Athens and Sparta

Athens and Sparta, story by story.

1. IAttica, 490 BCE
   

   Chapter I · Attica, 490 BCE

   Marathon

   You play Miltiades

   The generals are split and the Spartans are a week away. Fight now, or wait?

   Marathon, 490 BCE. Six hundred Persian warships have unloaded an army on a beach about twenty-five miles from Athens.

   Your first call · Spartans: not until the full moon

   Wait for the SpartansWin Callimachus over to fight

   Sources

   • Herodotus, Histories 5.105 (Darius told of Sardis burned by the Athenians and Ionians, asks who the Athenians are, shoots an arrow toward heaven, a servant to say three times at dinner 'Master, remember the Athenians') and 6.94 to 6.136 (Datis and Artaphrenes sent to enslave Athens and Eretria, six hundred triremes, Eretria betrayed on the seventh day by Euphorbos and Philagros, temples burned and people enslaved, Hippias guiding the Persians to Marathon as best for horsemen, ten generals, Miltiades' escape from the Phoenician fleet and trial for tyranny in the Chersonese, Pheidippides at Sparta the next day, the ninth of the month and the full moon, the Plataeans in full force, the generals divided, Miltiades' speech to the polemarch Callimachus, the days of command handed over and Miltiades waiting for his own day, the thinned centre and strong wings, the run across at least eight stades, no cavalry or archers, centre broken and wings victorious, seven ships taken, Callimachus killed, the fleet sailing round Sunion, the march back to Athens, 6,400 Persians and 192 Athenians dead, 2,000 Spartans arriving after the full moon, Miltiades' failed raid on Paros, trial and death), trans. G. C. Macaulay (1890)
   • Plutarch, Life of Aristides 5 (Aristides adds his vote to Miltiades', hands his day of command to Miltiades and the others follow; nine tribes hurry back to Athens and reach it the same day; Themistocles and Aristides fight in the centre), trans. Dryden, rev. Clough
   • Battle of Marathon (modern overview, used only for modern reckonings with no ancient text: about 40 km / 25 miles from Marathon to Athens, the Athenian camp on a spur of Mount Agrieliki above the plain, a standoff of about five days, the date August or September 490 BCE)
   • Herodotus, Histories 3.91 (Egypt and Libya as a tribute-paying province) and 3.94 (the Indians, the twentieth province, paying the largest tribute), for 'Persia rules from Egypt to India', trans. G. C. Macaulay (1890)
   • Cornelius Nepos, Miltiades 5.1 (a thousand Plataeans 'raised the number of combatants to ten thousand'), trans. J. C. Rolfe
   • Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians 22.2 (the generals elected by tribes, one from each tribe, the whole army under the polemarch), trans. H. Rackham
   • Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 6.59.4 (Hippias, deposed, goes to Darius, 'from whose court he set out twenty years after, in his old age, and came with the Medes to Marathon'), trans. R. Crawley
   • Siege of Sardis (498 BC) (modern overview, used only for the modern date 498 BCE, eight years before Marathon)
   • Miltiades (modern overview, used only for the modern date of the Paros expedition and his death, 489 BCE, 'the next year')
2. IICentral Greece, 480 BCE
   

   Chapter II · Central Greece, 480 BCE

   Thermopylae

   You play King Leonidas of Sparta

   A few thousand men hold a door against an empire. Who guards the back door?

   Ten years after Marathon, Darius is dead. His son Xerxes wants what his father never got, and he is bringing the biggest army Greece has ever seen.

