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Such is the other account which is given of the return of Xerxes; but
to me it seems quite unworthy of belief, alike in other respects, and
in what relates to the Persians. For had the helmsman made any such
speech to Xerxes, I suppose there is not one man in ten thousand who
will doubt that this is the course which the king would have followed:
he would have made the men upon the ship's deck, who were not only
Persians, but Persians of the very highest rank, quit their place
and go down below; and would have cast into the sea an equal number of
the rowers, who were Phoenicians. But the truth is, that the king,
as I have already said, returned into Asia by the same road as the
rest of the army.
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