XIX. THERMOPYLÆ…

XIX. THERMOPYLÆ

Everything among the Spartans conduced to plant in their hearts the most heroic courage, by the remembrance of their ancestors, whose principles and sentiments were the spur to the noblest actions. The lowest Spartans were exalted to a level with their greatest chiefs by a glorious death; their memory was renewed by the most solemn offering to the latest posterity, and their images were placed next to those of the gods.--Adapted from BONNY.

THE FAMOUS STORY AS TOLD BY HERODOTUS

[Sidenote: [480 B.C.]]

Xerxes encamped in Trachinia at Melis; the Greeks, in the straits. These straits the Greeks in general call Thermopylæ; the people of the country Pylæ only. Here then were the two armies stationed, Xerxes occupying all the northern region as far as Trachinia, the Greeks that of the south. The Grecian army, which here waited the approach of the Persian, was composed of three hundred Spartans in complete armour; five hundred Tegeatæ, and as many Mantineans; one hundred and twenty men from Orchomenos of Arcadia, a thousand men from the rest of Arcadia, four hundred Corinthians, two hundred from Phlius, and eighty from Mycenæ. The above came from the Peloponnesus: from Bœotia there were seven hundred Thespians and four hundred Thebans.

In addition to the above, the aid of all the Opuntian Locrians had been solicited, together with a thousand Phocians. To obtain the assistance of these the Greeks had previously sent emissaries among them, saying, that they were the forerunners only of another and more numerous body, whose arrival was every day expected. They added, that the defence of the sea was confided to the people of Athens and Ægina, in conjunction with the rest of the fleet; that there was no occasion for alarm, as the invader of Greece was not a god, but a mere human being; that there never was nor could be any mortal superior to the vicissitudes of fortune; that the most exalted characters were exposed to the greatest evils; he therefore, a mortal, now advancing to attack them, would suffer for his temerity. These arguments proved effectual, and they accordingly marched to Trachis to join their allies.

Leonidas and His Allies

These troops were commanded by different officers of their respective countries: but the man most regarded, and entrusted with the chief command, was Leonidas of Sparta. His ancestors were traced back to Hercules. An accident had placed him on the throne of Sparta; for, as he had two brothers older than himself, Cleomenes and Dorieus, he had entertained no thoughts of the government; but Cleomenes dying without male issue, and Dorieus not surviving (for he ended his days in Sicily) the crown came to Leonidas, who was older than Cleombrotus, the youngest of the sons of Anaxandrides, and who had married the daughter of Cleomenes. On the present occasion he took with him to Thermopylæ a body of three hundred chosen men, all of whom had children. To these he added the Theban troops who were conducted by Leontiades, son of Eurymachus.[26] Leonidas had selected the Thebans to accompany him, because a suspicion generally prevailed that they were secretly attached to the Medes. These therefore he summoned to attend him, to ascertain whether they would actually contribute their aid, or openly withdraw themselves from the Grecian league. With hostile sentiments they nevertheless sent the assistance required.[27]

The march of this body under Leonidas was accelerated by the Spartans, that their example might stimulate their allies to action, and that they might not make their delay a pretence for going over to the Medes. The celebration of the Carnean festival[28] protracted the march of their main body; but it was their intention to follow with all imaginable expedition, leaving only a small detachment for the defence of Sparta. The rest of the allies were actuated by similar motives, for the Olympic games happened to recur at this period; and as they did not expect an engagement would immediately take place at Thermopylæ, they sent only a detachment before them.

Such were the motives of the confederate body. The Greeks who were already assembled at Thermopylæ were seized with so much terror on the approach of the Persians that they consulted about a retreat. Those of the Peloponnesus were in general of opinion that they should return and guard the isthmus; but as the Phocians and Locrians were exceedingly averse to this measure, Leonidas prevailed on them to continue on their post. He resolved however to send messengers round to all the states, requiring supplies, stating that their number was much too small to oppose the Medes with any effect.

Whilst they thus deliberated, Xerxes sent a horseman to examine their number and their motions. He had before heard, in Thessaly, that a small band was collected at this passage, that they were led by Lacedæmonians, and by Leonidas of the race of Hercules. The person employed performed his duty: all those who were without the entrenchment he was able to reconnoitre; those who were within for the purpose of defending it, eluded his observation. The Lacedæmonians were at that period stationed without; of these some were performing gymnastic exercises, whilst others were employed in combing their hair. He was greatly astonished, but he leisurely surveyed their number and employments, and returned without molestation, for they despised him too much to pursue him. He related to Xerxes all that he had seen.

Xerxes, on hearing the above, was little aware of what was really the case, that this people were preparing themselves either to conquer or to die. The thing appeared to him so ridiculous, that he sent for Demaratus the son of Ariston, who was then with the army. On his appearing, the king questioned him on this behaviour of the Spartans, expressing his desire to know what it might intimate. “I have before, Sir,” said Demaratus, “spoken to you of this people, at the commencement of this expedition; and as I remember, when I related to you what I knew you would have occasion to observe, you treated me with contempt. I am conscious of the danger of declaring the truth, in opposition to your prejudices; but I will nevertheless do so. It is the determination of these men to dispute this pass with us, and they are preparing themselves accordingly. It is their custom before any enterprise of danger to adorn their hair. Of this you may be assured, that if you vanquish these, and their countrymen in Sparta, no other nation will presume to take up arms against you: you are now advancing to attack a people whose realms and city are the fairest, and whose troops are the bravest of Greece.” These words seemed to Xerxes preposterous enough; but he demanded a second time, how so small a number could contend with his army. “Sir,” said Demaratus, “I will submit to suffer the punishment of falsehood, if what I say does not happen.”

Xerxes Assails the Pass

Xerxes was still incredulous; he accordingly kept his position without any movement for four days, in expectation of seeing them retreat. On the fifth day, observing that they continued on their post, merely as he supposed from the most impudent rashness, he became much exasperated, and sent against them a detachment of Medes and Cissians, with a command to bring them alive to his presence. The Medes in consequence attacked them, and lost a considerable number. A reinforcement arrived; but though the onset was severe, no impression was made. It now became universally conspicuous, and no less so to the king himself, that he had many troops, but few men.[29] The above engagement continued all day.

The Medes, after being very roughly treated, retired, and were succeeded by the band of Persians called by the king “the Immortal,” and commanded by Hydarnes. These it was supposed would succeed without the smallest difficulty. They commenced the attack, but made no greater impression than the Medes: their superior numbers were of no advantage, on account of the narrowness of the place; and their spears also were shorter than those of the Greeks. The Lacedæmonians fought in a manner which deserves to be recorded; their own excellent discipline, and the unskilfulness of their adversaries, were in many instances remarkable, and not the least so when in close ranks they affected to retreat. The barbarians seeing them retire, pursued them with a great and clamorous shout; but on their near approach the Greeks faced about to receive them. The loss of the Persians was prodigious, and a few also of the Spartans fell. The Persians, after successive efforts made with great bodies of their troops to gain the pass, were unable to accomplish it and obliged to retire.

It is said of Xerxes himself that, being a spectator of the contest, he was so greatly alarmed for the safety of his men, that he leaped thrice from his throne. On the following day, the barbarians succeeded no better than before. They went to the onset as against a contemptible number, whose wounds they supposed would hardly permit them to renew the combat: but the Greeks, drawn up in regular divisions, fought each nation on its respective post, except the Phocians, who were stationed on the summit of the mountain to defend the pass. The Persians, experiencing a repetition of the same treatment, a second time retired.

The Treachery of Ephialtes

Whilst the king was exceedingly perplexed what conduct to pursue in the present emergence, Ephialtes, the son of Eurydemus, a Malian, demanded an audience: he expected to receive some great recompense for showing him the path which led over the mountain to Thermopylæ: and he indeed it was who thus rendered ineffectual the valour of those Greeks who perished on this station. This man, through fear of the Lacedæmonians, fled afterwards into Thessaly; but the Pylagoræ, calling a council of the Amphictyons at Pylæ for this express purpose, set a price upon his head, and he was afterwards slain by Athenades, a Trachinian, at Anticyra, to which place he had returned.

The intelligence of Ephialtes gave the king infinite satisfaction, and he instantly detached Hydarnes, with the forces under his command, to avail himself of it. They left the camp at the first approach of evening; the Malians, the natives of the country, discovered this path, and by it conducted the Thessalians against the Phocians, who had defended it by an entrenchment, and deemed themselves secure. It had never, however, proved of any advantage to the Malians.

The path of which we are speaking commences at the river Asopus. This stream flows through an aperture of the mountain called Anopæa, which is also the name of the path. This is continued through the whole length of the mountain, and terminates near the town of Alpenus. Following the track which has been described, the Persians passed the Asopus, and marched all night, keeping the Œtean Mountains on the right, and the Trachinian on the left. At the dawn of morning they found themselves at the summit, where a band of a thousand Phocians in arms was stationed, both to defend their own country and this pass.

The approach of the Persians was discovered to the Phocians in this manner: whilst they were ascending the mountain they were totally concealed by the thick groves of oak; but from the stillness of the air they were discovered by the noise they made by trampling on the leaves, a thing which might naturally happen. The Phocians ran to arms, and in a moment the barbarians appeared, who, seeing a number of men precipitately arming themselves, were at first struck with astonishment. They did not expect an adversary; and they had fallen in among armed troops. Hydarnes, apprehending that the Phocians might prove to be Lacedæmonians, inquired of Ephialtes who they were. When he was informed, he drew up the Persians in order of battle. The Phocians, not able to sustain the heavy flight of arrows, retreated up the mountain, imagining themselves the objects of this attack, and expecting certain destruction: but the troops with Hydarnes and Ephialtes did not think it worth their while to pursue them, and descended rapidly down the opposite side of the mountain.

To those Greeks stationed in the straits of Thermopylæ, Megistias the soothsayer had previously, from inspection of the entrails, predicted that death awaited them in the morning. Some deserters had also informed them of the circuit the Persians had taken; and this intelligence was in the course of the night circulated through the camp. All this was confirmed by their sentinels, who early in the morning fled down the sides of the mountain. In this predicament, the Greeks called a council, who were greatly divided in their opinions: some were for remaining on their station, others advised a retreat. In consequence of their not agreeing, many of them dispersed to their respective cities; a part resolved to continue with Leonidas.

It is said, that those who retired only did so in compliance with the wishes of Leonidas, who was desirous to preserve them: but he thought that he himself, with his Spartans, could not without the greatest ignominy forsake the post they had come to defend. Obedient to the direction of their leader, the confederates retired. The Thespians and Thebans[30] alone remained with the Spartans, the Thebans indeed very reluctantly, but they were detained by Leonidas as hostages. The Thespians were very zealous in the cause, and refusing to abandon their friends, perished with them. The leader of the Thespians was Demophilus, son of Diadromas.

The Final Assault

Xerxes early in the morning offered a solemn libation, then waiting till the hour of full forum, he advanced from his camp: to the above measure he had been advised by Ephialtes. The descent from the mountain is much shorter than the circuitous ascent. The barbarians with Xerxes approached; Leonidas and his Greeks proceeded, as to inevitable death, a much greater space from the defile than they had yet done. Till now they had defended themselves behind their entrenchment, fighting in the most contracted part of the passage; but on this day they engaged on a wider space, and a multitude of their opponents fell. Behind each troop of Persians, officers were stationed with whips in their hands, compelling with blows their men to advance. Many of them fell into the sea, where they perished; many were trodden under foot by their own troops, without exciting the smallest pity or regard. The Greeks, conscious that their destruction was at hand from those who had taken the circuit of the mountain, exerted themselves with the most desperate valour against their barbarian assailants.

Their spears being broken in pieces, they had recourse to their swords. Leonidas fell in the engagement, having greatly signalised himself; and with him, many Spartans of distinction, as well as others of inferior note. Many illustrious Persians also were slain, among whom were Abrocomes and Hyperanthes, sons of Darius.

These two brothers of Xerxes fell as they were contending for the body of Leonidas: here the conflict was the most severe, till at length the Greeks by their superior valour four times repelled the Persians, and drew aside the body of their prince. In this situation they continued till Ephialtes and his party approached. As soon as the Greeks perceived them at hand, the scene was changed, and they retreated to the narrowest part of the pass. Having repassed their entrenchment, they posted themselves, all except the Thebans, in a compact body, upon a hill, which is at the entrance of the straits, and where a lion of stone has been erected in honour of Leonidas. In this situation, they who had swords left, used them against the enemy, the rest exerted themselves with their hands and their teeth. The barbarians rushing upon them, some in front, after overturning their wall, others surrounding and pressing them in all directions, finally overpowered them.

Such was the conduct of the Lacedæmonians and Thespians; but none of them distinguished themselves so much as Dieneces the Spartan. A speech of his is recorded, which he made before they came to any engagement. A certain Trachinian having observed that the barbarians would send forth such a shower of arrows that their multitude would obscure the sun; he replied, like a man ignorant of fear, and despising the numbers of the Medes, “our Trachinian friend promises us great advantages; if the Medes obscure the sun’s light, we shall fight them in the shade, and be protected from the heat.” Many other sayings have been handed down as monuments of this man’s fame. Next to him, the most distinguished of the Spartans were, Alpheus and Maron, two brothers, the sons of Orisiphantus; of the Thespians, the most conspicuous was Dithyrambus, son of Harmatidas. All these were interred in the place where they fell, together with such of the confederates as were slain before the separation of the forces by Leonidas. Upon their tomb was this inscription:

“Here once, from Pelops’ seagirt region brought, Four thousand men three hostile millions fought.”

This was applied to them all collectively. The Spartans were thus distinguished:

“Go, stranger, and to list’ning Spartans tell, That here, obedient to their laws, we fell.”

There was one also appropriated to the prophet Megistias:

“By Medes cut off beside Sperchius’ wave, The seer Megistias fills this glorious grave: Who stood the fate he well foresaw to meet, And, link’d with Sparta’s leaders, scorn’d retreat.”

All these ornaments and inscriptions, that of Megistias alone excepted, were here placed by the Amphictyons.

Of these three hundred, there were two named Eurytus and Aristodemus; both of them, consistently with the discipline of their country, might have secured themselves by retiring to Sparta, for Leonidas had permitted them to leave the camp; but they continued at Alpenus, being both afflicted by a violent disorder of the eyes: or, if they had not thought proper to return home, they had the alternative of meeting death in the field with their fellow-soldiers. In this situation, they differed in opinion what conduct to pursue. Eurytus having heard of the circuit made by the Persians, called for his arms, and putting them on, commanded his helot to conduct him to the battle. The slave did so, and immediately fled, whilst his master died fighting valiantly. Aristodemus pusillanimously stayed where he was. If either Aristodemus, being individually diseased, had retired home, or if they had returned together, we cannot think that the Spartans could have shown any resentment against them; but as one of them died in the field, which the other, who was precisely in the same circumstances, refused to do, it was impossible not to be greatly incensed against Aristodemus.

