History of the Peloponnesian War

About the same period of this summer, the Lacedaemonians invaded Argos, themselves and their allies, and ravaged the greater part of the country. The Athenians went to the assistance of the Argives with thirty ships; and it was these that broke their treaty with the Lacedaemonians in a most decisive manner.

For before this they only joined in hostilities with the Argives and Mantineans by plundering excursions from Pylus, and by landing on the other coasts around the Peloponnese, rather than on the Laconian; and though the Argives often desired them only to touch at Laconia with their heavy-armed, and to withdraw after devastating it with them ever so little, they would not do it. But at that time, having landed under the command of Pythodorus, Laespodias, and Demaratus, at Epidaurus Limera, Prasiae, and other places, they ravaged part of the territory, and so rendered the excuse of the Lacedaemonians more plausible now for defending themselves against the Athenians.

After the Athenians had with their fleet withdrawn from Argos, and the Lacedaemonians also, the Argives having made an irruption into the Phiasian territory, ravaged part of their land, killed some of their men, and returned home.