History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides [best free ebook reader TXT] 📗

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