CHAPTER XXI. OF THE BATTLE OF PLATÆA.

did, doing much damage with the throwing of javelins and the shooting of arrows, for they used the bow while they rode, so that the Greeks could not deal with them hand to hand. Also they choked the fountain of Gargaphia, from which all the Greeks drew water. The Spartans only had their place near to the fountain, but all the Greeks used it, for the horsemen and the archers of the barbarians kept them from the river. Then the captains held a council; and it seemed good to them, if the Persians should not fight that day, to change the place of their camp to the Island. This is before the city of Platæa, and men call it the Island because a certain river, coming down from Mount Cithæron, divides here into two streams which flow for a space three furlongs apart, and after join together again. So all that day they stood in their place, suffering grievously from the horsemen of the barbarians, and when it was night they began to change their place. And when the greater part of the Greeks had departed—but they went not to the Island, but fled straight to Platæa, and encamped by the temple of Here, which is before the city—Pausanias commanded the Spartans that they also should depart. The rest of the captains were willing to obey, but one Amompharetus, that led the men of Pitana, would not move, saying, “I will not fly from the strangers, nor bring disgrace upon Sparta.” Pausanias took it very ill that the man should not obey his command, yet he would not leave him and his company alone, lest they should be destroyed. For this cause he kept the Spartans and their army in its place, and sought to persuade Amompharetus. And when the Athenians saw that the rest of the Greeks had departed, but that the Spartans remained, knowing that it was their custom to think one thing and say another, they sent a horseman to inquire whether they were minded to go or to remain. When the horseman came he found them in the very heat of the dispute, for Amompharetus took up a very great stone with both his hands and laid it at the feet of Pausanias, saying, “With this pebble I vote not to fly from the strangers” (for the Greeks give their votes with pebbles), and Pausanias affirmed that he was a fool and mad. And