History of the Peloponnesian War

That the contracting parties shall show these conditions to the allies, and enter into agreement with them, if they seem satisfactory to them; but that if any thing else seem good to the allies, they shall send them away home.

This proposal the Argives in the first place accepted, and the army of the Lacedaemonians returned home from Tegea. Afterwards, when intercourse with each other was now held by them, not long subsequently the same party again contrived that the Argives should renounce their alliance with the Mantineans, Eleans, and Athenians, and conclude a treaty and alliance with the Lacedaemonians; which were to this effect:

The following are the terms on which it seemed good to the Lacedaemonians and Argives that a treaty and alliance should be concluded between them for fifty years.—That they shall afford to each other judicial decision of differences, on fair and equal terms, according to the institutions of their fathers.—That the other states in the Peloponnese shall participate in this treaty and alliance, as independent and self-governed, retaining their own possessions, and affording fair and equal judicial decisions, according to the institutions of their fathers.—