During the
Peloponissean war (431-404 B.C.), Atheneans attempted to conquer the
Milos Island. Thoukidides recorded the negotiation
which took place before the siege of Milos between Athenians ambassadors and
the Mileans. This negotiation between a
powerful aggressor and a weak oponent who invokes the ideals of justice is reiterated
along time onto our days leaving behind a question of what can do a small
nation to preserve its integrity and not to be humiliated so much. It explains how a powerful involved in power
race has the only options to subjugate or to destroy the opponent.
During the
Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.) Milos attempted to stay neutral and repeatedly
refused to join the Athenian alliance.
In 416 B.C.
a Athenian offensive set out for Milos, with thirty-eight triremes and 3,020
men led by Kleomidis and Tisias. Before the battle Atheneans tried to persuade Milians
to surrender. A dialogue thus ensued between the Athenians and the Milians who
eloquently expressed their right to freedom and autonomy, but refused to submit
to the Athenians. Hence the city was besieged and destructed. In an act of
extraordinary brutality, they then killed the adult men, and sold the women and
children into slavery. The destruction of Milos was condemned by the Athenian
intellectuals of the time, who were horrified by this inhuman act.
The
dialogue, reported by Thucydides (History of the Peloponnesian War, Chapter V,
para. 84-116), is often characterised as the most famous invented dialogue in a
historical work. Thucydides regards as Hybris (insult) the exercise of one's
might and superior advantage to enforce its will on a weaker opponent.
Athenians: Well, then, we Athenians will use no fine words; we will not go out of our
way to prove at length that we have a right to rule, because we overthrew the
Persians; or that we attack you now because we are suffering any injury at your
hands. We both alike know that into the discussion of human affairs the
question of justice only enters where the pressure of necessity is equal, and
that the powerful exact what they can, and the weak grant what they must.
Milians: Well, then, since you set aside justice and invite us to speak of
expediency, in our judgment it is certainly expedient that you should respect a
principle which is for the common good; and that to every man when in peril a
reasonable claim should be accounted a claim of right. Your interest in this
principle is quite as great as ours, inasmuch as you, if you fall, will incur
the heaviest vengeance, and will be the most terrible example to mankind.
Athenians: The fall of our empire, if it should fall, is a danger which you may leave
to us. We are fighting not so much against the Lacedaemonians, as against our
own subjects who may some day rise up and overcome their former masters. And we
will now endeavor to show that we have come in the interests of our empire, and
that in what we are about to say we are only seeking the preservation of your
city. For we want to make you ours with the least trouble to ourselves, and it
is for the interests of us both that you should not be destroyed.
Milians: It may be your interest to be our masters, but how can it be ours to be
your slaves?
Athenians: To you the gain will be that by submission you will avert the worst; and
we shall do the best for your preservation.
Milians: But must we be your enemies? Will you not receive us as friends if we are
neutral and remain at peace with you?
Athenians: No if we accept Melos's neutrality and independence, we
would look weak to our subjects : they will think they yield to Melos claim
because they are not strong enough to conquer it. So your
subjection will give us an increase of security, as well as an extension of
empire. For we are masters of the sea, and you who are insignificant islanders
too, must not be allowed to escape us.
Milians: Surely then, if you and your subjects will brave all this risk, you to
preserve your empire and they to be quit of it, how base and cowardly would it
be in us, who retain our freedom, not to do and suffer anything rather than be
your slaves.
Athenians: Not so, if you prudently reflect: for you are not fighting against equals
to whom you cannot yield without disgrace, but you you should take a decision whether
or no you shall resist an overwhelming force. The question is not one of honor
but of prudence.
Milians: But we know that the fortune of war is sometimes impartial, and not always
on the side of numbers. If we yield now, all is over; but if we fight, there is
yet a hope that we may stand upright.
Athenians: Hope is a good comforter in the hour of danger, and when men have
something else to depend upon, although hurtful, she is not ruinous. But those
who stake their all, as on dice, grounded in hope, when frustated, they see they
see they have fall and have not left anything anymore.. So you're weak and your
position is so critical, look not to suffer it. Avoid the error of which so
many are guilty, who, although they might still be saved if they would take the
natural means, when visible grounds of confidence forsake them, have recourse
to the invisible, to prophecies and oracles and the like, which ruin men by the
hopes which they inspire in them.
Milians: We know only too well how hard the struggle must be against your power,
and against fortune, if she does not mean to be impartial. Nevertheless we do
not despair of fortune; for we hope to stand as high as you in the favor of
heaven, because we are righteous, and you against whom we contend are
unrighteous; and we are satisfied that our deficiency in power will be
compensated by the aid of our allies the Lacedaemonians; they cannot refuse to
help us, if only because we are their kinsmen, and for the sake of their own
honor. Therefore our confidence is not so utterly blind as you suppose.
