Ἑλέομαι
πὰρ μὲν Σαλαμῖνος, Ἀθηναίων χάριν,
μισθόν.
Pind. Pyth. i.
“I will embrace at Salamis the benefit conferred by Athens upon Greece, and will magnify its great reward.” The allusion is to the fulfilment of the ancient prophecy, that “the Attic city would be saved by her wooden walls,” a phrase curiously reproduced in the modern history of England. For the details of this victory see Herodotus, lib. viii. Pindar, in the foregoing passage, incidentally refers to the splendid reward which he received from the Athenians, who gave him 2000 drachmas, being twice the amount of the fine inflicted on him by his Theban countrymen for celebrating the praises of the Athenians at Salamis. (Æschines, Epist. iv.)
III. “The cannon fired for joy upon the morn,
That told the nation Salamanca’s skies,” &c.
The battle of Salamanca was fought on the 22nd July, 1812. The author was born on the 27th December in the same year. “Salamanca will always be referred to as the most skilful of Wellington’s battles.” (Napier, Hist. War in the Peninsula, book xix. chap. 7.) This splendid achievement was designated by a French officer at the time as “the beating of forty thousand men in forty minutes.”
V. “Length of days,
And honours of a Demigod,” &c.
ὁ νικῶν δὲ λοιπὸν ἀμφὶ βίοτον
ἔχει μελιτόεσσαν εὐδίαν,