Potidaea

While the Corinthians were contriving how to avenge themselves on them, the Athenians, suspecting their hostility, ordered the Potidaeans, who live on the isthmus of Pallene, being colonists of the Corinthians, but their own subjects and tributaries, to throw down the wall towards Pallene, and give hostages;

And thus Potidaea was now besieged with all their power, on both sides, and from the sea at the same time by ships that were blockading it.

then indeed, at that favourable moment, they revolted with the Chalcidians and Bottiaeans, having entered into a league together.

as for himself, when he reached the region of the Thracian coast, he sent garrisons to such of the cities as desired them, gained possession of Potidaea, which came over voluntarily, although it was already an ally of the Olynthians, and making that city his base of operations, carried on war in the way one naturally would who had an inferior force.

Furthermore, since the Olynthians are in possession of Potidaea, which is on the isthmus of Pallene, be sure that the cities included within Pallene will also be subject to them.

And when he had come to Potidaea, he proceeded from there with his army in order of battle into the enemy’s country.

and, remembering also that, when Philip was besieging Amphipolis, he pretended to be doing so in order to hand the place over to you, but that, when he had got it, he annexed Potidaea into the bargain, you will sh to have the same sort of assurance that, according to the story, Philocrates, son of Ephialtes, once opposed to the Lacedaemonians.

He restored Potidaea to them, not at a time when he was no longer able to keep them out, as Cersobleptes restored the Chersonesus to you;

Suppose at the present day a party of those in power at Pydna or Potidaea or any of those other places which are subject to Philip and hostile to you— just as Thasos and Byzantium then were friendly to the Lacedaemonians and estranged from you—promised to hand them over to you in return for the same rewards that you gave to Ecphantus of Thasos and Archebius of Byzantium;

Once again, when news came of the siege of Pydna, of Potidaea, of Methone, of Pagasae, and of the rest of them—not to weary you with a complete catalogue—if we had at that time shown the required zeal in marching to the help of the first that appealed, we should have found Philip today much more humble and accommodating.

First he seized Amphipolis, next Pydna, then Potidaea, after that Methone, lastly he invaded Thessaly.

But if anyone here, Athenians, is inclined to think Philip too formidable, having regard to the extent of his existing resources and to our loss of all our strongholds, he is indeed right, yet he must reflect that we too, men of Athens, once held Pydna, Potidaea, and Methone and had in our own hands all the surrounding territory, and that many of the native tribes now in his service were then free …

And yet, men of Athens, how do you account for the fact that the Panathenaic festival and the Dionysia are always held at the right date, whether experts or laymen are chosen by lot to manage them, that larger sums are lavished upon them than upon any one of your expeditions, that they are celebrated with bigger crowds and greater splendor than anything else of the kind in the world, whereas your …

no words can describe how he formerly deceived the miserable Olynthians by his gift of Potidaea and many other places;

It would not have been safe in Olynthus to plead Philip’s cause, unless the Olynthian democracy had shared in the enjoyment of the revenues of Potidaea.

and if he gave up Amphipolis and Potidaea, even Macedonia would be no safe place for him.

His object, of course, is to steal a march on you, and to insert in the compact an admission on your part that none of the wrongs committed at Potidaea are charged against him by you as the injured party, but that you confirm his seizure and retention of that city as lawful.

Yet Athenians, settled at Potidaea, were robbed of their property by Philip, though they were not at war but in alliance with him, and though he had duly pledged his word to all the inhabitants of that city.

for that Macedonians need no inter-state compact with Athenians let past history be your witness, since neither Amyntas, the father of Philip, nor the earlier kings ever made any such compact with our city, though intercourse between the two nations was more frequent then than now.

It would not have been safe in Olynthus to plead Philip’s cause, unless the Olynthian democracy had shared in the enjoyment of the revenues of Potidaea.

no words can describe how he formerly deceived the miserable Olynthians by his gift of Potidaea and many other places;

On another occasion, in dealing with Potidaea, the Olynthians found its cooperation of some value;

I find that next he won the friendship of the Olynthians by capturing Potidaea, which was yours, and thus wronging you, his former allies, in presenting it to them.

Can you not imagine, I said, addressing the Messenians, how annoyed the Olynthians would have been to hear a word said against Philip in the days when he was handing over to them Anthemus, to which all the former kings of Macedonia laid claim, when he was making them a present of Potidaea, expelling the Athenian settlers, and when he had taken upon himself the responsibility of a quarrel with us a …

For it is by holding the cities which are really yours that he retains safe possession of all the rest, and he feels that if he gave up Amphipolis and Potidaea, his own country would not be safe for him.

Timoxenus ' plot to betray Potidaea was, however, discovered, for Artabazus in shooting an arrow to the place agreed upon, missed it and hit the shoulder of a man of Potidaea.

But when Artabazus had besieged Potidaea for three months, there was a great ebb-tide in the sea which lasted for a long while, and when the foreigners saw that the sea was turned to a marsh, they prepared to pass over it into Pallene.

Xerxes, then, was now in Asia, and when Artabazus came near Pallene in his return (for Mardonius was wintering in Thessaly and Macedonia and making no haste to come to the rest of his army), he thought it right that he should enslave the people of Potidaea, whom he found in revolt.

And finally he took Potidaea, upon which Athens had in times past squandered twenty-four hundred talents, and he met the expense from money which he himself provided and from contributions of the Thracians;

and Potidaea and Torône among the settlements in Thrace?

So I should have done a terrible thing, if, when the commanders whom you chose to command me stationed me, both at Potidaea and at Amphipolis and at Delium, I remained where they stationed me, like anybody else, and ran the risk of death, but when the god gave me a station, as I believed and understood, with orders to spend my life in philosophy and in examining myself and others, then I were to d …

Now all this, you know, had already happened to me when we later went on a campaign together to Potidaea;