The Athenaid: Volume Iii: Book The Twenty-Ninth Poem by Richard Glover

Among the Greeks their first nocturnal watch
Was near its period. From Laconia's wing
Return'd, th' Athenian leader thus bespake
Sicinus: Worthy of my trust, give ear.
Within six hours the army will decamp
To chuse a friendlier station; so the chiefs
In gen'ral council, as Gargaphia choak'd
Withholds her wonted succour, have resolv'd.
At Juno's fane, yet undespoil'd, though near
Platæa's ruins, ev'ry band is charg'd
To reassemble…. Suddenly appears
A centinel, who speaks: A stranger, near
The trenches waits thee; us in peaceful words
Saluting, he importunate requires
Thy instant presence. Aristides hastes;
To whom the stranger: Bulwark of this camp,
Hear, credit, weigh, the tidings which I bear.
Mardonius, press'd by fear of threat'ning want,
At night's fourth watch the fatal stream will pass,
Inflexibly determin'd, though forbid
By each diviner, to assail your host
With all his numbers. I against surprise
Am come to warn you; thee alone I trust,
My name revealing. I, O man divine!
I, who thus hazard both my realm, and life,
Am Alexander, Macedonian friend
Of Athens. Kindly on a future day
Remember me. He said, and spurr'd his steed
Back through the op'ning of Cithæron's hill.


By Aristides instantly detach'd,
Sicinus calls each leader to attend
usanias. Attica's great captain joins
The council full. His tidings he relates,
Concluding thus with exhortation sage:


We destitute of water had resolv'd
To change our station. Now without a pause
We must anticipate th' appointed hour
For this retreat, nor ling'ring tempt the force
Of squadrons swift to intercept our march.
All move your standards. Let Mardonius bring
A host discourag'd by their augur's voice;
Who are forbid to pass the fatal stream,
But are compell'd by famine and despair
To inauspicious battle. We to heav'n
Obedient, heav'n's assistance shall obtain.
A situation, safeguard to our flanks
Against superior and surrounding horse,
In sight of burnt Platæa, of her fanes
Defac'd, and violated gods, I know;
There will assure you conquest. All assent.


At once the diff'rent Grecians, who compose
The center, lift their ensigns. O'er the plain
First swiftly tow'rds Platæan Juno's dome
Speeds Adimantus. In array more slow
The rest advance. Cleander guards the rear;
Brave youth, whom chance malicious will bereave
Of half the laurels to his temples due.


Th' Athenians arm delib'rate; in whose train
Illustrious Medon ranks a faithful troop,
His hundred Locrians. Haliartus there,
There Timon's few, but gen'rous Delphians stand,
By Aristides all enjoin'd to watch
Laconia's host. That sternly-tutor'd race,
To passion cold, he knew in action slow,
In consultation torpid. Anxious long
He waits, and fears the eyelids of the morn,
Too soon unclosing, may too much reveal.


Sicinus, hast'ning to Laconia's camp,
Finds all confus'd, subordination lost
In altercation, wond'rous in that breed
Of discipline and manners, nor less strange,
Than if the laws of nature in the sky
Dissolv'd, should turn the moon and planets loose
From their accustom'd orbits, to obey
The sun no longer. When his first command
Pausanias issu'd for the march, nor thought
Of disobedience to disturb his pride;
One leader, Amompharetus, whose band
Of Pitanè rever'd him, as the first
Among the brave, refusal stern oppos'd,
Protesting firm, he never would retreat
Before Barbarians. Aemnestus swift,
Callicrates and others, long approv'd
In arms, entreat the Spartan to submit,
Nor disconcert the salutary plan
Of gen'ral council. Sullen he replies:


Not of that council, I will ne'er disgrace
The Spartan name. But all the Greeks withdrawn
Expect our junction at Saturnia's dome,
Callicrates and Aemnestus plead.
Would'st thou expose thy countrymen to sace
Unaided yonder multitude of Medes,
Untry'd by us in combat? Yes, rejoins
The pertinacious man, ere yield to flight.


