History of the Peloponnesian War

But after the tyrants of the Athenians and those in the rest of Greece, (which even at an earlier period [*]( i. e. than the Athenians.) was for a long time subject to tyrants,) the most and last, excepting those in Sicily, had been deposed by the Lacedaemonians; (for Lacedaemon, after the settlement of the Dorians who now inhabit it, though torn by factions for the longest time of any country that we are acquainted with, yet from the earliest period enjoyed good laws, and was always free from tyrants; for it is about four hundred years, or a little more, to the end of this war, that the Lacedaemonians have been in possession of the same form of government; and being for this reason powerful, they settled matters in the other states also;) after, [*]( A common force of δέ after a long parenthesis.) I say, the deposition of the tyrants in the rest of Greece, not many years subsequently the battle of Marathon was fought between the Medes and Athenians.