[1] When Mardonius received the Athenians’ message, which Alexander brought back with him, he lost no time in setting out from Thessaly at the head of his army to attack Athens, and he gained extra conscripts from every place he passed through. So far from regretting their earlier actions, the Thessalian leaders lobbied the Persians even more. Thorax of Larisa not only accompanied Xerxes during his retreat back to Asia, but now blatantly encouraged Mardonius to invade Greece.
[2] In due course, the army reached Boeotia, where the Thebans tried to persuade Mardonius to stay. They said that there was no better place for him to pitch camp, and they advised him to go no further, but to make Boeotia his base and to work towards the complete subjugation of Greece without striking a blow. They argued that it was not easy for anyone at all to get the better of the Greeks by force of arms when they were united, as they had been before. ‘But if you do as we suggest,’ they went on, ‘it will be no problem for you to influence their thinking. In order to destroy their unity, all you have to do is send money to all the leading men in the various cities. They will come over to your side, and then, with their help, you will easily overcome the ones who oppose you.’
[3] However, Mardonius did not listen to this advice of theirs, because he was in the grip of a terrible longing to take Athens for a second time. In this, he was motivated partly by obstinacy and partly by the fact that he could see himself using beacons placed on successive islands to let Xerxes in Sardis know that he had captured Athens. But when he reached Attica he once again found no Athenians there. Most of them were on Salamis, he found out, or serving in the fleet, and so he captured an empty city. There had been a gap of nine months between Xerxes’ capture of Athens and this later invasion by Mardonius.
[4] During his time in Athens, Mardonius sent a Hellespontine man called Murichides to Salamis with the same message that Alexander of Macedonia had already conveyed to the Athenians. He was aware that the Athenians were not well disposed towards him, but he still sent this message all over again, because he assumed they would give up their obstinacy now that the whole of Attica had fallen and was under his control. This was what prompted him to dispatch Murichides to Salamis.
[5] On arriving in Salamis, Murichides delivered Mardonius’ message to the Council. One of the members of the Council, Lycides, argued that in his opinion they ought to welcome Mardonius’ proposals and refer the matter to the people. He did this either because he had been bribed by Mardonius, or because he actually approved of the proposals. The immediate response from the Athenians (not only the members of the Council, but also those outside, when they heard about it) was furious anger. They surrounded Lycides and stoned him to death, although they let the Hellespontine go unharmed. The uproar in Salamis over Lycides alerted the Athenian women to what was happening. With every woman arousing and enlisting the support of her neighbour, they spontaneously flocked to Lycides’ house, where they stoned his wife and his children to death.
[6] The circumstances of the Athenian exodus to Salamis were as follows. They stayed in Attica for a while, because they were expecting an army to come from the Peloponnese to help them. But the Peloponnesians kept on delaying and putting things off, and once the Athenians heard that the invader had already reached Boeotia, they gathered up all their belongings and crossed over to Salamis. They sent a delegation to Lacedaemon to complain that the Lacedaemonians had allowed Mardonius to invade Attica instead of combining with them and confronting him in Boeotia, and also to remind them of all the incentives the Persians had promised them for changing sides; the delegation was to warn the Lacedaemonians, then, that if they refused to help the Athenians, the Athenians too would find their own way of avoiding danger.
[7] Now, the Lacedaemonians were on holiday at this time; they were celebrating the Hyacinthia, and nothing was more important to them than catering to the god’s requirements. Moreover, the defensive wall they were constructing on the Isthmus had reached the stage of having the parapets built on it. When the delegation (which consisted of Megarians and Plataeans as well as Athenians) arrived in Lacedaemon, they came before the ephors and said: ‘The Athenians have sent us to say that not only is the Persian king offering to return our land, but he also wants to enter into an alliance with us, on fair and equal terms and without treachery and deceit, and he is prepared to give us any extra territory we choose, over and above what we already have. Out of reverence for Zeus, the god whom all Greeks worship, and because we find the idea of betraying Greece intolerable, we rejected and refused his offers, despite the fact that we are being criminally betrayed by the rest of the Greeks, and even though we know it would be more advantageous for us to come to terms with the Persians than to fight them. But we will never voluntarily come to terms with the Persians.
‘All our dealings with the Greeks have been sincere. As for you, however, although on the occasion we have referred to you were so petrified that you came to beg us not to enter into an agreement with the Persians, now you’re ignoring us. And why? Because you’re fully aware of our determination never to betray Greece, and also because the wall you’re building across the Isthmus is near completion. You had promised to come to Boeotia to confront the enemy, but you have let us down and allowed the Persians to invade Attica. At the moment, then, the Athenians are furious with your dishonourable behaviour, but they hereby ask you to get an army out into the field as quickly as possible to join us, so that together we can meet the Persians in Attica, since the loss of Boeotia means that the best place for us to fight is the Thriasian Plain, in our country.’
[8] The ephors asked for a day’s grace before replying to this speech—but then on the next day they postponed their reply for a further day. They went on doing this for ten days, putting their response off from day to day! Meanwhile all the Peloponnesians were very busy fortifying the Isthmus, and had more or less finished the job. Why, at the time of Alexander of Macedonia’s mission to Athens, was it so important to the Lacedaemonians that the Athenians should not go over to the Persian side, and why were they then completely unconcerned on this later occasion? I do not know the answer, except to say that they had completed the wall across the Isthmus and thought they had no further need of the Athenians. At the time of Alexander’s mission to Athens, they had not yet completed the building programme, but their terror of the Persians was making them work at it.
[9] However, the Spartiates did eventually give the Athenians a reply and send an army. This is how it happened. On the day before what was to be the final audience of the Athenian delegation, a man from Tegea named Chileus, who was the most influential foreigner in Lacedaemon, heard from the ephors the whole of the Athenians’ speech. ‘Here is how things stand,’ he told the ephors afterwards. ‘If we fall out with the Athenians and they side with the Persians instead, then however strong a wall we have built across the Isthmus, there will be great gates to the Peloponnese open wide for the Persians. No, you had better do what the Athenians are asking you to do, before they reach a different decision—one which would threaten Greece with catastrophe.’
[10] That was his advice to the ephors, who took his point. Without saying anything to the delegates from the cities, they immediately—before daybreak—sent out five thousand Spartiates, with seven helots assigned to each man. Command of this expeditionary force was given to Pausanias the son of Cleombrotus. The right of leadership actually belonged to Pleistarchus the son of Leonidas, but he was still a child, and Pausanias was his guardian, as well as being his cousin, because Cleombrotus (who was Pausanias’ father and the son of Anaxandridas) was no longer alive. He had died shortly after bringing back from the Isthmus the army which had built the wall; the reason Cleombrotus had pulled the army back from the Isthmus was that as he was offering sacrifices in regard to the Persians darkness obscured the sun in the sky. Pausanias chose as his fellow commander a relative of his, Euryanax the son of Dorieus. So off these troops went from Sparta, with Pausanias in command.
[11] The next day the delegates, who were completely unaware of the departure of the army, came before the ephors. They too had every intention of leaving, each man back to his own city. Once they were in the presence of the ephors they said, ‘Men of Lacedaemon, why don’t you just stay here, then? Celebrate your Hyacinthia and have fun—even at the expense of failing your allies. This injustice of yours and lack of military support will force the Athenians to negotiate the best possible deal with the Persians. It goes without saying that we will then be on the Persian king’s side, and we will join his forces in invading any country they lead us against. Then you’ll discover what the consequences are.’ The ephors responded by assuring the delegates under oath that the Spartiates had probably already got as far as Orestheum in their march against the ‘strangers’ (as they called the foreign invaders). The delegates, who of course knew nothing about the expedition, asked the ephors what they meant, and then the ephors told them the whole story. As a result, the delegation set out in astonishment after the Spartiates as quickly as possible. They were accompanied by an élite force of five thousand Lacedaemonian perioeci.
[12] So they went racing towards the Isthmus. As soon as the Argives found out that Pausanias and his men had left Sparta, they sent the fastest courier they could find to Attica, since they had previously promised Mardonius that they would stop the Spartiates leaving the Peloponnese. The courier arrived in Athens and said, ‘Mardonius, I have come on a mission from Argos to tell you that the men of military age have left Lacedaemon and taken to the field, and that the Argives could not stop them doing so. Under these circumstances, good luck to you, and good planning.’
[13] After delivering this message the courier took his leave. Mardonius now felt altogether disinclined to stay in Attica. Before receiving this information he had been waiting, to see what the Athenians would do. In fact, he assumed throughout that they would come to terms with him, and so he had neither harmed nor ravaged Attic territory. But when they refused to come to terms, and once he had found out the true state of affairs, he set the evacuation of his forces in motion before Pausanias and his invading force had reached the Isthmus. First, however, he put Athens to the torch and tore down any remaining upright bits of city wall, house, or shrine, until they were all just rubble. There were two reasons for his withdrawal: first, the terrain of Attica was unsuited to cavalry manoeuvres, and, second, if he lost the battle, he could get out of the country only via a narrow pass, which would mean that even a small force could prevent him doing so. His plan, then, was to pull back to Thebes, where he could fight with a friendly city near by and on terrain suitable for cavalry.
[14] Mardonius began to evacuate Attica, then, but while he was actually on the road he received a report that another force of one thousand Lacedaemonians had reached Megara, in advance of the main army. This information caused him to make new plans, because he wanted to defeat this advance guard first, if he could, so he turned his army round and led them back towards Megara. His cavalry went on ahead and overran the territory of Megara. This was the most westerly point in Europe reached by the Persian army.
[15] Next Mardonius heard that the Greeks had gathered in force on the Isthmus, so he turned back again and marched through Decelea, because that was the route his guides suggested. These guides were neighbours of the Thebans from the River Asopus, and they had been called up to do the job by the Boeotarchs. They took him first to Sphendaleis and then on to Tanagra, where he bivouacked for the night before making his way the next day to Scolus, which was within Theban territory. At Scolus, despite the fact that the Thebans were on the Persian side, he cut down all the trees on cultivated plots of land, not out of hostility, but because he really had no choice, since he wanted to have a defensive stockade built for his troops as a place of refuge in case the battle did not go well for him. His army was posted along the River Asopus, occupying an extensive stretch of land from Erythrae, past Hysiae, and all the way into Plataean territory. However, the actual strong-hold which he built was not of course as large as that; it was square in shape, with each side being about ten stades long.
While the Persians were busy with this building work, a Theban called Attaginus the son of Phrynon prepared a magnificent banquet and invited to it not only Mardonius himself, but also the fifty most eminent Persians, who all came in response to the invitation. The banquet was held in Thebes.
[16] I heard what follows from Thersander of Orchomenus, who was one of the most distinguished men of his home town. Thersander told me that he was one of the people invited by Attaginus to this banquet, along with fifty Thebans, and that rather than having the two sets of people—Persian and Theban—reclining on separate couches, Attaginus placed one of each on every couch. After the meal, while they were still drinking, the Persian who was sharing a couch with Thersander asked him in Greek where he was from. When he answered that he was from Orchomenus, the Persian said, ‘Since we’ve shared a table and poured a libation from the same cup, I want to leave you a record of my opinion. Then, with advance warning, you’ll be in a position to decide what to do to ensure your own safety. Look at these Persians here at the banquet, and consider also the army which we have left encamped on the river. Before much time has passed you’ll see few of them left alive.’
The Persian was weeping as he spoke, Thersander said. He was astonished at his words and said to him, ‘Shouldn’t you be telling this to Mardonius and the next highest-ranking Persians?’
‘My friend,’ the Persian replied, ‘an event which has been decreed by the god cannot be averted by man, for no one is willing to believe even those who tell the truth. A great many Persians are well aware of what I’ve just said, but we follow our leaders because we have no choice. There’s no more terrible pain a man can endure than to see clearly and be able to do nothing.’
This is what I was told by Thersander of Orchomenus, and he added that he lost no time in telling others the story—that is, that he did so before the battle of Plataea took place.
