Talk:Siege of Melos

message: The following coordinate fixes are needed for Melos
—{{| (talk) 07:47, 9 June 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: . Just a latitudinal typo. Thanks for noticing the error. Deor (talk) 09:08, 9 June 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Coordinate error 

message: "The Athenians counter that this argument is purely emotional and not a rational risk-benefit analysis." Really? Does this business-school jargon accurately represent what Thucydides wrote? Is is it, rather, an example of jarring and off-putting anachronism?  Mballen (talk) 07:30, 13 February 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: The person responsible for most of the prose in this article is indefinitely blocked and won't be answering your query, so feel free to make any improvements you deem appropriate. --Laser brain (talk) 12:53, 13 February 2017 (UTC)
thread_title: Tone

message: According to the source given, "Peloponnesian League" is a modern name for the alliance between Sparta and its allies. Only after the defeat of Athens did the Spartans copy the Delian (Athenian) league and begin to demand payment of tribute from its allies. The two therefore were not really "similar" as the article asserts. The Spartan side should really be called the "Spartan alliance". Sparta was not an empire and was not seeking to expand its hegemony as Athens was but was profoundly conservative and wished to keep things as they were. This was the key difference between the two rival powers. Note, if it was really payment of tribute that the Melians wished to avoid, and Sparta did not demand payment, they were de facto allies of Sparta, which was how the Athenians viewed them. The Spartans also did come to the aid of Melos in the end after it was too late. There is a lot written on this. And it would be useful if it were covered in the article, or better, in a separate article on Thucydides' speech and its reception, which wikipedia used to have but has unaccountably disappeared. Mballen (talk) 18:51, 25 June 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: It was the Spartan perception that Athens was trying to increase its hegemony that was the cause of the war in the first place. The Spartans were not interested in a unified Hellas because (like the Melians in Thucydides' telling) they did not wish to be subordinate, (which involved paying tribute). Mballen (talk) 18:56, 25 June 2017 (UTC)
thread_title: Peloponnesian League

message: The argument that the Athenians committed genocide is very tendentious. In fact the source cited says that they "may" have committed genocide, because the distinctive Melian culture was wiped out, as evidenced by the fact that their coins became rare. This is a fringe theory because what happened to the Melians was absolutely par for the course for the treatment of defeated populations in warfare at that time and continued under the Romans for many centuries. 
The Melian culture was obviously different from that of Sparta because they were an island people who engaged in trade (used coins, at that time a relatively new invention), whereas their relatives the conservative Spartans were land bound and self-sufficient and had resisted the use of coinage. 
Genocide by definition involves the killing not only of the men, but also of women and children. Furthermore, genocide by definition aims for total extermination of all those of a defined ethnic origin (in this case Lacedaemonians) including those who may live elsewhere and have nothing to do with the conflict. I think this should at least be labeled as a fringe theory or preferably removed altogether. Mballen (talk) 16:46, 26 June 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: Very good ideas!  MaisonHorta (talk) 16:30, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

text: Do not be afraid to change things!  MaisonHorta (talk) 16:36, 5 July 2017 (UTC)
thread_title: Genocide?

message: The page contains a link to "melian dialogue" but that just points back here.
:Yes, it takes you straight to the section that deals with the Melian Dialogue.  That is intentional. Kurzon (talk) 09:28, 14 August 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Links to itself 

message: This article is about a siege and subsequent massacre which took place during the Peloponnesian War. Kurzon (talk) 10:39, 31 May 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Comments preserved from out-of-process FAC nom of 31 May 2019