<head>The Embassy from Athens</head>The embassy from <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Athens&groupId=379&placeId=715">Athens</a> had come in the first place to beg that the people of Haliartus might be spared;
but when this request was ignored, they changed the subject and spoke about <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Delos&groupId=533&placeId=1004">Delos</a>, <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Lemnos&groupId=676&placeId=1237">Lemnos</a>, and the territory of Haliartus, begging to be placed in possession of those places, for they had received a double set of instructions.
We cannot blame them for asking for <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Delos&groupId=533&placeId=1004">Delos</a> and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Lemnos&groupId=676&placeId=1237">Lemnos</a>, as they had previously laid claim to these islands; but as for the territory of Haliartus we are justified in finding fault with them.
For not to strive by every means to retrieve the fallen fortunes of a city almost the most ancient in Boeotia, but on the contrary to erase it from the map, by depriving its unhappy inhabitants of all hope for the future,
was evidently conduct unworthy of any Greek state and especially unworthy of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Athens&groupId=379&placeId=715">Athens</a>.
For now, while they were making their own country the common refuge of all who wished to be citizens of it, to destroy thus the countries of others was by no means consonant with the traditions of the city.
The senate, however, gave them, both <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Delos&groupId=533&placeId=1004">Delos</a> and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Lemnos&groupId=676&placeId=1237">Lemnos</a> as well as this territory of Haliartus. Such was the decision about <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Athens&groupId=379&placeId=715">Athens</a>.
In taking <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Lemnos&groupId=676&placeId=1237">Lemnos</a> and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Delos&groupId=533&placeId=1004">Delos</a> they were, as the proverb has it, taking the wolf by the ears.
For their connexion with the Delians had many unpleasant consequences, and from their possession of the territory of Haliartus they reaped more reproach than profit.
Walbank Commentary