herodotus

the dispositions which he made beforehand were as follows:--for allthose of his army who were lying dead at Thermopylai, (and there wereas many as twenty thousand in all), with the exception of about athousand whom he left, he dug trenches and buried them, laying overthem leaves and heaping earth upon them, that they might not be seenby the men of the fleet. Then when the herald had gone over toHistaia, he gathered an assembly of the whole force and spoke thesewords: "Allies, king Xerxes grants permission to any one of you whodesires it, to leave his post and to come and see how he fightsagainst those most senseless men who looked to overcome the power ofthe king." 25. When the herald had proclaimed this, then boats were ofall things most in request, so many were they who desired to see thissight; and when they had passed over they went through the dead bodiesand looked at them: and every one supposed that those who were lyingthere were all Lacedemonians or Thespians, though the Helots also wereamong those that they saw: however, they who had passed over did notfail to perceive that Xerxes had done that which I mentioned about thebodies of his own dead; for in truth it was a thing to cause laughtereven: on the one side there were seen a thousand dead bodies lying,while the others lay all gathered together in the same place, fourthousand[17] of them. During this day then they busied themselves withlooking, and on the day after this they sailed back to the ships atHistaia, while Xerxes and his army set forth upon their march.26. There had come also to them a few deserters from Arcadia, men inwant of livelihood and desiring to be employed. These the Persiansbrought into the king's presence and inquired about the Hellenes, whatthey were doing; and one man it was who asked them this for all therest. They told them that the Hellenes were keeping the Olympicfestival and were looking on at a contest of athletics andhorsemanship. He then inquired again, what was the prize proposed tothem, for the sake of which they contended; and they told them of thewreath of olive which is given. Then Tigranes[18] the son of Artabanosuttered a thought which was most noble, though thereby he incurredfrom the king the reproach of cowardice: for hearing that the prizewas a wreath and not money, he could not endure to keep silence, butin the presence of all he spoke these words: "Ah! Mardonios, what kindof men are these against whom thou hast brought us to fight, who maketheir contest not for money but for honour!" Thus was it spoken bythis man.27. In the meantime, so soon as the disaster at Thermopylai had comeabout, the Thessalians sent a herald forthwith to the Phokians,against whom they had a grudge always, but especially because of thelatest disaster which they had suffered: for when both the Thessaliansthemselves and their allies had invaded the Phokian land not many