History of the Peloponnesian War

And when the earth is thrown over them, someone thought to exceed the rest in wisdom and dignity, chosen by the city, maketh an oration wherein he giveth them such praises as are fit; which done, the company depart. And this is the form of that burial;

and for the whole time of the war, whensoever there was occasion, they observed the same.

For these first the man chosen to make the oration was Pericles the son of 34antippus, who, when the time served, going out of the place of burial into a high pulpit to be heard the farther off by the multitude about him, spake unto them in this manner: