Greece -- History -- Peloponnesian War, 431-404 B.C.
bones, it is said, were conveyed home by his relatives in accordance
with his wishes, and interred in Attic ground. This was done without
the knowledge of the Athenians; as it is against the law 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, which ordered Athens to raise the
siege of Potidæa, and to respect the independence of Aegina. Above all,
it gave her most distinctly to understand that war might be prevented
by the revocation of the Megara decree, excluding the Megarians from
the use of Athenian harbours and of the market of Athens. But Athens
was not inclined either to revoke the decree, or to entertain their
other proposals; she accused the Megarians of pushing their cultivation
into the consecrated ground and the unenclosed land on the border, and
of harbouring her runaway slaves. At last an embassy arrived with the
Lacedaemonian ultimatum. The ambassadors were Ramphias, Melesippus, and
Agesander. Not a word was said on any of the old subjects; there was
simply this: “Lacedaemon wishes the peace to continue, and there is no
reason why it should not, if you would leave the Hellenes independent.”
Upon this the Athenians held an assembly, and laid the matter before
their consideration. It was resolved to deliberate once for all on all
their demands, and to give them an answer. There were many speakers who
came forward and gave their support to one side or the other, urging
the necessity of war, or the revocation of the decree and the folly of
allowing it to stand in the way of peace. Among them came forward
Pericles, son of Xanthippus, the first man of his time at Athens,
ablest alike in counsel and in action, and gave the following advice:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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