Kitap 5
"If there be need to send a common expedition to any quarter, the Lacedaemonians and the Argives shall consult and adjudge to the allies their allotments in whatever way is fairest. 4.
"If there be any dispute on the part of any one of the cities, either of those within the Peloponnesus or without, whether about boundaries or anything else, the matter shall be judicially decided. But if any city of the allies quarrel with another, they shall appeal to some city which both deem to be impartial. 5. “Individual citizens shall conduct their suits according to hereditary usage.”
Such was the treaty and alliance that was concluded; and all the places which either side had acquired from the other in war they restored, or if there was any other ground of difference between them, they came to an agreement about it. Acting now in concert in their affairs, they voted not to receive herald or embassy from the Athenians, unless they evacuated their forts and withdrew from the Peloponnesus;
also not to make peace or carry on war with anyone except together. And not only did they prosecute other matters with energy, but both of them sent envoys to the places in Thrace and to Perdiccas. And they persuaded Perdiccas to swear alliance with them. He, however, did not desert the Athenians at once, but was thinking of it, because he saw the Argives had done so; for he was himself of Argive descent.cf. 2.99.3.
With the Chalcidians, too, they renewed their ancient oaths, and swore new ones. The Argives also sent envoys to the Athenians bidding them evacuate the fortress at Epidaurus;cf. 5.75.6. and these, seeing that their contingent was small in comparison with the rest, sent Demosthenes to bring away their men. On his arrival he made a pretext of some gymnastic contest outside the fort, and when the rest of the garrison had gone out closed the gates behind them. Afterwards the Athenians renewed the treaty with the Epidaurians and of their own accord gave up the fortress.
After the withdrawal of the Argives from the alliance, the Mantineans also, although at first opposed to this course, afterwards, finding themselves unable to hold out without the Argives, likewise made an agreement with the Lacedaemonians and relinquished their sovereignty over the cities.ie. over the Parrhasians and others in Arcadia; cf. ch. xxix. 1; xxxiii. 1; xii. 1.
And now the Lacedaemonians and Argives, each a thousand strong, made a joint expedition, the Lacedaemonians first going alone and setting up a more oligarchical form of government in Sicyon, afterwards both together putting down the democracy at Argos and establishing an oligarchy favourable to the Lacedaemonians. These things occurred when the winter was closing and spring was now near at hand; and so ended the fourteenth year of the war.
The next summer the people of Diumcf. 5.35.1.417 B.C. on Mount Athos revolted from the Athenians and went over to the Chalcidians; and the Lacedaemonians arranged matters in Achaea, which had before this not been favourable to
their interests. And now the popular party at Argos, gradually consolidating its strength and recovering boldness, waited for the celebration of the GymnopaediaeA festival in which boys and men danced naked. While it lasted the Lacedaemonians (as at the Carneia, cf. chs. liv. and lxxv.) abstained from war. by the Lacedaemonians and attacked the oligarchs. A battle occurred in the city and the popular party got the better of it, slaying some of their enemies and
expelling others. The Lacedaemonians, although their friends kept sending for them, did not come for a long time; but at last they put off the Gymnopaediae and went to their aid. But hearing at Tegea that the oligarchs had been conquered, they refused to go further, in spite of the entreaties of the oligarchs who had escaped, and returning home proceeded with the celebration of
the Gymnopaediae. Later, when envoys had come from the Argives in the city and messengers from those who had been driven out, and their allies were present, and much had been said on either side, they decided that those in the cityThe popular party. were in the wrong and determined to make an expedition
to Argos; but delays and postponements occurred. Meanwhile, the democracy at Argos, fearing the Lacedaemonians and again courting the alliance of the Athenians, because they believed that it would be of the greatest benefit to themselves, proceeded to build long walls down to the sea, in order that, should they be cut off from the land, they might with the help of the Athenians have the advantage of importing supplies
by sea. Some of the cities in the Peloponnesus, too, were privy to their fortifying. The whole Argive people, men, women, and slaves, set to work upon the walls; and from Athens also there came to them carpenters and stone masons. So the summer ended.
