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The eclipse, which was partial, was on October 2, 480 B. C. (Busolt, ii. 715). Cleombrotus must have contemplated attacking the Persians as they retreated from Attica, probably by marching through the Megarid to occupy the passes of Cithaeron in their rear (cf. ch. 13, 14). But to risk all that had been won at Salamis in another battle was utterly opposed to the cautious policy of Sparta. The eclipse only justified a timidity in keeping with the situation and with the orders no doubt given to Cleombrotus. The return home was due to the approach of winter, during which a Greek force was always disbanded. They then came back to complete the wall in the spring.

Εὐρυάνακτα. The genealogy implied seems to be

but if Euryanax be the son of Dorieus who fell in Sicily (cf. v. 41-6) he should have been king before Leonidas. Perhaps Dorieus by going abroad (cf. vi. 70. 1 n.) forfeited the throne or renounced it for himself and his descendants, or possibly the Dorieus here mentioned belonged to a younger branch of the royal house.

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