Aristodemus, on his return, was branded with disgrace and infamy; no one would speak with him; no one would supply him with fire; and the opprobrious term of trembler was annexed to his name; but he afterwards, at the battle of Platæa, effectually atoned for his former conduct. It is also said that another of the three hundred survived; his name was Pantites, and he had been sent on some business to Thessaly. Returning to Sparta, he felt himself in disgrace, and put an end to his life.

The Thebans, under the command of Leontiades, hitherto constrained by force, had fought with the Greeks against the Persians; but as soon as they saw that the Persians were victorious, when Leonidas and his party retired to the hill, they separated themselves from the Greeks. In the attitude of suppliants they approached the barbarians, assuring them, what was really the truth, that they were attached to the Medes; that they had been among the first to render earth and water; that they had only come to Thermopylæ on compulsion, and could not be considered as accessory to the slaughter of the king’s troops. The Thessalians confirming the truth of what they had asserted, their lives were preserved. Some of them however were slain; for as they approached, the barbarians put several to the sword; but the greater part, by the order of Xerxes, had the royal marks impressed upon them, beginning with Leontiades himself. Eurymachus his son was afterwards slain at the head of four hundred Thebans, by the people of Platæa, whilst he was making an attempt upon their city. In this manner the Greeks fought at Thermopylæ.[b]

DISCREPANT ACCOUNTS OF THE DEATH OF LEONIDAS

Such is the story of this memorable contest as Herodotus tells it. He is our most important source by far, and his simple words give a more realistic picture than is conveyed by any modern paraphrase. It is well to recall, however, that there are discrepant accounts of the death of Leonidas. None of these is so plausible as the description just given, but two of them are worth citing, to illustrate the historical uncertainties that attach to the subject.[a] Plutarch, in his parallels between the Romans and Greeks, thus describes the death of Leonidas: “Whilst they were at dinner, the barbarians fell upon them: upon which Leonidas desired them to eat heartily, for they were to sup with Pluto. Leonidas charged at the head of his troops, and after receiving a multitude of wounds, got up to Xerxes himself, and snatched the crown from his head. He lost his life in the attempt; and Xerxes, causing his body to be opened, found his heart hairy. So says Aristides, in his first book of his Persian History.” This fiction seems to have been taken from the λασιόν κῆρ of Homer.

Diodorus Siculus tells us that Leonidas, when he knew that he was circumvented, made a bold attempt by night to penetrate to the tent of Xerxes; but this the Persian king had forsaken on the first alarm. The Greeks however proceeded in search of him from one side to the other, and slew a prodigious multitude. When morning approached, the Persians perceiving the Greeks so few in number, held them in contempt; but they still did not dare to attack them in front; encompassing them on both sides, and behind, they slew them all with their spears. Such was the end of Leonidas and his party.[c]

AFTER THERMOPYLÆ

Where the Spartans fell, they were afterwards buried: their tomb, as Simonides sang, was an altar; a sanctuary, in which Greece revered the memory of her second founders.

The inscription of the monument raised over the slain, who died from first to last in defence of the pass, recorded that four thousand men from the Peloponnesus had fought at Thermopylæ with three hundred myriads. We ought not to expect accuracy in these numbers: the list in Herodotus, if the Locrian force is only supposed equal to the Phocian, exceeds six thousand men: the Phocians, it must be remembered, were not engaged. But it is not easy to reconcile either account with the historian’s statement, that the Grecian dead amounted to four thousand, unless we suppose that the helots, though not numbered, formed a large part of the army of Leonidas. The lustre of his achievement is not diminished by their presence. He himself and his Spartans no doubt considered their persevering stand in the post entrusted to them, not as an act of high and heroic devotion, but of simple and indispensable duty. Their spirit spoke in the lines inscribed upon their monument, which bade the passenger tell their countrymen, that they had fallen in obedience to their laws.

The Persians are said to have lost twenty thousand men: among them were several of royal blood. To console himself for this loss, and to reap the utmost advantage from his victory, Xerxes sent over to the fleet, which, having heard of the departure of the Greeks, was now stationed on the north coast of Eubœa, and by public notice invited all who were curious, to see the chastisement he had inflicted on the men who had dared to defy his power. That he had previously buried the greater part of his own dead seems natural enough, and such an artifice, so slightly differing from the universal practice of both ancient and modern belligerents, scarcely deserved the name of a stratagem. He is said also to have mutilated the body of Leonidas, and as this was one of the foremost he found on a field which had cost him so dear, we are not at liberty to reject the tradition on the ground that such ferocity was not consistent with the respect usually paid by the Persians to a gallant enemy.

At Thermopylæ Xerxes learnt a lesson which he had refused to receive from the warnings of Demaratus; and he inquired, with altered spirit, whether he had to expect many such obstacles in the conquest of Greece. The Spartan told him that there were eight thousand of his countrymen, who would all be ready to do what Leonidas had done, and that at the isthmus he would meet with a resistance more powerful and obstinate than at Thermopylæ. But if, instead of attacking the Peloponnesus on this side, where he would find its whole force collected to withstand him, he sent a detachment of his fleet to seize the island of Cythera, and to infest the coast of Laconia, the confederacy would be distracted, and its members, deprived of their head and perhaps disunited, would successively yield to his arms. The plan, whether Demaratus or Herodotus was the author, found no supporters in the Persian council.

He had now the key of northern Greece in his hands, and it only remained to determine towards which side he should first turn his arms. The Thessalians, who ever since his arrival in their country had been zealous in his service, now resolved to make use of their influence, and to direct the course of the storm to their own advantage. These Thessalians, who are mentioned on this occasion by Herodotus without any more precise description, were probably the same nobles who, against the wishes of their nation, had invited and forwarded the invasion. They had now an opportunity of gratifying either their cupidity or their revenge; and they sent to the Phocians to demand a bribe of fifty talents, as the price at which they would consent to avert the destruction which was impending over Phocis. The Phocians however either did not trust their faith, or would not buy their safety of a hated rival. The Thessalians then persuaded Xerxes to cross that part of the Œtean chain which separates the vale of the Sperchius from the little valley of Doris. The Dorians were spared, as friends. Those of the Phocians who had the means of escaping took refuge on the high plains that lie under the topmost peaks of Parnassus, or at Amphissa. But on all that remained in their homes, on the fields, the cities, the temples of the devoted land, the fury of the invader, directed and stimulated by the malice of the Thessalians, poured undistinguishing ruin. Fire and sword, the cruelty and the lust of irritated spoilers, ravaged the vale of the Cephisus down to the borders of Bœotia. The rich sanctuary of Apollo at Abæ was sacked and burnt, and fourteen towns shared its fate. At Panopeus, Xerxes divided his forces; or rather detached a small body round the foot of Parnassus to Delphi, with orders to strip the temple of its treasures, and lay them at his feet. He had learnt their value from the best authority at Sardis. The great army turned off toward the lower vale of the Cephisus, to pursue its march through Bœotia to Athens.[h]

FOOTNOTES

[26] Beneath is the number of Greeks who appeared on this occasion, according to the different representations of Herodotus, Pausanias, and Diodorus Siculus:

HERODOTUS. PAUSANIAS. DIODORUS. Spartans 300 300 300 Tegeatæ 500 500 Lacedæmonians 700 Mantineans 500 500 The other Orchomenians 120 120 nations of the Arcadians 1,000 1,000 Peloponnesus 3,000 Corinthians 400 400 Phliasians 200 200 Mycenæans 80 80 ----- ----- ----- Totals 3,100 3,100 4,000

The above came from the Peloponnesus; those who came from the other parts of Greece were, according to the authors above mentioned:

Thespians 700 700 Milesians 1,000 Thebans 400 400 400 Phocians 1,000 1,000 1,000 Opuntian Locrians 6,000 7,400 ----- ------ ----- Totals 5,200 11,200 7,400[c]

[27] [Plutarch upbraids Herodotus for thus slandering the Thebans; and Diodorus says, that Thebes was divided into two parties, one of which sent four hundred men to Thermopylæ.[c]] [Bury[d] thinks it is certain that this tale was invented in the light of Thebes’ later Median policy.]

[28] [This was continued for seven days at Sparta. Various reasons are assigned for its institution; Theocritus says it commemorated the cessation of a pestilence.[c]]

[29] [According to Plutarch, Leonidas being asked how he dared to encounter so prodigious a multitude with so few men, replied: “If you reckon by number, all Greece is not able to oppose a small part of that army; but if by courage, the number I have with me is sufficient.”]

[30] [Diodorus Siculus speaks only of the Thespians. Pausanias says that the people of Mycenæ sent eighty men to Thermopylæ, who had part in this glorious day; and in another place he says that all the allies retired before the battle, except the Thespians and people of Mycenæ.[e]]

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XX. THE BATTLES OF ARTEMISIUM AND SALAMIS

A king sate on the rocky brow Which looks o’er sea-born Salamis; And ships, by thousands, lay below, And men in nations;--all were his, He counted them at break of day, And when the sun set where were they?

--BYRON.

[Sidenote: [480 B.C.]]

The days of battle at Thermopylæ had been not less actively employed by the fleets at Aphetæ and Artemisium. It has already been mentioned that the Greek ships, having abandoned their station at the latter place and retired to Chalcis, were induced to return, by the news that the Persian fleet had been nearly ruined by the recent storm, and that, on returning to Artemisium, the Grecian commanders felt renewed alarm on seeing the enemy’s fleet, in spite of the damage just sustained, still mustering in overwhelming number at the opposite station of Aphetæ. Such was the effect of this spectacle, and the impression of their own inferiority, that they again resolved to retire without fighting, leaving the strait open and undefended. Great consternation was caused by the news of their determination among the inhabitants of Eubœa, who entreated Eurybiades to maintain his position for a few days, until they could have time to remove their families and their property. But even such postponement was thought unsafe, and refused: and he was on the point of giving orders for retreat, when the Eubœans sent their envoy, Pelagon, to Themistocles, with the offer of thirty talents, on condition that the fleet should keep its station and hazard an engagement in defence of the island. Themistocles employed the money adroitly and successfully, giving five talents to Eurybiades, with large presents besides to the other leading chiefs: the most unmanageable among them was the Corinthian Adimantus, who at first threatened to depart with his own squadron alone, if the remaining Greeks were mad enough to remain. His alarm was silenced, if not tranquillised, by a present of three talents.

However Plutarch may be scandalised at such inglorious revelations preserved to us by Herodotus respecting the underhand agencies of this memorable struggle, there is no reason to call in question the bribery here described. But Themistocles doubtless was only tempted to do, and enabled to do, by means of the Eubœan money, that which he would have wished and had probably tried to accomplish without the money--to bring on a naval engagement at Artemisium. It was absolutely essential to the maintenance of Thermopylæ, and to the general plan of defence, that the Eubœan strait should be defended against the Persian fleet, nor could the Greeks expect a more favourable position to fight in. We may reasonably presume that Themistocles, distinguished not less by daring than by sagacity, and the great originator of maritime energies in his country, concurred unwillingly in the projected abandonment of Artemisium: but his high mental capacity did not exclude that pecuniary corruption which rendered the presents of the Eubœans both admissible and welcome--yet still more welcome to him perhaps, as they supplied means of bringing over the other opposing chiefs and the Spartan admiral. It was finally determined, therefore, to remain, and if necessary, to hazard an engagement in the Eubœan strait: but at any rate to procure for the inhabitants of the island a short interval to remove their families. Had these Eubœans heeded the oracles, says Herodotus, they would have packed up and removed long before; for a text of Bacis gave them express warning; but, having neglected the sacred writings as unworthy of credit, they were now severely punished for such presumption.

Among the Persian fleet at Aphetæ, on the other hand, the feeling prevalent was one of sanguine hope and confidence in their superior numbers, forming a strong contrast with the discouragement of the Greeks at Artemisium. Had they attacked the latter immediately, when both fleets first saw each other from their opposite stations, they would have gained an easy victory, for the Greek fleet would have fled, as the admiral was on the point of ordering, even without an attack. But this was not sufficient for the Persians, who wished to cut off every ship among their enemies even from flight and escape. Accordingly, they detached two hundred ships to circumnavigate the island of Eubœa, and to sail up the Eubœan strait from the south, in the rear of the Greeks,--and postponing their own attack in front until this squadron should be in position to intercept the retreating Greeks. But though the manœuvre was concealed by sending the squadron round outside of the island of Sciathus, it became known immediately among the Greeks, through a deserter--Scyllias of Scione. This man, the best swimmer and diver of his time, and now engaged like other Thracian Greeks in the Persian service, passed over to Artemisium, and communicated to the Greek commanders both the particulars of the late destructive storm and the despatch of the intercepting squadron.

BATTLE OF ARTEMISIUM

It appears that his communications, respecting the effects of the storm and the condition of the Persian fleet, somewhat reassured the Greeks, who resolved during the ensuing night to sail from their station at Artemisium for the purpose of surprising the detached squadron of two hundred ships, and who even became bold enough, under the inspirations of Themistocles, to go out and offer battle to the main fleet near Aphetæ. Wanting to acquire some practical experience, which neither leaders nor soldiers as yet possessed, of the manner in which Phœnicians and others in the Persian fleet handled and manœuvred their ships, they waited till a late hour of the afternoon, when little daylight remained. Their boldness in thus advancing out, with inferior numbers and even inferior ships, astonished the Persian admirals, and distressed the Ionians and other subject Greeks who were serving them as unwilling auxiliaries: to both it seemed that the victory of the Persian fleet, which was speedily brought forth to battle, and was numerous enough to encompass the Greeks, would be certain as well as complete. The Greek ships were at first marshalled in a circle, with the sterns in the interior, and presenting their prows in front at all points of the circumference; in this position, compressed into a narrow space, they seemed to be awaiting the attack of the enemy, who formed a larger circle around them: but on a second signal given, their ships assumed the aggressive, rowed out from the inner circle in direct impact against the hostile ships around, and took or disabled no less than thirty of them; in one of which Philaon, brother of Gorgus, despot of Salamis in Cyprus, was made prisoner. Such unexpected forwardness at first disconcerted the Persians, who however rallied and inflicted considerable damage and loss on the Greeks: but the near approach of night put an end to the combat, and each fleet retired to its former station--the Persians to Aphetæ, the Greeks to Artemisium.

