Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/190

 166 mSTORY OF (JREECE. by a shady grove, of the Platacan hero, Androkrates. In this position they were marshalled according to nations, or separate fractions of the Greek name, — the Lacedaemonians on the right wing, with the Tegeans and Corinthians immediately joining them, — and the Athenians on the left wing ; a post which, as second in point of dignity, was at first claimed by the Tegeans, chiefly on grounds of mythical exploits, to the exclusion of the Athenians, but ultimately adjudged by the Spartans, after hear- ing both sides, to Athens. i In the field, e.ven Lacedagmoniana followed those democratical forms which pervaded so generally Grecian military operations : in this case, it was not the generals, but the Lacedaemonian troops in a body, who heard the argu ment, and delivered the verdict by unanimous acclamation. Asopus on the Platsean side, while the Persians in their second position oc- cupied the ground on the opposite, or Theban side of the river. Which- ever army commenced the attack had to begin by passing the Asopua (c. 36-59). For the topography of this region, and of the positions occupied by the two armies, compare Squire, in Walpole's Turkey, p. 338 ; Kruse, Hellas, vol. ii, ch. vi, p. 9; seq., and ch. viii, p. 592, seq. : and the still more copious and acctirate information of Colonel Leake, Travels in Northern Greece, ch. xvi, vol. ii, pp. 324-360. Both of them have given plans of the region ; that which I annex is borrowed from Kiepert's maps. I cannot but think that the fountain Gargaphia is not yet identified, and that both Kruse and Leake place the Grecian position farther from the river Asopus than is con- sistent with the words of Herodotus ; which words seem to specify points near the two extremities, indicating that the fountain of Gargaphia was 7iear the river towards the right of the Grecian position, and the chapel of Androkrates also near the river towards the left of that position, where the Athenians were posted. Nor would such a site for a chapel of Androkrates be inconsistent with Thucydides (iii, 24), who merely mentions that chapel as being on the right hand of the first mile of road from Plataea to Thebes. Considering the length of time which has elapsed since the battle, it would not be surprising if the spring of Gargaphia were no longer recog- nizable. At any rate, neither the fountain pointed out by Colonel Leake (p. 332) nor that of Vergutiani, which had been supposed by Colonel Squire and Dr. Clarke, appear to me suitable for Gargaphia. The eiTors of that plan of the battle of Platsa which accompanies the Voyage d'Anacharsis, are now well understood. ' Herodot. ix, 26-29. Judging from the battles of Corinth (e.g. 396) and Mantineia (b.c. 418), the Tegeans seem afterwards to have dropped this pretension to occupy the left wing, and to have prefen-ed the post in the line next to the Lacedaemonians (Xenoph. Hellen. iv, 2, 19).