The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [199]
24. More recently they discovered the following: the flesh having fallen away from the bodies of the dead, and their bones having been gathered together into one place,
25. The Plataeans were able to see a skull without any seam, made entirely of a single bone;
26. Likewise a jaw, both the upper bone and the under, wherein all the teeth, front and back, were joined together and made of one bone;
27. Also, the skeleton of a man not less than five cubits in height.
28. The Greeks, after sharing the booty on the field of Plataea, proceeded to bury their own dead, each nation apart from the rest.
29. The Lacedaemonians made three graves; in one they buried their youths, among whom were Posidonius, Amompharetus, Philocyon and Callicrates;
30. In another, the rest of the Spartans; and in the third, the Helots. Such was their mode of burial.
31. The Tegeans buried all their dead in a single grave; as likewise did the Athenians theirs, and the Megarians and Phliasians those who were slain by the Persian cavalry.
Chapter 107
1. After the Greeks had buried their dead at Plataea they held a council, at which it was resolved to attack Thebes, and to require that those who had joined the Persians should be delivered into their hands.
2. Two Thebans who had been chief in making alliance with Persia were especially named, Timagenidas and Attaginus.
3. If the Thebans should refuse to give these men up, it was determined to besiege the city, and never cease till it should surrender.
4. After this resolve, the army marched on Thebes; and having demanded the men, and been refused, began the siege,
5. Laying waste the country all around, and making assaults upon the wall in divers places.
6. When twenty days were gone by, and the violence of the Greeks did not slacken, Timagenidas said to his countrymen,
7. ‘Men of Thebes, since the Greeks have stated that they will never desist till either they take Thebes or we are delivered to them, we do not wish the land of Boeotia to suffer any longer on our behalf.
8. ‘If it be money that they desire, and their demand of us be no more than a pretext,
9. ‘Let money from the treasury of the state be given them; for the state, and not we alone, embraced the cause of Xerxes.
10. ‘If, however, they really want our persons, we are ready to be delivered to them and to stand trial.’
11. The Thebans thought this offer very right and reasonable; so they dispatched a herald to Pausanias, and told him they were willing to deliver up the men.
12. As soon as an agreement had been concluded upon, Attaginus made his escape from the city; his sons, however, were surrendered in his place;
13. But Pausanias refused to hold them guilty, since children, he said, could have had no part in such an offence.
14. The rest of those whom the Thebans gave up had expected to obtain a trial, and in that case their trust was to escape by means of bribery;
15. But Pausanias, afraid of this, dismissed at once the whole army of allies, and took the men with him to Corinth, where he killed them all.
16. Such were the events which happened at Plataea and at Thebes.
Chapter 108
1. The Persian general Artabazus son of Pharnaces, who had fled from Plataea with his forty thousand troops, soon reached Thessaly.
2. The inhabitants received him hospitably, and enquired about the rest of the army, since they were still ignorant of what had taken place at Plataea.
3. Knowing that if he told the truth, he would risk perishing with his whole army,
4. For if the facts were once known, all who learnt them would be sure to attack him,
5. Artabazus kept everything secret, and said, ‘I am hastening into Thrace, as I am sent with this force on special business from the main army.
6. ‘Mardonius and his host are close behind me, and may be looked for shortly. When he comes, receive him as you have received me;
7. ‘Show him every kindness. Be sure you will never hereafter regret it, if you so do.’
8. Then he took his departure, and marched his troops at their best speed through Thessaly and Macedon to