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The History of the Peloponnesian War
Book 2 - Chapter VI
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Beginning of the Peloponnesian War - First Invasion of Attica -
Funeral Oration of Pericles
The war between the Athenians and Peloponnesians and the allies on
either side now really begins. For now all intercourse except
through the medium of heralds ceased, and hostilities were commenced
and prosecuted without intermission. The history follows the
chronological order of events by summers and winters.
The thirty years' truce which was entered into after the conquest of
Euboea lasted fourteen years. In the fifteenth, in the forty-eighth
year of the priestess-ship of Chrysis at Argos, in the ephorate of
Aenesias at Sparta, in the last month but two of the archonship of
Pythodorus at Athens, and six months after the battle of Potidaea,
just at the beginning of spring, a Theban force a little over three
hundred strong, under the command of their Boeotarchs, Pythangelus,
son of Phyleides, and Diemporus, son of Onetorides, about the first
watch of the night, made an armed entry into Plataea, a town of
Boeotia in alliance with Athens. The gates were opened to them by a
Plataean called Naucleides, who, with his party, had invited them
in, meaning to put to death the citizens of the opposite party,
bring over the city to Thebes, and thus obtain power for themselves.
This was arranged through Eurymachus, son of Leontiades, a person of
great influence at Thebes. For Plataea had always been at variance
with Thebes; and the latter, foreseeing that war was at hand, wished
to surprise her old enemy in time of peace, before hostilities had
actually broken out. Indeed this was how they got in so easily without
being observed, as no guard had been posted. After the soldiers had
grounded arms in the market-place, those who had invited them in
wished them to set to work at once and go to their enemies' houses.
This, however, the Thebans refused to do, but determined to make a
conciliatory proclamation, and if possible to come to a friendly
understanding with the citizens.
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Their herald accordingly invited any who wished to resume their old
place in the confederacy of their countrymen to ground arms with
them, for they thought that in this way the city would readily join
them.
On becoming aware of the presence of the Thebans within their gates,
and of the sudden occupation of the town, the Plataeans concluded in
their alarm that more had entered than was really the case, the
night preventing their seeing them. They accordingly came to terms
and, accepting the proposal, made no movement; especially as the
Thebans offered none of them any violence. But somehow or other,
during the negotiations, they discovered the scanty numbers of the
Thebans, and decided that they could easily attack and overpower them;
the mass of the Plataeans being averse to revolting from Athens. At
all events they resolved to attempt it. Digging through the party
walls of the houses, they thus managed to join each other without
being seen going through the streets, in which they placed wagons
without the beasts in them, to serve as a barricade, and arranged
everything else as seemed convenient for the occasion. When everything
had been done that circumstances permitted, they watched their
opportunity and went out of their houses against the enemy. It was
still night, though daybreak was at hand: in daylight it was thought
that their attack would be met by men full of courage and on equal
terms with their assailants, while in darkness it would fall upon
panic-stricken troops, who would also be at a disadvantage from
their enemy's knowledge of the locality. So they made their assault at
once, and came to close quarters as quickly as they could.
The Thebans, finding themselves outwitted, immediately closed up
to repel all attacks made upon them. Twice or thrice they beat back
their assailants. But the men shouted and charged them, the women
and slaves screamed and yelled from the houses and pelted them with
stones and tiles; besides, it had been raining hard all night; and
so at last their courage gave way, and they turned and fled through
the town. Most of the fugitives were quite ignorant of the right
ways out, and this, with the mud, and the darkness caused by the
moon being in her last quarter, and the fact that their pursuers
knew their way about and could easily stop their escape, proved
fatal to many. The only gate open was the one by which they had
entered, and this was shut by one of the Plataeans driving the spike
of a javelin into the bar instead of the bolt; so that even here there
was no longer any means of exit. They were now chased all over the
town. Some got on the wall and threw themselves over, in most cases
with a fatal result. One party managed to find a deserted gate, and
obtaining an axe from a woman, cut through the bar; but as they were
soon observed only a few succeeded in getting out. Others were cut off
in detail in different parts of the city. The most numerous and
compact body rushed into a large building next to the city wall: the
doors on the side of the street happened to be open, and the Thebans
fancied that they were the gates of the town, and that there was a
passage right through to the outside. The Plataeans, seeing their
enemies in a trap, now consulted whether they should set fire to the
building and burn them just as they were, or whether there was
anything else that they could do with them; until at length these
and the rest of the Theban survivors found wandering about the town
agreed to an unconditional surrender of themselves and their arms to
the Plataeans.
While such was the fate of the party in Plataea, the rest of the
Thebans who were to have joined them with all their forces before
daybreak, in case of anything miscarrying with the body that had
entered, received the news of the affair on the road, and pressed
forward to their succour. Now Plataea is nearly eight miles from
Thebes, and their march delayed by the rain that had fallen in the
night, for the river Asopus had risen and was not easy of passage; and
so, having to march in the rain, and being hindered in crossing the
river, they arrived too late, and found the whole party either slain
or captive. When they learned what had happened, they at once formed a
design against the Plataeans outside the city. As the attack had
been made in time of peace, and was perfectly unexpected, there were
of course men and stock in the fields; and the Thebans wished if
possible to have some prisoners to exchange against their countrymen
in the town, should any chance to have been taken alive. Such was
their plan. But the Plataeans suspected their intention almost
before it was formed, and becoming alarmed for their fellow citizens
outside the town, sent a herald to the Thebans, reproaching them for
their unscrupulous attempt to seize their city in time of peace, and
warning them against any outrage on those outside. Should the
warning be disregarded, they threatened to put to death the men they
had in their hands, but added that, on the Thebans retiring from their
territory, they would surrender the prisoners to their friends. This
is the Theban account of the matter, and they say that they had an
oath given them. The Plataeans, on the other hand, do not admit any
promise of an immediate surrender, but make it contingent upon
subsequent negotiation: the oath they deny altogether. Be this as it
may, upon the Thebans retiring from their territory without committing
any injury, the Plataeans hastily got in whatever they had in the
country and immediately put the men to death. The prisoners were a
hundred and eighty in number; Eurymachus, the person with whom the
traitors had negotiated, being one.
