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The epitaph might naturally be taken to mean that 4,000 Peloponnesians fell and were buried at Thermopylae, and so H. elsewhere (viii. 25. 2) assumes. It only says, however, that 4,000 Peloponnesians fought there, and this is true, if we add to the numbers he gives 1,000 Perioeci (202 n.). H. may have carelessly included the 700 Thespians (cf. τοῖσι πᾶσι and viii. 25. 1); but they were not Peloponnesians and had a separate stele with an epigram by a Megarian, Philaidas, Anth. Pal. Append. 94 Ἄνδρες τοί ποτ̓ ἔναιον ὑπὸ κροτάφοις Ἑλικῶνος, λήματα τῶν αὐχεῖ Θεσπιὰς εὐρύχορος. So did the Opuntian Locrians, since Strabo (425) quotes as the inscription on one of the five stelae at Thermopylae, Τούσδε ποθεῖ φθιμένους ὑπὲρ Ἑλλάδος ἀντία Μήδων Μητρόπολις Λοκρῶν εὐθυνόμων Ὀπόεις. For the 300 myriads cf. c. 185. 3; 186. 1 n.

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