Egypt -- History -- To 332 B.C. -- Fiction; German fiction -- Translations into English
[The second triumph won by the steeds of Cimon must have taken
place, as Duneker correctly remarks, about the year 528. The same
horses won the race for the third time at the next Olympic games,
consequently four years later. As token of his gratitude Cimon
caused a monument to be erected in their honor in “the hollow way”
near Athens. We may here remind our readers that the Greeks made
use of the Olympic games to determine the date of each year. They
took place every four years. The first was fixed 776 B. C. Each
separate year was named the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th of such or such an
Olympiad.]
“The fame of the Alkmaeonidae is, verily, darkening more and more before
the Philaidae. Are not you proud, Phanes? do not you feel joy at the
glory of your family?”
In his delight Phanes had risen from his seat, and seemed suddenly to
have increased in stature by a whole head.
With a look of ineffable pride and consciousness of his own position,
he gave his hand to the messenger of victory. The latter, embracing his
countryman, continued:
“Yes, we have a right to feel proud and happy, Phanes; you especially,
for no sooner had the judges unanimously awarded the prize to Cimon,
than he ordered the heralds to proclaim the tyrant Pisistratus as
the owner of the splendid team, and therefore victor in the race.
Pisistratus at once caused it to be announced that your family was free
to return to Athens, and so now, Phanes, the long-wished for hour of
your return home is awaiting you.”
But at these words Phanes turned pale, his look of conscious pride
changed into one of indignation, and he exclaimed:
“At this I am to rejoice, foolish Kallias? rather bid me weep that a
descendant of Ajax should be capable of laying his well-won fame thus
ignominiously at a tyrant’s feet! No! I swear by Athene, by Father Zeus,
and by Apollo, that I will sooner starve in foreign lands than take one
step homeward, so long as the Pisistratidae hold my country in bondage.
When I leave the service of Amasis, I shall be free, free as a bird in
the air; but I would rather be the slave of a peasant in foreign lands,
than hold the highest office under Pisistratus. The sovereign power in
Athens belongs to us, its nobles; but Cimon by laying his chaplet at the
feet of Pisistratus has acknowledged the tyrants, and branded himself as
their servant. He shall hear that Phanes cares little for the tyrant’s
clemency. I choose to remain an exile till my country is free, till her
nobles and people govern themselves, and dictate their own laws. Phanes
will never do homage to the oppressor, though all the Philaidae, the
Alkmaeonidae, and even the men of your own house, Kallias, the rich
Daduchi, should fall down at his feet!”
With flashing eyes he looked round on the assembly; Kallias too
scrutinized the faces of the guests with conscious pride, as if he would
say:
“See, friends, the kind of men produced by my glorious country!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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