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Then the Greek envoys, without having any further dealings with
Gelo, sailed away home. And Gelo, who feared that the Greeks
would be too weak to withstand the barbarians, and yet could not any
how bring himself to go to the Peloponnese, and there, though king of
Sicily, serve under the Lacedaemonians, left off altogether to
contemplate that course of action, and betook himself to quite a
different plan. As soon as ever tidings reached him of the passage of
the Hellespont by the Persians, he sent off three penteconters,
under the command of Cadmus, the son of Scythas, a native of Cos,
who was to go to Delphi, taking with him a large sum of money and a
stock of friendly words: there he was to watch the war, and see what
turn it would take: if the barbarians prevailed, he was to give
Xerxes the treasure, and with it earth and water for the lands which
Gelo ruled - if the Greeks won the day, he was to convey the
treasure back.
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