Kitap 9
Now we must not permit our enemies to do as they want; they must be pursued till they are overtaken and pay the penalty for all the harm they have done the Persians.”
With that, he led the Persians with all speed across the Asopus in pursuit of the Greeks, supposing that they were in flight; it was the army of Sparta [22.416,37.83] (inhabited place), Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece, Europe Lacedaemon and Tegea [22.4,37.5] (Perseus) Tegea alone which was his goal, for the Athenians marched another way over the broken ground, and were out of his sight.
Seeing the Persians setting forth in pursuit of the Greeks, the rest of the barbarian battalions straightway raised their standards and also gave pursuit, each at top speed, no battalion having order in its ranks nor place assigned in the line.
So they ran pell-mell and shouting, as though they would utterly make an end of the Greeks. Pausanias, however, when the cavalry attacked him, sent a horseman to the Athenians with this message: “Men of Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens, in this great contest which must give freedom or slavery to Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas, we Lacedaemonians and you Athenians have been betrayed by the flight of our allies in the night that is past.
I have accordingly now resolved what we must do; we must protect each other by fighting as best we can. If the cavalry had attacked you first, it would have been the duty of both ourselves and the Tegeans, who are faithful to Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas, to aid you; but now, seeing that the whole brunt of their assault falls on us, it is right that you should come to the aid of that division which is hardest pressed.
But if, as may be, anything has befallen you which makes it impossible for you to aid us, do us the service of sending us your archers. We are sure that you will obey us, as knowing that you have been by far more zealous than all others in this present war.”
When the Athenians heard that, they attempted to help the Lacedaemonians and defend them with all their might. But when their march had already begun, they were set upon by the Greeks posted opposite them, who had joined themselves to the king. For this reason, being now under attack by the foe which was closest, they could at the time send no aid.
The Lacedaemonians and Tegeans accordingly stood alone, men-at-arms and light-armed together; there were of the Lacedaemonians fifty thousand and of the Tegeans, who had never been parted from the Lacedaemonians, three thousand. These offered sacrifice so that they would fare better in battle with Mardonius and the army which was with him.
They could get no favorable omen from their sacrifices, and in the meanwhile many of them were killed and by far more wounded (for the Persians set up their shields for a fence, and shot showers of arrows). Since the Spartans were being hard-pressed and their sacrifices were of no avail, Pausanias lifted up his eyes to the temple of Hera at Plataea [23.2667,38.2] (Perseus) Plataea and called on the goddess, praying that they might not be disappointed in their hope.
While he was still in the act of praying, the men of Tegea [22.4,37.5] (Perseus) Tegea leapt out before the rest and charged the barbarians, and immediately after Pausanias' prayer the sacrifices of the Lacedaemonians became favorable. Now they too charged the Persians, and the Persians met them, throwing away their bows.
First they fought by the fence of shields, and when that was down, there was a fierce and long fight around the temple of Demeter itself, until they came to blows at close quarters. For the barbarians laid hold of the spears and broke them short.
Now the Persians were neither less valorous nor weaker, but they had no armor; moreover, since they were unskilled and no match for their adversaries in craft, they would rush out singly and in tens or in groups great or small, hurling themselves on the Spartans and so perishing.
Where Mardonius was himself, riding a white horse in the battle and surrounded by a thousand picked men who were the flower of the Persians, there they pressed their adversaries hardest. So long as Mardonius was alive the Persians stood their ground and defended themselves, overthrowing many Lacedaemonians.
When, however, Mardonius was killed and his guards, who were the strongest part of the army, had also fallen, then the rest too yielded and gave ground before the men of Sparta [22.416,37.83] (inhabited place), Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece, Europe Lacedaemon. For what harmed them the most was the fact that they wore no armor over their clothes and fought, as it were, naked against men fully armed.
On that day the Spartans, as the oracle had foretold, gained from Mardonius their full measure of vengeance for the slaying of Leonidas, and the most glorious of victories of all which we know was won by Pausanias, the son of Cleombrotus, who was the son of Anaxandrides.
