|
Explorers, Scientists &
Inventors
Musicians, Painters &
Artists
Poets, Writers &
Philosophers
Native Americans & The Wild
West
First Ladies
Popes
Troublemakers
Historians
Archaeologists
Royal
Families
Tribes & Peoples
Assassinations in History
Who
got slain, almost slain, when, how,
why, and by whom?
Go to the
Assassination Archive
Online History Dictionary A - Z
Voyages in History
When did what
vessel arrive with whom onboard and where
did it sink if it didn't?
Go to the
Passage-Chart
The Divine Almanac
Who all roamed the heavens in
olden times? The Who's Who of
ancient gods.
Check out
the Divine Almanac
|
|
The History of the Peloponnesian War
Book 5 - Chapter XVII
|
|
The StSixteenth Year of the War - The Melian Conference - Fate of Melos
The next summer Alcibiades sailed with twenty ships to Argos and
seized the suspected persons still left of the Lacedaemonian faction
to the number of three hundred, whom the Athenians forthwith lodged in
the neighbouring islands of their empire. The Athenians also made an
expedition against the isle of Melos with thirty ships of their own,
six Chian, and two Lesbian vessels, sixteen hundred heavy infantry,
three hundred archers, and twenty mounted archers from Athens, and
about fifteen hundred heavy infantry from the allies and the
islanders. The Melians are a colony of Lacedaemon that would not
submit to the Athenians like the other islanders, and at first
remained neutral and took no part in the struggle, but afterwards upon
the Athenians using violence and plundering their territory, assumed
an attitude of open hostility. Cleomedes, son of Lycomedes, and
Tisias, son of Tisimachus, the generals, encamping in their
territory with the above armament, before doing any harm to their
land, sent envoys to negotiate. These the Melians did not bring before
the people, but bade them state the object of their mission to the
magistrates and the few; upon which the Athenian envoys spoke as
follows:
Athenians. Since the negotiations are not to go on before the
people, in order that we may not be able to speak straight on
without interruption, and deceive the ears of the multitude by
seductive arguments which would pass without refutation (for we know
that this is the meaning of our being brought before the few), what if
you who sit there were to pursue a method more cautious still? Make no
set speech yourselves, but take us up at whatever you do not like, and
settle that before going any farther. And first tell us if this
proposition of ours suits you.
|
The Melian commissioners answered:
Melians. To the fairness of quietly instructing each other as you
propose there is nothing to object; but your military preparations are
too far advanced to agree with what you say, as we see you are come to
be judges in your own cause, and that all we can reasonably expect
from this negotiation is war, if we prove to have right on our side
and refuse to submit, and in the contrary case, slavery.
Athenians. If you have met to reason about presentiments of the
future, or for anything else than to consult for the safety of your
state upon the facts that you see before you, we will give over;
otherwise we will go on.
Melians. It is natural and excusable for men in our position to turn
more ways than one both in thought and utterance. However, the
question in this conference is, as you say, the safety of our country;
and the discussion, if you please, can proceed in the way which you
propose.
Athenians. For ourselves, we shall not trouble you with specious
pretences--either of how we have a right to our empire because we
overthrew the Mede, or are now attacking you because of wrong that you
have done us--and make a long speech which would not be believed; and
in return we hope that you, instead of thinking to influence us by
saying that you did not join the Lacedaemonians, although their
colonists, or that you have done us no wrong, will aim at what is
feasible, holding in view the real sentiments of us both; since you
know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in
question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can
and the weak suffer what they must.
Melians. As we think, at any rate, it is expedient--we speak as we
are obliged, since you enjoin us to let right alone and talk only of
interest--that you should not destroy what is our common protection,
the privilege of being allowed in danger to invoke what is fair and
right, and even to profit by arguments not strictly valid if they
can be got to pass current. And you are as much interested in this
as any, as your fall would be a signal for the heaviest vengeance
and an example for the world to meditate upon.
Athenians. The end of our empire, if end it should, does not
frighten us: a rival empire like Lacedaemon, even if Lacedaemon was
our real antagonist, is not so terrible to the vanquished as
subjects who by themselves attack and overpower their rulers. This,
however, is a risk that we are content to take. We will now proceed to
show you that we are come here in the interest of our empire, and that
we shall say what we are now going to say, for the preservation of
your country; as we would fain exercise that empire over you without
trouble, and see you preserved for the good of us both.
Melians. And how, pray, could it turn out as good for us to serve as
for you to rule?
Athenians. Because you would have the advantage of submitting before
suffering the worst, and we should gain by not destroying you.
Melians. So that you would not consent to our being neutral, friends
instead of enemies, but allies of neither side.
Athenians. No; for your hostility cannot so much hurt us as your
friendship will be an argument to our subjects of our weakness, and
your enmity of our power.
