Histories — Book 9 (Calliope)

Herodotus · a new plain-English translation from the Greek

Mardonius, once Alexander had returned and reported to him what the Athenians had said, set out from Thessaly and led his army in haste against Athens. Wherever he came, he took up the men of that place along with him. The rulers of Thessaly felt no regret at all for what they had done before, but urged the Persian on all the more; indeed Thorax of Larisa had escorted Xerxes on his flight, and now openly sent Mardonius on his way against Greece.

When the army on its march reached Boeotia, the Thebans tried to detain Mardonius and advised him, saying that there was no place better suited for encamping than theirs, and urged him not to go any farther, but to settle there and see to it that he subdued all of Greece without a battle. For as long as the Greeks stood united in strength, as they had done before, it would be hard, they said, for all mankind together to overcome them.

"But if you do as we advise," they said, "you will have, without effort, all their strongest plans. Send money to the men who hold power in the cities; by sending it you will split Greece apart, and from then on, with the aid of your partisans, you will easily subdue those who do not think as you wish." This was their advice, but he

would not be persuaded. Instead a terrible longing had settled in him to take Athens a second time, partly out of stubbornness, and partly because he thought to signal to the King, who was at Sardis, by means of beacon-fires across the islands, that he held Athens. But when he arrived in Attica this time too he did not find the Athenians there; he learned that most of them were at Salamis and in the ships, and he took the city

empty of people. The King's capture of Athens and this later expedition of Mardonius's were ten months apart. When Mardonius was in Athens, he sent to Salamis a man of the Hellespont named Murychides, carrying the same message that Alexander the Macedonian had conveyed to the Athenians. He sent this a second time, though he well knew the Athenians' feelings were not friendly, in hopes that they would give way in

their stubbornness, now that Attica lay conquered by the spear and in his hands. For this reason he sent Murychides to Salamis. When he arrived before the council he delivered Mardonius's message. Of the councilors, Lycidas gave his opinion that it seemed better to accept the proposal Murychides was putting to them and bring it before the assembly of the people. This opinion

he declared, whether because he had taken money from Mardonius or because this was truly his own view. But the Athenians, council members and outsiders alike, were filled with fury the moment they learned of it, and surrounding Lycidas they stoned him to death, but sent Murychides the Hellespontine away unharmed. When the uproar over Lycidas arose in Salamis, the wives of the Athenians learned what was happening, and one woman

urging another, and taking others with her, and together they made their way unbidden to Lycidas's house and stoned his wife and his children as well. Now this is how the Athenians had crossed over to Salamis. As long as they still hoped that a Peloponnesian army would arrive to defend them, they stayed put in Attica; but when the Peloponnesians kept delaying and dragging their feet, and the

enemy was advancing and was already said to be in Boeotia, then they moved everything out and crossed over themselves to Salamis, and sent messengers to Lacedaemon, partly to reproach the Lacedaemonians for having allowed the barbarian to invade Attica instead of meeting him together with the Athenians in Boeotia, and partly to remind them of what the Persian had promised to give them if they changed sides, and to warn

that if they did not come to the Athenians' aid, the Athenians too would find some way to save themselves. For the Lacedaemonians at that time were holding festival, keeping the Hyacinthia, and set the greatest importance on attending to the rites of the god; and at the same time the wall they were building across the Isthmus was already being fitted with battlements. When the messengers arrived at Lacedaemon,

the ones from Athens, bringing with them also messengers from Megara and from Plataea, they came before the ephors and spoke as follows. When the ephors heard this, they put off giving an answer until the next day, and on the next day until the day after; this they did for ten days running, putting it off from day to day. Meanwhile all the Peloponnesians were building the wall across the Isthmus

with great urgency, and it was nearly finished. I cannot say what the reason was that, back when Alexander the Macedonian reached Athens, they had taken great pains that the Athenians should not go over to the Persians, yet now they showed no concern at all — except that the Isthmus had by then been walled and they thought they no longer had any need of the Athenians; whereas when Alexander came to Attica,

the wall was not yet finished, and they were working at it in great fear of the Persians. In the end, the manner of their answer and of the Spartiates' setting out was as follows. On the day before the last hearing was to take place, Chileus, a man of Tegea who carried more weight with the Lacedaemonians than any other foreigner, learned from the ephors the whole speech that the Athenians had been making. Having heard it, Chileus said this to them: "It stands thus,

gentlemen ephors: if the Athenians are not on our side but instead allies of the barbarian, then, even though a strong wall has been built across the Isthmus, wide gates stand open into the Peloponnese for the Persian. Listen to me, before the Athenians decide on some other course that brings ruin upon Greece." This was his advice to them; and they, taking the argument to heart at once, without saying anything to the messengers who had come

from the cities, sent out that very night five thousand Spartiates, assigning seven helots to each man, with orders that Pausanias son of Cleombrotus should lead them out. The command rightly belonged to Pleistarchus son of Leonidas, but he was still a boy, and Pausanias was his guardian and cousin. For Cleombrotus, Pausanias's father and son of Anaxandrides, was no longer living; he had led the army

away from the Isthmus after it had finished building the wall, and not long after that he died. Cleombrotus led the army away from the Isthmus for this reason: while he was sacrificing against the Persian, the sun in the sky grew dark. Pausanias took as his colleague Euryanax son of Dorieus, a man of the same house as himself. So these men had set out with Pausanias

out of Sparta. But the messengers, when day came, knowing nothing of the departure, went before the ephors, intending each to leave for home; and coming before them they said this: "You Lacedaemonians stay here and celebrate the Hyacinthia and enjoy yourselves, betraying your allies. The Athenians, since they have been wronged by you and lack

allies, will make terms with the Persian in whatever way they can; and once we have made terms — for it is plain that we shall then become allies of the King — we shall join his campaign against whatever land he leads us. You will then learn what the outcome of this will be for you." As the messengers said this, the ephors declared on oath that they believed the men were already on the road to Orestheum, marching against the strangers; for "strangers"

was what they called the barbarians. The messengers, not knowing this, asked what was meant, and on inquiring learned the whole truth, so that in astonishment they set out in pursuit as fast as they could; and with them went five thousand chosen hoplites of the Lacedaemonian perioikoi, doing the same thing. These men then hastened toward the Isthmus. But the Argives, as soon as they learned that the men under Pausanias had set out from Sparta,

sent as herald the best of their day-runners to Attica, since they had earlier promised Mardonius that they would prevent the Spartiate from marching out. When he arrived at Athens he said this: "Mardonius, the Argives have sent me to tell you that the young men have set out from Lacedaemon, and that Argos lacks the power to stop them from marching out. In light of this, take good counsel."

Having said this, he went back the way he came. Mardonius, when he heard this, was no longer at all eager to remain in Attica. Before learning this he had held back, wishing to know what the Athenians would do, and he neither harmed nor damaged the land of Attica, expecting that the whole time they would come to terms with him; but when he could not persuade them, having learned the whole matter,

before the men under Pausanias could invade the Isthmus, he withdrew, but first he burned Athens, and whatever was still standing of the walls or the houses or the temples, he threw all of it down and razed it to the ground. He marched away for these reasons: the land of Attica was not suited to cavalry, and if he were defeated in battle there was no way out except through

a tight defile where only a handful of defenders could hold it against him. He therefore resolved to withdraw to Thebes and give battle near a city friendly to him and in country suited to cavalry. So Mardonius withdrew; but while he was already on the road, word came to him that another army, an advance force, had arrived at Megara — a thousand Lacedaemonians. On learning this he deliberated, wishing to see if he might somehow catch these men first. He turned his army back

and led it against Megara; and his cavalry, going on ahead, overran the land of Megara. This was the farthest point toward the setting sun in Europe that this Persian army ever reached. After this, word came to Mardonius that the Greeks were gathered together at the Isthmus, and so he marched back by way of Decelea; for the Boeotarchs sent for the men of Asopia who lived nearby,

and these men guided him on the road to Sphendalae, and from there to Tanagra. At Tanagra he spent the night camped, and on the next day, turning toward Scolus, he was in the territory of Thebes. There, although the Thebans had sided with the Medes, he cut down their trees — not out of hatred for them, but under great necessity, to make a fortified camp for his army, and so that, if it came to battle,

so that if things did not turn out as he wished, he would have this as a refuge. He extended his camp from Erythrae past Hysiae and stretched it into the land of Plataea, drawn up along the river Asopus. The wall itself, however, he did not make so large, but each face about ten stadia at most. While the barbarians were occupied with this labor, Attaginus son of Phrynon,

a Theban man, made great preparations and invited to a feast both Mardonius himself and fifty of the most eminent Persians; and being invited, they came. The dinner was held at Thebes. What follows I heard from Thersander, a man of Orchomenus, one of the foremost people there. Thersander said that he too had been invited by Attaginus to this

dinner, and that fifty Theban men had also been invited, and that they were not seated apart from each other but a Persian and a Theban together on each couch. When the dinner was over, as they were drinking, the Persian who shared his couch, speaking in Greek, asked him where he was from, and he answered that he was from Orchomenus. The Persian said, "Since you have now become my table-companion and drinking-companion,

I want to leave with you a memorial of my thinking, so that you yourself, forewarned, may be able to plan what is advantageous for you. Do you see these Persians feasting here, and the army we left encamped by the river? Of all these, you will see, when a little time has passed, only a few survivors remaining." As the Persian said this he shed many tears. He himself,

astonished at the speech, said to him, "Should not this be said to Mardonius, and to those among the Persians who are honored next after him?" The Persian then said, "Friend, what is destined to happen from god, a man cannot by any device turn aside; for no one is willing to believe even those who speak the truth. Many of us Persians know this well, yet we follow, bound by necessity, and the bitterest

pain among men is this: to know much and have power over nothing." This is what I heard from Thersander of Orchomenus, and this in addition, that he himself told these things to people right away, before the battle at Plataea took place. While Mardonius was encamped in Boeotia, all the rest supplied troops and joined the invasion of Attica, as many of the Greeks living in that region as were on the Persian side,

except the Phocians alone, who did not join the invasion (though they too were very much on the Persian side) — not willingly, but under compulsion. Not many days after their arrival at Thebes, a thousand of their hoplites came, led by Harmocydes, a man held in the highest esteem among his countrymen. When these too had arrived at Thebes, Mardonius sent horsemen and ordered them to

take up a position by themselves in the plain. When they had done this, at once the entire cavalry appeared. After this a rumor passed through the Greek army that was on the Persian side, that the cavalry would spear the Phocians down; and the same rumor passed through the Phocians themselves. Then their general Harmocydes exhorted them, speaking as follows: "Phocians, it is plain enough that these men

intend to give us over to a foreseen death, slandered as we have been by the Thessalians, as I guess. Now every one of you must prove himself brave: it is better to end one's life doing something and defending oneself than to be destroyed by submitting to the most shameful death. Let each of them learn that, being barbarians, they have plotted murder against Greek men." So he exhorted them; and the horsemen, when