   Your first call · Your Spartans: 300

   Let the Phocians guard itSend Spartans up with them

   Sources

   • Herodotus, Histories 7.1 to 7.5 (Darius enraged by Marathon, dies, Xerxes succeeds), 7.34 to 7.36 and 7.56 (the first bridges made of ropes of flax and papyrus; the second laid on 360 and 314 ships held by cables; the army crossing for seven days and seven nights under the lash; the Hellespont bridged with ropes, destroyed by a storm, the sea given three hundred lashes and a pair of fetters, the overseers beheaded, the bridges rebuilt), 7.175 to 7.176 (the Greeks choose Thermopylae and Artemisium; the pass a single wheel-track in places, the hot springs, the old Phocian wall; the path learned of from the men of Trachis), 7.202 to 7.228 (the Greek contingents; the message that it was a man, not a god, who was coming, and every man has evil mingled with his fortune; Leonidas, king unexpectedly after two older brothers; the three hundred chosen from men who had sons; the Carneia and the Olympic festival; the Phocians guarding the path by their own offer; the Peloponnesians' wish to fall back to the Isthmus, the anger of the Phocians and Locrians, Leonidas' vote to stay and send for help; the Persian scout seeing Spartans exercising and combing their hair; four days' wait, two days of fighting, the king leaping up three times; Ephialtes; the march through the oak woods; the Phocians fleeing to the peak; the seer Megistias, deserters and day-watchers; the allies dismissed; Thespians staying willingly and Thebans as hostages; the advance into the broader part of the pass; spears broken, swords; Leonidas' body recovered four times; the hillock, daggers, hands and teeth; two brothers of Xerxes killed; the oracle of Sparta destroyed or a king dead; the epitaph 'Stranger, report this word'), trans. G. C. Macaulay (1890)
   • Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 11.4 (Leonidas' four thousand, plus a thousand Locrians, a thousand Malians, almost a thousand Phocians and about four hundred Thebans: some seven thousand in all), trans. C. H. Oldfather
   • Battle of Thermopylae (modern overview, used only for the modern dating: proposed dates run from July to September 480 BCE, so the story says 'summer')
3. IIIAthens and Salamis, 483 to 480 BCE
   

   Chapter III · Athens and Salamis, 483 to 480 BCE

   Salamis

   You play Themistocles

   Athens is burning and the allies want to leave. Can you make them fight in the strait?

   The Hot Gates have fallen, and Xerxes's army is marching on Athens. Athens has no army that could stop it.

   Your first call · Athenian ships: almost half the fleet

   Threaten to sail Athens off to ItalyAccept the vote for the Isthmus

   Sources

   • Herodotus, Histories 7.140 to 7.144 (the two Delphic oracles, 'flee to the uttermost limits' and the 'bulwark of wood' with 'Salamis, thou the divine'; the elders' reading as the Acropolis thorn hedge; Themistocles' reading as the ships and 'divine' rather than 'merciless'; the Laureion silver to be shared out at ten drachmas each turned into two hundred ships for the war with Aegina), 7.184 (crews reckoned at two hundred men a ship), and 8.40 to 8.110 (the evacuation of Athens to Troezen, Aegina and Salamis; the sacred serpent's honey-cake left untouched, taken as a sign the goddess had left; Eurybiades in command; 378 triremes plus two deserters; the holdouts behind the wooden palisade on the Acropolis, fire arrows, the unguarded cliff, the suppliants killed and the Acropolis burned; captains running to their ships; the vote for the Isthmus; Mnesiphilus' warning that the fleet would scatter; Themistocles at Eurybiades' ship by night; Adeimantus' 'citizen of no city'; the two hundred manned ships and the threat to sail to Siris in Italy; the second dispute and Sicinnus' message; the Persian ships closing the strait by night; the battle and the crowded Persian ships running into each other; the Persian fleet withdrawing to the Hellespont; the pursuit to Andros; Themistocles' proposal to break the bridges and Eurybiades' reply; Themistocles turning the Athenians and sending Sicinnus to Xerxes; Mardonius left with the army), trans. G. C. Macaulay (1890)
   • Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1.137 to 1.138 (Themistocles' letter to Artaxerxes, son of Xerxes, claiming the warning from Salamis and the bridges left unbroken; his year learning Persian; governor of Magnesia; death by disease), trans. Richard Crawley
   • Plutarch, Life of Themistocles (3 to 4: Themistocles alone foreseeing that Marathon was the beginning of greater wars, the Laurium silver, the Aeginetan war used as the pretext; the triremes; the Persian king's welcome; Magnesia, Myus and Lampsacus), trans. Dryden, rev. Clough
   • Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians 22.7 (the mines at Maroneia found in the archonship of Nicodemus, the plan to share the profit out, Themistocles' fleet), trans. H. Rackham
   • Themistocles (modern overview, used only for the modern date of the Laurium strike, 483 BCE, 'three years earlier')
   • Trireme (modern overview, used only for the bronze ram and the crew of about 200, 170 of them rowers, which no ancient text gives in one place)
   • Battle of Salamis (modern overview, used only for the date, 26 or 27 September 480 BCE)
4. IVAthens, 431 to 430 BCE
   

