Page "Aegina" Paragraph 23

The account which Herodotus gives of the hostilities between the two states in the early years of the 5th century BC is to the following effect.

Thebes, after the defeat by Athens about 507 BC, appealed to Aegina for assistance.

The Aeginetans at first contented themselves with sending the images of the Aeacidae, the tutelary heroes of their island.

Subsequently, however, they entered into an alliance, and ravaged the seaboard of Attica.

The Athenians were preparing to make reprisals, in spite of the advice of the Delphic oracle that they should desist from attacking Aegina for thirty years, and content themselves meanwhile with dedicating a precinct to Aeacus, when their projects were interrupted by the Spartan intrigues for the restoration of Hippias.