The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [167]
28. ‘It is their custom, when they are about to hazard their lives, to adorn their heads with care.
29. ‘Be assured, however, that if you can beat the men who are here and their fellow Lacedaemonians who remain in Sparta,
30. ‘There is no other nation in the world that will venture to lift a hand in their defence.
31. ‘You have now to deal with the first kingdom and town in Greece, and with the bravest of its men.’
Chapter 70
1. But Xerxes could not believe that so small a force could contend with his multitudes, or would even try to;
2. So he waited four days, expecting the Greeks to run away.
3. When on the fifth he found that they were still there, thinking that their stand was mere impudence and recklessness, he grew angry,
4. And sent against them the Medes and Cissians, with orders to take them alive and bring them into his presence.
5. The Medes rushed forward and charged the Greeks, but fell in vast numbers: others took the places of the slain, and would not be beaten off, though they suffered terrible losses.
6. In this way it became clear to all, and especially to the king, that though he had plenty of combatants, he had very few warriors.
7. The struggle, however, continued during the whole day.
8. The Medes, having met such a rough reception, withdrew from the fight; and their place was taken by the band of Persians under Hydarnes, who were the king’s special guard:
9. It was thought they would soon finish the business. But when they joined battle with the Greeks, it was with no better success;
10. Matters went much as before, the two armies fighting in a narrow space,
11. The barbarians using shorter spears than the Greeks, and gaining no advantage from their numbers.
12. The Lacedaemonians fought in a way worthy of note, and showed themselves far more skilful than their adversaries.
13. They often turned their backs, and made as if to run away, at which the barbarians would rush after them with much noise and shouting;
14. Then the Spartans would suddenly wheel and face their pursuers, in this way destroying vast numbers of the enemy.
15. Some Spartans fell in these encounters, but only a few.
16. At last the Persians, finding all their efforts unavailing, withdrew to their quarters.
17. It is said that Xerxes, watching the battle, thrice leaped from the throne on which he sat, in terror for his army.
18. Next day the combat was renewed, but with no better success for the Persians.
19. The Greeks were so few that the barbarians hoped to find them disabled, by reason of their wounds, from offering further resistance; and so they once more attacked.
20. But the Greeks were drawn up in detachments according to their cities, and bore the brunt of the battle in turns,
21. All except the Phocians, who had been stationed on the mountain to guard the pathway.
22. So, when the Persians found no difference between that day and the preceding, they again retired to their quarters.
Chapter 71
1. Now, as Xerxes was in great dilemma, and at a loss how he should deal with the emergency,
2. Ephialtes, the son of Eurydemus, a man of Malis, came to him.
3. Stirred by the hope of receiving a rich reward at the king’s hands, he had come to tell him of the pathway which led across the mountain to the rear of Thermopylae;
4. By which disclosure he brought destruction on the band of Greeks who had so far resisted the barbarians.
5. This Ephialtes afterwards, from fear of the Lacedaemonians, fled into Thessaly;
6. And during his exile, in an assembly of the Amphictyons held at Pylae, a price was set on his head by the Pylagorae.
7. When some time had gone by, he returned from exile, and went to Anticyra, where he was slain by Athenades, a native of Trachis.
8. Athenades did not slay him for his treachery, but for another reason:
9. Yet the Lacedaemonians honoured Athenades none the less. Thus did Ephialtes perish a long time afterwards.
10. Xerxes was delighted by Ephialtes’ information, and immediately dispatched Hydarnes