Page:Key to Easy Latin Stories for beginners.djvu/81

 each captive. So Cleomenes called out about fifty of the Argives and put them to death; (a thing) which was unknown to the rest who were in the grove; for since the grove was a large one, those who were inside could not see what he was doing. But at last, one of them climbed a tree and saw what was being done; and thereupon they no longer came out when called.

213.Then indeed Cleomenes ordered all the helots to pile timber round the grove: and when this was done, he set fire to the grove. And now, while the grove was burning, he asked a deserter to what god was the grove sacred. And when he replied that it was the grove of Argos, on hearing this Cleomenes uttering a deep groan said, ‘O prophetic Apollo, thou didst greatly deceive me, when thou saidst that I should take Argos, for I suspect that that prophecy has been accomplished for me.’ After this, having sent away the greater part of the army to Sparta, he himself, with a thousand of the bravest troops, betook himself to the temple of Juno,’ intending to offer a sacrifice, but when he desired to sacrifice, the priest forbade him, saying that it was not right for a stranger to sacrifice there. But Cleomenes, having ordered the helots to take away the priest from the altar and beat him, offered a sacrifice himself; and after doing this returned to Sparta.

214.But at Sparta his enemies brought him before the ephors as a criminal: for they affirmed that having been bribed with money he had not taken Argos, when he could have taken it very easily. But he replied that after he had taken the grove sacred to Aigos, the prophecy of the god seemed to him to have been fulfilled. Wherefore he had thought that the city should not be attempted before he had ascertained after sacrificing whether the god was likely to give it over to him, or to be a hindrance. Moreover, that a flame shone out to him from the breast of the image while sacrificing in the temple of Juno; and so that he had understood that Argos could not be taken, for he would have taken the city if the flame had shone from the head