How grand thy speech, how proud had been thy gait,

When now, a nobody, thou championest

That thing of naught, maintaining that we kings

Had no commission, or on sea or land,

To rule the Greeks or thee, and (such thy claim)

That Ajax sailed, an independent chief.

Is this not rank presumption in a slave?

And what is he whose might thou vauntest thus?

Where did he hold his ground or lead the assault

Where I was not? Have Greeks no man but him?

’Twas in an evil hour we made proclaim

Of open contest for Achilles’ arms,

If Teucer must denounce us as corrupt,

Whate’er the issue, and if ye reject

The adverse judgment of the major part,

But must for ever gird at us and rail,

Or plot to stab us, when ye lose your suit.

Never with tempers such as yours could law

Be firmly based, if we are called to oust

The rightful victors and promote the worse.

This must be stopped. ’Tis not the brawny, big,

Broad-shouldered men who prove the best at need;

The wise and prudent everywhere prevail.

The broad-ribbed ox is guided on his path

Down the straight furrow by a little goad.

A like corrective is in store for thee,

If thou acquire not some small sense full soon.

The man is dead, a shadow, and yet thou

Let’st thy tongue wag and waxest insolent.

Come to a sober mind; recall thy birth,

Bring hither someone else, a free-born man,

To plead thy cause before us in thy stead;