The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [191]
18. But seeing them prepared to stand on their defence, and fearing to suffer damage at their hands, they retreated, having orders from Mardonius to do so.
19. Perhaps Mardonius’ intent was to try the temper of the Phocians and see whether they had courage.
20. Whatever the reason, when the horsemen retired Mardonius sent a herald to the Phocians, saying,
21. ‘Fear not, Phocians; you have shown yourselves valiant men, much unlike the report I had heard of you.
22. ‘Now therefore be forward in the coming battle. You will not readily outdo either the king or myself in services.’ Thus ended the affair of the Phocians.
Chapter 97
1. The Lacedaemonians, when they reached the Isthmus, pitched their camp there;
2. And the other Peloponnesians, hearing or seeing that they were on the march, joined them.
3. All went out in one body from the Isthmus and marched as far as Eleusis.
4. There they were joined by the Athenians, who had come across from Salamis.
5. On reaching Erythrae in Boeotia they learned that the barbarians were encamped on the Asopus;
6. Wherefore they themselves, after considering how they should act, disposed their forces opposite the enemy on the slopes of Mount Cithaeron.
7. When Mardonius saw that the Greeks would not come down into the plain, he sent his cavalry under Masistius to attack them.
8. Now Masistius was a man of much repute among the Persians, and rode a Nisaean charger magnificently caparisoned, complete with a golden bit.
9. So the cavalry advanced against the Greeks, and made attacks on them in divisions, doing them great damage at each charge, and shouting insults at them.
10. It happened that the Megarians occupied the position most open to attack, where the ground offered the best approach to the cavalry.
11. Finding themselves hard pressed, they sent a herald to the Greek leaders, saying,
12. ‘We cannot, brothers-in-arms, continue to resist the Persian horse in the post we have occupied from the first, if we are left without help.
13. ‘So far, although hard pressed, we have held out against them.
14. ‘Now, however, unless you send others to take our place, we shall have to quit our post.’
15. Pausanias, when he received this message, enquired among his troops if there were any who would volunteer to relieve the Megarians.
16. None were willing to go, so the Athenians offered themselves;
17. And a body of picked men, three hundred in number, commanded by Olympiodorus, the son of Lampo, undertook the service.
18. Selecting the whole body of archers to accompany them, these men relieved the Megarians.
19. After the struggle had continued for a while, it ended in the following way.
20. As the barbarians continued charging in divisions, the horse of Masistius, which was in front of the others, received an arrow in his flank, the pain of which caused him to rear and throw his rider.
21. Immediately the Athenians rushed upon Masistius as he lay, caught his horse, and when he himself resisted, slew him.
22. At first, however, they were not able to kill him, for his armour hindered them. He had on a breastplate formed of golden scales, with a scarlet tunic covering it.
23. Thus the blows, all falling upon his breastplate, took no effect, till one of the soldiers, perceiving the reason, drove his weapon into his eye and so slew him.
24. All this took place without any of the other horsemen seeing it: they had neither observed their leader fall from his horse, nor beheld him slain;
25. For he fell as they wheeled round and prepared for another charge, so that they were quite ignorant of what had happened.
26. However when they halted, and found that there was no one to marshal their line, Masistius was missed;
27. And instantly his soldiers, understanding what must have befallen him, with loud yells charged the Athenians in one mass, hoping to recover the body.
28. When the Athenians saw that, instead of coming up in squadrons, the whole body of horse was charging them at once, they called out to the other troops to hasten to their aid.
29. As the infantry was moving