Stories from Thucydides

  THE SURPRISE OF PLATAEA

  I

  On the northern slope of Cithaeron, the mountain range which dividesAttica from Boeotia, lies the little town of Plataea. By race and bygeographical position the Plataeans were naturally included in theBoeotian confederacy, under the leadership of Thebes. But nearly acentury before the time of which we are now speaking they had desertedthe Thebans, whose rule was harsh and overbearing, and enrolledthemselves among the allies of Athens. On the eve of the battle ofMarathon, they had joined the Athenians with their whole force, athousand strong, and shared the peril and the honour of that gloriousday. Ten years later their city was laid in ruins by the army ofXerxes, at the instigation of the Thebans; and in the following yearthe great battle which ended the long struggle between Greece andPersia was fought within sight of their shattered walls. In gratitudefor this great victory, the confederate Greeks under Pausanias declaredthat the Plataean territory should be hallowed ground, and swore asolemn oath to maintain the independence of the city. But the Thebanshad never forgotten or forgiven the secession of Plataea from theconfederacy of which they were the leaders; and seizing the opportunitywhile the Athenians were occupied with measures for their own safety,they made a treacherous attempt to gain possession of the town.

  On a dark and moonless night in the early spring three hundred armedThebans appeared before the gates of Plataea, which were opened to themby a party of the citizens who favoured their design. Marching in abody to the market-place, they made proclamation by a herald, invitingall who chose to return to their allegiance, and take sides with theirlawful leaders, the Thebans. For they wished, if possible, to gain overthe place without bloodshed, and before the war had actually brokenout; otherwise, they might have to give it up again on the conclusionof peace.

  The Plataeans, being wakened out of their first sleep, and thinkingthat the Thebans were in much greater force than was really the case,at first attempted no resistance, but were disposed to accept the termsoffered them. But perceiving by degrees that their enemies were farweaker in numbers than themselves, they changed their minds, andresolved to attack them. For the party which had betrayed the town wasbut small, and the general body of the citizens detested the thought offalling once more under the supremacy of Thebes. Their measures weretaken with great secrecy and despatch: to avoid exciting the suspicionsof the Thebans, they broke down the dividing walls of their houses, andpassed to and fro unobserved, until they had completed theirpreparations. To embarrass the movements of the Thebans, theybarricaded the streets with waggons, and then, just before daybreak,they poured out of their houses, and fell upon the enemy, who werestill stationed in the market-place. Though taken by surprise, theThebans defended themselves stoutly, and standing shoulder to shoulderrepulsed the assault of the Plataeans two or three times. But they weregreatly inferior in numbers, wearied by their long vigil, and soakedwith the heavy rain which had fallen in the night; the Plataeansreturned again and again to the attack, assailing them with furiouscries; and the women and slaves who crowded the roofs added to theirdiscomfiture, pelting them with tiles and stones, and stunning theirears with a frightful uproar of yells and shrieks; so that at lasttheir hearts failed them, and breaking their ranks they fled wildlythrough the streets. Some succeeded in reaching the gate by which theyhad entered, but only to find that their escape was cut off in thisdirection; for one of the Plataeans had closed the gate, using thespike of his javelin to secure the bolt. Others lost their way in thenarrow and muddy streets, and wandered up and down until they wereslain by the Plataeans. A few contrived to escape by an unguardedpostern-gate, having cut through the bolt with an axe given them by awoman. Others, in despair, flung themselves from the walls, and for themost part perished. But a good number, who had kept together, werecaught in a trap; for coming to a large building which abutted on thewall, and finding the doors open, they thought that they had reachedthe town-gate, and rushed headlong in. The pursuers, who were close attheir heels, made fast the doors, and then the question arose what theyshould do with their captives. Some proposed to set fire to thebuilding, and to burn it down, with the Thebans in it; but at lastthose who were thus taken, and the few who were still straggling in thetown, were allowed to surrender at discretion.

  Meanwhile a strong reinforcement of Thebans, who had started after thethree hundred, were on the way to Plataea; but being delayed by thestate of the roads, and the swollen condition of the Asopus, which theyhad to cross, they arrived too late. Being informed of what hadhappened, they prepared to plunder the property of the Plataeansoutside the walls, and seize any of the citizens who crossed theirpath, to serve as hostages for their own men in the town. ThePlataeans, perceiving their intention, sent a herald to remonstrate,threatening that unless they desisted, all the Theban prisoners shouldat once be put to death. And they promised further, under an oath, thatif the Thebans would withdraw their forces, the captives should berestored--at least this was the account which was afterwards current atThebes, though the Plataeans denied that they had made any such promiseunconditionally, and declared that they had sworn no oath. It seemsprobable that the Thebans had received some such explicit assurance asthey asserted; for, on receiving the answer from Plataea, they marchedaway without doing any harm. No sooner were they gone than thePlataeans made all haste to get their property within the walls, andthen put all their prisoners to death. The day was not far distant whenthey were bitterly to rue this act of passion, which was not onlycruel, but grossly impolitic; for the Thebans thus slain in cold blood,a hundred and eighty in number, would have been invaluable as hostages,whereas the Plataeans had now cut themselves off from all hope ofreconciliation with Thebes, and virtually sealed their own fate.

