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On the occasion of which we speak when Pheidippides was sent by the
Athenian generals, and, according to his own account, saw Pan on
his journey, he reached Sparta on the very next day after quitting the
city of Athens - Upon his arrival he went before the rulers, and
said to them:
"Men of Lacedaemon, the Athenians beseech you to hasten to their
aid, and not allow that state, which is the most ancient in all
Greece, to be enslaved by the barbarians. Eretria, look you, is
already carried away captive; and Greece weakened by the loss of no
mean city."
Thus did Pheidippides deliver the message committed to him. And the
Spartans wished to help the Athenians, but were unable to give them
any present succour, as they did not like to break their established
law. It was then the ninth day of the first decade; and they could
not march out of Sparta on the ninth, when the moon had not reached
the full. So they waited for the full of the moon.
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