# Herodotus The Persian Wars (Godley)/Book VIII

Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA
1. The Greeks appointed to serve in the fleet were these: the Athenians furnished a hundred and twenty-seven ships; the Plataeans manned these ships with the Athenians, not that they had any knowledge of seamanship, but of mere valour and zeal. The Corinthians furnished forty ships, and the Megarians twenty; and the Chalcidians manned twenty, the Athenians furnishing the ships; the Aeginetans eighteen, the Sicyonians twelve, the Lacedaemonians ten, the Epidaurians eight, the Eretrians seven, the Troezenians five, the Styrians two, and the Ceans two, and two fifty-oared barks; and the Opuntian Locrians brought seven fifty-oared barks to their aid.
2. These were they who came to Artemisium for battle; and I have now shown how they severally furnished the whole sum. The number of ships that mustered at Artemisium was two hundred and seventy one, besides the fifty-oared barks. But the admiral who had the chief command was of the Spartans’ providing, Eurybiades, son of Euryclides; for the allies said, that if the Laconian were not their leader they would rather make an end of the fleet that was preparing than be led by the Athenians.
3. For in the first days, before the sending to Sicily for alliance there, there had been talk of entrusting the command at sea to the Athenians. But when the allies withstood this, the Athenians waived their claim, deeming the safety of Hellas of prime moment, and seeing that if they quarrelled over the leadership Hellas must perish; wherein they judged rightly; for civil strife is as much worse than united war as war is worse than peace. Knowing that, they gave ground and waived their claim, but only so long as they had great need of the others, as was shown; for when they had driven the Persian back and the battle was no longer for their territory but for his, they made a pretext of Pausanias’ highhandedness and took the command away from the Lacedaemonians. But all that befel later.
4. But now, the Greeks who had at last come to Artemisium saw a multitude of ships launched at Aphetae, and armaments everywhere, and contrary to all expectation the foreigner was shown to be in far other case than they had supposed; wherefore they lost heart and began to take counsel for flight from Artemisium homewards into Hellas. Then the Euboeans, seeing them to be thus planning, entreated Eurybiades to wait a little while, till they themselves should have brought away their children and households. But when they could not prevail with him, they essayed another way, and gave Themistocles, the Athenian admiral, a bribe of thirty talents on the condition that the Greek fleet should remain there and fight, when they fought, to defend Euboea.
5. This was the way whereby Themistocles made the Greeks to stay where they were: he gave Eurybiades for his share five talents of that money, as though it were of his own that he gave it. Eurybiades being thus won over, none of the rest was of a resisting temper save only Adimantus, son of Ocytus, the Corinthian admiral, who said that he would not remain but sail away from Artemisium; to him said Themistocles, adding an oath thereto: “Nay, you of all men will not desert us; for I will give you a greater gift than the king of the Medes would send you for deserting your allies”; and with that saying he sent withal three talents of silver to Adimantus’ ship. So these two were won over by gifts, the Euboeans got their desire, and Themistocles himself was the gainer; he kept the rest of the money, none knowing, but they that had received a part of it supposing that it had been sent for that intent by the Athenians.
6. So the Greeks abode off Euboea and there fought; and it came about as I shall show. Having arrived at Aphetae in the early part of the afternoon, the foreigners saw for themselves the few Greek ships that they had already heard were stationed off Artemisium, and they were eager to attack, that so they might take them. Now they were not yet minded to make an onfall front to front, for fear lest the Greeks should see them coming and take to flight, and night close upon them as they fled; it was their belief that the Greeks would save themselves by flight, and by the Persian purpose not so much as a firebearer of them must be saved alive.
7. Wherefore this was the plan that they devised. Separating two hundred ships from the whole number, they sent them to cruise outside Sciathus (that so the enemies might not see them sailing round Euboea) and by way of Caphereus round Geraestus to the Euripus, so that they might catch the Greeks between them, the one part holding that course and barring the retreat, and they themselves attacking in front. Thus planning, they sent the appointed ships on their way, purposing for themselves to make no attack upon the Greeks that day, nor before the signal should be seen whereby the ships that sailed round were to declare their coming. So they sent those ships to sail round, and set about numbering the rest at Aphetae.
8. Now at the time of their numbering the ships, there was in the fleet one Scyllias, a man of Scione; he was the best diver of the time, and in the shipwreck at Pelion he had saved for the Persians much of their possessions and won much withal for himself; this Scyllias had ere now, it would seem, purposed to desert to the Greeks, but he never had had so fair an occasion as now. By what means he did thereafter at last make his way to the Greeks, I cannot with exactness say; but if the story be true it is marvellous indeed; for it is said that he dived into the sea at Aphetae and never rose above it till he came to Artemisium, thus passing underneath the sea for about eighty furlongs. There are many tales of this man, some like lies and some true; but as concerning the present business it is my opinion, which I hereby declare, that he came to Artemisium in a boat. Having then come, he straightway told the admirals the story of the shipwreck, and of the ships that had been sent round Euboea.
9.Hearing that, the Greeks took counsel together; there was much speaking, but the opinion prevailed that they should abide and encamp where they were for that day, and thereafter when it should be past midnight put to sea and meet the ships that were sailing round. But presently, none attacking them, they waited for the late afternoon of the day and themselves advanced their ships against the foreigner, desiring to put to the proof his fashion of fighting and the art of breaking the line.
10. When Xerxes’ men and their generals saw the Greeks bearing down on them with but a few ships, they deemed them assuredly mad, and themselves put out to sea, thinking to win an easy victory; which expectation was very reasonable, as they saw the Greek ships so few, and their own many times more numerous and more seaworthy. With this assurance, they hemmed in the Greeks in their midst. Now as many Ionians as were friendly to the Greeks came unwillingly to the war, and were sore distressed to see the Greeks surrounded, supposing that not one of them would return home; so powerless did the Greeks seem to them to be. But those who were glad of the business vied each with each that he might be the first to take an Attic ship and receive gifts from the king; for it was the Athenians of whom there was most talk in the fleet.
11. But the Greeks, when the signal was given them, first drew the sterns of their ships together, their prows turned towards the foreigners; then at the second signal they put their hands to the work, albeit they were hemmed in within a narrow space and fought front to front. There they took thirty of the foreigners’ ships and the brother of Gorgus king of Salamis withal, even Philaon son of Chersis, a man of note in the fleet. The first Greek to take an enemy ship was an Athenian, Lycomedes, son of Aeschraeus, and he it was who received the prize for valour. They fought that seafight with doubtful issue, and nightfall ended the battle; the Greeks sailed back to Artemisium, and the foreigners to Aphetae, after faring far below their hopes in the fight. In that battle Antidorus of Lemnos deserted to the Greeks, alone of all the Greeks that were with the king; and for that the Athenians gave him lands in Salamis.
12. When darkness came on, the season being then midsummer, there was abundance of rain all through the night and violent thunderings from Pelion; and the dead and the wrecks were driven towards Aphetae, where they were entangled with the ships’ prows and fouled the blades of the oars. The ships’ companies that were there were dismayed by the noise of this, and looked in their present evil case for utter destruction; for before they were recovered after the shipwreck and the storm off Pelion, they next must abide a stubborn sea-fight, and after the sea-fight rushing rain and mighty torrents pouring seaward and violent thunderings.
13. Thus did the night deal with them; but to those that were appointed to sail round Euboea that same night was much crueller yet, inasmuch as it caught them on the open sea; and an evil end they had. For the storm and the rain coming on them in their course off the Hollows of Euboea, they were driven by the wind they knew not whither, and were cast upon the rocks. All this was the work of heaven’s providence, that so the Persian power might be more equally matched with the Greek, and not much greater than it.
14. So these perished at the Hollows of Euboea. But the foreigners at Aphetae, when to their great comfort the day dawned, kept their ships unmoved, being in their evil plight well content to do nothing for the nonce; and fifty-three Attic ships came to aid the Greeks, who were heartened by the ships’ coming and the news brought withal that the foreigners sailing round Euboea had all perished in the late storm. They waited then for the same hour as before, and putting to sea fell upon certain Cilician ships; which having destroyed, when darkness came on, they returned back to Artemisium.
15. But on the third day, the foreign admirals, ill brooking that so few ships should do them hurt, and fearing Xerxes’ anger, waited no longer for the Greeks to begin the fight, but gave the word and put out to sea about midday. And it so fell out that these sea-battles were fought through the same days as the land-battles at Thermopylae; the seamen’s whole endeavour was to hold the Euripus, as Leonidas’ men strove to guard the passage; the Greek battle word was to give the foreigner no entry into Hellas, and the Persian to destroy the Greek host and win the strait. So when Xerxes’ men ordered their battle and came on, the Greeks abode in their place off Artemisium; and the foreigners made a half circle of their ships, and strove to encircle and enclose them round.
16. At that the Greeks charged and joined battle. In that sea-fight both had equal success. For Xerxes’ fleet wrought itself harm by its numbers and multitude: the ships were thrown into confusion and ran foul of each other; nevertheless they held fast, nor yielded, for they could not bear to be put to flight by a few ships. Many were the Greek ships and men that there perished, and far more yet of the foreigners’ ships and men; thus they battled, till they drew off and parted each from other.
17. In that sea-fight of all Xerxes’ fighters the Egyptians bore themselves best; besides other great feats of arms that they achieved, they took five Greek ships and their crews withal. Of the Greeks on that day the Athenians bore themselves best; and of the Athenians Clinias son of Alcibiades; he brought to the war two hundred men and a ship of his own, all at his private charges.
18. So they parted and each right gladly made haste to his own anchorage. When the Greeks had drawn off and come out of the battle, they were left masters of the dead and the wrecks; but they had had rough handling, and chiefly the Athenians, half of whose ships had suffered hurt; and now their counsel was to flee to the inner waters of Hellas.
19. Themistocles bethought him that if the Ionian and Carian nations were rent away from the foreigners, the Greeks might be strong enough to get the upper hand of the rest. Now it was the wont of the Euboeans to drive their flocks down to the sea there. Wherefore gathering the admirals together he told them that he thought he had a device whereby he hoped to draw away the best of the king’s allies. So much he revealed for the nonce; but in the present turn of affairs this (he said) they must do: let everyone slay as many as he would from the Euboean flocks; it was better that the fleet should have them, than the enemy. Moreover he counselled them each to bid his men to light a fire; as for the time of their going thence, he would take such thought for that as should bring them scathless to Hellas. All this they agreed to do; and forthwith they lit fires and then laid hands on the flocks.
20. For the Euboeans had neglected the oracle of Bacis, deeming it void of meaning, and neither by carrying away nor by bringing in anything had they shown that they feared an enemy’s coming; whereby they were the cause of their own destruction; for Bacis’ oracle concerning this matter runs thus:
To these verses the Euboeans gave no heed; but in the evils then present and soon to come they could not but heed their dire calamity.
21. While the Greeks were doing as I have said, there came to them the watcher from Trachis. For there was a watcher at Artemisium, one Polyas, a native of Anticyra, who was charged (and had a rowing boat standing ready therefor), if the fleet should be at grips, to declare it to the men at Thermopylae; and in like manner, if any ill should befall the land army, Abronichus son of Lysicles, an Athenian, was with Leonidas, ready for his part to bring the news in a thirty-oared bark to the Greeks at Artemisium. So this Abronichus came and declared to them the fate of Leonidas and his army; which when the Greeks learnt, they no longer delayed their departure, but went their ways in their appointed order, the Corinthians first, and last of all the Athenians.
