The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [195]
13. As for Amompharetus, at first he did not believe that Pausanias would really dare to leave him behind; he therefore kept his men at their post;
14. When, however, he saw Pausanias and his troops were now some way off, Amompharetus, thinking himself forsaken in good earnest, ordered his band to take their arms, and led them towards the main army.
15. Now the army was waiting for them at a distance of about ten furlongs, having halted on the bank of the River Moloeis at a place called Argiopius.
16. They had stopped there so that, in case Amompharetus and his band should really not quit the spot where they were drawn up, they might have it in their power to move back and lend them assistance.
17. Amompharetus, however, and his companions rejoined the main body; and at the same time the whole mass of the barbarian cavalry arrived and began to harass them.
18. The Persian cavalry had followed their usual practice and ridden up to the Greek camp, when they discovered that it was deserted.
19. So they pushed forward without stopping, and, as soon as they overtook the Greeks, pressed them heavily.
Chapter 102
1. When Mardonius heard that the Greeks had quit their place he summoned Thorax of Larissa, and his brothers Eurypylus and Thrasideius, and said,
2. ‘O sons of Aleuas! what do you say now, when you see the Greek camp empty?
3. ‘Why, you told me the Lacedaemonians never fled from battle, but were brave beyond the rest of mankind.
4. ‘Yet you saw them change their place in the line; and now, as all may see, they have run away during the night.
5. ‘In truth they have shown plainly that they are men of no worth, and if they have distinguished themselves among Greeks then Greeks in general are even of less worth.
6. ‘I can readily excuse you, who, knowing nothing of Persians, praised these men from your acquaintance with certain exploits of theirs;
7. ‘But I marvel at Artabazus, that he should have been afraid of the Lacedaemonians, and have therefore given us such poor counsel,
8. ‘Bidding us to remove to Thebes, and allow ourselves to be besieged there by the Greeks.
9. ‘But now we must not allow them to escape us, but must pursue them till we overtake them.’
10. When he had so spoken, he immediately crossed the Asopus, and led the Persians forward at a run directly on the track of the Greeks, whom he believed to be in actual flight.
11. He could not see the Athenians; for, as they had taken the way of the plain, they were hidden from his sight by the hills;
12. He therefore led his troops against the Lacedaemonians and the Tegeans only.
13. When the commanders of the other divisions of the barbarians saw the Persians pursuing the Greeks so hastily, they all seized their standards and hurried after, in great disorder and disarray.
14. On they went with loud shouts and in a wild rout, thinking to swallow up the runaways.
15. Pausanias sent a horseman to the Athenians with a message saying,
16. ‘Men of Athens! now that the great struggle has come, which is to decide the freedom or the slavery of Greece,
17. ‘We two people, Lacedaemonians and Athenians, are deserted by all the other allies, who have fled away during the night.
18. ‘Nevertheless, we are resolved what to do; we must endeavour, as best we may, to defend ourselves and to succour one another.
19. ‘Come to our aid, sore pressed as we are by the enemy. Should you yourselves be so straitened that you cannot come, at least send us your archers, and be sure you will earn our gratitude.
20. ‘We acknowledge that throughout this whole war there has been no zeal to be compared to yours; we therefore do not doubt that you will do us this service.’
21. The Athenians, as soon as they received this message, were anxious to go to the Spartans’ aid;
22. But as they marched they were attacked by the Greeks who had sided with Xerxes, whose place in the line had been opposite theirs.
23. Accordingly the Lacedaemonians, and the Tegeans, whom nothing could induce to quit their