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Thucydides · History of the Peloponnesian War §5.32.1-5.32.7

Fall of Scione and Corinth's Overtures to Tegea and Boeotia

Passage 532 of 917 · Greek

Summary

The Athenians capture Scione and restore the Delians, while war breaks out between the Phocians and Locrians. The Corinthians and Argives fail to win over Tegea, and the Corinthians unsuccessfully try to persuade the Boeotians to join their alliance and obtain a ten days' truce with Athens.

§5.32.1περὶ δὲ τοὺς αὐτοὺς χρόνους τοῦ θέρους τούτου Σκιωναίους μὲν Ἀθηναῖοι ἐκπολιορκήσαντες ἀπέκτειναν τοὺς ἡβῶντας, παῖδας δὲ καὶ γυναῖκας ἠνδραπόδισαν, καὶ τὴν γῆν Πλαταιεῦσιν ἔδοσαν νέμεσθαι, Δηλίους δὲ κατήγαγον πάλιν ἐς Δῆλον, ἐνθυμούμενοι τάς τε ἐν ταῖς μάχαις ξυμφορὰς καὶ τοῦ ἐν Δελφοῖς θεοῦ χρήσαντος.
About the same time of this summer, the Athenians, having reduced Scione by blockade, put the adult males to death, enslaved the women and children, and gave the land to the Plataeans to cultivate. They also restored the Delians to Delos, taking into account both their misfortunes in the battles and the oracle of the god at Delphi.
§5.32.2καὶ Φωκῆς καὶ Λοκροὶ ἤρξαντο πολεμεῖν.
And the Phocians and Locrians began to make war on one another.
§5.32.3καὶ Κορίνθιοι καὶ Ἀργεῖοι ἤδη ξύμμαχοι ὄντες ἔρχονται ἐς Τεγέαν ἀποστήσοντες Λακεδαιμονίων, ὁρῶντες μέγα μέρος ὂν καί, εἰ σφίσι προσγένοιτο, νομίζοντες ἅπασαν ἂν ἔχειν Πελοπόννησον.
And the Corinthians and Argives, being already allies, went to Tegea to make it revolt from the Lacedaemonians, seeing that it was a powerful part of Peloponnese and thinking that, if it should join them, they would hold the whole of it.
§5.32.4ὡς δὲ οὐδὲν ἂν ἔφασαν ἐναντιωθῆναι οἱ Τεγεᾶται Λακεδαιμονίοις, οἱ Κορίνθιοι μέχρι τούτου προθύμως πράσσοντες ἀνεῖσαν τῆς φιλονικίας καὶ ὠρρώδησαν μὴ οὐδεὶς σφίσιν ἔτι τῶν ἄλλων προσχωρῇ.
But when the Tegeans said that they would in no way oppose the Lacedaemonians, the Corinthians, who had hitherto been acting with enthusiasm, relaxed their eagerness and feared lest none of the others should join them any longer.
§5.32.5ὅμως δὲ ἐλθόντες ἐς τοὺς Βοιωτοὺς ἐδέοντο σφῶν τε καὶ Ἀργείων γίγνεσθαι ξυμμάχους καὶ τἆλλα κοινῇ πράσσειν·
Nevertheless, going to the Boeotians, they entreated them to become allies of themselves and the Argives, and to act in common in other matters.
τάς τε δεχημέρους ἐπισπονδάς, αἳ ἦσαν Ἀθηναίοις καὶ Βοιωτοῖς πρὸς ἀλλήλους οὐ πολλῷ ὕστερον γενόμεναι [τούτων] τῶν πεντηκοντουτίδων σπονδῶν, ἐκέλευον οἱ Κορίνθιοι τοὺς Βοιωτοὺς ἀκολουθήσαντας Ἀθήναζε καὶ σφίσι ποιῆσαι, [ὥσπερ Βοιωτοὶ εἶχον,] μὴ δεχομένων δὲ Ἀθηναίων ἀπειπεῖν τὴν ἐκεχειρίαν καὶ τὸ λοιπὸν μὴ σπένδεσθαι ἄνευ αὐτῶν.
The Corinthians also urged the Boeotians to accompany them to Athens and obtain for them too the ten days' truce, which had been made between the Athenians and the Boeotians not long after the fifty years' treaty, [just as the Boeotians themselves had it]; and if the Athenians did not accept this, to renounce the truce and for the future make no treaty without them.
§5.32.6Βοιωτοὶ δὲ δεομένων τῶν Κορινθίων περὶ μὲν τῆς Ἀργείων ξυμμαχίας ἐπισχεῖν αὐτοὺς ἐκέλευον, ἐλθόντες δὲ Ἀθήναζε μετὰ Κορινθίων οὐχ ηὕροντο τὰς δεχημέρους σπονδάς, ἀλλ᾽ ἀπεκρίναντο οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι Κορινθίοις εἶναι σπονδάς, εἴπερ Λακεδαιμονίων εἰσὶ ξύμμαχοι.
But the Boeotians, when the Corinthians made this request, told them to hold off concerning the alliance with the Argives; and going to Athens with the Corinthians, they did not obtain the ten days' truce, but the Athenians replied that the Corinthians already had a treaty with them, if indeed they were allies of the Lacedaemonians.
§5.32.7Βοιωτοὶ μὲν οὖν οὐδὲν μᾶλλον ἀπεῖπον τὰς δεχημέρους, ἀξιούντων καὶ αἰτιωμένων Κορινθίων ξυνθέσθαι σφίσιν· Κορινθίοις δὲ ἀνοκωχὴ ἄσπονδος ἦν πρὸς Ἀθηναίους.
The Boeotians therefore did not any the more renounce their ten days' truce, though the Corinthians demanded and blamed them for not joining in a common treaty with them; and between the Corinthians and the Athenians there was an armistice without a treaty.

