Notes on "History of the Peloponnesian War" and "Warring States Policy" (44)

Su Qin was the envoy of King Zhao to Qin, but he rebelled and was not seen for three days. He said to King Zhao: "Qin Nai was passing by Zhu Mountain, and there were two trees. One was calling for friends, and the other was crying. When asked why, he said to him: 'I have grown up, and my years have grown, and I am a hard-working craftsman. I engraved it according to the rules of the rope and ink table. 'Yigai said: 'This is not what I am suffering from, it is my fault. If I haven't seen him for three days, how can I say that I am an iron diamond?"

Su Qin went to Qin as an envoy for King Zhao. When he returned, he was not received by King Zhao for three days. Su Qin said to King Zhao: "I once passed by Zhushan and saw two trees there. One tree was calling its companions, and the other was crying. I asked them the reason, and one tree replied: 'I I have grown very tall and very old. What I suffer from is that those craftsmen will use rope ink to measure me and carve me according to the rules. "A tree said: "This is not something I suffer from. This is my duty. What I suffer from is the iron drill-like thing that gets in and makes the sawdust come out. "Now that I am on a mission to the State of Qin, I am not allowed to see you for three days after I return. I am afraid that some people think that I am an iron drill." Something?"

Su Qin was very humorous and sarcastic about King Zhao's contempt for him. In fact, a big tree attracts the wind. As Su Qin is a minister, King Zhao naturally cannot try to pamper him. What's more, King Zhao is also a person who can't afford to be early without profit!

Well, let’s take a look at Thucydides’ history of the Peloponnesian War!

"Therefore, I ask you to accept my suggestion as a better one. Do not be too dominated by feelings of pity and tolerance. Like Cleon, I do not want you to be subject to these Emotional influence. I beg you to take my advice based only on the arguments I have presented: judge those whom Pasus considers guilty and have come to Athens calmly, and let the rest live in their own cities. If you take this approach, your actions will be beneficial to the future and make your enemies fear you now, because the enemies are more afraid of those who make wise decisions than those who take violent actions without looking ahead and behind. Man."

Theododus was obviously right.

This is the speech of Theododus. When these two opposing suggestions were put forward, the Athenians, although their sentiments had recently changed, still maintained various opinions. On a show of hands, the votes were almost identical. But Theododus's proposal passed.

The Athenians are still rational.

So they immediately sent another trireme to set off in a hurry, because they were worried that if this warship did not catch up with the first warship, they would find that when they arrived, the residents of the city had been destroyed. kill. The first battleship had already set off one day and one night before. Mytilene's envoys supplied the sailors on the ship with wine and barley, and promised the sailors a large reward if they arrived at their destination in time. While they ate barley cakes (barley flour mixed with oil and wine), they continued to row; when they fell asleep, they took turns rowing. Fortunately, there was no headwind, because the first warship had such a terrible mission and sailed calmly; while the second warship pursued it so urgently that the first warship arrived a little earlier, and Paseus had just finished reading the order and was ready to execute it. At that time, a second warship entered the port and stopped the massacre. The danger of escape from Mytilene was ever present.

God bless Mytilene.

The people who were sent to Athens by Paseus (①) who were believed to be mainly responsible for the riot were all executed because of Cleon's suggestion. Their number was about a thousand or more. ②The Athenians also demolished the castle of Mytilene and obtained their navy. Later, they did not collect tribute from Lesbos, but divided all the land (except the land of the Methemna people) into 3,000 pieces of land. Among them, three hundred pieces of land were dedicated as holy land to the gods, and the rest were distributed by lot to the immigrants sent there by Athens. The Lebanese agreed to cultivate these lands themselves and paid a rent of two minas per year. . ③The Athenians acquired the towns occupied by Mytilene on the mainland, so the Mytilene people later became subjects of Athens.

Mytilene was divided.

Chapter 4: The Destruction of Plataea

In the same summer, after the Athenians conquered Lesbos, in Nicera. Under the command of his son Nicias, he expedition to the island of Minoa, which was near the coast of Megara. Nicias wanted to blockade the Athenian army and built an outpost there. stationed on this island, as it was nearer to Megara than their present strongholds at Budolum and Salami; and at the same time, he wished to prevent the Peloponnesians from sneaking their triremes from there sail out (they once did this⑤), or send privateers out from there; and also prevent any ships from entering the port of Megara

The Athenian fleet expedition to Minoa

First, he used the siege machinery on the ship to capture the two city towers protruding into the sea on the Nicaea side, clearing the way to the island and the strait between the coast.

