Erato   

god of the grove?" whereto the other made answer, "Argus." So he, when
he heard that, uttered a loud groan, and said:-
"Greatly hast thou deceived me, Apollo, god of prophecy, in saying
that I should take Argos. I fear me thy oracle has now got its
accomplishment."
Cleomenes now sent home the greater part of his army, while with a
thousand of his best troops he proceeded to the temple of Juno, to
offer sacrifice. When however he would have slain the victim on the
altar himself, the priest forbade him, as it was not lawful (he
said) for a foreigner to sacrifice in that temple. At this Cleomenes
ordered his helots to drag the priest from the altar and scourge
him, while he performed the sacrifice himself, after which he went
back to Sparta.
Thereupon his enemies brought him up before the Ephors, and made
it a charge against him that he had allowed himself to be bribed,
and on that account had not taken Argos when he might have captured it
easily. To this he answered- whether truly or falsely I cannot say
with certainty- but at any rate his answer to the charge was that
"so soon as he discovered the sacred precinct which he had taken to
belong to Argos, he directly imagined that the oracle had received its
accomplishment; he therefore thought it not good to attempt the
town, at the least until he had inquired by sacrifice, and ascertained
if the god meant to grant him the place, or was determined to oppose
his taking it. So he offered in the temple of Juno, and when the omens
were propitious, immediately there flashed forth a flame of fire
from the breast of the image; whereby he knew of a surety that he
was not to take Argos. For if the flash had come from the head, he
would have gained the town, citadel and all; but as it shone from
the breast, he had done so much as the god intended." And his words
seemed to the Spartans so true and reasonable, that he came clear
off from his adversaries.
Argos however was left so bare of men that the slaves managed
the state, filled the offices, and administered everything until the
sons of those who were slain by Cleomenes grew up. Then these latter
cast out the slaves, and got the city back under their own rule; while
the slaves who had been driven out fought a battle and won Tiryns.
After this for a time there was peace between the two; but a certain
man, a soothsayer, named Cleander, who was by race a Phigalean from
Arcadia, joined himself to the slaves, and stirred them up to make a
fresh attack upon their lords. Then were they at war with one
another by the space of many years; but at length the Argives with
much trouble gained the upper hand.
The Argives say that Cleomenes lost his senses, and died so
miserably, on account of these doings. But his own countrymen
declare that his madness proceeded not from any supernatural cause
whatever, but only from the habit of drinking wine unmixed with water,
which he learnt of the Scyths. These nomads, from the time that Darius
made his inroad into their country, had always had a wish for revenge.
They therefore sent ambassadors to Sparta to conclude a league,
proposing to endeavour themselves to enter Media by the Phasis,
while the Spartans should march inland from Ephesus, and then the
two armies should join together in one. When the Scyths came to Sparta
on this errand Cleomenes was with them continually; and growing
somewhat too familiar, learnt of them to drink his wine without water,
a practice which is thought by the Spartans to have caused his
madness. From this distance of time the Spartans, according to their
own account, have been accustomed, when they want to drink purer
wine than common, to give the order to fill "Scythian fashion." The
Spartans then speak thus concerning Cleomenes; but for my own part I
think his death was a judgment on him for wronging Demaratus.
No sooner did the news of Cleomenes' death reach Egina than
straightway the Eginetans sent ambassadors to Sparta to complain of
the conduct of Leotychides in respect of their hostages, who were
still kept at Athens. So they of Lacedaemon assembled a court of