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Often appears with: conquest, plunder, and captives · battle and tactics · strategy and the aims of war · supply, logistics, and encampment · naval warfare and sea power · military discipline and training · diplomacy and embassies · treaties, truces, and peacemaking · civil war and rebellion · mobilization and recruitment · crime and punishment · arms, armor, and machines
Usually: narrative (1392) · detachment (777) · argument (208) · sudden reversal of fortune (194) · indignation (194) · curiosity (182) · crisis of belief (179) · confronting death (166) · the test or trial (161) · betrayal (137)
“Therefore, as I have said, a new prince in a new principality has always distributed arms.” Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince · precept
“Therefore, the best possible fortress is—not to be hated by the people, because, although you may hold the fortresses, yet they will not save you if the people hate you.” Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince · insight
“He answer'd me that it was not one of their established principles, but that, at the time of their obtaining that act, it was thought to be a principle with many of their people.” Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · insight
“O Trojan race, your needless aid forbear, / And know, my ships are my peculiar care.” Virgil, The Aeneid · observation
“Since,” said the god, “the Trojans must not join / In wish’d alliance with the Latian line; / Since endless jarrings and immortal hate / Tend but to discompose our happy state; / The war henceforward be resign’d to fate: / Each to his proper fortune stand or fall; / Equal and unconcern’d I look on all.” Virgil, The Aeneid · insight
“See beforehand, a league from us or two, / From the highways dust rising in our view; / Pagans are there, and many them, too. / Canter therefore! Vengeance upon them do!” Anonymous (Old French epic), The Song of Roland · precept
“Then turns his eyes towards the Orient, Calls upon God with heartiest intent:” Anonymous (Old French epic), The Song of Roland · observation
“To which they answered, that no relative could be dearer to them than their lord, and that they would never follow his murderer.” (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; translator/editor) James Ingram, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle · insight
“They put both the troops to flight; there were many thousands of the slain, and they continued fighting till night.” (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; translator/editor) James Ingram, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle · observation
“And there they seized Archbishop Elfeah, and Elfward the king's steward, and Abbess Leofruna, and Bishop Godwin; and Abbot Elfmar they suffered to go away.” (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; translator/editor) James Ingram, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle · observation
“Then was proclaimed a general council without London; and all the earls and the best men in the land were at the council.” (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; translator/editor) James Ingram, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle · observation
“And the bishop thought to do by him as Judas Iscariot did by our Lord.” (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; translator/editor) James Ingram, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle · observation
Sura XXXIII (The Confederates) instructs the Prophet and believers at Medina: maintain faith, follow revelation, manage adoption and marriage rules, and recount the siege crisis with internal hypocrites.
your brethren in the faith, and your comrades. And unless made with intent of heart, mistakes in this matter shall be no crime in you: for God is Lenient, Merciful. Nearer of kin to the faithful is the Prophet, than they are to their own selves. His wives are their mothers. According to the Book of God, they who are related by blood, are nearer the one to the other than other believers, and than those who have fled …
Around Feb. 1–2, 1659/60 Pepys depicts soldiers’ mutiny over pay as Monk prepares to move in; crowds in the Strand and horse-and-foot fighting occurs, and Pepys hides and changes his clothes while money shortages spark further unrest.
got, to be got against to-morrow for them, and all the rest of the soldiers in town, who in all places made a mutiny this day, and do agree together. 2nd. To my office, where I found all the officers of the regiments in town, waiting to receive money that their soldiers might go out of town, and what was in the Exchequer they had. Harper, Luellin, and I went to the Temple to Mr. Calthrop's chamber, and from thence …
Pepys notes continuing public celebration in London with bonfires and bells, while MPs vote on returning City gates and voiding proclamations against Major-General Brown and breakage of Barebone’s windows.
where I heard Mr. Harrington, and my Lord of Dorset and another Lord, talking of getting another place at the Cockpit, and they did believe it would come to something. 21st. In the morning I saw many soldiers going towards Westminster Hall, to admit the secluded members again. So I to Westminster Hall, and in Chancery I saw about twenty of them who had been at White Hall with General Monk, who came thither this mo…
News reaches Pepys of Princess Henrietta’s measles on the London and the Queen’s return to Portsmouth after grounding, followed by Pepys choosing captains for guards, armed alarms at Deptford, and royal visits to shipbuilding yards.
