HERODOTUS

BOOK IX. 27clidae had till then been rejected by every Greekpeople to whom they resorted to escape the tyrannyof the Mycenaeans, we and none other receivedthem 1 and with;them we vanouished those that thendwelt in the Peloponnese, and we broke the prideof Eurystheus. Furthermore, when the Argives whohad marched with2Polynices against Thebes hadthere made an end of their lives and lay unburied,know that we sent our army against the Cadmeansand recovered the dead and buried them in Eleusis ;and we have 011 record our great victory against theAmazons who once came from the river Thermodonand broke into Attica ;and in the hard days of Troywe were second to none. But since it is idle torecall these matters for they that were erstwhilevaliant may now be of lesser mettle, and they thatlacked mettle then may be better men now enoughof these doings of old time ;and we, if we are knownfor no achievement (aswe are, for more and greaterthan are any men in Hellas), yet from our feat ofarms at Marathon we deserve to have this honour,yea, and more beside ; seeing that alone of all Greekswe met the Persian single-handed, nor failed in thathigh enterprise, but overcame six and forty nations.Is it not our right to hold this post, for nought butthat one feat ? Yet seeing that this is no time forwrangling about our place in the battle, we are readyto obey you, men of Lacedaemon ! and take whatsoplace and face whatso enemy you deem most fitting ;wheresoever you set us, we will strive to be valiant1Hyllus, pursued by his enemy Eurystheus, took refugewith the Athenians, and with their aid defeated and killedEurystheus and his sons.8When Polynices tried to recover Thebes from his brotherEteocles see ; Aeschylus' "Seven against Thebes."