Summer [V 82]

The following summer the people of Dium on Mount Athos seceded from Athens to join the Chalcedonians, and the Spartans reorganised affairs in Achaea to suit their own interests better than before. Meanwhile the popular movement in Argos, which had been gradually consolidating its position and recovering its confidence, attacked the oligarchs there, delaying their move to coincide exactly with the celebrations of the Gymnopaediae by the Spartans. There was a battle in the city in which the people got the upper hand, killing some of their opponents and driving others out. Although Sparta's friends in Argos kept sending for their support, for a long time the Spartans did not come; eventually, however, they put off the Gymnopaediae and went to help. But when they learned at Tegea that the oligarchs had been defeated the Spartans refused to go any further, despite the appeals of the fugitives from the city, and returned home to proceed with the festival. Later on representatives from the Argives in the city and from those outside it joined a meeting with the allies present where a great deal was said on each side. The Spartans concluded that the people in the city were in the wrong and decided on military action against Argos, but there were delays and procrastinations. Meanwhile, the people at Argos, in fear of the Spartans and seeking to re-establish an alliance with the Athenians, which they still thought their best hope, started building long walls down to the sea. Their thought was that if they were cut off on the landward side they would still have the advantage, with the help of the Athenians, of being able to import supplies by sea. Some of the cities in the Peloponnese also had inside knowledge about this work of fortification.