22. But Themistocles picked out the seaworthiest Athenian ships and went about to the places of drinking water, where he engraved on the rocks writing which the Ionians read on the next day when they came to Artemisium. This was what the writing said: “Men of Ionia, you do wrongly to fight against the land of your fathers and bring slavery upon Hellas. It were best of all that you should join yourselves to us; but if that be impossible for you, then do you even now withdraw yourselves from the war, and entreat the Carians to do the same as you. If neither of these things may be, and you are fast bound by such constraint that you cannot rebel, yet we pray you not to use your full strength in the day of battle; be mindful that you are our sons and that our quarrel with the foreigner was of your making in the beginning.” To my thinking Themistocles thus wrote with a double intent, that if the king knew nought of the writing it might make the Ionians to change sides and join with the Greeks, and that if the writing were maliciously reported to Xerxes he might thereby be led to mistrust the Ionians, and keep them out of the sea-fights.
23. Such was Themistocles’ writing. Immediately after this there came to the foreigners a man of Histiaea in a boat, telling them of the flight of the Greeks from Artemisium. Not believing this, they kept the bringer of the news in ward, and sent swift ships to spy out the matter; and when the crews of these brought word of the truth, on learning that, the whole armada at the first spreading of sunlight sailed all together to Artemisium, where having waited till midday, they next sailed to Histiaea, and on their coming took possession of the Histiaeans’ city, and overran all the villages on the seaboard of the Ellopian region, which is the land of Histiaea.
24. While they were there, Xerxes sent a herald to the fleet, having first bestowed the fallen men as I shall show. Of all his own soldiers who had fallen at Thermopylae (that is, as many as twenty thousand) he left about a thousand, and the rest he buried in digged trenches, which he covered with leaves and heaped earth, that the men of the fleet might not see them. So when the herald had crossed over to Histiaea, he assembled all the men of the fleet and thus spoke: “Men of our allies, King Xerxes suffers any one of you that will to leave his place and come to see how he fights against those foolish men who thought to overcome the king’s power.”
25. After this proclamation, there was nought so hard to get as a boat, so many were they who would see the sight. They crossed over and went about viewing the dead; and all of them supposed that the fallen Greeks were all Lacedaemonians and Thespians, though there were the helots also for them to see. Yet for all that they that crossed over were not deceived by what Xerxes had done with his own dead; for indeed the thing was laughable; of the Persians a thousand lay dead before their eyes, but the Greeks lay all together assembled in one place, to the number of four thousand. All that day they spent in seeing the sight; on the next the shipmen returned to their fleet at Histiaea, and Xerxes’ army set forth on its march.
26. There had come to them some few deserters, men of Arcadia, lacking a livelihood and desirous to find some service. Bringing these men into the king’s presence, the Persians inquired of them what the Greeks were doing, there being one who put this question in the name of all. The Arcadians telling them that the Greeks were keeping the Olympic festival and viewing sports and horse-races, the Persian asked what was the prize offered, wherefor they contended; and they told him of the crown of olive that was given to the victor. Then Tigranes son of Artabanus uttered a most noble saying (but the king deemed him a coward for it); when he heard that the prize was not money but a crown, he could not hold his peace, but cried, “Zounds, Mardonius, what manner of men are these that you have brought us to fight withal? ’tis not for money they contend but for glory of achievement!” Such was Tigranes’ saying.
27. In the meantime, immediately after the misfortune at Thermopylae, the Thessalians sent a herald to the Phocians, inasmuch as they bore an old grudge against them, and more than ever by reason of their latest disaster. For a few years before the king’s expedition the Thessalians and their allies had invaded Phocis with their whole army, but had been worsted and roughly handled by the Phocians. For the Phocians being beleaguered on Parnassus and having with them the diviner Tellias of Elis, Tellias devised a stratagem for them: he covered six hundred of the bravest Phocians with gypsum, themselves and their armour, and led them to attack the Thessalians by night, bidding them slay whomsoever they should see not whitened. The Thessalian sentinels were the first to see these men and to flee for fear, supposing falsely that it was something beyond nature, and next after the sentinels the whole army fled likewise; insomuch that the Phocians made themselves masters of four thousand dead, and their shields, whereof they dedicated half at Abae and the rest at Delphi; a tithe of what they won in that fight went to the making of the great statues that stand round the tripod before the shrine at Delphi, and there are others like them dedicated at Abae.
28. Thus had the beleaguered Phocians dealt with the Thessalian foot; and when the Thessalian horsemen rode into their country the Phocians did them mortal harm; they dug a great pit in the pass near Hyampolis and put empty jars therein, covering which with earth, till all was like the rest of the ground, they awaited the onset of the Thessalians. These rode on thinking to sweep the Phocians before them, and fell in among the jars; whereby their horses’ legs were broken.
29. These two deeds had never been forgiven by the Thessalians; and now they sent a herald with this message: “Men of Phocis, it is time now that you confess yourselves to be no match for us. We were ever formerly preferred before you by the Greeks, as long as we were on their side; and now we are of such weight with the foreigner that it lies in our power to have you deprived of your lands, ay, and yourselves enslaved withal. Nevertheless, though all rests with us, we bear you no ill-will for the past; pay us fifty talents of silver for what you did, and we promise to turn aside what threatens your land.”
30. This was the Thessalians’ offer. The Phocians, and they alone of all that region, would not take the Persians’ part, and that for no other reason (if I argue aright) than their hatred of the Thessalians; had the Thessalians aided the Greek side, then methinks the Phocians would have stood for the Persians. They replied to the offer of the Thessalians that they would give no money; that they could do like the Thessalians and take the Persian part, if for any cause they so wished, hut they would not willingly betray the cause of Hellas.
31. This answer being returned to them, thereat the Thessalians in their wrath against the Phocians began to guide the foreigner on his way. From the lands of Trachis they broke into Doris; for there is a narrow tongue of Dorian land stretching that way, about thirty furlongs wide, between the Malian territory and the Phocian, which in old time was Dryopian; this region is the motherland of the Dorians of the Peloponnese. To this Dorian territory the foreigners did no harm at their invasion; for the people took the Persian part, and the Thessalians would not have them harmed.
32. When they entered Phocis from Doris, the Phocians themselves they could not catch; for some of the Phocians ascended to the heights of Parnassus; and the peak of Parnassus called Tithorea, which rises by itself near the town Neon, has room enough for a multitude of people; thither they carried up their goods and themselves ascended to it, but the most of them made their way out of the country to the Ozolian Locrians, where is the town of Amphissa above the Crisaean plain. The foreigners overran the whole of Phocis, the Thessalians so guiding their army; and all that came within their power they burnt and wasted, setting fire to towns and temples.
33. Marching this way down the river Cephisus they ravaged all before them, burning the towns of Drymus, Charadra, Erochus, Tethronium, Amphicaea, Neon, Pediea, Tritea, Elatea, Hyampolis, Parapotamii, and Abae, where was a richly endowed temple of Apollo, provided with wealth of treasure and offerings; and there was then as now a place of divination there. This temple, too, they plundered and burnt; and they pursued and caught some of the Phocians near the mountains, and did certain women to death by the multitude of their violators.
34. Passing Parapotamii the foreigners came to Panopea; and there their army parted asunder into two companies. The greater and stronger part of the host marched with Xerxes himself towards Athens and broke into the territory of Orchomenus in Boeotia. Now the whole people of Boeotia took the Persian part, and men of Macedonia sent by Alexander safeguarded their towns, each in his appointed place; the reason of the safeguarding being, that Xerxes might understand the Boeotians to be on the Persian side.
35. So this part of the foreign army marched as aforesaid, and others set forth with guides for the temple at Delphi, keeping Parnassus on their right. These, too, laid waste whatsoever part of Phocis they occupied, burning the towns of the Panopeans and Daulii and Aeolidae. The purpose of their parting from the rest of the army and marching this way was, that they might plunder the temple at Delphi and lay its wealth before Xerxes; who (as I have been told) knew of all the most notable possessions in the temple better than of what he had left in his own palace, and chiefly the offerings of Croesus son of Alyattes; so many had ever spoken of them.
36. When the Delphians learnt all this they were sore afraid; and in their great fear they inquired of the oracle whether they should bury the sacred treasure in the ground or convey it away to another country. But the god bade them move nothing, saying that he was able to protect his own. On that hearing, the Delphians took thought for themselves. They sent their children and women oversea to Achaia; of the men, the most went up to the peaks of Parnassus and carried their goods into the Corycian cave, and some escaped to Amphissa in Locris; in brief, all the Delphians left the town save sixty men and the prophet.
37. Now when the foreigners drew nigh in their coming and could see the temple, the prophet, whose name was Aceratus, saw certain sacred arms, that no man might touch without sacrilege, brought out of the chamber within and laid before the shrine. So he went to tell the Delphians of this miracle; but when the foreigners came with all speed near to the temple of Athene Pronaea, they were visited by miracles yet greater than the aforesaid. Marvellous indeed it is, that weapons of war should of their own motion appear lying outside before the shrine; but the visitation which followed upon that was more wondrous than aught else ever seen. For when the foreigners were near in their coming to the temple of Athene Pronaea, there were they smitten by thunderbolts from heaven, and two peaks brake off from Parnassus and came rushing among them with a mighty noise and overwhelmed many of them; and from the temple of Athene there was heard a shout and a cry of triumph.
38. All this joining together struck panic into the foreigners; and the Delphians, perceiving that they fled, descended upon them and slew a great number. The survivors fled straight to Boeotia. Those of the foreigners who returned said (as I have been told) that they had seen other signs of heaven’s working besides the aforesaid: two men-at-arms of stature greater than human (they said) had followed hard after them, slaying and pursuing.
39. These two, say the Delphians, were the native heroes Phylacus and Autonous, whose precincts are near the temple, Phylacus’ by the road itself above the shrine of Athene Pronaea, and Autonous’ near the Castalian spring, under the Hyampean peak. The rocks that fell from Parnassus were yet to be seen in my day, lying in the precinct of Athene Pronaea, whither their descent through the foreigners’ ranks had hurled them. Such, then, was the manner of those men’s departure from the temple.
40. The Greek fleet, after it had left Artemisium came by the Athenians’ entreaty to land at Salamis; the reason why the Athenians entreated them to put in there being, that they themselves might convey their children and women safe out of Attica, and moreover take counsel as to what they should do. For inasmuch as the present turn of affairs had disappointed their judgment they were now to hold a council; they had thought to find the whole Peloponnesian force awaiting the foreigners’ attack in Boeotia, but now of that they found no whit, but learnt contrariwise that the Peloponnesians were fortifying the Isthmus, and letting all else go, as deeming the defence of the Peloponnese to be of greatest moment. Learning this, they therefore entreated the fleet to put in at Salamis.
41. So the rest made sail thither, and the Athenians to their own country. Being there arrived they made a proclamation that every Athenian should save his children and servants as he best could. Thereat most of them sent their households to Troezen, and some to Aegina and Salamis. They made haste to convey all out of harm because they desired to be guided by the oracle, and for another reason, too, which was this: it is said by the Athenians that a great snake lives in their temple, to guard the acropolis; in proof whereof they do ever duly set out a honey-cake as a monthly offering for it; this cake had ever before been consumed, but was now left untouched. When the priestess made that known, the Athenians were the readier to leave their city, deeming their goddess, too, to have deserted the acropolis. When they had conveyed all away, they returned to the fleet.
42. When the Greeks from Artemisium had put in at Salamis, the rest of their fleet also heard of it and gathered in from Troezen, the port of which, Pogon, had been named for their place of mustering; and the ships that mustered there were more by far than had fought at Artemisium, and came from more cities. Their admiral-in-chief was the same as at Artemisium, Eurybiades son of Euryclides, a Spartan, yet not of the royal blood; but it was the Athenians who furnished by far the most and the sea-worthiest ships.
