The Greeks for their part, though very dejected, were induced to fight bravely for their country by the very urgency of the peril. For they saw that at the present crisis it was not merely their liberty that was at stake, as at the time of the Persian invasion, but that, even if they granted land and water to the enemy,[110] they would have no future security. For they still remembered the former irruption of the Galati into Macedonia and Thrace and Pæonia, and their recent outrages in Thessaly had been reported to them. It was the universal opinion therefore, both with individuals and states, that they must either die or conquer.
It will not be without instruction to compare the numbers of those who fought against Xerxes at Thermopylæ with those who fought now against the Galati. The Greeks that marched against the Mede were as follows: 300 Lacedæmonians only under Leonidas, 500 from Tegea, 500 from Mantinea, 120 Arcadians from Orchomenus, 1000 from the other towns of Arcadia, 80 from Mycenæ, 200 from Phlius, 400 from Corinth, 700 Bœotians from Thespia and 400 from Thebes. And 1,000 Phocians guarded the pass at Mount Œta, who must be added to the Greek contingent. As to the Locrians under Mount Cnemis Herodotus has not mentioned their precise number, he only says they came from all the towns. But we may conjecture their number pretty accurately: for the Athenians at Marathon, including slaves and non-combatants, were not more than 9,000: so that the fighting force of Locrians at Thermopylæ could not be more than 6,000. Thus the whole force employed against the Persians would be 11,200. Nor did all of these stay all the time under arms at Thermopylæ, for except the men from Lacedæmon and Thespia and Mycenæ they waited not to see the issue of the fight. And now against these barbarians who had crossed the ocean the following Greeks banded themselves at Thermopylæ: 10,000 heavy armed infantry and 500 horse from Bœotia, under the Bœotarchs Cephisodotus and Thearidas and Diogenes and Lysander: 500 cavalry and 3,000 foot from Phocis, under Critobulus and Antiochus: 700 Locrians, all infantry, from the island Atalanta, under the command of Midias: 400 heavy armed infantry of the Megarians, their cavalry under the command of Megareus: of the Ætolians, who formed the largest and most formidable contingent, the number of their horse is not recorded, but their light-armed troops were 90,[111] and their heavy armed 7000: and the Ætolians were under the command of Polyarchus and Polyphron and Lacrates. And the Athenians were under Callippus the son of Mœrocles, as I have before stated, and consisted of all the triremes that were sea-worthy, and 500 horse, and 1,000 foot, and because of their ancient renown they were in command of the whole allied army. And some mercenary troops were sent by various kings, as 500 from Macedonia, and 500 from Asia, those that were sent by Antigonus were led by Aristodemus the Macedonian, and those that were sent by Antiochus were led by Telesarchus, as also some Syrians from Asia situated by the river Orontes.
When these Greeks, thus banded together at Thermopylæ, heard that the army of the Galati was already in the neighbourhood of Magnesia and Phthiotis, they determined to send about 1,000 picked light-armed soldiers and a troop of horse to the river Sperchius, to prevent the barbarians’ crossing the river without a struggle. And they went and destroyed the bridges, and encamped by the river. Now Brennus was by no means devoid of intelligence, and for a barbarian no mean strategist. Accordingly on the following night without any delay he sent 10,000 of his troops, who could swim and were remarkably tall,—and all the Celts are remarkably tall men—down the river to cross it not at the ordinary fords, but at a part of the river where it was less rapid, and marshy, and diffused itself more over the plain, so that the Greeks should not be able to notice their crossing over. They crossed over accordingly, swimming over the marshy part of the river, and using the shields of their country as a sort of raft, while the tallest of them could ford the river. When the Greeks at the Sperchius noticed that part of the barbarians had crossed over, they returned at once to the main army.
[110] The technical term for submission to an enemy. See Herodotus, v. 17, 18; vii. 133.
[111] This 90 seeming a very small force, Schubart conjectures 790, Brandstäter 1090.
CHAPTER XXI.
Brennus next ordered those who dwelt near the Maliac Bay to throw bridges over the Sperchius: which they did quickly, standing greatly in dread of him, and being very desirous that the barbarians should depart and not injure them by a long stay in their part of the country. Then Brennus passed his army across these bridges, and marched for Heraclea. And though they did not capture it, the Galati ravaged the country, and slew the men that were left in the fields. The year before the Ætolians had compelled the people of Heraclea to join the Ætolian League, and now they protected Heraclea just as if it was their own. That is why Brennus did not capture it, but he paid no great attention to it, his only anxiety being to dislodge the enemy from the passes, and get into Greece by Thermopylæ.
He advanced therefore from Heraclea, and learning from deserters that a strong force from all the Greek cities was concentrated at Thermopylæ, he despised his enemy, and the following day at daybreak opened battle, having no Greek seer with him, or any priests of his own country, if indeed the Celts practise divination. Thereupon the Greeks advanced silently and in good order: and when the two armies engaged, the infantry were careful not to break their line, and the light-armed troops keeping their ground discharged their darts arrows and slings at the barbarians. The cavalry on both sides was useless, not only from the narrowness of the pass, but also from the smooth and slippery and rocky nature of the ground, intersected also throughout by various mountain streams. The armour of the Galati was inferior, for their only defensive armour was the shield used in their country, and moreover they were less experienced in the art of war. But they fought like wild beasts with rage and fury and headlong inconsiderate valour: and, whether hacked about by swords and battle-axes, or pierced with darts and javelins, desisted not from their furious attacks till bereft of life. Some even plucked out of their wounds the weapons with which they had been wounded, and hurled them back, or used them in hand to hand fight. Meantime the Athenians on their triremes, not without great difficulty and danger, sailed along the mud which is very plentiful in that arm of the sea, and got their vessels as near the barbarians as they could, and shot at their flanks with all kinds of darts and arrows. And the Celts by now getting far the worst of it, and in the press suffering far more loss than they could inflict, had the signal to retire to their camp given them by their commanders. Accordingly retreating in no order and in great confusion, many got trodden underfoot by one another, and many falling into the marsh disappeared in it, so that the loss in the retreat was as great as in the heat of action.
On this day the Athenians exhibited more valour than all the other Greeks, and especially Cydias, who was very young and fought now for the first time. And as he was killed by the Galati his relations hung up his shield to Zeus Eleutherius with the following inscription,
“Here I hang in vain regret for the young Cydias, I once the shield of that good warrior, now a votive offering to Zeus, the shield which he carried on his left arm for the first time, on that day when fierce war blazed out against the Galati.”