[1] The fleet consisted of the following Greek contingents. The Athenians provided 127 ships, with crews of Plataeans as well as Athenians; the Plataeans compensated for their lack of nautical expertise with their courage and determination. The Corinthian contingent was 40 ships, and the Megarians provided 20. The crews of another 20 were supplied by Chalcis, although the Athenians gave them the ships. The Aeginetans provided 18, the Sicyonians 12, the Lacedaemonians 10, the Epidaurians 8, the Eretrians 7, the Troezenians 5, the Styrians 2, and the Ceans 2 triremes and 2 penteconters. The contribution of the Opuntian Locrians consisted of 7 penteconters.
[2] These were the crews who went to fight at Artemisium, and I have also stated the number of ships each people provided.† Not counting the penteconters, then, there were 271 ships in all assembled at Artemisium. The supreme commander of the fleet was Eurybiades the son of Euryclidas—a Spartiate, because the allies refused to follow Athenian leadership and said that they would wreck the projected campaign unless there was someone from Laconia in overall command.
[3] There had been talk right at the start, even before the delegation was sent to Sicily to try to arrange an alliance, to the effect that the Athenians should be in charge of the fleet. But when the allies protested, the Athenians gave way, because what was important to them was the survival of Greece and they knew that if they made leadership a point of dispute, Greece was lost. And they were right, because internal dissension is worse than a united war effort to the same degree that war is worse than peace. So it was appreciation of this fact that made the Athenians give way without making a fuss—but, as they later demonstrated, only for as long as they badly needed the rest of the Greeks. Once Xerxes’ invasion had been repulsed and they were fighting for his territory rather than their own, they deprived the Lacedaemonians of the leadership, using Pausanias’ arrogant behaviour as a pretext. But all this happened later.
[4] At the time in question, when the Greeks stationed at Artemisium saw how many ships were moored at Aphetae and saw Persian troops spread out everywhere, they were terrified, because this was not the condition they had expected the Persians to be in, after what had happened, and they began to contemplate a retreat from Artemisium back into Greece. However, the Euboeans realized what was going through their minds and asked Eurybiades to stay for a short while, just until they had removed their children and households to a place of safety. When he refused, they turned instead to Themistocles, the Athenian commander, and won his compliance with a bribe of thirty talents to ensure that the Greeks stayed where they were and engaged the Persians at sea in defence of Euboea.
[5] Themistocles got the Greeks to stay at Artemisium by giving five talents of the money to Eurybiades as if it were his own personal money. With Eurybiades won over, the only remaining person who continued to feel uncomfortable was the Corinthian commander, Adeimantus the son of Ocytus, who insisted that he would not stay, but would withdraw his ships from Artemisium. But Themistocles made him a promise. ‘I’m sure you won’t be leaving us, Adeimantus,’ he said, ‘because I’ll give you more money for staying than the Persian king would send you for leaving.’ And with these words, he sent three talents of silver to Adeimantus’ ship. So Adeimantus and Eurybiades were bribed to change their minds, and the Euboeans got their way. Moreover, Themistocles himself made a healthy profit. No one knew that he had the rest of the money; the people who had been given some of it assumed that it had come from Athens just for the purpose to which it was put.
[6] So the Greeks stayed in Euboea and took on the enemy at sea there. Here is what happened. It was early in an afternoon when the Persians reached Aphetae. Although they had already heard that there were a few Greek ships stationed at Artemisium, they now saw them for themselves, and they were eager to attack, to see if they could capture them. However, they decided that this was not the time to make a frontal assault, in case the Greeks turned and fled at the sight of them coming, and night came down while they were trying to escape. If that happened, the Greeks would presumably get away, but as far as the Persians were concerned no one, not even a fire-bearer, should escape alive.
[7] Under these circumstances, then, here is what they did. They sent a detachment of two hundred ships from the main fleet to sail around the far side of Sciathos, and then around Euboea and into the Euripus via Caphereus and Geraestus, thus staying out of sight of the enemy all the way. The idea was that with the detachment arriving from that direction and blocking off the Greeks’ retreat, and with the main fleet making a frontal assault, they would have the Greeks caught in a trap. In accordance with this plan, then, they sent the detachment of two hundred ships on its way, while the rest of them waited, because they had no intention of attacking the Greeks that day, or until they saw the signal indicating the arrival of the squadron they had sent around Euboea. So the detachment was sent on its way, and the Persians occupied themselves with counting the ships that were left in Aphetae.
[8] While they were counting the ships, there was in the Persian camp a man from Scione called Scyllias, who was the best diver of the time; in fact, after the fleet had been wrecked off Mount Pelium he had rescued a great deal of valuable property for the Persians, and also gained a lot for himself. Now, apparently Scyllias had been intending to defect to the Greek side earlier, but no opportunity had presented itself until now. Precisely how he got from the Persian camp to the Greeks, I cannot now say for certain, but I doubt the truth of the story that he dived into the sea at Aphetae and did not surface until he reached Artemisium, having swum underwater a distance of about eighty stades. This is not the only implausible tale that is told about Scyllias (although there are some true stories too), but as far as this incident is concerned I hereby state that in my opinion he went to Artemisium by boat. As soon as he got there, he provided the Greek commanders with the details of the wrecking of the fleet and told them about the ships that were sailing around Euboea.
[9] The Greeks held a meeting and discussed what to do in the light of Scyllias’ news. After a lengthy discussion the prevalent view was to stay put for the rest of the day and even to pitch camp ashore for the night, but then to set out after midnight and go to meet the ships that were trying to take them in the rear. Later, however, when no one tried to attack them, they waited until late afternoon and then sailed against the main Persian fleet. It was time to test the enemy’s battle skills and their own skill at the diecplous.
[10] When Xerxes’ troops and their commanders saw the small number of Greek ships bearing down on them, they were certain that the Greeks must have gone mad. They too put to sea, expecting an easy victory—not an unreasonable hope, since they could see that their ships far outnumbered the Greeks’ and were more manoeuvrable too. And so they confidently set about encircling the Greek fleet. However, some of the Ionians in the Persian fleet, who were pro-Greek and had joined the expedition against their will, were very concerned at the sight of the Greeks being surrounded. They were sure that, given the apparent weakness of the Greek forces, none of them would return home. All the others, though, were delighted with the situation and competed with one another to see which of them would be the first to earn a reward from the king for capturing an Attic vessel, because every contingent of the Persian forces considered the Athenians to be the most formidable of their opponents.
[11] At a pre-arranged signal, however, the Greeks first formed a circle, with their prows facing the enemy and their sterns close together in the middle, and then, at a second signal, they set to work, even though they were hemmed in tightly and had to engage the Persians head on. In this engagement they captured thirty ships, and among their prisoners was Philaon the son of Chersis, who was the brother of King Gorgus of Salamis and a very high-ranking officer. The first Greek to capture an enemy ship was an Athenian, Lycomedes the son of Aeschraeus, and this earned him the prize for valour. Night fell on the combatants while the battle was still in the balance, and they went their separate ways, the Greeks back to Artemisium and the Persians back to Aphetae. The battle had certainly not gone according to Persian expectations. During the battle Antidorus of Lemnos deserted to the Greeks; he was the only one of the Greeks serving in Xerxes’ forces to do so in this battle, and the Athenians rewarded him for this with a plot of land on Salamis.
[12] After dark there was a heavy rainstorm which lasted all night, and violent peals of thunder from Mount Pelium, even though it was the middle of summer. Dead bodies and bits of wrecked ship drifted to Aphetae, where they clustered around the prows of the ships and became entangled with the blades of the oars. The troops there were terrified when they heard about this, and were sure they were going to die, given all the troubles that were besetting them. After all, before they had caught their breath from the wrecking of the fleet and the storm which had occurred off Mount Pelium, they had put up with a tough battle, followed immediately by torrential rain, swollen streams pouring into the sea, and violent peals of thunder.
[13] But if it was a bad night for this lot of Persians, it was far more cruel for those who had been detailed to sail around Euboea. It was not that the night-time conditions were any different, but they occurred while they were out on the open sea. The upshot was disastrous. The rainstorm struck when they were off a place in Euboea called Coela; they were driven off course by the wind, without any idea where they were heading, and were wrecked on the rocky coast. This all happened by divine will, to reduce the Persians’ numerical advantage and bring their forces down to the level of the Greeks.
[14] So that was the end of this contingent, at Coela in Euboea. The Persians at Aphetae were delighted to see daybreak, and left their ships idle. They had been so badly mauled that they were content just to keep quiet for the time being. Meanwhile, fifty-three Attic ships arrived to reinforce the Greeks, which boosted their morale—and then at the same time came the report about the loss in the storm of all the Persian ships that were sailing around Euboea. They waited until late afternoon again, just like the day before, before attacking and destroying some Cilician ships. Afterwards they sailed back to Artemisium.
[15] The Persian commanders were angry at the harm done them by such a small number of ships, and they were also afraid of how Xerxes would react, so on the third day they stopped waiting for the Greeks to initiate the fighting and instead, at midday, when their preparations were complete, they put to sea. It so happened that the days on which these naval engagements were fought were exactly the three days of the land battle at Thermopylae. Moreover, the Euripus was the focus of the conflict at sea, just as Leonidas and his men were trying to hold the pass. In both cases the Greeks’ rallying cry was to stop the foreigners entering Greece, and the invaders’ was to destroy the Greek forces and win the strait.
[16] At first, when Xerxes’ fleet formed up and sailed into the attack, the Greeks stayed at Artemisium without reacting. But when the Persians took up a crescent formation, with a view to encircling the Greeks and catching them in a trap, the Greeks sailed out against them and battle was joined. The two sides were evenly matched in this battle, because there were so many ships in Xerxes’ enormous fleet that it kept falling foul of itself, as ships were thrown into disarray and collided with one another. Nevertheless, the Persians fought on without giving way, to avoid the disgrace of being routed by so few enemy ships. Many ships were lost on the Greek side, and many men too, but the Persians came off far worse. The battle ended when the two sides separated.
[17] Among Xerxes’ troops, battle honours went to the Egyptians, for various notable achievements, but particularly for capturing five Greek ships, crews and all. On the Greek side, battle honours went that day to the Athenians, and among the Athenians to Cleinias the son of Alcibiades, who provided two hundred men and his own ship, all at his own expense, for the war effort.
[18] Once they had disengaged, both sides were glad to make their way back to anchorage, and did so with all speed. The Greeks were at least in possession of their dead and their disabled ships after breaking off from the battle and pulling back, but they had been badly mauled (especially the Athenians, half of whose ships were damaged), and they decided to retreat down into Greece.
[19] It occurred to Themistocles, however, that if they could detach the Ionian and Carian contingents from the Persian forces, they could overcome the rest. He convened a meeting of the Greek commanders, just at the time of day when the Euboeans were driving their flocks down towards the coast, and told them that he thought he had come up with a plan, which stood a good chance of success, for depriving the king of his best men. But he revealed no more of the plan than that, saying only that in the present circumstances they should slaughter as many of the Euboean sheep and goats as they felt like, on the grounds that it was better for their men to have them rather than for the enemy to get their hands on them. He suggested that each commander should tell the men under him to light a watch-fire, and asked them to leave the precise timing of their withdrawal up to him, promising that they would get back to Greece safe and sound. This sounded good to them, and once the fires were lit they turned their attention to the sheep and goats.
[20] This happened because the Euboeans regarded an oracle of Bacis they had received as nonsense, and had not taken any of their property to a place of safety or stocked up on provisions for a forthcoming war. As a result, they brought disaster down on themselves. The relevant oracle of Bacis went as follows:
When a man without Greek casts on the sea his yoke of papyrus,
Be sure to remove your bleating goats from Euboea.
Since they had learnt nothing from these words, then at the time in question, with trouble at hand and more expected, misfortune was their teacher about what is really important.
[21] While the Greeks were occupied with these matters, their scout arrived from Trachis. They had a scout posted at Artemisium—a certain Polyas of Anticyra—whose job it was to tell the Greeks at Thermopylae if the fleet was defeated, and to this end he had a light oared boat ready to go. Likewise, Abronichus of Athens, the son of Lysicles, was stationed with Leonidas, ready to board a triaconter and tell the troops at Artemisium of any setback the land army suffered. It was Abronichus, then, who arrived with news of what had happened to Leonidas and his men. After hearing his report, the Greeks were ready to consider withdrawal, and they proceeded to set out in the order they were stationed in, with the Corinthians first and the Athenians last.
