When Mardonius learned that the Greeks had departed under cover of night and saw the ground deserted, he called to him Thorax of Larissa and his brothers Eurypylus and Thrasydeius and said: [2] “What will you say now, sons of Aleuas, when you see this place deserted? For you, who are their neighbors, kept telling me that Lacedaemonians fled from no battlefield and were the masters of warfare. These same men, however, you just saw changing their post, and now you and all of us see that they have fled during the night. The moment they had to measure themselves in battle with those that are in very truth the bravest on earth, they plainly showed that they are men of no account, and all other Greeks likewise. [3] Now you, for your part, were strangers to the Persians, and I could readily pardon you for praising these fellows, who were in some sort known to you; but I marvelled much more that Artabazus, be he ever so frightened, should give us a coward's advice to strike our camp, and march away to be besieged in Thebes. Of this advice the king will certainly hear from me, but it will be discussed elsewhere. [4] Now we must not permit our enemies to do as they want; they must be pursued till they are overtaken and pay the penalty for all the harm they have done the Persians.”
