Thucydides is the first author to report a rare case of Athenian citizenship being granted to an entire community, that of the Plataeans. The event is reported in the section of the third book dedicated to the dramatic and vain defense of the Boeotian polis before the Spartan judges who had to decide the fate of the city in 427 (Th. 3.53-59): the final result was the destruction of Plataea, the killing of the men and the enslavement of the women who were still in the city (Th. 3.68). In this passage, the Plataeans claim that, when in the past they had found themselves in difficulty because of the Theban threats, they had been urged by the Lacedaemonians themselves to turn to the Athenians. For this reason, in the Peloponnesian War, they did not think it right to abandon the Athenians who in the past had supported them, had established an alliance and granted them citizenship. According to Thucydides, therefore, the granting of citizenship occurred before the trial, while other later authors place it after the Spartan decision to destroy the city.
This group concession, the first about which we are informed in Athens, presents some open questions both from a chronological and historical-political point of view. Did the Plataeans become full citizens and when? According to one interpretation (Amit 1973, 75-78), the politeia was granted already at the time of the first alliance stipulated between the two cities in 519, when, in order to defend itself from Thebes, Plataea submitted to Athens (Hdt. 6.108). It would probably be necessary, therefore, to distinguish two phases: an older one, in which the Athenian politeia was only honorary for the Plataeans, since most of them remained in the Boeotian polis, and a more recent one in which they were effectively integrated into the Athenian civic body. In the words of the Plataeans reported by Thucydides, in fact, the alliance and the granting of citizenship seem closely connected (προσηγάγετο ξυμμάχους καὶ πολιτείας μετέλαβεν), as well as in the words spoken by the Thebans shortly after (Th. 3.63.2: ἐγένεσθε ἐπὶ τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ τιμωρίᾳ, ὡς φατέ, Ἀθηναίων ξύμμαχοι καὶ πολῖται). It should be noted, however, that in other parts of the work, in which the alliance between Plataea and Athens is mentioned, this fact is never cited (Th. 2.2.1; 2.73.1; 3.68.5).
According to a different interpretation, the Plataeans, by backdating the granting of citizenship, were lying in order to defend themselves as best as possible from the Spartan accusations (Osborne 1982, 11-12; both Gawantka 1975, 174-178 and Hammond 1992 strongly doubt that the granting of citizenship preceded the Peloponnesian War). According to some orators, however, the granting of citizenship is connected to the events of 427 (Isoc. 12, 92-94; Dem. 59, 103-104) and would concern the citizens who had managed to escape from the city during the night. The decree would therefore have concerned the 212 Plataeans who, shortly before the capitulation of the city, had managed to overcome the wall erected by the Peloponnesians and had reached safety Athens (Thuc. 3.24), and the evacuees who had survived the previous Theban attack of 431 (Thuc. II, 6; Hornblower 1991, 449).
Two fourth-century sources inform us in more detail about the modalities of this granting. From Lysias (23, 2) we are informed that the Plataeans had been divided into demes and tribes (εἰπόντος δὲ τούτου ὅτι Πλαταιεὺς εἴη, ἠρόμην ὁπόθεν δημοτεύοιτο, παραινέσαντός τινος τῶν παρόντων προσκαλέσασθαι καὶ πρὸς τὴν φυλήν, ἧστινος εἶναι σκήπτοιτο) and also in Against Neaera (59, 104), in which the decree of naturalization is cited (see Kapparis 1996, Canevaro 2010), reference is made to demoi and phylai (κατανεῖμαι δὲ τοὺς Πλαταιέας εἰς τοὺς δήμους καὶ τὰς φυλάς).
The failure to mention the phratria, usually cited in other cases of naturalisation, has provoked some debate among scholars. Prandi, for example, interprets this as an indication of a special status of the Plataeans, who would only have been granted partial citizenship (Prandi 1982, 73); Bearzot, on the other hand, sees it as a form of protection for the Plataeans themselves, who wished to remain tied to their original religious background (Bearzot 1997).
The Plataeans remained a well-recognisable group in Athens, as reported for example by Thucydides (Th. 5.32.1) who specifies that in 421 they were given the territory of Sicyon to cultivate, after the city had been conquered. Even in Lysias’ oration Against Pancleon, dating back to the beginning of the 4th century, the Plataean community is well defined (23, 5-6). This mass grant remained alive in the memory of the Athenians. Aristophanes in the Frogs mentions it, criticizing the other grant made to the slaves who fought at Arginusae (693-694: καὶ γὰρ αἰσχρόν ἐστι τοὺς μὲν ναυμαχήσαντας μίαν καὶ Πλαταιᾶς εὐθὺς εἶναι κἀντὶ δούλων δεσπότας), and Hellanicus also noted the similarity between the two episodes (Hellanicus FGrHist 4 F 171: Ἑλλάνικός φησιν ἐλευθερωθῆναι καὶ ἐγγραφέντας ὡς Πλαταιεῖς συμπολιτεύσασθαι αὐτοῖς).