King hath been this afternoon at Deptford, to see the yacht that Commissioner Pett is building, which will be very pretty; as also that his brother at Woolwich is making. 19th. To the Comptroller's, and with him by coach to White Hall; In our way meeting Venner and Pritchard upon a sledge, who with two more Fifth Monarchy men were hanged to-day, and the two first drawn and quartered. [Thomas Venner, a cooper, and …
Reports of Lord Teviott and nineteen officers killed at Tangier by Moorish ambush are followed by play-going during a hailstorm, and detailed retelling of the ambush date and Teviott’s last warning.
the King was at my Lady Castlemaine's lodgings over the hither-gate at Lambert's lodgings, dancing with fiddlers all night almost; and all the world coming by taking notice of it. JUNE 1, 1664. Southwell (Sir W. Pen's friend) tells me the very sad newes of my Lord Teviott's and nineteen more commission officers being killed at Tangier by the Moores, by an ambush of the enemy upon them, while they were surveying the…
Pepys goes to Sheerness and then receives orders about relocating to Greenwich; he details a naval setback at Bergen involving Dutch ships cutting cables and rendering English fire-ships useless.
laying out the ground to be taken in for a yard to lay provisions for cleaning and repairing of ships, and a most proper place it is for the purpose. 19th. Come letters from the King and Lord Arlington, for the removal of our office to Greenwich. I also wrote letters, and made myself ready to go to Sir G. Carteret, at Windsor; and having borrowed a horse of Mr. Blackbrough, sent him to wait for me at the Duke of A…
As news arrives that the Duke of Albemarle’s fleet has sighted the Dutch, Pepys orders 200 soldiers and resources to be sent, hears guns from Greenwich, and watches the King and Duke follow events toward the Gunfleet battle area.
French, to hinder their coming to join with the Dutch. My Lord Duke of Albemarle lies in the Downes with the rest, and intends presently to sail to the Gunfleete. June 2, 1666. Up, and to the office, where certain news is brought us of a letter come to the King this morning from the Duke of Albemarle, dated yesterday at eleven o'clock, as they were sailing to the Gunfleete, that they were in sight of the Dutch flee…
Pepys recounts an extended day of amusement—sport at the Bear-garden and fireworks/party dancing—then describes a later naval burning expedition and its success with fire-ships and captured supply ships.
7th. I receive fresh intelligence that Deptford and Greenwich are now afresh exceedingly afflicted with the sickness more than ever. 8th. Discoursed with Mr. Hooke about the nature of sounds, and he did make me understand the nature of musicall sounds made by strings, mighty prettily; and told me that having come to a certain number of vibrations proper to make any tone, he is able to tell how many strokes a fly ma…
Pepys and Sir W. Pen continue moving remaining goods as fires approach; he proposes pulling down houses to save the naval office, writes to Coventry for permission, then later sees new fires reach Barking Church and the City ruins spread.
and was running down to Fleet-street; and Paul's is burned, and all Cheepside. I wrote to my father this night, but the post-house being burned, the letter could not go. 5th. I lay down in the office again upon W. Hewer's quilt, being mighty weary, and sore in my feet with going till I was hardly able to stand. About two in the morning my wife calls me up, and tells me of new cryes of fire, it being come to Barkin…
Pepys reflects on a Gazette report from April about a plot to kill the King and burn London, linking the planned date (3 September) to the Great Fire’s outbreak on 2 September, then quotes the full Old Bailey indictment.
of September: which is very strange, methinks. [This circumstance was so remarkable that it has been thought worth while extracting the whole passage from the Gazette of April 23-26, 1666:-- "At the Sessions in the Old Bailey, John Rathbone, an old Army Colonel, William Saunders, Henry Tucker, Thomas Flint, Thomas Evans, John Myles, Will. Westcot, and John Cole, officers or soldiers in the late Rebellion, were indic…
Pepys notes cold air with lingering smoke from the Great Fire, then attends the Duke of York’s lodging to discuss fortifications at Harwich and hears a friar preach in Portuguese at Queen’s chapel.
cold; and it is observable that within these eight days I did see smoke remaining, coming out of some cellars from the late great fire, now above six months since. 17th. I to the Duke of York's lodging, where in his dressing- chamber, he talking of his journey to-morrow or next day to Harwich, to prepare some fortifications there; so that we are wholly upon the defensive part this year. I to walke in the Parke; wh…
Pepys describes theatre-going at the Duke of York’s playhouse, then discusses naval and commercial affairs: fortifying Medway with chains and guns, and a legal case over seized goods leading toward a partial victory.
