The histories of Herodotus;

174 HERODOTUS—BOOK III, THALIA [53-55
dull of intellect. But Lycophron did not deign to give an
answer to the bearer of the message. Nevertheless Periander,
having a strong affection for the youth, next sent to him his
sister, who was his own daughter, thinking she would be most
likely to persuade him. On her arrival she thus addressed
him " : Brother, would you that the government should pass
to others, and that your father's family should be utterly destroyed,
rather than yourself return and possess it? Come
home, then, and cease to punish yourself. Obstinacy is a
sorry possession : think not to cure one evil by another. Many
have preferred equity to strict justice; and many, ere this,
in seeking their mother's rights have lost their father's inheritance.
A kingdom is an uncertain possession, and many
are suitors for it. He is now old, and past the vigour of life.
Do not give your own to others." Thus she, having been
instructed by her father, said what was most likely to persuade
him. But he in answer said that he would never return
to Corinth so long as he should hear his father was living.
When she brought back this answer, Periander sent a third
time by a herald to say that he himself intended to go to
Corcyra; and urged him to return to Corinth and become
his successor in the kingdom. The son consenting to this
proposal, Periander prepared to set out for Corcyra, and his
son for Corinth; but the Corcyraeans being informed of each
particular, in order that Periander might not come to their
country, killed the young man : and in return for this Periander
took vengeance on the Corcyraeans.
The Lacedaemonians, arriving with a great armament, besieged
Samos, and having attacked the fortifications, they
had passed beyond the tower that faced the sea near the
suburbs ; but afterward, when Polycrates himself advanced
with a large force, they were driven back. Immediately after,
the auxiliaries and many of the Samians poured down from
the upper tower, which stands on the ridge of the mountain
and having withstood the Lacedaemonians for a short time,
they fled back again, and the enemy pursued them with great
slaughter. Now, if all the Lacedaemonians who were present
on that day had behaved as well as Archias and Lycopas,
Samos would have been taken. For Archias and Lycopas
alone rushing on with the Samians as they fled to the wall,
and being shut out from retreat, died in the city of the Samians.
Another Archias, the son of Samius, son of Archias,
the third in descent from this Archias, I myself met with, in
Pitane, for he was of that tribe. He esteemed the Samians
above all other strangers, and said that the surname of Samian
;