The following winter, when the Lacedaemonians became aware that they were fortifying Argos, they made an expedition thither, themselves and their allies, except the Corinthians; and there was also a party in Argos itself that was working in their interest. The commander of the army was Agis son of Archidamus, king of the Lacedaemonians.
The support from the city which they expected to find ready failed them, but they seized and demolished the walls that were being built; and they also seized Hysiae, a place in Argive territory, slew all the free men whom they caught, and then withdrew and dispersed to their several cities.
After this the Argives in their turn invaded Phliasia and ravaged it before they returned home, because the Phliasians had received fugitives of theirs, most of whom had settled there.
Also during the same winter the Athenians shut off the Macedonians from the sea, charging Perdiccas with the league which he had made with the Argives and the Lacedaemonians; also that when they had prepared to lead an army against the Chalcidians in Thrace and against Amphipolis, under the command of Nicias son of Niceratus, he had been false to the alliance, and the expedition had been broken up chiefly because of his defection. Accordingly, he was regarded as an enemy. So this winter ended and with it the fifteenth year of the war.
The next summer Alcibiades sailed toMarch, 416 B.C. Argos with twenty ships and seized such Argives as seemed to be still open to suspicion and to favour the side of the Lacedaemonians, to the number of three hundred men; and these the Athenians deposited in the adjacent islands over which they had sway. The Athenians also made an expedition against the island of Meloscf. 3.91.1; 3.94.2. with thirty ships of their own, six Chian and two Lesbian, and twelve hundred Athenian hoplites, three hundred bowmen, and twenty mounted archers, and from their allies and the islanders about
fifteen hundred hoplites. Now the Melians are colonists of the Lacedaemonians, and were unwilling to obey the Athenians like the rest of the islanders. At first they remained quiet as neutrals; then when the Athenians tried to force them by ravaging their land, they went
to war openly. Accordingly, having encamped in their territory with the forces just mentioned, the Athenian commanders, Cleomedes son of Lycomedes and Teisias son of Teisimachus, before doing any harm to the land, sent envoys to make proposals to the Melians. These envoys the Melians did not bring before the popular assembly, but bade them tell in the presence of the magistrates and the fewProbably the chief governing body, a chamber of oligarchs, to which the magistrates (αἱ ἀρχαί) belonged. what they had come for. The Athenian envoys accordingly spoke as follows:
“Since our proposals are not to be made before the assembly, your purpose being, as it seems, that the people may not hear from us once for all, in an uninterrupted speech, arguments that are seductive and untested,ie. not questioned or put to the proof. and so be deceived—for we see that it is with this thought that you bring us before the few—do you who sit here adopt a still safer course. Take up each point, and do not you either make a single speech, but conduct the inquiry by replying at once to any statement of ours that seems to be unsatisfactory. And first state whether our proposal suits you.”
The commissioners of the Melians answered: “The fairness of the proposal, that we shall at our leisure instruct one another, is not open to objection, but these acts of war, which are not in the future, but already here at hand, are manifestly at variance with your suggestion. For we see that you are come to be yourselves judges of what is to be said here, and that the outcome of the discussion will in all likelihood be, if we win the debate by the righteousness of our cause and for that very reason refuse to yield, war for us, whereas if we are persuaded, servitude.”
ATH. “Well, if you have met to argue from suspicions about what may happen in the future, or for any other purpose than to consult for the safety of your city in the light of what is present and before your eyes, we may as well stop; but if you have this end in view, we may speak on.”
MEL. “It is natural and pardonable for men in such a position as ours to resort to many arguments and many suppositions. This conference, however, is here to consider the question of our safety; so let the discussion, if it please you, proceed in the way that you propose.”
ATH. “Well, then, we on our part will make use of no fair phrases, saying either that we hold sway justly because we overthrew the Persians,cf. 6.83.2. or that we now come against you because we are injured, offering in a lengthy speech arguments that would not be believed; nor, on the other hand, do we presume that you will assert, either that the reason why you did not join us in the war was because you were colonists of the Lacedaemonians, or that you have done us no wrong. Rather we presume that you aim at accomplishing what is possible in accordance with the real thoughts of both of us, since you know as well as we know that what is just is arrived at in human arguments only when the necessity on both sides is equal, and that the powerful exact what they can, while the weak yield what they must.”
