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The History of the Peloponnesian War
Book 5 - Chapter XVI
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Feeling against Sparta in Peloponnese - League of the Mantineans,
Eleans, Argives, and Athenians - Battle of Mantinea and
breaking up of the League
After the treaty and the alliance between the Lacedaemonians and
Athenians, concluded after the ten years' war, in the ephorate of
Pleistolas at Lacedaemon, and the archonship of Alcaeus at Athens, the
states which had accepted them were at peace; but the Corinthians
and some of the cities in Peloponnese trying to disturb the
settlement, a fresh agitation was instantly commenced by the allies
against Lacedaemon. Further, the Lacedaemonians, as time went on,
became suspected by the Athenians through their not performing some of
the provisions in the treaty; and though for six years and ten
months they abstained from invasion of each other's territory, yet
abroad an unstable armistice did not prevent either party doing the
other the most effectual injury, until they were finally obliged to
break the treaty made after the ten years' war and to have recourse to
open hostilities.
The history of this period has been also written by the same
Thucydides, an Athenian, in the chronological order of events by
summers and winters, to the time when the Lacedaemonians and their
allies put an end to the Athenian empire, and took the Long Walls
and Piraeus. The war had then lasted for twenty-seven years in all.
Only a mistaken judgment can object to including the interval of
treaty in the war. Looked at by the light of facts it cannot, it
will be found, be rationally considered a state of peace, where
neither party either gave or got back all that they had agreed,
apart from the violations of it which occurred on both sides in the
Mantinean and Epidaurian wars and other instances, and the fact that
the allies in the direction of Thrace were in as open hostility as
ever, while the Boeotians had only a truce renewed every ten days.
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So that the first ten years' war, the treacherous armistice that
followed it, and the subsequent war will, calculating by the
seasons, be found to make up the number of years which I have
mentioned, with the difference of a few days, and to afford an
instance of faith in oracles being for once justified by the event.
I certainly all along remember from the beginning to the end of the
war its being commonly declared that it would last thrice nine
years. I lived through the whole of it, being of an age to
comprehend events, and giving my attention to them in order to know
the exact truth about them. It was also my fate to be an exile from
my country for twenty years after my command at Amphipolis; and being
present with both parties, and more especially with the Peloponnesians
by reason of my exile, I had leisure to observe affairs somewhat
particularly. I will accordingly now relate the differences that arose
after the ten years' war, the breach of the treaty, and the
hostilities that followed.
After the conclusion of the fifty years' truce and of the
subsequent alliance, the embassies from Peloponnese which had been
summoned for this business returned from Lacedaemon. The rest went
straight home, but the Corinthians first turned aside to Argos and
opened negotiations with some of the men in office there, pointing
out that Lacedaemon could have no good end in view, but only the
subjugation of Peloponnese, or she would never have entered into
treaty and alliance with the once detested Athenians, and that the
duty of consulting for the safety of Peloponnese had now fallen upon
Argos, who should immediately pass a decree inviting any Hellenic
state that chose, such state being independent and accustomed to meet
fellow powers upon the fair and equal ground of law and justice, to
make a defensive alliance with the Argives; appointing a few
individuals with plenipotentiary powers, instead of making the people
the medium of negotiation, in order that, in the case of an applicant
being rejected, the fact of his overtures might not be made public.
They said that many would come over from hatred of the Lacedaemonians.
After this explanation of their views, the Corinthians returned home.
The persons with whom they had communicated reported the proposal to
their government and people, and the Argives passed the decree and
chose twelve men to negotiate an alliance for any Hellenic state
that wished it, except Athens and Lacedaemon, neither of which
should be able to join without reference to the Argive people. Argos
came into the plan the more readily because she saw that war with
Lacedaemon was inevitable, the truce being on the point of expiring;
and also because she hoped to gain the supremacy of Peloponnese. For
at this time Lacedaemon had sunk very low in public estimation
because of her disasters, while the Argives were in a most
flourishing condition, having taken no part in the Attic war, but
having on the contrary profited largely by their neutrality. The
Argives accordingly prepared to receive into alliance any of the
Hellenes that desired it.
The Mantineans and their allies were the first to come over through
fear of the Lacedaemonians. Having taken advantage of the war against
Athens to reduce a large part of Arcadia into subjection, they
thought that Lacedaemon would not leave them undisturbed in their
conquests, now that she had leisure to interfere, and consequently
gladly turned to a powerful city like Argos, the historical enemy of
the Lacedaemonians, and a sister democracy. Upon the defection of
Mantinea, the rest of Peloponnese at once began to agitate the
propriety of following her example, conceiving that the Mantineans
not have changed sides without good reason; besides which they were
angry with Lacedaemon among other reasons for having inserted in the
treaty with Athens that it should be consistent with their oaths for
both parties, Lacedaemonians and Athenians, to add to or take away
from it according to their discretion. It was this clause that was
the real origin of the panic in Peloponnese, by exciting suspicions
of a Lacedaemonian and Athenian combination against their liberties:
any alteration should properly have been made conditional upon the
consent of the whole body of the allies. With these apprehensions
there was a very general desire in each state to place itself in
alliance with Argos.
In the meantime the Lacedaemonians perceiving the agitation going on
in Peloponnese, and that Corinth was the author of it and was
herself about to enter into alliance with the Argives, sent
ambassadors thither in the hope of preventing what was in
contemplation. They accused her of having brought it all about, and
told her that she could not desert Lacedaemon and become the ally of
Argos, without adding violation of her oaths to the crime which she
had already committed in not accepting the treaty with Athens, when it
had been expressly agreed that the decision of the majority of the
allies should be binding, unless the gods or heroes stood in the
way. Corinth in her answer, delivered before those of her allies who
had like her refused to accept the treaty, and whom she had previously
invited to attend, refrained from openly stating the injuries she
complained of, such as the non-recovery of Sollium or Anactorium
from the Athenians, or any other point in which she thought she had
been prejudiced, but took shelter under the pretext that she could not
give up her Thracian allies, to whom her separate individual
security had been given, when they first rebelled with Potidaea, as
well as upon subsequent occasions. She denied, therefore, that she
committed any violation of her oaths to the allies in not entering
into the treaty with Athens; having sworn upon the faith of the gods
to her Thracian friends, she could not honestly give them up. Besides,
the expression was, "unless the gods or heroes stand in the way."
Now here, as it appeared to her, the gods stood in the way. This was
what she said on the subject of her former oaths. As to the Argive
alliance, she would confer with her friends and do whatever was right.
The Lacedaemonian envoys returning home, some Argive ambassadors who
happened to be in Corinth pressed her to conclude the alliance without
further delay, but were told to attend at the next congress to be held
at Corinth.
Immediately afterwards an Elean embassy arrived, and first making an
alliance with Corinth went on from thence to Argos, according to their
instructions, and became allies of the Argives, their country being
just then at enmity with Lacedaemon and Lepreum. Some time back
there had been a war between the Lepreans and some of the Arcadians;
and the Eleans being called in by the former with the offer of half
their lands, had put an end to the war, and leaving the land in the
hands of its Leprean occupiers had imposed upon them the tribute of
a talent to the Olympian Zeus. Till the Attic war this tribute was
paid by the Lepreans, who then took the war as an excuse for no longer
doing so, and upon the Eleans using force appealed to Lacedaemon.
The case was thus submitted to her arbitrament; but the Eleans,
suspecting the fairness of the tribunal, renounced the reference and
laid waste the Leprean territory. The Lacedaemonians nevertheless
decided that the Lepreans were independent and the Eleans
aggressors, and as the latter did not abide by the arbitration, sent a
garrison of heavy infantry into Lepreum. Upon this the Eleans, holding
that Lacedaemon had received one of their rebel subjects, put
forward the convention providing that each confederate should come out
of the Attic war in possession of what he had when he went into it,
and considering that justice had not been done them went over to the
Argives, and now made the alliance through their ambassadors, who
had been instructed for that purpose. Immediately after them the
Corinthians and the Thracian Chalcidians became allies of Argos.
