country they had alliance, and there came to them from Thessaly a thousand horsemen, under Cineas, King of Thessaly. With them they assailed the camp of the Lacedæmonians, and slew not a few of them, among whom was the captain of the army, and drove such as were left into their ships. After this the Lacedæmonians sent another army, greater than before, under King Cleomenes, sending them not in ships, but by land. These also, so soon as they had crossed the borders, the horsemen of the Thessalians attacked, but could not stand before them, but fled back without delay into their own land. Then Cleomenes, coming to the city and taking to him such as were minded to drive out from Athens its lords, besieged the sons of Pisistratus in the Pelasgian fort; but they would not have accomplished their purpose—for they had no mind to make a long siege of the fort, and the sons of Pisistratus had meat and drink in abundance—but would have tarried a few days, and so departed, but for this chance. The sons of Pisistratus sought to send their children out of the country secretly; but the children were taken. Then they made a covenant with the Athenians that, if the children should be given back to them, they would depart out of the country within the space of five days. And this they did, their house having had the lordship for thirty years and six. Thus was Athens rid of its lords.
Aristagoras then coming to this city of Athens presented himself before the people, and said the same words that he had said before in Sparta, about the good things in Asia, and about the manner of fighting of the Persians, how they had neither spear nor shield, and were therefore easily to be conquered. Also he said that the Milesians were colonists from Athens, and that it was just that the Athenians, being so mighty, should deliver them from slavery. And because his need was great, there was nothing that he did not promise, till at the last he persuaded them. For it is easier, it seems, to deceive a multitude than to deceive one man. Cleomenes the Spartan, being but one man, Aristagoras could not deceive; but he brought over to his purpose the people of Athens, being thirty thousand. So the Athenians, being persuaded, made a decree to