Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/91

73 AGIS NEAR ARGOS. 73 city, ravaging Saminthus and other places, left their position at Neraea to come down to the plain and attack him. In their march they had a partial skirmish with the Corinthian division, vhich had reached a high ground immediately above the Argeian flain, and which lay nearly in the road. But this affair was indecisive, and they soon found themselves in the plain near to Agis and the Lacedaemonians, who lay between them and their city. On both sides, the armies were marshalled, and order taken for battle. But the situation of the Argeians was in reality little less than desperate : for while they had Agis and his division in their front, the Corinthian detachment was near enough to take them in flank, and the Boeotians marching along the undefended road through the Tretus would attack them in the rear. The Boeotian cavalry too would act with full effect upon them in the plain, since neither Argos, Elis, nor Mantineia, seemed to have possessed any horsemen ; a description of force which ought to have been sent from Athens, though from some cause which does not appear, the Athenian contingent had not yet arrived. Nevertheless, in spite of this very critical position, both the Ar- geians and their allies were elate with confidence and impatient for battle ; thinking only of the division of Agis immediate;/ in their front, which appeared to be inclosed between them <u:d their city, and taking no heed to the other formidable enemies in their flank and rear. But the Argeian generals were better aware than their soldiers of the real danger ; and just as the two armies were about to charge, Alkiphron, proxenus of the Lacedce- monians at Argos, accompanied Thrasyllus, one of the five generals of the Argeians, to a separate parley with Agis, without the least consultation or privity on the part of their own army. They exhorted Agis not to force on a battle, assuring him that the Argeians were ready both to give and receive equitable satisfac- tion, in all matters of complaint which the Lacedaemonians might urge against them, and to conclude a just peace for the future. Agis, at once acquiescing in the proposal, granted them a truce of four months to accomplish what they had promised. He on his part also took this step without consulting either his army or h:3 allies, simply addressing a few words of confidential talk to VOL. vn. 4