Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/362

 344 HISTORY OF GREECE. not told that they bad been invited, and very probably thfl Athenians had never thought of summoning aid from this uuim portant neighbor, in whose behalf they had taken upon them selves a lasting feud with Thebes and the Boeotian league. 1 Their coming on this important occasion seems to have been a spontaneous effort of gratitudi which ought not to be tho, less commended because their interests were really wrapped up in those of Athens, since if the latter had been conquered, noih- hig could have saved Platasa from being subdued by the Thebans, yet many a Grecian town would have disregarded both gener- ous impulse and rational calculation, in the fear of provoking a new and terrific enemy. If we summon up to our imaginations all the circumstances of the case, which it requires some effort to do, because our authorities come from the subsequent genera- tions, after Greece had ceased to fear the Persians, we shall be sensible that this volunteer march tf the whole Plataean force to Marathon is one of the most affect ig incidents of all Grecian history. Upon Athens generally it produced an indelible im- pression, commemorated ever afterw ards in the public prayers of the Athenian herald, 2 and repaid by a grant to the Platceans of the full civil rights seemingly without the political rights of Athenian citizens. Upon the Athenians then marshalled at Marathon its effect must have been unspeakably powerful and encouraging, as a proof that they were not altogether isolated from Greece, and as an unexpected countervailing stimulus under circumstances so full of hazard. Of the two opposing armies at Marathon, we are told that tho Athenians were ten thousand hoplites, either including or besides the one thousand who came from Platrea. 3 Nor is this state- 1 Herodot. vi, 108-112. 3 Justin states ten thousand Athenians, besides one thousand Platseans. Cornelius Nepos, Pausanias, and Plutarch give ten thousand as thu sum total of both. Justin, ii, 9 ; Cora. Nep. Miltiad. c. 4 ; Pausan. iv, 25, j ; x, 10, 2 : compare also Suidas, v, 'Iniriaf. Heeren (De Fontibus Trogi Pompeii, Dissertat. ii, 7) affirms that Trogti3j or Justin, follows Herodotus in matters concerning the Persian invasions of Greece. He cannot have compared the two very attentively ; for Justin not only states several matters which are not to be found in Herodotus, bo* is at variance with the latter on SOTS particulars not unimportant.
 * Thucyd. iii, 55.