Book 5
"That in case of an enemy marching against the territory of the Athenians, the Argives, Eleans, and Mantineans shall go to the succour of Athens, according to whatever message the Athenians may send them, in such manner as they can most effectually, to the utmost of their power. That in case of their having ravaged it and departed, that state shall be considered as an enemy to the Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans, and shall be exposed to the vengeance of all these states; and that no one of them shall be at liberty to terminate hostilities with that state, unless they all think fit to
do so. That the Athenians likewise shall go to the succour of Argos Mantinea, and Elis, in case of an enemy marching against the Elean, Mantinean, or Argive territory, according to what ever message these states may send, in such manner as they can most effectually, to the utmost of their power. That in case of their having ravaged it and departed, that state shall be considered as an enemy to the Athenians, Eleans, Mantineans, and Argives, and shall be exposed to the vengeance of all of them; and that it shall not be lawful to terminate hostilities with that state, unless all the states think fit to
"That they shall not allow armed troops to pass for hostile purposes through their own land, or that of the allies in their respective dominions, nor by sea, unless all the states, the Athenians, Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans, have decreed that
their passage be allowed.
"That to the troops going as succours the state which sends them shall furnish provisions for thirty days after their arrival in the state which sent them word to succour it, and on their return in the same way: but that in case of their wishing to avail themselves of their service for a longer time, the state which sent for them shall supply them with provisions, at the rate of three Aeginetan oboli a day for a heavy-armed soldier, a light-armed, or a bowman, and of an
aeginetan drachma for a horseman.
"That the state which sent for them shall have the command, while the war is in its own territory; but that in case of the states resolving to make a joint expedition in any quarter, an equal share of the command shall
be enjoyed by all the states.
"That the treaty shall be sworn to, by the Athenians on behalf both of themselves and their allies, but on the part of the Argives, Mantineans, Eleans, and their allies, by each several state. That they shall swear that oath respectively which is the most binding in their country, over full-grown victims; and
the oath shall be to this effect; 'I will stand by this alliance according to the stipulations, honestly, without injury, and without guile, and will not violate it by any method or means whatever.' That the persons to take the oath shall be, at Athens, the council and the home magistrates, the prytanes administering it; at Argos, the council, the For what little is known of the several offices here mentioned, see Arnold's note, and the authorities quoted in it. eighty, and the artynae, the eighty administering it; at Mantinea, the demurgi the council, and the other magistrates, the theori and the polemarchs administering it; at Elis, the demiurgi, the magistrates, and the six
hundred, the demiurgi and thesmophulaces administering it. That the oaths shall be renewed by the Athenians, on going to Elis, Mantinea, and Argos, thirty days before the Olympic festival; by the Argives, Eleans, and Mantineans, on going to Athens,
ten days before the great Panathenaic festival.
That the stipulations respecting 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 Jupiter in the market-place: and that a brazen pillar shall be erected at their
joint expense at Olympia, at the present festival. That should these states think it better to make any addition to the articles agreed on, whatever seems fit to all the states, on holding common deliberation, that shall be binding.
In this way were the treaty and alliances concluded; and yet that between the Lacedaemonians and Athenians was not renounced on this account by either party.
But though the Corinthians were allies of the Argives, they did not accede to the new treaty. Nay, before this time, when an alliance was formed between the Eleans, Argives, and Mantineans, to be at war and peace with the same states, they did not join the league, but said that they were content with the first alliance which had been made for purposes of defence, on condition of succouring one another, but not joining to attack any party.
The Corinthians, then, thus stood aloof from their allies, and turned their thoughts again towards the Lacedaemonians.
The Olympic festival was held this summer, that at which Androsthenes the Arcadian was victor the first time in the Consisting of wrestling and boxing. pancratium. The Lacedaemonians were excluded from the temple by the Eleans, so that they could neither sacrifice nor enter the lists, as refusing to pay the fine to which the Eleans, by virtue of the Olympian law, had condemned them, alleging that they had attacked the fortress of Phyrcus, and sent a body of their heavy-armed into Lepreum during the Olympic truce. The fine imposed upon them was two thousand mine, being two for each heavy-armed soldier, as the law ordains. But the Lacedaemonians sent ambassadors, and pleaded that it had not been fairly imposed upon them;
declaring that the truce had not yet been proclaimed at Lacedaemon, when they sent their troops into Lepreum.