Notes

  1. 5.32.1τοῦ ἐν Δελφοῖς θεοῦ χρήσαντος — This can be interpreted as a genitive absolute construction with a participle ("the god having delivered an oracle"), linked by `τε ... καί` in parallel with the accusative object `τάς ... ξυμφορὰς`. Alternatively, since the verb `ἐνθυμέομαι` can govern the genitive case, this entire genitive phrase can be understood as its direct object.
  2. 5.32.3νομίζοντες ἅπασαν ἂν ἔχειν Πελοπόννησον — An accusative with infinitive construction serving as the object of the verb of thinking `νομίζοντες`. The particle `ἄν` with the infinitive `ἔχειν` represents the potential optative `ἔχοιμεν ἄν` ("we would hold") in the apodosis, corresponding to the protasis `εἰ σφίσι προσγένοιτο` (optative of potentiality) converted into indirect discourse.
  3. 5.32.4μὴ οὐδεὶς ... προσχωρῇ — A clause of fearing introduced by `μή` after the verb of fearing `ὠρρώδησαν`. Since the subject is the negative indefinite pronoun `οὐδείς`, the combination `μὴ οὐδείς` (with the present subjunctive `προσχωρῇ`) expresses a negative apprehension: "lest no one else [should join]."
  4. 5.32.5τῶν πεντηκοντουτίδων σπονδῶν — A genitive of comparison indicating the point of reference for the comparative adverb `ὕστερον` ("later than"). Taking the "fifty years' treaty" (the Peace of Nicias) as the reference point, it expresses the temporal relation "not long after [the conclusion of] those treaties."
  5. 5.32.7ἀνοκωχὴ ἄσπονδος — An expression meaning "an armistice without a treaty." It denotes a de facto cessation of hostilities in the absence of any formal treaty or mutual swearing of oaths (`σπονδαί`).

Cite this passage

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War §5.32.1-5.32.7. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:5.32.1-5.32.7

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