(I have named the rest of Pausanias' ancestors in the lineage of Leonidas, for they are the same for both.) As for Mardonius, he was killed by Aeimnestus, a Spartan of note who long after the Persian business led three hundred men to battle at +Stenyclerus [21.9333,37.2333] (Perseus) Stenyclerus against the whole army of +Nomos Messinias [21.833,37.25] (department), Peloponnese, Greece, Europe Messenia, and was there killed, he and his three hundred.
At Plataea [23.2667,38.2] (Perseus) Plataea, however, the Persians, routed by the Lacedaemonians, fled in disorder to their own camp and inside the wooden walls which they had made in the territory of Thebes [23.3333,38.325] (Perseus) Thebes.
It is indeed a marvel that although the battle was right by the grove of Demeter, there was no sign that any Persian had been killed in the precinct or entered into it; most of them fell near the temple in unconsecrated ground. I think—if it is necessary to judge the ways of the gods—that the goddess herself denied them entry, since they had burnt her temple, the shrine at +Eleusis [23.5583,38.0417] (Perseus) Eleusis.
This, then, is what happened in this battle. But Artabazus son of Pharnaces had from the very first disapproved of the king's leaving Mardonius, and now all his counselling not to join battle had been of no avail. In his displeasure at what Mardonius was doing, he himself did as I will show.
He had with him a great army, as many as forty thousand men. He knew full well what the outcome of the battle would be, and no sooner had the Greeks and Persians met than he led these with a fixed purpose, telling them to follow him all together wherever he should lead them, whatever they thought his intent might be.
With that command he pretended to lead them into battle. As he came farther on his way, he saw the Persians already fleeing and accordingly led his men, no longer in the same array, but took to his heels and fled with all speed not to the wooden fort nor to the walled city of Thebes [23.3333,38.325] (Perseus) Thebes, but to +Phocis (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Phocis, so that he might make his way with all haste to the Canakkale Bogazi (strait), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Hellespont.
So Artabazus and his army turned that way. All the rest of the Greeks who were on the king's side fought badly on purpose, but not so the Boeotians; they fought for a long time against the Athenians. For those Thebans who were on the Persian side had great enthusiasm in the battle, and did not want to fight in a cowardly manner. As a result of this, three hundred of their first and best were killed there by the Athenians. At last, however, the Boeotians too yielded and they fled to Thebes [23.3333,38.325] (Perseus) Thebes, but not by the way which the Persians had fled and the multitude of the allies which had fought no fight to the end nor achieved any feat of arms.
This flight of theirs which took place before the actual closing of battle and was prompted because they saw the Persians flee, proves to me that it was on the Persians that the fortune of the barbarians hung. They accordingly all fled, save the cavalry, Boeotian and other; this helped the fleeing men in so far as it remained between them and their enemies and shielded its friends from the Greeks in their flight.
So the Greeks, now having the upper hand, followed Xerxes' men, pursuing and slaying. During this steadily growing rout there came a message to the rest of the Greeks, who were by the temple of Hera and had stayed out of the fighting, that there had been a battle and that Pausanias' men were victorious. When they heard this, they set forth in no ordered array, those who were with the Corinthians keeping to the spurs of the mountain and the hill country, by the road that led upward straight to the temple of Demeter, and those who were with the Megarians and Philasians taking the most level route over the plain.
However, when the Megarians and Philasians had come near the enemy, the Theban horsemen (whose captain was Asopodorus son of Timander) caught sight of them approaching in haste and disorder, and rode at them; in this attack they trampled six hundred of them, and pursued and drove the rest to Cithaeron.
So these perished without anyone noticing. But when the Persians and the rest of the multitude had fled within the wooden wall, they managed to get up on the towers before the coming of the Lacedaemonians; then they strengthened the wall as best they could. When the Athenians arrived, an intense battle for the wall began.
For as long as the Athenians were not there, the barbarians defended themselves and had a great advantage over the Lacedaemonians who had no skill in the assault of walls. When the Athenians came up, however, the fight for the wall became intense and lasted for a long time. In the end the Athenians, by valor and constant effort, scaled the wall and breached it. The Greeks poured in through the opening they had made;
the first to enter were the Tegeans, and it was they who plundered the tent of Mardonius, taking from it besides everything else the feeding trough of his horses which was all of bronze and a thing well worth looking at. The Tegeans dedicated this feeding trough of Mardonius in the temple of Athena Alea. Everything else which they took they brought into the common pool, as did the rest of the Greeks.
