Pausanias, Phocis

CHAPTER XX.

The Greeks for their part, though very dejected, were induced to fight bravely for their country by the very urgency of the peril. For they saw that at the present crisis it was not merely their liberty that was at stake, as at the time of the Persian invasion, but that, even if they granted land and water to the enemy, 1 they would have no future security. For they still remembered the former irruption of the Galati into Macedonia and Thrace and Paeonia, and their recent outrages in Thessaly had been reported to them. It was the universal opinion therefore, both with individuals and states, that they must either die or conquer.

It will not be without instruction to compare the numbers of those who fought against Xerxes at Thermopylae with those who fought now against the Galati. The Greeks that marched against the Mede were as follows : 300 Lacedaemonians only under Leonidas, 500 from Tegea, 500 from Mantinea, 120 Arcadians from Orchomenus, 1000 from the other towns of Arcadia, 80 from Mycense, 200 from Phlius, 400 from Corinth, 700 Boeotians from Thespia and 400 from Thebes. And 1,000 Phocians guarded the pass at Mount Oeta, who must be added to the Greek contingent. As to the Locrians under Mount Cnemis Herodotus has not mentioned their precise number, he only says they came from all the towns. But we may conjecture their number pretty accurately : for the Athenians at Marathon, including slaves and non-combatants, were not more than 9,000 : so that the fighting force of Locrians at Thermopylas could not be more than 6,000. Thus the whole force employed against the Persians would be 11,200. Nor did all of these stay all the time under arms at Thermopylae, for except the men from Lacedaemon and Thespia and Mycenae they waited not to see the issue of the fight. And now against these barbarians who had crossed the ocean the following Greeks banded themselves at Thermopylae : 10,000 heavy armed infantry and 500 horse from Bceotia, under the Boeotarchs Cephisodotus and Thearidas and Diogenes and Lysander : 500 cavalry and 3,000 foot from Phocis, under Critobulus and Antiochus : 700 Locrians, all infantry, from the island Atalanta, under the command of Midias : 400 heavy armed infantry of the Megarians, their cavalry under the command of Megareus : of the Aetolians, who formed the largest and most formidalble contingent, the number of their horse is not recorded, but their light-armed troops were 90, 2 and their heavy armed 7000 : and the Aetolians were under the command of Polyarchus and Polyphron and Lacrates. And the Athenians were under Callippus the son of Moerocles, as I have before stated, and consisted of all the triremes that were sea- worthy, and 500 horse, and 1,000 foot, and because of their ancient renown they were in command of the whole allied army. And some mercenary troops were sent by various kings, as 500 from Macedonia, and 500 from Asia, those that were sent by Antigonus were led by Aristodemus the Macedonian, and those that were sent by Antiochus were led by Telesarchus, as also some Syrians from Asia situated by the river Orontes.

When these Greeks, thus banded together at Thermopylae, heard that the army of the Galati was already in the neighbourhood of Magnesia and Phthiotis, they determined to send about 1,000 picked light-armed soldiers and a troop of horse to the river Sperchius, to prevent the barbarians' crossing the river without a struggle. And they went and destroyed the bridges, and encamped by the river. Now Brennus was by no means devoid of intelligence, and for a barbarian no mean strategist. Accordingly on the following night without any delay he sent 10,000 of his troops, who could swim and were remarkably tall, and all the Celts are remarkably tall men down the river to cross it not at the ordinary fords, but at a part of the river where it was less rapid, and marshy, and diffused itself more over the plain, so that the Greeks should not be able to notice their crossing over. They crossed over accordingly, swimming over the marshy part of the river, and using the shields of their country as a sort of raft, while the tallest of them could ford the river. When the Greeks at the Sperchius noticed that part of the barbarians had crossed over, they returned at once to the main army.

1 The technical term for submission to an enemy. See Herodotus, v. 17. 18 ; vii. 133.