herodotus

Eleusis.66. Thus far then had this battle proceeded: but Artabazos the son ofPharnakes had been displeased at the very first because Mardoniosremained behind after the king was gone; and afterwards he had beenbringing forward objections continually and doing nothing, but hadurged them always not to fight a battle: and for himself he acted asfollows, not being pleased with the things which were being done byMardonios.--The men of whom Artabazos was commander (and he had withhim no small force but one which was in number as much as fourmyriads[72] of men), these, when the fighting began, being well awarewhat the issue of the battle would be, he led carefully,[73] havingfirst given orders that all should go by the way which he should leadthem and at the same pace at which they should see him go. Havinggiven these orders he led his troops on pretence of taking them intobattle; and when he was well on his way, he saw the Persians alreadytaking flight. Then he no longer led his men in the same order asbefore, but set off at a run, taking flight by the quickest way not tothe palisade nor yet to the wall of the Thebans, but towards Phokis,desiring as quickly as possible to reach the Hellespont. 67. These, Isay, were thus directing their march: and in the meantime, while theother Hellenes who were on the side of the king were purposely slackin the fight,[74] the Bœotians fought with the Athenians for a longspace; for those of the Thebans who took the side of the Medes had nosmall zeal for the cause, and they fought and were not slack, so thatthree hundred of them, the first and best of all, fell there by thehands of the Athenians: and when these also turned to flight, theyfled to Thebes, not to the same place as the Persians: and the mainbody of the other allies fled without having fought constantly withany one or displayed any deeds of valour. 68. And this is anadditional proof to me that all the fortunes of the Barbariansdepended upon the Persians, namely that at that time these men fledbefore they had even engaged with the enemy, because they saw thePersians doing so. Thus all were in flight except only the cavalry,including also that of the Bœotians; and this rendered service to thefugitives by constantly keeping close to the enemy and separating thefugitives of their own side from the Hellenes. 69. The victors thenwere coming after the troops of Xerxes, both pursuing them andslaughtering them; and during the time when this panic arose, thereport was brought to the other Hellenes who had posted themselvesabout the temple of Hera and had been absent from the battle, that abattle had taken place and that the troops of Pausanias were gainingthe victory. When they heard this, then without ranging themselves inany order the Corinthians and those near them turned to go by theskirts of the mountain and by the low hills along the way which ledstraight up to the temple of Demeter, while the Megarians and