History of the Peloponnesian War Quotes

“The Lacedaemonian judges thought that no objection could be made to their question, whether the Plataeans had done them any service in the war. For they pretended to have expected neutrality from them in the times before the war, on the strength of the original treaty concluded with Pausanias after the defeat of the Persians .And just before the siege they had made to them a proposal of neutrality in accordance with the terms of the same treaty; but the Plataeans had refused. Considering that they had been wronged by them, after their own fair proposals had released them from the obligations of the treaty, they again brought up the Plataeans one after another, and asked each of them separately, Whether he had done any service to the Lacedaemonians and their allies in the war? When he said No, they took him away and slew him; no one was spared.They put to death not less than two hundred Plataeans, as well as twenty-five Athenians who had shared with them in the siege; and made slaves of the women.

(Book 3 Chapter 68.1-3)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“(Thebans:) Do not be moved by their words to spurn and reject us but show Hellas by example that, when a cause is tried at your tribunal, deeds and not words will prevail. If the deeds be good, a brief statement of them is enough; if they be evil, speeches full of fine sentiments do but veil them.

If all persons in authority were like you, and would sum up a case in a short question, and pass sentence upon all the offenders at once, men would be less tempted to seek out fair words in order to excuse foul deeds.

(Book 3 Chapter 67.6-7)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“(Thebans:) Do not let your hearts be softened by tales about their ancient virtues, if they ever had any; such virtues might plead for the injured, but should bring a double penalty on the authors of a base deed, because they are false to their own character.Let them gain nothing by their pitiful lamentations, or by appealing to your fathers' tombs and their own desolate condition.

We tell you that a far sadder fate was inflicted by them on our murdered youth, of whose fathers some fell at Coronea in the act of bringing Boeotia to join you, while others are left in their old age by their solitary hearths, and entreat you, with far better reason, to punish the Plataeans.

Men who suffer an unworthy fate are indeed to be pitied, but there should be joy over those who suffer justly, as these do.For their present desolation they may thank themselves; they might have chosen the worthier alliance, but they wilfully renounced it. They sinned against us though we had never injured them; the spirit of hatred and not of justice possessed them, and even now they are not punished half enough. For they are going to suffer by a lawful sentence, not, as they pretend, stretching out their suppliant hands on the field of battle, but delivering themselves up to justice under the terms of a capitulation.

(Book 3 Chapter 67.2-5)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“(Thebans:) We do not deny that we were wrong if of our own mere motion we went to your city, fought with you, and ravaged your land. But when certain of the noblest and richest of your citizens, who wished to withdraw you from a foreign alliance and to bring you back to the national institutions of Boeotia, came and invited us, wherein are we to blame? As you say yourselves, the leaders rather than the followers are the transgressors. But in our opinion, neither we nor they were really guilty.

[…] They [Plataean orligarchs] desired that the bad among you should not grow worse, and that the good should have their reward. They wanted to reform the principles of your citizens, and not to banish their persons; they would have brought them back into a natural union with their kindred, that Plataea might be at peace with all and the enemy of none.

[…] Even allowing that we did act somewhat inconsiderately in entering your town without the consent of your whole people, still how different was your conduct and ours! For if you had followed our example you would have used no violence, but thought only of getting us out by persuasion, whereas you broke the agreement and attacked us. Now we do not so much complain of the fate of those whom you slew in battle— for they indeed suffered by a kind of law— but there were others who stretched out their hands to you; and although you gave them quarter, and then promised to us that you would spare them, in utter defiance of law you took their lives— was not that a cruel act?

Here are three crimes which you committed within a few hours; the breach of the agreement, the slaughter of the prisoners which followed, and the lying promise which you made to us that you would not slay them if we did no injury to your property in the fields; and yet you insist that we are the criminals, and that you ought to be acquitted.Not so; if the Lacedaemonians give just judgment: but for all these offences you shall suffer.

(Book 3 Chapter 65.2-63)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“(Thebans:) [H]aving once chosen the Athenians, fight on their side, and do not at the last moment be saying that the old alliance ought to save you [Plataeans]. For you have abandoned it, and by the violation of it, instead of striving to prevent, have aided in the enslavement of the Aeginetans and of other members of the alliance.And you were not, like us, under compulsion, but free, living under your ancient laws.Moreover, you persisted in refusing that last offer of peace and neutrality which we made to you before the siege began.

Who more thoroughly than you deserve the hatred of the Hellenes? than you who have only displayed your virtues to their injury?You have given proof that the merit which you claim for your former actions does not properly belong to you!Your true nature and constant desire are now revealed in the light of day; for you have followed the Athenians in the path of injustice.

Thus much we have to say as to our involuntary dealings with the Persians, and your voluntary dealings with the Athenians.