stakes, and ships laid there with guns to keep the enemy from coming up to burn our ships; all our care being now to fortify ourselves against their invading us. 24th. With Sir G. Carteret and Sir J. Minnes; and they did talk of my Lord Brouncker; whose father it seems did give Mr. Ashburnham and the present Lord Digby [The Earl of Bristol, frequently called in the Diary Lord Digby, long after he had succeeded to t…
On 8th, Pepys reports Dutch ships approaching Harwich, gunfire heard at Bednall-greene, and the King sending the Earl of Oxford to raise forces while Western barges prepare a bridge for possible horse-crossing.
under obligations of recommending themselves to the King and the world by their finding and mending of faults, and are most of them not the best friends to my Lord.) 8th. Up, and to the office, where all the news this morning is that the Dutch are come with a fleet of eighty sail to Harwich, and that guns were heard plain by Sir W. Rider's people at Bednall-greene all yesterday even. The news is confirmed that the…
On 9th and into preparations, Pepys hears the Dutch have reached the Nore, urges fire-ships with Sir William Coventry and others, travels to Deptford and Gravesend, and notes Sheerenesse’s town defenses and removals.
I will send them him. I find an order come for the getting some fire-ships presently to annoy the Dutch, who are in the King's Channel, and expected up higher. 10th. Up; and news brought us that the Dutch are come up as high as the Nore; and more presing orders for fire-ships. W. Batten, W. Pen, and I to St. James's; whence the Duke of York gone this morning betimes, to send away some men down to Chatham. So we t…
On 12th, after earlier hopes for the safety of large ships, Pepys learns the Dutch broke the Chatham chain and burned ships, especially the Royal Charles, leading him to plan for his family’s finances and fear political punishment.
as if they had a design to ruin the City and give it up to be undone; which, I hear, makes the sober citizens to think very sadly of things. 12th. Up very betimes to our business at the office, their hiring of more fire-ships; and at it close all the morning. At noon home, and Sir W. Pen dined with us. By and by after dinner my wife out by coach to see her mother; and I in another (being afraid at this busy time …
Pepys visits Rochester/Chatham and inspects fortifications, batteries, the River chain, and wrecked ships, praising Dutch restraint at Gillingham while criticizing English incompetence and plundering.
have justice, I shall. We hear that the Dutch are gone down again; and, thanks be to God, the trouble they give us this second time is not very considerable! 30th. To Rochester about ten of the clock. At the landing-place I met my Lord Brouncker and my Lord Douglas, and all the officers of the soldiers in the town, waiting there for the Duke of York, whom they heard was coming. By and by comes my Lord Middleton, …
He negotiates with Sandwich and others about how he will avoid accountability for a Tangier treasurer, consults Coventry, and attends to King-and-court politics while planning dinners and payments tied to Tangier fortifications.
discourse is, that now the King is of opinion to have the Parliament called, notwithstanding his late resolutions for proroguing them; so unstable are his councils and those about him. 18th. To Sir W. Coventry's, and there discourse the business of my Treasurer's place at Tangier; wherein he consents to my desire, and concurs therein: which I am glad of, that I may not be accountable for a man so far off. And so …
Corinth organizes aid and settlers for Epidamnus, while Corcyra responds with a naval campaign, demands the return of exiles and removal of Corinthian forces, besieges the city, and then fights at sea at Actium.
was one reason of the care that they lavished on their fleet, which became very efficient; indeed they began the war with a force of a hundred and twenty galleys. All these grievances made Corinth eager to send the promised aid to Epidamnus. Advertisement was made for volunteer settlers, and a force of Ambraciots, Leucadians, and Corinthians was dispatched. They marched by land to Apollonia, a Corinthian colony, the…
After refusing Corcyra’s armistice proposals, Corinth sends a fleet to battle, while the aftermath includes Corcyra’s trophy at Leukimme, reprisals against Corinthian-linked places, and continued naval standoffs into winter.
withdraw her troops from Epidamnus they would withdraw theirs, or they were ready to let both parties remain in statu quo, an armistice being concluded till judgment could be given. Turning a deaf ear to all these proposals, when their ships were manned and their allies had come in, the Corinthians sent a herald before them to declare war and, getting under way with seventy-five ships and two thousand heavy infantry…
Corinth takes Anactorium by treachery, sells Corcyraean slaves and keeps hostages, and Thucydides calls this the first cause of Corinth’s war against Athens; soon after, Athens imposes measures against revolting Potidaea.
