The Osceola times., 1880-12-04
Relies OF Brave Men Who Died Two
thousand Years Ago.

Tbickly sown with the relics Of brave
sons are the fair fields Of Greece, and
not even Thermopyle or Marathon can
boast a nobler historical record thf the
almost forgotten battlefield Of Chero-
nea, which lies just under the towering
peaks OF Mount Parnassus. The noun.
tains look on Cneronea, as they do on
Marathon, and Hellenic warriors of
ancient times could have wished for no
more auspIcious fighting ground than
the fertile plain which lies close to the
haunt Of the national muses. and the
great Delphic shrine of Apollo. On the
snowy summit of Parnassus, the Greek
Ararat, Deucalion and Pyrrha were be-
lieved by the Greeks to have taken
refuge from the flood, and the same pre-
cipitous heights were the scenes OF the
dances and midnight revelry, when the
Thyades celebrated the praises OF their
god with maddened orgies. Apollo
himself was said to have looked down
from those peaks upon the struggle which
took place more than two thousand years
ago, when Thebans and Athenians fought
side by side-a small but devoted band
against the Overwhelming forces of
Philip of MaceGon and his youthful son,
soon TO be known as Alexander the
Great. II the favorite deity of the Greeks
did indeed survey the conflict, he must
have shed divine tears when he saw the
pick of Athenian manhood driven back
with slaughter, and the "holy band" Of
the Theban youth 800 in number-fall,
every one of them, where they stood,
fighting stubbornly to the last. The
Macedonian t..1l h,,
classic history, was 80 overjoyed at his
victory that he danced among the corpses
on the battlefield in drunken glce. More
than a thousand Athen mans met their
death, and those Of them who were not
swept down the blood-stained stream,
which crossed the plain at that spot,
were carried back to the scpulture at
Athens, that Dcmosthenes might pay the
last honors ofa splendid funeral Grafton
over their bodies. But the Thebans
were buried as they fell; to-day, after
living in their silent resting places since
the fourth century before Christ, the
remains of the "holy band" have been
brought to light by the efforts of Greek
archmologlst, NJ. Stramartakis. 1t is fit
ting that this fresh laurel in antiquarian
discovery should fail to Greece. after the
honors that have been won by that IN
defatigable German, DIR. Schliemann, at
Agauemnon's to"b ia Mycenae. Not
even his splendid trophies of golden
masks and rings and bracelets, worn by
Clytemnestra and her murdered lord,
can surpass in interest the discovery that
has just been made at Chmronea. A
mound like that at Marathon marks the
spot where the dead lie, and a colossal
monumental lion in marble used to adorn
the place, but this was DESTROYED some
years ago. For several months excava.
tons have been going on, and they have
been rewarded by bringing to light the
tombs of the heroic warriors of Thebes.
There they lie in rows of 40 men, just as
they fell, the heads of the lower rows
resting on the feet of the upper, and all
the corpses, even after this lapse of time,
are reported to bear ghastly trace of the
wounds which caused their deaths.
Broken jaw bones, thigh bones pierced
through and through by that terrible
pike which the Macedonian phalanx
carried, and smashed skull bears witness
to the Gerceness of the struggle wherein
these brave men were defending their
country against the willy and powerful
despot Of The north.