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The station of the Megarians open to cavalry attack was doubtless the comparatively level ground where the road from Eleutherae to Thebes comes down from the pass. Grundy (p. 458 f.) rightly holds that the Greeks had come over the Dryoscephalae pass, and now were drawn up with their centre astride of the road, the Megarians being in the left centre of the Greek line (ch. 28. 6, 31. 5). Macan's suggestion that the Greeks were but just emerging from the pass in a column headed by the Megarians or by the Athenians is opposed to the clear statement of H. (ch. 19. 3).

Munro (J. H. S. xxiv. 157) puts forward the over-elaborate hypothesis that Pausanias marched with the bulk of his forces by Oenoe and Panactum, and finding himself checked by the Persian stockade, deployed his army to the left along the base of the mountain, continually extending his left flank westward as more troops came into line. Thus the Megarians might temporarily form the extreme left of the army. The Athenians would next come up (to take post to their left), and on them would naturally fall the duty of relieving the distressed Megarians.

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