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Remember the reign of Codrus.1 The Peloponnesians, whose crops had failed at home, decided to march against our city and, expelling our ancestors, to divide the land amongst themselves. They sent first to Delphi and asked the god if they were going to capture Athens, and when he replied that they would take the city so long as they did not kill Codrus, the king of the Athenians, they marched out against Athens.
1 The story of Codrus is told, with minor variations, by other ancient writers,e.g. by Velleius Paterculus i. 2, but the version here given by Lycurgus is the earliest extant.
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