which he should lead them and at the same pace
at which they should see him go. Having given these orders he led his
troops on pretence of taking them into battle; and when he was well on
his way, he saw the Persians already taking flight. Then he no longer
led his men in the same order as before, but set off at a run, taking
flight by the quickest way not to the palisade nor yet to the wall of
the Thebans, but towards Phokis, desiring as quickly as possible to
reach the Hellespont..

67. These, I say, were thus directing their march: and in the meantime,
while the other Hellenes who were on the side of the king were purposely
slack in the fight, 74 the Boeotians fought with the Athenians for a
long space; for those of the Thebans who took the side of the Medes had
no small zeal for the cause, and they fought and were not slack, so
that three hundred of them, the first and best of all, fell there by the
hands of the Athenians: and when these also turned to flight, they fled
to Thebes, not to the same place as the Persians: and the main body of
the other allies fled without having fought constantly with any one or
displayed any deeds of valour..

68. And this is an additional proof to me that all the fortunes of the
Barbarians depended upon the Persians, namely that at that time these
men fled before they had even engaged with the enemy, because they saw
the Persians doing so. Thus all were in flight except only the cavalry,
including also that of the Boeotians; and this rendered service to the
fugitives by constantly keeping close to the enemy and separating the
fugitives of their own side from the Hellenes..

69. The victors then were coming after the troops of Xerxes, both
pursuing them and slaughtering them; and during the time when this
panic arose, the report was brought to the other Hellenes who had posted
themselves about the temple of Hera and had been absent from the battle,
that a battle had taken place and that the troops of Pausanias were
gaining the victory. When they heard this, then without ranging
themselves in any order the Corinthians and those near them turned to go
by the skirts of the mountain and by the low hills along the way which
led straight up to the temple of Demeter, while the Megarians and
Phliasians and those near them went by the plain along the smoothest
way. When however the Megarians and Phliasians came near to the enemy,
the cavalry of the Thebans caught sight of them from a distanc