   Chapter IV · Athens, 431 to 430 BCE

   The Plague of Athens

   You play Pericles

   The whole countryside is inside the walls, and so is the plague. Do you keep them there?

   Athens, 431 BCE. Fifty years after Salamis, Athens rules the seas, and the island cities pay it to keep them safe. Sparta has had enough.

   Your first call · Spartan army: in Attica

   Keep everyone inside the wallsShip families out to the islands

   Sources

   • Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.13 to 2.22 (Pericles' plan: carry in property, do not go out to battle, rely on the fleet; the Long Walls to Piraeus, about four and a half miles; families carrying in even the woodwork of their houses, herds sent to Euboea and the islands; most Athenians country-dwellers; people quartered in temples, towers and the cursed Pelasgian ground; Archidamus at Acharnae, seven miles away; the young men eager to sally; Pericles calling no assembly), 2.41 (Athens 'the school of Hellas'), 2.47 to 2.65 (second invasion; the plague from Ethiopia through Egypt, first in Piraeus, rumours of poisoned reservoirs, physicians dying most; the symptoms, heat in the head, red eyes, unbearable clothing, plunging into rain-tanks, death on the seventh or eighth day; Thucydides had it himself and wrote so it could be recognised; the country people in stifling cabins, bodies in the temples, crowds at the fountains; the Peloponnesians to Laurium; Pericles' hundred ships and four thousand hoplites raiding Epidaurus and Prasiai with plague aboard; envoys to Sparta who failed; Pericles' assembly speech, the empire 'a tyranny; to take it perhaps was wrong, but to let it go is unsafe'; the fine and re-election; his death two years and six months into the war), 3.87 (the plague's return; 4,400 hoplites and 300 cavalry dead, the rest never ascertained), 1.141 (Pericles: 'in a single battle the Peloponnesians and their allies may be able to defy all Hellas'), trans. Richard Crawley
   • Plutarch, Life of Pericles 34 to 38 (his enemies blaming the plague on the crowding of country people 'pent up like cattle' in stifling hovels; the deaths of his son Xanthippus, his sister, most relatives and friends, then his only remaining legitimate son, Paralus, and his tears at the funeral; re-election; his slow death from the plague), trans. Dryden, rev. Clough
5. VAthens and Sicily, 415 to 413 BCE
   

   Chapter V · Athens and Sicily, 415 to 413 BCE

   The Sicilian Expedition

   You play Nicias

   The man who never wanted to go has to bring the army home. Does he?

   Athens, 415 BCE. The plague has passed, and the war with Sparta is on pause. Athens has money, ships, and a new generation of young men itching for glory.

