These questions and a hundred others were discussed on every side with a violence that swept away all semblance of dignity or restraint. The factions quarrelled like children, and more than once came to blows in their eagerness, making it necessary for the Scythians of the public guard to separate them. At last the herald of the Epistate demanded in due form whether the Assembly desired any decree to be proposed. Far less than the required number of six thousand hands were raised in the affirmative, and the gathering was dissolved, eddying out of the enclosure in turbulent disorder.
"Is that all?" asked Chares, rising and stretching himself with a yawn.
"That is all," Clearchus replied sadly.
"With a phalanx of ten thousand brave men I could take your Acropolis," Leonidas remarked, measuring the height above his head.
"Yes, but where could you find them?" Aristotle said.
"Who knows? Perhaps in the camp of Alexander," the Spartan replied.
Ariston had slipped away into the crowd.