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The Lacedaemonian Conquest of Thyrea.

The narrative of H. (§ 3 βοηθησάντων) seems to imply that Thyrea was now conquered by the Lacedaemonians for the first time; they had, however, begun their aggressions on Argive territory before this, for H. (vii. 235. 2) implies that Cythera was theirs soon after 600 B. C. The conquest of the east coast may well have been gradual. The chronologers speak of a Lacedaemonian victory in Thyrea under Polydorus in 718 B. C., and Pausanias (iii. 2. 2) puts the conquest of Cynuria down to Echestratus (1059-1025); but these are probably inventions. The Argive chronology seems to have been artificially constructed in periods of fifty years, reckoning back from the Battle of Mantinea in 418; we have 718 as here, and 668, their victory at Hysiae. For a short epitome of Busolt's excellent notes (i. 595-7) on these dates cf. Bury, ii. 468.

The Thyreatis remained a bone of contention in the fifth century; for the negotiations of 420 B. C. cf. Thuc. v. 41, with its implied reference to this passage.

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    • Thucydides, Histories, 5.41
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