PLAINS OF ARGOS.
Dieneces, a Spartan, is said to have been the bravest man. They relate that before the engagement with the Medes, having heard a Trachinian say, that when the barbarians let fly their arrows, they would obscure the sun by the multitude of their shafts, so great were their numbers, he replied, not at all alarmed: "That's good; we shall have the pleasure, then, of fighting in the shade." In honor of the slain, who were buried on the spot where they fell, and of those who died before, these inscriptions have been engraved upon stones above them; the first:
"From Peloponnesus came four thousand men;
And on this spot fought with three hundred myriads."
The second was in honor of the three hundred Spartans:
"Go, stranger! tell the Lacedæmonians, here
We lie, obedient to their stern commands!"
An engraved monument was also erected to Megistias the augur, by his friend Simonides, and was as follows:
"The monument of famed Megistias,—