Histories

These men, then, were bound and put to death. After that, the Athenians sent to bring back Cleisthenes and the seven hundred households banished by Cleomenes. Then, desiring to make an alliance with the Persians, they despatched envoys to Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis, for they knew that they had provoked the Lacedaemonians and Cleomenes to war.

When the envoys came to Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis and spoke as they had been bidden, Artaphrenes son of Hystaspes, viceroy of Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis, asked them, “What men are you and where do you live, who desire alliance with the Persians?” When he had received the information he wanted from the envoys, he gave them an answer the substance of which was that if the Athenians gave king Darius earth and water, then he would make an alliance with them, but if not, his command was that they should depart.

The envoys consulted together, and in their desire to make the alliance, they consented to give what was asked. They then returned to their own country and were there greatly blamed for what they had done.

Cleomenes, however, fully aware that the Athenians had done him wrong in word and deed, mustered an army from the whole of the +Peloponnese [22,37.5] (region), Greece, Europe Peloponnesus. He did not declare the purpose for which he mustered it, namely to avenge himself on the Athenian people and set up Isagoras, who had come with him out of the acropolis, as tyrant.

Cleomenes broke in as far as +Eleusis [23.5583,38.0417] (Perseus) Eleusis with a great host, and the Boeotians, by a concerted plan, took Oenoe and Hysiae, districts on the borders of Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica, while the Chalcidians attacked on another side and raided lands in Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica. The Athenians, who were now caught in a ring of foes, decided to oppose the Spartans at +Eleusis [23.5583,38.0417] (Perseus) Eleusis and to deal with the Boeotians and Chalcidians later.

When the armies were about to join battle, the Corinthians, coming to the conclusion that they were acting wrongly, changed their minds and departed. Later Demaratus son of Ariston, the other king of Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta, did likewise, despite the fact that he had come with Cleomenes from Sparta [22.416,37.83] (inhabited place), Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece, Europe Lacedaemon in joint command of the army and had not till now been at variance with him.