[17] While Mardonius was encamped in Boeotia all the Greeks living in those parts who had embraced the Persian cause supplied contingents for his army, and indeed they all took part in the invasion of Athens—all, that is, except for the Phocians, who were the only ones not to join the invaders. It is true that they too were staunch collaborators, but only because they had no choice, not of their own free will. A few days after the arrival at Thebes of the Persian army a battalion of a thousand Phocian hoplites came too, led by a very eminent Phocian called Harmocydes. Following their arrival at Thebes Mardonius sent horsemen† to tell them to fall in by themselves on the plain. No sooner had they done so than the whole of the Persian cavalry appeared. Next the rumour spread throughout the Greek contingents of the Persian army that Mardonius was going to have the Phocians cut down by his men’s javelins. The same rumour spread among the Phocians too, and then the Phocian commander Harmocydes made a speech to rouse his men. ‘Phocians, there can be no doubt’, he said, ‘that the Persians are intending to wipe us out, and have planned the whole thing in advance—in response, I imagine, to some lies told about us by the Thessalians. Now is the time, then, for every single one of you to prove his courage. It is better to die in action, fighting for one’s life, than to submit to the utter disgrace of presenting oneself meekly for slaughter. No, we must teach every one of them what it means for foreigners to plot the murder of Greek men.’
[18] This was Harmocydes’ advice to his men. The horsemen surrounded the Phocians, and then advanced as if they were going to kill them. They brandished their weapons just as they would have done if they were going to throw them, and it is even possible that a few weapons were released. Meanwhile the Phocians stood their ground against them, and presented as firm and compact a formation as possible on all fronts. At that point the horsemen wheeled around and pulled back. It is possible that the horsemen had come, at the request of the Thessalians, to kill the Phocians and then became afraid of being defeated when they saw the Phocians adopt a defensive formation, and so withdrew when Mardonius instructed them to do so; and it is also possible that Mardonius wanted them to test the Phocians to see if they were brave enough. I am not in a position to say which of these alternatives is true. But after the horsemen had pulled back, Mardonius sent them the following message: ‘Don’t worry, men of Phocis. You have demonstrated your valour, which I had not been led to expect. So now commit yourselves to prosecuting this war, because however many favours you do us, you will be more than repaid by myself and by the king.’ That was the end of the incident involving the Phocians.
[19] Once the Lacedaemonians had reached the Isthmus, they established their camp there. When the rest of the Peloponnesians (that is, the ones who were on the right side) heard what the Lacedaemonians were doing, they decided that they should not be left behind—although some of them did so only when they actually saw the Spartiates taking to the field. Once they had obtained favourable omens, the combined forces made their way from the Isthmus to Eleusis, where they once again offered up sacrifices. The omens were favourable, and so they continued on their way, accompanied now by the Athenian troops, who had crossed over from Salamis and joined them at Eleusis. It was when they were at Erythrae in Boeotia that they found out about the Persian encampment on the Asopus, and then, in the light of this information, they took up a position opposite the Persians on the spurs of Mount Cithaeron.
[20] The Greeks persistently refused to come down from the hills to the plain, so Mardonius sent the whole of his cavalry against them. The cavalry was commanded by an eminent Persian called Masistius (though the Greeks know him as Macistius), who rode a Nesaean horse, magnificently caparisoned, with equipment that included a golden bit. The horsemen advanced towards the Greeks and then attacked regiment by regiment. During these attacks, which inflicted severe losses on the Greeks, they taunted them by calling them women.
[21] Now, as it happened, it was the Megarians who were positioned at the most vulnerable point of the whole area, and bore the brunt of the cavalry assaults. They were so hard pressed by the Persian cavalry that they sent a message to the Greek commanders. When the messenger arrived he said to them: ‘I bear a message from the Megarians to their allies: “We do not have the resources to resist the Persian cavalry unassisted here in the position we took up at the start of the battle. So far, despite the pressure, we have held out, although it has taken perseverance and courage. But now, unless you send further troops to relieve us at our post, we will abandon it.”’ Once the messenger had finished speaking, Pausanias questioned the Greeks to see whether any of them would volunteer to go there and relieve the Megarians. All the others refused, but the job was taken on by the Athenians—or, to be precise, by an élite company of three hundred Athenians, under the command of Olympiodorus the son of Lampon.
[22] These were the men who volunteered to be deployed in defence of all the other Greeks at Erythrae. With the support of the archers they took along, they fought long and hard, and the battle was eventually resolved as follows. The Persian cavalry continued to attack regiment by regiment, and during one such attack Masistius’ horse, which was out in front of the rest, was hit in the side by an arrow, and the pain of the wound made it rear up and unseat him. As soon as Masistius landed on the ground, the Athenians sprang forward, seized the horse and killed Masistius, although he fought back. At first, in fact, they failed to kill him: next to his skin he was wearing a breastplate made of gold scales, with a red tunic on top, so the Athenians’ blows kept hitting the breastplate and achieving nothing. Eventually, however one of them realized what was happening and struck Masistius in the eye. Only then did he fall to the ground and die. Now, somehow the other Persian horsemen failed to observe all this; they did not see him fall from his horse and they did not see him being killed either, because they were too busy wheeling round and pulling back to notice what was going on. As soon as they halted, however, they missed him, because there was no one there to give them orders. Once they understood the situation, they passed the word around and charged forward en masse, with the intention of recovering the body.
[23] When the Athenians saw that the horsemen had abandoned the tactic of attacking regiment by regiment and were all charging at once, they shouted out for the rest of the army to come to their assistance. In the time it took for the general mass of the infantry to reach them, a fierce struggle took place over the body. Before the reinforcements arrived, the three hundred were coming off worst by a long way, and were in danger of losing Masistius’ corpse, but once the main body of the Greek army had arrived to help them, the cavalry found it impossible to maintain their impetus. Not only did they fail to recover the body, but they sustained further losses, in addition to Masistius himself. They pulled back two stades, reined their horses in, and tried to decide what they should do. Since they were leaderless, they thought they had better withdraw from the battlefield and find Mardonius.
[24] When the cavalry got back to the Persian encampment, Mardonius and the whole of his army were deeply upset to hear of Masistius’ death. They shaved off not only their own hair, but also that of their horses and their yoke-animals, and gave themselves over to unending lamentation. The whole of Boeotia echoed with the sound of mourning, since, after Mardonius, there was no one in Persia who was more highly respected by the Persians in general and the king in particular. So the Persians honoured Masistius on his death in their own fashion.
[25] Greek morale was considerably raised by the fact that they had not only withstood the assaults of the Persian cavalry, but had actually managed to push them back. The first thing they did was load the corpse on to a cart and parade it past their lines. Masistius had been remarkably tall and good-looking (which is in fact why they did this with the body), and the men broke ranks to go and see him. Next, they decided to come down off the hills and go to Plataea, because the land around there was clearly far more suitable than Erythrae as a place for them to establish themselves, for a number of reasons, including the fact that it had a better supply of fresh water. So they decided to move their camp down to Plataea, and in particular to the spring called Gargaphia which rises in that region, and to take up a position there in separate units. They picked up their gear and marched through the spurs of Cithaeron, past Hysiae, and into Plataean territory, where they formed up into various units based on their places of origin. The land they occupied by the Gargaphian Spring and the precinct of the hero Androcrates consisted of knolls and level ground.
[26] A fierce quarrel arose between the Tegeans and the Athenians during the disposition of the troops. There was only one wing available, and both sides thought they deserved to have it. To support their case, they brought up all their achievements in the recent and distant past. The Tegeans argued as follows: ‘This position has been our constant prerogative. Whenever the Peloponnesians have taken to the field together, we’ve been assigned this position by our allies. This isn’t just a recent phenomenon; it has been going on ever since the Heraclidae tried to return to the Peloponnese from exile after the death of Eurystheus. That was the occasion when our actions earned us the privilege. What happened was that we left our country and went to the Isthmus to fight alongside the Achaeans and the Ionians who were living in the Peloponnese in those days. Our forces took up a position facing the returning exiles, and then (so the story goes) Hyllus declared that the two armies shouldn’t run the risk of a battle, but that the Peloponnesians should choose from their army the man whom they considered to be their best fighter to meet him in single combat on conditions agreed by the two sides. The Peloponnesians decided to go ahead with this plan, and the two sides swore to abide by the condition that if Hyllus beat the Peloponnesian champion, the Heraclidae could return to the land of their fathers, whereas if he lost, the Heraclidae would leave again, taking their army with them, and wouldn’t try to come back to the Peloponnese for a hundred years. The volunteer who was chosen from among all the allied forces was Echemus the son of Aëropus and grandson of Phegeus, who was our military commander, as well as our king. He took on Hyllus in single combat and killed him. As a result of this achievement of his we were awarded by the Peloponnesians of the time various important privileges which we continue to hold, and one of them is the right of always leading the second wing when a joint expedition is undertaken. Now, we’re not going to stand in the way of you Lacedaemonians: you can choose either of the two wings, whichever one you want, and we’ll let you have it. But what we’re saying is that it is our right to lead the other one, just as it has been in the past. Besides, apart from this achievement of ours, the one we’ve just mentioned, we deserve this position more than the Athenians. We’ve proved ourselves by our successes in combat time and again not just against you Spartiates, but against others as well. In short, then, it’s only fair for us to have the second wing, rather than the Athenians. They don’t have the same record of achievements in the recent or distant past that we do.’
[27] The Athenian response to this speech from the Tegeans was as follows: ‘We’re aware that the object of this gathering of forces is to fight the invaders, not to make speeches, but since the Tegean representative has proposed that we should each mention the brave deeds done by us throughout history, in the recent past as well as long ago, we have no choice but to explain to you how, because of our courage, it came to be our ancestral right, not the Arcadians’, to take the leading position. Let’s start with the Heraclidae, whose champion the Tegeans remind us they killed on the Isthmus; all the Heraclidae were doing was trying to avoid being enslaved by the Mycenaeans, but every Greek state to which they came refused them shelter, until we took them in; and then with their help we put an end to the brutal reign of Eurystheus, once we had defeated the armies of the people who inhabited the Peloponnese in those days. In the second place, let’s take the Argives who had marched against Thebes with Polynices, and who lay there dead and unburied; it is our proud claim to have marched against the Cadmeans, recovered the bodies, and buried them in our own land, in Eleusis. Then there was the successful campaign of ours against the Amazons when they came from the River Thermodon and invaded Attica; and our contribution to the struggle at Troy was as good as anyone else’s. But what is the point in mentioning these episodes? People who were brave in those days might be relatively useless now, and vice versa. So that’s enough ancient history. In fact, of course, we have† as many successful exploits to our credit as any other Greek state, if not more, but even if we had no others, what we achieved at Marathon would earn us a number of rights and privileges, including the one in dispute at the moment. After all, without any support from other Greek states we single-handedly took on the Persians and, despite the immensity of the undertaking, defeated forty-six peoples to emerge victorious. Doesn’t this achievement alone qualify us for the second wing? But this is hardly the time and place for us to be quarrelling about what station we are to hold. We will carry out our orders wherever you Lacedaemonians decide to position us and whichever units of the enemy you think it best for us to face. It makes no difference where we are stationed: we’ll still endeavour to prove our worth. Just tell us what to do, and rest assured that we will obey.’
[28] At this reply from the Athenians the cry went up from every man in the Lacedaemonian camp that it should be the Athenians rather than the Arcadians who held the wing. And that is how the Athenians gained the wing and got the better of the Tegeans.
Afterwards the Greeks—the late arrivals as well as the original members of the expedition—formed up at their posts. The disposition of the forces was as follows. A brigade of 10,000 Lacedaemonians held the right wing; 5,000 of these were Spartiates, and they were protected by 35,000 light-armed helots, seven for each man. The Spartiates reserved the place next to them for the Tegeans, in recognition of their prestige and their courage; the Tegean contingent consisted of 1,500 hoplites. The position next to the Tegeans was taken by the 5,000-strong contingent of Corinthians, who gained Pausanias’ permission to have the 300 from Potidaea in Pallene stand alongside them. Next came 600 Arcadians from Orchomenus, then a contingent of 3,000 from Sicyon. Next to the Sicyonians came 800 men from Epidaurus, then 1,000 from Troezen, 200 from Lepreum, 400 from Mycenae and Tiryns, and then 1,000 from Phleious. Alongside the Phleiasians stood 300 men from Hermione, then there was a contingent of 600 from Eretria and Styra, then 400 from Chalcis, and then 500 from Ambracia. Next to the Ambraciots stood 800 men from Leucas and Anactorium, and then 200 from Pale in Cephallenia. The next contingent consisted of 500 from Aegina, then there came 3,000 Megarians, 600 Plataeans, and finally, in the forward position on the left wing, there were 8,000 Athenians under the command of Aristides the son of Lysimachus.