This done, the Plataeans sent a messenger to Athens, gave back the
dead to the Thebans under a truce, and arranged things in the city
as seemed best to meet the present emergency. The Athenians meanwhile,
having had word of the affair sent them immediately after its
occurrence, had instantly seized all the Boeotians in Attica, and sent
a herald to the Plataeans to forbid their proceeding to extremities
with their Theban prisoners without instructions from Athens. The news
of the men's death had of course not arrived; the first messenger
having left Plataea just when the Thebans entered it, the second
just after their defeat and capture; so there was no later news.
Thus the Athenians sent orders in ignorance of the facts; and the
herald on his arrival found the men slain. After this the Athenians
marched to Plataea and brought in provisions, and left a garrison in
the place, also taking away the women and children and such of the men
as were least efficient.
After the affair at Plataea, the treaty had been broken by an
overt act, and Athens at once prepared for war, as did also Lacedaemon
and her allies. They resolved to send embassies to the King and to
such other of the barbarian powers as either party could look to for
assistance, and tried to ally themselves with the independent states
at home. Lacedaemon, in addition to the existing marine, gave orders
to the states that had declared for her in Italy and Sicily to build
vessels up to a grand total of five hundred, the quota of each city
being determined by its size, and also to provide a specified sum of
money. Till these were ready they were to remain neutral and to
admit single Athenian ships into their harbours. Athens on her part
reviewed her existing confederacy, and sent embassies to the places
more immediately round Peloponnese--Corcyra, Cephallenia, Acarnania,
and Zacynthus--perceiving that if these could be relied on she could
carry the war all round Peloponnese.
And if both sides nourished the boldest hopes and put forth their
utmost strength for the war, this was only natural. Zeal is always
at its height at the commencement of an undertaking; and on this
particular occasion Peloponnese and Athens were both full of young men
whose inexperience made them eager to take up arms, while the rest
of Hellas stood straining with excitement at the conflict of its
leading cities. Everywhere predictions were being recited and
oracles being chanted by such persons as collect them, and this not
only in the contending cities. Further, some while before this,
there was an earthquake at Delos, for the first time in the memory
of the Hellenes. This was said and thought to be ominous of the events
impending; indeed, nothing of the kind that happened was allowed to
pass without remark. The good wishes of men made greatly for the
Lacedaemonians, especially as they proclaimed themselves the
liberators of Hellas. No private or public effort that could help them
in speech or action was omitted; each thinking that the cause suffered
wherever he could not himself see to it. So general was the
indignation felt against Athens, whether by those who wished to escape
from her empire, or were apprehensive of being absorbed by it. Such
were the preparations and such the feelings with which the contest
opened.
The allies of the two belligerents were the following. These were
the allies of Lacedaemon: all the Peloponnesians within the Isthmus
except the Argives and Achaeans, who were neutral; Pellene being the
only Achaean city that first joined in the war, though her example was
afterwards followed by the rest. Outside Peloponnese the Megarians,
Locrians, Boeotians, Phocians, Ambraciots, Leucadians, and
Anactorians. Of these, ships were furnished by the Corinthians,
Megarians, Sicyonians, Pellenians, Eleans, Ambraciots, and Leucadians;
and cavalry by the Boeotians, Phocians, and Locrians. The other states
sent infantry. This was the Lacedaemonian confederacy. That of
Athens comprised the Chians, Lesbians, Plataeans, the Messenians in
Naupactus, most of the Acarnanians, the Corcyraeans, Zacynthians,
and some tributary cities in the following countries, viz., Caria upon
the sea with her Dorian neighbours, Ionia, the Hellespont, the
Thracian towns, the islands lying between Peloponnese and Crete
towards the east, and all the Cyclades except Melos and Thera. Of
these, ships were furnished by Chios, Lesbos, and Corcyra, infantry
and money by the rest. Such were the allies of either party and
their resources for the war.
Immediately after the affair at Plataea, Lacedaemon sent round
orders to the cities in Peloponnese and the rest of her confederacy to
prepare troops and the provisions requisite for a foreign campaign, in
order to invade Attica. The several states were ready at the time
appointed and assembled at the Isthmus: the contingent of each city
being two-thirds of its whole force. After the whole army had
mustered, the Lacedaemonian king, Archidamus, the leader of the
expedition, called together the generals of all the states and the
principal persons and officers, and exhorted them as follows:
"Peloponnesians and allies, our fathers made many campaigns both
within and without Peloponnese, and the elder men among us here are
not without experience in war. Yet we have never set out with a larger
force than the present; and if our numbers and efficiency are
remarkable, so also is the power of the state against which we
march. We ought not then to show ourselves inferior to our
ancestors, or unequal to our own reputation. For the hopes and
attention of all Hellas are bent upon the present effort, and its
sympathy is with the enemy of the hated Athens. Therefore, numerous as
the invading army may appear to be, and certain as some may think it
that our adversary will not meet us in the field, this is no sort of
justification for the least negligence upon the march; but the
officers and men of each particular city should always be prepared for
the advent of danger in their own quarters. The course of war cannot
be foreseen, and its attacks are generally dictated by the impulse
of the moment; and where overweening self-confidence has despised
preparation, a wise apprehension often been able to make head
against superior numbers. Not that confidence is out of place in an
army of invasion, but in an enemy's country it should also be
accompanied by the precautions of apprehension: troops will by this
combination be best inspired for dealing a blow, and best secured
against receiving one. In the present instance, the city against which
we are going, far from being so impotent for defence, is on the
contrary most excellently equipped at all points; so that we have
every reason to expect that they will take the field against us, and
that if they have not set out already before we are there, they will
certainly do so when they see us in their territory wasting and
destroying their property. For men are always exasperated at suffering
injuries to which they are not accustomed, and on seeing them
inflicted before their very eyes; and where least inclined for
reflection, rush with the greatest heat to action. The Athenians are
the very people of all others to do this, as they aspire to rule the
rest of the world, and are more in the habit of invading and
ravaging their neighbours' territory, than of seeing their own treated
in the like fashion. Considering, therefore, the power of the state
against which we are marching, and the greatness of the reputation
which, according to the event, we shall win or lose for our
ancestors and ourselves, remember as you follow where you may be led
to regard discipline and vigilance as of the first importance, and
to obey with alacrity the orders transmitted to you; as nothing
contributes so much to the credit and safety of an army as the union
of large bodies by a single discipline."