The Eleans, however, maintained that the cessation of arms in their country had already commenced, (for they proclaim it amongst themselves first,) and that while they were living in quiet, and not expecting any thing, as it was time of truce, the Lacedaemonians had committed an injury upon them by surprise.
The Lacedaemonians replied, that there was no need of the Eleans having still proclaimed the truce at Lacedaemon, if they had thought them already guilty of injustice; but they had done so, as not thinking it; and they themselves had no longer gone any where to attack them.
The Eleans. however, adhered to the same statement, namely, that they could never be persuaded that they were not guilty; but that if they would restore Lepreum to them, they were ready to give up their own share of the money, and would themselves pay for them that which fell to the god.
When they did not comply, they required them again to do as follows: not to give back Lepreum, if they objected to it, but to mount on the altar of the Olympian Jupiter—since they were so anxious to have access to the temple—and swear before the Greeks that assuredly they would discharge the fine at a future period.
But when they would not do this either, the Lacedaemonians were excluded from the temple—from the sacrifice and from the games—and made their offerings at home;
while the rest of the Greeks, except the Lepreans, sent their deputations to the festival. However, the Eleans were afraid of their sacrificing by force, and kept guard with a heavy-armed company of their young men; while there also came to them a body of Argives and Mantineans, each a thousand strong, and some Athenian cavalry, that were at Argos, waiting for the festival.
And a great alarm was produced in the assembly lest the Lacedaemonians should come in arms; especially after Lichas son of Arcesilaus, a Lacedaemonian, was scourged on the course by the Or, by the empires, as Bredow, Haack, and others think. lictors, because, on his horses being the winners, and the Boeotian people being proclaimed victor, on account of his having no right to enter the lists, he came forward on to the course, and crowned the charioteer, from a wish to show that the chariot was his. All therefore were now much more afraid, and thought there would be some disturbance.
However, the Lacedaemonians kept quiet, and let the feast thus pass by.—After the Olympic festival, the Argives and their allies repaired to Corinth, to beg that state to come over to them. Some Lacedaemonian ambassadors, too, happened to be there; and after there had been much discussion, nothing was accomplished at last; but an earthquake having occurred, they dispersed to their several homes. And so the summer ended.
The following winter the Heracleans in Trachinia fought a battle with the Aenianians, Dolopians, Maleans, and some of the Thessalians.
For these nations were bordering on, and hostile to, their city; as it was against no other country but theirs that the place was fortified. Accordingly they opposed the city on its first settlement, by annoying it as far as they could; and at this time they defeated the Heracleans in the engagement, Xenares son of Cnidis, a Lacedaemonians, being slain, and others of the Heracleans also cut off. And thus the winter ended, and the twelfth year of the war.
At the very commencement of the following summer, the Boeotians seized on Heraclea, when it was miserably reduced after the battle, and sent away Hegesippidas the Lacedaemonian, on the charge of governing it ill. They occupied the place through fear that, while the Lacedaemonians were distracted with the affairs of the Peloponnese, the Athenians might take it. The Lacedaemonians, however, were offended with them for what they had done.
The same summer, Alcibiades son of Clinias, being one of the generals at Athens, having the co-operation of the Argives and the allies, went into the Peloponnese with a few Athenian heavy-armed and bowmen; and taking with him some of the allies in those parts, both proceeded to settle in concert with them other matters connected with the alliance, marching about the Peloponnese with his troops, and persuaded the Patreans to carry their walls down to the sea; intending also himself to build a fort beside the Achaean Rhium. But the Corinthians and Sicyonians, and all to whose injury it would have been built, came against him, and prevented his doing it.