[29] The sum total, then, was 38,700, all of whom were hoplites, except for the seven assigned to each of the Spartiates. This was the number of hoplites in the army assembled to confront the Persians, and the total number of light-armed troops was as follows. There were 35,000 men stationed with the Spartiates (seven for each man), every single one of whom was equipped for fighting, and 34,500 light-armed troops from Lacedaemon and elsewhere in Greece, at the rate of one per heavy-armed soldier. So the total number of light-armed men serving in the army was 69,500.
[30] The total number of armed men in the Greek army which assembled at Plataea, then, counting both hoplites and light-armed troops, was 1,800 fewer than 110,000. Including the Thespians who were there, however, the total number was exactly 110,000, because there were 1,800 survivors from Thespiae in the Greek camp, but they did not actually have any weapons.
[31] So much for the arrangement of the Greek forces on the Asopus. Once Mardonius and his Persians had finished mourning the death of Masistius, they came to Plataea, where they had heard that the Greeks were, and they moved up to the part of the Asopus which flows through that region. There Mardonius disposed his troops as follows. He placed the Persians opposite the Lacedaemonians. In actual fact, though, the Persians outnumbered the Lacedaemonians so much that their line not only had greater depth, but also covered the Tegeans as well. The way Mardonius deployed the Persians was to choose the strongest units to face the Lacedaemonians, while the weaker ones were placed next to them and opposite the Tegeans. This arrangement had been suggested and taught to him by the Thebans. Next to the Persians he deployed the Medes, who covered the Corinthians, Potidaeans, Orchomenians, and Sicyonians. Next to the Medes he deployed the Bactrians, who covered the Greek contingents from Epidaurus, Troezen, Lepreum, Tiryns, Mycenae, and Phleious. Next to the Bactrians he placed the Indians, who covered the troops from Hermione, Eretria, Styra, and Chalcis. Next to the Indians he deployed the Sacae, who covered the Greeks from Ambracia, Anactorium, Leucas, Pale, and Aegina. Next to the Sacae, and facing the Athenians, Plataeans, and Megarians, he posted the Boeotians, Locrians, Malians, Thessalians, and Phocians. There were only a thousand Phocians, because not all the Phocians collaborated with the enemy; some of them, who were pinned in the region of Parnassus, supported the Greek cause by using Parnassus as a base from which to raid and plunder not only Mardonius’ army, but also the Greeks who were on his side. Mardonius also positioned opposite the Athenians the Macedonians and those who lived around Thessaly.
[32] Among the peoples deployed by Mardonius only the most important ones have been mentioned by name—the ones which were particularly prominent and famous—but men from other countries were included among them. There were troops from Phrygia, Mysia, Thrace, Paeonia, and elsewhere; there were also Ethiopians and, from Egypt, the Hermotybies and Calasiries, as they are called, who were armed with knives and who are the only warriors in Egypt. These Egyptians had been serving as marines, but Mardonius transferred them out of the fleet while he was still in Phalerum; they had not been assigned to the land army which came to Athens with Xerxes. As I explained ealier, there were 300,000 men in the Persian army, but no one knows how many Greeks fought alongside the non-Greeks in Mardonius’ army, because no tally was made of them. Relying on guesswork, however, I would estimate that there were about 50,000 of them assembled there. This disposition of the Persian troops involved only the infantry; the cavalry was deployed separately.
[33] The day after they had all taken up their positions, people by people and regiment by regiment, both sides offered up sacrifices. Tisamenus the son of Antiochus, who had joined the Greek army as a diviner, was the one who performed the sacrifices for the Greeks; although he came from Elis, from the family of the Iamidae, the Lacedaemonians had enrolled him as a full citizen. This came about because once, when Tisamenus was consulting the oracle in Delphi about whether he would have any children, in the course of her reply the Pythia said that he would win five crucial contests. He misunderstood the meaning of the oracle and applied himself to athletics, on the assumption that those were the kind of contests he would win. He specialized in the pentathlon and only missed out on winning at the Olympic Games by losing a single wrestling-match against his rival, Hieronymus of Andros. The Lacedaemonians, however, realized that the oracle he had received was referring not to athletic contests but to warfare, and they offered him financial inducements to become a war-leader of theirs along with their Heraclid kings. When Tisamenus realized how much the Spartiates wanted his goodwill, he raised the stakes: he told them that the cost of his compliance was for them to make him a fellow citizen of theirs and give him full rights, and that this was not negotiable. At first the Spartiates were angry at his demand and completely stopped asking him, but eventually, with their terror at this Persian invasion hanging over their heads, they went to fetch him and agreed to his conditions. Seeing that they had changed their minds, he declared himself no longer satisfied with these conditions alone, and insisted on his brother Hagias becoming a Spartiate too, on the same terms as his own citizenship.
[34] In making this demand he was imitating Melampus, if one may compare the demand for kingship with the demand for citizenship. When the women of Argos went mad, the Argives went to Pylos to try to hire Melampus to come and cure their wives of their sickness, but Melampus asked for a half share in the kingship as his payment. The Argives thought this was outrageous and left, but later, after more of their women had gone mad, they agreed to his terms and went back to Pylos, fully prepared to give him what he had asked for. But when he saw that they had changed their minds he asked for more; he said that he would do what they wanted only if they also gave his brother Bias a third share in the kingship. The Argives were so desperate that they had to agree to this extra demand as well.
[35] The Spartiates were in the same situation. They needed Tisamenus so badly that they agreed to all his terms. And once the Spartiates conceded, Tisamenus of Elis, now a Spartiate, used his skill as a diviner to help them win five crucial contests. He and his brother were the only people in the world ever to be enrolled by the Spartiates as fellow citizens. The five contests in question were, first, this one at Plataea; second, the battle of Tegea which they fought against the Tegeans and Argives; third, the battle at Dipaees where their opponents were all the Arcadians except for the Mantineans; fourth, the conflict with the Messenians which took place near Ithome; and finally the battle of Tanagra which was fought against a combined force of Athenians and Argives. After this the series of five contests was over.
[36] So at the time in question this man Tisamenus performed the divination for the Greeks at Plataea, where he had been brought by the Spartiates. The entrails gave favourable omens for the Greeks if they remained on the defensive, but not if they crossed the Asopus and took the fight to the enemy.
[37] Although Mardonius wanted to be the one to attack, the entrails also gave him omens that were favourable for defence but unsuited to attack. He too used the Greek method of divination by examination of the entrails, since his diviner, Hegesistratus, came from Elis and was in fact the most distinguished of the family of the Telliadae. Hegesistratus had once been arrested and imprisoned by the Spartiates to await execution for the terrible and horrific treatment they had suffered at his hands. In this desperate situation, because his life was in danger and he was prepared to suffer gruesome agonies rather than die, he did something that defies description. He was being kept in stocks made of wood bound with iron, and somehow got hold of a blade which had been smuggled into the prison. What he then immediately set about doing must have taken more courage than anything else we have ever heard of. He worked out that the rest of his foot would get free of the stocks if he cut off the bulk of his foot, so he proceeded to do so. Then, since he was under guard, he dug a hole through the wall and ran away to Tegea, travelling by night and resting by day under the cover of woodland. Although the Lacedaemonians were out looking for him in full force, he managed to reach Tegea two nights after escaping. The Lacedaemonians were amazed by his courage when they found half of his foot lying there, but they could not find him. For the time being, then, he managed to escape the Lacedaemonians in this way and take refuge in Tegea, which was at that time not on good terms with Lacedaemon; and when he recovered (although he wore an artificial wooden foot), he made no secret of his hostility towards the Lacedaemonians. But eventually the permanence of his hatred for the Lacedaemonians proved to be his undoing, because he was captured by them while serving as a diviner at Zacynthos and put to death.
[38] Many years were to pass after the battle of Plataea, however, before Hegesistratus died. Now, though, he was on the Asopus, well paid by Mardonius for his services, and he was glad to perform the sacrificial rituals not only because of the money he was making, but also because of his hatred for the Lacedaemonians. Since the omens received not just by the Persians themselves but also by the Greeks in the Persian army (who had their own diviner, a Leucadian man named Hippomachus) warned against engaging the enemy, and because there was a constant influx of men into the Greek army, which was consequently increasing in size, a Theban called Timagenidas the son of Herpys advised Mardonius to patrol the passes over Cithaeron, on the grounds that a great many of the Greeks who were constantly flooding in every day could be caught there.
[39] The two sides had been facing each other for eight days when Timagenidas put this suggestion to Mardonius. Realizing that it was a good idea, Mardonius sent his cavalry that night to the pass on Cithaeron which leads towards Plataea—the pass known to the Boeotians as Three Heads, and to the Athenians as Oak Heads. This was an effective mission for the Persian horsemen, because they captured fifty yoke-animals (along with their carters) as they were coming down on to the plain with food from the Peloponnese for the Greek army. But once they had taken this prey the Persians turned to indiscriminate murder, slaughtering humans and animals alike. When they had had their fill of killing, they rounded up the remnants of the baggage train and drove them back to Mardonius and the Persian encampment.
[40] Two more days passed after this incident, with neither side being prepared to start the battle. The Persians advanced right up to the Asopus to test the Greeks, but neither side actually crossed the river. Mardonius’ cavalry, however, was constantly attacking and harassing the Greeks, because the Thebans (who were staunch and belligerent supporters of the Persian cause) kept guiding the cavalry to within striking distance of the enemy, at which point the Persians and Medes would take over and perform deeds of valour.
[41] That was all that happened for the first ten days. By the end of the eleventh day, however, with the two sides still facing each other, the Greek numbers had considerably increased and Mardonius was chafing at the inaction. Then Mardonius the son of Gobryas and Artabazus the son of Pharnaces, who was one of Xerxes’ particular favourites, held a meeting and discussed the situation. It was Artabazus’ opinion that they should strike camp as soon as possible and withdraw the entire army to the shelter of the walls of Thebes, where there was a good stock of supplies for them and plenty of fodder for the yoke-animals. They should simply stay there without being drawn into battle and complete the business they had come for by distributing money unstintingly among the Greeks, concentrating above all on the leading citizens in each community. After all, he pointed out, they had plenty of gold, in both coined and uncoined form, and also plenty of silver and cups. Before long, he said, the Greeks would surrender their freedom, and there would be no need for a battle with all its attendant risks. His argument was the same as the one the Thebans had used before, and it suggests that Artabazus too had particular foresight, but Mardonius argued for more forceful, uncompromising, and stubborn measures. Since he had the impression that the Persian army was far stronger than the Greeks, he was all for engaging them in battle as soon as possible, without letting their numbers increase beyond what they had already reached; as for Hegesistratus’ sacrifices, he was prepared to ignore them and, rather than forcing the issue, to follow the Persian custom and just engage the enemy in battle.
[42] This argument of his went unopposed, so he got his way. After all, it was he and not Artabazus who had been given control of the army by the king. So he sent for the officers in charge of the regiments and for the commanders of the Greeks who were on his side and asked if they knew of any oracle predicting the destruction of the Persian army in Greece. The assembled officers said nothing, some because they genuinely did not know of any such oracles, and others because, although they were aware of oracles to that effect, they did not consider it safe to mention them. Finally Mardonius himself broke the silence. ‘It may be that you are unaware of any such oracles,’ he said, ‘or it may be that you are too afraid to speak up. In any case, I’m perfectly well aware of them and I’ll tell you what I’ve heard. There is an oracle to the effect that the Persians are fated to come to Greece, sack the sanctuary at Delphi, and afterwards perish to a man. Armed with this knowledge, we’ll bypass the sanctuary without making any attempt to sack it, and so avoid this occasion for destruction. This should please those of you who are loyal to the Persian cause, since it means that we will get the better of the Greeks.’ He then told them to get everything organized and ready for joining battle at dawn the following day.
