7.
The affair of Plataea was a glaring violation of the thirty years' truce, and the
Athenians now1 made preparations for war.
The Lacedaemonians and their allies made similar preparations.
Both they and the Athenians meditated sending embassies to the King2, and to the other Barbarian potentates3 from
whom either party might hope to obtain aid; they likewise sought the alliance of
independent cities outside their own dominion.
[2]
The Lacedaemonians ordered their friends in Italy and Sicily to build
others in number proportioned to4 the
size of their cities, in addition to the ships which they had on the spot; for they
intended to raise the Peloponnesian navy to a total of five hundred.
The cities were also required to furnish a fixed sum of money; they were not to receive
more than one ship of the Athenians at a time, but were to take no further measures
until these preparations had been completed.
[3]
The Athenians reviewed their confederacy, and sent ambassadors to the places
immediately adjacent to Peloponnesus—Corcyra, Cephallenia, Acarnania, and
Zacynthus.
They perceived that if they could only rely upon the friendship of these states5, they might completely encircle Peloponnesus with war.
Thucydides translated into English; with introduction, marginal analysis, notes, and indices. Volume 1. Thucydides. Benjamin Jowett. translator. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1881.
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