they had encircled them, charged as if to destroy them, and indeed drew their bows as if to shoot, and some perhaps did loose an arrow. But the Phocians stood firm on every side, drawing themselves together and closing ranks as tightly as possible. Then the horsemen wheeled about and rode back. I cannot say for certain whether they came intending to destroy the Phocians at the Thessalians' request, but then, seeing them turn to defend themselves, feared

that they themselves might suffer losses, and so rode back — for this is what Mardonius had ordered them — or whether he wished to test them to see if they had any courage. When the horsemen had ridden back, Mardonius sent a herald and said this: "Take courage, Phocians; you have shown yourselves to be brave men, contrary to what I had been told. Now carry on this war eagerly; for in good service

you will not outdo either me or the King." So much for what concerned the Phocians. The Lacedaemonians, when they came to the Isthmus, encamped there. Learning of this, the rest of the Peloponnesians whose views were the better ones, and others too seeing the Spartiates marching out, felt it would be wrong to lag behind the Lacedaemonian advance. So then, from the Isthmus, once the sacrifices proved favorable, they all marched

and arrived at Eleusis; and having performed sacrifices there too, since these were favorable, they marched onward, and the Athenians together with them, having crossed over from Salamis and joined them at Eleusis. When they arrived at Erythrae in Boeotia, they learned that the barbarians were encamped by the Asopus, and having been informed of this they drew up opposite them on the lower slopes of Cithaeron. Mardonius,

since the Greeks were not coming down into the plain, sent against them the whole of his cavalry, commanded by Masistius, a man held in high repute among the Persians, whom the Greeks call Macistius, riding a Nesaean horse with a golden bit and otherwise splendidly adorned. When the horsemen rode up against the Greeks, they attacked by squadrons, and in attacking did great harm and called them women. By chance

the Megarians happened to be stationed at the point that was most exposed to attack in the whole position, and it was there that the cavalry could approach most easily. As the cavalry attacked, the Megarians, hard pressed, sent a herald to the generals of the Greeks; and when the herald arrived before them he said this: "The Megarians say: we, allied men, are not able to withstand the Persian cavalry alone, holding

the position we have taken up from the start; yet even so, up to now we have held out by persistence and courage, hard pressed though we are. Now, unless you send some others to relieve us in this position, be assured we will abandon it." So he reported this to them; and Pausanias sounded out the Greeks to see if any others were willing to volunteer to go to that place and take up

the position in relief of the Megarians. As the others were unwilling, the Athenians undertook it, and among the Athenians the three hundred picked men, whose company Olympiodorus son of Lampon commanded. These were the ones who undertook the task and who, ahead of the rest of the Greeks present, were stationed toward Erythrae, having taken the archers along with them. As they fought for a time, the battle came at last to the following outcome. As the cavalry attacked by squadrons, Masistius's

horse, being out in front of the others, was struck by an arrow in the flank, and in pain it reared up and threw off Masistius; and as he fell the Athenians immediately set upon him. They seized his horse and killed the man himself as he defended himself, though at first they were unable to, for he was armored thus: he wore beneath a golden scaled breastplate, and over the breastplate he had put on a crimson tunic. As they struck

against the breastplate they accomplished nothing, until someone, realizing what was happening, struck him in the eye. Thus he fell and died. Somehow all this happened without the notice of the other horsemen; for they neither saw him fall from his horse nor saw him die, since it happened as they were wheeling and turning back, and so they did not perceive what had happened. But when they halted, at once they missed him,

since there was no one to give them orders; and realizing what had happened, they urged one another on and rode their horses forward all together, so as to recover the corpse. Seeing the horsemen no longer attacking by squadrons but all at once, the Athenians called out to the rest of the army for help. While all the infantry was coming to their aid, a fierce battle over the corpse took place. As long as the three hundred

were alone, they were getting much the worse of it and were abandoning the corpse; but when the main body came to their aid, then the horsemen no longer held their ground, nor were they able to carry off the corpse, but in addition to Masistius they lost still more of their horsemen. Withdrawing about two stadia, they deliberated what they ought to do; and since they had no commander, riding back to Mardonius seemed the best course.

When the cavalry arrived back at the camp, the whole army and Mardonius above all made the greatest mourning for Masistius, cropping their own hair and the manes of their horses and pack animals, and giving themselves over to unbounded wailing; for all Boeotia rang with the sound, since a man had died who was the most esteemed among the Persians and with the King, next after Mardonius. So the barbarians, in their own

fashion, honored Masistius in death. As for the Greeks, once they had withstood the cavalry's attack and, having withstood it, driven it back, they took much greater courage, and first placing the corpse on a wagon they carried it along their ranks; and the corpse was worth seeing for its size and beauty, and it was for this reason that they did this: leaving their ranks, men came flocking to look at Masistius. After this

it seemed best to them to go down to Plataea; for the Plataean ground appeared to them far more suitable for encamping than that of Erythrae, both in other respects and because it had better water. They decided it was necessary to go to this place and to the spring called Gargaphia, which was in this district, and to encamp there in their assigned positions. Taking up their arms, they went along the

lower slopes of Cithaeron, past Hysiae, into the land of Plataea; and having arrived, they drew up by nations close to the Gargaphia spring and the sacred grove of the hero Androcrates, over ground of low hills and level land. There, in the arranging of positions, a great dispute of words arose between the Tegeans and the Athenians; for each of the two claimed the right to hold the one wing.

bringing up examples both new and old. The Tegeans spoke first, saying this: "We have always been deemed worthy of this position by all the allies, in every joint campaign the Peloponnesians have ever undertaken, both in old times and new, ever since the Heraclidae, after the death of Eurystheus, tried to come back down into the Peloponnese. It was then that we won this honor, through the following affair."

"When we marched out to the aid of the Achaeans and Ionians who then lived in the Peloponnese, and took our stand at the Isthmus opposite those coming down against us, the story goes that Hyllus proclaimed that it was not right for army to risk battle against army, but that whoever the Peloponnesians judged to be their best man should fight him in single combat on agreed terms. The Peloponnesians resolved

that this should be done, and swore an oath to this effect: if Hyllus should defeat the champion of the Peloponnesians, the Heraclidae were to return to their ancestral lands; but if he were defeated, the Heraclidae were to withdraw instead, lead their army away, and for a hundred years make no attempt to return to the Peloponnese. From all the allies there was chosen, as a volunteer, Echemus son of Aeropus son of Phegeus, who was both our general

and our king, and he fought the single combat and killed Hyllus. As a result of this deed we won, among the Peloponnesians of that time, other great privileges as well, which we have continued to hold ever since, and in particular the right always to command one of the two wings whenever a joint expedition takes place. To you, Lacedaemonians, we make no objection; we leave you the choice of which wing you wish to command, and yield it to you. But the other wing

we say belongs to us to command, as in time past. And apart from this deed we have related, we are more deserving than the Athenians of holding this position. Many contests, men of Sparta, have we fought against you and won honorably, and many against others as well. It is therefore just that we, and not the Athenians, should hold the second wing, for they

have no such deeds to their credit as we do, neither new nor old." So the Tegeans spoke, and the Athenians replied to this as follows: "We understand that this gathering was assembled for battle against the barbarian, not for speeches. But since the man of Tegea has proposed to speak of the good deeds, old and new, that each side has accomplished in all time, we are obliged to make clear

to you the grounds on which it is our inheritance to be first always, being men of merit, rather than the Arcadians. As for the Heraclidae, whose leader these men claim to have killed at the Isthmus—these very men, when they were being driven out earlier by all the Greeks to whom they fled to escape enslavement by the Mycenaeans, we alone took in and put down the arrogance of Eurystheus, fighting alongside them and defeating in battle those who then held the Peloponnese.

And as for the Argives who marched with Polynices against Thebes and, having died, lay unburied—we campaigned against the Cadmeans, recovered the bodies, and buried them in our own land at Eleusis. We also have a fine deed to our credit concerning the Amazons, who once invaded the land of Attica after crossing over from the Thermodon, and in the hardships of the Trojan War we ranked behind no one. But

there is no advantage in dwelling on these things: for those who were good men then might well be worse now, and those who were poor men then might well be better now. Let old deeds be enough, then. But even if we had no other achievement to point to—though in fact we have many, and good ones, as many as any other Greeks—still, on the strength of our deed at Marathon

alone we deserve to hold this honor, and more besides: we who alone of the Greeks fought the Persian in single combat, and undertook so great a deed, and survived, and defeated forty-six nations. Are we not entitled to hold this position on the strength of this deed alone? But since it is not fitting to quarrel over position at a time like this, we are ready

to obey you, Lacedaemonians, as to wherever you think it best for us to stand, and against whichever troops: wherever we are stationed, we shall try to prove ourselves good men. Only give the order, and we shall obey." This was their answer, and at it the whole Lacedaemonian army shouted out that the Athenians were more deserving of holding the wing than the Arcadians. So the Athenians won it, and prevailed over the Tegeans. After this the Greeks were arrayed

in the following order, both those who had come from the start and those who joined later. The right wing was manned by ten thousand men of Lacedaemon; of these, the five thousand who were Spartiates were guarded by thirty-five thousand light-armed helots, seven assigned to each man. The Spartans chose to have the Tegeans stand next to them, both for honor's sake and for their valor; these numbered fifteen hundred hoplites.

After these stood five thousand Corinthians, and next to them, by arrangement with Pausanias, stood the three hundred men of Potidaea from Pallene who were present. Next to these stood six hundred Arcadians of Orchomenus, and next to them three thousand Sicyonians. Next to these came eight hundred Epidaurians. Beside them were arrayed a thousand Troezenians, and next to the Troezenians two hundred men of Lepreum, and next to these four hundred Mycenaeans and Tirynthians, and next to these

a thousand Phliasians. Beside these stood three hundred men of Hermione. Next to the Hermionians stood six hundred Eretrians and Styreans, and next to these four hundred Chalcidians, and next to these five hundred Ampraciots. Following them came eight hundred men from Leucas and Anactorium, and beside those stood two hundred Paleans from Cephallenia. After these were stationed five hundred Aeginetans. Beside them were arrayed three thousand Megarians. Next to these

stood six hundred Plataeans. Last, though also first, were arrayed the Athenians, holding the left wing, eight thousand strong, commanded by Aristides son of Lysimachus. All these, apart from the seven light-armed men assigned to each Spartiate, were hoplites, numbering in all thirty-eight thousand seven hundred. This was the total number of hoplites gathered against the barbarian; as for the light-armed troops,

their number was as follows: of the Spartan contingent there were thirty-five thousand men, since seven were assigned to each man, and every one of these was equipped for war; among the remaining Lacedaemonians and other Greeks the light troops, one per man, came to thirty-four thousand five hundred. So the total number of all the light-armed fighting men was

sixty-nine thousand five hundred, and the whole Greek force that assembled at Plataea, hoplites and light-armed fighting men together, numbered one hundred and ten thousand, lacking eight hundred men. This number of one hundred and ten thousand was made complete by the Thespians who were present, for there were also survivors of the Thespians in the camp, numbering

eighteen hundred; but these had no arms. Such, then, was the force arrayed and encamped along the Asopus. As for Mardonius and his barbarians, once they had finished mourning Masistius, they came, on learning that the Greeks were at Plataea, to the Asopus that flows past there. On arriving they were arrayed by Mardonius as follows, facing them. Facing the Lacedaemonians he placed the Persians. And since the Persians greatly outnumbered them

far outnumbered the Lacedaemonians, they were drawn up several ranks deep, extending also to face the Tegeans. He arrayed them in this way: whatever was the strongest and best among the Persians he picked out and stationed opposite the Lacedaemonians, while the weaker troops he arrayed opposite the Tegeans. He did this on the advice and instruction of the Thebans. Next to the Persians he stationed the Medes; these faced the Corinthians, the Potidaeans, the Orchomenians,

and the Sicyonians. Next to the Medes he stationed the Bactrians; these faced the Epidaurians, the Troezenians, the men of Lepreum, the Tirynthians, the Mycenaeans, and the Phliasians. Beyond the Bactrians came the Indians, whom he placed facing the Hermionians, the Eretrians, the Styreans, and the Chalcidians. Next to the Indians he stationed the Sacae, who faced the Ampraciots, the Anactorians, the Leucadians,

the Paleans, and the Aeginetans. Next to the Sacae, facing the Athenians, the Plataeans, and the Megarians, he stationed the Boeotians, the Locrians, the Malians, the Thessalians, and the thousand Phocians; for not all the Phocians had medized, but some of them supported the Greek cause, having taken refuge around Parnassus, and setting out from there they harried and raided

