Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/202

 17 b HISTORY OF GREECE. , not venture to give orders fof advance and close combat. Many were here ivounded or slain in the ranks,^ among them the brave Kallikrates, the handsomest and strongest man in the army: until Pausanias, wearied out with this compulsory and painful delay, at length raised his eyes to the conspicuous Herasum of the Platteaus, and invoked the merciful intervention of Here to remove that obstacle which confined him to the spot. Hardly had he pronounced the words, when the victims changed and became favorable : 2 but the Tegeans, while he was yet praying, anticipated the effect and hastened forward against the enemy, followed by the Lacedaemonians as soon as Pausanias gave the word. The wicker breastwork before the Persians was soon overthrown by the Grecian charge : nevertheless the Persians, though thus deprived of their tutelary hedge, and having no defensive armor, maintained the fight with individual courage, the more remarkable because it was totally unassisted by disci- pline or trained collective movement, against the drilled array, the regulated step, the well-defended persons, and the long spears, of the Greeks.3 They threw themselves upon the HavaavUd) eyivero -d^vofievoLaL tu a^uyia xPV^'^'o- Plutarch exaggerates the long-suffering of Pausanias (Aristeid. c.l7, ad finem). The lofty and conspicuous site of the Herseon, visible to Pausanias at the distance -where he was, is plainly marked in Herodotus (ix, 61). For incidents illustrating the hardships which a Grecian army endured from its reluctance to move Avithout favorable sacrifices, see Xenophon, Anabasis, vi, 4, 10-25 : Hellenic, iii, 2, 17. ^ Herodot. ix, 62. 63. His words about the courage of the Persians are remarkable : /.Ti/iari (liv vvv Koi pufi-Q ovk eacoveg r/oav ol Jiepaat • u.von2,oi 6e EovTeg, Kal Trpbc, avETriarjjfiove^ ijaav, Koi ovk ofiolot TOiai Evavriocat ao(j>ii]v .... TT/leiOTov yap ai^Eag tdrj'kEETO i] iad-ijc ip^fio^ eovaa ottAqv • Tzpbg yap b—MTag eovteq yvfivrfTeg uyijva etzoievvto. Compare the striking con- versation between Xerxes and Demaratus (Herodot. vii, 104). The description given by Herodotus of the gallant rush made by these badly-armed Persians, upon the presented line of spears in the Lacedaemo- nian ranks, may be compared with Livy (xxxii, 17), a description of the Romans attacking the Macedonian phalanx, and with the battle of Sem- pach (June, 1386), in which fourteen hundred half-armed Swiss overcame a large body of fully-armed Austrians, with an impenetrable front of project- ing spears ; which for some time they were unable to break in upon, until
 * Herod, ix. 72.
 * Herodot. ix, 62. Kal rolai AaKEdaifiovioiai avrina fiETit ri/v evxvv t^v