... These things he rightly spoke to the commanders that accompanied him, to whom he opened the way
				for future performances, while he expelled the barbarians
				and restored Greece to her ancient liberty. And the same
				thing may be said to those that magnify themselves for
				their writings. For if there were none to act, there would
				be none to write. Take away the political government of
				Pericles, and the naval trophies of Phormio at Rhium, and
				the brave achievements of Nicias at Cythera, Megara, and
				Corinth, Demosthenes's Pylos, and the four hundred captives taken by Cleon, Tolmides sailing round the Peloponnesus, and Myronidas vanquishing the Boeotians at
				Oenophyta: and you murder Thucydides. Take away the
				daring braveries of Alcibiades in the Hellespont, and of
				Thrasyllus near Lesbos; the dissolution of the oligarchy
				by Theramenes; Thrasybulus, Archippus, and the seventy
				that from Phylae ventured to attack the Lacedaemonian
				tyranny; and Conon again enforcing Athens to take the
				sea: and then there is an end of Cratippus. For as for
				Xenophon, he was his own historian, relating the exploits
				of the army under his command, but saying that Themistogenes the Syracusan had written the history of them;
				dedicating the honor of his writing to another, that writing of himself as of another, he might gain the more
				credit. But all the other historians, as the Clinodemi,
				
				 
				
				Diyli, Philochorus, Philarchus, were but the actors of
				other men's deeds, as of so many plays, while they compiled the acts of kings and great generals, and thrusting
				themselves into the memory of their fame, partake of a
				kind of lustre and light from them. For there is a certain
				shadow of glory which reflects from those that act to those
				that write, while the actions of another appear in the discourse as in a mirror.

But this city was the mother and charitable nurse of
				many other arts and sciences; some of which she first invented and illustrated, to others she gave both efficacy,
				honor, and increase. More especially to her is painting
				beholden for its first invention, and the perfection to
				which it has attained. For Apollodorus the painter, who
				first invented the mixing of colors and the softening of
				shadows, was an Athenian. Over whose works there is
				this inscription:
				
				 
 
 'Tis no hard thing to reprehend me;
					 
 But let the men that blame me mend me. 
 
 
 
 Then for Euphranor, Nicias, Asclepiodorus, and Plistaenetus the brother of Phidias, some of them painted the
					victories, others the battles of great generals, and some of
					them heroes themselves. Thus Euphranor, comparing his
					own Theseus with another drawn by Parrhasius, said, that
					Parrhasius's Theseus ate roses, but his fed upon beef. For
					Parrhasius's piece was daintily painted, and perhaps it might
					be something like the original. But he that beheld Euphranor's Theseus might well exclaim,
					
					 
 
 Race of Erechtheus bold and stout,
						 
 Whom Pallas bred. 
 	 
 
 
 
 Euphranor also painted with great spirit the battle of
					Mantinea, fought by the cavalry between the Athenians
					and Epaminondas. The story was thus. The Theban
					
					 
					
					Epaminondas, puffed up with his victory at Leuctra, and
					designing to insult and trample over fallen Sparta and
					the glory of that city, with an army of seventy thousand
					men invaded and laid waste the Lacedaemonian territory,
					stirred up the subject people to revolt, and not far from
					Mantinea provoked the Spartans to battle; but they neither
					being willing nor indeed daring to encounter him, being in
					expectation of a reinforcement from Athens, Epaminondas
					dislodged in the night-time, and with all the secrecy imaginable fell into the Lacedaemonian territory; and missed but
					little of taking Sparta itself, being destitute of men to defend it. But the allies of the Lacedaemonians made haste
					to its relief; whereupon Epaminondas made a show as if
					he would again return to spoiling and laying waste the
					country; and by this means deceiving and amusing his
					enemies, he retreats out of Laconia by night, and with
					swift marches coming upon the Mantineans unexpectedly,
					at what time they were deliberating to send relief to
					Sparta, presently commanded the Thebans to prepare to
					storm the town. Immediately the Thebans, who had a
					great conceit of their warlike courage, took their several
					posts, and began to surround the city. This put the Mantineans into a dismal consternation, and filled the whole
					city with dreadful outcries and hurly-burly, as being neither
					able to withstand such a torrent of armed men ready to
					rush in upon them, nor having any hopes of succor. 
 But at the same time, and by good fortune, the Athenians came down from the hills into the plains of Mantinea,
					not knowing any thing of the critical moment that required
					more speedy haste, but marching leisurely along. However, so soon as they were informed of the danger of their
					allies, by one that scouted out from the rest, though but few
					in respect of the number of their enemies, single of themselves, and tired with their march, yet they presently drew
					up into order of battle; and the cavalry charging up to
					
