History of the Peloponnesian War

Those of you, however, who are past that age, must consider that the longer period of your life during which you have been prosperous is so much gain, and that what remains will be but a short one; and you must cheer yourselves with the fair fame of these [your lost ones]. For the love of honour is the only feeling that never grows old; and in the helplessness of age it is not the acquisition of gain, as some assert, that gives greatest pleasure, but the enjoyment of honour.

"For those of you, on the other hand, who are sons or brothers of the dead, great, I see, will be the struggle of competition. For every one is accustomed to praise the man who is no more; and scarcely, though even for an excess of worth, would you be esteemed, I do not say equal to them, but only slightly inferior. [*]( Or, as Göller explains it, the living feel envy towards their rivals. τὸ ἀντίπαλον intelligendos esse aemulos, non aemulationem, ea quoque indicant que contrariè ponuntur: τὸ μὴ ἐμποδών i. e. ii, qui non impedimento, nonaemuli sunt (utpote mortui). —But is not the opposition really between τοῖς ζῶσι and τὸ μὴ ἐμποδών like the sentiment of Horace, Urit cuim fulgore suo, qui praegravat artesInfra se positas: extinctus amabitur idem.) For the living are exposed to envy in their rivalry; but those who are in no one's way are honoured with a good will free from all opposition.

If; again, I must say any thing on the subject of woman's excellence also, with reference to those of you who will now be in widowhood, I will express it all in a brief exhortation. Great will be your glory in not tailing short of the natural character that belongs to you; and great is hers, who is least talked of amongst the men, either for good or evil.

I have now expressed in word, as the law required, what I had to say befitting the occasion; and, in deed, those who are here interred, have already received part of their honours; while, for the remaining part, the state will bring up their sons at the public expense, from this time to their manhood; thus offering both to these and to their posterity a beneficial reward for such contests; for where the greatest prizes for virtue are given, there also the most virtuous men are found amongst the citizens.

And now, having finished your lamentations for your several relatives, depart.

Such was the funeral that took place this winter, at the close of which the first year of this war ended.

At the very beginning of the next summer the Peloponnesians and their allies, with two thirds of their forces, as on the first occasion, invaded Attica, under the command of Archidamus, the son of Zeuxidamus, king of the Lacedaemonians; and after encamping, they laid waste the country.