These being soon in readiness, and running upon the enemy, as soon as Masistius, who commanded the barbarians’ [Persians’] horse, a man of wonderful courage and of extraordinary bulk and comeliness of person, perceived it, turning his steed he made towards them. And they sustaining the shock and joining battle with him, there was a sharp conflict, as though by this encounter they were to try the success of the whole war. But after Masistius’s horse received a wound and flung him, and he falling could hardly raise himself through the weight of his armour, the Athenians, pressing upon him with blows, could not easily get at his person, armed as he was, his breast, his head, and his limbs all over, with gold and brass and iron; but one of them at last, running him in at the visor of his helmet, slew him; and the rest of the Persians, leaving the body, fled.
The greatness of the Greek success was known, not by the multitude of the slain (for an inconsiderable number were killed), but by the sorrow the barbarians expressed. For they shaved themselves, their horses, and mules for the death of Masistius, and filled the plain with howling and lamentation; having lost a person, who, next to Mardonius himself, was by many degrees the chief among them, both for valour and authority.
Source:
Plutarch, John Dryden, and Arthur Hugh Clough. "Aristides." Plutarch's Lives. New York: Modern Library, 2001. 445-46. Print.
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