Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/173

 BATTLES OF PLAT^A AND MYKALE. 149 together with the other towns in the long tongue of Pallene, declared themselves independent : and the neighboring town of Olynthus, occupied by the semi-Grecian tribe of BottioeaI.^, was on the point of following their example. The Persian general, Artabazus, on his return from escorting Xerxes to the Helle- spont, undertook the reduction of these towns, and succeeded perfectly with Olynthus. He took the town, slew all the inhabi- tants, and handed it over to a fresh population, consisting of Chalkidic Greeks, under Kritobulus of Torone. It was in this manner that Olynthus, afterwards a city of so much consequence and interest," first became Grecian and Chalkidic. But Arta- bazus was not equally successful in the siege of Potidsea, the defence of which was aided by citizens from the other towns in Pallene. A plot which he concerted with Timoxenus, com- mander of the Skionaean auxiliaries in the town, became acci- dentally disclosed : a considerable body of his troops perished while attempting to pass at low tide under the walls of the city, which were built across the entire breadth of the narrow isinmus joining the Pallenasan peninsula to the mainland : and after three months of blockade, he was forced to renounce the enter- prise, withdrawing his troops to rejoin Mardonius, in Thessaly.' The latter, before he put himself in motion for the spring campaign, thought it advisable to consult the Grecian oracles, especially those within the limits of Bceotia and Phocis. He sent a Karian, named Mys, familiar with the Greek as well as the Karian language, to consult Trophonius at Lebadeia, Amphi- araus, and the Ismenian Apollo at Thebes, Apollo at mount Ptoon near Akrcephiae, and Apollo at the Phocian Abas. This step was probably intended as a sort of ostentatious respect towards the religious feelings of allies upon whom he was now very much dependent: but neither the questions put, nor the answers given, were made public : and the only remarkable fact which Herodotus had heard was, that the priest of the Ptoian Apollo delivered his answer in Karian, or at least in a language intelligible to no person present except the Karian Mys himself.- It appears, however, that at this period, when Mardonius was ' Herodot. viii, 128, 129.
 * Herodot. viii, 134, 135 ; Pausanias, ix, 24, 3.