So he built a city wall on a place on the mainland, and built a bridge from that place across the swamp. He could send troops from the bridge directly to the island, because the island was very close to the mainland. After a few days, the work was completed. He built another fortress on the island, and after leaving troops to garrison it, he led his army back to Athens.

A fort was built on the island.

In the same summer, about the same time as the above events, the Plataeans ran out of food and could no longer resist the besieging army, so they surrendered to the Peloponnesians. What happened was this: the Peloponnesians attacked the city wall, and the Plataeans could no longer resist. The Spartan commanders knew their weakness and had no intention of taking the place. ③He sent a Fu Lingguan to ask the Plataeans if they were willing to hand over the city to the Spartans and let them be tried by the Spartans. There was an understanding between them that the guilty must be punished, but they must go through Punishment can only come after trial.

The Spartans demanded a peaceful solution to the problem.

When the herald Fu delivered his message, the Plataeans immediately surrendered, because they had reached the point of being helpless. The Peloponnesians gave the Plataeans food for a few days until the five inquisitors arrived from Sparta. When these judges arrived, they made no public accusation against the Plataeans. They called the Plataeans and asked them simply this question: "Have you done anything to help the Spartans and their allies in the present war?" Platae The demi-humans asked permission to make a longer speech. They elected as their spokesmen Astymachus, son of Asopolaus, and Lacan, son of Iannistus, the agent of Spartan interests in Plataea. ④The two men stood up and spoke as follows:

"Spartans! When we handed the city over to you, we believed in you. We did not expect to encounter such a trial. We We thought that we would have to go through relatively normal legal procedures. We did not expect to be judged by others like we are now. We thought that you yourself would be our judge; from your hands, we would most likely receive fair treatment. In fact, on both counts, we are probably disappointed. We have good reason to fear that our problem is a matter of life and death, and that you yourself will not act fairly. We derive this from the following facts. : You did not accuse us and ask us to answer, but we had to ask to speak; the questions you asked us were so straightforward that if we answered truthfully, we would be punished; if we told lies, we would be punished. The hypocrisy is immediately discovered. We are at a loss, so we have to do what seems safest - to speak the truth in our hearts regardless of the situation. If the words are left unsaid, We will later think that if we speak out, we may be saved, and thus condemn ourselves. At that time, it will be difficult for us to persuade you. If we are not familiar with each other, we can propose something to our advantage. new evidence comes; but in fact, we can only tell you some facts that you already know. What we are afraid of is not that you have decided in your heart that we have not fulfilled our obligations to you, so we use this as an accusation. The reason is that you gave us this kind of judgment in order to please another country, and the judgment has been predetermined. But we also have to say what we have to say to prove that between us and In the disputes at Thebes, and in matters concerning you and other Greeks, we have good cause. We will remind you of our past exploits, and try to make you understand our views.

Apology of the Plataeans

"In answer to your brief question: Did we do anything to help Sparta and its allies in this war? , we have to ask, when you ask this question, do you regard us as enemies or friends? If you regard us as enemies, then you cannot just because we have not helped you, And complain that we have hurt you; but if you regard us as friends, then it is your fault to attack us. "Our results, both in peace and in the Persian war, are very good. As things stand, we are not the first to break the peace. As for the past, we were the only ones in Boeotia. A country that participated in the liberation of Greece. Although we lived in the interior, we served in the naval battle of Artemisia; in the battle on our own territory, we and you and Posan Nias fought shoulder to shoulder; and in every other enterprise in which the Greeks engaged in those days, a part of the work we borne was beyond our own strength, especially for you Spartans. It was at a time when Sparta suffered an unprecedented crisis - after the earthquake, when the Helots rioted and ran to Etom - we sent a third of our citizens to help you. You have not forgotten the matter.

Declare that you are not wrong.

“This is the path we took voluntarily during important periods in history.

Only in later periods will we become your enemies, for which you will be responsible. When Thebes oppressed us, we asked for an alliance with you, but you refused us and asked us to appeal to Athens, because Athens was nearer and you lived far away. But in this war, we have never unreasonably opposed you, and we will not do so in the future. We were not in error when we refused your request to rebel against Athens. They would have helped us against the Thebans when you were unwilling to help us; it would be dishonorable if we deserted them, especially since they were our good friends in the past; and when we ourselves requested Only then did they enter into an alliance with us, and allowed us to enjoy some of the privileges of Athenian citizens. Therefore, we are naturally willing to obey their orders. Whether it is you or the Athenians who give orders, if something goes wrong, the leader should be responsible, not the subordinates.

Point out that it was the Spartans, not themselves, who caused today's situation.