History of the Peloponnesian War

On their arrival their envoys made proposals to the Lacedaemonians as to the terms on which the treaty should be concluded.

At first the Argives claimed that they should be allowed to submit to the arbitration of some city or private person the matter of the Cynurian territory—a district containing the towns of Thyrea and Anthene and occupied by the Lacedaemonians—which being border ground they were always disputing about. Afterwards, however, although the Lacedaemonians would not permit them to make mention of that district, but said that, if they wished to make a treaty on the same terms as before, they were ready to do so, the Argive envoys did induce the Lacedaemonians to agree to the following terms: for the present that a treaty should be made for fifty years; that, however, either Lacedaemon or Argos, provided there were at the time neither pestilence nor war in either place, might challenge the other to decide by battle the question about this territory—just as once before,[*](550 B.C.; cf. Hdt. I. lxxxii.) when each had claimed to be victorious—but pursuit must not be made beyond the boundaries, between Argos and Lacedaemon.

At first this seemed to the Lacedaemonians mere folly, but afterwards, as they desired under any circumstances to have Argos friendly to them, they accepted the conditions demanded and joined in a written agreement. But the Lacedaemonians urged the envoys first, before any of the provisions should be regarded as settled, to return to Argos and lay the matter before the people, and then, if it should be satisfactory to them, to come to the Hyacinthian festival and take the oaths. So they withdrew.