History of the Peloponnesian War

All the rest of the prisoners they had taken of the Athenians and their allies they sent down into the stone-quarries, thinking it the safest way to keep them; but Nicias and Demosthenes they put to the sword, though against the wish of Gylippus. For he thought that it would be a glorious achievement if, in addition to his other successes, he could also bring the generals of the enemy home to the Lacedaemonians.

And it so happened that the one, Demosthenes, was regarded by the Lacedaemonians as their bitterest foe, on account of what had taken place on the island of Sphacteria and at Pylos; the other, for the same reason, as a very good friend; for Nicias had eagerly desired[*](cf. v. xvi. 1.) that the Lacedaemonian prisoners taken on the island should be released, when he urged the Athenians to make peace.