History of the Peloponnesian War

And at first the Argives desired to have the matter referred, either to some private man or to some city, concerning the territory of Cynuria, about which they have always differed, as lying on the borders of them both (it containeth the cities of Thyrea and Anthena, and is possessed by the Lacedaemonians). But afterwards, the Lacedaemonians not suffering mention to be made of that, but that if they would have the truce go on as it did before, they might, the Argive ambassadors got them to yield to this: that for the present an accord should be made for fifty years; but withal, that it should be lawful nevertheless, if one challenged the other thereunto, both for Lacedaemon and Argos to try their titles to this territory by battle, so that there were in neither city a plague nor a war to excuse them (as once before they had done, when, as both sides thought, they had the victory); and that it should not be lawful for one part to follow the chase of the other further than to the bounds either of Lacedaemon or Argos.

And though this seemed to the Lacedaemonians at first to be but a foolish proposition, yet afterwards, because they desired by all means to have friendship with the Argives, they agreed unto it and put into writing what they required. Howsoever, before the Lacedaemonians would make any full conclusion of the same, they willed them to return first to Argos and to make the people acquainted with it, and then, if it were accepted, to return at the Hyacinthian feast and swear it. So these departed.