Page:Key to Easy Latin Stories for beginners.djvu/79

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who had pointed out to the foe the way to take their country, and had opened to Miltiades sacred things, which it was not right to be shown to men. But the priestess of Apollo said ‘no,’ saying, that Timo herself was not the cause of this thing: but that, since it was fated that Miltiades should end his life badly, this woman had been sent by the gods as a guide for him to evil. This indeed was the answer of the priestess to the Parians.

Disgrace and death of Miltiades.

208.But on his return from Paros, both all other Athenians began to accuse Miltiades, and especially (lit. compared with the rest) Xanthippus, son of Ariphron, who brought him before the people as a criminal on a capital charge, as having (lit. in that he) had deceived the Athenians by an evil trick. And Miltiades himself, although he was present, made no answer to this accusation, nor was he able, as his thigh was already mortifying. But while he lay on a couch in the midst, his friends pleaded his case for him, making frequent mention of the battle of Marathon. But, while the people favoured him so far as to set him free from the capital charge, yet as to fine him (in the sum of) 500 talents on account of the loss inflicted on the state, Miltiades, indeed, died not long after, his thigh having become rotten by the corruption of the bone; however, his son Cimon paid the 500 talents.

XVIII.EXPEDITION OF CLEOMENES AGAINST ARGOS.

A subterranean stream.

209.Answer had been made to Cleomenes, the Spartan king, when consulting the Oracle of Delphi, ‘that he would take Argos.’ So he set out with his army to the territory of the Argives. But after coming to the river Erasinus, which they affirm flows from the Stymphalian lake (for they say that this lake, after discharging itself into a hidden whirlpool, appears again in Argolis, and that thence this water is called Erasinus by the Argives), he sacrificed victims to the river. But on its