(Book 3 Chapter 64.2-5)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“(Thebans:) Surely ingratitude is shown in refusing to return an honourable kindness, when it can be done honourably, not in refusing to return a kindness which, however justly due, cannot be repaid without a crime.

(Book 3 Chapter 63.4)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“(Thebans:) You [Plataeans] say that you became allies and citizens of Athens in order that you might be protected against us. If so, you ought to have invited their aid only against us, and not to have assisted them in their attacks upon others; such a course was certainly open to you […] But you acted willingly, and were no longer under compulsion when you made common cause with the Athenians.

Your allegation is that they were your benefactors and that you could not honourably betray them; but how far more dishonourable and wicked to betray all the Hellenes with whom you had sworn alliance, than the Athenians only, the one the liberators, the other the enslavers of Hellas!

(Book 3 Chapter 63.2-3)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“(Thebans:) Owing to our divisions they [Athenians] actually conquered the greater part of the country; but we defeated them at Coronea, and liberated Boeotia; and at this moment we are zealously co-operating in the liberation of Hellas, providing cavalry and munitions of war more largely than any of the allies.”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“(Thebans:) But we say that if they did not side with the Persians, it was only because the Athenians did not; and on the same principle, they alone of all the Boeotians afterwards sided with the Athenians when the liberties of Hellas were attacked by them.

But, consider how different were the circumstances in which we and they acted.In those days our state was not governed by an oligarchy which granted equal justice to all, nor yet by a democracy; the power was in the hands of a small cabal, than which nothing is more opposed to law or to true political order, or more nearly resembles a tyranny.

The rulers of the state, hoping to strengthen their private interest if the Persian won, kept the people down and brought him in. The city at large, when she acted thus, was not her own mistress; and she cannot be fairly blamed for an error which she committed when she had no constitution.

(Book 3 Chapter 62.2-4)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“(Thebans:) We should never have asked to speak, if the Plataeans had briefly answered the question which was put to them, and had not turned upon us and arraigned us while they made a long and irrelevant defence of their own doings, excusing themselves from charges which nobody brought against them, and praising what nobody blamed.We must answer their accusations of us, and look a little closely into their glorification of themselves, that neither our baseness nor their superior reputation may benefit them, and that, before you judge, you may hear the truth both about us and them.

(Book 3 Chapter 61.1)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“(Plataeans:) Our last word is that we did not surrender Plataea to the Thebans,— far rather would we have perished from hunger, the most miserable of deaths,— but to you, in whom we trusted, and, if you will not listen to us, you ought at least to replace us in the same position, and allow us to choose our destiny, whatever it may be.

We adjure you not to deliver us, the Plataeans, who were so loyal to the cause of Hellas, and who are now suppliants to you, O Lacedaemonians, out of your own hands and your own good faith, into the hands of the Thebans, our worst enemies.Be our saviours. You are liberating the other Hellenes; do not destroy us.

(Book 3 Chapter 59.3-4)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“(Plataeans:) These things, O Lacedaemonians, would not be for your honour. They would be an offence against the common feeling of Hellas and against your ancestors.You should be ashamed to put us to death, who are your benefactors and have never done you any wrong, in order that you may gratify the enmity of another.Spare us, and let your heart be softened towards us; be wise, and have mercy upon us, considering not only how terrible will be our fate, but who the sufferers are; think too of the uncertainty of fortune, which may strike any one however innocent.

We implore you, as is becoming and natural in our hour of need, by the Gods whom the Hellenes worship at common altars, to listen to our prayers.We appeal to the oaths which your fathers swore, and entreat you not to forget them.We kneel at your fathers' tombs, and we call upon the dead not to let us be betrayed into the hands of the Thebans, their dearest friends to their bitterest enemies.We remind you of the day on which we shared in their glorious deeds— we who on this day are in danger of meeting a fearful doom.

(Book 3 Chapter 59.1-2)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“(Plataeans:) Yet once more for the sake of those Gods in whose name we made a league of old, and for our services to the cause of Hellas, relent and change your [Lacedaemonian] minds, if the Thebans have at all influenced you: in return for the wicked request which they make of you, ask of them the righteous boon that you should not slay us to your own dishonour. Do not bring upon yourselves an evil name merely to gratify others.

For, although you may quickly take our lives, you will not so easily obliterate the infamy of the deed.We are not enemies whom you might justly punish, but friends who were compelled to go to war with you; and therefore piety demands that you should spare our lives. Before you pass judgment, consider that we surrendered ourselves, and stretched out our hands to you; the custom of Hellas does not allow the suppliant to be put to death.

