Arcadians, they consulted the Oracle at Delphi respecting conquest of
the whole of Arcadia; and the Pythian prophetess gave answer thus:

"The land of Arcadia thou askest; thou askest me much; I refuse it;
Many there are in Arcadian land, stout men, eating acorns;
These will prevent thee from this: but I am not grudging towards thee;
Tegea beaten with sounding feet I will give thee to dance in,
And a fair plain I will give thee to measure with line and divide it."

When the Lacedemonians heard report of this, they held off from the
other Arcadians, and marched against the Tegeans with fetters in their
hands, trusting to a deceitful[78] oracle and expecting that they
would make slaves of the men of Tegea. But having been worsted in the
encounter, those of them who were taken alive worked wearing the
fetters which they themselves brought with them and having "measured
with line and divided"[79] the plain of the Tegeans. And these fetters
with which they had been bound were preserved even to my own time at
Tegea, hanging about the temple of Athene Alea.[80] 67. In the former
war then I say they struggled against the Tegeans continually with ill
success; but in the time of Crœsus and in the reign of Anaxandrides
and Ariston at Lacedemon the Spartans had at length become victors in
the war; and they became so in the following manner:--As they
continued to be always worsted in the war by the men of Tegea, they
sent messengers to consult the Oracle at Delphi and inquired what god
they should propitiate in order to get the better of the men of Tegea
in the war: and the Pythian prophetess made answer to them that they
should bring into their land the bones of Orestes the son of
Agamemnon. Then as they were not able to find the grave of Orestes,
they sent men again to go to the god and to inquire about the spot
where Orestes was laid: and when the messengers who were sent asked