Son of the Cadmea 431 BC

March 431 BC, Boeotia. On a night of rain, three hundred picked Thebans slipped into Plataea, Athens' ally, and were broken before dawn. You are the eldest son of Eurymachus, the oligarch who planned the raid, and your father is now a prisoner inside those walls.

Classical Greece · The Peloponnesian War · Noble (landless oligarchic house) · male · age 22 · Boeotia (Thebes)

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Historical background

After the Persian Wars, Athens led the Delian League and turned its allies' tribute into a maritime empire, while Sparta, at the head of the Peloponnesian League, guarded the Greece of the land. The Thirty Years' Peace of 446 BC did not last fifteen. After quarrels over Corcyra and Potidaea and the Athenian trade ban on Megara, the Spartan assembly voted in 432 that Athens had broken the peace. Thebes, the heart of the Boeotian League, was ruled by oligarchs and had long resented neighbouring Plataea, which had stood with Athens since 519.

In March 431, through Eurymachus, whom Thucydides calls "a man of great influence at Thebes", the pro-Theban party in Plataea opened the gates on a rainy night. Before daybreak the Plataeans dug through the walls between their houses, gathered and rose, while women and slaves hurled tiles from the roofs. The main Theban force, held back by the rain-swollen Asopus, never arrived, and the 180 captured men were put to death. That May King Archidamus invaded Attica, and the twenty-seven-year Peloponnesian War began. Thebes saw Plataea surrender and be destroyed in 427, won at Delium in 424 and watched Athens surrender in 404; then, turning against Sparta, it lost the Cadmea in 382, won it back in 379 and in 371 at Leuctra took the leadership of Greece.

Who you are

You begin as Eutycles, aged 22, eldest son of the Aegeidae, an oligarchic house of Thebes. You inherit no land, but your family name carries weight in the Boeotian League. Your mother Aristocleia, your quiet younger brother Leontiades, the old boeotarch Pagondas and the house of Ismenias, which sends a marriage offer, are the people of this life.

Two ways to start

This scenario can be started in two ways. As the character puts you in the place of the person described on this page, to live out their story. At this moment keeps the same year and the same world, but you choose your seat, gender, age and home region yourself; instead of the character's own story events, the great moments of that time reach you in a form that fits the seat you chose.

Seats you can choose “At this moment”

Rower of an Athenian trireme — A thete, one drachma a day
Child of the Athenian cavalry class — A horse-breeding family
Young Spartan warrior — A Spartiate who has finished the agoge
Theban noble — The oligarchic house that plotted the raid on Plataea
Corinthian shipowner — A port between two seas
Merchant of Miletus — Between Persia and Athens

Or start as someone elsewhere and pick your home region yourself.

The current of history: The Peloponnesian War

Right away the invitation "Greece takes sides" arrives. Choose between Athens of the sea and Sparta of the land, and at every stage, through the plague and the Sicilian Expedition to the surrender of Athens in 404 BC, a choice awaits. In 413 BC the turning point "If the Sicilian Expedition had succeeded" arrives, and in 371 BC "If Sparta had won at Leuctra"; if a turning point goes the other way, the later chapters of your story branch into a world where Athens won.

Sides you can take

The Peloponnesian League The side of Sparta, Corinth and Thebes. Every year you march into Attica to burn its wheat and wait for the Athenian sea empire to fall.
The Delian League Athens' side. For a Theban it is treason, but it opens the world of triremes, tribute and the Piraeus.

Tips

Start with your father The first event is the dawn on the Asopus. What you chose to do about the prisoners in the city comes up again years later at the trial of Plataea and in your marriage talks.

Marriage is a choice of faction Whether you marry into the house of Ismenias or the house of Pagondas decides which circle in Thebes you draw close to, and that choice returns decades later at the Cadmea.

Remember Sicily Joining the relief force to Syracuse in 413 BC, or paying for it, moves the odds of the turning point. The story ends on the night of the Aphrodisia in 379 BC, so look after your health for a tale of almost fifty years.

Questions and answers

How close is this scenario to real history?

The Theban raid on Plataea in 431 BC and the execution of the 180, Archidamus' invasion of Attica, the surrender of Plataea and the Spartan judges in 427, Delium in 424, the Peace of Nicias in 421, Decelea in 413, the surrender of Athens in 404, Thrasybulus at Phyle in 403, Haliartus in 395, the seizure of the Cadmea in 382, the return of Pelopidas in 379 and Leuctra in 371 are historical. Eurymachus is the real man Thucydides names as the instigator of the raid; the hero Eutycles was created for the game. The starting map, realms, real historical figures and the major events of the current of history follow actual history. You and the companions, rivals and loves around you are fictional people who could have lived then, and once you start, history may diverge according to your choices and those of the AI rulers.

What station do I start in?

You start as a 22-year-old Theban nobleman of an oligarchic house, part of the Boeotian League. You inherit no land, and your father is held prisoner inside Plataea.

Is it free? Can I play right away?

Yes. Crown & Plough is a free browser game with no account and nothing to install. The "Start in this scene" button on this page opens the scenario's intro screen directly, and progress is saved automatically in your browser. It works on phones too.

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