Meanwhile the Boeotians and Megarians, who acted together, remained
quiet, being left to do as they pleased by Lacedaemon, and thinking
that the Argive democracy would not suit so well with their
aristocratic government as the Lacedaemonian constitution.
About the same time in this summer Athens succeeded in reducing
Scione, put the adult males to death, and, making slaves of the
women and children, gave the land for the Plataeans to live in. She
also brought back the Delians to Delos, moved by her misfortunes in
the field and by the commands of the god at Delphi. Meanwhile the
Phocians and Locrians commenced hostilities. The Corinthians and
Argives, being now in alliance, went to Tegea to bring about its
defection from Lacedaemon, seeing that, if so considerable a state
could be persuaded to join, all Peloponnese would be with them. But
when the Tegeans said that they would do nothing against Lacedaemon,
the hitherto zealous Corinthians relaxed their activity, and began
to fear that none of the rest would now come over. Still they went
to the Boeotians and tried to persuade them to alliance and a common
action generally with Argos and themselves, and also begged them to go
with them to Athens and obtain for them a ten days' truce similar to
that made between the Athenians and Boeotians not long after the fifty
years' treaty, and, in the event of the Athenians refusing, to throw
up the armistice, and not make any truce in future without Corinth.
These were the requests of the Corinthians. The Boeotians stopped them
on the subject of the Argive alliance, but went with them to Athens,
where however they failed to obtain the ten days' truce; the
Athenian answer being that the Corinthians had truce already, as being
allies of Lacedaemon. Nevertheless the Boeotians did not throw up
their ten days' truce, in spite of the prayers and reproaches of the
Corinthians for their breach of faith; and these last had to content
themselves with a de facto armistice with Athens.
The same summer the Lacedaemonians marched into Arcadia with
their whole levy under Pleistoanax, son of Pausanias, king of
Lacedaemon, against the Parrhasians, who were subjects of Mantinea,
and a faction of whom had invited their aid. They also meant to
demolish, if possible, the fort of Cypsela which the Mantineans had
built and garrisoned in the Parrhasian territory, to annoy the
district of Sciritis in Laconia. The Lacedaemonians accordingly laid
waste the Parrhasian country, and the Mantineans, placing their town
in the hands of an Argive garrison, addressed themselves to the
defence of their confederacy, but being unable to save Cypsela or
the Parrhasian towns went back to Mantinea. Meanwhile the
Lacedaemonians made the Parrhasians independent, razed the fortress,
and returned home.
The same summer the soldiers from Thrace who had gone out with
Brasidas came back, having been brought from thence after the treaty
by Clearidas; and the Lacedaemonians decreed that the Helots who had
fought with Brasidas should be free and allowed to live where they
liked, and not long afterwards settled them with the Neodamodes at
Lepreum, which is situated on the Laconian and Elean border;
Lacedaemon being at this time at enmity with Elis. Those however of
the Spartans who had been taken prisoners on the island and had
surrendered their arms might, it was feared, suppose that they were to
be subjected to some degradation in consequence of their misfortune,
and so make some attempt at revolution, if left in possession of their
franchise. These were therefore at once disfranchised, although some
of them were in office at the time, and thus placed under a disability
to take office, or buy and sell anything. After some time, however,
the franchise was restored to them.
The same summer the Dians took Thyssus, a town on Acte by Athos in
alliance with Athens. During the whole of this summer intercourse
between the Athenians and Peloponnesians continued, although each
party began to suspect the other directly after the treaty, because of
the places specified in it not being restored. Lacedaemon, to whose
lot it had fallen to begin by restoring Amphipolis and the other
towns, had not done so. She had equally failed to get the treaty
accepted by her Thracian allies, or by the Boeotians or the
Corinthians; although she was continually promising to unite with
Athens in compelling their compliance, if it were longer refused.
She also kept fixing a time at which those who still refused to come
in were to be declared enemies to both parties, but took care not to
bind herself by any written agreement. Meanwhile the Athenians, seeing
none of these professions performed in fact, began to suspect the
honesty of her intentions, and consequently not only refused to comply
with her demands for Pylos, but also repented having given up the
prisoners from the island, and kept tight hold of the other places,
until Lacedaemon's part of the treaty should be fulfilled. Lacedaemon,
on the other hand, said she had done what she could, having given up
the Athenian prisoners of war in her possession, evacuated Thrace, and
performed everything else in her power. Amphipolis it was out of her
ability to restore; but she would endeavour to bring the Boeotians and
Corinthians into the treaty, to recover Panactum, and send home all
the Athenian prisoners of war in Boeotia. Meanwhile she required
that Pylos should be restored, or at all events that the Messenians
and Helots should be withdrawn, as her troops had been from Thrace,
and the place garrisoned, if necessary, by the Athenians themselves.
After a number of different conferences held during the summer, she
succeeded in persuading Athens to withdraw from Pylos the Messenians
and the rest of the Helots and deserters from Laconia, who were
accordingly settled by her at Cranii in Cephallenia. Thus during
this summer there was peace and intercourse between the two peoples.
Next winter, however, the ephors under whom the treaty had been made
were no longer in office, and some of their successors were directly
opposed to it. Embassies now arrived from the Lacedaemonian
confederacy, and the Athenians, Boeotians, and Corinthians also
presented themselves at Lacedaemon, and after much discussion and no
agreement between them, separated for their several homes; when
Cleobulus and Xenares, the two ephors who were the most anxious to
break off the treaty, took advantage of this opportunity to
communicate privately with the Boeotians and Corinthians, and,
advising them to act as much as possible together, instructed the
former first to enter into alliance with Argos, and then try and bring
themselves and the Argives into alliance with Lacedaemon. The
Boeotians would so be least likely to be compelled to come into the
Attic treaty; and the Lacedaemonians would prefer gaining the
friendship and alliance of Argos even at the price of the hostility of
Athens and the rupture of the treaty. The Boeotians knew that an
honourable friendship with Argos had been long the desire of
Lacedaemon; for the Lacedaemonians believed that this would
considerably facilitate the conduct of the war outside Peloponnese.
Meanwhile they begged the Boeotians to place Panactum in her hands
in order that she might, if possible, obtain Pylos in exchange for it,
and so be more in a position to resume hostilities with Athens.
After receiving these instructions for their governments from
Xenares and Cleobulus and their friends at Lacedaemon, the Boeotians
and Corinthians departed. On their way home they were joined by two
persons high in office at Argos, who had waited for them on the
road, and who now sounded them upon the possibility of the Boeotians
joining the Corinthians, Eleans, and Mantineans in becoming the allies
of Argos, in the idea that if this could be effected they would be
able, thus united, to make peace or war as they pleased either against
Lacedaemon or any other power. The Boeotian envoys were were pleased
at thus hearing themselves accidentally asked to do what their friends
at Lacedaemon had told them; and the two Argives perceiving that their
proposal was agreeable, departed with a promise to send ambassadors to
the Boeotians. On their arrival the Boeotians reported to the
Boeotarchs what had been said to them at Lacedaemon and also by the
Argives who had met them, and the Boeotarchs, pleased with the idea,
embraced it with the more eagerness from the lucky coincidence of
Argos soliciting the very thing wanted by their friends at Lacedaemon.
Shortly afterwards ambassadors appeared from Argos with the
proposals indicated; and the Boeotarchs approved of the terms and
dismissed the ambassadors with a promise to send envoys to Argos to
negotiate the alliance.
In the meantime it was decided by the Boeotarchs, the Corinthians,
the Megarians, and the envoys from Thrace first to interchange oaths
together to give help to each other whenever it was required and not
to make war or peace except in common; after which the Boeotians and
Megarians, who acted together, should make the alliance with Argos.
