Note 222 — Chapter XI · THE CAMPAIGN OF PLATÆA. (continued 2)

This is clearly shown in Herodotus’ narrative. He distinctly speaks of the Athenians as having at the beginning of the movement “turned down towards the plain” (H. ix. 56, κάτω τραφθέντες ἐς τὸ πεδίον); and in a still more remarkable passage he says that, when Mardonius led his Persians across the Asopos in pursuit of the Greeks, “he did not see the Athenians, who had turned down towards the plain, by reason of the (intervening) hills” (H. ix. 59). The hills mentioned are evidently the northern extension of the Asopos ridge.