[22] Themistocles picked the fastest Athenian ships and made his way around the various places where there was drinkable water, where he cut a message on the rocks for the Ionians to read when they came to Artemisium the next day. The message was: ‘Men of Ionia, it is wrong of you to fight against your ancestral line and to enslave Greece. Ideally, you should join us; failing that, even now adopt a position of neutrality, and ask the Carians to do the same. If neither of these courses of action is feasible, and the Persians have too great a hold on you for you to revolt, in the battle you can remember that you are descended from our stock and that you were the original cause of the enmity between us and Persia, and deliberately fight below your best.’ In my opinion, Themistocles was covering both alternatives with this message. Either Xerxes would not get to hear about it and it would induce the Ionians to change sides, or, if somebody informed and he was told about it, he would stop trusting the Ionians and would keep them out of any battles.
[23] Just after Themistocles had left this message for the Ionians, a man from Histiaea sailed over to the Persians and told them about the Greek withdrawal from Artemisium. At first they did not believe him and they kept him under guard while they sent a squadron of fast ships to have a look, who confirmed the truth of the report. So at sunrise the next day the whole fleet set sail en masse for Artemisium, where they stayed until midday, before sailing on to Histiaea. On arriving there they took control of the main town and the district of Ellopia, and overran all the coastal villages in Histiaeotis.
[24] While they were there a man arrived with a message from Xerxes for the fleet. Now, Xerxes had made some prior arrangements as regards the bodies of the men from his army who had died at Thermopylae. About twenty thousand men had fallen there, but he left about a thousand of the corpses and buried the rest in mass graves, which he covered with earth and leaves to disguise them from the fleet. So the messenger sailed over to Histiaea, assembled all the men, and addressed them as follows: ‘Friends and allies, there are some people in the world who are foolish enough to think they can overcome the might of King Xerxes. If any of you want to go and see how we deal in battle with such people, the king grants you permission to leave your station and do so.’
[25] On hearing this message, so many people wanted to go and see the battle-site that boats became a scarce commodity. They crossed over to Thermopylae, walked among the corpses, and looked around. Everyone was convinced that all the enemy corpses lying there were Lacedaemonians and Thespians, but in fact they were also seeing helots. None of the men who had come over from Euboea were taken in by Xerxes’ ridiculous ploy with the bodies of his men. There were a thousand corpses from their army lying in plain view, while all the enemy corpses, four thousand of them, were lying piled in a heap in a single spot. That day was given over to sightseeing, and then on the next day the men from the fleet returned to their ships at Histiaea, while Xerxes and his army set out on their journey.
[26] Some men from Arcadia deserted and went over to the Persian camp, but there were only a few of them, mercenaries who needed an income and employment. They were taken before the king, and the Persians—or rather, a single Persian on behalf of the rest—asked them what the Greeks were doing. The Arcadians replied that the Greeks were celebrating the Olympic festival, and watching an athletic competition and a horse-race. The Persian next asked what the usual reward was for winning,† and they told him about the garland of olive that was given as a prize. At this, Tritantaechmes the son of Artabanus made a remark that showed his quality—but one which the king viewed as the mark of a coward. When Tritantaechmes heard that no money was at stake, but a garland, he could not stop himself blurting out in front of everyone, ‘Well, Mardonius, what sort of men are these you have brought us to fight? They make excellence rather than money the reason for a contest!’
[27] That was what Tritantaechmes said. Meanwhile, straight after the disaster at Thermopylae, the Thessalians sent a herald to Phocis. They had been feuding with the Phocians from time immemorial, but the latest defeat they had suffered at Phocian hands had made them particularly angry. Just a few years before Xerxes’ campaign, the Thessalians and their allies invaded Phocis in full strength, but were beaten by the Phocians and took heavy losses. This came about because when the Phocians were trapped on Mount Parnassus, a diviner called Tellias of Elis was there with them, and he devised a cunning plan. He had the six hundred best Phocian fighters rub themselves and their weapons with chalk and attack the Thessalians at night, with instructions to kill anyone they saw who was not all white. First the Thessalian sentries and then the main army became terrified at the sight of the Phocians, and thought they were seeing something supernatural and ominous. The upshot was that the Phocians took possession of the bodies and shields of four thousand Thessalians. They dedicated half of these shields at Abae and the rest at Delphi. A tenth of the wealth they gained as a result of this battle went towards the group of huge statues in an aggressive pose around the tripod in front of the temple in Delphi, and a similar group was dedicated at Abae as well.
[28] As well as defeating the Thessalian infantry in this way, despite being besieged by them, the Phocians also did irreparable harm to the invading Thessalian cavalry. In the pass near Hyampolis, they dug a wide trench, put empty jars in it, and then piled earth back on top until it looked like the rest of the ground. Here they met the Thessalian assault. The Thessalians charged, convinced that they would make short work of the Phocians, but the horses’ legs sank into the jars and were broken.
[29] These two incidents rankled with the Thessalians, so the message their herald carried was as follows: ‘Men of Phocis, now more than ever you must admit that you are no match for us. In times past, while we chose to be on the side of the Greeks, we always meant more to them than you did, and now that we have sided with the Persians we have so much influence that we could have robbed you of your land and reduced you to slavery as well. We could do anything we liked with you, but we do not hold the wrongs you have done us in the past against you, except that they will now cost you fifty talents of silver, and then we guarantee to divert the approaching invasion from your country.’
[30] The context of this offer from the Thessalians was that the Phocians were the only people in that part of the country who were not collaborating with the Persians—and the conclusion I have come to is that this was simply because of their feud with the Thessalians. In other words, if the Thessalians had supported the Greek cause, the Phocians would, I am sure, have collaborated with the Persians. Anyway, in response to this offer from the Thessalians the Phocians refused to pay any money; they also said they could match the Thessalians as collaborators, if for some reason they chose to, but that they would not deliberately betray Greece.
[31] This response so enraged the Thessalians when it was reported back to them that they took it upon themselves to guide the Persians there themselves. So the invasion proceeded from Trachis to Doris, where, between Malis and Phocis, there is a narrow tongue of land about thirty stades wide which was called Dryopis in the old days and was the original homeland of the Peloponnesian Dorians. Doris was left unharmed by the invading Persians, for two reasons: the people were collaborating with them, and the Thessalians thought they should be left alone.
[32] Having passed through Doris, they invaded Phocis, but they failed to catch the actual inhabitants. Some of the Phocians made their way up to the heights of Parnassus (one of whose peaks, called Tithorea, which is situated off by itself near the town of Neon, can accommodate a whole crowd of people, so they took themselves and their belongings up there), while the majority left their homes and made their way to the territory of the Ozolian Locrians, to the town of Amphissa which overlooks the Crisaean Plain. The Persian army, guided by the Thessalians, overran the whole of Phocis; everywhere they went, they cut everything down and put it to the torch, and set fire to the settlements and the sanctuaries.
[33] To be precise, in the course of their journey through Phocis they laid waste to the entire Cephisus River valley. Drymus, Charadra, Erochus, Tethronium, Amphicaea, Neon, Pedieës, Triteae, Elateia, Hyampolis, Parapotamii—all these places were burnt to the ground, as was Abae, where there was a rich sanctuary of Apollo, well stocked with treasuries and many votive offerings. In those days there was also (as there still is) an oracle there, whose shrine they plundered and burnt down. They chased one group of Phocians as far as the mountains, where they caught up with them; some of the women from this party were gang-raped until they died.
[34] The next place the Persians came to after Parapotamii was Panopes, where the army split. The largest and most powerful contingent set out with Xerxes for Athens and entered that part of Boeotia which belongs to Orchomenus. Now, the whole population of Boeotia were collaborators, and the safety of their towns and cities was ensured by the presence in them of Macedonians, who had been sent there by Alexander for that purpose. The reason they were protecting the Boeotian communities was to make it clear to Xerxes that the Boeotians were on the side of Persia.
[35] While Xerxes’ division of the Persian army was heading in this direction, the rest of them set out with their guides towards the sanctuary at Delphi, keeping Mount Parnassus on their right. They continued to devastate every part of Phocis they came to, and in the course of their journey burnt down the towns of the Panopeans, Daulians, and Aeolians. Their mission—the reason they had been split off from the main body of the army and were taking this direction—was to plunder the sanctuary at Delphi and bring before King Xerxes all the property they took from it. My information is that Xerxes had heard so often about everything of note that was to be found in the sanctuary that he was more familiar with them (and especially with the offerings made by Croesus the son of Alyattes) than he was with the things back in his own home.
[36] When the inhabitants of Delphi found out what was happening they became absolutely terrified. They were in such a state of panic that they asked the oracle whether they should bury the sacred property in the ground or take it away somewhere else. The god said that they should not disturb it, and assured them that he was perfectly capable of protecting his property by himself. On hearing this, the people of Delphi next began to worry about themselves. They sent their women and children across the gulf to Achaea, while most of the men made their way up to the crags of Parnassus and left their property in the Corycian Cave, and the rest withdrew to Amphissa in Locris. The only people left in the town were sixty men and the god’s prophet.
[37] Just when the Persians were approaching and had the sanctuary in sight, the god’s prophet (whose name was Aceratus) saw that the weapons, the sacred ones which it is sacrilege for any human being to touch, had been brought out of the temple and were lying in front of the building. He went and told the Delphians who had stayed about the miracle. Meanwhile, the Persians pressed on and came to the sanctuary of Athena Before the Temple—only to be greeted by miracles even more remarkable than the one that had already occurred. It is truly amazing that weapons of war should of their own accord appear on the ground outside the temple, but what happened next was quite astonishing, even given all the marvellous things that have happened in the world. Just as the Persians were approaching the sanctuary of Athena Before the Temple, thunderbolts crashed down on them from the sky, and two crags broke off from Mount Parnassus, hurtled towards them with a terrible noise, and hit a large number of them, and at the same time the sound of a loud shout and a warcry emerged from the sanctuary.
[38] The combination of all these events filled the invaders with fear, and they began to run away. When the Delphians found out about this, they set off in pursuit and killed quite a few of them. The survivors fled straight to Boeotia. I have learnt that the Persians who made it back claimed to have witnessed further miracles, over and above the ones already mentioned; they said they were followed by two heavily armed men of superhuman height, who harried them and killed them.
[39] The Delphians say that these two were the local heroes of Delphi, Phylacus and Autonoüs, whose precincts are located near the sanctuary. The precinct of Phylacus is by the road above the sanctuary of Athena Before the Temple, and that of Autonoüs is near the Castalian Spring under the Hyampean Cliff. The rocks that fell from Parnassus were still preserved in my day, lying in the precinct of Athena Before the Temple, which is where they came to rest after sweeping through the Persians. So that is how this contingent of Persians came to leave the sanctuary of Delphi.
[40] After leaving Artemisium, the Greek fleet put in at Salamis, at the request of the Athenians. The Athenians asked them to do so because they wanted to evacuate their women and children from Attica, and also because they wanted an opportunity to decide what to do next. The situation was such that they felt they had been misguided in their judgement, and they needed to discuss their concerns. They had been expecting to find every available Peloponnesian in Boeotia, waiting for the invader, but in fact they found nothing of the sort; instead they heard that the Peloponnesians were building a defensive wall across the Isthmus, since all that mattered to them was the survival of the Peloponnese. They were protecting the Peloponnese and abandoning everything else. When the Athenians heard this they asked the Greek fleet to anchor at Salamis.
[41] So the main fleet put in at Salamis, while the Athenian contingent docked at home. Following their arrival, they issued a proclamation that everyone in Athens should see to the safety of his children and household as best he could. Most people sent their families off to Troezen, but others preferred Aegina or Salamis. The evacuation proceeded apace, and only partly because they wanted to obey the oracle. The main reason was as follows. The Athenians say that a large snake, the guardian of the Acropolis, lives in the sanctuary. This is not just something they talk about; they also act on it, by serving the snake a monthly quota of food—honey-cake, to be specific. Now, although in times past this honey-cake had always been consumed, on this occasion it was left untouched. When the priestess told them, the Athenians were even more committed to their abandonment of the city, on the grounds that even the goddess had left the Acropolis. After getting everything away to safety, they rejoined the main fleet.
[42] Once news that the ships from Artemisium were moored at Salamis reached the rest of the Greek fleet (who were at Pogon, the harbour of Troezen, where they had been told to assemble), they began to stream into Salamis to join them. So the total fleet assembled at Salamis now consisted of many more ships than had been involved in the battle of Artemisium, and there were contingents from a larger number of towns and cities too. The command of the fleet remained with the Spartiate, Eurybiades the son of Euryclidas, as at Artemisium, despite the fact that he was not of royal lineage. The Athenian contingent was the largest, by a long way, and their ships were the best too.
