f the garden olive.

This species of olive was a sacred tree, and it happened that, at this
time, there were no trees of the kind that were of sufficient size for
the purpose intended except at Athens; and the Epidaurians,
accordingly, sent to Athens to obtain leave to supply themselves with
wood for the sculptor by cutting down one of the trees from the sacred
grove. The Athenians consented to this, on condition that the
Epidaurians would offer a certain yearly sacrifice at two temples in
Athens, which they named. This sacrifice, they seemed to imagine,
would make good to the city whatever of injury their religious
interests might suffer from the loss of the sacred tree. The
Epidaurians agreed to the condition; the tree was felled; blocks from
it, of proper size, were taken to Epidaurus, and the statues were
carved. They were set up in the city with the usual solemnities, and
the famine soon after disappeared.

Not many years after this, a war, for some cause or other, broke out
between Epidaurus and AEgina. The people of AEgina crossed the water in
a fleet of galleys, landed at Epidaurus, and, after committing various
ravages, they seized these images, and bore them away in triumph as
trophies of their victory. They set them up in a public place in the
middle of their own island, and instituted games and spectacles around
them, which they celebrated with great festivity and parade. The
Epidaurians, having thus lost their statues, ceased to make the annual
offering at Athens which they had stipulated for, in return for
receiving the wood from which the statues were carved. The Athenians
complained. The Epidaurians replied that they had continued to make
the offering as long as they had kept the statues; but that now, the
statues being in other hands, they were absolved from the obligation.
The Athenians next demanded the statues themselves of the people of
AEgina. They refused to surrender them. The Athenians then invaded the
island, and proceeded to the spot where the statues had been erected.
They had been set up on massive and heavy pedestals. The Athenians
attempted to get them down, but could not separate them from their
fastenings. They then changed their plan, and undertook to move the
pedestals too, by dragging them with ropes. They were arrested in this
undertaking by an earthquake, accompanied by a solemn and terrible
sound of thunder, which warned them that they were provoking the anger
of Heaven.

The s