Chapter XC: Book IX (17)

But this writer is so equitable, that having said, "The Lacedaemonians, being alone and deserted by their allies, would perhaps have made a composition with Xerxes," he yet blames the Thebans, who were forced to the same act by the same necessity. But when he could not wholly obliterate this most great and glorious act of the Thebans, yet went he about to deface it with a most vile imputation and suspicion, writing thus: "The confederates who had been sent returned back, obeying the commands of Leonidas; there remained only with the Lacedaemonians the Thespians and the Thebans: of these, the Thebans stayed against their wills, for Leonidas retained them as hostages; but the Thespians most willingly, as they said they would never depart from Leonidas and those that were with him." (Herodotus, vii. 222.) Does he not here manifestly discover himself to have a peculiar pique and hatred against the Thebans, by the impulse of which he not only falsely and unjustly calumniated the city, but did not so much as take care to render his contradiction probable, or to conceal, at least from a few men, his being conscious of having knowingly contradicted himself? For having before said that Leonidas, perceiving his confederates not to be in good heart nor prepared to undergo danger, wished them to depart, he a little after adds that the Thebans were against their wills detained by him; whereas, if he had believed them inclined to the Persians, he should have driven them away though they had been willing to tarry. For if he thought that those who were not brisk would be useless, to what purpose was it to mix among his soldiers those that were suspected? Nor was the king of the Spartans and general of all Greece so senseless as to think that four hundred armed Thebans could be detained as hostages by his three hundred, especially the enemy being both in his front and rear. For though at first he might have taken them along with him as hostages; it is certainly probable that at last, having no regard for him, they would have gone away from him, and that Leonidas would have more feared his being encompassed by them than by the enemy. Furthermore, would not Leonidas have been ridiculous, to have sent away the other Greeks, as if by staying they should soon after have died, and to have detained the Thebans, that being himself about to die, he might keep them for the Greeks? For if he had indeed carried them along with him for hostages, or rather for slaves, he should not have kept them with those that were at the point of perishing, but have delivered them to the Greeks that went away. There remained but one cause that might be alleged for Leonidas's unwillingness to let them go, to wit, that they might die with him; and this our historian himself has taken away, writing thus of Leonidas's ambition: "Leonidas, considering these things, and desirous that this glory might redound to the Spartans alone, sent away his confederates rather for this than because they differed in their opinions." (Herodotus, vii. 220.) For it had certainly been the height of folly to keep his enemies against their wills, to be partakers of that glory from which he drove away his confederates. But it is manifest from the effects, that Leonidas suspected not the Thebans of insincerity, but esteemed them to be his steadfast friends. For he marched with his army into Thebes, and at his request obtained that which was never granted to any other, to sleep within the temple of Hercules; and the next morning he related to the Thebans the vision that had appeared to him. For he imagined that he saw the most illustrious and greatest cities of Greece irregularly tossed and floating up and down on a very stormy and tempestuous sea; that Thebes, being carried above all the rest, was lifted up on high to heaven, and suddenly after disappeared. And this indeed had a resemblance of those things which long after befell that city.

Now Herodotus, in his narration of that fight, hath obscured also the bravest act of Leonidas, saying that they all fell in the straits near the hill. (Herodotus, vii. 225.) But the affair was otherwise managed. For when they perceived by night that they were encompassed by the barbarians, they marched straight to the enemies' camp, and got very near the King's pavilion, with a resolution to kill him and leave their lives about him. They came then to his tent, killing or putting to flight all they met; but when Xerxes was not found there, seeking him in that vast camp and wandering about, they were at last with much difficulty slain by the barbarians, who surrounded them on every side. What other acts and sayings of the Spartans Herodotus has omitted, we will write in the Life of Leonidas; yet that hinders not but we may here set down also some few. Before Leonidas went forth to that war, the Spartans exhibited to him funeral spectacles, at which the fathers and mothers of those that went along with him were spectators. Leonidas himself, when one said to him, You lead very few with you to the battle, answered, There are many to die there. When his wife, at his departure, asked him what commands he had for her; he, turning to her, said, I command you to marry a good man, and bring him good children. After he was enclosed by the enemy at Thermopylae, desiring to save two that were related to him, he gave one of them a letter and sent him away; but he rejected it, saying angrily, I followed you as a soldier, not as a postman. The other he commanded to go on a message to the magistrates of Sparta; but he, answering, that is a messenger's business, took his shield, and stood up in his rank. Who would not have blamed another that should have omitted these things? But he who has collected and recorded the fart of Amasis, the coming of the thief's asses, and the giving of bottles, and many such like things, cannot seem to have omitted these gallant acts and these remarkable sayings by negligence and oversight, but as bearing ill-will and being unjust to some.

He says that the Thebans, being at the first with the Greeks, fought compelled by necessity. (Ibid, vii. 233.) For belike not only Xerxes, but Leonidas also, had whipsters following his camp, by whom the Thebans were scourged and forced against their wills to fight. And what more ruthless libeller could there be than Herodotus, when he says that they fought upon necessity, who might have gone away and fled, and that they inclined to the Persians, whereas not one came in to help them. After this, he writes that, the rest making to the hill, the Thebans separated themselves from them, lifted up their hands to the barbarian, and coming near, cried with a most true voice, that they had favored the Persians, had given earth and water to the King, that now being forced by necessity they were come to Thermopylae, and that they were innocent of the King's wound. Having said these things, they obtained quarter; for they had the Thessalians for witnesses of all they said. Behold, how amidst the barbarians, exclamations, tumults of all sorts, flights and pursuits, their apology was heard, the witnesses examined; and the Thessalians, in the midst of those that were slain and trodden under foot, all being done in a very narrow passage, patronized the Thebans, to wit, because the Thebans had but a little before driven away them, who were possessed of all Greece as far as, Thespiae, having conquered them in a battle, and slain their leader Lattamyas! For thus at that time stood matters between the Boeotians and the Thessalians, without any friendship or good-will. But yet how did the Thebans escape, the Thessalians helping them with their testimonies? Some of them, says he, were slain by the barbarians; many of them were by command of Xerxes marked with the royal mark, beginning with their leader Leontiades. Now the captain of the Thebans at Thermopylae was not Leontiades, but Anaxander, as both Aristophanes, out of the Commentaries of the Magistrates, and Nicander the Colophonian have taught us. Nor did any man before Herodotus know that the Thebans were stigmatized by Xerxes; for otherwise this would have been an excellent plea for them against his calumny, and this city might well have gloried in these marks, that Xerxes had punished Leonidas and Leontiades as his greatest enemies, having outraged the body of the one when he was dead, and caused the other to be tormented whilst living. But as to a writer who makes the barbarian's cruelty against Leonidas when dead a sign that he hated him most of all men when living, (Herodotus, vii. 238.) and yet says that the Thebans, though favoring the Persians, were stigmatized by them at Thermopylae, and having been thus stigmatized, again cheerfully took their parts at Plataea, it seems to me that such a man--like that Hippoclides (See Herodotus, vi. 126-130.) who gesticulating with his limbs by standing on his head on a table--would dance away the truth and say, It makes no difference to Herodotus.