The result of this first day’s combat, though indecisive in itself, surprised both parties and did much to exalt the confidence of the Greeks. But the events of the ensuing night did yet more. Another tremendous storm was sent by the gods to aid them. Though it was the middle of summer,--a season when rain rarely falls in the climate of Greece,--the most violent wind, rain, and thunder prevailed during the whole night, blowing right on shore against the Persians at Aphetæ, and thus but little troublesome to the Greeks on the opposite side of the strait. The seamen of the Persian fleet, scarcely recovered from the former storm at Sepias Acte, were almost driven to despair by this repetition of the same peril: the more so when they found the prows of their ships surrounded, and the play of their oars impeded, by the dead bodies and the spars from the recent battle, which the current drove towards their shore. If this storm was injurious to the main fleet at Aphetæ, it proved the entire ruin of the squadron detached to circumnavigate Eubœa, who, overtaken by it near the dangerous eastern coast of that island, called the Hollows of Eubœa, were driven upon the rocks and wrecked. The news of this second conspiracy of the elements, or intervention of the gods, against the schemes of the invaders, was highly encouraging to the Greeks; and the seasonable arrival of fifty-three fresh Athenian ships, which reinforced them the next day, raised them to a still higher pitch of confidence. In the afternoon of the same day, they sailed out against the Persian fleet at Aphetæ, and attacked and destroyed some Cilician ships even at their moorings; the fleet having been too much damaged by the storm of the preceding night to come out and fight.

But the Persian admirals were not of a temper to endure such insults,--still less to let their master hear of them. About noon on the ensuing day, they sailed with their entire fleet near to the Greek station at Artemisium, and formed themselves into a half moon; while the Greeks kept near to the shore, so that they could not be surrounded, nor could the Persians bring their entire fleet into action; the ships running foul of each other, and not finding space to attack. The battle raged fiercely all day, and with great loss and damage on both sides: the Egyptians bore off the palm of valour among the Persians, the Athenians among the Greeks. Though the positive loss sustained by the Persians was by far the greater, and though the Greeks, being near their own shore, became masters of the dead bodies as well as of the disabled ships and floating fragments, still, they were themselves hurt and crippled in greater proportion with reference to their inferior total: and the Athenian vessels especially, foremost in the preceding combat, found one-half of their number out of condition to renew it. The Egyptians alone had captured five Grecian ships with their entire crews.

Under these circumstances, the Greek leaders--and Themistocles, as it seems, among them--determined that they could no longer venture to hold the position of Artemisium, but must withdraw the naval force farther into Greece: though this was in fact a surrender of the pass of Thermopylæ, and though the removal which the Eubœans were hastening was still unfinished. These unfortunate men were forced to be satisfied with the promise of Themistocles to give them convoy for their boats and their persons; abandoning their sheep and cattle for the consumption of the fleet, as better than leaving them to become booty for the enemy. While the Greeks were thus employed in organising their retreat, they received news which rendered retreat doubly necessary. The Athenian Abronychus, stationed with his ship near Thermopylæ, in order to keep up communication between the army and fleet, brought the disastrous intelligence that Xerxes was already master of the pass, and that the division of Leonidas was either destroyed or in flight. Upon this the fleet abandoned Artemisium forthwith, and sailed up the Eubœan strait; the Corinthian ships in the van, the Athenians bringing up the rear. Themistocles, conducting the latter, stayed long enough at the various watering-stations and landing-places to inscribe on some neighbouring stones invitations to the Ionian contingents serving under Xerxes: whereby the latter were conjured not to serve against their fathers, but to desert, if possible--or at least, to fight as little and as backwardly as they could. Themistocles hoped by this stratagem perhaps to detach some of the Ionians from the Persian side, or, at any rate, to render them objects of mistrust, and thus to diminish their efficiency. With no longer delay than was requisite for such inscriptions, he followed the remaining fleet, which sailed round the coast of Attica, not stopping until it reached the island of Salamis.

The news of the retreat of the Greek fleet was speedily conveyed by a citizen of Histiæa to the Persians at Aphetæ, who at first disbelieved it, and detained the messenger until they had sent to ascertain the fact. On the next day, their fleet passed across to the north of Eubœa, and became master of Histiæa and the neighbouring territory: from whence many of them, by permission and even invitation of Xerxes, crossed over to Thermopylæ to survey the field of battle and the dead. Respecting the number of the dead, Xerxes is asserted to have deliberately imposed upon the spectators: he buried all his own dead, except one thousand, whose bodies were left out--while the total number of Greeks who had perished at Thermopylæ, four thousand in number, were all left exposed, and in one heap, so as to create an impression that their loss had been much more severe than their own. Moreover, the bodies of the slain helots were included in the heap, all of them passing for Spartans or Thespians in the estimation of the spectators. We are not surprised to hear, however, that this trick, gross and public as it must have been, really deceived very few.

The sentiment, alike durable and unanimous, with which the Greeks of after-times looked back on the battle of Thermopylæ, and which they have communicated to all subsequent readers, was that of just admiration for the courage and patriotism of Leonidas and his band. But among the contemporary Greeks that sentiment, though doubtless sincerely felt, was by no means predominant: it was overpowered by the more pressing emotions of disappointment and terror. So confident were the Spartans and Peloponnesians in the defensibility of Thermopylæ and Artemisium, that when the news of the disaster reached them, not a single soldier had yet been put in motion: the season of the festival games had passed, but no active step had yet been taken. Meanwhile the invading force, army, and fleet, was in its progress towards Attica and the Peloponnesus, without the least preparations--and, what was still worse, without any combined and concerted plan--for defending the heart of Greece. The loss sustained by Xerxes at Thermopylæ, insignificant in proportion to his vast total, was more than compensated by the fresh Grecian auxiliaries which he now acquired. Not merely the Malians, Locrians, and Dorians, but also the great mass of the Bœotians, with their chief town Thebes, all except Thespiæ and Platæa, now joined him. Demaratus, his Spartan companion, moved forward to Thebes to renew an ancient tie of hospitality with the Theban oligarchical leader, Attaginus, while small garrisons were sent by Alexander of Macedon to most of the Bœotian towns, as well to protect them from plunder as to insure their fidelity. The Thespians, on the other hand, abandoned their city, and fled into the Peloponnesus; while the Platæans, who had been serving aboard the Athenian ships at Artemisium, were disembarked at Chalcis as the fleet retreated, for the purpose of marching by land to their city, and removing their families. Nor was it only the land-force of Xerxes which had been thus strengthened; his fleet also had received some accessions from Carystus in Eubœa, and from several of the Cyclades--so that the losses sustained by the storm at Sepias and the fights at Artemisium, if not wholly made up, were at least in part repaired, while the fleet remained still prodigiously superior in number to that of the Greeks.

At the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, near fifty years after these events, the Corinthian envoys reminded Sparta that she had allowed Xerxes time to arrive from the extremity of the earth at the threshold of the Peloponnesus, before she took any adequate precautions against him; a reproach true almost to the letter. It was only when roused and terrified by the news of the death of Leonidas, that the Lacedæmonians and the other Peloponnesians began to put forth their full strength. But it was then too late to perform the promise made to Athens, of taking up a position in Bœotia so as to protect Attica. To defend the isthmus of Corinth was all that they now thought of, and seemingly all that was now open to them: thither they rushed with all their available population under the conduct of Cleombrotus, king of Sparta (brother of Leonidas), and began to draw fortifications across it, as well as to break up the Scironian road from Megara to Corinth, with every mark of anxious energy. The Lacedæmonians, Arcadians, Eleans, Corinthians, Sicyonians, Epidaurians, Phliasians, Trœzenians, and Hermionians, were all present here in full numbers; many myriads of men (bodies of ten thousand each) working and bringing materials night and day. As a defence to themselves against attack by land, this was an excellent position: they considered it as their last chance, abandoning all hope of successful resistance at sea. But they forgot that a fortified isthmus was no protection even to themselves against the navy of Xerxes, while it professedly threw out not only Attica, but also Megara and Ægina. And thus rose a new peril to Greece from the loss of Thermopylæ: no other position could be found which, like that memorable strait, comprehended and protected at once all the separate cities. The disunion thus produced brought them within a hair’s breadth of ruin.

ATHENS ABANDONED

If the causes of alarm were great for the Peloponnesians, yet more desperate did the position of the Athenians appear. Expecting, according to agreement, to find a Peloponnesian army in Bœotia ready to sustain Leonidas, or at any rate to co-operate in the defence of Attica, they had taken no measures to remove their families or property: but they saw with indignant disappointment as well as dismay, on retreating from Artemisium, that the conqueror was in full march from Thermopylæ, that the road to Attica was open to him, and that the Peloponnesians were absorbed exclusively in the defence of their own isthmus and their own separate existence. The fleet from Artemisium had been directed to muster at the harbour of Trœzen, there to await such reinforcements as could be got together: but the Athenians entreated Eurybiades to halt at Salamis, so as to allow them a short time for consultation in the critical state of their affairs, and to aid them in the transport of their families. While Eurybiades was thus staying at Salamis, several new ships which had reached Trœzen came over to join him; and in this way Salamis became for a time the naval station of the Greeks, without any deliberate intention beforehand.

Meanwhile Themistocles and the Athenian seamen landed at Phalerum, and made their mournful entry into Athens. Gloomy as the prospect appeared, there was little room for difference of opinion, and still less room for delay. The authorities and the public assembly at once issued a proclamation, enjoining every Athenian to remove his family out of the country in the best way he could. We may conceive the state of tumult and terror which followed on this unexpected proclamation, when we reflect that it had to be circulated and acted upon throughout all Attica, from Sunium to Oropus, within the narrow space of less than six days; for no longer interval elapsed before Xerxes actually arrived at Athens, where indeed he might have arrived even sooner.

The whole Grecian fleet was doubtless employed in carrying out the helpless exiles; mostly to Trœzen, where a kind reception and generous support were provided for them,--the Trœzenian population being seemingly semi-Ionic, and having ancient relations of religion as well as of traffic with Athens,--but in part also to Ægina: there were, however, many who could not, or would not, go farther than Salamis. Themistocles impressed upon the sufferers that they were only obeying the oracle, which had directed them to abandon the city and to take refuge behind the wooden walls; and either his policy, or the mental depression of the time, gave circulation to other stories, intimating that even the divine inmates of the Acropolis were for a while deserting it. In the ancient temple of Athene Polias on that rock, there dwelt, or was believed to dwell, as guardian to the sanctuary and familiar attendant of the goddess, a sacred serpent, for whose nourishment a honey cake was placed once in the month. The honey cake had been hitherto regularly consumed; but at this fatal moment the priestess announced that it remained untouched: the sacred guardian had thus set the example of quitting the acropolis, and it behooved the citizens to follow the example, confiding in the goddess herself for future return and restitution.

The migration of so many ancient men, women, and children, was a scene of tears and misery inferior only to that which would have ensued on the actual capture of the city.[31] Some few individuals, too poor to hope for maintenance, or too old to care for life elsewhere,--confiding, moreover, in their own interpretation of the wooden wall which the Pythian priestess had pronounced to be inexpugnable,--shut themselves up in the Acropolis along with the administrators of the temple, obstructing the entrance or western front with wooden doors and palisades. When we read how great were the sufferings of the population of Attica near half a century afterwards, compressed for refuge within the spacious fortifications of Athens at the first outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, we may form some faint idea of the incalculably greater misery which overwhelmed an emigrant population, hurrying, they knew not whither, to escape the long arm of Xerxes. Little chance did there seem that they would ever revisit their homes except as his slaves.

In the midst of circumstances thus calamitous and threatening, neither the warriors nor the leaders of Athens lost their energy--arm as well as mind was strung to the loftiest pitch of human resolution. Political dissensions were suspended: Themistocles proposed to the people a decree, and obtained their sanction, inviting home all who were under sentence of temporary banishment: moreover, he not only included but even specially designated among them his own great opponent Aristides, now in the third year of ostracism. Xanthippus the accuser, and Cimon, the son of Miltiades, were partners in the same emigration: the latter, enrolled by his scale of fortune among the horsemen of the state, was seen with his companions cheerfully marching through the Ceramicus to dedicate their bridles in the Acropolis, and to bring away in exchange some of the sacred arms there suspended, thus setting an example of ready service on shipboard, instead of on horseback. It was absolutely essential to obtain supplies of money, partly for the aid of the poorer exiles, but still more for the equipment of the fleet; there were no funds in the public treasury--but the senate of Areopagus, then composed in large proportion of men from the wealthier classes, put forth all its public authority as well as its private contributions and example to others, and thus succeeded in raising the sum of eight drachmæ for every soldier serving.

This timely help was indeed partly obtained by the inexhaustible resource of Themistocles, who, in the hurry of embarkation, either discovered or pretended that the Gorgon’s head from the statue of Athene was lost, and directing upon this ground every man’s baggage to be searched, rendered any treasures, which private citizens might be carrying out, available to the public service. By the most strenuous efforts, these few important days were made to suffice for removing the whole population of Attica,--those of military competence to the fleet at Salamis,--the rest to some place of refuge,--together with as much property as the case admitted. So complete was the desertion of the country, that the host of Xerxes, when it became master, could not seize and carry off more than five hundred prisoners. Moreover, the fleet itself, which had been brought home from Artemisium partially disabled, was quickly repaired, so that, by the time the Persian fleet arrived, it was again in something like fighting condition.

THE FLEET AT SALAMIS

The combined fleet which had now got together at Salamis consisted of three hundred and sixty-six ships,--a force far greater than at Artemisium. Of these, no less than two hundred were Athenian; twenty among which, however, were lent to the Chalcidians, and manned by them. Forty Corinthian ships, thirty Æginetan, twenty Megarian, sixteen Lacedæmonian, fifteen Sicyonian, ten Epidaurian, seven from Ambracia, and as many from Eretria, five from Trœzen, three from Hermione, and the same number from Leucas; two from Ceos, two from Styra, and one from Cythnos; four from Naxos, despatched as a contingent to the Persian fleet, but brought by the choice of their captains and seamen to Salamis;--all these triremes, together with a small squadron of the inferior vessels called penteconters, made up the total. From the great Grecian cities in Italy there appeared only one trireme, a volunteer, equipped and commanded by an eminent citizen named Phaÿllus, thrice victor at the Pythian games. The entire fleet was thus a trifle larger than the combined force, three hundred and fifty-eight ships, collected by the Asiatic Greeks at Lade, fifteen years earlier, during the Ionic revolt. We may doubt, however, whether this total, borrowed from Herodotus, be not larger than that which actually fought a little afterwards at the battle of Salamis, and which Æschylus gives decidedly as consisting of three hundred sail, in addition to ten prime and chosen ships. That great poet, himself one of the combatants, and speaking in a drama represented only seven years after the battle, is better authority on the point even than Herodotus.

