Athenians arranged a better watch. The summer ended.

Chapter 116

1 The following winter, the Lacedaemonians intended to march into Argive territory. But their sacrifices for crossing the border [the sacred rites at the frontier] did not give favorable signs, and they went home. Because of this planned expedition, the Argives suspected certain people inside their city. They arrested some, but others escaped them.

2 At about the same time, the Melians again captured another part of the Athenian siege wall, where there were few guards on duty.

3 After these events, another army came from Athens, commanded by Philocrates son of Demeas. The siege was now pressed hard, and there was also some betrayal inside the city. The Melians surrendered unconditionally to the Athenians, leaving them to decide their fate.

4 The Athenians killed all the Melian men of military age whom they captured and sold the women and children into slavery. They settled the place themselves, later sending out five hundred colonists.

Chapter 1

1 The next summer the truce for a year ended, after lasting until the Pythian games. During the armistice the Athenians expelled the Delians from Delos, concluding that they must have been polluted by some old offense at the time of their consecration, and that this had been the omission in the previous purification of the island, which as I have related, had been thought to have been duly accomplished by the removal of the graves of the dead. The Delians had Atramyttium in Asia given them by Pharnaces, and settled there as they removed from Delos.

Chapter 2

1 Meanwhile Cleon prevailed on the Athenians to let him set sail at the expiration of the armistice for the towns in the direction of Thrace with twelve hundred heavy infantry and three hundred horse from Athens, a larger force of the allies, and thirty ships.

2 First touching at the still besieged Scione, and taking some heavy infantry from the army there, he next sailed into Cophosa harbor in the territory of Torone, which is not far from the town.

3 From thence, having learnt from deserters that Brasidas was not in Torone, and that its garrison was not strong enough to give him battle, he advanced with his army against the town, sending ten ships to sail round into the harbor.

4 He first came to the fortification lately thrown up in front of the town by Brasidas in order to take in the suburb, to do which he had pulled down part of the original wall and made it all one city.

Chapter 3

1 To this point Pasitelidas, the Lacedaemonian commander, with such garrison as there was in the place, hurried to repel the Athenian assault; but finding himself hard pressed, and seeing the ships that had been sent round sailing into the harbor, Pasitelidas began to be afraid that they might get up to the city before its defenders were there, and the fortification being also carried, he might be taken prisoner, and so abandoned the outwork and ran into the town.

2 But the Athenians from the ships had already taken Torone, and their land forces following at his heels burst in with him with a rush over the part of the old wall that had been pulled down, killing some of the Peloponnesians and Toronaeans in the melee, and making prisoners of the rest, and Pasitelidas their commander amongst them.

3 Brasidas meanwhile had advanced to relieve Torone, and had only about four miles more to go when he heard of its fall on the road, and turned back again.

4 Cleon and the Athenians set up two trophies, one by the harbor, the other by the fortification, and making slaves of the wives and children of the Toronaeans, sent the men with the Peloponnesians and any Chalcidians that were there, to the number of seven hundred, to Athens; whence, however, they all came home afterwards, the Peloponnesians on the conclusion of peace, and the rest by being exchanged against other prisoners with the Olynthians.

5 About the same time Panactum, a fortress on the Athenian border, was taken by treachery by the Boeotians.

6 Meanwhile Cleon, after placing a garrison in Torone, weighed anchor and sailed round Athos on his way to Amphipolis.

Chapter 4

1 About the same time Phaeax, son of Erasistratus, set sail with two colleagues as ambassador from Athens to Italy and Sicily.

2 The Leontines, upon the departure of the Athenians from Sicily after the pacification, had placed a number of new citizens upon the roll, and the commons had a design for redividing the land; but the upper classes, aware of their intention, called in the Syracusans and expelled the commons.

3 These last were scattered in various directions; but the upper classes came to an agreement with the Syracusans, abandoned and laid waste their city, and went and lived at Syracuse, where they were made citizens.

4 Afterwards some of them were dissatisfied, and leaving Syracuse occupied Phocaeae, a quarter of the town of Leontini, and Bricinniae, a strong place in the Leontine country, and being there joined by most of the exiled commons carried on war from the fortifications.

5 The Athenians hearing this, sent Phaeax to see if they could not by some means so convince their allies there and the rest of the Sicilians of the ambitious designs of Syracuse, as to induce them to form a general coalition against her, and thus save the commons of Leontini.

6 Arrived in Sicily, Phaeax succeeded at Camarina and Agrigentum, but meeting with a repulse at Gela did not go on to the rest, as he saw that he should not succeed with them, but returned through the country of the Sicels to Catana, and after visiting Bricinniae as he passed, and encouraging its inhabitants, sailed back to Athens.

Chapter 5

1 During his voyage along the coast to and from Sicily, he treated with some cities in Italy on the subject of friendship with Athens, and also fell in with some Locrian settlers exiled from Messina, who had been sent thither when the Locrians were called in by one of the factions that divided Messina after the pacification of Sicily, and Messina came for a time into the hands of the Locrians.

2 These being met by Phaeax on their return home received no injury at his hands, as the Locrians had agreed with him for a treaty with Athens.

3 They were the only people of the allies who, when the reconciliation between the Sicilians took place, had not made peace with her; nor indeed would they have done so now, if they had not been pressed by a war with the Hipponians and Medmaeans who lived on their border, and were colonists of theirs. Phaeax meanwhile proceeded on his voyage, and at length arrived at Athens.

Chapter 6

1 Cleon, whom we left on his voyage from Torone to Amphipolis, made Eion his base, and after an unsuccessful assault upon the Andrian colony of Stagirus, took Galepsus, a colony of Thasos, by storm.

2 He now sent envoys to Perdiccas to command his attendance with an army, as provided by the alliance; and others to Thrace, to Polles, king of the Odomantians, who was to bring as many Thracian mercenaries as possible; and himself remained inactive in Eion, awaiting their arrival.

3 Informed of this, Brasidas on his part took up a position of observation upon Cerdylium, a place situated in the Argilian country on high ground across the river, not far from Amphipolis, and commanding a view on all sides, and thus made it impossible for Cleon's army to move without his seeing it; for he fully expected that Cleon, despising the scanty numbers of his opponent, would march against Amphipolis with the force that he had got with him.

4 At the same time Brasidas made his preparations, calling to his standard fifteen hundred Thracian mercenaries, and all the Edonians, horse and targeteers; he also had a thousand Myrcinian and Chalcidian targeteers, besides those in Amphipolis,

5 and a force of heavy infantry numbering altogether about two thousand, and three hundred Hellenic horse. Fifteen hundred of these he had with him upon Cerdylium; the rest were stationed with Clearidas in Amphipolis.

Chapter 7

1 After remaining quiet for some time, Cleon was at length obliged to do as Brasidas expected.

2 His soldiers, tired of their inactivity, began also seriously to reflect on the weakness and incompetence of their commander and the skill and valor that would be opposed to him, and on their own original unwillingness to accompany him. These murmurs coming to the ears of Cleon, he resolved not to disgust the army by keeping it in the same place, and broke up his camp and advanced.

3 The temper of the general was what it had been at Pylos, his success on that occasion having given him confidence in his capacity. He never dreamed of any one coming out to fight him, but said that he was rather going up to view the place; and if he waited for his reinforcements it was not in order to make victory secure in case he should be compelled to engage, but to be enabled to surround and storm the city.

4 He accordingly came and posted his army upon a strong hill in front of Amphipolis, and proceeded to examine the lake formed by the Strymon, and how the town lay on the side of Thrace.

5 He thought to retire at pleasure without fighting, as there was no one to be seen upon the wall or coming out of the gates, all of which were shut. Indeed, it seemed a mistake not to have brought down engines with him; he could then have taken the town, there being no one to defend it.

Chapter 8

1 As soon as Brasidas saw the Athenians in motion he descended himself from Cerdylium and entered Amphipolis.

2 He did not venture to go out in regular order against the Athenians: he mistrusted his strength, and thought it inadequate to the attempt; not in numbers—these were not so unequal—but in quality, the flower of the Athenian army being in the field, with the best of the Lemnians and Imbrians. He therefore prepared to assail them by stratagem.

3 By showing the enemy the number of his troops, and the shifts which he had been put to to arm them, he thought that he should have less chance of beating him than by not letting him have a sight of them, and thus learn how good a right he had to despise them.

4 He accordingly picked out a hundred and fifty heavy infantry, and putting the rest under Clearidas determined to attack suddenly before the Athenians retired; thinking that he should not have again such a chance of catching them alone, if their reinforcements were once allowed to come up; and so calling all his soldiers together in order to encourage them and explain his intention, spoke as follows:—

Chapter 9

1 ‘Peloponnesians, the character of the country from which we have come, one which has always owed its freedom to valor, and the fact that you are Dorians and the enemy you are about to fight Ionians, whom you are accustomed to beat, are things that do not need further comment.

2 But the plan of attack that I propose to pursue, this it is as well to explain, in order that the fact of our adventuring with a part instead of with the whole of our forces may not damp your courage by the apparent disadvantage at which it places you.

3 I imagine it is the poor opinion that he has of us, and the fact that he has no idea of any one coming out to engage him, that has made the enemy march up to the place and carelessly look about him as he is doing, without noticing us.

4 But the most successful soldier will always be the man who most happily detects a blunder like this, and who carefully consulting his own means makes his attack not so much by open and regular approaches, as by seizing the opportunity of the moment;

5 and these stratagems, which do the greatest service to our friends by most completely deceiving our enemies, have the most brilliant name in war.

6 Therefore, while their careless confidence continues, and they are still thinking, as in my judgment they are now doing, more of retreat than of maintaining their position, while their spirit is slack and not high-strung with expectation, I with the men under my command will, if possible, take them by surprise and fall with a run upon their center;

7 and do you, Clearidas, afterwards, when you see me already upon them, and, as is likely, dealing terror among them, take with you the Amphipolitans, and the rest of the allies, and suddenly open the gates and dash at them, and hasten to engage as quickly as you can.

8 That is our best chance of establishing a panic among them, as a fresh assailant has always more terrors for an enemy than the one he is immediately engaged with.

9 Show yourself a brave man, as a Spartan should; and do you, allies, follow him like men, and remember that zeal, honor, and obedience mark the good soldier, and that this day will make you either free men and allies of Lacedaemon, or slaves of Athens; even if you escape without personal loss of liberty or life, your bondage will be on harsher terms than before, and you will also hinder the liberation of the rest of the Hellenes.

10 No cowardice then on your part, seeing the greatness of the issues at stake, and I will show that what I preach to others I can practise myself.’

Chapter 10

1 After this brief speech Brasidas himself prepared for the sally, and placed the rest with Clearidas at the Thracian gates to support him as had been agreed.

2 Meanwhile he had been seen coming down from Cerdylium and then in the city, which is overlooked from the outside, sacrificing near the temple of Athena; in short, all his movements had been observed, and word was brought to Cleon, who had at the moment gone on to look about him, that the whole of the enemy's force could be seen in the town, and that the feet of horses and men in great numbers were visible under the gates, as if a sally were intended.

3 Upon hearing this he went up to look, and having done so, being unwilling to venture upon the decisive step of a battle before his reinforcements came up, and fancying that he would have time to retire, bid the retreat be sounded and sent orders to the men to effect it by moving on the left wing in the direction of Eion, which was indeed the only way practicable.

4 This however not being quick enough for him, he joined the retreat in person and made the right wing wheel round, thus turning its unarmed side to the enemy.

5 It was then that Brasidas seeing the Athenian force in motion and his opportunity come, said to the men with him and the rest, ‘Those fellows will never stand before us, one can see that by the way their spears and heads are going. Troops which do as they do seldom stand a charge. Quick, some one, and open the gates I spoke of, and let us be out and at them with no fears for the result.’

6 Accordingly issuing out by the palisade gate and by the first in the long wall then existing, he ran at the top of his speed along the straight road, where the trophy now stands as you go by the steepest part of the hill, and fell upon and routed the center of the Athenians, panic-stricken by their own disorder and astounded at his audacity.

7 At the same moment Clearidas in execution of his orders issued out from the Thracian gates to support him, and also attacked the enemy.

8 The result was that the Athenians, suddenly and unexpectedly attacked on both sides, fell into confusion; and their left towards Eion, which had already got on some distance, at once broke and fled. Just as it was in full retreat and Brasidas was passing on to attack the right, he received a wound; but his fall was not perceived by the Athenians, as he was taken up by those near him and carried off the field.

9 The Athenian right made a better stand, and though Cleon, who from the first had no thought of fighting, at once fled and was overtaken and slain by a Myrcinian targeteer, his infantry forming in close order upon the hill twice or thrice repulsed the attacks of Clearidas, and did not finally give way until they were surrounded and routed by the missiles of the Myrcinian and Chalcidian horse and the targeteers.

10 Thus the Athenian army was all now in flight; and such as escaped being killed in the battle by the Chalcidian horse and the targeteers, dispersed among the hills, and with difficulty made their way to Eion.