[43] Here is a list of the contingents, starting with those from the Peloponnese. The Lacedaemonians provided sixteen ships, the Corinthians provided the same number as they had at Artemisium, the Sicyonians gave fifteen, the Epidaurians ten, the Troezenians five, and the Hermioneans three. The inhabitants of all these states apart from Hermione are of Dorian and Macedonian stock; they were the most recent arrivals from Erineus, Pindus, and Dryopis. The people of Hermione are from Dryopis; they were evicted from what is now called Doris by Heracles and the Malians.
[44] So much for the Peloponnesian contingent. Those supplied by states from the mainland beyond the Isthmus were as follows. Athens provided a hundred and eighty ships, more than anyone else, and did so with no help this time, since the Plataeans did not support them at the battle of Salamis. The reason was that on the way back from Artemisium the Plataeans left the Greek fleet at Chalcis, crossed over to Boeotia, and set about evacuating their families. So they missed the battle because they were busy saving their families. The Athenians were originally Pelasgians, at the time when the Pelasgians occupied the whole of what is now called Greece; first they were known as Cranaï, and then Cecropidae during the reign of King Cecrops; later, when Erechtheus became king, they changed their name to Athenians, and when Ion the son of Xuthus became their war-leader they were called Ionians after him.
[45] The Megarians supplied the same number of ships as at Artemisium, while the Ambraciots and the Leucadians (both originally of Dorian stock, from Corinth) came with seven ships and three ships respectively.
[46] Turning to the islands, the Aeginetan contingent consisted of thirty ships. These were not the only ships they had ready and available, but they used the rest to protect their own island, while committing their thirty best ships to the battle at Salamis. The Aeginetans are originally Dorians from Epidaurus; the island had previously been called Oenone. Then the Chalcidians provided the same twenty ships as at Artemisium, and the Eretrians the same seven; these are both Ionian peoples. The contingent from Ceos was also the same size as at Artemisium; the Ceans are Ionian stock, originally from Athens. Naxos provided four ships, which had actually been sent by their government to join the Persian fleet, along with the rest of the Aegean islands, but at the insistence of a man called Democritus (one of the foremost men on the island and at the time the captain of one of the triremes) they disregarded their instructions and went over to the Greeks. The Naxians are Ionians, of Athenian stock. Styra sent the same number of ships as at Artemisium, and Cythnos sent one trireme and a penteconter; the inhabitants of both these places are originally Dryopians. There were also contingents from Seriphos, Siphnos, and Melos, which were the only Aegean islands not to have given earth and water to the Persian king.
[47] All these contingents came from places on the Greek side of Thesprotia and the River Acheron (Ambracia and Leucas, the most remote places to send contingents, share a border with Thesprotia). From elsewhere, the only place to send help to Greece in her time of peril was Croton, which sent a single ship under the command of a man called Phayllus, a three-time victor at the Pythian Games. The people of Croton were originally from Achaea.
[48] Every contingent consisted of triremes, except that Melos, Siphnos, and Seriphos supplied penteconters. The Melians, originally of Lacedaemonian stock, sent two, while the Siphnians and Seriphians (both Ionians, originally from Athens) sent one each. The total size of the fleet, not counting penteconters, was 378.
[49] Once the commanders had assembled on Salamis from all these states, they held a council of war. Eurybiades proposed that everyone should feel free to speak his mind about where, among the territories the Greeks controlled, he thought would be the best place to engage the enemy at sea. He was looking for suggestions outside of Attica, which had already been given up for lost. The majority view was that they should sail to the Isthmus and fight in defence of the Peloponnese. The thinking behind this idea was that if they remained at Salamis and lost the battle, they would be blockaded on an island where no help could reach them, whereas if they were near the Isthmus they could get ashore to friendly territory.
[50] This was the way the minds of the Peloponnesian commanders were working, when an Athenian arrived with the news that the Persian army had reached Attica and that the whole country was being destroyed by fire. Xerxes and his army had made their way through Boeotia, where they had burnt down Thespiae and Plataea (the inhabitants of both of which had been evacuated to the Peloponnese), and then reached Athenian territory and started to devastate it. The reason Xerxes set fire to Thespiae and Plataea was that the Thebans told him about their refusal to support the Persian cause.
[51] Taking the crossing of the Hellespont as the starting-point of the Persians’ journey, they spent one month there, while they crossed over into Europe, and then reached Attica three months later, during the archonship of Calliades at Athens. The city fell to them, but it was deserted. The only Athenians they came across were a few temple-stewards and paupers in the sanctuary, who had made barricades out of doors and planks to defend the Acropolis against the invaders. It was not just poverty that had stopped them going to Salamis; they also reckoned they had understood what the Pythia meant by her prediction that a wall of wood would not fall to the enemy. They were convinced that the place of safety to which the oracle had been referring was not a fleet, but this barricade of theirs.
[52] The Persians stationed themselves on the knoll the Athenians call the Areopagus, which lies opposite the Acropolis, and started on the siege. They tied some tow on to their arrows, set them alight and shot them at the barricades. The besieged Athenians carried on defending the Acropolis, even though they were in desperate trouble and their barricade had failed them. They also refused to listen to the terms proposed by the Pisistratidae for their surrender. One way or another—for instance, by rolling boulders down on the Persians as they approached the gates—they fought back in defence of the Acropolis so well that for a long while Xerxes was stuck and did not know how bring the siege to a successful conclusion.
[53] Eventually, however, the Persians resolved their difficulties by finding a way on to the Acropolis. After all, the whole of mainland Attica was destined to fall to the Persians, according to the oracle. At the front end of the Acropolis, away from the gates and the main road up, was a spot by the sanctuary of Aglaurus the daughter of Cecrops where no one was on guard, and indeed it was so steep that no one could have expected a human being to climb up that way. Nevertheless, some Persians did just that. At the sight of them up on the Acropolis,† some of the Athenians threw themselves from the wall to their deaths, while others sought sanctuary in the temple. The Persians who had completed the ascent first made their way to the gates and opened them, and then murdered the suppliants. When there was no one left standing, they plundered the sanctuary and set fire to the whole Acropolis.
[54] Now that Athens was completely in his control, Xerxes sent a horseman to Susa with a message telling Artabanus how well things were going for them at present. The day after the messenger left, Xerxes summoned all the Athenian exiles in his party to a meeting and told them to climb the Acropolis and sacrifice victims in their own manner. Perhaps he had been told to do so in a dream, or perhaps his burning of the sanctuary was weighing on his mind. Anyway, the Athenian exiles carried out his orders.
[55] My reason for mentioning this incident is as follows. There is on the Athenian Acropolis a temple of Erechtheus under the title ‘the Earth-born’, within which there is an olive-tree and a source of salt water, which in Athenian legend were placed there by Poseidon and Athena as their tokens when they were in competition for authority over the land. Now, it so happened that this olive-tree was burnt down along with the rest of the sanctuary by the invaders, but on the day after the sack of the temple, the Athenians who, at Xerxes’ instigation, climbed up to the sanctuary to perform sacrifices saw a shoot about a cubit long, which had already sprouted from the stump. They reported the phenomenon to Xerxes.
[56] When news of the events on the Athenian Acropolis reached the Greeks on Salamis, they were so panic-stricken that some of the commanders did not even wait for a final decision on the proposal about what action to take, but rushed for their ships and began to hoist their sails with the intention of beating a hasty retreat. Meanwhile, those who remained on land ratified the decision to fight in defence of the Peloponnese. At nightfall the meeting broke up and they went on board their ships.
[57] On his ship that night an Athenian named Mnesiphilus asked Themistocles what decision the commanders had reached. When Themistocles told him that the plan was to set sail for the Isthmus and fight in defence of the Peloponnese, Mnesiphilus said, ‘Better not—once the fleet leaves Salamis, there’ll no longer be a country you can fight for. Each contingent will disperse to its native state, and no one, not even Eurybiades, will be able to stop the fleet falling apart. This is a stupid plan, which will spell the destruction of Greece. You have to find a way to reverse the decision—to persuade Eurybiades to change his mind and stay here.’
[58] Themistocles liked this idea a great deal. Without saying a word in reply, he made his way over to Eurybiades’ ship. When he got there, he said that he had something of general importance to communicate. Eurybiades told him to come on board, if he wanted. So Themistocles sat down and repeated Mnesiphilus’ arguments as if they were his own, and added some new points as well, until his pleas persuaded Eurybiades to go back ashore and convene a meeting of the commanders.
[59] Once the commanders were in session, and before Eurybiades had a chance to open the meeting by explaining why he had asked them there, Themistocles began to address the others in urgent entreaty. The Corinthian commander, Adeimantus the son of Ocytus, interrupted him and said, ‘At the games, Themistocles, those who are too quick off the mark earn themselves a flogging.’ But Themistocles countered with: ‘Those who get left behind win no prizes.’
[60] At this stage of the proceedings, his response to the Corinthian was moderate. When he came to address Eurybiades, he did not mention his earlier point, that the fleet would disperse once they left Salamis, because it would have been inappropriate for him to cast aspersions with the allies there. Instead he tried a different approach. ‘Eurybiades,’ he said, ‘you have the opportunity to prove yourself the saviour of Greece, if you agree with me and engage the enemy here, where we are now, rather than listen to the others and move the fleet to the Isthmus. Let me explain the consequences of the two options, so that you can compare them. If the battle takes place by the Isthmus, you’ll be fighting in the open sea, which puts us at a distinct disadvantage, since our ships are heavier and we are outnumbered. Secondly, even if things basically go well for us, you’ll lose Salamis, Megara, and Aegina. Moreover, the enemy’s land army will go wherever their fleet goes, and so you’ll be drawing them down into the Peloponnese and then the whole of Greece will be at risk.
‘However, there are a number of advantages to staying here as I am suggesting. In the first place, our few ships will be taking on a larger fleet in a confined space, and this means, if the battle goes as one may reasonably expect it to, that we will win a convincing victory. I mean, fighting in a confined space favours us, but fighting in the open favours them. In the second place, Salamis will survive—and Salamis is where we have taken our women and children. The final point to note about my plan, which concerns what you all take to be the crucial issue, is that by staying here, Eurybiades, you’ll be defending the Peloponnese just as effectively as if you were stationed off the Isthmus, and you won’t be drawing the enemy into the Peloponnese either, if you’re sensible and adopt my plan. If the outcome is as I expect and we’re victorious at sea, the Persians won’t appear at your Isthmus; in fact, they won’t get any further than Attica. They will retreat in disorder, and we will profit by the safety of Megara, Aegina, and Salamis—which is, after all, the place where it has been foretold that we will overcome the enemy. It is sound planning that invariably earns us the outcome we want; without it, even the gods are unlikely to look with favour on our designs.’
[61] Once again it was Adeimantus of Corinth who protested during this speech by Themistocles. He told him that since he had no state to represent he should keep quiet, he tried to stop Eurybiades letting a stateless person propose a motion, and he suggested that Themistocles should find himself a state before contributing his ideas. He said these things because Athens had fallen and was occupied. This time Themistocles responded with a series of insults about Corinthians in general and Adeimantus in particular, and went on to make it clear that the Athenians still had a city and a country—and one greater than theirs—as long as they had two hundred ships ready for action, since there was no Greek state that could repel an attack from them.
[62] Once he had got this point across, he transferred his attention back to Eurybiades, this time speaking more insistently. ‘As for you,’ he said, ‘if you stay here you are a man of courage, but if not you will destroy Greece. The fleet is vital to the outcome of the war. You must do as I suggest. If you don’t, we will immediately collect our families and take them to Siris in Italy; after all, it is ours and has been for a long time, and there are oracles claiming that it is destined to be colonized by us. When the rest of you have lost the quality of military support we provide, you’ll remember my words.’
[63] Eurybiades was won over by Themistocles’ arguments—or rather, in my opinion, by his fear that the Athenians would pull out if he took the fleet to the Isthmus, because the Athenian presence was critical to the fleet as a whole: without it, they would be no match for the enemy. So he came down in favour of Themistocles’ plan of staying and fighting the decisive sea battle there.
[64] After this verbal skirmishing, and once Eurybiades had made up his mind, the Greeks at Salamis prepared to do battle there. At sunrise one day an earthquake occurred, which disturbed the sea as well as the land. The Greeks decided to offer prayers to the gods and to ask the Aeacidae for help, and they immediately put this plan into effect. They prayed to all the gods, called on Ajax and Telamon from Salamis itself, and sent a ship to Aegina to fetch Aeacus and the Aeacidae.
