The Internet Classics Archive | The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
The History of the Peloponnesian War
By Thucydides
Commentary: Quite a few comments have been posted about
The History of the Peloponnesian War.
Download: A
text-only version is available for download.
The History of the Peloponnesian War
By Thucydides
Written 431 B.C.E
Translated by Richard Crawley
Chapter VI
Beginning of the Peloponnesian War - First Invasion of
Attica - Funeral Oration of Pericles
The war between the Athenians and Peloponnesians and the allies
on either side now really begins. For now all intercourse except through
the medium of heralds ceased, and hostilities were commenced and prosecuted
without intermission. The history follows the chronological order of events
by summers and winters.
The thirty years' truce which was entered into after the conquest
of Euboea lasted fourteen years. In the fifteenth, in the forty-eighth
year of the priestess-ship of Chrysis at Argos, in the ephorate of Aenesias
at Sparta, in the last month but two of the archonship of Pythodorus at
Athens, and six months after the battle of Potidaea, just at the beginning
of spring, a Theban force a little over three hundred strong, under the
command of their Boeotarchs, Pythangelus, son of Phyleides, and Diemporus,
son of Onetorides, about the first watch of the night, made an armed entry
into Plataea, a town of Boeotia in alliance with Athens. The gates were
opened to them by a Plataean called Naucleides, who, with his party, had
invited them in, meaning to put to death the citizens of the opposite party,
bring over the city to Thebes, and thus obtain power for themselves. This
was arranged through Eurymachus, son of Leontiades, a person of great influence
at Thebes. For Plataea had always been at variance with Thebes; and the
latter, foreseeing that war was at hand, wished to surprise her old enemy
in time of peace, before hostilities had actually broken out. Indeed this
was how they got in so easily without being observed, as no guard had been
posted. After the soldiers had grounded arms in the market-place, those
who had invited them in wished them to set to work at once and go to their
enemies' houses. This, however, the Thebans refused to do, but determined
to make a conciliatory proclamation, and if possible to come to a friendly
understanding with the citizens. Their herald accordingly invited any who
wished to resume their old place in the confederacy of their countrymen
to ground arms with them, for they thought that in this way the city would
readily join them.
On becoming aware of the presence of the Thebans within their gates,
and of the sudden occupation of the town, the Plataeans concluded in their
alarm that more had entered than was really the case, the night preventing
their seeing them. They accordingly came to terms and, accepting the proposal,
made no movement; especially as the Thebans offered none of them any violence.
But somehow or other, during the negotiations, they discovered the scanty
numbers of the Thebans, and decided that they could easily attack and overpower
them; the mass of the Plataeans being averse to revolting from Athens.
At all events they resolved to attempt it. Digging through the party walls
of the houses, they thus managed to join each other without being seen
going through the streets, in which they placed wagons without the beasts
in them, to serve as a barricade, and arranged everything else as seemed
convenient for the occasion. When everything had been done that circumstances
permitted, they watched their opportunity and went out of their houses
against the enemy. It was still night, though daybreak was at hand: in
daylight it was thought that their attack would be met by men full of courage
and on equal terms with their assailants, while in darkness it would fall
upon panic-stricken troops, who would also be at a disadvantage from their
enemy's knowledge of the locality. So they made their assault at once,
and came to close quarters as quickly as they could.
The Thebans, finding themselves outwitted, immediately closed up
to repel all attacks made upon them. Twice or thrice they beat back their
assailants. But the men shouted and charged them, the women and slaves
screamed and yelled from the houses and pelted them with stones and tiles;
besides, it had been raining hard all night; and so at last their courage
gave way, and they turned and fled through the town. Most of the fugitives
were quite ignorant of the right ways out, and this, with the mud, and
the darkness caused by the moon being in her last quarter, and the fact
that their pursuers knew their way about and could easily stop their escape,
proved fatal to many. The only gate open was the one by which they had
entered, and this was shut by one of the Plataeans driving the spike of
a javelin into the bar instead of the bolt; so that even here there was
no longer any means of exit. They were now chased all over the town. Some
got on the wall and threw themselves over, in most cases with a fatal result.
One party managed to find a deserted gate, and obtaining an axe from a
woman, cut through the bar; but as they were soon observed only a few succeeded
in getting out. Others were cut off in detail in different parts of the
city. The most numerous and compact body rushed into a large building next
to the city wall: the doors on the side of the street happened to be open,
and the Thebans fancied that they were the gates of the town, and that
there was a passage right through to the outside. The Plataeans, seeing
their enemies in a trap, now consulted whether they should set fire to
the building and burn them just as they were, or whether there was anything
else that they could do with them; until at length these and the rest of
the Theban survivors found wandering about the town agreed to an unconditional
surrender of themselves and their arms to the Plataeans.
While such was the fate of the party in Plataea, the rest of the
Thebans who were to have joined them with all their forces before daybreak,
in case of anything miscarrying with the body that had entered, received
the news of the affair on the road, and pressed forward to their succour.
Now Plataea is nearly eight miles from Thebes, and their march delayed
by the rain that had fallen in the night, for the river Asopus had risen
and was not easy of passage; and so, having to march in the rain, and being
hindered in crossing the river, they arrived too late, and found the whole
party either slain or captive. When they learned what had happened, they
at once formed a design against the Plataeans outside the city. As the
attack had been made in time of peace, and was perfectly unexpected, there
were of course men and stock in the fields; and the Thebans wished if possible
to have some prisoners to exchange against their countrymen in the town,
should any chance to have been taken alive. Such was their plan. But the
Plataeans suspected their intention almost before it was formed, and becoming
alarmed for their fellow citizens outside the town, sent a herald to the
Thebans, reproaching them for their unscrupulous attempt to seize their
city in time of peace, and warning them against any outrage on those outside.
Should the warning be disregarded, they threatened to put to death the
men they had in their hands, but added that, on the Thebans retiring from
their territory, they would surrender the prisoners to their friends. This
is the Theban account of the matter, and they say that they had an oath
given them. The Plataeans, on the other hand, do not admit any promise
of an immediate surrender, but make it contingent upon subsequent negotiation:
the oath they deny altogether. Be this as it may, upon the Thebans retiring
from their territory without committing any injury, the Plataeans hastily
got in whatever they had in the country and immediately put the men to
death. The prisoners were a hundred and eighty in number; Eurymachus, the
person with whom the traitors had negotiated, being
one.
This done, the Plataeans sent a messenger to Athens, gave back
the dead to the Thebans under a truce, and arranged things in the city
as seemed best to meet the present emergency. The Athenians meanwhile,
having had word of the affair sent them immediately after its occurrence,
had instantly seized all the Boeotians in Attica, and sent a herald to
the Plataeans to forbid their proceeding to extremities with their Theban
prisoners without instructions from Athens. The news of the men's death
had of course not arrived; the first messenger having left Plataea just
when the Thebans entered it, the second just after their defeat and capture;
so there was no later news. Thus the Athenians sent orders in ignorance
of the facts; and the herald on his arrival found the men slain. After
this the Athenians marched to Plataea and brought in provisions, and left
a garrison in the place, also taking away the women and children and such
of the men as were least efficient.
After the affair at Plataea, the treaty had been broken by an overt
act, and Athens at once prepared for war, as did also Lacedaemon and her
allies. They resolved to send embassies to the King and to such other of
the barbarian powers as either party could look to for assistance, and
tried to ally themselves with the independent states at home. Lacedaemon,
in addition to the existing marine, gave orders to the states that had
declared for her in Italy and Sicily to build vessels up to a grand total
of five hundred, the quota of each city being determined by its size, and
also to provide a specified sum of money. Till these were ready they were
to remain neutral and to admit single Athenian ships into their harbours.
