128.
Contrariwise, the Athenians required the Lacedaemonians to banish such as were guilty of breach of sanctuary at Taenarus.
For the Lacedaemonians, when they had caused their Helots, suppliants in the temple of Neptune at Taenarus, to forsake sanctuary, slew them: for which cause they themselves think it was that the great earthquake happened afterwards at Sparta.
[2]
Also they required them to purge their city of the pollution of sanctuary in the temple of Pallas Chalcioeca, which was thus.
[3]
After that Pausanias the Lacedaemonian was recalled by the Spartans from his charge in Hellespont, and having been called in question by them was absolved though he was no more sent abroad by the state, yet he went again into Hellespont in a galley of Hermione as a private man, without leave of the Lacedaemonians, to the Grecian war, as he gave out, but in truth to negotiate with the king, as he had before begun, aspiring to the principality of Greece.
[4]
Now the benefit that he had laid up with the king, and the beginning of the whole business, was at first from this.
[5]
When after his return from Cyprus he had taken Byzantium when he was there the first time (which, being holden by the Medes, there were taken in it some near to the king and of his kindred), unknown to the rest of the confederates he sent unto the king those near ones of his which he had taken and gave out they were run away.
[6]
This he practised with one Gongylus, an Eretrian, to whose charge he had committed both the town of Byzantium and the prisoners.
Also he sent letters unto him which Gongylus carried wherein, as was afterwards known, was thus written:
[7]
‘Pausanias, General of the Spartans, being desirous to do thee a courtesy, sendeth back unto thee these men whom he hath by arms taken prisoners.
And I have a purpose, if the same seem also good unto thee, to take thy daughter in marriage and to bring Sparta and the rest of Greece into thy subjection.
These things I account myself able to bring to pass if I may communicate my counsels with thee.
If, therefore, any of these things do like thee, send some trusty man to the seaside by whose mediation we may confer together.’
The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury. Thucydides. Thomas Hobbes. translator. London. Bohn. 1843.
This text was converted to electronic form by optical character recognition and has been proofread to a high level of accuracy.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.