Pausanias Analysis

Passage 9.1.7

← 9.1.6 9.1.8 →

Passage 9.1.7: Plataeans shut out and allowed to leave by Thebans with limited garments.

Historical Non-skeptical

Greek Text

Πλαταιεῖς δὲ ἄγειν Θηβαίους ἐκκλησίαν νομίζοντες ἐς τοὺς ἀγροὺς ἀποκεκλειμένοι τῶν πυλῶν ἦσαν· πρὸς δὲ τοὺς ἐγκαταληφθέντας ἐποιήσαντο οἱ Θηβαῖοι σπονδάς, ἀπελθεῖν σφᾶς πρὸ ἡλίου δύντος ἄνδρας μὲν σὺν ἑνί, γυναῖκας δὲ δύο ἱμάτια ἑκάστην ἔχουσαν. συνέβη τε ἐναντία τοῖς Πλαταιεῦσιν ἐν τῷ τότε ἡ τύχη ἢ ὡς ὑπὸ Ἀρχιδάμου καὶ Λακεδαιμονίων τὸ πρότερον ἥλωσαν· Λακεδαιμόνιοι μέν γʼ αὐτοὺς ἐξεπολιόρκησαν ἀπείργοντες διπλῷ τείχει μὴ ἐξελθεῖν τοῦ ἄστεως, Θηβαῖοι δὲ ἐν τῷ τότε ἀφελόμενοι μὴ ἐσελθεῖν σφᾶς ἐς τὸ τεῖχος.

English Translation

The Plataeans, thinking that the Thebans were holding an assembly, had gone out to their fields and were shut out from the city gates. The Thebans made an agreement with those who had been trapped within the city, permitting the men to depart before sunset, each wearing a single garment, and the women each permitted two garments. Thus fortune gave the Plataeans an experience precisely opposite to their earlier capture by Archidamus and the Lacedaemonians. At that former time, the Lacedaemonians had besieged them, enclosing them within a double wall to prevent their leaving the city; but now, conversely, the Thebans prevented them from re-entering their own walls.

Proper Nouns

Thebans (Θηβαῖοι) person
Lacedaemonians (Λακεδαιμόνιοι) person
Plataeans (Πλαταιεῖς) person
Archidamus (Ἀρχίδαμος) person
← 9.1.6 9.1.8 →