Whether Melos was truly neutral is sometimes debated by scholars. Thucydides wrote that after the raid by Nicias in 426 BC, the Melians assumed "an attitude of open hostility",Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. 5.84 but neither Thucydides nor any other writer of the era mentioned any specific offence that Melos committed against Athens.: "Specific Athenian charges against Melos should have figured prominently in the talks; Thucydides ignores them.": "There is no solid evidence for a special charge brought against the Melians in 416 and there is no compelling reason to presume one. If there was an antecedent quarrel that provoked the attack, it probably would not have remained hidden in the sources but would have surfaced, if not in Thucydides or Xenophon, then certainly in the writings of the fourth century Attic orators who defended the expedition." There is archaeological evidence that Melos once donated some money to Sparta (at least 12½ kg silver), but it's uncertain whether this donation happened before or after the raid by Nicias. Melos is typically regarded by scholars to have been an innocent victim of Athenian imperialism.