  Two messengers had been despatched from Plataea to Athens, one afterthe first entrance of the Thebans, and the second after their defeatand capture; and the Athenians, on receiving the second message, sentoff a herald bidding the Plataeans to wait for further instructions,before taking any steps against the prisoners. When the herald arrived,he found the men already slain, and the Athenians then proceeded toplace the town in a state of defence, removing the women and childrenand all those who were unfit for military service, to Athens, andleaving a small body of their own citizens to direct operations.

  II

  The surprise of Plataea was the first open violation of the ThirtyYears' Truce, and from this time forward all Greece was involved formany years in civil war. Public opinion was strongly on the side of theSpartans, who stood forward as champions of the liberties of Greece;but there was great enthusiasm on both sides, and the popularimagination was much excited by the approaching struggle between thetwo imperial cities. Both in Sparta and in Athens there was a youngergeneration, who had grown up during a long period of peace, and nowentered gaily into the contest with all the light-hearted ignorance ofyouth. Old prophecies current among the people, foretelling a great warof Greeks against Greeks, passed from mouth to mouth, and theprofessional soothsayers, whose business it was to collect and expoundsuch sayings, found eager hearers. The gods themselves could not beindifferent on the eve of such mighty events, so deeply affecting thedestiny of the nation which worshipped them in a thousand temples; andan earthquake, which had recently occurred at Delos, the sacred islandof Apollo, where such a visitation had never been known before, wasinterpreted as a portent of great things to come.

  While the Peloponnesians were mustering their forces at the Isthmus,the rural population of Attica were breaking up their homes, andflocking by thousands into the city. A constant stream of waggonspassed along the roads, loaded with furniture, household utensils, andeven the woodwork of the farm-buildings; and many a little group ofwomen, children, and servants set out on that sorrowful journey,leaving their fields, their gardens, and their vineyards, to betrampled down and laid waste by the ruthless invader. Athens, indeed,was the common mother of them all, their glory, their strength, andtheir pride; for since the days of Theseus the scattered ruralcommunities of Attica had
been united under the Aegis of Athene, andacknowledged Athens as the head and centre of their civic life. But alarge proportion of the Athenian citizens still continued to reside inthe country, and all their dearest associations were connected with thelittle spot of earth where they and their fathers were born. Here werethe graves of their ancestors, and the temples of the heroes who werethe guardian spirits of each little aggregate of families. It wastherefore with bitter and resentful feelings that they left these happyscenes behind them, and turned their steps towards the gates of thecity, through which many of them were never to pass again. For all ofthem it was a grievous change from the free and careless life of thecountry-side to the confined space, polluted air, and jostlingmultitudes of the town, now crowded to overflowing. Some few foundshelter in the houses of friends or relations; but by far the greaternumber were obliged to encamp in the open spaces of the city, in theprecincts of temples, or in the narrow room between the Long Walls.Even a place beneath the Acropolis, called the Pelasgic Field, was nowcovered with the huts of the immigrants, though an ancient oracle hadforbidden its occupation under a curse. From day to day new crowds keptflocking in, and the later comers were obliged to take up theirdwelling in Peiraeus, which was soon almost as much overcrowded as theupper city.

  And now the younger generation of Athenians, who had entered socheerfully into the conflict, were to have their first taste of thegrim realities of war. The Peloponnesian army advanced leisurely, andproceeded at first to Oenoe, an outlying fort near the borders ofBoeotia; for Archidamus, who held the chief command, still hoped thatthe Athenians, when they saw the enemy on the confines of Attica, wouldmake some concessions, to save their farms from destruction. For thisreason he had long delayed his march from the Isthmus, and now wastedmore time in fruitless operations at Oenoe, until the allies began tomurmur against him, and suspected him of receiving bribes from theAthenians to spare their lands. At last, being unable to put off thefatal moment any longer, he turned southwards, and after ravaging theplain of Eleusis, advanced to Acharnae, one of the most fertile andprosperous districts of Attica, about seven miles north of Athens. Herethe Peloponnesians encamped, and applied themselves systematically tothe work of pillage and havoc.

  Great was the rage of the Acharnians, a hardy race of farmers andcharcoal-burners, when they saw the smoke rising from their ruinedhomesteads; and their feelings were shared by the general body of thecitizens, who had watched the advance of Archidamus from Eleusis, andhad now no hope of saving their estates. Little knots of angrydisputants were seen in the streets and public places, for the mostpart clamouring against Pericles, and demanding to be led against theinvader, while some few argued for the more prudent course. ButPericles, who knew the fickle temper of the multitude, turned a deafear to all this uproar, and steadily refused to summon an assembly,lest some hasty resolution should be passed, which would lead touseless loss of life. In order, however, to relieve the publicexcitement, he sent out a body of horsemen to skirmish with the enemy,and despatched a fleet of a hundred triremes to ravage the coasts ofPeloponnesus.

  When the first invasion of Attica was over, two cities, which had beenforemost in stirring up war against Athens, were made to feel the fullweight of her resentment. The unhappy Aeginetans were expelled fromtheir island, and the land of Aegina was distributed among Atheniancitizens. And later in the same summer the Athenians marched in fullforce into the territory of Megara, which was laid waste from end toend. This proceeding, which afforded a pleasant summer excursion to theAthenians, was repeated annually for the next seven years. The banishedAeginetans found an asylum at Thyrea, a coast district of easternPeloponnesus, which was assigned to them by Sparta. And so the firstyear of the war came to an end; for, except on extraordinary occasions,no military operations were undertaken during the winter.