[1] The context is Herodotos 6.75.1, but the Suda's opening words of the quotation, to\ sw=ma, do not occur in the original (text at web address 1) and have evidently strayed in by repetition from the primary gloss. The story is that of the madness of king Kleomenes I of Sparta, whom Herodotos here describes as e)o/nta kai\ pro/teron u(pomargo/teron, 'being even before now rather crazy' (cf. 3.29, 3.145, where the adjective is applied to Kambyses and to the brother of Maiandrios of Samos). The next sentence in the Suda is slightly inaccurate also, and should have read o(/kws ga\r tew=| e)ntu/xoi *Spartihte/wn, e)ne/xraue e)s to\ pro/swpon to\ skh=ptron, 'For whenever he met any of the Spartiates, he used to dash his sceptre into their face'. The translation above, with its unorthodox use of the verb 'to dash', reflects the Suda's inaccuracy.