Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/208

 184 fflSTORY OF -GREECE. third for the Helots. Besides these sepulchral monuments, erected in the neighborhood of Platjea by those cities whose citi- zens had really fought and fallen, there were several similar monuments to be seen in the days of Herodotus, raised by other cities which falsely pretended to the same honor, with the conni- vance and aid of the Plataeans.i The body of Mardonius was discovered among the slain, and treated with respect by Pausa- nias, who is even said to have indignantly repudiated advice offered to him by an ^ginetan, that he should retaliate upon it the igno- minious treatment inflicted by Xerxes upon the dead Leonidas.'^ On the morrow, the body was stolen away and buried ; by whom, was never certainly known, for there were many different preten- ders who obtained reward on this plea from Artyntes, the son of Mardonius : the funereal monument was yet to be seen in the time of the traveller Pausanias.^ ' Herodot. ix, 85. Tuv cJ' u/.?.(jv oaoi ical (paivovrai h li'AaTaifiai lovreg TcKpoc, TOVTovg de, £Jf ejtj tt vvd uvofi at, kTvaiaxwo/ievovc rfj vtvegtoI ttjc fiuxvCt iKUGTovc X"H-'^~'^ X^'^^'- KE'i'". ~^v eTnyivn/ievuv eIvf.kev uv&puTruv ' eTrel nal AlyivTjTEuv tarl avro&L KaXeo/ievoc Tu<poc, rbv eyu ukovu Kal 6iKa ETcai voTEpov fieTu ravra, Setj^evtuv tuv Aiyivr/TECJv, x^'^^.l 'KXeu6j]v rbv kiiTodiKOV, uvSpa TDMraiia, ■Kpo^stvov eovra avTuv. This is a curious statement, derived by Herodotus doubtless from per- gonal inquiries made at PlatJea. - Herodot. ix, 78. 79. This suggestion, so abhorrent to Grecian feeling, is put by the historian into the mouth of the ^ginetan Lampon. In my preceding note, I have alluded to another statement made by Herodotus, not very creditable to the JEginetans : there is, moreover, a third (ix, 80), in which he represents them as having cheated the Helots in their purchases of the booty. "We may.presume him to have heard all these anecdotes at Plataea : at the time when he probably visited that place, not long before the Peloponnesian war, the inhabitants were united in the most intimate manner with Athens, and doubtless sjnnpathized in the hatred of the Athe- nians against iEgina. It does not from hence follow that the stories are all untrue. I disbelieve, indeed, the advice said to have been given by Lampon to crucify the body of Mardonius, — which has more the air of a poetical contrivance for bringing out an honorable sentiment, than of a real incident. But there seems no reason to doubt the truth of the other two stories. Herodotus does but too rarely specify his informants : it is inter- esting to scent out the track in which his inquiries have been prosecuted. After the battle of Kunaxa, and the death of Cyras the younger, his dead body had the head and hands cut off, by order of Artaxerxes, and nailed to a cross (Xenoph. Anab. i, 10, 1 ; iii, 1, 17). ^ Herodot. ix, 84 ; Pausanias, ix, 2, 2.