[43] Now, I happen to know that the oracle which, according to Mardonius, referred to the Persians was not designed for them, but for the Illyrians and the army of the Encheleis. However, there was an oracle of Bacis which refers to the battle in question:
On the Thermodon and the grassy banks of the Asopus
A gathering of Greeks, and a shout of foreign babble.
There, before their time, before their fate, many bow-bearing Medes
Will fall, when the day of their death comes upon them.
I know that these lines refer to the Persians, and there are also similar oracles of Musaeus which refer to them too. The River Thermodon flows between Tanagra and Glisas.
[44] After Mardonius’ question about the oracles and his words of encouragement night fell and guards were posted. Late at night, when both camps had apparently fallen quiet and almost everyone was asleep, Alexander the son of Amyntas, the commander and king of the Macedonians, rode up to the Athenian sentries and asked to meet with their commanders. Leaving most of their comrades on guard, a few of the sentries ran to the commanders and told them that a man had come on horseback from the Persian camp; all he had revealed about his purpose, they said, was that he wanted to meet the commanders, whom he had asked for by name.
[45] On hearing this report the Athenian commanders lost no time in following the sentries back to their posts, where they met up with Alexander. ‘Men of Athens,’ Alexander said, ‘please take what I have to say to you as a token of my good faith. You must keep it to yourselves and tell no one except Pausanias, because otherwise you might destroy me. I wouldn’t be telling you this if I didn’t care so deeply for Greece as a whole. My family background makes me a Greek myself, and I would hate to see Greece lose its freedom and become enslaved. So I’m telling you that Mardonius and the Persian army have found it impossible to receive favourable omens from their sacrifices; if they had, battle would have been joined long ago. But now he has decided to ignore the omens and to attack at dawn—I imagine because he is afraid of your army increasing any further in size. Get ready to face an attack, then. In fact, even if he puts it off and doesn’t join battle, you should just maintain your position and be patient, because he only has enough supplies left for a few days. After the war, if things have gone your way, you must remember me and think of my freedom too. Bear in mind the risk I have run for the sake of Greece; I have done so out of goodwill towards you, because I wanted you to be aware of Mardonius’ intentions and to make sure that the Persian attack does not take you by surprise. I am Alexander the Macedonian.’ With these words he rode back to his post in the Persian camp.
[46] The Athenian commanders went straight to the right wing and passed on to Pausanias the information Alexander had given them. His response to their report, because he was afraid of the Persians, was to say, ‘So battle is to be joined at dawn. You Athenians had better take on the Persians, while we meet the Boeotians and the other Greeks who are currently ranged against you. You’re familiar with Persian tactics, because you’ve already fought them at Marathon, while we are untried and ignorant of them. On the other hand, while we may have no experience of thePersians, we are experts in Boeotians and Thessalians. So go and collect your gear, and then move over to this wing, while we swap with you and take the left wing.’
‘Right from the start,’ the Athenians replied, ‘ever since we saw the Persians being deployed opposite you Lacedaemonians, we’ve been wondering whether we should raise precisely the proposal you’ve just made, but we were afraid you might not like the suggestion. Now, however, you’ve beaten us to it and brought it up yourselves. We’re happy to accept your proposal and are ready to do as you suggest.’
[47] Since both parties liked the arrangement, they set about exchanging positions as day began to break. The Boeotians, however, realized what was going on and told Mardonius, who immediately tried to make changes within his forces too, by bringing the Persians across to face the Lacedaemonians. When this came to Pausanias’ attention, he realized that his manoeuvre had been detected, so he led the Spartiates back to the right wing, and Mardonius followed his example with regard to his left wing.
[48] So the original deployment of the troops was restored. At this point Mardonius sent a herald to the Spartiates with the following message: ‘Men of Lacedaemon, you are held by everyone in this part of the world to be the bravest of men. They boast that you never retreat and never break ranks, but keep to your post until you either kill your opponents or are killed yourselves. But this is all a pack of lies, apparently. Before the battle has even started, before we have got to close quarters, you’ve already pulled back and left your post—we saw you do it! You’re putting the Athenians out in front, while you yourselves take up a position facing mere slaves of ours. These aren’t the actions of brave men: we have been badly deceived in your case. Your reputation led us to expect that you would send a herald to challenge us and declare your willingness to settle the fight by taking on the Persians alone. We were prepared to accept, but instead we find you shrinking away from the fight rather than issuing any such challenge. Since you have failed to take the initiative here, it is now up to us. Why don’t our two forces fight each other, with equal numbers on both sides? You can represent Greece, since you’re supposed to be the best fighters in Greece, and we can champion Asia. The rest of our armies can fight as well, if you want, but later, after we’ve finished with each other. But if you don’t like that idea and you’d be satisfied with single combat between just our two forces, then let’s fight it out and victory will go to the winning side as a whole.’
[49] The herald waited a short while after delivering this message, but no reply was forthcoming, so he returned and told Mardonius what had happened. Mardonius was delighted. Encouraged by this empty victory he ordered his cavalry to charge the Greek lines. Every unit of the Greek army took casualties from the javelins and arrows of the Persian cavalry as they bore down on them, since they were faced with expert mounted archers to whom they could not get close. The Persian cavalry also churned up and blocked the Gargaphian Spring, which had been supplying the whole Greek army with fresh water. The Lacedaemonians were the only ones posted right by the spring; all the other Greeks had some way to go to reach it (exactly how far depending on where each contingent was deployed). They did not have far to go to the Asopus, but the Persian cavalry with their bows and arrows had made it impossible for them to fetch water from the river, and so, with the Asopus denied them, they had been going to the spring.
[50] Under these circumstances the Greek commanders met with Pausanias on the right wing to discuss various matters, including the loss of the army’s water supply and their harassment by the Persian cavalry. There were other items on the agenda because these events were not the only or even the main problems facing them: they had also run out of provisions, and the retainers of theirs who had been dispatched to the Peloponnese to bring them fresh supplies had been cut off by the cavalry and could no longer get through to the Greek camp.
[51] The upshot of the commanders’ conference was that they decided to move their forces to the island, if the Persians refrained from joining battle that day. This island is located in front of the town of Plataea, ten stades away from the Asopus and the Gargaphian Spring, where they were based at the time. It is a kind of inland island: a river—the River Oëroë, which the locals hold to be the daughter of Asopus—divides further upstream on its way down from Cithaeron to the plain and the two branches of the river remain separate from each other for about three stades before merging again. So they decided to move here, because then they would not only have plenty of water, but also the cavalry could not inflict the casualties on them that they could when they were able to come straight at them. They decided to make the move during the night, at the time of the second watch, so that the Persians would not notice them setting out and also so as to avoid having the cavalry on their heels harassing them. They decided as well that once they had reached this new site—the island formed by the splitting of Asopus’ daughter Oëroë as she flows down from Cithaeron—they would dispatch half their troops to Cithaeron under cover of darkness to meet up with the retainers of theirs who had gone to fetch supplies and were trapped on Cithaeron.
[52] After they reached these decisions, the whole of the rest of the day was taken up with the constant burden of cavalry attacks, until the horsemen disengaged late in the afternoon. Night fell and the time agreed for departure arrived. The bulk of the army broke camp and left, but they had no intention of going to the appointed place: as soon as they started out, all they wanted to do was get away from the Persian cavalry, so they headed for the town of Plataea. On the way, however, they came to the temple of Hera, which stands in front of the town, twenty stades away from the Gargaphian Spring, and took up a position in front of it.
[53] So they established themselves by the temple of Hera. Now, when Pausanias saw them leaving the camp he assumed that they were going to the appointed place, so he instructed the Lacedaemonians to collect their gear as well and follow the others’ lead. Most of his officers were prepared to obey Pausanias, but Amompharetus the son of Poliadas, who was the commander in charge of the company from Pitana, declared that as long as he had any say in the matter he would never bring shame to Sparta by retreating from the ‘strangers’. In fact, he was puzzled by what he saw going on, since he had not been present at the earlier discussion. His refusal to obey orders made Pausanias and Euryanax furious, but they found even more disturbing the prospect of abandoning the Pitanate company (which they would have to do, if Amompharetus remained stubborn,† in order to comply with the plan they had agreed with the rest of the Greeks), because they would then be abandoning Amompharetus and his men to their deaths. These considerations led them to keep their men where they were while they tried to persuade Amompharetus to change his mind.
[54] So Pausanias and Euryanax were trying to win over Amompharetus, since the Lacedaemonians and Tegeans had been left behind on their own.† Meanwhile, the Athenians had also not moved from their post, because they were well aware of the Lacedaemonian tendency to say one thing and plan something quite different. Once most of the army had decamped, they sent one of their men on horseback to see if the Spartiates were making any effort to set out, or whether they had absolutely no intention of leaving, and also to ask Pausanias for instructions.
[55] When the Athenian messenger reached the Lacedaemonian lines, he found that they had not moved—and he found their leaders involved in a quarrel. Euryanax and Pausanias had failed in their attempt to convince Amompharetus of the danger he and his men would be in if they remained there without the support of the rest of the Lacedaemonians, and eventually, just as the Athenian messenger arrived in their midst, they fell to quarrelling. In the course of the dispute Amompharetus picked up a rock with both hands and put it down in front of Pausanias’ feet, saying that this was his vote against retreating from the strangers. Pausanias then called Amompharetus mad and out of his mind, turned to the Athenian,† who had asked the question he had been sent with, and told him to let the Athenians know the difficulty of his situation; he requested that they link up with the Lacedaemonians and, as far as the withdrawal was concerned, that they follow the Lacedaemonian lead.
[56] The messenger returned to the Athenian lines. As day began to break, the Lacedaemonians had still not resolved their differences. All this time Pausanias had stayed put, but now he judged—rightly, as it turned out—that Amompharetus would not let himself be left behind if the rest of the Lacedaemonians marched away, so he gave the order and began to lead all the Lacedaemonians except for Amompharetus and his men away through the hills, and the Tegeans fell in behind them. As instructed, the Athenians took the alternate route from that taken by the Lacedaemonians: whereas the Lacedaemonians kept to the hillocks and the spurs of Cithaeron because they were afraid of the Persian cavalry, the Athenians made their way down to the plain.
[57] At first Amompharetus refused to believe that Pausanias would go so far as to leave him and his men behind, so he insisted that they stay put and not desert their post. But when Pausanias’ troops were some way off, he saw that they really were abandoning him, so when his company had collected their gear he led them at a slow pace towards the other column, which had opened up a gap of about four stades and had halted on the River Moloeis, at a place called Argiopius (where there is also a sanctuary of Demeter of Eleusis), to wait for Amompharetus’ company. They were waiting so that they could go back and help Amompharetus and his company if they actually refused to leave their post and stayed put. Just as Amompharetus and his men met up with the rest of the Lacedaemonians, the Persian cavalry attacked in full force. The cavalry had been following their usual practice, but found the position the Greeks had occupied for the last few days deserted, so they kept riding forward until they caught up with them, and then they charged into the attack.
[58] When Mardonius found out that the Greeks had left under cover of darkness and saw that their positions had been abandoned, he summoned Thorax of Larisa and his brothers Eurypylus and Thrasydeius. ‘Well, sons of Aleuas, what do you have to say now?’ he asked. ‘You can see that the place is deserted. “The Lacedaemonians never flee from battle,” you told me. “Their military prowess is unsurpassed.” And they are neighbours of yours. You’ve already seen them swapping their positions around, and now, as we can all see, they have used the cover of darkness last night to run away. They have now come up against the people who are genuinely the best fighters in the world, and they have proved themselves to be nonentities after all, who used to show off before their fellow nonentities in Greece. It’s perfectly comprehensible to me that you, who had never come across Persians before, should have been impressed by the Lacedaemonians since you knew something of them, but I am much more surprised at Artabazus’ fear. He was so afraid of them, in fact, that he was led to make the thoroughly cowardly suggestion that we should strike camp, withdraw to Thebes, and let ourselves be besieged there. In due course, the king will hear about this from me, but that’s a topic for later. Our immediate task is not to let the Greeks get away with this manoeuvre; we must catch up with them and make them pay for all the wrongs they have done Persia.’
