Book 5
7th, "That the Lacedaemonians too, and their allies, shall in the same way restore whomever of the Athenians and their allies they may have in their hands.
8th, "That in the case of the Scionaeans, Toronaeans, and Sermylians, and whatever other city the Athenians have possession of, respecting these and the rest they shall adopt such measures as they please.
9th, "That the Athenians shall take the oaths to the Lacedaemonians and their allies, state by state; and that every man shall swear by the most binding oath of his country, according to his respective state. That the oath must be to this effect: 'I will abide by these arrangements and articles of the treaty, honestly and without guile.' That in the same way an oath shall be taken by the Lacedaemonians and their allies to the Athenians;
and that on both sides the oath shall be renewed yearly. That the contracting parties shall erect pillars at Olympia, Pythia, the Isthmus, at Athens in the citadel, and at Lacedaemon in The temple of Apollo at Amyelae as well be called at Sparta, as the temple of Juno was said to be at Argos, Thucyd. IV. 133. 2, although it was forty stadia distant from the city, Strabo, VIII. 6. 2; Herod. I. 31. 4. — Arnold. the temple of Apollo at Amyclae.
That if they forget any thing, whatever it may be, and on whatever point, it shall be consistent with their oaths for both parties, Athenians and Lacedaemonians, by means of fair discussion, to change it in such manner as they please.
The treaty commences from the ephoralty of Pleistolas, on the 27th of the month Artemisium, and from the archonship of Alcaeus at Athens, on the 25th of the month Elaphebolion. Those who took the oaths and subscribed the treaty were as follows:
on the side of the Lacedaemonians, [Pleistoanax, Agis,] Pleistolas, Damagetus, Chionis, Metagenes, Acanthus, Daithus, Ischagoras, Philocharidas, Zeuxidas, Antippus, Tellis, Alcinidas, Empedias, Menas, and Laphilus: on the side of the Athenians, Lampon, Isthmionicus, Nicias, Laches, Laches, Euthydemus, Procles, Pythodorus, Hagnon, Myrtilus, Thrasycles, Theogenes, Aristocrates, Iolcius, Timocrates. Leon, Lamachus, and Demosthenes.
This treaty was concluded at the end of the winter, when the spring was commencing, immediately after the city festival of Bacchus, when just ten years had elapsed For an instance παραφέρω, used in this intransitive sense, like διαφέρω, compare Dionys. Hal. Ant. I. 27, p. 73, Reiske, τούτων ἡ γλῶσσα ὀλίγον παραφέρει; as quoted in Bloomfield's note, 2nd edition. with the variation of a few days, since the invasion of Attica was first made, and this war commenced.
But let every one regard this with reference to the periods of time, and not, as placing greater confidence in such a view, with respect to the enumeration of the public officers in the several places, or of the titles derived from any honourable appointment which serve to mark past events. For that gives no definite idea, as to who were in the commencement of their office, or in the middle of it, or whatever part it might be, when any event occurred.
But if he reckon by summers and winters, as I have written my history, he will find Literally, having the virtue, or sum, of the year in half measure. that while each of these amounts to half a year, there were ten summers and as many winters included in this first war.
Now the Lacedaemonians (for it fell to their lot to be the first to restore what they held) immediately released the men who were prisoners in their country; and sending as ambassadors to the countries Thrace-ward, Ischagoras, Menas, and Philocharidas, commanded Clearidas to restore Amphipolis to the Athenians, and the rest of the states to accept the treaty, as it had been severally arranged for them.
They, however, would not, as they thought it not favourable to them; nor did Clearidas restore the city, wishing to oblige the Chalcidians, and declaring that he could not give it up in opposition to them.
He, however, went in haste to Lacedaemon with ambassadors from that place, to defend himself, if Ischagoras and his party should bring any charge against him for not obeying; and at the same time from a wish to know whether the arrangement might still be altered: but when he found the treaty secured, being sent back again himself by the Lacedaemonians, and ordered to deliver up the place, if possible, but if not, to bring out all the Peloponnesians that were in it, he set out with all speed.