Remember too that we have ever been your benefactors: Cast your eyes upon the sepulchres of your fathers slain by the Persians and buried in our land, whom we have honoured by a yearly public offering of garments, and other customary gifts.We were their friends, and we gave them the firstfruits in their season of that friendly land in which they rest; we were their allies too, who in times past had fought at their side; and if you now pass an unjust sentence, will not your conduct strangely contrast with ours? Reflect: when Pausanias buried them here, he thought that he was laying them among friends and in friendly earth.But if you put us to death, and make Plataea one with Thebes, are you not robbing your fathers and kindred of the honour which they enjoy, and leaving them in a hostile land inhabited by their murderers?Nay more, you will enslave the land in which the Hellenes won their liberty; you bring desolation upon the temples in which they prayed when they conquered the Persians; and you will take away the sacrifices which our fathers instituted from the city which ordained and established them.

(Book 3 Chapter 58)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“(Plataeans:) Consider, before you [Lacedaemonians] act, that hitherto you have been generally esteemed among Hellenes to be a pattern of nobility; if you decide unjustly (and this judgment cannot be hidden, for you, the judges, are famous, and we, who are judged by you, are of good repute), mankind will be indignant at the strange and disgraceful sentence which will have been passed against good men by men still better. They will not endure to see spoils taken from us, the benefactors of Hellas, dedicated by our enemies in the common temples.

Will it not be deemed a monstrous thing that the Lacedaemonians should desolate Plataea; that they, whose fathers inscribed the name of the city on the tripod at Delphi in token of her valour, should for the sake of the Thebans blot out the whole people from the Hellenic world?

[…] The Plataeans, who were zealous in the cause of Hellas even beyond their strength, are now friendless, spurned and rejected by all.None of our old allies will help us, and we fear that you, O Lacedaemonians, our only hope, are not to be depended upon.

(Book 3 Chapter 57)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“(Plataeans:) [T]here was a time when we received the highest honour at your [Lacedaemonians’] hands, but now we fear that these same principles, which have led us to prefer a just alliance with the Athenians to an interested alliance with you, will be our destruction.

Yet when men have been consistent in their conduct, others should show themselves consistent in their judgment of it.For true expediency is only this— to have an enduring sense of gratitude towards good allies for their services, while we do not neglect our own immediate interest.

(Book 3 Chapter 56.6-7)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“(Plataeans:) They [Thebans] came, not only in time of peace, but at a holy season, and attempted to seize our city; we righteously and in accordance with universal law defended ourselves and punished the aggressor; and there is no reason why we should now suffer for their satisfaction.

If you take your own present advantage and their present hatred to be the measure of justice, you will prove yourselves, not upright and impartial judges, but the slaves of expediency.

The Thebans may appear serviceable now, but of far greater service to you were we and the other Hellenes when you were in far greater danger.For now you invade and menace others, but in those days the Barbarian was threatening to enslave us all, and they were on his side.May we not fairly set our former patriotism against our present offence, if indeed we have offended?

You will find that the one more than outweighs the other; for our service to you was performed at a time when very few Hellenes opposed their courage to the power of Xerxes; they were then held in honour, not who, looking to their own advantage, made terms with the invader and were safe, but who, in the face of danger, dared the better part.

(Book 3 Chapter 56.2-5)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“(Plataeans:) When you [Lacedaemonians] or they [Athenians] in the exercise of your supremacy have acted, it may be, wrongly and led your allies into evil courses, the leaders and not the followers are to be blamed.

(Book 3 Chapter 55.4)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“(Plataeans:) And you, Lacedaemonians, more especially should remember how at the time when Sparta was panic-stricken by the rebellion of the Helots, who seized Ithomè after the earthquake, we sent a third part of our own citizens to your aid; these are things not to be forgotten.

Such was the spirit which animated us in the great days of old; not until later did we become your enemies, and that was originally your own fault.For when we sought your help against the violence of the Thebans, you had rejected us and had bade us turn to the Athenians, who were near, whereas you were at a distance.

Yet even in this war you have neither suffered nor were ever likely to suffer anything very atrocious at our hands.

If we refused to revolt from the Athenians at your bidding, we were quite right; for they assisted us against the Thebans when you shrank from the task; and after this it would have been dishonourable to betray them.They had been our benefactors; we had been at our own request admitted to their alliance, and we shared the rights of citizenship with them. How could we refuse to respond loyally to their call?

(Book 3 Chapter 54.5-55.3)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“(Plataeans to Lacedaemonians:) To your short question, “Whether in this war we have done any service to the Lacedaemonians and their allies,” we reply that “if we are enemies you are not wronged, because you have received no good from us; and if you deem us friends, you who have made war upon us, and not we, are to blame.”

(Book 3 Chapter 54.2)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“(Plataeans to Lacedaemonians:) In the extremity of our helplessness, our only and our safest course is to say something, whatever may be our fate; for men in our condition are sure to reproach themselves with their silence, and to fancy that the unuttered word, if spoken, would have saved them.

