herodotus

own home. 64. Thus then the Athenians did, and so Peisistratos for thethird time obtained possession of Athens, and he firmly rooted hisdespotism by many foreign mercenaries and by much revenue of money,coming partly from the land itself and partly from about the riverStrymon, and also by taking as hostages the sons of those Athenianswho had remained in the land and had not at once fled, and placingthem in the hands of Naxos; for this also Peisistratos conquered bywar and delivered into the charge of Lygdamis. Moreover besides thishe cleansed the island of Delos in obedience to the oracles; and hiscleansing was of the following kind:--so far as the view from thetemple extended[77] he dug up all the dead bodies which were buried inthis part and removed them to another part of Delos. So Peisistratoswas despot of the Athenians; but of the Athenians some had fallen inthe battle, and others of them with the sons of Alcmaion were exilesfrom their native land.65. Such was the condition of things which Crœsus heard was prevailingamong the Athenians during this time; but as to the Lacedemonians heheard that they had escaped from great evils and had now got thebetter of the Tegeans in the war. For when Leon and Hegesicles werekings of Sparta, the Lacedemonians, who had good success in all theirother wars, suffered disaster in that alone which they waged againstthe men of Tegea. Moreover in the times before this they had the worstlaws of almost all the Hellenes, both in matters which concernedthemselves alone and also in that they had no dealings with strangers.And they made their change to a good constitution of laws thus:--Lycurgos, a man of the Spartans who was held in high repute, came tothe Oracle at Delphi, and as he entered the sanctuary of thetemple,[40] straightway the Pythian prophetess said as follows:"Lo, thou art come, O Lycurgos, to this rich shrine of my temple,Loved thou by Zeus and by all who possess the abodes of Olympos.Whether to call thee a god, I doubt, in my voices prophetic,God or a man, but rather a god I think, O Lycurgos."Some say in addition to this that the Pythian prophetess also setforth to him the order of things which is now established for theSpartans; but the Lacedemonians themselves say that Lycurgos havingbecome guardian of Leobotes his brother's son, who was king of theSpartans, brought in these things from Crete. For as soon as he becameguardian, he changed all the prevailing laws, and took measures thatthey should not transgress his institutions: and after this Lycurgosestablished that which appertained to war, namely /Enomoties/ and/Triecads/ and Common Meals,[77a] and in addition to this the Ephorsand the Senate. [66] Having changed thus, the Spartans had good laws;and to Lycurgos after he was dead they erected a temple, and they pay