; and it was of the deepest importance for him to
traverse as rapidly as possible the mile or so of level ground that lay
between the mountain foot and the Persian outposts, and so to get his
troops into close action before the Asiatic cavalry could mount, form,
and manoeuvre against him, or their archers keep him long under fire,
and before the enemy's generals could fairly deploy their masses.

"When the Persians," says Herodotus, "saw the Athenians running down on
them, without horse or bowmen, and scanty in numbers, they thought them
a set of madmen rushing upon certain destruction." They began, however,
to prepare to receive them, and the Eastern chiefs arrayed, as quickly
as time and place allowed, the varied races who served in their motley
ranks. Mountaineers from Hyrcania and Afghanistan, wild horsemen from
the steppes of Khorassan, the black archers of Ethiopia, swordsmen from
the banks of the Indus, the Oxus, the Euphrates and the Nile, made ready
against the enemies of the Great King.

But no national cause inspired them except the division of native
Persians; and in the large host there was no uniformity of language,
creed, race or military system. Still, among them there were many
gallant men, under a veteran general; they were familiarized with
victory, and in contemptuous confidence their infantry, which alone had
time to form, awaited the Athenian charge. On came the Greeks, with one
unwavering line of leveled spears, against which the light targets, the
short lances and cimeters of the Orientals offered weak defence. The
front rank of the Asiatics must have gone down to a man at the first
shock. Still they recoiled not, but strove by individual gallantry and
by the weight of numbers to make up for the disadvantages of weapons and
tactics, and to bear back the shallow line of the Europeans. In the
centre, where the native Persians and the Sacae fought, they succeeded in
breaking through the weakened part of the Athenian phalanx; and the
tribes led by Aristides and Themistocles were, after a brave resistance,
driven back over the plain, and chased by the Persians up the valley
toward the inner country. There the nature of the ground gave the
opportunity of rallying and renewing the struggle.

Meanwhile, the Greek wings, where Miltiades had concentrated his chief
strength, had routed the Asiatics opposed to them; and the Athenian and
Plataean officers, instead of pursuing the fugitives, kept their troops