History of the Peloponnesian War

The Lacedaemonians then spoke to this effect, thinking that the Athenians were before desirous of a truce, but debarred from it through their own opposition; and that if peace were offered, they would gladly accept it, and give back the men.

They, however, since they had the men in the island, thought the treaty was now ready for them, whenever they might wish to conclude it with them, and were grasping after further advantage.

They were especially urged to this by Cleon son of Cleaenetus, a demagogue at that time, and most influential with the populace; who persuaded them to answer, that the men in the island must first surrender their arms and themselves, and be conveyed to Athens; and that on their arrival, when the Lacedaemonians had restored Nisaea, Pegae, Troezen, and Achaia—which they had taken, not by war, but by virtue of the former arrangement, when the Athenians had conceded them under the pressure of calamities, and were at that time somewhat more in need of a truce —they should then recover their men, and conclude a treaty for as long a period as both sides might wish.