And they dared to do these things, not so much in contempt of their foes as in keen
 rivalry against each other: the Lacedaemonians envying our city its victory at Marathon,
 and seeking to even the score, and fearing, furthermore, lest our city should twice in
 succession be the instrument of saving Hellas ;
 while our ancestors, on the other hand, desired above all to maintain the reputation they
 had won, and to prove to the world that in their former battle they had conquered through
 valor and not through fortune, and in the next place to incite the Hellenes to carry on
 the war with their ships, by showing that in fighting on the sea no less than on the land
 valor prevails over numbers. Paralleled in Plat. Menex. 240d ; Lys. 2.23 ;
 Lyc. 1.108 . 
 But though they displayed equal courage, they did not meet with similar fortunes. The
 Lacedaemonians were utterly destroyed. Although in spirit they were victorious, in body
 they were outworn; for it were sacrilege to say that they were defeated, since not one of
 them deigned to leave his post. This paragraph is closely
 paralleled in Lys. 2.31 ; Hyp.
 6.27 ; and Lyc. 1.48 . Our ancestors, on the
 other hand, met and conquered the advance squadron of the Persians and when they heard
 that the enemy were masters of the pass, Thermopylae . they sailed back home and
 adopted such measures for what remained to be done that, however many and however glorious
 had been their previous achievements, they outdid themselves still more in the final
 hazards of that war. For when all the allies were in a state of dejection, and the Peloponnesians were
 fortifying the Isthmus and selfishly seeking their own safety; when the other states had
 submitted to the barbarians and were fighting on the Persian side, save only those which
 were overlooked because of their insignificance; when twelve hundred ships of war were
 bearing down upon them, and an innumerable army An army of
 2,640,000, acc. to Hdt. 7.185 . was on the point of
 invading Attica ; when no light of deliverance
 could be glimpsed in any quarter, but, on the contrary, the Athenians had been abandoned
 by their allies and cheated of their every hope; and when it lay in their power not only to escape from their present dangers but also to
 enjoy the signal honors which the King held out to them, since he conceived that if he
 could get the support of the Athenian fleet he could at once become master of the
 Peloponnesus also, then our ancestors scorned
 to accept his gifts; The attempt to bribe the Athenians
 was, according to Hdt. 8.136 , made after the battle of
 Salamis . nor did they give way to
 anger against the Hellenes for having betrayed them and rush gladly to make terms with the
 barbarians; nay, by themselves they made ready to battle for freedom, while they forgave the rest for
 choosing bondage. For they considered that while it was natural for the weaker states to
 seek their security by every means, it was not possible for those states which asserted
 their right to stand at the head of Hellas to
 avoid the perils of war; on the contrary, they believed that just as it is preferable for
 men who are honorable to die nobly rather than to live in disgrace, so too it is better
 for cities which are illustrious to be blotted out from the sight of mankind rather than
 to be seen in a state of bondage.