Athens on her part reviewed her existing confederacy, and sent embassies
to the places more immediately round Peloponnese- Corcyra, Cephallenia,
Acarnania, and Zacynthus- perceiving that if these could be relied on she
could carry the war all round Peloponnese.
And if both sides nourished the boldest hopes and put forth their
utmost strength for the war, this was only natural. Zeal is always at its
height at the commencement of an undertaking; and on this particular occasion
Peloponnese and Athens were both full of young men whose inexperience made
them eager to take up arms, while the rest of Hellas stood straining with
excitement at the conflict of its leading cities. Everywhere predictions
were being recited and oracles being chanted by such persons as collect
them, and this not only in the contending cities. Further, some while before
this, there was an earthquake at Delos, for the first time in the memory
of the Hellenes. This was said and thought to be ominous of the events
impending; indeed, nothing of the kind that happened was allowed to pass
without remark. The good wishes of men made greatly for the Lacedaemonians,
especially as they proclaimed themselves the liberators of Hellas. No private
or public effort that could help them in speech or action was omitted;
each thinking that the cause suffered wherever he could not himself see
to it. So general was the indignation felt against Athens, whether by those
who wished to escape from her empire, or were apprehensive of being absorbed
by it. Such were the preparations and such the feelings with which the
contest opened.
The allies of the two belligerents were the following. These were
the allies of Lacedaemon: all the Peloponnesians within the Isthmus except
the Argives and Achaeans, who were neutral; Pellene being the only Achaean
city that first joined in the war, though her example was afterwards followed
by the rest. Outside Peloponnese the Megarians, Locrians, Boeotians, Phocians,
Ambraciots, Leucadians, and Anactorians. Of these, ships were furnished
by the Corinthians, Megarians, Sicyonians, Pellenians, Eleans, Ambraciots,
and Leucadians; and cavalry by the Boeotians, Phocians, and Locrians. The
other states sent infantry. This was the Lacedaemonian confederacy. That
of Athens comprised the Chians, Lesbians, Plataeans, the Messenians in
Naupactus, most of the Acarnanians, the Corcyraeans, Zacynthians, and some
tributary cities in the following countries, viz., Caria upon the sea with
her Dorian neighbours, Ionia, the Hellespont, the Thracian towns, the islands
lying between Peloponnese and Crete towards the east, and all the Cyclades
except Melos and Thera. Of these, ships were furnished by Chios, Lesbos,
and Corcyra, infantry and money by the rest. Such were the allies of either
party and their resources for the war.
Immediately after the affair at Plataea, Lacedaemon sent round
orders to the cities in Peloponnese and the rest of her confederacy to
prepare troops and the provisions requisite for a foreign campaign, in
order to invade Attica. The several states were ready at the time appointed
and assembled at the Isthmus: the contingent of each city being two-thirds
of its whole force. After the whole army had mustered, the Lacedaemonian
king, Archidamus, the leader of the expedition, called together the generals
of all the states and the principal persons and officers, and exhorted
them as follows:
"Peloponnesians and allies, our fathers made many campaigns both
within and without Peloponnese, and the elder men among us here are not
without experience in war. Yet we have never set out with a larger force
than the present; and if our numbers and efficiency are remarkable, so
also is the power of the state against which we march. We ought not then
to show ourselves inferior to our ancestors, or unequal to our own reputation.
For the hopes and attention of all Hellas are bent upon the present effort,
and its sympathy is with the enemy of the hated Athens. Therefore, numerous
as the invading army may appear to be, and certain as some may think it
that our adversary will not meet us in the field, this is no sort of justification
for the least negligence upon the march; but the officers and men of each
particular city should always be prepared for the advent of danger in their
own quarters. The course of war cannot be foreseen, and its attacks are
generally dictated by the impulse of the moment; and where overweening
self-confidence has despised preparation, a wise apprehension often been
able to make head against superior numbers. Not that confidence is out
of place in an army of invasion, but in an enemy's country it should also
be accompanied by the precautions of apprehension: troops will by this
combination be best inspired for dealing a blow, and best secured against
receiving one. In the present instance, the city against which we are going,
far from being so impotent for defence, is on the contrary most excellently
equipped at all points; so that we have every reason to expect that they
will take the field against us, and that if they have not set out already
before we are there, they will certainly do so when they see us in their
territory wasting and destroying their property. For men are always exasperated
at suffering injuries to which they are not accustomed, and on seeing them
inflicted before their very eyes; and where least inclined for reflection,
rush with the greatest heat to action. The Athenians are the very people
of all others to do this, as they aspire to rule the rest of the world,
and are more in the habit of invading and ravaging their neighbours' territory,
than of seeing their own treated in the like fashion. Considering, therefore,
the power of the state against which we are marching, and the greatness
of the reputation which, according to the event, we shall win or lose for
our ancestors and ourselves, remember as you follow where you may be led
to regard discipline and vigilance as of the first importance, and to obey
with alacrity the orders transmitted to you; as nothing contributes so
much to the credit and safety of an army as the union of large bodies by
a single discipline."
With this brief speech dismissing the assembly, Archidamus first
sent off Melesippus, son of Diacritus, a Spartan, to Athens, in case she
should be more inclined to submit on seeing the Peloponnesians actually
on the march. But the Athenians did not admit into the city or to their
assembly, Pericles having already carried a motion against admitting either
herald or embassy from the Lacedaemonians after they had once marched
out.
The herald was accordingly sent away without an audience, and ordered
to be beyond the frontier that same day; in future, if those who sent him
had a proposition to make, they must retire to their own territory before
they dispatched embassies to Athens. An escort was sent with Melesippus
to prevent his holding communication with any one. When he reached the
frontier and was just going to be dismissed, he departed with these words:
"This day will be the beginning of great misfortunes to the Hellenes."
As soon as he arrived at the camp, and Archidamus learnt that the Athenians
had still no thoughts of submitting, he at length began his march, and
advanced with his army into their territory. Meanwhile the Boeotians, sending
their contingent and cavalry to join the Peloponnesian expedition, went
to Plataea with the remainder and laid waste the country.
While the Peloponnesians were still mustering at the Isthmus, or
on the march before they invaded Attica, Pericles, son of Xanthippus, one
of the ten generals of the Athenians, finding that the invasion was to
take place, conceived the idea that Archidamus, who happened to be his
friend, might possibly pass by his estate without ravaging it. This he
might do, either from a personal wish to oblige him, or acting under instructions
from Lacedaemon for the purpose of creating a prejudice against him, as
had been before attempted in the demand for the expulsion of the accursed
family. He accordingly took the precaution of announcing to the Athenians
in the assembly that, although Archidamus was his friend, yet this friendship
should not extend to the detriment of the state, and that in case the enemy
should make his houses and lands an exception to the rest and not pillage
them, he at once gave them up to be public property, so that they should
not bring him into suspicion. He also gave the citizens some advice on
their present affairs in the same strain as before. They were to prepare
for the war, and to carry in their property from the country. They were
not to go out to battle, but to come into the city and guard it, and get
ready their fleet, in which their real strength lay. They were also to
keep a tight rein on their allies- the strength of Athens being derived
from the money brought in by their payments, and success in war depending
principally upon conduct and capital. had no reason to despond. Apart from
other sources of income, an average revenue of six hundred talents of silver
was drawn from the tribute of the allies; and there were still six thousand
talents of coined silver in the Acropolis, out of nine thousand seven hundred
that had once been there, from which the money had been taken for the porch
of the Acropolis, the other public buildings, and for Potidaea. This did
not include the uncoined gold and silver in public and private offerings,
the sacred vessels for the processions and games, the Median spoils, and
similar resources to the amount of five hundred talents. To this he added
the treasures of the other temples. These were by no means inconsiderable,
and might fairly be used. Nay, if they were ever absolutely driven to it,
they might take even the gold ornaments of Athene herself; for the statue
contained forty talents of pure gold and it was all removable. This might
be used for self-preservation, and must every penny of it be restored.
Such was their financial position- surely a satisfactory one. Then they
had an army of thirteen thousand heavy infantry, besides sixteen thousand
more in the garrisons and on home duty at Athens. This was at first the
number of men on guard in the event of an invasion: it was composed of
the oldest and youngest levies and the resident aliens who had heavy armour.
The Phaleric wall ran for four miles, before it joined that round the city;
and of this last nearly five had a guard, although part of it was left
without one, viz., that between the Long Wall and the Phaleric. Then there
were the Long Walls to Piraeus, a distance of some four miles and a half,
the outer of which was manned. Lastly, the circumference of Piraeus with
Munychia was nearly seven miles and a half; only half of this, however,
was guarded. Pericles also showed them that they had twelve hundred horse
including mounted archers, with sixteen hundred archers unmounted, and
three hundred galleys fit for service. Such were the resources of Athens
in the different departments when the Peloponnesian invasion was impending
and hostilities were being commenced. Pericles also urged his usual arguments
for expecting a favourable issue to the war.
The Athenians listened to his advice, and began to carry in their
wives and children from the country, and all their household furniture,
even to the woodwork of their houses which they took down. Their sheep
and cattle they sent over to Euboea and the adjacent islands. But they
found it hard to move, as most of them had been always used to live in
the country.
From very early times this had been more the case with the Athenians
than with others. Under Cecrops and the first kings, down to the reign
of Theseus, Attica had always consisted of a number of independent townships,
each with its own town hall and magistrates. Except in times of danger
the king at Athens was not consulted; in ordinary seasons they carried
on their government and settled their affairs without his interference;
sometimes even they waged war against him, as in the case of the Eleusinians
with Eumolpus against Erechtheus. In Theseus, however, they had a king
of equal intelligence and power; and one of the chief features in his organization
of the country was to abolish the council-chambers and magistrates of the
petty cities, and to merge them in the single council-chamber and town
hall of the present capital. Individuals might still enjoy their private
property just as before, but they were henceforth compelled to have only
one political centre, viz., Athens; which thus counted all the inhabitants
of Attica among her citizens, so that when Theseus died he left a great
state behind him. Indeed, from him dates the Synoecia, or Feast of Union;
which is paid for by the state, and which the Athenians still keep in honour
of the goddess. Before this the city consisted of the present citadel and
the district beneath it looking rather towards the south. This is shown
by the fact that the temples of the other deities, besides that of Athene,
are in the citadel; and even those that are outside it are mostly situated
in this quarter of the city, as that of the Olympian Zeus, of the Pythian
Apollo, of Earth, and of Dionysus in the Marshes, the same in whose honour
the older Dionysia are to this day celebrated in the month of Anthesterion
not only by the Athenians but also by their Ionian descendants. There are
also other ancient temples in this quarter. The fountain too, which, since
the alteration made by the tyrants, has been called Enneacrounos, or Nine
Pipes, but which, when the spring was open, went by the name of Callirhoe,
or Fairwater, was in those days, from being so near, used for the most
important offices. Indeed, the old fashion of using the water before marriage
and for other sacred purposes is still kept up. Again, from their old residence
in that quarter, the citadel is still known among Athenians as the
city.
The Athenians thus long lived scattered over Attica in independent
townships. Even after the centralization of Theseus, old habit still prevailed;
and from the early times down to the present war most Athenians still lived
in the country with their families and households, and were consequently
not at all inclined to move now, especially as they had only just restored
their establishments after the Median invasion. Deep was their trouble
and discontent at abandoning their houses and the hereditary temples of
the ancient constitution, and at having to change their habits of life
and to bid farewell to what each regarded as his native
city.
When they arrived at Athens, though a few had houses of their own
to go to, or could find an asylum with friends or relatives, by far the
greater number had to take up their dwelling in the parts of the city that
were not built over and in the temples and chapels of the heroes, except
the Acropolis and the temple of the Eleusinian Demeter and such other Places
as were always kept closed. The occupation of the plot of ground lying
below the citadel called the Pelasgian had been forbidden by a curse; and
there was also an ominous fragment of a Pythian oracle which
said:
Leave the Pelasgian parcel desolate,
Woe worth the day that men inhabit it! Yet this too was now built over
in the necessity of the moment. And in my opinion, if the oracle proved
true, it was in the opposite sense to what was expected. For the misfortunes
of the state did not arise from the unlawful occupation, but the necessity
of the occupation from the war; and though the god did not mention this,
he foresaw that it would be an evil day for Athens in which the plot came
to be inhabited. Many also took up their quarters in the towers of the
walls or wherever else they could. For when they were all come in, the
city proved too small to hold them; though afterwards they divided the
Long Walls and a great part of Piraeus into lots and settled there. All
this while great attention was being given to the war; the allies were
being mustered, and an armament of a hundred ships equipped for Peloponnese.
Such was the state of preparation at Athens.
Meanwhile the army of the Peloponnesians was advancing. The first
town they came to in Attica was Oenoe, where they to enter the country.
Sitting down before it, they prepared to assault the wall with engines
and otherwise. Oenoe, standing upon the Athenian and Boeotian border, was
of course a walled town, and was used as a fortress by the Athenians in
time of war. So the Peloponnesians prepared for their assault, and wasted
some valuable time before the place. This delay brought the gravest censure
upon Archidamus. Even during the levying of the war he had credit for weakness
and Athenian sympathies by the half measures he had advocated; and after
the army had assembled he had further injured himself in public estimation
by his loitering at the Isthmus and the slowness with which the rest of
the march had been conducted. But all this was as nothing to the delay
at Oenoe. During this interval the Athenians were carrying in their property;
and it was the belief of the Peloponnesians that a quick advance would
have found everything still out, had it not been for his procrastination.
Such was the feeling of the army towards Archidamus during the siege. But
he, it is said, expected that the Athenians would shrink from letting their
land be wasted, and would make their submission while it was still uninjured;
and this was why he waited.
But after he had assaulted Oenoe, and every possible attempt to
take it had failed, as no herald came from Athens, he at last broke up
his camp and invaded Attica. This was about eighty days after the Theban
attempt upon Plataea, just in the middle of summer, when the corn was ripe,
and Archidamus, son of Zeuxis, king of Lacedaemon, was in command. Encamping
in Eleusis and the Thriasian plain, they began their ravages, and putting
to flight some Athenian horse at a place called Rheiti, or the Brooks,
they then advanced, keeping Mount Aegaleus on their right, through Cropia,
until they reached Acharnae, the largest of the Athenian demes or townships.
Sitting down before it, they formed a camp there, and continued their ravages
for a long while.
