§19.1οὕτω δὲ τοῦ ἀγῶνος δίχα συνεστῶτος πρῶτοι μὲν ἐώσαντο τοὺς Πέρσας οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι· καὶ τὸν Μαρδόνιον ἀνὴρ Σπαρτιάτης ὄνομα Ἀρίμνηστος ἀποκτίννυσι, λίθῳ τὴν κεφαλὴν πατάξας, ὥσπερ αὐτῷ προεσήμανε τὸ ἐν Ἀμφιάρεω μαντεῖον.
With the contest thus divided into two parts, the Lacedaemonians were the first to push back the Persians; and a Spartan man named Arimnestos killed Mardonius by striking his head with a stone, just as the oracle at Amphiaraus had foretold to him.
ἔπεμψε γὰρ ἄνδρα Λυδὸν ἐνταῦθα, Κᾶρα δὲ ἕτερον εἰς Τροφωνίου ὁ Μαρδόνιος· καὶ τοῦτον μὲν ὁ προφήτης Καρικῇ γλώσσῃ προσεῖπεν, §19.2ὁ δὲ Λυδὸς ἐν τῷ σηκῷ τοῦ Ἀμφιάρεω κατευνασθεὶς ἔδοξεν ὑπηρέτην τινὰ τοῦ θεοῦ παραστῆναι καὶ κελεύειν αὐτὸν ἀπιέναι, μὴ βουλομένου δὲ λίθον εἰς τὴν κεφαλὴν ἐμβαλεῖν μέγαν, ὥστε δόξαι πληγέντα τεθνάναι τὸν ἄνθρωπον·
For Mardonius had sent a Lydian man there, and another man, a Carian, to the oracle of Trophonius; and to the latter, the prophet spoke in the Carian tongue, while the Lydian, sleeping in the sacred enclosure of Amphiaraus, dreamed that a certain servant of the god stood by him and ordered him to depart, and when he refused, threw a large stone at his head, so that the man seemed to die from the blow.
καὶ ταῦτα μὲν οὕτω γενέσθαι λέγεται.
These things are said to have happened in this way.
τοὺς δὲ φεύγοντας εἰς τὰ ξύλινα τείχη καθεῖρξαν.
As for those who fled, they shut them up in their wooden walls.
ὀλίγῳ δʼ ὕστερον Ἀθηναῖοι τοὺς Θηβαίους τρέπονται, τριακοσίους τοὺς ἐπιφανεστάτους καὶ πρώτους διαφθείραντες ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ μάχῃ.
A little later, the Athenians routed the Thebans, having destroyed three hundred of their most prominent and leading men in the battle itself.
§19.3γεγενημένης δὲ τῆς τροπῆς ἧκεν αὐτοῖς ἄγγελος πολιορκεῖσθαι τὸ βαρβαρικὸν εἰς τὰ τείχη κατακεκλεισμένον.
When the rout had taken place, a messenger came to them announcing that the barbarians were shut up and besieged within their walls.
οὕτω δὴ σώζεσθαι τοὺς Ἕλληνας ἐάσαντες ἐβοήθουν πρὸς τὰ τείχη· καὶ τοῖς Λακεδαιμονίοις παντάπασιν ἀργῶς πρὸς τειχομαχίαν καὶ ἀπείρως ἔχουσιν ἐπιφανέντες αἱροῦσι τὸ στρατόπεδον φόνῳ πολλῷ τῶν πολεμίων.
Thereupon, leaving the Greeks to save themselves, they went to bring aid at the walls; and appearing before the Lacedaemonians, who were altogether inactive and inexperienced in siege warfare, they took the camp with a great slaughter of the enemy.
§19.4λέγονται γὰρ ἀπὸ τῶν τριάκοντα μυριάδων τετρακισμύριοι φυγεῖν σὺν Ἀρταβάζῳ, τῶν δʼ ὑπὲρ τῆς Ἑλλάδος ἀγωνισαμένων ἔπεσον οἱ πάντες ἐπὶ χιλίοις ἑξήκοντα καὶ τριακόσιοι.
