Meantime, day came upon them; and Mardonius (for he was not ignorant of their deserting their camp), having his army in array, fell upon the Lacedaemonians with great shouting and noise of barbarous people, as if they were not about to join battle, but crush the Greeks in their flight. Which within a very little came to pass. For Pausanias, perceiving what was done, made a halt, and commanded every one to put themselves in order for the battle; but either through his anger with Amompharetus, or the disturbance he was in by reason of the sudden approach of the enemy, he forgot to give the signal to the Greeks in general. Whence it was that they did not come in immediately or in a body to their assistance, but by small companies and straggling, when the fight was already begun. Pausanias, offering sacrifice, could not procure favourable omens, and so commanded the Lacedaemonians, setting down their shields at their feet, to abide quietly and attend his directions, making no resistance to any of their enemies. And he sacrificing again a second time, the horse charged, and some of the Lacedaemonians were wounded. At this time, also, Callicrates, who, we are told, was the most comely man in the army, being shot with an arrow and upon the point of expiring, said that he lamented not his death (for he came from home to lay down his life in the defence of Greece), but that he died without action. The case was indeed hard, and the forbearance of the men wonderful; for they let the enemy charge without repelling them;and, expecting their proper opportunity from the gods and their general, suffered themselves to be wounded and slain in their ranks.
And some say, that while Pausanias was at sacrifice and prayers, some space out of the battle array, certain Lydians, falling suddenly upon him, plundered and scattered the sacrifice: and that Pausanias and his company, having no arms, beat them with staves and whips; and that, in imitation of this attack, the whipping the boys about the altar, and after it the Lydian procession, are to this day practised in Sparta.
Pausanias, therefore, being troubled at these things, while the priests went on offering one sacrifice after another, turns himself towards the temple with tears in his eyes, and lifting up his hands to heaven besought Juno of Cithaeron, and the other tutelar gods of the Plataeans, if it were not in the fates for the Greeks to obtain the victory, that they might not perish without performing some remarkable thing, and by their actions demonstrating to their enemies that they waged war with men of courage and soldiers. While Pausanias was thus in the act of supplication, the sacrifices appeared propitious, and the soothsayers foretold victory. The word being given, the Lacedaemonian battalion of foot seemed, on the sudden, like some one fierce animal, setting up his bristles, and betaking himself to the combat; and the barbarians perceived that they encountered with men who would fight it to the death. Therefore, holding their wicker-shields before them, they shot their arrows amongst the Lacedaemonians. But they, keeping together in the order of a phalanx, and falling upon the enemies, forced their shields out of their hands, and, striking with their pikes at the breasts and faces of the Persians, overthrew many of them, who, however, fell not either unrevenged or without courage. For taking hold of the spears with their bare hands, they broke many of them, and betook themselves not without effect to the sword; and making use of their falchions and scimitars, and wresting the Lacedaemonians' shields from them, and grappling with them, it was a long time that they made resistance.
Meanwhile, for some time, the Athenians stood still, waiting for the Lacedaemonians to come up. But when they heard much noise as of men engaged in fight, and a messenger, they say, came from Pausanias, to advertise them of what was going on, they soon hasted to their assistance. And as they passed through the plain to the place where the noise was, the Greeks, who took part with the enemy, came upon them. Aristides, as soon as he saw them, going a considerable space before the rest, cried out to them, conjuring them by the guardian gods of Greece to forbear the fight, and be no impediment or stop to those who were going to succour the defenders of Greece. But when he perceived they gave no attention to him, and had prepared themselves for the battle, then turning from the present relief of the Lacedaemonians, he engaged them, being five thousand in number. But the greatest part soon gave way and retreated, as the barbarians also were put to flight. The sharpest conflict is said to have been against the Thebans, the chiefest and most powerful persons among them at that time siding zealously with the Medes, and leading the multitude not according to their own inclination, but as being subjects of an oligarchy.