Mardonius' army and those Greeks who were with him. He also stationed the Macedonians and the peoples living around Thessaly opposite the Athenians. These are the greatest of the nations arrayed by Mardonius that have been named, the most notable and most spoken of; but there were also men of other nations mixed in among them—Phrygians and Thracians and Mysians and

Paeonians and the rest, and among them also Ethiopians and Egyptians, both the class called Hermotybies and the Calasiries, sword-bearers, who are the only fighting men among the Egyptians. These he had disembarked from the ships while still at Phalerum, for they had served as marines; the Egyptians were not assigned to the infantry that came with Xerxes to Athens. So the barbarian forces numbered

three hundred thousand, as has already been shown; but of the Greeks who were allies of Mardonius no one knows the number, for they were never counted; by conjecture, however, I guess they amounted to about fifty thousand gathered together. These were the infantry drawn up in battle order; the cavalry was arrayed separately. When all had been arrayed according to their nations and their units, on the next day both sides offered sacrifice.

For the Greeks the one who performed the sacrifice was Tisamenus son of Antiochus, for it was he who accompanied this army as its seer. He was an Elean of the clan of the Iamidae, of the Clytiadae, and the Lacedaemonians had made him a citizen of their own. For when Tisamenus consulted the oracle at Delphi about offspring, the Pythia declared that he would win the five greatest contests. He, misunderstanding the oracle, took up athletic training, thinking he would win contests in the games, and while training

He missed winning the Olympic crown in the pentathlon by a single wrestling fall, when he competed against Hieronymus of Andros. The Spartans, learning that his gift of prophecy was directed not toward athletic contests but toward the contests of war, tried to persuade Tisamenus for a fee to become, alongside the Heraclid kings, a leader in their wars. He saw how eager the Spartiates were to win him as a friend, and once he understood this he raised his price, signaling to them that

if they made him their fellow citizen, giving him a share in everything, he would do it, but for no other payment. The Spartiates at first, on hearing this, were outraged and dropped the matter of the oracle entirely, but in the end, with the great fear of this Persian invasion hanging over them, they went back to him and agreed. But he, noticing the shift in their mood, said even so he was no longer satisfied with these terms alone, but that his

brother Hegias too must become a Spartiate on the same terms as he himself was becoming one. In saying this he was imitating Melampus, if one may compare a man asking for citizenship and one asking for kingship. For indeed Melampus too, when the women of Argos went mad and the Argives tried to hire him from Pylos to cure their women of the disease, set as his price half of the kingship.

The Argives could not bear this and left, but as more and more of the women went mad, they came back prepared to give him what Melampus had demanded. He then, seeing them turned around, reached for still more, declaring that unless they also gave a third of the kingship to his brother Bias, he would not do what they wanted. The Argives, driven into a corner, agreed to

this as well. So too the Spartiates, since they needed Tisamenus desperately, gave in to him on every point. And once the Spartiates had conceded this too, Tisamenus the Elean, having become a Spartiate, went on to help them win, by his prophecy, five of the greatest contests. These men alone of all mankind ever became citizens of Sparta. The five contests were these: the first and earliest was the one at

Plataea; next the one at Tegea against the Tegeans and Argives; after that the one at Dipaea against all the Arcadians except the Mantineans; then the one against the Messenians at Ithome; and last the clash at Tanagra, fought against the Athenians and the Argives — this last was the final one accomplished of the five contests. It was this same Tisamenus who at that time, with the Spartiates

leading, gave prophecy for the Greeks at Plataea. For the Greeks the sacrifices came out favorable so long as they stood on the defensive, but not if they crossed the Asopus and opened battle. For Mardonius, eager to open battle, the sacrifices likewise came out unfavorable, but favorable if he too stood on the defensive. For he too used Greek rites of divination, having as his seer Hegesistratus, a man of Elis and the most eminent of the Telliad clan,

whom the Spartans had earlier seized and bound, intending to put him to death for the many terrible wrongs he had done them. Caught in this desperate situation, running for his life and facing much cruel suffering before his death, he did a deed greater than words can tell. For as he lay bound in a stocks of iron-bound wood, a piece of iron happened to be brought in, and he got hold of it; at once

he devised the most courageous deed of any we know of. Calculating how the rest of his foot could be got free, he cut off his own instep. Having done this, since he was under guard, he dug through the wall and escaped to Tegea, traveling by night and by day hiding in the woods and lodging there, so that although the Lacedaemonians searched for him in full force, by the third night he had reached Tegea,

while they were struck with great amazement at his daring, seeing the severed half of his foot lying there yet unable to find him. Having thus escaped the Lacedaemonians at that time, he took refuge in Tegea, which was not on friendly terms with the Lacedaemonians at that period. Once healed and fitted with a wooden foot, he set himself up as an open enemy of the Lacedaemonians. Yet in the end his

hatred toward the Lacedaemonians did not turn out well for him: he was caught prophesying in Zacynthus and put to death by them. His death, however, came after the events at Plataea; at the time in question, hired by Mardonius at no small price on the Asopus, he was sacrificing and showing great zeal both out of his hatred for the Lacedaemonians and for the sake of the pay. When the sacrifices would not come out favorable for battle either for the Persians themselves

or for the Greeks who were with them (for these too had their own seer, Hippomachus of Leucas), and as the Greeks kept streaming in and growing more numerous, Timagenidas son of Herpys, a Theban, advised Mardonius to guard the passes of Cithaeron, saying that the Greeks kept streaming in every day and that he would cut off many of them. They had already been encamped facing each other for eight days

when Timagenidas gave Mardonius this advice. He, recognizing that the counsel was sound, when night came sent his cavalry to the passes of Cithaeron that lead down toward Plataea, which the Boeotians call the Three Heads and the Athenians call Oak Heads. The horsemen who were sent did not go in vain: they caught, as it was coming down into the plain, five hundred pack animals bringing provisions

from the Peloponnese to the camp, along with the men who were following the wagons. Having taken this catch, the Persians slaughtered it without mercy, sparing neither pack animal nor man. When they had had their fill of killing, they rounded up what was left and drove it to Mardonius and to the camp. After this action they let two more days pass, neither side wishing to

open battle: the barbarians advanced as far as the Asopus to test the Greeks, but neither side crossed it. Mardonius' cavalry, however, kept pressing and harassing the Greeks continually. For the Thebans, being wholeheartedly on the Persian side, carried on the war eagerly and always led the way up to the point of battle, and from there the Persians and Medes took over, and it was they who

performed the feats of valor. For the first ten days nothing more than this took place; but when the eleventh day had come with the two sides still encamped facing each other at Plataea, and the Greeks had grown far more numerous while Mardonius chafed at the delay, then Mardonius son of Gobryas and Artabazus son of Pharnaces, who was among the few Persians held in esteem by Xerxes, came together in council.

Their views in deliberation were as follows: Artabazus' opinion was that it would be best to break camp at once and lead the whole army to the walled town of the Thebans, where much grain and pack-animal fodder had already been stored up for them, and there settle down quietly and finish matters by doing the following: they possessed vast quantities of gold, both stamped coin and unworked metal, along with great stores of silver and

drinking vessels; sparing none of these, they should distribute them among the Greeks, and especially among the leading men in the various cities, and these would quickly hand over their freedom to them; there was no need to risk battle. This opinion agreed with that of the Thebans too, as though Artabazus had some foreknowledge beyond the rest; but Mardonius' opinion was more forceful and stubborn and would admit of no concession: he held that

their own army was far superior to that of the Greeks, and that they should join battle as soon as possible and not allow still more Greeks to gather beyond those already assembled, and that they should disregard the sacrifices of Hegesistratus and not force the issue on them, but engage in battle following the custom of the Persians. Since he argued this so decisively, no one spoke against him, so that his opinion prevailed: for command of the army lay with him, by the king's authority, not with Artabazus. Having summoned then the

he questioned the division commanders and, among the Greeks serving under him, their generals, asking whether they knew of any oracle concerning the Persians, that they would be destroyed in Greece. When those called upon fell silent — some not knowing the oracles, others knowing them but not thinking it safe to speak — Mardonius himself said, "Since, then, you either know nothing or dare not

speak, then let me be the one to tell you, for I know it well: there is an oracle that the Persians are fated, once they come to Greece, to plunder the sanctuary at Delphi, and that after the plundering all of them are to perish. We, then, knowing this very thing, will neither go against that sanctuary nor attempt to plunder it, and for that reason we shall not perish. So then, as many of you as happen to be

well disposed toward the Persians, rejoice on this account, that we shall prevail over the Greeks." Having said this to them, he next gave orders that everything be made ready and put in good order, since battle would take place at daybreak the following day. As for this oracle which Mardonius said applied to the Persians, I myself know it to have been composed concerning the Illyrians and the army of the Encheleans, not concerning the Persians. But

there are other verses composed by Bacis about this very battle: "By the Thermodon and grassy Asopus, the gathering of the Greeks and the barbarous cry, where many will fall beyond their allotted fate and the doom of the bow-bearing Medes, when the fated day comes upon them" — this and other similar verses I know Musaeus composed concerning the Persians. As for the river Thermodon, it runs its course between Tanagra and Glisas. After

the questioning about the oracles and the exhortation from Mardonius, night came on and the men were posted to their watches. When the night was far advanced and quiet seemed to have settled over the camps, and most of all the men appeared to be asleep, at that hour Alexander son of Amyntas, general and king of the Macedonians, rode up to the Athenian sentries and asked

to speak with their generals. Most of the sentries stayed at their posts, but some ran to the generals, and coming to them said that a man had arrived on horseback from the camp of the Medes, who would reveal nothing else but, naming the generals, said he wished to speak with them. When they heard this, they at once followed to the sentry posts.

