Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/222

 Io6 PREPARATIONS FOR THE WAR [n B.C. 431. Thebans withdrew, leaving the Plataean territory unhurt; ^'" ^^' "'■ but the Piataeans had no sooner got in their property from the country than they put the prisoners to death. Those who were taken were a hundred and eighty in number, and Eurymachus, with whom the betrayers of the city had negotiated, was one of them. 6 When they had killed their prisoners, they sent a messenger to Athens and gave back The Athenians, know- t-il a ^fi-,^ ing only 0/ the attempt the dead to the Thebans under a flag on the city, bid the of truce ; they then took the necessary Piataeans spare their ^^gasures for the Security of the city. Ti:!, ..f;";:?:? The news had already reached Athens,./ son Plataea and re- and the Athenians had instantly seized move the women and ^^^ Bocotians who Were in Attica, and ^''^'- sent a herald to Plataea bidding them do no violence to the Theban prisoners, but wait for instructions from Athens. The news of their death had not arrived. For the first messenger had gone out when the Thebans entered, and the second when they were just defeated and captured ; but of what followed the Athenians knew nothing ; they sent the message in ignorance, and the herald, when he arrived, found the prisoners dead. The Athenians next despatched an army to Plataea, and J brought in supplies. Then leaving a small force in the place they conveyed away the least serviceable of the citizens, together with the women and children. 7 The affair of Plataea was a glaring violation of the thirty Both sides now pre- years' truce, and the Athenians now pare for the struggle. made preparations for war. The Lace- daemonians and their allies made similar preparations. Both they and the Athenians meditated sending embassies to the King a, and to the other Barbarian potentates ^ from whom either party might hope to obtain aid ; they likewise sought the alliance of independent cities outside their own dominion. The Lacedaemonians ordered their friends in Cp. ii. 67 ink. ; iv. 50. *" Cp. ii. 29, 67.