With these forces Pausanias left Sparta: the deputies, ignorant of the matter, when the morning came went to the ephori, having previously resolved to return to their respective cities: “You, O Lacedæmonians,” they exclaimed, “lingering here, solemnise the hyacinthia, and are busy in your public games, basely deserting your allies. The Athenians, injured by you, and but little assisted by any, will make their peace with the Persians on the best terms they can obtain. When the enmity betwixt us shall have ceased, and we shall become the king’s allies, we shall fight with him wherever he may choose to lead us: you may know therefore what consequences you have to expect.”
In answer to this declaration of the ambassadors, the ephori protested, upon oath, that they believed their troops were already in Oresteum, on their march against the strangers; by which expression they meant the barbarians. The deputies, not understanding them, requested an explanation. When the matter was properly represented to them, they departed with astonishment to overtake them, accompanied by five thousand armed troops from the neighbourhood of Sparta.
Whilst these were hastening to the isthmus, the Argives, as soon as they heard of the departure of Pausanias at the head of a body of troops from Sparta, sent one of their fleetest messengers to Mardonius in Attica. They had before undertaken to prevent the Lacedæmonians from taking the field. When the herald arrived at Athens, “I am sent,” said he to Mardonius, “by the Argives, to inform you that the forces of Sparta are already on their march, and we have not been able to prevent them; avail yourself therefore of this information.” Saying this, he returned.
MARDONIUS DESTROYS ATHENS AND WITHDRAWS
Mardonius, hearing this, determined to stay no longer in Attica. He had continued until this time, willing to see what measures the Athenians would take; and he had refrained from offering any kind of injury to the Athenian lands, hoping they would still make peace with him. When it was evident that this was not to be expected, he withdrew his army, before Pausanias and his detachment arrived at the isthmus. He did not however depart without setting fire to Athens,[34] and levelling with the ground whatever of the walls, buildings, or temples, still remained entire. He was induced to quit his station, because the country of Attica was ill adapted for cavalry, and because in case of defeat he had no other means of escape but through straits where a handful of men might cut off his retreat. He therefore determined to remove to Thebes, that he might have the advantage of fighting near a confederate city and in a country convenient for his cavalry.
Mardonius was already on his march, when another courier came in haste to inform him, that a second body of a thousand Spartans was moving towards Megara. He accordingly deliberated how he might intercept this latter party. Turning aside towards Megara, he sent on his cavalry to ravage the Megarian lands. These were the extreme limits on the western parts of Europe, to which the Persian army penetrated.
Another messenger now came to tell him, that the Greeks were assembled with great strength at the isthmus; he therefore turned back through Decelea. The Bœotian chiefs had employed their Asopian neighbours as guides, who conducted Mardonius first to Sphendaleas, and thence to Tanagra. At Tanagra, Mardonius passed the night, and the next day came to Scolos, in the Theban territory. Here the lands of the Thebans, though the friends and allies of the Medes, were laid waste, not from any enmity, but from the urgent necessities of the army. The general was desirous to fortify his camp, and to have some place of refuge in case of defeat. His camp extended from Erythræ, by Hysiæ, as far as Platæa, on the banks of the Asopus. It was protected by a wall, which did not continue the whole extent of the camp, but which occupied a space of ten stadia in each of the four fronts.
Whilst Mardonius was stationed in Bœotia, all the Greeks who were attached to the Persians supplied him with troops, and joined him in his attack on Athens; the Phocians alone did not; these had indeed, and with apparent ardour, favoured the Medes, not from inclination but necessity. A few days after the entertainment given at Thebes, they arrived with a thousand well-armed troops under the command of Harmocydes, one of their most popular citizens. Mardonius, on their following him to Thebes, sent some horsemen, commanding them to halt by themselves in the plain where they were: at the same moment, all the Persian cavalry appeared in sight. A rumour instantly circulated among those Greeks who were in the Persian camp, that the Phocians were going to be put to death by the cavalry. The same also spread through the Phocians, on which account their leader Harmocydes thus addressed them:
“My friends, I am convinced that we are destined to perish by the swords of these men, and from the accusations of the Thessalians. Let each man therefore prove his valour. It is better to die like men, exerting ourselves in our own defence, than to suffer ourselves to be slain tamely and without resistance: let these barbarians know, that the men whose deaths they meditate are Greeks.”