Calliope   

them by calling them women.
It chanced that the Megarians were drawn up in the position most
open to attack, and where the ground offered the best approach to
the cavalry. Finding themselves therefore hard pressed by the assaults
upon their ranks, they sent a herald to the Greek leaders, who came
and said to them, "This is the message of the Megarians- We cannot,
brothers-in-arms, continue to resist the Persian horse in that post
which we have occupied from the first, if we are left without
succours. Hitherto, although hard pressed, we have held out against
them firmly and courageously. Now, however, if you do not send
others to take our place, we warn you that we shall quit our post."
Such were the words of the herald. Pausanias, when he heard them,
inquired among his troops if there were any who would volunteer to
take the post, and so relieve the Megarians. Of the rest none were
willing to go, whereupon the Athenians offered themselves; and a
body of picked men, three hundred in number, commanded by
Olympiodorus, the son of Lampo, undertook the service.
Selecting, to accompany them, the whole body of archers, these men
relieved the Megarians, and occupied a post which all the other Greeks
collected at Erythrae had shrunk from holding. After the struggle
had continued for a while, it came to an end on this wise. As the
barbarians continued charging in divisions, the horse of Masistius,
which was in front of the others, received an arrow in his flank,
the pain of which caused him to rear and throw his rider.
Immediately the Athenians rushed upon Masistius as he lay, caught
his horse, and when he himself made resistance, slew him. At first,
however, they were not able to take his life; for his armour
hindered them. He had on a breastplate formed of golden scales, with a
scarlet tunic covering it. Thus the blows, all falling upon his
breastplate, took no effect, till one of the soldiers, perceiving
the reason, drove his weapon into his eye and so slew him. All this
took place without any of the other horsemen seeing it: they had
neither observed their leader fall from his horse, nor beheld him
slain; for he fell as they wheeled round and prepared for another
charge, so that they were quite ignorant of what had happened. When,
however, they halted, and found that there was no one to marshal their
line, Masistius was missed; and instantly his soldiers,
understanding what must have befallen him, with loud cheers charged
the enemy in one mass, hoping to recover the dead body.
So when the Athenians saw that, instead of coming up in squadrons,
the whole mass of the horse was about to charge them at once, they
called out to the other troops to make haste to their aid. While the
rest of the infantry, however, was moving to their assistance, the
contest waxed fierce about the dead body of Masistius. The three
hundred, so long as they fought by themselves, had greatly the worse
of the encounter, and were forced to retire and yield up the body to
the enemy; but when the other troops approached, the Persian horse
could no longer hold their ground, but fled without carrying off the
body, having incurred in the attempt a further loss of several of
their number. They therefore retired about two furlongs, and consulted
with each other what was best to be done. Being without a leader, it
seemed to them the fittest course to return to Mardonius.
When the horse reached the camp, Mardonius and all the Persian
army made great lamentation for Masistius. They shaved off all the
hair from their own heads, and cut the manes from their war-horses and
their sumpter-beasts, while they vented their grief in such loud cries
that all Boeotia resounded with the clamour, because they had lost the
man who, next to Mardonius, was held in the greatest esteem, both by
the king and by the Persians generally. So the barbarians, after their
own fashion, paid honours to the dead Masistius.
The Greeks, on the other hand, were greatly emboldened by what had
happened, seeing that they had not only stood their ground against the
attacks of the horse, but had even compelled them to beat a retreat.
They therefore placed the dead body of Masistius upon a cart, and