To Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens and Sparta Xerxes sent no heralds to demand earth, and this he did for the following reason. When Darius had previously sent men with this same purpose, those who made the request were cast at the one city into the Pit 1 and at the other into a well, and bidden to obtain their earth and water for the king from these locations.
Histories. Herodotus. ed. A.D. Godley. Cambridge. 1920-1925.
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