Siege of Plataiai

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Siege of Plataiai
date 429 to 427 BC Chr.
place Plataiai
output Destruction of Plataiais
Parties to the conflict

Plataiai, Athens

Thebes , Sparta

Commander

Eupompidas †, Ammeas, Astymachos †, Lakon †

Archidamos II

Troop strength
400 Plataier, 80 Athenians, 110 women approx. 5,000 hoplites
losses

over 260 (executed after surrender)

Ammeas managed to break out with 212 besieged

The Siege of Plataiai by Sparta in 429 BC BC to 427 BC Occurred during the Peloponnesian War . It is notable as a sign of brutality during this war.

prehistory

Plataiai , a city in Boeotia on the border with Attica , was allied with Athens at the beginning of the war and therefore became a target of Spartan attack. In 431 BC Chr. Tried Thebes (nemesis Plataiais and allies of Sparta), to bring it in a coup in itself. 300 Thebans stormed the market square, where they were killed by the citizens and soldiers of the city. Except for a small group of Thebans who escaped, all collaborators and Kadmeer (Thebans) were killed.

In 429 Sparta took on the city itself. Since there were negotiations initially, the Plataiaians had time to evacuate the civilian population to Athens. 400 Plataiai and 80 Athenian soldiers remained in the city, as well as 110 women who took care of the food for the troops.

The siege

To overcome the city wall, the Spartans first built a ramp out of wood and earth. The besieged countered this by raising the ramparts, and when the ramp reached the ramparts, they dug tunnels to collapse the ramp. The Spartans countered the danger of collapse by stabilizing their ramp with wickerwork and clay. On the completed ramp, the Spartans used battering rams against the wall, which, when raised, still towered over the ramp, whereupon the Plataiaians used lassos to fish the battering rams, or they bombed them with heavy logs. At particularly threatened sections, the Plataiaier built a second wall inside the city behind the old wall.

When the Spartans tried to set fire to the city, it was thwarted by a rain storm.

Eventually the Spartans gave up their plan to take the city by force. They turned to starvation. For this they built a double wall inside and outside, against possible relief, which however never came. In the winter of 428 BC The besieged the supplies ran out. They made a secret attempt to escape on a stormy, moonless night. 200 escaped to Athens.

The capture of the city and execution of the defenders

In the following summer (427 BC) the remaining Plataiaier were almost starved. The Spartans offered the besieged to refrain from storming if they submit to a court case. Only the guilty would be punished. The Plataiaier consented.

Instead of going to court, the Spartans asked the prisoners only one question: whether they had done the Spartans or their allies any service during this war that alone would have justified their sparing. Nobody could answer in the affirmative, and so all of them were executed one after the other (200 Plataeans and 25 Athenians). The women were sold as slaves.

The Spartans tore down the city a year later and built a Hera temple with an adjoining hostel there.

The historian Thucydides , who brings up one of his well-known duels, cites the Thebans as the reason for this behavior of the Spartans, who had asked them to do this.

Note: after the Battle of Plataiai - as 479 BC. The Greeks under Pausanias defeated the Persian Empire - the former allies (including Sparta) swore to support Plataiai during attacks so that they could maintain their independence in the future.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Thucydides : The Peloponnesian War . II, 78 (3), translated and edited by Helmut Vretska and Werner Rinner. Reclam, Stuttgart, 2002. ISBN 9783150018088
  2. ↑ a b Thucydides : The Peloponnesian War . III, 68 (3), translated and edited by Helmut Vretska and Werner Rinner. Reclam, Stuttgart, 2002. ISBN 9783150018088
  3. ↑ Thucydides : The Peloponnesian War . II, 71 (2), translated and edited by Helmut Vretska and Werner Rinner. Reclam, Stuttgart, 2002. ISBN 9783150018088

literature

See also: List of Sieges