History of the Peloponnesian War

So the Athenians, on the advice of Alcibiades, inscribed at the bottom of the Laconian column that the Lacedaemonians had not kept their oaths, and they brought to Pylos the Helots from Cranii,[*](cf. 5.35.7.) to plunder the country;

but in other respects they kept quiet. During this winter, although the Argives and Epidaurians were at war, there was no pitched battle, but there were ambuscades and forays, in which some perished on either side as the chance might be.

As winter was closing and spring at hand, the Argives came with scaling-ladders against Epidaurus, supposing, as it was stripped of its defenders by the war, that they could take it by assault; but they accomplished nothing and went back home. And the winter ended and with it the thirteenth year of the war.

In the middle of the following summer, the[*](418 B.C.) Lacedaemonians, seeing that their Epidaurian allies were in distress, and of the other states in the Peloponnesus some had revolted, while others were not well-disposed, and thinking that if measures of precaution were not taken quickly the evil would go yet further, marched against Argos with all their forces, themselves and their Helots, under the leadership of Agis son of Archidamus, king of

the Lacedaemonians. And with them went the Tegeates and all the rest of the Arcadians that were allies of the Lacedaemonians. But the allies from the rest of the Peloponnesus and those from outside mustered at Phlius—five thousand Boeotian hoplites and as many light-armed troops, with five hundred cavalry each with his foot-soldier;[*](ἅμιπποι, light-armed men, one with each horseman, running alongside or riding behind.) two thousand Corinthian hoplites; the rest of the allies in varying numbers, but the Phliasians with their whole force, since the armament was assembled in their territory.