[59] With these words he led the Persians at the double across the Asopus and after the Greeks, who he believed were trying to run away. In actual fact it was only the Lacedaemonians and Tegeans that he went for, because the knolls blocked his view of the Athenians, who had headed for the plain. As soon as the officers in charge of the remaining units of the invading army saw the Persians setting out in pursuit of the Greeks, they gave the signal for their men to join in the chase, and before long an undisciplined and chaotic mob of shouting soldiers was running as fast as they could after the Greeks, convinced that they would make short work of them.
[60] As soon as the cavalry began to attack his men, Pausanias sent a messenger on horseback to the Athenians with the following message: ‘Men of Athens, the main battle is about to begin, and the outcome will decide whether Greece is to be free or enslaved. We Lacedaemonians and you Athenians have been betrayed by our allies who ran away last night. It’s clear what we have to do from now on, then: we must fight back and defend each other to the best of our abilities. If the Persian cavalry had started out by attacking you, it would of course have been our duty, along with the Tegeans (who are still with us and have not betrayed Greece), to come and help you. In fact, though, they have come in full force against us, so you should come and support us, since we are the ones who are particularly hard pressed. If for some reason you can’t come yourselves, please send us your archers. We know that you are totally committed to this war, and so that you will not refuse this request.’
[61] On receiving this message, the Athenians wanted to go and provide all the help they could, but when they were on their way they were set upon by the pro-Persian Greeks who had been deployed against them. This attack put them under so much pressure that they found it impossible to go and help the Lacedaemonians. So the Lacedaemonians and Tegeans were left without any support. Including light-armed troops, there were fifty thousand Lacedaemonians and three thousand Tegeans, who had remained close to the Lacedaemonians throughout. They proceeded to perform sacrifices, since they were about to join battle with Mardonius and as much of his army as was there, but the omens were unfavourable, and many of their men fell, with many more wounded, while the sacrifices were taking place, because the Persians formed their wickerwork shields into a barricade and continuously rained arrows down on the Greeks. In this situation, with the Spartiates under heavy pressure and the omens unfavourable, Pausanias looked towards the Plataeans’ temple of Hera, invoked the goddess, and asked her not to let their hopes prove to be false.
[62] Pausanias was in the middle of his prayers when the Tegeans precipitately started forward to attack the Persians, and then, just as Pausanias finished praying, the Lacedaemonians received good omens. Now that the situation was at last favourable, the Lacedaemonians proceeded to attack the Persians as well, and the Persians laid aside their bows and prepared to meet them head on. The first phase of the battle took place at the wickerwork barricade, until that was knocked down, and then a fierce battle raged for a long time around the temple of Demeter. Eventually the two sides ended up grappling with each other, as the Persians caught hold of the Greeks’ spears and broke them off short. In courage and strength the Persians and the Greeks were evenly matched, but the Persians wore no armour; besides, they did not have the skill and expertise of their opponents. They would rush forward ahead of the main body of troops, one by one, or in groups of ten or so, and attack the Spartiates, only to be cut down.
[63] Mardonius rode into battle on his white horse, surrounded by his élite battalion of a thousand first-rate soldiers, and wherever he put in a personal appearance the Persians made things particularly difficult for their opponents. As long as Mardonius was alive, the Persians held their ground and fought back, inflicting heavy casualties on the Lacedaemonians. But after he had been killed and the men of his battalion, the most effective troops on the Persian side, had been cut down, all the others turned and fled before the Lacedaemonians. Their destruction was due more than anything else to the fact that they wore no armour: it was a case of lightarmed soldiers taking on hoplites.
[64] Here the process of compensating the Spartiates for the murder of Leonidas was fulfilled by Mardonius, just as the oracle had predicted, and Pausanias the son of Cleombrotus and grandson of Anaxandridas won the most glorious victory of any known to us. (Pausanias and Leonidas had a common ancestry, so the names of Pausanias’ ancestors prior to Anaxandridas have already been mentioned in the context of Leonidas.) Mardonius was killed by an eminent Spartiate called Arimnestus, who died some time after the Persian Wars, along with his company of three hundred men, when they took on the entire Messenian army at the battle of Stenyclerus.
[65] When the Persians were routed by the Lacedaemonians at Plataea, they fled in disorder back to their encampment and to the wooden stronghold they had built on Theban land. I find it surprising that although the battle took place by the grove of Demeter not a single Persian, as it turned out, either entered the precinct or died in there; most of them fell around the outside of the sanctuary on unconsecrated ground. In so far as one may speculate about divine matters, I think the goddess herself kept them away because they had burnt her temple in Eleusis.
[66] Nothing further happened in the battle between the Lacedaemonians and Persians. Now, Artabazus the son of Pharnaces had disapproved of the campaign right from the very start, when Mardonius had been left in Greece by Xerxes, and had often tried, without success, to dissuade Mardonius from joining battle. Since he was unhappy with Mardonius’ tactics anyway, then, this is what he did. He was responsible for a sizeable force of about forty thousand men, and because he had no doubts about the final outcome of the battle that was under way, he had them adopt a tight formation and told them to follow his lead wherever he went and at whatever pace he set. Having issued these instructions he marched them out as if they were going to join the battle. When they were some way down the road, however, he saw that the Persians were already in flight. At that point he changed formation and began to run as fast as possible away from the battlefield, but not towards the stronghold or Thebes with its defensive walls. Instead, he made for Phocis, because he wanted to get to the Hellespont without delay.
[67] So Artabazus and his men fled in that direction. Although the rest of the Greeks on the Persian side deliberately fought below their best, the battle between the Boeotians and the Athenians lasted a long time, because those of the Thebans who had collaborated with the enemy were fully committed to the battle and refused to fight below their full capabilities. The outcome was that their three hundred best and bravest men were killed at Plataea by the Athenians. When the Boeotian forces too were beaten back, they retreated to Thebes, but by a different route to the one taken by the Persians and the rest of the allied troops on the Persian side, all of whom—the full complement—fled without having struck a single blow or displayed any courage at all.
[68] It is clear to me that the success or failure of the invasion depended entirely on the Persians themselves. After all, on the occasion in question, Artabazus and his men fled before they had even joined battle, simply because they saw that the Persians had been pushed back. In the end, then, the whole Persian army was beaten back, except for the cavalry (and especially the Boeotian cavalry), which proved invaluable to those who were fleeing, because they stayed on the side nearest the enemy and so shielded their allies, as they fled, from the victorious Greeks, who gave chase, harrying and slaughtering men from Xerxes’ army.
[69] During this rout, word reached the rest of the Greeks (the ones who had taken up a position by the temple of Hera and had not taken part in the fighting) that a battle had taken place which Pausanias and his men had won. As soon as they heard the news, they set out in complete disarray. The Corinthians and the units deployed near them took the high road and headed straight for the sanctuary of Demeter following the foothills and knolls, while the Megarians, Phleiasians, and so on made their way through the level ground of the plain. As the Megarians and Phleiasians drew near the enemy, they were spotted by the Theban cavalry under Asopodorus the son of Timander. The Thebans could see that there was no discipline to their hasty approach, so they charged into the attack, cut down six hundred of them, and chased the scattered survivors back to Cithaeron.
[70] So these men died an inglorious death. The main body of the invading army, including the Persians, had taken refuge inside their wooden stronghold. They managed to climb up the towers before the Lacedaemonians arrived, and then they reinforced its walls as best they could. The Lacedaemonian attack initiated a fairly tough battle for the wall, because until the Athenians arrived the defenders were getting the better of the Lacedaemonians, who did not know how to go about attacking fortified structures. But once the Athenians attacked the stronghold, a fierce and protracted battle took place. Eventually, thanks to their courage and persistence, the Athenians succeeded in scaling the wall and making enough of a breach in it for the Greeks to pour in. The first to enter the stronghold were the Tegeans, and it was they who plundered Mardonius’ pavilion, from which they took various objects including the manger Mardonius had used for his horses. This remarkable item of solid bronze was dedicated by the Tegeans as a votive offering in the temple of Athena Alea, but they added the rest of their haul to the common store to which all the Greeks contributed. After the wall had fallen, the foreign troops proved incapable of organizing themselves or thinking of resistance; they were in a complete panic, which was only natural given that there were thousands and thousands of them, all terrified, trapped in a confined space. The Greeks were afforded such an opportunity for slaughter that out of an army of 300,000 men (discounting, that is, the 40,000 who escaped with Artabazus) not even 3,000 survived. Meanwhile a total of 91 Lacedaemonians from Sparta lost their lives in the battle, along with 16 Tegeans and 52 Athenians.
[71] The Persians were the best of the infantry from the invading army, while the best cavalry unit was that of the Sacae, and the individual prize for valour was held to belong to Mardonius. On the Greek side, although both the Tegeans and the Athenians proved their worth, the Lacedaemonians outshone everyone else. The only evidence I can offer in support of this assessment (because it is true that they all defeated the enemy units opposing them) is that the Lacedaemonians took on the toughest opponents and won. By far the greatest degree of courage was shown, in my opinion, by Aristodamus, who, as the sole survivor of the three hundred at Thermopylae, met with abuse and disgrace. The next most deserving of the prize of valour were also Spartiates: Poseidonius, Philocyon, and Amompharetus. Nevertheless, in conversations about which of their men was the bravest, the Spartiates who had taken part in the battle reckoned that Aristodamus had clearly wanted to die, because of the slur against his name, and so had recklessly broken rank and achieved such heroic exploits, whereas in Poseidonius’ case there was no death-wish giving him courage, and so to that extent he was actually the braver of the two. But this argument of theirs may have been motivated by envy. However, among those who fell in this battle, all the men I mentioned, apart from Aristodamus, received special honours. Aristodamus did not, for the reason already mentioned—that he wanted to die.
[72] These were the men who won the most renown at Plataea. Callicrates’ death occurred outside the actual battle. He was the best-looking man of his generation in the Greek army—and that takes into account all Greeks, not just Lacedaemonians. Callicrates was sitting in position when he was wounded in the side by an arrow; this was while Pausanias was offering up sacrifices before the battle. By the time battle was joined he had been carried away from the fighting. He struggled against death, and as he was dying he said to Arimnestus of Plataea that he did not mind dying for Greece; what bothered him was that he did not see any action and so was denied the opportunity to perform as well as he knew he could and as he wanted to.
[73] The Athenian who is said to have distinguished himself most is Sophanes the son of Eutychides, from the village of Decelea. Now, according to local Athenian tradition, the people of Decelea once did something of lasting value. A long time ago the Tyndaridae invaded Attica at the head of a sizeable army to recover Helen, and they laid waste to the country villages because they did not know where she had been hidden. However, the people of Decelea (or, on some accounts, Decelus in person) did not approve of Theseus’ high-handed behaviour and were afraid in case the whole of Attica suffered, so they told the Tyndaridae all the facts and showed them the way to Aphidnae, which Titacus, a native of the place, betrayed to them. This deed earned the people of Decelea the right to be exempt from tax in Sparta and to occupy the front seats at festivals there—rights which they have continued to hold all the way down to today. Even during the war which was fought many years later between the Athenians and the Peloponnesians, although the Lacedaemonians devastated the rest of Attica, they left Decelea alone.
[74] This was the village Sophanes came from, the Athenian who displayed the most valour at the battle of Plataea. There are two stories about his prowess there. According to one, he used to carry an iron anchor, attached with a bronze chain to the belt of his breastplate, and whenever he reached a spot near the enemy he would drop anchor, so that as the enemy charged at him from their ranks they could not make him move; if they turned and fled, however, it was his plan to pick up the anchor and go after them. Apart from this story, the other one (which contradicts the first) is that rather than having a real iron anchor attached to his breastplate, there was an anchor depicted on his shield, which was constantly moving from one side to the other and was never still.