His troop applauded. Now contention harsh
Resounded high, exhausting precious hours,
The Spartan march retarding; when arriv'd
Sicinus witness to the wild debate.
At length Pausanias knit his haughty brow
At Amompharetus, and spake: Weak man,
Thou art insane. The chastisement thy due,
Our time allows not. Instant march, or stay
Behind and perish. In his two-fold grasp
The restive Spartan lifting from the ground
A pond'rous stone, before the gen'ral's feet
Plac'd it, and thus: Against dishonest flight
From strangers vile, I rest my suffrage there,
Nor will forsake it. To Sicinus turn'd
Pausanias: Tell th' Athenians what thou see'st.
I by Cithæron's side to Juno's fane
Am hast'ning; charge their phalanx to proceed.


Sicinus back to Aristides flies.
His ready phalanx from the lines he draws,
Wing'd with his horse and bowmen; yet his course
Suspends at Sparta's camp. There sullen, fix'd
Like some old oak's deep-rooted, knotted trunk,
Which hath endur'd the tempest-breathing months
Of thrice a hundred winters, yet remains
Unshaken, there amidst his silent troop
Sat Amompharetus. To him the sage:


Unwife, though brave, transgressing all the laws
Of discipline, though Spartan born and train'd;
Arise, o'ertake thy gen'ral and rejoin.
Thy country's mercy by some rare exploit
Win to forgive thy capital default,
Excess of courage. Where Pausanias, arm'd
With pow'r unlimited in war, where all
The Spartan captains in persuasion fail'd,-
Requir'd not less than Jove himself, or Jove
In Aristides to prevail. Uprose
The warrior, late inflexible; yet slow,
In strictest regularity of march,
Led his well-order'd files. Correcting thus
The erring Spartan, Aristides swept
Across the plain to fill the gen'ral host.


Not yet the twilight, harbinger of morn,
Had overcome the stars. The Persian scouts,
Who rang'd abroad, observing that no sound
Was heard, no watch-word through the Grecian lines,
Adventur'd nigh, and found an empty space.
Swift they appris'd Mardonius, who had form'd
His whole array. Encircled by his chiefs
Greek and Barbarian, first he gave command,
That ev'ry hand provide a blazing torch
To magnify his terrors, and with light
Facilitate pursuit; then gladsome thus
Address'd his friends of Thessaly and Thebes:


Now Larissæan Thorax, and the rest
Of Aleuadian race; now Theban lords,
Judge of the Spartans justly. Vaunted high
For unexampled prowess, them you saw
First change their place, imposing on the sons
Of Athens twice the formidable task
To face my chosen Persians; next they gave
To my defiance no reply, and last
Are fled before me. Can your augurs shew
A better omen, than a foe dismay'd?
But, kind allies, to you my friendly care
Shall now be prov'd. These thunderbolts of war,
As you esteem them, will Mardonius chuse
For his opponents. Level your attack
Entire against th' Athenians. None I dread;
Yet by the sun less terrible to me
Is that Pausanias, head of Sparta's race,
Than Aristides. Him Masistius lov'd;
If you o'erthrow, preserve him; in the name
Of your own gods I charge you. Mithra, shine
On me no longer, if in grateful warmth
Confessing ev'ry benefit receiv'd,
I do not clasp that guardian of my friend!
Now, Persians, mount your bold Nisæan steeds,
Alert your targets grasp, your lances poise;
The word is Cyrus. Royal spirit! look
On me, deriv'd from thy illustrious blood,
Yet not in me illustrious, if this day
My hand, or courage faint. Look down on these,
Sons of thy matchless veterans. The fire,
Which at thy breath o'erspread the vanquish'd East,
Light in their offs'pring; that the loud report
Of their achievements on Asopian banks,
Far as the floods of Ganges may proclaim
The western world a vassal to thy throne.