In the Eighth Book our author says, that the Greeks being frighted designed to fly from Artemisium into Greece, and that, being requested by the Euboeans to stay a little till they could dispose of their wives and families, they regarded them not, till such time as Themistocles, having taken money of them, divided it between Eurybiades and Adimantus, the captain of the Corinthians, and that then they stayed and had a sea-fight with the barbarians (Ibid. viii. 4.) Yet Pindar, who was not a citizen of any of the confederate cities, but of one that was suspected to take part with the Medians, having made mention of Artemisium, brake forth into this exclamation: "This is the place where the sons of the Athenians laid the glorious foundation of liberty." But Herodotus, by whom, as some will have it, Greece is honored, makes that victory a work of bribery and theft, saying that the Greeks, deceived by their captains, who had to that end taken money, fought against their wills. Nor does he here put an end to his malice. All men in a manner confess that, although the Greeks got the better at sea, they nevertheless abandoned Artemisium to the barbarians after they had received the news of the overthrow at Thermopylae. For it was to no purpose for them to stay there and keep the sea, the war being already within Thermopylae, and Xerxes having possessed himself of the avenues. But Herodotus makes the Greeks contriving to fly before they heard anything of Leonidas's death. For thus he says: "But they having been ill-treated, and especially the Athenians, half of whose ships were sorely shattered, consulted to take their flight into Greece." (Ibid. viii. 18.) But let him be permitted so to name (or rather reproach) this retreat of theirs before the fight; but having before called it a flight, he both now styles it a flight, and will again a little after term it a flight; so bitterly does he adhere to this word "flight." "Presently after this," says he, "there came to the barbarians in the pinnace a man of Hestiaea, who acquainted them with the flight of the Grecians from Artemisium. They, because the thing seemed incredible, kept the messenger in custody, and sent forth some light galleys to discover the truth." (Herodotus, viii. 23.) But what is this you say? That they fled as conquered, whom the enemies after the fight could not believe to have fled, as having got much the better? Is then this a fellow fit to be believed when he writes of any man or city, who in one word deprives Greece of the victory, throws down the trophy, and pronounces the inscriptions they had set up to Diana Proseoa (EASTWARD-FACING) to be nothing but pride and vain boasting? The tenor of the inscription was as follows:--

When Athens youth had in a naval fight
All Asia's forces on this sea o'verthrown,
And all the Persian army put to flight,
Than which a greater scare was ever known,
To show how much Diana they respected,
This trophy to her honor they erected.

Moreover, not having described any order of the Greeks, nor told us what place every city of theirs held during the sea-fight, he says that in this retreat, which he calls their flight, the Corinthians sailed first and the Athenians last. (Ibid. viii, 21.)

He indeed ought not to have too much insulted over the Greeks that took part with the Persians, who, being by others thought a Thurian, reckons himself among the Halicarnassians, who, being Dorians by descent, went with their wives and children to the war against the Greeks. But he is so far from giving first an account of the straits they were in who revolted to the Persians, that, having related how the Thessalians sent to the Phocians, who were their mortal enemies, and promised to preserve their country free from all damage if they might receive from them a reward of fifty talents, he writ thus of the Phocians: "For the Phocians were the only people in these quarters who inclined not to the Persians, and that, as far as I upon due consideration can find, for no other reason but because they hated the Thessalians; for if the Thessalians had been affected to the Grecian affairs, I suppose the Phocians would have joined themselves to the Persians." And yet, a little after he would say that thirteen cities of the Phocians were burned by the barbarians, their country laid waste, and the temple which was in Abae set on fire, and all of both sexes put to the sword, except those that by flight escaped to Parnassus. (Herodotus, viii. 30-33. Compare ix. 17.) Nevertheless, he puts those who suffered all extremities rather than lose their honesty in the same rank with those who most affectionately sided with the Persians. And when he could not blame the Phocians actions, writing at his desk invented false causes and got up suspicions against them, and bids us judge them not by what they did, but by what they would have done if the Thessalians had not taken the same side, as if they had been prevented from treason because they found the place already occupied by others! Now if any one, going about to excuse the revolt of the Thessalians to the Persians, should say that they would not have done it but for the hatred they bare the Phocians,--whom when they saw joined to the Greeks, they against their inclinations followed the party of the Persians,--would not such a one be thought most shamefully to flatter, and for the sake of others to pervert the truth, by reigning good causes for evil actions? Indeed, I think, he would. Why then would not he be thought openly to calumniate, who says that the Phocians chose the best, not for the love of virtue, but because they saw the Thessalians on the contrary side? For neither does he refer this device to other authors, as he is elsewhere wont to do, but says that himself found it out by conjecture. He should therefore have produced certain arguments, by which he was persuaded that they, who did things like the best, followed the same counsels with the worst. For what he alleges of their hatreds is ridiculous. For neither did the difference between the Aeginetans and the Athenians, nor that between the Chalcidians and the Eretrians, nor yet that between the Corinthians and the Megarians, hinder them from fighting together for Greece. Nor did the Macedonians, their most bitter enemies, turn the Thessalians from their friendship with the barbarians, by joining the Persian party themselves. For the common danger did so bury their private grudges, that banishing their other passions, they applied their minds either to honesty for the sake of virtue, or to profit through the impulse of necessity. And indeed, after that necessity which compelled them to obey the Persians was over, they returned again to the Greeks, as Lacrates the Spartan has openly testified of them. And Herodotus, as constrained to it, in his relation of the affairs at Plataea, confessed that the Phocians took part with the Greeks. (Herodotus, ix. 31.)

