History of the Peloponnesian War

The time during which the men on the island were under blockade, from the sea fight up to the battle on the island, amounted all told to seventy-two days.

For about twenty of these days, the period during which the envoys were absent negotiating the truce, they were regularly provisioned, but the rest of the time they lived on what was smuggled in. And indeed some grain was found on the island at the time of the capture, as well as other articles of food;

for the commander Epitadas was accustomed to give each man a scantier ration than his supplies would have allowed. The Athenians and Peloponnesians now withdrew from Pylos and returned home with their respective forces, and Cleon's promise, mad as it was, had been fulfilled; for within twenty days he brought the men as he had undertaken to do.