Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/185

BATTLES OF PLAT^A AND MYKALE. ig] Boeotians were active and zealous, most of the remainder luke- warm, and the Phocians even of doubtful fidelity. Their contin- gent of one thousand hoplites, under Harmokydes, had been tardy in joining him, having only come up since he retired from Attica into Boeotia: and some of the Phocians even remained behind in the neighborhood of Parnassus, prosecuting manifest hostilities against the Persians. Aware of the feeling among this contingent, which the Thessalians took care to place before him in an unfavorable point of view, Mardonius determined to impress upon them a lesson of intimidation. Causing them to form in a separate body on the plain, he then brought up his numerous cavalry all around them : while the phgrae, or sudden simultaneous impression, ran through the Greek allies as well as the Phocians themselves, that he was about to shoot them down.' The general Harmokydes, directing his men to form a square and close their ranks, addressed to them short exhortations to sell their lives dearly, and to behave like brave Greeks against bar- barian assassins, — when the cavalry rode up, apparently to the charge, and advanced close to the square, with uplifted javelins and arrows on the string, some few of which were even actually discharged. The Phocians maintained, as enjoined, steady ranks with a firm countenance, and the cavalry wheeled about without any actual attack or damage. After this mystei-ious demonstra- tion, Mardonius condescended to compliment the Phocians on their courage, and to assure them, by means of a herald, that he had been greatly misinformed respecting them : he at the same time exhorted them to be faithful and forward in service for the future, and promised that all good behavior should be amply recompensed. Herodotus seems uncertain, — difficult as the sup- position is to entertain, — whether Mardonius did not really intend at first to massacre the Phocians in the field, and desisted from the intention only on seeing how much blood it would cost to accomplish. However this may be, the scene itself was a ' Herodot. ix, 17. 6Le^ri7.-&E ^fiiiT}, u^ KaraKovTiel ff(peac. Respecting (p>}/xr], see a note a little farther on, at the battle of Mykale, in this same chapter. Conipare the case of the Delians at Adramyttiura, surrounded and slain with missiles by the Persian satrap, though not his enemies — Trepcarr/aar Tovf iavTov KaTTjKovTiae (Thucyd. viii, 108^ VOL. V. Hoc