With this brief speech dismissing the assembly, Archidamus first
sent off Melesippus, son of Diacritus, a Spartan, to Athens, in case
she should be more inclined to submit on seeing the Peloponnesians
actually on the march. But the Athenians did not admit into the city
or to their assembly, Pericles having already carried a motion against
admitting either herald or embassy from the Lacedaemonians after
they had once marched out.
The herald was accordingly sent away without an audience, and
ordered to be beyond the frontier that same day; in future, if those
who sent him had a proposition to make, they must retire to their
own territory before they dispatched embassies to Athens. An escort
was sent with Melesippus to prevent his holding communication with any
one. When he reached the frontier and was just going to be
dismissed, he departed with these words: "This day will be the
beginning of great misfortunes to the Hellenes." As soon as he arrived
at the camp, and Archidamus learnt that the Athenians had still no
thoughts of submitting, he at length began his march, and advanced
with his army into their territory. Meanwhile the Boeotians, sending
their contingent and cavalry to join the Peloponnesian expedition,
went to Plataea with the remainder and laid waste the country.
While the Peloponnesians were still mustering at the Isthmus, or
on the march before they invaded Attica, Pericles, son of
Xanthippus, one of the ten generals of the Athenians, finding that the
invasion was to take place, conceived the idea that Archidamus, who
happened to be his friend, might possibly pass by his estate without
ravaging it. This he might do, either from a personal wish to oblige
him, or acting under instructions from Lacedaemon for the purpose of
creating a prejudice against him, as had been before attempted in
the demand for the expulsion of the accursed family. He accordingly
took the precaution of announcing to the Athenians in the assembly
that, although Archidamus was his friend, yet this friendship should
not extend to the detriment of the state, and that in case the enemy
should make his houses and lands an exception to the rest and not
pillage them, he at once gave them up to be public property, so that
they should not bring him into suspicion. He also gave the citizens
some advice on their present affairs in the same strain as before.
They were to prepare for the war, and to carry in their property
from the country. They were not to go out to battle, but to come
into the city and guard it, and get ready their fleet, in which
their real strength lay. They were also to keep a tight rein on
their allies--the strength of Athens being derived from the money
brought in by their payments, and success in war depending principally
upon conduct and capital. had no reason to despond. Apart from other
sources of income, an average revenue of six hundred talents of silver
was drawn from the tribute of the allies; and there were still six
thousand talents of coined silver in the Acropolis, out of nine
thousand seven hundred that had once been there, from which the
money had been taken for the porch of the Acropolis, the other
public buildings, and for Potidaea. This did not include the
uncoined gold and silver in public and private offerings, the sacred
vessels for the processions and games, the Median spoils, and
similar resources to the amount of five hundred talents. To this he
added the treasures of the other temples. These were by no means
inconsiderable, and might fairly be used. Nay, if they were ever
absolutely driven to it, they might take even the gold ornaments of
Athene herself; for the statue contained forty talents of pure gold
and it was all removable. This might be used for self-preservation,
and must every penny of it be restored. Such was their financial
position--surely a satisfactory one. Then they had an army of
thirteen thousand heavy infantry, besides sixteen thousand more in the
garrisons and on home duty at Athens. This was at first the number
of men on guard in the event of an invasion: it was composed of the
oldest and youngest levies and the resident aliens who had heavy
armour. The Phaleric wall ran for four miles, before it joined that
round the city; and of this last nearly five had a guard, although
part of it was left without one, viz., that between the Long Wall
and the Phaleric. Then there were the Long Walls to Piraeus, a
distance of some four miles and a half, the outer of which was manned.
Lastly, the circumference of Piraeus with Munychia was nearly seven
miles and a half; only half of this, however, was guarded. Pericles
also showed them that they had twelve hundred horse including
mounted archers, with sixteen hundred archers unmounted, and three
hundred galleys fit for service. Such were the resources of Athens
in the different departments when the Peloponnesian invasion was
impending and hostilities were being commenced. Pericles also urged
his usual arguments for expecting a favourable issue to the war.
The Athenians listened to his advice, and began to carry in their
wives and children from the country, and all their household
furniture, even to the woodwork of their houses which they took
down. Their sheep and cattle they sent over to Euboea and the adjacent
islands. But they found it hard to move, as most of them had been
always used to live in the country.
From very early times this had been more the case with the Athenians
than with others. Under Cecrops and the first kings, down to the reign
of Theseus, Attica had always consisted of a number of independent
townships, each with its own town hall and magistrates. Except in
times of danger the king at Athens was not consulted; in ordinary
seasons they carried on their government and settled their affairs
without his interference; sometimes even they waged war against him,
as in the case of the Eleusinians with Eumolpus against Erechtheus. In
Theseus, however, they had a king of equal intelligence and power; and
one of the chief features in his organization of the country was to
abolish the council-chambers and magistrates of the petty cities,
and to merge them in the single council-chamber and town hall of the
present capital. Individuals might still enjoy their private
property just as before, but they were henceforth compelled to have
only one political centre, viz., Athens; which thus counted all the
inhabitants of Attica among her citizens, so that when Theseus died he
left a great state behind him. Indeed, from him dates the Synoecia, or
Feast of Union; which is paid for by the state, and which the
Athenians still keep in honour of the goddess. Before this the city
consisted of the present citadel and the district beneath it looking
rather towards the south. This is shown by the fact that the temples
of the other deities, besides that of Athene, are in the citadel;
and even those that are outside it are mostly situated in this quarter
of the city, as that of the Olympian Zeus, of the Pythian Apollo, of
Earth, and of Dionysus in the Marshes, the same in whose honour the
older Dionysia are to this day celebrated in the month of Anthesterion
not only by the Athenians but also by their Ionian descendants.
