They were probably heading off to pick up a sheep or goat to sacrifice.

Reading JMRooney post it seems that they can go cross country to capture a sacrifice.

Thanks,
Vriesea

They do, Vriesea. I think in Miletos, though, the only thing they can take for sacrifices is the food from the granary. My priests tried to starve my people to death!

Yes - beware the food-stealing priests. They will snaffle 400 units of food (4 cartloads) at a time. They certainly don't like to go hungry. Quite how that amount of food equates to one sheep/goat is quite another matter. Perhaps the Greeks had particularly fat sheep

Someone (I forget who) suggested they were feeding quite a number of mouse's relatives with all that food