History of the Peloponnesian War

And by and by after, they made agreement with all the rest that were with Demosthenes that they should deliver up their arms, and none of them be put to death, neither violently, nor by bonds, nor by want of the necessities of life.

And they all yielded, to the number of six thousand men; and the silver they had, they laid it all down, casting it into the hollow of targets, and filled with the same four targets. And these men they carried presently into the city. Nicias, and those that were with him, attained the same day to the river Erineus, which passing, he caused his army to sit down upon a certain ground more elevate than the rest.

Where the Syracusians the next day overtook and told him, that those with Demosthenes had yielded themselves, and willed him to do the like. But he, not believing it, took truce for a horseman to enquire the truth.

Upon return of the horseman and word that they had yielded, he sent a herald to Gylippus and the Syracusians, saying that he was content to compound on the part of the Athenians to repay whatsoever money the Syracusians had laid out, so that his army might be suffered to depart, and that till payment of the money were made, he would deliver them hostages, Athenians, every hostage rated as a talent.

But Gylippus and the Syracusians, refusing the condition, charged them, and having hemmed them in, plied them with shot, as they had done the other army, from every side till evening.

This part of the army was also pinched with the want both of victual and other necessaries. Nevertheless, observing the quiet of the night, they were about to march. But no sooner took they their arms up than the Syracusians perceiving it gave the alarm.