e Hellenes on the side of the
king who had been ranged opposite to them, so that they were no longer
able to come to the help of the Lacedemonians, for the force that
was attacking them gave them much trouble. Thus the Lacedemonians and
Tegeans were left alone, being in number, together with light-armed men,
the former fifty thousand and the Tegeans three thousand; for these
were not parted at all from the Lacedemonians: and they began to offer
sacrifice, meaning to engage battle with Mardonios and the force
which had come against them. Then since their offerings did not prove
favourable, and many of them were being slain during this time and many
more wounded,--for the Persians had made a palisade of their wicker-work
shields 65 and were discharging their arrows in great multitude and
without sparing,--Pausanias, seeing that the Spartans were hard pressed
and that the offerings did not prove favourable, fixed his gaze upon
the temple of Hera of the Plataians and called upon the goddess to help,
praying that they might by no means be cheated of their hope:.

62, and while he was yet calling upon her thus, the Tegeans started
forward before them and advanced against the Barbarians, and forthwith
after the prayer of Pausanias the offerings proved favourable for the
Lacedemonians as they sacrificed. So when this at length came to pass,
then they also advanced against the Persians; and the Persians put away
their bows and came against them. Then first there was fighting about
the wicker-work shields, and when these had been overturned, after that
the fighting was fierce by the side of the temple of Demeter, and so
continued for a long time, until at last they came to justling; for
the Barbarians would take hold of the spears and break them off. Now in
courage and in strength the Persians were not inferior to the others,
but they were without defensive armour, 66 and moreover they were
unversed in war and unequal to their opponents in skill; and they would
dart out one at a time or in groups of about ten together, some more and
some less, and fall upon the Spartans and perish..

63. In the place where Mardonios himself was, riding on a white horse
and having about him the thousand best men of the Persians chosen out
from the rest, here, I say, they pressed upon their opponents most of
all: and so long as Mardonios survived, they held out against them, and
defending themselves they cast down many of the Lacedemonians; but whe