SECOND AND THIRD YEARS CF THE WAR. 185 pose, by fear of the epidemic yet raging there, but still more by the strong desire of the Thebans to take their revenge OK Platsea. To this ill-fated city, Archidamus marched forthwith, at the head of the confederate army. But no sooner had he entered and begun to lay waste the territory, than the Plataean heralds came forth to arrest his hand, and accosted him in the following terms : " Archidamus, and ye men of Lacedaemon, ye act wrong, and in a manner neither worthy of yourselves nor of your fathers, in thus invading the territory of Plataea. For the Lace- daemonian Pausanias, son of Kleombrotus, after he had liberated Greece from the Persians, in conjunction with those Greeks who stood forward to bear their share of the danger, offered sacrifice to Zeus Eleutherius, in the market-place of Plataea ; and there, in presence of all the allies, assigned to the Plataeans their own city and territory to hold in full autonomy, so that none should invade them wrongfully, or with a view to enslave them : should such invasion occur, the allies present pledged themselves to stand forward with all their force as protectors. While your fathers made to us this grant, in consideration of our valor and forwardness in that perilous emergency, ye are now doing the precise contrary : ye are come along with our worst enemies, the Thebans, to enslave us. And we on our side now adjure you, calling to witness the gods who sanctioned that oath, as well as your paternal and our local gods, not to violate the oath by doing wrong to the Plataean territory, but to let us live on in that auto- nomy which Pausanias guaranteed." 1 Whereunto Archidamus replied : " Ye speak fairly, men of Plataea, if your conduct shall be in harmony with your words. Remain autonomous yourselves, as Pausanias granted, and help us to liberate those other Greeks, who, after having shared in the same dangers and sworn the same oath along with you, have now been enslaved by the Athenians. It is for their liberation and that of the other Greeks that this formidable outfit of war has '..f.en brought forth. Pursuant to your oaths, ye ought by rights, and we now invite you, to take active part in this object. But if ye cannot act thus, at least remain quiet, conformably to the
1 Thncyd. ii. 71, 72.