[65] There was an incident reported by an Athenian called Dicaeus the son of Theocydes, who had been banished from Athens and had risen to a position of prominence among the Persians. During the devastation by Xerxes’ land army of Attica (now emptied of Athenians), he happened to be on the Thriasian Plain with Demaratus of Lacedaemon, he said, and he saw coming from the direction of Eleusis the kind of dust-cloud that about thirty thousand men might raise. He and Demaratus were wondering who could possibly be causing all that dust, when suddenly they heard the sound of human voices, and it seemed to Dicaeus that the sound was the cry of the mysteries, ‘Iacchus!’ Now, Demaratus was unacquainted with the Eleusinian rites, so he asked what the sound was. ‘The king’s forces are going to suffer a major disaster, Demaratus,’ Dicaeus replied. ‘They can’t avoid it. Look, there are no people left in Attica, so this voice is clearly of divine origin, coming from Eleusis to help the Athenians and their allies. If it settles on the Peloponnese, it is Xerxes in person and his land army that will be in danger; but if it heads towards the Greek ships at Salamis, the king will probably lose his fleet. The festival in question is one in honour of the Mother and the Maiden that is celebrated every year by the Athenians, and anyone from Athens or elsewhere in Greece can be initiated if he wants to. During the course of the festival they cry out “Iacchus!”, which is the sound you can hear.’
‘You’d better keep quiet about this,’ Demaratus said, ‘and not tell anyone else. If the king hears the news, you’ll lose your head, and it will be beyond me or any other human being to protect you. So if I were you, I’d keep silent. The fate of Xerxes’ army is in the hands of the gods.’
That was Demaratus’ advice, according to Dicaeus. Out of the dust with its sound of voices emerged a cloud which rose high into the air and was carried towards the Greek forces at Salamis. And so they realized that Xerxes’ fleet was destined to be destroyed. This is the story told by Dicaeus the son of Theocydes, and he used to claim that various people, including Demaratus, could vouch for its truth.
[66] The crews of Xerxes’ fleet left Trachis after viewing the evidence of the Laconian defeat and returned to Histiaea. Three days later they set out through the Euripus and it took them another three days to get to Phalerum. It seems to me that there were as many men involved in the combined land and sea invasion of Athenian territory as there had been when they arrived at Sepias and Thermopylae. I offset the numbers of those who were killed by the storm or at Thermopylae or in the sea battles at Artemisium by those who had at that time not yet joined the king’s forces—namely the Malians, Dorians, Locrians, and Boeotians (who came with every available man, except for the people of Thespiae and Plataea), and also the people of Carystus, Andros, Tenos, and all the other Aegean islands, except for the five states named earlier. For the further into Greece the Persians advanced, the more peoples joined them.
[67] When all his forces were on Athenian soil—all except the Parians, that is, since they had been left behind on Cythnos and were waiting to see how the war would turn out—and the fleet reached Phalerum, Xerxes paid them a personal visit, because he wanted to talk to them and find out what they were thinking. On arriving, he took a seat on a dais in front of an invited group consisting of the rulers of the various peoples and the officers from the fleet, whose seating arrangement was determined by how highly regarded each of them was by the king; the king of Sidon sat closest to him, then the king of Tyre, and then all the rest. When they had sorted themselves out and were all sitting in their proper places, Xerxes sent Mardonius to test each of them by asking whether or not he should meet the enemy at sea.
[68] So Mardonius went around the whole group, starting with the king of Sidon, asking this question. The unanimous view was that he should engage the enemy at sea, with only a single dissenter—Artemisia. She said, ‘Mardonius, please take this message to the king for me, reminding him that I did not play a negligible or cowardly role in the sea battles off Euboea: “Master, it is only right that I should tell you what is, in my honest opinion, the best course of action for you. So here is my advice: do not commit the fleet to a battle, because at sea your men will be as far inferior to the Greeks as women are to men. In any case, why should you have to run the risk of a sea battle? Have you not captured Athens, which was the point of the campaign? Do you not control the rest of Greece? There is no one to stand against you. Everyone who did so has met with the treatment he deserved. I will tell you what I think the future holds in store for our enemies. If you do not rush into a sea battle, master, but keep your fleet here close to shore, all you need do to gain all your objectives without any effort is either wait here or advance into the Peloponnese. The Greeks do not have the resources to hold out against you for any length of time; you will scatter them, and they will retreat to their various towns and cities. You see, I have found out that they do not have provisions on this island of theirs, and if you march overland towards the Peloponnese, it is unlikely that the Greeks from there will remain inactive or will want to fight at sea in defence of Athens. However, if you rush into a sea battle straight away, I am afraid that the defeat of the fleet will cause the land army to come to grief as well. Besides, my lord, you should bear this in mind too, that good men tend to have bad slaves, and vice versa. Now, there is no one better than you, and you do in fact have bad slaves, who are supposed to be your allies—I mean, the Egyptians, Cyprians, Cilicians, and Pamphylians, all of whom are useless.”’
[69] These words of Artemisia’s to Mardonius upset her friends, who assumed that the king would punish her for trying to stop him committing himself to a sea battle, while those who envied and resented her prominence within the alliance were pleased with her reply, because they thought she would be put to death. But when everybody’s opinions were reported back to Xerxes, he was delighted with Artemisia’s point of view; he had rated her highly before, but now she went up even further in his estimation. Nevertheless, he gave orders that the majority view was the one to follow. He believed that his men had not fought their best off Euboea because he had not been there, and so now he prepared to watch them fight.
[70] So the order was given to put to sea. They set sail for Salamis, where they had plenty of time to divide into squadrons and take up their battle formation. Night was beginning to draw in, so there was not enough daylight left for them to fight that day, and they got ready to engage the enemy on the following day. The Greeks were seized by terror. The Peloponnesians were particularly afraid, because there they were on Salamis, about to fight for Athenian territory, and if they lost the battle they would be trapped and blockaded on an island, leaving their own territory undefended.
[71] Meanwhile, that same night, the Persian land army marched towards the Peloponnese. However, everything possible had been done to prevent the Persians entering the Peloponnese by land. As soon as the Peloponnesians had heard about the death of Leonidas and his men at Thermopylae, they had flocked from their various communities and stationed themselves at the Isthmus, with Leonidas’ brother, Cleombrotus the son of Anaxandridas, in command. While in position at the Isthmus, they destroyed Sciron’s Road and then built a wall across the Isthmus, which was something they had discussed and decided to do. And they did succeed in completing the job, thanks to the fact that there were thousands upon thousands of them, and every single man did his share of the work. Stones, bricks, logs, and sandbags were constantly being brought to the site, and the work never stopped, night or day.
[72] The allied forces at the Isthmus consisted of every available man from the following Greek states: Lacedaemon, every community in Arcadia, Elis, Corinth, Sicyon, Epidaurus, Phleious, Troezen, and Hermione. These were the places which contributed troops in their terror over the danger facing Greece; no one else in the Peloponnese bothered to do anything, even though the Olympic and Carnean festivals were over by now.
[73] The Peloponnese is inhabited by seven peoples. Two of them—the Arcadians and the Cynurians—are indigenous and still occupy the land they originally inhabited. One people, the Achaeans, have moved from their homeland to elsewhere, but still within the Peloponnese. The remaining four peoples—the Dorians, Aetolians, Dryopians, and Lemnians—are immigrants. There are plenty of notable Dorian settlements, only a single Aetolian one (Elis), two for the Dryopians (Hermione and Asine—the Asine which is near Cardamyle in Laconia), and the Lemnians have all the Paroreatae. The Cynurians, who live in Orneae and thereabouts, appear to be the only Ionians among the indigenous Peloponnesians, although as a result of being ruled by Argos, and of the passage of time, they have become thoroughly Doricized. So apart from the places I have mentioned, all the rest of the communities of these seven peoples adopted a position of neutrality—but, if I may speak bluntly here, remaining neutral was the same as collaborating with the Persians.
[74] So the Greeks at the Isthmus undertook the task of building a defensive wall, because the race they were running was an all-or-nothing affair, and because they did not expect great things from the fleet. Although their colleagues on Salamis heard what they were doing, it did not alleviate their fear (which was for the Peloponnese rather than for themselves). For a while men stood together whispering their incredulity about Eurybiades’ foolishness, but eventually their concern erupted into the open and a meeting was convened. The same arguments came up as before, and at considerable length. Some argued that they should sail for the Peloponnese and take their chances fighting for it, rather than stay there and fight for a country that had already fallen to the enemy. But the Athenians, Aeginetans, and Megarians put the case for staying and resisting the enemy where they were.
[75] In this debate, Themistocles was being beaten by the Peloponnesians. He quietly slipped away from the meeting, briefed one of his men (a house-slave of his—his children’s attendant, to be precise—whose name was Sicinnus), and sent him over to the Persian camp in a boat. Subsequently, when the war was over, Themistocles had him enrolled as a citizen of Thespiae, which was accepting new citizens, and made him a wealthy man too. At the time in question, Sicinnus sailed over and said to the Persian commanders, ‘I am on a secret mission for the Athenian commander, who is in fact sympathetic to Xerxes’ cause and would prefer you to gain the upper hand in the war rather than the Greeks. None of the other Greeks know that I am here. The message from my master is that the Greeks are in a state of panic and are planning to retreat. Unless you just stand by and let them escape, you have an opportunity here to achieve a glorious victory. They are disunited, in no postion to offer you resistance; in fact you’ll see them pitting their ships against one another, those who are on your side fighting those who are not.’ After delivering this message, Sicinnus left.
[76] The Persian reaction to the message, which they felt to be reliable, was first to send a sizeable body of troops ashore on the little island that lies between Salamis and the mainland, and, second, to have two sections of the fleet put to sea in the middle of the night. The first section, the western wing of the fleet, sailed on a wide curve for Salamis, while the second section, consisting of the ships stationed near Ceos and Cynosura, blocked the whole channel all the way to Munichia. The reason they put to sea was to stop the Greeks escaping; they wanted to trap them on Salamis and make them pay for the battles at Artemisium. And the reason they landed Persian troops on the little island (which is called Psyttaleia) was that it lies in the straits where the battle was due to take place, and so it would be the main place where men and disabled ships would be washed ashore after the battle; with troops there, then, they could save the lives of their own men and kill everyone else. All these preparations (which they carried out in silence, to prevent the enemy finding out) meant that they got no sleep that night.
[77] I cannot argue against the truth of oracles, because when they speak clearly I do not want to try to discredit them. Consider the following lines:†
But when they have used their ships as a bridge to link
The holy shore of gold-bladed Artemis with sea-girt Cynosura,
Their hopes raised to fever pitch by the sack of gleaming Athens,
Then shall bright Justice quench Pride’s son, mighty Excess,
For all his fearsome lust and purpose to devour the earth.†
Weapon shall clash with weapon, and with blood shall Ares
Crimson the sea. Then freedom will dawn for Greece,
Brought on by far-seeing Zeus and noble Victory.
Faced with the clarity of this kind of statement (from Bacis, in this instance), I hesitate to challenge the validity of oracles myself, and I do not accept such challenges from others either.
[78] So the commanders at Salamis were furiously hurling arguments at one another. They were still unaware that they had been surrounded by the Persian fleet, and continued to assume that the enemy had remained where they had seen them stationed during the day.
[79] While the commanders were locked in argument a man called Aristides the son of Lysimachus crossed over to Salamis from Aegina. Aristides was an Athenian who had been ostracized by the democratic government. In my considered opinion, from all I hear about his character, he was the best and most honourable man in Athens. He presented himself at the meeting and asked Themistocles to come outside with him. Now, he was no friend of Themistocles—in fact, they were bitter enemies—but the scale of the trouble facing Athens at the time made him overlook this. So he asked Themistocles to leave the meeting because he wanted to have a word with him; he already knew that the Peloponnesian contingents could hardly wait to sail back to the Isthmus. When Themistocles joined him outside, Aristides said, ‘The rivalry between us should only be about which of us will do our country more good—that goes not just for now, but for any other occasion too. Now, I can tell you that it doesn’t make any difference whether the Peloponnesians go on about sailing away from here or spend hardly any time discussing the matter, because they won’t be able to do so anyway. I can assure you of that, because I’ve seen the reason for myself. Neither the Corinthians nor Eurybiades will be able to sail away from here, because we are surrounded by the enemy. You’d better go back into the meeting and tell them the news.’
[80] ‘That’s a very good idea,’ Themistocles replied. ‘And you’ve brought good news. That’s exactly what I wanted to happen—and you’ve seen it with your very own eyes. I should explain that this move on the part of the Persians was instigated by me. The Greeks didn’t want to join battle, so I had to force them into it. But since you are the one who has brought this good news, why don’t you deliver the message yourself? If I tell them, they’ll think I’m making it up and they won’t believe me, on the grounds that the Persians couldn’t be doing any such thing. Go in and explain the situation in person. They may believe what you’re saying, which would be best, but even if they don’t, that won’t make any difference, since they still won’t be able to run away if we’re completely surrounded, as you say.’