11 The men who had taken up and rescued Brasidas, brought him into the town with the breath still in him: he lived to hear of the victory of his troops, and not long after expired.

12 The rest of the army returning with Clearidas from the pursuit stripped the dead and set up a trophy.

Chapter 11

1 After this all the allies attended in arms and buried Brasidas at the public expense in the city, in front of what is now the market-place, and the Amphipolitans having enclosed his tomb, ever afterwards sacrifice to him as a hero and have given to him the honor of games and annual offerings. They constituted him the founder of their colony, and pulled down the Hagnonic erections and obliterated everything that could be interpreted as a memorial of his having founded the place; for they considered that Brasidas had been their preserver and courting as they did the alliance of Lacedaemon for fear of Athens, in their present hostile relations with the latter they could no longer with the same advantage or satisfaction pay Hagnon his honors.

2 They also gave the Athenians back their dead. About six hundred of the latter had fallen and only seven of the enemy, owing to there having been no regular engagement, but the affair of accident and panic that I have described.

3 After taking up their dead the Athenians sailed off home, while Clearidas and his troops remained to arrange matters at Amphipolis.

Chapter 12

1 About the same time three Lacedaemonians—Ramphias, Autocharidas, and Epicydidas—led a reinforcement of nine hundred heavy infantry to the towns in the direction of Thrace, and arriving at Heraclea in Trachis reformed matters there as seemed good to them.

2 While they delayed there, this battle took place and so the summer ended.

Chapter 13

1 With the beginning of the winter following Ramphias and his companions penetrated as far as Pierium in Thessaly; but as the Thessalians opposed their further advance, and Brasidas whom they came to reinforce was dead, they turned back home, thinking that the moment had gone by, the Athenians being defeated and gone, and themselves not equal to the execution of Brasidas' designs.

2 The main cause however of their return was because they knew that when they set out, Lacedaemonian opinion was really in favour of peace.

Chapter 14

1 Indeed it so happened that directly after the battle of Amphipolis and the retreat of Ramphias from Thessaly, both sides ceased to prosecute the war and turned their attention to peace. Athens had suffered severely at Delium, and again shortly afterwards at Amphipolis, and had no longer that confidence in her strength which had made her before refuse to treat, in the belief of ultimate victory which her success at the moment had inspired;

2 besides, she was afraid of her allies being tempted by her reverses to rebel more generally, and repented having let go the splendid opportunity for peace which the affair of Pylos had offered.

3 Lacedaemon, on the other hand, found the event of the war falsify her notion that a few years would suffice for the overthrow of the power of the Athenians by the devastation of their land. She had suffered on the island a disaster hitherto unknown at Sparta; she saw her country plundered from Pylos and Cythera; the Helots were deserting, and she was in constant apprehension that those who remained in Peloponnese would rely upon those outside and take advantage of the situation to renew their old attempts at revolution.

4 Besides this, as chance would have it, her thirty years' truce with the Argives was upon the point of expiring; and they refused to renew it unless Cynuria were restored to them; so that it seemed impossible to fight Argos and Athens at once. She also suspected some of the cities in Peloponnese of intending to go over to the enemy, as was indeed the case.

Chapter 15

1 These considerations made both sides disposed for an accommodation; the Lacedaemonians being probably the most eager, as they ardently desired to recover the men taken upon the island, the Spartans among whom belonged to the first families and were accordingly related to the governing body in Lacedaemon.

2 Negotiations had been begun directly after their capture, but the Athenians in their hour of triumph would not consent to any reasonable terms; though after their defeat at Delium Lacedaemon, knowing that they would be now more inclined to listen, at once concluded the armistice for a year, during which they were to confer together and see if a longer period could not be agreed upon.

Chapter 16

1 Now, however, after the Athenian defeat at Amphipolis, and the death of Cleon and Brasidas, who had been the two principal opponents of peace on either side—the latter from the success and honor which war gave him, the former because he thought that, if tranquillity were restored, his crimes would be more open to detection and his slanders less credited—the foremost candidates for power in either city, Pleistoanax, son of Pausanias, king of Lacedaemon, and Nicias, son of Niceratus, the most fortunate general of his time, each desired peace more ardently than ever. Nicias, while still happy and honored, wished to secure his good fortune, to obtain a present release from trouble for himself and his countrymen, and hand down to posterity a name as an ever-successful statesman, and thought the way to do this was to keep out of danger and commit himself as little as possible to fortune, and that peace alone made this keeping out of danger possible. Pleistoanax, again, was assailed by his enemies for his restoration, and regularly held up by them to the prejudice of his countrymen, upon every reverse that befell them, as though his unjust restoration were the cause;

2 the accusation being that he and his brother Aristocles had bribed the prophetess of Delphi to tell the Lacedaemonian deputations which successively arrived at the temple to bring home the seed of the demigod son of Zeus from abroad, else they would have to plough with a silver share.

3 In this way, it was insisted, in time he had induced the Lacedaemonians in the nineteenth year of his exile to Lycaeum (whither he had gone when banished on suspicion of having been bribed to retreat from Attica, and had built half his house within the consecrated precinct of Zeus for fear of the Lacedaemonians), to restore him with the same dances and sacrifices with which they had instituted their kings upon the first settlement of Lacedaemon.

Chapter 17

1 The smart of this accusation, and the reflection that in peace no disaster could occur, and that when Lacedaemon had recovered her men there would be nothing for his enemies to take hold of (whereas, while war lasted the highest station must always bear the scandal of everything that went wrong), made him ardently desire a settlement.

2 Accordingly this winter was employed in conferences; and as spring rapidly approached, the Lacedaemonians sent round orders to the cities to prepare for a fortified occupation of Attica, and held this as a sword over the heads of the Athenians to induce them to listen to their overtures; and at last, after many claims had been urged on either side at the conferences, a peace was agreed on upon the following basis. Each party was to restore its conquests, but Athens was to keep Nisaea; her demand for Plataea being met by the Thebans asserting that they had acquired the place not by force or treachery, but by the voluntary adhesion upon agreement of its citizens; and the same, according to the Athenian account, being the history of her acquisition of Nisaea. This arranged, the Lacedaemonians summoned their allies, and all voting for peace except the Boeotians, Corinthians, Eleans, and Megarians, who did not approve of these proceedings, they concluded the treaty and made peace, each of the contracting parties swearing to the following articles:—

Chapter 18

1 The Athenians and Lacedaemonians and their allies made a treaty, and swear to it, city by city, as follows:

2 1. Touching the national temples, there shall be a free passage by land and by sea to all who wish it, to sacrifice, travel, consult, and attend the oracle or games, according to the customs of their countries.2. The temple and shrine of Apollo at Delphi and the Delphians shall be governed by their own laws, taxed by their own state, and judged by their own judges, the land and the people, according to the custom of their country.

3 3. The treaty shall be binding for fifty years upon the Athenians and the allies of the Athenians, and upon the Lacedaemonians and the allies of the Lacedaemonians, without fraud or hurt by land or by sea.

4 4. It shall not be lawful to take up arms, with intent to do hurt, 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, in any way or means whatsoever. But should any difference arise between them they are to have recourse to law and oaths, according as may be agreed between the parties.

5 5. The Lacedaemonians and their allies shall give back Amphipolis to the Athenians. Nevertheless, in the case of cities given up by the Lacedaemonians to the Athenians, the inhabitants shall be allowed to go where they please and to take their property with them; and the cities shall be independent, paying only the tribute of Aristides. And it shall not be lawful for the Athenians or their allies to carry on war against them after the treaty has been concluded, so long as the tribute is paid. The cities referred to are Argilus, Stagirus, Acanthus, Scolus, Olynthus, and Spartolus. These cities shall be neutral, allies neither of the Lacedaemonians nor of the Athenians; but if the cities consent, it shall be lawful for the Athenians to make them their allies, provided always that the cities wish it.

6 The Mecybernaeans, Sanaeans and Singaeans shall inhabit their own cities, as also the Olynthians and Acanthians;

7 but the Lacedaemonians and their allies shall give back Panactum to the Athenians.6. The Athenians shall give back Coryphasium, Cythera, Methana, Pteleum, and Atalanta to the Lacedaemonians, and also all Lacedaemonians that are in the prison at Athens or elsewhere in the Athenian dominions, and shall let go the Peloponnesians besieged in Scione, and all others in Scione that are allies of the Lacedaemonians, and all whom Brasidas sent in there, and any others of the allies of the Lacedaemonians that may be in the prison at Athens or elsewhere in the Athenian dominions.7. The Lacedaemonians and their allies shall in like manner give back any of the Athenians or their allies that they may have in their hands.

8 8. In the case of Scione, Torone, and Sermylium, and any other cities that the Athenians may have, the Athenians may adopt such measures as they please.

9 9. The Athenians shall take an oath to the Lacedaemonians and their allies, city by city. Every man shall swear by the most binding oath of his country, seventeen from each city. The oath shall be as follows:—‘I will abide by this agreement and treaty honestly and without deceit.’ In the same way an oath shall be taken by the Lacedaemonians and their allies to the Athenians;

10 and the oath shall be renewed annually by both parties. Pillars shall be erected at Olympia, Pythia, the Isthmus, at Athens in the Acropolis, and at Lacedaemon in the temple at Amyclae.

11 10. If anything be forgotten, whatever it be, and on whatever point, it shall be consistent with their oath for both parties the Athenians and Lacedaemonians to alter it, according to their discretion.

Chapter 19

1 The treaty begins from the Ephoralty of Pleistolas in Lacedaemon, on the 27th day of the month of Artemisium, and from the Archonship of Alcaeus at Athens, on the 25th day of the month of Elaphebolion.

2 Those who took the oath and poured the libations for the Lacedaemonians were Pleistoanax, Agis, Pleistolas, Damagetus, Chionis, Metagenes, Acanthus, Daithus, Ischagoras, Philocharidas, Zeuxidas, Antippus, Tellis, Alcinadas, Empedias, Menas, and Laphilus; for the Athenians, Lampon, Isthmionicus, Nicias, Laches, Euthydemus, Procles, Pythodorus, Hagnon, Myrtilus, Thrasycles, Theagenes, Aristocrates, Iolcius, Timocrates, Leon, Lamachus and Demosthenes.

Chapter 20

1 This treaty was made in the spring, just at the end of winter, directly after the city festival of Dionysus, just ten years, with the difference of a few days, from the first invasion of Attica and the commencement of this war.

2 This must be calculated by the seasons rather than by trusting to the enumeration of the names of the several magistrates or offices of honor that are used to mark past events. Accuracy is impossible where an event may have occurred in the beginning, or middle, or at any period in their tenure of office.

3 But by computing by summers and winters, the method adopted in this history, it will be found that, each of these amounting to half a year, there were ten summers and as many winters contained in this first war.

Chapter 21

1 Meanwhile the Lacedaemonians, to whose lot it fell to begin the work of restitution, immediately set free all the prisoners of war in their possession, and sent Ischagoras, Menas, and Philocharidas as envoys to the towns in the direction of Thrace, to order Clearidas to hand over Amphipolis to the Athenians, and the rest of their allies each to accept the treaty as it affected them.

2 They, however, did not like its terms, and refused to accept it; Clearidas also, willing to oblige the Chalcidians, would not hand over the town, averring his inability to do so against their will.

3 Meanwhile he hastened in person to Lacedaemon with envoys from the place, to defend his disobedience against the possible accusations of Ischagoras and his companions, and also to see whether it was too late for the agreement to be altered; and on finding the Lacedaemonians were bound, quickly set out back again with instructions from them to hand over the place, if possible, or at all events to bring out the Peloponnesians that were in it.

Chapter 22

1 The allies happened to be present in person at Lacedaemon, and those who had not accepted the treaty were now asked by the Lacedaemonians to adopt it. This, however, they refused to do, for the same reasons as before, unless a fairer one than the present were agreed upon;

2 and remaining firm in their determination were dismissed by the Lacedaemonians, who now decided on forming an alliance with the Athenians, thinking that Argos, who had refused the application of Ampelidas and Lichas for a renewal of the treaty, would without Athens be no longer formidable, and that the rest of the Peloponnese would be most likely to keep quiet, if the coveted alliance of Athens were shut against them.

3 Accordingly, after conference with the Athenian ambassadors, an alliance was agreed upon and oaths were exchanged, upon the terms following:—

Chapter 23

1 1. The Lacedaemonians shall be allies of the Athenians for fifty years.2. Should any enemy invade the territory of Lacedaemon and injure the Lacedaemonians, the Athenians shall help them in such way as they most effectively can, according to their power. But if the invader be gone after plundering the country, that city shall be the enemy of Lacedaemon and Athens, and shall be chastised by both, and one shall not make peace without the other. This to be honestly, loyally, and without fraud.

2 3. Should any enemy invade the territory of Athens and injure the Athenians, the Lacedaemonians shall help them in such way as they most effectively can, according to their power. But if the invader be gone after plundering the country, that city shall be the enemy of Lacedaemon and Athens, and shall be chastised by both, and one shall not make peace without the other. This to be honestly, loyally, and without fraud.

