Polymnia   

their goods, and give it to the god at Delphi." So ran the words of
the Greek oath.
King Xerxes had sent no heralds either to Athens or Sparta to
ask earth and water, for a reason which I will now relate. When Darius
some time before sent messengers for the same purpose, they were
thrown, at Athens, into the pit of punishment, at Sparta into a
well, and bidden to take therefrom earth and water for themselves, and
carry it to their king. On this account Xerxes did not send to ask
them. What calamity came upon the Athenians to punish them for their
treatment of the heralds I cannot say, unless it were the laying waste
of their city and territory; but that I believe was not on account
of this crime.
On the Lacedaemonians, however, the wrath of Talthybius,
Agamemnon's herald, fell with violence. Talthybius has a temple at
Sparta; and his descendants, who are called Talthybiadae, still live
there, and have the privilege of being the only persons who
discharge the office of herald. When therefore the Spartans had done
the deed of which we speak, the victims at their sacrifices failed
to give good tokens; and this failure lasted for a very long time.
Then the Spartans were troubled; and, regarding what had befallen them
as a grievous calamity, they held frequent assemblies of the people,
and made proclamation through the town, "Was any Lacedaemonian willing
to give his life for Sparta?" Upon this two Spartans, Sperthias, the
son Aneristus, and Bulis, the son of Nicolaus, both men of noble
birth, and among the wealthiest in the place, came forward and
freely offered themselves as an atonement to Xerxes for the heralds of
Darius slain at Sparta. So the Spartans sent them away to the Medes to
undergo death.
Nor is the courage which these men hereby displayed alone worthy
of wonder; but so likewise are the following speeches which were
made by them. On their road to Susa they presented themselves before
Hydarnes. This Hydarnes was a Persian by birth, and had the command of
all the nations that dwelt along the sea-coast of Asia. He accordingly
showed them hospitality, and invited them to a banquet, where, as they
feasted, he said to them:-
"Men of Lacedaemon, why will ye not consent to be friends with the
king? Ye have but to look at me and my fortune to see that the king
knows well how to honour merit. In like manner ye yourselves, were
ye to make your submission to him, would receive at his hands,
seeing that he deems you men of merit, some government in Greece."
"Hydarnes," they answered, "thou art a one-sided counsellor.
Thou hast experience of half the matter; but the other half is
beyond thy knowledge. A slave's life thou understandest; but, never
having tasted liberty, thou canst not tell whether it be sweet or
no. Ah! hadst thou known what freedom is, thou wouldst have bidden
us fight for it, not with the spear only, but with the battle-axe."
So they answered Hydarnes.
And afterwards, when they were come to Susa into the king's
presence, and the guards ordered them to fall down and do obeisance,
and went so far as to use force to compel them, they refused, and said
they would never do any such thing, even were their heads thrust
down to the ground; for it was not their custom to worship men, and
they had not come to Persia for that purpose. So they fought off the
ceremony; and having done so, addressed the king in words much like
the following:-
"O king of the Medes! the Lacedaemonians have sent us hither, in
the place of those heralds of thine who were slain in Sparta, to
make atonement to thee on their account."
Then Xerxes answered with true greatness of soul "that he would
not act like the Lacedaemonians, who, by killing the heralds, had
broken the laws which all men hold in common. As he had blamed such
conduct in them, he would never be guilty of it himself. And
besides, he did not wish, by putting the two men to death, to free the
Lacedaemonians from the stain of their former outrage."