There are also other ancient temples in this quarter. The fountain
too, which, since the alteration made by the tyrants, has been
called Enneacrounos, or Nine Pipes, but which, when the spring was
open, went by the name of Callirhoe, or Fairwater, was in those
days, from being so near, used for the most important offices. Indeed,
the old fashion of using the water before marriage and for other
sacred purposes is still kept up. Again, from their old residence in
that quarter, the citadel is still known among Athenians as the city.
The Athenians thus long lived scattered over Attica in independent
townships. Even after the centralization of Theseus, old habit still
prevailed; and from the early times down to the present war most
Athenians still lived in the country with their families and
households, and were consequently not at all inclined to move now,
especially as they had only just restored their establishments after
the Median invasion. Deep was their trouble and discontent at
abandoning their houses and the hereditary temples of the ancient
constitution, and at having to change their habits of life and to
bid farewell to what each regarded as his native city.
When they arrived at Athens, though a few had houses of their own to
go to, or could find an asylum with friends or relatives, by far the
greater number had to take up their dwelling in the parts of the
city that were not built over and in the temples and chapels of the
heroes, except the Acropolis and the temple of the Eleusinian
Demeter and such other Places as were always kept closed. The
occupation of the plot of ground lying below the citadel called the
Pelasgian had been forbidden by a curse; and there was also an ominous
fragment of a Pythian oracle which said:
Leave the Pelasgian parcel desolate,
Woe worth the day that men inhabit it!
Yet this too was now built over in the necessity of the moment. And in
my opinion, if the oracle proved true, it was in the opposite sense to
what was expected. For the misfortunes of the state did not arise from
the unlawful occupation, but the necessity of the occupation from
the war; and though the god did not mention this, he foresaw that it
would be an evil day for Athens in which the plot came to be
inhabited. Many also took up their quarters in the towers of the walls
or wherever else they could. For when they were all come in, the
city proved too small to hold them; though afterwards they divided the
Long Walls and a great part of Piraeus into lots and settled there.
All this while great attention was being given to the war; the
allies were being mustered, and an armament of a hundred ships
equipped for Peloponnese. Such was the state of preparation at Athens.
Meanwhile the army of the Peloponnesians was advancing. The first
town they came to in Attica was Oenoe, where they to enter the
country. Sitting down before it, they prepared to assault the wall
with engines and otherwise. Oenoe, standing upon the Athenian and
Boeotian border, was of course a walled town, and was used as a
fortress by the Athenians in time of war. So the Peloponnesians
prepared for their assault, and wasted some valuable time before the
place. This delay brought the gravest censure upon Archidamus. Even
during the levying of the war he had credit for weakness and
Athenian sympathies by the half measures he had advocated; and after
the army had assembled he had further injured himself in public
estimation by his loitering at the Isthmus and the slowness with which
the rest of the march had been conducted. But all this was as
nothing to the delay at Oenoe. During this interval the Athenians were
carrying in their property; and it was the belief of the
Peloponnesians that a quick advance would have found everything
still out, had it not been for his procrastination. Such was the
feeling of the army towards Archidamus during the siege. But he, it is
said, expected that the Athenians would shrink from letting their land
be wasted, and would make their submission while it was still
uninjured; and this was why he waited.
But after he had assaulted Oenoe, and every possible attempt to take
it had failed, as no herald came from Athens, he at last broke up
his camp and invaded Attica. This was about eighty days after the
Theban attempt upon Plataea, just in the middle of summer, when the
corn was ripe, and Archidamus, son of Zeuxis, king of Lacedaemon,
was in command. Encamping in Eleusis and the Thriasian plain, they
began their ravages, and putting to flight some Athenian horse at a
place called Rheiti, or the Brooks, they then advanced, keeping
Mount Aegaleus on their right, through Cropia, until they reached
Acharnae, the largest of the Athenian demes or townships. Sitting down
before it, they formed a camp there, and continued their ravages for a
long while.
The reason why Archidamus remained in order of battle at Acharnae
during this incursion, instead of descending into the plain, is said
to have been this. He hoped that the Athenians might possibly be
tempted by the multitude of their youth and the unprecedented
efficiency of their service to come out to battle and attempt to
stop the devastation of their lands. Accordingly, as they had met
him at Eleusis or the Thriasian plain, he tried if they could be
provoked to a sally by the spectacle of a camp at Acharnae. He thought
the place itself a good position for encamping; and it seemed likely
that such an important part of the state as the three thousand heavy
infantry of the Acharnians would refuse to submit to the ruin of their
property, and would force a battle on the rest of the citizens. On the
other hand, should the Athenians not take the field during this
incursion, he could then fearlessly ravage the plain in future
invasions, and extend his advance up to the very walls of Athens.
After the Acharnians had lost their own property they would be less
willing to risk themselves for that of their neighbours; and so
there would be division in the Athenian counsels. These were the
motives of Archidamus for remaining at Acharnae.