					 
					
					the very gates of Mantinea, there happened a terrible battle
					betweeen the horse on both sides; wherein the Athenians got the better, and so saved Mantinea out of Epaminondas's hands. This conflict was painted by Euphranor,
					and you see in the picture with what strength, what fury
					and vigor they fought. And yet I do not believe that any
					one will compare the skill of the painter with that of the
					general; or would endure that any one should prefer the
					picture before the trophy, or the imitation before the truth
					itself.

Though indeed Simonides calls painting silent poetry,
				and poetry speaking painting. For those actions which
				painters set forth as they were doing, those history relates
				when they were done. And what the one sets forth in
				colors and figures, the other relates in words and sentences;
				only they differ in the materials and manner of imitation.
				However, both aim at the same end, and he is accounted
				the best historian, who can make the most lively descriptions both of persons and passions. Therefore Thucydides
				always drives at this perspicuity, to make the hearer (as it
				were) a spectator, and to inculcate the same passions and
				perturbations of mind into his readers as they were in who
				beheld the causes of those effects. For Demosthenes embattling the Athenians near the rocky shore of Pylos;
				Brasidas hastening the pilot to run the ship aground, then
				going to the rowers' seats, then wounded and fainting, sinking down in that part of the vessel where the oars could
				not trouble him; the land fight of the Spartans from the
				sea, and the sea engagement of the Athenians from the
				land; then again in the Sicilian war, both a land fight and
				sea engagement, so fought that neither had the better, 
				... So that if we may not compare painters with generals, neither must we equal historians to them. 
 
 Thersippus of Eroeadae brought the first news of the
					victory at Marathon, as Heraclides of Pontus relates.
					But most report that Eucles, running armed with his
					wounds reeking from the fight, and falling through the
					door into the first house he met, expired with only these
					words in his mouth, God save ye, we are well. Now
					this man brought the news himself of the success of a
					fight wherein he was present in person. But suppose that
					ally of the goat-keepers or herd-men had beheld the combat from some high hill at a distance, and seeing the success of that great achievement, greater than by words can
					be expressed, should have come to the city without any
					wound or blood about him, and should have claimed the
					honors done to Cynaegirus, Callimachus, and Polyzelus,
					for giving an account of their wounds, their bravery and
					deaths, wouldst thou not have thought him impudent above
					impudence itself; seeing that the Lacedaemonians gave the
					messenger that brought the news of the victory at Mantinea no other reward than a quantity of victuals from the
					public mess? But historians are (as it were) well-voiced
					relators of the actions of great men, who add grace and
					beauty and dint of wit to their relations, and to whom they
					that first light upon them and read them are indebted for
					their pleasing tidings. And being read, they are applauded
					for transmitting to posterity the actions of those that do
					bravely. For words do not make actions, though we give
					them the hearing.

But there is a certain grace and glory of the poetic
				art, when it resembles the grandeur of the actions themselves; according to that of Homer,
				
				 
 
 And many falsities he did unfold,
					 
 That looked like truth, so smoothly were they told. 
 
 
 
 
 It is reported also, that when one of his familiar friends
					said to Menander, The feasts of Bacchus are at hand, and
					
					 
					
					thou hast made ne'er a comedy; he made him this answer:
					By all the Gods, I have made a comedy, for I have laid my
					plot; and there remains only to make the verses and
					measures to it. So that the poets themselves believe the
					actions to be more necessary than the words, and the first
					things to be considered. Corinna likewise, when Pindar
					was but a young man and made too daring a use of his
					eloquence, gave him this admonition, that he was no poet,
					for that he never composed any fables, which was the
					chiefest office of poetry; in regard that strange words,
					figures, metaphors, songs, and measures were invented to
					give a sweetness to things. Which admonition Pindar
					laying up in his mind, wrote a certain ode which thus
					begins:
					
					 
 
 Shall I Ismenus sing,
						 
 Or Melia, that from spindles all of gold
						 
 Her twisted yarn unwinds,
						 
 Or Cadmus, that most ancient king,
						 
 Or else the sacred race of Sparti bold,
						 
 Or Hercules, that far in strength transcends. 
 