3 4. Should the slave population rise, the Athenians shall help the Lacedaemonians with all their might, according to their power.

4 5. This treaty shall be sworn to by the same persons on either side that swore to the other. It shall be renewed annually by the Lacedaemonians going to Athens for the Dionysia, and the Athenians to Lacedaemon for the Hyacinthia,

5 and a pillar shall be set up by either party; at Lacedaemon near the statue of Apollo at Amyclae, and at Athens on the Acropolis near the statue of Athena.

6 Should the Lacedaemonians and Athenians see fit to add to or take away from the alliance in any particular, it shall be consistent with their oaths for both parties to do so, according to their discretion.

Chapter 24

1 Those who took the oath for the Lacedaemonians were Pleistoanax, Agis, Pleistolas, Damagetus, Chionis, Metagenes, Acanthus, Daithus, Ischagoras, Philocharidas, Zeuxidas, Antippus, Alcinadas, Tellis, Empedias, Menas, and Laphilus; for the Athenians, Lampon, Isthmionicus, Laches, Nicias, Euthydemus, Procles, Pythodorus, Hagnon, Myrtilus, Thrasycles, Theagenes, Aristocrates, Iolcius, Timocrates, Leon, Lamachus, and Demosthenes.

2 This alliance was made not long after the treaty; and the Athenians gave back the men from the island to the Lacedaemonians, and the summer of the eleventh year began. This completes the history of the first war, which occupied the whole of the ten years previously.

Chapter 25

1 After the treaty and the alliance between the Lacedaemonians and Athenians, concluded after the ten years' war, in the Ephorate of Pleistolas at Lacedaemon, and the Archonship of Alcaeus at Athens, the states which had accepted them were at peace; but the Corinthians and some of the cities in Peloponnese trying to disturb the settlement, a fresh agitation was instantly commenced by the allies against Lacedaemon.

2 Further, the Lacedaemonians, as time went on, became suspected by the Athenians through their not performing some of the provisions in the treaty;

3 and though for six years and ten months they abstained from invasion of each other's territory, yet abroad an unstable armistice did not prevent either party doing the other the most effectual injury, until they were finally obliged to break the treaty made after the ten years' war and to have recourse to open hostilities.

Chapter 26

1 The history of this period has been also written by the same Thucydides, an Athenian, in the chronological order of events by summers and winters, to the time when the Lacedaemonians and their allies put an end to the Athenian empire, and took the Long Walls and Piraeus. The war had then lasted for twenty-seven years in all.

2 Only a mistaken judgment can object to including the interval of treaty in the war. Looked at by the light of facts it cannot, it will be found, be rationally considered a state of peace, where neither party either gave or got back all that they had agreed, apart from the violations of it which occurred on both sides in the Mantinean and Epidaurian wars and other instances, and the fact that the allies in the direction of Thrace were in as open hostility as ever, while the Boeotians had only a truce renewed every ten days.

3 So that the first ten years' war, the treacherous armistice that followed it, and the subsequent war will, calculating by the seasons, be found to make up the number of years which I have mentioned, with the difference of a few days, and to afford an instance of faith in oracles being for once justified by the event.

4 I certainly all along remember from the beginning to the end of the war its being commonly declared that it would last thrice nine years.

5 I lived through the whole of it, being of an age to comprehend events, and giving my attention to them in order to know the exact truth about them. It was also my fate to be an exile from my country for twenty years after my command at Amphipolis; and being present with both parties, and more especially with the Peloponnesians by reason of my exile, I had leisure to observe affairs somewhat particularly.

6 I will accordingly now relate the differences that arose after the ten years' war, the breach of the treaty, and the hostilities that followed.

Chapter 27

1 After the conclusion of the fifty years' truce and of the subsequent alliance, the embassies from Peloponnese which had been summoned for this business returned from Lacedaemon.

2 The rest went straight home, but the Corinthians first turned aside to Argos and opened negotiations with some of the men in office there, pointing out that Lacedaemon could have no good end in view, but only the subjugation of Peloponnese, or she would never have entered into treaty and alliance with the once detested Athenians, and that the duty of consulting for the safety of Peloponnese had now fallen upon Argos, who should immediately pass a decree inviting any Hellenic state that chose, such state being independent and accustomed to meet fellow-powers upon the fair and equal ground of law and justice, to make a defensive alliance with the Argives; appointing a few individuals with plenipotentiary powers, instead of making the people the medium of negotiation, in order that, in the case of an applicant being rejected, the fact of his overtures might not be made public. They said that many would come over from hatred of the Lacedaemonians.

3 After this explanation of their views the Corinthians returned home.

Chapter 28

1 The persons with whom they had communicated reported the proposal to their government and people, and the Argives passed the decree and chose twelve men to negotiate an alliance for any Hellenic state that wished it, except Athens and Lacedaemon, neither of which should be able to join without reference to the Argive people.

2 Argos came in to the plan the more readily because she saw that war with Lacedaemon was inevitable, the truce being on the point of expiring; and also because she hoped to gain the supremacy of Peloponnese. For at this time Lacedaemon had sunk very low in public estimation because of her disasters, while the Argives were in a most flourishing condition, having taken no part in the Attic war, but having on the contrary profited largely by their neutrality.

3 The Argives accordingly prepared to receive into alliance any of the Hellenes that desired it.

Chapter 29

1 The Mantineans and their allies were the first to come over through fear of the Lacedaemonians. Having taken advantage of the war against Athens to reduce a large part of Arcadia into subjection, they thought that Lacedaemon would not leave them undisturbed in their conquests, now that she had leisure to interfere, and consequently gladly turned to a powerful city like Argos, the historical enemy of the Lacedaemonians, and a sister democracy.

2 Upon the defection of Mantinea the rest of Peloponnese at once began to agitate the propriety of following her example, conceiving that the Mantineans would not have changed sides without good reason, besides which they were angry with Lacedaemon among other reasons for having inserted in the treaty with Athens that it should be consistent with their oaths for both parties, Lacedaemonians and Athenians, to add to or take away from it according to their discretion.

3 It was this clause that was the real origin of the panic in Peloponnese, by exciting suspicions of a Lacedaemonian and Athenian combination against their liberties: any alteration should properly have been made conditional upon the consent of the whole body of the allies.

4 With these apprehensions there was a very general desire in each state to place itself in alliance with Argos.

Chapter 30

1 In the meantime the Lacedaemonians perceiving the agitation going on in Peloponnese, and that Corinth was the author of it and was herself about to enter into alliance with the Argives, sent ambassadors thither in the hope of preventing what was in contemplation. They accused her of having brought it all about, and told her that she could not desert Lacedaemon and become the ally of Argos, without adding violation of her oaths to the crime which she had already committed in not accepting the treaty with Athens, when it had been expressly agreed that the decision of the majority of the allies should be binding, unless the gods or heroes stood in the way.

2 Corinth in her answer, delivered before those of her allies who had like her refused to accept the treaty, and whom she had previously invited to attend, refrained from openly stating the injuries she complained of, such as the non-recovery of Sollium or Anactorium from the Athenians, or any other point in which she thought she had been prejudiced, but took shelter under the pretext that she could not give up her Thracian allies, to whom her separate individual security had been given, when they first rebelled with Potidaea, as well as upon subsequent occasions.

3 She denied, therefore, that she committed any violation of her oaths to the allies in not entering into the treaty with Athens; having sworn upon the faith of the gods to her Thracian friends, she could not honestly give them up. Besides, the expression was, ‘unless the gods or heroes stand in the way.’ Now here, as it appeared to her, the gods stood in the way.

4 This was what she said on the subject of her former oaths. As to the Argive alliance she would confer with her friends, and do whatever was right.

5 The Lacedaemonian envoys returning home, some Argive ambassadors who happened to be in Corinth pressed her to conclude the alliance without further delay, but were told to attend at the next congress to be held at Corinth.

Chapter 31

1 Immediately afterwards an Elean embassy arrived, and first making an alliance with Corinth went on from thence to Argos, according to their instructions, and became allies of the Argives, their country being just then at enmity with Lacedaemon and Lepreum.

2 Some time back there had been a war between the Lepreans and some of the Arcadians; and the Eleans being called in by the former with the offer of half their lands, had put an end to the war, and leaving the land in the hands of its Leprean occupiers had imposed upon them the tribute of a talent to the Olympian Zeus.

3 Till the Attic war this tribute was paid by the Lepreans, who then took the war as an excuse for no longer doing so, and upon the Eleans using force appealed to Lacedaemon. The case was thus submitted to her arbitrament; but the Eleans, suspecting the fairness of the tribunal, renounced the reference and laid waste the Leprean territory.

4 The Lacedaemonians nevertheless decided that the Lepreans were independent and the Eleans aggressors, and as the latter did not abide by the arbitration, sent a garrison of heavy infantry into Lepreum.

5 Upon this the Eleans, holding that Lacedaemon had received one of their rebel subjects, put forward the convention providing that each confederate should come out of the Attic war in possession of what he had when he went into it, and considering that justice had not been done them went over to the Argives, and now made the alliance through their ambassadors, who had been instructed for that purpose.

6 Immediately after them the Corinthians and the Thracian Chalcidians became allies of Argos. Meanwhile the Boeotians and Megarians, who acted together, remained quiet, being left to do as they pleased by Lacedaemon, and thinking that the Argive democracy would not suit so well with their aristocratic government as the Lacedaemonian constitution.

Chapter 32

1 About the same time in this summer Athens succeeded in reducing Scione, put the adult males to death, and making slaves of the women and children, gave the land for the Plataeans to live in. She also brought back the Delians to Delos, moved by her misfortunes in the field and by the commands of the god at Delphi.

2 Meanwhile the Phocians and Locrians commenced hostilities.

3 The Corinthians and Argives being now in alliance, went to Tegea to bring about its defection from Lacedaemon, seeing that if so considerable a state could be persuaded to join, all Peloponnese would be with them.

4 But when the Tegeans said that they would do nothing against Lacedaemon, the hitherto zealous Corinthians relaxed their activity, and began to fear that none of the rest would now come over.

5 Still they went to the Boeotians and tried to persuade them to alliance and a common action generally with Argos and themselves, and also begged them to go with them to Athens and obtain for them a ten days' truce similar to that made between the Athenians and Boeotians not long after the fifty years' treaty, and in the event of the Athenians refusing, to throw up the armistice, and not make any truce in future without Corinth. These were the requests of the Corinthians.

6 The Boeotians stopped them on the subject of the Argive alliance, but went with them to Athens, where however they failed to obtain the ten days' truce; the Athenian answer being, that the Corinthians had truce already, as being allies of Lacedaemon.

7 Nevertheless the Boeotians did not throw up their ten days' truce, in spite of the prayers and reproaches of the Corinthians for their breach of faith; and these last had to content themselves with a de facto armistice with Athens.

Chapter 33

1 The same summer the Lacedaemonians marched into Arcadia with their whole levy under Pleistoanax, son of Pausanias, king of Lacedaemon, against the Parrhasians, who were subjects of Mantinea, and a faction of whom had invited their aid. They also meant to demolish, if possible, the fort of Cypsela which the Mantineans had built and garrisoned in the Parrhasian territory, to annoy the district of Sciritis in Laconia.

2 The Lacedaemonians accordingly laid waste the Parrhasian country, and the Mantineans, placing their town in the hands of an Argive garrison, addressed themselves to the defence of their confederacy, but being unable to save Cypsela or the Parrhasian towns went back to Mantinea.

3 Meanwhile the Lacedaemonians made the Parrhasians independent, razed the fortress and returned home.

Chapter 34

1 The same summer the soldiers from Thrace who had gone out with Brasidas came back, having been brought from thence after the treaty by Clearidas; and the Lacedaemonians decreed that the Helots who had fought with Brasidas should be free and allowed to live where they liked, and not long afterwards settled them with the Neodamodes at Lepreum, which is situated on the Laconian and Elean border; Lacedaemon being at this time at enmity with Elis.

2 Those however of the Spartans who had been taken prisoners on the island and had surrendered their arms might, it was feared, suppose that they were to be subjected to some degradation in consequence of their misfortune, and so make some attempt at revolution, if left in possession of their franchise. These were therefore at once disfranchised, although some of them were in office at the time, and thus placed under a disability to take office, or buy and sell anything. After some time, however, the franchise was restored to them.

Chapter 35

1 The same summer the Dians took Thyssus, a town on Acte by Athos in alliance with Athens.

2 During the whole of this summer intercourse between the Athenians and Peloponnesians continued, although each party began to suspect the other directly after the treaty, because of the places specified in it not being restored.

3 Lacedaemon, to whose lot it had fallen to begin by restoring Amphipolis and the other towns, had not done so. She had equally failed to get the treaty accepted by her Thracian allies, or by the Boeotians or the Corinthians; although she was continually promising to unite with Athens in compelling their compliance, if it were longer refused. She also kept fixing a time at which those who still refused to come in were to be declared enemies to both parties, but took care not to bind herself by any written agreement.