the island. This was the first cause of the war that Corinth had against the Athenians, viz., that they had fought against them with the Corcyraeans in time of treaty. Almost immediately after this, fresh differences arose between the Athenians and Peloponnesians, and contributed their share to the war. Corinth was forming schemes for retaliation, and Athens suspected her hostility. The Potidæans, who inhabit the is…
As Potidaea revolts after negotiation failures, Perdiccas promotes a wider Thracian revolt, Aristeus and Corinthian reinforcements arrive, Athens sends troops under Callias, and a battle leads to an Athenian investment of Potidaea.
to Macedonia, their original destination, and, having established themselves there, carried on war in co-operation with Philip, and the brothers of Derdas, who had invaded the country from the interior. Meanwhile the Corinthians, with Potidæa in revolt and the Athenian ships on the coast of Macedonia, alarmed for the safety of the place and thinking its danger theirs, sent volunteers from Corinth, and mercenaries fr…
Aristeus and Potidaea’s allies plan to fight Athenians between the isthmus and Olynthus, but after battles Athenians build walls to blockade Potidaea by land and sea; Aristeus later advises escape and eludes guards to continue fighting elsewhere.
horsemen, the followers of Philip and Pausanias. With these sailed seventy ships along the coast. Advancing by short marches, on the third day they arrived at Gigonus, where they encamped. Meanwhile the Potidæans and the Peloponnesians with Aristeus were encamped on the side looking towards Olynthus on the isthmus, in expectation of the Athenians, and had established their market outside the city. The allies had cho…
The Lacedaemonians urge Athens to avoid walls and even help demolish other cities’ defenses, but Themistocles delays their envoys until Athens completes fortifications enough for Spartan consultations to assume Athens can judge both local and common interests.
portions of the circumference had been left standing, and most of the houses were in ruins; though a few remained, in which the Persian grandees had taken up their quarters. Perceiving what they were going to do, the Lacedaemonians sent an embassy to Athens. They would have themselves preferred to see neither her nor any other city in possession of a wall; though here they acted principally at the instigation of the…
The Spartans keep friendly behavior but privately feel annoyed; soon Athens walls the city quickly with reused stones, finishes Piraeus walls, and develops an explicitly naval strategy after the Median retreat.
the common interest. It followed, he observed, either that all the members of the confederacy should be without walls, or that the present step should be considered a right one. The Lacedaemonians did not betray any open signs of anger against the Athenians at what they heard. The embassy, it seems, was prompted not by a desire to obstruct, but to guide the counsels of their government: besides, Spartan feeling was …
Thasian troubles lead to conflict, Athenian settlements reach Amphipolis area, and the Ithome revolt draws Lacedaemon’s call for help; Athens’s role in the siege sparks a first quarrel with Sparta and shifts alliances toward Argos.
had been made against the Mede, and allied themselves with Sparta’s enemy Argos; each of the contracting parties taking the same oaths and making the same alliance with the Thessalians. Meanwhile the rebels in Ithome, unable to prolong further a ten years’ resistance, surrendered to Lacedaemon; the conditions being that they should depart from Peloponnese under safe conduct, and should never set foot in it again: an…
After Ithome’s surrender, helots and suppliants are relocated to Naupactus; the Athenians absorb Megara, fight in Egypt under Inaros, and then conduct campaigns around Aegina, Megara, and Geraneia with shifting battle outcomes.
the attack of the remaining third, which is called White Castle. Within it were Persians and Medes who had taken refuge there, and Egyptians who had not joined the rebellion. Meanwhile the Athenians, making a descent from their fleet upon Haliae, were engaged by a force of Corinthians and Epidaurians; and the Corinthians were victorious. Afterwards the Athenians engaged the Peloponnesian fleet off Cecruphalia; and t…
Athens builds the Long Walls toward Phalerum and Piraeus; Phocians raid Doris, Spartans assist, then Athens and Lacedaemonians fight at Tanagra and at Oenophyta, and Athens expands to Boeotia and Phocis.
and, placing the light troops round in a circle, stoned all who had gone in. Corinth here suffered a severe blow. The bulk of her army continued its retreat home. About this time the Athenians began to build the long walls to the sea, that towards Phalerum and that towards Piraeus. Meanwhile the Phocians made an expedition against Doris, the old home of the Lacedaemonians, containing the towns of Boeum, Kitinium, an…
The Athenians’ Egypt campaign ends after six years when Persian forces besiege Prosopitis and crush the expedition; afterward Athens attempts operations in Thessaly under Orestes and in Acarnania against Oeniadae.
