Note 386 — Chapter V · LUNAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FESTIVALS

Germania, 11. The rule of the Spartans never to march out to war before the full moon (Herodotus, vi, 106; Pausanias, i, 28, 4) prevented them from sending aid to the Athenians at the time of the battle of Marathon. Though the Spartans always knew how to make use of their religious scruples, during their festivals they really did ostentatiously abstain from expeditions which might have been profitable to them. See A. Holm, History of Greece, London, 1895, ii, 26, referring to Thucydides, iv, 5, v, 75.