Calliope   

to go to the aid of the Spartans, and to help them to the uttermost of
their power; but, as they were upon the march, the Greeks on the
king's side, whose place in the line had been opposite theirs, fell
upon them, and so harassed them by their attacks that it was not
possible for them to give the succour they desired. Accordingly the
Lacedaemonians, and the Tegeans- whom nothing could induce to quit
their side- were left alone to resist the Persians. Including the
light-armed, the number of the former was 50,000; while that of the
Tegeans was 3000. Now, therefore, as they were about to engage with
Mardonius and the troops under him, they made ready to offer
sacrifice. The victims, however, for some time were not favourable;
and, during the delay, many fell on the Spartan side, and a still
greater number were wounded. For the Persians had made a rampart of
their wicker shields, and shot from behind them stich clouds of
arrows, that the Spartans were sorely distressed. The victims
continued unpropitious; till at last Pausanias raised his eyes to
the Heraeum of the Plataeans, and calling the goddess to his aid,
besought her not to disappoint the hopes of the Greeks.
As he offered his prayer, the Tegeans, advancing before the
rest, rushed forward against the enemy; and the Lacedaemonians, who
had obtained favourable omens the moment that Pausanias prayed, at
length, after their long delay, advanced to the attack; while the
Persians, on their side, left shooting, and prepared to meet them. And
first the combat was at the wicker shields. Afterwards, when these
were swept down, a fierce contest took Place by the side of the temple
of Ceres, which lasted long, and ended in a hand-to-hand struggle. The
barbarians many times seized hold of the Greek spears and brake
them; for in boldness and warlike spirit the Persians were not a
whit inferior to the Greeks; but they were without bucklers,
untrained, and far below the enemy in respect of skill in arms.
Sometimes singly, sometimes in bodies of ten, now fewer and now more
in number, they dashed upon the Spartan ranks, and so perished.
The fight went most against the Greeks, where Mardonius, mounted
upon a white horse, and surrounded by the bravest of all the Persians,
the thousand picked men, fought in person. So long as Mardonius was
alive, this body resisted all attacks, and, while they defended
their own lives, struck down no small number of Spartans; but after
Mardonius fell, and the troops with him, which were the main
strength of the army, perished, the remainder yielded to the
Lacedaemonians, and took to flight. Their light clothing, and want
of bucklers, were of the greatest hurt to them: for they had to
contend against men heavily armed, while they themselves were
without any such defence.
Then was the warning of the oracle fulfilled; and the vengeance
which was due to the Spartans for the slaughter of Leonidas was paid
them by Mardonius- then too did Pausanias, the son of Cleombrotus, and
grandson of Anaxandridas (I omit to recount his other ancestors, since
they are the same with those of Leonidas), win a victory exceeding
in glory all those to which our knowledge extends. Mardonius was slain
by Aeimnestus, a man famous in Sparta- the same who in the Messenian
war, which came after the struggle against the Medes, fought a
battle near Stenyclerus with but three hundred men against the whole
force of the Messenians, and himself perished, and the three hundred
with him.
The Persians, as soon as they were put to flight by the
Lacedaemonians, ran hastily away, without preserving any order, and
took refuge in their own camp, within the wooden defence which they
had raised in the Theban territory. It is a marvel to me how it came
to pass, that although the battle was fought quite close to the
grove of Ceres, yet not a single Persian appears to have died on the
sacred soil, nor even to have set foot upon it, while round about
the precinct, in the unconsecrated ground, great numbers perished. I
imagine- if it is lawful, in matters which concern the gods, to
imagine anything- that the goddess herself kept them out, because they