71.
In the following summer the Peloponnesians and their allies under the command of
Archidamus1 the son of Zeuxidamus,
the Lacedaemonian king, instead of invading2 Attica, made an expedition against Plataea.
There he encamped and was about to ravage the country, when the Plataeans
sent envoys to him bearing the following message:—
'Archidamus, and you Lacedaemonians, in making war upon Plataea you are acting
unjustly,3 and in a manner unworthy of yourselves4 and of your ancestors.
[2]
Pausanias the son of Cleombrotus, the Lacedaemonian, when he and such Hellenes as were
willing to share the danger with him fought a battle in our land and liberated Hellas
from the Persian, offered up sacrifice in the Agora of Plataea to Zeus the God of
Freedom, and in the presence of all the confederates then and there restored to the
Plataeans their country and city to be henceforth independent; no man was to make unjust
war upon them at any time or to seek to enslave them; and if they were attacked, the
allies who were present promised that they would defend them to the utmost of their
power.
[3]
These privileges your fathers granted to us as a reward for the courage and devotion
which we displayed in that time of danger.
But you are acting in an opposite spirit; for you have joined the Thebans, our worst
enemies, and have come hither to enslave us.
[4]
Wherefore, calling to witness the Gods to whom we all then swore, and also the Gods of
your race and the Gods who dwell in our country, we bid you do no harm to the land of
Plataea.
Do not violate your oaths, but allow the Plataeans to be independent, and to enjoy the
rights which Pausanias granted to them.'
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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