Melians. Is that your subjects' idea of equity, to put those who
have nothing to do with you in the same category with peoples that are
most of them your own colonists, and some conquered rebels?
Athenians. As far as right goes they think one has as much of it
as the other, and that if any maintain their independence it is
because they are strong, and that if we do not molest them it is
because we are afraid; so that besides extending our empire we
should gain in security by your subjection; the fact that you are
islanders and weaker than others rendering it all the more important
that you should not succeed in baffling the masters of the sea.
Melians. But do you consider that there is no security in the policy
which we indicate? For here again if you debar us from talking about
justice and invite us to obey your interest, we also must explain
ours, and try to persuade you, if the two happen to coincide. How
can you avoid making enemies of all existing neutrals who shall look
at case from it that one day or another you will attack them? And what
is this but to make greater the enemies that you have already, and
to force others to become so who would otherwise have never thought of
it?
Athenians. Why, the fact is that continentals generally give us
but little alarm; the liberty which they enjoy will long prevent their
taking precautions against us; it is rather islanders like yourselves,
outside our empire, and subjects smarting under the yoke, who would be
the most likely to take a rash step and lead themselves and us into
obvious danger.
Melians. Well then, if you risk so much to retain your empire, and
your subjects to get rid of it, it were surely great baseness and
cowardice in us who are still free not to try everything that can be
tried, before submitting to your yoke.
Athenians. Not if you are well advised, the contest not being an
equal one, with honour as the prize and shame as the penalty, but a
question of self-preservation and of not resisting those who are far
stronger than you are.
Melians. But we know that the fortune of war is sometimes more
impartial than the disproportion of numbers might lead one to suppose;
to submit is to give ourselves over to despair, while action still
preserves for us a hope that we may stand erect.
Athenians. Hope, danger's comforter, may be indulged in by those who
have abundant resources, if not without loss at all events without
ruin; but its nature is to be extravagant, and those who go so far
as to put their all upon the venture see it in its true colours only
when they are ruined; but so long as the discovery would enable them
to guard against it, it is never found wanting. Let not this be the
case with you, who are weak and hang on a single turn of the scale;
nor be like the vulgar, who, abandoning such security as human means
may still afford, when visible hopes fail them in extremity, turn to
invisible, to prophecies and oracles, and other such inventions that
delude men with hopes to their destruction.
Melians. You may be sure that we are as well aware as you of the
difficulty of contending against your power and fortune, unless the
terms be equal. But we trust that the gods may grant us fortune as
good as yours, since we are just men fighting against unjust, and that
what we want in power will be made up by the alliance of the
Lacedaemonians, who are bound, if only for very shame, to come to
the aid of their kindred. Our confidence, therefore, after all is
not so utterly irrational.
Athenians. When you speak of the favour of the gods, we may as
fairly hope for that as yourselves; neither our pretensions nor our
conduct being in any way contrary to what men believe of the gods,
or practise among themselves. Of the gods we believe, and of men we
know, that by a necessary law of their nature they rule wherever
they can. And it is not as if we were the first to make this law, or
to act upon it when made: we found it existing before us, and shall
leave it to exist for ever after us; all we do is to make use of it,
knowing that you and everybody else, having the same power as we have,
would do the same as we do. Thus, as far as the gods are concerned, we
have no fear and no reason to fear that we shall be at a disadvantage.
But when we come to your notion about the Lacedaemonians, which
leads you to believe that shame will make them help you, here we bless
your simplicity but do not envy your folly. The Lacedaemonians, when
their own interests or their country's laws are in question, are the
worthiest men alive; of their conduct towards others much might be
said, but no clearer idea of it could be given than by shortly
saying that of all the men we know they are most conspicuous in
considering what is agreeable honourable, and what is expedient
just. Such a way of thinking does not promise much for the safety
which you now unreasonably count upon.
Melians. But it is for this very reason that we now trust to their
respect for expediency to prevent them from betraying the Melians,
their colonists, and thereby losing the confidence of their friends in
Hellas and helping their enemies.
Athenians. Then you do not adopt the view that expediency goes
with security, while justice and honour cannot be followed without
danger; and danger the Lacedaemonians generally court as little as
possible.
Melians. But we believe that they would be more likely to face
even danger for our sake, and with more confidence than for others, as
our nearness to Peloponnese makes it easier for them to act, and our
common blood ensures our fidelity.
Athenians. Yes, but what an intending ally trusts to is not the
goodwill of those who ask his aid, but a decided superiority of
power for action; and the Lacedaemonians look to this even more than
others. At least, such is their distrust of their home resources
that it is only with numerous allies that they attack a neighbour; now
is it likely that while we are masters of the sea they will cross over
to an island?
