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When things were at this pass Cleomenes acted as follows: Having
learnt the names of the Argives who were shut up in the sacred precinct
from certain deserters who had come over to him, he sent a herald to
summon them one by one, on pretence of having received their ransoms.
Now the ransom of prisoners among the Peloponnesians is fixed at two
minae the man. So Cleomenes had these persons called forth
severally, to the number of fifty, or thereabouts, and massacred
them. All this while they who remained in the enclosure knew nothing
of what was happening; for the grove was so thick that the people
inside were unable to see what was taking place without. But at last
one of their number climbed up into a tree and spied the treachery;
after which none of those who were summoned would go forth.
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