[204]
Such
constancy you deem so exemplary, and so congenial to your character, that you
still sing the praises of those of your forefathers by whom it was most signally
displayed. And you are right. Who would not exult in the valor of those famous
men who, rather than yield to a conqueror's behests, left city and country and
made the war-galleys their home; who chose Themistocles, the man who gave them
that counsel, as their commander, and stoned Cyrsilus1 to death for advising obedient submission? Aye, and his wife
also was stoned by your wives.
1 stoned Cyrilus: at Salamis, 479 B.C., when Athens was held by the Persians; see Hdt. 9.5, where, however, the name is Lycides. Not 480 B.C., as Cicero, Off. 3.11.48, implies; though the rest of the sentence refers to the conditions of that year.
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