But before the oaths were taken the Boeotarchs communicated these
proposals to the four councils of the Boeotians, in whom the supreme
power resides, and advised them to interchange oaths with all such
cities as should be willing to enter into a defensive league with
the Boeotians. But the members of the Boeotian councils refused
their assent to the proposal, being afraid of offending Lacedaemon
by entering into a league with the deserter Corinth; the Boeotarchs
not having acquainted them with what had passed at Lacedaemon and with
the advice given by Cleobulus and Xenares and the Boeotian partisans
there, namely, that they should become allies of Corinth and Argos
as a preliminary to a junction with Lacedaemon; fancying that, even if
they should say nothing about this, the councils would not vote
against what had been decided and advised by the Boeotarchs. This
difficulty arising, the Corinthians and the envoys from Thrace
departed without anything having been concluded; and the Boeotarchs,
who had previously intended after carrying this to try and effect
the alliance with Argos, now omitted to bring the Argive question
before the councils, or to send to Argos the envoys whom they had
promised; and a general coldness and delay ensued in the matter.
In this same winter Mecyberna was assaulted and taken by the
Olynthians, having an Athenian garrison inside it.
All this while negotiations had been going on between the
Athenians and Lacedaemonians about the conquests still retained by
each, and Lacedaemon, hoping that if Athens were to get back
Panactum from the Boeotians she might herself recover Pylos, now
sent an embassy to the Boeotians, and begged them to place Panactum
and their Athenian prisoners in her hands, in order that she might
exchange them for Pylos. This the Boeotians refused to do, unless
Lacedaemon made a separate alliance with them as she had done with
Athens. Lacedaemon knew that this would be a breach of faith to
Athens, as it had been agreed that neither of them should make peace
or war without the other; yet wishing to obtain Panactum which she
hoped to exchange for Pylos, and the party who pressed for the
dissolution of the treaty strongly affecting the Boeotian
connection, she at length concluded the alliance just as winter gave
way to spring; and Panactum was instantly razed. And so the eleventh
year of the war ended.
In the first days of the summer following, the Argives, seeing
that the promised ambassadors from Boeotia did not arrive, and that
Panactum was being demolished, and that a separate alliance had been
concluded between the Boeotians and Lacedaemonians, began to be afraid
that Argos might be left alone, and all the confederacy go over to
Lacedaemon. They fancied that the Boeotians had been persuaded by
the Lacedaemonians to raze Panactum and to enter into the treaty
with the Athenians, and that Athens was privy to this arrangement, and
even her alliance, therefore, no longer open to them--a resource
which they had always counted upon, by reason of the dissensions
existing, in the event of the noncontinuance of their treaty with
Lacedaemon. In this strait the Argives, afraid that, as the result
of refusing to renew the treaty with Lacedaemon and of aspiring to the
supremacy in Peloponnese, they would have the Lacedaemonians, Tegeans,
Boeotians, and Athenians on their hands all at once, now hastily
sent off Eustrophus and Aeson, who seemed the persons most likely to
be acceptable, as envoys to Lacedaemon, with the view of making as
good a treaty as they could with the Lacedaemonians, upon such terms
as could be got, and being left in peace.
Having reached Lacedaemon, their ambassadors proceeded to
negotiate the terms of the proposed treaty. What the Argives first
demanded was that they might be allowed to refer to the arbitration of
some state or private person the question of the Cynurian land, a
piece of frontier territory about which they have always been
disputing, and which contains the towns of Thyrea and Anthene, and
is occupied by the Lacedaemonians. The Lacedaemonians at first said
that they could not allow this point to be discussed, but were ready
to conclude upon the old terms. Eventually, however, the Argive
ambassadors succeeded in obtaining from them this concession: For
the present there was to be a truce for fifty years, but it should
be competent for either party, there being neither plague nor war in
Lacedaemon or Argos, to give a formal challenge and decide the
question of this territory by battle, as on a former occasion, when
both sides claimed the victory; pursuit not being allowed beyond the
frontier of Argos or Lacedaemon. The Lacedaemonians at first thought
this mere folly; but at last, anxious at any cost to have the
friendship of Argos they agreed to the terms demanded, and reduced
them to writing. However, before any of this should become binding,
the ambassadors were to return to Argos and communicate with their
people and, in the event of their approval, to come at the feast of
the Hyacinthia and take the oaths.
The envoys returned accordingly. In the meantime, while the Argives
were engaged in these negotiations, the Lacedaemonian ambassadors--
Andromedes, Phaedimus, and Antimenidas--who were to receive
the prisoners from the Boeotians and restore them and Panactum to
the Athenians, found that the Boeotians had themselves razed Panactum,
upon the plea that oaths had been anciently exchanged between their
people and the Athenians, after a dispute on the subject to the effect
that neither should inhabit the place, but that they should graze it
in common. As for the Athenian prisoners of war in the hands of the
Boeotians, these were delivered over to Andromedes and his colleagues,
and by them conveyed to Athens and given back. The envoys at the
same time announced the razing of Panactum, which to them seemed as
good as its restitution, as it would no longer lodge an enemy of
Athens. This announcement was received with great indignation by the
Athenians, who thought that the Lacedaemonians had played them
false, both in the matter of the demolition of Panactum, which ought
to have been restored to them standing, and in having, as they now
heard, made a separate alliance with the Boeotians, in spite of
their previous promise to join Athens in compelling the adhesion of
those who refused to accede to the treaty. The Athenians also
considered the other points in which Lacedaemon had failed in her
compact, and thinking that they had been overreached, gave an angry
answer to the ambassadors and sent them away.
The breach between the Lacedaemonians and Athenians having gone thus
far, the party at Athens, also, who wished to cancel the treaty,
immediately put themselves in motion. Foremost amongst these was
Alcibiades, son of Clinias, a man yet young in years for any other
Hellenic city, but distinguished by the splendour of his ancestry.
Alcibiades thought the Argive alliance really preferable, not that
personal pique had not also a great deal to do with his opposition; he
being offended with the Lacedaemonians for having negotiated the
treaty through Nicias and Laches, and having overlooked him on account
of his youth, and also for not having shown him the respect due to the
ancient connection of his family with them as their proxeni, which,
renounced by his grandfather, he had lately himself thought to renew
by his attentions to their prisoners taken in the island. Being
thus, as he thought, slighted on all hands, he had in the first
instance spoken against the treaty, saying that the Lacedaemonians
were not to be trusted, but that they only treated, in order to be
enabled by this means to crush Argos, and afterwards to attack
Athens alone; and now, immediately upon the above occurring, he sent
privately to the Argives, telling them to come as quickly as
possible to Athens, accompanied by the Mantineans and Eleans, with
proposals of alliance; as the moment was propitious and he himself
would do all he could to help them.
Upon receiving this message and discovering that the Athenians,
far from being privy to the Boeotian alliance, were involved in a
serious quarrel with the Lacedaemonians, the Argives paid no further
attention to the embassy which they had just sent to Lacedaemon on the
subject of the treaty, and began to incline rather towards the
Athenians, reflecting that, in the event of war, they would thus
have on their side a city that was not only an ancient ally of
Argos, but a sister democracy and very powerful at sea. They
accordingly at once sent ambassadors to Athens to treat for an
alliance, accompanied by others from Elis and Mantinea.
At the same time arrived in haste from Lacedaemon an embassy
consisting of persons reputed well disposed towards the
Athenians--Philocharidas, Leon, and Endius--for fear that the
Athenians in their irritation might conclude alliance with the
Argives, and also to ask back Pylos in exchange for Panactum, and in
defence of the alliance with the Boeotians to plead that it had not
been made to hurt the Athenians. Upon the envoys speaking in the
senate upon these points, and stating that they had come with full
powers to settle all others at issue between them, Alcibiades became
afraid that, if they were to repeat these statements to the popular
assembly, they might gain the multitude, and the Argive alliance might
be rejected, and accordingly had recourse to the following
stratagem. He persuaded the Lacedaemonians by a solemn assurance
that if they would say nothing of their full powers in the assembly,
he would give back Pylos to them (himself, the present opponent of its
restitution, engaging to obtain this from the Athenians), and would
settle the other points at issue. His plan was to detach them from
Nicias and to disgrace them before the people, as being without
sincerity in their intentions, or even common consistency in their
language, and so to get the Argives, Eleans, and Mantineans taken into
alliance. This plan proved successful. When the envoys appeared before
the people, and upon the question being put to them, did not say as
they had said in the senate, that they had come with full powers,
the Athenians lost all patience, and carried away by Alcibiades, who
thundered more loudly than ever against the Lacedaemonians, were ready
instantly to introduce the Argives and their companions and to take
them into alliance. An earthquake, however, occurring, before anything
definite had been done, this assembly was adjourned.