[81] So Aristides went in to the Greek commaders. He told them that the Greek navy was entirely surrounded by Xerxes’ fleet—so much so that on his way from Aegina he had only just managed to slip past the enemy blockade—and he advised them to get ready to face an attack. Afterwards, he left the meeting. Then the arguments began all over again, because most of the commanders did not believe the news.
[82] Just then, while they were still inclined to disbelieve Aristides’ report, a crew of Tenian deserters, commanded by one of their countrymen called Panaetius the son of Sosimenes, brought their trireme into Salamis. They were able to give the Greeks a complete and accurate account of the situation. It is because of this action of theirs that the Tenians are named on the inscribed tripod in Delphi among those who were responsible for the defeat of the Persian invader. With the desertion of this ship to the Greek side at Salamis, and the earlier Lemnian ship that had come over to the Greeks at Artemisium, the Greek fleet made up the deficit of two that it lacked to consist of a total of exactly 380 ships.
[83] Now that the Greeks had accepted the Tenians’ report, they prepared themselves for battle. At daybreak they assembled all the marines and gave them their orders. Themistocles put things better than anyone else. He spent the whole of his speech contrasting all the better and the worse aspects of human nature and temperament, and encouraging the marines to choose the better course; he ended by sending them off to their ships. Just after they had boarded their ships, the trireme which had been given the mission of fetching the Aeacidae arrived from Aegina. Then the Greeks launched their whole fleet, and no sooner had they done so than the Persians attacked them.
[84] Most of the Greek ships began to back water and head back to shore, but an Athenian called Ameinias of Pallene sent his ship headlong into the attack. His ship became inextricably entangled with an enemy ship—and so the rest of the Greek fleet joined in by coming to help Ameinias. This is the Athenian version of the start of the battle, but the Aeginetans say that it was the ship which had been sent to Aegina to fetch the Aeacidae that started it. Yet another account claims that a ghostly woman appeared and, in a voice that reached every man of the fleet, gave the Greeks their orders, first telling them off with the words: ‘Fools, when are you going to stop retreating?’
[85] In the direction of Eleusis, the Phoenicians made up the western wing of the Persian fleet, and so were drawn up opposite the Athenians; in the direction of the Piraeus, the Ionians, who formed the eastern wing, faced the Lacedaemonians. However, only a few of the Ionians complied with Themistocles’ instructions and deliberately fought below their best; the rest of them fought as normal. I could list the names of a lot of Ionian captains who captured Greek ships, but I will restrict myself to mentioning only two Samians—Theomestor the son of Androdamas and Phylacus the son of Histiaeus. The reason I mention them is because it was as a result of this achievement that Theomestor was instituted by the Persians as the tyrant of Samos, while Phylacus’ name was entered on the list of the king’s benefactors and he was rewarded with a large estate. The Persian word for these ‘king’s benefactors’ is orosangai.
[86] That is how these two fared in the battle, but most of the Persian ships at Salamis were destroyed by either the Athenians or the Aeginetans. This happened because the Greeks fought in a disciplined and tactical manner, while the Persians became disorganized and lost their battle plan. As a result, what happened to them was entirely predictable. Nevertheless, they displayed and acted with far more courage that day than they had off Euboea: every single one of them fought with determination, spurred on by his fear of Xerxes, and each of them imagined that the king’s eyes were on him.
[87] I am not in a position to say for certain how particular Persians or Greeks fought, but Artemisia’s behaviour caused her to rise even higher in the king’s estimation. It so happened that in the midst of the general confusion of the Persian fleet, Artemisia’s ship was being chased by one from Attica. She found it impossible to escape, because the way ahead was blocked by friendly ships, and hostile ships were particularly close to hers, so she decided on a plan which did in fact do her a lot of good. With the Attic ship close astern, she bore down on and rammed one of the ships from her own side, which was crewed by men from Calynda and had on board Damasithymus, the king of Calynda. Now, I cannot say whether she and Damasithymus had fallen out while they were based at the Hellespont, or whether this action of hers was premeditated, or whether the Calyndan ship just happened to be in the way at the time. In any case, she found that by ramming it and sinking it she created for herself a double piece of good fortune. In the first place, when the captain of the Attic ship saw her ramming an enemy vessel, he assumed that Artemisia’s ship was either Greek or was a defector from the Persians fighting on his side, so he changed course and turned to attack other ships.
[88] So the first piece of good fortune was that she escaped and remained alive. The second was that although she was quite the opposite of the king’s benefactor, her actions made Xerxes particularly pleased with her. It is reported that as Xerxes was watching the battle he noticed her ship ramming the other vessel, and one of his entourage said, ‘Master, can you see how well Artemisia is fighting? Look, she has sunk an enemy ship!’
Xerxes asked if it was really Artemisia, and they confirmed that it was, because they could recognize the insignia on her ship, and therefore assumed that the ship she had destroyed was one of the enemy’s—an assumption that was never refuted, because a particular feature of the general good fortune of Artemisia, as noted, was that no one from the Calyndan ship survived to point the finger at her. In response to what his courtiers were telling him, the story goes on, Xerxes said, ‘My men have turned into women and my women into men!’ That is what Xerxes is supposed to have said.
[89] During this mêlée Xerxes’ brother Ariabignes the son of Darius, who was one of the Persian military commanders, lost his life; a great many other famous men, from Persia, Media, and every country in the enemy alliance, also died. A few Greeks lost their lives too—but only a few, because they knew how to swim, and so when their ships were destroyed those who remained alive after the close fighting swam over to Salamis. Most of the casualties on the Persian side were men who drowned because they did not know how to swim. The largest numbers of lives were lost during the phase of the battle when the first line of Persian ships were turning to flight, because the crews of the ships behind them were still trying to get past the ones in front and show the king that they too could perform well, so they fell foul of the ships from their own side which were withdrawing.
[90] Another thing that happened in the thick of the battle was that some of the Phoenicians, whose ships had been destroyed, came to the king and insinuated that the loss of their ships was due to the Ionians having failed in their duty. But as things turned out it was not the Ionian commanders who lost their lives over this, but their Phoenician accusers who received their just deserts. While they were in the middle of registering their complaint with the king, a Samothracian ship rammed an Attic ship, which started to sink, whereupon an Aeginetan ship sailed into the attack and sank the Samothracian one. But the Samothracians hurled the javelins with which they were armed, mowed down the marines on the ship that had sunk them, boarded the vessel, and took it over. It was this episode that saved the lives of the Ionians. When Xerxes saw the Samothracians achieve such a heroic feat, he turned to the Phoenicians in a rage and put the blame for what was happening on all of them. He ordered their heads cut off, so that never again would they traduce their betters. (Xerxes was watching the battle from the foot of the hill called Aegaleos which faces Salamis, and whenever anything went well for his side, he asked who the captain of the ship in question was, and his scribes wrote down the name of the man, his father, and the town he came from.) The fate of the Phoenicians was also helped to a certain extent by the presence of Ariaramnes, a Persian who was friendly towards the Ionians.
[91] So Xerxes’ men turned to deal with the Phoenicians. Meanwhile the Persian fleet was in full flight towards Phalerum, but the Aeginetans were waiting for them in the straits and won a notable victory. The Athenians were in the thick of the battle, destroying ships whether they were offering resistance or merely trying to escape, and the Aeginetans were doing the same to any ships that tried to make it through the straits. If a Persian ship managed to escape the Athenians, it sailed right into the middle of the Aeginetans.
[92] At this juncture there was an encounter between Themistocles’ ship, which was in pursuit of an enemy vessel, and the ship commanded by an Aeginetan called Polycritus the son of Crius. Polycritus’ trireme had rammed a Sidonian ship—in fact, the very Sidonian vessel that had captured the Aeginetan advance-guard ship off Sciathos, on board which was Pytheas the son of Ischenoüs, who had so impressed the Persians with his courage that after hacking him to pieces they kept him on their ship. So the capture of the Sidonian ship and its Persian crew who had been travelling around with Pytheas on board meant that Pytheas got back safe and sound to Aegina! Anyway, when Polycritus saw the Attic ship, he recognized by its insignia that it was the flagship, and he called out to Themistocles, taunting him with the fact that the Aeginetans were supposed to have collaborated with the enemy. So he used his ship to ram an enemy vessel, and then hurled this mocking reminder at Themistocles. The crews of the Persian ships which survived the withdrawal reached Phalerum under the protection of their land forces.
[93] Acclaimed with the highest honours in this battle were the Aeginetans, followed by the Athenians; particular individuals who earned names for themselves were Polycritus of Aegina and, from Athens, Eumenes of Anagyrus and Ameinias of Pallene. Ameinias was also the one who had chased Artemisia. If he had realized that Artemisia was on board, he would not have stopped until he had either captured her or been captured himself, not just because all the Athenian captains had orders to that effect, but also because a reward of ten thousand drachmas had been offered for capturing her alive, since the Athenians were furious that a woman was attacking their city. In any case, as I explained earlier, she escaped, and she and the others whose ships survived the battle were now at Phalerum.
[94] According to the Athenians, it was right at the beginning of the battle when Adeimantus, the Corinthian commander, was so overcome by panic that he hoisted his sails and beat a hasty retreat, followed—when they saw their flagship withdrawing—by the rest of the Corinthian contingent. In the course of their retreat they had just reached that part of Salamis where the sanctuary of Athena Sciras stands when they came across a boat which must have been sent by divine providence, because no one has even been found who sent it there, and before the encounter the Corinthians were completely unaware of what was happening with the rest of the fleet. This is what led them to conclude that it was a miracle. When the boat drew near the Corinthian ships the crew called out, ‘You’re betraying the Greeks, Adeimantus, by turning your ships around and running away, but they’re winning just the kind of victory they wanted over the enemy.’ Adeimantus did not believe what they were saying, so they spoke again, this time offering themselves as hostages and saying that Adeimantus could take them along and kill them if he found that the Greeks were not winning the battle. So he turned the whole squadron around again and arrived back at the main fleet only to find that it was all over. This is the rumour spread by the Athenians about the Corinthians, but the Corinthians disagree and say that they were, on the contrary, among the first to join battle, and the rest of Greece backs them up in this claim.
[95] As for Aristides the son of Lysimachus (the Athenian I mentioned a short while ago as being a man of outstanding merit), while the battle was raging off Salamis, he took a number of hoplites from the Athenian contingent which had been posted along the coastline of Salamis and put them ashore on the island of Psyttaleia, where they massacred all the Persians on the island.
[96] When the battle was over, the Greeks pulled ashore on Salamis all the wrecks which had not drifted away and generally got themselves ready for another sea battle, because they did not think that the king had finished: he still had the rest of his fleet. But a westerly wind carried most of the wrecks to Attica, where they ended up on Colias beach. And so every prediction about the battle came true—not only the ones made by Bacis and Musaeus, but also the statement made in an oracle many years previously about the wrecks which came ashore there, and published by Lysistratus, an Athenian oracle-monger. No one in Greece had been able to interpret the prediction, which went like this: ‘The women of Colias will do their roasting with oars.’ But this was still in the future, after Xerxes had marched away.
[97] When Xerxes realized the extent of the disaster that had taken place, he became afraid. What if the Greeks got the idea (or had it suggested to them by one of the Ionians) of sailing to the Hellespont and demolishing his bridges? In that case, he would be trapped in Europe, and would probably be wiped out. And so Xerxes’ thoughts turned to flight. However, he did not want to let either the Greeks or his own troops know what was going through his mind, so he tried to build a causeway across to Salamis, which involved tying Phoenician merchant ships together to act as both a pontoon bridge and a barrier. He also made other military preparations, as if he were going to instigate another sea battle. The sight of all this activity convinced everyone that he had every intention of staying and fighting—everyone except Mardonius, that is, who knew Xerxes’ mind better than anyone and was not deceived.
[98] At the same time, Xerxes also dispatched a messenger to Persia with news of their defeat. There is nothing mortal that is faster than the system the Persians have devised for sending messages. Apparently, they have horses and men posted at intervals along the route, the same number in total as the overall length in days of the journey, with a fresh horse and rider for every day of travel. Whatever the conditions—it may be snowing, raining, blazing hot, or dark—they never fail to complete their assigned journey in the fastest possible time. The first man passes his instructions on to the second, the second to the third, and so on, in the same kind of relay found in Greece in the torch-race which is run during the festival of Hephaestus. The Persian word for this postal system involving horses is angareion.