Neither ought it to seem strange to any, if he thus bitterly inveighs against the unfortunate; since he reckons amongst enemies and traitors those who were present at the engagement, and together with the other Greeks hazarded their safety. For the Naxians, says he, sent three ships to the assistance of the barbarians; but Democritus, one of their captains, persuaded the others to take the party of the Greeks. (Ibid. viii. 46.) So unable he is to praise without dispraising, that if he commends one man he must condemn a whole city or people. But in this there give testimony against him, of the more ancient writers Hellanicus, and of the later Ephorus, one of which says that the Naxians came with six ships to aid the Greeks, and the other with five. And Herodotus convinces himself of having feigned these things. For the writers of the Naxian annals say, that they had before beaten back Megabates, who came to their island with two hundred ships, and after that had put to flight the general Datis who had set their city on fire. Now if, as Herodotus has elsewhere said, the barbarians burned their city so that the men were glad to save themselves by flying into the mountains, had they not just cause rather to send aid to the destroyers of their country than to help the protectors of the common liberty? But that he framed this lie not so much to honor Democritus, as to cast infamy on the Naxians, is manifest from his omitting and wholly passing over in silence the valiant acts then performed by Democritus, of which Simonides gives us an account in this epigram:--

When as the Greeks at sea the Medes did meet,
And had near Salamis a naval fight,
Democritus as third led up the fleet,
Charging the enemy with all his might;
He took five of their ships, and did another,
Which they had taken from the Greeks, recover.

But why should any one be angry with him about the Naxians? If we have, as some say, antipodes inhabiting the other hemisphere, I believe that they also have heard of Themistocles and his counsel, which he gave to the Greeks, to fight a naval battle before Salamis, on which, the barbarian being overcome, he built in Melite a temple to Diana the Counsellor. This gentle writer, endeavoring, as much as in him lies, to deprive Themistocles of the glory of this, and transfer it to another, writes thus word for word: "Whilst things were thus, Mnesiphilus, an Athenian, asked Themistocles, as he was going aboard his ship, what had been resolved on in council. And being answered, that it was decreed the ships should be brought back to Isthmus, and a battle fought at sea before Peloponnesus; he said, If then they remove the navy from Salamis, you will no longer be fighting for one country for they will return every one to his own city. Wherefore, if there be any way left, go and endeavor to break this resolution; and, if it be possible, persuade Eurybiades to change his mind and stay here." Then adding that this advice pleased Themistocles, who, without making any reply, went straight to Eurybiades, he has these very expressions: "And sitting by him he related what he had heard from Mnesiphilus, feigning as if it came from himself, and adding other things." (Herodotus, viii. 57, 58.) You see how he accuses Themistocles of disingenuity in arrogating to himself the counsel of Mnesiphilus.

And deriding the Greeks still further, he says, that Themistocles, who was called another Ulysses for his wisdom, was so blind that he could not foresee what was fit to be done; but that Artemisia, who was of the same city with Herodotus, without being taught by any one, but by her own consideration, said thus to Xerxes: "The Greeks will not long be able to hold out against you, but you will put them to flight, and they will retire to their own cities; nor is it probable, if you march your army by land to Peloponnesus, that they will sit still, or take care to fight at sea for the Athenians. But if you make haste to give them a naval battle, I fear lest your fleets receiving damage may prove also very prejudicial to your land-forces." (Ibid. viii. 68.) Certainly Herodotus wanted nothing but verses to make Artemisia another Sibyl, so exactly prophesying of things to come. Therefore Xerxes also delivered his sons to her to be carried to Ephesus for he had (it seems) forgot to bring women with him from Susa, if indeed the children wanted a train of female attendants.

But it is not our design to search into the lies of Herodotus; we only make inquiry into those which he invented to detract from the glory of others. He says: "It is reported by the Athenians that Adimantus, captain of the Corinthians, when the enemies were now ready to join battle, was struck with such fear and astonishment that he fled; not thrusting his ship backward by the stern, or leisurely retreating through those that were engaged, but openly hoisting up his sails, and turning the heads of all his vessels. And about the farther part of the Salaminian coast, he was met by a pinnace, out of which one spake thus to him: Thou indeed, Adimantus, fliest, having betrayed the Grecians; yet they overcome, and according to their desires have the better of their enemies." (Herodotus, viii. 94.) This pinnace was certainly let down from heaven. For what should hinder him from erecting a tragical machine, who by his boasting excelled the tragedians in all other things? Adimantus then crediting him (he adds) "returned to the fleet, when the business was already done." "This report," says he, "is believed by the Athenians; but the Corinthians deny it, and say, they were the first at the sea-fight, for which they have the testimony of all the other Greeks." Such is this man in many other places. He spreads different calumnies and accusations of different men, that he may not fail of making some one appear altogether wicked. And it has succeeded well with him in this place; for if the calumny is believed, the Corinthians--if it is not, the Athenians--are rendered infamous. But in reality the Athenians did not belie the Corinthians, but he hath belied them both. Certainly Thucydides, bringing in an Athenian ambassador contesting with a Corinthian at Sparta, and gloriously boasting of many things about the Persian war and the sea-fight at Salamis, charges not the Corinthians with any crime of treachery or leaving their station. Nor was it likely the Athenians should object any such thing against Corinth, when they saw her engraven in the third place after the Lacedaemonians and themselves on those spoils which, being taken from the barbarians, were consecrated to the gods. And in Salamis they had permitted them to bury the dead near the city, as being men who had behaved themselves gallantly, and to write over them this elegy:--

Well-watered Corinth, stranger, was our home;
Salamis, Ajax's isle, is now our grave;
Here Medes and Persians and Phoenician ships
We fought and routed, sacred Greece to save.

And their honorary sepulchre at the Isthmus has on it this epitaph:--

When Greece upon the point of danger stood,
We fell, defending her with our life-blood.

Moreover, on the offerings of Diodorus, one of the Corinthian sea-captains, reserved in the temple of Latona, there is this inscription:--

Diodorus's seamen to Latona sent
These arms, of hostile Medes the monument

And as for Adimantus himself, against whom Herodotus frequently inveighs,--saying, that he was the only captain who went about to fly from Artemisium, and would not stay the fight,--behold in how great honor he is:--

Here Adimantus rests: the same was he,
Whose counsels won for Greece the crown of liberty.

