a solitary
horseman rode up straight to the Greek camp. He bade the guard send
for Aristeides the Athenian, who was at once brought, when the
stranger spoke as follows:

"I am Alexander of Macedon, and I have come hither at the
greatest risk to myself to do you a service, for fear you should
be taken by surprise. Mardonius will attack to-morrow, not
because he has any new hope of success, but because he is
destitute of provisions, although the soothsayers all forbid him
to fight because the sacrifices and oracles are unfavourable, and
the army is disheartened. Thus he is forced to put all on a
venture, or else to starve if he remains quiet." When he had said
this, Alexander begged Aristeides to keep the secret to himself,
and communicate it to no one else. Aristeides, however, answered
that it would not be right for him to conceal it from Pausanias,
who was commander-in-chief. Before the battle he said that he
would keep it secret from every one else, but that if Greece was
victorious, all men then should know the good service so bravely
rendered by Alexander. After these words the king of Macedon rode
away, and Aristeides, proceeding to the tent of Pausanias, told
him the whole matter; they then sent for the other generals, and
ordered them to keep the troops under arms, as a battle was
expected.

XVI. At this time, Herodotus tells us, Pausanias asked Aristeides to
remove the Athenians from the left to the right wing, so as to be
opposite to the native Persian troops, on the ground that they would
be better able to contend with them, because they understood their
mode of fighting, and were confident because they had beaten them once
before, while he with the Spartans would take the left wing of the
army, where he would be opposed to those Greeks who had taken the
Persian side. Most of the Athenian generals thought this a silly and
insolent proceeding of Pausanias, that he should leave all the other
Greeks in their place, and march them backwards and forward like
helots, only to place them opposite the bravest troops of the enemy.
Aristeides, however, said that they were entirely mistaken, for a few
days before they had been wrangling with the Tegeans for the honour of
being posted on the left wing, and had been delighted when they
obtained it; but now, when the Lacedaemonians of their own free will
yielded the right wing t