In the assembly held the next day, Nicias, in spite of the
Lacedaemonians having been deceived themselves, and having allowed him
to be deceived also in not admitting that they had come with full
powers, still maintained that it was best to be friends with the
Lacedaemonians, and, letting the Argive proposals stand over, to
send once more to Lacedaemon and learn her intentions. The adjournment
of the war could only increase their own prestige and injure that of
their rivals; the excellent state of their affairs making it their
interest to preserve this prosperity as long as possible, while
those of Lacedaemon were so desperate that the sooner she could try
her fortune again the better. He succeeded accordingly in persuading
them to send ambassadors, himself being among the number, to invite
the Lacedaemonians, if they were really sincere, to restore Panactum
intact with Amphipolis, and to abandon their alliance with the
Boeotians (unless they consented to accede to the treaty), agreeably
to the stipulation which forbade either to treat without the other.
The ambassadors were also directed to say that the Athenians, had they
wished to play false, might already have made alliance with the
Argives, who were indeed come to Athens for that very purpose, and
went off furnished with instructions as to any other complaints that
the Athenians had to make. Having reached Lacedaemon, they
communicated their instructions, and concluded by telling the
Lacedaemonians that unless they gave up their alliance with the
Boeotians, in the event of their not acceding to the treaty, the
Athenians for their part would ally themselves with the Argives and
their friends. The Lacedaemonians, however, refused to give up the
Boeotian alliance--the party of Xenares the ephor, and such as shared
their view, carrying the day upon this point--but renewed the oaths
at the request of Nicias, who feared to return without having
accomplished anything and to be disgraced; as was indeed his fate,
he being held the author of the treaty with Lacedaemon. When he
returned, and the Athenians heard that nothing had been done at
Lacedaemon, they flew into a passion, and deciding that faith had
not been kept with them, took advantage of the presence of the Argives
and their allies, who had been introduced by Alcibiades, and made a
treaty and alliance with them upon the terms following:
The Athenians, Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans, acting for
themselves and the allies in their respective empires, made a treaty
for a hundred years, to be without fraud or hurt by land and by sea.
1. It shall not be lawful to carry on war, either for the Argives,
Eleans, Mantineans, and their allies, against the Athenians, or the
allies in the Athenian empire: or for the Athenians and their allies
against the Argives, Eleans, Mantineans, or their allies, in any way
or means whatsoever.
The Athenians, Argives, Eleans, and Mantineans shall be allies for a
hundred years upon the terms following:
2. If an enemy invade the country of the Athenians, the Argives,
Eleans, and Mantineans shall go to the relief of Athens, according
as the Athenians may require by message, in such way as they most
effectually can, to the best of their power. But if the invader be
gone after plundering the territory, the offending state shall be
the enemy of the Argives, Mantineans, Eleans, and Athenians, and war
shall be made against it by all these cities: and no one of the cities
shall be able to make peace with that state, except all the above
cities agree to do so.
3. Likewise the Athenians shall go to the relief of Argos,
Mantinea, and Elis, if an enemy invade the country of Elis,
Mantinea, or Argos, according as the above cities may require by
message, in such way as they most effectually can, to the best of
their power. But if the invader be gone after plundering the
territory, the state offending shall be the enemy of the Athenians,
Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans, and war shall be made against it by
all these cities, and peace may not be made with that state except all
the above cities agree to it.
4. No armed force shall be allowed to pass for hostile purposes
through the country of the powers contracting, or of the allies in
their respective empires, or to go by sea, except all the
cities--that is to say, Athens, Argos, Mantinea, and Elis--vote for
such passage.
5. The relieving troops shall be maintained by the city sending
them for thirty days from their arrival in the city that has
required them, and upon their return in the same way: if their
services be desired for a longer period, the city that sent for them
shall maintain them, at the rate of three Aeginetan obols per day
for a heavy-armed soldier, archer, or light soldier, and an
Aeginetan drachma for a trooper.
6. The city sending for the troops shall have the command when the
war is in its own country: but in case of the cities resolving upon
a joint expedition the command shall be equally divided among all
the cities.
7. The treaty shall be sworn to by the Athenians for themselves
and their allies, by the Argives, Mantineans, Eleans, and their
allies, by each state individually. Each shall swear the oath most
binding in his country over full-grown victims: the oath being as
follows:
"I STAND BY THE ALLIANCE AND ITS ARTICLES, JUSTLY, INNOCENTLY, AND
SINCERELY, AND I WILL NOT TRANSGRESS THE SAME IN ANY WAY OR MEANS
WHATSOEVER."
The oath shall be taken at Athens by the Senate and the magistrates,
the Prytanes administering it: at Argos by the Senate, the Eighty, and the
Artynae, the Eighty administering it: at Mantinea by the Demiurgi, the
Senate, and the other magistrates, the Theori and Polemarchs
administering it: at Elis by the Demiurgi, the magistrates, and the
Six Hundred, the Demiurgi and the Thesmophylaces administering it. The
oaths shall be renewed by the Athenians going to Elis, Mantinea, and
Argos thirty days before the Olympic games: by the Argives,
Mantineans, and Eleans going to Athens ten days before the great feast
of the Panathenaea. The articles of the treaty, the oaths, and the
alliance shall be inscribed on a stone pillar by the Athenians in
the citadel, by the Argives in the market-place, in the temple of
Apollo: by the Mantineans in the temple of Zeus, in the
market-place: and a brazen pillar shall be erected jointly by them
at the Olympic games now at hand. Should the above cities see good
to make any addition in these articles, whatever all the above
cities shall agree upon, after consulting together, shall be binding.
Although the treaty and alliances were thus concluded, still the
treaty between the Lacedaemonians and Athenians was not renounced by
either party. Meanwhile Corinth, although the ally of the Argives, did
not accede to the new treaty, any more than she had done to the
alliance, defensive and offensive, formed before this between the
Eleans, Argives, and Mantineans, when she declared herself content
with the first alliance, which was defensive only, and which bound
them to help each other, but not to join in attacking any. The
Corinthians thus stood aloof from their allies, and again turned their
thoughts towards Lacedaemon.
At the Olympic games which were held this summer, and in which the
Arcadian Androsthenes was victor the first time in the wrestling and
boxing, the Lacedaemonians were excluded from the temple by the
Eleans, and thus prevented from sacrificing or contending, for
having refused to pay the fine specified in the Olympic law imposed
upon them by the Eleans, who alleged that they had attacked Fort
Phyrcus, and sent heavy infantry of theirs into Lepreum during the
Olympic truce. The amount of the fine was two thousand minae, two
for each heavy-armed soldier, as the law prescribes. The
Lacedaemonians sent envoys, and pleaded that the imposition was
unjust; saying that the truce had not yet been proclaimed at
Lacedaemon when the heavy infantry were sent off. But the Eleans
affirmed that the armistice with them had already begun (they proclaim
it first among themselves), and that the aggression of the
Lacedaemonians had taken them by surprise while they were living
quietly as in time of peace, and not expecting anything. Upon this the
Lacedaemonians submitted, that if the Eleans really believed that they
had committed an aggression, it was useless after that to proclaim the
truce at Lacedaemon; but they had proclaimed it notwithstanding, as
believing nothing of the kind, and from that moment the Lacedaemonians
had made no attack upon their country. Nevertheless the Eleans adhered
to what they had said, that nothing would persuade them that an
aggression had not been committed; if, however, the Lacedaemonians
would restore Lepreum, they would give up their own share of the money
and pay that of the god for them.
As this proposal was not accepted, the Eleans tried a second.