The reason why Archidamus remained in order of battle at Acharnae
during this incursion, instead of descending into the plain, is said to
have been this. He hoped that the Athenians might possibly be tempted by
the multitude of their youth and the unprecedented efficiency of their
service to come out to battle and attempt to stop the devastation of their
lands. Accordingly, as they had met him at Eleusis or the Thriasian plain,
he tried if they could be provoked to a sally by the spectacle of a camp
at Acharnae. He thought the place itself a good position for encamping;
and it seemed likely that such an important part of the state as the three
thousand heavy infantry of the Acharnians would refuse to submit to the
ruin of their property, and would force a battle on the rest of the citizens.
On the other hand, should the Athenians not take the field during this
incursion, he could then fearlessly ravage the plain in future invasions,
and extend his advance up to the very walls of Athens. After the Acharnians
had lost their own property they would be less willing to risk themselves
for that of their neighbours; and so there would be division in the Athenian
counsels. These were the motives of Archidamus for remaining at
Acharnae.
In the meanwhile, as long as the army was at Eleusis and the Thriasian
plain, hopes were still entertained of its not advancing any nearer. It
was remembered that Pleistoanax, son of Pausanias, king of Lacedaemon,
had invaded Attica with a Peloponnesian army fourteen years before, but
had retreated without advancing farther than Eleusis and Thria, which indeed
proved the cause of his exile from Sparta, as it was thought he had been
bribed to retreat. But when they saw the army at Acharnae, barely seven
miles from Athens, they lost all patience. The territory of Athens was
being ravaged before the very eyes of the Athenians, a sight which the
young men had never seen before and the old only in the Median wars; and
it was naturally thought a grievous insult, and the determination was universal,
especially among the young men, to sally forth and stop it. Knots were
formed in the streets and engaged in hot discussion; for if the proposed
sally was warmly recommended, it was also in some cases opposed. Oracles
of the most various import were recited by the collectors, and found eager
listeners in one or other of the disputants. Foremost in pressing for the
sally were the Acharnians, as constituting no small part of the army of
the state, and as it was their land that was being ravaged. In short, the
whole city was in a most excited state; Pericles was the object of general
indignation; his previous counsels were totally forgotten; he was abused
for not leading out the army which he commanded, and was made responsible
for the whole of the public suffering.
He, meanwhile, seeing anger and infatuation just now in the ascendant,
and of his wisdom in refusing a sally, would not call either assembly or
meeting of the people, fearing the fatal results of a debate inspired by
passion and not by prudence. Accordingly he addressed himself to the defence
of the city, and kept it as quiet as possible, though he constantly sent
out cavalry to prevent raids on the lands near the city from flying parties
of the enemy. There was a trifling affair at Phrygia between a squadron
of the Athenian horse with the Thessalians and the Boeotian cavalry; in
which the former had rather the best of it, until the heavy infantry advanced
to the support of the Boeotians, when the Thessalians and Athenians were
routed and lost a few men, whose bodies, however, were recovered the same
day without a truce. The next day the Peloponnesians set up a trophy. Ancient
alliance brought the Thessalians to the aid of Athens; those who came being
the Larisaeans, Pharsalians, Cranonians, Pyrasians, Gyrtonians, and Pheraeans.
The Larisaean commanders were Polymedes and Aristonus, two party leaders
in Larisa; the Pharsalian general was Menon; each of the other cities had
also its own commander.
In the meantime the Peloponnesians, as the Athenians did not come
out to engage them, broke up from Acharnae and ravaged some of the demes
between Mount Parnes and Brilessus. While they were in Attica the Athenians
sent off the hundred ships which they had been preparing round Peloponnese,
with a thousand heavy infantry and four hundred archers on board, under
the command of Carcinus, son of Xenotimus, Proteas, son of Epicles, and
Socrates, son of Antigenes. This armament weighed anchor and started on
its cruise, and the Peloponnesians, after remaining in Attica as long as
their provisions lasted, retired through Boeotia by a different road to
that by which they had entered. As they passed Oropus they ravaged the
territory of Graea, which is held by the Oropians from Athens, and reaching
Peloponnese broke up to their respective cities.
After they had retired the Athenians set guards by land and sea
at the points at which they intended to have regular stations during the
war. They also resolved to set apart a special fund of a thousand talents
from the moneys in the Acropolis. This was not to be spent, but the current
expenses of the war were to be otherwise provided for. If any one should
move or put to the vote a proposition for using the money for any purpose
whatever except that of defending the city in the event of the enemy bringing
a fleet to make an attack by sea, it should be a capital offence. With
this sum of money they also set aside a special fleet of one hundred galleys,
the best ships of each year, with their captains. None of these were to
be used except with the money and against the same peril, should such peril
arise.
Meanwhile the Athenians in the hundred ships round Peloponnese,
reinforced by a Corcyraean squadron of fifty vessels and some others of
the allies in those parts, cruised about the coasts and ravaged the country.
Among other places they landed in Laconia and made an assault upon Methone;
there being no garrison in the place, and the wall being weak. But it so
happened that Brasidas, son of Tellis, a Spartan, was in command of a guard
for the defence of the district. Hearing of the attack, he hurried with
a hundred heavy infantry to the assistance of the besieged, and dashing
through the army of the Athenians, which was scattered over the country
and had its attention turned to the wall, threw himself into Methone. He
lost a few men in making good his entrance, but saved the place and won
the thanks of Sparta by his exploit, being thus the first officer who obtained
this notice during the war. The Athenians at once weighed anchor and continued
their cruise. Touching at Pheia in Elis, they ravaged the country for two
days and defeated a picked force of three hundred men that had come from
the vale of Elis and the immediate neighbourhood to the rescue. But a stiff
squall came down upon them, and, not liking to face it in a place where
there was no harbour, most of them got on board their ships, and doubling
Point Ichthys sailed into the port of Pheia. In the meantime the Messenians,
and some others who could not get on board, marched over by land and took
Pheia. The fleet afterwards sailed round and picked them up and then put
to sea; Pheia being evacuated, as the main army of the Eleans had now come
up. The Athenians continued their cruise, and ravaged other places on the
coast.
About the same time the Athenians sent thirty ships to cruise round
Locris and also to guard Euboea; Cleopompus, son of Clinias, being in command.
Making descents from the fleet he ravaged certain places on the sea-coast,
and captured Thronium and took hostages from it. He also defeated at Alope
the Locrians that had assembled to resist him.
During the summer the Athenians also expelled the Aeginetans with
their wives and children from Aegina, on the ground of their having been
the chief agents in bringing the war upon them. Besides, Aegina lies so
near Peloponnese that it seemed safer to send colonists of their own to
hold it, and shortly afterwards the settlers were sent out. The banished
Aeginetans found an asylum in Thyrea, which was given to them by Lacedaemon,
not only on account of her quarrel with Athens, but also because the Aeginetans
had laid her under obligations at the time of the earthquake and the revolt
of the Helots. The territory of Thyrea is on the frontier of Argolis and
Laconia, reaching down to the sea. Those of the Aeginetans who did not
settle here were scattered over the rest of Hellas.
The same summer, at the beginning of a new lunar month, the only
time by the way at which it appears possible, the sun was eclipsed after
noon. After it had assumed the form of a crescent and some of the stars
had come out, it returned to its natural shape.