4 Meanwhile the Athenians, seeing none of these professions performed in fact, began to suspect the honesty of her intentions, and consequently not only refused to comply with her demands for Pylos, but also repented having given up the prisoners from the island, and kept tight hold of the other places, until Lacedaemon's part of the treaty should be fulfilled.

5 Lacedaemon, on the other hand, said she had done what she could, having given up the Athenian prisoners of war in her possession, evacuated Thrace, and performed everything else in her power. Amphipolis it was out of her ability to restore; but she would endeavor to bring the Boeotians and Corinthians in to the treaty, to recover Panactum, and send home all the Athenian prisoners of war in Boeotia.

6 Meanwhile she required that Pylos should be restored, or at all events that the Messenians and Helots should be withdrawn, as her troops had been from Thrace, and the place garrisoned, if necessary, by the Athenians themselves.

7 After a number of different conferences held during the summer she succeeded in persuading Athens to withdraw from Pylos the Messenians and the rest of the Helots and deserters from Laconia, who were accordingly settled by her at Cranii in Cephallenia.

8 Thus during this summer there was peace and intercourse between the two peoples.

Chapter 36

1 Next winter, however, the Ephors under whom the treaty had been made were no longer in office, and some of their successors were directly opposed to it. Embassies now arrived from the Lacedaemonian confederacy, and the Athenians, Boeotians, and Corinthians also presented themselves at Lacedaemon, and after much discussion and no agreement between them, separated for their several homes; when Cleobulus and Xenares, the two Ephors who were the most anxious to break off the treaty, took advantage of this opportunity to communicate privately with the Boeotians and Corinthians, and advising them to act as much as possible together, instructed the former first to enter into alliance with Argos, and then try and bring themselves and the Argives into alliance with Lacedaemon. The Boeotians would so be least likely to be compelled to come in to the Attic treaty; and the Lacedaemonians would prefer gaining the friendship and alliance of Argos even at the price of the hostility of Athens and the rupture of the treaty. The Boeotians knew that an honorable friendship with Agros had been long the desire of Lacedaemon; for the Lacedaemonians believed that this would considerably facilitate the conduct of the war outside Peloponnese.

2 Meanwhile they begged the Boeotians to place Panactum in her hands in order that she might, if possible, obtain Pylos in exchange for it, and so be more in a position to resume hostilities with Athens.

Chapter 37

1 After receiving these instructions for their governments from Xenares and Cleobulus and their other friends at Lacedaemon, the Boeotians and Corinthians departed.

2 On their way home they were joined by two persons high in office at Argos who had waited for them on the road, and who now sounded them upon the possibility of the Boeotians joining the Corinthians, Eleans, and Mantineans in becoming the allies of Argos, in the idea that if this could be effected they would be able, thus united, to make peace or war as they pleased either against Lacedaemon or any other power.

3 The Boeotian envoys were pleased at thus hearing themselves accidentally asked to do what their friends at Lacedaemon had told them; and the two Argives perceiving that their proposal was agreeable, departed with a promise to send ambassadors to the Boeotians.

4 On their arrival the Boeotians reported to the Boeotarchs what had been said to them at Lacedaemon and also by the Argives who had met them, and the Boeotarchs, pleased with the idea, embraced it with the more eagerness from the lucky coincidence of Argos soliciting the very thing wanted by their friends at Lacedaemon.

5 Shortly afterwards ambassadors appeared from Argos with the proposals indicated; and the Boeotarchs approved of the terms and dismissed the ambassadors with a promise to send envoys to Argos to negotiate the alliance.

Chapter 38

1 In the meantime it was decided by the Boeotarchs, the Corinthians, the Megarians, and the envoys from Thrace first to interchange oaths together to give help to each other whenever it was required and not to make war or peace except in common; after which the Boeotians and Megarians, who acted together, should make the alliance with Argos.

2 But before the oaths were taken the Boeotarchs communicated these proposals to the four councils of the Boeotians, in whom the supreme power resides, and advised them to interchange oaths with all such cities as should be willing to enter into a defensive league with the Boeotians.

3 But the members of the Boeotian councils refused their assent to the proposal, being afraid of offending Lacedaemon by entering into a league with the deserter Corinth; the Boeotarchs not having acquainted them with what had passed at Lacedaemon and with the advice given by Cleobulus and Xenares and the Boeotian partisans there, namely, that they should become allies of Corinth and Argos as a preliminary to a junction with Lacedaemon; fancying that, even if they should say nothing about this, the councils would not vote against what had been decided and advised by the Boeotarchs.

4 This difficulty arising, the Corinthians and the envoys from Thrace departed without anything having been concluded; and the Boeotarchs, who had previously intended after carrying this to try and effect the alliance with Argos, now omitted to bring the Argive question before the councils, or to send to Argos the envoys whom they had promised; and a general coldness and delay ensued in the matter.

Chapter 39

1 In this same winter Mecyberna was assaulted and taken by the Olynthians, having an Athenian garrison inside it.

2 All this while negotiations had been going on between the Athenians and Lacedaemonians about the conquests still retained by each, and Lacedaemon, hoping that if Athens were to get back Panactum from the Boeotians she might herself recover Pylos, now sent an embassy to the Boeotians, and begged them to place Panactum and their Athenian prisoners in her hands, in order that she might exchange them for Pylos.

3 This the Boeotians refused to do, unless Lacedaemon made a separate alliance with them as she had done with Athens. Lacedaemon knew that this would be a breach of faith to Athens, as it had been agreed that neither of them should make peace or war without the other; yet wishing to obtain Panactum which she hoped to exchange for Pylos, and the party who pressed for the dissolution of the treaty strongly affecting the Boeotian connection, she at length concluded the alliance just as winter gave way to spring; and Panactum was instantly razed. And so the eleventh year of the war ended.

Chapter 40

1 In the first days of the summer following, the Argives, seeing that the promised ambassadors from Boeotia did not arrive, and that Panactum was being demolished, and that a separate alliance had been concluded between the Boeotians and Lacedaemonians, began to be afraid that Argos might be left alone, and all the confederacy go over to Lacedaemon.

2 They fancied that the Boeotians had been persuaded by the Lacedaemonians to raze Panactum and to enter into the treaty with the Athenians, and that Athens was privy to this arrangement, and even her alliance, therefore, no longer open to them—a resource which they had always counted upon, by reason of the dissensions existing, in the event of the non-continuance of their treaty with Lacedaemon.

3 In this strait the Argives, afraid that, as the result of refusing to renew the treaty with Lacedaemon and aspiring to the supremacy in Peloponnese, they would have the Lacedaemonians, Tegeans, Boeotians, and Athenians on their hands all at once, now hastily sent off Eustrophus and Aeson, who seemed the persons most likely to be acceptable, as envoys to Lacedaemon, with the view of making as good a treaty as they could with the Lacedaemonians, upon such terms as could be got, and being left in peace.

Chapter 41

1 Having reached Lacedaemon, their ambassadors proceeded to negotiate the terms of the proposed treaty.

2 What the Argives first demanded was that they might be allowed to refer to the arbitration of some state or private person the question of the Cynurian land, a piece of frontier-territory about which they have always been disputing, and which contains the towns of Thyrea and Anthene, and is occupied by the Lacedaemonians. The Lacedaemonians at first said that they could not allow this point to be discussed, but were ready to conclude upon the old terms. Eventually, however, the Argive ambassadors succeeded in obtaining from them this concession:—For the present there was to be a truce for fifty years, but it should be competent for either party, there being neither plague nor war in Lacedaemon or Argos, to give a formal challenge and decide the question of this territory by battle, as on a former occasion, when both sides claimed the victory; pursuit not being allowed beyond the frontier of Argos or Lacedaemon.

3 The Lacedaemonians at first thought this mere folly; but at last, anxious at any cost to have the friendship of Argos, they agreed to the terms demanded, and reduced them to writing. However, before any of this should become binding, the ambassadors were to return to Argos and communicate with their people, and in the event of their approval, to come at the Feast of the Hyacinthia and take the oaths.The envoys returned accordingly.

Chapter 42

1 In the meantime, while the Argives were engaged in these negotiations, the Lacedaemonian ambassadors, Andromedes, Phaedimus, and Antimenidas, who were to receive the prisoners from the Boeotians and restore them and Panactum to the Athenians, found that the Boeotians had themselves razed Panactum, upon the plea that oaths had been anciently exchanged between their people and the Athenians, after a dispute on the subject, to the effect that neither should inhabit the place, but that they should graze it in common. As for the Athenian prisoners of war in the hands of the Boeotians, these were delivered over to Andromedes and his colleagues, and by them conveyed to Athens and given back. The envoys at the same time announced the razing of Panactum, which to them seemed as good as its restitution, as it would no longer lodge an enemy of Athens.

2 This announcement was received with great indignation by the Athenians, who thought that the Lacedaemonians had played them false, both in the matter of the demolition of Panactum, which ought to have been restored to them standing, and in having, as they now heard, made a separate alliance with the Boeotians, in spite of their previous promise to join Athens in compelling the adhesion of those who refused to accede to the treaty. The Athenians also considered the other points in which Lacedaemon had failed in her compact, and thinking that they had been overreached, gave an angry answer to the ambassadors and sent them away.

Chapter 43

1 The breach between the Lacedaemonians and Athenians having gone thus far, the party at Athens, also, who wished to cancel the treaty, immediately put themselves in motion.

2 Foremost amongst these was Alcibiades, son of Clinias, a man yet young in years for any other Hellenic city, but distinguished by the splendor of his ancestry. Alcibiades thought the Argive alliance really preferable, not that personal pique had not also a great deal to do with his opposition; he being offended with the Lacedaemonians for having negotiated the treaty through Nicias and Laches, and having overlooked him on account of his youth, and also for not having shown him the respect due to the ancient connection of his family with them as their Proxeni, which, renounced by his grandfather, he had lately himself thought to renew by his attentions to their prisoners taken in the island.

3 Being thus, as he thought, slighted on all hands, he had in the first instance spoken against the treaty, saying that the Lacedaemonians were not to be trusted, but that they only treated, in order to be enabled by this means to crush Argos, and afterwards to attack Athens alone; and now, immediately upon the above breach occurring, he sent privately to the Argives, telling them to come as quickly as possible to Athens, accompanied by the Mantineans and Eleans, with proposals of alliance; as the moment was propitious and he himself would do all he could to help them.

Chapter 44

1 Upon receiving this message and discovering that the Athenians, far from being privy to the Boeotian alliance, were involved in a serious quarrel with the Lacedaemonians, the Argives paid no further attention to the embassy which they had just sent to Lacedaemon on the subject of the treaty, and began to incline rather towards the Athenians, reflecting that, in the event of war, they would thus have on their side a city that was not only an ancient ally of Argos, but a sister democracy and very powerful at sea.

2 They accordingly at once sent ambassadors to Athens to treat for an alliance, accompanied by others from Elis and Mantinea.

3 At the same time arrived in haste from Lacedaemon an embassy consisting of persons reputed well disposed towards the Athenians—Philocharidas, Leon, and Endius, for fear that the Athenians in their irritation might conclude alliance with the Argives, and also to ask back Pylos in exchange for Panactum, and in defence of the alliance with the Boeotians to plead that it had not been made to hurt the Athenians.

Chapter 45

1 Upon the envoys speaking in the senate upon these points, and stating that they had come with full powers to settle all others at issue between them, Alcibiades became afraid that if they were to repeat these statements to the popular assembly, they might gain the multitude, and the Argive alliance might be rejected,

2 and accordingly had recourse to the following stratagem. He persuaded the Lacedaemonians by a solemn assurance that if they would say nothing of their full powers in the assembly, he would give back Pylos to them (himself, the present opponent of its restitution, engaging to obtain this from the Athenians), and would settle the other points at issue.

3 His plan was to detach them from Nicias and to disgrace them before the people, as being without sincerity in their intentions, or even common consistency in their language, and so to get the Argives, Eleans, and Mantineans taken into alliance.

4 This plan proved successful. When the envoys appeared before the people, and upon the question being put to them, did not say as they had said in the senate, that they had come with full powers, the Athenians lost all patience, and carried away by Alcibiades, who thundered more loudly than ever against the Lacedaemonians, were ready instantly to introduce the Argives and their companions and to take them into alliance. An earthquake, however, occurring, before anything definite had been done, this assembly was adjourned.

Chapter 46

1 In the assembly held the next day, Nicias, in spite of the Lacedaemonians having been deceived themselves, and having allowed him to be deceived also in not admitting that they had come with full powers, still maintained that it was best to be friends with the Lacedaemonians, and, letting the Argive proposals stand over, to send once more to Lacedaemon and learn her intentions. The adjournment of the war could only increase their own prestige and injure that of their rivals; the excellent state of their affairs making it their interest to preserve this prosperity as long as possible, while those of Lacedaemon were so desperate that the sooner she could try her fortune again the better.