43. The Peloponnesians that were with the fleet were, firstly, the Lacedaemonians, with sixteen ships, and the Corinthians with the same number of ships as at Artemisium; the Sicyonians furnished fifteen, the Epidaurians ten, the Troezenians five, the people of Hermione three; all these, except the people of Hermione, were of Dorian and Macedonian stock, and had last come from Erineus and Pindus and the Dryopian region. The people of Hermione are Dryopians, driven by Heracles and the Malians from the country now called Doris.
44. These were the Peloponnesians in the fleet. Of those that came from the mainland outside the Peloponnese, the Athenians furnished more ships than any of the rest, namely, a hundred and eighty, of their own sending; for the Plataeans did not fight beside the Athenians at Salamis, whereof the reason was that when the Greeks sailed from Artemisium, and had arrived off Chalcis, the Plataeans landed on the opposite Boeotian shore and set about conveying their households away. So they were left behind bringing these to safety. The Athenians, while the Pelasgians ruled what is now called Hellas, were Pelasgians, bearing the name of Cranai; in the time of their king Cecrops they came to be called Cecropidae, and when the kingship fell to Erechtheus they changed their name and became Athenians, but when Ion son of Xuthus was made leader of their armies they were called after him Ionians.
45. The Megarians furnished the same complement as at Artemisium; the Ampraciots brought seven ships to the fleet, and the Leucadians (who are of Dorian stock from Corinth) brought three.
46. Of the islanders, the Aeginetans furnished thirty. They had other ships, too, manned; but they used them to guard their own coasts, and fought at Salamis with the thirty that were most seaworthy. The Aeginetans are Dorians from Epidaurus; their island was formerly called Oenone. After the Aeginetans came the Chalcidians with the twenty, and the Eretrians with the seven which had fought at Artemisium; they are Ionians; and next the Ceans, furnishing the same ships as before; they are of Ionian stock, from Athens. The Naxians furnished four ships; they had been sent by their townsmen to the Persians, like the rest of the islanders; but they paid no heed to the command and joined themselves to the Greeks, being invited thereto by Democritus, a man of note in their town, who was then captain of a trireme. The Naxians are Ionians, of Athenian lineage. The Styrians furnished the same number as at Artemisium, and the Cythnians one trireme and a fifty-oared bark; both these peoples are Dryopians. There were also in the fleet men of Seriphos and Siphnos and Melos, these being the only islanders who had not given the foreigner earth and water.
47. All these aforesaid came to the war from countries nearer than Thesprotia and the river Acheron; for Thesprotia marches with the Ampraciots and Leucadians, who came from the lands farthest distant. Of those that dwell farther off than these, the men of Croton alone came to aid Hellas in its peril, and they with one ship, whereof the captain was Phaÿllus, a victor in the Pythian games. These Crotoniats are of Achaean blood.
48. All these furnished triremes for the fleet save the Melians and Siphnians and Seriphians, who brought fifty-oared barks, the Melians (who are of Lacedaemonian stock) two, and the Siphnians and Seriphians (who are Ionians of Athenian lineage) one each. The whole number of the ships, besides the fifty-oared barks, was three hundred and seventy eight.
49. When the leaders from the cities aforenamed met at Salamis, they held a council; Eurybiades laid the matter before them, bidding whosoever would to declare what waters in his judgment were fittest for a sea-fight, among all places whereof the Greeks were masters; of Attica they had no more hope; it was among other places that he bade them judge. Then the opinion of most of the speakers tended to the same conclusion, that they should sail to the Isthmus and do battle by sea for the safety of the Peloponnese, the reason which they alleged being this, that if they were defeated in the fight at Salamis they would be beleaguered in an island, where no help could come to them; but off the Isthmus they could win to their own coasts.
50. While the Peloponnesian captains held this argument, there came a man of Athens, bringing news that the foreigner was arrived in Attica, and was wasting it all with fire. For the army which followed Xerxes through Boeotia had burnt the town of the Thespians (who had themselves left it and gone to the Peloponnese) and Plataea likewise, and was arrived at Athens, laying waste all the country round. They burnt Thespia and Plataea because they learnt from the Thebans that those towns had not taken the Persian part.
51. Now after the crossing of the Hellespont whence they began their march, the foreigners had spent one month in their passage into Europe, and in three more months they arrived in Attica, Calliades being then archon at Athens. There they took the city, then left desolate; but they found in the temple some few Athenians, temple-stewards and needy men, who defended themselves against the assault by fencing the acropolis with doors and fogs; these had not withdrawn to Salamis, partly by reason of poverty, and also because they supposed themselves to have found out the meaning of the Delphic oracle that the wooden wall should be impregnable, and believed that this, and not the ships, was the refuge signified by the prophecy.
52. The Persians sat down on the hill over against the acropolis, which is called by the Athenians the Hill of Ares, and besieged them by shooting arrows wrapped in lighted tow at the barricade. There the Athenians defended themselves against their besiegers, albeit they were in extremity and their barricade had failed them; nor would they listen to the terms of surrender proposed to them by the Pisistratids, but defended themselves by counter-devices, chiefly by rolling great stones down on the foreigners when they assaulted the gates; insomuch that for a long while Xerxes could not take the place, and knew not what to do.
53. But at the last in their quandary the foreigners found an entrance; for the oracle must needs be fulfilled, and all the mainland of Attica be made subject to the Persians. In front of the acropolis, and behind the gates and the ascent thereto, there was a place where none was on guard and none would have thought that any man would ascend that way; here certain men mounted near the shrine of Cecrops’ daughter Aglaurus, though the way led up a sheer cliff. When the Athenians saw that they had ascended to the acropolis, some of them cast themselves down from the wall and so perished, and others fled into the inner chamber. Those Persians who had come up first betook themselves to the gates, which they opened, and slew the suppliants; and when they had laid all the Athenians low, they plundered the temple and burnt the whole of the acropolis.
54. Being now wholly master of Athens, Xerxes sent a horseman to Susa to announce his present success to Artabanus. On the next day after the messenger was sent he called together the Athenian exiles who followed in his train, and bade them go up to the acropolis and offer sacrifice after their manner, whether it was some vision seen of him in sleep that led him to give this charge, or that he repented of his burning of the temple. The Athenian exiles did as they were bidden.
55. I will now show wherefore I make mention of this: on that acropolis there is a shrine of Erechtheus the Earthborn (as he is called), wherein is an olive tree, and a salt-pool, which (as the Athenians say) were set there by Poseidon and Athene as tokens of their contention for the land. Now it was so, that the olive tree was burnt with the temple by the foreigners; but on the day after its burning, when the Athenians bidden by the king to sacrifice went up to the temple, they saw a shoot of about a cubit’s length sprung from the trunk; which thing they reported.
56. When it was told to the Greeks at Salamis what had befallen the Athenian acropolis, they were so panic-struck that some of their captains would not wait till the matter whereon they debated should be resolved, but threw themselves aboard their ships and hoisted their sails for flight. Those that were left behind resolved that the fleet should fight to guard the Isthmus; and at nightfall they broke up from the assembly and embarked.
57. Themistocles then being returned to his ship, Mnesiphilus, an Athenian, asked him what was the issue of their counsels. Learning from him that their plan was to sail to the Isthmus and fight in defence of the Peloponnese, “Then,” said Mnesiphilus, “if they put out to sea from Salamis, your ships will have no country left wherefor to fight; for everyone will betake himself to his own city, and neither Eurybiades, nor any other man, will be able to hold them, but the armament will be scattered abroad; and Hellas will perish, by unwisdom. Nay, if there be any means thereto, go now and strive to undo this plan, if haply you may be able to persuade Eurybiades to change his purpose and so abide here.”
58. This advice pleased Themistocles well; making no answer to Mnesiphilus, he went to Eurybiades’ ship, and said that he would confer with him on a matter of their common interest. Eurybiades bidding him come aboard and say what he would, Themistocles sat by him and told him all that he had heard from Mnesiphilus, as it were of his own devising, and added much thereto, till he prevailed with the Spartan by entreaty to come out of his ship and assemble the admirals in their place of meeting.
59. They being assembled (so it is said), before Eurybiades had laid before them the matter wherefor the generals were brought together, Themistocles spoke long and vehemently in the earnestness of his entreaty; and while he yet spoke, Adimantus son of Ocytus, the Corinthian admiral, said, “At the games, Themistocles, they that come forward before their time are beaten with rods.” “Ay,” said Themistocles, justifying himself, “but they that wait too long win no crown.”
60. Thus for the nonce he made the Corinthian a soft answer; then turning to Eurybiades, he said now nought of what he had said before, how that if they set sail from Salamis they would scatter and flee; for it would have ill become him to bring railing accusations against the allies in their presence; he trusted to another plea instead. “It lies in your hand,” said he, “to save Hellas, if you will be guided by me and fight here at sea, and not be won by the words of these others to remove your ships over to the Isthmus. Hear me now, and judge between two plans. If you engage off the Isthmus you will fight in open waters, where it is least for our advantage, our ships being the heavier and the fewer in number; and moreover you will lose Salamis and Megara and Aegina, even if victory attend us otherwise; and their land army will follow with their fleet, and so you will lead them to the Peloponnese, and imperil all Hellas. But if you do as I counsel you, you will thereby profit as I shall show: firstly, by engaging their many ships with our few in narrow seas, we shall win a great victory, if the war have its rightful issue; for it is for our advantage to fight in a strait as it is theirs to have wide sea-room. Secondly, we save Salamis, whither we have conveyed away our children and our women. Moreover, there is this, too, in my plan, and it is your chiefest desire: you will be defending the Peloponnese as well by abiding here as you would by fighting off the Isthmus, and you will not lead our enemies (if you be wise) to the Isthmus. And if that happen which I expect, you will never have the foreigners upon you at the Isthmus; they will advance no further than Attica, but depart in disorderly fashion; and we shall gain by the saving of Megara and Aegina and Salamis, where it is told us by an oracle that we shall have the upper hand of our enemies. Success comes oftenest to men when they make reasonable designs; but if they do not so, neither will heaven for its part side with human devices.”
61. Thus said Themistocles; but Adimantus the Corinthian attacked him again, saying that a landless man should hold his peace, and that Eurybiades must not suffer one that had no city to vote; let Themistocles (said he) have a city at his back ere he took part in council,—taunting him thus because Athens was taken and held by the enemy. Thereupon Themistocles spoke long and bitterly against Adimantus and the Corinthians, giving them plainly to understand that the Athenians had a city and country greater than theirs, as long as they had two hundred ships fully manned; for there were no Greeks that could beat them off.
62. Thus declaring, he passed over to Eurybiades, and spoke more vehemently than before. “If you abide here, by so abiding you will be a right good man; but if you will not, you will overthrow Hellas; for all our strength for war is in our ships. Nay, be guided by me. But if you do not so, we then without more ado will take our households and voyage to Siris in Italy, which has been ours from old time, and the oracles tell that we must there plant a colony; and you, left without allies such as we are, will have cause to remember what I have said.”
63. These words of Themistocles moved Eurybiades to change his purpose; which to my thinking he did chiefly because he feared lest the Athenians should leave him if he took his ships to the Isthmus; for if the Athenians should leave the fleet the rest would be no match for the enemy. He chose then the plan aforesaid, namely, to abide and fight on the seas where they were.
64. Thus after this wordy skirmish the Greeks at Salamis prepared, since Eurybiades so willed, to fight their battle where they were. At sunrise on the next day there was an earthquake on land and sea; and they resolved to pray to the gods, and to call the sons of Aeacus to be their helpers. As they resolved, so they did; they prayed to all the gods, and called Aias and Telamon to come to them from Salamis, where the Greeks were; and they sent a ship to Aegina for Aeacus and the rest that were of his House.
