Then said Gelon, “For all thy evil words, man of Sparta, thou shalt not persuade me to answer thee evil. Yet if ye put such store by this command, how much more should I, that can bring with me so great an army! Howbeit I will yield to you so much as this. If ye will take the rule of the army, then will I command the ships; or, if ye choose the ships, yield the army to me. But if this please you not, then ye must depart without my alliance.”
Then said the ambassador from Athens, making haste before the Spartan can speak, “The Greeks have sent me, O King, to ask not for a leader, but for an army; but thou sayest little of an army, but art over-eager for the leadership. As to the army, we were willing that the Spartan should answer; but as to the fleet, hear this. If the Spartans will have the command, we yield it to them; but if not, then it comes to us, and we give it to no man. For why should we yield, who are the most ancient nation of all the Greeks, and of whom came the most skillful to order an army of all the chieftains that fought against Troy?”
Then said Gelon, “Man of Athens, ye seem to have commanders more than enough, but of them that should be commanded a few only. Go ye back then to Greece with all haste, and say that she has lost the spring out of the year.” For he likened himself and his power to the spring, which is the best season of the year.
When the Greeks had departed, Gelon sent three small ships, and with them one Cadmus, who should watch the issue of the war. And the man had with him many gifts and earth and water. These Gelon commanded him to give to King Xerxes if he should get the upper hand, and if not, to bring back again. This Cadmus had received the lordship of Cos from his father, yet for love of right and justice gave it up to the people. And in this manner also he showed himself to be a righteous man; for when the Greeks had prevailed, and Xerxes had departed, he kept not the gifts, as he might have done, but carried them back to Gelon.