For neither is it probable, that such honor would have been shown to a coward and a traitor after his decease; nor would he have dared to give his daughters the names of Nausinica, Acrothinius, and Alexibia, and his son that of Aristeas, if he had not performed some illustrious and memorable action in that fight. Nor is it credible that Herodotus was ignorant of that which could not be unknown even to the meanest Carian, that the Corinthian women alone made that glorious and divine prayer, by which they besought the Goddess Venus to inspire their husbands with a love of fighting against the barbarians. For it was a thing divulged abroad, concerning which Simonides made an epigram to be inscribed on the brazen image set up in that temple of Venus which is said to have been founded by Medea, when she desired the goddess, as some affirm, to deliver her from loving her husband Jason, or, as others say, to free him from loving Thetis. The tenor of the epigram follows:--

For those who, fighting on their country's side,
Opposed th' imperial Mede's advancing tide,
We, votaresses, to Cythera pray'd;
Th' indulgent power vouchsafed her timely aid,
And kept the citadel of Hellas free
From rude assaults of Persia's archery.

These things he should rather have written and recorded, than have inserted Aminocles's killing of his son.

After he had abundantly satisfied himself with the accusations brought against Themistocles,--of whom he says that, unknown to the other captains, he incessantly robbed and spoiled the islands,--(Herodotus, viii. 112.) he at length openly takes away the crown of victory from the Athenians, and sets it on the head of the Aeginetans, writing thus: "The Greeks having sent the first-fruits of their spoils to Delphi, asked in general of the god, whether he had a sufficient part of the booty and were contented with it. He answered, that he had enough of all the other Greeks, but not of the Aeginetans for he expected a donary of them, as having won the greatest honor in the battle at Salamis." (Ibid. viii. 122.) See here how he attributes not his fictions to the Scythians, to the Persians, or to the Egyptians, as Aesop did his to the ravens and apes; but using the very person of the Pythian Apollo, he takes from Athens the chief honor of the battle at Salamis. And the second place in honor being given to Themistocles at the Isthmus by all the other captains,--every one of which attributed to himself the first degree of valor, but give the next to Themistocles,--and the judgment not coming to a determination, when he should have reprehended the ambition of the captains, he said, that all the Greeks weighed anchor from thence through envy, not being willing to give the chief honor of the victory to Themistocles. (Ibid. viii. 123, 124.)

In his ninth and last book, having nothing left to vent his malice on but the Lacedaemonians and their glorious action against the barbarians at Plataea, he writes, that the Spartans at first feared lest the Athenians should suffer themselves to be persuaded by Mardonius to forsake the other Greeks; but that now, the Isthmus being fortified, they, supposing all to be safe at Peloponnesus, slighted the rest, feasting and making merry at home, and deluding and delaying the Athenian ambassadors. (Herodotus, ix. 8. See also viii. 141.) How then did there go forth from Sparta to Plataea a thousand and five men, having every one of them with him seven Helots? Or how came it that, exposing themselves to so many dangers, they vanquished and overthrew so many thousand barbarians? Hear now his probable cause of it. "It happened," says he, "that there was then at Sparta a certain stranger of Tegea, named Chileus, who had some friends amongst the Ephori, between whom and him there was mutual hospitality. He then persuaded them to send forth the army, telling them that the fortification on the Isthmus, by which they had fenced in Peloponnesus, would be of no avail if the Athenians joined themselves with Mardonius." (Ibid. ix. 9.) This counsel then drew Pausanias with his army to Plataea; but if any private business had kept that Chileus at Tegea, Greece had never been victorious.

Again, not knowing what to do with the Athenians, he tosses to and fro that city, sometimes extolling it, and sometimes debasing it. He says that, contending for the second place with the Tegeatans they made mention of the Heraclidae, alleged their acts against the Amazons, and the sepulchres of the Peloponnesians that died under the walls of Cadmea, and at last brought down their discourse to the battle of Marathon, saying, however, that they would be satisfied with the command of the left wing. (Ibid. ix. 26, 27.) A little after, he says, Pausanias and the Spartans yielded them the first place, desiring them to fight in the right wing against the Persians and give them the left, who excused themselves as not skilled in fighting against the barbarians. (Ibid. ix. 46.) Now it is a ridiculous thing, to be unwilling to fight against an enemy unless one has been used to him. But he says farther, that the other Greeks being led by their captains to encamp in another place, as soon as they were moved, the horse fled with joy towards Plataea, and in their flight came as far as Juno's temple. (Ibid. ix. 52.) In which place indeed he charges them all in general with disobedience, cowardice, and treason. At last he says, that only the Lacedaemonians and the Tegeates fought with the barbarians, and the Athenians with the Thebans; equally defrauding all the other cities of their part in the honor of the victory, whilst he affirms that none of them joined in the fight, but that all of them, sitting still hard by in their arms, betrayed and forsook those who fought for them; that the Phliasians and Megarians indeed, when they heard Pausanias had got the better, came in later, and falling on the Theban horse, were all cut off; that the Corinthians were not at the battle, and that after the victory, by hastening on over the hills, they escaped the Theban cavalry. (See the account of the battle of Plataea, Herodotus, ix, 59-70.) For the Thebans, after the barbarians were overthrown, going before with their horse, affectionately assisted them in their flight; to return them thanks (forsooth) for the marks they had stigmatized them with at Thermopylae! Now what rank the Corinthians had in the fight at Plataea against the barbarians, and how they performed their duty, you may hear from Simonides in these verses:

I' th' midst were men, in warlike feats excelling,
Who Ephyre full of springs, inhabited,
And who in Corinth, Glaucus' city, dwelling,
Great praise by their great valor merited;
Of which they to perpetuate the fame,
To th' gods of well-wrought gold did offerings frame.

