§2.71.1τοῦ δ’ ἐπιγιγνομένου θέρους οἱ Πελοποννήσιοι καὶ οἱ ξύμμαχοι ἐς μὲν τὴν Ἀττικὴν οὐκ ἐσέβαλον, ἐστράτευσαν δὲ ἐπὶ Πλάταιαν·
During the following summer, the Peloponnesians and their allies did not invade Attica, but made an expedition against Plataea.
ἡγεῖτο δὲ Ἀρχίδαμος ὁ Ζευξιδάμου Λακεδαιμονίων βασιλεύς.
They were led by Archidamus son of Zeuxidamus, king of the Lacedaemonians.
καὶ καθίσας τὸν στρατὸν ἔμελλε δῃώσειν τὴν γῆν· οἱ δὲ Πλαταιῆς εὐθὺς πρέσβεις πέμψαντες πρὸς αὐτὸν ἔλεγον τοιάδε· §2.71.2‘Ἀρχίδαμε καὶ Λακεδαιμόνιοι, οὐ δίκαια ποιεῖτε οὐδ’ ἄξια οὔτε ὑμῶν οὔτε πατέρων ὧν ἐστέ, ἐς γῆν τὴν Πλαταιῶν στρατεύοντες.
Having encamped his army, he was about to ravage the land; but the Plataeans immediately sent envoys to him and spoke as follows: ‘Archidamus and Lacedaemonians, you are acting neither justly nor worthily of yourselves or of the fathers from whom you are descended, in marching against the land of the Plataeans.
Παυσανίας γὰρ ὁ Κλεομβρότου Λακεδαιμόνιος ἐλευθερώσας τὴν Ἑλλάδα ἀπὸ τῶν Μήδων μετὰ Ἑλλήνων τῶν ἐθελησάντων ξυνάρασθαι τὸν κίνδυνον τῆς μάχης ἣ παρ’ ἡμῖν ἐγένετο, θύσας ἐν τῇ Πλαταιῶν ἀγορᾷ ἱερὰ Διὶ ἐλευθερίῳ καὶ ξυγκαλέσας πάντας τοὺς ξυμμάχους ἀπεδίδου Πλαταιεῦσι γῆν καὶ πόλιν τὴν σφετέραν ἔχοντας αὐτονόμους οἰκεῖν, στρατεῦσαί τε μηδένα ποτὲ ἀδίκως ἐπ’ αὐτοὺς μηδ’ ἐπὶ δουλείᾳ· εἰ δὲ μή, ἀμύνειν τοὺς παρόντας ξυμμάχους κατὰ δύναμιν.
For Pausanias son of Cleombrotus, the Lacedaemonian, having liberated Greece from the Medes together with those Greeks who were willing to share the danger of the battle that took place among us, offered sacrifice in the marketplace of Plataea to Zeus the Deliverer, and calling together all the allies, granted to the Plataeans that they should inhabit their own land and city as independent self-governing people, and that no one should ever march against them unjustly or for their enslavement; otherwise, the allies present should defend them to the best of their power.
§2.71.3τάδε μὲν ἡμῖν πατέρες οἱ ὑμέτεροι ἔδοσαν ἀρετῆς ἕνεκα καὶ προθυμίας τῆς ἐν ἐκείνοις τοῖς κινδύνοις γενομένης, ὑμεῖς δὲ τἀναντία δρᾶτε·
These privileges your fathers gave to us on account of the valor and zeal we displayed in those dangers; but you are doing the very opposite.
μετὰ γὰρ Θηβαίων τῶν ἡμῖν ἐχθίστων ἐπὶ δουλείᾳ τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ ἥκετε.
For you have come with the Thebans, our bitterest enemies, for our enslavement.
§2.71.4μάρτυρας δὲ θεοὺς τούς τε ὁρκίους τότε γενομένους ποιούμενοι καὶ τοὺς ὑμετέρους πατρῴους καὶ ἡμετέρους ἐγχωρίους, λέγομεν ὑμῖν γῆν τὴν Πλαταιίδα μὴ ἀδικεῖν μηδὲ παραβαίνειν τοὺς ὅρκους, ἐᾶν δὲ οἰκεῖν αὐτονόμους καθάπερ Παυσανίας ἐδικαίωσεν. ’
Therefore, making witnesses of both the gods who attested the oaths then sworn, and your ancestral gods, and our local gods, we tell you not to wrong the land of Plataea, nor to violate your oaths, but to suffer us to live independent, just as Pausanias decreed.’