Book 5
"For renewal of the oath the Athenians shall go to Elis, to Mantinea, and to Argos, thirty days before the Olympic games; and the Argives, Eleans, and Mantineans shall go to Athens ten days before the great Panathenaea. 11.
"The stipulations respecting the treaty, the oaths, and the alliance shall be inscribed on a stone column, by the Athenians on the Acropolis,A fragment of the official document recording this treaty was found by the Archaeological Society at Athens in the spring of 1877 upon a marble slab on the southern slope of the Acropolis. The text of the inscription has been restored by Kirchhoff, Schöne, Foucart, and Stahl in substantial agreement. by the Argives in the market-place, in the temple of Apollo, by the Mantineans in the market-place, in the temple of Zeus; and a brazen pillar shall be set up by them jointly at the Olympic games of this year. 12.
“If it shall seem advisable to these states to add anything further to these agreements, whatever shall seem good to all the states in joint deliberation shall be binding.”
Thus the treaty and the alliance were completed; but the treaty between the Lacedaemonians and Athenians was not on this account renounced by either party.
The Corinthians, however, although allies of the Argives, did not accede to the new treaty—even before this when an alliance, offensive and defensive, had been made between the Eleans, Argives, and Mantineans, they had not joined it—but said they were content with the first defensive alliance that had been made, namely to aid one another, but not to join in attacking any other party.
Thus, then, the Corinthians held aloof from their allies and were turning their thoughts again to the Lacedaemonians.
This summer the Olympic games wereOl. 90, 1; July 420 B.C. held, in which Androsthenes an Arcadian won his first victory in the pancratium. The Lacedaemonians were excluded from the sanctuary by the Eleans, and so could neither sacrifice nor contend in the games, as they refused to pay the fine which had been assessed against them according to Olympic law by the Eleans, who alleged that they had attacked the Elean fortress of Phyrcus, and sent a force of their hoplites into Lepreum during the Olympic truce.The month of the festival was sacred (ἱερομηνία) and all warfare was stopped for that time. To enter the territory of Elis with an armed force during that month was sacrilegious. The fine was two thousand minas,About £8,125 or $38,840. two minasAbout £8 2s. 6d. or $39. for each hoplite, as the law ordains.
The Lacedaemonians sent envoys and urged that the fine had been unfairly imposed upon them, claiming that the treaty had not been announced at Lacedaemon when they sent the hoplites into Elis.
But the Eleans said that the truce was already in force in their country—for they proclaim it among themselves first —and while they were keeping quiet and not expecting any attack, as in time of truce, the Lacedaemonians had done
the wrong, taking them by surprise. The Lacedaemonians replied that they should not have gone on and announced the truce at Lacedaemon if they were of the opinion that the Lacedaemonians were already wronging them, but they had done this as though they did not think so, and they themselves had not kept on bearing arms against them anywhere
after the announcement of the truce. But the Eleans persisted in the same statement, saying that they could never be persuaded that the Lacedaemonians were not guilty; if, however, they were willing to restore Lepreum to them, they would give up their own half of the fine, and what was due to the gods they would themselves pay on their behalf.
When the Lacedaemonians refused this offer, the Eleans proposed that they should not restore Lepreum, if they objected to that, but, as they eagerly desired to have access to the sanctuary, that they should go up to the altar of Olympian Zeus and swear in the presence of the Hellenes that they would assuredly pay the fine later.
But as they were unwilling to do even this, the Lacedaemonians were excluded from the temple, from the sacrifice and the contests, and sacrificed at home;
while the rest of the Hellenes, except the Lepreates, sent representatives to the festival. Still the Eleans, fearing that the Lacedaemonians would force their way and offer sacrifice, kept guard with the young men under arms;
and there came to their aid also some Argives and Mantineans, a thousand of each, and some Athenian cavalry that were at ArpinaIn the valley of the Alpheus, twenty stadia above Olympia awaiting the festival. And great fear came upon the assembly that the Lacedaemonians might come with arms, especially as Lichas son of Arcesilaus, a Lacedaemonian, received blows from the umpires on the course, because, when his own team won and was proclaimed as belonging to the Boeotian state on account of his having no right to contend, he had come upon the course and crowned the charioteer, wishing to show that the chariot was his. And so everybody was much more afraid, and it seemed that there would be some disturbance. The Lacedaemonians, however, kept quiet, and the festival went through in this way, as far as they were concerned.
