CHAPTER 30

Such was the message which the Thessalians sent. The Phocians were the only people in these parts who had not espoused the cause of the Medes; and it is my deliberate opinion that the motive which swayed them was none other - neither more nor less - than their hatred of the Thessalians: for had the Thessalians declared in favour of the Greeks, I believe that the men of Phocis would have joined the Median side. As it was, when the message arrived, the Phocians made answer, that "they would not pay anything - it was open to them, equally with the Thessalians, to make common cause with the Medes, if they only chose so to do - but they would never of their own free will become traitors to Greece."