Erato   

certain argives who had fled from battle into a precinct sacred to
Argus, where Cleomenes slew them, burning likewise at the same time,
through irreverence, the grove itself.
For once, when Cleomenes had sent to Delphi to consult the oracle,
it was prophesied to him that he should take Argos; upon which he went
out at the head of the Spartans, and led them to the river Erasinus.
This stream is reported to flow from the Stymphalian lake, the
waters of which empty themselves into a pitch-dark chasm, and then (as
they say) reappear in Argos, where the Argives call them the Erasinus.
Cleomenes, having arrived upon the banks of this river, proceeded to
offer sacrifice to it, but, in spite of all that he could do, the
victims were not favourable to his crossing. So he said that he
admired the god for refusing to betray his countrymen, but still the
Argives should not escape him for all that. He then withdrew his
troops, and led them down to Thyrea, where he sacrificed a bull to the
sea, and conveyed his men on shipboard to Nauplia in the Tirynthian
territory.
The Argives, when they heard of this, marched down to the sea to
defend their country; and arriving in the neighbourhood of Tiryns,
at the place which bears the name of Sepeia, they pitched their camp
opposite to the Lacedaemonians, leaving no great space between the
hosts. And now their fear was not so much lest they should be
worsted in open fight as lest some trick should be practised on
them; for such was the danger which the oracle given to them in common
with the Milesians seemed to intimate. The oracle ran as follows:-

Time shall be when the female shall conquer the male, and shall
chase him
Far away- gaining so great praise and honour in Argos;
Then full many an Argive woman her cheeks shall mangle
Hence, in the times to come 'twill be said by the men who are
unborn,
"Tamed by the spear expired the coiled terrible serpent."

At the coincidence of all these things the Argives were greatly cast
down; and so they resolved that they would follow the signals of the
enemy's herald. Having made this resolve, they proceeded to act as
follows: whenever the herald of the Lacedaemonians gave an order to
the soldiers of his own army, the Argives did the like on their side.
Now when Cleomenes heard that the Argives were acting thus, he
commanded his troops that, so soon as the herald gave the word for the
soldiers to go to dinner, they should instantly seize their arms and
charge the host of the enemy. Which the Lacedaemonians did
accordingly, and fell upon the Argives just as, following the
signal, they had begun their repast; whereby it came to pass that vast
numbers of the Argives were slain, while the rest, who were more
than they which died in the fight, were driven to take refuge in the
grove of Argus hard by, where they were surrounded, and watch kept
upon them.
When things were at this pass Cleomenes acted as follows: Having
learnt the names of the Argives who were shut up in the sacred
precinct from certain deserters who had come over to him, he sent a
herald to summon them one by one, on pretence of having received their
ransoms. Now the ransom of prisoners among the Peloponnesians is fixed
at two minae the man. So Cleomenes had these persons called forth
severally, to the number of fifty, or thereabouts, and massacred them.
All this while they who remained in the enclosure knew nothing of what
was happening; for the grove was so thick that the people inside
were unable to see what was taking place without. But at last one of
their number climbed up into a tree and spied the treachery; after
which none of those who were summoned would go forth.
Then Cleomenes ordered all the helots to bring brushwood, and heap
it around the grove; which was done accordingly; and Cleomenes set the
grove on fire. As the flames spread he asked a deserter "Who was the