He said, and spurr'd his courser. Through the ford
He dashes, follow'd by th' impetuous speed
Of tall equestrian bands in armour scal'd
With gold, on trappings of embroider'd gloss
Superbly seated. Persians next and Medes
Advance, an infantry select, whose mail
Bright-gilt, or silver'd o'er, augments the light
Of sparkling brands, innumerably wav'd
By nations, plunging through the turbid flood
In tumult rude, emblazing, as they pass,
The skies, the waters, and with direst howl
Distracting both. Like savage wolves they rush,
As with ferocious fangs to rend the Greeks,
To gnaw their flesh, and satiate in their blood
The greedy thirst of massacre. In chief
Here Mindarus commands, by Midias join'd
And Tiridates, powerless all to curb,
Much more to marshal such Barbarian throngs,
Which, like a tumbling tide on level strands,
When new the moon impels it, soon o'erwhelm'd
Th' Asopian mead; or like the mightier surge,
When ireful Neptune strikes the ocean's bed
Profound. Upheav'd, the bottom lifts and rolls
A ridge of liquid mountains o'er th' abodes
Of some offending nation; while the heav'ns
With coruscation red his brother Jove
Inflames, and rocks with thunder's roar the poles.


Th' auxiliar Greeks compact and silent march
In strength five myriads. In arrangement just
The foot by Leontiades, the wings
Of horse by Thorax and Emathia's king
Were led. Now, long before th' unwieldy mass
Of his disorder'd multitude advanc'd,
Mardonius, rushing through the vacant lines
Of Lacedæmon, tow'rds Cithæron bent
His swift career. Faint rays began to streak
The third clear morning of that fruitful month,
The last in summer's train. Immortal day!
Which all the Muses consecrate to fame.


O thou! exalted o'er the laurell'd train,
High as the sweet Calliopè is thron'd
Above her sisters on the tuneful mount,
O father, hear! Great Homer, let one ray
From thy celestial light an humble son
Of thine illuminate; lest freedom mourn
Her chosen race dishonour'd in these strains.
Thou too, my eldest brother, who enjoy'st
The paradise thy genius hath portray'd,
Propitious smile. Lend vigour to a Muse,
Who in her love of freedom equals thine,
But to sustain her labours from thy store
Must borrow language, sentiment and verse.


Cithæron's ridge, from where Asopus rose,
Stretch'd to Platæa, with a southern fence
Confining one broad level, which the floods
From their Hesperian head in eastward flow
Meandring parted. O'er the mountain's foot
His course Pausanias destin'd, where the soil
Abrupt and stony might the dread career
Of Persia's cavalry impede. His ranks,
Accompany'd by Tegea's faithful breed,
Had measur'd now ten furlongs of their march
Half o'er the plain to reach the friendly ground;
Then halted near an Eleusinian dome
Of Ceres; thence they mov'd, but timely first
Were join'd by Amompharetus. At length
The chosen track was gain'd. Pausanias cast
His eyes below first northward, and survey'd
Between the river and his empty camp
A blaze involving all the plain. The yell
Of mouths Barbarian, of unnumber'd feet
Th' impetuous tread, which crush'd the groaning turf,
The neigh of horses, and their echoing hoofs,
Th' insulting clash of shields and sabres, shook
The theatre of mountains; hollow-voic'd,
Their cavities rebellow'd, and enlarg'd
The hideous sound. His eyes the orient dawn
Attracted next. Saturnia's roof he view'd,
But distant still, around whose sacred walls
The first-departed Grecians stood in arms
Beneath wide-floating banners, wish'd more nigh.
There was the Genius of Platæa seen
By fancy's ken, a hov'ring mourner seen,
O'er his renown'd, but desolated seat,
One mass of ruins mountainous. He mark'd
Th' Athenians traversing the meads below
In full battalia. Resolute, sedate,
Without one shield in disarray, they mov'd
To join the gen'ral host. Beyond the stream
In prospect rose the battlements of Thebes;
Whose sons perfidious, but in battle firm,
With phalanges of other hostile Greeks
Spread on the bank, and menace to surmount
The shallow current for some dire attempt.
To Aemnestus, marching by his side,
Pausanias turns; the army he commands
To halt; while, mast'ring all unmanly fear,
His haughty phlegm serenely thus fulfils
A leader's function: Spartan, we in vain
Precipitate our junction with allies
At Juno's distant fane; the hour is past;
The Pitanean mutineer the cause.
Seest thou yon Persian squadrons? They precede
The whole Barbarian multitude. The storm
Is gath'ring nigh; we sep'rate must abide
The heavy weight of this unequal shock,
Unless th' Athenians, still in sight, impart
A present aid. A herald swift he sends
To Aristides, with this weighty charge:
'All Greece is now in danger, and the blood
'Of Hercules in me. Athenian help
'Is wanted here, their missile-weapon'd force.'
Last he address'd Tisamenus: Provide
The sacrifice for battle-Warriors, form.


