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[1]
Thus they changed their bad laws to good ones, and when Lycurgus died they built him a temple and now worship him greatly. Since they had good land and many men, they immediately flourished and prospered. They were not content to live in peace, but, confident that they were stronger than the Arcadians, asked the oracle at Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi about gaining all the Arcadian land.
Thus they changed their bad laws to good ones, and when Lycurgus died they built him a temple and now worship him greatly. Since they had good land and many men, they immediately flourished and prospered. They were not content to live in peace, but, confident that they were stronger than the Arcadians, asked the oracle at Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi about gaining all the Arcadian land.
[2] She replied in hexameter:
You ask me for
Arcadia [22.25,37.583] (department), Peloponnese, Greece, Europe
Arcadia
? You ask too much; I grant it not.
There are many men in
Arcadia [22.25,37.583] (department), Peloponnese, Greece, Europe
Arcadia
, eaters of acorns,
Who will hinder you. But I grudge you not.
I will give you
Tegea [22.4,37.5] (Perseus)
Tegea
to beat with your feet in dancing,
And its fair plain to measure with a rope.
[3] When the
Lacedaemonians heard the oracle reported, they left the other
Arcadians alone and marched on
Tegea [22.4,37.5] (Perseus)
Tegea
carrying chains, relying on the deceptive oracle. They were confident they would enslave the
Tegeans, but they were defeated in battle.
[4] Those taken alive were bound in the very chains they had brought with them, and they measured the
Tegean plain with a rope
1
by working the fields. The chains in which they were bound were still preserved in my day, hanging up at the temple of
Athena Alea.
Histories. Herodotus. ed. A.D. Godley. Cambridge. 1920-1925.
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