   Your first call · Your army: shrinking every week

   The truth: recall us or reinforce usA hopeful report to keep spirits up

   Sources

   • Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 6.6 to 6.31 (Egesta's war with Selinus, which Syracuse backed, and its request; Nicias' opposition; his attempt to deter the Athenians by the size of the force; 'all alike fell in love with the enterprise'; at least one hundred galleys and five thousand heavy infantry; full powers to the generals), 6.27 to 6.32 (the city goes down to Piraeus to see the fleet off, with hope and lamentation; the most costly and splendid Hellenic force ever sent out by a single city) and 6.53 to 6.61 (the Hermae mutilated in one night; Alcibiades accused, recalled by the Salaminia, escapes and goes over to the Peloponnese), 6.88 to 6.93 (Alcibiades at Sparta; Gylippus sent), 6.98 to 6.104 (the Athenian siege wall; Nicias hears of Gylippus' approach and despises the few ships), 7.1 to 7.16 (Gongylus finds Syracuse about to discuss ending the war; Gylippus' counter-wall; Nicias' letter, written because messengers might not report the truth; the ships rotting and crews deserting; 'recall us or send another army'; the disease in the kidneys; Demosthenes sent), 7.42 to 7.50 (the night attack on Epipolae under a bright moon; Demosthenes' vote to leave; Nicias' refusal, the party in Syracuse, the bankrupt Syracusans, fear of being accused of bribery, preferring death at the enemy's hands; the return of Gylippus; the eclipse of the full moon; thrice nine days), 7.84 to 7.87 (the Assinarus; Nicias surrenders to Gylippus asking him to stop the slaughter; Nicias and Demosthenes put to death against Gylippus' will; the quarries; not less than seven thousand prisoners), trans. Richard Crawley
   • Sicilian Expedition (modern overview, used only for the astronomical date of the lunar eclipse, 28 August 413 BCE)
   • Plutarch, Life of Nicias 3 to 4 and 9 (his slaves in the silver mines and his wealth in silver; 'men call that peace The Peace of Nicias'; 'hesitating and timid' in setting out), trans. B. Perrin
   • Herma (modern overview, used only for Hermes as the god of roads and travellers)
6. VIAthens, 399 BCE
   

   Chapter VI · Athens, 399 BCE

   The Trial of Socrates

   You play Socrates

   Will he say what it takes to live?

   Athens, 399 BCE. Athens has lost its long war with Sparta, lived through a reign of terror, and wants someone to blame.

   Your first call · The penalty asked for: death

   Promise to stop asking questionsTell them you will never stop

   Sources

   • Plato, Apology (the Clouds of Aristophanes, 'a man whom he calls Socrates, going about and saying that he walks in air', as the root of the old prejudice; Chaerephon and the oracle, 'no man wiser'; the examination of politicians, poets and craftsmen; rich young men imitating him and their elders blaming 'this villainous misleader of youth'; the charge of Meletus, corrupting the youth and not believing in the gods of the state; more than seventy, first time in a court of law, speaking as in the agora; 'I shall obey God rather than you'; the gadfly and the great steed; the Thirty, Leon of Salamis, 'I went quietly home', saved by the fall of the Thirty; refusing to bring his three sons, 'one almost a man, and two others who are still young'; 'had thirty votes gone over to the other side, I should have been acquitted'; maintenance in the Prytaneum like an Olympic victor; a mina, or thirty minae with Plato, Crito, Critobulus and Apollodorus as sureties), trans. Benjamin Jowett
   • Plato, Crito (Crito before dawn; the ship reported at Sunium and expected that day; the escape to be done this very night; the guards satisfied with a little money; friends in Thessaly; the agreement with the laws; seventy years living in Athens), trans. Benjamin Jowett
   • Plato, Phaedo 58, 59b and 116 to 118 (Plato absent through illness; the sacred ship to Delos crowned the day before the trial and the execution delayed until its return; the last day with friends; the cup of poison drunk calmly while the friends weep; the last words, 'Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?'), trans. Benjamin Jowett
   • Xenophon, Memorabilia 1.2.12 to 1.2.16 (the accuser's charge that Critias the oligarch and Alcibiades were both companions of Socrates; Critias 'savage, and murderer') and 4.8.2 (thirty days between sentence and death because of the Delia), trans. H. G. Dakyns
   • Xenophon, Memorabilia 4.8.2 (Socrates 'forced to live for thirty days after the verdict', the month of the Delia, no execution until the embassy returned from Delos), trans. E. C. Marchant
   • Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians 34 to 35 (the Thirty set up with Lysander's backing after the peace; 'not less than fifteen hundred' put to death), trans. H. Rackham
   • Plato, Phaedo 116 to 118 (sunset near, the jailer with the cup, drunk 'readily and cheerfully', the friends weeping, the cock to Asclepius), trans. B. Jowett
   • Trial of Socrates (modern overview, used only for the jury size: 501 'probably the legal norm', so 'hundreds')
   • Plato (modern overview, used only for 'every dialogue except the Laws features Socrates', 'in most of the dialogues, the primary speaker is Socrates')