the
Spartans; the latter at once promised Athens all she wanted, and on the
strength of their oaths she at once broke off the negotiations with the
Persians. Mardonius immediately resolved on action: he left his quarters
in Thessaly in the early days of May, reached Attica by a few
quick marches, and spread his troops over the country before the
Peloponnesians were prepared to resist. The people again took refuge in
Salamis; the Persians occupied Athens afresh, and once more had recourse
to diplomacy. This time the Spartans were alarmed to good purpose; they
set out to the help of their ally, and from that moment Mardonius showed
no further consideration in his dealing with Athens. He devastated the
surrounding country, razed the city walls to the ground, and demolished
and burnt the remaining houses and temples; he then returned to Boeotia,
the plains of which were more suited to the movements of his squadrons,
and took up a position in an entrenched camp on the right bank of the
Asopos. The Greek army, under the command of Pausanias, King of Sparta,
subsequently followed him there, and at first stationed themselves on
the lower slopes of Mount Cithseron. Their force was composed of about
25,000 hoplites, and about as many more light troops, and was scarcely
inferior in numbers to the enemy, but it had no cavalry of any kind.
Several days passed in skirmishing without definite results, Mardonius
fearing to let his Asiatic troops attack the heights held by the heavy
Greek infantry, and Pausanias alarmed lest his men should be crushed by
the Thessalian and Persian horse if he ventured down into the plains.
Want of water at length obliged the Greeks to move slightly westwards,
their right wing descending as far as the spring of Gargaphia, and their
left to the bank of the Asopos. But this position facing east, exposed
them so seriously to the attacks of the light Asiatic horse, that after
enduring it for ten days they raised their camp and fell back in the
night on Plataea. Unaccustomed to manouvre together, they were unable
to preserve their distances; when day dawned, their lines, instead
of presenting a continuous front, were distributed into three unequal
bodies occupying various parts of the plain. Mardonius unhesitatingly
seized his opportunity. He crossed the Asopos, ordered the Thebans to
attack the Athenians, and with the bulk of his Asiatic troops charged
the Spartan contingents. Here, as at Marathon, the superior