ind it:
Guard well the head, and the head shall preserve the limbs and the body."

Thus, they say, the Pythian prophetess had replied to them before this;
and afterwards when the messengers of the Hellenes came, as I said, to
Argos, they entered the Council-chamber and spoke that which had been
enjoined to them; and to that which was said the Council replied that
the Argives were ready to do as they were requested, on condition that
they got peace made with the Lacedemonians for thirty years and that
they had half the leadership of the whole confederacy: and yet by
strict right (they said) the whole leadership fell to their share, but
nevertheless it was sufficient for them to have half.

149. Thus they report that the Council made answer, although the oracle
forbade them to make the alliance with the Hellenes; and they were
anxious, they say, that a truce from hostilities for thirty years should
be made, although they feared the oracle, in order, as they allege, that
their sons might grow to manhood in these years; whereas if a truce did
not exist, they had fear that, supposing another disaster should come
upon them in fighting against the Persian in addition to that which had
befallen them already, they might be for all future time subject to
the Lacedemonians. To that which was spoken by the Council those of the
envoys who were of Sparta replied, that as to the truce they would refer
the matter to their public assembly, 136 but as to the leadership they
had themselves been commissioned to make reply, and did in fact say
this, namely that they had two kings, while the Argives had one; and it
was not possible to remove either of the two who were of Sparta from the
leadership, but there was nothing to prevent the Argive king from having
an equal vote with each of their two. Then, say the Argives, they could
not endure the grasping selfishness of the Spartans, but chose to
be ruled by the Barbarians rather than to yield at all to the
Lacedemonians; and they gave notice to the envoys to depart out of the
territory of the Argives before sunset, or, if not, they would be dealt
with as enemies.

150. The Argives themselves report so much about these matters: but
there is another story reported in Hellas to the effect that Xerxes
sent a herald to Argos before he set forth to make an expedition against
Hellas, and this herald, they say, when he had come, spoke as follows:
"Men of Argos, king Xerxes says to you these things