Argives shall be on the same footing as the Argives, being left in
enjoyment of their own possessions.
8. This treaty shall be shown to the allies, and shall be concluded,
if they approve; if the allies think fit, they may send the treaty
to be considered at home.
The Argives began by accepting this proposal, and the
Lacedaemonian army returned home from Tegea. After this intercourse
was renewed between them, and not long afterwards the same party
contrived that the Argives should give up the league with the
Mantineans, Eleans, and Athenians, and should make a treaty and
alliance with the Lacedaemonians; which was consequently done upon the
terms following:
The Lacedaemonians and Argives agree to a treaty and alliance
for fifty years upon the terms following:
1. All disputes shall be decided by fair and impartial
arbitration, agreeably to the customs of the two countries.
2. The rest of the cities in Peloponnese may be included in this
treaty and alliance, as independent and sovereign, in full enjoyment
of what they possess, all disputes being decided by fair and impartial
arbitration, agreeably to the customs of the said cities.
3. All allies of the Lacedaemonians outside Peloponnese shall be
upon the same footing as the Lacedaemonians themselves, and the allies
of the Argives shall be upon the same footing as the Argives
themselves, continuing to enjoy what they possess.
4. If it shall be anywhere necessary to make an expedition in
common, the Lacedaemonians and Argives shall consult upon it and
decide, as may be most fair for the allies.
5. If any of the cities, whether inside or outside Peloponnese,
have a question whether of frontiers or otherwise, it must be settled,
but if one allied city should have a quarrel with another allied city,
it must be referred to some third city thought impartial by both
parties. Private citizens shall have their disputes decided
according to the laws of their several countries.
The treaty and above alliance concluded, each party at once released
everything whether acquired by war or otherwise, and thenceforth
acting in common voted to receive neither herald nor embassy from
the Athenians unless they evacuated their forts and withdrew from
Peloponnese, and also to make neither peace nor war with any, except
jointly. Zeal was not wanting: both parties sent envoys to the
Thracian places and to Perdiccas, and persuaded the latter to join
their league. Still he did not at once break off from Athens, although
minded to do so upon seeing the way shown him by Argos, the original
home of his family. They also renewed their old oaths with the
Chalcidians and took new ones: the Argives, besides, sent
ambassadors to the Athenians, bidding them evacuate the fort at
Epidaurus. The Athenians, seeing their own men outnumbered by the rest
of the garrison, sent Demosthenes to bring them out. This general,
under colour of a gymnastic contest which he arranged on his
arrival, got the rest of the garrison out of the place, and shut the
gates behind them. Afterwards the Athenians renewed their treaty
with the Epidaurians, and by themselves gave up the fortress.
After the defection of Argos from the league, the Mantineans, though
they held out at first, in the end finding themselves powerless
without the Argives, themselves too came to terms with Lacedaemon, and
gave up their sovereignty over the towns. The Lacedaemonians and
Argives, each a thousand strong, now took the field together, and
the former first went by themselves to Sicyon and made the
government there more oligarchical than before, and then both,
uniting, put down the democracy at Argos and set up an oligarchy
favourable to Lacedaemon. These events occurred at the close of the
winter, just before spring; and the fourteenth year of the war
ended. The next summer the people of Dium, in Athos, revolted from the
Athenians to the Chalcidians, and the Lacedaemonians settled affairs
in Achaea in a way more agreeable to the interests of their country.