During the same summer Nymphodorus, son of Pythes, an Abderite,
whose sister Sitalces had married, was made their proxenus by the Athenians
and sent for to Athens. They had hitherto considered him their enemy; but
he had great influence with Sitalces, and they wished this prince to become
their ally. Sitalces was the son of Teres and King of the Thracians. Teres,
the father of Sitalces, was the first to establish the great kingdom of
the Odrysians on a scale quite unknown to the rest of Thrace, a large portion
of the Thracians being independent. This Teres is in no way related to
Tereus who married Pandion's daughter Procne from Athens; nor indeed did
they belong to the same part of Thrace. Tereus lived in Daulis, part of
what is now called Phocis, but which at that time was inhabited by Thracians.
It was in this land that the women perpetrated the outrage upon Itys; and
many of the poets when they mention the nightingale call it the Daulian
bird. Besides, Pandion in contracting an alliance for his daughter would
consider the advantages of mutual assistance, and would naturally prefer
a match at the above moderate distance to the journey of many days which
separates Athens from the Odrysians. Again the names are different; and
this Teres was king of the Odrysians, the first by the way who attained
to any power. Sitalces, his son, was now sought as an ally by the Athenians,
who desired his aid in the reduction of the Thracian towns and of Perdiccas.
Coming to Athens, Nymphodorus concluded the alliance with Sitalces and
made his son Sadocus an Athenian citizen, and promised to finish the war
in Thrace by persuading Sitalces to send the Athenians a force of Thracian
horse and targeteers. He also reconciled them with Perdiccas, and induced
them to restore Therme to him; upon which Perdiccas at once joined the
Athenians and Phormio in an expedition against the Chalcidians. Thus Sitalces,
son of Teres, King of the Thracians, and Perdiccas, son of Alexander, King
of the Macedonians, became allies of Athens.
Meanwhile the Athenians in the hundred vessels were still cruising
round Peloponnese. After taking Sollium, a town belonging to Corinth, and
presenting the city and territory to the Acarnanians of Palaira, they stormed
Astacus, expelled its tyrant Evarchus, and gained the place for their confederacy.
Next they sailed to the island of Cephallenia and brought it over without
using force. Cephallenia lies off Acarnania and Leucas, and consists of
four states, the Paleans, Cranians, Samaeans, and Pronaeans. Not long afterwards
the fleet returned to Athens. Towards the autumn of this year the Athenians
invaded the Megarid with their whole levy, resident aliens included, under
the command of Pericles, son of Xanthippus. The Athenians in the hundred
ships round Peloponnese on their journey home had just reached Aegina,
and hearing that the citizens at home were in full force at Megara, now
sailed over and joined them. This was without doubt the largest army of
Athenians ever assembled, the state being still in the flower of her strength
and yet unvisited by the plague. Full ten thousand heavy infantry were
in the field, all Athenian citizens, besides the three thousand before
Potidaea. Then the resident aliens who joined in the incursion were at
least three thousand strong; besides which there was a multitude of light
troops. They ravaged the greater part of the territory, and then retired.
Other incursions into the Megarid were afterwards made by the Athenians
annually during the war, sometimes only with cavalry, sometimes with all
their forces. This went on until the capture of Nisaea. Atalanta also,
the desert island off the Opuntian coast, was towards the end of this summer
converted into a fortified post by the Athenians, in order to prevent privateers
issuing from Opus and the rest of Locris and plundering Euboea. Such were
the events of this summer after the return of the Peloponnesians from
Attica.
In the ensuing winter the Acarnanian Evarchus, wishing to return
to Astacus, persuaded the Corinthians to sail over with forty ships and
fifteen hundred heavy infantry and restore him; himself also hiring some
mercenaries. In command of the force were Euphamidas, son of Aristonymus,
Timoxenus, son of Timocrates, and Eumachus, son of Chrysis, who sailed
over and restored him and, after failing in an attempt on some places on
the Acarnanian coast which they were desirous of gaining, began their voyage
home. Coasting along shore they touched at Cephallenia and made a descent
on the Cranian territory, and losing some men by the treachery of the Cranians,
who fell suddenly upon them after having agreed to treat, put to sea somewhat
hurriedly and returned home.
In the same winter the Athenians gave a funeral at the public cost
to those who had first fallen in this war. It was a custom of their ancestors,
and the manner of it is as follows. Three days before the ceremony, the
bones of the dead are laid out in a tent which has been erected; and their
friends bring to their relatives such offerings as they please. In the
funeral procession cypress coffins are borne in cars, one for each tribe;
the bones of the deceased being placed in the coffin of their tribe. Among
these is carried one empty bier decked for the missing, that is, for those
whose bodies could not be recovered. Any citizen or stranger who pleases,
joins in the procession: and the female relatives are there to wail at
the burial. The dead are laid in the public sepulchre in the Beautiful
suburb of the city, in which those who fall in war are always buried; with
the exception of those slain at Marathon, who for their singular and extraordinary
valour were interred on the spot where they fell. After the bodies have
been laid in the earth, a man chosen by the state, of approved wisdom and
eminent reputation, pronounces over them an appropriate panegyric; after
which all retire. Such is the manner of the burying; and throughout the
whole of the war, whenever the occasion arose, the established custom was
observed. Meanwhile these were the first that had fallen, and Pericles,
son of Xanthippus, was chosen to pronounce their eulogium. When the proper
time arrived, he advanced from the sepulchre to an elevated platform in
order to be heard by as many of the crowd as possible, and spoke as
follows:
"Most of my predecessors in this place have commended him who made
this speech part of the law, telling us that it is well that it should
be delivered at the burial of those who fall in battle. For myself, I should
have thought that the worth which had displayed itself in deeds would be
sufficiently rewarded by honours also shown by deeds; such as you now see
in this funeral prepared at the people's cost. And I could have wished
that the reputations of many brave men were not to be imperilled in the
mouth of a single individual, to stand or fall according as he spoke well
or ill. For it is hard to speak properly upon a subject where it is even
difficult to convince your hearers that you are speaking the truth. On
the one hand, the friend who is familiar with every fact of the story may
think that some point has not been set forth with that fullness which he
wishes and knows it to deserve; on the other, he who is a stranger to the
matter may be led by envy to suspect exaggeration if he hears anything
above his own nature. For men can endure to hear others praised only so
long as they can severally persuade themselves of their own ability to
equal the actions recounted: when this point is passed, envy comes in and
with it incredulity. However, since our ancestors have stamped this custom
with their approval, it becomes my duty to obey the law and to try to satisfy
your several wishes and opinions as best I may.
"I shall begin with our ancestors: it is both just and proper that
they should have the honour of the first mention on an occasion like the
present. They dwelt in the country without break in the succession from
generation to generation, and handed it down free to the present time by
their valour. And if our more remote ancestors deserve praise, much more
do our own fathers, who added to their inheritance the empire which we
now possess, and spared no pains to be able to leave their acquisitions
to us of the present generation. Lastly, there are few parts of our dominions
that have not been augmented by those of us here, who are still more or
less in the vigour of life; while the mother country has been furnished
by us with everything that can enable her to depend on her own resources
whether for war or for peace. That part of our history which tells of the
military achievements which gave us our several possessions, or of the
ready valour with which either we or our fathers stemmed the tide of Hellenic
or foreign aggression, is a theme too familiar to my hearers for me to
dilate on, and I shall therefore pass it by. But what was the road by which
we reached our position, what the form of government under which our greatness
grew, what the national habits out of which it sprang; these are questions
which I may try to solve before I proceed to my panegyric upon these men;
since I think this to be a subject upon which on the present occasion a
speaker may properly dwell, and to which the whole assemblage, whether
citizens or foreigners, may listen with advantage.
"Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighbouring states;
we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its administration
favours the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy.
If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private
differences; if no social standing, advancement in public life falls to
reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere
with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to serve
the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition. The freedom
which we enjoy in our government extends also to our ordinary life. There,
far from exercising a jealous surveillance over each other, we do not feel
called upon to be angry with our neighbour for doing what he likes, or
even to indulge in those injurious looks which cannot fail to be offensive,
although they inflict no positive penalty. But all this ease in our private
relations does not make us lawless as citizens. Against this fear is our
chief safeguard, teaching us to obey the magistrates and the laws, particularly
such as regard the protection of the injured, whether they are actually
on the statute book, or belong to that code which, although unwritten,
yet cannot be broken without acknowledged disgrace.
"Further, we provide plenty of means for the mind to refresh itself
from business. We celebrate games and sacrifices all the year round, and
the elegance of our private establishments forms a daily source of pleasure
and helps to banish the spleen; while the magnitude of our city draws the
produce of the world into our harbour, so that to the Athenian the fruits
of other countries are as familiar a luxury as those of his
own.
"If we turn to our military policy, there also we differ from our
antagonists. We throw open our city to the world, and never by alien acts
exclude foreigners from any opportunity of learning or observing, although
the eyes of an enemy may occasionally profit by our liberality; trusting
less in system and policy than to the native spirit of our citizens; while
in education, where our rivals from their very cradles by a painful discipline
seek after manliness, at Athens we live exactly as we please, and yet are
just as ready to encounter every legitimate danger. In proof of this it
may be noticed that the Lacedaemonians do not invade our country alone,
but bring with them all their confederates; while we Athenians advance
unsupported into the territory of a neighbour, and fighting upon a foreign
soil usually vanquish with ease men who are defending their homes. Our
united force was never yet encountered by any enemy, because we have at
once to attend to our marine and to dispatch our citizens by land upon
a hundred different services; so that, wherever they engage with some such
fraction of our strength, a success against a detachment is magnified into
a victory over the nation, and a defeat into a reverse suffered at the
hands of our entire people. And yet if with habits not of labour but of
ease, and courage not of art but of nature, we are still willing to encounter
danger, we have the double advantage of escaping the experience of hardships
in anticipation and of facing them in the hour of need as fearlessly as
those who are never free from them.
"Nor are these the only points in which our city is worthy of admiration.
We cultivate refinement without extravagance and knowledge without effeminacy;
wealth we employ more for use than for show, and place the real disgrace
of poverty not in owning to the fact but in declining the struggle against
it. Our public men have, besides politics, their private affairs to attend
to, and our ordinary citizens, though occupied with the pursuits of industry,
are still fair judges of public matters; for, unlike any other nation,
regarding him who takes no part in these duties not as unambitious but
as useless, we Athenians are able to judge at all events if we cannot originate,
and, instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling-block in the way of
action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at
all. Again, in our enterprises we present the singular spectacle of daring
and deliberation, each carried to its highest point, and both united in
the same persons; although usually decision is the fruit of ignorance,
hesitation of reflection. But the palm of courage will surely be adjudged
most justly to those, who best know the difference between hardship and
pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger. In generosity
we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving,
favours. Yet, of course, the doer of the favour is the firmer friend of
the two, in order by continued kindness to keep the recipient in his debt;
while the debtor feels less keenly from the very consciousness that the
return he makes will be a payment, not a free gift. And it is only the
Athenians, who, fearless of consequences, confer their benefits not from
calculations of expediency, but in the confidence of
liberality.
"In short, I say that as a city we are the school of Hellas, while
I doubt if the world can produce a man who, where he has only himself to
depend upon, is equal to so many emergencies, and graced by so happy a
versatility, as the Athenian. And that this is no mere boast thrown out
for the occasion, but plain matter of fact, the power of the state acquired
by these habits proves. For Athens alone of her contemporaries is found
when tested to be greater than her reputation, and alone gives no occasion
to her assailants to blush at the antagonist by whom they have been worsted,
or to her subjects to question her title by merit to rule. Rather, the
admiration of the present and succeeding ages will be ours, since we have
not left our power without witness, but have shown it by mighty proofs;
and far from needing a Homer for our panegyrist, or other of his craft
whose verses might charm for the moment only for the impression which they
gave to melt at the touch of fact, we have forced every sea and land to
be the highway of our daring, and everywhere, whether for evil or for good,
have left imperishable monuments behind us. Such is the Athens for which
these men, in the assertion of their resolve not to lose her, nobly fought
and died; and well may every one of their survivors be ready to suffer
in her cause.
"Indeed if I have dwelt at some length upon the character of our
country, it has been to show that our stake in the struggle is not the
same as theirs who have no such blessings to lose, and also that the panegyric
of the men over whom I am now speaking might be by definite proofs established.
That panegyric is now in a great measure complete; for the Athens that
I have celebrated is only what the heroism of these and their like have
made her, men whose fame, unlike that of most Hellenes, will be found to
be only commensurate with their deserts. And if a test of worth be wanted,
it is to be found in their closing scene, and this not only in cases in
which it set the final seal upon their merit, but also in those in which
it gave the first intimation of their having any. For there is justice
in the claim that steadfastness in his country's battles should be as a
cloak to cover a man's other imperfections; since the good action has blotted
out the bad, and his merit as a citizen more than outweighed his demerits
as an individual. But none of these allowed either wealth with its prospect
of future enjoyment to unnerve his spirit, or poverty with its hope of
a day of freedom and riches to tempt him to shrink from danger. No, holding
that vengeance upon their enemies was more to be desired than any personal
blessings, and reckoning this to be the most glorious of hazards, they
joyfully determined to accept the risk, to make sure of their vengeance,
and to let their wishes wait; and while committing to hope the uncertainty
of final success, in the business before them they thought fit to act boldly
and trust in themselves. Thus choosing to die resisting, rather than to
live submitting, they fled only from dishonour, but met danger face to
face, and after one brief moment, while at the summit of their fortune,
escaped, not from their fear, but from their glory.
"So died these men as became Athenians. You, their survivors, must
determine to have as unfaltering a resolution in the field, though you
may pray that it may have a happier issue. And not contented with ideas
derived only from words of the advantages which are bound up with the defence
of your country, though these would furnish a valuable text to a speaker
even before an audience so alive to them as the present, you must yourselves
realize the power of Athens, and feed your eyes upon her from day to day,
till love of her fills your hearts; and then, when all her greatness shall
break upon you, you must reflect that it was by courage, sense of duty,
and a keen feeling of honour in action that men were enabled to win all
this, and that no personal failure in an enterprise could make them consent
to deprive their country of their valour, but they laid it at her feet
as the most glorious contribution that they could offer. For this offering
of their lives made in common by them all they each of them individually
received that renown which never grows old, and for a sepulchre, not so
much that in which their bones have been deposited, but that noblest of
shrines wherein their glory is laid up to be eternally remembered upon
every occasion on which deed or story shall call for its commemoration.
For heroes have the whole earth for their tomb; and in lands far from their
own, where the column with its epitaph declares it, there is enshrined
in every breast a record unwritten with no tablet to preserve it, except
that of the heart. These take as your model and, judging happiness to be
the fruit of freedom and freedom of valour, never decline the dangers of
war. For it is not the miserable that would most justly be unsparing of
their lives; these have nothing to hope for: it is rather they to whom
continued life may bring reverses as yet unknown, and to whom a fall, if
it came, would be most tremendous in its consequences. And surely, to a
man of spirit, the degradation of cowardice must be immeasurably more grievous
than the unfelt death which strikes him in the midst of his strength and
patriotism!
