Antiphon and Andocides

3. On the Peace With Sparta

3. ON THE PEACE WITH SPARTA In 404 bc Athens was finally defeated by Sparta in the Peloponnesian War. The Athenians were compelled to demolish their town walls, to relinquish their empire and all their navy except twelve ships, and to install the oligarchic government of the Thirty. The oligarchy did not last long, and democracy was restored in 403; but the other restrictions continued, and rankled. The Spartans now dominated Greece, but their arrogance alienated even their former supporters. The consequence was that Athens, Boeotia, Corinth, and Argos formed a coalition against Sparta, and a new war, called the Corinthian War, began in 395. The Spartans won some battles, but without decisive effect. The Athenians meanwhile were rebuilding their walls and their navy, and began to reassert their control over some of the islands. By 392 the Spartans considered that they had nothing to gain by prolonging the war. They hoped that a general peace could be arranged with the approval of the King of Persia. Xenophon (Hellenica 4.8.12–15)describes some negotiations which took place at Sardis, and subsequently a conference was held at Sparta to consider proposed peace terms. Athens was represented at it by four delegates: Epicrates, Andocides, Cratinus, and Eubulides. The appointment of Andocides shows that he must have reestablished himself in Athens very effectively since his acquittal eight years before, and indeed the smoother style of On the Peace suggests that he may have had more practice in public speaking since composing On the Mysteries. The Athenian delegates had been given authority to conclude a treaty in Sparta, but instead of doing so they brought the proposed terms back to Athens for approval, perhaps because they suspected that they would be criticized for accepting them. The speech we have is the one that Andocides made to the Assembly in Athens recommending acceptance, probably in the winter or spring of 391. It is not known whether the other three delegates also spoke or Andocides was the spokesman for them all. The terms offered to Athens included the lifting of three restrictions which Sparta had imposed in 404: the Athenians would now be permitted to rebuild their walls, to enlarge their navy beyond the limit of twelve ships, and to resume control of three islands in the north of the Aegean sea, Lemnos, Imbros, and Scyros. Greek cities in Asia were to remain under Persian control; other Greek cities were to be independent . Andocides in his speech argues that these terms give theAthenians all they need, so that continuation of the war would be pointless. We do not have the speeches of his opponents, but we can see from his arguments what their main points must have been. They evidently hoped for the reestablishment of the Athenian Empire in the Aegean, and they considered that restriction of Athenian control to only three islands would be insufficient to safeguard Athenian food supplies. The rebuilding of the walls and navy was already under way in any case, without a peace treaty. Above all, they evidently were afraid that alliance with Sparta would endanger the democratic constitution of Athens. It was the Spartans who had imposed the oppressive regime of the Thirty in 404, and no doubt Andocides’ own aristocratic origin and his involvement in the scandals in 415 still aroused suspicion of his motives in advocating friendship with Sparta. We know the upshot from Demosthenes (19.277–279) and from a fragment of the historian Philochorus (F.Gr.Hist. 328 F149a). Not only did the Athenians reject the proposed peace terms, but the delegates were accused of disobeying their instructions, making false reports , and accepting bribes; they fled to avoid trial and were condemned to death in their absence. Thus Andocides became an exile once again, and nothing is known of his life afterwards. The Corinthian War continued until 386, when the King’s Peace was concluded on terms not very different from those proposed in 391. For discussion of the speech, see especially Anna Missiou,The Subversive Oratory of Andokides (Cambridge, 1992). 3. on the peace with sparta 149 3 [1] A just peace is better than a war, Athenians, as I think you all agree. But what you don’t all realize is that the politicians, though they are nominally in favor of peace, are opposing the steps by which peace might be brought about. They say there’s a very...