The histories of Herodotus;

105-108] MARATHON 353
the torch race. This Phidippides, being sent by the generals
at that time when he said Pan appeared to him, arrived in
Sparta on the following day after his departure from the city
of the Athenians, and on coming in presence of the magistrates,
he said : " Lacedaemonians, the Athenians entreat you
to assist them, and not to suffer the most ancient city among
the Greeks to fall into bondage to barbarians : for Eretria is
already reduced to slavery, and Greece has become weaker
by the loss of a renowned city." He accordingly delivered the
message according to his instructions, and they resolved indeed
to assist the Athenians; but it was out of their power
to do so immediately, as they were unwilling to violate the
law : for it was the ninth day of the current month ; and they
said they could not march out on the ninth day, the moon's
circle not being full. They, therefore, waited for the full
moon.
Meanwhile Hippias, son of Pisistratus, had led the bar-
barians to Marathon, having the preceding night seen the
following vision in his sleep : Hippias fancied that he lay with
his own mother; he inferred, therefore, from the dream, that
having returned to Athens and recovered the sovereignty,
he should die an old man in his own country. He drew this
inference from the vision. At that time, as he was leading
the way, he first of all landed the slaves from Eretria on the
island of the Styreans, called ^gilia ; and next he moored the
ships as they came to Marathon, and drew up the barbarians
as they disembarked on land : and as he was busied in doing
this, it happened that he sneezed and coughed more violently
than he was accustomed ; and as he was far advanced in years,
several of his teeth were loose, so that through the violence
of his cough he threw out one of these teeth ; and as it fell
on the sand, he used every endeavour to find it, but when the
tooth could nowhere be found, he drew a deep sigh, and said
to the bystanders : " This country is not ours, nor shall we
be able to subdue it ; whatever share belongeth to me, my
tooth possesses." Hippias accordingly inferred that his vision
had been thus fulfilled.
When the Athenians were drawn up in a place sacred to
Hercules, the Plataeans came to their assistance with all their
forces. For the Plataeans had given themselves up to the
Athenians, and the Athenians had already undergone many
toils on their account : and they gave themselves up on the
following occasion :
The Plataeans, being hard pressed by the
Thebans, first offered themselves to Cleomenes, son of Anaxandrides,
and to the Lacedaemonians who happened to be
23