Were the Athenians More Famous in War or in Wisdom? (7)

But let us now review the generals in their turn, as they make entrance from the other side; and at their approach those who have had no part in deeds of valour or political life or campaigns must in very truth speak not a word of evil sound and clear the way, whoever there be that lacks courage for such deeds as theirs and whose mind is not free from uncleanness, nor has ever been trained in the Bacchic rites that are the handiwork of Miltiades, bane of Medes, and Themistocles, slayer of Persians. This is the rebel-rout of the god of war, with battalions on land and squadrons on sea, laden with mingled spoils and trophies:

Hearken, Alala, daughter of War, Thou prelude of clashing spears, thou to whom are offered

Heroes in the holy sacrifice of death,[*]

as Epameinondas the Theban cried, when he and his men were dedicating themselves to the noblest and most resplendent of struggles for their native land, the graves of their fathers, and their holy shrines. I seem to see their victories advancing, not dragging along a bull or a goat as their prize, nor garlanded with ivy and redolent of the lees of Dionysus; but whole cities are theirs, and islands, and even continents, temples costing a thousand talents,[*] and colonies of vast population; and they are garlanded with all manner of trophies and spoils. Their ornaments and emblems are buildings like the Parthenon one hundred feet in length, southern Long Walls, [*] dockyards, Propylaea, Chersonese, and Amphipolis.[*] Marathon leads forward the Victory of Miltiades, and Salamis does the same for Themistocles’ Victory, poised upon the wreckage of a thousand ships. Cimon’s Victory brings an hundred Phoenician ships from the Eurymedon, and the Victory of Demosthenes and Cleon brings from Sphacteria the captive shield[*] of Brasidas and his soldiers in chains. Conon’s Victory fortifies the city with new walls, while that of Thrasybulus leads back from Phyle the people restored to freedom. Alcibiades’ Victories revive the city laid prostrate by her failure in Sicily. From the struggles of Neileus and Androclus[*] about Lydia and Caria Greece came to see that Ionia was rising. If you inquire of the other Victories in turn what good came to the State from each, one will reply Lesbos, another Samos, another Cyprus, another the Euxine, another five hundred triremes, another ten thousand talents, to say nothing of the glory and the trophies which they won. These are the things which the city celebrates in her festivals, for these she sacrifices to the gods, not for the dramatic victories of Aeschylus and Sophocles. Nor is the day celebrated when Carcinus[*] was successful with his Aüropê, or Astydamas[*] with his Hector, but even yet the State celebrates the victory at Marathon on the sixth of Boëdromion.[*] On the sixteenth of this month they pour a libation of wine in memory of Chabrias’s victory at Naxos.[*] On the twelfth they used to sacrifice thank-offerings for the recovery of their liberty, for on that day the exiles returned from Phylê.[*] On the third they won the battle of Plataeae.[*] The sixteenth of Munichion they dedicated to Artemis, for on that day the goddess shone with full moon upon the Greeks as they were conquering at Salamis. The conflict at Mantineia[*] has made the twelfth of Scirophorion more sacred; for in this battle, when the other allies were overpowered and routed, it was the Athenians alone who defeated the force opposed to them and erected a trophy taken from the victorious enemy. These are the things which have uplifted Athens to heights of glory and greatness; it was for these that Pindar[*] addressed Athens as

The mainstay of Greece,

not because she had guided the Greeks aright with the tragedies of Phrynichus and Thespis, but because, as he himself says, first at Artemisium

Sons of the Athenians laid the far-shining foundation of freedom.[*]

And when at Salamis and Mycalê and Plataeae they had firmly established, as in adamant, the liberty of Greece, they handed it down to all mankind.