what was going on, they made haste to their assistance. And as they
passed through the plain to the place where the noise was, the recreant
Greeks, who took part with the enemy, came upon them. Aristides, as soon
as he saw them, going a considerable space before the rest, cried out to
them, by the guardian gods of Greece, not to enter the fight, and be no
impediment to those who were going to succor the defenders of Greece.
But when he perceived that they gave no attention to him, and had
prepared themselves for the battle, then turning from the present relief
of the Lacedaemonians, he engaged with them, being five thousand in
number. But the greatest part soon gave way and retreated, as the
barbarians were also put to flight.

The battle being thus divided, the Lacedaemonians first beat off the
Persians; and a Spartan, named Arimnestus, slew Mardonius by a blow on
the head with a stone, as the oracle in the temple of Amphiaraus had
foretold to him. For Mardonius sent a Lydian thither, and another
person, a Carian, to the cave of Trophonius. The latter, the priest of
the oracle answered in his own language. But to the Lydian sleeping
in the temple of Amphiaraus, it seemed that a minister of the divinity
stood before him and commanded him to be gone; and on his refusing to
do it, flung a great stone at his head, so that he thought himself slain
with the blow. Such is the story.

Of three hundred thousand of the enemy, forty thousand only are said to
have escaped with Artabazus; while on the Greeks' side there perished in
all thirteen hundred and sixty; of whom fifty-two were Athenians, all of
the tribe Aeantis, that fought, says Clidemus, with the greatest
courage of all; and for this reason the men of this tribe used to offer
sacrifice for the victory, as enjoined by the oracle, at the public
expense; ninety-one were Lacedaemonians, and sixteen Tegeatans. They
engraved upon the altar this inscription:

The Greeks, when by their courage and their might,
They had repelled the Persian in the fight,
The common altar of freed Greece to be,
Reared this to Jupiter who guards the free.

The battle of Plataea was fought on the fourth day of the month
Boedromion, on which day there is still a convention of the Greeks
at Plataea, and the Plateans still offer sacrifice for the victory to
"Jupiter of freedom."

After this, the Athenians, not yielding the honor of the day to the
Lacedaemonians, nor consenti