Hardly was the fleet mustered at Salamis, and the Athenian population removed, when Xerxes and his host overran the deserted country, his fleet occupying the roadstead of Phalerum with the coast adjoining. His land force had been put in motion under the guidance of the Thessalians, two or three days after the battle of Thermopylæ, and he was assured by some Arcadians who came to seek service, that the Peloponnesians were, even at that moment, occupied with the celebration of the Olympic games. “What prize does the victor receive?” he asked. Upon the reply made, that the prize was a wreath of the wild olive, Tritantæchmes, son of the monarch’s uncle Artabanus, is said to have burst forth, notwithstanding the displeasure both of the monarch himself and of the bystanders: “Heavens, Mardonius, what manner of men are these against whom thou hast brought us to fight! men who contend not for money, but for honour!” Whether this be a remark really delivered, or a dramatic illustration imagined by some contemporary of Herodotus, it is not the less interesting as bringing to view a characteristic of Hellenic life, which contrasts not merely with the manners of contemporary Orientals, but even with those of the earlier Greeks themselves during the Homeric times.

Among all the various Greeks between Thermopylæ and the borders of Attica, there were none except the Phocians disposed to refuse submission: and they refused only because the paramount influence of their bitter enemies the Thessalians made them despair of obtaining favourable terms. Nor would they even listen to a proposition of the Thessalians, who, boasting that it was in their power to guide as they pleased the terrors of the Persian host, offered to insure lenient treatment to the territory of Phocis, provided a sum of fifty talents were paid to them. The proposition being indignantly refused, they conducted Xerxes through the little territory of Doris, which medised and escaped plunder, into the upper valley of the Cephisus, among the towns of the inflexible Phocians. All of them were found deserted; the inhabitants having previously escaped either to the wide-spreading summit of Parnassus, called Tithorea, or even still farther, across that mountain into the territory of the Ozolian Locrians. Ten or a dozen small Phocian towns, the most considerable of which were Elatea and Hyampolis, were sacked and destroyed by the invaders, nor was the holy temple and oracle of Apollo at Abæ better treated than the rest: all its treasures were pillaged, and it was then burnt. From Panopeus Xerxes detached a body of men to plunder Delphi, marching with his main army through Bœotia, in which country he found all the towns submissive and willing, except Thespiæ and Platæa: both were deserted by their citizens, and both were now burnt. From hence he conducted his army into the abandoned territory of Attica, reaching without resistance the foot of the Acropolis at Athens.

XERXES AT DELPHI

Very different was the fate of that division which he had detached from Panopeus against Delphi: Apollo defended his temple here more vigorously than at Abæ. The cupidity of the Persian king was stimulated by accounts of the boundless wealth accumulated at Delphi, especially the profuse donations of Crœsus. The Delphians, in the extreme of alarm, while they sought safety for themselves on the heights of Parnassus, and for their families by transport across the gulf into Achaia, consulted the oracle whether they should carry away or bury the sacred treasures. Apollo directed them to leave the treasures untouched, saying that he was competent himself to take care of his own property. Sixty Delphians alone ventured to remain, together with Aceratus, the religious superior: but evidences of superhuman aid soon appeared to encourage them. The sacred arms suspended in the interior cell, which no mortal hand was ever permitted to touch, were seen lying before the door of the temple; and when the Persians, marching along the road called Schiste, up that rugged path under the steep cliffs of Parnassus which conducts to Delphi, had reached the temple of Athene Pronœa, on a sudden, dreadful thunder was heard, two vast mountain crags detached themselves and rushed down with deafening noise among them, crushing many to death, the war shout was also heard from the interior of the temple of Athene. Seized with a panic terror, the invaders turned round and fled; pursued not only by the Delphians, but also, as they themselves affirmed, by two armed warriors of superhuman stature and destructive arm. The triumphant Delphians confirmed this report, adding that the two auxiliaries were the heroes Phylacus and Autonoüs, whose sacred precincts were close adjoining: and Herodotus himself when he visited Delphi, saw in the sacred ground of Athene the identical masses of rock which had overwhelmed the Persians.[32] Thus did the god repel these invaders from his Delphian sanctuary and treasures, which remained inviolate until one hundred and thirty years afterwards, when they were rifled by the sacrilegious hands of the Phocian Philomelus. On this occasion, as will be seen presently, the real protectors of the treasures were the conquerors at Salamis and Platæa.

ATHENS TAKEN

Four months had elapsed since the departure from Asia when Xerxes reached Athens, the last term of his advance. He brought with him the members of the Pisistratid family, who doubtless thought their restoration already certain, and a few Athenian exiles attached to their interest. Though the country was altogether deserted, the handful of men collected in the Acropolis ventured to defy him: nor could all the persuasions of the Pisistratids, eager to preserve the holy place from pillage, induce them to surrender.

The Athenian Acropolis--a craggy rock rising abruptly about one hundred and fifty feet, with a flat summit of about one thousand feet long from east to west, by five hundred feet broad from north to south--had no practicable access except on the western side: moreover, in all parts where there seemed any possibility of climbing up, it was defended by the ancient fortification called the Pelasgic wall. Obliged to take the place by force, the Persian army was posted around the northern and western sides, and commenced their operations from the eminence immediately adjoining on the northwest, called Areopagus: from whence they bombarded, if we may venture upon the expression, with hot missiles, the woodwork before the gates; that is, they poured upon it multitudes of arrows with burning tow attached to them. The wooden palisades and boarding presently took fire and were consumed: but when the Persians tried to mount to the assault by the western road leading up to the gate, the undaunted little garrison still kept them at bay, having provided vast stones, which they rolled down upon them in the ascent.

For a time the Great King seemed likely to be driven to the slow process of blockade; but at length some adventurous men among the besiegers tried to scale the precipitous rock before them on its northern side, hard by the temple or chapel of Aglaurus, which lay nearly in front of the Persian position, but behind the gates and the western ascent. Here the rock was naturally so inaccessible, that it was altogether unguarded, and seemingly even unfortified: moreover, the attention of the little garrison was all concentrated on the host which fronted the gates. Hence the separate escalading party was enabled to accomplish their object unobserved, and to reach the summit in the rear of the garrison; who, deprived of their last hope, either cast themselves headlong from the walls, or fled for safety to the inner temple. The successful escaladers opened the gates to the entire Persian host, and the whole Acropolis was presently in their hands. Its defenders were slain, its temples pillaged, and all its dwellings and buildings, sacred as well as profane, consigned to the flames. The citadel of Athens fell into the hands of Xerxes by a surprise, very much the same as that which had placed Sardis in those of Cyrus.

Thus was divine prophecy fulfilled: Attica passed entirely into the hands of the Persians, and the conflagration of Sardis was retaliated upon the home and citadel of its captors, as it also was upon their sacred temple of Eleusis. Xerxes immediately despatched to Susa intelligence of the fact, which is said to have excited unmeasured demonstrations of joy, confuting, seemingly, the gloomy predictions of his uncle Artabanus. On the next day but one, the Athenian exiles in his suite received his orders, or perhaps obtained his permission, to go and offer sacrifice amidst the ruins of the Acropolis, and atone, if possible, for the desecration of the ground: they discovered that the sacred olive tree near the chapel of Erechtheus, the special gift of the goddess Athene, though burnt to the ground by the recent flames, had already thrown out a fresh shoot of one cubit long,--at least the piety of restored Athens afterwards believed this encouraging portent, as well as that which was said to have been seen by Dicæus, an Athenian companion of the Pisistratids, in the Thriasian plain.

It was now the day set apart for the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries; and though in this sorrowful year there was no celebration, nor any Athenians in the territory, Dicæus still fancied that he beheld the dust and heard the loud multitudinous chant, which was wont to accompany in ordinary times the processional march from Athens to Eleusis. He would even have revealed the fact to Xerxes himself, had not Demaratus deterred him from doing so: but he as well as Herodotus construed it as an evidence that the goddesses themselves were passing over from Eleusis to help the Athenians at Salamis. But whatever may have been received in after times, on that day certainly no man could believe in the speedy resurrection of conquered Athens as a free city: not even if he had witnessed the portent of the burnt olive tree suddenly sprouting afresh with preternatural vigour. So hopeless did the circumstances of the Athenians then appear, not less to their confederates assembled at Salamis than to the victorious Persians.

About the time of the capture of the Acropolis, the Persian fleet also arrived safely in the Bay of Phalerum, reinforced by ships from Carystus as well as from various islands of the Cyclades, so that Herodotus reckons it to have been as strong as before the terrible storm at Sepias Acte--an estimate certainly not admissible.

XERXES INSPECTS HIS FLEET

Soon after their arrival, Xerxes himself descended to the shore to inspect the fleet, as well as to take counsel with the various naval leaders about the expediency of attacking the hostile fleet, now so near him in the narrow strait between Salamis and the coasts of Attica. He invited them all to take their seats in an assembly, wherein the king of Sidon occupied the first place and the king of Tyre the second. The question was put to each of them separately by Mardonius, and when we learn that all pronounced in favour of immediate fighting, we may be satisfied that the decided opinion of Xerxes himself must have been well known to them beforehand. One exception alone was found to this unanimity,--Artemisia, queen of Halicarnassus in Caria; into whose mouth Herodotus puts a speech of some length, deprecating all idea of fighting in the narrow strait of Salamis, predicting that if the land-force were moved forwards to attack the Peloponnesus, the Peloponnesians in the fleet at Salamis would return for the protection of their own homes, and thus the fleet would disperse, the rather as there was little or no food in the island, and intimating, besides, unmeasured contempt for the efficacy of the Persian fleet and seamen as compared with the Greek, as well as for the subject contingents of Xerxes generally. That Queen Artemisia gave this prudent counsel, there is no reason to question; and the historian of Halicarnassus may have had means of hearing the grounds on which her opinion rested: but we find a difficulty in believing that she can have publicly delivered any such estimate of the maritime subjects of Persia--an estimate not merely insulting to all who heard it, but at the time not just, though it had come to be nearer the truth at the time when Herodotus wrote, and though Artemisia herself may have lived to entertain the conviction afterwards. Whatever may have been her reasons, the historian tells us that friends as well as rivals were astonished at her rashness in dissuading the monarch from a naval battle, and expected that she would be put to death. But Xerxes heard the advice with perfect good temper, and even esteemed the Carian queen the more highly: though he resolved that the opinion of the majority, or his own opinion, should be acted upon: and orders were accordingly issued for attacking the next day, while the land-force should move forwards towards the Peloponnesus.

Whilst, on the shore of Phalerum, an omnipotent will compelled seeming unanimity and precluded all real deliberation, great, indeed, was the contrast presented by the neighbouring Greek armament at Salamis, among the members of which unmeasured dissension had been reigning. It has already been stated that the Greek fleet had originally got together at that island, not with any view of making it a naval station, but simply in order to cover and assist the emigration of the Athenians. This object being accomplished, and Xerxes being already in Attica, Eurybiades convoked the chiefs to consider what position was the fittest for a naval engagement. Most of them, especially those from the Peloponnesus, were averse to remaining at Salamis, and proposed that the fleet should be transferred to the isthmus of Corinth, where it would be in immediate communication with the Peloponnesian land-force, so that in case of defeat at sea, the ships would find protection on shore, and the men would join in the land service--while if worsted in a naval action near Salamis, they would be inclosed in an island from whence there were no hopes of escape. In the midst of the debate, a messenger arrived with news of the capture and conflagration of Athens and her Acropolis by the Persians: and such was the terror produced by this intelligence, that some of the chiefs, without even awaiting the conclusion of the debate and the final vote, quitted the council forthwith, and began to hoist sail, or prepare their rowers, for departure. The majority came to a vote for removing to the isthmus, but as night was approaching, actual removal was deferred until the next morning.

Now was felt the want of a position like that of Thermopylæ, which had served as a protection to all the Greeks at once, so as to check the growth of separate fears and interests. We can hardly wonder that the Peloponnesian chiefs--the Corinthian in particular, who furnished so large a naval contingent, and within whose territory the land-battle at the isthmus seemed about to take place--should manifest such an obstinate reluctance to fight at Salamis, and should insist on removing to a position where, in case of naval defeat, they could assist, and be assisted by, their own soldiers on land. On the other hand, Salamis was not only the most favourable position, in consequence of its narrow strait, for the inferior numbers of the Greeks, but could not be abandoned without breaking up the unity of the allied fleet; since Megara and Ægina would thus be left uncovered, and the contingents of each would immediately retire for the defence of their homes, while the Athenians also, a large portion of whose expatriated families were in Salamis and Ægina, would be in like manner distracted from combined maritime efforts at the isthmus. If transferred to the latter place, probably not even the Peloponnesians themselves would have remained in one body; for the squadrons of Epidaurus, Trœzen, Hermione, etc., each fearing that the Persian fleet might make a descent on one or other of these separate ports, would go home to repel such a contingency, in spite of the efforts of Eurybiades to keep them together. Hence the order for quitting Salamis and repairing to the isthmus was nothing less than a sentence of extinction for all combined maritime defence; and it thus became doubly abhorrent to all those who, like the Athenians, Æginetans, and Megarians, were also led by their own separate safety to cling to the defence of Salamis. In spite of all such opposition, however, and in spite of the protest of Themistocles, the obstinate determination of the Peloponnesian leaders carried the vote for retreat, and each of them went to his ship to prepare for it on the following morning.

SCHEMES OF THEMISTOCLES

When Themistocles returned to his ship, with the gloom of this melancholy resolution full upon his mind, and with the necessity of providing for removal of the expatriated Athenian families in the island as well as for that of the squadron, he found an Athenian friend named Mnesiphilus, who asked him what the synod of chiefs had determined. Concerning this Mnesiphilus, who is mentioned generally as a sagacious practical politician, we unfortunately have no particulars: but it must have been no common man whom fame selected, truly or falsely, as the inspiring genius of Themistocles. On learning what had been resolved, Mnesiphilus burst out into remonstrance on the utter ruin which its execution would entail: there would presently be neither any united fleet to fight, nor any aggregate cause and country to fight for. He vehemently urged Themistocles again to open the question, and to press by every means in his power for a recall of the vote for retreat, as well as for a resolution to stay and fight at Salamis.

Themistocles had already in vain tried to enforce the same view: but disheartened as he was by ill success, the remonstrances of a respected friend struck him so forcibly as to induce him to renew his efforts. He went instantly to the ship of Eurybiades, asked permission to speak with him, and being invited aboard, reopened with him alone the whole subject of the past discussion, enforcing his own views as emphatically as he could. In this private communication, all the arguments bearing upon the case were more unsparingly laid open than it had been possible to do in an assembly of the chiefs, who would have been insulted if openly told that they were likely to desert the fleet when once removed from Salamis. Speaking thus freely and confidentially, and speaking to Eurybiades alone, Themistocles was enabled to bring him partially round, and even prevailed upon him to convene a fresh synod. So soon as this synod had assembled, even before Eurybiades had explained the object and formally opened the discussion, Themistocles addressed himself to each of the chiefs separately, pouring forth at large his fears and anxiety as to the abandonment of Salamis: insomuch that the Corinthian Adimantus rebuked him by saying, “Themistocles, those who in the public festival-matches rise up before the proper signal, are scourged.” “True,” rejoined the Athenian, “but those who lag behind the signal win no crowns.”

