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For my own part I cannot positively say whether Xerxes did send the
herald to Argos or not; nor whether Argive ambassadors at Susa did
really put this question to Artaxerxes about the friendship between
them and him; neither do I deliver any opinion hereupon other than
that of the Argives themselves. This, however, I know - that if
every nation were to bring all its evil deeds to a given place, in
order to make an exchange with some other nation, when they had all
looked carefully at their neighbours' faults, they would be truly glad
to carry their own back again. So, after all, the conduct of the
Argives was not perhaps more disgraceful than that of others. For
myself, my duty is to report all that is said; but I am not obliged
to believe it all alike - a remark which may be understood to apply to
my whole History. Some even go so far as to say that the Argives
first invited the Persians to invade Greece, because of their ill
success in the war with Lacedaemon, since they preferred anything to
the smart of their actual sufferings. Thus much concerning the Argives.
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