round Peloponnese under Tolmides, son of Tolmaeus, burnt the arsenal of Lacedaemon, took Chalcis, a town of the Corinthians, and in a descent upon Sicyon defeated the Sicyonians in battle. Meanwhile the Athenians in Egypt and their allies were still there, and encountered all the vicissitudes of war. First the Athenians were masters of Egypt, and the King sent Megabazus a Persian to Lacedaemon with money to bribe th…
Thucydides ends the stories of Pausanias and Themistocles, then returns to Lacedaemonian diplomacy: embassies demand Athens raise the siege of Potidaea, respect Aegina’s independence, and revoke the Megara decree.
to bury in Attica an outlaw for treason. So ends the history of Pausanias and Themistocles, the Lacedaemonian and the Athenian, the most famous men of their time in Hellas. To return to the Lacedaemonians. The history of their first embassy, the injunctions which it conveyed, and the rejoinder which it provoked, concerning the expulsion of the accursed persons, have been related already. It was followed by a second,…
Pericles continues, dismissing fear of fortifications in Attica and praising Athenian seamanship, arguing sea power enables retaliatory fortification and that war’s true stakes are the lives of men.
is the business of somebody else to look after this or that for him; and so, by the same notion being entertained by all separately, the common cause imperceptibly decays. “But the principal point is the hindrance that they will experience from want of money. The slowness with which it comes in will cause delay; but the opportunities of war wait for no man. Again, we need not be alarmed either at the possibility of …
After issuing orders to invade Attica, the Peloponnesian army assembles at the Isthmus under King Archidamus, who exhorts disciplined vigilance and warns against negligence during a campaign in an enemy’s country.
Thera. Of these, ships were furnished by Chios, Lesbos, and Corcyra, infantry and money by the rest. Such were the allies of either party and their resources for the war. Immediately after the affair at Plataea, Lacedaemon sent round orders to the cities in Peloponnese and the rest of her confederacy to prepare troops and the provisions requisite for a foreign campaign, in order to invade Attica. The several states …
Pericles advises Athenians to prepare rather than fight by urging evacuation of wives, children, and goods into the city, safeguarding revenue, manpower, walls, and ships, while Boeotians are already joining the invasion and Archidamus advances.
with his army into their territory. Meanwhile the Boeotians, sending their contingent and cavalry to join the Peloponnesian expedition, went to Plataea with the remainder and laid waste the country. While the Peloponnesians were still mustering at the Isthmus, or on the march before they invaded Attica, Pericles, son of Xanthippus, one of the ten generals of the Athenians, finding that the invasion was to take place…
As Athenians crowd into Athens, some cannot find space and occupy temples and wall-towers; they confront an oracle’s curse about the Pelasgian parcel, while Archidamus assaults Oenoe on the border, delaying before breaking camp to invade Attica.
houses and the hereditary temples of the ancient constitution, and at having to change their habits of life and to bid farewell to what each regarded as his native city. When they arrived at Athens, though a few had houses of their own to go to, or could find an asylum with friends or relatives, by far the greater number had to take up their dwelling in the parts of the city that were not built over and in the templ…
Archidamus invades Attica around eighty days after the Theban attempt on Plataea, camps at Eleusis and the Thriasian plain, ravages the Athenian demes to Acharnae, and stays near Athens to lure Athenians into battle—while Oenoe’s siege failure drives broader invasion.
is said, expected that the Athenians would shrink from letting their land be wasted, and would make their submission while it was still uninjured; and this was why he waited. But after he had assaulted Oenoe, and every possible attempt to take it had failed, as no herald came from Athens, he at last broke up his camp and invaded Attica. This was about eighty days after the Theban attempt upon Plataea, just in the mi…
Athenian ships cruise the Peloponnese, assault Methone under Brasidas, raid Laconia, seize and evacuate Pheia in Elis, and blockade Euboea and Locris while Athenians expel Aeginetans from Aegina and hostages are taken in Locrian raids.
galleys, the best ships of each year, with their captains. None of these were to be used except with the money and against the same peril, should such peril arise. Meanwhile the Athenians in the hundred ships round Peloponnese, reinforced by a Corcyraean squadron of fifty vessels and some others of the allies in those parts, cruised about the coasts and ravaged the country. Among other places they landed in Laconia …
Thucydides narrates the start of the second year of the war: Spartans invade Attica under Archidamus, while a devastating plague breaks out first in Piraeus and spreads to Athens.