Eurybiades then explained to the synod that doubts had arisen in his mind, and that he called them together to reconsider the previous resolve: upon which Themistocles began the debate, and vehemently enforced the necessity of fighting in the narrow sea of Salamis and not in the open waters at the isthmus, as well as of preserving Megara and Ægina: contending that a naval victory at Salamis would be not less effective for the defence of the Peloponnesus than if it took place at the isthmus, whereas, if the fleet were withdrawn to the latter point, they would only draw the Persians after them. Nor did he omit to add, that the Athenians had a prophecy assuring to them victory in this, their own island. But his speech made little impression on the Peloponnesian chiefs, who were even exasperated at being again summoned to reopen a debate already concluded, and concluded in a way which they deemed essential to their safety. In the bosom of the Corinthian Adimantus, especially, this feeling of anger burst all bounds. He sharply denounced the presumption of Themistocles, and bade him be silent as a man who had now no free Grecian city to represent, Athens being in the power of the enemy: nay, he went so far as to contend that Eurybiades had no right to count the vote of Themistocles, until the latter could produce some free city as accrediting him to the synod.

Such an attack, alike ungenerous and insane, upon the leader of more than half of the whole fleet, demonstrates the ungovernable impatience of the Corinthians to carry away the fleet to their isthmus: it provoked a bitter retort against them from Themistocles, who reminded them that while he had around him two hundred well-manned ships, he could procure for himself anywhere both city and territory as good or better than Corinth. But he now saw clearly that it was hopeless to think of enforcing his policy by argument, and that nothing would succeed except the direct language of intimidation. Turning to Eurybiades, and addressing him personally, he said: “If thou wilt stay here, and fight bravely here, all will turn out well: but if thou wilt not stay, thou wilt bring Hellas to ruin. For with us, all our means of war are contained in our ships. Be thou yet persuaded by me. If not, we Athenians shall migrate with our families on board, just as we are, to Siris in Italy, which is ours from of old, and which the prophecies announce that we are one day to colonise. You chiefs then, when bereft of allies like us, will hereafter recollect what I am now saying.”

Eurybiades had before been nearly convinced by the impressive pleading of Themistocles. But this last downright menace clenched his determination, and probably struck dumb even the Corinthian and Peloponnesian opponents: for it was but too plain, that without the Athenians the fleet was powerless. He did not, however, put the question again to vote, but took upon himself to rescind the previous resolution and to issue orders for staying at Salamis to fight. In this order all acquiesced, willing or unwilling; the succeeding dawn saw them preparing for fight instead of for retreat, and invoking the protection and companionship of the Æacid heroes of Salamis,--Telamon and Ajax: they even sent a trireme to Ægina to implore Æacus himself and the remaining Æacids. It seems to have been on this same day, also, that the resolution of fighting at Salamis was taken by Xerxes, whose fleet was seen in motion, towards the close of the day, preparing for attack the next morning.

But the Peloponnesians, though not venturing to disobey the orders of the Spartan admiral, still retained unabated their former fears and reluctance, which began again after a short interval to prevail over the formidable menace of Themistocles, and were further strengthened by the advices from the isthmus. The messengers from that quarter depicted the trepidation and affright of their absent brethren while constructing their cross wall at that point, to resist the impending land invasion. Why were they not there also, to join hands and to help in the defence,--even if worsted at sea,--at least on land, instead of wasting their efforts in defence of Attica, already in the hands of the enemy? Such were the complaints which passed from man to man, with many a bitter exclamation against the insanity of Eurybiades: at length the common feeling broke out in public and mutinous manifestation, and a fresh synod of the chiefs was demanded and convoked. Here the same angry debate, and the same irreconcilable difference, was again renewed; the Peloponnesian chiefs clamouring for immediate departure, while the Athenians, Æginetans, and Megarians were equally urgent in favour of staying to fight. It was evident to Themistocles that the majority of votes among the chiefs would be against him, in spite of the orders of Eurybiades; and the disastrous crisis, destined to deprive Greece of all united maritime defence, appeared imminent, when he resorted to one last stratagem to meet the desperate emergency, by rendering flight impossible. Contriving a pretext for stealing away from the synod, he despatched a trusty messenger across the strait with a secret communication to the Persian generals. Sicinnus his slave--seemingly an Asiatic Greek, who understood Persian, and had perhaps been sold during the late Ionic revolt, but whose superior qualities are marked by the fact that he had the care and teaching of the children of his master--was instructed to acquaint them privately and in the name of Themistocles, who was represented as wishing success at heart to the Persians, that the Greek fleet was not only in the utmost alarm, meditating immediate flight, but that the various portions of it were in such violent dissension, that they were more likely to fight against each other than against any common enemy. A splendid opportunity, it was added, was thus opened to the Persians, if they chose to avail themselves of it without delay, first, to inclose and prevent their flight, and then to attack a disunited body, many of whom would, when the combat began, openly espouse the Persian cause.

Such was the important communication despatched by Themistocles across the narrow strait, only a quarter of a mile in breadth at the narrowest part, which divides Salamis from the neighbouring continent on which the enemy were posted. It was delivered with so much address as to produce the exact impression which he intended, and the glorious success which followed caused it to pass for a splendid stratagem: had defeat ensued, his name would have been covered with infamy. What surprises us the most is, that after having reaped signal honour from it in the eyes of the Greeks, as a stratagem, he lived to take credit for it, during the exile of his latter days, as a capital service rendered to the Persian monarch: nor is it improbable, when we reflect upon the desperate condition of Grecian affairs at the moment, that such facility of double interpretation was in part his inducement for sending the message.

It appears to have been delivered to Xerxes shortly after he had issued his orders for fighting on the next morning: and he entered so greedily into the scheme, as to direct his generals to close up the strait of Salamis on both sides during the night, to the north as well as to the south of the town of Salamis, at the risk of their heads if any opening were left for the Greeks to escape. The station of the numerous Persian fleet was along the coast of Attica,--its headquarters were in the Bay of Phalerum, but doubtless parts of it would occupy those three natural harbours, as yet unimproved by art, which belonged to the deme of Piræus,--and would perhaps extend besides to other portions of the western coast southward of Phalerum: while the Greek fleet was in the harbour of the town called Salamis, in the portion of the island facing Mount Ægaleos, in Attica.

During the night, a portion of the Persian fleet, sailing from Piræus northward along the western coast of Attica, closed round to the north of the town and harbour of Salamis, so as to shut up the northern issue from the strait on the side of Eleusis: while another portion blocked up the other issue between Piræus and the southeastern corner of the island, landing a detachment of troops on the desert island of Psyttalea, near to that corner. These measures were all taken during the night, to prevent the anticipated flight of the Greeks, and then to attack them in the narrow strait close on their own harbour the next morning.

Meanwhile, that angry controversy among the Grecian chiefs, in the midst of which Themistocles had sent over his secret envoy, continued without abatement and without decision. It was the interest of the Athenian general to prolong the debate, and to prevent any concluding vote until the effect of his stratagem should have rendered retreat impossible: nor was prolongation difficult in a case so critical, where the majority of chiefs was on one side and that of naval force on the other--especially as Eurybiades himself was favourable to the view of Themistocles. Accordingly, the debate was still unfinished at nightfall, and either continued all night, or was adjourned to an hour before daybreak on the following morning, when an incident, interesting as well as important, gave to it a new turn.

The ostracised Aristides arrived at Salamis from Ægina. Since the revocation of his sentence, proposed by Themistocles himself, he had had no opportunity of revisiting Athens, and he now for the first time rejoined his countrymen in their exile at Salamis; not uninformed of the dissensions raging, and of the impatience of the Peloponnesians to retire to the isthmus. He was the first to bring the news that such retirement had become impracticable from the position of the Persian fleet, which his own vessel, in coming from Ægina, had only eluded under favour of night. He caused Themistocles to be invited out from the assembled synod of chiefs, and after a generous exordium, wherein he expressed his hope that their rivalry would for the future be only a competition in doing good to their common country, apprised him that the new movement of the Persians excluded all hope of now reaching the isthmus and rendered farther debate useless. Themistocles expressed his joy at the intelligence, and communicated his own secret message whereby he had himself brought the movement about, in order that the Peloponnesian chiefs might be forced to fight at Salamis, even against their own consent. He moreover desired Aristides to go himself into the synod, and communicate the news: for if it came from the lips of Themistocles, the Peloponnesians would treat it as a fabrication. So obstinate indeed was their incredulity, that they refused to accept it as truth even on the assertion of Aristides: nor was it until the arrival of a Tenian vessel, deserting from the Persian fleet, that they at last brought themselves to credit the actual posture of affairs and the entire impossibility of retreat. Once satisfied of this fact, they prepared themselves at dawn for the impending battle.

THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS

Having caused his land-force to be drawn up along the shore opposite to Salamis, Xerxes had erected for himself a lofty seat, or throne, upon one of the projecting declivities of Mount Ægaleos, near the Heracleum, and immediately overhanging the sea, from whence he could plainly review all the phases of the combat and the conduct of his subject troops. He was persuaded himself that they had not done their best at Artemisium, in consequence of his absence, and that his presence would inspire them with fresh valour: moreover, his royal scribes stood ready by his side to take the names both of the brave and of the backward combatants. On the right wing of his fleet--which approached Salamis on the side of Eleusis, and was opposed to the Athenians on the Grecian left--were placed the Phœnicians and Egyptians; on his left wing the Ionians, approaching from the side of Piræus, and opposed to the Lacedæmonians, Æginetans, and Megarians. The seamen of the Persian fleet, however, had been on shipboard all night, in making that movement which had brought them into their actual position: while the Greek seamen now began without previous fatigue, fresh from the animated harangues of Themistocles and the other leaders: moreover, just as they were getting on board, they were joined by the triremes which had been sent to Ægina to bring to their aid Æacus, with the other Æacid heroes. Honoured with this precious heroic aid, which tended so much to raise the spirits of the Greeks, the Æginetan trireme now arrived just in time to take her post in the line, having eluded pursuit from the intervening enemy.

The Greeks rowed forward from the shore to attack with the usual pæan, or war-shout, which was confidently returned by the Persians; and the latter were the most forward of the two to begin the fight: for the Greek seamen, on gradually nearing the enemy, became at first disposed to hesitate, and even backed water for a space, so that some of them touched ground on their own shore: until the retrograde movement was arrested by a supernatural feminine figure hovering over them, who exclaimed, with a voice that rang through the whole fleet, “Ye worthies, how much farther are ye going to back water?” The very circulation of this fable attests the dubious courage of the Greeks at the commencement of the battle. The brave Athenian captains Aminias and Lycomedes (the former, brother of the poet Æschylus) were the first to obey either the feminine voice or the inspirations of their own ardour: though according to the version current at Ægina, it was the Æginetan ship, the carrier of the Æacid heroes, which first set this honourable example. The Naxian Democritus was celebrated by Simonides as the third ship in action. Aminias, darting forth from the line, charged with the beak of his ship full against a Phœnician, and the two became entangled so that he could not again get clear; other ships came in aid on both sides, and the action thus became general. Herodotus, with his usual candour, tells us that he could procure few details about the action, except as to what concerned Artemisia, the queen of his own city: so that we know hardly anything beyond the general facts. But it appears that, with the exception of the Ionic Greeks, many of whom--apparently a greater number than Herodotus likes to acknowledge--were lukewarm, and some even averse, the subjects of Xerxes conducted themselves generally with great bravery: Phœnicians, Cyprians, Cilicians, Egyptians, vied with the Persians and Medes, serving as soldiers on shipboard, in trying to satisfy the exigent monarch who sat on shore watching their behaviour.

Their signal defeat was not owing to any want of courage, but, first, to the narrow space which rendered their superior number a hindrance rather than a benefit: next, to their want of orderly line and discipline as compared with the Greeks: thirdly, to the fact that, when once fortune seemed to turn against them, they had no fidelity or reciprocal attachment, and each ally was willing to sacrifice or even to run down others, in order to effect his own escape. Their numbers and absence of concert threw them into confusion, and caused them to run foul of each other: those in the front could not recede, nor could those in the rear advance: the oar blades were broken by collision, the steersmen lost control of their ships, and could no longer adjust the ship’s course so as to strike that direct blow with the beak which was essential in ancient warfare. After some time of combat, the whole Persian fleet was driven back and became thoroughly unmanageable, so that the issue was no longer doubtful, and nothing remained except the efforts of individual bravery to protract the struggle.

While the Athenian squadron on the left, which had the greatest resistance to surmount, broke up and drove before them the Persian right, the Æginetans on the right intercepted the flight of the fugitives to Phalerum: Democritus, the Naxian captain, was said to have captured five ships of the Persians with his own single trireme. The chief admiral, Ariabignes, brother of Xerxes, attacked at once by two Athenian triremes, fell, gallantly trying to board one of them, and the number of distinguished Persians and Medes who shared his fate was great: the more so, as few of them knew how to swim, while among the Greek seamen who were cast into the sea, the greater number were swimmers, and had the friendly shore of Salamis near at hand. It appears that the Phœnician seamen of the fleet threw the blame of defeat upon the Ionic Greeks; and some of them, driven ashore during the heat of the battle under the immediate throne of Xerxes, excused themselves by denouncing the others as traitors. The heads of the Ionic leaders might have been endangered if the monarch had not seen with his own eyes an act of surprising gallantry by one of their number. An Ionic trireme from Samothrace charged and disabled an Attic trireme, but was herself almost immediately run down by an Æginetan. The Samothracian crew, as their vessel lay disabled on the water, made such excellent use of their missile weapons, that they cleared the decks of the Æginetan, sprung on board, and became masters of her. This exploit, passing under the eyes of Xerxes himself, induced him to treat the Phœnicians as dastardly calumniators, and to direct their heads to be cut off: his wrath and vexation, Herodotus tells us, were boundless, and he scarcely knew on whom to vent it.