65. There was one Dicaeus, son of Theocydes, an exile from Athens who had attained to estimation among the Medes. This was the tale that he told: At the time when the land of Attica was being laid waste by Xerxes’ army, and no Athenians were therein, he, being with Demaratus the Lacedaemonian on the Thriasian plain, saw dust coming from Eleusis as it were raised by the feet of about thirty thousand men; and as they marvelled greatly what men they should be whence the dust came, immediately they heard a cry, which cry seemed to him to be the Iacchus-song of the mysteries. Demaratus, not being conversant with the rites of Eleusis, asked him what this voice might be; and Dicaeus said, “Without doubt, Demaratus, some great harm will befall the king’s host; for Attica being unpeopled, it is plain hereby that the voice we hear is of heaven’s sending, and comes from Eleusis to the aid of the Athenians and their allies. And if the vision descend upon the Peloponnese, the king himself and his army on land will be endangered; but if it turn towards the ships at Salamis, the king will be in peril of losing his fleet. As for this feast, it is kept by the Athenians every year for the honour of the Mother and the Maid, and whatever Greek will, be he Athenian or other, is then initiated; and the cry which you hear is the ‘Iacchus’ which is uttered at this feast.” Demaratus replied thereto, “Keep silence, and speak to none other thus; for if these words of yours be reported to the king, you will lose your head, and neither I nor any other man will avail to save you. Hold your peace; and for this host, the gods shall look to it.” Such was Demaratus’ counsel; and after the dust and the cry came a cloud, which rose aloft and floated away towards Salamis, to the Greek fleet. By this they understood, that Xerxes’ ships must perish.—This was the tale told by Dicaeus, son of Theocydes; and Demaratus and others (he said) could prove it true.
66. They that were appointed to serve in Xerxes’ fleet, when they had viewed the hurt done to the Laconians and crossed over from Trachis to Histiaea, after three days’ waiting sailed through the Euripus, and in three more days they arrived at Phalerum. To my thinking, the forces both of land and sea were no fewer in number when they brake into Athens than when they came to Sepias and Thermopylae; for against those that were lost in the storm, and at Thermopylae, and in the sea-fights off Artemisium, I set these, who at that time were not yet in the king’s following—namely, the Melians, the Dorians, the Locrians, and the whole force of Boeotia (save only the Thespians and Plataeans), yea, and the men of Carystus and Andros and Tenos and the rest of the islands, save the five states of which I have before made mention. For the farther the Persian pressed on into Hellas the more were the peoples that followed in his train.
67. So when all these were come to Athens, except the Parians (who had been left behind in Cythnus watching to see which way the war should incline)—the rest, I say, being come to Phalerum, Xerxes then came himself down to the fleet, that he might consort with the shipmen and hear their opinions. When he was come, and sat enthroned, there appeared before him at his summons the despots of their cities and the leaders of companies from the ships, and they sat according to the honourable rank which the king had granted them severally, first in place the king of Sidon, and next he of Tyre, and then the rest. When they had sat down in order one after another, Xerxes sent Mardonius and put each to the test by questioning him if the Persian ships should offer battle.
68. Mardonius went about questioning them, from the Sidonian onwards; and all the rest gave their united voice for offering battle at sea; but Artemisia said: “Tell the king, I pray you, Mardonius, that I who say this have not been the hindmost in courage or in feats of arms in the fights near Euboea. Nay, master, but it is right that I should declare my opinion, even that which I deem best for your cause. And this I say to you—Spare your ships, and offer no battle at sea; for their men are as much stronger by sea than yours, as men are stronger than women. And why must you at all costs imperil yourself by fighting battles on the sea? have you not possession of Athens, for the sake of which you set out on this march, and of the rest of Hellas? no man stands in your path; they that resisted you have come off in such plight as beseemed them. I will show you now what I think will be the course of your enemies’ doings. If you make no haste to fight at sea, but keep your ships here and abide near the land, or even go forward into the Peloponnese, then, my master, you will easily gain that end wherefor you have come. For the Greeks are not able to hold out against you for a long time, but you will scatter them, and they will flee each to his city; they have no food in this island, as I am informed, nor, if you lead your army into the Peloponnese, is it likely that those of them who have come from thence will abide unmoved; they will have no mind to fight sea-battles for Athens. But if you make haste to fight at once on sea, I fear lest your fleet take some hurt and thereby harm your army likewise. Moreover, O king, call this to mind—good men’s slaves are wont to be evil and bad men’s slaves good; and you, who are the best of all men, have evil slaves, that pass for your allies, men of Egypt and Cyprus and Cilicia and Pamphylia, in whom is no usefulness.”
69. When Artemisia spoke thus to Mardonius, all that were her friends were sorry for her words, thinking that the king would do her some hurt for counselling him against a sea-fight; but they that had ill-will and jealousy against her for the honour in which she was held above all the allies were glad at her answer, thinking it would be her undoing. But when the opinions were reported to Xerxes he was greatly pleased by the opinion of Artemisia; he had ever deemed her a woman of worth and now held her in much higher esteem. Nevertheless he bade the counsel of the more part to be followed; for he thought that off Euboea his men had been slack fighters by reason of his absence, and now he purposed to watch the battle himself.
70. When the command to set sail was given, they put out to Salamis and arrayed their line in order at their ease. That day there was not time enough left to offer battle, for the night came; and they made preparation for the next day instead. But the Greeks were in fear and dread, and especially they that were from the Peloponnese; and the cause of their fear was, that they themselves were about to fight for the Athenians’ country where they lay at Salamis, and if they were overcome they must be shut up and beleaguered in an island, leaving their own land unguarded. At the next nightfall, the land army of the foreigners began its march to the Peloponnese.
71. Nathless the Greeks had used every device possible to prevent the foreigners from breaking in upon them by land. For as soon as the Peloponnesians heard that Leonidas’ men at Thermopylae were dead, they hasted together from their cities and encamped on the Isthmus, their general being the brother of Leonidas, Cleombrotus son of Anaxandrides. Being there encamped they broke up the Scironian road, and thereafter built a wall across the Isthmus, having resolved in council so to do. As there were many tens of thousands there and all men wrought, the work was brought to accomplishment; for they carried stones to it and bricks and logs and crates full of sand, and they that mustered there never rested from their work by night or by day.
72. Those Greeks that mustered all their people at the Isthmus were the Lacedaemonians and all the Arcadians, the Eleans, Corinthians, Sicyonians, Epidaurians, Phliasians, Troezenians, and men of Hermione. These were they who mustered there, and were moved by great fear for Hellas in her peril; but the rest of the Peloponnesians cared nothing; and the Olympian and Carnean festivals were now past.
73. Seven nations inhabit the Peloponnese; two of these, the Arcadians and Cynurians, are native to the soil and are now settled where they have ever been; and one nation, the Achaean, has never departed from the Peloponnese, but has left its own country and dwells in another. The four that remain of the seven have come from elsewhere, namely, the Dorians and Aetolians and Dryopians and Lemnians; the Dorians have many notable cities, the Aetolians Elis alone; the Dryopians have Hermione and that Asine which is near Cardamyle of Laconia; and the Lemnians, all the Paroreatae. The Cynurians are held to be Ionians, and the only Ionians native to the soil, but their Argive masters and time have made Dorians of them; they are the people of Orneae and the country round. Now of these seven nations all the cities, save those aforesaid, sat apart from the war; and if I may speak freely, by so doing they took the part of the enemy.
74. So the Greeks on the Isthmus had such labour to cope withal, seeing that now all they had was at stake, and they had no hope of winning renown with their ships; but they that were at Salamis, although they heard of the work, were affrighted, and their dread was less for themselves than for the Peloponnese. For a while there was but murmuring between man and man, and wonder at Eurybiades’ unwisdom, but at the last came an open outbreak; and an assembly was held, where there was much speaking of the same matters as before, some saying that they must sail away to the Peloponnese and face danger for that country, rather than abide and fight for a land won from them by the spear; but the Athenians and Aeginetans and Megarians pleading that they should remain and defend themselves where they were.
75. Then Themistocles, when the Peloponnesians were outvoting him, went privily out of the assembly, and sent to the Median fleet a man in a boat, charged with a message that he must deliver. This man’s name was Sicinnus, and he was of Themistocles’ household and attendant on his children; at a later day, when the Thespians were receiving men to be their citizens, Themistocles made him a Thespian, and a wealthy man withal. He now came in a boat and spoke thus to the foreigners’ admirals: “I am sent by the admiral of the Athenians without the knowledge of the other Greeks (he being a friend to the king’s cause and desiring that you rather than the Greeks should have the mastery) to tell you that the Greeks have lost heart and are planning flight, and that now is the hour for you to achieve an incomparable feat of arms, if you suffer them not to escape. For there is no union in their counsels, nor will they withstand you any more, and you will see them battling against each other, your friends against your foes.”
76. With that declaration he departed away. The Persians put faith in the message; and first they landed many of their men on the islet Psyttalea, which lies between Salamis and the mainland; then, at midnight, they advanced their western wing towards Salamis for encirclement, and they too put out to sea that were stationed off Ceos and Cynosura; and they held all the passage with their ships as far as Munychia. The purpose of their putting out to sea was, that the Greeks might have no liberty even to flee, but should be hemmed in at Salamis and punished for their fighting off Artemisium. And the purpose of their landing Persians on the islet called Psyttalea was this, that as it was here in especial that in the sea fight men and wrecks would be washed ashore (for the island lay in the very path of the battle that was to be), they might thus save their friends and slay their foes. All this they did in silence, lest their enemies should know of it. So they made these preparations in the night, taking no rest.
77. But, for oracles, I have no way of gainsaying their truth for they speak clearly, and I would not essay to overthrow them, when I look into such matter as this:
Looking at such matters and seeing how clear is the utterance of Bacis, I neither venture myself to gainsay him as touching oracles nor suffer such gainsaying by others.
78. But among the admirals at Salamis there was a hot bout of argument; and they knew not as yet that the foreigners had drawn their ships round them, but supposed the enemy to be still where they had seen him stationed in the daylight.
79. But as they contended, there crossed over from Aegina Aristides son of Lysimachus, an Athenian, but one that had been ostracised by the commonalty; from that which I have learnt of his way of life I am myself well persuaded that he was the best and the justest man at Athens. He then came and stood in the place of council and called Themistocles out of it, albeit Themistocles was no friend of his but his chiefest enemy but in the stress of the present danger he put that old feud from his mind, and so called Themistocles out, that he might converse with him. Now he had heard already, that the Peloponnesians desired to sail to the Isthmus. So when Themistocles came out, Aristides said, “Let the rivalry between us be now as it has been before, to see which of us two shall do his country more good. I tell you now, that it is all one for the Peloponnesians to talk much or little about sailing away from hence; for I say from that which my eyes have seen that now even if the Corinthians and Eurybiades himself desire to sail out, they cannot; we are hemmed in on all sides by our enemies. Do you go in now, and tell them this.”
80. “Your exhortation is right useful” Themistocles answered, “and your news is good; for you have come with your own eyes for witnesses of that which I desired might happen. Know that what the Medes do is of my contriving; for when the Greeks would not of their own accord prepare for battle, it was needful to force them to it willy-nilly. But now since you have come with this good news, give your message to them yourself. If I tell it, they will think it is of my own devising, and they will never take my word for it that the foreigners are doing as you say; nay, go before them yourself and tell them how it stands. When you have told them, if they believe you, that is best; but if they will not believe you, it will be the same thing to us; for if we are hemmed in on every side, as you say, they will no longer be able to take to flight.”