2 He succeeded accordingly in persuading them to send ambassadors, himself being among the number, to invite the Lacedaemonians, if they were really sincere, to restore Panactum intact with Amphipolis, and to abandon their alliance with the Boeotians (unless they consented to accede to the treaty), agreeably to the stipulation which forbade either party to treat without the other.

3 The ambassadors were also directed to say that the Athenians, had they wished to play false, might already have made alliance with the Argives, who were indeed come to Athens for that very purpose, and went off furnished with instructions as to any other complaints that the Athenians had to make.

4 Having reached Lacedaemon they communicated their instructions, and concluded by telling the Lacedaemonians that unless they gave up their alliance with the Boeotians, in the event of their not acceding to the treaty, the Athenians for their part would ally themselves with the Argives and their friends. The Lacedaemonians, however, refused to give up the Boeotian alliance—the party of Xenares the Ephor, and such as shared their view, carrying the day upon this point—but renewed the oaths at the request of Nicias, who feared to return without having accomplished anything and to be disgraced; as was indeed his fate, he being held the author of the treaty with Lacedaemon.

5 When he returned, and the Athenians heard that nothing had been done at Lacedaemon, they flew into a passion, and deciding that faith had not been kept with them, took advantage of the presence of the Argives and their allies, who had been introduced by Alcibiades, and made a treaty and alliance with them upon the terms following:—

Chapter 47

1 The Athenians, Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans, acting for themselves and the allies in their respective empires, made a treaty for a hundred years, to be without fraud or hurt by land and by sea.

2 1. It shall not be lawful to carry on war, either for the Argives, Eleans, Mantineans, and their allies, against the Athenians, or the allies in the Athenian empire; or for the Athenians and their allies against the Argives, Eleans, Mantineans, or their allies, in any way or means whatsoever.The Athenians, Argives, Eleans, and Mantineans shall be allies for a hundred years upon the terms following:—

3 2. If an enemy invade the country of the Athenians, the Argives, Eleans, and Mantineans shall go to the relief of Athens, according as the Athenians may require by message, in such way as they most effectually can, to the best of their power. But if the invader be gone after plundering the territory, the offending state shall be the enemy of the Argives, Mantineans, Eleans, and Athenians, and war shall be made against it by all these cities; and no one of the cities shall be able to make peace with that state, except all the above cities agree to do so.

4 3. Likewise the Athenians shall go to the relief of Argos, Mantinea, and Elis, if an enemy invade the country of Elis, Mantinea, or Argos, according as the above cities may require by message, in such way as they most effectually can, to the best of their power. But if the invader be gone after plundering the territory, the state offending shall be the enemy of the Athenians, Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans, and war shall be made against it by all these cities, and peace may not be made with that state except all the above cities agree to it.

5 4. No armed force shall be allowed to pass for hostile purposes through the country of the powers contracting, or of the allies in their respective empires, or to go by sea, except all the cities—that is to say, Athens, Argos, Mantinea, and Elis—vote for such passage.

6 5. The relieving troops shall be maintained by the city sending them for thirty days from their arrival in the city that has required them, and upon their return in the same way; if their services be desired for a longer period the city that sent for them shall maintain them, at the rate of three Aeginetan obols per day for a heavy-armed soldier, archer, or light soldier, and an Aeginetan drachma for a trooper.

7 6. The city sending for the troops shall have the command when the war is in its own country; but in case of the cities resolving upon a joint expedition the command shall be equally divided among all the cities.

8 7. The treaty shall be sworn to by the Athenians for themselves and their allies, by the Argives, Mantineans, Eleans, and their allies, by each state individually. Each shall swear the oath most binding in his country over full-grown victims; the oath being as follows:‘I will stand by the alliance and its articles, justly, innocently, and sincerely, and I will not transgress the same in any way or means whatsoever.’

9 The oath shall be taken at Athens by the Senate and the magistrates, the Prytanes administering it; at Argos by the Senate, the Eighty, and the Artynae, the Eighty administering it; at Mantinea by the Demiurgi, the Senate, and the other magistrates, the Theori and Polemarchs administering it; at Elis by the Demiurgi, the magistrates, and the Six Hundred, the Demiurgi and the Thesmophylaces administering it.

10 The oaths shall be renewed by the Athenians going to Elis, Mantinea, and Argos thirty days before the Olympic games; by the Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans going to Athens ten days before the great feast of the Panathenaea.

11 The articles of the treaty, the oaths, and the alliance shall be inscribed on a stone pillar by the Athenians in the citadel, by the Argives in the market-place, in the temple of Apollo; by the Mantineans in the temple of Zeus, in the market-place; and a brazen pillar shall be erected jointly by them at the Olympic games now at hand.

12 Should the above cities see good to make any addition to these articles, whatever all the above cities shall agree upon, after consulting together, shall be binding.

Chapter 48

1 Although the treaty and alliances were thus concluded, still the treaty between the Lacedaemonians and Athenians was not renounced by either party.

2 Meanwhile Corinth, although the ally of the Argives, did not accede to the new treaty, any more than she had done to the alliance, defensive and offensive, formed before this between the Eleans, Argives, and Mantineans, when she declared herself content with the first alliance, which was defensive only, and which bound them to help each other, but not to join in attacking any.

3 The Corinthians thus stood aloof from their allies, and again turned their thoughts towards Lacedaemon.

Chapter 49

1 At the Olympic games which were held this summer, and in which the Arcadian Androsthenes was victor the first time in the wrestling and boxing, the Lacedaemonians were excluded from the temple by the Eleans, and thus prevented from sacrificing or contending, for having refused to pay the fine specified in the Olympic law imposed upon them by the Eleans, who alleged that they had attacked Fort Phyrcus, and sent heavy infantry of theirs into Lepreum during the Olympic truce. The amount of the fine was two thousand minae, two for each heavy-armed soldier, as the law prescribes.

2 The Lacedaemonians sent envoys, and pleaded that the imposition was unjust; saying that the truce had not yet been proclaimed at Lacedaemon when the heavy infantry were sent off.

3 But the Eleans affirmed that the armistice with them had already begun (they proclaim it first among themselves), and that the aggression of the Lacedaemonians had taken them by surprise while they were living quietly as in time of peace, and not expecting anything.

4 Upon this the Lacedaemonians submitted, that if the Eleans really believed that they had committed an aggression, it was useless after that to proclaim the truce at Lacedaemon; but they had proclaimed it notwithstanding, as believing nothing of the kind, and from that moment the Lacedaemonians had made no attack upon their country.

5 Nevertheless the Eleans adhered to what they had said, that nothing would persuade them that an aggression had not been committed; if, however, the Lacedaemonians would restore Lepreum, they would give up their own share of the money and pay that of the god for them.

Chapter 50

1 As this proposal was not accepted, the Eleans tried a second. Instead of restoring Lepreum, if this was objected to, the Lacedaemonians should ascend the altar of the Olympian Zeus, as they were so anxious to have access to the temple, and swear before the Hellenes that they would surely pay the fine at a later day.

2 This being also refused, the Lacedaemonians were excluded from the temple, the sacrifice, and the games, and sacrificed at home; the Lepreans being the only other Hellenes who did not attend.

3 Still the Eleans were afraid of the Lacedaemonians sacrificing by force, and kept guard with a heavy-armed company of their young men; being also joined by a thousand Argives, the same number of Mantineans, and by some Athenian cavalry who stayed at Harpina during the feast.

4 Great fears were felt in the assembly of the Lacedaemonians coming in arms, especially after Lichas, son of Arcesilaus, a Lacedaemonian, had been scourged on the course by the umpires; because, upon his horses being the winners, and the Boeotian people being proclaimed the victor on account of his having no right to enter, he came forward on the course and crowned the charioteer, in order to show that the chariot was his. After this incident all were more afraid than ever, and firmly looked for a disturbance: the Lacedaemonians, however, kept quiet, and let the feast pass by, as we have seen.

5 After the Olympic games, the Argives and the allies repaired to Corinth to invite her to come over to them. There they found some Lacedaemonian envoys; and a long discussion ensued, which after all ended in nothing, as an earthquake occurred, and they dispersed to their different homes.

Chapter 51

1 Summer was now over. The winter following a battle took place between the Heracleots in Trachinia and the Aenianians, Dolopians, Malians, and certain of the Thessalians,

2 all tribes bordering on and hostile to the town, which directly menaced their country. Accordingly, after having opposed and harassed it from its very foundation by every means in their power, they now in this battle defeated the Heracleots, Xenares, son of Cnidis, their Lacedaemonian commander, being among the slain. Thus the winter ended and the twelfth year of this war ended also.

Chapter 52

1 After the battle Heraclea was so terribly reduced that in the first days of the summer following the Boeotians occupied the place and sent away the Lacedaemonian Agesippidas for misgovernment, fearing that the town might be taken by the Athenians while the Lacedaemonians were distracted with the affairs of Peloponnese. The Lacedaemonians, nevertheless, were offended with them for what they had done.

2 The same summer Alcibiades, son of Clinias, now one of the generals at Athens, in concert with the Argives and the allies, went into Peloponnese with a few Athenian heavy infantry and archers, and some of the allies in those parts whom he took up as he passed, and with this army marched here and there through Peloponnese, and settled various matters connected with the alliance, and among other things induced the Patrians to carry their walls down to the sea, intending himself also to build a fort near the Achaean Rhium. However, the Corinthians and Sicyonians, and all others who would have suffered by its being built, came up and hindered him.

Chapter 53

1 The same summer war broke out between the Epidaurians and Argives. The pretext was that the Epidaurians did not send an offering for their pasture-land to Apollo Pythaeus, as they were bound to do, the Argives having the chief management of the temple; but, apart from this pretext, Alcibiades and the Argives were determined, if possible, to gain possession of Epidaurus, and thus to insure the neutrality of Corinth and give the Athenians a shorter passage for their reinforcement from Aegina than if they had to sail round Scyllaeum. The Argives accordingly prepared to invade Epidaurus by themselves, to exact the offering.

Chapter 54

1 About the same time the Lacedaemonians marched out with all their people to Leuctra upon their frontier, opposite to Mount Lycaeum, under the command of Agis, son of Archidamus, without any one knowing their destination, not even the cities that sent the contingents.

2 The sacrifices, however, for crossing the frontier not proving propitious, the Lacedaemonians returned home themselves, and sent word to the allies to be ready to march after the month ensuing, which happened to be the month of Carneus, a holy time for the Dorians.

3 Upon the retreat of the Lacedaemonians the Argives marched out on the last day but three of the month before Carneus, and keeping this as the day during the whole time that they were out, invaded and plundered Epidaurus.

4 The Epidaurians summoned their allies to their aid, some of whom pleaded the month as an excuse; others came as far as the frontier of Epidaurus and there remained inactive.

Chapter 55

1 While the Argives were in Epidaurus embassies from the cities assembled at Mantinea, upon the invitation of the Athenians. The conference having begun, the Corinthian Euphamidas said that their actions did not agree with their words; while they were sitting deliberating about peace, the Epidaurians and their allies and the Argives were arrayed against each other in arms; deputies from each party should first go and separate the armies, and then the talk about peace might be resumed.

2 In compliance with this suggestion they went and brought back the Argives from Epidaurus, and afterwards reassembled, but without succeeding any better in coming to a conclusion; and the Argives a second time invaded Epidaurus and plundered the country.

3 The Lacedaemonians also marched out to Caryae; but the frontier sacrifices again proving unfavorable, they went back again,

4 and the Argives, after ravaging about a third of the Epidaurian territory, returned home. Meanwhile a thousand Athenian heavy infantry had come to their aid under the command of Alcibiades, but finding that the Lacedaemonian expedition was at an end, and that they were no longer wanted, went back again.So passed the summer.

Chapter 56

1 The next winter the Lacedaemonians managed to elude the vigilance of the Athenians, and sent in a garrison of three hundred men to Epidaurus, under the command of Agesippidas.

2 Upon this the Argives went to the Athenians and complained of their having allowed an enemy to pass by sea, in spite of the clause in the treaty by which the allies were not to allow an enemy to pass through their country. Unless, therefore, they now put the Messenians and Helots in Pylos to annoy the Lacedaemonians, they, the Argives, should consider that faith had not been kept with them.

3 The Athenians were persuaded by Alcibiades to inscribe at the bottom of the Laconian pillar that the Lacedaemonians had not kept their oaths, and to convey the Helots at Cranii to Pylos to plunder the country; but for the rest they remained quiet as before.

4 During this winter hostilities went on between the Argives and Epidaurians, without any pitched battle taking place, but only forays and ambuscades, in which the losses were small and fell now on one side and now on the other.

5 At the close of the winter, towards the beginning of spring, the Argives went with scaling-ladders to Epidaurus, expecting to find it left unguarded on account of the war and to be able to take it by assault, but returned unsuccessful. And the winter ended, and with it the thirteenth year of the war ended also.

Chapter 57

1 In the middle of the next summer the Lacedaemonians, seeing the Epidaurians, their allies, in distress, and the rest of Peloponnese either in revolt or disaffected, concluded that it was high time for them to interfere if they wished to stop the progress of the evil, and accordingly with their full force, the Helots included, took the field against Argos, under the command of Agis, son of Archidamus, king of the Lacedaemonians.

