And this the Argives did the more willingly admit, as well for that they saw the Lacedaemonians would make war upon them (for the truce between them was now upon expiring), as also because they hoped to have the principality of Peloponnesus. For about this time Lacedaemon had but a bad report and was in contempt for the losses it had received. And the Argives in all points were in good estate, as not having concurred in the Attic war, but rather been at peace with both, and thereby gotten in their revenue.
First of all, therefore, came in the Mantineans and their confederates, which they did for fear of the Lacedaemonians. For a part of Arcadia, during the war of Athens, was come under the obedience of the Mantineans, over which they thought the Lacedaemonians, now they were at rest, would not permit them any longer to command; and therefore they willingly joined with the Argives, as being, they thought, a great city, ever enemy to the Lacedaemonians, and governed as their own by democracy.