|
HOME | GREEK LANGUAGE | LIBRARIES | BLOG | HELP | SEARCH | FREEWARE | BOOKSTORE |
|
|
Translated by G. Macaulay.
Studies
Herodotus in Print
|
57 pages - You are on Page 34
71. Among the Barbarians those who proved themselves the best men were, of those on foot the Persians, and of the cavalry the Sacans, and for a single man Mardonios it is said was the best. Of the Hellenes, though both the Tegeans and the Athenians proved themselves good men, yet the Lacedemonians surpassed them in valour. Of this I have no other proof (for all these were victorious over their opposites), but only this, that they fought against the strongest part of the enemy's force and overcame it. And the man who proved himself in my opinion by much the best was that Aristodemos who, having come back safe from Thermopylai alone of the three hundred, had reproach and dishonour attached to him. After him the best were Poseidonios and Philokyon and Amompharetos the Spartan. [81] However, when there came to be conversation as to which of them had proved himself the best, the Spartans who were present gave it as their opinion that Aristodemos had evidently wished to be slain in consequence of the charge which lay against him, and so, being as it were in a frenzy and leaving his place in the ranks, he had displayed great deeds, whereas Poseidonios had proved himself a good man although he did not desire to be slain; and so far he was the better man of the two. This however they perhaps said from ill-will; and all these whose names I mentioned among the men who were killed in this battle, were specially honoured, except Aristodemos; but Aristodemos, since he desired to be slain on account of the before-mentioned charge, was not honoured.
72. These obtained the most renown of those who fought at Plataia, for as for Callicrates, the most beautiful who came to the camp, not of the Lacedemonians alone, but also of all the Hellenes of his time, he was not killed in the battle itself; but when Pausanias was offering sacrifice, he was wounded by an arrow in the side, as he was sitting down in his place in the ranks; and while the others were fighting, he having been carried out of the ranks was dying a lingering death: and he said to Arimnestos [82] a Plataian that it did not grieve him to die for Hellas, but it grieved him only that he had not proved his strength of hand, and that no deed of valour had been displayed by him worthy of the spirit which he had in him to perform great deeds. [83]
81. {o Spartietes}: it has been proposed to read {Spartietai}, for it can hardly be supposed that the other two were not Spartans also.
82. One MS. at least calls him Aeimenstos, cp. ch. 64. Thucydides (iii. 52) mentions Aeimnestos as the name of a Plataian citizen, the father of Lacon. Stein observes that in any case this cannot be that Arimnestos who is mentioned by Plutarch as commander of the Plataian contingent.
83. {eoutou axion prophumeumenou apodexasthai}.
|
Herodotus History - Table of Contents
Elpenor's Greek Forum : Post a question / Start a discussion |
Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-Greece/herodotus/history-9.asp?pg=34