Athenians: As for the gods, we expect to have quite as much of their favor as you:
for we are not doing or claiming anything which goes beyond common opinion
about divine or men's desires about human things. Of the gods we believe, and
of men we know, that by a law of their nature wherever they can rule they will.
This law was not made by us, and we are not the first who have acted upon it;
we did but inherit it, and shall bequeath it to all time, and we know that you
and all mankind, if you were as strong as we are, would do as we do. So much
for the gods; we have told you why we expect to stand as high in their good opinion
as you. And then as to the Lacedaemonians, when you imagine that out of very
shame they will assist you, we admire the simplicity of your idea, but we do
not envy you the folly of it. The Lacedaemonians are exceedingly virtuous among
themselves, and according to their national standard of morality. But in
respect of their dealings with others, although many things might be said, a
word is enough to describe them, of all men whom we know they are the most
notorious for identifying what is pleasant with what is honorable, and what is
expedient with what is justice. But how inconsistent is such a character with your
present blind hope of deliverance!
Milians: That is the very reason we trust them; they will look to their interest,
and therefore will not be willing to betray the Milians, who are their own
colonists, lest they should be distrusted by their friends in Hellas and play
into the hands of their enemies.
Athenians: You told us that the safety of your city would be your first care, but we
remark that, in this long discussion, not a word has been uttered by you which
would give a reasonable man expectation of deliverance. Your strongest grounds
are hopes deferred, and what power you have is not to be compared with that
which is already arrayed against you. Unless after we have withdrawn you mean
to come, as even now you may, to a wiser conclusion. For surely you cannot
dream of relying to that false sense of honor which has been the ruin of so
many when danger and dishonor were staring them in the face. Many through their
own folly have incurred a worse dishonor than fortune would have inflicted upon
them. If you are wise you will not run this risk; you ought to see that there
can be no disgrace in yielding to a great city which invites you to become ally
on reasonable terms, keeping your own land, and merely paying tribute; and that
you will certainly gain no honor if, having to choose between two alternatives,
safety and war, you obstinately prefer the worse. To maintain our rights
against equals, to be politic with superiors, and to be moderate towards
inferiors is the path of safety. Reflect once more when we have withdrawn, and
say to yourselves over and over again that you are deliberating about your one
and only country, which may be saved or may be destroyed by a single decision.
The
Athenians left the conference: the Milians, after consulting among themselves,
resolved to insist in their refusal, and answered as follows:
"Men of Athens, our resolution is unchanged; and we will not in a moment surrender that liberty which our city, founded 700 years ago, still enjoys; we will trust to the good fortune which, by the favor of the gods, has hitherto preserved us, and for human help to the Lacedaemonians, and endeavor to save ourselves. We are ready however to be your friends, and we ask you to leave our country when you have made such a peace as may appear to be in the interest of both parties."
"Men of Athens, our resolution is unchanged; and we will not in a moment surrender that liberty which our city, founded 700 years ago, still enjoys; we will trust to the good fortune which, by the favor of the gods, has hitherto preserved us, and for human help to the Lacedaemonians, and endeavor to save ourselves. We are ready however to be your friends, and we ask you to leave our country when you have made such a peace as may appear to be in the interest of both parties."
Such was the
answer of the Milians; the Athenians, as they quitted the conference, spoke as
follows:
"Well, we must say, judging from the decision at which you have arrived, that you are the only men who deem the future to be more certain than the present, and regard things unseen as already realized in your fond anticipation, and that the more you cast yourselves upon the Lacedaemonians and fortune, and hope, and trust them, the more complete will be your ruin."
"Well, we must say, judging from the decision at which you have arrived, that you are the only men who deem the future to be more certain than the present, and regard things unseen as already realized in your fond anticipation, and that the more you cast yourselves upon the Lacedaemonians and fortune, and hope, and trust them, the more complete will be your ruin."
The Athenian
envoys returned to the army; and the generals, when they found that the Milians
would not yield, immediately commenced hostilities. They surrounded the town of
Melos with a wall, dividing the work among the several contingents. Nobody Came
to their help neither Lakedaimonians. The place was now closely invested, and
there was treachery among the citizens themselves. So the Milians were induced
to surrender at discretion. The Athenians thereupon put to death all who were
of military age, and made slaves of the women and children. They then colonized
the island, sending 500 settlers of their own.
