Book 4
98.6
And every thing, it was natural to suppose, done under pressure of war, or any other danger, would be considered as pardonable even in the eyes of the god. For the altars were a place of refuge in unintentional offences; and transgression was a term applied to those who were wicked through no compulsion, and not to those who had ventured to do any thing in consequence of their misfortunes.
98.7
Nay, the Boeotians were much more impious in wishing to give back dead bodies in return for sanctuaries, than they were who would not at the price of sanctuaries recover things not suitable [for such bartering].
98.8
They begged, then, that they would simply tell them to take up their dead, not after evacuating the territory of the Boeotians —for they were no longer in their territory, but in one which they had won with their arms—but, on making a truce according to the custom of their fathers.
99.1
The Boeotians replied, that if they were in Boeotia, they might take up their dead after evacuating their country; but if in Athenian territory, then i. e. they might take them away when they pleased. But, as Arnold remarks, the Boeotians knew all the time that this was merely vexatious; for the Athenians would not bury their dead without their leave, whether the ground which they occupied belonged to Attica or to Boeotia. they knew themselves what to do: considering that the Oropian territory, in which the bodies happened to be lying, (for the battle was fought on the borders,) was indeed subject to Athens, and yet that the Athenians could not get possession of them without their consent. Nor, again, were they disposed, they said, to grant any truce for a country belonging to Athens; but they thought it was a fair answer to give, that when they had evacuated the Boeotian territory, they might then recover what they asked. So the herald of the Athenians, after hearing their answer, returned without effecting his object.