For he wrote not these things, as one that taught at Corinth or that made verses in honor of the city, but only as recording these actions in elegiac verses. But Herodotus, whilst he desires to prevent that objection by which those might convince him of lying who should ask, Whence then are so many mounts, tombs, and monuments of the dead, at which the Plataeans, even to this day, celebrate funeral solemnities in the presence of the Greeks?--has charged, unless I am mistaken, a fouler crime than that of treason on their posterity. For these are his words: "As for the other sepulchres that are seen in Plataea, I have heard that their successors, being ashamed of their progenitors' absence from this battle, erected every man a monument for posterity's sake." (Herodotus, ix. 85.) Of this treacherous deserting the battle Herodotus was the only man that ever heard. For if any Greeks withdrew themselves from the battle, they must have deceived Pausanias, Aristides, the Lacedaemonians, and the Athenians. Neither yet did the Athenians exclude the Aeginetans who were their adversaries from the inscription, nor convince the Corinthians of having fled from Salamis before the victory, Greece bearing witness to the contrary. Indeed Cleadas, a Plataean, ten years after the Persian war, to gratify, as Herodotus says, the Aeginetans, erected a mount bearing their name. Now came it then to pass that the Athenians and Lacedaemonians, who were so jealous of each other that they were presently after the war ready to go together by the ears about the setting up a trophy, did not yet repel those Greeks who fled in a fear from the battle from having a share in the honor of those that behaved themselves valiantly, but inscribed their names on the trophies and colossuses, and granted them part of the spoils? Lastly they set up an altar, on which was engraven this epigram:

The Greeks, by valor having put to flight
The Persians and preserved their country's right,
Erected here this altar which you see,
To Jove, preserver of their liberty.

Did Cleadas, O Herodotus, or some other, write this also, to oblige the cities by flattery? What need had they then to employ fruitless labor in digging up the earth, to make tombs and erect monuments for posterity's sake, when they saw their glory consecrated in the most illustrious and greatest donaries? Pausanias, indeed, when he was aspiring to the tyranny, set up this inscription in Delphi:--

Pausanias, of Greeks the general
When he the Medes in fight had overthrown,
Offered to Phoebus a memorial
Of victory, this monumental stone.

In which he gave the glory to the Greeks, whose general he professed himself to be. Yet the Greeks not enduring but utterly misliking it, the Lacedaemonians, sending to Delphi, caused this to be cut out, and the names of the cities, as it was fit, to be engraven instead of it. Now how is it possible that the Greeks should have been offended that there was no mention made of them in the inscription, if they had been conscious to themselves of deserting the fight? or that the Lacedaemonians would have erased the name of their leader and general, to insert deserters and such as withdrew themselves from the common danger? For it would have been a great indignity, that Sophanes, Aeimnestus, and all the rest who showed their valor in that fight, should calmly suffer even the Cythnians and Melians to be inscribed on the trophies; and that Herodotus, attributing that fight only to three cities, should raze all the rest out of those and other sacred monuments and donaries.

There having been then four fights with the barbarians; he says, that the Greeks fled from Artemisium; that, whilst their king and general exposed himself to danger at Thermopylae, the Lacedaemonians sat negligent at home, celebrating the Olympian and Carnean feasts; and discoursing of the action at Salamis, he uses more words about Artemisia than he does in his whole narrative of the naval battle. Lastly, he says, that the Greeks sat still at Plataea, knowing no more of the fight, till it was over, than if it had been a skirmish between mice and frogs (like that which Pigres, Artemisia's fellow countryman, merrily and scoffingly related in a poem), and it had been agreed to fight silently, lest they should be heard by others; and that the Lacedaemonians excelled not the barbarians in valor, but only got the better, as fighting against naked and unarmed men. To wit, when Xerxes himself was present, the barbarians were with much difficulty compelled by scourges to fight with the Greeks; but at Plataea, having taken other resolutions, as Herodotus says, "they were no way inferior in courage and strength; but their garments being without armor was prejudicial to them, since being naked they fought against a completely armed enemy." What then is there left great and memorable to the Grecians of those fights, if the Lacedaemonians fought with unarmed men, and the other Greeks, though present, were ignorant of the battle; if empty monuments are set up everywhere, and tripods and altars full of lying inscriptions are placed before the gods; if, lastly, Herodotus only knows the truth, and all others that give any account of the Greeks have been deceived by the fame of those glorious actions, as the effect of an admirable prowess? But he is an acute writer, his style is pleasant, there is a certain grace, force, and elegancy in his narrations; and he has, like a musician, elaborated his discourse, though not knowingly, still clearly and elegantly. These things delight, please, and affect all men. But as in roses we must beware of the venomous flies called cantharides; so must we take heed of the calumnies and envy lying hid under smooth and well-couched phrases and expressions, lest we imprudently entertain absurd and false opinions of the most excellent and greatest cities and men of Greece.

END OF SIXTEEN-----------

INDEX.

Abuse of and by one's enemies.

Achelous, myths of the.

Achilles, Homer's lessons from.

Achilles's Grove.

Acrotatus, saying of.

Actaeon, tragic history of.

Actors, tragic vs. comic.

Administration, caution about.

Admonitions, on hearing.

Adrastea, root of madness.

Adultery and curiosity compared.

Advantage from enemies.

Aeantis, chorus of tribe.

Aegyptus, Nile formerly called.

[Greek],

Aemilii, tyrants called.

Aemilius, Paulus.

Aenianes, the.

Aeschines the Academic, Life of; quoted.

Aeschylus, verses of; quoted; paraphrase of Homer by.

Aesculapius, temple of.

Aesop, at Delphi; at banquet of seven Wise Men.

Agasicles, Spartan king.

Agathocles, king of Sicily.

Age, cause of old.

Aged, the part of the, in state affairs; love of pure wine by; intoxication among the.

Agenor, grove of.

Agesilaus, sayings of.

Agesipolis, son of Cleombrotus.

Agesipolis, son of Pausanias.

Agis, King; example of; story of.

Agis the Younger.

Air, an element.

Ajax, parents of; place of soul of.

Alalcomenae, city called.

[Greek]

Alcamenes, son of Teleclus.

Alcibiades, stories about.

Alcippus, wife and daughters of.

Alexander the Great, sayings and stories of; and Timoclea; orations on; remark of Theocritus about; Diogenes and; in India; as a great drinker.

Alexander, tyrant of Pheraeans.

Alexandridas, son of Laid to.

Allegory in Homer.

Almonds for drinkers.

Alpha, position of, in alphabet.

Alpheus, history of.

Altar of ashes at Olympia.

"Alter ego" of Pythagoras, parallel saying in Homer.

Amasis, Herodotus relates a detail concerning.

Amazonian river.

Ambassadors, recording names of.

Ambition, accompaniments of.

America, a hint of.

Ammon, Egyptian name for Jupiter; temple of.

Ammonius the philosopher.

[Greek]

Amoebus, musician.

Amphilochus, oracle of.

Amplification in Homer.

Anatole, mountain.

Anaxagoras, story of.

