History of the Peloponnesian War

And the generals accepted their proposals, seeing the distress which the army was suffering in an exposed place, and taking into consideration that Athens had already spent two thousand talents[*](£400,000, $1,944,000.) on the siege.

So a capitulation was made on the following terms, that the Potidaeans, with their children and wives and the mercenary troops,[*](Thuc. 1.60.1.) were to leave the city with one garment apiece—the women, however, with two—retaining a fixed sum of money for the journey.

So they left Potidaea under a truce and went into Chalcidice or wherever each was able to go. The Athenians, however, blamed the generals for granting terms without consulting them—for they thought they could have become masters of the place on their own terms; and afterwards sent settlers of their own into Potidaea and colonized it. These things happened in the winter, and so ended the second[*](430 B.C.) year of this war of which Thucydides wrote the history.

In the ensuing summer the Peloponnesians and their allies did not invade Attica, but made an expedition against Plataea. Their leader was Archidamus son of Zeuxidamus, king of the Lacedaemonians, and when he had encamped his army he was about to ravage the land; but the Plataeans straightway sent envoys to him, who spoke as follows: "