 
 
 Which when he showed to Corinna, she with a smile replied: When you sow, you must scatter the seed with your
					hand, not empty the whole sack at once. And indeed we
					find that Pindar intermixes in his poetic numbers a collection of all sorts of fables. Now that poetry employs itself
					in mythology is agreed by Plato likewise. For a fable is
					the relation of a false story resembling truth, and therefore
					very remote from real actions; for relation is the image of
					action, as fable is the image of relation. And therefore
					they that feign actions fall as far behind historians as they
					that speak differ from those that act.

Athens therefore never bred up any true artist in
				epic or lyric verse. For Cinesias was a troublesome writer
				of dithyrambics, a person of mean parentage and of no
				repute; and being jeered and derided by the comedians,
				proved very unfortunate in the pursuit of fame. 
 
 Now for the dramatic poets, the Athenians looked upon
					comedy to be so ignoble and troublesome, that they published a law that no Areopagite should make any comedies.
					But tragedy flourished and was cried up, and with wonder
					and admiration heard and beheld by all people in those
					days, deceiving them with fables and the display of various
					passions; whereby, as Gorgias says, he that deceived was
					more just than he that deceived not, and he that was deceived was wiser than he who was not deceived. He that
					deceived was more just, because it was no more than what
					he pretended to do; and he that was deceived was wiser,
					for that he must be a man of no sense that is not taken
					with the sweetness of words. And yet what benefit did
					those fine tragedies procure the Athenians? But the
					shrewdness and cunning of Themistocles walled the city,
					the industry of Pericles adorned their citadel, and Cimon
					advanced them to command their neighbors. But as for
					the wisdom of Euripides, the eloquence of Sophocles, the
					lofty style of Aeschylus, what calamity did they avert from
					the city; or what renown or fame did they bring to the
					Athenians? Is it fitting then that dramatic poems should
					be compared with trophies, the stage with the generals'
					office, or lists of dramas with noble achievements?

Would ye that we should introduce the men themselves carrying before them the marks and signals of their
				own actions, permitting them to enter in order, like the
				actors upon the stage? But then poets must go before
				them, with flutes and lyres, saying and singing:
				
				 
 
 Far from our choirs who in this lore's unskilled,
					 
 Or does not cherish pure and holy thoughts,
					 
 Nor views nor joins the Muses' generous rites,
					 
 Nor is perfected in the Bacchic tongue,
					 
 With which Cratinus bull-devourer sang. 
 	 
 
 
 
 And then there must be scenes, and vizards, and altars,
					and versatile machines. There must be also the tragedy-actors,
					
					 
					
					 the Nicostrati, Callippidae. Menisci, Theodori, Poli,
					the dressers, and sedan-men of tragedy,—like those of
					some sumptuously apparelled lady, or rather like the painters, gilders, and colorers of statues,—together with a
					costly preparation of vessels, vizards, purple coats, and
					machines, attended by an unruly rabble of dancers and
					guards; and let all the preparation be exceeding costly
					and magnificent. A Lacedaemonian once, beholding all
					this, not improperly said: How strangely are the Athenians
					mistaken, consuming so much cost and labor upon ridiculous trifles; that is to say, wasting the expenses of navies
					and of victualling whole armies upon the stage. For if
					you compute the cost of those dramatic preparations, you
					will find that the Athenians spent more upon their Bacchae,
					Oedipuses, and Antigone, and the woes of Medea and Electra, than in their wars against the barbarians for liberty and
					extending their empire. For their general oft-times led
					forth the soldiers to battle, commanding them to make
					provisions only of such food as needed not the tedious
					preparation of fire. And indeed their admirals and captains of their ships went aboard without any other provision than meal, onions, and cheese. Whereas the masters
					of the choruses, feeding their dancers with eels, lettuce, the
					kernels of garlic, and marrow, feasted them for a long
					time, exercising their voices and pleasing their palates by
					turns. And as for these captains, if they were overcome,
					it was their misfortune to be contemned and hissed at;
					and if they were victors, there was neither tripod, nor consecrated ornament of victory, as Demetrius says, but a life
					prolonged among cables, and an empty house for a tomb.
					For this is the tribute of poetry, and there is nothing more
					splendid to be expected from it.

