The Twitter Herodotus

3.42 Some 5 days later a fisherman gave a fish to Polycrates. When it was cut open, the ring was found. Polycrates wrote Amasis about this.

3.43 Amasis, when he heard the news, realized Polycrates was doomed, despite his apparent success. He severed his guest friendship with him.

3.44 So the Spartans attacked this Polycrates. They'd been called in to help by Samian exiles whom Polycrates had shipped off to Egypt.

3.45 There are various stories about what the exiles did after Polycrates sent them to Egypt, but eventually they made their way to Sparta.

3.46 The Samians made a long speech asking for help, but they didn't succeed until they were brief enough to satisfy the "laconic" Spartans.

3.47 According to the Spartans, they helped the exiles because they wanted revenge: the Samians had stolen a breastplate and bowl from them.

3.48 The Corinthians helped too: a generation before the Samians had stopped them from sending 300 Corcyraean boys to Sardis for castration.

3.49 Corinth had colonized Corcyra, and from day one the two states had been at enmity.

3.50 Periander--tyrant of Corinth--wanted revenge against Corcyra. He'd killed his wife Melissa. His son Lycophron found out and was sullen.

3.51 Annoyed that Lycophron was uncommunicative, Periander threw him out of the house. He confirmed his suspicion that L knew about Melissa.

3.52 Periander bid that Lycophron be treated as an outcast. Later, when L.'s attitude didn't improve, Periander shipped him off to Corcyra.

3.53 Much later P. persuaded L. to trade places w/him & rule Corinth. The Corcyraeans killed Lycophron to thwart the plan, hence P.'s anger.

3.54 So the Spartans laid siege to Samos, but they were driven out by Polycrates and his army.

3.55 Two Spartans fought/died especially well, Archias & Lycopes. As I heard from his grandson, the Samians honored Archias after his death.

3.56 The Spartans gave up and went home after 40 days. It was their first expedition into Asia.

3.57 The Samian exiles who'd called in Sparta sailed to Siphnos to ask for a loan. But a prophecy bade the Siphnians to beware a red herald.

3.58 The Samian ambassadors, in their red ship, were refused aid. The Samians thereupon took 100 talents from the Siphnians by force.

3.59 The Samian exiles then settled in Crete and grew wealthy. But in the sixth year the were defeated at sea by Aegina and were enslaved.

3.60 I dwell on the Samians because of their three great construction projects: an underground channel, a 1/4-mile-long mole, and a temple.

3.61 Now, while Cambyses was going mad in Egypt, 2 brothers usurped his throne back home. One of them pretended to be C's dead bro Smerdis.