2 The Tegeans and the other Arcadian allies of Lacedaemon joined in the expedition. The allies from the rest of Peloponnese and from outside mustered at Phlius; the Boeotians with five thousand heavy infantry and as many light troops, and five hundred horse and the same number of dismounted troopers; the Corinthians with two thousand heavy infantry; the rest more or less as might happen; and the Phliasians with all their forces, the army being in their country.

Chapter 58

1 The preparations of the Lacedaemonians from the first had been known to the Argives, who did not, however, take the field until the enemy was on his road to join the rest at Phlius. Reinforced by the Mantineans with their allies, and by three thousand Elean heavy infantry,

2 they advanced and fell in with the Lacedaemonians at Methydrium in Arcadia. Each party took up its position upon a hill, and the Argives prepared to engage the Lacedaemonians while they were alone; but Agis eluded them by breaking up his camp in the night, and proceeded to join the rest of the allies at Phlius.

3 The Argives discovering this at daybreak, marched first to Argos and then to the Nemean road, by which they expected the Lacedaemonians and their allies would come down.

4 However, Agis, instead of taking this road as they expected, gave the Lacedaemonians, Arcadians, and Epidaurians their orders, and went along another difficult road, and descended into the plain of Argos. The Corinthians, Pellenians, and Phliasians marched by another steep road; while the Boeotians, Megarians, and Sicyonians had instructions to come down by the Nemean road where the Argives were posted, in order that if the enemy advanced into the plain against the troops of Agis, they might fall upon his rear with their cavalry.

5 These dispositions concluded, Agis invaded the plain and began to ravage Saminthus and other places.

Chapter 59

1 Discovering this, the Argives came up from Nemea, day having now dawned. On their way they fell in with the troops of the Phliasians and Corinthians, and killed a few of the Phliasians, and had perhaps a few more of their own men killed by the Corinthians.

2 Meanwhile the Boeotians, Megarians, and Sicyonians, advancing upon Nemea according to their instructions, found the Argives no longer there, as they had gone down on seeing their property ravaged, and were now forming for battle, the Lacedaemonians imitating their example.

3 The Argives were now completely surrounded; from the plain the Lacedaemonians and their allies shut them off from their city; above them were the Corinthians, Phliasians, and Pellenians; and on the side of Nemea the Boeotians, Sicyonians, and Megarians. Meanwhile their army was without cavalry, the Athenians alone among the allies not having yet arrived.

4 Now the bulk of the Argives and their allies did not see the danger of their position, but thought that they could not have a fairer field, having intercepted the Lacedaemonians in their own country and close to the city.

5 Two men, however, in the Argive army, Thrasylus, one of the five generals, and Alciphron, the Lacedaemonian Proxenus, just as the armies were upon the point of engaging, went and held a parley with Agis and urged him not to bring on a battle, as the Argives were ready to refer to fair and equal arbitration whatever complaints the Lacedaemonians might have against them, and to make a treaty and live in peace in future.

Chapter 60

1 The Argives who made these statements did so upon their own authority, not by order of the people, and Agis on his accepted their proposals, and without himself either consulting the majority, simply communicated the matter to a single individual, one of the high officers accompanying the expedition, and granted the Argives a truce for four months, in which to fulfil their promises; after which he immediately led off the army without giving any explanation to any of the other allies.

2 The Lacedaemonians and allies followed their general out of respect for the law, but amongst themselves loudly blamed Agis for going away from so fair a field (the enemy being hemmed in on every side by infantry and cavalry) without having done anything worthy of their strength.

3 Indeed this was by far the finest Hellenic army ever yet brought together; and it should have been seen while it was still united at Nemea, with the Lacedaemonians in full force, the Arcadians, Boeotians, Corinthians, Sicyonians, Pellenians, Phliasians and Megarians, and all these the flower of their respective populations, thinking themselves a match not merely for the Argive confederacy, but for another such added to it.

4 The army thus retired blaming Agis, and returned every man to his home.

5 The Argives however blamed still more loudly the persons who had concluded the truce without consulting the people, themselves thinking that they had let escape with the Lacedaemonians an opportunity such as they should never see again; as the struggle would have been under the walls of their city, and by the side of many and brave allies.

6 On their return accordingly they began to stone Thrasylus in the bed of the Charadrus, where they try all military causes before entering the city. Thrasylus fled to the altar, and so saved his life; his property however they confiscated.

Chapter 61

1 After this arrived a thousand Athenian heavy infantry and three hundred horse, under the command of Laches and Nicostratus; whom the Argives, being nevertheless loth to break the truce with the Lacedaemonians, begged to depart, and refused to bring before the people, to whom they had a communication to make, until compelled to do so by the entreaties of the Mantineans and Eleans, who were still at Argos.

2 The Athenians, by the mouth of Alcibiades their ambassador there present, told the Argives and the allies that they had no right to make a truce at all without the consent of their fellow-confederates, and now that the Athenians had arrived so opportunely the war ought to be resumed.

3 These arguments proving successful with the allies, they immediately marched upon Orchomenos, all except the Argives, who, although they had consented like the rest, stayed behind at first, but eventually joined the others.

4 They now all sat down and besieged Orchomenos, and made assaults upon it; one of their reasons for desiring to gain this place being that hostages from Arcadia had been lodged there by the Lacedaemonians.

5 The Orchomenians, alarmed at the weakness of their wall and the numbers of the enemy, and at the risk they ran of perishing before relief arrived, capitulated upon condition of joining the league, of giving hostages of their own to the Mantineans, and giving up those lodged with them by the Lacedaemonians.

Chapter 62

1 Orchomenos thus secured, the allies now consulted as to which of the remaining places they should attack next. The Eleans were urgent for Lepreum; the Mantineans for Tegea; and the Argives and Athenians giving their support to the Mantineans,

2 the Eleans went home in a rage at their not having voted for Lepreum; while the rest of the allies made ready at Mantinea for going against Tegea, which a party inside had arranged to put into their hands.

Chapter 63

1 Meanwhile the Lacedaemonians, upon their return from Argos after concluding the four months' truce, vehemently blamed Agis for not having subdued Argos, after an opportunity such as they thought they had never had before; for it was no easy matter to bring so many and so good allies together.

2 But when the news arrived of the capture of Orchomenos, they became more angry than ever, and, departing from all precedent, in the heat of the moment had almost decided to raze his house, and to fine him ten thousand drachmae.

3 Agis however entreated them to do none of these things, promising to atone for his fault by good service in the field, failing which they might then do to him whatever they pleased;

4 and they accordingly abstained from razing his house or fining him as they had threatened to do, and now made a law, hitherto unknown at Lacedaemon, attaching to him ten Spartans as counsellors, without whose consent he should have no power to lead an army out of the city.

Chapter 64

1 At this juncture arrived word from their friends in Tegea that unless they speedily appeared, Tegea would go over from them to the Argives and their allies, if it had not gone over already.

2 Upon this news a force marched out from Lacedaemon, of the Spartans and Helots and all their people, and that instantly and upon a scale never before witnessed.

3 Advancing to Orestheum in Maenalia, they directed the Arcadians in their league to follow close after them to Tegea, and going on themselves as far as Orestheum, from thence sent back the sixth part of the Spartans, consisting of the oldest and youngest men, to guard their homes, and with the rest of their army arrived at Tegea; where their Arcadian allies soon after joined them.

4 Meanwhile they sent to Corinth, to the Boeotians, the Phocians, and Locrians, with orders to come up as quickly as possible to Mantinea. These had but short notice; and it was not easy except all together, and after waiting for each other, to pass through the enemy's country, which lay right across and blocked up the line of communication. Nevertheless they made what haste they could.

5 Meanwhile the Lacedaemonians with the Arcadian allies that had joined them, entered the territory of Mantinea, and encamping near the temple of Heracles began to plunder the country.

Chapter 65

1 Here they were seen by the Argives and their allies, who immediately took up a strong and difficult position, and formed in order of battle.

2 The Lacedaemonians at once advanced against them, and came on within a stone's throw or javelin's cast, when one of the older men, seeing the enemy's position to be a strong one, hallooed to Agis that he was minded to cure one evil with another; meaning that he wished to make amends for his retreat, which had been so much blamed, from Argos, by his present untimely precipitation.

3 Meanwhile Agis, whether in consequence of this halloo or of some sudden new idea of his own, quickly led back his army without engaging,

4 and entering the Tegean territory, began to turn off into that of Mantinea the water about which the Mantineans and Tegeans are always fighting, on account of the extensive damage it does to whichever of the two countries if falls into.

5 His object in this was to make the Argives and their allies come down from the hill, to resist the diversion of the water, as they would be sure to do when they knew of it, and thus to fight the battle in the plain. He accordingly stayed that day where he was, engaged in turning off the water. The Argives and their allies were at first amazed at the sudden retreat of the enemy after advancing so near, and did not know what to make of it; but when he had gone away and disappeared, without their having stirred to pursue him, they began anew to find fault with their generals, who had not only let the Lacedaemonians get off before, when they were so happily intercepted before Argos, but who now again allowed them to run away, without any one pursuing them, and to escape at their leisure while the Argive army was leisurely betrayed.

6 The generals, half-stunned for the moment, afterwards led them down from the hill, and went forward and encamped in the plain, with the intention of attacking the enemy.

Chapter 66

1 The next day the Argives and their allies formed in the order in which they meant to fight, if they chanced to encounter the enemy; and the Lacedaemonians returning from the water to their old encampment by the temple of Heracles, suddenly saw their adversaries close in front of them, all in complete order, and advanced from the hill.

2 A shock like that of the present moment the Lacedaemonians do not ever remember to have experienced: there was scant time for preparation, as they instantly and hastily fell into their ranks, Agis, their king, directing everything, agreeably to the law.

3 For when a king is in the field all commands proceed from him: he gives the word to the Polemarchs; they to the Lochages; these to the Pentecostyes; these again to the Enomotarchs, and these last to the Enomoties.

4 In short all orders required pass in the same way and quickly reach the troops; as almost the whole Lacedaemonian army, save for a small part, consists of officers under officers, and the care of what is to be done falls upon many.

Chapter 67

1 In this battle the left wing was composed of the Sciritae, who in a Lacedaemonian army have always that post to themselves alone; next to these were the soldiers of Brasidas from Thrace, and the Neodamodes with them; then came the Lacedaemonians themselves, company after company, with the Arcadians of Heraea at their side. After these were the Maenalians, and on the right wing the Tegeans with a few of the Lacedaemonians at the extremity; their cavalry being posted upon the two wings.

2 Such was the Lacedaemonian formation. That of their opponents was as follows:—On the right were the Mantineans, the action taking place in their country: next to them the allies from Arcadia; after whom came the thousand picked men of the Argives, to whom the state had given a long course of military training at the public expense; next to them the rest of the Argives, and after them their allies, the Cleonaeans and Orneans, and lastly the Athenians on the extreme left, and their own cavalry with them.

Chapter 68

1 Such were the order and the forces of the two combatants. The Lacedaemonian army looked the largest;

2 though as to putting down the numbers of either host, or of the contingents composing it, I could not do so with any accuracy. Owing to the secrecy of their government the number of the Lacedaemonians was not known, and men are so apt to brag about the forces of their country that the estimate of their opponents was not trusted. The following calculation, however, makes it possible to estimate the numbers of the Lacedaemonians present upon this occasion.

3 There were seven companies in the field without counting the Sciritae, who numbered six hundred men: in each company there were four Pentecostyes, and in the Pentecosty four Enomoties. The first rank of the Enomoty was composed of four soldiers: as to the depth, although they had not been all drawn up alike, but as each captain chose, they were generally ranged eight deep; the first rank along the whole line, exclusive of the Sciritae, consisted of four hundred and forty-eight men.

Chapter 69

1 The armies being now on the eve of engaging, each contingent received some words of encouragement from its own commander. The Mantineans were reminded that they were going to fight for their country and to avoid returning to the experience of servitude after having tasted that of empire; the Argives, that they would contend for their ancient supremacy, to regain their once equal share of Peloponnese of which they had been so long deprived, and to punish an enemy and a neighbor for a thousand wrongs; the Athenians, of the glory of gaining the honors of the day with so many and brave allies in arms, and that a victory over the Lacedaemonians in Peloponnese would cement and extend their empire, and would besides preserve Attica from all invasions in future.

2 These were the incitements addressed to the Argives and their allies. The Lacedaemonians meanwhile, man to man, and with their war-songs in the ranks, exhorted each brave comrade to remember what he had learnt before; well aware that the long training of action was of more saving virtue than any brief verbal exhortation, though never so well delivered.

Chapter 70

1 After this they joined battle, the Argives and their allies advancing with haste and fury, the Lacedaemonians slowly and to the music of many flute-players—a standing institution in their army, that has nothing to do with religion, but is meant to make them advance evenly, stepping in time, without breaking their order, as large armies are apt to do in the moment of engaging.

