o them, and in some sort offered them the post
of honour in the whole army, they were not delighted at it, and did
not consider what an advantage it was to have to fight against foreign
barbarians, and not against men of their own race and nation. After
these words, the Athenians cheerfully exchanged places with the
Lacedaemonians, and much talk went on among them as each man reminded
his comrades that the Persians who would come to attack them were no
braver, nor better armed than those whom they had defeated at
Marathon, but that they had the same bows and arrows, the same
embroidered robes and gold ornaments on their effeminate bodies, while
we, they said, have arms and bodies such as we had then, and greater
confidence because of our victories. We also fight, not merely as
other Greeks do, in defence of our city and territory, but for the
trophies of Marathon and Salamis, lest the battle of Marathon should
be thought to have been won more by Miltiades and Fortune, than by the
valour of the Athenians. With such encouraging talk as this the
Athenians took up their new position; but the Thebans discovered what
had been done from deserters and told Mardonius. He at once, either
from fear of the Athenians, or from a chivalrous wish to fight the
Spartans himself, led the native Persian troops to his right wing, and
ordered the renegade Greeks to take ground opposite the Athenians.
When these changes were being observed, Pausanias returned to his
original position on the right. Mardonius then returned to the left as
before, and the day passed without an engagement. The Greeks now
determined in a council of war, to remove their camp to a place
farther away and better supplied with water, because they were
prevented from using the springs near where they were by the enemy's
great superiority in cavalry.

XVII. When night fell the generals began to lead the army to the place
selected for a new camp. The soldiers were very unwilling to follow
them thither and keep together in a body, but as soon as they quitted
their first entrenchments, most of them made for the city of Plataea;
and there was much confusion as they wandered about and pitched their
tents here and there. The Lacedaemonians, much against their will,
chanced to be left behind, and quite separated from the rest. One
Amompharetus, a spirited and daring man, who had long been eager to
fight, and chafed much at the long delays and countermarches which had
taken plac