Anaxander, son of Eurycrates.

Anaxarchus.

Anaxilas, saying of.

Anchus compared with Curtius.

Ancients, council of.

Andocides, Greek orator.

Androclidas, saying of.

Anger, nature of; the restraint of; Homer on.

Animals, human beings born of; self-cures by wild; craftiness of water and of land; amours of, with human beings; reason in; generation of; embryos of; method of nutrition and growth of; appetites and pleasures in; vision of, in the dark.

Answers to questions.

Antalcidas, sayings of.

Anthedon, explanation of.

Anticyra, cure of madness from.

Antigonus the First.

Antigonus the Second.

Antiochus; surnamed the Falcon.

Antiochus Hierax.

Antiochus the third.

Antipater, nickname of.

Antiphon, Greek orator.

Antiphrasis in Homer.

Antithesis, Homer's use of.

Ants, intelligence of.

Apelles and Megabyzus.

Apesantus, mountain.

[Greek], defined.

[Greek]

Aphrodite, epithets of; statue of, at Elis; called "fruitful Cytherea."; charmed girdle of.

Aphrodite the Murderess, temple of.

Apis.

Apollo, place of birth; temple of, at Delphi; derivation from [Greek] and [Greek]; titles of; an oracle delivered by; a flatterer the enemy of; motto in temple of; inventor of music; causes of common diseases are from.

Apollodorus, painter.

Apollonius, consolation to, on death of son.

Apoplexy produced by fumes of lamp-wick.

{Greek]

Apostrophe, figure of speech called.

Apothegms, of kings and great commanders; Roman; Laconic or Spartan; in Homer.

Appetites in animals.

Apples and apple-trees.

Araenus, sea shore of.

Arar, river, derivation of name.

Aratus, paraphrase of sayings of Homer by.

Archimedes, story of.

Aregeus, sayings of.

Ares, varying opinions of.

Aretaphila, Cyrenaean woman.

Argive women, the.

Argives, images called; customs of.

Argyllus, mountain in Egypt.

Aristarchus, arrangement of Iliad and Odyssey by.

Aristides the Just.

Aristippus, rebuke of a father by.

Aristo, punishment of.

Aristoclia of Haliartus.

Aristodemus, tyrant of Cumae.

Ariston, sayings of.

Aristophanes, and Socrates; comparison between Menander and.

Aristotimus, tyrant of Elis; daughters of.

Aristotle; on talkativeness; on use and abuse of wealth; on music; conception of God; views on indignation and mercy held in common with Homer.

Arithmetic of Pythagoras and in Homer.

Arrangement, Homer's skill in.

Arrhippe, virgin ravished by Tmolus.

Artaxerxes Longimanus, sayings of.

Artaxerxes Mnemon, sayings of.

Artemis, temple of, at Ehpesus.

Asbestos produced by ancients.

Asparagus for brides.

Ass, connection of Typhon with; musical instruments made from bones of.

Aster, stone called.

Astronomy, observations concerning; goats show knowledge of; ancient; Homer's knowledge of.

Astycratidas, quoted.

Asyndeton in Homer.

Ateas, sayings of.

Atheism and superstition.

Atheists, beliefs of.

Athenaeum, mountain.

Athene Chalcioecus, temple of.

Athenians, decrees proposed to; question of renown of.

Athenodorus and Xeno.

Atoms the final cause.

Attalus.

attention, directions concerning.

Augurs, tenure of office of.

Augustus Caesar, in his later years.

Aurea, cause of the.

Auspices, prohibition of use of, after August.

Autoglyphus, stone called.

Autonamasia in Homer.

Autumn, men's stomachs in; least credit to dreams in.

Axioms, complications of ten.

Bacchus, called Liber Pater; called Bull-begot; Greek and Roman punished by; identity of Osiris and; feast of; Mithridates called, on account of great drinking; Adonis identified with; called the good counsellor; Herodotus' estimate of.

Ballenaeus, mountain.

Banishment, essay on.

Banquets, philosophising at; arranging guests at; consular place at; position of director of; suitability of chaplets of flowers at; inviting many guests to; flute-girls at.

Barbers, talkativeness of.

Barley, soil for growing.

Barrenness, in women; of mules.

Bashfulness.

Bathing after exercise.

Baths, hot vs. cold; former compared with present; Homer on.

Bears, paws of, as food.

Bees, Simonides' allusion to; illustrations drawn from; effect of smoke on; tendency of, to sting the impure; craftiness of Cretan.

Beggars' flesh among Aenianes.

Bellerophon, continence of.

Berecyntus, mountain and priest named.

Bessus, punishment of.

Bias, Spartan leader.

Bird or egg, which was first?

Birds, in soothsaying; wisdom shown by; tree which is a natural snare for.

Birth, value of good.

Birthdays of famous men.

Births, premature.

Biton and Cleobis.

Boar, characteristics of the.

Boars, trees, sweet.

Bodies, division and mixture of.

Body, definition of a.

Boeotians, sullenness of.

Boeotus, son of Neptune.

Bona, temple of.

Borrowers, treatment of.

Borrowing money.

Bottiaean maids.

Boys, Sepulchre of the; love of; Herodotus on defiling of.

Boys' necklaces.

Brasidas, sayings of; stories of.

Breathing, theory about.

Bridal customs, Roman.

Brides, food for.

Britain, fountain-head of religion; longevity of inhabitants of.

Brixaba, mountain.

Bronze, weapons of.

Broth, Lacedaemonian.

Brotherly love.

Brothers and sisters, Greek and Roman parallels concerning.

Bucephalus, intelligence of.

Bulimy, greedy disease.

Bullae, boys' necklaces.

Bundle of sticks story.

burial, among Lacedaemonians.

Bysius, the month.

Caesar, Augustus, sayings of.

Caesar, Julius, stories and sayings of.

Caicus, river of Mysia.

Callicratidas, Spartan admiral.

Callipides, Greek actor.

Calydon, mountain.

Camillus, dictator.

Camma, story of.

Candles, matter of extinguishing.

Carbonate of soda, ancient use of.

Carmenta, temple of.

Carmina, verses called.

Cases, changes of, in Homer.

Caspian Sea.

Castor and Pollux, statues of; stars called.

Catechresis in Homer.

Cato the Elder, at Utica.

Cats, Egyptian views on; the young of; madness of; caused by perfumes.