'But by what arguments can we ever convince you?If we were unacquainted with one another we might with advantage adduce in evidence matters of which you were ignorant, but now you know all that we can say; and we are afraid, not that we are criminals in your eyes because you have decided that we fall short of your own standard of virtue*, but that we are being sacrificed to please others, and that the cause which we plead is already prejudged.

*See Book 3 Chapter 57

(Book 3 Chapter 53.3-4)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“On the arrival of the judges no accusation was brought against them; they were simply asked one by one, Whether they had done any kind of service to the Lacedaemonians or to their allies in the present war.

(Book 3 Chapter 52.4)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“[T]he Lacedaemonian commander knew their [Plataeans] weakness, and was desirous that the place should be surrendered and not stormed; he had instructions from home to this effect, the intention being that if some day a treaty of peace were concluded, and both parties agreed to give up all the places which they had taken by force of arms, Plataea might be excepted on the ground that the inhabitants had come to terms of their own accord.

(Book 3 Chapter 52.2)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“[T]he Athenians, under the command of Nicias the son of Niceratus, made an expedition against the island of Minoa, which lies in front of Megara; the Megarians had built a fort there and used the island as a military station.

But Nicias wanted the Athenians to keep a watch over Megara, not as hitherto from Budorum in Salamis, but from this spot, which was nearer, the Peloponnesians would then be no longer able to send out triremes, as they had already done on one occasion, or privateers from the harbour unobserved, and nothing could be brought in by sea to Megara.

(Book 3 Chapter 51.1-2)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“[T]hey (Athenians) divided the whole island, exclusive of the territory of Methymna, into three thousand portions, of which they dedicated three hundred to the Gods; the remainder they let out to cleruchi taken from their own citizens, whom they chose by lot and sent to Lesbos. The Lesbians undertook to pay them a yearly rent of two minae for each portion and cultivated the land themselves.
The Athenians also took possession of the towns on the continent which the Mytilenaeans held, and these henceforward were subject to Athens.

Thus ended the revolt of Lesbos.

(Book 3 Chapter 50.2-3)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“The Athenians instantly despatched another trireme, hoping that, if the second could overtake the first, which had a start of about twenty-four hours, it might be in time to save the city.

The Mytilenaean envoys provided wine and barley for the crew, and promised them great rewards if they arrived first.And such was their energy that they continued rowing whilst they ate their barley, kneaded with wine and oil, and slept and rowed by turns.

Fortunately no adverse wind sprang up, and, the first of the two ships sailing in no great hurry on her untoward errand, and the second hastening as I have described, the one did indeed arrive sooner than the other, but not much sooner. Paches had read the decree and was about to put it into execution, when the second appeared and arrested the fate of the city.

So near was Mytilenè to destruction.

(Book 3 Chapter 49.2-4)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“(Diodotus:) [W]ise counsel is really more formidable to an enemy than the severity of unreasoning violence.

(Book 3 Chapter 48.2)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“(Diodotus:) Far more conducive to the maintenance of our empire would it be to suffer wrong willingly, than for the sake of justice to put to death those whom we had better spare. Cleon may speak of a punishment which is just and also expedient, but you will find that, in any proposal like his, the two cannot be combined.

(Book 3 Chapter 47.5)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“At present the popular party are everywhere our friends. […] if you destroy the people of Mytilenè who took no part in the revolt, and who voluntarily surrendered the city as soon as they got arms into their hands; in the first place they were your benefactors, and to slay them would be a crime; in the second place you will play into the hands of the oligarchic parties, who henceforward, in fomenting a revolt, will at once have the people on their side; for you will have proclaimed to all that the innocent and the guilty will share the same fate.

(Book 3 Chapter 47.2-3)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“(Diodotus:) Do not then weigh offences with the severity of a judge, when you will only be injuring yourselves, but have an eye to the future; let the penalties which you impose on rebellious cities be moderate, and then their wealth will be undiminished and at your service.Do not hope to find a safeguard in the severity of your laws, but only in the vigilance of your administration.

(Book 3 Chapter 46.4)

But instead of inflicting extreme penalties on free men who revolt, we should practise extreme vigilance before they revolt, and never allow such a thought to enter their minds. When however they have been once put down we ought to extenuate their crimes as much as possible.

(Ibid Chapter 46.6)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4

“(Diodotus:) Consider: at present, although a city may actually have revolted, when she becomes conscious of her weakness she will capitulate while still able to defray the cost of the war and to pay tribute for the future; but if we are too severe, will not the citizens make better preparations, and, when besieged, resist to the last, knowing that it is all the same whether they come to terms early or late? Shall not we ourselves suffer?

For we shall waste our money by sitting down before a city which refuses to surrender; when the place is taken it will be a mere wreck, and we shall in future lose the revenues* derived from it; and in these revenues lies our military strength.

*Compare Cleon’s speech, Chapter 39.8

(Book 3 Chapter 46.2-3)”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: Bk 3-4