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9. The feeling of mankind was strongly on the side of the Lacedaemonians; for they professed1 to be the liberators of Hellas. Cities and individuals were eager to assist them to the utmost, both by word and deed; [2] and where a man could not hope to be present, there it seemed to him that all things were2 at a stand. For the general indignation against the Athenians was intense; some were longing to be delivered from them, others fearful of falling under their sway.

Such was the temper which animated the Hellenes, and such were the preparations made by3 the two powers for the war. [3] Their respective allies were as follows:—The Lacedaemonian confederacy included all the Peloponnesians with the exception of the Argives and the Achaeans—they were both neutral; only the Achaeans of Pellene took part with the Lacedaemonians at first; afterwards all the Achaeans joined them4. [4] Beyond the borders of the Peloponnese, the Megarians, Phocians, Locrians, Boeotians, Ambraciots, Leucadians, and Anactorians were their allies. Of these the Corinthians, Megarians, Sicyonians, Pellenians, Eleans, Ambraciots, and Leucadians provided a navy, the Boeotians, Phocians, and Locrians furnished cavalry, the other states only infantry. The allies of the Athenians were Chios, Lesbos, Plataea, the Messenians of Naupactus, the greater part of Acarnania, Corcyra, Zacynthus, and cities in many other countries which were their tributaries. There was the maritime region of Caria, the adjacent Dorian peoples, Ionia, the Hellespont, the Thracian coast, the islands that lie to the east within the line of Peloponnesus and Crete, including all the Cyclades with the exception of Melos and Thera. [5] Chios, Lesbos, and Corcyra furnished a navy; [6] the rest, land forces and money. Thus much concerning the two confederacies, and the character of their respective forces.

1 Universal hatred and fear of the Athenians.

2 B.C. 431.

3 List of the allies on either side.

4 Cp, 5.82 init.

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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  • Commentary references to this page (27):
    • E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 2, 2.7
    • E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3, 3.20
    • E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3, 3.95
    • E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 6, 6.2
    • E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 7, 7.18
    • E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 7, 7.19
    • T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8, 8.3
    • T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8, 8.35
    • C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER CXX
    • C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.82
    • C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.89
    • E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1, 1.10
    • E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1, 1.12
    • E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1, 1.141
    • E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1, 1.77
    • Harold North Fowler, Commentary on Thucydides Book 5, 5.58
    • Harold North Fowler, Commentary on Thucydides Book 5, 5.63
    • Harold North Fowler, Commentary on Thucydides Book 5, 5.64
    • Harold North Fowler, Commentary on Thucydides Book 5, 5.68
    • Harold North Fowler, Commentary on Thucydides Book 5, 5.82
    • Charles D. Morris, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1, Introduction. Chaps. 1-23.
    • Charles D. Morris, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1, 1.122
    • Charles D. Morris, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1, 1.19
    • Charles D. Morris, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1, Speech of the Corcyraean ambassadors at Athens. Chaps. 32-36.
    • Charles D. Morris, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1, Introduction
    • Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides Book 7, 7.57
    • Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides Book 7, 7.82
  • Cross-references to this page (18):
    • Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.4.2
    • Harper's, Achaean League
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), Achaean League, Achaicum Foedus
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), EXE´RCITUS
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), PHOROS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ACHA´IA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), AETO´LIA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), CA´RIA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), CHIOS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), CNIDUS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), DORIS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), LESBOS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), LOCRIS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), PELLE´NE
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), SI´CYON
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), THERA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ZACYNTHUS
    • Smith's Bio, Dia'goras
  • Cross-references in notes to this page (4):
  • Cross-references in notes from this page (1):
    • Thucydides, Histories, 5.82
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (5):
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