81. Aristides then came forward and told them; he was come, he said, from Aegina, and had been hard put to it to slip unseen through the blockade; for all the Greek fleet was compassed round by Xerxes’ ships, and they had best (he said) prepare to defend themselves. Thus he spoke, and took his departure. They fell a-wrangling again; for the more part of the admirals would not believe that the news was true.
82. But while they yet disbelieved, there came a trireme with Tenian deserters, whose captain was one Panaetius son of Sosimenes, and this brought them the whole truth. For that deed the men of Tenos were engraved on the tripod at Delphi among those that had vanquished the foreigner. With this ship that deserted to Salamis and the Lemnian which had already deserted to Artemisium, the Greek fleet, which had fallen short by two of three hundred and eighty, now attained to that full number.
83. The Greeks, believing at last the tale of the Tenians, made ready for battle. It was now earliest dawn, and they called the fighting men to an assembly, wherein Themistocles made an harangue in which he excelled all others; the tenor of his words was to array all the good in man’s nature and estate against the evil; and having exhorted them to choose the better, he made an end of speaking and bade them embark. Even as they so did, came the trireme from Aegina which had been sent away for the Sons of Aeacus.
84. With that the Greeks stood out to sea in full force, and as they stood out the foreigners straightway fell upon them. The rest of the Greeks began to back water and beach their ships; but Aminias of Pallene, an Athenian, pushed out to the front and charged a ship; which being entangled with his, and the two not able to be parted, the others did now come to Aminias’ aid and joined battle. This is the Athenian story of the beginning of the fight; but the Aeginetans say that the ship which began it was that one which had been sent away to Aegina for the Sons of Aeacus. This story also is told,—that they saw the vision of a woman, who cried commands loud enough for all the Greek fleet to hear, uttering first this reproach, “Sirs, what madness is this? how long wilt you still be backing water?”
85. The Phoenicians (for they had the western wing, towards Eleusis) were arrayed opposite to the Athenians, and to the Lacedaemonians the Ionians, on the eastern wing, nearest to Piraeus. Yet but few of them fought slackly, as Themistocles had bidden them, and the more part did not so. Many names I could record of ships’ captains that took Greek ships; but I will speak of none save Theomestor son of Androdamas and Phylacus son of Histiaeus, Samians both; and I make mention of these alone, because Theomestor was for this feat of arms made by the Persians despot of Samos, and Phylacus was recorded among the king’s benefactors and given much land. These benefactors of the king are called in the Persian language, orosangae.
86. Thus it was with these two; but the great multitude of the ships were shattered at Salamis, some destroyed by the Athenians and some by the Aeginetans. For since the Greeks fought orderly and in array, but the foreigners were by now disordered and did nought of set purpose, it was but reason that they should come to such an end as befel them. Yet on that day they were and approved themselves by far better men than off Euboea; all were zealous, and feared Xerxes, each man thinking that the king’s eye was on him.
87. Now as touching some of the others I cannot with exactness say how they fought severally, foreigners or Greeks; but what befel Artemisia made her to be esteemed by the king even more than before. The king’s side being now in dire confusion, Artemisia’s ship was at this time being pursued by a ship of Attica; and she could not escape, for other friendly ships were in her way, and it chanced that she was the nearest to the enemy; wherefore she resolved that she would do that which afterwards tended to her advantage, and as she fled pursued by the Athenian she charged a friendly ship that bore men of Calyndus and the king himself of that place, Damasithymus. It may be that she had had some quarrel with him while they were still at the Hellespont, but if her deed was done of set purpose, or if the Calyndian met her by crossing her path at haphazard, I cannot say. But having charged and sunk the ship, she had the good luck to work for herself a double advantage. For when the Attic captain saw her charge a ship of foreigners, he supposed that Artemisia’s ship was Greek or a deserter from the foreigners fighting for the Greeks, and he turned aside to deal with others.
88. By this happy chance it came about that she escaped and avoided destruction; and moreover the upshot was that the very harm which she had done won her great favour in Xerxes’ eyes. For the king (it is said) saw her charge the ship as he viewed the battle, and one of the bystanders said, “Sire, see you Artemisia, how well she fights, and how she has sunk an enemy ship?” Xerxes then asking if it were truly Artemisia that had done the deed, they affirmed it, knowing well the ensign of her ship; and they supposed that the ship she had sunk was an enemy; for the luckiest chance of all which had (as I have said) befallen her was, that not one from the Calyndian ship was saved alive to be her accuser. Hearing what they told him, Xerxes is reported to have said, “My men have become women, and my women men”; such, they say, were his words.
89. In that hard fighting Xerxes’ brother the admiral Ariabignes, son of Darius, was slain, and withal many other Persians and Medes and allies of renown, and some Greeks, but few; for since they could swim, they who lost their ships, yet were not slain in hand-to-hand fight, swam across to Salamis; but the greater part of the foreigners were drowned in the sea, not being able to swim. When the foremost ships were turned to flight, it was then that the most of them were destroyed; for the men of the rearmost ranks, pressing forward in their ships that they too might display their valour to the king, ran foul of their friends’ ships that were in flight.
90. It happened also amid this disorder that certain Phoenicians whose ships had been destroyed came to the king and accused the Ionians of treason, saying that it was by their doing that the ships had been lost; the end of which matter was, that the Ionian captains were not put to death, and those Phoenicians who accused them were rewarded as I will show. While they yet spoke as aforesaid, a Samothracian ship charged an Attic; and while the Attic ship was sinking, a ship of Aegina bore down and sank the Samothracian; but the Samothracians, being javelin throwers, swept the fighting men with a shower of javelins off from the ship that had sunk theirs, and boarded and seized her themselves. Thereby the Ionians were saved; for when Xerxes saw this great feat of their arms, he turned on the Phoenicians (being moved to blame all in the bitterness of his heart) and commanded that their heads be cut off, that so they might not accuse better men, being themselves cowards. For whenever Xerxes, from his seat under the hill over against Salamis called Aegaleos, saw any feat achieved by his own men in the battle, he inquired who was the doer of it, and his scribes wrote down the names of the ship’s captain and his father and his city. Moreover it tended somewhat to the doom of the Phoenicians that Ariaramnes, a Persian, was there, who was a friend of the Ionians. So Xerxes’ men dealt with the Phoenicians.
91. The foreigners being routed and striving to win out to Phalerum, the Aeginetans lay in wait for them in the passage and then achieved notable deeds; for the Athenians amid the disorder made havoc of all ships that would resist or fly, and so did the Aeginetans with those that were sailing out of the strait; and all that escaped from the Athenians fell in their course among the Aeginetans.
92. Two ships met there, Themistocles’ ship pursuing another, and one that bore Polycritus son of Crius of Aegina; this latter had charged a Sidonian, the same which had taken the Aeginetan ship that watched off Sciathus, wherein was Pytheas son of Ischenous, that Pytheas whom when gashed with wounds the Persians kept aboard their ship and made much of for his valour; this Sidonian ship was carrying Pytheas among the Persians when she was now taken, so that thereby he came safe back to Aegina. When Polycritus saw the Attic ship, he knew it by seeing the admiral’s ship’s ensign, and cried out to Themistocles with bitter taunt and reproach as to the friendship of Aegina with the Persians. Such taunts did Polycritus hurl at Themistocles, after that he had charged an enemy ship. As for the foreigners whose ships were yet undestroyed, they fled to Phalerum and took refuge with the land army.
93. In that sea-fight the nations that won most renown were the Aeginetans, and next to them the Athenians; among men the most renowned were Polycritus of Aegina and two Athenians, Eumenes of Anagyrus and Aminias of Pallene, he who pursued after Artemisia. Had he known that she was in that ship, he had never been stayed ere he took hers or lost his own; such was the bidding given to the Athenian captain, and there was a prize withal of ten thousand drachmae for whoever should take her alive; for there was great wrath that a woman should come to attack Athens. She, then, escaped as I have already said; and the rest also whose ships were undestroyed were at Phalerum.
94. As for the Corinthian admiral Adimantus, the Athenians say that at the very moment when the ships joined battle he was struck with terror and panic, and hoisting his sails fled away; and when the Corinthians saw their admiral’s ship fleeing they were off and away likewise. But when (so the story goes) they came in their flight near that part of Salamis where is the temple of Athene Sciras, there by heaven’s providence a boat met them which none was known to have sent, nor had the Corinthians, ere it drew nigh to them, known aught of the doings of the fleet; and this is how they infer heaven’s hand in the matter: when the boat came nigh the ships, those that were in it cried, “Adimantus, you have turned back with your ships in flight, and betrayed the Greeks; but even now they are winning the day as fully as they ever prayed that they might vanquish their enemies.” Thus they spoke, and when Adimantus would not believe they said further that they were ready to be taken for hostages and slain if the Greeks were not victorious for all to see. Thereupon Adimantus and the rest did turn their ships about and came to the fleet when all was now over and done. Thus the Athenians report of the Corinthians; but the Corinthians deny it, and hold that they were among the foremost in the battle; and all Hellas bears them witness likewise.
95. But Aristides son of Lysimachus, that Athenian of whose great merit I have lately made mention, did in this rout at Salamis as I will show: taking many of the Athenian men-at-arms who stood arrayed on the shores of Salamis, he carried them across to the island Psyttalea, and they slaughtered all the Persians who were on that islet.
96. The sea-fight being broken off, the Greeks towed to Salamis all the wrecks that were still afloat in those waters, and held themselves ready for another battle, thinking that the king would yet again use his ships that were left. But many of the wrecks were caught by a west wind and carried to the strand in Attica called Colias; so that not only was the rest of the prophecy fulfilled which had been uttered by Bacis and Musaeus concerning that sea-fight, but also that which had been prophesied many years ago by an Athenian oracle-monger named Lysistratus, about the wrecks that were here cast ashore (the import of which prophecy no Greek had noted):
But this was to happen after the king’s departure.
97. When Xerxes was aware of the calamity that had befallen him, he feared lest the Greeks (by Ionian counsel or their own devising) might sail to the Hellespont to break his bridges, and he might be cut off in Europe and in peril of his life; and so he planned flight. But that neither the Greeks nor his own men might discover his intent, he essayed to build a mole across to Salamis, and made fast a line of Phoenician barges to be a floating bridge and a wall; and he made preparation for war, as though he would fight at sea again. The rest who saw him so doing were fully persuaded that he was in all earnestness prepared to remain there and carry on the war; but none of this deceived Mardonius, who had best experience of Xerxes’ purposes.
98. While Xerxes did thus, he sent a messenger to Persia with news of his present misfortune. Now there is nothing mortal that accomplishes a course more swiftly than do these messengers, by the Persians’ skilful contrivance. It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day’s journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed. The first rider delivers his charge to the second, the second to the third, and thence it passes on from hand to hand, even as in the Greek torch-bearers’ race in honour of Hephaestus. This riding-post is called in Persia, angareïon.
99. When the first message came to Susa, telling that Xerxes had taken Athens, it gave such delight to the Persians who were left at home that they strewed all the roads with myrtle boughs and burnt incense and gave themselves up to sacrificial feasts and jollity; but the second, coming on the heels of the first, so confounded them that they all rent their tunics, and cried and lamented without ceasing, holding Mardonius to blame; and it was not so much in grief for their ships that they did this as because they feared for Xerxes himself.
