History of the Peloponnesian War

Having taken Byzantium when he was there before, after the return from Cyprus, (the Medes were in possession of it, and some connexions and relations of the king were taken in it,) on that occasion he sent back to the king those whom he had taken, not letting the other allies know, but giving out that they had escaped from him.

This he managed in concert with Gongylus the Eretrian, to whom he had committed Byzantium and the prisoners. He also sent Gongylus with a letter to him; in which, as was afterwards discovered, the following was written:

Pausanias, the general of Sparta, wishing to oblige thee, sends these men back to thee, after taking them in war. And I make a proposal, if thou also art pleased with it, that I should marry thy daughter, and make Sparta and the rest of Greece subject to thee. And I think that I am able to do this in concert with thee. If then any of these proposals please thee, send a trustworthy man to the sea, through whom in future we will confer.