Book 5
Accordingly, there came from the Lacedaemonians to Argos, Lichas, son of Arcesilaus, who was proxenus for the Argives, bearing two proposals, one as to the mode in which they should carry on hostilities, if they preferred it; the other, as to the footing on which they should remain at peace, if they preferred that. And after there had been much controversy on the subject, (for Alcibiades also happened to be present,) the party who negotiated for the Lacedaemonians, and who now ventured to do so openly, prevailed on the Argives to accept the proposal for an accommodation; which was to this effect:
It seems good to the assembly of the Lacedaemonians to enter into agreement with the Argives on the following conditions:—That they shall restore their children to the Orchomenians, their men to the Maenalians, and the men deposited at Mantinea to the Lacedaemonians. That they shall evacuate Epidaurus, and demolish their fortification there:
and that if the Athenians do not withdraw from Epidaurus, they shall be declared enemies to the Argives and Lacedaemonians, with the allies of both those states.—
That if the Lacedaemonians have any children in their custody, they shall restore them to all the states.—
That with respect to the offering to the god, εἷμεν λῇν.] For the various conjectures as to the true reading in this passage, see Poppo. the Epidaurians shall be at liberty to take an oath on the subject, and that the Argives shall allow them to do so.—
That the states in the Peloponnese, both small and great, shall be all independent, according to the institutions of their fathers.—
That if any of those beyond the Peloponnese come against the Peloponnesian territory with evil intent, they shall repel the invader ἀμόθι.] Or, as Arnold takes it, after Bredow, any where. by common counsel, on such terms as shall seem most just for the Peloponnesians.—
That whatever people out of the Peloponnese are allies of the Lacedaemonians, they shall stand on the same footing as the allies of the Lacedaemonians and of the Argives, retaining their own possessions.— ξυμβαλέσθαι.] Bloomfield supposes the allies to be the subject of this infinitive; but it surely must be the parties to which ἐπιδείξαντας refers. The same parties must also be the subject of ἀπιάλλειν in the following sentence: but their object in thus sending them away is doubtful; whether it was that the ambassadors might consult their governments on the objections they had made to the treaty; or, that they might not, by their intrigues, attempt to unsettle the relations between Argos and Lacedaemon. The latter appears to me more accordant with the brief and summary ex pression, οἴκαδ᾽ ἀπιάλλειν.
That the contracting parties shall show these conditions to the allies, and enter into agreement with them, if they seem satisfactory to them; but that if any thing else seem good to the allies, they shall send them away home.
This proposal the Argives in the first place accepted, and the army of the Lacedaemonians returned home from Tegea. Afterwards, when intercourse with each other was now held by them, not long subsequently the same party again contrived that the Argives should renounce their alliance with the Mantineans, Eleans, and Athenians, and conclude a treaty and alliance with the Lacedaemonians; which were to this effect:
The following are the terms on which it seemed good to the Lacedaemonians and Argives that a treaty and alliance should be concluded between them for fifty years.—That they shall afford to each other judicial decision of differences, on fair and equal terms, according to the institutions of their fathers.—That the other states in the Peloponnese shall participate in this treaty and alliance, as independent and self-governed, retaining their own possessions, and affording fair and equal judicial decisions, according to the institutions of their fathers.—
That whatever people out of the Peloponnese are allies of the Lacedaemonians, they shall stand on the same footing as the Lacedaemonians, and the allies of the Argives on the same footing as the Argives, retaining their own possessions.—
That if a common expedition to any quarter should be required, the Lacedaemonians and Argives shall consult upon it, deciding as may be most just for the allies.—
That if any of the states, either in the Peloponnese or out of it, have any points of dispute, whether concerning their borders or any thing else, διακριθῆμεν.] Or, as Arnold takes it, simply brought to an issue, of whatever kind it might be. Poppo agrees with Bloomfield that only an appeal to legal principles is here intended by the word; but observes that it is a less definite term than ἐς πόλιν ... ἐλθεῖν, the method prescribed when both the contending states were members of the leagues; as including the decisions, not only of a third state, but also of the Delphian oracle, the Amphiloctyons, and of individual referees. they shall be judicially decided.—That if any of the allied states should have a quarrel with another, they shall have recourse to the arbitration of whatever third state may be thought impartial by both.—That the private citizens in each state shall have their causes tried according to the institutions of their fathers.
