ON , THE BEGINNING OF THE , AND THE 'ATTIC QUESTION'

MARK MUNN Penn State University

The Beginning qf the Peloponnesian War

In history, especially the history of wars, the statement of the most elementary 'fact' often disguises a host of assumptions and preju­ dices. A description of the beginning of a war, declaring who 'fired the first shot', is clearly one of these interpretive cruxes. The preju­ dicial effects of a simple account are forgotten only after time and repetition, usually from the victor's point of view, have enabled the 'acceptable' version to win out. The beginning of the Peloponnesian War as narrated by Thucydides is one such instance where time and repetition have surely estab­ lished the accepted version. The war began, according to Thucydides, with the Theban attack on Plataea early in the year 431 BCE (by modern calendrics), a date that Thucydides 2.2.1 carefully identifies through five different methods of reckoning (seven, if we include his backwards reckonings from the Peace of Nicias in 5.20.1, and from the eventual fall of Athens in 5.26.3-4). The inaugural significance of the attack on Plataea as the first blow of the Peloponnesian War might be taken as part of the bedrock of history if Thucydides' judg­ ment stood alone. As it happens, there are clear indications that many of Thucydides' contemporaries (non-Athenians as well as Athen­ ians) originally looked to other events as the commencement of war. Attentive readers have sometimes noticed that Thucydides himself actually identifies three beginnings of the war, each described as the commencement of an attack on Attica: the Theban attack on Plataea (which, in 5.20.1, is 'tO 7tponov 'h Eo~oA:il 'hE~ 'tlJV 'A't'ttJdiv, ['the first invasion into Attica']); the Peloponnesian attack on Oenoe (2.18.1, acptKE'tO 'tTl~ 'A't'ttKll~ E~ OiVOllV 7tpO>'tOV ['they invaded Oenoe in Attica first'), and the Peloponnesian invasion of the Eleusinian and Thriasian 246 MARK MUNN plain (2.19.1, £cr£~aAev £~ 'tllV 'A'tnKi]v ['they invaded Attica']). Since these events all transpired in the first half of the year 431, it is pos­ sible to regard them as marking stages in a progressively deepening commitment to war, with the Spartans becoming involved only after the Thebans had committed the first act of violence. Yet it is remark­ able that Thucydides characterizes all three of these events as an 'inva­ sion of Attica', and further, it is remarkable that he clearly regards the Spartans to be responsible for even the first of them (7 .18. 2, where Thucydides states that the Spartans themselves held this opinion). In so describing the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides has presented a unified explanation of a complicated sequence of events. Yet even his account does not embrace the full complexity of events, for popular opinion among his contemporaries looked to one or more other occasions as the beginning of the war. Aristophanes, in his Peace performed in spring 421, observes that Peace has not been seen by the Athenians for thirteen years (Peace 990), reflecting a prevalent view that 'the war' began years before the attacks of 431. Counting inclusively, thirteen years before 421 could refer to the clash of Athenian and Corinthian ships at the battle of Sybota in the archon-year 433/32. More likely he refers to some unknown incident in the archon-year 434/33, the thirteenth archonship, counting inclu­ sively, before the production of Peace. This could have been some skirmish with the Megarians, since it was between them and the Athenians, according to Aristophanes elsewhere (Achamians 528) that 'the beginnings of war erupted' (KaV'tEU8Ev apxi) 'tOU 1tOAEflOU Ka'tEp­ paytl), qfter which Pericles passed his decrees against the Megarians. 1 This testimony serves as a reminder that any statement of the 'facts' about the beginning of the Peloponnesian vVar is by no means a simple matter. We must recognize that Thucydides' own account, however subtle and comprehensive it appears to be, amounts to an interpretive assertion. It is the purpose of this essay to investigate the unstated assumptions that underlay the assertion Thucydides makes about the beginning of the war.

1 Andocides (3.8) also says war began 'on account of the Megarians'.