History of the Peloponnesian War

The report of what had been done in Plataea was made to the Athenians promptly; and they instantly apprehended all the Thebans who were in Attica and sent a herald to Plataea, bidding him tell them to take no extreme measures regarding the Thebans whom they held captive until they themselves should have taken counsel about them;

for the news had not arrived that the men had been put to death. For the first messenger had set out at the time the Thebans were entering the city, the second immediately after their defeat and capture, and the Athenians knew nothing of later events. Consequently the Athenians sent their orders without knowing the facts; and the herald on his arrival found the men slain.

After this the Athenians, marching to Plataea, brought in food and left a garrison,[*](cf. 78.3.) taking away the least efficient of the men along with the women and children.

Now that the affair at Plataea had occurred and the treaty had been glaringly violated, the Athenians began preparing for war, and the Lacedaemonians and their allies also began; both sides were making ready to send embassies to the King and to the barbarians of any other land,[*](Referring in the one case, to the unsuccessful embassy of the Lacedaemonians to the King mentioned in 67; in the other, to the connection of the Athenians with the Odrysian court mentioned in 2.29 and 2.67.) where either of them hoped to secure aid, and they were negotiating alliances with such cities as were outside of their own sphere of influence.