Chapter 71

1 Just before the battle joined, King Agis resolved upon the following manoeuvre. All armies are alike in this: on going into action they get forced out rather on their right wing, and one and the other overlap with this their adversary's left; because fear makes each man do his best to shelter his unarmed side with the shield of the man next him on the right, thinking that the closer the shields are locked together the better will he be protected. The man primarily responsible for this is the first upon the right wing, who is always striving to withdraw from the enemy his unarmed side; and the same apprehension makes the rest follow him.

2 On the present occasion the Mantineans reached with their wing far beyond the Sciritae, and the Lacedaemonians and Tegeans still farther beyond the Athenians, as their army was the largest.

3 Agis afraid of his left being surrounded, and thinking that the Mantineans outflanked it too far, ordered the Sciritae and Brasideans to move out from their place in the ranks and make the line even with the Mantineans, and told the Polemarchs Hipponoidas and Aristocles to fill up the gap thus formed, by throwing themselves into it with two companies taken from the right wing; thinking that his right would still be strong enough and to spare, and that the line fronting the Mantineans would gain in solidity.

Chapter 72

1 However, as he gave these orders in the moment of the onset, and at short notice, it so happened that Aristocles and Hipponoidas would not move over, for which offence they were afterwards banished from Sparta, as having been guilty of cowardice; and the enemy meanwhile closed before the Sciritae (whom Agis on seeing that the two companies did not move over ordered to return to their place) had time to fill up the breach in question.

2 Now it was, however, that the Lacedaemonians, utterly worsted in respect of skill, showed themselves as superior in point of courage.

3 As soon as they came to close quarters with the enemy, the Mantinean right broke their Sciritae and Brasideans, and bursting in with their allies and the thousand picked Argives into the unclosed breach in their line cut up and surrounded the Lacedaemonians, and drove them in full rout to the wagons, slaying some of the older men on guard there.

4 But the Lacedaemonians, worsted in this part of the field, with the rest of their army, and especially the center, where the three hundred knights, as they are called, fought round King Agis, fell on the older men of the Argives and the five companies so named, and on the Cleonaeans, the Orneans, and the Athenians next them, and instantly routed them; the greater number not even waiting to strike a blow, but giving way the moment that they came on, some even being trodden under foot, in their fear of being overtaken by their assailants.

Chapter 73

1 The army of the Argives and their allies having given way in this quarter was now completely cut in two, and the Lacedaemonian and Tegean right simultaneously closing round the Athenians with the troops that outflanked them, these last found themselves placed between two fires, being surrounded on one side and already defeated on the other. Indeed they would have suffered more severely than any other part of the army, but for the services of the cavalry which they had with them.

2 Agis also on perceiving the distress of his left opposed to the Mantineans and the thousand Argives, ordered all the army to advance to the support of the defeated wing;

3 and while this took place, as the enemy moved past and slanted away from them, the Athenians escaped at their leisure, and with them the beaten Argive division. Meanwhile the Mantineans and their allies and the picked body of the Argives ceased to press the enemy, and seeing their friends defeated and the Lacedaemonians in full advance upon them, took to flight.

4 Many of the Mantineans perished; but the bulk of the picked body of the Argives made good their escape. The flight and retreat, however, were neither hurried nor long; the Lacedaemonians fighting long and stubbornly until the rout of their enemy, but that once effected, pursuing for a short time and not far.

Chapter 74

1 Such was the battle, as nearly as possible as I have described it; the greatest that had occurred for a very long while among the Hellenes, and joined by the most considerable states.

2 The Lacedaemonians took up a position in front of the enemy's dead, and immediately set up a trophy and stripped the slain; they took up their own dead and carried them back to Tegea, where they buried them, and restored those of the enemy under truce.

3 The Argives, Orneans, and Cleonaeans had seven hundred killed; the Mantineans two hundred, and the Athenians and Aeginetans also two hundred, with both their generals. On the side of the Lacedaemonians, the allies did not suffer any loss worth speaking of: as to the Lacedaemonians themselves it was difficult to learn the truth; it is said, however, that there were slain about three hundred of them.

Chapter 75

1 While the battle was impending, Pleistoanax, the other king, set out with a reinforcement composed of the oldest and youngest men, and got as far as Tegea, where he heard of the victory and went back again.

2 The Lacedaemonians also sent and turned back the allies from Corinth and from beyond the Isthmus, and returning themselves dismissed their allies, and kept the Carnean holidays, which happened to be at that time.

3 The imputations cast upon them by the Hellenes at the time, whether of cowardice on account of the disaster in the island, or of mismanagement and slowness generally, were all wiped out by this single action: fortune, it was thought, might have humbled them, but the men themselves were the same as ever.

4 The day before this battle, the Epidaurians with all their forces invaded the deserted Argive territory, and cut off many of the guards left there in the absence of the Argive army.

5 After the battle three thousand Elean heavy infantry arriving to aid the Mantineans, and a reinforcement of one thousand Athenians, all these allies marched at once against Epidaurus while the Lacedaemonians were keeping the Carnea, and dividing the work among them began to build a wall round the city.

6 The rest left off; but the Athenians finished at once the part assigned to them round Cape Heraeum; and having all joined in leaving a garrison in the fortification in question, they returned to their respective cities.

Chapter 76

1 Summer now came to an end. In the first days of the next winter, when the Carnean holidays were over, the Lacedaemonians took the field, and arriving at Tegea sent on to Argos proposals of accommodation.

2 They had before had a party in the town desirous of overthrowing the democracy; and after the battle that had been fought, these were now far more in a position to persuade the people to listen to terms. Their plan was first to make a treaty with the Lacedaemonians, to be followed by an alliance, and after this to fall upon the commons.

3 Lichas, son of Arcesilaus, the Argive Proxenus, accordingly arrived at Argos with two proposals from Lacedaemon, to regulate the conditions of war or peace, according as they preferred the one or the other. After much discussion, Alcibiades happening to be in the town, the Lacedaemonian party who now ventured to act openly, persuaded the Argives to accept the proposal for an accommodation; which ran as follows:—

Chapter 77

1 The assembly of the Lacedaemonians agrees to treat with the Argives upon the terms following—1. The Argives shall restore to the Orchomenians their children, and to the Moenalians their men, and shall restore the men they have in Mantinea to the Lacedaemonians.

2 2. They shall evacuate Epidaurus, and raze the fortification there. If the Athenians refuse to withdraw from Epidaurus, they shall be declared enemies of the Argives and of the Lacedaemonians, and of the allies of the Lacedaemonians and the allies of the Argives.

3 3. If the Lacedaemonians have any children in their custody, they shall restore them every one to his city.

4 4. As to the offering to the god, the Argives, if they wish, shall impose an oath upon the Epidaurians, but, if not, they shall swear it themselves.

5 5. All the cities in Peloponnese, both small and great, shall be independent according to the customs of their country.

6 6. If any of the powers outside Peloponnese invade Peloponnesian territory, the parties contracting shall unite to repel them, on such terms as they may agree upon, as being most fair for the Peloponnesians.

7 7. All allies of the Lacedaemonians outside Peloponnese shall be on the same footing as the Lacedaemonians, and the allies of the Argives shall be on the same footing as the Argives, being left in enjoyment of their own possessions.

8 8. This treaty shall be shown to the allies, and shall be concluded, if they approve: if the allies think fit, they may send the treaty to be considered at home.

Chapter 78

1 The Argives began by accepting this proposal, and the Lacedaemonian army returned home from Tegea. After this intercourse was renewed between them, and not long afterwards the same party contrived that the Argives should give up the league with the Mantineans, Eleans, and Athenians, and should make a treaty and alliance with the Lacedaemonians; which was consequently done upon the terms following:—

Chapter 79

1 The Lacedaemonians and Argives agree to a treaty and alliance for fifty years upon the terms following:—1. All disputes shall be decided by fair and impartial arbitration, agreeably to the customs of the two countries.2. The rest of the cities in Peloponnese may be included in this treaty and alliance, as independent and sovereign, in full enjoyment of what they possess; all disputes being decided by fair and impartial arbitration, agreeably to the customs of the said cities.

2 3. All allies of the Lacedaemonians outside Peloponnese shall be upon the same footing as the Lacedaemonians themselves, and the allies of the Argives shall be upon the same footing as the Argives themselves, continuing to enjoy what they possess.

3 4. If it shall be anywhere necessary to make an expedition in common, the Lacedaemonians and Argives shall consult upon it and decide, as may be most fair for the allies.

4 5. If any of the cities, whether inside or outside Peloponnese, have a question whether of frontiers or otherwise, it must be settled; but if one allied city should have a quarrel with another allied city, it must be referred to some third city thought impartial by both parties. Private citizens shall have their disputes decided according to the laws of their several countries.

Chapter 80

1 The treaty and above alliance concluded, each party at once released everything whether acquired by war or otherwise, and thenceforth acting in common voted to receive neither herald nor embassy from the Athenians unless they evacuated their forts and withdrew from Peloponnese, and also to make neither peace nor war with any, except jointly.

2 Zeal was not wanting: both parties sent envoys to the Thracian places and to Perdiccas, and persuaded the latter to join their league. Still he did not at once break off from Athens, although minded to do so upon seeing the way shown him by Argos, the original home of his family. They also renewed their old oaths with the Chalcidians and took new ones:

3 the Argives, besides, sent ambassadors to the Athenians, bidding them evacuate the fort at Epidaurus. The Athenians, seeing their own men outnumbered by the rest of the garrison, sent Demosthenes to bring them out. This general, under color of a gymnastic contest which he arranged on his arrival, got the rest of the garrison out of the place, and shut the gates behind them. Afterwards the Athenians renewed their treaty with the Epidaurians, and by themselves gave up the fortress.

Chapter 81

1 After the defection of Argos from the league, the Mantineans, though they held out at first, in the end finding themselves powerless without the Argives, themselves too came to terms with Lacedaemon, and gave up their sovereignty over the towns.

2 The Lacedaemonians and Argives, each a thousand strong, now took the field together, and the former first went by themselves to Sicyon and made the government there more oligarchical than before, and then both, uniting, put down the democracy at Argos and set up an oligarchy favorable to Lacedaemon. These events occurred at the close of the winter, just before spring; and the fourteenth year of the war ended.

Chapter 82

1 The next summer the people of Dium, in Athos, revolted from the Athenians to the Chalcidians, and the Lacedaemonians settled affairs in Achaea in a way more agreeable to the interests of their country.

2 Meanwhile the popular party at Argos little by little gathered new consistency and courage, and waited for the moment of the Gymnopaedic festival at Lacedaemon, and then fell upon the oligarchs. After a fight in the city victory declared for the commons, who slew some of their opponents and banished others.

3 The Lacedaemonians for a long while let the messages of their friends at Argos remain without effect. At last they put off the Gymnopaediae and marched to their succor, but learning at Tegea the defeat of the oligarchs, refused to go any further in spite of the entreaties of those who had escaped, and returned home and kept the festival.

4 Later on, envoys arrived with messages from the Argives in the town and from the exiles, when the allies were also at Sparta; and after much had been said on both sides, the Lacedaemonians decided that the party in the town had done wrong, and resolved to march against Argos, but kept delaying and putting off the matter.

5 Meanwhile the commons at Argos, in fear of the Lacedaemonians, began again to court the Athenian alliance, which they were convinced would be of the greatest service to them; and accordingly proceeded to build long walls to the sea, in order that in case of a blockade by land, with the help of the Athenians they might have the advantage of importing what they wanted by sea.

6 Some of the cities in Peloponnese were also privy to the building of these walls; and the Argives with all their people, women and slaves not excepted, addressed themselves to the work, while carpenters and masons came to them from Athens.Summer was now over.

Chapter 83

1 The winter following the Lacedaemonians, hearing of the walls that were building, marched against Argos with their allies, the Corinthians excepted, being also not without intelligence in the city itself; Agis, son of Archidamus, their king, was in command.

2 The intelligence which they counted upon within the town came to nothing; they however took and razed the walls which were being built, and after capturing the Argive town Hysiae and killing all the freemen that fell into their hands, went back and dispersed every man to his city.

3 After this the Argives marched into Phlius and plundered it for harboring their exiles, most of whom had settled there, and so returned home.

4 The same winter the Athenians blockaded Macedonia, on the score of the league entered into by Perdiccas with the Argives and Lacedaemonians, and also of his breach of his engagements on the occasion of the expedition prepared by Athens against the Chalcidians in the direction of Thrace and against Amphipolis, under the command of Nicias, son of Niceratus which had to be broken up mainly because of his desertion. He was therefore proclaimed an enemy. And thus the winter ended, and the fifteenth year of the war ended with it.

Chapter 84

1 The next summer Alcibiades sailed with twenty ships to Argos and seized the suspected persons still left of the Lacedaemonian faction to the number of three hundred, whom the Athenians forthwith lodged in the neighboring islands of their empire. The Athenians also made an expedition against the isle of Melos with thirty ships of their own, six Chian, and two Lesbian vessels, sixteen hundred heavy infantry, three hundred archers, and twenty mounted archers from Athens, and about fifteen hundred heavy infantry from the allies and the islanders.