When they had come, Alexander said this: "Men of Athens, I am placing these words with you as a deposit, asking that you keep them secret and tell no one but Pausanias, so that you do not ruin me too. For I would not speak them if my concern for the whole of Greece were not so deep. I myself am a Greek by ancient descent, and I would not want to see Greece enslaved instead of free. I tell you

then, that the sacrificial victims cannot come out favorably for Mardonius and his army; for otherwise you would have fought long ago. But now he has decided to let the omens be, and to bring on the engagement as soon as day breaks. For he is afraid, as I guess, that you will gather in still greater numbers. So prepare yourselves accordingly. And if Mardonius should put off the engagement and not bring it on, hold your ground

and wait; for only a few days' provisions remain to them. And if this war ends according to your wish, someone ought to remember me too, with a view to my freedom—I who, out of zeal on the Greeks' behalf, have carried out so hazardous a deed, wishing to reveal to you Mardonius's intention, so as to keep the barbarians from catching you off guard with a sudden attack. I am Alexander the Macedonian." With that

he said this and rode back, returning to the camp and taking up his own post again. The Athenian generals went to the right wing and told Pausanias what they had heard from Alexander. He, made fearful of the Persians by this report, said the following. "Since, then, the battle is to take place at dawn, you Athenians ought to stand opposite the Persians,

and we opposite the Boeotians and those Greeks arrayed against you, for this reason: you know the Medes and their manner of fighting, from having fought them at Marathon, whereas we are inexperienced and unacquainted with these men—for none of the Spartans has had experience of the Medes—while we are experienced with the Boeotians and Thessalians. So it would be best for you to take up your arms and go

to this wing, and for us to go to the left one." To this the Athenians replied as follows. "We too, from the very start, ever since we saw the Persians drawn up opposite you, had it in mind to say this very thing which you have now proposed first; but we were afraid the proposal might not be welcome to you. Since, then, you yourselves have brought it up, we too

are pleased by the proposal and are ready to do this." Since this pleased both parties, as dawn was breaking they exchanged positions. But the Boeotians, perceiving what was being done, reported it to Mardonius. He, upon hearing it, at once tried himself to shift his own troops, leading the Persians across to face the Lacedaemonians. When Pausanias learned that this was happening, realizing that he was

not going unnoticed, led the Spartans back to the right wing; and Mardonius likewise did the same on his left. When they had been restored to their original positions, Mardonius dispatched a messenger to the Spartans, who delivered the following speech. "Lacedaemonians, you are indeed said by the people of this region to be the best of men, since they marvel that you neither flee from war nor abandon your post,

but either destroy your enemies by standing firm or are destroyed yourselves. But none of this was true; for before we even came together and engaged hand to hand, we already saw you fleeing and abandoning your position, letting the Athenians make the first trial of us while you yourselves took up position against our slaves. These are in no way the deeds of brave men, and we have been altogether

deceived in you. For we expected, on the strength of your reputation, that you would send a herald to us challenging and wishing to fight against the Persians alone, being ready to do this; yet we found you saying nothing of the sort, but rather cowering. Now then, since you did not begin this proposal, we begin it. Why do you not, since you are reputed to be the best of the Greeks, fight on behalf of the Greeks against us, before

the barbarians, we being equal in number to equal? And if it seems good that the others too should fight, let them fight afterward; but if it seems best that we alone should suffice, then let us fight it out—and whichever of us wins, let that side be reckoned as having won for the whole army." Having said this and having waited some time, since

no one answered him anything, he withdrew back, and upon returning he reported to Mardonius what had happened. He, overjoyed and elated by this empty victory, sent his cavalry against the Greeks. When the horsemen had ridden up, they harassed the whole Greek army, hurling javelins and shooting arrows, since being mounted archers they were hard to come to grips with; and the spring called Gargaphia, from which

the whole Greek army drew its water, they threw into confusion and choked up. Now the Lacedaemonians alone were stationed near the spring, but for the rest of the Greeks the spring was farther off, as each contingent happened to be positioned, while the Asopus was near; yet being kept from the Asopus, they resorted to the spring for that reason—for they were not able to fetch water from the river because of

the horsemen and their arrows. With this happening, the Greek generals, since the army was being deprived of water and thrown into disorder by the cavalry, gathered together concerning these matters and others, going to Pausanias at the right wing. For other things too, besides these, troubled them further; food had by now run out entirely, and the men serving as their attendants

who had been sent off to the Peloponnese to fetch food had been shut off from the camp by the cavalry, unable to make their way back. As the generals deliberated, it seemed best to them that, if the Persians should put off giving battle that day, they should withdraw to the island. This island is, from the Asopus and the spring of Gargaphia where they were then encamped, ten stadia distant, in front of the city of the Plataeans.

Such an island could exist on the mainland in this way: the river, splitting above from Cithaeron, flows down into the plain, its two streams separated from each other by about three stadia, and then they join together again into one. Its name is Oëroe; the local people say she is a daughter of Asopus. It was to this place, then, that they resolved to move, so that they might

have water in abundance and the cavalry might not harass them as they were doing while positioned directly opposite. They decided to shift their position then, when it should be the second watch of the night, so that the Persians would not see them setting out and so that the cavalry, following them, would not throw them into disorder. When they had reached this place—the one where the Asopian Oëroe splits apart as it flows down from Cithaeron—during that same night

it was decided to send off half of the army toward Cithaeron, so as to pick up the attendants who had gone for provisions; for these were cut off on Cithaeron. Having decided this, they endured a whole day of unrelenting toil, hemmed in by the pressing cavalry; only when day gave way to evening and the horsemen ceased did night come on, and when it was the hour

at which they had agreed to withdraw, then most of them, once they had roused themselves, set out—not with the intention of going to the place agreed upon, but as soon as they were set in motion, they fled gladly from the cavalry toward the city of the Plataeans, and in their flight they arrived at the Heraion; this lies in front of the city of the Plataeans, twenty stadia distant from the spring of Gargaphia; and having arrived

they set down their arms before the sanctuary. And they encamped around the Heraion, while Pausanias, seeing them leaving the camp, ordered the Lacedaemonians too to take up their arms and follow after those already advancing, supposing that they were going to the place they had agreed upon. Then the rest of the captains of companies were ready to obey Pausanias, but Amompharetus

son of Poliades, the leader of the Pitanate company, insisted he would never run from foreigners, nor would he willingly bring shame upon Sparta, and he marveled, seeing what was being done, since he had not been present at the earlier discussion. Pausanias and Euryanax thought it a terrible thing that he would not obey them, but thought it still more terrible, since he refused to comply, to abandon the Pitanate company,

lest, if they abandoned it while carrying out what had been agreed with the rest of the Greeks, Amompharetus himself and those with him, being left behind, should perish. Reasoning thus, they kept the Laconian army still, and tried to convince him that doing this would not be right. And so they tried to talk over Amompharetus, who alone of the Lacedaemonians and Tegeans had been left behind, while the Athenians did the following: they kept themselves still

where they had been posted, knowing the temper of the Lacedaemonians, that they thought one thing and said another. When the army began moving, they dispatched a rider to observe whether the Spartans intended to march out, or whether they had no thought at all of leaving, and to ask Pausanias what he meant to do. When the herald arrived among the Lacedaemonians, he found them still drawn up in their places

and their leading men engaged in a quarrel. For when Euryanax and Pausanias were trying to persuade Amompharetus not to endanger himself by remaining behind alone with his men, cut off from the rest of the Lacedaemonians, they could not persuade him at all, until finally they fell into open dispute, just as the Athenian herald arrived and stood beside them. In the course of the quarrel Amompharetus took up a stone in both hands, and setting it down before the feet

of Pausanias, said that with this pebble he cast his vote not to flee from the strangers—meaning by this the barbarians. Pausanias called him a madman out of his senses, and turning to the Athenian herald, who was asking what he should report, told him to describe the situation as it stood, and asked the Athenians to come over to the Lacedaemonians' side and do, regarding the withdrawal, whatever

they themselves did. So the herald went off to the Athenians. Meanwhile, as the Lacedaemonians spent the time disputing among themselves, dawn overtook them, and at that point Pausanias, since he did not believe Amompharetus would be willing to be left behind when the rest of the Lacedaemonians departed—which is exactly what happened—gave the signal and led the rest of the army away through the hills; and the Tegeans followed with them. The Athenians, for their part, having been posted separately, marched the opposite way from

the Lacedaemonians: for the Lacedaemonians kept close to the hills and the foothills of Cithaeron, out of fear of the cavalry, while the Athenians turned down toward the plain. Amompharetus, who had never at all believed that Pausanias would dare to abandon his men, held his ground, insisting that they must not leave their position; but when Pausanias' troops had already gone some distance ahead, thinking that they were truly abandoning him, he took up his company and its

arms and led them at a walk toward the main body. That body, having gone about ten stades, waited for Amompharetus' company, halting by the river Moloeis, at a place called Argiopium, where there also stands a temple of Eleusinian Demeter. They waited there for this reason: so that, if Amompharetus and his company did not leave the position where they had been stationed but remained there, they might go back

and help them. And indeed Amompharetus' men caught up with them just as the enemy's cavalry, in full force, fell upon them. For the horsemen were doing what they always did; seeing the place empty where the Greeks had been posted on the previous days, they kept riding their horses ever forward, and as soon as they overtook the Greeks, they pressed hard upon them. When Mardonius

learned that the Greeks had gone off during the night and saw the place deserted, he called for Thorax of Larissa and his brothers Eurypylus and Thrasydeius, and said: 'Sons of Aleuas, now that you see this place empty, what will you say? You who live nearby used to tell me that the Lacedaemonians never flee from battle, but are the foremost of men in war—the very men you saw leaving their positions before,

and now again, during the night just past, all of us see they have run away. They have shown, now that they were about to be tested in battle against men who are truly the best in the world, that they are nobodies, standing among Greeks who are themselves nobodies. And as for you, who have had no experience of Persians, I could readily forgive you for praising these men, since you knew something of them yourselves; but I was far more astonished

that Artabazus should be so afraid of the Lacedaemonians, and being afraid, should put forward so cowardly a proposal—that we should break camp and go to besiege the city of the Thebans. The king shall yet hear of this from me. But that matter shall be discussed elsewhere. For now, we must not let these men do as they are doing; we must pursue them until they are overtaken, and pay us the penalty for all

that the Persians have suffered.' Having said this, he led the Persians at a run across the Asopus, following the Greeks' tracks, as though they were indeed fleeing, and directed his pursuit against the Lacedaemonians and Tegeans alone; for he could not see the Athenians, who had turned down into the plain, hidden by the hills. When the other commanders of the barbarian units saw the Persians setting out in pursuit of the Greeks, they all at once raised their signals,

and pursued as fast as each man's feet could carry him, with neither order nor formation. They came on with shouting and a great rush, as though they would sweep the Greeks away entirely. But Pausanias, when the cavalry pressed upon him, sent a horseman to the Athenians with this message: 'Men of Athens, since the greatest of struggles now lies before us—whether Greece is to be free or enslaved—we have been betrayed by our allies, both we

