History of the Peloponnesian War

After this Brasidas and his army advanced nearer to the sea and the city of Megara, and there, taking up an advantageous position, they drew up their lines and kept quiet, thinking that the Athenians would come against them, and feeling assured that the Megarians would wait to see which side would be victorious.

And they thought that matters stood well with them in both of two respects: in the first place, they were not forcing an engagement and had not deliberately courted the risk of a battle, although they had at least plainly shown that they were ready to defend themselves, so that the victory would justly be accredited to them almost without a blow; and at the same time they thought that things were turning out right as regards the Megarians also.

For if they had failed to put in an appearance there would have been no chance for them, but they would clearly have lost the city at once just as though they had been defeated; but by this move there was the possible chance that the Athenians themselves would not care to fight, with the result that they would have gained what they came for without a battle. And this is just what happened.

For the Megarians did what was expected of them.[*](Apparently there is an anacoluthon, the sentence beginning as if τῷ βρασίδα ἀνοίγουσι τὰς πύλας were to be the predicate, but after the long parenthesis the subject is resumed in partitive form, αἱ τῶν φευγόντων φίλοι μεγαρῆς.) When the Athenians came out and drew up their lines before the long walls, they too kept quiet, since the Peloponnesians did not attack, and their generals also reckoned that they were running an unequal risk, now that almost all their plans had turned out well, to begin a battle against larger numbers, and either be victorious and take Megara, or, if defeated, have the flower of their hoplite force damaged; whereas the Peloponnesians would naturally be willing to risk an engagement which would involve, for each contingent, only a portion of the entire army or of the troops there at hand.[*](The text is clearly corrupt, but the general sense seems to be that given above.) Both armies therefore waited for some time, and when no attack was made from either side, the Athenians were the first to withdraw, retiring to Nisaea, and next the Peloponnesians, returning to the place from which they had set out. So then, finally, the Megarians who were friends of the exiles plucked up courage, and opened the gates to Brasidas and the commanders from the various cities, in the feeling that he had won the victory and that the Athenians had finally declined battle.[*](Or, adopting Rutherford's conjecture, ἐθελησόντων “and that the Athenians would not care to fight again.”) And receiving them into the town they entered into a conference with them, the party which had been intriguing with the Athenians being now quite cowed.