Editing Plataea (section)

== Peloponnesian War ==
Plataea was rebuilt and its inhabitants were unmolested until the commencement of the [[Peloponnesian War]]. In the spring of 431 BC, before war was formally declared, a party of 300 Thebans attempted to take over Plataea. They were admitted within the walls during the night by members of a faction partial to Thebes, but the Plataeans soon discovered the attack and engaged the invaders.  During the night they killed many and captured 180. Few escaped. Word was sent to Athens of the attempted coup, and then the captives were executed.  The Athenians, dismayed at the slaughter, nevertheless sent a garrison to protect the city from further attack.  This event proved to be the spark that ignited the war between Athens and Sparta.<ref>Thuc. ii.2-7.1.</ref> 

In the third year of the war (429 BC) the Peloponnesian army under the command of Spartan king Archidamus laid [[Siege of Plataea|siege to Plataea]], claiming that it had violated the protections guaranteed it after the Persian War by continuing its alliance with Athens. Before deciding whether to declare the city neutral or maintain their alliance with Athens, the Plataeans secured a truce, during which they sent their old men, women, and children to Athens together with the envoys who were to see what Athens had to say.  In the end, they determined to continue the alliance, which set the stage for the assault that came next.  The remaining garrison of the city consisted of only 400 citizens and 80 Athenians, and 110 women who were there to manage household affairs.  Yet this small force defied the whole army of the Peloponnesians, which, after many fruitless attempts to take the city, gave up the assault and converted the siege into a blockade.  They raised a circumvallation round the city consisting of two parallel walls, 16 feet apart, with a ditch on either side.  Then, leaving a small force to guard the city, the invading army went home.<ref>Thuc. ii.2-71-78.</ref>

In the second year of the blockade (428), 212 of the besieged succeeded in scaling the walls of circumvallation during the night and safely made it to Athens.<ref>Thuc., iii.20-24.</ref> In the course of the following summer (427), those remaining in Plataea were obliged, through failure of provisions, to surrender to the Peloponnesians.  After a "trial" by the Spartans, in which their arguments against the unwarranted assault on the city were shunted aside, they were put to death and all private buildings were razed to the ground by the Thebans.  In time, the latter used the remnants to erected an inn and a chapel for the local precinct of Hera.  The land was allocated to those Plataeans who had supported Thebes in the lead-up to the attack.<ref>Thuc. iii.52-68.</ref>

=== Relocation to Scione ===
In 423 BC, Athens and Sparta negotiated a one-year truce in the midst of the Pelopennesian War.  One of the terms was that no new conquests or revolts were to take place once the truce was signed.  The people of [[Scione]], in the [[Chalkidiki|Chalcidice]], had revolted about this time, and while Sparta claimed it was before the truce, Athens had intelligence that it took place afterward.  The Athenian assembly then passed a decree "to reduce and put to death the Scionaeans".<ref>Thuc., iv.122.6.</ref>  The next year they besieged the city, finally subduing it and carrying out the decree in 420.  Once this was done, they gave the town to those Plataeans then living at Athens to be their new home.<ref>Thuc. v.130-131 and v.32; Isocrates, ''Panegyricus'', § 109; Diodorus Siculus, ''Library of History'', xii. 76.</ref>

At the close of the Peloponnesian War, Athens was compelled to evacuate Scione, and the Plataeans again found a hospitable welcome at Athens.<ref>Plutarch, ''Life of Lysander'', 14.</ref>