Second Year of the War—The Plague of Athens—Position and Policy of Pericles—Fall of Potidæa Such was the funeral that took place during this winter, with which the first year of the war came to an end. In the first days of summer the Lacedaemonians and their allies, with two-thirds of their forces as before, invaded Attica, under the command of Archidamus, son of Zeuxidamus, King of Lacedaemon, and sat down and laid…
Pericles forbids Athenians from marching out against the Peloponnesians, instead sending a naval expedition that raids in the Peloponnese, while other Athenian commanders fail at Potidaea due to plague.
which faces Euboea and Andros. But Pericles, who was still general, held the same opinion as in the former invasion, and would not let the Athenians march out against them. However, while they were still in the plain, and had not yet entered the Paralian land, he had prepared an armament of a hundred ships for Peloponnese, and when all was ready put out to sea. On board the ships he took four thousand Athenian heavy…
Thucydides describes Ambraciot hostility against Argos of Amphilochia stemming from earlier colonization and enslavement, and then narrates winter operations: Athenian naval patrols, Melesander’s death in Lycia, and Potidaea’s capitulation.
board the merchantmen round Peloponnese. Indeed, at the outset of the war, the Lacedaemonians butchered as enemies all whom they took on the sea, whether allies of Athens or neutrals. About the same time towards the close of the summer, the Ambraciot forces, with a number of barbarians that they had raised, marched against the Amphilochian Argos and the rest of that country. The origin of their enmity against the Ar…
In the third year, the Peloponnesians attack Plataea; Plataeans invoke Pausanias’ prior oaths, Archidamus proposes neutrality or handover, Athenians consult and reject, and Archidamus begins a complex siege with mounds and walls.
Third Year of the War—Investment of Plataea—Naval Victories of Phormio—Thracian Irruption into Macedonia under Sitalces The next summer the Peloponnesians and their allies, instead of invading Attica, marched against Plataea, under the command of Archidamus, son of Zeuxidamus, king of the Lacedaemonians. He had encamped his army and was about to lay waste the country, when the Plataeans hastened to send envoys to hi…
Archidamus encloses Plataea with a palisade, builds a massive mound for assault, and faces Plataean countermeasures like walls, mining, and protective timber and skins to prevent burning and breakthrough.
When it is over we will restore to you whatever we received, and in the interim hold it in trust and keep it in cultivation, paying you a sufficient allowance.” When they had heard what he had to say, they re-entered the city, and after consulting with the people said that they wished first to acquaint the Athenians with this proposal, and in the event of their approving to accede to it; in the meantime they asked h…
After their engines fail, Peloponnesians attempt a massive fire using faggots with sulphur and pitch, but rain and thunder extinguish it; they then switch to full circumvallation with a ditch and blockade.
no less rapid progress. The Plataeans also thought of another expedient; they pulled out part of the wall upon which the mound abutted, and carried the earth into the city. Discovering this the Peloponnesians twisted up clay in wattles of reed and threw it into the breach formed in the mound, in order to give it consistency and prevent its being carried away like the soil. Stopped in this way the Plataeans changed t…
Thucydides adds concurrent campaigns: Athenians fight Chalcidians and Bottiaeans near Spartolus with heavy infantry and cavalry, suffer routing and losses, and in winter oversee blockades while Potidaea’s terms conclude the year.
have saved them. As it was, there is also a story of heavy rain and thunder having come on by which the fire was put out and the danger averted. Failing in this last attempt the Peloponnesians left a portion of their forces on the spot, dismissing the rest, and built a wall of circumvallation round the town, dividing the ground among the various cities present; a ditch being made within and without the lines, from w…
At Stratus, Cnemus and allies assault the Acarnanian town in three divisions; the Chaonians rush ahead, are ambushed and panic, and Cnemus withdraws to the river Anapus and sets up a trophy for the battle.
Amphilochian Argos, and sacking the open village of Limnaea, they advanced to Stratus the Acarnanian capital; this once taken, the rest of the country, they felt convinced, would speedily follow. The Acarnanians, finding themselves invaded by a large army by land, and from the sea threatened by a hostile fleet, made no combined attempt at resistance, but remained to defend their homes, and sent for help to Phormio, …
After winning, the Athenians and Peloponnesians each set up trophies, return dead under truce, and then sail away; soon afterward the winter plan of Cnemus and Brasidas attacks Piraeus indirectly by seizing a fort near Salamis.
main body come up—an unsafe thing to do considering how near they were to the enemy’s prows; while others ran aground in the shallows, in their ignorance of the localities. Elated at this incident, the Athenians at one word gave a cheer, and dashed at the enemy, who, embarrassed by his mistakes and the disorder in which he found himself, only stood for an instant, and then fled for Panormus, whence he had put out. T…
Fire signals and confusion lead Athens to rush reinforcements to Salamis; the Peloponnesians overrun much of the island, then leave with plunder and captives, while Athens increases Piraeus harbor defenses and guards more carefully.
