HERODOTUS

BOOK IX. 8-10till the day after ;and this they did for ten days,putting off from day to day. In the meantime allthe Peloponnesians were fortifying the Isthmus withmight and main, and they had the work well-nighdone. Nor can I it say why was that when Alexanderthe Macedonian came to Athens l the Lacedaemonianswere urgent that the Athenians shouldnot take the Persian part, yet now made no accountof that ; except it was that now they had the Isthmusfortified and thought they had no more need ofthe Athenians, whereas when Alexander came toAttica their wall was not yet built, arid they wereworking thereat in great fear of the Persians.9. But the manner of their answering at last andsending the Spartan army was this On the day:before that hearing which should have been thelast, Chileiis, a man of Tegea, who had moreauthority with the Lacedaemonians than any otherof their guests, learnt from the ephors all that theAthenians had said ;and having heard it he said, asthe tale goes, to the ephors, " Sirs, this is how thematter stands : if the Athenians be our enemies andthe foreigner's then allies, though you drive a strongwall across the Isthmus the Persian has an effectualdoor opened for passage into the Peloponnese. Nay,hearken to them, ere the Athenians take some newresolve that will bring calamity to Hellas."10. This was the counsel he gave the ephors, whostraightway took it to heart ; saying no word to theenvoys who were come from the cities, they bademarch before dawn of day five thousand Spartans,with seven helots appointed to attend each of them ;1cp.viii. 135.167