Hellenica

But when they were at Sellasia, near Laconia, and the ephors learned from them what proposals they were bringing,—the same, namely, as those which they had presented to Agis,—they directed them to go back again without coming[*](405 B.C.) a step farther and, if they really had any desire for peace, to take better counsel before they returned.

And when the ambassadors reached home and reported this to the people, despondency descended upon all; for they imagined that they would be reduced to slavery, and that while they were sending another set of ambassadors, many would die of the famine.

Nevertheless, no one wanted to make any proposal involving the destruction of the walls; for when Archestratus said in the Senate that it was best to make peace with the Lacedaemonians on the terms they offered—and the terms were that they should tear down a portion ten stadia long of each of the two long walls,—he was thrown into prison, and a decree was passed forbidding the making of a proposal of this sort.

This being the condition of affairs in Athens, Theramenes said in the Assembly that if they were willing to send him to Lysander, he would find out before he came back whether the Lacedaemonians were insistent in the matter of the walls because they wished to reduce the city to slavery, or in order to obtain a guarantee of good faith. Upon being sent, however, he stayed with Lysander three months and more, waiting for the time when, on account of the failure of provisions, the Athenians would agree to anything and everything which might be proposed.