Lacedaemonians and you Athenians, since during the night just past they ran away. Now, then, it has been decided what we must do from here on: we must defend ourselves as best we can and shield one another. If the cavalry had turned against you first, it would have been right for us, together with the Tegeans, who have not betrayed Greece, to come to your aid; but as it is, since the whole force

has advanced against us, the just course is for you to go to the aid of that part which is pressed hardest. But if something has happened to make it impossible for you yourselves to come to our aid, then do us this favor: send us your archers. We know that throughout this present war you have shown the greatest zeal of all, so that you will surely listen to this request too.' When the Athenians heard this,

they set out at once to help and to give aid as best they could; but as they were already on the march, the Greeks who had taken the king's side and were stationed opposite them attacked, so that they could no longer bring help, since the enemy pressing upon them gave them no relief. So the Lacedaemonians and Tegeans, left to fight alone, together with their light-armed troops numbering fifty thousand—the Lacedaemonians—and three thousand Tegeans (for these never separated themselves from the Lacedaemonians), began to offer sacrifice, since they were about to engage Mardonius and the army before them. But since

the sacrifices were not turning out favorable, in the meantime many of them were falling and far more were being wounded; for the Persians, having set up a barrier of their wicker shields, shot off a great many arrows without restraint, so that as the Spartans were being hard pressed and the sacrifices still would not come out right, Pausanias looked toward the temple of Hera at Plataea and called upon the goddess, begging that they should in no way be cheated of their hope.

While he was still calling upon her, the Tegeans rose up first and advanced against the barbarians, and immediately after Pausanias' prayer the sacrifices, as the Lacedaemonians offered them, turned out favorable. So then, when the time at last came, they too advanced against the Persians, and the Persians met them, setting aside their bows. The fighting began first around the wicker shields. When these

had fallen, the battle grew fierce right by the temple of Demeter itself, and lasted a long time, until at last it came to close combat; for the barbarians would seize hold of the spears and break them. In courage and strength the Persians were not inferior, but being unarmored and, moreover, unskilled, and no match for their opponents in tactical skill, they would dash forward singly or in tens,

in larger or smaller groups, and fall upon the Spartans, and so be destroyed. Now in the place where Mardonius himself happened to be, fighting on a white horse and having around him a picked band of the thousand best Persians, there they pressed hardest upon their opponents. As long as Mardonius lived, the Persians held their ground and, defending themselves, cut down many of the Lacedaemonians; but

when Mardonius was killed, and the unit stationed around him, which was the strongest, fell as well, then indeed the rest turned and gave way before the Lacedaemonians. For what harmed them most was that they wore no armor; being lightly clad, they fought a battle against hoplites. There the justice owed for Leonidas' death, according to the oracle, was paid to the Spartans by Mardonius, and Pausanias, son of Cleombrotus, son of Anaxandrides, won the fairest victory

of all we know of. The names of his ancestors before him have already been given, in the account of Leonidas; for they happen to be the same. Mardonius was killed by Aeimnestus, a man of note in Sparta, who some time afterward, after the Persian wars, engaging with three hundred men at Stenyclerus during the war against all the Messenians, was himself killed along with his

three hundred. At Plataea, when the Persians were routed by the Lacedaemonians, they fled in complete disorder, making for their own camp and for the wooden stockade which they had built in the territory of Thebes. It is a marvel to me that although the fighting took place right by the grove of Demeter, not a single Persian was seen either to enter the sacred precinct or to die within it, while

most of them fell around the sanctuary, on unconsecrated ground. I think—if one ought to hold any opinion about matters divine—that it was the goddess herself who would not let them in, since they had burned her sanctuary, the shrine at Eleusis. So far, then, went this battle. As for Artabazus son of Pharnaces, he had been displeased from the start at Mardonius being left behind by the king, and now too,

though he protested strongly against it, he accomplished nothing by trying to prevent the engagement. He himself, however, acted in a way that showed his displeasure with what Mardonius was doing. The forces Artabazus commanded—and he had no small force, but as many as forty thousand men under him—he led in an orderly manner, once the battle had begun, knowing well what the outcome would be, having instructed all of them beforehand

to go together wherever he himself should lead, keeping their eyes on him and matching his pace. Having given these orders, he led his army forward as though toward the battle. But as he advanced along the way, he saw that the Persians were already in flight; and at that point he no longer led them in the same order, but fled at full speed, heading neither for the wooden stockade nor for the wall of Thebes, but toward Phocis,

wanting to reach the Hellespont as quickly as possible. So these men turned that way; but of the other Greeks who were with the king and were fighting half-heartedly, the Boeotians fought against the Athenians for a considerable time. For the Thebans who sided with the Medes showed no small eagerness, fighting and not shirking, so much so that three hundred of their best and foremost men fell there at the hands of the Athenians.

But when these too turned to flight, they made for Thebes, fleeing by a different route than the Persians and the whole crowd of the other allies, who fled without fighting it out with anyone or accomplishing anything. This shows me that the whole fortune of the barbarians hung upon the Persians, since even these men fled then before they had even engaged the enemy, simply because they saw the Persians retreating.

So all fled, except the cavalry, both the rest and that of Boeotia; and this cavalry helped those fleeing greatly, since it stayed always closest to the enemy and shielded the friendly fugitives from the Greeks. The victors followed after Xerxes' men, pursuing and slaughtering them. In the midst of this rout, word was brought to the other Greeks

who were stationed around the Heraion and had taken no part in the battle, that a fight had already occurred and that Pausanias' men were winning. When they heard this, drawn up in no order at all, some, the Corinthian contingent, turned along the foothill road and the hills leading up straight to the temple of Demeter, while others, the Megarian and Phliasian contingent, went through the plain by the

smoothest of the roads. But when the Megarians and Phliasians drew near the enemy, the Theban horsemen, seeing them advancing in no order, rode against them at a gallop—their commander was Asopodorus son of Timander—and falling upon them struck down six hundred of them, and drove the rest, pursuing them, back to Cithaeron. These men perished without anyone taking notice; but the Persians

and the rest of the throng, when they had fled for refuge into the wooden stockade, managed to climb up onto the towers before the Lacedaemonians arrived, and once up they fortified the wall as well as they could; and when the Lacedaemonians came up, a fiercer battle for the wall broke out. For as long as the Athenians were absent, the defenders held out and had much the better of the Lacedaemonians, since the Lacedaemonians did not know how to attack walls;

but when the Athenians came up, then indeed the fighting for the wall grew fierce and lasted a long time. At last, by valor and persistence, the Athenians mounted the wall and broke it down; and there the Greeks poured in. The Tegeans were the first to enter the wall, and it was they who plundered Mardonius' tent, taking from it, among other things, the manger

of his horses, which was entirely of bronze and worth seeing. This manger of Mardonius the Tegeans dedicated in the temple of Athena Alea, while everything else they had taken they brought to the same place as the rest of the Greeks. The barbarians, once the wall had fallen, formed no body of resistance at all, nor did any of them think of defending himself, but they scurried about in a panic, crowded as they were in a small space,

terrified, many tens of thousands of men penned in together. It was possible for the Greeks to slaughter them so freely that of an army of three hundred thousand, less the forty thousand with whom Artabazus fled, not even three thousand of the rest survived. Of the Lacedaemonians from Sparta, ninety-one in all died in the battle, of the Tegeans sixteen, of the Athenians fifty-two. Of the barbarians the most valiant

were the Persian infantry, the Sacae cavalry, and among individual men Mardonius is said to have been so. Of the Greeks, though the Tegeans and the Athenians proved good, the Lacedaemonians surpassed them in valor. I can point to no other proof of this except this—that all these contingents defeated the forces facing them—than that the Lacedaemonians engaged and overcame the strongest part of the enemy. And by far the bravest man, in my judgment, was Aristodemus, who

alone of the three hundred survived from Thermopylae and bore the reproach and disgrace of it. After him the most valiant were Posidonius, Philocyon, and Amompharetus the Spartan. Yet when talk arose as to which of them had been best, the Spartans present judged that Aristodemus, wishing openly to die because of the charge then hanging over him, had raged forth from his post and performed great deeds, while Posidonius, not wishing

to die, had shown himself a good man—and for that reason judged him the better of the two. But this they might say out of envy; for all those I have named, except Aristodemus, who died in this battle were held in honor, while Aristodemus, because he wished to die on account of the charge already mentioned, was not honored. These, then, were the most renowned of those at Plataea. As for Callicrates, he died outside the battle, having come

the handsomest man in the camp of the Greeks of that time, not only among the Lacedaemonians themselves but among all the other Greeks. As Pausanias was sacrificing, he, sitting in his rank, was wounded in the side by an arrow. And so while the others fought, he, carried off the field, was dying hard and said to Arimnestus, a man of Plataea, that it did not trouble him to die for Greece, but rather that he had not

used his hand, and that he had no deed accomplished worthy of himself, though he had been eager to perform one. Of the Athenians, Sophanes son of Eutychides is said to have distinguished himself, from the deme of Decelea—the Deceleans who once did a deed useful for all time, as the Athenians themselves say. For long ago, when the sons of Tyndareus invaded the land of Attica with an army in pursuit of Helen's recovery,

and were driving the people from their homes, not knowing where Helen had been hidden away, then, they say, the Deceleans—or, as some say, Decelus himself, aggrieved at Theseus' outrage and fearing for the whole territory of the Athenians—explained the whole matter to them and guided them to Aphidnae, which Titacus, a native of the place, betrayed to the sons of Tyndareus. For this deed the Deceleans have had, from that

deed, exemption from taxes and front seats at Sparta continuing even to this day, so much so that even in the war that arose many years later between the Athenians and the Peloponnesians, while the Lacedaemonians were ravaging the rest of Attica, they kept away from Deceleia. Being of this deme, and having distinguished himself then above all the Athenians, Sophanes has two stories told of him: one, that from the belt of his

breastplate he carried an iron anchor fastened by a bronze chain, which he would hurl down whenever he drew near the enemy, so that the enemy, breaking out of their ranks, could not dislodge him from his position; and when the enemy took to flight, it was arranged that he would take up the anchor and so pursue them. This is one account; the other story, disputing the one told first, says that he carried an anchor, always

circling about and never still, on his shield, and not one of iron fastened to his breastplate. There is also another brilliant deed accomplished by Sophanes: while the Athenians were besieging Aegina, he killed Eurybates the Argive, a champion of the pentathlon, in single combat by challenge. Sophanes himself, some time after these events, met his end as a valiant man, serving as general of the Athenians together with Leagrus son of Glaucon, killed by the Edonians at Datus while

