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keep still; but presuming that they were superior in strength to the
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


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