The Good Book (65 page)

 

Chapter 94

  1. When Mardonius heard the Athenians' answer he immediately broke camp and led his army with all speed from Thessaly towards Athens,

  2. Forcing the several nations through whose land he passed to furnish him with additional troops.

  3. The chief men of Thessaly, far from repenting of the part they had taken in the war hitherto, urged on the Persians more earnestly than ever.

  4. Thorax of Larissa in particular, who had helped to escort Xerxes on his flight to Asia, now openly encouraged Mardonius in his march towards Attica.

  5. When the army reached Boeotia the Thebans advised Mardonius to stop,

  6. And by sending gifts to various of the great men of Greece, to sow division among them, making it easier to conquer them.

  7. But Mardonius had too strong a desire to take Athens a second time,

  8. Not least so that by fire-signals along the islands he could tell Xerxes in Sardis that he was once again master of that city, ten months after it had first fallen to the Persians.

  9. So he pressed forward; and the Athenians, as before withdrawing all their families and goods to Salamis, left a deserted and still ruined city to him.

10. On reaching the city Mardonius again sent a message offering the Athenians terms, hoping that now that they saw all Attica under Persian sway, their stubbornness would yield.

11. When Mardonius' message was delivered to the Athenians at Salamis, one of their councillors, Lycidas, gave it as his opinion that the proposal ought to be put before the assembly of the people.

12. When they heard this the other councillors and the body of Athenians waiting outside were exceedingly angry, and immediately surrounded Lycidas, and stoned him to death.

13. When the Athenian women heard of what he said, they hastened to the house of his wife and children, and stoned them to death too.

14. Meanwhile the Athenians had sent messengers to Sparta,

15. To reproach the Lacedaemonians for being too slow to send troops to oppose the Persian advance, so that the Athenians had had to abandon their city a second time.

16. Now, the Lacedaemonians had been celebrating a festival, and placing battlements on the wall across the Isthmus, which is why they had not yet mustered to aid Athens.

17. The messengers said, ‘Xerxes again offers to give us our country back, and to conclude an alliance with us on fair and equal terms, and to bestow on us any other land we like.

18. ‘But although we are fully aware that it is far more to our advantage to make peace with the Persian than to continue fighting him, we shall not, of our own free will, consent to any terms of peace.

19. ‘Thus do we, in all our dealings with the Greeks, avoid what is base and counterfeit:

20. ‘But you, who were so lately full of fear lest we made terms with the Persian, having learnt of what temper we are, and assured yourselves that we would not prove traitors,

21. ‘And moreover having brought your wall across the Isthmus to an advanced state, cease altogether to care about us.

22. ‘You agreed with us to go out and meet the Persian in Boeotia; but when the time came, you were false to your word, and looked on while the barbarian host advanced into Attica.

23. ‘We Athenians are angered with you therefore; and justly, for you have not done what is right.

24. ‘But we urge you to make haste to send your army, that we may even yet meet Mardonius in Attica.

25. ‘Now that Boeotia is lost to us, the best place for the fight within our country will be the plain of Thria.'

26. Although the ephors delayed for ten days to give an answer to the Athenian ambassadors,

27. Either out of shame or because the wall across the Isthmus was not yet quite finished, they at length sent the army.

28. This was after Chileus the Tegean urged them that if the Athenians were conquered by the Persians, no wall would save the Peloponnese, because the way would be open all round its coasts for an invasion.

29. So a body of five thousand Spartans, each accompanied by seven helots, was dispatched under the command of Pausanias, the son of Cleombrotus.

30. The chief power belonged of right at this time to Pleistarchus, the son of Leonidas; but as he was still a child, Pausanias, his cousin, was regent in his place.

 

Chapter 95

  1. When Mardonius learnt that the Spartans were on their march, he no longer cared to remain in Attica.

  2. Hitherto he had kept quiet, wishing to see what the Athenians would do, and had neither ravaged their territory, nor done it any harm;

  3. For he continued to hope that the Athenians would come to terms.

  4. As, however, he found that his persuasions were of no avail, he determined to withdraw from Attica before Pausanias reached the Isthmus.

  5. First, however, he burned Athens, and cast down level with the ground whatever remained standing of the walls and other buildings.

  6. His reason for retreating was that Attica is not a country where horse can act with advantage;

  7. And further, that if he suffered defeat in a battle, no escape was open to him, except through defiles in the hills, where a handful of troops might stop all his army.

  8. So he determined to withdraw to Thebes, and give the Greeks battle in the neighbourhood of a friendly city, and on ground well suited for cavalry.

  9. After he had quitted Attica and was already on his march, Mardonius heard that a body of a thousand Lacedaemonians, distinct from the army of Pausanias, and sent on in advance, had arrived in the Megarid.

10. When he heard it, wishing, if possible, to destroy this detachment first, Mardonius considered with himself how he might do so.

11. With a sudden change of march he made for Megara, while his cavalry, pushing on in advance, entered and ravaged the Megarid.

12. This was the westernmost point in Europe to which this Persian army ever penetrated.

13. Then Mardonius received another message, by which he learnt that the forces of the Greeks were collected together at the Isthmus;

14. Which news caused him to draw back, and leave Attica for the territory of the Thebans.

15. And now, although the Thebans had espoused the cause of Persia, yet Mardonius cut down all the trees in these parts;

16. Not from any enmity towards the Thebans, but on account of his own urgent need,

17. For he required a rampart to protect his army, and a refuge in case the battle should go against him.

18. His army at this time lay on the Asopus, and stretched from Erythrae, along by Hysiae, to the territory of the Plataeans.

