41
This occurrence heartened all the Scythians, and they no longer thought themselves beaten, seeing that the greatest of all our treasures had not been carried off by the enemy, but we still had among us staunch resolution and loyalty to friends. Furthermore, the Sauromatae were daunted more than a little by that same thing, when they considered what manner of men they were about to face in pitched battle, even though in the surprise attack for the moment they had obtained the upper hand. So when night had fallen, abandoning most of the flocks and herds and firing the wagons, they vanished in flight. Amizoces, however, could not bear to have ‘his own sight when Dandamis was blind, but put out his eyes with his own hands; and now both of them sit idle, maintained with every show of honour at public expense by the Scythian folk.
42
What similar deed, Mnesippus, could you mention, even if you were allowed to enumerate ten more instances over and above your five, unsupported by oath, if you liked, so that you might adorn them with plenty of fiction? Then too, I have told you the naked facts; but if you were describing anyone like that, I know very well how many embellishments you would intersperse in the story, telling how Dandamis pleaded, how he was blinded, what he said, how he returned, how he was received with laudation by the Scythians, and other matters such as you Greeks are in the habit of manufacturing to gratify your hearers.