As for the barbarians, they did not form a unified body again once the wall was down, nor did anyone think of defense because the terrified men in the tiny space and the many myriads herded together were in great distress.
Such a slaughter were the Greeks able to make, that of two hundred and sixty thousand who remained after Artabazus had fled with his forty thousand, scarcely three thousand were left alive. Of the Lacedaemonians from Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta ninety-one all together were killed in battle; of the Tegeans, seventeen and of the Athenians, fifty-two.These figures must refer to the ὁπλῖται alone, leaving out of account the Laconian περίοικοι and the rest of the light-armed troops. Plutarch says that 60,300 Greeks fell at Plataea [23.2667,38.2] (Perseus) Plataea.
Among the barbarians, the best fighters were the Persian infantry and the cavalry of the Sacae, and of men, it is said, the bravest was Mardonius. Among the Greeks, the Tegeans and Athenians conducted themselves nobly, but the Lacedaemonians excelled all in valor.
Of this my only clear proof is (for all these conquered the foes opposed to them) the fact that the Lacedaemonians fought with the strongest part of the army, and overcame it. According to my judgment, the bravest man by far was Aristodemus, who had been reviled and dishonored for being the only man of the three hundred that came alive from +Thermopylae [22.5583,38.8] (Perseus) Thermopylae;Cp. Hdt. 7.231. next after him in valor were Posidonius, Philocyon, and Amompharetus.
Nevertheless, when there was a general discussion about who had borne himself most bravely, those Spartans who were there judged that Aristodemus, who plainly wished to die because of the reproach hanging over him and so rushed out and left the battle column behind, had achieved great deeds, but that Posidonius, who had no wish to die, proved himself a courageous fighter, and so in this way he was the better man.
This they may have said merely out of jealousy, but all the aforesaid who were killed in that fight received honor, save Aristodemus; he, because he desired death because of the reproach previously mentioned, received none.
These won the most renown of all who fought at Plataea [23.2667,38.2] (Perseus) Plataea. For Callicrates, who, when he came to the army, was the finest not only of the Lacedaemonians, but also of all the other Greeks, died away from the battle. Callicrates, who was sitting in his place when Pausanias was offering sacrifice, was wounded in the side by an arrow.
While his comrades were fighting, he was carried out of the battle and died a lingering death, saying to Arimnestus, a Plataean, that it was not a source of grief to him to die for Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas' sake; his sorrow was rather that he had struck no blow and achieved no deed worthy of his merit, despite all his eager desire to do so.
Of the Athenians, Sophanes son of Eutychides is said to have won renown, a man from the town of Decelea, whose people once did a deed that was of eternal value, as the Athenians themselves say.
For in the past when the sons of Tyndarus were trying to recover Helen,According to legend, the Dioscuri came to recover their sister Helen, who had been carried off to Aphidnae in Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica by Theseus and Pirithous. after breaking into Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica with a great host, they turned the towns upside down because they did not know where Helen had been hidden, then (it is said) the Deceleans (and, as some say, Decelus himself, because he was angered by the pride of Theseus and feared for the whole land of Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica) revealed the whole matter to the sons of Tyndarus, and guided them to Aphidnae, which Titacus, one of the autochthonoi, handed over to to the Tyndaridae.
For that deed the Deceleans have always had and still have freedom at Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta from all dues and chief places at feasts. In fact, even as recently as the war which was waged many years after this time between the Athenians and Peloponnesians, the Lacedaemonians laid no hand on Decelea when they harried the rest of Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica.But in the later part of the Peloponnesian war the Lacedaemonians established themselves at Decelea and held it as a menace to Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens (413 B.C.).
From that town was Sophanes, who now was the best Athenian fighter in the battle, and about him two tales are told. According to the first, he bore an iron anchor attached to the belt of his cuirass with a chain of bronze. He would cast this anchor whenever he approached his enemies in an attack so that the enemy, as they left their ranks, might not be able to move him from his place. When they were put to flight, it was his plan that he would pull up his anchor and so pursue them.