Instead of restoring Lepreum, if this was objected to, the
Lacedaemonians should ascend the altar of the Olympian Zeus, as they
were so anxious to have access to the temple, and swear before the
Hellenes that they would surely pay the fine at a later day. This
being also refused, the Lacedaemonians were excluded from the
temple, the sacrifice, and the games, and sacrificed at home; the
Lepreans being the only other Hellenes who did not attend. Still the
Eleans were afraid of the Lacedaemonians sacrificing by force, and
kept guard with a heavy-armed company of their young men; being also
joined by a thousand Argives, the same number of Mantineans, and by
some Athenian cavalry who stayed at Harpina during the feast. Great
fears were felt in the assembly of the Lacedaemonians coming in
arms, especially after Lichas, son of Arcesilaus, a Lacedaemonian, had
been scourged on the course by the umpires; because, upon his horses
being the winners, and the Boeotian people being proclaimed the victor
on account of his having no right to enter, he came forward on the
course and crowned the charioteer, in order to show that the chariot
was his. After this incident all were more afraid than ever, and
firmly looked for a disturbance: the Lacedaemonians, however, kept
quiet, and let the feast pass by, as we have seen. After the Olympic
games, the Argives and the allies repaired to Corinth to invite her to
come over to them. There they found some Lacedaemonian envoys; and a
long discussion ensued, which after all ended in nothing, as an
earthquake occurred, and they dispersed to their different homes.
Summer was now over. The winter following a battle took place
between the Heracleots in Trachinia and the Aenianians, Dolopians,
Malians, and certain of the Thessalians, all tribes bordering on and
hostile to the town, which directly menaced their country.
Accordingly, after having opposed and harassed it from its very
foundation by every means in their power, they now in this battle
defeated the Heracleots, Xenares, son of Cnidis, their Lacedaemonian
commander, being among the slain. Thus the winter ended and the
twelfth year of this war ended also. After the battle, Heraclea was so
terribly reduced that in the first days of the summer following the
Boeotians occupied the place and sent away the Lacedaemonian
Agesippidas for misgovernment, fearing that the town might be taken by
the Athenians while the Lacedaemonians were distracted with the
affairs of Peloponnese. The Lacedaemonians, nevertheless, were
offended with them for what they had done.
The same summer Alcibiades, son of Clinias, now one of the
generals at Athens, in concert with the Argives and the allies, went
into Peloponnese with a few Athenian heavy infantry and archers and
some of the allies in those parts whom he took up as he passed, and
with this army marched here and there through Peloponnese, and settled
various matters connected with the alliance, and among other things
induced the Patrians to carry their walls down to the sea, intending
himself also to build a fort near the Achaean Rhium. However, the
Corinthians and Sicyonians, and all others who would have suffered
by its being built, came up and hindered him.
The same summer war broke out between the Epidaurians and Argives.
The pretext was that the Epidaurians did not send an offering for
their pasture-land to Apollo Pythaeus, as they were bound to do, the
Argives having the chief management of the temple; but, apart from
this pretext, Alcibiades and the Argives were determined, if possible,
to gain possession of Epidaurus, and thus to ensure the neutrality
of Corinth and give the Athenians a shorter passage for their
reinforcements from Aegina than if they had to sail round Scyllaeum.
The Argives accordingly prepared to invade Epidaurus by themselves, to
exact the offering.
About the same time the Lacedaemonians marched out with all their
people to Leuctra upon their frontier, opposite to Mount Lycaeum,
under the command of Agis, son of Archidamus, without any one
knowing their destination, not even the cities that sent the
contingents. The sacrifices, however, for crossing the frontier not
proving propitious, the Lacedaemonians returned home themselves, and
sent word to the allies to be ready to march after the month
ensuing, which happened to be the month of Carneus, a holy time for
the Dorians. Upon the retreat of the Lacedaemonians the Argives
marched out on the last day but three of the month before Carneus, and
keeping this as the day during the whole time that they were out,
invaded and plundered Epidaurus. The Epidaurians summoned their allies
to their aid, some of whom pleaded the month as an excuse; others came
as far as the frontier of Epidaurus and there remained inactive.
While the Argives were in Epidaurus embassies from the cities
assembled at Mantinea, upon the invitation of the Athenians. The
conference having begun, the Corinthian Euphamidas said that their
actions did not agree with their words; while they were sitting
deliberating about peace, the Epidaurians and their allies and the
Argives were arrayed against each other in arms; deputies from each
party should first go and separate the armies, and then the talk about
peace might be resumed. In compliance with this suggestion, they
went and brought back the Argives from Epidaurus, and afterwards
reassembled, but without succeeding any better in coming to a
conclusion; and the Argives a second time invaded Epidaurus and
plundered the country. The Lacedaemonians also marched out to
Caryae; but the frontier sacrifices again proving unfavourable, they
went back again, and the Argives, after ravaging about a third of
the Epidaurian territory, returned home. Meanwhile a thousand Athenian
heavy infantry had come to their aid under the command of
Alcibiades, but finding that the Lacedaemonian expedition was at an
end, and that they were no longer wanted, went back again.
So passed the summer. The next winter the Lacedaemonians managed
to elude the vigilance of the Athenians, and sent in a garrison of
three hundred men to Epidaurus, under the command of Agesippidas. Upon
this the Argives went to the Athenians and complained of their
having allowed an enemy to pass by sea, in spite of the clause in
the treaty by which the allies were not to allow an enemy to pass
through their country. Unless, therefore, they now put the
Messenians and Helots in Pylos to annoy the Lacedaemonians, they,
the Argives, should consider that faith had not been kept with them.
The Athenians were persuaded by Alcibiades to inscribe at the bottom
of the Laconian pillar that the Lacedaemonians had not kept their
oaths, and to convey the Helots at Cranii to Pylos to plunder the
country; but for the rest they remained quiet as before. During this
winter hostilities went on between the Argives and Epidaurians,
without any pitched battle taking place, but only forays and
ambuscades, in which the losses were small and fell now on one side
and now on the other. At the close of the winter, towards the
beginning of spring, the Argives went with scaling ladders to
Epidaurus, expecting to find it left unguarded on account of the war
and to be able to take it by assault, but returned unsuccessful. And
the winter ended, and with it the thirteenth year of the war ended
also.
In the middle of the next summer the Lacedaemonians, seeing the
Epidaurians, their allies, in distress, and the rest of Peloponnese
either in revolt or disaffected, concluded that it was high time for
them to interfere if they wished to stop the progress of the evil, and
accordingly with their full force, the Helots included, took the field
against Argos, under the command of Agis, son of Archidamus, king of
the Lacedaemonians. The Tegeans and the other Arcadian allies of
Lacedaemon joined in the expedition. The allies from the rest of
Peloponnese and from outside mustered at Phlius; the Boeotians with
five thousand heavy infantry and as many light troops, and five
hundred horse and the same number of dismounted troopers; the
Corinthians with two thousand heavy infantry; the rest more or less as
might happen; and the Phliasians with all their forces, the army being
in their country.
The preparations of the Lacedaemonians from the first had been known
to the Argives, who did not, however, take the field until the enemy
was on his road to join the rest at Phlius. Reinforced by the
Mantineans with their allies, and by three thousand Elean heavy
infantry, they advanced and fell in with the Lacedaemonians at
Methydrium in Arcadia. Each party took up its position upon a hill,
and the Argives prepared to engage the Lacedaemonians while they
were alone; but Agis eluded them by breaking up his camp in the night,
and proceeded to join the rest of the allies at Phlius. The Argives
discovering this at daybreak, marched first to Argos and then to the
Nemean road, by which they expected the Lacedaemonians and their
allies would come down. However, Agis, instead of taking this road
as they expected, gave the Lacedaemonians, Arcadians, and
Epidaurians their orders, and went along another difficult road, and
descended into the plain of Argos. The Corinthians, Pellenians, and
Phliasians marched by another steep road; while the Boeotians,
Megarians, and Sicyonians had instructions to come down by the
Nemean road where the Argives were posted, in order that, if the enemy
advanced into the plain against the troops of Agis, they might fall
upon his rear with their cavalry. These dispositions concluded, Agis
invaded the plain and began to ravage Saminthus and other places.
