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Translated by G. Macaulay.
107 pages - You are on Page 29
62. So starting from Eretria after the lapse of ten years [74] they returned back; and in Attica the first place of which they took possession was Marathon. While they were encamping here, their partisans from the city came to them, and also others flowed in from the various demes, to whom despotic rule was more welcome than freedom. So these were gathering themselves together; but the Athenians in the city, so long as Peisistratos was collecting the money, and afterwards when he took possession of Marathon, made no account of it; but when they heard that he was marching from Marathon towards the city, then they went to the rescue against him. These then were going in full force to fight against the returning exiles, and the forces of Peisistratos, as they went towards the city starting from Marathon, met them just when they came to the temple of Athene Pallenis, and there encamped opposite to them. Then moved by divine guidance [75] there came into the presence of Peisistratos Amphilytos the Arcarnanian, [76] a soothsayer, who approaching him uttered an oracle in hexameter verse, saying thus:
"But now the cast hath been made and the net hath been widely extended, And in the night the tunnies will dart through the moon-lighted waters."
[74] {dia endekatou eteos}. Not quite the same as {dia evdeka eteon} ("after an interval of eleven years"); rather "in the eleventh year" (i.e. "after an interval of ten years").
[75] {thein pompe khreomenos}.
[76] For {'Akarnan} it has been suggested to read {'Akharneus}, because this man is referred to as an Athenian by various writers. However Acarnanians were celebrated for prophetic power, and he might be called an Athenian as resident with Peisistratos at Athens.
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