fighting over the gold mines. Now when the barbarians had been struck down and laid low by the Greeks at Plataea, there came to them a woman deserting from the enemy; she, when she learned that the Persians had perished and that the Greeks were victorious, being the concubine of Pharandates son of Teaspis, a Persian, adorned herself and her attendants with much gold and in the finest clothing she had, and stepping down from her covered wagon went toward

the Lacedaemonians, who were still in the midst of the slaughter; and seeing Pausanias directing all of it, having known his name and his country beforehand, from having heard of them often, she recognized Pausanias, and taking hold of his knees said the following: 'O king of Sparta, save me, your suppliant, from the slavery of captivity. For you have already done good service in this, having destroyed these men who have regard neither for spirits nor

for gods. I am by birth a woman of Cos, daughter of Hegetorides son of Antagoras; the Persian took me by force while I was in Cos and held me there.' He answered her thus: 'Woman, take heart, both as a suppliant, and if besides you happen to be speaking the truth and are indeed the daughter of Hegetorides of Cos, who happens to be my greatest friend among those

who dwell in those parts.' Having said this, he at that time entrusted her to the ephors who were present, and later sent her to Aegina, to which she herself wished to go. After the arrival of this woman, immediately after, the Mantineans arrived when everything was already done; and learning that they had arrived after the fighting was already over, they took it as a great misfortune, and said they deserved to be punished for it. Learning that the Medes

who were fleeing with Artabazus were still fleeing, they pursued them as far as Thessaly; but the Lacedaemonians would not allow them to pursue the fugitives. Returning to their own land, they drove the commanders of their army into exile. After the Mantineans came the Eleans, and the Eleans likewise, taking it as a great misfortune like the Mantineans, went away; and they too, on their return, drove their commanders into exile. So much for the affair of the Mantineans and Eleans.

In the camp at Plataea, among the Aeginetans, there was Lampon son of Pytheas, one of the foremost men of Aegina; he, having in mind a most unholy proposal, hastened to Pausanias, and coming to him said the following in urgency: 'Son of Cleombrotus, a deed has been accomplished by you of extraordinary greatness and beauty, and god has granted to you, having saved Greece, to lay up the greatest glory of all the Greeks we know of. Do you now

also carry out what remains to be done after this, so that even greater fame may attach to you, and so that in future any of the barbarians may be on guard against committing reckless deeds against the Greeks. For when Leonidas died at Thermopylae, Mardonius and Xerxes cut off his head and impaled it; if you repay them in like manner, you will win praise first from all the Spartans, and again from

"and from the rest of the Greeks as well: for by impaling Mardonius you will avenge your uncle Leonidas." He said this thinking to please Pausanias, but Pausanias answered him as follows: "Aeginetan stranger, I admire your goodwill and your foresight, but you have missed the mark of sound judgment. You raised me up high, along with my country and my deed, and then cast me down to nothing by urging me to mistreat a corpse.

That is a thing better suited to barbarians than to Greeks—and even in them we resent it. As for me, on this account, I would not wish to please the Aeginetans or anyone else who takes pleasure in such things; it is enough for me to please the Spartans by doing and saying what is right. As for Leonidas, whom you bid me avenge, I say he has been greatly avenged already: by the countless lives

of these men here he has been honored, he himself and the others who died at Thermopylae. But you—so long as you hold such talk—do not come to me, nor give me such counsel, and be grateful that you go unpunished." Having heard this, the man went away. Pausanias then made a proclamation that no one should touch the plunder, and ordered the helots to gather the goods together. And they, scattering through the camp,

found tents furnished with gold and silver, couches overlaid with gold and silver, golden mixing-bowls, bowls, and other drinking vessels of every kind; they found sacks on wagons in which were seen cauldrons of gold and silver; and from the corpses lying there they stripped bracelets and torques and daggers of gold, though of embroidered clothing no one

took any account. There the helots stole much and sold it to the Aeginetans, and much too they revealed openly, whatever they could not hide; so that from this the great wealth of the Aeginetans first began, for they bought the gold from the helots as though it were bronze. When the goods had been gathered together and a tenth set apart for the god at Delphi—from which

the golden tripod was dedicated, the one standing on the bronze three-headed serpent nearest the altar—and a tenth was set apart for the god at Olympia, from which they dedicated a bronze Zeus ten cubits high, and for the god at the Isthmus, from which came a bronze Poseidon seven cubits high—when they had set these apart, they divided the rest among themselves, and each man took what he deserved, and also the concubines of the Persians and

the gold and silver and other goods and the pack animals. Now what was set aside as a special prize and given to those who had distinguished themselves at Plataea is not told by anyone, though I myself suppose that gifts were given to these men too. To Pausanias, however, everything was given tenfold and chosen out for him—women, horses, talents, camels—and likewise the rest of the goods as well. It is also said that this happened: that when Xerxes

fled from Greece he left his own equipment behind for Mardonius; so Pausanias, seeing Mardonius's furnishings set out with gold and silver and embroidered hangings, told the bakers and the cooks to make a dinner just as they would have for Mardonius. When these men, so ordered, did this, then Pausanias, seeing golden and silver couches well spread, and

golden and silver tables and the magnificent preparation of the meal, was amazed by the fine spread laid out before him, and, as a joke, told his own servants to make a Laconian dinner instead. When this meal was made ready, the difference between the two was great, and Pausanias, laughing, sent for the generals of the Greeks; and when they had gathered, Pausanias said, pointing to each of the two preparations of the meal, "Men of Greece, for this

reason I brought you together, wishing to show you the folly of this leader of the Medes, who, living in such luxury as this, still came against us who have so wretched a way of life, to take it from us." This is what Pausanias is said to have said to the generals of the Greeks. And afterward, in later time, many of the Plataeans found buried stores of gold and silver and other goods. And this too became apparent

afterward, once the flesh had been stripped from the bones of the dead: for the Plataeans were gathering the bones into one place, and a skull was found having no suture at all but being made of a single bone; and a jawbone also appeared having, in the upper jaw, teeth all grown from a single bone, both the front teeth and the molars; and the bones of a man five cubits tall were found.

When, on the second day, the body of Mardonius had disappeared, I cannot say with certainty by whose hand—though I have heard that many and various people buried Mardonius, and I know that many received great gifts from Artontes, son of Mardonius, for this deed—but who it was that took up and buried the body of Mardonius, I am not able

to learn with certainty. There is also a report that Dionysophanes, a man of Ephesus, buried Mardonius. In such fashion, then, he was buried, whichever way it was. As for the Greeks, once they had divided the plunder at Plataea, each people buried their own dead separately. The Lacedaemonians made three graves: in one they buried the young men, among whom were Posidonius and Amompharetus, and Philocyon and Callicrates.

In one of the graves, then, were the young men; in the other, the rest of the Spartiates; and in the third, the helots. Thus did they bury their dead. The Tegeans buried all their dead together apart from the others, while the Athenians buried theirs as one group, and the Megarians and Phliasians those slain by the enemy cavalry. Of all these, then, the graves were full of bodies; but as for the others,

whatever graves are to be seen at Plataea belonging to other peoples, these, as I learn, were heaped up empty as mounds of earth by each people out of shame at their absence from the battle, for the sake of those who came after. For there is even at that place a so-called grave of the Aeginetans, which, I hear, was heaped up ten years after these events, at the request of the Aeginetans, by Cleades son of Autodicus, a Plataean man who was their proxenos. When

the Greeks had thus buried the dead at Plataea, straightway it was resolved in council that they should march against Thebes and demand the surrender of those who had sided with the Medes, first among them Timagenidas and Attaginus, who were the foremost leaders of that faction; and if the Thebans refused to surrender them, they resolved not to withdraw from the city before capturing it. When they had decided this, on the eleventh day after

the battle they arrived and laid siege to the Thebans, demanding that they hand over the men; and when the Thebans would not consent to surrender them, they ravaged their land and made assaults upon the wall. And since the Greeks did not cease from doing damage, on the twentieth day Timagenidas said the following to the Thebans: "Men of Thebes, since the Greeks have resolved on this, not to give up the siege until they take Thebes or you hand us over to them,

now let not the land of Boeotia suffer further on our account; but if it is money they want, and they demand us merely as a pretext, let us give them money from the public treasury (for it was with the whole city's consent that we sided with the Medes, not we alone); but if they are besieging you because they truly want us, we ourselves will present ourselves to them for judgment." This seemed to be very well and fittingly said, and at once

the Thebans sent heralds to Pausanias, willing to hand over the men. When they had come to terms on these conditions, Attaginus fled from the city; but his sons, though led away, Pausanias released from the charge, saying that children could have no part in the guilt of Medizing. As for the other men whom the Thebans handed over, they supposed they would get a hearing, and indeed trusted that they could buy themselves off with money; but

Pausanias, when he received them, suspecting exactly this, dismissed the whole army of the allies, and, taking the men to Corinth, put them to death. This, then, is what happened at Plataea and Thebes. Artabazus son of Pharnaces, fleeing from Plataea, was already getting far away. When he arrived among the Thessalians, they invited him to their hospitality and asked him about the rest of the army,

knowing nothing of what had happened at Plataea. Artabazus, realizing that if he wished to tell them the whole truth of the battle, he himself and the army with him would be in danger of destruction—for he thought that everyone would set upon them once they learned what had happened—reckoning this, he revealed nothing to the Phocians and said the following to the Thessalians: "I myself,

men of Thessaly, as you see, am hastening at speed to make my way into Thrace, and am in haste, having been sent on some business from the camp along with these men; Mardonius himself and his army are close behind me and are expected to arrive. Entertain him and show yourselves doing well by him, for you will not regret it in time to come." Having

said this, he drove his army in haste through Thessaly and Macedonia straight toward Thrace, as one truly in a hurry, cutting across the inland route. And he arrived at Byzantium, having left behind many of his own army, cut down along the way by the Thracians, or perishing of hunger and exhaustion; and from Byzantium he crossed over by ships. Thus did he make his way back to Asia.

On the very same day that the defeat at Plataea took place, it happened also that one occurred at Mycale in Ionia. For when the Greeks who had come in their ships with Leutychides the Lacedaemonian were lying at Delos, messengers came to them from Samos—Lampon son of Thrasycles, and Athenagoras son of Archestratides, and Hegesistratus son of Aristagoras—sent by the Samians secretly from

the Persians and from Theomestor the tyrant, son of Androdamas—the man the Persians had installed as tyrant of Samos. When they came before the generals, Hegesistratus said many things of every sort, how, if only the Ionians should see them, they would revolt from the Persians, and how the barbarians would not stand their ground; and even if they should stand their ground, they would not find such another prey as this. He called on the gods too,

He called on them in common and urged them to free the Greeks from slavery and to drive back the barbarian; he said this would be easy for them, since the Persians' ships sailed badly and were no match for theirs. And they themselves, he said, if the Greeks suspected that the Samians were leading them into a trap, were ready to be taken aboard the Greek ships as hostages. As he went on pleading at length,

Leutychides asked the Samian stranger—whether he wished to learn an omen from it or whether it happened by pure chance with a god at work—"Samian stranger, what is your name?" And he said, "Hegesistratus." Leutychides cut off the rest of whatever Hegesistratus was about to say and said, "I accept the omen of Hegesistratus, Samian stranger. Now see to it that you

give us your pledge and sail off, you and these men with you, and that the Samians will indeed be eager allies for us." As he said this he also pushed the matter forward with action. At once the Samians made pledge and oaths concerning alliance with the Greeks. Having done this, some of them sailed off, for Leutychides bade Hegesistratus sail with them, taking his name as an omen.

