History of the Peloponnesian War

The same summer a war broke out between the Epidaurians and Argives; nominally, about the offering to Apollo Pythaeus, which the Epidaurians were bound to make, but did not, for [*]( I have adopted Poppo's reading, παραποταμίων, as Arnold himself confesses that the common one, ποταμίων, is perfectly inexplicable. Of Bloomfield's conjecture, βοτανόμων, pastures, Poppo says, refutatione non indiget ) certain lands by the river side; (the Argives had the chief management of the temple;) but even independently of this charge, Alcibiades and the Argives thought it desirable to get possession of Epidaurus, if they could; both to insure the neutrality of Corinth, and thinking that the Athenians would find it a shorter passage for their succours through Aegina, than by sailing round Scyllaeum. The Argives therefore prepared to invade Epidaurus by themselves, in order to exact the offering.