[99] The first report that reached Susa, that Xerxes had taken Athens, caused the Persians who had stayed at home so much pleasure that they spread myrtle over all the roads, burnt perfumed spices, and spent their time performing sacrificial rites and feasting. However, the arrival of the second message on top of the first so overwhelmed them that they all tore their tunics and gave themselves over to unending weeping and wailing. They blamed Mardonius for the disaster. But these displays of grief by the Persians came not so much from their distress about the fleet as from their fear about Xerxes himself.
[100] From then on, until Xerxes actually got back to Susa and put an end to it, the Persians remained in this state. Meanwhile, Mardonius could see how terribly upset Xerxes was as a result of the sea battle and suspected that he was thinking about running away from Athens. He was also worried about himself; he expected to be punished for having persuaded the king to march on Greece, and he thought it would be better for him to take his chances on either subduing Greece or dying a noble death for great stakes. However, it seemed to him that of these two alternatives the conquest of Greece was the more likely. Having come to these conclusions, then, he put the following proposal to Xerxes. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘don’t let what has happened distress you or upset you; it’s not as bad as all that. After all, this conflict depends, in the final analysis, not on planks of wood, but on men and horses. These Greeks may think that they have already won the ultimate victory, but none of them is going to come ashore from his ship and offer you any resistance, and the same goes for everyone else from this whole continent. Besides, those who did put up some resistance paid for it. So if you think it’s a good idea, let’s attack the Peloponnese straight away. Or if you’d rather wait a while first, we can do that too. But whatever you decide, don’t lose heart, because there is no way out for the Greeks: they are bound to pay for what they’ve done to us just now and for what they did earlier, and they cannot escape becoming our slaves. This is really what you should do. However, if you’ve already decided to withdraw and pull the army back, I’ve got a plan to cover this option too. What you must avoid, my lord, is giving the Greeks the opportunity to mock the Persians. The hurt you have incurred has not been due to the Persians at all; you cannot point to any occasion when we proved ourselves to be cowards. It may be that the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Cyprians, and Cilicians were cowards, but the Persians had nothing to do with this defeat. Since your Persian troops are not to blame, then, here is my advice. If you’ve decided not to stay, by all means take most of the army back to your homeland; but let me pick 300,000 men and I’ll make you the master of Greece.’
[101] These words of Mardonius’ cheered Xerxes up, and he became as happy as anyone could be in such a dire situation. He told Mardonius that he would consult his advisers and then let him know which of the two possible courses of action he would take. He convened a meeting of Persians, and while he was listening to their advice it occurred to him to invite Artemisia along too, to see what she would suggest, because of the earlier occasion on which she had turned out to be the only one with a realistic plan of action. When she came, he dismissed everyone else—his Persian advisers and his personal guards—and said, ‘Mardonius says I should stay here and attack the Peloponnese. He thinks the Persians and the land army in general are not to be held responsible for the defeat I have incurred, and says they would gladly show me what they’re capable of. Alternatively, if I don’t put this plan into effect, he is prepared to pick 300,000 men and enslave Greece for me, while I take the rest of the army and withdraw to my homeland. Now, before the sea battle which has just taken place, you advised me to avoid it, and that was good advice, so I want you now to tell me which of these two courses of action I would be best advised to follow, in your opinion.’
[102] In response to this request for advice, Artemisia said, ‘My lord, it isn’t actually easy for me to say what’s best, but things being as they are I think you should pull back and leave Mardonius here with the troops he’s asking for, since he’s offering to do that of his own free will. My thinking is that if he succeeds in the conquests he says he has set himself and things go as he intends, the achievement is yours, master, because it was your slaves who did it. But if things go wrong for Mardonius, it will be no great disaster as regards your survival and the prosperity of your house. I mean, if you and your house survive, the Greeks will still have to run many a race for their lives. But if anything happens to Mardonius, it doesn’t really matter; besides, if the Greeks win, it won’t be an important victory, because they will only have destroyed one of your slaves. The whole point of this campaign of yours was to burn Athens to the ground; you’ve done that, so now you can leave.’
[103] Xerxes was happy with this advice of hers, since it coincided with his own intentions. But I think he was so frightened that he would not have stayed even if every man and every woman had told him to. So he complimented Artemisia on her advice and gave her the job of taking his children to Ephesus (some illegitimate children of his had come along on the expedition).
[104] The man he sent along to look after these children of his, Hermotimus, came from Pedasa and was his most highly prized eunuch.†
[105] No one we know of has ever exacted a more total retribution for a wrong done to him than Hermotimus. He was taken prisoner in a war, put up for sale, and bought by a man from Chios called Panionius. Now, Panionius made a living in the most atrocious way imaginable. What he used to do was acquire good-looking boys, castrate them, and take them to Sardis and Ephesus, where he would offer them for sale at very high prices; in foreign countries eunuchs command higher prices than whole men on account of their complete reliability. One of Panionius’ victims—one among a great many, because this was the way he made a living—was Hermotimus. In fact, however, Hermotimus’ luck was not all bad: he was sent from Sardis to Xerxes’ court as one of a number of gifts, and eventually became the king’s most valued eunuch.
[106] Now, when Xerxes was in Sardis, in the course of setting out with his army against Athens, Hermotimus went down on some business or other to the part of Mysia called Atarneus, where people from Chios live, and he met Panionius there. He entered into a long, friendly conversation with him, first listing all the benefits that had come his way thanks to Panionius, and then offering to do as much good to him in return; all he had to do, he said, was move his family to Atarneus and live there. Panionius gladly accepted Hermotimus’ offer and moved his wife and children there. So when Hermotimus had Panionius and his whole family where he wanted, he said, ‘Panionius, there is no one in the world who makes a living in as foul a way as you do. What harm did I or any of my family do to you or any of yours? Why did you make me a nothing instead of a man? You expected the gods not to notice what you used to do in those days, but the law they follow is one of justice, and for your crimes they have delivered you into my hands. As a result, then, you should have no grounds for complaint about the payment I am going to exact from you.’ When he had finished this rebuke, he had Panionius’ sons brought into the room and proceeded to force him to castrate all four of them. The deed was done, under compulsion, and afterwards Hermotimus forced the sons to castrate their father. And that is how vengeance and Hermotimus caught up with Panionius.
[107] Once Xerxes had entrusted Artemisia with the job of taking his sons to Ephesus, he summoned Mardonius and told him to take his pick of men from the army, and to do everything he could to make sure his actions matched his words. That was as far as things went that day, but during the night, acting under instructions from Xerxes, the commanders began the voyage back from Phalerum to the Hellespont. Each of them made as much speed as he could, with the object of bringing his ships back to guard the pontoon bridge for the king’s return journey. At one point in the course of the voyage, the Persian fleet found itself near Zoster. Now, there is a series of small promontories there, jutting out into the sea; the Persians mistook these rocks for ships and fled a considerable distance. It was only when they finally realized that they were rocks and not ships that they re-assembled and continued on their way.
[108] The next day the Greeks saw that the land army had remained in place and assumed that the fleet too was still at Phalerum, so they prepared to defend themselves in the sea battle they anticipated. As soon as they found out that the fleet had left, they decided to set out in pursuit, but by the time they were off Andros they still had not caught sight of the Persians. They put in at Andros and talked things over. Themistocles expressed the view that they should make their way through the Aegean islands after the Persian fleet and head straight for the Hellespont in order to try to demolish the bridges. Eurybiades, however, was in favour of the opposite plan. He argued that demolishing the bridges would be the worst possible thing to do for Greece. His reasoning was that if Xerxes was trapped in Europe and forced to stay there, he would go on the rampage for all he was worth, since inactivity would not further his plans, and would also not help him find a way back home; at the same time, his men would start dying of hunger. But if he put his mind to it and applied himself to the task, the whole of Europe could fall to him, city by city and people by people, as they were either defeated by him or came to terms with him in order to avoid defeat, and then the Persians would be able to live off the Greeks’ annual crops. In fact, Eurybiades went on, he considered it unlikely that Xerxes would stay in Europe now that he had been defeated at sea. It therefore followed that they should let him escape all the way back to his homeland. And from then on, he told them, it would be Xerxes’ country that was at risk. The commanders of the rest of the Peloponnesian forces agreed with Eurybiades’ point of view.
[109] The Athenians were particularly annoyed by the Persians’ escape and were perfectly prepared to sail to the Hellespont on their own if the others refused to join them, so when Themistocles realized that he was not going to persuade a majority of the commanders to go to the Hellespont, he changed tack and addressed the Athenians. ‘Eurybiades is right,’ he said. ‘In cases I’ve seen and even more I’ve heard about, cornered men fight back after a defeat, and even make amends for their earlier cowardice. Now, we Athenians and the whole of Greece have already benefited from our luck in repelling such an immense swarm of men; they have already taken to their heels, so why should we go after them? In any case, it was not we who accomplished this, but the gods and heroes, who did not want to see a single man ruling both Asia and Europe—and a man who commits terrible atrocities too. A man who does not distinguish between sacred and profane things, but burns and topples the statues of the gods; a man who even thrashed the sea and sank shackles into it. Under the present circumstances let us stay in Greece now and take care of ourselves and our families. The foreign invader has been pushed back right beyond our borders, so now is the time for rebuilding homes and for sowing our fields. Spring will be the time for us to sail for the Hellespont and Ionia.’ His reason for saying this was to earn credit with Xerxes, so that if he ever got into trouble with the Athenians, he would have somewhere to turn to. And in fact this is exactly what happened.
[110] The Athenians were won over by Themistocles’ disingenuous speech. He already had a reputation as a man of some ability, but now that his competence had been demonstrated beyond a doubt, and his advice had been proved sound, they were ready to do anything he said. As soon as they had been won over, Themistocles sent off in a boat some men whose silence he knew he could rely on; even if they were being tortured to death, they would not reveal the contents of the message he was sending to the king. His house-slave Sicinnus was again one of this group. When they reached Attica, Sicinnus went ashore and met with Xerxes while the rest of them stayed on the boat. ‘I am here’, Sicinnus told Xerxes, ‘on a mission from Themistocles the son of Neocles, the commander of the Athenian forces, and the bravest and ablest man in the Greek army. Here is my message: Themistocles of Athens, wishing to do you a favour, has stopped the Greeks from carrying out their plan of pursuing your fleet and demolishing the bridges over the Hellespont. You can now make your way home in peace.’
[111] Once the message had been delivered, Themistocles’ men returned. Now that the Greeks had decided against following the Persian fleet any further or sailing to the Hellespont to dismantle the causeway, they proceeded to besiege the town of Andros with the intention of taking it. For Themistocles had asked the Aegean islanders to provide financial support, and had started with the Andrians, but they refused. The argument Themistocles put forward to the Andrians was that the Athenians had come with two great gods in their train called Persuasion and Compulsion, and so they had really better give them some money. The Andrians replied to this by saying: ‘Of course Athens is so important and prosperous, seeing that she is so well endowed with useful gods. However, there is no one on earth who is worse off for land than we are on Andros, and we have two cruel gods here, who never leave our island but are our constant and loyal companions. These gods are Poverty and Insufficiency, and since they are the gods we possess, we will not give you any money. However strong the might of Athens, it will never be stronger than Andrian impotence.’ This was their reply to Themistocles. And so, because they refused to give any money, they found themselves besieged.
[112] This did not put an end to Themistocles’ greed, however, and, using the same messengers as he had for Xerxes, he sent threatening demands for money to the other islands. If they did not give him what he was asking for, he said, he would bring the Greek army against them and blockade them into submission. This message enabled him to collect a great deal of money from the Carystians and Parians, because they found out that Andros was under siege for having collaborated with the Persians and that Themistocles’ standing among the Greek commanders was particularly high, and this scared them into sending money. I am not in a position to say for certain whether or not any of the other islands made a contribution, but I think some of them did and not only the Carystians and Parians. Nevertheless, the Carystians, at any rate, did not win any postponement of their troubles by this means, although the Parians managed to bribe Themistocles to keep the Greek forces away from their island. And so, from his base on Andros, Themistocles was extorting money from the Aegean islanders without the rest of the Greek commanders knowing about it.
[113] Xerxes and the land army let a few days pass after the sea battle before retracing their steps back into Boeotia. The whole land army was involved, because Mardonius had decided to escort the king on his way; given that it was not the right time of the year for warfare, he also thought it would be better to establish winter quarters in Thessaly and then to attack the Peloponnese at the beginning of spring. After they had reached Thessaly, Mardonius chose his men. He first picked all the Persians known as the Immortals, with the exception of their commander Hydarnes, who refused to be separated from the king. Next, from the remaining Persian troops he chose the ones with heavy armour and the 1,000-strong troop of horsemen, and then he picked all the infantry and cavalry the Medes, Sacae, Bactrians, and Indians had supplied. He chose every man from these peoples indiscriminately, but he took only a few at a time from the other allied contingents, making either stature or proven worth the basis of his selection. The largest contingent in his élite force was made up of Persians—men who wear necklaces and arm-bands—and then there were the Medes, who did not fall short of the Persians in terms of quantity, but lacked their strength. Counting the horsemen, the whole army consisted of 300,000 men.