55. καὶ τὰ μὲν παλαιὰ καὶ μέγιστα τοιοῦτοι ἠξιώσαμεν εἶναι, πολέμιοι δὲ ἐγενόμεθα ὕστερον. ὑμεῖς δὲ αἴτιοι· δεομένων γὰρ ξυμμαχίας ὅτε Θηβαῖοι ἡμᾶς ἐβιάσαντο, ὑμεῖς ἀπεώσασθε καὶ πρὸς Ἀθηναίους ἐκελεύετε τραπέσθαι ὡς ἐγγὺς ὄντας, ὑμῶν δὲ μακρὰν ἀποικούντων. [2] ἐν μέντοι τῷ πολέμῳ οὐδὲν ἐκπρεπέστερον ὑπὸ ἡμῶν οὔτε ἐπάθετε οὔτε ἐμελλήσατε. [3] εἰ δ᾽ ἀποστῆναι Ἀθηναίων οὐκ ἠθελήσαμεν ὑμῶν κελευσάντων, οὐκ ἠδικοῦμεν· καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖνοι ἐβοήθουν ἡμῖν ἐναντία Θηβαίοις ὅτε ὑμεῖς ἀπωκνεῖτε, καὶ προδοῦναι αὐτοὺς οὐκέτι ἦν καλόν, ἄλλως τε καὶ οὓς εὖ παθών τις καὶ αὐτὸς δεόμενος προσηγάγετο ξυμμάχους καὶ πολιτείας μετέλαβεν, ἰέναι δὲ ἐς τὰ παραγγελλόμενα εἰκὸς ἦν προθύμως. [4] ἃ δὲ ἑκάτεροι ἐξηγεῖσθε τοῖς ξυμμάχοις, οὐχ οἱ ἑπόμενοι αἴτιοι εἴ τι μὴ καλῶς ἐδρᾶτο, ἀλλ᾽ οἱ ἄγοντες ἐπὶ τὰ μὴ ὀρθῶς ἔχοντα.
55. ‘So much for the course we chose to follow in that very important period of past history. It was only later that we became enemies, and for this you were responsible. When the Thebans were oppressing us, we asked to become your allies, but you rejected us and told us to apply to Athens, because it was nearer and you lived so far away. [2] Nevertheless in this war we never acted against you in an unreasonable manner, nor were we likely to have done so. [3] There was nothing wrong in our refusing your request that we should desert Athens. The Athenians had helped us against Thebes at the time when you were reluctant to help us, and it was no longer honourable for us to forsake them, especially since they had been good friends of ours in the past and it was at our own request that they made us their allies and allowed us to share in some of the privileges of Athenian citizenship. It was natural, therefore, that we should willingly obey their orders. [4] And whether it is you or Athens who give orders to your allies, it is the leaders and not the subordinates who should be held responsible for anything that is done amiss (tr. by. R. Warner, London 1954).
- M. Amit, Great and Small Poleis, Bruxelles 1973, pp. 75-79.
- C. Bearzot, Ancora sui Plateesi e le fratrie di Atene, in L. Criscuolo, G. Geraci, C. Salvaterra, (a cura di), Simblos. Scritti di storia antica, II, Bologna 1997, 43- 60.
- M. Canevaro, The Decree Awarding Citizenship to the Plataeans ([Dem.] 59.104), in GRBS 50, 3, 2010, pp. 337-369.
- W. Gawantka, Isopolitie, München 1975, 174-178.
- N. G. L. Hammond, Plataea’s Relations with Thebes, Sparta and Athens, in JHS 112, 1992, 143-150.
- S. Hornblower, A Commentary on Thucydides, I, Oxford 1991, pp. 448-450.
- K. Kapparis, The Athenian Decree for the Naturalisation of the Plataians, in GRBS 36, 1995, 359-378.
- M.J. Osborne, Naturalization in Athens, II, 11-16, Bruxelles 1982.
- L. Prandi, Ricerche sulla concessione della cittadinanza ateniese nel V sec. a. C., Milano 1982, pp. 57-8
- L. Prandi, Platea: momenti e problemi della storia di una polis, Padova 1988.