In the spring of 416 BC, the Athenians sent an expedition consisting of thirty-six ships and 1500 troops against the island of Melos. What was unusual about the expedition was that Melos, as a colony of Sparta, had never been a member of the Delian League and never been part of the Athenian Empire. The fleet landed not to enforce pre-existing obligations but to add another subject to the empire. The hostile action took place while the Athenians and Spartans were still nominally abiding by the Peace of Nicias. The Athenian force sent envoys to the Melian government, who were received by the governing council but not presented to the general assembly.[2] Thucydides the historian reports the negotiations between the Athenian envoys and the Melian leaders as a dialogue. He has no doubt dramatized the conversation, but based the interchange on actual “talking points.”[3]
After a few preliminaries, the Athenians argue, “We for our part will not bore you with a long, hypocritical speech embellished with pious phrases, about how we rule by right as a result of defeating the Persians, or how we set out against you because you wronged us. Nor do we expect you to defend yourselves on the grounds that as colonists of Sparta you have no obligations to ally yourselves with us and that you have not wronged us. On the assumption that both sides are trying to accomplish what they can, we speak to you as people who understand full well that considerations of justice arise only among equals, whereas the stronger get away with what they can, while the weaker concede what they must.”[4]
To this the Melians reply that, since the Athenians insist on carrying out the discussion on the basis of what is expedient rather than what is just, they should acknowledge the expediency of “the common good,” which identifies what is fair with what is just. To honor this principle would protect the Athenians if they should suffer reversals.
The Athenians reply that they will take their chances. What they are interested in, they say frankly, is to add Melos to their empire, and it would be in the Melians interest to surrender without a fight.
“And how,” the Melians ask, “would it be as much in our interest to be your slaves as it is for you to rule over us?”
“Because it would be in your interest to submit before suffering the most frightful consequences, as it would for us not to have to destroy you.”
“So you would not allow us to remain at peace, your friends rather than enemies, as a neutral state?”
“Your enmity does not threaten us as much as your friendship, the latter providing to our subjects an evidence of our weakness, the former an evidence of our power.”[5]
The Melians point out that military expeditions do not always favor the more powerful, and they invoke the gods, who they believe will help them against an unjust and impious action. To this the Athenians reply, “We hold, as an article of faith concerning the gods and as a matter of experience concerning men, that they rule by the necessity of nature whenever and wherever they have power to do so. We, for our part, have neither created this law nor employed it for the first time, but having received it as pre-existing principle and expecting to leave it to posterity forever after, we exploit it, knowing full well that you and anyone else who were in our position would do exactly the same thing. So as far as the gods go, we have every reason not to fear their hostility.”[6]
Through the discussion the Melians maintain a moral stance, that it would be cowardly to give up their freedoms without defending them to the utmost.[7] To this the Athenians reply, “Many who can still foresee into what dangers they are falling are seduced by the power of a beguiling word, ‘shame,’ and being duped by rhetoric, they willingly fall into disastrous misfortunes and incur a shame that is all the more shameful for arising from their own folly.”[8]
The negotiations failed, the Athenians besieged the hapless Melians. A few months later the Melians were forced to capitulate. The Athenians killed all the adult males and enslaved the women and children, replacing the previous population with Athenian colonists.[9]
[2].Thucydides 5.84.
[3].See Kagan 1981: 149-152.
[4].Thucydides 5.89.
[5].Thucydides 5.90-95.
[6].Thucydides 5.92, 94-95.
[7].E.g. Thucydides 5.100.
[8].Thucydides 5.111.3.
[9].Thucydides 5.114, 116.