History of the Peloponnesian War

During this same summer there arrived at Athens thirteen hundred peltasts of the dirk-bearing Thracians of the tribe of Dii, who were to have sailed to Sicily with Demosthenes. But since they came too late, the Athenians were disposed to send them back to Thrace whence they had come.

To keep them for the war that was being carried on from Deceleia seemed too expensive, since each received as pay a drachma a day.

It should be explained regarding Deceleia that, from the time when it was first fortified during this summer by the entire army and was then regularly occupied for the annoyance of the country by garrisons furnished by the several allied states and succeeding each other at fixed intervals of time, its occupation did much harm to the Athenians, and by destruction of property and wastage of men was one of the chief causes that brought ruin to their cause.