Discovering this, the Argives came up from Nemea, day having now
dawned. On their way they fell in with the troops of the Phliasians
and Corinthians, and killed a few of the Phliasians and had perhaps
a few more of their own men killed by the Corinthians. Meanwhile the
Boeotians, Megarians, and Sicyonians, advancing upon Nemea according
to their instructions, found the Argives no longer there, as they
had gone down on seeing their property ravaged, and were now forming
for battle, the Lacedaemonians imitating their example. The Argives
were now completely surrounded; from the plain the Lacedaemonians
and their allies shut them off from their city; above them were the
Corinthians, Phliasians, and Pellenians; and on the side of Nemea
the Boeotians, Sicyonians, and Megarians. Meanwhile their army was
without cavalry, the Athenians alone among the allies not having yet
arrived. Now the bulk of the Argives and their allies did not see
the danger of their position, but thought that they could not have a
fairer field, having intercepted the Lacedaemonians in their own
country and close to the city. Two men, however, in the Argive army,
Thrasylus, one of the five generals, and Alciphron, the
Lacedaemonian proxenus, just as the armies were upon the point of
engaging, went and held a parley with Agis and urged him not to
bring on a battle, as the Argives were ready to refer to fair and
equal arbitration whatever complaints the Lacedaemonians might have
against them, and to make a treaty and live in peace in future.
The Argives who made these statements did so upon their own
authority, not by order of the people, and Agis on his accepted
their proposals, and without himself either consulting the majority,
simply communicated the matter to a single individual, one of the high
officers accompanying the expedition, and granted the Argives a
truce for four months, in which to fulfil their promises; after
which he immediately led off the army without giving any explanation
to any of the other allies. The Lacedaemonians and allies followed
their general out of respect for the law, but amongst themselves
loudly blamed Agis for going away from so fair a field (the enemy
being hemmed in on every side by infantry and cavalry) without
having done anything worthy of their strength. Indeed this was by
far the finest Hellenic army ever yet brought together; and it
should have been seen while it was still united at Nemea, with the
Lacedaemonians in full force, the Arcadians, Boeotians, Corinthians,
Sicyonians, Pellenians, Phliasians and Megarians, and all these the
flower of their respective populations, thinking themselves a match
not merely for the Argive confederacy, but for another such added to
it. The army thus retired blaming Agis, and returned every man to
his home. The Argives however blamed still more loudly the persons who
had concluded the truce without consulting the people, themselves
thinking that they had let escape with the Lacedaemonians an
opportunity such as they should never see again; as the struggle would
have been under the walls of their city, and by the side of many and
brave allies. On their return accordingly they began to stone
Thrasylus in the bed of the Charadrus, where they try all military
causes before entering the city. Thrasylus fled to the altar, and so
saved his life; his property however they confiscated.
After this arrived a thousand Athenian heavy infantry and three
hundred horse, under the command of Laches and Nicostratus; whom the
Argives, being nevertheless loath to break the truce with the
Lacedaemonians, begged to depart, and refused to bring before the
people, to whom they had a communication to make, until compelled to
do so by the entreaties of the Mantineans and Eleans, who were still
at Argos. The Athenians, by the mouth of Alcibiades their ambassador
there present, told the Argives and the allies that they had no
right to make a truce at all without the consent of their fellow
confederates, and now that the Athenians had arrived so opportunely
the war ought to be resumed. These arguments proving successful with
the allies, they immediately marched upon Orchomenos, all except the
Argives, who, although they had consented like the rest, stayed behind
at first, but eventually joined the others. They now all sat down
and besieged Orchomenos, and made assaults upon it; one of their
reasons for desiring to gain this place being that hostages from
Arcadia had been lodged there by the Lacedaemonians. The Orchomenians,
alarmed at the weakness of their wall and the numbers of the enemy,
and at the risk they ran of perishing before relief arrived,
capitulated upon condition of joining the league, of giving hostages
of their own to the Mantineans, and giving up those lodged with them
by the Lacedaemonians. Orchomenos thus secured, the allies now
consulted as to which of the remaining places they should attack next.
The Eleans were urgent for Lepreum; the Mantineans for Tegea; and
the Argives and Athenians giving their support to the Mantineans,
the Eleans went home in a rage at their not having voted for
Lepreum; while the rest of the allies made ready at Mantinea for going
against Tegea, which a party inside had arranged to put into their
hands.
Meanwhile the Lacedaemonians, upon their return from Argos after
concluding the four months' truce, vehemently blamed Agis for not
having subdued Argos, after an opportunity such as they thought they
had never had before; for it was no easy matter to bring so many and
so good allies together. But when the news arrived of the capture of
Orchomenos, they became more angry than ever, and, departing from
all precedent, in the heat of the moment had almost decided to raze
his house, and to fine him ten thousand drachmae. Agis however
entreated them to do none of these things, promising to atone for
his fault by good service in the field, failing which they might
then do to him whatever they pleased; and they accordingly abstained
from razing his house or fining him as they had threatened to do,
and now made a law, hitherto unknown at Lacedaemon, attaching to him
ten Spartans as counsellors, without whose consent he should have no
power to lead an army out of the city.
At this juncture arrived word from their friends in Tegea that,
unless they speedily appeared, Tegea would go over from them to the
Argives and their allies, if it had not gone over already. Upon this
news a force marched out from Lacedaemon, of the Spartans and Helots
and all their people, and that instantly and upon a scale never before
witnessed. Advancing to Orestheum in Maenalia, they directed the
Arcadians in their league to follow close after them to Tegea, and,
going on themselves as far as Orestheum, from thence sent back the
sixth part of the Spartans, consisting of the oldest and youngest men,
to guard their homes, and with the rest of their army arrived at
Tegea; where their Arcadian allies soon after joined them. Meanwhile
they sent to Corinth, to the Boeotians, the Phocians, and Locrians,
with orders to come up as quickly as possible to Mantinea. These had
but short notice; and it was not easy except all together, and after
waiting for each other, to pass through the enemy's country, which lay
right across and blocked up the line of communication. Nevertheless
they made what haste they could. Meanwhile the Lacedaemonians with the
Arcadian allies that had joined them, entered the territory of
Mantinea, and encamping near the temple of Heracles began to plunder
the country.
Here they were seen by the Argives and their allies, who immediately
took up a strong and difficult position, and formed in order of
battle. The Lacedaemonians at once advanced against them, and came
on within a stone's throw or javelin's cast, when one of the older
men, seeing the enemy's position to be a strong one, hallooed to
Agis that he was minded to cure one evil with another; meaning that he
wished to make amends for his retreat, which had been so much
blamed, from Argos, by his present untimely precipitation. Meanwhile
Agis, whether in consequence of this halloo or of some sudden new idea
of his own, quickly led back his army without engaging, and entering
the Tegean territory, began to turn off into that of Mantinea the
water about which the Mantineans and Tegeans are always fighting, on
account of the extensive damage it does to whichever of the two
countries it falls into. His object in this was to make the Argives
and their allies come down from the hill, to resist the diversion of
the water, as they would be sure to do when they knew of it, and
thus to fight the battle in the plain. He accordingly stayed that
day where he was, engaged in turning off the water. The Argives and
their allies were at first amazed at the sudden retreat of the enemy
after advancing so near, and did not know what to make of it; but when
he had gone away and disappeared, without their having stirred to
pursue him, they began anew to find fault with their generals, who had
not only let the Lacedaemonians get off before, when they were so
happily intercepted before Argos, but who now again allowed them to
run away, without any one pursuing them, and to escape at their
leisure while the Argive army was leisurely betrayed.
The generals, half-stunned for the moment, afterwards led them
down from the hill, and went forward and encamped in the plain, with
the intention of attacking the enemy.
