3.55.1
Had all the Lacedaemonians there that day been like Archias and Lycopas, Samos would have been taken. These two alone entered the fortress along with the fleeing crowd of Samians, and were cut off and killed in the city of Samos.
3.55.2
I myself have met in his native town of Pitana note another Archias son of Samius, and grandson of the Archias mentioned above, who honored the Samians more than any other of his guest-friends, and told me that his father had borne the name Samius because he was the son of that Archias who was killed fighting bravely at Samos. The reason that he honored the Samians, he said, was that they had given his grandfather a public funeral.
ch. 56
3.56.1
So when the Lacedaemonians had besieged Samos for forty days with no success, they went away to the Peloponnesus.
3.56.2
There is a foolish tale abroad that Polycrates bribed them to depart by making and giving them a great number of gilded lead coins, as a native currency. This was the first expedition to Asia made by Dorians of Lacedaemon. note
ch. 57
3.57.1
When the Lacedaemonians were about to abandon them, the Samians who had brought an army against Polycrates sailed away too, and went to Siphnus;
3.57.2
for they were in need of money; and the Siphnians were at this time very prosperous and the richest of the islanders, because of the gold and silver mines on the island. They were so wealthy that the treasure dedicated by them at Delphi, which is as rich as any there, was made from a tenth of their income; and they divided among themselves each year's income.
3.57.3
Now when they were putting together the treasure they inquired of the oracle if their present prosperity was likely to last long; whereupon the priestess gave them this answer:
3.57.4
“When the prytaneum on Siphnus becomes white
And white-browed the market, then indeed a shrewd man is wanted
Beware a wooden force and a red herald.”
At this time the market-place and town-hall of Siphnus were adorned with Parian marble.
ch. 58
3.58.1
They could not understand this oracle either when it was spoken or at the time of the Samians' coming. As soon as the Samians put in at Siphnus, they sent ambassadors to the town in one of their ships;
3.58.2
now in ancient times all ships were painted with vermilion; note and this was what was meant by the warning given by the priestess to the Siphnians, to beware a wooden force and a red herald.
3.58.3
The messengers, then, demanded from the Siphnians a loan of ten talents; when the Siphnians refused them, the Samians set about ravaging their lands.
3.58.4
Hearing this the Siphnians came out at once to drive them off, but they were defeated in battle, and many of them were cut off from their town by the Samians; who presently exacted from them a hundred talents.
ch. 59
3.59.1
Then the Samians took from the men of Hermione, instead of money, the island Hydrea which is near to the Peloponnesus, and gave it to men of Troezen for safekeeping; they themselves settled at Cydonia in Crete, though their voyage had been made with no such intent, but rather to drive Zacynthians out of the island.