"Comfort, therefore, not condolence, is what I have to offer to
the parents of the dead who may be here. Numberless are the chances to
which, as they know, the life of man is subject; but fortunate indeed are
they who draw for their lot a death so glorious as that which has caused
your mourning, and to whom life has been so exactly measured as to terminate
in the happiness in which it has been passed. Still I know that this is
a hard saying, especially when those are in question of whom you will constantly
be reminded by seeing in the homes of others blessings of which once you
also boasted: for grief is felt not so much for the want of what we have
never known, as for the loss of that to which we have been long accustomed.
Yet you who are still of an age to beget children must bear up in the hope
of having others in their stead; not only will they help you to forget
those whom you have lost, but will be to the state at once a reinforcement
and a security; for never can a fair or just policy be expected of the
citizen who does not, like his fellows, bring to the decision the interests
and apprehensions of a father. While those of you who have passed your
prime must congratulate yourselves with the thought that the best part
of your life was fortunate, and that the brief span that remains will be
cheered by the fame of the departed. For it is only the love of honour
that never grows old; and honour it is, not gain, as some would have it,
that rejoices the heart of age and helplessness.
"Turning to the sons or brothers of the dead, I see an arduous
struggle before you. When a man is gone, all are wont to praise him, and
should your merit be ever so transcendent, you will still find it difficult
not merely to overtake, but even to approach their renown. The living have
envy to contend with, while those who are no longer in our path are honoured
with a goodwill into which rivalry does not enter. On the other hand, if
I must say anything on the subject of female excellence to those of you
who will now be in widowhood, it will be all comprised in this brief exhortation.
Great will be your glory in not falling short of your natural character;
and greatest will be hers who is least talked of among the men, whether
for good or for bad.
"My task is now finished. I have performed it to the best of my
ability, and in word, at least, the requirements of the law are now satisfied.
If deeds be in question, those who are here interred have received part
of their honours already, and for the rest, their children will be brought
up till manhood at the public expense: the state thus offers a valuable
prize, as the garland of victory in this race of valour, for the reward
both of those who have fallen and their survivors. And where the rewards
for merit are greatest, there are found the best citizens.
"And now that you have brought to a close your lamentations for
your relatives, you may depart."
Chapter VII
Second Year of the War - The Plague of Athens - Position
and Policy of Pericles - Fall of Potidaea
Such was the funeral that took place during this winter, with which
the first year of the war came to an end. In the first days of summer the
Lacedaemonians and their allies, with two-thirds of their forces as before,
invaded Attica, under the command of Archidamus, son of Zeuxidamus, King
of Lacedaemon, and sat down and laid waste the country. Not many days after
their arrival in Attica the plague first began to show itself among the
Athenians. It was said that it had broken out in many places previously
in the neighbourhood of Lemnos and elsewhere; but a pestilence of such
extent and mortality was nowhere remembered. Neither were the physicians
at first of any service, ignorant as they were of the proper way to treat
it, but they died themselves the most thickly, as they visited the sick
most often; nor did any human art succeed any better. Supplications in
the temples, divinations, and so forth were found equally futile, till
the overwhelming nature of the disaster at last put a stop to them
altogether.
It first began, it is said, in the parts of Ethiopia above Egypt,
and thence descended into Egypt and Libya and into most of the King's country.
Suddenly falling upon Athens, it first attacked the population in Piraeus-
which was the occasion of their saying that the Peloponnesians had poisoned
the reservoirs, there being as yet no wells there- and afterwards appeared
in the upper city, when the deaths became much more frequent. All speculation
as to its origin and its causes, if causes can be found adequate to produce
so great a disturbance, I leave to other writers, whether lay or professional;
for myself, I shall simply set down its nature, and explain the symptoms
by which perhaps it may be recognized by the student, if it should ever
break out again. This I can the better do, as I had the disease myself,
and watched its operation in the case of others.
That year then is admitted to have been otherwise unprecedentedly
free from sickness; and such few cases as occurred all determined in this.
As a rule, however, there was no ostensible cause; but people in good health
were all of a sudden attacked by violent heats in the head, and redness
and inflammation in the eyes, the inward parts, such as the throat or tongue,
becoming bloody and emitting an unnatural and fetid breath. These symptoms
were followed by sneezing and hoarseness, after which the pain soon reached
the chest, and produced a hard cough. When it fixed in the stomach, it
upset it; and discharges of bile of every kind named by physicians ensued,
accompanied by very great distress. In most cases also an ineffectual retching
followed, producing violent spasms, which in some cases ceased soon after,
in others much later. Externally the body was not very hot to the touch,
nor pale in its appearance, but reddish, livid, and breaking out into small
pustules and ulcers. But internally it burned so that the patient could
not bear to have on him clothing or linen even of the very lightest description;
or indeed to be otherwise than stark naked. What they would have liked
best would have been to throw themselves into cold water; as indeed was
done by some of the neglected sick, who plunged into the rain-tanks in
their agonies of unquenchable thirst; though it made no difference whether
they drank little or much. Besides this, the miserable feeling of not being
able to rest or sleep never ceased to torment them. The body meanwhile
did not waste away so long as the distemper was at its height, but held
out to a marvel against its ravages; so that when they succumbed, as in
most cases, on the seventh or eighth day to the internal inflammation,
they had still some strength in them. But if they passed this stage, and
the disease descended further into the bowels, inducing a violent ulceration
there accompanied by severe diarrhoea, this brought on a weakness which
was generally fatal. For the disorder first settled in the head, ran its
course from thence through the whole of the body, and, even where it did
not prove mortal, it still left its mark on the extremities; for it settled
in the privy parts, the fingers and the toes, and many escaped with the
loss of these, some too with that of their eyes. Others again were seized
with an entire loss of memory on their first recovery, and did not know
either themselves or their friends.
But while the nature of the distemper was such as to baffle all
description, and its attacks almost too grievous for human nature to endure,
it was still in the following circumstance that its difference from all
ordinary disorders was most clearly shown. All the birds and beasts that
prey upon human bodies, either abstained from touching them (though there
were many lying unburied), or died after tasting them. In proof of this,
it was noticed that birds of this kind actually disappeared; they were
not about the bodies, or indeed to be seen at all. But of course the effects
which I have mentioned could best be studied in a domestic animal like
the dog.
Such then, if we pass over the varieties of particular cases which
were many and peculiar, were the general features of the distemper. Meanwhile
the town enjoyed an immunity from all the ordinary disorders; or if any
case occurred, it ended in this. Some died in neglect, others in the midst
of every attention. No remedy was found that could be used as a specific;
for what did good in one case, did harm in another. Strong and weak constitutions
proved equally incapable of resistance, all alike being swept away, although
dieted with the utmost precaution. By far the most terrible feature in
the malady was the dejection which ensued when any one felt himself sickening,
for the despair into which they instantly fell took away their power of
resistance, and left them a much easier prey to the disorder; besides which,
there was the awful spectacle of men dying like sheep, through having caught
the infection in nursing each other. This caused the greatest mortality.
On the one hand, if they were afraid to visit each other, they perished
from neglect; indeed many houses were emptied of their inmates for want
of a nurse: on the other, if they ventured to do so, death was the consequence.
