himself master of the island of Minoa, by means of which he shortly
afterwards captured the port of Nisæa, while he also landed his troops
in the Corinthian territory, and beat a Corinthian army which marched
against him, killing many of them, and amongst others Lykophron their
general. On this occasion he accidentally neglected to bury the
corpses of two of his own men who had fallen. As soon as he discovered
this omission, he at once halted his army, and sent a herald to the
enemy to demand the bodies for burial, notwithstanding that by Greek
custom the party which after a battle demand a truce for the burial of
the dead, are understood thereby to admit that they have been
defeated, and it is not thought light for them to erect a trophy in
commemoration of their victory; for the victors remain in possession
of the field of battle, and of the bodies of the dead, and the
vanquished ask for their dead because they are not able to come and
take them. Nevertheless, Nikias thought it right to forego all the
credit of his victory rather than leave two of his countrymen
unburied. He also laid waste the seaboard of Laconia, defeated a
Lacedæmonian force which opposed him,and took Thyrea, which was
garrisoned by Æginetans, whom he brought prisoners to Athens.

VII. Now when Demosthenes threw up a fortification at Pylos, and after
the Peloponnesians had attacked him by sea and by land, some four
hundred Spartans wore left on the island of Sphakteria, the Athenians
thought that it was a matter of great importance, as indeed it was, to
take them prisoners. Yet, as it proved laborious and difficult to
blockade them on the island, because the place was desert and
waterless, so that provisions had to be brought from a great distance
by sea, which was troublesome enough in summer, and would be quite
impossible in winter, they began to be weary of the enterprise, and
were sorry that they had rejected the proposals for peace which had