d together and sent men to inquire of the god at Delphi whether
it would be better for them if they gave assistance to Hellas: and the
Pythian prophetess answered: "Ye fools, do ye think those woes too
few, 160 which Minos sent upon you in his wrath, 161 because of the
assistance that ye gave to Menelaos? seeing that, whereas they did
not join with you in taking vengeance for his death in Camicos, ye
nevertheless joined with them in taking vengeance for the woman who by
a Barbarian was carried off from Sparta." When the Cretans heard this
answer reported, they abstained from the giving of assistance.

170. For the story goes that Minos, having come to Sicania, which is now
called Sicily, in search of Daidalos, died there by a violent death; and
after a time the Cretans, urged thereto by a god, all except the men of
Polichne and Praisos, came with a great armament to Sicania and besieged
for seven years the city of Camicos, which in my time was occupied by
the Agrigentines; and at last not being able either to capture it or
to remain before it, because they were hard pressed by famine, they
departed and went away. And when, as they sailed, they came to be off
the coast of Iapygia, a great storm seized them and cast them away upon
the coast; and their vessels being dashed to pieces, they, since they
saw no longer any way of coming to Crete, founded there the city of
Hyria; and there they stayed and were changed so that they became
instead of Cretans, Messapians of Iapygia, and instead of islanders,
dwellers on the mainland: then from the city of Hyria they founded those
other settlements which the Tarentines long afterwards endeavoured to
destroy and suffer great disaster in that enterprise, so that this in
fact proved to be the greatest slaughter of Hellenes that is known to
us, and not only of the Tarentines themselves but of those citizens of
Rhegion who were compelled by Mikythos the son of Choiros to go to
the assistance of the Tarentines, and of whom there were slain in this
manner three thousand men: of the Tarentines themselves however, who
were slain there, there was no numbering made. This Mikythos, who was a
servant of Anaxilaos, had been left by him in charge of Rhegion; and he
it was who after being driven out of Rhegion took up his abode at Tegea
of the Arcadians and dedicated those many statues at Olympia.

171. This of the men of Rhegion and of the Tarentines has been an
episode 162 in my narrative: in Cre