History of the Peloponnesian War

1. "The Athenians, Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans have made a treaty with one another for a hundred years, on behalf of themselves and the allies over whom they have authority respectively, to be observed without fraud or hurt both by land and sea. 2.

"It shall not be allowed to bear arms with harmful intent, either for the Argives, Eleans, Mantineans and their allies against the Athenians and the allies over whom the Athenians have authority, or for the Athenians and the allies over whom the Athenians have authority against the Argives, Eleans, Mantineans and their allies, by any art or device. 3.

"The Athenians, Argives, Eleans, and Mantineans shall be allies for a hundred years on the following terms: If an enemy invade the territory of the Athenians, the Argives, Eleans and Mantineans shall bring aid to Athens, according as the Athenians may send them word, in whatever way they can most effectually, to the limit of their power; but if the invaders shall have ravaged the land and gone, that city shall be hostile to the Argives, Mantineans, Eleans, and Athenians, and shall suffer at the hands of all these states;

and to discontinue hostilities against that state shall not be allowed to any one of these states, unless all agree. 4. "Likewise the Athenians shall bring aid to Argos and to Mantinea and Elis, if an enemy come against the territory of the Eleans or that of the Mantineans or that of the Argives, according as these states send word, in whatever way they can most effectually, to the limit of their power; but if the invader shall have ravaged the land and gone, that city shall be hostile to the Athenians, Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans, and shall suffer ill at the hands of all these states;

and to discontinue hostilities against that state shall not be allowed to any one of these states, unless all agree. 5. "It shall not be permitted to pass under arms with hostile intent through their own territory or that of the allies over whom they severally have authority, nor by sea, unless passage shall have been voted by all of these states, Athenians, Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans. 6.

"For the relieving force the state which sends for them shall furnish provisions for thirty days after their arrival in the state which sent for succour, and in like manner on their return; but if they wish to use the army for a longer period, the city which sends for it shall furnish provisions for heavy-armed or light-armed troops or bowmen, three Aeginetan obols[*](About 8d. or 16 cents.) per day, and for a cavalryman one Aeginetan drachma.[*](About 1s. 4d. or 32 cents.)7.

"The state which sent for the troops shall have command whenever the war is in its territory. But if it shall seem good to all the states to make a joint expedition anywhere, all the states shall share the command equally. 8.

"The Athenians shall swear to the treaty for themselves and their allies, but the Argives, Mantineans, Eleans, and their allies shall swear to it individually by states. And they shall severally swear the oath that is most binding in their own country, over full-grown victims. And the oath shall be as follows:

'I will abide by the alliance in accordance with its stipulations, justly and without injury and without guile, and will not transgress it by any art or device.' 9. "The oath shall be sworn at Athens by the senate and the home[*](ie. those whose functions were restricted to the city.) magistrates, the prytanes administering it; at Argos by the senate and the eighty and the artynae, the eighty administering the oath; at Mantinea by the demiurgi and the senate and the other magistrates, the theori and the polemarchs administering the oath; at Elis by the demiurgi and the six hundred, the demiurgi and the thesmophylaces administering the oath. 10.

"For renewal of the oath the Athenians shall go to Elis, to Mantinea, and to Argos, thirty days before the Olympic games; and the Argives, Eleans, and Mantineans shall go to Athens ten days before the great Panathenaea. 11.

"The stipulations respecting the treaty, the oaths, and the alliance shall be inscribed on a stone column, by the Athenians on the Acropolis,[*](A fragment of the official document recording this treaty was found by the Archaeological Society at Athens in the spring of 1877 upon a marble slab on the southern slope of the Acropolis. The text of the inscription has been restored by Kirchhoff, Schöne, Foucart, and Stahl in substantial agreement.) by the Argives in the market-place, in the temple of Apollo, by the Mantineans in the market-place, in the temple of Zeus; and a brazen pillar shall be set up by them jointly at the Olympic games of this year. 12.

“If it shall seem advisable to these states to add anything further to these agreements, whatever shall seem good to all the states in joint deliberation shall be binding.”