Ten days did the Greeks employ after their victory, first in
burying the slain, next in collecting and apportioning the booty.
The Lacedæmonians, the Athenians, the Tegeans, the Megarians, and
the Phliasians, each buried their dead apart, erecting a separate
tomb in commemoration: the Lacedæmonians, indeed, distributed their
dead into three fractions, in three several burial-places: one for
those champions who enjoyed individual renown at Sparta, and among
whom were included the most distinguished men slain in the recent
battle, such as Poseidonius, Amompharetus, the refractory captain,
Philokyon, and Kallikratês,—a second for the other Spartans and
Lacedæmonians,[374]—and a third for the Helots. Besides these
sepulchral monuments, erected in the neighborhood of Platæa by those
cities whose citizens had really fought and fallen, there were
several similar monuments to be seen in the days of Herodotus, raised
by other cities which falsely pretended to the same honor, with the
connivance and aid of the Platæans.[375] The body of Mardonius was
discovered among the slain, and treated with respect by Pausanias,
who is even said to have indignantly repudiated advice offered to
him by an Æginetan, that he should retaliate upon it the ignominious
treatment inflicted by Xerxes upon the dead Leonidas.[376] On the
morrow, the body was stolen away and buried; by whom, was never
certainly known, for there were many different pretenders who
obtained reward on this plea from Artyntês, the son of Mardonius: the
funereal monument was yet to be seen in the time of the traveller
Pausanias.[377]
[374] Herodot. ix, 84. Herodotus indeed assigns this second
burial-place only to the other _Spartans_, apart from the Select.
He takes no notice of the Lacedæmonians not Spartans, either in
the battle or in reference to burial, though he had informed us
that five thousand of them were included in the army. Some of
them must have been slain, and we may fairly presume that they
were buried along with the Spartan citizens generally. As to
the word ἱρέας, or εἴρενας, or ἱππέας (the two last being both
conjectural readings), it seems impossible to arrive at any
certainty: we do not know by what name these select warriors were
called.
[375] Herodot. ix, 85. Τῶν δ’ ἄλλων ὅσοι καὶ φαίνονται ἐν
Πλαταιῇσι ἐόντες τάφοι, τούτους δὲ, ~ὡς ἐγὼ πυνθάνομαι~,
ἐπαισχυνομένους τῇ ἀπεστοῖ τῆς μάχης, ἑκάστους χώματα χῶσαι
κεινὰ, τῶν ἐπιγινομένων εἵνεκεν ἀνθρώπων· ἐπεὶ καὶ Αἰγινητέων
ἐστὶ αὐτόθι καλεόμενος τάφος, τὸν ἐγὼ ἀκούω καὶ δέκα ἔτεσι
ὕστερον μετὰ ταῦτα, δεηθέντων τῶν Αἰγινητέων, χῶσαι Κλεάδην τὸν
Αὐτοδίκου, ἄνδρα Πλαταιέα, πρόξεινον ἐόντα αὐτῶν.
This is a curious statement, derived by Herodotus doubtless from
personal inquiries made at Platæa.
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