Now the allies happened Arnold translates αὐτοί, of their own accord; but Poppo remarks with truth, that this is in opposition to the statement that they had been summoned by the Lacedaemonians, ch. 17. 2, and 27. 1. He supposes, therefore, that it means 'the allies, as well as Clearidas." themselves to be at Lacedaemon, and those of them who had not accepted the treaty were commanded by the Lacedaemonians to adopt it. They, however, on the same grounds as they had at first rejected it, refused to accept it, unless they made a more equitable one than that.
So when they did not listen to them, they sent them away, and themselves proceeded to conclude an alliance with the Athenians; thinking that the Argives ( For instances of the aorist, or the present, thus used after φάναι, to Xen. Anab. iv. 5.15, and Hell. v. i. 32. Respecting the anacoluthon also in the following sentence, see his note, and that of Arnold. since they refused, on Ampelidas and Lichas going to them, to make a fresh treaty) would be by no means formidable without the support of the Athenians, and that the rest of the Peloponnese would be most disposed to remain quiet; whereas they would have gone over to the Athenians, if they had had the power.
Ambassadors, therefore, having come from the Athenians, and a conference having been held, they came to an agreement, and oaths were taken, and this alliance concluded, on the following terms:
"The Lacedaemonians shall be allies of the Athenians for fifty years.
2nd, "That should any come as enemies against the territory of the Lacedaemonians, and do them injury, the Athenians shall assist them in such manner as they can most efficiently, to the utmost of their power. That should they have ravaged the land and departed, that state shall be considered as hostile to the Lacedaemonians and Athenians, and be punished by both of them; and that both states shall make peace at the same
time. That these conditions shall be observed honestly, heartily, and sincerely.
3rd, "That, again, should any come as enemies against the country of the Athenians, and injure them, the Lacedaemonians shall assist them in whatever manner they can most efficiently, to the utmost of their power. That should they have ravaged the land and departed, that state shall be considered as hostile to the Lacedaemonians and Athenians, and punished by both of them; and that both states shall make peace at the
same time. That these conditions shall be observed honestly, heartily, and sincerely.
4th, "That should the slave population rise up against them, the Athenians shall assist the Lacedaemonians with all their might, according to their ability.
5th, That these articles shall be sworn to by the same persons as swore to the other
treaty, on both sides. That they shall be renewed every year, by the Lacedaemonians going to Athens at the Dionysian festival, and by the Athenians going to
Lacedaemon at the Hyacinthian. That they shall each erect a pillar, that at Lacedaemon near the statue of Apollo in the Amyclaeum, and that at Athens in the citadel, near
the statue of Minerva. That should the Lacedaemonians and Athenians choose to add to, or take away from, these terms of alliance, whatever they please so to do shall be consistent with the oaths of both parties.
The oath was sworn by the following on the side of the Lacedaemonians: Pleistoanax, Agis, Pleistolas, Damagetus, Chionis, Metagenes, Acanthus, Daithus, Ischagoras, Philocharidas, Zeuxidas, Antippus, Alcinadas, Tellis, Empedias, Menas, and Laphilus: and on the side of the Athenians, by Lampon, Isthmionicus, Laches, Nicias, Euthydemus, Procles, Pythodorus, Hagnon, Myrtilus, Thrasycles, Theogenes, Aristocrates, Iolcius, Timocrates, Leon, Lamachus, and Demosthenes
This alliance was entered into not long after the treaty, and the Athenians restored to the Lacedaemonians the men taken from the
island; and thus began the summer of the eleventh year. During these ten years, then, the first war was carried on continuously, and such is the history of it.
After the treaty, and the alliance between the Lacedaemonians and Athenians, which were concluded at the end of the ten years' war, in the ephoralty of Pleistolas at Lacedaemon, and the archonship of Alcaeus at Athens, those who had acceded to them were at peace; but the Corinthians, and some of the states in the Peloponnese, were trying to alter what had been done; and another disturbance immediately arose on the part of the allies against Lacedaemon.