In the meanwhile, as long as the army was at Eleusis and the
Thriasian plain, hopes were still entertained of its not advancing any
nearer. It was remembered that Pleistoanax, son of Pausanias, king
of Lacedaemon, had invaded Attica with a Peloponnesian army fourteen
years before, but had retreated without advancing farther than Eleusis
and Thria, which indeed proved the cause of his exile from Sparta,
as it was thought he had been bribed to retreat. But when they saw the
army at Acharnae, barely seven miles from Athens, they lost all
patience. The territory of Athens was being ravaged before the very
eyes of the Athenians, a sight which the young men had never seen
before and the old only in the Median wars; and it was naturally
thought a grievous insult, and the determination was universal,
especially among the young men, to sally forth and stop it. Knots were
formed in the streets and engaged in hot discussion; for if the
proposed sally was warmly recommended, it was also in some cases
opposed. Oracles of the most various import were recited by the
collectors, and found eager listeners in one or other of the
disputants. Foremost in pressing for the sally were the Acharnians, as
constituting no small part of the army of the state, and as it was
their land that was being ravaged. In short, the whole city was in a
most excited state; Pericles was the object of general indignation;
his previous counsels were totally forgotten; he was abused for not
leading out the army which he commanded, and was made responsible
for the whole of the public suffering.
He, meanwhile, seeing anger and infatuation just now in the
ascendant, and of his wisdom in refusing a sally, would not call
either assembly or meeting of the people, fearing the fatal results of
a debate inspired by passion and not by prudence. Accordingly he
addressed himself to the defence of the city, and kept it as quiet
as possible, though he constantly sent out cavalry to prevent raids on
the lands near the city from flying parties of the enemy. There was
a trifling affair at Phrygia between a squadron of the Athenian
horse with the Thessalians and the Boeotian cavalry; in which the
former had rather the best of it, until the heavy infantry advanced to
the support of the Boeotians, when the Thessalians and Athenians
were routed and lost a few men, whose bodies, however, were
recovered the same day without a truce. The next day the
Peloponnesians set up a trophy. Ancient alliance brought the
Thessalians to the aid of Athens; those who came being the Larisaeans,
Pharsalians, Cranonians, Pyrasians, Gyrtonians, and Pheraeans. The
Larisaean commanders were Polymedes and Aristonus, two party leaders
in Larisa; the Pharsalian general was Menon; each of the other
cities had also its own commander.
In the meantime the Peloponnesians, as the Athenians did not come
out to engage them, broke up from Acharnae and ravaged some of the
demes between Mount Parnes and Brilessus. While they were in Attica
the Athenians sent off the hundred ships which they had been preparing
round Peloponnese, with a thousand heavy infantry and four hundred
archers on board, under the command of Carcinus, son of Xenotimus,
Proteas, son of Epicles, and Socrates, son of Antigenes. This armament
weighed anchor and started on its cruise, and the Peloponnesians,
after remaining in Attica as long as their provisions lasted,
retired through Boeotia by a different road to that by which they
had entered. As they passed Oropus they ravaged the territory of
Graea, which is held by the Oropians from Athens, and reaching
Peloponnese broke up to their respective cities.
After they had retired the Athenians set guards by land and sea at
the points at which they intended to have regular stations during
the war. They also resolved to set apart a special fund of a
thousand talents from the moneys in the Acropolis. This was not to
be spent, but the current expenses of the war were to be otherwise
provided for. If any one should move or put to the vote a
proposition for using the money for any purpose whatever except that
of defending the city in the event of the enemy bringing a fleet to
make an attack by sea, it should be a capital offence. With this sum
of money they also set aside a special fleet of one hundred galleys,
the best ships of each year, with their captains. None of these were
to be used except with the money and against the same peril, should
such peril arise.
Meanwhile the Athenians in the hundred ships round Peloponnese,
reinforced by a Corcyraean squadron of fifty vessels and some others
of the allies in those parts, cruised about the coasts and ravaged the
country. Among other places they landed in Laconia and made an assault
upon Methone; there being no garrison in the place, and the wall being
weak. But it so happened that Brasidas, son of Tellis, a Spartan,
was in command of a guard for the defence of the district. Hearing
of the attack, he hurried with a hundred heavy infantry to the
assistance of the besieged, and dashing through the army of the
Athenians, which was scattered over the country and had its
attention turned to the wall, threw himself into Methone. He lost a
few men in making good his entrance, but saved the place and won the
thanks of Sparta by his exploit, being thus the first officer who
obtained this notice during the war. The Athenians at once weighed
anchor and continued their cruise. Touching at Pheia in Elis, they
ravaged the country for two days and defeated a picked force of
three hundred men that had come from the vale of Elis and the
immediate neighbourhood to the rescue. But a stiff squall came down
upon them, and, not liking to face it in a place where there was no
harbour, most of them got on board their ships, and doubling Point
Ichthys sailed into the port of Pheia. In the meantime the Messenians,
and some others who could not get on board, marched over by land and
took Pheia. The fleet afterwards sailed round and picked them up and
then put to sea; Pheia being evacuated, as the main army of the Eleans
had now come up. The Athenians continued their cruise, and ravaged
other places on the coast.
About the same time the Athenians sent thirty ships to cruise
round Locris and also to guard Euboea; Cleopompus, son of Clinias,
being in command. Making descents from the fleet he ravaged certain
places on the sea-coast, and captured Thronium and took hostages
from it. He also defeated at Alope the Locrians that had assembled
to resist him.
During the summer the Athenians also expelled the Aeginetans with
their wives and children from Aegina, on the ground of their having
been the chief agents in bringing the war upon them. Besides, Aegina
lies so near Peloponnese that it seemed safer to send colonists of
their own to hold it, and shortly afterwards the settlers were sent
out. The banished Aeginetans found an asylum in Thyrea, which was
given to them by Lacedaemon, not only on account of her quarrel with
Athens, but also because the Aeginetans had laid her under obligations
at the time of the earthquake and the revolt of the Helots. The
territory of Thyrea is on the frontier of Argolis and Laconia,
reaching down to the sea. Those of the Aeginetans who did not settle
here were scattered over the rest of Hellas.
The same summer, at the beginning of a new lunar month, the only
time by the way at which it appears possible, the sun was eclipsed
after noon. After it had assumed the form of a crescent and some of
the stars had come out, it returned to its natural shape.