anything sailing in or out of Megara. This fort they assaulted, and towed off the galleys empty, and surprising the inhabitants began to lay waste the rest of the island. Meanwhile fire signals were raised to alarm Athens, and a panic ensued there as serious as any that occurred during the war. The idea in the city was that the enemy had already sailed into Piraeus: in Piraeus it was thought that they had taken Sala…
Thracian forces under Sitalces assemble at Doberus, descend into Lower Macedonia, capture places including Idomene, lay waste parts of Macedonia, and rely mainly on cavalry because their infantry cannot face Macedonian numbers.
The most warlike of the infantry were the independent swordsmen who came down from Rhodope; the rest of the mixed multitude that followed him being chiefly formidable by their numbers. Assembling in Doberus, they prepared for descending from the heights upon Lower Macedonia, where the dominions of Perdiccas lay; for the Lyncestae, Elimiots, and other tribes more inland, though Macedonians by blood, and allies and de…
After the failed surprise, Athenian commanders fight when Mitylenians refuse orders; Lesbians seek an armistice, send envoys to Athens and Lacedaemon, then renew hostilities until Athenians block both harbors.
after leaving Athens. The Mitylenians accordingly refrained from going out to the temple at Malea, and moreover barricaded and kept guard round the half-finished parts of their walls and harbours. When the Athenians sailed in not long after and saw how things stood, the generals delivered their orders, and upon the Mitylenians refusing to obey, commenced hostilities. The Mitylenians, thus compelled to go to war with…
Athenian forces test Sparta’s preparations by sending a large fleet from Athens to the Isthmus and making raids in Peloponnese; meanwhile Mytilenian operations against Methymna continue, and Athens raises funds for the Mitylene blockade.
the plain of the Meander, as far as the hill of Sandius; and being attacked by the Carians and the people of Anaia, was slain with many of his soldiers. The same winter the Plataeans, who were still being besieged by the Peloponnesians and Boeotians, distressed by the failure of their provisions, and seeing no hope of relief from Athens, nor any other means of safety, formed a scheme with the Athenians besieged with…
Thucydides describes how Plataeans, waiting for a stormy moonless night, silently scale the Peloponnesian wall, kill sentinels, repel defenders on towers and battlements, and escape during the chaos created by a diversionary sortie.
passing except through the middle. Accordingly on stormy and wet nights the battlements were deserted, and guard kept from the towers, which were not far apart and roofed in above. Such being the structure of the wall by which the Plataeans were blockaded, when their preparations were completed, they waited for a stormy night of wind and rain and without any moon, and then set out, guided by the authors of the enter…
After the first scaling party clears the wall and rears ladders, the main Plataean group crosses an icy, snow-fed ditch toward the road to Thebes, then turns to the hills and reaches Athens with 212 men.
getting a true idea of what was passing and coming to his aid before their comrades who had gone out should have made good their escape and be in safety. Meanwhile the first of the scaling party that had got up, after carrying both the towers and putting the sentinels to the sword, posted themselves inside to prevent any one coming through against them; and rearing ladders from the wall, sent several men up on the t…
Thucydides links the Plataean episode to late-winter and next-summer events: Salaethus warns Mitylene of invasion, the Peloponnesians invade Attica while sailing to aid Mitylene, and Mitylene eventually capitulates on terms.
laid aside the idea of treating with the Athenians; and now this winter ended, and with it ended the fourth year of the war of which Thucydides was the historian. The next summer the Peloponnesians sent off the forty-two ships for Mitylene, under Alcidas, their high admiral, and themselves and their allies invaded Attica, their object being to distract the Athenians by a double movement, and thus to make it less eas…
After Lesbos is reduced, Thucydides narrates the Athenians’ expedition under Nicias against Minoa near Megara and the surrender trial of the Plataeans, including the first formal steps toward execution.
