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The Athenian who is said to have distinguished himself the most was
Sophanes, the son of Eutychides, of the Deceleian canton. The men
of this canton, once upon a time, did a deed, which (as the
Athenians themselves confess) has ever since been serviceable to
them. When the Tyndaridae, in days of yore, invaded Attica with a
mighty army to recover Helen, and, not being able to find out whither
she had been carried, desolated the cantons, - at this time, they
say, the Deceleians (or Decelus himself, according to some),
displeased at the rudeness of Theseus, and fearing that the whole
territory would suffer, discovered everything to the enemy, and even
showed them the way to Aphidnae, which Titacus, a native of the
place, betrayed into their hands. As a reward for this action,
Sparta has always, from that time to the present, allowed the
Deceleians to be free from all dues, and to have seats of honour at
their festivals; and hence too, in the war which took place many years
after these events between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, the
Lacedaemonians, while they laid waste all the rest of Attica, spared
the lands of the Deceleians.
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