“The land of Arcadia thou askest; thou askest me much; I refuse it;
Many there are in Arcadian land, stout men, eating acorns;
These will prevent thee from this: but I am not grudging towards thee;
Tegea beaten with sounding feet I will give thee to dance in,
And a fair plain I will give thee to measure with line and divide it.”
When the Lacedaemonians heard report of this, they held off from the other Arcadians, and marched against the Tegeans with fetters in their hands, trusting to a deceitful84 oracle and expecting that they would make slaves of the men of Tegea. But having been worsted in the encounter, those of them who were taken alive worked wearing the fetters which they themselves brought with them and having “measured with line and divided”85 the plain of the Tegeans. And these fetters with which they had been bound were preserved even to my own time at Tegea, hanging about the temple of Athene Alea.86 67. In the former war then I say they struggled against the Tegeans continually with ill success; but in the time of Croesus and in the reign of Anaxandrides and Ariston at Lacedaemon the Spartans had at length become victors in the war; and they became so in the following manner:—As they continued to be always worsted in the war by the men of Tegea, they sent messengers to consult the Oracle at Delphi and inquired what god they should propitiate in order to get the better of the men of Tegea in the war: and the Pythian prophetess made answer to them that they should bring into their land the bones of Orestes the son of Agamemnon. Then as they were not able to find the grave of Orestes, they sent men again to go to the god and to inquire about the spot where Orestes was laid: and when the messengers who were sent asked this, the prophetess said as follows:
“Tegea there is, in Arcadian land, in a smooth place founded;
Where there do blow two blasts by strong compulsion together;
Stroke too there is and stroke in return, and trouble on trouble.
There Agamemnon’s son in the life-giving earth is reposing;
Him if thou bring with thee home, of Tegea thou shalt be master.”87
When the Lacedaemonians had heard this they were none the less far from finding it out, though they searched all places; until the time that Lichas, one of those Spartans who are called “Well-doers,”88 discovered it. Now the “Well-doers” are of the citizens the eldest who are passing from the ranks of the “Horsemen,” in each year five; and these are bound during that year in which they pass out from the “Horsemen,” to allow themselves to be sent without ceasing to various places by the Spartan State. 68. Lichas then, being one of these, discovered it in Tegea by means both of fortune and ability. For as there were at that time dealings under truce with the men of Tegea, he had come to a forge there and was looking at iron being wrought; and he was in wonder as he saw that which was being done. The smith therefore, perceiving that he marvelled at it, ceased from his work and said: “Surely, thou stranger of Lacedaemon, if thou hadst seen that which I once saw, thou wouldst have marvelled much, since now it falls out that thou dost marvel so greatly at the working of this iron; for I, desiring in this enclosure to make a well, lighted in my digging upon a coffin of seven cubits in length; and not believing that ever there had been men larger than those of the present day, I opened it, and I saw that the dead body was equal in length to the coffin: then after I had measured it, I filled in the earth over it again.” He then thus told him of that which he had seen; and the other, having thought upon that which was told, conjectured that this was Orestes according to the saying of the Oracle, forming his conjecture in the following manner:—whereas he saw that the smith had two pairs of bellows, he concluded that these were the winds spoken of, and that the anvil and the hammer were the stroke and the stroke in return, and that the iron which was being wrought was the trouble laid upon trouble, making comparison by the thought that iron has been discovered for the evil of mankind. Having thus conjectured he came back to Sparta and declared the whole matter to the Lacedaemonians; and they brought a charge against him on a fictitious pretext and drove him out into exile.89 So having come to Tegea, he told the smith of his evil fortune and endeavoured to hire from him the enclosure, but at first he would not allow him to have it: at length however Lichas persuaded him and he took up his abode there; and he dug up the grave and gathered together the bones and went with them away to Sparta. From that time, whenever they made trial of one another, the Lacedaemonians had much the advantage in the war; and by now they had subdued to themselves the greater part of Peloponnesus besides.
69. Croesus accordingly being informed of all these things was sending messengers to Sparta with gifts in their hands to ask for an alliance, having commanded them what they ought to say: and they when they came said: “Croesus king of the Lydians and also of other nations sent us hither and saith as follows: O Lacedaemonians, whereas the god by an oracle bade me join with myself the Hellene as a friend, therefore, since I am informed that ye are the chiefs of Hellas, I invite you according to