Cattle, salt used for.

Catulus, Lutatius.

Caucasus, mountain, story of.

Caudine Forks, Roman hero at.

Causes, definition and division of.

Celtic women, the.

Censors, inauguration ceremonies of.

Ceres, feast in honour of.

Chabrias, sayings of.

Chalcedonian women, custom of.

Chaldeans, belief of.

Changes of gender, number, etc., in Homer.

Charila, sacrificial rites of.

Charillus, King.

Charon, Homer a disciple of.

Chastity, of animals; herb for protection of.

Child-birth, effect of moon on.

Children, time of naming Roman; training of; love of only; conception and birth of.

Chiomara, story of.

Chios, women of.

[Greek]

Christianity, allusions to.

Chrysermus, History of India by.

Chrysippus, on various virtues; works of.

Cicero, sayings of.

Cios, women of.

Circe and Odysseus.

Cithaeron, mountain.

Civil polity, division of, by Homer.

Claudia, virtues of.

Cleanthes, Athenian philosopher.

Clearchus, tyrant of Heraclea.

Cleomachus the Pharsalian.

Cleombrotus, son of Pausanias.

Cleombrotus the Lacedaemonian.

Cleomenes, quoted.

Cleomenes, son of Anaxandridas.

Cleomenes, son of Cleombrotus.

Clitoris, stone called.

Cloelia, Roman maiden.

Clothing of Lacedaemonians.

Clouds, causes of.

Cnidians, Crown of the.

Coccygium, mountain.

Cocks, use of, according to Chrysippus.

Coeranus, story of.

Coins, images on.

Cold, first principle of; a preserver of health; use of, in Homer.

Coliads, the.

Colour, defined.

Colours of early painters.

Colotes the Epicurean.

Comedy, origin of, with Homer.

Comets, beliefs about.

Commendation, consideration in.

Comminius, story of.

Congelation.

Conjugal precepts.

Constancy, crowns of.

Consualia, feasts called.

Consular place at table.

Copiousness, a character of speech.

Corinthians, Hall of the.

corruption, are animals obnoxious to?

Cotys, sayings of.

Counting, by fives; animals' power of; in Homer.

Cranes, intelligence of; fish compared with.

Crassus, hay bound about horns of.

Crater history, vase called.

Creation of the world.

Crocodiles, intelligence of; the bird trochilus the friend of; customs of, in breeding.

Croesus, Herodotus on.

Cronium, mountain.

Cronos, festivals of.

Crystallus, river called.

Cuffing, exercise of.

Cupping-glasses, phenomenon in.

Curiosity, essay on.

Curius, M'., story of.

Curtius, Roman knight.

Cuttle-fish, sign of storm; cunning of.

Cybele, worship of.

Cynic and king anecdote.

Cyrenaics, temperance of.

Cyrus, sayings of.

Cyrus the Younger, sayings of.

Daemon of Socrates.

Daemons, remarks on.

Damindas, story of.

Damis, quoted.

Damonidas, sayings of.

Dancing, three parts in.

Darius, sayings of; Alexander the Great and the corpse of; Alexander and the wife of.

Darkness, visibility of; reason of animals' seeing in.

Daughters sacrificed by fathers.

Day, time of beginning.

Dead, rites of the honoured.

Death, opinions of; remarks on; sleep before; a good thing; cause of; question of appertaining to soul or body.

deaths of sons, cases of.

debtors, unfortunate lot of.

Decrees proposed to Athenians.

Defamation of character, curiosity results in.

Deity, knowledge of a.

Demaratus, sayings of.

Demeter, wanderings of.

Demetrius, sayings of.

Demetrius Phalereus.

Demetrius the grammarian.

Democracy depicted by Homer.

Democritus, attacked by Colotes the Epicurean; defence of.

Demosthenes, Life of; speech ON THE CROWN; parallel passages in Homer and.

Dercyllidas, Spartan ambassador.

Destiny, necessity considered the same as.

Dexicrcon, Venus of.

Diana, temples of, in Rome; priestesses of.

Diana Dictynna.

Diana Orthia, rites of.

Diatyposis in Homer.

Didymus the Cynic, surnamed Planetiades.

Diet of Lacedaemonians; in sickness; in health; effect of, on health; variety in; Homer's views about.

Digestion of food.

Dinarchus, Greek orator.

Diogenes, Alexander and; advice of, to boys; soliloquy of; sayings and stories of; Melanthius on a tragedy of; eats a raw fish.

Dion, sayings of.

Dionysius, tyrant of Sicily.

Dionysius the Hydragogue.

Dionysius the Younger; Diogenes and.

Diorphus, mountain.

Director of a feast.

Discourse, separating the useful part of a.

Diseases, causes of new.

Divination, art of; Homer's knowledge of.

Dog, Locrians' wooden; Worship of, by Egyptians; power of mimicry in a.

Dogs, set before Lares; sacrifice of, to Mana Geneta; sacrifice of, in Lupercal games; stone-chasing of; intelligence shown by.

Dolphin, tribute to the.

Domitius, Cneus.

"Do not overdo," saying.

[Greek] defined.

Dreams, origin of.

Drimylus, mountain.

Drinkers, certain great.

"Drink five or three, but not four," saying.

Drinking, references to, in the Iliad.

Drugs in Homer.

Druidical students.

Drunkenness, talkativeness and; of old men as compared with old women; partial compared with total.

Earth, an element; nature and magnitude of the; figure, site and position, motion, and zones of. See World.

Earthquakes, cause of.

Ease of mind; in exile.

Echo, production of an.

Eclipse, cause of; shadow in an, in proportion to moon's diameter; of sun; of moon.

Eclipses in Homer.

Education of children.

{Greek]

Egypt, kings of.

Egyptian gods and myths; legend about Love.

EI the word, on Apollo's temple at Delphi.

Elaeus, founding of.

Elaphebolia, festival of.

Elasii.

Element, difference between principle and.

Elements, Nature viewed as the mixture and separation of the; of members of human body; and principles.

Elephant, amour of an, with Alexandrian maid.

Elephantiasis.

Elephants, intelligence of; excelled by fishes.

Elephas, mountain.

Eleutheria, origin of festival of.

Ellipse, a figure of speech.

Embryo, nature of human; of animals.

Emetics, use of.

Emmets, intelligence of.

Empedocles, quoted; strictures of Colotes against; defence of.

