Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/205

 BATTLES OF PLAT^A AND MYKALE. 181 daemonians, Tegeans, and Athenians, on the other. It has ah-eady been mentioned that the central troops of the Grecian ai-my, dis- obeying the general order of march, had gone during the night to the town of Plateea instead of to the island. They were thus completely severed from Pausanias, and the first thing which they heard about the battle, was, that the Lacedaemonians wei*e gaining the victory. Elate with this news, and anxious to come in for some share of the honor, they rushed to the scene of action, Avithout any heed of military order; the Corinthians taking the direct track across the hills, while the Megarian?, Phliasians, and others, marched by the longer route along the plain, so as to turn the hills and arrive at the Athenian position. The Theban horse under Asopodorus, employed in checking the pursuit of the victorious Athenian hoplites, seeing these fresh troops coming up in thorough disorder, charged them igorously, and drove them back to take refuge in the high ground, with the loss of six hundred men.i But this partial success had no effect in mitigating the ruin of the general defeat. Following up their pursuit, the Lacedaemonians proceeded to attack the wooden redoubt wherein the Persians had taken refuge. But though they were here aided by all or most of the central Grecian divisions, who had taken no part in the battle, they w'ere yet so ignorant of the mode of assailing walls, that they made no progress, and were completely baffled, until the Athenians arrived to their assistance. The redoubt was then stormed, not without a gallant and prolonged resistance on the part of its defenders. The Tegeans, being the first to penetrate into the interior, plundered the rich tent of Mardonius, whose manger for his horses, made of brass, remained long afterwai'ds exhibited in their temple of Athene Alea, — while his silver- footed throne, and cimeter^ were preserved in the acropolis of Athens, along with the breastplate of Masistius. Once within the wall, effective resistance ceased, and the Greeks slaughtered without mercy as well as without limit ; so that if we are to credit - Hcrodot. ix. 70 ; Demosthenes cont. Timokrat. p. 741, c. 33. Pausanias (i, 27, 2) doubts whether this was really the cimeter of Mai'donius, con- tending that the Lacedaemonians ■would never have permitted the Atheni- ans to take it.
 * Hcrodot. ix, 69.