n both sides; by the
one, to carry off the king; by the other, to save him. Cleonnis killed
eight Spartans, who were dragging him along, and spoiled them of their
arms, which he committed to the custody of some of his soldiers. He
himself received several wounds, all in the fore part of his body, which
was a certain proof that he had never turned his back upon his enemies.
Aristomenes, fighting on the same occasion, and for the same end, killed
five Lacedaemonians, whose spoils he likewise carried off, without
receiving any wound. In short, the king was saved and carried off by the
Messenians; and, all mangled and bloody as he was, he expressed great joy
that he had not been worsted. Aristomenes, after the battle was over, met
Cleonnis, who, by reason of his wounds, could neither walk by himself, nor
with the assistance of those that lent him their hands. He therefore took
him upon his shoulders, without quitting his arms, and carried him to the
camp.

As soon as they had applied the first dressing to the wounds of the king
of Messenia and of his officers, there arose a new contention among the
Messenians, that was pursued with as much warmth as the former, but was of
a very different kind, and yet the consequence of the other. The affair in
question was the adjudging the prize of glory to him that had signalized
his valour most in the late engagement. It was a custom among them, which
had long been established, publicly to proclaim, after a battle, the name
of the man that had showed the greatest courage. Nothing could be more
proper to animate the officers and soldiers, to inspire them with
resolution and intrepidity, and to stifle the natural apprehension of
death and danger. Two illustrious champions entered the lists on this
occasion, namely, Cleonnis and Aristomenes.

The king, notwithstanding his weak condition, attended by the principal
officers of his army, presided in the council, where this important
dispute was to be decided. Each competitor pleaded his own cause. Cleonnis
founded his pretensions upon the great number of the enemies he had slain,
and upon the multitude of wounds he had received in the action, which were
so many undoubted testimonies of the courage with which he had faced both
death and danger; whereas, the condition in which Aristomenes came out of
the engagement, without hurt and without wound, seemed to show, that he
had been very careful of his own person, or, at most, could only prove
t