Herodotus - The Histories.pdf

26 V Herodotus
having incurred in the attempt a further loss of
several of their number. They therefore retired
about two furlongs, and consulted with each
other what was best to be done. Being without a
leader, it seemed to them the fittest course to
return to Mardonius.
When the horse reached the camp, Mardonius
and all the Persian army made great lamentation
for Masistius. They shaved off all the hair from
their own heads, and cut the manes from their
war-horses and their sumpter-beasts, while they
vented their grief in such loud cries that all
Boeotia resounded with the clamour, because they
had lost the man who, next to Mardonius, was
held in the greatest esteem, both by the king and
by the Persians generally. So the barbarians, after
their own fashion, paid honours to the dead
Masistius.
The Greeks, on the other hand, were greatly
emboldened by what had happened, seeing that
they had not only stood their ground against the
attacks of the horse, but had even compelled them