Athenians, concluded after the ten years' war, in the ephorate of
Pleistolas at Lacedaemon, and the archonship of Alcaeus at Athens, the
states which had accepted them were at peace; but the Corinthians
and some of the cities in Peloponnese trying to disturb the
settlement, a fresh agitation was instantly commenced by the allies
against Lacedaemon. Further, the Lacedaemonians, as time went on,
became suspected by the Athenians through their not performing some of
the provisions in the treaty; and though for six years and ten
months they abstained from invasion of each other's territory, yet
abroad an unstable armistice did not prevent either party doing the
other the most effectual injury, until they were finally obliged to
break the treaty made after the ten years' war and to have recourse to
open hostilities.
The history of this period has been also written by the same
Thucydides, an Athenian, in the chronological order of events by
summers and winters, to the time when the Lacedaemonians and their
allies put an end to the Athenian empire, and took the Long Walls
and Piraeus. The war had then lasted for twenty-seven years in all.
Only a mistaken judgment can object to including the interval of
treaty in the war. Looked at by the light of facts it cannot, it
will be found, be rationally considered a state of peace, where
neither party either gave or got back all that they had agreed,
apart from the violations of it which occurred on both sides in the
Mantinean and Epidaurian wars and other instances, and the fact that
the allies in the direction of Thrace were in as open hostility as
ever, while the Boeotians had only a truce renewed every ten days.
So that the first ten years' war, the treacherous armistice that
followed it, and the subsequent war will, calculating by the
seasons, be found to make up the number of years which I have
mentioned, with the difference of a few days, and to afford an
instance of faith in oracles being for once justified by the event.
I certainly all along remember from the beginning to the end of the
war its being commonly declared that it would last thrice nine
years. I lived through the whole of it, being of an age to
comprehend events, and giving my attention to them in order to know
the exact truth about them. It was also my fate to be an exile from my
country for twenty years after my command at Amphipolis; and being
present with both parties, and more especially with the Peloponnesians
by reason of my exile, I had leisure to observe affairs somewhat
particularly. I will accordingly now relate the differences that arose
after the ten years' war, the breach of the treaty, and the
hostilities that followed.
After the conclusion of the fifty years' truce and of the
subsequent alliance, the embassies from Peloponnese which had been
summoned for this business returned from Lacedaemon. The rest went
straight home, but the Corinthians first turned aside to Argos and
opened negotiations with some of the men in office there, pointing
out that Lacedaemon could have no good end in view, but only the
subjugation of Peloponnese, or she would never have entered into
treaty and alliance with the once detested Athenians, and that the
duty of consulting for the safety of Peloponnese had now fallen upon
Argos, who should immediately pass a decree inviting any Hellenic
state that chose, such state being independent and accustomed to meet
fellow powers upon the fair and equal ground of law and justice, to
make a defensive alliance with the Argives; appointing a few
individuals with plenipotentiary powers, instead of making the people
the medium of negotiation, in order that, in the case of an applicant
being rejected, the fact of his overtures might not be made public.
They said that many would come over from hatred of the Lacedaemonians.
After this explanation of their views, the Corinthians returned home.
The persons with whom they had communicated reported the proposal to
their government and people, and the Argives passed the decree and
chose twelve men to negotiate an alliance for any Hellenic state
that wished it, except Athens and Lacedaemon, neither of which