Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/189

BATTLES OF PLAT.EA AKt) MYltALfi. j gg they charged furiously and in one mass to recover the dead body. At first the Athenians, too few in number to resist tlie onset were compelled for a time to give way, abandoning the body ; but reinforcements presently arriving at their call, the Pei-sians were driven back with loss, and it finally remained in their pos- session.! The death of Masistius, coupled with that final repulse of the cavalry which left his body in possession of the Greeks, produced a strong effect on both armies, encouraging the one as much as it disheartened the other. Throughout the camp of Mardonius, the grief was violent and unbounded, manifested by wailings so loud as to echo over all Boeotia ; while the hair of men, horses, and cattle, was abundantly cut in token of mourning. The Greeks, on the other hand, overjoyed at their success, placed the dead body in a cart, and paraded it around the army : even the hoplites ran out of their ranks to look at it ; not only hailing it as a valuable trophy, but admiring its stature and proportions.^ And so much was their confidence increased, that Pausanias now ventured to quit the protection of the mountain-ground, inconve* nient from its scanty supply of water, and to take up his posi- tion in the plain beneath, interspersed only with low hillocks. Marching from Erythrae in a westerly direction along the decliv- ities of Kithjfiron, and passing by Hysia;, the Greeks occujwed a line of camp in the Plataean territory along the Asopus and on its right bank ; with their right wing near to the fountain called Gargaphia,3 and their left wing near to the chapel, surrounded ' Herodof. ix, 21. 22, 23 ; Plutarch, Aristeides, c. 14. ^ Herodot. ix, 24, 23. olfiuyy te xp^'^f^^i^ot uTrXeru • uTtaaav yup rjjv BoiUTlTJV KOTclxe TJX^y ^tC. The exaggerated demonstrations of grief, ascribed to Xerxes and Atossa in the Persse of JEschylus, have often been blamed by critics : we may see from this passage how much they are in the manners of Orientals of that day. ' Herodot. ix, 23-30 ; Plutarch, Aristeides, c. 11. to tqv 'AvSpoKparovc 7ipfy>ov h/yvg u7^aeL nvKvCiv Kal avoKLuv divdpuv itepLexofzevov. The expression of Herodotus respecting this position taken by Pausanias, OvToi fiiv oiv rax'&evTEc £ttI tu 'Aouttg) iarparoTreSevovTo, as well as the words which follow in the next chapter (31^ — 01 pdplSapoi^ nv^ofievoL elvai Toi)^ 'EXXr/vac tv YiXaTai-^ai, napriaav Kal avrot iTzi rbv 'AauTzov tov ravrrf peovra, — show plainly that the Grecian troops were encamped along the