Bauslaugh, Robert A. The Concept of Neutrality in Classical Greece

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they had not conspired with the Thebans and had no intention of joining in an alliance with them.
Indeed, the occupation of Attic passes was not meant to be hostile to Sparta or to deter the Spartans
from entering Boeotia but was merely a self-defensive precaution against the uncertainty of the
moment.[47] But the irrefutable proof of innocence was supplied by the trial and punishment of the
generals.
Diodorus unintentionally confirms this reconstruction, for in his account of these events he offers
the contrary claim that the Athenians immediately allied themselves with Thebes and went in full force
to the defense of the Thebans. This is obviously false, but it nevertheless reveals how ashamed of
their true actions the Athenians were at a later date and how the record could be altered to provide a
more noble lie. The less dramatic (and for some unacceptable) truth of the situation was that the
Athenians sought to preserve the existing peace by demonstrating that they had intended to be and
would definitely remain officially neutral in any conflict that arose between Sparta and Thebes.
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V. The Neutrality Clause in The First Common Peace of 371
According to Xenophon, the peace treaty negotiated at Sparta in 371 included the following
stipulation: "If any state should act in violation of this agreement, it was provided that any which so
desired might aid the injured cities, but that any which did not so desire was not under oath to be the
ally of those who were injured " (my italics).[48] This provision is the first official recognition of
neutrality in the multilateral peace treaties of the fourth century and thus represents a landmark in the
evolution of the role played by
[46] The most detailed and trustworthy account is found in Xen. Hell . 5. 4.1-19; cf. Diod. 15. 25-27;
Plut. Pel . 14.1.
[47] This is an important point, the connection of which with the issue of neutrality was recognized by
Marshall, Second Athenian Confederacy , 12, who commented: "Chabrias had indeed barred the road
through Eleutherae against the army of Kleombrotos, but it was one thing to refuse a belligerent
passage through neutral territory, another to recognize officially help given to Thebes by unauthorized
generals."
[48]
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neutrality in the diplomacy of that century. But why was it suddenly necessary to specify the right of
neutrality in 371? What were the intentions of the participating states in their acceptance of such a
provision? And what effect did the provision actually have on subsequent events? To answer these
questions we need to examine the diplomatic and military situation that faced not simply the major
Greek powers but also, wherever possible, the weaker states that existed in their shadows.
It has long been recognized that Athens was the state behind the inclusion of a neutrality clause in
the peace treaty sworn at Sparta.[49] Athens' situation had become increasingly difficult during the
370s due on the one hand to Athens' failure to achieve a significant military victory over the Spartan
alliance and on the other to its steadily deteriorating relations with Thebes, which raised the specter of
war on a second front. For these reasons, the Athenians sought to gain through negotiation what they
had been unable to achieve militarily. The problem was that the Athenians had to find a way to avoid
giving the appearance either of surrendering the freedom of the Boeotian cities to Thebes by omission
of them in the treaty or of betraying the interests of their own allies (and other states), who looked to
Athens for leadership in the struggle against Spartan domination.[50] Accordingly, in the peace
negotiations of 371, the Athenians used an adroit mixture of veiled promises and implied threats,
which won acceptance of a treaty that permitted the signatory states to remain neutral during any
conflicts arising from enforcement of the specific terms of the Common Peace.
The reality was that the Athenians proposed the neutrality clause to escape being obligated to
enter a conflict with Thebes while there remained strong anti-Spartan feeling among their allies. This
feeling made formal ratification of any agreement that even had the appearance of accommodation of
the Spartans diplomatically dangerous, if not impossible, and made the neutrality clause a [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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