History of the Peloponnesian War

When the ambassadors had made this report, the Plataeans resolved in their councils not to betray the Athenians but rather to endure, if it must be, the wasting of their territory before their eyes and to suffer whatsoever misery could befall them, and no more to go forth but from the walls to make this answer:

that it was impossible for them to do as the Lacedaemonians had required. When they had answered so, Archidamus, the king, first made a protestation to the gods and heros of the country, saying thus: All ye Gods and Heros, protectors of Plataeis, be witnesses that we neither invade this territory (wherein our fathers after their vows unto you overcame the Medes, and which you made propitious for the Grecians to fight in) unjustly now in the beginning because they have first broken the league they had sworn, nor what we shall further do will be any injury because, though we have offered many and reasonable conditions, they have yet been all refused; assent ye also to the punishment of the beginners of injury and to the revenge of those that bear lawful arms.