172 HISTORICAL TALES.

other Persians, worn out with the hopeless effort to
break the Spartan phalanx, and losing heart at the
death of their general, turned and fled to their forti-
fied camp. At the same time the Theban allies of
Persia, whom the Athenians had been fighting, gave
ground, and began a retreat, which was not ended
till they reached the walls of Thebes.

On rushed the victorious Spartans to the Persian
camp, which they at once assailed. Here they had
no success till the Athenians came to their aid, when
the walls were stormed and the defenders slain in
such hosts that, if we can believe Herodotus, only
three thousand out of the three hundred thousand of
the army of Mardonius remained alive. Itis true that
one body of forty thousand men, under Artabazus,
had been too late on the field to take part in the
fight. The Persians were already defeated when
these troops came in sight, and they turned and
marched away for the Hellespont, leaving the defeated
host to shift for itself Of the Greeks, Plutarch
tells us that the total loss in the battle was thirteen
hundred and sixty men.

The spoil found in the Persian camp was rich and
varied. It included money and ornaments of gold
and silver, carpets, splendid arms and clothing,
horses, camels, and other valuable materials. This
was divided among the victors, a tenth of the golden
spoil being reserved for the Delphian shrine, and
wrought into a golden tripod, which was placed on
a column formed of three twisted bronze serpents,
This defeat was the salvation of Greece. No Per-
sian army ever again set foot on European soil. And,