Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/282

 260 HISTORY OF GREECE "The surrender of Plataea to the Lacedaemonians took pla.* not long after that of Mitylene to the Athenians, somewhat later in the same summer. Though the escape of one-half of the garrison had made the provisions last longer for the rest, still they had now come to be exhausted, and the remaining defenders were enfeebled and on the point of perishing by starvation. The Lacedaemonian commander of the blockading force, knowing their defenceless condition, could easily have taken the town by storm, had he not been forbidden by express orders from Sparta. For the Spartan government, calculating that peace might one day be concluded with Athens on terms of mutual cession of places acquired by war, wished to acquire Plataea, not by force but by capitulation and voluntary surrender, which would serve as an excuse' for not giving it up: though such a distinction, between capture by force and by capitulation, not admissible in modern diplomacy, was afterwards found to tell against the Lace- daemonians quite as much as in their favor. 1 Acting upon these orders, the Lacedaemonian commander sent in a herald, summon- ing the Plataeans to surrender voluntarily, and submit themselves to the Lacedaemonians as judges, with a stipulation " that the wrong-doers 2 should be punished, but that none should be pun- ished unjustly." To the besieged, in their state of hopeless starvation, all terms were nearly alike, and they accordingly surrendered the city. After a few days' interval, during which they received nourishment from the blockading army, five persons arrived from Sparta to sit in judgment upon their fate, one, Aristomenidas, a Herakleid of the regal family. 3 The five Spartans having taken their seat as judges, doubtless in full presence of the blockading army, and especially with the Thebans, the great enemies of Plataea, by their side, the pris- oners taken, two hundred Plataeans and twenty-five Athenians, were brought up for trial, or sentence. No accusation was pre Schneider (ad Aristotel. Politic, v, 3, 2) erroneously identifies this story with that of Doxander and the two tTrt'/c/.jypot whom he wished to obtain iu marriage for his two sons. * Thucyd. v, 17. irapatiovvai rf/v KoTiiv EKuvreg rolf Aa/t(5at/iov<otf, Kal 6iKacr-j.~/; Xftrjaaatiai, rovf re uSiKOVf Ko^u^tiv Ttapu 6'inrjv Se ovfieva,
 * Thucyd. iii, 52. 7rpo<r;re/i7ri 6 1 airoif KijpvKa Aej-orra, ei
 * Paasan. iii, 9, 1.