32 THALIA.

their wealth was thus accumulating, they consulted J
the oracle, to know whether they should long continue
in the enjoyment of their present good fortune. From
the Pythian they received this answer:

When Slphnos shall a milk white senate show,
And all her market wear a front of snow;
Him let her prize whose wit suspects the most,
A scarlet envoy from a wooden host.

At this period the prytaneum, and the forum of Siph
nos, were adorned with Parian marble.

LVIII. This reply of the oracle, the Siphnians were
unable to comprehend, both before and after the arri­
val of the Samians. As soon as the Samians touched
at Siphnos, they despatched a messenger to the town,
in one of their vessels. According to the ancient '
custom, all ships were painted of a red colour; and it -
was this which induced the Pythian, to warn the
Siphnians against a wooden snare, and a red ambas­
sador. On their arrival, the Samian ambassadors
entreated the inhabitants to lend them ten talents: on
being refused, they plundered the country. The Siph­
nians hearing of this, collected their forces, and were
defeated in a regular engagement; a great number
were, in the retreat, cut off from the town, and the
Samians afterwards exacted from them a hundred
talents. -

LIX. Instead of money, the Samians had received
of the Hermionians, the island of Thyrea, adjacent to
the Peloponnese: this they afterwards gave as a
pledge to the Traezonians. They afterwards made a
voyage to Crete, where they built Cydonia, although
their object in going there, was to expel the Zacyn-
thians. In this place they continued five years, during
which period they were so exceedingly prosperous,
that they not only erected all those temples which
are now seen in Cydonia, but built also the temple of
Dictynna. In the sixth year, from a junction being
made with the Cretans by the /Eginetse, they were
totally vanquished in a sea engagement, and reduced
to servitude. The prows of their vessels were taken
away and defaced, and afterwards suspended in the
temple of Minerva at JEgina.. The iEginetas were