During the same summer Nymphodorus, son of Pythes, an Abderite,
whose sister Sitalces had married, was made their proxenus by the
Athenians and sent for to Athens. They had hitherto considered him
their enemy; but he had great influence with Sitalces, and they wished
this prince to become their ally. Sitalces was the son of Teres and
King of the Thracians. Teres, the father of Sitalces, was the first to
establish the great kingdom of the Odrysians on a scale quite
unknown to the rest of Thrace, a large portion of the Thracians
being independent. This Teres is in no way related to Tereus who
married Pandion's daughter Procne from Athens; nor indeed did they
belong to the same part of Thrace. Tereus lived in Daulis, part of
what is now called Phocis, but which at that time was inhabited by
Thracians. It was in this land that the women perpetrated the
outrage upon Itys; and many of the poets when they mention the
nightingale call it the Daulian bird. Besides, Pandion in
contracting an alliance for his daughter would consider the advantages
of mutual assistance, and would naturally prefer a match at the
above moderate distance to the journey of many days which separates
Athens from the Odrysians. Again the names are different; and this
Teres was king of the Odrysians, the first by the way who attained
to any power. Sitalces, his son, was now sought as an ally by the
Athenians, who desired his aid in the reduction of the Thracian
towns and of Perdiccas. Coming to Athens, Nymphodorus concluded the
alliance with Sitalces and made his son Sadocus an Athenian citizen,
and promised to finish the war in Thrace by persuading Sitalces to
send the Athenians a force of Thracian horse and targeteers. He also
reconciled them with Perdiccas, and induced them to restore Therme
to him; upon which Perdiccas at once joined the Athenians and
Phormio in an expedition against the Chalcidians. Thus Sitalces, son
of Teres, King of the Thracians, and Perdiccas, son of Alexander, King
of the Macedonians, became allies of Athens.
Meanwhile the Athenians in the hundred vessels were still cruising
round Peloponnese. After taking Sollium, a town belonging to
Corinth, and presenting the city and territory to the Acarnanians of
Palaira, they stormed Astacus, expelled its tyrant Evarchus, and
gained the place for their confederacy. Next they sailed to the island
of Cephallenia and brought it over without using force. Cephallenia
lies off Acarnania and Leucas, and consists of four states, the
Paleans, Cranians, Samaeans, and Pronaeans. Not long afterwards the
fleet returned to Athens. Towards the autumn of this year the
Athenians invaded the Megarid with their whole levy, resident aliens
included, under the command of Pericles, son of Xanthippus. The
Athenians in the hundred ships round Peloponnese on their journey home
had just reached Aegina, and hearing that the citizens at home were in
full force at Megara, now sailed over and joined them. This was
without doubt the largest army of Athenians ever assembled, the
state being still in the flower of her strength and yet unvisited by
the plague. Full ten thousand heavy infantry were in the field, all
Athenian citizens, besides the three thousand before Potidaea. Then
the resident aliens who joined in the incursion were at least three
thousand strong; besides which there was a multitude of light
troops. They ravaged the greater part of the territory, and then
retired. Other incursions into the Megarid were afterwards made by the
Athenians annually during the war, sometimes only with cavalry,
sometimes with all their forces. This went on until the capture of
Nisaea. Atalanta also, the desert island off the Opuntian coast, was
towards the end of this summer converted into a fortified post by
the Athenians, in order to prevent privateers issuing from Opus and
the rest of Locris and plundering Euboea. Such were the events of this
summer after the return of the Peloponnesians from Attica.
In the ensuing winter the Acarnanian Evarchus, wishing to return
to Astacus, persuaded the Corinthians to sail over with forty ships
and fifteen hundred heavy infantry and restore him; himself also
hiring some mercenaries. In command of the force were Euphamidas,
son of Aristonymus, Timoxenus, son of Timocrates, and Eumachus, son of
Chrysis, who sailed over and restored him and, after failing in an
attempt on some places on the Acarnanian coast which they were
desirous of gaining, began their voyage home. Coasting along shore
they touched at Cephallenia and made a descent on the Cranian
territory, and losing some men by the treachery of the Cranians, who
fell suddenly upon them after having agreed to treat, put to sea
somewhat hurriedly and returned home.
In the same winter the Athenians gave a funeral at the public cost
to those who had first fallen in this war. It was a custom of their
ancestors, and the manner of it is as follows. Three days before the
ceremony, the bones of the dead are laid out in a tent which has
been erected; and their friends bring to their relatives such
offerings as they please. In the funeral procession cypress coffins
are borne in cars, one for each tribe; the bones of the deceased being
placed in the coffin of their tribe. Among these is carried one
empty bier decked for the missing, that is, for those whose bodies
could not be recovered. Any citizen or stranger who pleases, joins
in the procession: and the female relatives are there to wail at the
burial. The dead are laid in the public sepulchre in the Beautiful
suburb of the city, in which those who fall in war are always
buried; with the exception of those slain at Marathon, who for their
singular and extraordinary valour were interred on the spot where they
fell. After the bodies have been laid in the earth, a man chosen by
the state, of approved wisdom and eminent reputation, pronounces
over them an appropriate panegyric; after which all retire. Such is
the manner of the burying; and throughout the whole of the war,
whenever the occasion arose, the established custom was observed.
Meanwhile these were the first that had fallen, and Pericles, son of
Xanthippus, was chosen to pronounce their eulogium. When the proper
time arrived, he advanced from the sepulchre to an elevated platform
in order to be heard by as many of the crowd as possible, and spoke as
follows:
[Here you can
read the following Funeral Oration by Pericles in the Speech
Archive]
"Most of my predecessors in this place have commended him who made
this speech part of the law, telling us that it is well that it should
be delivered at the burial of those who fall in battle. For myself,
I should have thought that the worth which had displayed itself in
deeds would be sufficiently rewarded by honours also shown by deeds;
such as you now see in this funeral prepared at the people's cost. And
I could have wished that the reputations of many brave men were not to
be imperilled in the mouth of a single individual, to stand or fall
according as he spoke well or ill. For it is hard to speak properly
upon a subject where it is even difficult to convince your hearers
that you are speaking the truth. On the one hand, the friend who is
familiar with every fact of the story may think that some point has
not been set forth with that fullness which he wishes and knows it
to deserve; on the other, he who is a stranger to the matter may be
led by envy to suspect exaggeration if he hears anything above his own
nature. For men can endure to hear others praised only so long as they
can severally persuade themselves of their own ability to equal the
actions recounted: when this point is passed, envy comes in and with
it incredulity. However, since our ancestors have stamped this
custom with their approval, it becomes my duty to obey the law and
to try to satisfy your several wishes and opinions as best I may.
