Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/114

 90 HISTORY OF GREECE. of brave soldiers and of prudent oflScers, under the circumstances. But to Leonidas the idea of retreat was intolerable. His own personal honor, together with that of his Spartan companions and of Sparta herself.^ forbade him to think of yielding to the enemy the pass which he had been sent to defend. The laws of his country required him to conquer or die in the post assigned to him, whatever might be the superiority of number on the part of the enemy : - moreover, we are told that the Delphian oracle had declared that either Sparta itself, or a king of Sparta, must fall a victim to the Persian arms. Had he retired, he could hardly have escaped that voice of reproach which, in Greece especially, always burst upon the general who failed : while his voluntary devotion and death would not only silence every whisper of cal- umny, but exalt him to the pinnacle of glory both as a man and as a king, and set an example of chivalrous patriotism at the moment when the Greek world most needed the lesson. The three hundred Spartans under Leonidas were found fully equal to this act of generous and devoted self-sacrifice. Perhaps he would have wished to inspire the same sentiment to the whole detachment : but when he found them indisposed, he at once ordered them to retire, thus avoiding all unseemly reluctance and dissension : 3 the same order was also given to the prophet Megistias, who however refused to obey it and stayed, though he sent away his only son.4 None of the contingents remained with ' Herodot. vii, 219. evdavra ipovXevovTO ol "E/lA^yvcf, /cat (jfeui' taxKovro ai yvuftai. ^ Herodot. vii, 220. Tavry koc /idX?.ov ry yvufiy nT^elaToc elfic, AeuvcdTjv, knei TE T}(T&ETO Toiig avfifiaxovg lovrac inzpo'BvfiOvg, koc ovk t&E/iOvra^ avv- SiaKivdvveveiv, KE^Evaai ocpsac uTza^JMaaEad-ai ' avru <5e uTtLEvat. oii KaXu(, exEiv • fiEvovTi dk avrSt k2.eo^ fiiya EXsiireTO, koI ij "ZnapTrj^ evdaifiovit} ovk iijj'/.E'K^ETO. Compare a similar act of honorable self-devotion, under less conspicuous circumstances, of the Lacedaemonian commander Anaxibius, when sur- prised by the Athenians under Iphikrates in the territory of Abydus (Xen- oplion. Hellenic, iv, 8, 38). He and twelve Lacedaemonian harmosts, all refused to think of safety by flight. He said to his men, when resistance was hopeless, 'kvdpe^, i/^ol fitv Ka'Abv Ev&a^E urro'&avElv ; vfiEig 6e, nplv ^vfi/xiiai Toic 7ro7.E/x'ioic, aivEvdETs eIc rriv auTJipiav.
 * Herodot. vii, 104.
 * Herodot. vii, 221. According to Plutarch, there were also two persons