Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
flight. Which within a very little came to pass. For Pausanias,
perceiving what was done, made a halt, and commanded every one to put
themselves in order for the battle; but either through his anger with
Amompharetus, or the disturbance he was in by reason of the sudden
approach of the enemy, he forgot to give the signal to the Greeks in
general. Whence it was, that they did not come in immediately, or in
a body, to their assistance, but by small companies and straggling,
when the fight was already begun. Pausanias, offering sacrifice,
could not procure favorable omens, and so commanded the
Lacedaemonians, setting down their shields at their feet to abide
quietly and attend his directions, making no resistance to any of
their enemies. And, he sacrificing again a second time, the horse
charged, and some of the Lacedaemonians were wounded. At this time,
also, Callicrates, who, we are told, was the most comely man in the
army, being shot with an arrow and upon the point of expiring, said,
that he lamented not his death (for he came from home to lay down his
life in the defense of Greece) but that he died without action. The
case was indeed hard, and the forbearance of the men wonderful; for
they let the enemy charge without repelling them; and, expecting their
proper opportunity from the gods and their general, suffered
themselves to be wounded and slain in their ranks. And some say, that
while Pausanias was at sacrifice and prayers, some space out of the
battle-array, certain Lydians, falling suddenly upon him, plundered
and scattered the sacrifice: and that Pausanias and his company,
having no arms, beat them with staves and whips; and that in imitation
of this attack, the whipping the boys about the altar, and after it
the Lydian procession, are to this day practiced in Sparta.
Pausanias, therefore, being troubled at these things, while the priest
went on offering one sacrifice after another, turns himself towards
the temple with tears in his eyes, and, lifting up his hands to
heaven, besought Juno of Cithaeron, and the other tutelar gods of the
Plataeans, if it were not in the fates for the Greeks to obtain the
victory, that they might not perish, without performing some
remarkable thing, and by their actions demonstrating to their enemies,
that they waged war with men of courage, and soldiers. While
Pausanias was thus in the act of supplication, the sacrifices appeared
propitious, and the soothsayers foretold victory. The word being
given, the Lacedaemonian battalion of foot seemed, on the sudden, like
some one fierce animal, setting up his bristles, and betaking himself
to the combat; and the barbarians perceived that they encountered with
men who would fight it to the death. Therefore, holding their
wicker-shields before them, they shot their arrows amongst the
Lacedaemonians. But they, keeping together in the order of a phalanx,
and falling upon the enemies, forced their shields out of their hands,
and, striking with their pikes at the breasts and faces of the
Persians, overthrew many of them; who, however, fell not either
unrevenged or without courage. For taking hold of the spears with
their bare hands, they broke many of them, and betook themselves not
without effect to the sword; and making use of their falchions and
scimitars, and wresting the Lacedaemonians' shields from them, and
grappling with them, it was a long time that they made resistance.
Meanwhile, for some time, the Athenians stood still, waiting for the
Lacedaemonians to come up. But when they heard much noise as of men
engaged in fight, and a messenger, they say, came from Pausanias, to
advertise them of what was going on, they soon hasted to their
assistance. And as they passed through the plain to the place where
the noise was, the Greeks, who took part with the enemy, came upon
them. Aristides, as soon as he saw them, going a considerable space
before the rest, cried out to them, conjuring them by the guardian
gods of Greece to forbear the fight, and be no impediment or stop to
those, who were going to succor the defenders of Greece. But when he
perceived they gave no attention to him, and had prepared themselves
for the battle, then turning from the present relief of the
Lacedaemonians, he engaged them, being five thousand in number. But
the greatest part soon gave way and retreated, as the barbarians also
were put to flight. The sharpest conflict is said to have been
against the Thebans, the chiefest and most powerful persons among them
at that time siding zealously with the Medes, and leading the
multitude not according to their own inclinations, but as being
subjects of an oligarchy.
The battle being thus divided, the Lacedaemonians first beat off the
Persians; and a Spartan, named Arimnestus, slew Mardonius by a blow on
the head with a stone, as the oracle in the temple of Amphiaraus had
foretold to him. For Mardonius sent a Lydian thither, and another
person, a Carian, to the cave of Trophonius. This latter, the priest of
the oracle answered in his own language. But the Lydian sleeping in
the temple of Amphiaraus, it seemed to him that a minister of the
divinity stood before him and commanded him to be gone; and on his
refusing to do it, flung a great stone at his head, so that he thought
himself slain with the blow. Such is the story. -- They drove the
fliers within their walls of wood; and, a little time after, the
Athenians put the Thebans to flight, killing three hundred of the
chiefest and of greatest note among them in the actual fight itself.
