Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/204

 180 HISTORY OF GREECE. the Persian fortified camp.i With the exception of the Thebans and Boeotians, none of the other medizing Greeks rendered any real service : instead of sustaining or reinforcing the Thebans, they never once advanced to the charge, but merely followed in the first movement of flight. So that, in point of fact, the only troops in this numerous Perso-Grecian army who really fought, were the native Persians and Sakje on the left, and the Boeo- tians on the right : the former against the Lacedaemonians, the latter against the Athenians.^ Nor did even all the native Persians take part in the combat. A body of forty thousand men under Artabazus, of whom some must doubtless have been native Persians, left the field without fighting and without loss. That general, seemingly the ablest man in the Pei'sian army, had been from the first disgusted with the nomination of Mardonius as commander-in-chief, and had farther incurred his displeasure by deprecating any general action. Apprized that Mardonius was hastening forward to attack the retreating Greeks, he marshalled his division and led them out towards the scene of action, though despairing of suc- cess, and perhaps not very anxious that his own prophecies should be contradicted. And such had been the headlong impetuosity of Mardonius in his first forward movement, — so complete his confidence of overwhelming the Greeks when he discovered their retreat, — that he took no pains to insure the concerted action of his wdiole army : accordingly, before Artaba- zus arrived at the scene of action, he saw the Persian troops, who had been engaged under the commander-in-chief, already defeated and in flight. Without making the least attempt either to save them or to retrieve the battle, he immediately gave orders to his own division to retreat : not repairing, however, either to the fortified camp, or to Thebes, but abandoning at once the whole campaign, and taking the direct road through Phocis to Thessaly, Macedonia, and the Hellespont.3 As the native Persians, the Sakas, and the Boeotians, were the only real combatants on the one side, so also were the Lace- ' Herodot. ix, 67, 68. ^ Herodot. ix, 67, 68. Tuv 6e dAAwv 'Eaatjvuv tuv fiera (iactMoc kde- '/.OKaneovTuv . . .Kai tQv uaXuv cv/if^uxuv 6 tzuq o/ii/'i.of ovre 6taftaxead^EV0( ovdevl ovTE Ti inrode^a/ievog l^vyev. ^ Herodot. ix, 66