Now then let us consider the great generals as they
				approach, to whom, as they pass by, all those must rise up
				and pay their salutations who have never been famous for
				
				 
				
				any great action, military or civil, and were never furnished
				with daring boldness nor purity of wisdom for such enterprises, nor initiated by the hand of Miltiades that overthrew the Medes, or of Themistocles that vanquished the
				Persians. This is the martial gang, at once combating
				with phalanxes by land, and engaging with navies by sea,
				and laden with the spoils of both. Give ear, Alala, daughter of War, to this same prologue of swords and spears.
				
				 
 
 Hasten to death, when for your country vowed, 
 
 
 
 as Epaminondas said,—for your country, your sepulchres,
					and your altars, throwing yourselves into most noble and
					illustrious combats. Their victories methinks I see approaching toward me, not dragging after them a goat or
					ox for a reward, nor crowned with ivy and smelling of the
					dregs of wine. But whole cities, islands, continents, and
					colonies well peopled are their rewards, being surrounded
					with trophies and spoils of all sorts. Whose statues and
					symbols of honor are Parthenons, a hundred feet in length,
					South-walls, houses for ships, the Propylaea, the Chersonesus, and Amphipolis. Marathon displays the victory of
					Miltiades, and Salamis the glory of Themistocles, triumphing over the ruins of a thousand vessels. The victory of
					Cimon brings away a hundred Phoenician galleys from the
					Eurymedon. And the victory of Cleon and Demosthenes
					brings away the shield of Brasidas, and the captive soldiers
					in chains from Sphacteria. The victory of Conon and
					Thrasybulus walls the city, and brings the people back at
					liberty from Phylae. The victory of Alcibiades near Sicily
					restores the languishing condition of the city; and Greece
					beheld Ionia raised again by the victories of Neleus and
					Androclus in Lydia and Caria. 
 If you ask what benefit every one of the rest procured
					to the city; one will answer Lesbos, another Samos, another Cyprus, another the Pontus Euxinus, another five
					
					 
					
					hundred galleys with three banks of oars, and another
					ten thousand talents, the rewards of fame and trophies
					won. For these victories the city observes public anniversary festivals, for these victories she sacrifices to the
					Gods; not for the victories of Aeschylus and Sophocles,
					not because Carcinus was victorious with his Aerope, or
					Astydamas with his Hector. But upon the sixth of September, even to this day, the Athenians celebrate a festival
					in memory of the fight at Marathon. Upon the sixteenth
					of the same month libations are poured in remembrance
					of the naval victory won by Chabrias near Naxos. Upon
					the twelfth they offer thanksgiving sacrifices for the recovery of their liberty. For upon that day they returned
					back from Phylae. The third of the same month they
					won the battle of Plataea. The sixteenth of April was
					consecrated to Diana, when the moon appeared in the full
					to the Greeks victorious at Salamis. The twelfth of June
					was made sacred by the battle of Mantinea, wherein the
					Athenians, when their confederates were routed and fled,
					alone by themselves obtained the victory and triumph over
					their victorious enemies. Such actions as these procured
					honor and veneration and grandeur to the city; for these
					acts it was that Pindar called Athens the support of Greece;
					not because she had set the fortune of the Greeks upright
					by the tragedies of Phrynichus and Thespis, but because
					(as he says) near Artemisium the Athenian youth laid
						the first glorious foundation of freedom; and afterwards
					fixing it upon the adamantine pillars of Salamis, Mycale,
					and Plataea, they multiplied their felicity to others.