But after the Olympic games the Argives and their allies came to Corinth, to ask then to join their league. Lacedaemonian envoys also happened to be present. Many proposals were made, but nothing was done; for an earthquake occurred and they dispersed severally to their homes. And the summer ended.
During the following winter, there was a battle between the people of Heracleia in Trachis and the Aenianians, Dolopians, Malians, and some of the Thessalians.
For these were neighbouring tribes and hostile to the city of Heracleia, since the fortress there was established as a menace to no other territory but theirs. Accordingly, as soon as the city was founded, they began to show opposition to it, harassing it as much as they could; and at this time they defeated the Heracleotes, Xenares son of Cnidis, a Lacedaemonian and their commander, being killed, as well as some of the Heracleotes. And the winter ended, and with it the twelfth year of this war.
At the very beginning of the following419 B.C. summer, as Heracleia was in a grievous plight after the battle, the Boeotians took possession of it and dismissed Hegesippidas, the Lacedaemonian, for misgovernment. They occupied the place through fear that, while the Lacedaemonians were disturbed about matters in the Peloponnesus, the Athenians might
take it; the Lacedaemonians, however, were angry at them for this. During the same summer Alcibiades son of Cleinias, who was then a general of the Athenians, acting in concert with the Argives and their allies went into the Peloponnesus with a few Athenian hoplites and bowmen, and taking with him some of the allies from that region helped to settle matters pertaining to the alliance as he passed through the Peloponnesus with his army; coming to Patrae he persuaded the inhabitants to carry their walls down to the sea, and intended himself to build another fort at the Achaean Rhium.A low point of land at the mouth of the Corinthian Gulf; on the opposite side of the strait was the Molycreian Rhium. The fort would have given the Athenians entire control of the entrance to the Gulf. But the Corinthians, Sicyonians, and all those to whom the fortification of Rhium would have been a menace, went in force and prevented it.
During the same summer war broke out between the Epidaurians and Argives. The alleged ground for this was that the Epidaurians were not sending the sacrifice to Apollo Pythaeus, which it was incumbent on them to render in payment for pasturage, and the Argives exercised chief authority over the sanctuary;Probably the temple of Apollo Pythaeus referred to is that which alone of all the buildings in Asine the Argives spared when they destroyed that town; cf. Paus. II. xxxvi. 5. but even apart from this motive Alcibiades and the Argives deemed it advisable, if they could, to bring Epidaurus into the Argive alliance, both for the sake of keeping Corinth quiet, and because they thought the Athenians would be able to bring aid to Argos by a shorter way, from Aegina as base, than by sailing round Scyllaeum.A promontory between Hermione and Troezene. The short route was from Aegina to the neighbouring coast of Epidaurus and thence to Argos; if Epidaurus was hostile or neutral, reinforcements had to be carried round Scyllaeum to the Gulf of Nauplia and thence by land to Argos. The Argives, then, were preparing, as of their own motion, to invade Epidaurus for the exaction of the offering.
About the same time the Lacedaemonians, too, marched out with all their forces to Leuctra, a place on their own borders opposite Mt. Lycaeum, under the command of King Agis son of Archidamus; and no one knew whither they were marching, not even the cities from which they were sent.
But as the sacrifices for crossing the borderThe sacrifices offered to Zeus by the Spartan kings before crossing the border. were not favourable, they went back home themselves, and sent word to their allies, after the coming month— the Carneian month,Corresponding to the Attic Metageitnion, nearly our August. a holiday among the Dorians—to prepare to take the field.
When they withdrew, the Argives set out on the twenty-seventh of the month preceding the Carneian, and continuing to observe that day during the whole time,They called every day the 27th as long as they were in Epidaurian territory and thus postponed the beginning of the following month until their work was done. Probably the Argives, on religious grounds (as Dorians), took holiday as soon as the Carneian month began. invaded Epidaurus and proceeded to ravage it.
The Epidaurians called upon their allies for help; but some of these made the month an excuse, while the rest went merely to the borders of Epidauria and there remained quiet.