This then was the treaty and alliance that was concluded; and whatever belonging to each other they had taken in the war, or whatever other ground of difference existed between them, they came to a settlement of all such matters. And as they now arranged their measures in concert, they adopted a resolution not to receive any herald or embassy from the Athenians, unless they withdrew from the Peloponnese, and evacuated their forts;
and neither to make peace nor carry on war with any, except conjointly. And besides conducting their other measures with vehemence, they both of them sent ambassadors to the Thrace-ward towns, and to Perdiccas, whom they persuaded to join their league. He did not, however, immediately separate from the Athenians, but purposed doing so, because he saw that the Argives had also; for he himself was originally from Argos. They likewise renewed their former oaths with the Chalcidians, and bound themselves by new ones.
Moreover, the Argives sent ambassadors to the Athenians, commanding them to evacuate their fortress in Epidaurus. They therefore, seeing themselves to be but few against many who joined in garrisoning it, sent Demosthenes to lead their men out of it; who having arrived, and instituted, by way of pretext, a gymnastic contest outside the fortress, when the rest of the garrison had gone out, shut the gates upon them. Afterwards, having renewed their treaty with the Epidaurians, the Athenians by themselves gave up the fortress.
Subsequent to the withdrawal of the Argives from the confederacy, the Mantineans, after first holding out, and then finding themselves unable to do so without the Argives, came to terms on their part also with the Lacedaemonians, and relinquished their sovereignty over i.e. their subject allies, mentioned ch, 33 58. 1, and elsewhere. the cities.
And now the Lacedaemonians and Argives, each a thousand strong, took the field together, and the Lacedaemonians by themselves went and put the government of Sicyon into the hands of a smaller num ber than before, and then both of them together also put down the democracy at Argos, an oligarchy being established, in accordance with the interests of the Lacedaemonians. These things occurred at the close of the winter, when spring was now near at hand; and so ended the fourteenth year of the war.
The following summer, the inhabitants of Dium on Athos revolted from the Athenians to the Chalcidians; and the Lacedaemonians settled the affairs of Achaia, which before had not been suitable to their views.
And now the commons party at Argos, gradually combining and recovering their spirits, made an attack upon the oligarchical party, having watched their opportunity, when it was just the time of the Lacedaemonian Gymnopaediae. And a battle having been fought in the city, the commons gained the victory, and slew some of them, and banished others.
The Lacedaemonians, while their friends had been sending for them a long time before, did not go; but at length put off the Gymnopaediae, and marched to their aid. On hearing at Tegea that the oligarchical party had been defeated, they would not advance any farther, though entreated by those who had escaped;
but returned home, and kept the Gymnopaediae. Afterwards, when ambassadors had come both from the Argives in the city ἀγγέλων.] Bekker, Poppo, and Arnold all think this word corrupt; while Göller understands by it a party in Argos who were in constant communication with Sparta: but surely that is a very forced interpretation. and from those driven out of it, and when the allies also were present, and much had been said on both sides, they decided that the party in the city were in the wrong, and resolved to march against Argos; but much delay and procrastination ensued.
In the mean time the commons at Argos were afraid of the Lacedaemonians, and as they courted the alliance of Athens again, and thought it would be of the greatest service to them, they built long walls to the sea; that if they should be excluded from the use of the land, the importation of things by sea, through the help of the Athenians, might be of benefit to them.
Some of the cities in the Peloponnese were also privy to their building these walls. The Argives therefore were engaged in the work with all their population, themselves, their wives, and their slaves; while there came to them from Athens carpenters and stone-masons. And so the summer ended.
The following winter, when the Lacedaemonians were aware of their building the walls, they marched against Argos, both themselves and their allies, excepting the Corinthians; communication being also held with them from Argos itself. The leader of the army was Agis, son of Archidamus, king of the Lacedaemonians.
With regard, then, to the advantages which they thought they had secured in the city itself, nothing more came of them; but the walls that were being built, they took and demolished. And having taken Hysiae, a town in the Argive territory, and put to the sword all the free-men they got into their hands, they returned, and dispersed to their respective cities.
