The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [201]
11. Either the barbarians would not know what he said, and the Ionians would be persuaded to revolt from them;
12. Or if his words were reported to the former, they would mistrust their Greek soldiers. The trick worked, as subsequent events showed.
13. The Greeks then brought their ships to land, disembarked, and arrayed themselves for battle.
14. When the Persians saw them marshalling, their first act was to disarm the Samians, whom they now suspected of complicity with their enemies.
15. For it had happened lately that a number of the Athenians who had been made prisoners by the troops of Xerxes were brought to Asia on board the barbarian fleet;
16. And these men had all been ransomed by the Samians, who sent them back to Athens, well provided for the journey.
17. On this account, as much as on Leotychides’ ruse, the Samians were suspected.
18. After disarming them, the Persians next dispatched the Milesians to watch the paths leading to the heights of Mycale,
19. Because (so they said) the Milesians were well acquainted with that region: their true object, however, was to remove them to a distance from the camp.
20. In this way the Persians sought to secure themselves against such of the Ionians as they thought likely to rebel.
21. They then joined shield to shield, and made themselves a breastwork against the enemy.
Chapter 110
1. The Greeks now, having finished their preparations, advanced towards them.
2. As they did so news flew through the Persian host that the Greeks had fought and conquered the army of Mardonius in Boeotia.
3. Before the rumour reached them, the Greeks were full of trepidation, not so much on their own account, as for their countrymen, and for Greece herself.
4. But when they heard the news, their fear vanished and they charged at their enemies vigorously.
5. The Hellespont and the Islands formed the prize for which they were about to fight.
6. The Athenians, and the force drawn up with them, who formed one half of the army, marched along the shore, where the country was low and level;
7. But the way for the Lacedaemonians, and the troops with them, lay across hills and a torrent-course.
8. Hence, while the Lacedaemonians were making their way round, the Athenians on the other wing had already closed with the enemy.
9. So long as the wicker bucklers of the Persians lasted, they made a stout defence, and had not even the worst of the battle;
10. But when the Athenians and their allies, wishing to make the victory their own and not to share it with the Lacedaemonians,
11. Cheered each other on with shouts, and attacked them with the utmost ferocity, at last the face of things changed.
12. For, bursting through the line of shields and rushing forwards in a body, the Greeks fell upon the Persians;
13. Who, though they bore the charge and for a long time held their ground, yet at length tried to take refuge in their fortifications.
14. Here the Athenians themselves, together with those who followed them in the line of battle, the Corinthians, Sicyonians and Troezenians,
15. Pressed so closely on the heels of their foes, that they entered along with them into the fortress.
16. And now that their fortress was taken, the barbarians no longer offered resistance, but fled hastily away, all except the Persians.
17. They still continued to fight in knots of a few men against the Greeks, who kept pouring into the intrenchment.
18. And here, while two of the Persian commanders fled, two died: Artayntes and Ithamitres, who were leaders of the fleet, escaped,
19. While Mardontes, and the commander of the land force, Tigranes, died fighting.
20. The Persians were still holding out when the Lacedaemonians and their section of the army arrived, and joined in the remainder of the battle.
21. The number of Greeks who fell in the struggle here was not inconsiderable; the Sicyonians especially lost many, including Perilaus, their general.
22. The Samians who served with the Medes, and who, although disarmed, still remained in the camp,
23. Seeing from the very