Histories

After this the Lacedaemonians sent out a greater army to attack Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens, appointing as its general their king Cleomenes son of Anaxandrides. This army they sent not by sea but by land.

When they broke into Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica, the Thessalian horsemen were the first to meet them. They were routed after only a short time, and more than forty men were slain. Those who were left alive made off for +Thessaly [22.25,39.5] (region), Greece, Europe Thessaly by the nearest way they could. Then Cleomenes, when he and the Athenians who desired freedom came into the city, drove the tyrants' family within the Pelasgic wall[*](An ancient fortification on the N.W. slope of the Acropolis.) and besieged them there.

The Lacedaemonians would never have taken the Pisistratid stronghold. First of all they had no intention to blockade it, and secondly the Pisistratidae were well furnished with food and drink. The Lacedaemonians would only have besieged the place for a few days and then returned to Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta. As it was, however, there was a turn of fortune which harmed the one party and helped the other, for the sons of the Pisistratid family were taken as they were being secretly carried out of the country.

When this happened, all their plans were confounded, and they agreed to depart from Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica within five days on the terms prescribed to them by the Athenians in return for the recovery of their children.