History of the Peloponnesian War

Now when the troops under Epitadas, constituting the main body of the Lacedaemonians on the island, saw that the first outpost was destroyed and that an army was advancing against them, they drew up in line and set out to attack the Athenian hoplites, wishing to come to close quarters with them; for these were stationed directly in front of them, while the light-armed troops were on their flank and rear. They were not able, however, to engage with the hoplites or to avail themselves of their own peculiar skill in fighting;

for the light-armed troops kept attacking them with missiles from either side and thus held them in check, and at the same time the hoplites did not advance against them, but remained quiet. They did, however, put the light-armed troops to flight wherever they pressed most closely upon them in their charges; and then these latter would wheel about and keep fighting, being lightly equipped and therefore finding it easy to take to flight in good time, since the ground was difficult and, because it had never been inhabited, was naturally rough. Over such a terrain the Lacedaemonians, who were in heavy armour, were unable to pursue them.

For some little time they skirmished thus with one another; but when the Lacedaemonians were no longer able to dash out promptly at the point where they were attacked, the light-armed troops noticed that they were slackening in their defence, and also conceived the greatest confidence in themselves, now that they could see that they were undoubtedly many times more numerous than the enemy, and, since their losses had from the outset been less heavy than they had expected, they had gradually become accustomed to regarding their opponents as less formidable than they had seemed at their first landing when their own spirits were oppressed by the thought that they were going to fight against Lacedaemonians. Conceiving, therefore, a contempt for them, with a shout they charged upon them in a body, hurling at them stones, arrows or javelins, whichever each man had at hand.

The shouting with which the Athenians accompanied their charge caused consternation among the Lacedaemonians, who were unaccustomed to this manner of fighting; and the dust from the newly-burned forest rose in clouds to the sky, so that a man could not see what was in front of him by reason of the arrows and stones, hurled, in the midst of the dust, by many hands.