After this, the Argives, in their turn, marched against the Phliasian country, and laid it waste before they returned, because they harboured their exiles; for the greater part of them had settled there. All the editors agree in thinking different parts of this sentence corrupt, and propose various emendations of it; but none of them, in my humble opinion, has struck at the root of the evil, which lies, I think, in the verb κατέκλῃσαν. The idea of the Athenians blockading a whole country so extensive as Macedonia appears too extravagant to be admitted; particularly as no proof is adduced of κατακλέιειν being ever used in such a sense; but it always refers to men being shut up in particular places. Until Bloomfield therefore brings forward an instance of its being so employed, he must not assume that his reading of the passage yields an excellent sense, and one not open to any well-founded objection. Krüger's conjecture κατελήισαν would suit the passage admirably; but Poppo observes that the active form of the compound verb is never used, and that the simple verb would be going too far from the traces of the common text. To rectify this evil, I venture to propose καὶ ἐλήϊσαν; retaining μακεδονίας as a partitive genitive, and adopting Göller's punctuation, and reading of περδίκκᾳ; so that the whole passage would run thus: καὶ ἐλήϊσαν δὲ τοῦ αὐτοῦ χειμῶνος καὶ μακεδονίας Ἀθηναῖοι, περδίκκᾳ ἐπίκαλ. κ. τ. λ. Though δέ after καί is not used so frequently by Thucydides as by Xenophon and some other writers, it occurs in three other places, if not more; namely, I. 132. 2; II. 36. 1; and VII. 56. 3, at the beginning of a paragraph in the last instance, in a manner exactly similar to what is proposed here. καὶ ἦν δὲ ἄξιος ὁ ἀγὼν κατά τε ταῦτα, κ. τ. λ. I may add, that this reading is perhaps confirmed by, or at any rate agrees very well with, the next notice we have of Perdiccas, VI. 7. 4, where it is again mentioned that the Athenians ἐκακούργουν τὴν περδίκκου.
The Athenians ravaged, too, during the same winter a part of Macedonia also, charging Perdiccas with the league he had entered into with the Argives and Lacedaemonians; and with the fact, that when they had prepared to lead an army against the Thrace-ward Chalcidians and Amphipolis, under the command of Nicias son of Niceratus, he had proved false to his allies, and the armament was chiefly broken up in consequence of his having deserted the cause. He was therefore proclaimed an enemy. And thus the winter ended, and the fifteenth year of the war.
The next summer, Alcibiades sailed to Argos with twenty ships, and seized three hundred men, who were still thought to be suspicious characters, and to favour the cause of the Lacedaemonians; and these the Athenians deposited in the neighbouring islands within their dominions. The Athenians also undertook an expedition against the island of Melos, with thirty ships of their own, six of the Chians, two of the Lesbians, sixteen hundred of their own heavy-armed, three hundred bowmen, twenty mounted archers, and about five thousand five hundred heavy-armed of the allies and the islanders.
Now the Melians are a colony of the Lacedaemonians, and would not submit to the Athenians, like the rest of the islanders, but at first remained quiet as neutrals, and then, when the Athenians tried to compel them by devastating their land, went openly to war with them.
The generals therefore, Cleomedes son of Lycomedes, and Tisias son of Tisimachus, στρατοπεδευσάμενοι ἐς τὴν γὴν.] A concise form for what is more fully expressed by διαβάντες ἐστρατοπεδεύσαντο, VIII. 25. 1; and by καταπλεύσαντες ἐστρατοπεδεύσαντο VIII. 79. 4.—Poppo. having gone and encamped in their territory with this armament, before injuring any part of the land, first sent ambassadors to hold a conference with them. These the Melians did not introduce to their popular assembly, but desired them to state the objects of their mission before the magistrates and the few. The ambassadors of the Athenians then spoke as follows:
Ath. Since our words are not to be addressed to your populace, in order that the many may not be deceived, forsooth, by hearing at once in one continuous oration persuasive and irrefutable arguments, (for we know that this is the meaning of your introducing us to the few,) do ye who are seated here in congress pursue a still more cautious method. For do not ye, either, make one continuous speech on the several topics, but immediately taking us up at whatever does not appear to be advanced in accordance with your interest, decide that question. And first tell us if you are pleased with what we propose. The commissioners of the Melians made this reply:
Mel. The fairness of thus calmly instructing each other is open to no objection: but your preparations for war, which are already here, and not merely coming, appear to be at variance with it. For we see that you are come to be yourselves judges of what will be said; and that the issue of the conference will in all probability bring us war, if we are stronger in the justice of our cause, and therefore refuse to submit; or slavery, if we are convinced by you.
