ans surpassed them in valour. Of this I have no other proof
(for all these were victorious over their opposites), but only this,
that they fought against the strongest part of the enemy's force and
overcame it. And the man who proved himself in my opinion by much the
best was that Aristodemos who, having come back safe from Thermopylai
alone of the three hundred, had reproach and dishonour attached to him.
After him the best were Poseidonios and Philokyon and Amompharetos the
Spartan. 81 However, when there came to be conversation as to which of
them had proved himself the best, the Spartans who were present gave it
as their opinion that Aristodemos had evidently wished to be slain in
consequence of the charge which lay against him, and so, being as it
were in a frenzy and leaving his place in the ranks, he had displayed
great deeds, whereas Poseidonios had proved himself a good man although
he did not desire to be slain; and so far he was the better man of the
two. This however they perhaps said from ill-will; and all these whose
names I mentioned among the men who were killed in this battle, were
specially honoured, except Aristodemos; but Aristodemos, since he
desired to be slain on account of the before-mentioned charge, was not
honoured.

72. These obtained the most renown of those who fought at Plataia, for
as for Callicrates, the most beautiful who came to the camp, not of the
Lacedemonians alone, but also of all the Hellenes of his time, he
was not killed in the battle itself; but when Pausanias was offering
sacrifice, he was wounded by an arrow in the side, as he was sitting
down in his place in the ranks; and while the others were fighting, he
having been carried out of the ranks was dying a lingering death: and he
said to Arimnestos 82 a Plataian that it did not grieve him to die for
Hellas, but it grieved him only that he had not proved his strength of
hand, and that no deed of valour had been displayed by him worthy of the
spirit which he had in him to perform great deeds. 83

73. Of the Athenians the man who gained most glory is said to have been
Sophanes the son of Eutychides of the deme of Dekeleia,--a deme of which
the inhabitants formerly did a deed that was of service to them for all
time, as the Athenians themselves report. For when of old the sons of
Tyndareus invaded the Attic land with a great host, in order to bring
home Helen, and were laying waste the demes, not knowing to what
place of hiding