Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/158

 150 HASTY PEACE CONCLUDED [v offer and accept a fair arbitration, if the Lacedaemonians had any complaint to make of them ; they would gladly conclude a treaty, and be at peace for the future. 60 Ihese Argives spoke of their own motion; they had no The trrnc is accepted authority from the people; and Agis, by Agis. The maguifi- likewise on his own authority, accepted cent army of the Pelo- ji^^^jj. proposals, not Conferring with his pomtesiaiis nozv returns. , 1 • 1 hon,e. They find great Countrymen at large, but only with one fault with their com- of the Lacedaemonian magistrates who manders, accompanied the expedition. He made a treaty with the Argives for four months, within which they were to execute their agreement, and then, without saying a word to any of the allies, he at once withdrew his army. The Lacedaemonians and their allies followed Agis out of respect for the law, but they blamed him severely among themselves. For they believed that they had lost a glorious opportunity ; their enemies had been surrounded on every side both by horse and foot ; and yet they were returning home having done nothing worthy of their great effort. — No finer Hellenic arm}^ had ever up to that day been collected ; its appearance was most striking at Nemca while the host was still one ; the Lace- daemonians were there in their full strength ; arrayed by their side were Arcadians, Boeotians, Corinthians, Sicyonians, Pellenians, Phliasians, and Megarians, from each state chosen men — they might have been thought a match not only for the Argive confederacy, but for another as large. — So the army returned and dispersed to their homes, much out of humour with Agis. The Argives on their part found still greater fault with and the Argives still those who had made the peace, gr^c'^''- unauthorised by the people ; they too thought that such an opportunity would never recur, and that it was the Lacedaemonians who had escaped, for the combat would have taken place close to their own city, and they had numerous and brave allies. And so, as they were retreating and had reached the bed of the Charadrus,