"I shall begin with our ancestors: it is both just and proper that
they should have the honour of the first mention on an occasion like
the present. They dwelt in the country without break in the succession
from generation to generation, and handed it down free to the
present time by their valour. And if our more remote ancestors deserve
praise, much more do our own fathers, who added to their inheritance
the empire which we now possess, and spared no pains to be able to
leave their acquisitions to us of the present generation. Lastly,
there are few parts of our dominions that have not been augmented by
those of us here, who are still more or less in the vigour of life;
while the mother country has been furnished by us with everything that
can enable her to depend on her own resources whether for war or for
peace. That part of our history which tells of the military
achievements which gave us our several possessions, or of the ready
valour with which either we or our fathers stemmed the tide of
Hellenic or foreign aggression, is a theme too familiar to my
hearers for me to dilate on, and I shall therefore pass it by. But
what was the road by which we reached our position, what the form of
government under which our greatness grew, what the national habits
out of which it sprang; these are questions which I may try to solve
before I proceed to my panegyric upon these men; since I think this to
be a subject upon which on the present occasion a speaker may properly
dwell, and to which the whole assemblage, whether citizens or
foreigners, may listen with advantage.
"Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighbouring states;
we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its
administration favours the many instead of the few; this is why it
is called a democracy. If we look to the laws, they afford equal
justice to all in their private differences; if no social standing,
advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, class
considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit; nor again
does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to serve the state, he is
not hindered by the obscurity of his condition. The freedom which we
enjoy in our government extends also to our ordinary life. There,
far from exercising a jealous surveillance over each other, we do
not feel called upon to be angry with our neighbour for doing what
he likes, or even to indulge in those injurious looks which cannot
fail to be offensive, although they inflict no positive penalty. But
all this ease in our private relations does not make us lawless as
citizens. Against this fear is our chief safeguard, teaching us to
obey the magistrates and the laws, particularly such as regard the
protection of the injured, whether they are actually on the statute
book, or belong to that code which, although unwritten, yet cannot
be broken without acknowledged disgrace.
"Further, we provide plenty of means for the mind to refresh
itself from business. We celebrate games and sacrifices all the year
round, and the elegance of our private establishments forms a daily
source of pleasure and helps to banish the spleen; while the magnitude
of our city draws the produce of the world into our harbour, so that
to the Athenian the fruits of other countries are as familiar a luxury
as those of his own.
"If we turn to our military policy, there also we differ from our
antagonists. We throw open our city to the world, and never by alien
acts exclude foreigners from any opportunity of learning or observing,
although the eyes of an enemy may occasionally profit by our
liberality; trusting less in system and policy than to the native
spirit of our citizens; while in education, where our rivals from
their very cradles by a painful discipline seek after manliness, at
Athens we live exactly as we please, and yet are just as ready to
encounter every legitimate danger. In proof of this it may be
noticed that the Lacedaemonians do not invade our country alone, but
bring with them all their confederates; while we Athenians advance
unsupported into the territory of a neighbour, and fighting upon a
foreign soil usually vanquish with ease men who are defending their
homes. Our united force was never yet encountered by any enemy,
because we have at once to attend to our marine and to dispatch our
citizens by land upon a hundred different services; so that,
wherever they engage with some such fraction of our strength, a
success against a detachment is magnified into a victory over the
nation, and a defeat into a reverse suffered at the hands of our
entire people. And yet if with habits not of labour but of ease, and
courage not of art but of nature, we are still willing to encounter
danger, we have the double advantage of escaping the experience of
hardships in anticipation and of facing them in the hour of need as
fearlessly as those who are never free from them.
"Nor are these the only points in which our city is worthy of
admiration. We cultivate refinement without extravagance and knowledge
without effeminacy; wealth we employ more for use than for show, and
place the real disgrace of poverty not in owning to the fact but in
declining the struggle against it. Our public men have, besides
politics, their private affairs to attend to, and our ordinary
citizens, though occupied with the pursuits of industry, are still
fair judges of public matters; for, unlike any other nation, regarding
him who takes no part in these duties not as unambitious but as
useless, we Athenians are able to judge at all events if we cannot
originate, and, instead of looking on discussion as a
stumbling-block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable
preliminary to any wise action at all. Again, in our enterprises we
present the singular spectacle of daring and deliberation, each
carried to its highest point, and both united in the same persons;
although usually decision is the fruit of ignorance, hesitation of
reflection. But the palm of courage will surely be adjudged most
justly to those, who best know the difference between hardship and
pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger. In
generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by
conferring, not by receiving, favours. Yet, of course, the doer of the
favour is the firmer friend of the two, in order by continued kindness
to keep the recipient in his debt; while the debtor feels less
keenly from the very consciousness that the return he makes will be
a payment, not a free gift. And it is only the Athenians, who,
fearless of consequences, confer their benefits not from
calculations of expediency, but in the confidence of liberality.
