Greece -- History -- To 146 B.C.; History, Ancient
are earnest against fighting, thou shalt have the opposite of those good
things of which I told thee.".
110. Thus speaking Miltiades gained Callimachos to his side; and the
opinion of the polemarch being added, it was thus determined to fight
a battle. After this, those generals whose opinion was in favour of
fighting, as the turn of each one of them to command for the day 100
came round, gave over their command to Miltiades; and he, accepting
it, would not however yet bring about a battle, until his own turn to
command had come..
111. And when it came round to him, then the Athenians were drawn up for
battle in the order which here follows:--On the right wing the polemarch
Callimachos was leader (for the custom of the Athenians then was this,
that the polemarch should have the right wing); and he leading, next
after him came the tribes in order as they were numbered one after
another, and last were drawn up the Plataians occupying the left wing:
for 101 ever since this battle, when the Athenians offer sacrifices in
the solemn assemblies 102 which are made at the four-yearly festivals,
103 the herald of the Athenians prays thus, "that blessings 104 may come
to the Athenians and to the Plataians both." On this occasion however,
when the Athenians were being drawn up at Marathon something of this
kind was done:--their army being made equal in length of front to that
of the Medes, came to drawn up in the middle with a depth of but few
ranks, and here their army was weakest, while each wing was strengthened
with numbers..
112. And when they had been arranged in their places and the sacrifices
proved favourable, then the Athenians were let go, and they set forth at
a run to attack the Barbarians. Now the space between the armies was not
less than eight furlongs: 105 and the Persians seeing them advancing
to the attack at a run, made preparations to receive them; and in their
minds they charged the Athenians with madness which must be fatal,
seeing that they were few and yet were pressing forwards at a run,
having neither cavalry nor archers. 106 Such was the thought of the
Barbarians; but the Athenians when all in a body they had joined in
combat with the Barbarians, fought in a memorable fashion: for they were
the first of all the Hellenes about whom we know who went to attack the
enemy at a run, and they were the first also who endured to face the
Median garments and the men who wore them, whereas up to this time the
very name of the Medes was to the Hellenes a terror to hear..
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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