Melians. But they would have others to send. The Cretan Sea is a
wide one, and it is more difficult for those who command it to
intercept others, than for those who wish to elude them to do so
safely. And should the Lacedaemonians miscarry in this, they would
fall upon your land, and upon those left of your allies whom
Brasidas did not reach; and instead of places which are not yours, you
will have to fight for your own country and your own confederacy.
Athenians. Some diversion of the kind you speak of you may one day
experience, only to learn, as others have done, that the Athenians
never once yet withdrew from a siege for fear of any. But we are
struck by the fact that, after saying you would consult for the safety
of your country, in all this discussion you have mentioned nothing
which men might trust in and think to be saved by. Your strongest
arguments depend upon hope and the future, and your actual resources
are too scanty, as compared with those arrayed against you, for you to
come out victorious. You will therefore show great blindness of
judgment, unless, after allowing us to retire, you can find some
counsel more prudent than this. You will surely not be caught by
that idea of disgrace, which in dangers that are disgraceful, and at
the same time too plain to be mistaken, proves so fatal to mankind;
since in too many cases the very men that have their eyes perfectly
open to what they are rushing into, let the thing called disgrace,
by the mere influence of a seductive name, lead them on to a point
at which they become so enslaved by the phrase as in fact to fall
wilfully into hopeless disaster, and incur disgrace more disgraceful
as the companion of error, than when it comes as the result of
misfortune. This, if you are well advised, you will guard against; and
you will not think it dishonourable to submit to the greatest city
in Hellas, when it makes you the moderate offer of becoming its
tributary ally, without ceasing to enjoy the country that belongs to
you; nor when you have the choice given you between war and
security, will you be so blinded as to choose the worse. And it is
certain that those who do not yield to their equals, who keep terms
with their superiors, and are moderate towards their inferiors, on the
whole succeed best. Think over the matter, therefore, after our
withdrawal, and reflect once and again that it is for your country
that you are consulting, that you have not more than one, and that
upon this one deliberation depends its prosperity or ruin.
The Athenians now withdrew from the conference; and the Melians,
left to themselves, came to a decision corresponding with what they
had maintained in the discussion, and answered: "Our resolution,
Athenians, is the same as it was at first. We will not in a moment
deprive of freedom a city that has been inhabited these seven
hundred years; but we put our trust in the fortune by which the gods
have preserved it until now, and in the help of men, that is, of the
Lacedaemonians; and so we will try and save ourselves. Meanwhile we
invite you to allow us to be friends to you and foes to neither party,
and to retire from our country after making such a treaty as shall
seem fit to us both."
Such was the answer of the Melians. The Athenians now departing from
the conference said: "Well, you alone, as it seems to us, judging from
these resolutions, regard what is future as more certain than what
is before your eyes, and what is out of sight, in your eagerness, as
already coming to pass; and as you have staked most on, and trusted
most in, the Lacedaemonians, your fortune, and your hopes, so will you
be most completely deceived."
The Athenian envoys now returned to the army; and the Melians
showing no signs of yielding, the generals at once betook themselves
to hostilities, and drew a line of circumvallation round the
Melians, dividing the work among the different states. Subsequently
the Athenians returned with most of their army, leaving behind them
a certain number of their own citizens and of the allies to keep guard
by land and sea. The force thus left stayed on and besieged the place.
About the same time the Argives invaded the territory of Phlius
and lost eighty men cut off in an ambush by the Phliasians and
Argive exiles. Meanwhile the Athenians at Pylos took so much plunder
from the Lacedaemonians that the latter, although they still refrained
from breaking off the treaty and going to war with Athens, yet
proclaimed that any of their people that chose might plunder the
Athenians. The Corinthians also commenced hostilities with the
Athenians for private quarrels of their own; but the rest of the
Peloponnesians stayed quiet. Meanwhile the Melians attacked by night
and took the part of the Athenian lines over against the market, and
killed some of the men, and brought in corn and all else that they
could find useful to them, and so returned and kept quiet, while the
Athenians took measures to keep better guard in future.
Summer was now over. The next winter the Lacedaemonians intended
to invade the Argive territory, but arriving at the frontier found the
sacrifices for crossing unfavourable, and went back again. This
intention of theirs gave the Argives suspicions of certain of their
fellow citizens, some of whom they arrested; others, however,
escaped them. About the same time the Melians again took another
part of the Athenian lines which were but feebly garrisoned.
Reinforcements afterwards arriving from Athens in consequence, under
the command of Philocrates, son of Demeas, the siege was now pressed
vigorously; and some treachery taking place inside, the Melians
surrendered at discretion to the Athenians, who put to death all the
grown men whom they took, and sold the women and children for
slaves, and subsequently sent out five hundred colonists and inhabited
the place themselves.
More History
|