Slain is the victim; but th' inspecting seer
Reveals no sign propitious. Now full nigh
The foremost Persian horse discharge around
Their javelins, darts, and arrows. Sparta's chief
In calm respect of inauspicious heav'n
Directs each soldier at his foot to rest
The passive shield, submissive to endure
Th' assault, and watch a signal from the gods.
A second time unfavorable prove
The victim's entrails. Unremitted show'rs
Of pointed arms distribute wounds and death.


Oh! discipline of Sparta! Patient stands
The wounded soldier, sees a comrade fall,
Yet waits permission from his chief to shield
His own, or brother's head. Among the rest
Callicrates is pierc'd; a mortal stroke
His throat receives. Him celebrate, O muse!
Him in historic rolls deliver'd down
To admiration of remotest climes
Through latest ages. These expiring words
Beyond Olympian chaplets him exalt,
Beyond his palms in battle: Not to die
For Greece, but dying, ere my sword is drawn,
Without one action worthy of my name,
I grieve. He said, and fainting on the breast
Of Aemnestus, breath'd in spouting blood
His last, departing thy attendant meet,
Leonidas, in regions of the bless'd.


A second victim bleeds; the gath'ring foes
To multitude are grown; the show'rs of death
Increase; then melted into slowing grief
Pausanian pride. He, tow'rds the fane remote
Of Juno lifting his afflicted eyes,
Thus suppliant spake: O Goddess! let my hopes
Be not defeated, whether to obtain
A victory so glorious, or expire
Without dishonour to Herculean blood.


Amidst the pray'r Tegean Chileus, free
From stern controul of Lacedæmon's laws,
No longer waits inactive; but his band
Leads forth, and firmly checks th' insulting foe.
The sacrifice is prosp'rous, and the word
For gen'ral onset by Pausanias giv'n.
Then, as a lion, from his native range
Confin'd a captive long, if once his chain
He breaks, with mane erect and eyes of fire
Asserts his freedom, rushing in his strength
Resistless forth; so Sparta's phalanx turns
A face tremendous on recoiling swarms
Of squadron'd Persians, who to Ceres' fane
Are driv'n. But there Mardonius, like the god
Of thunders ranging o'er th' ethereal vault
Thick clouds on clouds impregnated with storms,
His chosen troops embattles. Bows and darts
Rejecting, gallantly to combat close
They urge undaunted efforts, and to death
Their ground maintain, in courage, or in might
Not to the Greeks inferior, but in arms,
In discipline and conduct. Parties small,
Or single warriors, here with vigour wield
The battle-ax and sabre; others rush
Among the spears, to wrench away, or break
By strength of hands, the weapons of their foes.