Ath. If now you have met to argue upon suspicions of the future, or to do any thing else but to βουλεύσοντες.] The active form of this verb occurs again, ch. III. 2, where Arnold explains it as expressing the act of the government, consulting for the safety of its subjects. Poppo, however, refers to a similar usage of it, IV. 41. 1, where there is apparently no such force intended. consult for your country with a view to its preservation, according to what is present and before your eyes, we will stop; but if for this object, we will speak.
Mel. It is but natural and pardonable for men so circumstanced to have recourse to many things, both in thinking and speaking. However, this our meeting is held with a view to our preservation; and let the discussion proceed, if you please, in the way which you propose.
Ath. We then shall not ourselves advance fair pretences, either of our justly enjoying empire in consequence of having overthrown the Mede, or of now coming against you because we are being injured-and so make a long speech which would not be believed; nor do we wish you to think of persuading us by saying, either that you did not join the standard of the Lacedaemonians, though you were their colony; or that you have done us no wrong. But we advise you, according to the real sentiments of us both, to think of getting what you can; since you know, and are speaking to those who know, that, in the language of men, what is estimated by equality of power compel; but what is possible is that which the stronger practise, and to which the weak submit.
Mel. I have not followed Arnold's reading in this passage, though Bekker and Göller adopt it; because it seems improbable that ἦ μέν, the reading of nearly all the MSS., should have been a mistake of the copyists for one so much easier, and so different from it, as ἡμεῖς. At the same time I am far from certain whether ᾗ μέν that which I have preferred, on the authority of Herman, Poppo, and Bloomfield, be really the true one; for in no other passage in Thucydides, I believe, has ᾗ the force which is here given to it; and though Bloomfield quotes one instance of its being so used by Xenophon, he is there writing, not as an historian, but as a philosopher; and so uses it, as it is very commonly used by philosophical writers in later times. Should this objection be thought to have any weight, I would venture to propose ἡμῖν which comes nearer to the various readings of the MSS. than ἡμεῖς; and gives a sense in exact accordance with what follows: for καὶ πρὸς ὑμῶν, at the beginning of the next paragraph, would stand in strong opposition to it: For us, then, we certainly think it advantageous——and it is no less for your interest also. It may perhaps be regarded as some corroboration of this conjecture, that the scholiast quoted by Arnold uses ἡμῖν in his paraphrase; νομίζομεν ἡμῖν προσήκειν μὴ καταλύειν τὸ κοινὸν ἀγαθόν. So far then as our opinion goes, it is for our advantage (for we must, since you have so prescribed, speak of what is expedient, to the neglect of what is right) that you should not take away what is a common benefit; but that for every one who at any time is in danger, what is reasonable should also be considered right; and that if he can gain assent to something which ails short of strict justice, he should have the benefit of it. And this is not less for your interest; in as much, as This is pretty nearly the interpretation of the passage given by Bauer, and sanctioned by Poppo. For the many others that have been adopted see the note of the latter. you would afford to others, should you fail, a pattern for inflicting the heaviest vengeance upon you.
Ath. Nay, for our part, we are not disheartened about the end of our empire, even should it be brought to an end. For it is not those who rule over others, like the Lacedaemonians, that are to be feared by the vanquished. Nor is it with the Lacedaemonians that we have to struggle, but with the possibility of our subjects in any quarter by themselves attacking and overpowering those who have had rule over them.
So on this point let the danger be left to us. But that we are come here for the benefit of our empire, and that we shall also speak on the present occasion for the preservation of your country, on these points we will give you proofs; since we wish to maintain our own sovereignty over you without trouble, and to have you preserved for the advantage of us both.