History of the Peloponnesian War

With these words Archidamus dismissed the assembly. He then first sent Melesippus son of Diocritus, a Spartan, to Athens, in the hope that the Athenians, when they saw that the Lacedaemonians were already on the march, might be somewhat more inclined to yield.

But they did not allow him to enter the city, much less to appear before the assembly; for a motion of Pericles had already been carried not to admit herald or embassy after the Lacedaemonians had once taken the field. They accordingly dismissed him without hearing him, and ordered him to be beyond their borders that same day; and in future, they added, the Lacedaemonians must first withdraw to their own territory before sending an embassy, if they had any communication to make.

They also sent an escort along with Melesippus, in order to prevent his having communication with anyone. And when he arrived at the frontier and was about to leave his escort, he uttered these words before he went his way, "

This day will be the beginning of great evils for the Hellenes." When he came to the army, and Archidamus had learned that the Athenians would not as yet make any concession, then at length they broke camp and advanced into Athenian territory.

And the Boeotians not only supplied their contingent[*](i .e. two-thirds of their full appointment; cf. Thuc. 2.10.2.) and the cavalry to serve with the Peloponnesians, but also went to Plataea with their remaining troops and proceeded to ravage the country.

While the Peloponnesian forces were still collecting at the Isthmus and while they were on the march but had not yet invaded Attica, Pericles son of Xanthippus, who was one of the ten Athenian generals, when he realised that the invasion would be made, conceived a suspicion that perhaps Archidamus, who happened to be a guest-friend of his, might pass by his fields and not lay them waste, doing this either on his own initiative, in the desire to do him a personal favour, or at the bidding of the Lacedaemonians with a view to creating a prejudice against him, just as it was on his account that they had called upon the Athenians to drive out the pollution.[*](Thuc. 1.127.1.)So he announced to the Athenians in their assembly that while Archidamus was indeed a guest-friend of his, this relationship had certainly not been entered upon for the detriment of the state; and that in case the enemy might not lay waste his fields and houses like the rest, he now gave them up to be public property, and asked that no suspicion should arise against himself on that account.

And he gave them the same advice as before[*](cf. Thuc. 1.143.) about the present situation: that they should prepare for the war, should bring in their property from the fields, and should not go out to meet the enemy in battle, but should come into the city and there act on the defensive; that they should equip their fleet, in which their strength lay, and keep a firm hand upon their allies, explaining that the Athenian power depended on revenue of money received from the allies, and that, as a general rule, victories in war were won by abundance of money as well as by wise policy.

And he bade them be of good courage, as on an average six hundred talents[*](About £120,000 or $583,200. The original amount at the institution of the Confederacy of Delos was 460 talents (1.96.2. The figure here given is an average amount, because the assessment was revised every four years at the Panathenaea.These figures, and all other equivalents of Greek financial statements, are purely conventional, inasmuch as the purchasing power of money was then very much greater than now.) of tribute were coming in yearly from the allies to the city, not counting the other sources[*](The ordinary revenue, apart from the tribute, consisted of customs duties, tax on sales, poll tax on resident aliens, rents of state property, especially the silver mines, court fees and fines.) of revenue, and there were at this time still on hand in the Acropolis six thousand talents[*](About £1,940,000, or $9,428,400.) of coined silver (the maximum amount had been nine thousand seven hundred talents, from which expenditures had been made for the construction of the Propylaea[*](Completed about 432 B.c.) of the Acropolis and other buildings,[*](Such as the Parthenon, the Odeum, and the Telesterion at Eleusis (see Plut. Per. 13.).) as well as for the operations at Potidaea).

Besides, there was uncoined gold and silver in public and private dedications, and all the sacred vessels used in the processions and games, and the Persian spoils and other treasures of like nature, worth not less than five hundred talents.[*](About £100,000, or $486,000.)