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“Twelve years into the war and it so happened that a cornfield was put was being out the torch by the invaders. As the crops blazed, sparks were borne on a violent gust of wind towards a temple of Athena. The temple... caught fire and burned down. At the time, no one thought much of this - but in due course, when back in Sardis with the army, Alyattes fell ill...he sent messengers to the oracle at Delphi, to ask Apollo for his diagnosis. When the messengers arrived at Delphi...the priests warned that they would only be granted a consultation once the temple to Athena had been rebuilt. “ Book One, 19.
“So it was, in due course, that a fully crewed Ionian fleet came to be at Lade, together with one contingent Aeolians from Lesbos. Their order of battle was as follows. On its easternmost wing were eightys ships furnished by Milesians themselves, next to these the Prieneans with twelve ships...” Book 6, 8