For it is said that out of thirty myriads, forty thousand fled with Artabazus, while of those who fought for Greece, there fell in all one thousand three hundred and sixty.
τούτων Ἀθηναῖοι μὲν ἦσαν δύο καὶ πεντήκοντα, πάντες ἐκ τῆς Αἰαντίδος φυλῆς, ὥς φησι Κλείδημος, ἀγωνισαμένης ἄριστα· §19.5διὸ καὶ ταῖς Σφραγίτισι νύμφαις ἔθυον Αἰαντίδαι τὴν πυθόχρηστον θυσίαν ὑπὲρ τῆς νίκης, ἐκ δημοσίου τὸ ἀνάλωμα λαμβάνοντες· Λακεδαιμόνιοι δʼ ἑνὶ πλείους τῶν ἐνενήκοντα, Τεγεᾶται δʼ ἑκκαίδεκα.
Of these, fifty-two were Athenians, all from the Aeantis tribe, which, as Cleidemus says, fought best; for which reason the Aeantidae performed the sacrifice prescribed by the Pythian oracle to the Sphragitic nymphs for the victory, receiving the expense from the public treasury; while the Lacedaemonians lost ninety-one, and the Tegeans sixteen.
θαυμαστὸν οὖν τὸ Ἡροδότου, πῶς μόνους τούτους φησὶν εἰς χεῖρας ἐλθεῖν τοῖς πολεμίοις, τῶν δʼ ἄλλων Ἑλλήνων μηδένα.
It is therefore surprising that Herodotus says only these came to blows with the enemy, and no other of the Greeks.
καὶ γὰρ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν πεσόντων μαρτυρεῖ καὶ τὰ μνήματα κοινὸν γενέσθαι τὸ κατόρθωμα· §19.6καὶ τὸν βωμὸν οὐκ ἂν ἐπέγραψαν οὕτως, εἰ μόναι τρεῖς πόλεις ἠγωνίσαντο, τῶν ἄλλων ἀτρέμα καθεζομένων· "
τόνδε ποθʼ Ἕλληνες νίκας κράτει, ἔργῳ Ἄρηος,
Πέρσας ἐξελάσαντες ἐλευθέρᾳ Ἑλλάδι κοινὸν
ἱδρύσαντο Διὸς βωμὸν ἐλευθερίου. "
Indeed, both the number of the fallen and the tombs bear witness that the success was a common one; nor would they have inscribed the altar in this way, if only three cities had fought while the others sat still: "Having driven out the Persians by the might of victory, by the work of Ares, the Greeks once established for a free Greece this common altar of Zeus the Deliverer.
§19.7ταύτην τὴν μάχην ἐμαχέσαντο τῇ τετράδι τοῦ Βοηδρομιῶνος ἱσταμένου κατʼ Ἀθηναίους, κατὰ δὲ Βοιωτοὺς τετράδι τοῦ Πανέμου φθίνοντος, ᾗ καὶ νῦν ἔτι τὸ Ἑλληνικὸν ἐν Πλαταιαῖς ἀθροίζεται συνέδριον καὶ θύουσι τῷ ἐλευθερίῳ Διῒ Πλαταιεῖς ὑπὲρ τῆς νίκης.
"They fought this battle on the fourth day of the month Boedromion, according to the Athenians, but according to the Boeotians, on the twenty-seventh of the month Panemus, on which day even now the Greek council still assembles at Plataea, and the Plataeans sacrifice to Zeus the Deliverer for the victory.
τὴν δὲ τῶν ἡμερῶν ἀνωμαλίαν οὐ θαυμαστέον, ὅπου καὶ νῦν διηκριβωμένων τῶν ἐν ἀστρολογίᾳ μᾶλλον ἄλλην ἄλλοι μηνὸς ἀρχὴν καὶ τελευτὴν ἄγουσιν.
The discrepancy of the days is not to be wondered at, since even now, when astronomy has been more precisely determined, different people keep a different beginning and end of the month.