Fifth Year of the War—Trial and Execution of the Plataeans— Corcyraean Revolution During the same summer, after the reduction of Lesbos, the Athenians under Nicias, son of Niceratus, made an expedition against the island of Minoa, which lies off Megara and was used as a fortified post by the Megarians, who had built a tower upon it. Nicias wished to enable the Athenians to maintain their blockade from this nearer st…
Corcyraeans and Athenians fight a sea battle as Corcyra turns against invasion; after the Peloponnesians capture ships but do not storm the city, commons negotiate with suppliants, then beacon signals warn of a large Athenian fleet approaching.
the Peloponnesians, seeing their confusion, placed twenty ships to oppose the Corcyraeans, and ranged the rest against the twelve Athenian ships, amongst which were the two vessels Salaminia and Paralus. While the Corcyraeans, attacking without judgment and in small detachments, were already crippled by their own misconduct, the Athenians, afraid of the numbers of the enemy and of being surrounded, did not venture t…
After summer ends, a second plague visit and earthquakes strike Athens and nearby regions; meanwhile Athenians attack Aeolian islands, then Peloponnesians attempt an invasion of Attica halted by earthquakes, and the narrative shifts to Sicilian campaigns including operations at Mylae and Messina.
Year of the War—Campaigns of Demosthenes in Western Greece—Ruin of Ambracia Summer was now over. The winter following, the plague a second time attacked the Athenians; for although it had never entirely left them, still there had been a notable abatement in its ravages. The second visit lasted no less than a year, the first having lasted two; and nothing distressed the Athenians and reduced their power more than thi…
Athens sends fleets to reduce Melos and a separate expedition under Demosthenes around Peloponnese; elsewhere the Lacedaemonians found the colony of Heraclea in Trachis after consulting Delphi, fortifying it for operations against Athens.
Acropolis and to march with them upon Messina. This town afterwards also submitted upon the approach of the Athenians and their allies, and gave hostages and all other securities required. The same summer the Athenians sent thirty ships round Peloponnese under Demosthenes, son of Alcisthenes, and Procles, son of Theodorus, and sixty others, with two thousand heavy infantry, against Melos, under Nicias, son of Nicera…
Spartans founded Leucas with defensible docks to menace Euboea, but Thessalians harassed settlers and harsh Spartan governance drove decline, while Demosthenes besieged Leucas’ region before shifting to Aetolia.
two miles and a quarter from the sea, and commenced building docks, closing the side towards Thermopylae just by the pass itself, in order that they might be easily defended. The foundation of this town, evidently meant to annoy Euboea (the passage across to Cenaeum in that island being a short one), at first caused some alarm at Athens, which the event however did nothing to justify, the town never giving them any …
Eurylochus marches through Acarnania and into Argos territory to join the Ambraciots at Olpae; Demosthenes and Athenian ships block from sea, and after five days both sides fight a battle with Demosthenes using an ambush.
might not be able to pass through the Acarnanians, and that they might themselves be obliged to fight single-handed, or be unable to retreat, if they wished it, without danger. Meanwhile Eurylochus and his Peloponnesians, learning that the Ambraciots at Olpae had arrived, set out from Proschium with all haste to join them, and crossing the Achelous advanced through Acarnania, which they found deserted by its populat…
Demosthenes, diverted by a squall to Pylos, urges fortifying it, and Athenian soldiers rapidly build stone fortifications despite weather and lack of tools, then leave Demosthenes to garrison while the fleet proceeds to Corcyra.
the country, speaking the same dialect as the Lacedaemonians, could do them the greatest mischief by their incursions from it, and would at the same time be a trusty garrison. After speaking to the captains of companies on the subject, and failing to persuade either the generals or the soldiers, he remained inactive with the rest from stress of weather; until the soldiers themselves wanting occupation were seized wi…
After the Peloponnesians withdraw from Attica, Spartans and allied ships rush to Pylos; Demosthenes sends warnings to the fleet at Zacynthus, while the Lacedaemonians plan an assault and blockade using Sphacteria with soldiers commanded by Epitadas.
Athens, by treachery, but had no sooner done so than the Chalcidians and Bottiaeans came up and beat him out of it, with the loss of many of his soldiers. On the return of the Peloponnesians from Attica, the Spartans themselves and the nearest of the Perioeci at once set out for Pylos, the other Lacedaemonians following more slowly, as they had just come in from another campaign. Word was also sent round Peloponnese…
Demosthenes organizes defense at Pylos with improvised shields and stockaded galleys, selects heavy infantry and archers for a likely landing site, and exhorts them to face danger without calculation; the Spartans assault by land and sea under Thrasymelidas.
crossed over before in relief parties, but these last who were left there were four hundred and twenty in number, with their Helot attendants, commanded by Epitadas, son of Molobrus. Meanwhile Demosthenes, seeing the Lacedaemonians about to attack him by sea and land at once, himself was not idle. He drew up under the fortification and enclosed in a stockade the galleys remaining to him of those which had been left …