Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/118

 94 fflSTORY OF GREECE. — returned home, having taken no part in the combat. He, to- gether with Eurytus, another soldier, had been absent from the detachment on leave, and both were lying at Alpeni, suffering from a severe complaint in the eyes. Euiytus, apprized that the fatal hour of the detachment was come, detennined not to sur- vive it, asked for his armor, and desired his attendant Helot to lead him to his place in the ranks ; where he fell gallantly fight- ing, while the Helot departed and survived. Aristodemus did not imitate this devotion of his sick comrade : overpowered with physical suffering, he was carried to Sparta — but he returned only to scorn and infamy among his fellow-citizens.i He was denounced as " the coward Aristodemus ; " no one would speak or communicate with him, or even grant him a light for his fire.2 Spartan sentiment, that the two kings should have been made partners in the same public honors. uTTovoaT7/aai cf 'S.KupTTjv. The commentators are hard upon Aristodemus when they translate these epithets, " animo deficientem, timidum, pusillani- mum," considering that i/.EL-o-ibvxv<y£ is predicated by Thucydides (iv, 12) even respecting the gallant Brasidas. Herodotus scarcely intends to imply anything like pusillanimity, but rather the effect of extreme physical suffer- ing. It seems, hovrever. that there were different stories about the cause which had kept Aristodemus out of the battle. The story of another soldier, named Pantiles, who having been sent on a message by Leonidas into Thessaly, did not return in time for the battle, and was so disgraced when he went back to Sparta that he hanged him- self, — given by Herodotus as a report, is veiy little entitled to credit. It is not likely that Leonidas would send an envoy into Thessaly, then occu- pied by the Persians : moreover, the disgrace of Aristodemus is particularly explained by Herodotus by the difference between his conduct and that of his comrade Eurytus : whereas Pantites stood alone. after all his comrades had perished in an unfortunate expedition to the island of JEgina.. The widov.'s of the slain warriors crowded round him, each asking him what had become of her husband, and finally put him to death by pricking with their bodkins (Herodot. v, 87). In the terrible battle of St. Jacob on the Birs, near Basle (August, 1444), where fifteen hundred S-niss crossed the river and attacked forty thousand French and Germans under the Dauphin of Prance, against strong re- monsti'ances from their commanders, — all of them were slain, after deeds of unrivalled valor and great loss to the enemy, except sixteen men, who receded from their countrymen in crossing the river, thinking the enter- prise desperate. These sixteen men, on their retm-n. were treated with
 * Herod, vii, 229. 'Apiar66rifj.ov — ?i.£moipvx£ovTa Mi^d^j/vai — uXyr/aavTa
 * See the story of the single Athenian citizen, who returned home alone,