set off to run to Argos, but the Lacedemonian Othryades, after having
stripped the corpses of the Argives and carried their arms to his own
camp, remained in his place. On the next day both the two sides came
thither to inquire about the result; and for some time both claimed
the victory for themselves, the one side saying that of them more had
remained alive, and the others declaring that these had fled away,
whereas their own man had stood his ground and had stripped the
corpses of the other party: and at length by reason of this dispute
they fell upon one another and began to fight; and after many had
fallen on both sides, the Lacedemonians were the victors. The Argives
then cut their hair short, whereas formerly they were compelled by law
to wear it long, and they made a law with a curse attached to it, that
from that time forth no man of the Argives should grow the hair long
nor their women wear ornaments of gold, until they should have won
back Thyrea. The Lacedemonians however laid down for themselves the
opposite law to this, namely that they should wear long hair from that
time forward, whereas before that time they had not their hair long.
And they say that the one man who was left alive of the three hundred,
namely Othryades, being ashamed to return to Sparta when all his
comrades had been slain, slew himself there in Thyrea. 83. Such was
the condition of things at Sparta when the herald from Sardis arrived
asking them to come to the assistance of Crœsus, who was being
besieged. And they notwithstanding their own difficulties, as soon as
they heard the news from the herald, were eager to go to his
assistance; but when they had completed their preparations and their
ships were ready, there came another message reporting that the
fortress of the Lydians had been taken and that Crœsus had been made
prisoner. Then (and not before) they ceased from their efforts, being
grieved at the event as at a great calamity.