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When Harpagus, after these successes, led his forces into the
Xanthian plain, the Lycians of Xanthus went out to meet him in the
field: though but a small band against a numerous host, they engaged
in battle, and performed many glorious exploits. Overpowered at
last, and forced within their walls, they collected into the citadel
their wives and children, all their treasures, and their slaves; and
having so done, fired the building, and burnt it to the ground.
After this, they bound themselves together by dreadful oaths, and
sallying forth against the enemy, died sword in hand, not one
escaping. Those Lycians who now claim to be Xanthians, are foreign
immigrants, except eighty families, who happened to be absent from the
country, and so survived the others. Thus was Xanthus taken by
Harpagus, and Caunus fell in like manner into his hands; for the
Caunians in the main followed the example of the Lycians.
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