Chapter 58

Pausanias the son of Cleombrotus, when the Delians pleaded their title to the island against the Athenians, and urged that according to their law no women were ever brought to bed or any carcass buried in the isle, said. How then can that be your country, in which not one of you was born or shall ever lie? The exiles urging him to march against the Athenians, and saying that, when he was proclaimed victor in the Olympic games, these alone hissed; How, says he, since they hissed whilst we did them good, what do you think they will do when abused? When one asked him why they made Tyrtaeus the poet a citizen, he answered, That no foreigner should be our captain. A man of a weak and puny body advising to fight the enemy both by sea and land; Pray, sir, says he, will you strip and show what a man you are who advise to engage? When some amongst the spoils of the barbarians admired the richness of their clothes; It had been better, he said, that they had been men of worth themselves than that they should possess things of worth. After the victory over the Medes at Plataea, he commanded his officers to set before him the Persian banquet that was already dressed; which appearing very sumptuous, By heaven, quoth he, the Persian is an abominable glutton, who, when he hath such delicacies at home, comes to eat our barley-cakes.