Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/183

 DESTRUCTION OF PLATJEA. 161 well what was her real sentiment towards them, and their own towards her. If we are to believe, what seems very probable, that they were secretly negotiating with Athens to help them in breaking off from the federation, the consciousness of such an intrigue tended still farther to keep them in anxiety and suspicion. Accordingly, being apprehensive of some aggression from Thebes, they kept themselves habitually on their guard. But their vigil- ance was somewhat relaxed and most of them went out of the city to their farms in the country, on the days, well known beforehand, when the public assemblies in Thebes were held. Of this relaxa- tion the Boeotarch Neokles took advantage. 1 He conducted a Theban armed force, immediately from the assembly, by a circuit- ous route through Hysiae to Plataea ; which town he found deserted by most of its male adults, and unable to make resistance. The Platseans, dispersed in the fields, finding their walls, their wives, and their families, all in possession of the victor, were under the necessity of accepting the terms proposed to them. They were allowed to depart in safety, and to carry away all their mov- the agreement " (opKove ical ^vv&TJKaf), he means the terms of the peace of Antalkidas, subject to the limits afterwards imposed by the submission of Pliitaaa to the federal system of Boeotia. He calls for the tutelary interfer- ence of Athens, as a party to the peace of Antalkidas. Dr. Thirlwall thinks (Hist. Gr. vol. v, cli. 38. p. 70-72) that the Thebans were parties to the peace of 374 B. c. between Sparta and Athens ; that they accepted it, intending deliberately to break it ; and that under that peace, the Lacedasmonian harmosts and garrisons were withdrawn from Thespiae and other places in Boeotia. I am unable to acquiesce in this view ; which appears to me negatived by Xenophon, and neither affirmed nor implied in the Plataic discourse of Isokrates. In my opinion, there were no Lacedae- monian harmosts in Boeotia (except at Orchomenus in the north) in 374 B.C. Xenophon tells (Hellen. v, 4, 63; vi, 1, 1) that the Thebans "were recovering the Boeotian cities had subdued the Boeotian cities" in or before 375 B. c., so that they were able to march out of Boeotia and invade Phokis ; which implies the expulsion or retirement of all the Lacedaamo- nian forces from the southern part of Bceotia. The reasoning in the Plataic discourse of Isokrates is not very clear or discriminating; nor have we any right to expect that it should be, in the pleading of a suffering and passionate man. But the expression elpf)vr]<; ovarjQ and elpr/vij may always (in my judgment) be explained, without re- ferring it, as Dr. Thirlwall does, to the peace of 374 B. c., or supposing Thebes to have been a party to that peace. ' Pausanias, ix, 1, 3. VOl,. X. HOC.