[75] Sophanes has another glorious exploit to his credit. During the Athenian siege of Aegina he challenged Eurybates of Argos, a champion pentathlete, to single combat and killed him. Later Sophanes, for all his courage, met his death at the hands of the Edonians, during a battle for possession of the gold-mines at Datus, when he was in joint command of the Athenian forces along with Leagrus the son of Glaucon.
[76] Following the Persian defeat at Plataea, a woman who had been the concubine of a Persian called Pharandates the son of Teäspis escaped from the Persian camp and deserted to the Greeks. When she realized that the Persians were finished and that victory had gone to the Greeks, she decked herself out with a great deal of gold jewellery, dressed both herself and her maids in the finest clothes available to them, got down from her covered carriage, and made her way over to the Lacedaemonian lines while they were still in the middle of the massacre. Now, although she was perfectly familiar with Pausanias’ name and had often been told where he came from, she was not in a position to recognize him until she saw him directing all these operations. Once she knew who he was, she went and clasped his knees in supplication. ‘Please, my lord, king of Sparta,’ she said, ‘please save me from the slavery that awaits a prisoner of war. I am grateful to you for what you have already done in killing these men here—men who had no respect for gods or heroes. My birthplace was Cos; I am the daughter of Hegetorides the son of Antagoras. I was captured by the Persians and taken off Cos against my will.’
‘Woman, you have nothing to fear,’ Pausanias replied, ‘not only because you’ve come to me as a suppliant, but also if you really are the daughter of Hegetorides of Cos, as you claim to be, because he’s my closest guest-friend in those parts.’ Then he entrusted her, for the time being, to those of the ephors who were there, but later he sent her, at her own request, to Aegina.
[77] Immediately after the arrival of the woman, the next thing that happened was that the Mantineans arrived—after it was all over! They were furious at having missed the battle, and said that they deserved to be punished for doing so. When they found out that Artabazus and his Persians were on the run, they wanted to chase them as far as Thessaly, but the Lacedaemonians refused to let them hunt the fugitives. Afterwards, when they were back home, the Mantineans exiled their military commanders. The Eleans, when they arrived shortly after the Mantineans, were just as upset, and they too returned home and banished their leaders. So much for the Mantineans and the Eleans.
[78] Among the Aeginetan forces at Plataea was Lampon the son of Pytheas, who was one of the leading men of Aegina—and the originator of a really perverted plan, which he rushed up to suggest to Pausanias. ‘This victory of yours, son of Cleombrotus,’ he said, ‘is marvellous—an important and magnificent achievement. The god has allowed you to earn more fame than anyone else we know of, for saving Greece. What you need to do now is follow up this achievement, to enhance your reputation even more and to make any foreigner in the future think twice before committing obscene crimes against Greeks. After Leonidas’ death at Thermopylae, Mardonius and Xerxes cut off his head and stuck it on a pole. Pay Mardonius back in the same coin, and all the Greeks, led by the Spartiates, will thank you for it. By impaling Mardonius’ corpse you will exact revenge for his treatment of your uncle Leonidas.’ He thought Pausanias would be pleased by this suggestion.
[79] ‘My friend from Aegina,’ Pausanias replied, ‘I thank you for your goodwill and consideration, but you’re making a bad mistake. First you raise me up high and sing the praises of my country and my achievement, and then you would have me sink to the lowest depths by suggesting that I maltreat a corpse. And according to you it would improve my reputation! It’s the kind of deed we would expect from a foreigner, not a Greek, and even in them we find it loathsome. No, I hope no one who finds that kind of behaviour acceptable, whether he comes from Aegina or anywhere else, ever has reason to approve of what I do! It’s enough for me if the Spartiates approve of me for the justice of both my words and my deeds. And I say that Leonidas, whom you are telling me to avenge, has been well avenged: he and all the dead at Thermopylae have been repaid in full with the lives of the countless men lying dead here. As for you, I never want to hear any similar proposals or suggestions from you ever again—and you should be grateful to get away without being punished for this one.’
[80] After this, Lampon took his leave. Pausanias issued a proclamation that no one was to keep any of the spoils of war, and he ordered the helots to collect everything of value. They went here and there throughout the Persian camp and found pavilions hung with gold and silver decorations, couches overlaid with gold and silver, various kinds of golden vessels, including bowls and cups; they found carts laden with sacks which turned out to contain gold and silver pots; from the bodies lying on the battlefield they stripped arm-bands and torques, their famousakinakeis (if they were made of gold), and gorgeous clothing beyond reckoning. A great deal of valuable property was stolen by the helots and sold to the Aeginetans, but there was also a great deal they could not hide, and therefore declared. That day proved to be the beginning of great fortunes for the Aeginetans, because they bought the gold from the helots at the price of bronze.
[81] When all the treasure had been collected, they reserved a tenth of it for the god of Delphi, a tenth for the god of Olympia, and a tenth for the god of the Isthmus. From the first tenth was dedicated the golden tripod which sits on the bronze three-headed serpent very close to the altar; from the second tenth was dedicated the bronze statue of Zeus, ten cubits tall; and from the third tenth was dedicated the seven-cubit bronze statue of Poseidon. After separating out these three tenths, the rest of the treasure—the Persians’ concubines, the gold, silver, and other valuables, and the yoke-animals—was divided up, with every contingent receiving the amount it deserved. No one has left a record of how much, if anything, was set aside and given to those who excelled in the fighting at Plataea, but I imagine that they did not go unrewarded. Ten of everything of value—women, horses, talents, camels, and so on—were set aside and given to Pausanias.
[82] Here is another incident that is supposed to have taken place at the time. In fleeing from Greece, Xerxes bequeathed his paraphernalia to Mardonius. The story goes that when Pausanias saw all these things, fitted out with gold and silver and embroidered hangings, he told Mardonius’ bakers and chefs to prepare the kind of meal they had made for Mardonius. They did so, and then, when he saw the gold and silver couches with their fine coverings, the gold and silver tables, and the magnificent feast, he was amazed at all the good things spread out there and, for a joke, he told his own servants to prepare a typical Laconian meal. When the food was ready, Pausanias was amused to see the huge difference between the two meals, and he sent for the Greek commanders. Once they were all there, he pointed to the two meals and said, ‘Men of Greece, my purpose in asking you all here is to show you just how stupid the Persian king is. Look at the way he lives, and then consider that he invaded our country to rob us of our meagre portions!’ That is what Pausanias is supposed to have said to the commanders of the Greek forces.
[83] Chests of gold, silver, and other valuables were often found by people from Plataea for some time afterwards. There was also something that came to light even later, after the corpses had lost their flesh: when the Plataeans were collecting all the skeletons and putting them all together in a single place, they found a skull without any sutures at all, but consisting of solid bone. They also turned up a jaw-bone on which both the front teeth and the molars on the upper jaw† were all a single unbroken bone. And they found the skeleton of a man who was five cubits tall.
[84] As for Mardonius,† his corpse disappeared the day after the battle. I cannot say for certain who took it, though in the past I have heard a number of stories to the effect that so-and-so from such-and-such a place buried Mardonius, and I know of a number of people who were handsomely rewarded by Artontes the son of Mardonius for doing so. I have not been able to find out for certain which of them was the one who stole the body and buried it (though there is also a rumour that it was Dionysophanes of Ephesus), but this is how things stand with his burial.
[85] After the Greeks had divided the spoils at Plataea, each contingent buried its own men in separate graves. The Lacedaemonians made three graves, one for the priests† (such as Poseidonius, Amompharetus, Philocyon, and Callicrates), another for the rest of the Spartiates, and the third for the helots. That is how the Lacedaemonians buried their dead, but the Tegeans buried all their dead in their own common grave, as did the Athenians, and so did the Megarians and Phleiasians with their men who had been killed by the enemy cavalry. The tombs made by these contingents did actually contain bodies, but my information is that all the other national tombs that can be found at Plataea are simply empty mounds constructed to impress future generations by people who were ashamed at not having taken part in the battle. After all, there is even a so-called tomb of the Aeginetans there, which I was told was built as much as ten years after the battle, at the request of the people of Aegina, by a Plataean called Cleades the son of Autodicus, who was the local representative of the Aeginetans.
[86] As soon as the Greeks had buried their dead at Plataea, they held a meeting at which they decided to march against Thebes and demand the surrender of those who had collaborated with the Persians (especially the ringleaders, Timagenidas and Attaginus), and, if the Thebans refused to hand them over, not to leave until the city had fallen. They put this decision into effect, reached Thebes ten days after the battle, and proceeded to lay siege to it. The Thebans refused to comply with their demand to surrender the collaborators, so they laid waste to their farmland and attacked the city walls.
[87] On the twentieth day of continuous devastation by the Greeks Timagenidas addressed his fellow Thebans. ‘Men of Thebes,’ he said, ‘the Greeks are determined to continue the siege either until Thebes falls or until you hand us over to them. But let us not be the cause of any more suffering for Boeotia. It may be that what they really want is money, and their demand for our surrender is a bluff. If so, let’s give them money out of the public treasury; after all, we weren’t the only ones to support the Persians, but did so with public approval. However, if they do genuinely want to get hold of us and that is why they are besieging the city, we’ll give ourselves up for trial.’ The Thebans thought this was an excellent idea, and timely too, so they lost no time in sending a message to tell Pausanias that they were prepared to extradite the men he was after, and the two sides agreed to these terms.
[88] At this point Attaginus escaped from the city, but Pausanias had his sons arrested. He acquitted them, however, on the grounds that they were too young to be guilty of collaboration. The other men extradited by the Thebans expected to stand trial and of course were convinced that they would bribe their way out of trouble. But Pausanias was alert to exactly that possibility, so once he had the traitors in his hands he dismissed the members of the allied forces and took the Boeotians to Corinth, where he executed them. So much for the battle of Plataea and events in Thebes.
[89] By now, Artabazus the son of Pharnaces, who had escaped from Plataea, had already covered a good distance. When he reached Thessaly, the people there invited him to a banquet, at which they began to question him about the rest of the army, because they were completely unaware of what had happened at Plataea. Now, Artabazus was sure that telling them the whole truth about the battle would be risking death for himself and all his men, since he thought that anyone at all who knew what had happened would attack him. (It was because he had come to this conclusion that he did not tell the Phocians anything either.) So he said, ‘As you can see, men of Thessaly, I am in a hurry to get to Thrace, where I am marching with all speed. I have been assigned this army and dispatched from our camp on an urgent mission. But Mardonius himself is right behind us with his army, and you should expect him any day. If you lay on a banquet for him too and show yourself his benefactors, you will have no cause to regret it later.’ After this, he set off at the double with his army through Thessaly and Macedonia, heading straight for Thrace by the inland route, genuinely in a hurry. Eventually he reached Byzantium, but large numbers of his men had been lost along the way, slaughtered by the Thracians or overcome by hunger and exhaustion. At Byzantium the remainder of his men embarked on ships and crossed over to Asia.
[90] So that is how Artabazus returned home to Asia. It happened that on the same day as the Persian defeat at Plataea, they also suffered another defeat at Mycale in Ionia. For the Greek fleet under the command of Leotychidas of Lacedaemon was based on Delos, and while they were there three men came from Samos with a message. These three men were Lampon the son of Thrasycles, Athenagoras the son of Archestratides, and Hegesistratus the son of Aristagoras. They had been sent by the Samians on a secret mission, which neither the Persians nor their puppet ruler on Samos, the tyrant Theomestor the son of Androdamas, knew about. They presented themselves before the Greek commanders and Hegesistratus spoke at length, coming up with all kinds of arguments to suggest that the mere sight of the Greek fleet would be enough to make the Ionians rise up against Persia, and that the foreigners would not offer any resistance. ‘Even if they do stay and fight,’ he said, ‘you’ll never find prey as good as this. In the name of the gods worshipped alike by you and by us, I urge you to rescue us, Greeks like yourselves, from slavery and to fight back against the foreign invaders. This won’t be a difficult task for you, because their ships are inadequate, and are no match for yours in battle. If you’re worried in case we might be leading you into a trap, we’ll gladly come with you on board your ships as hostages.’
