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When the herald had thus spoken, he waited a while, but, as no one
made him any answer, he went back, and told Mardonius what had
happened. Mardonius was full of joy thereat, and so puffed up by the
empty victory, that he at once gave orders to his horse to charge the
Greek line. Then the horsemen drew near, and with their javelins and
their arrows - for though horsemen they used the bow - sorely
distressed the Greek troops, which could not bring them to close
combat. The fountain of Gargaphia, whence the whole Greek army drew
its water, they at this time choked up and spoiled. The
Lacedaemonians were the only troops who had their station near this
fountain; the other Greeks were more or less distant from it,
according to their place in the line; they however were not far from
the Asopus. Still, as the Persian horse with their missile weapons
did not allow them to approach, and so they could not get their water
from the river, these Greeks, no less than the Lacedaemonians,
resorted at this time to the fountain.
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