In this disastrous battle itself, as in the debate before the battle, the conduct of Artemisia of Halicarnassus was such as to give him full satisfaction. It appears that this queen maintained her full part in the battle until the disorder had become irretrievable; she then sought to escape, pursued by the Athenian trierarch, Aminias, but found her progress obstructed by the number of fugitive or embarrassed comrades before her. In this dilemma, she preserved herself from pursuit by attacking one of her own comrades; she charged the trireme of the Carian prince, Damasithymus of Calynda, ran it down and sunk it, so that the prince with all his crew perished. Had Aminias been aware that the vessel which he was following was that of Artemisia, nothing would have induced him to relax in the pursuit, for the Athenian captains were all indignant at the idea of a female invader assailing their city; but knowing her ship only as one among the enemy, and seeing her thus charge and destroy another enemy’s ship, he concluded her to be a deserter, turned his pursuit elsewhere, and suffered her to escape. At the same time, it so happened that the destruction of the ship of Damasithymus happened under the eyes of Xerxes and of the persons around him on shore, who recognised the ship of Artemisia, but supposed the ship destroyed to be a Greek. Accordingly they remarked to him, “Master, seest thou not how well Artemisia fights, and how she has just sunk an enemy’s ship?” Assured that it was really her deed, Xerxes is said to have replied, “My men have become women; my women, men.” Thus was Artemisia not only preserved, but exalted to a higher place in the esteem of Xerxes by the destruction of one of his own ships, among the crew of which not a man survived to tell the true story.

Of the total loss of either fleet, Herodotus gives us no estimate; but Diodorus states the number of ships destroyed on the Grecian side as forty, on the Persian side as two hundred; independent of those which were made prisoners with all their crews. To the Persian loss is to be added the destruction of all those troops whom they had landed before the battle in the island of Psyttalea: as soon as the Persian fleet was put to flight, Aristides carried over some Grecian hoplites to that island, overpowered the enemy, and put them to death to a man. This loss appears to have been much deplored, as they were choice troops; in great proportion the native Persian guards.

THE RETREAT OF XERXES

Great and capital as the victory was, there yet remained after it a sufficient portion of the Persian fleet to maintain even maritime war vigorously, not to mention the powerful land-force, as yet unshaken. And the Greeks themselves, immediately after they had collected in their island, as well as could be done, the fragments of shipping and the dead bodies, made themselves ready for a second engagement. But they were relieved from this necessity by the pusillanimity of the invading monarch, in whom the defeat had occasioned a sudden revulsion from contemptuous confidence, not only to rage and disappointment, but to the extreme of alarm for his own personal safety. He was possessed with a feeling of mingled wrath and mistrust against his naval force, which consisted entirely of subject nations--Phœnicians, Egyptians, Cilicians, Cyprians, Pamphylians, Ionic Greeks, etc., with a few Persians and Medes serving on board, in a capacity probably not well suited to them. None of these subjects had any interest in the success of the invasion, or any other motive for service except fear, while the sympathies of the Ionic Greeks were even decidedly against it. Xerxes now came to suspect the fidelity, or undervalue the courage, of all these naval subjects; he fancied that they could make no resistance to the Greek fleet, and dreaded lest the latter should sail forthwith to the Hellespont, so as to break down the bridge and intercept his personal retreat; for, upon the maintenance of that bridge he conceived his own safety to turn, not less than that of his father Darius, when retreating from Scythia, upon the preservation of the bridge over the Danube. Against the Phœnicians, from whom he had expected most, his rage broke out in such fierce threats, that they stole away from the fleet in the night, and departed homeward. Such a capital desertion made future naval struggle still more hopeless, and Xerxes, though at first breathing revenge, and talking about a vast mole or bridge to be thrown across the strait to Salamis, speedily ended by giving orders to the whole fleet to leave Phalerum in the night, not without disembarking, however, the best soldiers who served on board. They were to make straight for the Hellespont, and there to guard the bridge against his arrival.

This resolution was prompted by Mardonius, who saw the real terror which beset his master, and read therein sufficient evidence of danger to himself. When Xerxes despatched to Susa intelligence of his disastrous overthrow, the feeling at home was not simply that of violent grief for the calamity, and fear for the personal safety of the monarch--it was farther embittered by anger against Mardonius, as the instigator of this ruinous enterprise. That general knew full well that there was no safety for him in returning to Persia with the shame of failure on his head: it was better for him to take upon himself the chance of subduing Greece, which he had good hopes of being yet able to do, and to advise the return of Xerxes himself to a safe and easy residence in Asia. Such counsel was eminently palatable to the present alarm of the monarch, while it opened to Mardonius himself a fresh chance not only of safety, but of increased power and glory. Accordingly, he began to reassure his master, by representing that the recent blow was after all not serious--that it had only fallen upon the inferior part of his force, and upon worthless foreign slaves, like Phœnicians, Egyptians, etc., while the native Persian troops yet remained unconquered and unconquerable, fully adequate to execute the monarch’s revenge upon Hellas; that Xerxes might now very well retire with the bulk of his army if he were disposed; and that he, Mardonius, would pledge himself to complete the conquest, at the head of three hundred thousand chosen troops.

This proposition afforded at the same time consolation for the monarch’s wounded vanity, and safety for his person: his confidential Persians, and Artemisia herself, on being consulted, approved of the step. The latter had acquired his confidence by the dissuasive advice which she had given before the recent deplorable engagement, and she had every motive now to encourage a proposition indicating solicitude for his person, as well as relieving herself from the obligation of further service. “If Mardonius desires to remain (she remarked, contemptuously), by all means let him have the troops: should he succeed, thou wilt be the gainer: should he even perish, the loss of some of thy slaves is trifling, so long as thou remainest safe, and thy house in power. Thou hast already accomplished the purpose of thy expedition, in burning Athens.” Xerxes, while adopting this counsel, and directing the return of his fleet, showed his satisfaction with the Halicarnassian queen, by entrusting her with some of his children, directing her to transport them to Ephesus.

The Greeks at Salamis learned with surprise and joy the departure of the hostile fleet from the Bay of Phalerum, and immediately put themselves in pursuit; following as far as the island of Andros without success. Themistocles and the Athenians are even said to have been anxious to push on forthwith to the Hellespont, and there break down the bridge of boats, in order to prevent the escape of Xerxes, had they not been restrained by the caution of Eurybiades and the Peloponnesians, who represented that it was dangerous to detain the Persian monarch in the heart of Greece. Themistocles readily suffered himself to be persuaded, and contributed much to divert his countrymen from the idea; while he at the same time sent the faithful Sicinnus a second time to Xerxes, with the intimation that he, Themistocles, had restrained the impatience of the Greeks to proceed without delay and burn the Hellespontine bridge, and that he had thus, from personal friendship to the monarch, secured for him a safe retreat. Though this is the story related by Herodotus, we can hardly believe that, with the great Persian land-force in the heart of Attica, there could have been any serious idea of so distant an operation as that of attacking the bridge at the Hellespont. It seems more probable that Themistocles fabricated the intention, with a view of frightening Xerxes away, as well as of establishing a personal claim upon his gratitude in reserve for future contingencies.

Such crafty manœuvres and long-sighted calculations of possibility, seem extraordinary: but the facts are sufficiently attested--since Themistocles lived to claim as well as to receive fulfilment of the obligation thus conferred--and though extraordinary, they will not appear inexplicable, if we reflect, first, that the Persian game, even now, after the defeat of Salamis, was not only not desperate, but might perfectly well have succeeded, if it had been played with reasonable prudence: next, that there existed in the mind of this eminent man an almost unparalleled combination of splendid patriotism, long-sighted cunning, and selfish rapacity. Themistocles knew better than any one else that the cause of Greece had appeared utterly desperate, only a few hours before the late battle; moreover, a clever man, tainted with such constant guilt, might naturally calculate on being one day detected and punished, even if the Greeks proved successful.

He now employed the fleet among the islands of the Cyclades, for the purpose of levying fines upon them as a punishment for adherence to the Persian. He first laid siege to Andros, telling the inhabitants that he came to demand their money, bringing with him two great gods--Persuasion and Necessity. To which the Andrians replied, that “Athens was a great city, and blest with excellent gods: but that they were miserably poor, and that there were two unkind gods who always stayed with them and would never quit the island--Poverty and Helplessness. In these gods the Andrians put their trust, refusing to deliver the money required; for the power of Athens could never overcome their inability.” While the fleet was engaged in contending against the Andrians with their sad protecting deities, Themistocles sent round to various other cities, demanding from them private sums of money on condition of securing them from attack. From Carystus, Paros, and other places, he thus extorted bribes for himself apart from the other generals, but it appears that Andros was found unproductive, and after no very long absence the fleet was brought back to Salamis.

The intimation sent by Themistocles perhaps had the effect of hastening the departure of Xerxes, who remained in Attica only a few days after the battle of Salamis, and then withdrew his army through Bœotia into Thessaly, where Mardonius made choice of the troops to be retained for his future operations. He retained all the Persians, Medes, Sacæ, Bactrians, and Indians, horse as well as foot, together with select detachments of the remaining contingents: making in all, according to Herodotus, three hundred thousand men. But as it was now the beginning of September, and as sixty thousand out of his forces, under Artabazus, were destined to escort Xerxes himself to the Hellespont, Mardonius proposed to winter in Thessaly, and to postpone further military operations until the ensuing spring.

Having left most of these troops under the orders of Mardonius in Thessaly, Xerxes marched away with the rest to the Hellespont, by the same road as he had taken in his advance a few months before. Respecting his retreat, a plentiful stock of stories were circulated, inconsistent with each other, fanciful, and even incredible: Grecian imagination, in the contemporary poet Æschylus, as well as in the Latin moralisers Seneca or Juvenal, delighted in handling this invasion with the maximum of light and shadow, magnifying the destructive misery and humiliation of the retreat so as to form an impressive contrast with the superhuman pride of the advance, and illustrating the antithesis with unbounded license of detail. The sufferings from want of provision were doubtless severe, and are described as frightful and death-dealing: the magazines stored up for the advancing march had been exhausted, so that the retiring army were now forced to seize upon the corn of the country through which they passed--an insufficient maintenance, eked out by leaves, grass, the bark of trees, and other wretched substitutes for food. Plague and dysentery aggravated their misery, and occasioned many to be left behind among the cities through whose territory the retreat was carried; strict orders being left by Xerxes that these cities should maintain and tend them. After forty-five days’ march from Attica, he at length found himself at the Hellespont, whither his fleet, retreating from Salamis, had arrived long before him. But the short-lived bridge had already been knocked to pieces by a storm, so that the army was transported on shipboard across to Asia, where it first obtained comfort and abundance, and where the change from privation to excess engendered new maladies. In the time of Herodotus, the citizens of Abdera still showed the gilt scimitar and tiara, which Xerxes had presented to them when he halted there in his retreat, in token of hospitality and satisfaction: and they even went the length of affirming that never, since his departure from Attica, had he loosened his girdle until he reached their city. So fertile was Grecian fancy in magnifying the terror of the repulsed invader--who re-entered Sardis, with a broken army and humbled spirit, only eight months after he had left it as the presumed conqueror of the western world.

THE SPOILS OF VICTORY

Meanwhile the Athenians and Peloponnesians, liberated from the immediate presence of the enemy either on land or sea, and passing from the extreme of terror to sudden ease and security, indulged in the full delight and self-congratulation of unexpected victory. On the day before the battle, Greece had seemed irretrievably lost: she was now saved even against all reasonable hope, and the terrific cloud impending over her was dispersed. In the division of the booty, the Æginetans were adjudged to have distinguished themselves most in the action, and to be entitled to the choice lot; while various tributes of gratitude were also set apart for the gods. Among them were three Phœnician triremes, which were offered in dedication to Ajax at Salamis, to Athene at Sunium, and to Poseidon at the Isthmus of Corinth; further presents were sent to Apollo at Delphi, who, on being asked whether he was satisfied, replied, that all had done their duty to him except the Æginetans: from them he required additional munificence on account of the prize awarded to them, and they were constrained to dedicate in the temple four golden stars upon a staff of brass, which Herodotus himself saw there. Next to the Æginetans, the second place of honour was awarded to the Athenians; the Æginetan Polycritus, and the Athenians Eumenes and Aminias, being ranked first among the individual combatants.

Besides the first and second prizes of valour, the chiefs at the isthmus tried to adjudicate among themselves the first and second prizes of skill and wisdom. Each of them deposited two names on the altar of Poseidon: and when these votes came to be looked at, it was found that each man had voted for himself as deserving the first prize, but that Themistocles had a large majority of votes for the second. The result of such voting allowed no man to claim the first prize, nor could the chiefs give a second prize without it; so that Themistocles was disappointed of his reward, though exalted so much the higher, perhaps, through that very disappointment, in general renown. He went shortly afterwards to Sparta, where he received from the Lacedæmonians honours such as were never paid before or afterwards to any foreigner. A crown of olive was indeed given to Eurybiades as the first prize, but a like crown was at the same time conferred on Themistocles as a special reward for unparalleled sagacity; together with a chariot, the finest which the city afforded. Moreover, on his departure, the three hundred select youths called hippeis, who formed the active guard and police of the country, all accompanied him in a body as escort of honour to the frontiers of Tegea. Such demonstrations were so astonishing, from the haughty and immovable Spartans, that they were ascribed by some authors to their fear lest Themistocles should be offended by being deprived of the general prize.[b]

SYRACUSAN VICTORY OVER CARTHAGE

On the very same day on which the Persians were defeated at Salamis, another portion of the Hellenic race, the Sicilian Greeks, also obtained a victory over an immense barbarian force. There is reason to believe that the invasion of Sicily by the Carthaginians was concerted with Xerxes, and that the simultaneous attack on two distinct Grecian peoples, by two immense armaments, was not merely the result of chance. It was, however, in the internal affairs of Sicily that the Carthaginians sought the pretext and the opportunity for their invasion. About the year 481 B.C., Theron, despot of Agrigentum, a relative of Gelo, the powerful ruler of Syracuse, expelled Terillus from Himera, and took possession of that town. Terillus, backed by some Sicilian cities which formed a kind of Carthaginian party, applied to the Carthaginians to restore him. The Carthaginians complied with the invitation; and in the year 480 B.C., Hamilcar landed at Panormus with a force composed of various nations, which is said to have amounted to the enormous sum of three hundred thousand men. Having drawn up his vessels on the beach, and protected them with a rampart, Hamilcar proceeded to besiege the Himeræans, who on their part prepared for an obstinate defence. At the instance of Theron, Gelo marched to the relief of the town with fifty thousand foot and five thousand horse. An obstinate and bloody engagement ensued, which, by a stratagem of Gelo’s, was at length determined in his favour. The ships of the Carthaginians were fired, and Hamilcar himself slain. According to the statement of Diodorus, one hundred and fifty thousand Carthaginians fell in the engagement, while the greater part of the remainder surrendered at discretion, twenty ships alone escaping with a few fugitives. This account may justly be regarded as an exaggeration; yet it cannot be doubted that the victory was a decisive one, and the number very great of the prisoners and slain.

