The histories of Herodotus;

422 HERODOTUS—BOOK VII, POLYMNIA [170-173
coming to assist the Tarentines, thus perished to the number
of three thousand ;
but of the Tarentines themselves no number
was given. This Micythus was a servant of Anaxilaus,
and had been left in charge of Rhegium. He is the same person
that was expelled from Rhegium, and who, having settled
in Tegea, a city of Arcadia, dedicated the many statues in
Olympia. These events relating to the Rhegians and Taren-
tines are a digression from my history. To Crete, then, destitute
of inhabitants, as the Prsesians say, other men, and especially
the Grecians, went, and settled there; and in the third
generation after the death of Minos the Trojan war took place,
in which the Cretans proved themselves not the worst avengers
of Menelaus : as a punishment for this, when they returned
from Troy, famine and pestilence fell both on themselves and
their cattle; so that Crete being a second time depopulated,
the Cretans are the third people who, with those that were
left, now inhabit it. The Pythian, therefore, putting them in
mind of these things, checked them in their desire to assist
4Grecians.
The Thessalians at first sided with the Mede from neces-
_, as they showed, in that the intrigues of the Aleuadae did
not please them. For as soon as they were informed that the
Persian was about to cross over into Europe, they sent ambassadors
to the isthmus; and at the isthmus deputies from
Greece were assembled chosen from those cities that were
better disposed toward Greece. The ambassadors of the Thes-
salians, having come to them, said : " Men of Greece, it is
necessary to guard the pass of Olympus, that Thessaly and
all Greece may be sheltered from the war. Now we are ready
to assist in guarding it, but you also must send a large army
for if you will not send, be assured, we shall come to terms
with the Persian : for it is not right that we, who are situated
so far in advance of the rest of Greece, should perish alone
in your defence. If you will not assist us, you can not impose
any obligation upon us; for obligation was ever inferior to
inability; and we must ourselves endeavour to contrive some
means of safety." Thus spoke the Thessalians. And the
Grecians thereupon resolved to send an army by sea to Thessaly,
to guard the pass ; and when the army was assembled,
it sailed through the Euripus, and having arrived at Alus of
Achaia, debarked, and marched to Thessaly, having left the
ships there ; and arrived at Tempe, at the pass that leads from
the lower Macedonia into Thessaly, by the river Peneus, between
Mount Olympus and Ossa. There heavy armed troops
of the Grecians, being assembled together to the number of
;