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Thucydides · History of the Peloponnesian War §5.22.1-5.22.3

Spartan Decision to Form an Alliance with Athens

Passage 522 of 917 · Greek

Summary

Since the allies refused to accept the peace treaty, Sparta dismissed them and decided to conclude an alliance with Athens in order to deter Argos and keep other Peloponnesian states from defecting.

§5.22.1οἱ δὲ ξύμμαχοι ἐν τῇ Λακεδαίμονι αὐτοὶ ἔτυχον ὄντες, καὶ αὐτῶν τοὺς μὴ δεξαμένους τὰς σπονδὰς ἐκέλευον οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι ποιεῖσθαι.
Meanwhile, the allies themselves happened to be in Lacedaemon, and the Lacedaemonians ordered those of them who had not accepted the treaty to conclude it.
οἱ δὲ τῇ αὐτῇ προφάσει ᾗπερ καὶ τὸ πρῶτον ἀπεώσαντο οὐκ ἔφασαν δέξεσθαι, ἢν μή τινας δικαιοτέρας τούτων ποιῶνται.
But they, on the same pretext as they had rejected it at first, declared that they would not accept it unless more just terms than these were offered.
§5.22.2ὡς δ’ αὐτῶν οὐκ ἐσήκουον, ἐκείνους μὲν ἀπέπεμψαν, αὐτοὶ δὲ πρὸς τοὺς Ἀθηναίους ξυμμαχίαν ἐποιοῦντο, νομίζοντες ἥκιστα ἂν σφίσι τούς τε Ἀργείους, ἐπειδὴ οὐκ ἤθελον Ἀμπελίδου καὶ Λίχου ἐλθόντων ἐπισπένδεσθαι νομίσαντες αὐτοὺς ἄνευ Ἀθηναίων οὐ δεινοὺς εἶναι, καὶ τὴν ἄλλην Πελοπόννησον μάλιστ’ ἂν ἡσυχάζειν· πρὸς γὰρ ἂν τοὺς Ἀθηναίους, εἰ ἐξῆν, χωρεῖν.
When the Lacedaemonians saw that they would not listen to them, they sent them away, and themselves proceeded to make an alliance with the Athenians, thinking that the Argives would thus be least troublesome to them (since they had refused to renew the treaty when Ampelidas and Lichas came, thinking that without the Athenians the Lacedaemonians were not formidable), and that the rest of the Peloponnese would keep quietest; for they would have gone over to the Athenians, if it had been possible.
§5.22.3παρόντων οὖν πρέσβεων ἀπὸ τῶν Ἀθηναίων καὶ γενομένων λόγων ξυνέβησαν, καὶ ἐγένοντο ὅρκοι καὶ ξυμμαχία ἥδε.
Therefore, as ambassadors from the Athenians were present and conferences took place, they came to an agreement, and the following oaths and alliance were concluded.

Notes

  1. §5.22.1ποιεῖσθαι — The middle infinitive ποιεῖσθαι implicitly takes the preceding τὰς σπονδάς as its object, meaning 'to make/conclude the treaty (for themselves).'
  2. §5.22.2ἥκιστα ἂν σφίσι τούς τε Ἀργείους — An infinitive is omitted after τούς τε Ἀργείους. It can be understood as sharing ἡσυχάζειν from the coordinate clause ('the Argives would keep quietest'), or as having an omitted verb/adjective phrase like φοβεροὺς εἶναι ('the Argives would be least formidable to them'). In either case, it expresses the calculation that an Athenian-Spartan alliance would deter Argive hostility.
  3. §5.22.2ἂν ... χωρεῖν — The infinitive χωρεῖν with the particle ἂν, paired with the conditional clause εἰ ἐξῆν ('if it had been possible'), represents the apodosis of a past contrary-to-fact condition ('they would have gone over'). The subject of the infinitive is τὴν ἄλλην Πελοπόννησον.

Cite this passage

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War §5.22.1-5.22.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:5.22.1-5.22.3

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