100. Such was the plight of the Persians for all the time until the coming of Xerxes himself ended it. But Mardonius, seeing that Xerxes was greatly distressed by reason of the sea-fight, and suspecting that he planned flight from Athens, considered with himself that he would be punished for overpersuading the king to march against Hellas, and that it was better for him to risk the chance of either subduing Hellas or dying honourably by flying at a noble quarry; yet his hope rather inclined to the subduing of Hellas; wherefore taking all this into account he made this proposal: “Sire, be not grieved nor greatly distressed by reason of this that has befallen us. It is not on things of wood that all the issue hangs for us, but on men and horses; and there is not one of these men, who think that they have now won a crowning victory, that will disembark from his ship and essay to withstand you, no, nor anyone from this mainland they that have withstood us have paid the penalty. If then it so please you, let us straightway attack the Peloponnese; or if it please you to wait, that also we can do. Be not cast down for the Greeks have no way of escape from being accountable for their former and their latter deeds, and becoming your slaves. It is best then that you should do as I have said; but if you are resolved that you will lead your army away, even then I have another plan. Do not, O king, make the Persians a laughing-stock to the Greeks; for if you have suffered harm, it is by no fault of the Persians, nor can you say that we have anywhere done less than brave men should; and if Phoenicians and Egyptians and Cyprians and Cilicians have so done, it is not the Persians who have any part in this disaster. Wherefore since the Persians are nowise to blame, be guided by me; if you are resolved that you will not remain, do you march away homewards with the greater part of your army; but it is for me to enslave and deliver Hellas to you, with three hundred thousand of your host whom I will choose.”
101. When Xerxes heard that, he was as glad and joyful as a man in his evil case might be, and said to Mardonius that he would answer him when he had first taken counsel which of the two plans he would follow; and as he consulted with those Persians whom he summoned, he was fain to bid Artemisia too to the council, because he saw that she alone at the former sitting had discerned what was best to do. When Artemisia came, Xerxes bade all others withdraw, both Persian councillors and guards, and said to her: “It is Mardonius’ counsel that I should abide here and attack the Peloponnese; for the Persians, he says, and the land army are nowise to blame for our disaster, and of that they would willingly give proof. Wherefore it is his counsel that I should do this; else he offers to choose out three hundred thousand men of the army and deliver Hellas to me enslaved, while I myself by his counsel march away homeward with the rest of the host. Now therefore I ask of you: as you did rightly in counselling me against the late sea-fight, so now counsel me as to which of these two things I shall be best advised to do.”
102. Being thus asked for advice she replied: “It is difficult, O king, to answer your asking for advice by saying that which is best; but in the present turn of affairs I think it best that you march away back, and that Mardonius, if he wills and promises to do as he says, be left here with those whom he desires. For if he subdue all that he offers to subdue, and prosper in the purpose wherewith he speaks, the achievement, Sire, is yours; for it will be your servants that have wrought it. But if again the issue be contrary to Mardonius’ opinion, it is no great misfortune so long as you and all that household of yours be safe; for while you and they of your house are safe, many a time and oft will the Greeks have to fight for their lives. As for Mardonius, if aught ill befall him, it is no matter for that; nor will any victory of the Greeks be a victory in truth, when they have but slain your servant; but as for you, you will be marching home after the burning of Athens, which thing was the whole purpose of your expedition.”
103. Artemisia’s counsel pleased Xerxes; for it happened that she spoke his own purpose; in truth I think that he would not have remained, though all men and women had counselled him so to do; so panic-stricken was he. Having then thanked Artemisia, he sent her away to carry his sons to Ephesus; for he had some bastard sons with him.
104. With these sons he sent Hermotimus as guardian; this man was by birth of Pedasa, and the most honoured by Xerxes of all his eunuchs. The people of Pedasa dwell above Halicarnassus. This happens among these people: when aught untoward is about to befall within a certain time all those that dwell about their city, the priestess of Athene then grows a great beard. This had already happened to them twice.
105. Hermotimus, who came from this place Pedasa, had achieved a fuller vengeance for wrong done to him than had any man within my knowledge. Being taken captive by enemies and exposed for sale, he was bought by one Panionius of Chios, a man that had set himself to earn a livelihood out of most wicked practices; he would procure beautiful boys and castrate and take them to Sardis and Ephesus, where he sold them for a great price; for the foreigners value eunuchs more than perfect men, by reason of the full trust that they have in them. Now among the many whom Panionius had castrated in the way of trade was Hermotimus, who was not in all things unfortunate; for he was brought from Sardis among other gifts to the king, and as time went on he stood higher in Xerxes’ favour than any other eunuch.
106. Now while the king was at Sardis and there preparing to lead his Persian armament against Athens, Hermotimus came for some business that he had in hand down to the part of Mysia which is inhabited by Chians and called Atarneus, and there he found Panionius. Perceiving who he was, he held long and friendly converse with him; “it is to you,” he said, “that I owe all this prosperity of mine; now if you will bring your household and dwell here, I will make you prosperous in return,”—promising this and that; Panionius accepted his offer gladly, and brought his children and his wife. But Hermotimus, having got the man and all his household in his power, said to him: “Tell me, you that have made a livelihood out of the wickedest trade on earth! what harm had I or any of my forefathers done to you, to you or yours, that you made me to be no man, but a thing of nought? ay, you thought that the gods would have no knowledge of your devices of old; but their just law has brought you for your wicked deeds into my hands, and now you shall be well content with the fulness of that justice which I will execute upon you.” With these words of reproach, he brought Panionius’ sons before him and compelled him to castrate all four of them, his own children; this Panionius was compelled to do; which done, the sons were compelled to castrate their father in turn. Thus was Panionius overtaken by vengeance and by Hermotimus.
107. Having given his sons to Artemisia’s charge to be carried to Ephesus, Xerxes called Mardonius to him and bade him choose out whom he would from the army, and make his words good so far as endeavour availed. For that day matters went thus far; in the night, the admirals by the king’s command put out to sea from Phalerum and made for the Hellespont again with all speed, to guard the bridges for the king’s passage. When the foreigners came near to the “Girdle” in their course, they thought that certain little headlands, which here jut out from the mainland, were ships, and they fled for a long way; but learning at last that they were no ships but headlands they drew together and went on their way.
108. When it was day, the Greeks saw the land army abiding where it had been and supposed the ships also to be at Phalerum; and thinking that there would be a sea-fight they prepared to defend themselves. But when they learnt that the ships were gone, they straightway resolved on pursuit; so they pursued Xerxes’ fleet as far as Andros, but had no sight of it; and when they came to Andros they held a council there. Themistocles declared his opinion that they should hold their course through the islands, and having pursued after the ships should sail forthwith to the Hellespont to break the bridges; but Eurybiades offered a contrary opinion, saying that to break the bridges would be the greatest harm that they could do to Hellas. “For,” said he, “if the Persian be cut off and compelled to remain in Europe, he will essay not to be inactive, seeing that if he be inactive neither can his cause prosper nor can he find any way of return home, but his army will perish of hunger; but if he be adventurous and busy, it may well be that every town and nation in Europe may join itself to him severally, by conquest or ere that by compact; and he will live on whatsoever yearly fruits of the earth Hellas produces. But, as I think that the Persian will not remain in Europe after his defeat in the sea-fight, let us suffer him to flee, till he come in his flight to his own country; and thereafter let it be that country and not ours that is at stake in the war.” With that opinion the rest of the Peloponnesian admirals also agreed.
109. When Themistocles perceived that he could not persuade the greater part of them to sail to the Hellespont, he turned to the Athenians (for they were the angriest at the Persians’ escape, and they were minded to sail to the Hellespont even by themselves, if the rest would not) and thus addressed them: “This I have often seen with my eyes, and much oftener heard, that beaten men when they be driven to bay will rally and retrieve their former mishap. Wherefore I say to you,—as it is to a fortunate chance that we owe ourselves and Hellas, and have driven away so mighty a cloud of enemies, let us not pursue after men that flee. For it is not we that have won this victory, but the gods and the heroes, who deemed Asia and Europe too great a realm for one man to rule, and that a wicked man and an impious; one that dealt alike with temples and homes, and burnt and overthrew the images of the gods,—yea, that scourged the sea and threw fetters thereinto. But as it is well with us for the nonce, let us abide now in Hellas and take thought for ourselves and our households; let us build our houses again and be diligent in sowing, when we have driven the foreigner wholly away; and when the next spring comes let us set sail for the Hellespont and Ionia.” This he said with intent to put somewhat to his credit with the Persian, so that he might have a place of refuge if ever (as might chance) he should suffer aught at the hands of the Athenians; and indeed it did so happen.
110. Thus spoke Themistocles with intent to deceive, and the Athenians obeyed him; for since he had ever been esteemed wise and now had shown himself to be both wise and prudent, they were ready to obey whatsoever he said. Having won them over, Themistocles straightway sent men in a boat whom he could trust not to reveal under any question whatsoever the message which he charged them to deliver to the king; of whom one was again his servant Sicinnus. When these men came to Attica, the rest abode with the boat, and Sicinnus went up to Xerxes; “Themistocles son of Neocles,” he said, “who is the Athenian general, and of all the allies the worthiest and wisest, has sent me to tell you this: Themistocles the Athenian has out of his desire to do you a service stayed the Greeks when they would pursue your ships and break the bridges of the Hellespont; and now he bids you go your way, none hindering you.” With that message, the men returned in their boat.
111. But the Greeks, now that they were no longer minded to pursue the foreigners’ ships farther or sail to the Hellespont and break the way of passage, beleaguered Andros that they might take it. For the men of that place, the first islanders of whom Themistocles demanded money, would not give it; but when Themistocles gave them to understand that the Athenians had come with two great gods to aid them, even Persuasion and Necessity, and that therefore the Andrians must assuredly give money, they answered and said, “It is then but reasonable that Athens is great and prosperous, being blest with serviceable gods; as for us Andrians, we are but blest with a plentiful lack of land, and we have two unserviceable gods who never quit our island but are ever fain to dwell there, even Poverty and Impotence; being possessed of these gods, we of Andros will give no money; for the power of Athens can never be stronger than our inability.”
112. So for thus answering and refusing to give they were besieged. There was no end to Themistocles’ avarice; using the same agents whom he had used with the king, he sent threatening messages to the other islands, demanding money, and saying that if they would not give what he asked he would bring the Greek armada upon them and besiege and take their islands. Thereby he collected great sums from the Carystians and Parians; for these were informed that Andros was besieged for taking the Persian part, and that Themistocles was of all the generals the most esteemed; which so affrighted them that they sent money; and I suppose that there were other islanders too that gave, and not these alone, but I cannot with certainty say. Nevertheless the Carystians got thereby no respite from misfortune; but the Parians propitiated Themistocles with money and so escaped the armament. So Themistocles issued out from Andros and took monies from the islanders, unknown to the other generals.
113. They that were with Xerxes waited for a few days after the sea-fight and then marched away to Boeotia by the road whereby they had come; for Mardonius was minded to give the king safe conduct, and deemed the time of year unseasonable for war; it was better, he thought, to winter in Thessaly, and then attack the Peloponnese in the spring. When they were arrived in Thessaly, Mardonius there chose out first all the Persians called Immortals, save only Hydarnes their general, who said that he would not quit the king’s person; and next, the Persian cuirassiers, and the thousand horse, and the Medes and Sacae and Bactrians and Indians, alike their footmen and the rest of the horsemen. He chose these nations entire; of the rest of his allies he picked out a few from each people, the goodliest men and those that he knew to have done some good service; but the Persians that he chose (men that wore torques and bracelets) were more in number than those of any other nation, and next to them the Medes; these indeed were as many as the Persians, but not so stout fighters. Thereby the whole number, with the horsemen, grew to three hundred thousand men.
