BATTLES OF PL AT J! A AND MYKALE 179 Lacedsemonians. seizing hold of their spears, and breaking them : manv of them devoted themselves in smaU parties of ten to force bv their bodies a way into the lines, and to get to individual close combat with the short spear and the dagger.' 2>Iardonius himself, conspicuous upon a white horse, was among the foremost warriors, and the thousand select troops who formed his body-guard distinguished themselves beyond all the rest. At length he was slain by the hand of a distinguished Spartan named Aeimnestus ; his thousand guards mostly perished around him, and the courage of the remaining Persians, already worn out by the superior troops against which they had been long contending, was at last thoroughly broken by the death of their general. They turned their backs and fled, not resting until they got into the wooden fortified camp con- structed by Mardonius behind the Asopus. The Asiatic allies also, as soon as they saw the Persians defeated, took to flight without striking a blow.2 The Athenians on the left, meanwhile, had been engaged in a serious conflict with the Boeotians : especially the Theban lead- ers with the hoplites immediately around them, who fought with great bravery, but were at length driven back, after the loss of three hundre<l of their best troops. The Theban cavalry, how- ever, still maintained a good front, protecting the retreat of the infantry and checking the Athenian pursuit, so that the fugitives were enabled to reach Thebes in safety ; a better refuge than at length one of their warriors. Arnold von Winkelried. grasped an annfal of spears, and precipitated himself upon them, making a war for his coun- trvmen over his dead body. See Togelin, Geschichte der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft, ch. vi, p. 240, or indeed any history of Switzerland, for a description of this memorable incident. ' For the arms of the Persians, see Herodot. vii. 61. Heiodotns states in another place that the Persian troops adopted the Egyptian breastplates (^upriKac) : probably this may have been after the battle of Plataea. Even at this battle, the Persian leaders on horseback had strong defensive armor, as we mav see by the case of Masistius. above narrated : by the time of the battle of Kunaxa. the habit had become more •widely diflFused (Xenoph. Anabas. i. 8, 6 ; Brisson. De Regno Persarum, lib. iii. p. 361 ). for the cavalry at least.
- Herodot. is. 64, 65.
