The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [192]
30. The three hundred, so long as they fought by themselves, had greatly the worse of the encounter, and were forced to retire and yield the corpse to the enemy;
31. But when the reinforcements arrived, the Persian horse could no longer hold their ground and fled without carrying off the corpse, having incurred in the attempt further losses.
32. They retired about two furlongs, and discussed what was best to do. Being without a leader, it seemed to them fittest to return to Mardonius.
33. There Mardonius and all the Persian army made great lamentation for Masistius.
34. They shaved the hair from their heads, and cut the manes from their warhorses and their sumpter beasts,
35. While they vented their grief in such loud cries that all Boeotia resounded with the clamour,
36. Because they had lost the man who, next to Mardonius, was held in the greatest esteem, both by the king and by the Persians generally.
37. So the barbarians, after their own fashion, paid honours to the dead Masistius.
Chapter 98
1. The Greeks, on the other hand, were greatly emboldened by what had happened,
2. Seeing that they had not only stood their ground against the attacks of the cavalry, but had compelled them to retreat.
3. They placed the corpse of Masistius on a cart, and paraded it along the ranks of the army.
4. Now the body was a sight which well deserved to be gazed upon, being remarkable both for stature and for beauty;
5. And it was to stop the soldiers from leaving their ranks to look at it, that they resolved to carry it round.
6. After this the Greeks determined to quit the high ground and go nearer Plataea,
7. As the land there seemed far more suitable for an encampment than the country about Erythrae, being better supplied with water.
8. At this place, and more especially to a spring-head called Gargaphia, they encamped once more in their order.
9. Here, in the marshalling of the nations, a fierce argument arose between the Athenians and the Tegeans, both of whom claimed to have one of the wings assigned to them.
10. On each side were brought forward the deeds which they had done, whether in earlier or in later times;
11. But at length the deeds of the Athenians at Marathon and Salamis carried the argument in their favour, over the ancient claims of the Tegeans from long-ago wars.
12. When the disposition of the army had been settled, it was drawn up in the following order:
13. Ten thousand Lacedaemonian troops held the right wing, five thousand of whom were Spartans;
14. And these five thousand were attended by a body of thirty-five thousand Helots, who were only lightly armed; seven Helots to each Spartan.
15. The place next to themselves the Spartans gave to the Tegeans, on account of their courage and of the esteem in which they held them.
16. They were all fully armed, and numbered fifteen hundred men.
17. Next came the Corinthians, five thousand strong; and with them Pausanias had placed, at their request, the band of three hundred who had come from Potidaea in Palline.
18. Six hundred Arcadians of Orchomenus came next; then the Sicyonians, three thousand; then the Epidaurians, eight hundred;
19. Then the Troezenians, one thousand; then the Lepreats, two hundred; the Mycenaeans and Tirynthians, four hundred;
20. The Phliasians, one thousand; the Hermionians, three hundred; the Eretrians and Styreans, six hundred; the Chalcideans, four hundred; and the Ambraciots, five hundred.
21. After these came the Leucadians and Anactorians, who numbered eight hundred; the Paleans of Cephallenia, two hundred;
22. The Eginetans, five hundred; the Megarians, three thousand; and the Plataeans, six hundred.
23. Last of all, but first at their extremity of the line, were the Athenians, who, to the number of eight thousand, occupied the left wing, under the command of Aristides, son of Lysimachus.
24. All these, except the Helots, were heavy-armed troops, or Hoplites; and they amounted to thirty-eight thousand seven hundred men.
25.