Moreover, the Lacedaemonians, as time went on, became suspected by the Athenians also, through not performing in some respects what had been agreed on, according to the treaty.
And though for six years and ten months they abstained from marching against each other's territory, yet out of it, during the existence of a doubtful suspension of arms, they were doing one another the greatest possible damage. Subsequently, however, they were compelled to break the treaty concluded after the ten years' war, and again proceeded to open hostilities.
And the same Thucydides the Athenian has also written the history of these transactions in order, as they severally happened, by summers and winters, until the Lacedaemonians and their allies put an end to the sovereignty of the Athenians, and took the long walls and Piraeus. To the time of that event there were spent in the war seven and twenty years in all. With regard to the intervening arrangement, if any one shall object to consider it as a state of war, he will not estimate it rightly.
For let him On this use of διήρηται, see Poppo or Bloomfield.—With regard to the τέ in this clause, it is the opinion of Göller that it refers to καὶ before εὑρήσει: but Poppo observes in opposition to this, that the imperative ἀθρείτω has a conditional force, as it frequently has in Greek, Latin, German, and French: si quis spectaverit, inveniet; and therefore that τέ has no force. Arnold and Bloomfield consider that it is answered by ἔξω τε τούτων. First of all, the treaty was in itself practically inefficient, inasmuch as its very stipulations were not all fulfilled; and then there were mutual causes of complaint with respect to other matters of which the treaty had made no mention. regard it as it is characterized by the facts of the case, and he will find that there is no reason for its being deemed a state of peace; since during it they neither gave nor received back all they had arranged to do; and besides this, there were offences committed on both sides, as in the case of the Mantinean and Epidaurian wars, and other instances; and the Thrace-ward allies were in no respect less at war than before; while the Boeeotians had only a truce from one ten days to another.
Including, therefore, the first war of ten years, the suspicious cessation of hostilities which followed it, and the subsequent war which succeeded to that, any one will find that the number of years was what I have mentioned, (reckoning by the great divisions of time,) with only a few days' difference; and that such as positively asserted any thing on the strength of oracles, found this the only fact which proved true.
At least I, for my own part, remember that all along, both at the beginning of the war, and till it was brought to a conclusion, it was alleged by many that it was to last thrice nine years.
And I lived on through the whole of it, being of an age to comprehend events, and paying attention, in order to gain accurate knowledge on each point. It was also my lot to be banished my country twenty years after my command at Amphipolis; and thus, by being present at the transactions of either party, and especially of the Peloponnesians, in consequence of my banishment, to gain at my leisure a more perfect acquaintance with each of them.
The difference, then, which arose after the ten years, and the breaking up of the treaty, and the subsequent course of hostilities, I will now relate.
When, then, the fifty years' treaty had been concluded, and the αἱ ξυμμαχίαι.] Poppo remarks, in his note on 48. 1, on this use of the plural noun with reference to a single alliance; but does not offer any explanation of it. Probably it arises from the separate ratification of the alliance by each of the two states so that it may be regarded as a twofold transaction. alliance afterwards, the embassies from the Peloponnese, which had been summoned for that business, returned from Lacedaemon. Accordingly the rest went home;
but the Corinthians repaired to Argos, and in the first place held communications with some of the Argives who were in office, to the effect that, since the Lacedaemonians, not for the good, but for the subjugation of the Peloponnese, had entered into treaty and alliance with the Athenians, who were before their bitterest enemies; the Argives ought to consider how the Peloponnese might be preserved; and to pass a decree, that any city of the Greeks that wished, being independent, and giving judicial satisfaction for wrongs, on fair and equal terms, might enter into alliance with the Argives, on condition of defending each other's country: and that they should appoint a few persons as commissioners with full powers, instead of the discussion of the measure being held before the people; in order that those might not be known who had failed to persuade the multitude. And they asserted that many would come over to them for hatred of the Lacedaemonians.