5. If, indeed, it is also borne in mind that the Ionic, as well as the Æolic and Doric(729) islands and cities of Asia, and also Athens, together with Phocis, Thessaly, and the colonies in Sicily and Italy, were all in the hands of tyrants, who doubtless assisted one another, and knew their common interest; and that Sparta alone, in most instances at the instigation of the Delphian oracle, declared against all these rulers a lasting war, and in fact overthrew them all, with the exception of the Sicilian tyrants; it must be confessed, that in this period of Grecian history no contest took place either greater, or, by its extent as well as its principles, of more important political and moral consequences. The following tyrants are stated by ancient historians to have been deposed by the Spartans:(730) the Cypselidæ of Corinth and Ambracia, the former in Olymp. 49. 3. (584 B.C.), the latter probably somewhat later; the Pisistratidæ of Athens, who were allied with the Thessalians, in Olymp. 67. 3. (510 B.C.);(731) their adherent Lygdamis of Naxos,(732) probably about the same time: Æschines of Sicyon, about the 65th Olympiad(733) (520 B.C.); Symmachus of Thasos; Aulis of Phocis; and Aristogenes of Miletus, of whom we know only the names;(734) the larger number were dethroned under the kings Anaxandridas and Ariston, Cleomenes and Demaratus. Of these tyrants, some they deposed by a military force, as the Pisistratidæ; but frequently, as Plutarch says, they overthrew the despotism without “moving a shield,” by despatching a herald, whom all immediately obeyed, “as, when the queen bee appears, the rest arrange themselves in order.”(735) In the time of Cleomenes also (525 B.C.) Sparta sent out a great armament, together with Corinthian and other allies, against Polycrates of Samos, the first Doric expedition against Asia, not, as is evident from the trivial reason stated by Herodotus, (viz. in order to revenge the plunder of a cauldron and a breastplate,) but with the intent of following up their principle of deposing all tyrants.(736) But the besieging of a fortified town, situated upon the sea, and at so great a distance, was beyond the strength of Peloponnesus. The last expedition of Sparta against the tyrants falls after the Persian war, when king Leotychidas, the conqueror at Mycale, was sent for the purpose of ejecting the Aleuadæ of Thessaly, who had delivered up the country to the Persians in 470 B.C. or somewhat later. Aristomedes and Angelus were actually dethroned, but the king suffering himself to be bribed by others, the expedition did not completely succeed.(737) We may suppose with what pride the ambassador of Sparta answered Gelon the tyrant of Syracuse (however brilliant and beneficial his reign may have been), when he required the command in the Persian war: “Truly the Pelopid Agamemnon would lament, if he heard that the supremacy was taken from the Spartans by Gelon and the Syracusans!”(738)