CHAPTER IV. OF THE BATTLE OF MARATHON.

Gods send all blessings to the men of Athens and to the men of Platæa.” Now the Athenians sought to make their line of battle equal to the line of the Persians; and that they might do so they took away men from the center, so that this was the weakest part of the army, the wings being the strongest. And so, so soon as the battle had been set in array, and the sacrifice being made appeared to be favorable, then the Athenians, being let go, charged the Persians at a running pace, the space between the two armies being eight furlongs or thereabouts. And the Persians, when they saw them coming against them at a run, made ready to receive them, but thought that they must be possessed with utter madness and frenzy, seeing that they were so few in number and yet were running to meet them, and this though they had neither horsemen nor archers. So the barbarians judged; but not the less the Athenians, joining battle in one body with their enemies, quitted themselves in a manner worthy of all praise. For indeed never before had Greeks so charged against their enemies in battle at a running pace, nor had any before endured to see without fear men clad and armed in the fashion of the Medes. For indeed before that day the very name of the Medes had been a terror to the Greeks to hear. Long time did the barbarians and Athenians fight together in Marathon. In the middle of the line the barbarians prevailed, for there the Persians and the Sacæ had their place. These broke the line of the Greeks, and pursued them for some space toward the mountains. But on each of the two wings the Greeks prevailed, the Athenians being on the one wing and the men of Platæa upon the other. These, having broken their enemies, suffered them to flee, and then wheeling round the two wings upon the barbarians that had broken the middle of the line, they prevailed over these also. Then the Persians fled to their ships, and the Athenians pursued them, smiting them and slaying them; and when they, pursuing them, came to the sea, they called for fire and would have burned the ships. In this part of the battle fell Callimachus, the war-archon, who had shown himself that day a man of valor. Also there fell Stesilaus, son of Thrasilaus, being one of