114. Now while Mardonius was making choice of his army and Xerxes was in Thessaly, there came an oracle from Delphi to the Lacedaemonians, that they should demand justice of Xerxes for the slaying of Leonid as, and take what answer he should give them. The Spartans then sent a herald with all speed; who finding the army yet undivided in Thessaly, came into Xerxes’ presence and thus spoke: “The Lacedaemonians and the Heraclidae of Sparta demand of you, king of the Medes! that you pay the penalty for the death of their king, whom you slew while he defended Hellas.” At that Xerxes laughed; and after a long while he pointed to Mardonius, who chanced to be standing by him, and said, “Then here is Mardonius, who shall pay those you speak of such penalty as befits them.”
115. So the herald took that utterance and departed; but Xerxes left Mardonius in Thessaly, and himself journeying with all speed to the Hellespont came in forty-five days to the passage for crossing, bringing back with him as good as none (if one may so say) of his host. Whithersoever and to whatsoever people they came, they seized and devoured its produce; and if they found none, they would take for their eating the grass of the field, and strip the bark and pluck the leaves of the trees, garden and wild alike, leaving nothing; so starved they were for hunger. Moreover a pestilence and a dysentery broke out among them on their way, whereby they died. Some that were sick Xerxes left behind, charging the cities whither he came in his march to care for them and nourish them, some in Thessaly and some in Siris of Paeonia and in Macedonia; in Siris he had left the sacred chariot of Zeus when he was marching to Hellas, but in his return he received it not again; for the Paeonians had given it to the Thracians, and when Xerxes demanded it back they said that the horses had been carried off from pasture by the Thracians of the hills who dwelt about the headwaters of the Strymon.
116. It was then that a monstrous deed was done by the Thracian king of the Bisaltae and the Crestonian country. He had refused to be of his own free will Xerxes’ slave, and fled away to the mountains called Rhodope; and he forbade his sons to go with the army to Hellas; but they took no account of that, for they had ever a desire to see the war, and they followed the Persians’ march; for which cause, when all the six of them returned back scatheless, their father tore out their eyes.
117. This was their reward. But the Persians, journeying through Thrace to the passage, made haste to cross to Abydos in their ships; for they found the bridges no longer made fast but broken by a storm. There their march was stayed, and more food was given them than on their way; and by reason of their immoderate gorging and the change of the water which they drank, many of the army that yet remained died. The rest came with Xerxes to Sardis.
118. But there is another tale, which is this:—When Xerxes came in his march from Athens to Eïon on the Strymon, he travelled no farther than that by land, but committed his army to Hydarnes to be led to the Hellespont, and himself embarked and set sail for Asia in a Phoenician ship. In which voyage he was caught by a strong wind called Strymonian, that lifted up the waves. This storm bearing the harder upon him by reason of the heavy lading of the ship (for the Persians of his company that were on the deck were so many), the king was affrighted and cried to the ship’s pilot asking him if there were any way of deliverance; whereat the man said, “Sire, there is none, except there be a riddance of these many that are on board.” Hearing that, it is said, Xerxes said to the Persians, “Now it is for you to prove yourselves careful for your king; for it seems that my deliverance rests with you”; whereat they did obeisance and leapt into the sea; and the ship, being thus lightened, came by these means safe to Asia. No sooner had Xerxes disembarked on land, than he made the pilot a gift of a golden crown for saving the king’s life, but cut off his head for being the death of many Persians.
119. This is the other tale of Xerxes’ return; but I for my part believe neither the story of the Persians’ fate, nor any other part of it. For if indeed the pilot had spoken to Xerxes as aforesaid, I think that there is not one in ten thousand but would say that the king would have bidden the men on deck (who were Persians and of the best blood of Persia) descend into the ship’s hold, and would have taken of the Phoenician rowers a number equal to the number of the Persians and cast them into the sea. Nay, the truth is that Xerxes did as I have already said, and returned to Asia with his army by road.
120. And herein too lies a clear proof of it: it is known that when Xerxes came to Abdera in his return he entered into bonds of friendship with its people, and gave them a golden sword and a gilt tiara; and as the people of Abdera say (but for my part I wholly disbelieve them), it was here that Xerxes in his flight back from Athens first loosed his girdle, as being here in safety. Now Abdera lies nearer to the Hellespont than the Strymon and Eïon, where they say that he took ship.
121. As for the Greeks, not being able to take Andros they betook themselves to Carystus, and having laid it waste they returned to Salamis. First of all they set apart for the gods, among other first-fruits, three Phoenician triremes, one to be dedicated at the Isthmus, where it was till my lifetime, the second at Sunium, and the third for Aias at Salamis where they were. After that, they divided the spoil and sent the first-fruits of it to Delphi; whereof was made a man’s image twelve cubits high, holding in his hand the figure-head of a ship; this stood in the same place as the golden statue of Alexander the Macedonian.
122. Having sent the first-fruits to Delphi the Greeks inquired in common of the god, if the first-fruits that he had received were of full measure and if he was content therewith; whereat he said that this was so as touching what he received from all other Greeks, but not from the Aeginetans; of these he demanded the victor’s prize for the sea-fight of Salamis. When the Aeginetans learnt that, they dedicated three golden stars that are set on a bronze mast, in the angle, nearest to Croesus’ bowl.
123. After the division of the spoil, the Greeks sailed to the Isthmus, there to award the prize of excellence to him who had shown himself most worthy of it in that war. But when the admirals came and gave their divers votes at the altar of Poseidon, to judge who was first and who second among them, each of them there voted for himself, supposing himself to have done the best service, but the greater part of them united in giving the second place to Themistocles. So they each gained but one vote, but Themistocles far outstripped them in votes for the second place.
124. The Greeks were too jealous to adjudge the prize, and sailed away each to his own place, leaving the matter doubtful; nevertheless, Themistocles was cried up, and all Hellas glorified him for the wisest man by far of the Greeks. But because he had not received from them that fought at Salamis the honour due to his pre-eminence, immediately afterwards he betook himself to Lacedaemon, that he might receive honour there; and the Lacedaemonians made him welcome and paid him high honour. They bestowed on Eurybiades a crown of olive as the reward of excellence, and another such crown on Themistocles for his wisdom and cleverness; and they gave him the finest chariot in Sparta; and with many words of praise, they sent him on his homeward way with the three hundred picked men of Sparta who are called Knights to escort him as far as the borders of Tegea. Themistocles was the only man of whom I have heard to whom the Spartans gave this escort.
125. But when Themistocles returned to Athens from Lacedaemon, Timodemus of Aphidnae, who was one of Themistocles’ enemies but a man in nowise notable, was crazed with envy and spoke bitterly to Themistocles of his visit to Lacedaemon, saying that the honours he had from the Lacedaemonians were paid him for Athens’ sake and not for his own. This he would continually be saying; till Themistocles replied, “This is the truth of the matter—had I been of Belbina I had not been thus honoured by the Spartans; nor had you, sirrah, for all you are of Athens.” Such was the end of that business.
126. Artabazus son of Pharnaces, who was already a notable man among the Persians and grew to be yet more so by the Plataean business, escorted the king as far as the passage with sixty thousand men of the army that Mardonius had chosen. Xerxes being now in Asia, when Artabazus came near Pallene in his return (for Mardonius was wintering in Thessaly and Macedonia and making no haste to come to the rest of his army), he thought it right that he should enslave the people of Potidaea, whom he found in revolt. For the king having marched away past the town and the Persian fleet taken flight from Salamis, Potidaea had openly revolted from the foreigners; and so too had the rest of the people of Pallene.
127. Thereupon Artabazus laid siege to Potidaea; and suspecting that Olynthus too was plotting revolt from the king, he laid siege to it also, the town being held by Bottiaeans who had been driven from the Thermaic gulf by the Macedonians. Having besieged and taken Olynthus, he brought these men to a lake and there cut their throats, and delivered their city over to the charge of Critobulus of Torone and the Chalcidian people; and thus the Chalcidians gained possession of Olynthus.
128. Having taken Olynthus, Artabazus was instant in dealing with Potidaea; and his zeal was aided by Timoxenus the general of the Scionaeans, who agreed to betray the place to him; I know not how the agreement was first made, nothing being told thereof; but the end was as I will now show. Whenever Timoxenus wrote a letter for sending to Artabazus, or Artabazus to Timoxenus, they would wrap it round the shaft of an arrow at the notches and put feathers to the letter, and shoot it to a place whereon they had agreed. But Timoxenus’ plot to betray Potidaea was discovered; for Artabazus in shooting an arrow to the place agreed upon, missed it and hit the shoulder of a man of Potidaea; and a throng gathering quickly round the man when he was struck (which is a thing that ever happens in war), they straightway took the arrow and found the letter and carried it to their generals, the rest of their allies of Pallene being also there present. The generals read the letter and perceived who was the traitor, but they resolved for Scione’s sake that they would not smite Timoxenus to the earth with a charge of treason, lest so the people of Scione should ever after be called traitors.
129. Thus was Timoxenus’ treachery brought to light. But when Artabazus had besieged Potidaea for three months, there was a great ebb-tide in the sea, lasting for a long while, and when the foreigners saw that the sea was turned to a marsh they made to pass over it into Pallene. But when they had made their way over two fifths of it and three yet remained to cross ere they could be in Pallene, there came a great flood-tide, higher, as the people of the place say, than any one of the many that had been before; and some of them that knew not how to swim were drowned, and those that knew were slain by the Potidaeans, who came among them in boats. The Potidaeans say that the cause of the high sea and flood and the Persian disaster lay herein, that those same Persians who now perished in the sea had profaned the temple and the image of Poseidon that was in the suburb of the city; and I think that in saying that this was the cause they say rightly. They that escaped alive were led away by Artabazus to Mardonius in Thessaly. Thus fared these men, who had been the king’s escort.
130. All that was left of Xerxes’ fleet, having in its flight from Salamis touched the coast of Asia and ferried the king and his army over from the Chersonese to Abydos, wintered at Cyme. Then early in the first dawn of spring they mustered at Samos, where some of the ships had wintered; the most of their fighting men were Persians and Medes. Mardontes son of Bagaeus and Artaÿntes son of Artachaees came to be their admirals, and Artaÿntes chose also his own nephew Ithamitres to have a share in the command. But by reason of the heavy blow dealt them they went no further out to sea westwards, nor was any man instant that they should so do, but they lay off Samos keeping watch against a revolt in Ionia, the whole number of their ships, Ionian and other, being three hundred; nor in truth did they expect that the Greeks would come to Ionia, but rather that they would be content to guard their own country; thus they inferred, because the Greeks had not pursued them when they fled from Salamis, but had been glad to be quit of them. In regard to the sea, the Persians were at heart beaten men, but they supposed that on land Mardonius would easily prevail. So they were at Samos, and there planned to do what harm they could to their enemies, and to listen the while for tidings of how it went with Mardonius.
131. But as for the Greeks, the coming of spring and Mardonius’ being in Thessaly moved them to action. They had not yet begun the mustering of their army, but their fleet, an hundred and ten ships, came to Aegina; and their general and admiral was Leutychides son of Menares, tracing his lineage from son to father through Hegesilaus, Hippocratides, Leutychides, Anaxilaus, Archidemus, Anaxandrides, Theopompus, Nicandrus, Charilaus, Eunomus, Polydectes, Prytanis, Euryphon, Procles, Aristodemus, Aristomachus, Cleodaeus, to Hyllus who was the son of Heracles; he was of the second royal house. All the aforesaid had been kings of Sparta, save the seven named first after Leutychides. The general of the Athenians was Xanthippus son of Ariphron.