This was especially the case with such as made any pretensions to goodness:
honour made them unsparing of themselves in their attendance in their friends'
houses, where even the members of the family were at last worn out by the
moans of the dying, and succumbed to the force of the disaster. Yet it
was with those who had recovered from the disease that the sick and the
dying found most compassion. These knew what it was from experience, and
had now no fear for themselves; for the same man was never attacked twice-
never at least fatally. And such persons not only received the congratulations
of others, but themselves also, in the elation of the moment, half entertained
the vain hope that they were for the future safe from any disease
whatsoever.
An aggravation of the existing calamity was the influx from the
country into the city, and this was especially felt by the new arrivals.
As there were no houses to receive them, they had to be lodged at the hot
season of the year in stifling cabins, where the mortality raged without
restraint. The bodies of dying men lay one upon another, and half-dead
creatures reeled about the streets and gathered round all the fountains
in their longing for water. The sacred places also in which they had quartered
themselves were full of corpses of persons that had died there, just as
they were; for as the disaster passed all bounds, men, not knowing what
was to become of them, became utterly careless of everything, whether sacred
or profane. All the burial rites before in use were entirely upset, and
they buried the bodies as best they could. Many from want of the proper
appliances, through so many of their friends having died already, had recourse
to the most shameless sepultures: sometimes getting the start of those
who had raised a pile, they threw their own dead body upon the stranger's
pyre and ignited it; sometimes they tossed the corpse which they were carrying
on the top of another that was burning, and so went
off.
Nor was this the only form of lawless extravagance which owed its
origin to the plague. Men now coolly ventured on what they had formerly
done in a corner, and not just as they pleased, seeing the rapid transitions
produced by persons in prosperity suddenly dying and those who before had
nothing succeeding to their property. So they resolved to spend quickly
and enjoy themselves, regarding their lives and riches as alike things
of a day. Perseverance in what men called honour was popular with none,
it was so uncertain whether they would be spared to attain the object;
but it was settled that present enjoyment, and all that contributed to
it, was both honourable and useful. Fear of gods or law of man there was
none to restrain them. As for the first, they judged it to be just the
same whether they worshipped them or not, as they saw all alike perishing;
and for the last, no one expected to live to be brought to trial for his
offences, but each felt that a far severer sentence had been already passed
upon them all and hung ever over their heads, and before this fell it was
only reasonable to enjoy life a little.
Such was the nature of the calamity, and heavily did it weigh on
the Athenians; death raging within the city and devastation without. Among
other things which they remembered in their distress was, very naturally,
the following verse which the old men said had long ago been
uttered:
A Dorian war shall come and with it death. So a dispute arose as
to whether dearth and not death had not been the word in the verse; but
at the present juncture, it was of course decided in favour of the latter;
for the people made their recollection fit in with their sufferings. I
fancy, however, that if another Dorian war should ever afterwards come
upon us, and a dearth should happen to accompany it, the verse will probably
be read accordingly. The oracle also which had been given to the Lacedaemonians
was now remembered by those who knew of it. When the god was asked whether
they should go to war, he answered that if they put their might into it,
victory would be theirs, and that he would himself be with them. With this
oracle events were supposed to tally. For the plague broke out as soon
as the Peloponnesians invaded Attica, and never entering Peloponnese (not
at least to an extent worth noticing), committed its worst ravages at Athens,
and next to Athens, at the most populous of the other towns. Such was the
history of the plague.
After ravaging the plain, the Peloponnesians advanced into the
Paralian region as far as Laurium, where the Athenian silver mines are,
and first laid waste the side looking towards Peloponnese, next that which
faces Euboea and Andros. But Pericles, who was still general, held the
same opinion as in the former invasion, and would not let the Athenians
march out against them.
However, while they were still in the plain, and had not yet entered
the Paralian land, he had prepared an armament of a hundred ships for Peloponnese,
and when all was ready put out to sea. On board the ships he took four
thousand Athenian heavy infantry, and three hundred cavalry in horse transports,
and then for the first time made out of old galleys; fifty Chian and Lesbian
vessels also joining in the expedition. When this Athenian armament put
out to sea, they left the Peloponnesians in Attica in the Paralian region.
Arriving at Epidaurus in Peloponnese they ravaged most of the territory,
and even had hopes of taking the town by an assault: in this however they
were not successful. Putting out from Epidaurus, they laid waste the territory
of Troezen, Halieis, and Hermione, all towns on the coast of Peloponnese,
and thence sailing to Prasiai, a maritime town in Laconia, ravaged part
of its territory, and took and sacked the place itself; after which they
returned home, but found the Peloponnesians gone and no longer in
Attica.
During the whole time that the Peloponnesians were in Attica and
the Athenians on the expedition in their ships, men kept dying of the plague
both in the armament and in Athens. Indeed it was actually asserted that
the departure of the Peloponnesians was hastened by fear of the disorder;
as they heard from deserters that it was in the city, and also could see
the burials going on. Yet in this invasion they remained longer than in
any other, and ravaged the whole country, for they were about forty days
in Attica.
The same summer Hagnon, son of Nicias, and Cleopompus, son of Clinias,
the colleagues of Pericles, took the armament of which he had lately made
use, and went off upon an expedition against the Chalcidians in the direction
of Thrace and Potidaea, which was still under siege. As soon as they arrived,
they brought up their engines against Potidaea and tried every means of
taking it, but did not succeed either in capturing the city or in doing
anything else worthy of their preparations. For the plague attacked them
here also, and committed such havoc as to cripple them completely, even
the previously healthy soldiers of the former expedition catching the infection
from Hagnon's troops; while Phormio and the sixteen hundred men whom he
commanded only escaped by being no longer in the neighbourhood of the Chalcidians.
The end of it was that Hagnon returned with his ships to Athens, having
lost one thousand and fifty out of four thousand heavy infantry in about
forty days; though the soldiers stationed there before remained in the
country and carried on the siege of Potidaea.
After the second invasion of the Peloponnesians a change came over
the spirit of the Athenians. Their land had now been twice laid waste;
and war and pestilence at once pressed heavy upon them. They began to find
fault with Pericles, as the author of the war and the cause of all their
misfortunes, and became eager to come to terms with Lacedaemon, and actually
sent ambassadors thither, who did not however succeed in their mission.
Their despair was now complete and all vented itself upon Pericles. When
he saw them exasperated at the present turn of affairs and acting exactly
as he had anticipated, he called an assembly, being (it must be remembered)
still general, with the double object of restoring confidence and of leading
them from these angry feelings to a calmer and more hopeful state of mind.
He accordingly came forward and spoke as follows:
"I was not unprepared for the indignation of which I have been
the object, as I know its causes; and I have called an assembly for the
purpose of reminding you upon certain points, and of protesting against
your being unreasonably irritated with me, or cowed by your sufferings.
I am of opinion that national greatness is more for the advantage of private
citizens, than any individual well-being coupled with public humiliation.
A man may be personally ever so well off, and yet if his country be ruined
he must be ruined with it; whereas a flourishing commonwealth always affords
chances of salvation to unfortunate individuals. Since then a state can
support the misfortunes of private citizens, while they cannot support
hers, it is surely the duty of every one to be forward in her defence,
and not like you to be so confounded with your domestic afflictions as
to give up all thoughts of the common safety, and to blame me for having
counselled war and yourselves for having voted it. And yet if you are angry
with me, it is with one who, as I believe, is second to no man either in
knowledge of the proper policy, or in the ability to expound it, and who
is moreover not only a patriot but an honest one. A man possessing that
knowledge without that faculty of exposition might as well have no idea