well in hand, and, wheeling round, they formed the two wings together.
Miltiades instantly led them against the Persian centre, which had
hitherto been triumphant, but which now fell back, and prepared to
encounter these new and unexpected assailants. Aristides and
Themistocles renewed the fight with their reorganized troops, and the
full force of the Greeks was brought into close action with the Persian
and Sacean divisions of the enemy. Datis' veterans strove hard to keep
their ground, and evening was approaching before the stern encounter was
decided.

But the Persians, with their slight wicker shields, destitute of body
armor, and never taught by training to keep the even front and act with
the regular movement of the Greek infantry, fought at heavy disadvantage
with their shorter and feebler weapons against the compact array of
well-armed Athenian and Plataean spearmen, all perfectly drilled to
perform each necessary evolution in concert, and to preserve a uniform
and unwavering line in battle. In personal courage and in bodily
activity the Persians were not inferior to their adversaries. Their
spirits were not yet cowed by the recollection of former defeats; and
they lavished their lives freely, rather than forfeit the fame which
they had won by so many victories. While their rear ranks poured an
incessant shower of arrows over the heads of their comrades, the
foremost Persians kept rushing forward, sometimes singly, sometimes in
desperate groups of ten or twelve, upon the projecting spears of the
Greeks, striving to force a lane into the phalanx, and to bring their
cimeters and daggers into play. But the Greeks felt their superiority,
and though the fatigue of the long-continued action told heavily on
their inferior numbers, the sight of the carnage that they dealt upon
their assailants nerved them to fight still more fiercely on.

At last the previously unvanquished lords of Asia turned their backs and
fled, and the Greeks followed, striking them down, to the water's
edge,[46] where the invaders were now hastily launching their galleys,
and seeking to embark and fly. Flushed with success, the Athenians
attacked and strove to fire the fleet. But here the Asiatics resisted
desperately, and the principal loss sustained by the Greeks was in the
assault on the ships. Here fell the brave War-ruler Callimachus, the
general Stesilaus, and other Athenians of note. Seven galleys were
fired; but the Persians succeeded i