The Greeks, having held back that day, on the next performed sacrifices for good omens, with Deiphonus son of Euenius, a man of Apollonia—the Apollonia on the Ionian Gulf—divining for them. His father Euenius had met with the following experience. In this Apollonia there are sheep sacred to the Sun, which by day graze along the river Chon, which flows from Mount Lacmon through the

territory of Apollonia down to the coast near the harbor of Oricum, and at night men selected from the citizens most notable for wealth and family origin stand guard over them, one year apiece; for the Apollonians hold these sheep in great account because of some oracle. They are penned at night in a cave far from the city. It was there that this Euenius, having been chosen, was keeping guard. And once,

when he had fallen asleep at his post, wolves came past the guard into the cave and destroyed about sixty of the sheep. When he became aware of it he kept silent and told no one, meaning to replace them by buying others in their place. But this did not escape the Apollonians; when they learned of it, they brought him before a court and condemned him, for having let his watch fall asleep, to be deprived of his sight. When they had blinded Euenius,

immediately after this their sheep ceased to bear young and the land no longer yielded crops as before. Oracles came to them from both Dodona and Delphi: when they questioned the prophets about what lay behind their misfortune, the prophets explained that they had unjustly deprived Euenius, the guardian of the sacred sheep, of his sight; for the gods themselves had sent the wolves against them, and would not cease

avenging him until they paid him whatever compensation he himself should choose and judge fitting; and when this had been done, the gods themselves would give Euenius such a gift that many men would count him blessed for having it. This was the oracle given to them, and the Apollonians, keeping it secret, assigned certain of the citizens to carry it out. And they carried it out in this way: as Euenius sat on his bench, they came

and sat beside him and talked of other things, until they came around to condoling with him over his misfortune. Leading him on in this way they asked him what compensation he would choose, if the Apollonians were willing to submit to paying for what they had done. He, not having heard the oracle, made his choice, saying that if someone gave him the fields—naming among the citizens' land the two finest allotments he knew of in Apollonia—and

besides these the house which he knew to be the finest in the city, then, having obtained these, he would bear no further grudge, and this compensation, once given, would satisfy him. And as he was saying this, the men sitting beside him broke in and said, "Euenius, the Apollonians pay you this compensation for your blinding in accordance with an oracle that has been given." At this he was greatly troubled,

once he learned from that the whole story, feeling he had been deceived. But they bought the properties from those who held them and gave him what he had chosen. And after this he at once possessed an inborn gift of prophecy, so that he even became famous for it. It was this man's son Deiphonus who, brought along by the Corinthians, was doing the divining for the army. I have also heard this, that Deiphonus, assuming the name of Euenius, undertook

work on behalf of Greece, though he was not actually the son of Euenius. When the sacrifices proved favorable for the Greeks, they put out from Delos toward Samos. When they came to the part of Samos near Calami, some of them anchored there off the Heraion in that place and prepared for a sea battle, while the Persians, learning that the Greeks were sailing toward them, likewise put out to sea toward the mainland with the rest of the ships,

but the Phoenician ships they sent off to sail away. For on deliberation it seemed best to them not to fight a sea battle, since they did not think themselves a match. They sailed off toward the mainland so as to be under cover of their own land army stationed at Mycale, which by order of Xerxes had been left behind from the rest of the army to guard Ionia; it numbered sixty thousand, and its commander was Tigranes,

who surpassed the Persians in beauty and stature. Under the protection of this army the generals of the fleet resolved to take refuge, to haul their ships ashore, and to build around them a fence and defense for the ships and a place of refuge for themselves. Having resolved this, they put out to sea. When they came, past the shrine of the Potniai on Mycale, to Gaeson and Scolopoeis, where there is a shrine of Eleusinian Demeter, which Philistus

son of Pasicles had founded when he accompanied Neileus son of Codrus to the founding of Miletus—there they hauled up the ships and built around them a fence of both stones and timber, cutting down cultivated trees, and drove stakes around the fence, and made ready both for a siege and for victory, preparing with both outcomes in mind. The Greeks, when they learned that the barbarians had gone off to the mainland, were troubled, thinking

that they had escaped them, and were at a loss what to do, whether to turn back or to sail toward the Hellespont. In the end they decided to do neither, but to sail against the mainland. So, having made ready for a sea battle both landing-ladders and everything else they needed, they sailed for Mycale. When they came near the camp and no one appeared coming out against them, but they saw ships

drawn up inside the wall, and a great infantry force arrayed along the shore, then first, sailing along in his ship and bringing it as close to the shore as possible, Leutychides had a herald proclaim to the Ionians, saying, "Men of Ionia, whoever of you happens to be listening, mark what I say: the Persians will understand none of what I am telling you. When we join battle, each of you must remember freedom

first of all, and after that the watchword 'Hebe.' And let whoever among you does not hear this learn it from whoever did." This device had the very same intent as that of Themistocles at Artemisium: either the words, escaping the barbarians' notice, would persuade the Ionians, or, if reported back to the barbarians, would make them distrust the Greeks. After

Leutychides had suggested this, the Greeks next did as follows: they brought their ships to shore and disembarked onto the beach. And these were forming up in ranks, while the Persians, when they saw the Greeks preparing for battle and urging the Ionians on, first, suspecting the Samians of favoring the Greek cause, stripped them of their weapons. For the Samians, when Athenian captives arrived among the barbarians' ships—

those whom Xerxes' men had captured, left behind throughout Attica—these the Samians had ransomed, all of them, and sent them off to Athens provided with supplies; and because of this they were held under no small suspicion, having ransomed five hundred lives of Xerxes' enemies. Second, they put the Milesians in charge of guarding the paths up to Mycale's summits, using as pretext that no one knew the terrain better than they did;

they did this for this reason, so that the Milesians would be kept away from the camp. In these ways the Persians took precautions beforehand against those of the Ionians whom they suspected might, given the opportunity, do something disruptive; and they themselves gathered their wicker shields together to serve as a barricade. When the Greeks had made their preparations, they advanced against the barbarians; and as they went, a rumor flew into the whole camp, and a herald's staff was seen lying on the

shoreline; and the rumor spread among them in this way, that the Greeks were victorious over Mardonius' army, fighting in Boeotia. Many proofs make clear that divine matters govern human affairs, since even then, when the same day coincided with the disaster about to befall both at Plataea and at Mycale, a rumor reached the Greeks in that place, so that the army took much greater courage

and was more eager to face danger with spirit. And this other thing also happened to coincide: there were precincts of Eleusinian Demeter near both battle sites; for indeed at Plataea the battle took place right beside the very temple of Demeter, as I have said before, and at Mycale it was likewise about to happen. And the rumor that came to them, that the Greeks under Pausanias had won a victory, turned out to

be accurate; for the battle at Plataea took place still early in the day, while that at Mycale took place around late afternoon. That they happened on the same day and the same month became clear to them not long afterward, when they worked it out. Before the rumor reached them they had been afraid, not so much for themselves as for the Greeks, lest

Greece should stumble because of Mardonius. But when this report flew in to them, they pressed their advance all the more, and more swiftly. So the Greeks and the barbarians alike hastened to battle, since the islands and the Hellespont lay before them as prizes. For the Athenians and those stationed next to them, up to about half the line, the march went

along the shore and the level ground, while the Lacedaemonians and those posted next to them were arrayed along a ravine and among the hills. While the Lacedaemonians were making their way around, the troops on the other wing were already fighting. As long as the wicker shields of the Persians stood upright, they defended themselves and held their own in the battle no less than their opponents; but when

the army of the Athenians and those next to them, so that the achievement might be theirs and not the Lacedaemonians', urged each other on and pressed the work more eagerly, from that point the affair took a different turn. For once they had pushed down the wicker shields, they charged in a mass upon the Persians, who received them and resisted for a long time, but at last fled to the wall. The Athenians, Corinthians, Sicyonians, and Troezenians (for it was in this order

that they had been posted) followed close behind and burst into the wall along with them. And once the wall too had been taken, the barbarians no longer turned to defend themselves but set out in flight, all except the Persians; these, forming into small groups, kept fighting against whichever of the Greeks kept bursting into the wall. Of the Persian commanders two escaped, and two died: Artayntes

and Ithamitres, who commanded the fleet, got away, whereas Mardontes and Tigranes, who led the infantry, fell in the fighting. While the Persians were still fighting, the Lacedaemonians and those with them arrived, and finished off the rest along with them. Many of the Greeks themselves also fell there, among others the Sicyonians and their general Perilaus; and of the Samians who were serving in

the Median camp and had been stripped of their weapons, as soon as they saw that the battle was, right from the start, turning out to favor now one side now the other, they did whatever they could, wishing to help the Greeks. When the other Ionians saw the Samians take the lead in this way, they too revolted from the Persians and turned on the barbarians. The Milesians had been assigned by the Persians to guard the mountain passes for their own safety, so that

if disaster should befall them, as indeed it did, they might have guides to bring them safely to the summits of Mycale. The Milesians were posted to this task both for that reason and so that they would not be present in the camp to cause any disturbance; but they did the very opposite of what had been ordered, leading the fleeing Persians by other paths, which in fact brought them to

the enemy, and in the end they themselves became the deadliest enemies, killing them. Thus Ionia broke away from Persian rule for a second time. In this battle the Athenians distinguished themselves among the Greeks, and among the Athenians Hermolycus son of Euthoenus, a man trained in the pancratium. This Hermolycus later met his end, once fighting broke out between Athens and Carystus, falling in battle at Cyrnus in Carystian land, where he lies buried at

Geraestus. After the Athenians, the Corinthians, Troezenians, and Sicyonians distinguished themselves. When the Greeks had dealt with most of the barbarians, some killing them in battle and some as they fled, they burned the ships and the whole wall, having first brought out the plunder onto the shore, and they found some treasuries of goods as well; and having burned the wall and the ships, they sailed away. On arriving at