The next day the Argives and their allies formed in the order in
which they meant to fight, if they chanced to encounter the enemy; and
the Lacedaemonians returning from the water to their old encampment by
the temple of Heracles, suddenly saw their adversaries close in
front of them, all in complete order, and advanced from the hill. A
shock like that of the present moment the Lacedaemonians do not ever
remember to have experienced: there was scant time for preparation, as
they instantly and hastily fell into their ranks, Agis, their king,
directing everything, agreeably to the law. For when a king is in
the field all commands proceed from him: he gives the word to the
Polemarchs; they to the Lochages; these to the Pentecostyes; these
again to the Enomotarchs, and these last to the Enomoties. In short
all orders required pass in the same way and quickly reach the troops;
as almost the whole Lacedaemonian army, save for a small part,
consists of officers under officers, and the care of what is to be
done falls upon many.
In this battle the left wing was composed of the Sciritae, who in
a Lacedaemonian army have always that post to themselves alone; next
to these were the soldiers of Brasidas from Thrace, and the Neodamodes
with them; then came the Lacedaemonians themselves, company after
company, with the Arcadians of Heraea at their side. After these
were the Maenalians, and on the right wing the Tegeans with a few of
the Lacedaemonians at the extremity; their cavalry being posted upon
the two wings. Such was the Lacedaemonian formation. That of their
opponents was as follows: On the right were the Mantineans, the action
taking place in their country; next to them the allies from Arcadia;
after whom came the thousand picked men of the Argives, to whom the
state had given a long course of military training at the public
expense; next to them the rest of the Argives, and after them their
allies, the Cleonaeans and Orneans, and lastly the Athenians on the
extreme left, and lastly the Athenians on the extreme left, and
their own cavalry with them.
Such were the order and the forces of the two combatants. The
Lacedaemonian army looked the largest; though as to putting down the
numbers of either host, or of the contingents composing it, I could
not do so with any accuracy. Owing to the secrecy of their
government the number of the Lacedaemonians was not known, and men are
so apt to brag about the forces of their country that the estimate
of their opponents was not trusted. The following calculation,
however, makes it possible to estimate the numbers of the
Lacedaemonians present upon this occasion. There were seven
companies in the field without counting the Sciritae, who numbered six
hundred men: in each company there were four Pentecostyes, and in
the Pentecosty four Enomoties. The first rank of the Enomoty was
composed of four soldiers: as to the depth, although they had not been
all drawn up alike, but as each captain chose, they were generally
ranged eight deep; the first rank along the whole line, exclusive of
the Sciritae, consisted of four hundred and forty-eight men.
The armies being now on the eve of engaging, each contingent
received some words of encouragement from its own commander. The
Mantineans were, reminded that they were going to fight for their
country and to avoid returning to the experience of servitude after
having tasted that of empire; the Argives, that they would contend for
their ancient supremacy, to regain their once equal share of
Peloponnese of which they had been so long deprived, and to punish
an enemy and a neighbour for a thousand wrongs; the Athenians, of
the glory of gaining the honours of the day with so many and brave
allies in arms, and that a victory over the Lacedaemonians in
Peloponnese would cement and extend their empire, and would besides
preserve Attica from all invasions in future. These were the
incitements addressed to the Argives and their allies. The
Lacedaemonians meanwhile, man to man, and with their war-songs in
the ranks, exhorted each brave comrade to remember what he had
learnt before; well aware that the long training of action was of more
saving virtue than any brief verbal exhortation, though never so
well delivered.
After this they joined battle, the Argives and their allies
advancing with haste and fury, the Lacedaemonians slowly and to the
music of many flute-players--a standing institution in their army,
that has nothing to do with religion, but is meant to make them
advance evenly, stepping in time, without break their order, as
large armies are apt to do in the moment of engaging.
Just before the battle joined, King Agis resolved upon the following
manoeuvre. All armies are alike in this: on going into action they get
forced out rather on their right wing, and one and the other overlap
with this adversary's left; because fear makes each man do his best to
shelter his unarmed side with the shield of the man next him on the
right, thinking that the closer the shields are locked together the
better will he be protected. The man primarily responsible for this is
the first upon the right wing, who is always striving to withdraw from
the enemy his unarmed side; and the same apprehension makes the rest
follow him. On the present occasion the Mantineans reached with
their wing far beyond the Sciritae, and the Lacedaemonians and Tegeans
still farther beyond the Athenians, as their army was the largest.
Agis, afraid of his left being surrounded, and thinking that the
Mantineans outflanked it too far, ordered the Sciritae and
Brasideans to move out from their place in the ranks and make the line
even with the Mantineans, and told the Polemarchs Hipponoidas and
Aristocles to fill up the gap thus formed, by throwing themselves into
it with two companies taken from the right wing; thinking that his
right would still be strong enough and to spare, and that the line
fronting the Mantineans would gain in solidity.
However, as he gave these orders in the moment of the onset, and
at short notice, it so happened that Aristocles and Hipponoidas
would not move over, for which offence they were afterwards banished
from Sparta, as having been guilty of cowardice; and the enemy
meanwhile closed before the Sciritae (whom Agis on seeing that the two
companies did not move over ordered to return to their place) had time
to fill up the breach in question. Now it was, however, that the
Lacedaemonians, utterly worsted in respect of skill, showed themselves
as superior in point of courage. As soon as they came to close
quarters with the enemy, the Mantinean right broke their Sciritae
and Brasideans, and, bursting in with their allies and the thousand
picked Argives into the unclosed breach in their line, cut up and
surrounded the Lacedaemonians, and drove them in full rout to the
wagons, slaying some of the older men on guard there. But the
Lacedaemonians, worsted in this part of the field, with the rest of
their army, and especially the centre, where the three hundred
knights, as they are called, fought round King Agis, fell on the older
men of the Argives and the five companies so named, and on the
Cleonaeans, the Orneans, and the Athenians next them, and instantly
routed them; the greater number not even waiting to strike a blow, but
giving way the moment that they came on, some even being trodden under
foot, in their fear of being overtaken by their assailants.
The army of the Argives and their allies, having given way in this
quarter, was now completely cut in two, and the Lacedaemonian and
Tegean right simultaneously closing round the Athenians with the
troops that outflanked them, these last found themselves placed
between two fires, being surrounded on one side and already defeated
on the other. Indeed they would have suffered more severely than any
other part of the army, but for the services of the cavalry which they
had with them. Agis also on perceiving the distress of his left
opposed to the Mantineans and the thousand Argives, ordered all the
army to advance to the support of the defeated wing; and while this
took place, as the enemy moved past and slanted away from them, the
Athenians escaped at their leisure, and with them the beaten Argive
division. Meanwhile the Mantineans and their allies and the picked
body of the Argives ceased to press the enemy, and seeing their
friends defeated and the Lacedaemonians in full advance upon them,
took to flight. Many of the Mantineans perished; but the bulk of the
picked body of the Argives made good their escape. The flight and
retreat, however, were neither hurried nor long; the Lacedaemonians
fighting long and stubbornly until the rout of their enemy, but that
once effected, pursuing for a short time and not far.
Such was the battle, as nearly as possible as I have described it;
the greatest that had occurred for a very long while among the
Hellenes, and joined by the most considerable states. The
Lacedaemonians took up a position in front of the enemy's dead, and
immediately set up a trophy and stripped the slain; they took up their
own dead and carried them back to Tegea, where they buried them, and
restored those of the enemy under truce. The Argives, Orneans, and
Cleonaeans had seven hundred killed; the Mantineans two hundred, and
the Athenians and Aeginetans also two hundred, with both their
generals. On the side of the Lacedaemonians, the allies did not suffer
any loss worth speaking of: as to the Lacedaemonians themselves it was
difficult to learn the truth; it is said, however, that there were
slain about three hundred of them.
While the battle was impending, Pleistoanax, the other king, set out
with a reinforcement composed of the oldest and youngest men, and
got as far as Tegea, where he heard of the victory and went back
again. The Lacedaemonians also sent and turned back the allies from
Corinth and from beyond the Isthmus, and returning themselves
dismissed their allies, and kept the Carnean holidays, which
happened to be at that time. The imputations cast upon them by the
Hellenes at the time, whether of cowardice on account of the
disaster in the island, or of mismanagement and slowness generally,
were all wiped out by this single action: fortune, it was thought,
might have humbled them, but the men themselves were the same as ever.