"In short, I say that as a city we are the school of Hellas, while I
doubt if the world can produce a man who, where he has only himself to
depend upon, is equal to so many emergencies, and graced by so happy a
versatility, as the Athenian. And that this is no mere boast thrown
out for the occasion, but plain matter of fact, the power of the state
acquired by these habits proves. For Athens alone of her
contemporaries is found when tested to be greater than her reputation,
and alone gives no occasion to her assailants to blush at the
antagonist by whom they have been worsted, or to her subjects to
question her title by merit to rule. Rather, the admiration of the
present and succeeding ages will be ours, since we have not left our
power without witness, but have shown it by mighty proofs; and far
from needing a Homer for our panegyrist, or other of his craft whose
verses might charm for the moment only for the impression which they
gave to melt at the touch of fact, we have forced every sea and land
to be the highway of our daring, and everywhere, whether for evil or
for good, have left imperishable monuments behind us. Such is the
Athens for which these men, in the assertion of their resolve not to
lose her, nobly fought and died; and well may every one of their
survivors be ready to suffer in her cause.
"Indeed if I have dwelt at some length upon the character of our
country, it has been to show that our stake in the struggle is not the
same as theirs who have no such blessings to lose, and also that the
panegyric of the men over whom I am now speaking might be by
definite proofs established. That panegyric is now in a great
measure complete; for the Athens that I have celebrated is only what
the heroism of these and their like have made her, men whose fame,
unlike that of most Hellenes, will be found to be only commensurate
with their deserts. And if a test of worth be wanted, it is to be
found in their closing scene, and this not only in cases in which it
set the final seal upon their merit, but also in those in which it
gave the first intimation of their having any. For there is justice in
the claim that steadfastness in his country's battles should be as a
cloak to cover a man's other imperfections; since the good action
has blotted out the bad, and his merit as a citizen more than
outweighed his demerits as an individual. But none of these allowed
either wealth with its prospect of future enjoyment to unnerve his
spirit, or poverty with its hope of a day of freedom and riches to
tempt him to shrink from danger. No, holding that vengeance upon their
enemies was more to be desired than any personal blessings, and
reckoning this to be the most glorious of hazards, they joyfully
determined to accept the risk, to make sure of their vengeance, and to
let their wishes wait; and while committing to hope the uncertainty of
final success, in the business before them they thought fit to act
boldly and trust in themselves. Thus choosing to die resisting, rather
than to live submitting, they fled only from dishonour, but met danger
face to face, and after one brief moment, while at the summit of their
fortune, escaped, not from their fear, but from their glory.
"So died these men as became Athenians. You, their survivors, must
determine to have as unfaltering a resolution in the field, though you
may pray that it may have a happier issue. And not contented with
ideas derived only from words of the advantages which are bound up
with the defence of your country, though these would furnish a
valuable text to a speaker even before an audience so alive to them as
the present, you must yourselves realize the power of Athens, and feed
your eyes upon her from day to day, till love of her fills your
hearts; and then, when all her greatness shall break upon you, you
must reflect that it was by courage, sense of duty, and a keen feeling
of honour in action that men were enabled to win all this, and that no
personal failure in an enterprise could make them consent to deprive
their country of their valour, but they laid it at her feet as the
most glorious contribution that they could offer. For this offering of
their lives made in common by them all they each of them
individually received that renown which never grows old, and for a
sepulchre, not so much that in which their bones have been
deposited, but that noblest of shrines wherein their glory is laid
up to be eternally remembered upon every occasion on which deed or
story shall call for its commemoration. For heroes have the whole
earth for their tomb; and in lands far from their own, where the
column with its epitaph declares it, there is enshrined in every
breast a record unwritten with no tablet to preserve it, except that
of the heart. These take as your model and, judging happiness to be
the fruit of freedom and freedom of valour, never decline the
dangers of war. For it is not the miserable that would most justly
be unsparing of their lives; these have nothing to hope for: it is
rather they to whom continued life may bring reverses as yet
unknown, and to whom a fall, if it came, would be most tremendous in
its consequences. And surely, to a man of spirit, the degradation of
cowardice must be immeasurably more grievous than the unfelt death
which strikes him in the midst of his strength and patriotism!
"Comfort, therefore, not condolence, is what I have to offer to
the parents of the dead who may be here. Numberless are the chances to
which, as they know, the life of man is subject; but fortunate
indeed are they who draw for their lot a death so glorious as that
which has caused your mourning, and to whom life has been so exactly
measured as to terminate in the happiness in which it has been passed.
Still I know that this is a hard saying, especially when those are
in question of whom you will constantly be reminded by seeing in the
homes of others blessings of which once you also boasted: for grief is
felt not so much for the want of what we have never known, as for
the loss of that to which we have been long accustomed. Yet you who
are still of an age to beget children must bear up in the hope of
having others in their stead; not only will they help you to forget
those whom you have lost, but will be to the state at once a
reinforcement and a security; for never can a fair or just policy be
expected of the citizen who does not, like his fellows, bring to the
decision the interests and apprehensions of a father. While those of
you who have passed your prime must congratulate yourselves with the
thought that the best part of your life was fortunate, and that the
brief span that remains will be cheered by the fame of the departed.
For it is only the love of honour that never grows old; and honour
it is, not gain, as some would have it, that rejoices the heart of age
and helplessness.
"Turning to the sons or brothers of the dead, I see an arduous
struggle before you. When a man is gone, all are wont to praise him,
and should your merit be ever so transcendent, you will still find
it difficult not merely to overtake, but even to approach their
renown. The living have envy to contend with, while those who are no
longer in our path are honoured with a goodwill into which rivalry
does not enter. On the other hand, if I must say anything on the
subject of female excellence to those of you who will now be in
widowhood, it will be all comprised in this brief exhortation. Great
will be your glory in not falling short of your natural character; and
greatest will be hers who is least talked of among the men, whether
for good or for bad.
"My task is now finished. I have performed it to the best of my
ability, and in word, at least, the requirements of the law are now
satisfied. If deeds be in question, those who are here interred have
received part of their honours already, and for the rest, their
children will be brought up till manhood at the public expense: the
state thus offers a valuable prize, as the garland of victory in
this race of valour, for the reward both of those who have fallen
and their survivors. And where the rewards for merit are greatest,
there are found the best citizens.
"And now that you have brought to a close your lamentations for your
relatives, you may depart."
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