History of the Peloponnesian War

Hermocrates having spoken to this effect, the Sicilians agreed amongst themselves in a determination to have done with the war, retaining their several possessions, but that Morgantina should be ceded to the Camarinaeans on their paying a stipulated sum of money to the Syracusans.

So the allies of the Athenians called those of them who were in command, and said that they should conclude peace, and that the treaty would extend to them also. When the generals had expressed their assent, they concluded peace, and the Athenian ships afterwards sailed away from Sicily.

But on the arrival of the generals, the Athenians at home banished Pythodorus and Sophocles, and fined Eurymedon, on the belief of their having been bribed to return, when they might have brought Sicily under their dominion.

Thus in their present success they presumed that they could meet with no impediment, but equally achieve what was possible and impossible, with ample or deficient resources alike. The reason of which was their general success beyond their calculations, which suggested to them an idea of [*]( i.e. not arising from reality or from resources now in existence, but from the hope of gaming such. —Arnold.) strength resting only on hope.