Initially, he had agreed, but then Boris Johnson played Pericles, who advised the Athenians not to revoke the Megarian Decree. It didn’t come out well for Pericles, Athens, and Boris. Or Melos, that could be substituted for modern Ukraine.

Now, three years of senseless carnage later, we at last see (post)modern incarnation of Polyalces sent to Zelensky with a proposal to turn his decree forbidding peace talks with Russia to the wall.