In Sicily, Greek taste made the sinews of the prisoners subserve the purposes of art; and many of the public structures which adorned and distinguished Agrigentum rose by the labour of the captive Carthaginians. Thus were the arms of Greece victorious on all sides, and the outposts of Europe maintained against the incursions of the semi-barbarous hordes of Asia and Africa.[f]

FOOTNOTES

[31] In the years 1821 and 1822, during the struggle which preceded the liberation of Greece, the Athenians were forced to leave their country and seek refuge in Salamis three several times. These incidents are sketched in a manner alike interesting and instructive by Dr. Waddington, in his Visit to Greece (London, 1825), Letters vi, vii, x. He states, p. 92, “Three times have the Athenians emigrated in a body, and sought refuge from the sabre among the houseless rocks of Salamis. Upon these occasions, I am assured, that many have dwelt in caverns, and many in miserable huts, constructed on the mountain-side by their own feeble hands. Many have perished too, from exposure to an intemperate climate; many, from diseases contracted through the loathsomeness of their habitations; many, from hunger and misery. On the retreat of the Turks, the survivors returned to their country. But to what a country did they return? To a land of desolation and famine; and in fact, on the first reoccupation of Athens, after the departure of Omer Brioni, several persons are known to have subsisted for some time on grass, till a supply of corn reached the Piræus from Syra and Hydra.” In the war between the Turks and Venetians in 1688, the population of Attica was forced to emigrate to Salamis, Ægina, and Corinth.

[32] Compare the account given in Pausanias (X, 23) of the subsequent repulse of Brennus and the Gauls from Delphi: in his account, the repulse is not so exclusively the work of the gods as in that of Herodotus: there is a larger force of human combatants in defence of the temple, though greatly assisted by divine intervention: there is also loss on both sides. A similar descent of crags from the summit is mentioned. Many great blocks of stone and cliff are still to be seen near the spot, which have rolled down from the top, and which remind the traveller of these passages. The attack here described to have been made by order of Xerxes upon the Delphian temple seems not easy to reconcile with the words of Mardonius: still less can it be reconciled with the statement of Plutarch, who says that the Delphian temple was burnt by the Medes.

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XXI. FROM SALAMIS TO MYCALE

The battle of Salamis is a watchword of Greek triumph, and yet it by no means solved the problem of independence, for a great army was still in the country, enjoying the confidence and aid of many Greek allies. The defeated Persian fleet itself was still of sufficient power to be a lively danger.

The remainder of the fleet of Xerxes, which, flying from Salamis, arrived in Asia, after transporting the king and his forces from the Chersonesus to Abydos, wintered at Cyme. In the commencement of the spring it assembled at Samos, where some other vessels had continued during the winter. This armament was principally manned by Persians and Medes, and was under the conduct of Mardontes, the son of Bagæus, and Artayntes, son of Artachæus, whose uncle Amitres had been joined to him as his colleague. As the alarm of their former defeat was not yet subsided, they did not attempt to advance farther west, nor indeed did any one impel them to do so. Their vessels, with those of the Ionians, amounted to three hundred, and they stationed themselves at Samos, to secure the fidelity of Ionia. They did not think it probable that the Greeks would penetrate into Ionia, but would be satisfied with defending their country. They were confirmed in this opinion, as the Greeks, after the battle of Salamis, never attempted to pursue them, but were themselves content to retire also.

With respect to their affairs at sea, the Persians were sufficiently depressed; but they expected that Mardonius would do great things by land. Remaining on their station at Samos, they consulted how they might annoy the enemy, and they anxiously attended to the progress and affairs of Mardonius.

The approach of the spring, and the appearance of Mardonius in Thessaly, roused the Greeks. Their land army was not yet got together, but their fleet, consisting of a hundred and ten ships, was already at Ægina, under the command of Leotychides. He was descended in a right line from Hercules. He was of the second royal family, and all his ancestors, except the two named after Leotychides, had been kings of Sparta. The Athenians were commanded by Xanthippus, son of Ariphron.

When the fleet of the Greeks had arrived at Ægina, the same individuals who had before been at Sparta to entreat the assistance of that people to deliver Ionia, arrived among the Greeks. Herodotus, the son of Basilides, was with them; they were in all seven, and had together concerted the death of Strattis, tyrant of Chios. Their plot having been discovered by one of the accomplices, the other six had withdrawn themselves to Sparta, and now came to Ægina to persuade the Greeks to enter Ionia: they were induced, though not without difficulty, to advance as far as Delos. All beyond this, the Greeks viewed as full of danger, as well because they were ignorant of the country, as because they supposed the enemy’s forces were in all these parts strong and numerous: Samos they considered as not less remote than the pillars of Hercules. Thus the barbarians were kept by their apprehensions from advancing beyond Samos, and the Greeks, notwithstanding the solicitations of the Chians, would not move farther eastward than Delos. Their mutual alarm thus kept the two parties at a distance from each other.

Whilst the Greeks thus moved to Delos, Mardonius, who had wintered in Thessaly, began to break up his quarters. His first step was to send an European, whose name was Mys, to the different oracles, ordering him to use his endeavours, and consult them all.

MARDONIUS MAKES OVERTURES TO ATHENS

[Sidenote: [479 B.C.]]

As soon as the oracular declarations had been conveyed to Mardonius, he sent Alexander the Macedonian, son of Amyntas, ambassador to Athens. His choice of him was directed from his being connected with the Persians by ties of consanguinity and from his being a man of munificent and hospitable spirit. For these reasons he deemed him the most likely to conciliate the Athenians, who were represented to him as a valiant and numerous people, and who had principally contributed to the defeats which the Persians had sustained by sea. He reasonably presumed, that if he could prevail on them to unite their forces with his own, he might easily become master of the sea. His power by land was in his opinion superior to all resistance, and as the oracles had probably advised him to make an alliance with the Athenians, he hoped by these means effectually to subdue the Greeks.

When Alexander arrived at Athens, as deputed by Mardonius, he delivered the following speech: “Men of Athens, Mardonius informs you by me, that he has received a commission from the king of the following import: ‘Whatever injuries the Athenians may have done me, I willingly forgive: return them therefore their country; let them add to it from any other they may prefer, and let them enjoy their own laws. If they will consent to enter into an alliance with me, you have my orders to rebuild all their temples which I have burned.’

“It will be my business to do all this unless you prevent me. I will now give you my own sentiments: What infatuation can induce you to continue your hostilities against a king to whom you can never be superior, and whom you cannot always resist: you already know the forces and exploits of Xerxes: neither can you be ignorant of the army under me. If you should even repel and conquer us, of which if you be wise you can indulge no hope, another army not inferior in strength will soon succeed ours. Do not, therefore, by endeavouring to render yourselves equal to so great a king, risk not only the loss of your native country, but the security of your persons: accept, therefore, of our friendship, and avail yourselves of the present honourable opportunity of averting the indignation of Xerxes. Be free, and let us mutually enter into a solemn alliance without fraud or treachery. Let, then, my offers prevail with you as their importance merits, for to you alone of all the Greeks, the king forgives the injuries he has sustained, wishing to become your friend.”

The Lacedæmonians having heard that this prince was gone to Athens to invite the Athenians to an alliance with the Persians, were exceedingly alarmed. They could not forget the oracle which foretold that they, with the rest of the Dorians, should be driven from the Peloponnesus by a junction of the Medes with the Athenians, to whom therefore they lost no time in sending ambassadors. These were present at the Athenian council, for the Athenians had endeavoured to gain time, well knowing that the Lacedæmonians would learn that an ambassador was come to invite them to a confederacy with the Persians, and would consequently send deputies to be present on the occasion; they therefore deferred the meeting, that the Lacedæmonians might be present at the declaration of their sentiments.

When Alexander had finished speaking, the Spartan envoys made this immediate reply: “We have been deputed by the Spartans, to entreat you not to engage in anything which may operate to the injury of our common country, nor listen to any propositions of Xerxes; such a conduct would not be equitable in itself, and would be particularly base in you from various reasons: you were the first promoters of this war, in opposition to our opinion; it was first of all commenced in vindication of your liberties, though all Greece was afterwards drawn into the contest. It will be most of all intolerable, that the Athenians should become the instruments of enslaving Greece, who, from times the most remote, have restored their liberties to many. Your present condition does not fail to excite in us sentiments of the sincerest pity, who, for two successive seasons, have been deprived of the produce of your lands, and have so long seen your mansions in ruin. From reflecting on your situation, we Spartans, in conjunction with your other allies, undertake to maintain, as long as the war shall continue, not only your wives, but such other parts of your families as are incapable of military service. Let not, therefore, this Macedonian Alexander, softening the sentiments of Mardonius, seduce you: the part he acts is consistent; a tyrant himself, he espouses the interests of a tyrant. If you are wise you will always remember, that the barbarians are invariably false and faithless.”

After the above address of the Spartans, the Athenians made this reply to Alexander: “It was not at all necessary for you to inform us, that the power of the Persians was superior to our own: nevertheless, in defence of our liberties, we will continue our resistance to the utmost of our abilities. You may be assured that your endeavours to persuade us into an alliance with the barbarians never will succeed: tell, therefore, Mardonius, on the part of the Athenians, that as long as the sun shall continue its ordinary course, so long will we avoid any friendship with Xerxes, and so long will we continue to resist him. Tell him, we shall always look with confidence to the protecting assistance of those gods and heroes whose shrines and temples he has contemptuously destroyed. Hereafter do not you presume to enter an Athenian assembly with overtures of this kind, lest whilst you appear to mean us well, you prompt us to do what is abominable. We are unwilling that you should receive any injury from us, having been our guest and our friend.”

The above was the answer given to Alexander; after which the Athenians thus spoke to the Lacedæmonians: “That the Spartans should fear our entering into an alliance with the barbarians seems natural enough; but in doing this, as you have had sufficient testimonies of Athenian firmness, you certainly did us injury. There is not upon earth a quantity of gold, nor any country so rich or so beautiful, as to seduce us to take part with the Medes, or to act injuriously to the liberties of Greece.

“If of ourselves we were so inclined, there still exist many important circumstances to deter us: in the first place, what is of all motives the most powerful, the shrines and temples of our deities, consumed by fire, and levelled with the ground, prompt us to the prosecution of a just revenge, and manifestly compel us to reject every idea of forming an alliance with him who perpetrated these impieties. In the next place, our common consanguinity, our using the same language, our worship of the same divinities, and our practice of the same religious ceremonies, render it impossible that the Athenians should prove perfidious. If you knew it not before, be satisfied now, that as long as one Athenian shall survive, we will not be friends with Xerxes; in the mean time, your interest in our fortunes, your concern for the ruin of our mansions, and your offers to provide for the maintenance of our families, demand our gratitude, and may be considered as the perfection of generosity. We will, however, bear our misfortunes as we may be able, and not be troublesome to you; be it your care to bring your forces into the field as expeditiously as possible; it is not probable that the barbarian will long defer his invasion of our country, he will be upon us as soon as he shall be informed that we have rejected his proposals: before he shall be able to penetrate into Attica, it becomes us to advance to the assistance of Bœotia.”

MARDONIUS MOVES ON ATHENS

On receiving this answer from the Athenians, the ambassadors returned to Sparta. As soon as Mardonius heard from Alexander the determination of the Athenians, he moved from Thessaly, directing by rapid marches his course towards Athens. Wherever he came, he furnished himself with supplies of troops. The princes of Thessaly were so far from repenting of the part they had taken, that they endeavoured still more to animate Mardonius. Of these, Thorax of Larissa, who had attended Xerxes in his flight, now openly conducted Mardonius into Greece.

As soon as the army in its progress arrived at Bœotia, the Thebans received Mardonius. They endeavoured to persuade him to fix his station where he was, assuring him that a place more convenient for a camp, or better adapted for the accomplishment of his purpose, could not be found. They told him that by staying here he might subdue the Greeks without a battle. He might be satisfied, they added, from his former experience, that as long as the Greeks were united, it would be impossible for any body of men to subdue them. “If,” said they, “you will be directed by our advice, you will be able, without difficulty, to counteract their wisest counsels. Send a sum of money to the most powerful men in each city: you will thus create anarchy in Greece, and by the assistance of your partisans, easily overcome all opposition.”

This was the advice of the Thebans, which Mardonius was prevented from following, partly by his earnest desire of becoming a second time master of Athens, and partly by his pride. He was also anxious to inform the king at Sardis, by means of fires disposed at certain distances along the islands, that he had taken Athens. Proceeding therefore to Attica, he found it totally deserted; the inhabitants, as he was informed, being either at Salamis or on board the fleet. He then took possession of Athens a second time, ten months after its capture by Xerxes. Whilst he continued at Athens, he despatched to Salamis, Murichides, a native of the Hellespont, with the same propositions that Alexander the Macedonian had before made to the Athenians.

Murichides went to the council, and delivered the sentiments of Mardonius. A senator named Lycidas gave his opinion, that the terms offered by Murichides were such as it became them to listen to, and communicate to the people; he said this, either from conviction, or seduced by the gold of Mardonius; but he had no sooner thus expressed himself, than both the Athenians who heard him, and those who were without, rushed with indignation upon him, and stoned him to death.[33] They dismissed Murichides without injury. The Athenian women soon heard of the tumult which had been excited at Salamis on account of Lycidas, when, in a body mutually stimulating each other, they ran impetuously to his house, and stoned his wife and his children.

ATHENS APPEALS TO SPARTA

These were the inducements with the Athenians for returning to Salamis: as long as they entertained any expectation of assistance from the Peloponnesus, they stayed in Attica; but when they found their allies careless and inactive, and that Mardonius was already in Bœotia, they removed with all their effects to Salamis. At the same time they sent envoys to Lacedæmon, to complain that the Spartans, instead of advancing with them to meet the barbarian in Bœotia, had suffered him to enter Attica. They told them by what liberal offers the Persian had invited them to his friendship; and they forewarned them, that if they were not speedy in their communication of assistance, the Athenians must seek some other remedy. The Lacedæmonians were then celebrating what are called the hyacinthia, which solemnity, they deem of the highest importance; they were also at work upon the wall of the isthmus, the battlements of which were already erected.

The ephori heard the deputies, but deferred answering them till the next day; when the morrow came, they put them off till the day following, and this they did for ten days successively. In this interval, the Peloponnesians prosecuted with great ardour on the isthmus, their work of the wall, which they nearly completed. Why the Spartans discovered so great an anxiety on the arrival of Alexander at Athens, lest the Athenians should come to terms with the Medes, and why now they did not seem to concern themselves about them, is more than we are able to explain, unless it was that the wall of the Isthmus was unfinished, after which they did not want the aid of the Athenians: but when Alexander arrived at Athens, this work was not completed, although from terror of the Persians they eagerly pursued it.

