Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/212

 188 HISTORY OF GREECE. to explain the extremely popular cast of the Athenian judi- cature. Whether there was any positive vote taken among the Greeks respecting the prize of valor at the battle of Plataea, may well be doubted : and the silence of Herodotus goes far to negative an important statement of Plutarch, that the Athenians and Lacedemonians were on the point of coming to an open rupture, each thinking themselves entitled to the prize, — that Aristeides appeased the Athenians, and prevailed upon them to submit to the general decision of the allies, — and that Megarian and Cor- inthian leaders contrived to elude the dangerous rock by bestow- ing the prize on the Plataeans, to which proposition both Aris- teides and Pausanias acceded.' But it seems that the general opinion recognized the Lacedfemonians and Pausanias as bravest among the brave, seeing that they had overcome the best troops of the enemy and slain the general. In burying their dead warriors, the Lacedaemonians singled out for peculiar distinction Philokyon, Poseidonius, and Amompharetus the lochage, whose conduct in the fight atoned for his disobedience to orders. There was one Spartan, however, who had surpassed them all, — Aris- todemus, the single survivor of the troop of Leonidas at Ther- mopylae. Having ever since experienced nothing but disgrace and insult from his fellow-citizens, this unfortunate man had become reckless of life, and at Plataea he stepped forth single- handed from his place in the ranks, performing deeds of the most heroic valor, and determined to regain by his death the esteem of his countrymen. But the Spartans refused to assign to him the same funereal honors as were paid to the other distinguished warriors, who had manifested exemplary forwardness and skill, yet without any desperate rashness, and without any previous taint such as to render life a burden to them. Subsequent valor might be held to efface this taint, but could not suffice to exalt Aristodemus to a level with the most honored citizens.2 But though we cannot believe the statement of Plutarch, that the Platceans received by general vote the prize of valor, it is certain that they were largely honored and recompensed, as the ' Plntarch. Aristeides, c. 20; De Herodot. Malign, p. 873.
 * HeroQOt. iv, 71, 72.