132. When all the ships were arrived at Aegina, there came to the Greek quarters messengers from the Ionians, the same who a little while before that had gone to Sparta and entreated the Lacedaemonians to free Ionia; of whom one was Herodotus the son of Basileïdes. These, who at first were seven, made a faction and conspired to slay Strattis, the despot of Chios; but when their conspiracy became known, one of the accomplices having revealed their enterprise, the six that remained got them privily out of Chios, whence they went to Sparta and now to Aegina, entreating the Greeks to sail to Ionia. The Greeks brought them as far as Delos, and that not readily; for they feared all that lay beyond, having no knowledge of those parts, and thinking that armed men were everywhere; and they supposed that Samos was no nearer to them than the Pillars of Heracles. So it fell out that the foreigners were too disheartened to dare to sail farther west than Samos, while at the same time the Greeks dared go at the Chians’ request no farther east than Delos; thus fear kept the middle space between them.
133. The Greeks, then, sailed to Delos, and Mardonius wintered in Thessaly. Having here his headquarters he sent thence a man of Europus called Mys to visit the places of divination, charging him to inquire of all the oracles whereof he could make trial. What it was that he desired to learn from the oracles when he gave this charge, I cannot say, for none tells of it; but I suppose that he sent to inquire concerning his present business, and that alone.
134. This man Mys is known to have gone to Lebadea and to have bribed a man of the country to go down into the cave of Trophonius, and to have gone to the place of divination at Abae in Phocis; to Thebes too he first went, where he inquired of Ismenian Apollo (sacrifice is there the way of divination, even as at Olympia), and moreover bribed one that was no Theban but a stranger to lie down to sleep in the shrine of Amphiaraus. No Theban may seek a prophecy there; for Amphiaraus bade them by an oracle to choose which of the two they would and forgo the other, and take him either for their prophet or for their ally; and they chose that he should be their ally; wherefore no Theban may lay him down to sleep in that place.
135. But at this time there happened, as the Thebans say, a thing at which I marvel greatly. It would seem that this man Mys of Europus came in his wanderings among the places of divination to the precinct of Ptoan Apollo. This temple is called Ptoum, and belongs to the Thebans; it lies by a hill, above the lake Copaïs, very near to the town Acraephia. When the man called Mys entered into this temple, three men of the town following him that were chosen on the state’s behalf to write down the oracles that should be given, straightway the diviner prophesied in a foreign tongue. The Thebans that followed him stood astonied to hear a strange language instead of Greek, and knew not what this present matter might be; but Mys of Europus snatched from them the tablet that they carried and wrote on it that which was spoken by the prophet, saying that the words of the oracle were Carian; and having written all down he went away back to Thessaly.
136. Mardonius read whatever was said in the oracles; and presently he sent a messenger to Athens, Alexander, a Macedonian, son of Amyntas; him he sent, partly because the Persians were akin to him; for Bubares, a Persian, had taken to wife Gygaea Alexander’s sister and Amyntas’ daughter, who had borne to him that Amyntas of Asia who was called by the name of his mother’s father, and to whom the king gave Alabanda a great city in Phrygia for his dwelling; and partly he sent him because he learnt that Alexander was a protector and benefactor to the Athenians. It was thus that he supposed he could best gain the Athenians for his allies, of whom he heard that they were a numerous and valiant people, and knew that they had been the chief authors of the calamities which had befallen the Persians at sea. If he gained their friendship he looked to be easily master of the seas, as truly he would have been; and on land he supposed himself to be by much the stronger; so he reckoned that thus he would have the upper hand of the Greeks. Peradventure this was the prediction of the oracles, counselling him to make the Athenian his ally, and it was in obedience to this that he sent his messenger.
137. This Alexander was seventh in descent from Perdiccas, who got for himself the despotism of Macedonia in the way that I will show. Three brothers of the lineage of Temenus came as banished men from Argos to Illyria, Gauanes and Aeropus and Perdiccas; and from Illyria they crossed over into the highlands of Macedonia till they came to the town Lebaea. There they served for wages as thralls in the king’s household, one tending horses and another oxen, and Perdiccas, who was the youngest, the lesser flocks. Now the king’s wife cooked their food for them; for in old times the ruling houses among men, and not the commonalty alone, were lacking in wealth; and whenever she baked bread, the loaf of the thrall Perdiccas grew double in bigness. Seeing that this ever happened, she told her husband; and it seemed to him when he heard it that this was a portent, signifying some great matter. So he sent for his thralls and bade them depart out of his territory. They said it was but just that they should have their wages ere they departed; whereupon the king, when they spoke of wages, was moved to foolishness, and said, “That is the wage you merit, and it is that I give you,” pointing to the sunlight that shone down the smoke-vent into the house. Gauanes and Aeropus, who were the elder, stood astonied when they heard that; but the boy said, “We accept what you give, O king,” and with that he took a knife that he had upon him and drew a line with it on the floor of the house round the sunlight; which done, he thrice gathered up the sunlight into the fold of his garment, and went his way with his companions.
138. So they departed; but one of them that sat by declared to the king what this was that the boy had done, and how it was of set purpose that the youngest of them had accepted the gift offered; which when the king heard, he was angered, and sent riders after them to slay them. But there is in that land a river, whereto the descendants from Argos of these men offer sacrifice, as their deliverer; this river, when the sons of Temenus had crossed it, rose in such flood that the riders could not cross. So the brothers came to another part of Macedonia and settled near the place called the garden of Midas son of Gordias, wherein roses grow of themselves, each bearing sixty blossoms and of surpassing fragrance; in which garden, by the Macedonian story, Silenus was taken captive; above it rises the mountain called Bermius, which none can ascend for the wintry cold. Thence they issued forth when they had won that country, and presently subdued also the rest of Macedonia.
139. From that Perdiccas Alexander was descended, being the son of Amyntas, who was the son of Alcetes; Alcetes’ father was Aeropus, and his was Philippus; Philippus’ father was Argaeus, and his again was Perdiccas, who won that lordship.
140. Such was the lineage of Alexander son of Amyntas; who, when he came to Athens from Mardonius who had sent him, spoke on this wise. “This, Athenians, is what Mardonius says to you:—There is a message come to me from the king, saying, ‘I forgive the Athenians all the offences which they have committed against me; and now, Mardonius, I bid you do this:—Give them back their territory, and let them choose more for themselves besides, wheresoever they will, and dwell under their own laws; and rebuild all their temples that I burnt, if they will make a covenant with me.” This being the message, needs must that I obey it (says Mardonius), unless you take it upon you to hinder me. And this I say to you:—Why are you so mad as to wage war against the king? you cannot overcome him, nor can you resist him for ever. For the multitude of Xerxes’ host, and what they did, you have seen, and you have heard of the power that I now have with me; so that even if you overcome and conquer us (whereof, if you be in your right minds, you can have no hope), yet there will come another host many times as great as this. Be not then minded to match yourselves against the king, and thereby lose your land and ever be yourselves in jeopardy, but make peace; which you can most honourably do, the king being that way inclined; keep your freedom, and agree to be our brothers in arms in all faith and honesty.—This, Athenians, is the message which Mardonius charges me to give you. For my own part I will say nothing of the goodwill that I have towards you, for it would not be the first that you have learnt of that; but I entreat you to follow Mardonius’ counsel. Well I see that you will not have power to wage war against Xerxes for ever; did I see such power in you, I had never come to you with such language as this; for the king’s might is greater than human, and his arm is long. If therefore you will not straightway agree with them, when the conditions which they offer you, whereon they are ready to agree, are so great, I fear what may befall you; for of all the allies you dwell most in the very path of the war, and you alone will never escape destruction, your country being marked out for a battlefield. Nay, follow his counsel, for it is not to be lightly regarded by you that you are the only men in Hellas whose offences the great king is ready to forgive and whose friend he would be.”
141. Thus spoke Alexander. But the Lacedaemonians had heard that Alexander was come to Athens to bring the Athenians to an agreement with the foreigner; and remembering the oracles, how that they themselves with the rest of the Dorians must be driven out of the Peloponnese by the Medes and the Athenians, they were greatly afraid lest the Athenians should agree with the Persian, and they straightway resolved that they would send envoys. Moreover it so fell out for both, that they made their entry at one and the same time; for the Athenians delayed, and tarried for them, being well assured that the Lacedaemonians were like to hear that the messenger was come from the Persians for an agreement; and they had heard that the Lacedaemonians would send their envoys with all speed; therefore it was of set purpose that they did it, that they might make their will known to the Lacedaemonians.
142. So when Alexander had made an end of speaking, the envoys from Sparta took up the tale, and said, “We on our part are sent by the Lacedaemonians to entreat you to do nought hurtful to Hellas and accept no offer from the foreigner. That were a thing unjust and dishonourable for any Greek, but for you most of all, on many counts; it was you who stirred up this war, by no desire of ours, and your territory was first the stake of that battle, wherein all Hellas is now engaged; and setting that apart, it is a thing not to be borne that not all this alone but slavery too should be brought upon the Greeks by you Athenians, who have ever of old been known for givers of freedom to many. Nevertheless we grieve with you in your afflictions, for that now you have lost two harvests and your substance has been for a long time wasted; in requital wherefor the Lacedaemonians and their allies declare that they will nourish your women and all of your households that are unserviceable for war, so long as this war shall last. But let not Alexander the Macedonian win you with his smooth-tongued praise of Mardonius’ counsel. It is his business to follow that counsel, for as he is a despot so must he be the despot’s fellow-worker; but it is not your business, if you be men rightly minded; for you know, that in foreigners there is no faith nor truth.” Thus spoke the envoys.
143. But to Alexander the Athenians thus replied: “We know of ourselves that the power of the Mede is many times greater than ours; there is no need to taunt us with that. Nevertheless in our zeal for freedom we will defend ourselves to the best of our ability. But as touching agreements with the foreigner, do not you essay to persuade us thereto, nor will we consent; and now carry this answer back to Mardonius from the Athenians, that as long as the sun holds the course whereby he now goes, we will make no agreement with Xerxes; but we will fight against him without ceasing, trusting in the aid of the gods and the heroes whom he has set at nought and burnt their houses and their adornments. To you we say, come no more to Athenians with such a plea, nor under the semblance of rendering us a service counsel us to do wickedly; for we would not that you who are our friend and protector should suffer any harm at Athenian hands.”
144. Such was their answer to Alexander; but to the Spartan envoys they said, “It was most human that the Lacedaemonians should fear our making an agreement with the foreigner; but we think you do basely to be afraid, knowing the Athenian temper to be such that there is nowhere on earth such store of gold or such territory of surpassing fairness and excellence that the gift of it should win us to take the Persian part and enslave Hellas. For there are many great reasons why we should not do this, even if we so desired; first and chiefest, the burning and destruction of the adornments and temples of our gods, whom we are constrained to avenge to the uttermost rather than make covenants with the doer of these things, and next the kinship of all Greeks in blood and speech, and the shrines of gods and the sacrifices that we have in common, and the likeness of our way of life, to all which it would ill beseem Athenians to be false. Know this now, if you knew it not before, that as long as one Athenian is left alive we will make no agreement with Xerxes. Nevertheless we thank you for your forethought concerning us, in that you have so provided for our wasted state that you offer to nourish our households. For your part, you have given us full measure of kindness; yet for ourselves, we will make shift to endure as best we may, and not be burdensome to you. But now, seeing that this is so, send your army with all speed; for as we guess, the foreigner will be upon us and invading our country in no long time, but as soon as ever the message comes to him that we will do nothing that he requires of us; wherefore, ere he comes into Attica, now is the time for us to march first into Boeotia.” At this reply of the Athenians the envoys returned back to Sparta.