[114] While Mardonius was selecting his army and Xerxes was in Thessaly, an oracle reached the Lacedaemonians from Delphi, telling them to demand compensation from Xerxes for the murder of Leonidas and to accept whatever he offered. The Spartiates sent a herald straight away, and he caught up with the Persian army in Thessaly. He came before Xerxes and addressed him as follows: ‘King of Persia, the Lacedaemonians and the Heraclidae of Sparta demand compensation from you for the murder of their king who died defending Greece.’ Xerxes burst out laughing and then, after a long pause, he pointed to Mardonius, who happened to be standing by his side, and said, ‘All right, then, here’s Mardonius. He’ll pay them what they deserve.’
[115] The Lacedaemonian herald accepted this reply and left. Xerxes left Mardonius in Thessaly, made his way at some speed towards the Hellespont, and reached the bridge forty-five days later, with what can without exaggeration be described as an insignificant fraction of his army. On their way from Thessaly to the Hellespont, wherever they went and whatever people they encountered, they stole and ate their crops. If there were no crops to be had, they ate grass and herbs they found growing in the ground, and bark and leaves they peeled or pulled off both wild trees and cultivated ones. They were so hungry that they left nothing untried. Moreover, they were ravaged by disease, and men were dying of dysentery throughout the journey. Xerxes also left sick troops in the care and maintenance of whichever community they had reached at that particular point of the march; this happened in Thessaly, in Macedonia, and at Siris in Paeonia.† On his way back, he failed to get back the sacred chariot of Zeus from Siris; in the course of marching on Greece, he had left the chariot and horses there, but the Paeonians had handed them over to the Thracians, so when he asked for them back, they told him that the horses had been stolen while at pasture by some Thracians from the interior, near the source of the Strymon.
[116] This was also the point at which the king of Bisaltia and Crestonia, who was a Thracian, did something particularly inhuman. He had refused to surrender his freedom voluntarily to Xerxes, preferring to take refuge on Mount Rhodope, and he had forbidden his sons from marching against Greece either, but they had paid no attention, or perhaps they just wanted to see the war, and had joined Xerxes’ expedition. All six of them returned without a scratch from the war, but their father made them pay for their crime by gouging out their eyes.
[117] Meanwhile, the Persians left Thrace and made their way to the bridge. When they got there, they crossed the Hellespont over the ships to Abydus as quickly as possible, because they found that the pontoon bridge had been shaken loose by a storm. During their time at Abydus there was more food available than there had been on the road, but their undisciplined gorging and the change of water caused further deaths in the already reduced army. The remainder went on to Sardis with Xerxes.
[118] Another story about Xerxes’ retreat from Athens claims that from Eïon on the Strymon onwards he gave up travelling by land; instead he made Hydarnes responsible for getting the army to the Hellespont, while he himself made his way to Asia on board a Phoenician ship. The story goes that in the course of the voyage a strong wind—the Strymonian wind—arose and whipped up the sea. The ship was overladen with all the Persians who were travelling with Xerxes on its deck, and the danger from the storm was increasing. Xerxes was overcome by fear and called out to the helmsman to ask what their chances were of surviving. ‘None at all, master,’ the helmsman replied, ‘unless we get rid of this crowd of passengers.’
On hearing this, the story continues, Xerxes addressed his men. ‘My life is in your hands, it seems, gentlemen of Persia,’ he said. ‘Now you have an opportunity to show how much you care for the safety of your king.’ In response to his words the men prostrated themselves before him and then jumped into the sea. The ship, now lightened, reached Asia safely. As soon as he went ashore, Xerxes gave a garland of gold to the helmsman, for saving the king’s life—and then cut off his head for causing the deaths of so many Persians!
[119] The whole of this alternative version of Xerxes’ return seems to me to be suspect, with its most unbelievable aspect being what happened to the Persians. If the helmsman really had told Xerxes what he is supposed to have said, I do not think even one person in ten thousand would doubt that the king would have sent the passengers—who were, after all, not just Persians, but the leading lights of Persian society—down into the ship’s hold from the deck, while he cast an equal number of the oarsmen, who were merely Phoenicians, overboard into the sea. But my earlier description of his journey was the true one: he returned home to Asia by road along with the rest of the army.
[120] There is substantial evidence to support this, since it was evidently during his return journey that Xerxes stopped in Abdera and made a pact of friendship with them, sealing the agreement with gifts of a golden akinakes and a tiara shot through with gold. (The Abderans add the feature, which personally I do not believe in the slightest, that it was only when Xerxes reached Abdera that he felt safe enough for the first time since retreating from Athens to undo his belt.) Abdera is closer to the Hellespont than the Strymon and Eïon, which is where he is supposed to have taken ship.
[121] Once the Greeks had found it impossible to take Andros, they turned their attention to Carystus, where they laid waste to the land before leaving and returning to Salamis. First they set aside victory-offerings for the gods, including three Phoenician triremes, one of which they dedicated at the Isthmus (where it remained till my day), and another at Sunium, while the third was dedicated on Salamis itself to Ajax. Then they divided up the spoils and sent their victory-offerings to Delphi, which paid for a statue, twelve cubits tall, with the beak of a ship in its hand; this statue is situated in the same place as the golden statue of Alexander the Macedonian.
[122] The Greeks next jointly asked the god whether the victory-offerings they had sent him at Delphi were sufficient and met with his approval. He replied that he was satisfied with what the rest of the Greeks had given, but not with the Aeginetan contribution; he required from them the prize they had won for valour at the battle of Salamis. On hearing this response, the Aeginetans dedicated three golden stars which are fixed on to a bronze mast which occupies a corner very near the bowl dedicated by Croesus.
[123] Next, after dividing the spoils, the Greek fleet set sail for the Isthmus where they planned to award a prize for valour to the Greek whose conduct throughout the war had proved that he was best qualified to receive it. On arriving at the Isthmus, the commanders cast their votes on the altar of Poseidon. Each of them had to make a first and second choice from among their number. Every single one of them judged himself to have been the bravest and voted for himself, but Themistocles won a majority of the second votes. So while they each won at least a single vote, Themistocles was the clear winner of the second round.
[124] Out of envy, the Greeks refused to come to a decision, and they dispersed back to their various homelands without having awarded the prize. Nevertheless, the name of Themistocles was on everyone’s lips and throughout the land he acquired the reputation of being by far the most competent man in Greece. But since no reward was forthcoming, despite his having won the vote, from the Greeks who fought at Salamis, he immediately went to Lacedaemon in the hope of finding recognition there. And in fact the Lacedaemonians did make him very welcome, and heaped honours upon him. It is true that they gave the olive-wreath prize for valour to Eurybiades, but they also gave an olive wreath to Themistocles, in recognition of his skill and ingenuity. They also presented him with the most handsome chariot in Sparta. They praised him highly, and when he left they gave him as an escort a unit of three hundred élite Spartiate troops—the Knights, as they are known—who accompanied him as far as the border with Tegea. No one else, as far as we know, has ever had a Spartiate escort.
[125] When he got back to Athens from Lacedaemon, a man called Timodemus of Aphidnae, whose only claim to fame was his hostility towards Themistocles, was so insanely jealous that he picked a quarrel with him, criticizing his visit to Lacedaemon and saying that it was thanks to Athens, not to his own merits, that he had been honoured by the Lacedaemonians. Timodemus kept on and on at him in this vein, until Themistocles replied, ‘It’s true that if I came from Belbina the Spartiates wouldn’t have honoured me as they did, but they wouldn’t have honoured you, my friend, even though you come from Athens!’ And that was the end of that.
[126] Artabazus the son of Pharnaces (who was already highly thought of by the Persians before the business at Plataea, which enhanced his reputation even more) escorted the king as far as the bridge with sixty thousand men from Mardonius’ picked army. Once the king was in Asia, he started back. On the way, when he reached Pallene, he found the people of Potidaea in revolt; they and the rest of the inhabitants of Pallene had come out in open revolt against the invaders as soon as Xerxes’ army had passed by on its retreat from Greece and after the flight of the Persian fleet from Salamis. So under these circumstances, and since he was not yet in any hurry to meet up with the rest of the army, which was wintering with Mardonius in Thessaly and Macedonia, Artabazus thought it appropriate to reduce the population of Potidaea to slavery.
[127] So Artabazus proceeded to put Potidaea under siege. He also began to besiege Olynthus, which he suspected of joining the rebellion against the king. Some Bottiaeans had taken possession of the town after being driven out of the Gulf of Therma by the Macedonians. After besieging the town into submission, Artabazus took the Bottiaeans to a nearby lake and slaughtered them there. Then he handed the government of the town over to Critobulus of Torone and the Chalcidians—which is how the Chalcidians got Olynthus.
[128] After the capture of Olynthus, Artabazus concentrated on Potidaea, and his determination was rewarded, since Timoxenus, the commander of the troops from Scione, agreed to betray the town to him. I cannot say anything about how their negotiations got started, because there is no record of that, but by the end, whenever one of them wanted to send a letter he had written to the other, he would wrap the letter around the shaft of an arrow, next to the slits for the feathers, cover the letter with the feathers, and then shoot the arrow to a pre-arranged location. Timoxenus’ treachery was found out, however. Artabazus’ shot once missed the prearranged spot and hit a Potidaean man in the shoulder; as is usual in times of war, a crowd of people ran to help the wounded man, and in no time at all, when they had got hold of the arrow, they noticed the letter. They took it to the commanders (the Potidaeans had allies from other communities in Pallene fighting there), who read it and discovered the identity of the traitor. However, for the sake of the town of Scione they decided not to publicize Timoxenus’ guilt, on the grounds that if they did people from Scione would in the future always have the reputation of being traitors.
[129] So that is how Timoxenus was found out. Now, after the siege had been going on for three months, there happened to be a very low tide, and the water stayed out for a long time. When the Persians saw this, they passed through the shallows that had been created towards Pallene, but they were less than half-way across, with more than half their journey still to go before they were on Pallene, when the tide came back up. According to the local inhabitants, it was the biggest tide ever, although there had been plenty of big ones previously. Those of the Persians who did not know how to swim were drowned, while the Potidaeans took to their boats and killed the swimmers. The people of Potidaea attribute the flood-tide and what happened to the Persians to the fact that the Persians who were killed by the sea were precisely the ones who had desecrated the cult statue in the temple of Poseidon on the edge of the town. Personally, I think that this explanation of events is correct. Artabazus took his remaining troops away to Mardonius in Thessaly.
[130] So much for the king’s escort and their subsequent exploits. Once the remnants of Xerxes’ fleet reached the shores of Asia in their flight from Salamis, they ferried the king and his army over from the Chersonese to Abydus, and then wintered at Cyme before assembling at the very beginning of spring at Samos, where some of the ships had spent the winter. Most of the marines on board were Persians and Medes. There they were joined by their commanders, who were Mardontes the son of Bagaeus, Artayntes the son of Artachaees, and, at Artayntes’ request, his nephew Ithamitres. They had been too severely battered to advance further west, not that anyone was requiring them to do so, but they—including the Ionian squadrons, the fleet consisted of three hundred ships—remained at their station off Samos to guard against a possible Ionian revolt. They certainly did not expect the Greeks to come to Ionia. On the basis of the fact that the Greeks had not come after them during their flight from Salamis, but were content to be rid of them, the Persians assumed that they would do no more than protect their own country. The Persians were completely demoralized as far as their prospects at sea were concerned, but they anticipated an easy victory from Mardonius on land. So during their time on Samos they discussed possible ways they might hurt the enemy and also kept their ears open for news of how things would go for Mardonius.
[131] However, the arrival of spring and the presence of Mardonius in Thessaly stirred the Greeks to activity. It was too early for the land army to have mustered, but the fleet of 110 ships went to Aegina. The commander of the fleet, who was also the commander-in-chief of the Greek forces, was Leotychidas the son of Menares. From Menares he traced his ancestry back to Heracles, via Hegesilaus, Hippocratidas, Leotychidas, Anaxilaus, Archidamus, Anaxandridas, Theopompus, Nicander, Charilaus, Eunomus, Polydectes, Prytanis, Euryphon, Procles, Aristodamus, Aristomachus, Cleodaeus, and finally Hyllus, who was the son of Heracles. He was from the second of the two royal houses. All of his ancestors, except for the seven closest to Leotychidas in the list, had been kings of Sparta. The commander of the Athenian forces was Xanthippus the son of Ariphron.
