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All this he said, because he longed for adventures, and hoped to
become satrap of Greece under the king; and after a while he had his
way, and persuaded Xerxes to do according to his desires. Other
things, however, occurring about the same time, helped his
persuasions. For, in the first place, it chanced that messengers
arrived from Thessaly, sent by the Aleuadae, Thessalian kings, to
invite Xerxes into Greece, and to promise him all the assistance
which it was in their power to give. And further, the
Pisistratidae, who had come up to Susa, held the same language as
the Aleuadae, and worked upon him even more than they, by means of
Onomacritus of Athens, an oracle-monger, and the same who set forth
the prophecies of Musaeus in their order. The Pisistratidae had
previously been at enmity with this man, but made up the quarrel before
they removed to Susa. He was banished from Athens by Hipparchus,
the son of Pisistratus, because he foisted into the writings of
Musaeus a prophecy that the islands which lie off Lemnos would one day
disappear in the sea. Lasus of Hermione caught him in the act of so
doing. For this cause Hipparchus banished him, though till then they
had been the closest of friends. Now, however, he went up to Susa
with the sons of Pisistratus, and they talked very grandly of him to
the king; while he, for his part, whenever he was in the king's
company, repeated to him certain of the oracles; and while he took
care to pass over all that spoke of disaster to the barbarians, brought
forward the passages which promised them the greatest success.
"'Twas fated," he told Xerxes, "that a Persian should bridge
the Hellespont, and march an army from Asia into Greece." While
Onomacritus thus plied Xerxes with his oracles, the Pisistratidae
and Aleuadae did not cease to press on him their advice, till at last
the king yielded, and agreed to lead forth an expedition.
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