Emphasis, trope called.

Emprepes, story of.

Enmities accompany friendship.

Enmity, advantage and profit from.

Envy, follows ability; an enemy to peace of mind; and hatred; praising one's self without exciting; in hearers; the aged most free from attacks proceeding from; of statesmen.

Epaenetus, on liars.

Epaminoxidas, stories of.

Epicaste.

Epicureans, theories of.

Epicurus, the doctrine of; admits it is pleasanter to do than receive a kindness; views on the deity; Colotes, disciple of, confuted; followers of, distinguished by inactivity in public matters.

Epidamnians, POLETES among.

Epigrams in Homer.

Epilepsy, "sacred disease,".

Epiphonesis in Homer.

Epitaphs, uselessness of.

Epithets in Homer.

Eretria, women of.

Eryxo.

[Greek]

Euboidas, saying of.

Eudaemonidas, quoted.

Eudamidas, son of Archidamus.

Eumenes; and Attalus.

Eunostus, hero of Tanagra.

Euphranor, painter.

Euphrates, myths of the.

Euripides, quoted; on banishment; on God; paraphrase of Homer by.

Eurotas, river.

Eurycratidas, son of Anaxandridas.

Euthynous the Italian.

Evenus, quotation from.

Exercise, importance of; Homer's acquaintance with value of.

Exercises, Homer's order of.

Exordiums, Homer's.

Fabius, friend of Augustus Caesar.

Fabius Maximus, heroic act of.

Fabricius, C., and Pyrrhus.

Face in the moon.

Failing sickness.

False modesty.

Fancy, defined.

"Fast from evil," saying.

Fasting, practice of; thirst from.

Fate, necessity considered the same as; the nature of; essay concerning; pertains to mind of God; Homer's views of.

Fates, province of the.

Fathers, and daughters, certain Greek and Roman cases of; advice to; love of, for daughters.

Fear, and superstition; Homer on.

Feast of Fools.

Feasts. See Banquets.

February, derivation of.

Fever, cause and nature of.

Fig-leaf as an omen.

Fig-trees, fruit of.

Figures, definition of.

Figures of speech, Homer's.

Fire, compared with water as to usefulness; an element.

Fish, abstention from eating; cunning of; kind of, called remora or echeneis; eating of, forbidden by Pythagoreans.

Fish-lines, horses' hair for.

Fish-nets, rotting of.

Five, significance of number; the number dedicated by the Wise Men.

Five elements in the world.

Five gods of Rhea.

Fives, counting by.

Five senses, the.

Five Wise Men.

Flamen Dialis, question concerning; rules for.

Flaminian Way.

Flattery vs. friendship.

Flesh, of sacrificed beasts; the eating of.

Flowers, chaplets of, worn at table.

Flute, mentioned by Homer.

Flute-girls at feasts.

Flute-music.

Flutes from asses' bones.

"Follow God," saying.

Food, superstitions about; choice of; digestion of; from the sea vs. food from land. See Diet.

Fortuna Primigenia, Worship of.

Fortune, temples of; of the Romans; essay on; various opinions of.

Four, the number, venerated by Pythagoreans.

Four species of animals.

Fox, cunning of the.

Freedom of speech, ill-advised.

Friends, folly of seeking many; discerning flatterers from.

Friendship, a dual relation; enmities an accompaniment of; constancy a requisite in.

Frogs, breeding of.

Frost, hunting impeded by.

Frozen speech.

Fruit, salt lacking in.

Funeral customs in Homer.

Funeral rites, Roman.

Furciferi.

G, the letter, introduction of.

Galatia, heroines of.

Galaxy, or Milky Way.

Galba and Maecenas.

Ganges, river, story of.

Gardens of Adonis.

Garlands, of oaken leaves; in games.

Garlic, scruples concerning.

Garrulity.

Gauran, mountain.

Geese, sacred.

Gelo, sayings of.

Genders, change of, in Homer.

Generation, extent of a.

Generation, and corruption; of human beings; ancient theories of; of animals; of gods.

Generative seed.

Geneta, dogs sacrificed to.

Geniuses and heroes.

Geometer, God as a.

Gifts, bridal.

Gnome, defined; Homer's use of.

Gnossians, customs among.

God, the tutelary, of Rome; existence and essence of a; what is?; immortality and eternity of; Platonic conception of; Homer's conception.

Gods, ancients' conception of; generation of; Homer's belief in; piety toward, taught by Homer.

Gold, scarcity of, in ancient times.

Gracefulness, a character of speech.

Grafting of trees.

Great Trench, battle of the.

Greedy disease.

Greek Questions.

Grief, advice concerning; exhibitions of; Homer on.

Grief-easing stone.

Guests, at wedding suppers; entertainment of many, at a supper; that are called shadows; who come late. See also Banquets.

Gymnastics in Homer.

Haemus, mountain.

Hail, why round.

Halcyon, virtues of the.

Halinda, plant called.

Halo, cause of the.

Hamaxocylists, race of.

Hannibal, Fabius Maximus and; and the women of Salmantica.

Happiness, true seat of.

Harmony, in music.

Harp-music.

Harps, at entertainments.

Hart, tears of, salt.

Hatred, envy and.

Hay-making, prayers for.

Head, covering and uncovering the.

Health, estimates of; rules for preservation of; preservers of.

Hearing, essay concerning; cause of sense of.

Heart, seat of the emotions according to Stoics, following Homer.

Heat, a first principle; causes premature old age; of women; Homer's appreciation of.

Heaven, nature end essence of; circles or division of.

Hebrus river.

Hedge-hogs, cunning of; sea hedge-hogs.

Hegesippus, quoted.

Helicon, story of.

Hens, impregnation of, by the wind.

Hera as goddess of marriage.

Heraclides, wrestler, a great drinker.

Herbs growing in certain rivers and mountains.

Hercules, payment of tithes to; swearing by; and the Muses, altar common to; sacrifices to; Greek and Roman stories of; Herodotus' estimate of.

Herodotus, on modesty of women; criticism of.

Heroes, beliefs concerning; of Homer.

Heroic metre in Homer.

Herondas, saying of.

Hesiod, on gods, daemons, heroes, and men; quoted; on begetting children; on receiving gifts of fortune.

Hiero, sayings of.

Hippocratidas.

Hippodamus, Spartan commander.

Hippolytus, story of.

Hippothorus, tune called.