Thalia   

Polycrates by themselves, they would not have needed to call in the
aid of the Lacedaemonians. And moreover, it is not likely that a
king who had in his pay so large a body of foreign mercenaries, and
maintained likewise such a force of native bowmen, would have been
worsted by an army so small as that of the returned Samians. As for
his own subjects, to hinder them from betraying him and joining the
exiles, Polycrates shut up their wives and children in the sheds built
to shelter his ships, and was ready to burn sheds and all in case of
need.
When the banished Samians reached Sparta, they had audience of the
magistrates, before whom they made a long speech, as was natural
with persons greatly in want of aid. Accordingly at this first sitting
the Spartans answered them that they had forgotten the first half of
their speech, and could make nothing of the remainder. Afterwards
the Samians had another audience, whereat they simply said, showing
a bag which they had brought with them, "The bag wants flour." The
Spartans answered that they did not need to have said "the bag";
however, they resolved to give them aid.
Then the Lacedaemonians made ready and set forth to the attack
of Samos, from a motive of gratitude, if we may believe the Samians,
because the Samians had once sent ships to their aid against the
Messenians; but as the Spartans themselves say, not so much from any
wish to assist the Samians who begged their help, as from a desire
to punish the people who had seized the bowl which they sent to
Croesus, and the corselet which Amasis, king of Egypt, sent as a
present to them. The Samians made prize of this corselet the year
before they took the bowl- it was of linen, and had a vast number of
figures of animals inwoven into its fabric, and was likewise
embroidered with gold and tree-wool. What is most worthy of admiration
in it is that each of the twists, although of fine texture, contains
within it three hundred and sixty threads, all of them clearly
visible. The corselet which Amasis gave to the temple of Minerva in
Lindus is just such another.
The Corinthians likewise right willingly lent a helping hand
towards the expedition against Samos; for a generation earlier,
about the time of the seizure of the wine-bowl, they too had
suffered insult at the hands of the Samians. It happened that
Periander, son of Cypselus, had taken three hundred boys, children
of the chief nobles among the Corcyraeans, and sent them to Alyattes
for eunuchs; the men who had them in charge touched at Samos on
their way to Sardis; whereupon the Samians, having found out what
was to become of the boys when they reached that city, first
prompted them to take sanctuary at the temple of Diana; and after
this, when the Corinthians, as they were forbidden to tear the
suppliants from the holy place, sought to cut off from them all
supplies of food, invented a festival in their behalf, which they
celebrate to this day with the selfsame rites. Each evening, as
night closed in, during the whole time that the boys continued
there, choirs of youths and virgins were placed about the temple,
carrying in their hands cakes made of sesame and honey, in order
that the Corcyraean boys might snatch the cakes, and so get enough
to live upon.
And this went on for so long, that at last the Corinthians who had
charge of the boys gave them up, and took their departure, upon
which the Samians conveyed them back to Corcyra. If now, after the
death of Periander, the Corinthians and Corcyraeans had been good
friends, it is not to be imagined that the former would ever have
taken part in the expedition against Samos for such a reason as
this; but as, in fact, the two people have always, ever since the
first settlement of the island, been enemies to one another, this
outrage was remembered, and the Corinthians bore the Samians a
grudge for it. Periander had chosen the youths from among the first
families in Corcyra, and sent them a present to Alyattes, to avenge
a wrong which he had received. For it was the Corcyraeans who began