History of the Peloponnesian War

For they charged that he, along with his brother Aristocles, had bribed the priestess at Delphi constantly to answer the Lacedaemonians, whenever they came to consult the oracle: “Bring back the seed of the demigod, son of Zeus, from the foreign land to your own; otherwise you shall plough with a silver plough-share”[*](ie. as the schol. explains, there would be a pestilence, and they would buy food at a very high price, as it were using silver tools.);

and that in course of time she had induced the Lacedaemonians to bring him back from banishment in the twentieth year[*](427 B.C. since he had left the country in 446. cf. 1.114.2 and 2.21.1.) with like dances and sacrifices as when at the founding of Lacedaemon they had first enthroned their kings. For he had fled for refuge to Mt. Lycaeum,[*](A mountain in Arcadia on which was an ancient sanctuary of Zeus.) on account of his retreat from Attica, that was thought to be due to bribery, and through fear of the Lacedaemonians had occupied at that time a house whereof the half was within the sanctuary of Zeus.