herodotus

has a fear of the camel and cannot endure either to see his form or toscent his smell: for this reason then the trick had been devised, inorder that the cavalry of Crœsus might be useless, that very forcewherewith the Lydian king was expecting most to shine. And as theywere coming together to the battle, so soon as the horses scented thecamels and saw them they turned away back, and the hopes of Crœsuswere at once brought to nought. The Lydians however for their part didnot upon that act as cowards, but when they perceived what was comingto pass they leapt from their horses and fought with the Persians onfoot. At length, however, when many had fallen on either side, theLydians turned to flight; and having been driven within the wall oftheir fortress they were besieged by the Persians.81. By these then a siege had been established: but Crœsus, supposingthat the siege would last a long time, proceeded to send from thefortress other messengers to his allies. For the former messengerswere sent round to give notice that they should assemble at Sardis bythe fifth month, but these he was sending out to ask them to come tohis assistance as quickly as possible, because Crœsus was beingbesieged. 83. So then in sending to his other allies he sent also toLacedemon. But these too, the Spartans I mean, had themselves at thisvery time (for so it had fallen out) a quarrel in hand with theArgives about the district called Thyrea. For this Thyrea, being partof the Argive possessions, the Lacedemonians had cut off and taken forthemselves. Now the whole region towards the west extending as fardown as Malea[96] was then possessed by the Argives, both the partssituated on the mainland and also the island of Kythera with the otherislands. And when the Argives had come to the rescue to save theirterritory from being cut off from them, then the two sides came to aparley together and agreed that three hundred should fight of eachside, and whichever side had the better in the fight that nationshould possess the disputed land: they agreed moreover that the mainbody of each army should withdraw to their own country, and not standby while the contest was fought, for fear lest, if the armies werepresent, one side seeing their countrymen suffering defeat should comeup to their support. Having made this agreement they withdrew; andchosen men of both sides were left behind and engaged in fight withone another. So they fought and proved themselves to be equallymatched; and there were left at last of six hundred men three, on theside of the Argives Alkenor and Chromios, and on the side of theLacedemonians Othryades: these were left alive when night came on. Sothen the two men of the Argives, supposing that they were the victors,set off to run to Argos, but the Lacedemonian Othryades, after havingstripped the corpses of the Argives and carried their arms to his owncamp, remained in his place. On the next day both the two sides camethither to inquire about the result; and for some time both claimed