herodotus

in advance of the other Hellenes who ere there present, having chosento go with them the bow-men also. For some time then they fought, andat last an end was set to the fighting in the following manner:--whilethe cavalry was attacking by squadrons, the horse of Masistios, goingin advance of the rest, was struck in the side by an arrow, andfeeling pain he reared upright and threw Masistios off; and when hehad fallen, the Athenians forthwith pressed upon him; and his horsethey took and himself, as he made resistance, they slew, though atfirst they could not, for his equipment was of this kind,--he wore acuirass of gold scales underneath, and over the cuirass he had put ona crimson tunic. So as they struck upon the cuirass they could effectnothing, until some one, perceiving what the matter was, thrust intohis eye. Then at length he fell and died; and by some means the othermen of the cavalry had not observed this take place, for they neithersaw him when he had fallen from his horse nor when he was being slain,and while the retreat and the turn[24] were being made, they did notperceive that which was happening; but when they had stopped theirhorses, then at once they missed him, since there was no one tocommand them; and when they perceived what had happened, they passedthe word to one another and all rode together, that they might ifpossible recover the body. 23. The Athenians upon that, seeing thatthe cavalry were riding to attack them no longer by squadrons but alltogether, shouted to the rest of the army to help them. Then while thewhole number of those on foot were coming to their help, there arose asharp fight for the body; and so long as the three hundred were alonethey had much the worse and were about to abandon the body, but whenthe mass of the army came to their help, then the horsemen no longersustained the fight, nor did they succeed in recovering the body; andbesides him they lost others of their number also. Then they drew offabout two furlongs away and deliberated what they should do; and itseemed good to them, as they had no commander, to ride back toMardonios. 24. When the cavalry arrived at the camp, the whole armyand also Mardonios made great mourning for Masistios, cutting offtheir own hair and that of their horses and baggage-animals and givingway to lamentation without stint; for all Bœotia was filled with thesound of it, because one had perished who after Mardonios was of themost account with the Persians and with the king. 25. The Barbariansthen were paying honours in their own manner to Masistios slain: butthe Hellenes, when they had sustained the attack of the cavalry andhaving sustained it had driven them back, were much more encouraged;and first they put the dead body in a cart and conveyed it along theirranks; and the body was a sight worth seeing for its size and beauty,wherefore also the men left their places in the ranks and went oneafter the other[25] to gaze upon Masistios. After this they resolvedto come down further towards Plataia; for the region of Plataia wasseen to be much more convenient for them to encamp in than that of