Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/138

114 HISTORY OF GREECE. among the towns of the inflexible Phocians. All of them were found deserted ; the inhabitants having previously escaped either to the wide-spreading summit of Parnassus, called Tithorea, or even still farther, across that mountain into the territory of the OzoUan Lokrians. Ten or a dozen small Phocian towns, the most considerable of which were Elateia and Hyampolis, were sacked and destroyed by the invaders, nor was the holy temple and oracle of Apollo at Abse better treated than the rest : all its treasures were pillaged, and it was then burnt. From Panopeus Xerxes detached a body of men to plunder Delphi, marching with his main army through Boeotia, in which country he found all the towns submissive and willing, except Thespise and Plataea: both were deserted by their citizens, and both were now burnt. From hence he conducted his army into the abandoned territory of Attica, reaching without resistance the foot of the acropolis at Athens. 1 Very different was the fate of that division which he had de- tached from Panopeus against Delphi: Apollo defended his temple here more vigorously than at Abse. The cupidity of the Persian king was stimulated by accounts of the boundless wealth accumulated at Delphi, especially the profuse donations of Croesus. The Delphians, in the extreme of alarm, while they sought safety for themselves on the heights of Parnassus, and for their families by transport across the gulf into Achaia, consulted the oracle whether they should carry away or bury the sacred treasures. Apollo directed them to leave the treasures untouched, saying that he was competent himself to take care of his own pi-operty. Sixty Delphians alone ventured to remain, together with Akera- tus, the religious superior: but evidences of superhuman aid soon appeared to encourage them. The sacred arms suspended in the interior cell, which no mortal hand was ever permitted to touch, were seen lying before the door of the temple ; and when the Persians, marching along the road called Schiste, up that rugged path under the steep cliS's of Parnassus which conducts to Delphi, had reached the temple of Athene Pronoea, — on a sudden, dreadful thunder was heard, — two vast mountain crags detached themselves and rushed down with deafening noise ' Herodot. viii, 32-34.