Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/379

 EARTHQUAKE IN ARGOS. 357 vas accepted by Agesipolis as a satisfactory affirmative. Never- theless, to make assurance doubly sure, he went directly forward to Delphi, to put the same question to Apollo. As it would have been truly embarrassing, however, if the two holy replies had turned out such as to contradict each other, he availed himself of the prcejudicium which he had already received at Olympia, and sub- mitted the question to Apollo at Delphi in this form : " Is thine opinion on the question of the holy truce, the same as that of thy father (Zeus) ? " " Most decidedly the same," replied the god. Such double warranty, though the appeal was so drawn up as scarcely to leave to Apollo freedom of speech, 1 enabled Agesipolis to return with full confidence to Phlius, where his army was al- ready mustered ; and to march immediately into the Argeian ter- ritory by the road of Nemea. Being met on the frontier by two heralds with wreaths and in solemn attire, who warned him that it was a season of holy truce, he informed them that the gods authorized his disobedience to their summons, and marched on into the Argeian plain. , It happened that on the first evening after he had crossed the border, the supper and the consequent libation having been just concluded, an earthquake occurred ; or, to translate the Greek phrase, " the god (Poseidon) shook." To all Greeks, and to Lace- daemonians especially, this was a solemn event, and the personal companions of Agesipolis immediately began to sing the pasan in honor of Poseidon; the general impression among the soldiers being, that he would give orders for quitting the territory imme- diately, as Agis had acted in the invasion of Elis a few years be- lt is to this proceeding, perhaps, that Andokides alludes (Or. iii, De Pace, e. 27), where he says that the Argeians, though strenuous in insisting that Athens should help them to carry on the war for the possession of Corinth against the Lacedaemonians, had nevertheless made a separate peace with the latter, covering their own Argeian territory from invasion avrol 6' ISigt tlpT/vyv iroirjaa/j.evoi TJJV x&P av v ^apEX ovfflv fy'xofa/i.slv. Of this obscure passage I can give no better explanation. J Aristotel. Rhetoric, ii, 23. 'HyjycriTTTrof EV AeA^oZf kirripuTa rbv #eoi>, fvof irporepov *Q?.vjnriuaiv, el O.VTJJ ravru Sonet, urrep roi irciTpi, w{ bv ruvuvra elireiv. A similar story about the manner of putting the question to Apollo at Delphi, after it l?ad already been put to Zeus at Dodona, is told about Age- slim"! on another occasion 'Plutarch, Apophth. Lacon. p. 208 R).