History of the Peloponnesian War

This distich then the Lacedaemonians at the very time erased from the tripod, and engraved by name all the cities that had joined in overthrowing the barbarian, and had dedicated the offering. This, however, was considered to be an act of guilt in Pausanias; and since he had put himself in his present position, it appeared to have been done in much closer keeping with his present views. They also heard that he was tampering with the Helots; and it was the fact too;

for he was promising them liberation and citizenship, if they would join in an insurrection, and in carrying out the whole of his plan. But not even then did they think right to [*]( Or, even though they believed some of the Helots who had informed against him. ) believe even any of the Helots [themselves] as informers, and to proceed to any great severity against him;

acting according to the custom which they usually observe towards their own citizens, not to be hasty in adopting any extreme measure in the case of a Spartan without unquestionable evidence: until a man of Argilus, it is said, who was about to carry to Artabazus the last letter for the king, and who had before been his favourite and very much trusted by him, gave information to them; having been alarmed at a thought which struck him, that none of the messengers before him had hitherto come back again; and so, having counterfeited the seal, in order that if he were mistaken in his surmise, or if Pausanias should ask to make some alteration in the writing, he might not discover it, he opened the letter, and found written in it—having suspected [*](προσεπεστάλθαι. The same verb occurs with the same force of the πρὸς II. 85. 6, τῷ δὲ κομίζοντι αὐτας προσεπέστειλαν ἐς κρήτην πρῶτον ἀφικέσθαι.) some additional order of the kind—directions to put him also to death.