the ten generals. Also Cynægirus, son to Euphorion, whose brother was Æschylus the poet, was slain at this time; for, laying hold of the stern ornament of one of the ships of the Persians, he had his hand cut off by the blow of an axe; and there perished with him other Athenians also of note and name. Nevertheless the Athenians took seven of the ships at this time. With the rest the barbarians pushed off from the shore, and having taken up the prisoners from Eretria from the island whereon they had left them, they sailed round the promontory of Sunium, hoping that they should come to the city before that the army of the Athenians should be able to return thither. In this matter the house of the sons of Alcmæon were accused by their fellow-countrymen, who said that they had held up a shield for a signal to the Persians; and that it had been covenanted that they should do so, that the Persians might take the city unawares and empty of men. So the Persians sailed round Cape Sunium; and the Athenians marched with all the speed that they could that they might defend the city; and when they were come they encamped in the precinct of Hercules, that is at Cynosargæ; and it so chanced that they came from the precinct of Hercules that is in Marathon. For a while the ships of the barbarians lay off Phalerum, which was in those days the port of Athens, but in no long time sailed back to Asia.
In this battle that was fought at Marathon there were slain of the barbarians six thousand and four hundred or thereabouts, and of the Athenians one hundred and ninety and two. In the battle also there happened this marvel. A man of Athens, Epizelus by name, the son of Couphagoras, fighting in the press, and bearing himself bravely, was of a sudden smitten with blindness, and this without being wounded any where in the body or stricken at all. And he was blind for the remainder of his days. Now the story which this man told about the matter was this. “I saw,” he said, “a man of great stature fully armed stand over against me, and he had a great beard that covered his whole shield. Me indeed he passed by, but the man that stood next to me he smote and slew.”