of the fleet, who chanced to have been present at this discourse and was
afraid lest Xerxes should be persuaded to do this: "O king," he said,
"I see that thou art admitting the speech of a man who envies thy good
fortune, or is even a traitor to thy cause: for in truth the Hellenes
delight in such a temper as this; they envy a man for his good luck, and
they hate that which is stronger than themselves. And if, besides other
misfortunes which we have upon us, seeing that four hundred of our ships
237 have suffered wreck, thou shalt send away another three hundred from
the station of the fleet to sail round Peloponnese, then thy antagonists
become a match for thee in fight; whereas while it is all assembled
together our fleet is hard for them to deal with, and they will not be
at all a match for thee: and moreover the whole sea-force will support
the land-force and be supported by it, if they proceed onwards together;
but if thou shalt divide them, neither wilt thou be of service to them
nor they to thee. My determination is rather to set thy affairs in good
order 238 and not to consider the affairs of the enemy, either where
they will set on foot the war or what they will do or how many in number
they are; for it is sufficient that they should themselves take thought
for themselves, and we for ourselves likewise: and if the Lacedemonians
come to stand against the Persians in fight, they will assuredly not
heal the wound from which they are now suffering." 239

237. To him Xerxes made answer as follows: "Achaimenes, I think that
thou speakest well, and so will I do; but Demaratos speaks that which he
believes to be best for me, though his opinion is defeated by thine: for
I will not certainly admit that which thou saidest, namely that he is
not well-disposed to my cause, judging both by what was said by him
before this, and also by that which is the truth, namely that though one
citizen envies another for his good fortune and shows enmity to him by
his silence, 240 nor would a citizen when a fellow-citizen consulted him
suggest that which seemed to him the best, unless he had attained to a
great height of virtue, and such men doubtless are few; yet guest-friend
to guest-friend in prosperity is well-disposed as nothing else on
earth, and if his friend should consult him, he would give him the best
counsel. Thus then as regards the evil-speaking against Demaratos, that
is to say about one who is my guest-friend, I bid every