, shield against
shield. The Boeotian left, as far as the centre, was worsted by the
Athenians. The Thespians in that part of the field suffered most
severely. The troops alongside them having given way, they were
surrounded in a narrow space and cut down fighting hand to hand; some
of the Athenians also fell into confusion in surrounding the enemy
and mistook and so killed each other. In this part of the field the
Boeotians were beaten, and retreated upon the troops still fighting; but
the right, where the Thebans were, got the better of the Athenians and
shoved them further and further back, though gradually at first. It so
happened also that Pagondas, seeing the distress of his left, had sent
two squadrons of horse, where they could not be seen, round the hill,
and their sudden appearance struck a panic into the victorious wing of
the Athenians, who thought that it was another army coming against them.
At length in both parts of the field, disturbed by this panic, and with
their line broken by the advancing Thebans, the whole Athenian army took
to flight. Some made for Delium and the sea, some for Oropus, others for
Mount Parnes, or wherever they had hopes of safety, pursued and cut down
by the Boeotians, and in particular by the cavalry, composed partly
of Boeotians and partly of Locrians, who had come up just as the rout
began. Night however coming on to interrupt the pursuit, the mass of the
fugitives escaped more easily than they would otherwise have done. The
next day the troops at Oropus and Delium returned home by sea, after
leaving a garrison in the latter place, which they continued to hold
notwithstanding the defeat.

The Boeotians set up a trophy, took up their own dead, and stripped
those of the enemy, and leaving a guard over them retired to Tanagra,
there to take measures for attacking Delium. Meanwhile a herald came
from the Athenians to ask for the dead, but was met and turned back by
a Boeotian herald, who told him that he would effect nothing until
the return of himself the Boeotian herald, and who then went on to the
Athenians, and told them on the part of the Boeotians that they had
done wrong in transgressing the law of the Hellenes. Of what use was the
universal custom protecting the temples in an invaded country, if the
Athenians were to fortify Delium and live there, acting exactly as
if they were on unconsecrated ground, and drawing and using for their
purposes the water which they, the Boeot