[93]
and there we had won freedom, not only for the Hellenes who fought with us, but also for those who were compelled to be on the side of the Persians,1 and we accomplished this with the help of the Plataeans, who alone of the Boeotians fought with us in that war.2 And yet, after no great interval of time, the Lacedaemonians, to gratify Thebes,3 reduced the Plataeans by siege and put them all to the sword with the exception of those who had been able to escape through their lines.4 Little did Athens resemble Sparta in the treatment of these peoples;
1 The Greek cities on the Asiatic seaboard, which had been subject to Persia.
2 The Thebans had “Medized.” The Plataeans in this battle acquitted themselves well; according to Plutarch （Plut. Arist. 20）, they were awarded the meed of valor. Cf. Isoc. 14.57 ff.
3 Cf. Isoc. 14.62.
4 This was done by King Archidamus, who in the course of the Peloponnesian War besieged and took Plataea, 427 b.c. The walls of the town were razed, the women and children sold into slavery, the defenders slain, excepting some two hundred who escaped and found refuge in Athens. See Thuc. 3.57 ff.
Isocrates. Isocrates with an English Translation in three volumes, by George Norlin, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1980.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
Purchase a copy of this text (not necessarily the same edition) from Amazon.com