But as for the writings of the poets, they are mere
				bubbles. But rhetoricians and orators indeed have some.
				thing in them that renders them in some measure fit to be
				compared with great captains. For which reason, Aeschines
				
				 
				
				 in derision reports of Demosthenes, that he said he
				was bringing a suit in behalf of the orator's stand against
				the generals' office. But for all that, do you think it
				proper to prefer the Plataic oration of Hyperides to the
				Plataic victory of Aristides? Or the oration of Lysias
				against the Thirty Tyrants, to the acts of Thrasybulus and
				Archias that put them to death? Or that of Aeschines
				against Timarchus for unchastity, to the relieving of Byzantium by Phocion, by which he prevented the sons of the
				confederates from being the scorn and derision of the Macedonians? Or shall we set before the public crowns
				which Demosthenes received for setting Greece at liberty,
				his oration on the Crown, wherein the rhetorician has
				behaved himself most splendidly and learnedly, swearing
				by their progenitors that ventured their lives at Marathon
				for the liberty of Greece, rather than by those that instructed youth in the schools? And therefore the city buried
				these heroes at the expense of the public, honoring the
				sacred relics of their bodies, not men like Isocrates, Antiphon, and Isaeus, and the orator has translated them into
				the number of the Gods; and by these it was that he
				chose to swear, though he did not follow their example.
				Isocrates also was wont to say, that they who ventured
				their lives at Marathon fought as if they had been inspired
				with other souls than their own; and extolling their daring
				boldness and contempt of life, to one that asked him
				(being at that time very aged) how he did,—As well, said
				he, as one who, being now above fourscore and ten years
				old, esteems death to be the worst of evils. For neither
				did he spend his years to old age in whetting his sword, in
				grinding and sharpening his spear, in scouring and polishing his helmet, in commanding navies and armies, but in
				knitting and joining together antithetical and equally balanced
				
				 
				
				 clauses, and words of similar endings, all but smoothing and adapting his periods and sentences with files,
				planes, or chisels. How would that man have been
				affrighted at the clattering of weapons or the routing of a
				phalanx, who was so afraid of suffering one vowel to clash
				with another, or to pronounce a sentence where but one
				syllable was wanting! 
 Miltiades, the very next day after the battle of Marathon, returned a victor to the city with his army. And
					Pericles, having subdued the Samians in nine months,
					derided Agamemnon that was ten years taking of Troy.
					But Isocrates was nearly three Olympiads (or twelve years)
					in writing his Panegyric; in all which time he had neither
					been a general nor an ambassador, neither built a city nor
					been an admiral, notwithstanding the many wars that harassed Greece within that time. But while Timotheus
					freed Euboea from slavery, while Chabrias vanquished the
					enemy near Naxos, while Iphicrates defeated and cut to
					pieces a whole battalion of the Lacedaemonians near
					Lechaeum, while the Athenians, having shaken off the
					Spartan yoke, set the rest of Greece at liberty, with as
					ample privileges as they had themselves; he sits poring at
					home in his study, seeking out proper phrases and choice
					words for his oration, as long a time as Pericles spent in
					erecting the Propylaea and the Parthenon. Though the
					comic poet Cratinus seems to deride even Pericles himself
					as one that was none of the quickest, where he says of
					the middle wall:
					
					 
 
 In words the mighty Pericles
						 
 Has rais'd us up a wall;
						 
 But 'tis a wall in only words,
						 
 For we see none at all. 
 
 
 
 Consider now the poor spirit of this great orator, who
					spent the ninth part of his life in compiling one single
					oration. But to say no more of him, is it rational to compare
					
					 
					
					 the harangues of Demosthenes the orator with the
					martial exploits of Demosthenes the great leader? For
					example, the oration against Conon for an assault, with the
					trophies which the other erected before Pylos? Or the
					declamation against Amathusius concerning slaves, with
					the noble service which the other performed in bringing
					home the Spartan captives? Neither can it be said, that
					Demosthenes for his oration in regard to foreigners...
					deserved as much honor as Alcibiades, who joined the
					Mantineans and Eleans as confederates with the Athenians 
					against the Lacedaemonians. And yet we must acknowledge that 
					the public orations of Demosthenes deserve this praise, that 
					in his Philippics he bravely encourages the Athenians to take 
					arms, and he extols the enterprise of Leptines....