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Thus spake Lampon, thinking to please Pausanias; but Pausanias
answered him - "My Eginetan friend, for thy foresight and thy
friendliness I am much beholden to thee: but the counsel which thou
hast offered is not good. First hast thou lifted me up to the skies,
by thy praise of my country and my achievement; and then thou hast cast
me down to the ground, by bidding me maltreat the dead, and saying
that thus I shall raise myself in men's esteem. Such doings befit
barbarians rather than Greeks; and even in barbarians we detest them.
On such terms then I could not wish to please the Eginetans, nor
those who think as they think enough for me to gain the approval of my
own countrymen, by righteous deeds as well as by righteous words.
Leonidas, whom thou wouldst have me avenge, is, I maintain,
abundantly avenged already. Surely the countless lives here taken are
enough to avenge not him only, but all those who fell at Thermopylae.
Come not thou before me again with such a speech, nor with such
counsel; and thank my forbearance that thou art not now punished."
Then Lampon, having received this answer, departed, and went his way.
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