2 The Melians are a colony of Lacedaemon that would not submit to the Athenians like the other islanders, and at first remained neutral and took no part in the struggle, but afterwards upon the Athenians using violence and plundering their territory, assumed an attitude of open hostility.

3 Cleomedes, son of Lycomedes, and Tisias, son of Tisimachus, the generals, encamping in their territory with the above armament, before doing any harm to their land, sent envoys to negotiate. These the Melians did not bring before the people, but bade them state the object of their mission to the magistrates and the few; upon which the Athenian envoys spoke as follows:—

Chapter 85

1 ‘Since the negotiations are not to go on before the people, in order that we may not be able to speak straight on without interruption, and deceive the ears of the multitude by seductive arguments which would pass without refutation (for we know that this is the meaning of our being brought before the few), what if you who sit there were to pursue a method more cautious still! Make no set speech yourselves, but take us up at whatever you do not like, and settle that before going any farther. And first tell us if this proposition of ours suits you.’

Chapter 86

1 The Melian commissioners answered:— ‘To the fairness of quietly instructing each other as you propose there is nothing to object; but your military preparations are too far advanced to agree with what you say, as we see you are come to be judges in your own cause, and that all we can reasonably expect from this negotiation is war, if we prove to have right on our side and refuse to submit, and in the contrary case, slavery.’

Chapter 87

1 ‘If you have met to reason about presentiments of the future, or for anything else than to consult for the safety of your state upon the facts that you see before you, we will give over; otherwise we will go on.’

Chapter 88

1 ‘It is natural and excusable for men in our position to turn more ways than one both in thought and utterance. However, the question in this conference is, as you say, the safety of our country; and the discussion, if you please, can proceed in the way which you propose.’

Chapter 89

1 ‘For ourselves, we shall not trouble you with specious pretences—either of how we have a right to our empire because we overthrew the Mede, or are now attacking you because of wrong that you have done us—and make a long speech which would not be believed; and in return we hope that you, instead of thinking to influence us by saying that you did not join the Lacedaemonians, although their colonists, or that you have done us no wrong, will aim at what is feasible, holding in view the real sentiments of us both; since you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.’

Chapter 90

1 ‘As we think, at any rate, it is expedient—we speak as we are obliged, since you enjoin us to let right alone and talk only of interest—that you should not destroy what is our common protection, the privilege of being allowed in danger to invoke what is fair and right, and even to profit by arguments not strictly valid if they can be got to pass current. And you are as much interested in this as any, as your fall would be a signal for the heaviest vengeance and an example for the world to meditate upon.’

Chapter 91

1 ‘The end of our empire, if end it should, does not frighten us: a rival empire like Lacedaemon, even if Lacedaemon was our real antagonist, is not so terrible to the vanquished as subjects who by themselves attack and overpower their rulers.

2 This, however, is a risk that we are content to take. We will now proceed to show you that we are come here in the interest of our empire, and that we shall say what we are now going to say, for the preservation of your country; as we would fain exercise that empire over you without trouble, and see you preserved for the good of us both.’

Chapter 92

1 ‘And how, pray, could it turn out as good for us to serve as for you to rule?’

Chapter 93

1 ‘Because you would have the advantage of submitting before suffering the worst, and we should gain by not destroying you.’

Chapter 94

1 ‘So that you would not consent to our being neutral, friends instead of enemies, but allies of neither side.’

Chapter 95

1 ‘No; for your hostility cannot so much hurt us as your friendship will be an argument to our subjects of our weakness, and your enmity of our power.’

Chapter 96

1 ‘Is that your subjects' idea of equity, to put those who have nothing to do with you in the same category with peoples that are most of them your own colonists, and some conquered rebels?’

Chapter 97

1 ‘As far as right goes they think one has as much of it as the other, and that if any maintain their independence it is because they are strong, and that if we do not molest them it is because we are afraid; so that besides extending our empire we should gain in security by your subjection; the fact that you are islanders and weaker than others rendering it all the more important that you should not succeed in baffling the masters of the sea.’

Chapter 98

1 ‘But do you consider that there is no security in the policy which we indicate? For here again if you debar us from talking about justice and invite us to obey your interest, we also must explain ours, and try to persuade you, if the two happen to coincide. How can you avoid making enemies of all existing neutrals who shall look at our case and conclude from it that one day or another you will attack them? And what is this but to make greater the enemies that you have already, and to force others to become so who would otherwise have never thought of it?’

Chapter 99

1 ‘Why, the fact is that continentals generally give us but little alarm; the liberty which they enjoy will long prevent their taking precautions against us; it is rather islanders like yourselves, outside our empire, and subjects smarting under the yoke, who would be the most likely to take a rash step and lead themselves and us into obvious danger.’

Chapter 100

1 ‘Well then, if you risk so much to retain your empire, and your subjects to get rid of it, it were surely great baseness and cowardice in us who are still free not to try everything that can be tried, before submitting to your yoke.’

Chapter 101

1 ‘Not if you are well advised, the contest not being an equal one, with honor as the prize and shame as the penalty, but a question of self-preservation and of not resisting those who are far stronger than you are.’

Chapter 102

1 ‘But we know that the fortune of war is sometimes more impartial than the disproportion of numbers might lead one to suppose; to submit is to give ourselves over to despair, while action still preserves for us a hope that we may stand erect.’

Chapter 103

1 ‘Hope, danger's comforter, may be indulged in by those who have abundant resources, if not without loss at all events without ruin; but its nature is to be extravagant, and those who go so far as to put their all upon the venture see it in its true colors only when they are ruined; but so long as the discovery would enable them to guard against it, it is never found wanting.

2 Let not this be the case with you, who are weak and hang on a single turn of the scale; nor be like the vulgar, who, abandoning such security as human means may still afford, when visible hopes fail them in extremity, turn to invisible, to prophecies and oracles, and other such inventions that delude men with hopes to their destruction.’

Chapter 104

1 ‘You may be sure that we are as well aware as you of the difficulty of contending against your power and fortune, unless the terms be equal. But we trust that the gods may grant us fortune as good as yours, since we are just men fighting against unjust, and that what we want in power will be made up by the alliance of the Lacedaemonians, who are bound, if only for very shame, to come to the aid of their kindred. Our confidence, therefore, after all is not so utterly irrational.’

Chapter 105

1 ‘When you speak of the favour of the gods, we may as fairly hope for that as yourselves; neither our pretensions nor our conduct being in any way contrary to what men believe of the gods, or practise among themselves.

2 Of the gods we believe, and of men we know, that by a necessary law of their nature they rule wherever they can. And it is not as if we were the first to make this law, or to act upon it when made: we found it existing before us, and shall leave it to exist for ever after us; all we do is to make use of it, knowing that you and everybody else, having the same power as we have, would do the same as we do.

3 Thus, as far as the gods are concerned, we have no fear and no reason to fear that we shall be at a disadvantage. But when we come to your notion about the Lacedaemonians, which leads you to believe that shame will make them help you, here we bless your simplicity but do not envy your folly.

4 The Lacedaemonians, when their own interests or their country's laws are in question, are the worthiest men alive; of their conduct towards others much might be said, but no clearer idea of it could be given than by shortly saying that of all the men we know they are most conspicuous in considering what is agreeable honorable, and what is expedient just. Such a way of thinking does not promise much for the safety which you now unreasonably count upon.’

Chapter 106

1 ‘But it is for this very reason that we now trust to their respect for expediency to prevent them from betraying the Melians, their colonists, and thereby losing the confidence of their friends in Hellas and helping their enemies.’

Chapter 107

1 ‘Then you do not adopt the view that expediency goes with security, while justice and honor cannot be followed without danger; and danger the Lacedaemonians generally court as little as possible.’

Chapter 108

1 ‘But we believe that they would be more likely to face even danger for our sake, and with more confidence than for others, as our nearness to Peloponnese makes it easier for them to act; and our common blood insures our fidelity.’

Chapter 109

1 ‘Yes, but what an intending ally trusts to, is not the goodwill of those who ask his aid, but a decided superiority of power for action; and the Lacedaemonians look to this even more than others. At least, such is their distrust of their home resources that it is only with numerous allies that they attack a neighbor; now is it likely that while we are masters of the sea they will cross over to an island?’

Chapter 110

1 ‘But they would have others to send. The Cretan sea is a wide one, and it is more difficult for those who command it to intercept others, than for those who wish to elude them to do so safely.

2 And should the Lacedaemonians miscarry in this, they would fall upon your land, and upon those left of your allies whom Brasidas did not reach; and instead of places which are not yours, you will have to fight for your own country and your own confederacy.’

Chapter 111

1 ‘Some diversion of the kind you speak of you may one day experience, only to learn, as others have done, that the Athenians never once yet withdrew from a siege for fear of any.

2 But we are struck by the fact, that after saying you would consult for the safety of your country, in all this discussion you have mentioned nothing which men might trust in and think to be saved by. Your strongest arguments depend upon hope and the future, and your actual resources are too scanty, as compared with those arrayed against you, for you to come out victorious. You will therefore show great blindness of judgment, unless, after allowing us to retire, you can find some counsel more prudent than this.

3 You will surely not be caught by that idea of disgrace, which in dangers that are disgraceful, and at the same time too plain to be mistaken, proves so fatal to mankind; since in too many cases the very men that have their eyes perfectly open to what they are rushing into, let the thing called disgrace, by the mere influence of a seductive name, lead them on to a point at which they become so enslaved by the phrase as in fact to fall willfully into hopeless disaster, and incur disgrace more disgraceful as the companion of error, than when it comes as the result of misfortune.

4 This, if you are well advised, you will guard against; and you will not think it dishonorable to submit to the greatest city in Hellas, when it makes you the moderate offer of becoming its tributary ally, without ceasing to enjoy the country that belongs to you; nor when you have the choice given you between war and security, will you be so blinded as to choose the worse. And it is certain that those who do not yield to their equals, who keep terms with their superiors, and are moderate towards their inferiors, on the whole succeed best.

5 Think over the matter, therefore, after our withdrawal, and reflect once and again that it is for your country that you are consulting, that you have not more than one, and that upon this one deliberation depends its prosperity or ruin.’

Chapter 112

1 The Athenians now withdrew from the conference; and the Melians, left to themselves, came to a decision corresponding with what they had maintained in the discussion, and answered,

2 ‘Our resolution, Athenians, is the same as it was at first. We will not in a moment deprive of freedom a city that has been inhabited these seven hundred years; but we put our trust in the fortune by which the gods have preserved it until now, and in the help of men, that is, of the Lacedaemonians; and so we will try and save ourselves.

3 Meanwhile we invite you to allow us to be friends to you and foes to neither party, and to retire from our country after making such a treaty as shall seem fit to us both.’

Chapter 113

1 Such was the answer of the Melians. The Athenians now departing from the conference said, ‘Well, you alone, as it seems to us, judging from these resolutions, regard what is future as more certain than what is before your eyes, and what is out of sight, in your eagerness, as already coming to pass; and as you have staked most on, and trusted most in, the Lacedaemonians, your fortune, and your hopes, so will you be most completely deceived.’

Chapter 114

1 The Athenian envoys now returned to the army; and the Melians showing no signs of yielding, the generals at once betook themselves to hostilities, and drew a line of circumvallation round the Melians, dividing the work among the different states.

2 Subsequently the Athenians returned with most of their army, leaving behind them a certain number of their own citizens and of the allies to keep guard by land and sea. The force thus left stayed on and besieged the place.

Chapter 115

1 About the same time the Argives invaded the territory of Phlius and lost eighty men cut off in an ambush by the Phliasians and Argive exiles.

2 Meanwhile the Athenians at Pylos took so much plunder from the Lacedaemonians that the latter, although they still refrained from breaking off the treaty and going to war with Athens, yet proclaimed that any of their people that chose might plunder the Athenians.

3 The Corinthians also commenced hostilities with the Athenians for private quarrels of their own; but the rest of the Peloponnesians stayed quiet.

4 Meanwhile the Melians attacked by night and took the part of the Athenian lines over against the market, and killed some of the men, and brought in corn and all else that they could find useful to them, and so returned and kept quiet, while the Athenians took measures to keep better guard in future.Summer was now over.

Chapter 116

1 The next winter the Lacedaemonians intended to invade the Argive territory, but arriving at the frontier found the sacrifices for crossing unfavorable, and went back again. This intention of theirs gave the Argives suspicions of certain of their fellow-citizens, some of whom they arrested; others, however, escaped them.

2 About the same time the Melians again took another part of the Athenian lines which were but feebly garrisoned.

3 Reinforcements afterwards arriving from Athens in consequence, under the command of Philocrates, son of Demeas, the siege was now pressed vigorously; and some treachery taking place inside, the Melians surrendered at discretion to the Athenians,

4 who put to death all the grown men whom they took, and sold the women and children for slaves, and subsequently sent out five hundred colonists and inhabited the place themselves.