[91] The Samian visitor put his request with a great deal of intensity, and in due course Leotychidas asked his name. He might have asked this question because he was looking for an omen, or it might even have been just a lucky question, prompted by some god. ‘I am Hegesistratus …’, the Samian began, but Leotychidas cut off whatever else Hegesistratus was going to add, and said: ‘I accept this as a valid omen, my friend from Samos. All I ask from you is that you do not sail away until we have your sworn word, and that of your companions here, that the Samians will be committed to helping us in the war.’
[92] He immediately set about putting his words into effect, because the Samians gave their assurances straight away, and swore a treaty of alliance with the Greeks. When this was done, they began to prepare for the voyage. Leotychidas asked Hegesistratus to sail with the Greeks, because he considered his name auspicious. They waited and the next day they performed sacrifices to seek favourable omens, with their diviner being a man from Apollonia (the Apollonia in the Ionian Gulf) called Deïphonus the son of Euenius.
[93] Here is a story about something that once happened to his father. In this town of Apollonia there is a flock of sheep which is sacred to the sun. By day they graze along the banks of a river which rises on Mount Lacmon and flows through the countryside around Apollonia to the sea by the port of Oricus. At night it is up to the leading citizens, from the wealthiest and noblest families, to look after them; one of them is chosen for the job and does it for a year. The importance of this flock to the people of Apollonia is due to a prophecy they once received. The sheep spend the night in a cave which is some distance from the town.
This was the cave where Euenius was on the occasion in question, when it was his turn to guard the flock. One night he fell asleep during his watch, and wolves slipped past him into the cave and killed about sixty of the sheep. When this came to his attention, he kept it to himself and did not tell anyone, because he planned to replace the dead sheep with others that he would buy. He did not get away with it, however: the people of Apollonia found out what had happened and took him to court. For the crime of sleeping during his watch, he was sentenced to lose his eyesight. No sooner had they blinded Euenius, however, than their sheep and goats stopped giving birth and the land became barren too. Emissaries consulted the oracles in both Dodona and Delphi as to why this calamity had happened to them, and received the same reply—that it was because they had wrongfully blinded Euenius, the guardian of the sacred flock. The gods said that they themselves had sent the wolves, and that they would carry on taking revenge for what had been done to him until the people of Apollonia paid him in compensation whatever he chose and felt was appropriate; when this had been done, the gods said, they would give Euenius a gift which would make many men count him happy.
[94] The Apolloniate emissaries kept the content of these oracles to themselves, and instructed certain of their fellow townsmen to deal with the matter. The way they went about it was this. They came up to Euenius when he was sitting on a bench, sat down by him, and started chatting with him. They steered the conversation around to the point where they could express sympathy for his misfortune, and then asked him what compensation he would choose, if, hypothetically, the people of Apollonia were to undertake to make amends for what they had done. So he made his choice in ignorance of the prophecy. He said that he would be satisfied with certain plots of land (and he named the townsmen who he knew owned the two finest plots in Apollonia) and also a certain house (which was, as he was well aware, the finest in the town); once he was in possession of these things, he said, he would stop being so angry and would feel that he had been adequately compensated. ‘Euenius,’ his companions on the bench replied, ‘the people of Apollonia grant you this compensation for the loss of your sight, in fulfilment of the oracles they have received.’ When Euenius heard the truth and realized that he had been tricked, he was enraged, but his fellow townsmen bought the land and house he had chosen from their owners and gave them to him. And from then on he had the natural gift for divination for which he became famous.
[95] So this was the Euenius whose son Deïphonus had been brought by the Corinthians to act as the diviner for the Greek fleet. I have also heard it said that Deïphonus was not really Euenius’ son, but usurped his name and used to travel throughout Greece offering his work for hire.
[96] The Greeks put to sea, after obtaining favourable omens, and set off from Delos towards Samos. When they reached the Samian coast off Calami, they dropped anchor there, close to the temple of Hera which is on that part of the island, and got themselves ready for battle at sea. Meanwhile, the Persians had heard of the Greeks’ approach and also launched their ships—but headed for the mainland with the whole of their fleet except for the Phoenician ships, which were dispatched elsewhere. Having talked things over and come to the conclusion that they were no match for the Greeks at sea, they decided against fighting and instead sailed off towards the mainland, so as to gain the protection of the land army of theirs which had been separated off from the main army and left at Mycale, by order of Xerxes, to guard Ionia. This land army was sixty thousand strong and was commanded by Tigranes, who was the best-looking and tallest man in Persia. So the commanders of the fleet decided to beach their ships under the protection of this army and to build a defensive stockade as a place of refuge for themselves and the ships.
[97] This was the plan they had in mind when they put to sea from Samos. They sailed past the sanctuary of the Reverend Goddesses at Mycale and came to Gaeson and Scolopoeis, where there is a sanctuary of Demeter of Eleusis, built by Philistus the son of Pasicles who went with Neileus the son of Codrus to found Miletus. There they beached their ships. They cut down cultivated trees, surrounded the ships with a stockade of stone and wood, and fixed stakes in the ground around the stockade. Then they were ready for a siege—or for victory, since they had made their preparations with both possibilities in mind.†
[98] The Greeks were irritated when they found out that the Persians had given them the slip and gone to the mainland, and had no idea what to do next. Should they return home or sail to the Hellespont? In the end they decided to do neither of these things, but to sail to the mainland. So they made sure they had all the equipment—boarding-planks and so on—that they might need for a sea battle, and set sail for Mycale. As they drew near the enemy camp, not a single ship was to be seen sailing out against them; instead, they could see ships beached inside the stronghold and a large land army drawn up along the shoreline. As a first response, Leotychidas sailed his ship along the shoreline, steering as close in as he could, and had a crier call out the following instructions to the Ionians: ‘Men of Ionia, if any of you are listening, hear what I have to say. Don’t worry: the Persians won’t understand anything of what I’m telling you. When battle is joined, you must first remember your freedom, and then bear in mind our watchword, “Hebe”.† When you hear this message, pass it on to anyone who hasn’t.’ Leotychidas’ intention in this exercise was the same as Themistocles’ at Artemisium: either the Persians would not hear about the message, in which case he might win the Ionians over, or they would, in which case he might make them distrust the Greeks.
[99] Next, after Leotychidas had put this proposal to the Ionians, the Greeks brought their ships into shore, disembarked on to the beach, and began to form battle lines. The first thing the Persians did, when they saw the Greeks getting ready for battle and realized that they had made an appeal to the Ionians, was disarm the Samians on suspicion of having pro-Greek sympathies. In fact the Samians had freed some Athenian prisoners of war who had been brought over in the Persian fleet after having been stranded in Attica and captured by Xerxes’ army; the Samians let them all go and sent them on their way to Athens with supplies for the journey. The fact that they had freed five hundred head of Xerxes’ enemies was the main reason they were under suspicion. The second step the Persians took was to order the Milesians to watch the passes which lead towards the heights of Mycale; they pretended that the reason they were giving this job to the Milesians was that they were particularly familiar with the region, but in fact they wanted them away from the camp. So the Persians took these precautionary measures against those of the Ionians whom they actually had good reason to think would, given the opportunity, make trouble for them, and then formed their wickerwork shields into a tight protective barrier for themselves.
[100] The Greeks completed their preparations and set out towards the Persian lines. As they were advancing, a rumour sped its way to the entire army and a herald’s wand was seen lying on the beach; the rumour, which spread throughout the ranks, was that the Greeks had defeated Mardonius’ army in a battle in Boeotia. There is plenty of convincing evidence that the divine plays a part in human affairs. Consider how on this occasion, with the Persian defeat at Plataea and their imminent defeat at Mycale happening on the same day, a rumour of Plataea reached the Greeks at Mycale, boosting their morale and making them even more willing to face danger.
[101] Another coincidence is that there were precincts of Demeter of Eleusis near both battle-sites. The battle of Plataea took place, as I have already said, right by the temple of Demeter, and the same was true of the forthcoming engagement at Mycale. The arrival of the rumour that Pausanias and his men had been victorious also turned out to be accurate in the sense that the battle at Plataea took place early in the day, while the one at Mycale took place in the afternoon. That both engagements were fought on the same day of the same month only became apparent to the Greeks a little later, when they looked into the matter. Before the arrival of the rumour they had been afraid, not so much for themselves as for their compatriots in Greece, in case Greece should fall because of Mardonius. But once the mysterious rumour had sped its way to them, they advanced into the attack with more energy and speed. The Persians were just as anxious as the Greeks to join battle, since both the Aegean islands and the Hellespont were at stake.
[102] Now, about half of the Greek forces, consisting of the Athenians and the troops deployed next to them, were advancing over the beach and level ground, whereas the Lacedaemonians and their neighbours in the lines had to make their way via a ravine and some hills. So while they were still on their way around the hills, the other wing had already engaged the enemy. As long as the Persians could fight back with their wickerwork barricade upright, the battle remained evenly balanced; but then, in their desire to win victory for themselves and to deny it to the Lacedaemonians, the Athenians and their neighbours motivated themselves for an extra effort. That was the turning-point. They forced their way through the wickerwork shields and charged en masse against the enemy; for a long time the Persians stood their ground and fought back, but in the end they began to retreat towards their stronghold. The Athenians and their neighbours—the Corinthians, the Sicyonians, and the Troezenians, in that order—stayed together as they chased the fugitives and charged into the stronghold. Once even their stronghold had fallen, all the enemy troops gave up fighting and took to flight, except the Persians. Small groups of Persians fought on against the successive waves of Greeks pouring into the strong-hold. Of the Persian commanders, two escaped and two died: the naval commanders, Artayntes and Ithamitres, escaped, while Mardontes and Tigranes, the commander of the land army, died fighting.
[103] The Lacedaemonians and their half of the Greek forces arrived while the Persians were still fighting and helped to finish off the remnants. Casualties on the Greek side were very high in this battle, especially among the Sicyonians, who also lost their commander, Perilaus. The Samians who were serving in the Persian army and had been disarmed saw straight away that the battle was finely balanced and did all they could to help the Greeks. Seeing the Samian initiative, the other Ionians also deserted from the Persian side and attacked the enemy.
[104] It was with a view to their own safety that the Persians had ordered the Milesians to watch the passes, so that if things turned out as they actually did, they would have guides to show them the way to the refuge of the heights of Mycale. That was one reason the Milesians were given this job, and the other was to get them out of the camp where they might cause trouble. But the Milesians did exactly the opposite of what they were supposed to do. They guided the fleeing Persians along the wrong paths—ones which took them into the midst of the enemy—and in the end they turned out to be the Persians’ worst enemies in terms of the numbers they killed. And so for the second time Ionia rose up against Persia.
[105] The Athenians displayed exceptional bravery in this battle, and among the Athenians the prize for valour went to Hermolycus the son of Euthoenus, who was a specialist at all-in wrestling. Hermolycus met death some years later, when Athens was at war with Carystus, during a battle in Carystian territory at Cyrnus. He is buried on Cape Geraestus. The next bravest contingents, after the Athenians, were those from Corinth, Troezen, and Sicyon.
[106] After the Greeks had killed most of the enemy, either while fighting in the battle or while trying to escape, they set fire to the Persian ships and to the entire stronghold—but not before they had brought the booty out on to the beach and discovered some caches of money. Once they had burnt the stronghold to the ground, the Greeks set sail for Samos. When they got there, they held a meeting to discuss whereabouts in Greece (as much of it as was under their control) they should resettle the people of Ionia, if they evacuated them and abandoned Ionia to the Persians. It was not feasible, in their opinion, for them to stand guard over Ionia for ever, but failing that they did not hold out any hope that Ionia would get away without being punished by the Persians. The response of the Peloponnesian leaders to all this was to suggest that they should depopulate the trading-centres belonging to those Greek nations which had collaborated with the Persians and give the territory to the Ionians instead. The Athenians, however, did not think it was a good idea to evacuate Ionia in the first place, and were also not happy to have the Peloponnesians deliberating about Athenian colonists. They put their objections forcefully, and eventually the Peloponnesians conceded. And this is how the Athenians came to enter into an alliance with all the Aegean islands which had supported the Greek war effort, including Samos, Chios, and Lesbos; the terms of the treaty bound the islanders with pledges of honour and with oaths to abide by the conditions of the alliance and not to secede. After entering into this solemn treaty with the islanders, the Athenians set sail to go and dismantle the bridges, which they expected to find still intact. So off they went to the Hellespont.
