There are also the horses of the Tarentines in brass, and captive women of the Messapians (barbarians near Tarentum), by Ageladas the Argive. The Lacedæmonians colonized Tarentum under the Spartan Phalanthus, who, when he started on this colony, was told by an oracle from Delphi that he was to acquire land and found a city where he saw rain from a clear sky. At first he paid no great heed to this oracle, and sailed to Italy without consulting any interpreters, but when, after victories over the barbarians, he was unable to capture any of their cities, or get possession of any of their land, he recollected the oracle, and thought the god had prophesied impossibilities: for it could not rain he thought from a clear and bright sky. And his wife, who had accompanied him from home, endeavoured to comfort him in various ways, as he was in rather a despondent condition, and laid his head on her knees, and began to pick out the lice, and in her goodwill it so fell out that she wept when she thought how her husband’s affairs made no good progress. And she shed tears freely on Phalanthus’ head, and then he understood the oracle, for his wife’s name was Æthra (_clear sky_), and so on the following night he took from the barbarians Tarentum, the greatest and most prosperous of their maritime cities. They say the hero Taras was the son of Poseidon and a local Nymph, and both the city and river got their name from him. CHAPTER XI. And near the votive offering of the Tarentines is the treasury of the Sicyonians, but you will see no money either here or in any of the treasuries. The Cnidians also brought statues to Delphi, as Triopas (their founder) standing by a horse, and Leto and Apollo and Artemis shooting at Tityus, who is represented wounded. These statues stand by the treasury of the Sicyonians.