The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 1 of 2Müller, Karl Otfried
History
The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 1 of 2
Müller, Karl Otfried
Dorians -- History; Greece -- Antiquities, Dorian; Greece -- History -- Dorian Invasions, approximately 1125-1025 B.C.
4. Such is the substance of the narrative of Herodotus; in which we can
only be surprised, that of the most remarkable event, viz., the treaty of
Pausanias, he should say not a word: a silence which can only be explained
by supposing that he had intended to mention it in another passage of his
unfinished work. When Pausanias, with the assistance of the allies, had
won the battle of Platæa, he sacrificed in the market-place of Platæa to
Zeus Eleutherius, and convened an assembly of all the Greeks, in which the
Platæans (who annually performed certain honorary rites to those who had
fallen in the battle, Thuc. III. 58.) were promised that their country and
city should remain independent, and that no one should attack them without
lawful reason, or with intention to reduce them to subjection: and that,
in case these conditions were not observed, all the allies then present
would protect them (Thuc. VI. 71. cf. III. 56, 59.); an engagement which
the Spartans themselves afterwards broke, on the ground that the Platæans
had first unjustly given up τὸ ξυνώμοτον (II. 74.). For in “the ancient
treaty of Pausanias after the Persian war,” it was ordered that the allies
in general, and the Platæans among them, should remain at peace with each
other (Thuc. III. 68. cf. II. 72.). The further conditions of this treaty
may be collected from Thucyd. I. 67, (for it is evidently this treaty
which is in question,) where the Æginetans complain that they are not
independent, “according to the treaty;” for the thirty years’ truce (I.
115.) cannot be meant, as it was not concluded till after the subjection
of Ægina (the former in Olymp. 83. 3. the latter in Olymp. 80. 4.); whence
it is likewise evident that the treaty, which was violated by the siege of
Potidæa, and the exclusion of the Megarians from the market of Attica, (I.
67, 87. cf. c. 144.) was the same ancient act, only renewed by later
treaties. Thus Plutarch states that the latter prohibition was “contrary
to the common principles of justice, and the solemn oaths of _the
Greeks_.”(2163) And in another place he mentions that, in a general
assembly of the Greeks after the battle of Platæa, Aristides proposed a
decree that the Greeks should annually send deputies and sacred messengers
to Platæa, and that the Eleutheria should be solemnised every five
years.(2164) Also, that it was agreed that an allied Greek armament should
be organised against the Persians, consisting of 10,000 heavy-armed
infantry, 1000 cavalry, and 100 ships: and that the Platæans should be
considered sacred and inviolable. From what has been stated above, it is
clear how much of this account is true, and how much added by Athenian
partiality.
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