Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/217

 ASIATIC GREEKS ATTACKED BY CYRUS. 199 in a condition of defence : it seems that the Lydian king had caused their fortifications to be wholly or partially dismantled, for we are told that they now began to erect walls ; and the Phokaeans especially devoted to that purpose a present which they had received from the Iberian Arganthonius, king of Tar- tessus. Besides thus strengthening their own cities, they thought it advisable to send a joint embassy entreating aid from Spai-ta ; they doubtless were not unapprized that the Spar- tans had actually equipped an army for the support of Croesus. Their deputies went to Sparta, where the Phoksean Pythermus, appointed by the rest to be spokesman, clothing himself in a purple robe, 1 in order to attract the largest audience possible, se* forth their pressing need of succor against the impending danger. The Lacedasmonians refused the prayer ; nevertheless, they despatched to Phokasa some commissioners to investigate the state of affairs, who perhaps, persuaded by the Phokaeans, sent Lakrines, one of their number, to the conqueror at Sardis, to warn him that he should not lay hands on any city of Hellas, for the Lacedaemonians would not permit it. " Who are these Lacedaemonians P (inquired Cyrus from some Greeks who stood near him) how many are there of them, that they venture to send me such a notice ? " Having received the answer, whereir it was stated that the Lacedaemonians had a city and a regulai market at Sparta, he exclaimed : " I have never yet beet afraid of men like these, who have a set place in the middle of their city, where they meet to cheat one another and forsweai themselves. If I live, they shall have troubles of their own tc talk about, apart from the lonians." To buy or sell, appeared to the Persians a contemptible practice ; for they carried out consistently, one step farther, the principle upon which even many able Greeks condemned the lending of money on interest ; and the speech of Cyrus was intended as a covert reproach of Grecian habits generally .'- This blank menace of Lakrines, an insulting provocation to 1 HeroJot. i, 152. The purple garment, so attractive a spectacle amid the plain clothing universal at Sparta, marks the contrast between Asiatic and European Greece. .Vea. etc.
 * Herodot. i, 153. ravra if roi>f nuvraf "EMrivaf uire(>{>i$e o Kvp<?c rd