For when they began to fly, news came that the army of the barbarians
was besieged within their palisade: and so giving the Greeks
opportunity to save themselves, they marched to assist at the
fortifications; and coming in to the Lacedaemonians, who were
altogether unhandy and inexperienced in storming, they took the camp
with great slaughter of the enemy. For of three hundred thousand,
forty thousand only are said to have escaped with Artabazus; while on
the Greeks' side there perished in all thirteen hundred and sixty: of
which fifty-two were Athenians, all of the tribe Aeantis, that fought,
says Clidemus, with the greatest courage of any; and for this reason
the men of this tribe used to offer sacrifice for the victory, as
enjoined by the oracle, to the nymphs Sphragitides at the expense of
the public: ninety-one were Lacedaemonians and sixteen Tegeatans. It
is strange, therefore, upon what grounds Herodotus can say, that they
only, and none other, encountered the enemy; for the number of the
slain and their monuments testify that the victory was obtained by all
in general; and if the rest had been standing still, while the
inhabitants of three cities only had been engaged in the fight, they
would not have set on the altar the inscription: --
The Greeks, when by their courage and their might,
They had repelled the Persian in the fight,
The common altar of freed Greece to be,
Reared this to Jupiter who guards the free.
They fought this battle on the fourth day of the month Boedromion,
according to the Athenians, but according to the Boeotians, on the
twenty-seventh of Panemus; -- on which day there is still a convention
of the Greeks at Plataea, and the Plataeans still offer sacrifice for
the victory to Jupiter of freedom. As for the difference of days, it
is not to be wondered at, since even at the present time, when there
is a far more accurate knowledge of astronomy, some begin the month at
one time, and some at another.
After this, the Athenians not yielding the honor of the day to the
Lacedaemonians, nor consenting they should erect a trophy, things were
not far from being ruined by dissension amongst the armed Greeks; had
not Aristides, by much soothing and counseling the commanders,
especially Leocrates and Myronides, pacified and persuaded them to
leave the thing to the decision of the Greeks. And on their
proceeding to discuss the matter, Theogiton, the Megarian, declared
the honor of the victory was to be given some other city, if they
would prevent a civil war; after him Cleocritus of Corinth rising up,
made people think he would ask the palm for the Corinthians, (for next
to Sparta and Athens, Corinth was in greatest estimation); but he
delivered his opinion, to the general admiration, in favor of the
Plataeans; and counseled to take away all contention by giving them
the reward and glory of the victory, whose being honored could be
distasteful to neither party. This being said, first Aristides gave
consent in the name of the Athenians, and Pausanias, then, for the
Lacedaemonians. So, being reconciled, they set apart eighty talents
for the Plataeans, with which they built the temple and dedicated the
image to Minerva, and adorned the temple with pictures, which even to
this very day retain their luster. But the Lacedaemonians and
Athenians each erected a trophy apart by themselves. On their
consulting the oracle about offering sacrifice, Apollo answered that
they should dedicate an altar to Jupiter of freedom, but should not
sacrifice till they had extinguished the fires throughout the country,
as having been defiled by the barbarians, and had kindled unpolluted
fire at the common altar at Delphi. The magistrates of Greece,
therefore, went forthwith and compelled such as had fire to put it
out; and Euchidas, a Plataean, promising to fetch fire, with all
possible speed, from the altar of the god, went to Delphi, and having
sprinkled and purified his body, crowned himself with laurel; and
taking the fire from the altar ran back to Plataea, and got back there
before sunset, performing in one day a journey of a thousand furlongs;
and saluting his fellow-citizens and delivering them the fire, he
immediately fell down, and in a short time after expired. But the
Plataeans, taking him up, interred him in the temple of Diana Euclia,
setting this inscription over him: "Euchidas ran to Delphi and back
again in one day." Most people believe that Euclia is Diana, and call
her by that name. But some say she was the daughter of Hercules, by
Myrto, the daughter of Menoetius, and sister of Patroclus, and, dying
a virgin, was worshipped by the Boeotians and Locrians. Her altar and
image are set up in all their marketplaces, and those of both sexes
that are about marrying, sacrifice to her before the nuptials.
A general assembly of all the Greeks being called, Aristides proposed
a decree, that the deputies and religious representatives of the Greek
states should assemble annually at Plataea, and every fifth year
celebrate the Eleutheria, or games of freedom. And that there should
be a levy upon all Greece, for the war against the barbarians, of ten
thousand spearmen, one thousand horse, and a hundred sail of ships;
but the Plataeans to be exempt, and sacred to the service of the gods,
offering sacrifice for the welfare of Greece. These things begin
ratified, the Plataeans undertook the performance of annual sacrifice
to such as were slain and buried in that place; which they still
perform in the following manner. On the sixteenth day of Maemacterion
(which with the Boeotians is Alalcomenus) they make their procession,
which, beginning by break of day, is led by a trumpeter sounding for
onset; then follow certain chariots loaded with myrrh and garlands;
and then a black bull; then come the young men of free birth carrying
libations of wine and milk in large two-handed vessels, and jars of
oil and precious ointments, none of servile condition being permitted
to have any hand in this ministration, because the men died in defense
of freedom; after all comes the chief magistrate of Plataea, (for whom
it is unlawful at other times either to touch iron, or wear any other