ow to
handle an oar; but the land of Thessaly is wide, and the plain of
Boeotia is a fair place for good horsemen and heavy armed soldiers to
fight upon."

To the Athenians he sent privately proposals from the Great King, who
offered to rebuild their city, present them with a large sum of money,
and make them lords over all Greece, if they would desist from the
war. The Lacedaemonians, hearing this, were much alarmed, and sent
ambassadors to beg the Athenians to send their wives and children to
Sparta, and offering to support their old people, as the Athenians
were in great distress for food, having lost their city and their
country. However, after listening to the Lacedaemonian ambassadors, at
the instance of Aristeides they returned a spirited answer, saying
that they could forgive their enemies, who knew no better, for
supposing that everything could be bought with money, but that they
were angry with the Lacedaemonians for only regarding the present
poverty and distress of the Athenians, and that forgetting how
bravely they had fought, they should now offer them food to bribe them
to fight for Greece. Having passed this motion Aristeides called the
ambassadors back into the assembly, and bade them tell the
Lacedaemonians that there was not as much gold in the world, either
above or under-ground, as the Athenians would require to tempt them to
betray Greece.

In answer to the herald sent from Mardonius he pointed to the sun, and
said: "As long as yonder sun shall continue its course the Athenians
will be enemies to the Persians, because of their ravaged lands and
desecrated temples." Further, he made the priests imprecate curses on
any one who had dealings with the Persians or deserted the Greek
cause.

When Mardonius invaded Attica a second time, the Athenians again took
refuge in Salamis. Aristeides was sent to Lacedaemon and upbraided the
Spartans with their slowness and indifference, for allowing the enemy
to take Athens a second time, and begged them to help what remained of
Greece. The Ephors, on hearing this, pretended to pass the rest of the
day in feasting and idleness, for it was the festival of the
Hyacinthia; but at nightfall they chose five thousand Spartans, each
attended by seven Helots, and sent them off without the knowledge of
the Athenian embassy. So when Aristeides next day resumed his
reproachful strain, they answered with mocking laughter, that he was
talking nonsense and was asleep, for th