But fiercest was the contest, where sublime
The son of Gobryas from a snow-white steed
Shot terror. There selected warriors charg'd,
A thousand vet'rans, by their fathers train'd,
Who shar'd renown with Cyrus. On the right,
Close to his gen'ral's side, Briareus grasp'd
A studded mace, Pangæus on the left,
Nam'd from a Thracian hill. The bristly front
Of Sparta's phalanx, with intrepid looks
Mardonius fac'd, and thunder'd out these words:
Come, twice-defy'd Pausanias, if thou hear'st;
Thy Spartan prowess on Mardonius try.


Pausanias heard; but shunn'd retorting words,
In saturnine disdain laconic thus
His men addressing: Yours the soldler's part,
The gen'rals mine; advance not, but receive
These loose Barbarians on your steady points.


Not one of Persia's breed, though early train'd,
So strong a javelin as Mardonius lanc'd,
Or in its aim so true. Three brothers grac'd
The formost line of Sparta, natives all
Of sweet Amyclæ, all in age and arms
Mature, their splendid lineage from the stock
Of Tyndarus deriving. Them on earth
Three javelins, whirl'd successive, laid supine,
An effort of Mardonius. Three in rank
Behind partake the same resistless doom,
Three bold companions in the hardy chace
Of boars on green Taygetus. Supply'd
With weapons new, the phalanx still to gore
He perseveres unweary'd, not unlike
Some irritated porcupine, of size
Portentous, darting his envenom'd quills
Through each assailant. In Laconia's front
So many warriors and their weapons fall'n,
Leave in her triple tire of pointed steel
A void for swift impression of her foes.
In rush Briareus and Pangæus huge,
Whose maces send fresh numbers to the shades.
The op'ning widens. On his vaulting steed
Mardonius follows, like ensanguin'd Mars
By his auxiliars grim, dismay and rage,
Preceded. Rivalling the lightning's beams,
The hero's sabre bright and rapid wheels
Alost in air. A comet thus inflames
The cheek of night; pale mortals view in dread
Th' unwonted lustre, transient tho' it be,
Among the lights of heav'n. Pausanias rous'd,
Advancing, at Briareus points his lance.
Meantime six Spartans of the younger class
Assail Mardonius. One his bridle grasp'd;
The Persian sabre at the shoulder close
Lopp'd off th' audacious arm. Another stoop'd
To seize the chieftain's foot, and drag him down;
Pois'd on his stirrup, he in sunder smote
The Spartan's waist. Another yet approach'd,
Who at a blow was cloven to the chin.
Two more the gen'rous horse, uprearing, dash'd
Maim'd and disabled to the ground; the last
His teeth dissigur'd, and his weight oppress'd.
As some tall-masted ship, on ev'ry side
Assail'd by pinnaces and skiffs whose strength
Is number, drives her well-directed prow
Through all their feeble clusters; while her chief
Elate contemplates from her lofty deck
The hostile keels upturn'd, and floating dead,
Where'er she steers victorious: so the steed
Nisæan tramples on Laconian slain,
Triumphant so Mardonius from his seat
Looks down. But fate amidst his triumph shews
Briareus yielding to a forceful blow
Of stern Pausanias, and Pangæus pierc'd
By Amompharetus. Their giant bulks,
Thrown prostrate, crash three long-protended rows
Of Spartan spears. Wide-branching thus huge oaks,
By age decay'd, or twisted-from the roots
By rending whirlwinds, in their pond'rous fall
Lay desolate the under shrubs, and trees
Of young, unstable growth. More awful still,
Another object strikes the satrap's eye;
With nodding plumes, and formidable stride,
Lo! Aemnestus. Asia's gen'ral feels
Emotions now, which trouble, not degrade
His gen'rous spirit. Not, as Priam's son
On sight of dire Achilles, thoughts of flight
Possess Mardonius, but to wait the foe,
And if to die, with honour die, if live
Enjoy a life of fame. His giant guard
Around him close; one levels at the casque
Of Aemnestus; but the weighty mace
Slides o'er the Spartan's slanting shield, and spends
Its rage in dust. The stooping giant leaves
His flank unguarded, and admits a stroke,
Which penetrates the entrails. Down he sinks,
Another tow'r of Asia's battle strewn
In hideous ruin. Soon a second bleeds,
A third, a fourth. The fifth in posture stands
To crush the victor with a blow well-aim'd;
Him Menalippus at the brawny pit
Of his uplifted arm transpiercing deep
Disables. Aemnestus struggles long
To grapple with his victim, and invokes
Leonidas aloud. The active son
Of Gobryas plants throughout the Spartan shield
A wood of Javelins. His Nisæan horse,
Careering, vaulting, with his fangs and hoofs
Protects his lord. The guards, who still surviv'd,
With faithful zeal their whole united strength
Exert unwearied for a lib'ral chief.
Some paces backward Aemnestus forc'd,
Impels his heel against a loos'ning stone,
Broad, craggy, scarce inferior to the weight
Discharg'd by Hector on the massy bars
Of Agamemnon's camp. The Spartan quick
From his left arm removes the heavy shield,
With javelins thick transfix'd. From earth he lifts
The casual weapon, and with caution marks
The fatal time and distance. O'er the heads
Of thy surrounding guard the fragment hurl'd
Descends, Mardonius, on thy manly chest,
And lays thee o'er thy courser's back supine
Without sensation. O, illustrious man,
Whose dazzling virtues through thy frailties beam'd!
Magnanimous, heroic, gen'rous, pure
In friendship, warm in gratitude! This doom
At once dissolves all interval of pain
To mind, or body. Not a moment more
Hast thou, ingenuous satrap, to repine,
Or grieve. Go, hero, thy Masistius greet,
Where no ambition agitates the breast,
No gloomy veil of superstition blinds,
No friend can die, no battle can be lost!


