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Such was the counsel which Chileus gave: and the Ephors, taking the
advice into consideration, determined forthwith, without speaking a
word to the ambassadors from the three cities, to despatch to the
Isthmus a body of five thousand Spartans; and accordingly they sent
them forth the same night, appointing to each Spartan a retinue of
seven Helots, and giving the command of the expedition to Pausanias
the son of Cleombrotus. The chief power belonged of right at this
time to Pleistarchus, the son of Leonidas; but as he was still a
child Pausanias, his cousin, was regent in his room. For the father
of Pausanias, Cleombrotus, the son of Anaxandridas, no longer
lived; he had died a short time after bringing back from the Isthmus
the troops who had been employed in building the wall. A prodigy had
caused him to bring his army home; for while he was offering sacrifice
to know if he should march out against the Persian, the sun was
suddenly darkened in mid sky. Pausanias took with him, as
joint-leader of the army, Euryanax, the son of Dorieus, a member
of his own family.
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