Thread by @ajcdeane

This is the 5th instalment of #deanehistory. It is a happy one, and then a sad one.

The little city state of Plataea asked Sparta for an alliance, as they feared the Thebans. Mischievously, Sparta told them to ally with Athens, enemy of Thebes; they were angry when that alliance was actually agreed. Careful what you joke about, Spartans.

Quite separately, King Darius of Persia’s army marched westwards. Their primary beef was with Athens, but it was plainly bad news for all Greeks. Led the great general Miltiades, the Athenians marched to face them – at Marathon.

The Athenians sent for help. (Thus we have "marathon": Pheidippides or Philippides, deliverer of long distance messages, ran through the fennel fields of the region for which the town was named; marathon means “fennel” in Greek.)

But no help came. Not even from martial Sparta. Camped alone and fearful on the plain the night before battle, Athenian sentinels spied dust clouds – and feared a second Persian army was descending upon them.

But it was the Plataeans. In Athen’s hour of need, the plucky Plataeans had come “panstratiá” – drop everything, send everyone. All 1,000 of them. Their contribution to Athens’ might may have been small, but to no longer stand alone meant everything.

Athenians and Plataeans fought bravely alongside one another as equals that day. They faced a far stronger force. But the battle was won.

Later on, the Plataeans were attacked by the Thebans & besieged by the Spartans in the Peloponnesian War. They fought for two years, their small numbers diminished yet further by sending a force to break through the besiegers to seek help from Athens.

They made it to their allies – but the Athenians declined to come to the aid of the Plataeans, fearing they might trigger a broader conflict as a result.

After a long, hard winter, starved of supplies, unrelieved by the Athenians, the Plataeans surrendered on the basis they’d be treated fairly.

Instead the Spartans had a “trial” – each man was asked if he had helped them & their allies in the war. Why, the very point of Plataea’s position was that they were allied - as Sparta knew better than anyone! - to Athens.

Thus, each man answered the question “no” – and was executed. One by one. Imagine the stoicism, the bravery, to be the 200th man in the queue, waiting your turn, to deliver your honourable & honest answer before the sword.

Except for those few who had escaped the siege, living on as the stateless sons of a vanished city, Plataea’s men were dead. Their women were sold into slavery. The city was razed to the ground. The land was given to the Thebans.

What’s today’s lesson? I suppose it’s this.

All friends are great when *they* need *you*. Only some friends are great when *you* need *them.*

The episode gives us one of the driest and most brutal lines in history, from Thucydides:

“Such was the end of Plataea, in the ninety-third year of her alliance with Athens.”