to Salamis; and at the same time they sent envoys
to Lacedemon to reproach the Lacedemonians for having permitted the
Barbarian to invade Attica and for not having gone to Boeotia to meet
him in company with them, and also to remind them how many things
the Persian had promised to give the Athenians if they changed sides;
bidding the envoys warn them that if they did not help the Athenians,
the Athenians would find some shelter 6 for themselves..

7. For the Lacedemonians in fact were keeping a feast during this
time, and celebrating the Hyakinthia; and they held it of the greatest
consequence to provide for the things which concerned the god, while at
the same time their wall which they had been building at the Isthmus
was just at this moment being completed with battlements. And when the
envoys from the Athenians came to Lacedemon, bringing with them also
envoys from Megara and Plataia, they came in before the Ephors and said
as follows: "The Athenians sent us saying that the king of the Medes not
only offers to give us back our land, but also desires to make us his
allies on fair and equal terms without deceit or treachery, 7 and
is desirous moreover to give us another land in addition to our own,
whichsoever we shall ourselves choose. We however, having respect for
Zeus of the Hellenes and disdaining to be traitors to Hellas, did not
agree but refused, although we were unjustly dealt with by the other
Hellenes and left to destruction, and although we knew that it was more
profitable to make a treaty with the Persian than to carry on war: nor
shall we make a treaty at any future time, if we have our own will. Thus
sincerely is our duty done towards the Hellenes: 8 but as for you, after
having come then to great dread lest we should make a treaty with the
Persian, so soon as ye learnt certainly what our spirit was, namely that
we should never betray Hellas, and because your wall across the Isthmus
is all but finished, now ye make no account of the Athenians, but having
agreed with us to come to Boeotia to oppose the Persian, ye have now
deserted us, and ye permitted the Barbarian moreover to make invasion of
Attica. For the present then the Athenians have anger against you, for
ye did not do as was fitting to be done: and now they bid 9 you with all
speed send out an army together with us, in order that we may receive
the Barbarian in the land of Attica; for since we failed of Boeotia, the
most suitable place to fight