History of the Peloponnesian War

And wherever they charged no one could withstand them, for they were good horsemen and protected by cuirasses; but since they were constantly being hemmed in by superior numbers and found themselves imperilled by the horde that was many times their own number, they finally desisted, thinking that they were not strong enough to fight with the larger force.

Sitalces now began to hold parleys with Perdiccas about the matters for which he had undertaken the expedition; and since the Athenians (who did not believe that Sitalces would come, though they sent gifts and envoys to him) had not arrived with their promised fleet, he despatched part of his army into the territory of the Chalcidians and Bottiaeans, and shutting them up within their walls ravaged their lands.

But while he was staying in the neighbourhood of these places, the peoples which dwell to the south—the Thessalians, the Magnesians and other subjects of the Thessalians, and the Hellenes as far south as Thermopylaebecame frightened lest the host should come against them also, and so were making preparations.