MEL. “As we think, at any rate, it is expedient (for we are constrained to speak of expediency, since you have in this fashion, ignoring the principle of justice, suggested that we speak of what is advantageous) that you should not rule out the principle of the common good, but that for him who is at the time in peril what is equitable should also be just, and though one has not entirelyἐντὸς τοῦ ἀκριβοῦς, lit. “short of exactness.” proved his point he should still derive some benefit therefrom. And this is not less for your interest than for our own, inasmuch as you, if you shall ever meet with a reverse, would not only incur the greatest punishment, but would also become a warning example to others.”ie. cruel conduct on your part would justify others in inflicting like punishment upon you should you ever be defeated.
ATH. “But we on our part, so far as our empire is concerned, even if it should cease to be, do not look forward to the end with dismay. For it is not those who rule over others, as the Lacedaemonians also do—though our quarrel is not now with the Lacedaemonians—that are a terror to the vanquished, but subject peoples who may perchance themselves attack and get the better of their rulers.
And as far as that is concerned, you must permit us to take the risk. But that it is for the benefit of our empire that we are here, and also the safety of your city that we now propose to speak, we shall make plain to you, since what we desire is to have dominion over you without trouble to ourselves, and that you should be saved to the advantage of both.”
MEL. “And how could it prove as advantageous for us to become slaves, as it is for you to have dominion?”
ATH. “Because it would be to your advantage to submit before suffering the most horrible fate, and we should gain by not destroying you.”
MEL, “And so, you mean, you would not consent to our remaining at peace and being friends instead of enemies, but allies of neither combatant?”
ATH. “No; for your hostility does not injure us so much as your friendship; for in the eyes of our subjects that would be a proof of our weakness, whereas your hatred is a proof of our power.”
MEL. “Do your subjects regard equity in such a way as to put in the same category those that do not belong to you at all and those—your own colonists in most cases and in others revolted subjects—who have been subdued by you?”
ATH. “As to pleas of justice, they think that neither the one nor the other lacks them, but that those who preserve their freedom owe it to their power, and that we do not attack them because we are afraid. So that, to say nothing of our enlarging our empire, you would afford us security by being subdued, especially if you, an insular power, and weaker than other islanders, should fail to show yourselves superior to a power which is master of the sea.”
MEL. “But do you not think there is security in the other course?i. e. in neutrality, referred to in ch. xciv. For here also it is necessary, just as you force us to abandon all pleas of justice and seek to persuade us to give ear to what is to your own interests, that we, too, tell you what is to our advantage and try to persuade you to adopt it, if that happens to be to your advantage also. How, we say, shall you not make enemies of all who are now neutral, as soon as they look at our case and conclude that some day you will come against them also? And in this what else are you doing but strengthening the enemies you already have, and bringing upon you, against their inclination, others who would never have thought of becoming your enemies?”
ATH. “Not so, for we do not reckon those as the more dangerous to us who, dwelling somewhere on the mainland and being free men, will defer for a long time taking any precautions against us, but rather those who dwell in some of the islands, both those who, like you, are subject to no control, and those who are already exasperated by the necessity of submission to our rule. For it is these who are most likely to give way to recklessness and bring both themselves and us into danger which they cannot but foresee.”
MEL. “Surely, then, if you and your subjects brave so great a risk, you in order that you may not lose your empire, and they, who are already your slaves, in order that they may be rid of it, for us surely who still have our freedom it would be the height of baseness and cowardice not to resort to every expedient before submitting to servitude.”
ATH. “No, not if you take a sensible view of the matter; for with you it is not a contest on equal terms to determine a point of manly honour, so as to avoid incurring disgrace; rather the question before you is one of self-preservation—to avoid offering resistance to those who are far stronger than you.”
MEL. “But we know that the fortune of war is sometimes impartial and not in accord with the difference in numbers. And for us, to yield is at once to give up hope; but if we make an effort, there is still hope that we may stand erect.”
ATH. “Hope is indeed a solace in danger, and for those who have other resources in abundance, though she may injure, she does not ruin them; but for those who stake their all on a single throw—hope being by nature prodigal—it is only when disaster has befallen that her true nature is recognized, and when at last she is known, she leaves the victim no resource wherewith to take precautions against her in future.