This fall, to Greece decisive as to heav'n
Enceladus o'erthrown, when, thunder-piere'd,
He under Ætna's torrid mass was chain'd,
Discomsits Asia's hopes. In fresh array
Meantime the phalanx, by Pausanias form'd,
Proceeds entire. Facility of skill
Directs their weapons; pace by pace they move
True to the cadence of accustom'd notes
From gentle flutes, which trill the Doric lays
Of Alcman and Terpander. Slow they gain
The ground, which Persia quits, till Chileus bold
With his Tegæans gores the hostile flanks;
Confusion then, and gen'ral rout prevail.


The fugitives proclaim Mardonius slain;
The whole Barbarian multitude disperse
In blind dismay; cool Mindarus in vain
Attempts to check their flight; all seek the camp;
And now the Spartan flutes, combin'd with shouts
Of loud Tegæans stimulate his speed
Across the ford. His trenches he regains,
There to Midias, Tiridates brave,
And chosen satraps, gath'ring at his call,
Thus spake: The flow'r of Asia in the dust
Reclines his glories. Feel your loss like me,
Not overcome by sorrow, or surprise
At changes natural to man, the sport
Of his own passions, and uncertain chance.
Vicissitudes of fortune I have prov'd,
One day been foil'd, a conqueror the next.
In arduous actions though experienc'd minds
Have much to fear, not less of hope remains
To animate the brave. Amid this storm
The throne of Cyrus, your exalted sires,
Your own nobility, recall; deserve
The rank, you hold; occasion now presents
For such a trial. To uphold my king,
My country's name, and piously revenge
My kindred blood new-spilt, my sword, my arm,
My life, I destine. Multitude is left,
Surpassing twenty myriads; ev'n despair
Befriends us; famine threat'ning, and the dread
Of merciless resentment in our foes,
May force these rally'd numbers to obtain
From their own swords relief. Behold your camp,
Strong-fenc'd and bulwark'd by Masistian care,
A present refuge. See th' auxiliar Greeks
Entire, advancing on th' inferior bands
Of Athens. Still may Xerxes o'er the West
Extend his empire, and regret no part
Of this disaster, but Mardonius slain.
Assume your posts, for stern defence provide.

End of the Twenty-ninth Book