g to the less credible account which has been
put abroad of these matters Polycrates struck in lead a quantity of a
certain native coin, and having gilded the coins over, gave them to the
Lacedemonians, and they received them and upon that set forth to depart.
This was the first expedition which the Lacedemonians (being Dorians)
4601 made into Asia.

57. Those of the Samians who had made the expedition against Polycrates
themselves also sailed away, when the Lacedemonians were about to desert
them, and came to Siphnos: for they were in want of money, and the
people of Siphnos were then at their greatest height of prosperity and
possessed wealth more than all the other islanders, since they had
in their island mines of gold and silver, so that there is a treasury
dedicated at Delphi with the tithe of the money which came in from
these mines, and furnished in a manner equal to the wealthiest of these
treasuries: and the people used to divide among themselves the money
which came in from the mines every year. So when they were establishing
the treasury, they consulted the Oracle as to whether their present
prosperity was capable of remaining with them for a long time, and the
Pythian prophetess gave them this reply:

"But when with white shall be shining 47 the hall of the city 48
in Siphnos,
And when the market is white of brow, one wary is needed
Then, to beware of an army 49 of wood and a red-coloured herald."

Now just at that time the market-place and city hall of the Siphnians
had been decorated with Parian marble.

58. This oracle they were not able to understand either then at first or
when the Samians had arrived: for as soon as the Samians were putting in
50 to Siphnos they sent one of their ships to bear envoys to the city:
now in old times all ships were painted with red, and this was that
which the Pythian prophetess was declaring beforehand to the Siphnians,
bidding them guard against the "army of wood" and the "red-coloured
herald." The messengers accordingly came and asked the Siphnians to lend
them ten talents; and as they refused to lend to them, the Samians began
to lay waste their lands: so when they were informed of it, forthwith
the Siphnians came to the rescue, and having engaged battle with them
were defeated, and many of them were cut off by the Samians and shut out
of the city; and the Samians after this imposed upon them a payment of a
hundred talents.

59. Then from the men of H