The Athenian generals (439/38 BC)
In this page we present the text of the Athenian treaty with Samos that preserves the list of the Athenian strategoi of 439/38 BC (IG I3 48). In the first fragment of the stone there are two references to the island of Lemnos and the Peloponnesians, that can be compared with other sources on the revolt of Samos: Thucydides, Diodorus Siculus, and Plutarch (aligned in the right column).
For a discussion on the inscription, see R. Meiggs - D. Lewis, A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions to the End of the Fifth Century BC. Revised edition, Oxford 1988, pp. 152-164. For the names of the strategoi, see R. Develin, Athenian Officials 684-321 BC, Cambridge 1989, p. 92.
Greek text (→ English translation)
Highlight corresponding passages ✎
|
Athenian treaty with Samos fr b.1 |
Thucydides 1.40.5, 41.2, and 115.3-5 (1.40.5) οὐδὲ γὰρ ἡμεῖς (sc. οἱ Κορίνθιοι) Σαμίων ἀποστάντων ψῆφον προσεθέμεθα ἐναντίαν ὑμῖν, τῶν ἄλλων Πελοποννησίων δίχα ἐψηφισμένων εἰ χρὴ αὐτοῖς ἀμύνειν, φανερῶς δὲ ἀντείπομεν τοὺς προσήκοντας ξυμμάχους αὐτόν τινα κολάζειν. (1.41.2) νεῶν γὰρ μακρῶν σπανίσαντές ποτε πρὸς τὸν Αἰγινητῶν ὑπὲρ τὰ Μηδικὰ πόλεμον παρὰ Κορινθίων εἴκοσι ναῦς ἐλάβετε: καὶ ἡ εὐεργεσία αὕτη τε καὶ ἡ ἐς Σαμίους, τὸ δι᾽ ἡμᾶς Πελοποννησίους αὐτοῖς μὴ βοηθῆσαι, παρέσχεν ὑμῖν Αἰγινητῶν μὲν ἐπικράτησιν, Σαμίων δὲ κόλασιν ... (1.115.3) πλεύσαντες οὖν Ἀθηναῖοι ἐς Σάμον ναυσὶ τεσσαράκοντα δημοκρατίαν κατέστησαν, καὶ ὁμήρους ἔλαβον τῶν Σαμίων πεντήκοντα μὲν παῖδας, ἴσους δὲ ἄνδρας, καὶ κατέθεντο ἐς Λῆμνον, καὶ φρουρὰν ἐγκαταλιπόντες ἀνεχώρησαν ... (5) καὶ πρῶτον μὲν τῷ δήμῳ ἐπανέστησαν (sc. οἱ Σάμιοι) καὶ ἐκράτησαν τῶν πλείστων, ἔπειτα τοὺς ὁμήρους ἐκκλέψαντες ἐκ Λήμνου τοὺς αὑτῶν ἀπέστησαν ... Diodorus Siculus 12.27.2-3
Plutarch, Pericles 25.1
- For the restored name of Sokrates in the inscription, see Scholia in Aelium Aristidem 46.485 Dindorf = Androtion, FGrH 324 F 38. |
English translation (→ Greek text)
|
Athenian treaty with Samos fr b.1 |
Thucydides 1.40.5, 41.2, and 115.3-5 (1.40.5) Did we on the defection of the Samians record our vote against you, when the rest of the Peloponnesian powers were equally divided on the question whether they should assist them? No, we told them to their face that every power has a right to punish its own allies. (1.41.2) When you were in want of ships of war for the war against the Aeginetans, before the Persian invasion, Corinth supplied you with twenty vessels. That good turn, and the line we took on the Samian question, when we were the cause of the Peloponnesians refusing to assist them, enabled you to conquer Aegina, and to punish Samos ... (1.115.3) Accordingly the Athenians sailed to Samos with forty ships and set up a democracy; took hostages from the Samians, fifty boys and as many men, lodged them in Lemnos, and after leaving a garrison in the island returned home ... (5) Their first step (sc. of the Samians) was to rise on the commons, most of whom they secured, their next to steal their hostages from Lemnos ...
Diodorus Siculus 12.27.2-3
Plutarch, Pericles 25.1
|