THE PLAIN OF MARATHON. 



3^5 



andthe certain cause of destruction to the Greeks, who, without *cavalry 

 or archers, pressed forward to the attack with such violent impetuosity. 

 The latter however when they came hand to hand with the barbarians, 

 fought in a manner most worthy to be recorded ; they were the first, 

 says the historian, of all the Greeks who advanced in full charge (Le 

 pas de charge, Larcher,) against their enemies, and none before had 

 ever sustained the Medes, and the terrific appearance of their dress. 

 In the representation of this battle by Micon, the Persians were 

 painted taller than the Athenians ; and the artist was fined thirty 

 minse; but he was probably correct in his design, as the Oriental dress 

 must have given to the Asiatics the appearance of greater height. j~ 



In the early part of the engagement, the centre of the Greeks was 

 obliged to fall back and was pursued up the country by the Persians 

 and the Sacae ; but on either wing fortune favored the Greeks ; 

 and here they overcame, routed the barbarians, and compelled 

 them to fly. Those who had turned their backs they at first 

 allowed to retire unmolested ; so that the Greeks uniting their 

 victorious wings, attacked and defeated those of the enemy who 

 had been successful in the centre. The rout now became general : 

 the Persians retreated in confusion towards the beach, to regain, if 

 possible, their shipping ; and vast numbers were slain by the Greeks 

 who constantly pursued them. Pausanias (lib. i, cap. 15.) describes a 

 painting at Athens in the Peisanactean portico by Panaenus, the 

 brother of Phidias, representing the battle of Marathon, and in 

 which are observed the Persians flying in every direction across the 

 plain, and driving one another into the marsh. In a second passage 



* The earliest mention we find in history of cavalry in the Greek armies, is of the date 

 743 B. C, the time of the first Messenian war. At Marathon the Athenians had no force 

 of this kind, as Thessaly, the country from which many of the Grecian states were sup- 

 plied with horses, was in the power of the Persians. — See Goguet. iii. 151. 



f Sopater. see Valesius in not. Mauss. Harpocration. 123. On a frize of a temple at 

 Athens was sculptured the representation of a battle between the Persians and Athenians, 

 the former were distinguished by their long garments and tiaras and Phrygian bonnets. — 

 See p. 20. Memorandum of Lord Elgin's Pursuits in Greece. 