[107] The few foreigners who escaped and had been enclosed in the heights of Mycale made their way to Sardis. In the course of the journey Masistes the son of Darius, who had been present at the defeat, went on and on at the commander, Artayntes. He heaped all kinds of abuse on him, and at one point said that his style of leadership was more cowardly than a woman’s, and that there was no punishment he did not deserve to suffer for the harm he had done the king’s house. Now, in Persia to be called more cowardly than a woman is the worst insult there is. Artayntes put up with all this abuse for a while, but then in a rage he drew his akinakes against Masistes. He meant to kill him, but a man from Halicarnassus called Xenagoras the son of Praxilaus, who was standing right behind Artayntes, noticed him lunging at Masistes. He caught Artayntes round the middle, lifted him up in the air, and dashed him to the ground—by which time Masistes’ personal guards had interposed themselves between their master and Artayntes. This action of Xenagoras’ earned him not just Masistes’ thanks, but Xerxes’ as well, for saving his brother; in fact, it gained him the rulership of the whole of Cilicia, as a gift from the king. This was the only significant event that happened on their journey, and then they reached Sardis, where the king had been ever since he had fled there from Athens after his failure in the sea battle.
[108] During his time in Sardis Xerxes had fallen in love with Masistes’ wife, who was also there. She proved impervious to his messages, however, and he did not try force out of respect for his brother. In fact, this was precisely what was giving the woman strength of purpose: she knew perfectly well that she would not have force used on her. Under these circumstances, with all other options closed off, Xerxes arranged for his son Darius to marry the daughter of this woman and Masistes, since he expected to have a better chance of seducing the woman in this situation. Once he had betrothed the couple and carried out the customary rites he rode off to Susa. However, after he had arrived and had received Darius’ wife into his house, he dropped Masistes’ wife and began to desire Darius’ wife, Masistes’ daughter, instead. Her name was Artaynte, and he was successful with her.
[109] After a while, however, the secret got out. What happened was that Amestris, Xerxes’ wife, wove a wonderful shawl, long and colourful, as a present for Xerxes. He liked it a lot, and wore it when he went to visit Artaynte. She gave him pleasure too—so much so that he told her he would give her anything she wanted in return for the favours she had granted him; whatever she asked for, he assured her, she would get. It was destined that she and her whole household would come to a bad end, so she asked Xerxes, ‘Will you really give me anything I want?’ Not suspecting for a moment what she was going to ask for, he promised her that he would and gave his word—and now that she had his word, she boldly asked for the shawl. Xerxes did everything he could to dissuade her, because he really did not want to give it to her, for one reason and one reason alone: he was afraid that Amestris would have her suspicions confirmed and find out what he was up to. He offered Artaynte cities, unlimited gold, and sole command of an army (a typically Persian gift), but she refused everything. Eventually, then, he gave her the shawl, which she liked so much that she used to wear it and show it off.
[110] Amestris heard that Artaynte had the shawl, but this information did not make her angry with Artaynte. Instead she assumed that her mother was to blame and was responsible for the whole business, and so it was Masistes’ wife whose destruction she started to plot. She waited until her husband Xerxes was holding a royal banquet—that is, the banquet which is prepared once a year on the king’s birthday. The Persians describe this banquet as tukta, which is to say ‘complete’ in Greek. This is the only time of the year when the king anoints his head with oil, and he also distributes gifts among the Persians. So when the day arrived, Amestris told Xerxes what she wanted her gift to be—Masistes’ wife. Xerxes understood the reason for her request, and was shocked and horrified, not only at the thought of handing over his brother’s wife, but also because she was innocent in this matter.
[111] His wife was implacable, however, and he was constrained by the tradition that on the day of the royal banquet no request could be refused, so he agreed, with extreme reluctance. He turned the woman over to his wife and told her to do with her what she liked, and also sent for his brother. When he arrived, he said, ‘Masistes, as well as being the son of Darius and my brother, you are a good man. I want you to divorce your present wife, and I’ll give you my daughter instead. You can have her as your wife. But get rid of the present one; the marriage displeases me.’
Masistes was astonished at the king’s words. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘what a cruel thing to say! Can you really be telling me to get rid of my wife and marry your daughter? I have grown-up sons and daughters by my wife; in fact, you have married your own son to one of our daughters. Besides, she suits me perfectly well. I count it a great honour to be thought worthy of your daughter, my lord, but I refuse to comply with either of your commands. Please don’t insist on having your way in this matter. You’ll find another husband for your daughter, someone just as good as me. Please let me stay married to my wife.’
This reply of his made Xerxes angry, and he said, ‘Do you want to know what you’ve done, Masistes? I’ll tell you. I withdraw the offer of marriage to my daughter, and you’re not going to live with your wife a moment longer either. That will teach you to accept what you’re offered.’
At these words all Masistes said was: ‘You haven’t yet killed me, master.’ Then he walked out of the room.
[112] In the mean time, during this conversation between Xerxes and his brother, Amestris had sent for Xerxes’ personal guards and with their help had mutilated Masistes’ wife. She cut off her breasts and threw them to the dogs, cut off her nose, ears, lips, and tongue, and then sent her back home, totally disfigured.
[113] Masistes was still completely unaware of all this, but he was expecting something terrible to happen to him, so he ran back to his house. As soon as he saw how his wife had been maimed, he first sought the advice of his sons and then made his way to Bactra along with his sons and, of course, others as well, with the intention of stirring up revolt in the province of Bactria and doing the king as much harm as he could. And he would have succeeded in this, in my opinion, if he had managed to reach the Bactrians and the Sacae in time, because they were attached to him and he was the governor of Bactria. But Xerxes found out what he was up to; he dispatched an army to intercept him while he was on his way, and killed him, his sons, and all his troops. And that is the end of the story of Xerxes’ desire and Masistes’ death.
[114] Driven off course by adverse winds, the Greeks who had set out from Mycale for the Hellespont first anchored off Cape Lectum, but then they reached Abydus. They had expected to find the bridges still intact, and that was the main reason they had gone to the Hellespont, but when they got there they found that they had already been demolished. Leotychidas and his Peloponnesians decided to sail back to Greece, but the Athenians under Xanthippus chose to stay in the area and attack the Chersonese. So the Peloponnesians set sail for home, while the Athenians sailed across from Abydus to the Chersonese and proceeded to besiege Sestus.
[115] Now, Sestus had the strongest fortifications in the region, so when people from the outlying towns heard that a Greek force had come to the Hellespont, they flocked there. Among their number was a Persian called Oeobazus, who travelled from Cardia, where he had been keeping the cables from the bridges. Sestus was inhabited by local Aeolians, but at the time the population also included Persians and vast numbers of people from their various allies.
[116] The ruler of this province was Xerxes’ governor Artayctes, a Persian who was both cunning and corrupt. Once at Elaeus, during Xerxes’ march towards Athens, he tricked him and stole the treasure of Protesilaus the son of Iphiclus. Protesilaus is buried in Elaeus on the Chersonese, and there is a precinct there surrounding the tomb. Within the sanctuary there used to be a lot of votive offerings, including a great deal of money, gold and silver cups, bronze, and clothing; Artayctes stole all of this, and did so with the king’s permission. He tricked Xerxes by saying, ‘Master, there’s a house here of some Greek who took part in an expedition against your land and got his reward by being killed there. Please give me the house; that will teach people not to invade your country.’ This sort of argument was guaranteed to persuade Xerxes to give himsomeone’s house without any hesitation. He had no suspicion of what was going through Artayctes’ mind. When Artayctes said that Protesilaus had invaded the king’s land, he was bearing in mind the fact that the Persians regard all Asia as belonging to them and to whoever is their king at the time. After taking possession of the ‘house’, he transported all the valuables out of Elaeus to Sestus and turned the sanctuary into arable land which he farmed. And whenever he went to Elaeus, he used to have sex with women in the temple. But now he was being besieged by the Athenians. Somehow their attack caught him off his guard: he had not been expecting to see the Greeks there, and so was completely unprepared for a siege.
[117] The siege was still in progress when autumn arrived. Irritated at being away from home and at their failure to capture the stronghold, the Athenian troops asked their commanders to take them back to Athens—which the commanders refused to do until they had either captured the town or been recalled by the Athenian authorities. So the men accepted the current state of affairs.
[118] Meanwhile, inside the stronghold, the situation was so utterly dire that they were boiling the leather straps from their beds and eating them. When there were not even any straps left, the Persians, including Artayctes and Oeobazus, escaped from the town under cover of darkness by climbing down the most remote wall, where there were hardly any enemy troops. The next day the Chersonesites in the town signalled to the Athenians from the towers to let them know what had happened, and then opened the gates. Most of the Athenians went after the fugitives, while the rest occupied the town.
[119] Oeobazus got as far as Thrace, but the Apsinthian Thracians caught him and sacrificed him, after their own fashion, to a local god called Pleistorus; they also killed all his companions, but not by sacrificing them. Artayctes and his men made their break from the town later than Oeobazus and were overtaken just beyond Aegospotami. They resisted for a long time, but eventually were either killed or captured. The prisoners, who included Artayctes and his son, were bound by the Greeks and taken back to Sestus.
[120] There is a story told by the people of the Chersonese of a miracle that happened when one of the men guarding these prisoners was roasting his salt fish: the fish were lying in the fire when they suddenly started flopping about and wriggling, like newly caught fish. The people grouped around the fire were puzzled by the phenomenon, but when Artayctes noticed it he called out to the man who was cooking the fish and said: ‘You needn’t be alarmed by this omen, my Athenian friend. It has nothing to do with you. It is Protesilaus from Elaeus telling me that even though he is dead and mummified like a salt fish, the gods still grant him the power to punish a criminal. Under these circumstances I shall impose the following penalty on myself: in compensation for the property I took from the sanctuary, I’ll pay the god a hundred talents, and I’ll give two hundred talents to the Athenians for the life of myself and my son, if I am allowed to live.’ Xanthippus, the Athenian commander, remained unmoved by these promises. The people of Elaeus had already demanded his execution—this was their way of avenging Protesilaus—and Xanthippus was inclining in the same direction himself. So the Athenians took him down to the shore on which Xerxes’ bridge across the straits had ended (or, in another version, to the hill which overlooks the town of Madytus), where they nailed him to a plank of wood and suspended him from it, and then stoned his son to death before his eyes.
[121] They then sailed back to Greece, taking with them various valuable items, including the cables from the bridges, which they intended to dedicate in their sanctuaries. Nothing further happened for the remainder of the year.
[122] This Artayctes, the one who was crucified, was the descendant of Artembares, who was the author of a certain proposal which the Persians passed on to Cyrus for ratification. The proposal went like this: ‘Since Zeus has given sovereignty to the Persians and to you in particular, Cyrus, now that you have done away with Astyages, let’s emigrate from the country we currently own, which is small and rugged, and take over somewhere better. There are plenty of countries on our borders, and plenty further away too, any one of which, in our hands, will make us even more remarkable to even more people. This is a perfectly reasonable thing for people with power to do. Will we ever have a better opportunity than now, when we rule over so many peoples and the whole of Asia?’
Cyrus was not impressed with the proposal. He told them to go ahead—but he also advised them to be prepared, in that case, to become subjects instead of rulers, on the grounds that soft lands tend to breed soft men. It is impossible, he said, for one and the same country to produce remarkable crops and good fighting men. So the Persians admitted the truth of his argument and took their leave. Cyrus’ point of view had proved more convincing than their own, and they chose to live in a harsh land and rule rather than to cultivate fertile plains and be others’ slaves.