in the initial passages of Book II of the Peloponnesian War (Thucydides), history's first and perhaps greatest funeral oration awaits the reader.

Shamefully (or is it shamelessly?), I was "multi tasking" when I got to Pericles's speech: shifting between my beautiful Landmark hardcover edition and shopping for hiking gear online (because, we know, embarking on a Disney Cruise to Alaska requires more or less the same stuff that Batu Khan would need to conquer Eurasia).

The gravity of the history, fortunately, pulled me away from the screen and placed me on the right spot.

Here is an excerpt from the oration to the Athenian men that fell in the initial battles of the war against Sparta and its allies. The year is 430BC:

Thus choosing to die resisting, rather than to live submitting, they fled only from dishonor, but met danger face to face, and after one brief moment, while at the summit of their fortune, left behind them not their fear, but their glory.

I know this borders the melodramatic, but I'll say it: neither Lincoln's Gettysburg nor Churchill's Finest Hour are up there with Pericles.

An answer, perhaps, to "what we fight for?", "what we die for?" and, most importantly "what we live for?"