Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/219

 2. THE THEBANS SURPRISE PLATAEA I03 one of the chief citizens of Thebes. There was an old B.C. 431 quarrel between the two cities, and the Thebans, seeing ^^- ^"^ that war was inevitable, were anxious to surprise the place while the peace lasted and before hostilities had actually broken out. No watch had been set ; and so they j were enabled to enter the city unperceived. They . grounded their arms in the Agora, but instead of going to [ work at once and making their way into the houses of ' their enemies, as those who invited them suggested, they resolved to issue a conciliatory proclamation and try to make friends with the citizens. The herald announced that if any one wished to become their ally and return to the ancient constitution of Boeotia, he should join their ranks. In this way they thought that the inhabitants would easily be induced to come over to them. The Plataeans, when they found that the city had been 3 surprised and taken and that the t, r., j ^ . . 1 he Plataeans, ter- Thebans were within their walls, were ri/ied by the sudden panic-stricken. In the darkness they attack, come to terms. 11. ,1 1 .1 But afterwards, dis- were unable to see them and greatly. ., ', ° -' covering the weakness of over-estimated their numbers. So they the enemy, they gather came to terms, and accepting the pro- and fall upon the The- posals which were made to them, *" remained quiet, the more readily since the Thebans offered violence to no one. But in the course of the negotiations they somehow discovered that their enemies were not so numerous as they had supposed, and concluded that they could easily attack and master them. They determined to make the attempt, for the commons at Plataea were strongly attached to the Athenian alliance. They began to collect inside the houses, breaking through the party-walls that they might not be seen going along the streets ; they likewise raised barricades of waggons (without the beasts which drew them), and took other measures suitable to the emergency. When they had done all which could be done under the circumstances, they sallied forth from their houses, choosing the time of night just before daybreak,