We may begin with the inscription of a public tomb. At all times these tombs bore epigrams of a nobler type than those of private persons. Commonly they were set up in some public place and were the scene of heroic honours. The epigram which they bore would be composed by some noted poet. Every one knows of the noble lines written by Simonides for the Spartans who fell at Thermopylae:-- Go, stranger, and at Lacedaemon tell That here obedient to her laws we fell. Another public epitaph, also belonging to some of the heroes of the Persian wars, has been found at Megara[244]. It is not, however, the original record, but a copy made of that record when it had almost perished with age in the fourth or fifth century of our aera by one Helladius, who attributes to Simonides the verses which run thus:-- Eager we strove that freedom’s day might rise For Greece and home; but death is all our prize. Some fell beside Euboea’s sacred strand, Where Artemis, chaste huntress, holds the land: Some died at Mycale; some the warlike show Of Tyrian fleets at Salamis laid low: Some in Boeotian plains, in daring mood, The charging Median chivalry withstood. Here in full market[245], ’mid the thronging crowd, Our townsmen have our honoured grave allowed. This epitaph was evidently placed on the public grave of the Megarian citizens who fell in the various battles against the Persians. It was no doubt a cenotaph. Pausanias mentions it, and states that the Megarians set the graves of their distinguished dead in the senate-house, so that all future generations might consult in presence of the heroes: Helladius adds, ‘even in my day a bull is sacrificed by the city.’ An epitaph in the market-place and the annual sacrifice of a bull for a thousand years might well supply to the Greek soldier an incentive as great as among us the hope of a monument in Westminster Abbey. A similar monument in honour of the Athenians who fell at Potidaea, in the Peloponnesian War, is preserved at the British Museum[246]. We may also consider as public a tomb erected at Corfu by Amphilochian soldiers to one of their comrades who had fallen in a skirmish on the opposite coast[247]. It dates from about the third century B.C.:-- For thee a bitter fate thy friends behold Of Amphilochian land the warriors bold, When by Illyrian horse in battle slain Within an island tomb thy bones remain. They left thee not, when thou wast lying low, Thy comrades brave well-skilled the dart to throw; From deadly battle-press thy corpse they save, And mourning kinsmen bear thee to the grave. Public epitaphs such as these are in the highest degree objective. They recount the deeds of a hero and deplore his death, but they seldom indulge in moral reflection, or speak of any future life. This is in fact the character of all early epitaphs, whether from private or public graves. I will cite a few of the sixth century to begin with.