afterward it fell on the Spartans, as they themselves say, in the great war that was waged between them and the Athenians. That this wrath should fall on envoys of the Spartans, and should not cease till it was satisfied, seems to be just; but that the men on whom it fell should be children of these same two that were sent to the King at Susa, this is passing strange. Yet so it fell out. For Nicolaüs the son of Bulis, and Aneristus the son of Sperthias, having been sent as ambassadors to Asia, were betrayed by Sitalces, King of Thrace, to the Athenians, and being carried to Attica, there perished, and with them Aristeas of Corinth. These things came to pass many years after the expedition of King Xerxes.
When the messengers, then, had been sent to the cities of the Greeks, the King prepared to march to Abydos, purposing to pass over thence into Europe.