Book 5
2.8
And now the exiles from Phlius, as they observed384 B.C. that the Lacedaemonians were investigating to see what sort of friends their several allies had proved to be to them during the war, thinking that it was an opportune time, proceeded to Lacedaemon and set forth that so long as they were at home in Phlius, the city had received the Lacedaemonians within its walls, and its people had gone with them on their campaigns wherever they led the way; but that after the Phliasians had driven them into exile, they had declined to follow anywhere, and had refused to receive the Lacedaemonians — and them alone of all384 B.C. men — within their gates.
2.9
When the ephors heard these things, they decided that the matter deserved attention. Accordingly they sent to the city of the Phliasians and said that the exiles were friends of the Lacedaemonian state and had been exiled for no wrong-doing. They said further that they deemed it proper to effect their return from banishment, not by compulsion, but by voluntary consent of the Phliasians. Upon hearing this the Phliasians conceived the fear that if the Lacedaemonians made an expedition against them, some of the people within the walls would let them into the city. For not only were there many kinsmen of the exiles in the city, and people who were friendly to them for other reasons, but also, as is indeed usual in most cities, some desired a change of government and therefore wanted to bring back the exiles.
2.10
On account, then, of such fears, the Phliasians voted to take back the exiles and to restore to them their undisputed property, those who had purchased such property to recover the price of it from the public treasury; and if any dispute should arise in any case between these purchasers and the exiles, it was to be settled by legal process. Thus ended, in its turn, this incident of the Phliasian exiles at that time.
