34. In the mean time the Athenian army had been confronted by the
Persian-Theban allies. Here it was not a conflict between disciplined
valor and barbaric hordes, but between Greek and Greek. The battle was
long and bloody, but in the end the defenders of Greek liberty were
victorious over those who would destroy it. The Theban force was not
only defeated but annihilated, and then the Athenians hastened to the
support of Pansanias. While the Spartans were the best-drilled
soldiery in Greece for the field, they had little skill in siege
operations, and the wooden walls of the Persian camp opposed to them
an effective barrier.
35. While the Spartan force was engaged in abortive attempts, the
Athenians and their allies came up fresh from their victory over the
Thebans. Headed by the Tegeans, they burst like a deluge into the
encampment, and the Persians, losing all heart, sought wildly to hide
themselves like deer flying from lions. Then followed a carnage so
fearful that out of two hundred and sixty thousand men not three
thousand, it is said, remained alive.
36. Thus ended this formidable invasion, which threatened the very
existence of Greece. The great wave of Oriental despotism had spent
its force without submerging freedom. Thenceforth the wonderful Greek
energy and creative power might be turned away from matters military
and expended upon the arts of peace.
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