While the Argives were in Epidaurian territory envoys from the different cities came together at Mantinea, on the invitation of the Athenians. And in the course of the conference Euphamidas the Corinthian said that their words did not agree with their deeds; for they were sitting in council on the question of peace, while the Epidaurians with their allies and the Argives were arrayed in arms against each other; they ought to go first to the camps of the two parties and disband them, and then they might come back and talk about peace.
Adopting this suggestion, they went and induced the Argives to depart from Epidauria. Afterwards they came together again, but not even then were they able to agree, and the Argives again invaded Epidauria and began to ravage it. The Lacedaemonians, too, marched out to Caryae;
but as not even there the sacrifices for crossing the boundaries proved favourable, they returned.
And the Argives, having ravaged about a third part of Epidauria, also went back home. Moreover, there had come to their aid one thousand Athenian hoplites, under the command of Alcibiades, on learning that the Lacedaemonians had taken the field; as now there was no longer any need of them these withdrew.Or reading πυθόμενοι δέ, with the MSS., “but learning that the Lacedaemonians had left the field”— which the verb means nowhere else—“and that there was no further need of them.” And so the summer ended.
During the following winter, the Lacedaemonians, eluding the vigilance of the Athenians, sent a garrison of three hundred men, under the command of Agesippidas, by sea to Epidaurus.
And the Argives, coming to Athens, made complaint that, although it was written in the treaty that they were not to allow enemies to go through their respective territories,cf. 5.47.5. the Athenians had permitted the Lacedaemonians to go past their territoryie. past Aegina, now Athenian territory. by sea; unless, then, the Athenians should bring the Messenians and Helots to Pylos to annoy the Lacedaemonians, they themselves would feel aggrieved.
So the Athenians, on the advice of Alcibiades, inscribed at the bottom of the Laconian column that the Lacedaemonians had not kept their oaths, and they brought to Pylos the Helots from Cranii,cf. 5.35.7. to plunder the country;
but in other respects they kept quiet. During this winter, although the Argives and Epidaurians were at war, there was no pitched battle, but there were ambuscades and forays, in which some perished on either side as the chance might be.
As winter was closing and spring at hand, the Argives came with scaling-ladders against Epidaurus, supposing, as it was stripped of its defenders by the war, that they could take it by assault; but they accomplished nothing and went back home. And the winter ended and with it the thirteenth year of the war.
In the middle of the following summer, the418 B.C. Lacedaemonians, seeing that their Epidaurian allies were in distress, and of the other states in the Peloponnesus some had revolted, while others were not well-disposed, and thinking that if measures of precaution were not taken quickly the evil would go yet further, marched against Argos with all their forces, themselves and their Helots, under the leadership of Agis son of Archidamus, king of
the Lacedaemonians. And with them went the Tegeates and all the rest of the Arcadians that were allies of the Lacedaemonians. But the allies from the rest of the Peloponnesus and those from outside mustered at Phlius—five thousand Boeotian hoplites and as many light-armed troops, with five hundred cavalry each with his foot-soldier;ἅμιπποι, light-armed men, one with each horseman, running alongside or riding behind. two thousand Corinthian hoplites; the rest of the allies in varying numbers, but the Phliasians with their whole force, since the armament was assembled in their territory.
The Argives had been aware of the preparations of the Lacedaemonians from the first, and when the latter were on the march to Phlius where they intended to join the rest, they now took the field themselves. And the Mantineans came to their aid with their own allies and three thousand Elean hoplites.
As they were going forward they came upon the Lacedaemonians at Methydrium in Arcadia. Each party took position on a hill, and the Argives prepared to fight with the Lacedaemonians, thinking to find them still isolated; but Agis, rousing up his force during the night and eluding detection, marched to Phlius to join the rest of the allies.
The Argives, perceiving this, set out at daybreak, marching first to Argos and then taking the road to Nemea, where they expected the Lacedaemonians with their allies to come down.
Agis, however, did not take the way they were expecting him to follow, but giving the word to the Lacedaemonians, Arcadians, and Epidaurians, he advanced by a more difficult route and descended to the Argive plain. The Corinthians, Pellenians, and Phliasians advanced by another steep road; while the Boeotians, Megarians and Sicyonians had been told to come down by the road to Nemea, where the Argives were posted, in order that if the Argives should attack their main force as it advanced into the plain, they might hang on their rear and use their cavalry against them.