[132] The whole fleet had assembled at Aegina when an Ionian delegation (which had also visited Sparta a little earlier and asked the Lacedaemonians to liberate Ionia) came to the Greek forces there. One of these Ionians was Herodotus the son of Basileïdes. There had originally been seven of them, forming a political cabal with the intention of assassinating Strattis, the tyrant of Chios. But the conspiracy had been found out when one of the members of the group had betrayed the project, and so the remaining six had surreptitiously escaped from Chios and gone to Sparta—and, now, to Aegina. They came to ask the Greeks to sail to Ionia, but they only just managed to get them to go as far as Delos. Everything beyond Delos held terrors for the Greeks; it was unfamiliar territory, and they imagined it all to be filled with armies. As far as they knew, Samos was as distant as the Pillars of Heracles. And so it happened that the Persians were too frightened to venture west of Samos, and despite the pleas of the Chians the Greeks did not dare to sail east of Delos. In this way, fear held the middle ground between them.
[133] So the Greeks sailed to Delos, and Mardonius spent the winter in Thessaly. While he was based there, he sent a man from Europus called Mys around the oracles, with instructions to go everywhere and consult all the oracles he could, to see what answers they gave him. What he hoped to learn from the oracles when he gave these instructions I cannot say for certain, since it is not reported, but I think that the mission can only have been concerned with the matter at hand.
[134] It appears that this Mys went to Lebadeia (where he paid a local man to go down into Trophonius’ cave) and to the oracle at Abae in Phocis. But the first place he visited was Thebes. He not only consulted the oracle of Ismenian Apollo there (where the same method of consultation by means of entrails is used as at Olympia), but also paid someone—a stranger, not a Theban—to go and sleep in the sanctuary of Amphiaraus. No Theban is allowed to consult the oracle there, because Amphiaraus once told them through his prophecies that they had to choose one of two options: they could have him either exclusively as an oracle or exclusively as an ally. They chose to have him as an ally, and that is why no one from Thebes is allowed to sleep in his sanctuary there.
[135] Anyway, back to the story of Mys, the man from Europus. According to the Thebans, something happened which I find very odd. Among all the various oracular sites he visited here and there was the precinct of Apollo of Ptoüs. This shrine, called the Ptoüm, lies within Theban-controlled territory, on a hill overlooking Lake Copaïs, very close to the town of Acraephia. On his visit to the Ptoüm the man called Mys was accompanied by three Thebans, who had been delegated by the Theban authorities to write down the oracle’s statement. Suddenly, the oracle’s prophet began to speak in a foreign language! The Thebans who had come with Mys were astonished to hear a foreign language instead of Greek, and they did not know what to make of it, but Mys of Europus snatched the writing-tablet they had brought from their hands and began to write down on it the prophet’s words, explaining that he was speaking Carian. Then Mys went back to Thessaly.
[136] After Mardonius had read all the various oracles’ statements, he sent a Macedonian, Alexander the son of Amyntas, off to Athens with a message. One reason he chose Alexander for this mission was because Alexander had family ties with Persia, since his sister Gygaea, the daughter of Amyntas, was married to a Persian called Bubares; their son, Amyntas of Asia (he had the same name as his maternal grandfather), received from Xerxes an important Phrygian city called Alabanda as his own domain. Another reason Mardonius chose Alexander was because he knew that Alexander was Athens’ diplomatic representative and an officially recognized benefactor of the city. So he considered Alexander his best bet for winning over the Athenians, which he wanted to do because he had apparently heard that they were a populous and warlike race, and he was aware that the defeat the Persians had met with at sea was due mainly to them. With the Athenians on his side, Mardonius was sure—an entirely justified confidence—that he would have no difficulty in gaining control of the sea, while he already had a considerable advantage on land, as far as he could see. So this was his plan for overcoming the Greeks. It may well be that the oracles he had consulted had made a prediction along these lines, and had recommended seeking an alliance with Athens, so that he was following their advice in sending Alexander off on his mission.
[137] Now, Alexander was a seventh-generation descendant of Perdiccas, who had gained the kingdom of Macedonia in the following way. There were once three brothers descended from Temenus—Gauanes, Aëropus, and Perdiccas—who were banished from Argos and went to live in Illyria. They crossed over the border from Illyria to inland Macedonia and came to the town of Lebaea, where they hired themselves out as labourers to the king; one of them was a horseherd, another a cowherd, while the youngest brother, Perdiccas, looked after the sheep and goats. Now, in the old days, it was not just the common people who were poor, but the rulers too. The three brothers’ food was actually cooked by the king’s wife, and every loaf of bread she baked for the young workman Perdiccas grew to twice its normal size. This happened every time, and eventually she told her husband about it. As soon as he heard the news, it occurred to him that this was an important and meaningful omen, so he summoned the labourers and told them to leave his land. They agreed to do so, once they were paid the wages they were owed. Now, the sun was pouring into the house through the smoke-hole, and when the king heard them mention wages, he pointed to the sunlight and said in his delusion, ‘There are your wages. That’s all you deserve.’ The two elder brothers, Gauanes and Aëropus, just stood there in amazement at his words, but the boy said, ‘My lord, we accept your gift.’ He traced the circle of sunlight on the floor of the house with a knife that he happened to have on him, scooped the sunlight three times into his lap, and then left with his brothers.
[138] After they had gone, one of the king’s advisers explained the meaning of what the boy had done and argued that, despite being the youngest of the three brothers, he had known perfectly well what he was doing in accepting the king’s gift. On hearing this, the king angrily sent horsemen after the three brothers to kill them. Now, there is a river thereabouts which the descendants of these men from Argos regard as a saviour and at which they perform sacrificial rites, because no sooner had the three Temenidae crossed it than it became too deep and strong for the horsemen to cross. So the brothers came to another part of Macedonia, where they settled near the place known as the Garden of Midas the son of Gordias, where wild roses grow and every single bush bears sixty blooms, with the sweetest scent of any flowers anywhere. This is the garden where, the Macedonians say, Silenus was caught; it lies at the foot of Mount Bermium, which is impassable in winter. Once they had gained control of this district, the three brothers expanded from there until they had conquered the rest of Macedonia too.
[139] The line of descent from this Perdiccas to Alexander was as follows: Alexander was the son of Amyntas, Amyntas of Alcetes, Alcetes of Aëropus, Aëropus of Philippus, and Philippus of Argaeus, whose father was Perdiccas, who gained the kingdom of Macedonia.
[140] This is the lineage of Alexander the son of Amyntas. When he reached Athens on his mission from Mardonius, he delivered the following speech: ‘Men of Athens, here are the words of Mardonius: “I have received the following message from King Xerxes: ‘I hereby grant the Athenians an amnesty from all the wrongs they have done me. Now, Mardonius, here is what you must do: return their land to them, but also let them add to it. Let them choose any extra territory they want—and let them have self-government. Moreover, if they are prepared to accept my terms, I want you to see to the rebuilding of all the sanctuaries of theirs I burnt down.’
‘“This is the order which arrived, and I must obey it, unless you prevent me. I must ask you: why are you currently resisting the king? Are you insane? You can’t defeat him and you won’t be able to hold out for ever either. You know how large an army he has, and you know how much it has achieved. You are also aware of the forces at my disposal. What this means is that even if you overcome and defeat us—which is entirely unlikely, as you will appreciate if you have any sense—another far larger force will appear. You are no match for the king, and you should not think you are, when that means you must lose your country and be on the run for the rest of your lives. No, make peace with us instead. You can do so on very favourable terms, because the king is already inclined in that direction. Be free, by making a treaty with us, without treachery and deceit, and joining our military alliance.”
‘So much for the message Mardonius instructed me to deliver,’ Alexander went on. ‘Now, I’m not going to mention my goodwill towards Athens, because it would not be the first time that it has come to your attention, but I do beg you to do as Mardonius suggests. If I thought you had the ability to keep fighting Xerxes for ever, I’d never have come to you with these words; but I can’t see that it’s a realistic possibility. The king has incredible power at his command and a very long reach. If you don’t enter into an agreement with the Persians now, with favourable terms on offer as the conditions under which they are prepared to do so, I fear for your future. After all, you have the most vulnerable country in the Greek alliance: you live right on the main route, you’re always the only ones to suffer in defeat, and the terrain you occupy could have been specially designed as a battlefield. So please don’t refuse this offer. It is worth a great deal to you that you are the only people in Greece whose wrongs the Great King is prepared to forgive and with whom he wants to be on good terms.’
[141] This was Alexander’s speech to the Athenians. The Lacedaemonians had heard that Alexander had gone to Athens with the intention of inducing them to come to terms with Xerxes, and they remembered that there were oracles to the effect that they and the Dorian people as a whole would be expelled from the Peloponnese by a combined force of Persians and Athenians, so they were terrified at the prospect of the Athenians entering into an agreement with the Persians, and they decided to send a delegation to Athens straight away. Now, it so happened that the Lacedaemonian messengers’ appointment coincided with that of Alexander, because the Athenians had slowed the proceedings down and procrastinated. They were sure that the Lacedaemonians would hear that a messenger had come from the Persians with a treaty in mind and that once they found out they would waste no time in sending messengers, so they delayed things on purpose, so that the Lacedaemonians could hear what they had to say.
[142] After Alexander had finished speaking, it was the turn of the messengers from Sparta. ‘The Lacedaemonians sent us’, they said, ‘to ask you not to do anything that might harm Greece and not to listen with approval to the words of the Persian king. There are many reasons why it would be particularly wrong and inappropriate for you to do so—not that there is anything that would make it right for any other Greek state either. But it was you who started this war, while it was the last thing we wanted, and right from the start it was your land that was at stake, even if now the whole of Greece is involved. Besides, it would be intolerable for Athens to be responsible for enslaving the rest of the Greeks, when in the past you have always been known to free others from slavery. However, we do sympathize with your difficulties: you have lost two harvests already and your finances have been ruined for a long time now. To compensate for this, the Lacedaemonians and their allies are prepared to maintain your womenfolk and all the members of your households who do not contribute to the war for as long as this war lasts. Don’t let Alexander of Macedonia’s smooth presentation of Mardonius’ offer win you over. He was bound to act as he did: he is a despot, and despots support one another. But you do not have to follow his example, and if you have any sense, you won’t, because, as you know, these foreigners are completely unreliable and dishonest.’ That was what the messengers said.
[143] The Athenians replied to Alexander as follows: ‘In actual fact, we were already aware of the disparity between the resources at our disposal and Xerxes’ enormous power, so there was no need for your pointed reminder. Nevertheless, we are so focused on freedom that we will fight for it however we can. Don’t try to persuade us to come to terms with Persia; we are not going to do so. Go and take this message from the Athenians to Mardonius: as long as the sun keeps to its present course, we will never come to terms with Xerxes. On the contrary, we will take to the field and fight against him, confident of the support of the gods and heroes for whom he felt such utter contempt that he burnt their homes and statues. If you ever come to Athens in the future, make sure that you come without this kind of proposal; never disguise an inducement to commit sacrilege as an offer of a favour. We wouldn’t like to see you come to any harm at the hands of the Athenians, when you are their representative and friend.’
[144] This was the Athenian reply to Alexander. To the messengers from Sparta they spoke as follows: ‘It may have been natural for you to worry in case we came to terms with Xerxes, but we still think your fear reflects badly on you, because you are perfectly well aware of the Athenian temperament. You should have known that there isn’t enough gold on earth, or any land of such outstanding beauty and fertility, that we would accept it in return for collaborating with the enemy and enslaving Greece. Even if we were inclined to do so, there are plenty of important obstacles in the way. First and foremost, there is the burning and destruction of the statues and homes of our gods; rather than entering into a treaty with the perpetrator of these deeds, we are duty-bound to do our utmost to avenge them. Then again, there is the fact that we are all Greeks—one race speaking one language, with temples to the gods and religious rites in common, and with a common way of life. It would not be good for Athens to betray all this shared heritage. So if you didn’t know it before, we can assure you that so long as even a single Athenian remains alive, we will never come to terms with Xerxes. However, we would like to thank you for your thoughtful offer to look after our families during our time of economic ruin. Your kindness leaves nothing to be desired, but we’ll find some way to hold out, without troubling you. So there we are, then; what you must do now is get an army in the field as quickly as possible. It looks as though it won’t be long before the Persian comes and invades our country; he’ll do so just as soon as he receives our message and finds out that we are turning him down flat. It would be a good idea for us† to have an army in Boeotia to pre-empt his attempt to invade Attica.’ After listening to the Athenian reply, the messengers returned to Sparta.