THALIA. 31

force, and compelled them to retreat. He was in.
stantly seconded by a band of auxiliaries, and a great
number of Samians, who falling upon the enemy from
a fort which was behind the mountain, after a short
conflict effectually routed them, and continued the
pursuit with great slaughter of the Lacedaemonians.

LV. If all the Lacedaemonians had behaved in this
engagement like Archias and Lycopas, Samos must
certainly have been taken; for these two alone enter­
ed the city, with those Samians who sought security
within the walls, and having no means of retreat were
there slain. I myself one day met with a person of
the same name, who was the son of Samius, and
grandson of the Archias above mentioned ; I saw him
at Pitane, of which place he was a native. This per-
sOn paid more attention to Samians than to other
foreigners; and he told me, that his father was called
Samius, as being the immediate descendant of him,
who with so much honour had lost his life at Samos.
The reason of his thus distinguishing the Samians
was, because they had honoured his grandfather by a.
public funeral.

LVI. The Lacedsemonians, after remaining forty
days before the place without any advantage, returned
to the Peloponnese. It is reported, though. most ab­
surdly, that Polycrates struck off a great number of
pieces of lead cased with gold, like the coin of the
country, and that with these he purchased their de­
parture.—This was the first expedition of the Dorians
of Lacedaemon into Asia.

LVI I. Those Samians who had taken up arms
against Polycrates, when they saw themselves for­
saken by the Lacedaemonians, and were distressed
from want of money, embarked for Siphnos. At this
time the power of the Siphnians was very considera­
ble, and they were the richest of all the inhabitants
of the islands. Their soil produced both the gold and
silver metals in such abundance, that from a tenth
part of their revenuesj they had a treasury at Delphi,
equal in value to the richest which that temple pos­
sessed. Every year they made an equal distribution
among themselves, of the value of their mines: whilst