The Spartan Dilemma

No one's watching.

Forty of your best soldiers are prisoners of war. The enemy offers a trade. Your allies call it treason.

It is 427 BC. You are a Spartan general outside the walls of Plataea. Your Theban allies want to execute all prisoners as a warning. An Athenian envoy has arrived offering a prisoner exchange that could save your captured soldiers. Accepting signals weakness to your allies. Refusing condemns your own men.