« Hdt. 7.236 | Hdt. 7.237 | Hdt. 7.238 | About This Work »
237To him Xerxes made answer as follows: "Achaimenes, I think that thou speakest well, and so will I do; but Demaratos speaks that which he believes to be best for me, though his opinion is defeated by thine: for I will not certainly admit that which thou saidest, namely that he is not well-disposed to my cause, judging both by what was said by him before this, and also by that which is the truth, namely that though one citizen envies another for his good fortune and shows enmity to him by his silence,[240] nor would a citizen when a fellow-citizen consulted him suggest that which seemed to him the best, unless he had attained to a great height of virtue, and such men doubtless are few; yet guest-friend to guest-friend in prosperity is well-disposed as nothing else on earth, and if his friend should consult him, he would give him the best counsel. Thus then as regards the evil-speaking against Demaratos, that is to say about one who is my guest-friend, I bid every one abstain from it in the future."
« Hdt. 7.236 | Hdt. 7.237 | Hdt. 7.238 | About This Work »
Notes
[240] {kai esti dusmenes te sige}. Some commentators understand {te sige} to mean "secretly," like {sige}, viii. 74.