History of the Peloponnesian War

Vexed, therefore, by this calumny, and thinking that in time of peace, when no calamity would occur and, moreover, the Lacedaemonians would be recovering their men, he himself would not be exposed to the attack of his enemies, whereas so long as there was war it must always be that the leading men would be maligned in the event of any misfortunes, he became very ardent for the agreement. During this winter they kept attending conferences;

and toward spring there was a menace of warlike preparation on the part of the Lacedaemonians, orders being sent to the cities as though for the erection of a fortress to overawe the territory of the Athenians, that they might be more inclined to listen to terms; and at the same time as the result of their conferences, in which each party had filed many claims against the other, an agreement was finally reached that they should make peace, each party to restore to the other the territories which they had gained by war, though the Athenians were to keep Nisaea.[*](cf. 4.69)(For when they had demanded back Plataea, the Thebans protested that they had obtained possession of the place, not by force, but because the Plataeans had come over to them by agreement and not through betrayal[*](cf. 3.52.2.); and the Athenians claimed to have obtained Nisaea in the same way.) At this time the Lacedaemonians summoned their own allies, and when all the rest had voted to stop hostilities, except the Boeotians, Corinthians, Eleans, and Megarians—to whom the negotiations were displeasing—they made the agreement, ratifying it by libations and oaths with the Athenians, and the Athenians with them, on the following terms:—