[33] Lib. x. 20.
[34] Plutarch, himself a Bœotian, is highly indignant at this statement, and also at the former, that the Thebans were detained as hostages. It must be owned that there is something wanting in explanation, since it is not clear how they could have been made to fight, if disinclined; but it seems equally clear that they were very deficient in that ardour which animated the Spartans and Thespians, and therefore cannot be supposed to have remained quite voluntarily.
[35] This speech is given by Herodotus to another Spartan, Dieneces, whom he mentions as famous for his smart sayings. The second is spurious, if we reject Plutarch’s assertion that the battle was fought by night.
[36] The epitaph is simple, and therefore in good taste; but we are bound to expose the braggart spirit which takes no notice of the Thespians and Locrians, who joined the Peloponnesians, not with a paltry quota, but with their whole force. We may also observe that national vanity has been further tampering with the numbers. Herodotus reckons Xerxes’ land force to consist of 2,100,000 men, and adds 541,610 for the fleet, making a total of 2,641,610 combatants. The camp-followers of various sorts he supposes may have amounted to an equal number. Incredible as it appears, his account is so particular that it has evidently been founded upon numerical data of some sort: it is hardly possible to estimate the amount of exaggeration and misstatement.
[37] Planta, Helv. Confed., book ii. cap. 2.
[38] Planta, Hist. Helvetic Confederacy.
[39] Vertot.
[40] In ancient Greece the shield served as a bier, to convey home the corpse of its slain owner. To return without it was universally considered disgraceful. “I have frequently seen these inscriptions on Greek standards, particularly the last: the direction was literally followed, for the body of the standard-bearer, who died defending it, was wrapped in it as a shroud, and so borne to the grave, and buried in it.”—Walsh’s Journey over-land from Constantinople, p. 218.
[41] Walsh, Journey over-land from Constantinople, p. 222; Hist. des Evénemens de la Grèce, par M. Raffenel.
[42] Trick.