The day before this battle, the Epidaurians with all their forces
invaded the deserted Argive territory, and cut off many of the
guards left there in the absence of the Argive army. After the
battle three thousand Elean heavy infantry arriving to aid the
Mantineans, and a reinforcement of one thousand Athenians, all these
allies marched at once against Epidaurus, while the Lacedaemonians
were keeping the Carnea, and dividing the work among them began to
build a wall round the city. The rest left off; but the Athenians
finished at once the part assigned to them round Cape Heraeum; and
having all joined in leaving a garrison in the fortification in
question, they returned to their respective cities.
Summer now came to an end. In the first days of the next winter,
when the Carnean holidays were over, the Lacedaemonians took the
field, and arriving at Tegea sent on to Argos proposals of
accommodation. They had before had a party in the town desirous of
overthrowing the democracy; and after the battle that had been fought,
these were now far more in a position to persuade the people to listen
to terms. Their plan was first to make a treaty with the
Lacedaemonians, to be followed by an alliance, and after this to
fall upon the commons. Lichas, son of Arcesilaus, the Argive proxenus,
accordingly arrived at Argos with two proposals from Lacedaemon, to
regulate the conditions of war or peace, according as they preferred
the one or the other. After much discussion, Alcibiades happening to
be in the town, the Lacedaemonian party, who now ventured to act
openly, persuaded the Argives to accept the proposal for
accommodation; which ran as follows:
The assembly of the Lacedaemonians agrees to treat with the
Argives upon the terms following:
1. The Argives shall restore to the Orchomenians their children,
and to the Maenalians their men, and shall restore the men they have
in Mantinea to the Lacedaemonians.
2. They shall evacuate Epidaurus, and raze the fortification
there. If the Athenians refuse to withdraw from Epidaurus, they
shall be declared enemies of the Argives and of the Lacedaemonians,
and of the allies of the Lacedaemonians and the allies of the Argives.
3. If the Lacedaemonians have any children in their custody,
they shall restore them every one to his city.
4. As to the offering to the god, the Argives, if they wish, shall
impose an oath upon the Epidaurians, but, if not, they shall swear
it themselves.
5. All the cities in Peloponnese, both small and great, shall be
independent according to the customs of their country.
6. If any of the powers outside Peloponnese invade Peloponnesian
territory, the parties contracting shall unite to repel them, on
such terms as they may agree upon, as being most fair for the
Peloponnesians.
7. All allies of the Lacedaemonians outside Peloponnese shall be
on the same footing as the Lacedaemonians, and the allies of the
Argives shall be on the same footing as the Argives, being left in
enjoyment of their own possessions.
8. This treaty shall be shown to the allies, and shall be concluded,
if they approve; if the allies think fit, they may send the treaty
to be considered at home.
The Argives began by accepting this proposal, and the
Lacedaemonian army returned home from Tegea. After this intercourse
was renewed between them, and not long afterwards the same party
contrived that the Argives should give up the league with the
Mantineans, Eleans, and Athenians, and should make a treaty and
alliance with the Lacedaemonians; which was consequently done upon the
terms following:
The Lacedaemonians and Argives agree to a treaty and alliance
for fifty years upon the terms following:
1. All disputes shall be decided by fair and impartial
arbitration, agreeably to the customs of the two countries.
2. The rest of the cities in Peloponnese may be included in this
treaty and alliance, as independent and sovereign, in full enjoyment
of what they possess, all disputes being decided by fair and impartial
arbitration, agreeably to the customs of the said cities.
3. All allies of the Lacedaemonians outside Peloponnese shall be
upon the same footing as the Lacedaemonians themselves, and the allies
of the Argives shall be upon the same footing as the Argives
themselves, continuing to enjoy what they possess.
4. If it shall be anywhere necessary to make an expedition in
common, the Lacedaemonians and Argives shall consult upon it and
decide, as may be most fair for the allies.
5. If any of the cities, whether inside or outside Peloponnese,
have a question whether of frontiers or otherwise, it must be settled,
but if one allied city should have a quarrel with another allied city,
it must be referred to some third city thought impartial by both
parties. Private citizens shall have their disputes decided
according to the laws of their several countries.
The treaty and above alliance concluded, each party at once released
everything whether acquired by war or otherwise, and thenceforth
acting in common voted to receive neither herald nor embassy from
the Athenians unless they evacuated their forts and withdrew from
Peloponnese, and also to make neither peace nor war with any, except
jointly. Zeal was not wanting: both parties sent envoys to the
Thracian places and to Perdiccas, and persuaded the latter to join
their league. Still he did not at once break off from Athens, although
minded to do so upon seeing the way shown him by Argos, the original
home of his family. They also renewed their old oaths with the
Chalcidians and took new ones: the Argives, besides, sent
ambassadors to the Athenians, bidding them evacuate the fort at
Epidaurus. The Athenians, seeing their own men outnumbered by the rest
of the garrison, sent Demosthenes to bring them out. This general,
under colour of a gymnastic contest which he arranged on his
arrival, got the rest of the garrison out of the place, and shut the
gates behind them. Afterwards the Athenians renewed their treaty
with the Epidaurians, and by themselves gave up the fortress.
After the defection of Argos from the league, the Mantineans, though
they held out at first, in the end finding themselves powerless
without the Argives, themselves too came to terms with Lacedaemon, and
gave up their sovereignty over the towns. The Lacedaemonians and
Argives, each a thousand strong, now took the field together, and
the former first went by themselves to Sicyon and made the
government there more oligarchical than before, and then both,
uniting, put down the democracy at Argos and set up an oligarchy
favourable to Lacedaemon. These events occurred at the close of the
winter, just before spring; and the fourteenth year of the war
ended. The next summer the people of Dium, in Athos, revolted from the
Athenians to the Chalcidians, and the Lacedaemonians settled affairs
in Achaea in a way more agreeable to the interests of their country.
Meanwhile the popular party at Argos little by little gathered new
consistency and courage, and waited for the moment of the
Gymnopaedic festival at Lacedaemon, and then fell upon the
oligarchs. After a fight in the city, victory declared for the
commons, who slew some of their opponents and banished others. The
Lacedaemonians for a long while let the messages of their friends at
Argos remain without effect. At last they put off the Gymnopaediae and
marched to their succour, but learning at Tegea the defeat of the
oligarchs, refused to go any further in spite of the entreaties of
those who had escaped, and returned home and kept the festival.
Later on, envoys arrived with messages from the Argives in the town
and from the exiles, when the allies were also at Sparta; and after
much had been said on both sides, the Lacedaemonians decided that
the party in the town had done wrong, and resolved to march against
Argos, but kept delaying and putting off the matter. Meanwhile the
commons at Argos, in fear of the Lacedaemonians, began again to
court the Athenian alliance, which they were convinced would be of the
greatest service to them; and accordingly proceeded to build long
walls to the sea, in order that in case of a blockade by land; with
the help of the Athenians they might have the advantage of importing
what they wanted by sea. Some of the cities in Peloponnese were also
privy to the building of these walls; and the Argives with all their
people, women and slaves not excepted, addressed themselves to the
work, while carpenters and masons came to them from Athens.
Summer was now over. The winter following the Lacedaemonians,
hearing of the walls that were building, marched against Argos with
their allies, the Corinthians excepted, being also not without
intelligence in the city itself; Agis, son of Archidamus, their
king, was in command. The intelligence which they counted upon
within the town came to nothing; they however took and razed the walls
which were being built, and after capturing the Argive town Hysiae and
killing all the freemen that fell into their hands, went back and
dispersed every man to his city. After this the Argives marched into
Phlius and plundered it for harbouring their exiles, most of whom
had settled there, and so returned home. The same winter the Athenians
blockaded Macedonia, on the score of the league entered into by
Perdiccas with the Argives and Lacedaemonians, and also of his
breach of his engagements on the occasion of the expedition prepared
by Athens against the Chalcidians in the direction of Thrace and
against Amphipolis, under the command of Nicias, son of Niceratus,
which had to be broken up mainly because of his desertion. He was
therefore proclaimed an enemy. And thus the winter ended, and the
fifteenth year of the war ended with it.
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