At Samos the Greeks discussed resettling Ionia, weighing which region of Greece under their own control would be suitable for the Ionians to inhabit, while abandoning Ionia itself to the barbarians. It seemed to them impossible to keep permanent watch over the Ionians by stationing forces there indefinitely, yet without such a guard they held no hope that the Ionians could escape unpunished from Persian retaliation. Given this, the Peloponnesian leaders

who held command decided it was best to drive out the trading populations among the Greek peoples who had sided with Persia, and hand their territory over for the Ionians to settle; the Athenians, however, objected entirely to uprooting Ionia, and likewise objected to Peloponnesian involvement in decisions about their own colonies. Since the Athenians resisted forcefully, the Peloponnesians backed down. In this way they took in the Samians, Chians, Lesbians, and the rest of the islanders, who happened

to be campaigning alongside the Greeks, and enrolled them in the alliance, binding them by pledge and oath to stay loyal and never break away. Once these oaths were secured, the fleet sailed off to dismantle the bridges, still expecting to find them intact. This group then made for the Hellespont. Meanwhile the barbarians who had fled and been herded onto the heights of Mycale, not being numerous, managed to reach Sardis. As they

went along the road, Masistes son of Darius came upon the disaster that had just occurred and heaped abuse on the commander Artayntes, calling him, among other insults, more cowardly than a woman for leading the campaign as he had, and declaring he deserved every punishment for the ruin he had brought on the king's house. Among Persians, being called worse than a woman ranks as the harshest possible insult. Artayntes, once he had heard enough of this, flew into a rage and drew

his scimitar against Masistes, meaning to kill him. But Xeinagoras son of Praxileos, a man of Halicarnassus, standing behind him, saw him rushing at Masistes, seized him around the middle, lifted him up, and threw him to the ground; and in that moment Masistes' spearmen stepped forward to protect him. Xeinagoras did this deed as a favor to Masistes himself and to Xerxes, in saving the latter's brother; and because of

this deed Xeinagoras was given rule over the whole of Cilicia by the king's gift. Of those traveling along the road nothing further happened beyond this, and they arrived at Sardis. Now at Sardis the king had been staying ever since he had fled there after his setback in the sea battle off Athens. At that time, while staying at Sardis, he fell in love with the wife of Masistes, who was also

there at the time. When his approaches to her could not bring about his desire, and he did not resort to force, out of consideration for his brother Masistes, the same held true for the woman as well, for she knew well that she would not be subjected to force. At this point Xerxes, refraining from other means, arranged this marriage: he gave his own son Darius the daughter of this woman and Masistes, thinking he would win her the more readily if

he did this. Having concluded the match and performed the customary rites, he drove off to Susa; and when he arrived there and brought the woman home for Darius, he then ceased his desire for the wife of Masistes, and having shifted his affection, he came to love and to have as his own the wife of Darius, the daughter of Masistes; and this woman's name was Artaynte. As time went on, the affair came

to light in the following way. Amestris, Xerxes' wife, having woven a great, richly decorated robe worthy to behold, gave it to Xerxes. He, delighted, put it on and went to Artaynte; and being pleased with her as well, he told her to ask for whatever she wished to have in return for her favors to him, for she would obtain anything she asked. But since it was fated that ruin should come upon her whole household,

in response to this she said to Xerxes, "Will you give me whatever I ask of you?" He, supposing she would ask for anything but that, promised and swore it. And she, once he had sworn, boldly asked for the robe. Xerxes tried everything, unwilling to give it, for no other reason than his fear of Amestris, lest she, who already suspected what was happening, should thereby discover it for certain; instead he offered cities

and boundless gold and an army, of which no one but she should have command. An army is indeed a very Persian gift. But since he could not persuade her, he gave the robe. She, overjoyed with the gift, wore it and gloried in it. And Amestris learned that she had it; and having learned what was going on, she bore no anger toward this woman, but supposing

that her mother bore the blame and was behind these actions, she began plotting the destruction of Masistes' wife. She waited until her husband Xerxes was about to hold the royal banquet, a feast prepared just once each year, on the day the king was born. This banquet is called tykta in Persian, but in Greek it means "complete"; on that day alone the king anoints his own head

and bestows gifts upon the Persians. Watching for this day, Amestris begged Xerxes to give her the wife of Masistes. He thought this a terrible and monstrous thing, both to hand over his brother's wife, and because she was innocent of the matter, for he understood the reason she was asking for it. But in the end, since she pressed him persistently and he was constrained by the custom that

whoever makes a request cannot be refused when the royal banquet is set out, very much against his will he consented, and having handed her over, he did as follows: he told his wife to do as she wished, while he, summoning his brother, said this: "Masistes, you are the son of Darius and my brother, and besides this you are a good man. The woman you now live with — do not

live with her any longer; instead, in her place, I give you my own daughter. Live with her; and give up the woman you now have, for it does not please me that you keep her." Masistes, astonished at these words, said this: "Master, what useless proposal is this you put to me, bidding me give up a wife by whom I have young sons and daughters, one of whom you yourself took as a wife for

your own son — and she herself happens to suit my judgment entirely — that you bid me put her aside and marry your daughter? I, O king, count it a great honor to be deemed worthy of your daughter, yet I will do neither of these things. Do not force me by violence to such a course; instead, for your daughter another husband will appear no worse than I, and as for me,

allow me to keep living with my own wife." So he answered in this manner, and Xerxes, enraged, said this: "This is how matters stand for you, Masistes: I will neither give you my daughter to marry, nor shall you live with that woman any longer, so that you may learn to accept what is given to you." On hearing this, Masistes, saying only this much, went out: "Master, you have not yet destroyed me." And in the

During this interval, while Xerxes was speaking with his brother, Amestris summoned Xerxes' guards and disfigured the wife of Masistes: she sliced off her breasts and flung them to the dogs, cut away her nose, ears, lips, and tongue, and sent her home in this mutilated state. Masistes, who as yet knew nothing of what had happened, though sensing some misfortune had struck,

rushed home at a run. Seeing his wife destroyed, he at once, after consulting with his sons, set out for Bactra with his own sons and, no doubt, some others as well, intending to bring the Bactrian province into revolt and to do the king the greatest harm possible. And this is what would have happened, as I believe, if he had reached the Bactrians and the

Sacae in time, for they loved him and he was governor of the Bactrians. But Xerxes, learning what he was doing, sent an army after him and killed him on the road, along with his sons and his army. So much for the story of Xerxes' passion and the death of Masistes. As for the Greeks who had set out from

Mycale for the Hellespont, they first anchored off Lectum, held back by winds, and from there came to Abydos, where they found the bridges broken up, which they had expected to find still in place — and it was largely for this reason that they had come to the Hellespont. Now the Peloponnesians under Leotychides decided to sail back to Greece, but the Athenians and their general Xanthippus decided

to remain and make an attempt on the Chersonese. So the others sailed away, but the Athenians crossed from Abydos to the Chersonese and laid siege to Sestos. Since this was the strongest fortified place in that region, when they heard that the Greeks had arrived at the Hellespont, people gathered into it from the surrounding towns, and in particular from the city of Cardia came a Persian named Oeobazus, who

had brought there the tackle from the bridges. This place was held by native Aeolians, but with them were Persians and a large crowd of other allies as well. The governor of this province under Xerxes was Artayctes, a Persian, a clever and unscrupulous man, who had once deceived the king himself when he was marching against Athens, by stealing the treasures of Protesilaus son of Iphiclus from Elaeus. For at

At Elaeus on the Chersonese stands the tomb and sacred enclosure of Protesilaus, where great wealth was kept — bowls of gold and silver, bronze vessels, garments, and other dedications — all of which Artayctes seized with the king's consent, having tricked Xerxes with words like these: "Master, there stands here the house of a Greek who marched against your land and, having met his rightful end, died for it. Grant me his

house, so that people may learn not to campaign against your land." By saying this he easily persuaded Xerxes to give him the man's house, for the king had no suspicion of what Artayctes had in mind. He said that Protesilaus had campaigned against the king's land, meaning this: the Persians consider the whole of Asia to belong to themselves and to whoever is king at the time. Once the grant had been made, Artayctes carried off the treasures from Elaeus to Sestos,

and he sowed and worked the sacred precinct as farmland, and whenever he came to Elaeus he would have sex with women inside the very inner sanctuary. Now he was under siege by the Athenians, having neither prepared for a siege nor expecting the Greeks — they had fallen upon him somehow inescapably. When autumn came upon the besiegers, the Athenians grew distressed at being away from home and unable to take

the wall, and they asked their generals to lead them back home; but the generals refused to do so until they either took the place or were recalled by the Athenian government. So the men resigned themselves to the situation. Meanwhile those inside the wall had by now come to the very depths of suffering, so much so that they were boiling the leather straps of their beds and eating them. When even this ran out, then

under cover of night the Persians and Artayctes and Oeobazus fled, climbing down behind the wall at the point where the enemy's line was thinnest. When day came, the people of the Chersonese signaled to the Athenians from the towers what had happened, and opened the gates. Of the Athenians, most set off in pursuit, while some occupied the city. Oeobazus, as he fled

into Thrace, was caught by the Thracian Apsinthians, who sacrificed him to their local god Pleistorus in their own manner, and killed his companions in a different way. Those with Artayctes, who had set out to flee later, were overtaken, still few in number, beyond the river Aegospotami; after resisting for a long time some were killed and others taken alive. The Greeks bound them and led them to Sestos,

and with them Artayctes himself in bonds, along with his son. One of the guards, it is said, was roasting salted fish when a portent occurred among the Chersonesites: the salted fish lying on the fire leapt and writhed as though they were freshly caught. Those standing around were amazed, but Artayctes, when he saw the portent, called to the man roasting the fish and

said, "Athenian stranger, do not be afraid of this portent — it was not shown to you, but to me it signals that Protesilaus at Elaeus, even though dead and reduced to a salted fish, has power from the gods to punish the one who wronged him. Now I am willing to offer this as compensation: in place of the treasures I took from the sanctuary, I will pay the god a hundred talents, and in place of myself

and my son, I will give the Athenians two hundred talents, if I am spared." With these promises he did not persuade the general Xanthippus, for the people of Elaeus, seeking vengeance for Protesilaus, demanded that he be put to death, and the general's own inclination led the same way. So they led him off to the place where Xerxes had bridged the strait — or, as some say, to the hill above the city of Madytus — and nailing him to planks, they hung him up there;

and his son they stoned to death before Artayctes' own eyes. Having done this, they sailed back to Greece, bringing with them the other treasures and also the tackle of the bridges, to dedicate in the temples. Nothing further happened that year beyond this. Now the ancestor of this Artayctes who was hanged, Artembares, was the man who proposed to the Persians the plan which they

took up and brought to Cyrus, saying the following: "Since Zeus grants leadership to the Persians, and among men to you, Cyrus, having brought down Astyages, come, since we possess a small and rugged land, let us leave it and take possession of another, better one. There are many such lands bordering us, and many farther off; if we take one of these we shall be admired by more people. It is fitting that a ruling people should do such things, for when

will we have a better opportunity than now, when we rule over many peoples and the whole of Asia?" Cyrus, hearing this, was not impressed by the proposal, but told them to go ahead and do it — though he warned them, as he did so, to prepare themselves no longer to be rulers but to be ruled; for soft lands, he said, tend to breed soft men, since it is not the nature of any one land to produce

both wonderful crops and men good at war. So the Persians, recognizing this and yielding to Cyrus' judgment, went away and abandoned the plan, choosing rather to rule while living in a harsh land than to be slaves to others while farming a plain.

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