Histories

Thereupon, all the rest of the captains being ready to obey Pausanias, Amompharetus son of Poliades, the leader of the Pitanate [*](Thucydides (Thuc. 1.20) denies the existence of a *pitana/ths lo/xos as a formal part of the Spartan army; it is not clear what Herodotus means. For Pitana, see Hdt. 3.55.) battalion, refused to flee from the barbarians or (save by compulsion) bring shame on Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta; the whole business seemed strange to him, for he had not been present in the council recently held.

Pausanias and Euryanax were outraged that Amompharetus disobeyed them. Still more, however, they disliked that his refusing would compel them to abandon the Pitanate battalion, for they feared that if they fulfilled their agreement with the rest of the Greeks and abandoned him, Amompharetus and his men would be left behind to perish.

Bearing this in mind, they kept the Laconian army where it was and tried to persuade Amompharetus that he was in the wrong.

So they reasoned with Amompharetus, he being the only man left behind of all the Lacedaemonians and Tegeans. As for the Athenians, they stood unmoved at their post, well aware that the purposes and the promises of Lacedaemonians were not alike.