19. The rampart, however, was not made to extend so far, but formed a square of about ten furlongs each way.

20. While the barbarians were employed in this work, a certain citizen of Thebes, Attaginus, the son of Phrynon, gave a banquet, and invited Mardonius, together with fifty of the noblest Persians.

21. Fifty noble Thebans also were asked; and the two nations were not arranged separately, but a Persian and a Theban were set side by side upon each couch.

22. After the feast was ended, and the drinking had begun, the Persian who shared Thersander's couch addressed him in the Greek tongue,

23. And enquired of him from what city he came.

24. He answered, that he was of Orchomenus; whereupon the other said,

25. ‘Since we have eaten at one table, and drunk from one cup, I will tell you what I think, and perhaps this will be a useful warning for you:

26. ‘Of these Persians you see here feasting, and the army in the camp nearby, in a little while, hardly any of these men will still be alive.'

27. As he spoke, the Persian wept; at which the Theban said, ‘Surely you should tell your fear of this to Mardonius, and the Persians who are next him in honour?'

28. But the other replied, ‘Dear friend, no one believes warnings, however true.

29. ‘Many of us Persians know our danger, but we are constrained by necessity to do as our leader bids us.

30. ‘In truth it is the worst of human ills, to abound in knowledge and yet have no power over action.'

Chapter 96

  1. When Mardonius had held his camp in Boeotia during the first invasion of Greece a year beforehand,

  2. All the Greeks of those parts who were friendly to the Persians sent troops to join his army, and these troops accompanied him in his attack upon Athens.

  3. The Phocians alone abstained, and took no part in the invasion;

  4. For, though they had espoused the Persian cause, it was much against their will, and only because they were compelled to do so.

  5. However, a few days after the arrival of the Persian army at Thebes on this second occasion,

  6. A thousand of their heavy-armed soldiers came up, under the command of Harmocydes, one of their most distinguished citizens.

  7. No sooner had these troops reached Thebes, than some horsemen came to them from Mardonius, with orders that they should take up a position upon the plain, away from the rest of the army.

  8. The Phocians did so, and forthwith the entire Persian cavalry drew near them: whereupon there went a rumour through the Greek force encamped with the Persian that Mardonius was about to destroy the Phocians.

  9. The same conviction ran through the Phocian troops themselves; and Harmocydes, their leader, addressed them with words of encouragement:

10. ‘Phocians,' said he, ‘it is plain that the Persians have resolved to take our lives,

11. ‘Perhaps because of the accusations of the Thessalians, or for some other treachery.

12. ‘Now, then, is the time for you to show yourselves brave men. It is better to die fighting and defending ourselves, than tamely to allow them to slay us in this shameful fashion.

13. ‘Let them learn that they are barbarians, and that the men whose death they have plotted are Greeks!'

14. So spoke Harmocydes; and the Persian horse, having encircled the Phocians, charged them, as if about to deal out death, with bows bent, and arrows ready to fly;

15. Here and there some did indeed discharge their weapons.

16. But the Phocians stood firm, keeping close to one another, and serrying their ranks as much as possible:

17. Whereupon the horse suddenly wheeled round and rode off. It is not known with certainty whether the Persians came, at the behest of the Thessalians, to destroy the Phocians,

18. But seeing them prepared to stand on their defence, and fearing to suffer damage at their hands, they retreated, having orders from Mardonius to do so.

19. Perhaps Mardonius' intent was to try the temper of the Phocians and see whether they had courage.

20. Whatever the reason, when the horsemen retired Mardonius sent a herald to the Phocians, saying,

21. ‘Fear not, Phocians; you have shown yourselves valiant men, much unlike the report I had heard of you.

22. ‘Now therefore be forward in the coming battle. You will not readily outdo either the king or myself in services.' Thus ended the affair of the Phocians.

 

Chapter 97

  1. The Lacedaemonians, when they reached the Isthmus, pitched their camp there;

  2. And the other Peloponnesians, hearing or seeing that they were on the march, joined them.

  3. All went out in one body from the Isthmus and marched as far as Eleusis.

  4. There they were joined by the Athenians, who had come across from Salamis.

  5. On reaching Erythrae in Boeotia they learned that the barbarians were encamped on the Asopus;

  6. Wherefore they themselves, after considering how they should act, disposed their forces opposite the enemy on the slopes of Mount Cithaeron.

  7. When Mardonius saw that the Greeks would not come down into the plain, he sent his cavalry under Masistius to attack them.

  8. Now Masistius was a man of much repute among the Persians, and rode a Nisaean charger magnificently caparisoned, complete with a golden bit.

  9. So the cavalry advanced against the Greeks, and made attacks on them in divisions, doing them great damage at each charge, and shouting insults at them.

10. It happened that the Megarians occupied the position most open to attack, where the ground offered the best approach to the cavalry.

11. Finding themselves hard pressed, they sent a herald to the Greek leaders, saying,

12. ‘We cannot, brothers-in-arms, continue to resist the Persian horse in the post we have occupied from the first, if we are left without help.

13. ‘So far, although hard pressed, we have held out against them.

14. ‘Now, however, unless you send others to take our place, we shall have to quit our post.'

15. Pausanias, when he received this message, enquired among his troops if there were any who would volunteer to relieve the Megarians.