History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides (free ebooks for android .txt) 📕

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 marketplace, in the temple of

Apollo: by the Mantineans in the temple of Zeus, in the

marketplace: 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 articies, 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