The same summer a war broke out between the Epidaurians and Argives; nominally, about the offering to Apollo Pythaeus, which the Epidaurians were bound to make, but did not, for I have adopted Poppo's reading, παραποταμίων, as Arnold himself confesses that the common one, ποταμίων, is perfectly inexplicable. Of Bloomfield's conjecture, βοτανόμων, pastures, Poppo says, refutatione non indiget certain lands by the river side; (the Argives had the chief management of the temple;) but even independently of this charge, Alcibiades and the Argives thought it desirable to get possession of Epidaurus, if they could; both to insure the neutrality of Corinth, and thinking that the Athenians would find it a shorter passage for their succours through Aegina, than by sailing round Scyllaeum. The Argives therefore prepared to invade Epidaurus by themselves, in order to exact the offering.
The Lacedaemonians, too, at the same time marched out with all their forces to Leuctra, on their own borders, opposite Mount Lyaeum, under the command of Agis son of Archidamus, their king; but no one knew what was their destination, not even the Duker and Poppo suppose the cities of Laconia to be here intended. cities from which contingents were sent.
When, however, the omens from their sacrifices were not favourable for crossing the border, they both returned home themselves, and sent word to their allies to prepare to take the field after the ensuing month; (that being the month Carneus, a holy period amongst the Dorians).
On their retiring, the Argives marched out on the 26th of the month preceding Carneus; I have followed Arnold's former interpretation of this very doubtful passage, as appearing less objectionable, on the whole, than any other that has been proposed; though he himself abandons it in his last edition. Göller and Bloomfield put the comma after ταύτην, and read ἐσέβαλλον: but to this there is what appears to me an insuperable objection. Often as the verb ἐσβάλλω occurs in Thucydides, it is never used, when speaking of a country, to signify a continuance of offensive measures; but always expresses the one definite act of crossing an enemy's borders and invading his territory; and the case is the same with regard to the cognate substantive ἐσβολή. The imperfect tense therefore, though quite appropriate for expressing the ravages which troops continued to make when once in the country, is inappropriate with reference to the invasion itself; and could only be used with πάντα τὸν χρόνον on the supposition of the army retreating within its own frontier continually, and invading the country afresh; which is not only improbable in this particular instance, but in direct opposition to the first sentence of the next chapter: καὶ καθ᾽ ὅν χρόνον ἐν τῇ Ἐπιδαύρῳ οἱ Ἀργεῖοι ἦσαν. Accordingly, in the very next chapter, sec. 2, we have the aorist ἐσέβαλον followed by the imperfect ἐδῄουν; and as all the MSS. but two have the same reading here, there can be no doubt, I think, of its being the genuine one.—Poppo objects to Göller's explanation, but does not propose any thing himself. Bp. Thirlwall adopts that of Portus, Acacius, and Hoffmann; although they had always kept that day holy. To this Arnold objects; but can Thucydides have written καὶ ἄγοντες as signifying καίπερ ἄγοντεσ? I certainly do not see why he could not, since he appears to have used a similar construction elsewhere; see VI. 16. 6, ἐξ οὗ καὶ περιγενόμενοι τῇ μάχῃ οὐδέπω καὶ νῦν βεβαίως θαρσοῦσι if not also 15. 4. But it is perhaps a more solid objection, that he never uses either ἄγειν with ἡμέραν in that sense (though he does with ἑορτήν); nor πάντα τὸν χρόνον to signify the whole course of time, as distinguished from the whole of the time, i. e. of some definite period; but either ἀεί or διὰ παντός. Nor, again, does the statement thus supposed to be made respecting the holy day rest on any thing but assumption. and advancing that day the whole of the time invaded the Epidaurian territory, and proceeded to lay it waste The Epidaurians invoked the aid of their allies;
but some of them pleaded the month as an excuse, while others, even after coming to the borders of Epidaurus, remained inactive.
At the time that the Argives were in Epidaurus, deputations from the states assembled at Mantinea, on the invitation of the Athenians. And when the conference began, the Corinthians said that their words did not agree with their deeds; since they were sitting in council on the subject of peace, while the Epidaurians with their allies and the Argives were arrayed against each other under arms. Deputies therefore from each party ought first to go and separate the armies, and then come and speak again on the subject of peace.
In compliance with this sentiment, they went and brought back the Argives out of the Epidaurian territory. They then assembled again, but could not even then come to any agreement; but the Argives again invaded Epidaurus, and laid it waste. The Lacedaemonians, too, marched out to Caryae;
and returned again, when the omens on that occasion also proved unfavourable to them.