19
Theon, taking up the subject, said, But these matters have actually undergone great changes and innovations, whereas you know that many of the oracles here have been given out in prose, and those that concerned no unimportant matters. For, as ThucydidesThucydides, i. 118. has recorded, when the Spartans consulted the god about their war against the Athenians, his answer was a promise of victory and power and that he himself would come to their aid, bidden or unbidden; and in another oracle that if they would not allow Pleistoanax to return from exile, they should plough with a silver ploughshare. Ibid. v. 16. The meaning seems to be that they would have to buy their grain.
19
When the Athenians sought advice about their campaign in Sicily, he directed them to get the priestess of Athena at Erythrae; the name which the woman bore was Quiet. Cf. Life of Nicias, chap. xiii. (532 a), where it is explained that the god advised them τὴν ἡσυχίαν ἄγειν, to keep Quiet.
19
When Deinomenes of Sicily asked advice about his sons, the answer was that all three should rule as despots; and when Deinomenes rejoined, To their sorrow, then, O Lord Apollo, the god said that he granted this also to Deinomenes, and added it to the response. You all know, of course, that Gelo, while he was despot, suffered from dropsy; and likewise Hiero from gall-stones; and the third, Thrasybulus, became involved in seditions and wars, and it was no long time before he was dethroned.
