85
Sections 85-87 are closely paralleled in Lys. 2.23-26. Now while our forefathers and the Lacedaemonians were always emulous of each other, yet during that time their rivalry was for the noblest ends; they did not look upon each other as enemies but as competitors, nor did they court the favor of the barbarians for the enslavement of the HellenesAs was done by the Peace of Antalcidas. See 115, note.; on the contrary, they were of one mind when the common safety was in question, and their rivalry with each other was solely to see which of them should bring this about. They first displayed their valor when Darius sent his troops;
86
for when the Persians landed in Attica the Athenians did not wait for their allies, but, making the common war their private cause, they marched out with their own forces alone to meet an enemy who looked with contempt upon the whole of Hellas—a mere handful against thousands upon thousandsThe Athenians at Marathon were reckoned at ten thousand, the Persians at about two hundred thousand.—as if they were about to risk the lives of others, not their own;Echoed from Thuc. 1.70. the Lacedaemonians, on the other hand, no sooner heard of the war in Attica than they put all else aside and came to our rescue, having made as great haste as if it had been their own country that was being laid waste.
87
A proof of the swiftness and of the rivalry of both is that, according to the account, our ancestors on one and the same dayIsocrates makes greater “haste” than Hdt. 6.110. learned of the landing of the barbarians, rushed to the defense of the borders of their land, won the battle, and set up a trophy of victory over the enemy; while the Lacedaemonians in three days and as many nightsThis agrees with Hdt. 6.120. covered twelve hundred stadia in marching order: so strenuously did they both hasten, the Lacedaemonians to share in the dangers, the Athenians to engage the enemy before their helpers should arrive.
