PLATAZAS FAMOUS DAY.

On a certain day, destined to be thereafter famous,
two strong armies faced each other on the plain
north of the little Beeotian town of Platewa. Greece
had gathered the greatest army it had ever yet put
into the field, in all numbering one hundred and ten
thousand men, of whom nearly forty thousand were
hoplites, or heavy-armed troops, the remainder light-
armed or unarmed. Of these Sparta supplied five
thousand hoplites and thirty-five thousand light-
armed Helots, the greatest army that warlike city had
ever brought into action. The remainder of Laconia
furnished five thousand hoplites and five thousand
Helot attendants. Athens sent eight thousand hop-
lites, and the remainder of the army came from
various states of Greece. This host was in strange
contrast to the few thousand warriors with which
Greece had met the vast array of Xerxes at Ther-
mopyle.

Opposed to this force was the army which Xerxes
had left behind him on his flight from Greece, three
hundred thousand of his choicest troops, under the
command of his trusted general Mardonius. This
host was not a mob of armed men, like that which
Xerxes had led. It embraced the best of the Persian

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