History of the Peloponnesian War

Now the mass of the Argives and their allies did not consider their present position so formidable; but fancied that the battle would be fought on favourable terms, and that they had intercepted the Lacedaemonians in their own country, and close by their city.

But two individuals of the Argives, Thrasyllus, one of the five generals, and Alciphron, the proxenus of the Lacedaemonians, when the armies were now on the very point of engaging, went to Agis, and in a conference urged him not to bring on a battle; since the Argives were prepared to give and accept fair and equal arbitration for whatever complaints the Lacedaemonians had against them, and to make a treaty and live in peace for the future.