If your conquerors held a sword above your neck but allowed you to give you a speech that might sway them, would you be able to convince them to save your life? This was the exact situation that the ancient Plataeans faced in 427 BCE when Sparta finally defeated them on behalf of their Theban allies. Tired and starving, two Platean man, Astymachus and Lacon, stepped up and spoke. Here is what they said, as written in The Landmark Thucydides:
In the name of the gods who once presided over our confederacy, and of our own good service in the Hellenic cause, we appeal to you to relent; to rescind the decision which we fear that the Thebans may have obtained from you; to ask back the gift that you have given them, that they disgrace not you by slaying us; to gain a pure instead of a guilty gratitude and not to gratify others to be yourselves rewarded with shame.
Our lives may be quickly taken, but it will be a heavy task to wipe away the infamy of the deed; as we are not enemies whom you might justly punish, but friends forced into taking arms against you.
To grant us our lives would be, therefore, a righteous judgment; if you consider also that we are prisoners who surrendered of their own accord, stretching out our hands for quarter, whose slaughter Hellenic law forbids, and who besides were always your benefactors.
Look at the tombs of your fathers, slain by the Persians and buried in our country, whom year by year we honored with garments and all other dues, and the first fruits of all that our land produced in their season, as friends from a friendly country and allies to our old companions in arms! Should you not decide aright, your conduct would be the very opposite to ours. Consider only:
Pausanias [Spartan general] buried them thinking that he was laying them in friendly ground and among men as friendly; but you, if you kill us and make the Plataean territory Theban, will leave your fathers and kinsmen in a hostile soil and among their murderers, deprived of the honors which they now enjoy. What is more, you will enslave the land in which the freedom of the Hellenes was won, make desolate the temples of the gods to whom they prayed before they overcame the Persians, and take away your ancestral sacrifices from those who found and instituted them.
[…]
We, as we have a right to do and as our need impels us, entreat you, calling aloud upon the gods at whose common altar all the Hellenes worship, to hear our request, to be not unmindful of the oats which your fathers swore, and which we now plead. We supplicate you by the tombs of your fathers and appeal to those that are gone to save us from falling into the hands of the Thebans and prevent the dearest friends of the Hellenes from being given up to their most detested foes. We also remind you of that day on which we did the most glorious deeds by your fathers’ sides, we who now on this day are likely to suffer the most dreadful fate.
[…]
And at the same time we Plataeans, foremost among the Hellenic patriots, and suppliants to you, beseech you not to give us up out of your hands and faith to our most hated enemies, the Thebans, but to be our saviors. Do not, while you free the rest of the Hellenes, bring us to destruction.
If you were a Spartan general, would that have moved you? Would you have spared their lives even though they have put you through a costly siege that has weakened your position against Athens, the state you fight against? Here’s what the Spartans did:
The Spartan judges decided that the question, whether they had received any service from the Plataeans in the war, was a fair one for them to put; as they had always invited them to be neutral, agreeably to the original covenant of the Pausanias after the defeat of the Persians, and hand again definitely offered them the same conditions before the blockade.
This offer having been refused, they were not, they conceived, by the loyalty of their intention released from their covenant; and having, as they considered, suffered evil at the hands of the Plataeans, they brought them in again one by one and asked each of them the same questions, that is to say, whether they had done the Spartans and allies any service in the war; and upon their saying that they had not, took them out and slew them all without exception.
The number of Plataeans thus massacred was not less than two hundred, with twenty-five Athenians who had shared in the siege. The women were taken as slaves.
The city was demolished and an inn was built on top of its grounds. The lesson in this is could be that when pleading for your life, don’t bother coming up with reasons far in the past of why you should be saved. Men with swords in their hands tend to have short memories.
Read Next: The Landmark Thucydides
THIS…. IS…. SPARTAAAAAA!!!!!
The answer was “how are you (those who are to be slain) of use to us now, alive, rather than dead?”
Dude, enough with the pop-up text messaging BS already. Fuk
Enable cookies, then it will only show up once.
True in modern business. “What have you done for me lately?”
I’d probably just tell them they don’t have the balls to kill me and hope I pissed them off enough they decapitate me. Martyrdom is better than suffering as a slave to a bunch of bloodthirsty heathens.
There were no martyrs in Ancient Greece. You were executed and no one learned about it.
I wasn’t aware that to be a martyr it had to be broadcasted to the world.
Which Greek God took care of martyrs?
(My point being: Greeks did not have the concept of martyrs.)
Thinking about it more, probably the first true Greek martyr was Socrates.
He and Jesus Christ had many commonalities, the main difference was the purported source of their knowledge and wisdom. Socrates claimed his was completely innate and arrived at through logic, while Christ claimed his was inspired by divinity. Both were “martyred,” but because one’s claimed source was divine, he birthed a religion, while the other, well, did not. There’s a lesson somewhere in there.
The irony behind this event is that after the Spartans executed the Plataeans, the Thebeans took over the area and become very powerful. Within 40 years of this event, the Thebes invaded and conquered Sparta.
Reminds me of the speeches in julius caesar: Brutus tries to convince people with logic (in essence appealing to their sense of reason) and mark antony(?) wins the crowd by playing to the darker sides of their character (their vanity, their greed, etc.)
A good lesson to keep in mind in life: if you want something out of someone, never try to get it by appealing to their good nature and instead appeal to their dark side.
Similar to Game advice:
Change her feelings, not her mind!
Good advice.
imbracin islam or sikhism(sainthood very similar to martyerdom due to islamic roots) marterdoym beleif iscwht men should always have in order to stay masculine….no fear
The ancient historians were great about using the rhetorical device of putting imaginary speeches in the mouths of their protagonists. Pretty cool technique, actually. In those days, speech-writing (ars rhetorica) was considered a real skill….
There’s a chapter in 48 laws of power that covers the same such situation. Two men, sentenced to death, one appealed to mercy and past deeds, the other appealed to self interest. The former was slain and the latter was spared.
Thirteenth law. A very important one.
“When asking for help, appeal to people’s self-interests, never to their mercy or gratitude.”
Appeal to their self interests, not to their emotions.
Pleading for your life didn’t work then and would work a hell of a lot less now. With American men in other countries being gunned down and blown to bits and American men here at home being pushed toward slavery to ideas of “freedom”, “democracy”, and “equality”, it may be a bit late for passionate speeches.
Men are either going to have to throw it in and say “fuck you, do your worst”, or start stomping the life out of their oppressors. There can be no pacts between lions and men.
The Spartan position here seemed to be one of precedent. Even if their feelings were touched by the appeals, to allow what had happened to pass would have been a disaster strategically.
A modern-day example, a man finds his wife being roasted by a basketball team. He really loves her and their life together and WANTS to remain married to her, but the precedent forgiveness would set would be a disaster.