Chalkidians. Accordingly they engaged battle with the Bœotians, and
had much the better of them, and after having slain very many they
took seven hundred of them captive. On this very same day the
Athenians passed over into Eubœa and engaged battle with the
Chalkidians as well; and having conquered these also, they left four
thousand holders of allotments in the land belonging to the "Breeders
of Horses":[65] now the wealthier of the Chalkidians were called the
Breeders of Horses. And as many of them as they took captive, they
kept in confinement together with the Bœotians who had been captured,
bound with fetters; and then after a time they let them go, having
fixed their ransom at two pounds of silver apiece:[66] but their
fetters, in which they had been bound, they hung up on the Acropolis;
and these were still existing even to my time hanging on walls which
had been scorched with fire by the Mede,[67] and just opposite the
sanctuary which lies towards the West. The tenth part of the ransom
also they dedicated for an offering, and made of it a four-horse
chariot of bronze, which stands on the left hand as you enter the
Propylaia in the Acropolis, and on it is the following inscription:

"Matched in the deeds of war with the tribes of Bœotia and Chalkis
The sons of Athens prevailed, conquered and tamed them in fight:
In chains of iron and darkness they quenched their insolent spirit;
And to Athene present these, of their ransom a tithe."

78. The Athenians accordingly increased in power; and it is evident,
not by one instance only but in every way, that Equality[68] is an
excellent thing, since the Athenians while they were ruled by despots
were not better in war that any of those who dwelt about them, whereas
after they had got rid of despots they became far the first. This
proves that when they were kept down they were wilfully slack, because