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When the whole fleet was collected together at Egina, ambassadors
from Ionia arrived at the Greek station; they had but just come from
paying a visit to Sparta, where they had been intreating the
Lacedaemonians to undertake the deliverance of their native land. One
of these ambassadors was Herodotus, the son of Basileides.
Originally they were seven in number; and the whole seven had
conspired to slay Strattis the tyrant of Chios; one, however, of
those engaged in the plot betrayed the enterprise; and the conspiracy
being in this way discovered, Herodotus, and the remaining five,
quitted Chios, and went straight to Sparta, whence they had now
proceeded to Egina, their object being to beseech the Greeks that
they would pass over to Ionia. It was not, however, without
difficulty that they were induced to advance even so far as Delos.
All beyond that seemed to the Greeks full of danger; the places were
quite unknown to them, and to their fancy swarmed with Persian
troops; as for Samos, it appeared to them as far off as the Pillars
of Hercules. Thus it came to pass, that at the very same time the
barbarians were hindered by their fears from venturing any further west
than Samos, and the prayers of the Chians failed to induce the
Greeks to advance any further east than Delos. Terror guarded the
mid region.
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