Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/465

 COMBAT AT THYREA 449 promontory of Malea, had either been part of the territory of Argos or belonged to the Ar^eian confederacy. We learn from Herodotus, 1 that before the time when the embassy from Crcrsu?, king of Lydia, came to solicit aid in Greece (about 547 B. c.), the whole of this territory had fallen into the power of Sparta ; but how long before, or at what precise epoch, we have no in- formation. A considerable victory is said to have been gained by the Argeians over the Spartans in the 27th Olympiad or 669 B. c., at Hysise, on the road between Argos and Tegea. 8 At that time it does not seem probable that Kynuria could have been in the possession of the Spartans. so that we must refer the acquisition to some period in the following century ; though Pausanias places it much earlier, during the reign of Theopom- pus,3 and Eusebius connects it with the first establishment of the festival called Gymnopsedia. at Sparta, in G78 B. c. About the year 547 B. c., the Argeians made an effort to reconquer Thyrea from Sparta, which led to a combat long memorable in the annals of Grecian heroism. It was agreed between the two powers that the possession of this territory should be determined by a combat of three hundred select champions on each side ; the armies of both retiring, in order to leave the field clear. So undaunted and so equal was the valor of these two chosen companies, that the battle terminated by leaving only three of them alive, Alkenor and Chromius among the Argeians. Othryadts among the Spartans. The two Argeians warriors hastened home to report their victory, but Othryades remained on the field, carried off the arms of the enemy's dead into the Spartan camp, and kept his position until he was joined by his countrymen the next morning. Both Argos and Sparta claimed the victory for their respective cham- pions, and the dispute after all was decided by a general conflict, in which the Spartans were the conquerors, though not without much slaughter on both sides. The brave Othryades, ashamed to return home as the single survivor of the three hundred, fell upon his own sword on the field of battle. 4 This defeat decided the possession of Thyrea, which did nol 1 Herod. i._82. * Pausan. ii. 25, 1. * Pausan. Ui. 7, 5. 4 Herod. L 82 : Strab'. viii. p. 376. VOL. n. 290C.