HERODOTUS

BOOK IX. 23-25they cried to the rest of the array for help. Whileall their foot was rallying to aid, there waxed asharp fight over the dead body. As long as thethree hundred stood alone, they had the worst ofthe battle by far, and were nigh leaving the deadman ;but when the main body came to their aid,then it was the horsemen that could no longer holdtheir ground, nor avail to recover the dead man,but they lost others of their comrades too besidesMasistius. They drew off therefore and haltedabout two furlongs off, where they consulted whatthey should do and; resolved, as there was none tolead them, to ride away to Mardonius.24. When the cavalry returned to the camp,Mardonius and all the army made very great mourningfor Masistius, cutting their own hair and the hairof their horses and beasts of burden, and lamentingloud and long for;the sound of it was heard overall Boeotia, inasmuch as a man was dead who wasnext to Mardonius most esteemed byall Persia andthe king.25. So the foreigners honoured Masistius' deathafter their manner ;but the Greeks were muchheartened by their withstanding and repelling ofthe horsemen. And first they laid the dead manon a cart and carried him about their ranks ;andthe body was worth the viewing, for stature andgoodliness wherefore they would even leave their;ranks and come to view Masistius. Presently theyresolved that they would march down to Plataeae ;for they saw that the ground there was in all waysfitterby much for encampment than at Erythrae,and chiefly because it was better watered. To thisplace, and to the Gargaphian spring that was there,185