The answer and motions of the Spartans were finally these: on the day preceding that which was last appointed, a man of Tegea, named Chileus, who enjoyed at Lacedæmon greater reputation than any other foreigner, inquired from one of the ephori what the Athenians had said; which when he knew, he thus addressed them: “Things, O ephori, are thus circumstanced. If the Athenians, withdrawing from our alliance, shall unite with the Persian, strong as our wall on the isthmus may be, the enemy will still find an easy entrance into the Peloponnesus. Let us therefore hear them, before they do anything which may involve Greece in ruin.”

The ephori were so impressed by what Chileus had said, that without communicating with the deputies of the different states, whilst it was yet night, they sent away a detachment of five thousand Spartans, each accompanied by seven helots, under the conduct of Pausanias, son of Cleombrotus.

With these forces Pausanias left Sparta: the deputies, ignorant of the matter, when the morning came went to the ephori, having previously resolved to return to their respective cities: “You, O Lacedæmonians,” they exclaimed, “lingering here, solemnise the hyacinthia, and are busy in your public games, basely deserting your allies. The Athenians, injured by you, and but little assisted by any, will make their peace with the Persians on the best terms they can obtain. When the enmity betwixt us shall have ceased, and we shall become the king’s allies, we shall fight with him wherever he may choose to lead us: you may know therefore what consequences you have to expect.”

In answer to this declaration of the ambassadors, the ephori protested, upon oath, that they believed their troops were already in Oresteum, on their march against the strangers; by which expression they meant the barbarians. The deputies, not understanding them, requested an explanation. When the matter was properly represented to them, they departed with astonishment to overtake them, accompanied by five thousand armed troops from the neighbourhood of Sparta.

Whilst these were hastening to the isthmus, the Argives, as soon as they heard of the departure of Pausanias at the head of a body of troops from Sparta, sent one of their fleetest messengers to Mardonius in Attica. They had before undertaken to prevent the Lacedæmonians from taking the field. When the herald arrived at Athens, “I am sent,” said he to Mardonius, “by the Argives, to inform you that the forces of Sparta are already on their march, and we have not been able to prevent them; avail yourself therefore of this information.” Saying this, he returned.

MARDONIUS DESTROYS ATHENS AND WITHDRAWS

Mardonius, hearing this, determined to stay no longer in Attica. He had continued until this time, willing to see what measures the Athenians would take; and he had refrained from offering any kind of injury to the Athenian lands, hoping they would still make peace with him. When it was evident that this was not to be expected, he withdrew his army, before Pausanias and his detachment arrived at the isthmus. He did not however depart without setting fire to Athens,[34] and levelling with the ground whatever of the walls, buildings, or temples, still remained entire. He was induced to quit his station, because the country of Attica was ill adapted for cavalry, and because in case of defeat he had no other means of escape but through straits where a handful of men might cut off his retreat. He therefore determined to remove to Thebes, that he might have the advantage of fighting near a confederate city and in a country convenient for his cavalry.

Mardonius was already on his march, when another courier came in haste to inform him, that a second body of a thousand Spartans was moving towards Megara. He accordingly deliberated how he might intercept this latter party. Turning aside towards Megara, he sent on his cavalry to ravage the Megarian lands. These were the extreme limits on the western parts of Europe, to which the Persian army penetrated.

Another messenger now came to tell him, that the Greeks were assembled with great strength at the isthmus; he therefore turned back through Decelea. The Bœotian chiefs had employed their Asopian neighbours as guides, who conducted Mardonius first to Sphendaleas, and thence to Tanagra. At Tanagra, Mardonius passed the night, and the next day came to Scolos, in the Theban territory. Here the lands of the Thebans, though the friends and allies of the Medes, were laid waste, not from any enmity, but from the urgent necessities of the army. The general was desirous to fortify his camp, and to have some place of refuge in case of defeat. His camp extended from Erythræ, by Hysiæ, as far as Platæa, on the banks of the Asopus. It was protected by a wall, which did not continue the whole extent of the camp, but which occupied a space of ten stadia in each of the four fronts.

Whilst Mardonius was stationed in Bœotia, all the Greeks who were attached to the Persians supplied him with troops, and joined him in his attack on Athens; the Phocians alone did not; these had indeed, and with apparent ardour, favoured the Medes, not from inclination but necessity. A few days after the entertainment given at Thebes, they arrived with a thousand well-armed troops under the command of Harmocydes, one of their most popular citizens. Mardonius, on their following him to Thebes, sent some horsemen, commanding them to halt by themselves in the plain where they were: at the same moment, all the Persian cavalry appeared in sight. A rumour instantly circulated among those Greeks who were in the Persian camp, that the Phocians were going to be put to death by the cavalry. The same also spread through the Phocians, on which account their leader Harmocydes thus addressed them:

“My friends, I am convinced that we are destined to perish by the swords of these men, and from the accusations of the Thessalians. Let each man therefore prove his valour. It is better to die like men, exerting ourselves in our own defence, than to suffer ourselves to be slain tamely and without resistance: let these barbarians know, that the men whose deaths they meditate are Greeks.”

With these words Harmocydes animated his countrymen. When the cavalry had surrounded them, they rode up as if to destroy them: they made a show of hurling their weapons, which some of them probably did. The Phocians upon this closed their ranks, and on every part fronted the enemy. The Persians seeing this, faced about and retired. We are not able to decide whether, at the instigation of the Thessalians, the Phocians were actually doomed to death; or whether, observing them determined to defend themselves, the Persians retired from the fear of receiving some injury themselves, and as if they had been so ordered by Mardonius, merely to make experiment of their valour. After the cavalry were withdrawn, a herald came to them on the part of Mardonius: “Men of Phocis,” he exclaimed, “be not alarmed; you have given a proof of resolution which Mardonius had been taught not to expect; assist us therefore in the war with alacrity, for you shall neither outdo me nor the king in generosity.”

The Lacedæmonians arriving at the isthmus, fortified their camp. As soon as this was known to the rest of the Peloponnesians, all were unwilling to be surpassed by the Spartans, as well they who were actuated by a love of their country, as they who had seen the Lacedæmonians proceed on their march. The victims which were sacrificed having a favourable appearance, they left the isthmus in a body, and came to Eleusis. The sacrifices at this place being again auspicious, they continued to advance, having been joined at Eleusis by the Athenians, who had passed over from Salamis. On their arrival at Erythræ, in Bœotia, they learned that the barbarians were encamped near the Asopus; then they marched to the foot of Mount Cithæron.

A PRELIMINARY SKIRMISH

As they did not descend into the plain[35] Mardonius sent the whole of his cavalry against them, under the command of Masistius, called by the Greeks Macistius. He was a Persian of distinction, and was on this occasion mounted on a Nisæan horse, decorated with a bridle of gold, and other splendid trappings. When they came near the Greeks, they attacked them in squadrons, did them considerable injury, and by way of insult called them women. The situation of the Megarians being most easy of access, was most exposed to the enemy’s attack. Being hardly pressed by the barbarians, they sent a herald, who thus addressed the Grecian commanders: “We Megarians, O allies, are unable to stand the shock of the enemy’s cavalry in our present position: if you are not speedy in relieving us, we shall be compelled to quit the field.”

After this report of the heralds, Pausanias wished to see if any of the Greeks would voluntarily offer themselves to take the post of the Megarians. All refused, except a chosen band of three hundred Athenians, commanded by Olympiodorus, the son of Lampon.

This body, which took upon itself the defence of a post declined by all the other Greeks encamped at Erythræ, brought with them a band of archers. The engagement, after an obstinate dispute, terminated thus: The enemies’ horse attacked in squadrons; the steed of Masistius, being conspicuous above the rest, was wounded in the side by an arrow; it reared, and becoming unruly from the pain of the wound, threw its rider. The Athenians rushed upon him, seized the horse, and notwithstanding his resistance, killed Masistius. In doing this, however, they had some difficulty, on account of his armour. Over a purple tunic he wore a breastplate covered with plates of gold. This repelled all their blows, which some person perceiving, killed him by wounding him in the eye. The death of Masistius was unknown to the rest of his troops; they did not see him fall from his horse, and were ignorant of his fate, their attention being entirely occupied by succeeding in regular squadrons to the charge. At length making a stand, they perceived themselves without a leader. Upon this they rushed in with united force to bring off the body of Masistius.

The Athenians seeing them advance in a collected body, called out for relief. While the infantry were moving to their support, the body of Masistius was vigorously disputed. While the three hundred were alone, they were compelled to give ground, and recede from the body; but other forces coming to their relief, the cavalry in their turn gave way, and, with the body of their leader, lost a great number of their men. Retiring for the space of two stadia, they held a consultation, and being without a commander, determined to return to Mardonius. On their arrival at the camp, the death of Masistius spread a general sorrow through the army, and greatly afflicted Mardonius himself. They cut off the hair from themselves, their horses, and their beasts of burden, and all Bœotia resounded with their cries and lamentations. The man they had lost, was, next to Mardonius, most esteemed by the Persians and the king.

The Greeks having not only sustained but repelled the attacks of the cavalry, were inspired with increasing resolution. The body of Masistius, which from its beauty and size deserved admiration, they placed on a carriage, and passed through the ranks, while all quitted their stations to view it. They afterwards determined to remove to Platæa; they thought this a more commodious place for a camp than Erythræ, as well for other reasons as because there was plenty of water. To this place, near which is the fountain of Gargaphia, they resolved to go and pitch a regularly fortified camp. Taking their arms, they proceeded by the foot of Cithæron, and passing Hysiæ, came to Platæa. They drew themselves up in regular divisions of the different nations, near the fountain of Gargaphia and the shrine of the hero Androcrates, some on a gently rising ground, others on the plain.

In the arrangement of the several nations, a violent dispute arose betwixt the Tegeatæ and Athenians, each asserting their claim to one of the wings, in vindication of which they appealed to their former as well as more recent exploits. The Tegeatæ spoke to this effect:

“The post which we now claim has ever been given us by the joint consent of the allies, in all the expeditions made beyond the Peloponnesus: we not only speak of ancient but of less distant periods. After the death of Eurystheus, when the Heraclidæ made an attempt to return to the Peloponnesus, the rank we now vindicate was allowed us. With you, O Lacedæmonians, we do not enter into competition, we are willing that you should take your post in which wing you think proper; the command of the other, which has so long been allowed us, we now claim. Not to dwell upon the action we have recited, we are certainly more worthy of this post than the Athenians. On your account, O Spartans, as well as for the benefit of others, we have fought again and again with success and glory. Let not then the Athenians be on this occasion preferred to us; for they have never in an equal manner distinguished themselves in past or in more recent periods.”

The Athenians made this reply: “We are well aware, that the motive of our assembling here is not to spend our time in altercations, but to fight the barbarians; but since it has been thought necessary to urge on the part of the Tegeatæ their ancient as well as more recent exploits, we feel ourselves obliged to assert that right, which we receive from our ancestors, to be preferred to the Arcadians as long as we shall conduct ourselves well. Those Heraclidæ, whose leader they boast to have slain at the isthmus, after being rejected by all the Greeks with whom they wished to take refuge from the servitude of the people of Mycenæ, found a secure retreat with us alone. In conjunction with them we chastised the insolence of Eurystheus, and obtained a complete victory over those possessing the Peloponnesus. The Argives, who under Polynices fought against Thebes, remaining unburied, we undertook an expedition against the Cadmeans, recovered the bodies, and interred them in our country at Eleusis. A further instance of our prowess was exhibited in our repulsion of the Amazons, who advanced from the river Thermodon to invade Attica. We were no less conspicuous at the siege of Troy.

“But this recital is vain and useless; the people who were then illustrious might now be base, or dastards then, might now be heroes. Enough therefore of the examples of our former glory, though we are still able to introduce more and greater; for if any of the Greeks at the battle of Marathon merited renown, we may claim this, and more also. On that day we alone contended with the Persian, and after a glorious and successful contest were victorious over an army of forty-six different nations; which action must confessedly entitle us to the post we claim; but in the present state of affairs, all dispute about rank is unseasonable; we are ready, O Lacedæmonians, to oppose the enemy wherever you shall choose to station us. Wherever we may be, we shall endeavour to behave like men. Lead us on therefore, we are ready to obey you.”

When the Athenians had thus delivered their sentiments, the Lacedæmonians were unanimous in declaring that the Arcadians must yield to the people of Athens the command of one of the wings. They accordingly took their station in preference to the Tegeatæ.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE BATTLE OF PLATÆA

The Greeks who came afterwards, with those who were present before, were thus disposed. The Lacedæmonians, to the number of ten thousand, occupied the right wing; of these, five thousand were Spartans, who were followed by thirty-five thousand helots lightly armed, allowing seven helots to each Spartan. The Tegeatæ, to the number of fifteen hundred, were placed by the Spartans next themselves, in consideration of their valour, and as a mark of honour. Nearest the Tegeatæ were five thousand Corinthians, who, in consequence of their request to Pausanias, had contiguous to them three hundred Potidæans of Pallene. Next in order were six hundred Arcadians of Orchomnene, three thousand Sicyonians, eight hundred Epidaurians, and a thousand Trœzenians. Contiguous to these last were two hundred Lepreatæ; next to whom were four hundred Mycenæans and Tirynthians. Stationed by the Tirynthians were, in regular succession, a thousand Phliasians, three hundred Hermionians, six hundred Eretrians and Styrians; next came four hundred Chalcidians, five hundred Ambracians, eight hundred Leucadians and Anactorians; to whom two hundred Paleans of Cephallenia, and five hundred Æginetæ, successively joined. Three thousand Megarians and six hundred Platæans were contiguous to the Athenians, who to the number of eight thousand, under the command of Aristides, son of Lysimachus, occupied the left wing at the other extremity of the army.

The amount of this army, independent of the seven helots to each Spartan, was thirty-eight thousand seven hundred men, all of them completely armed and drawn together to repel the barbarian. Of the light-armed troops were the thirty-five thousand helots, each well prepared for battle, and thirty-four thousand five hundred attendant on the Lacedæmonians and other Greeks,[36] reckoning a light-armed soldier to every man; the whole of these therefore amounted to sixty-nine thousand five hundred.

Thus the whole of the Grecian army assembled at Platæa, including both the heavy-and light-armed troops, was one hundred and eight thousand two hundred men; adding to these one thousand and eight hundred Thespians, who were with the Greeks, but without arms, the complete number was one hundred and ten thousand. These were encamped on the banks of the Asopus.

The barbarian army having ceased to lament Masistius, as soon as they knew that the Greeks were advanced to Platæa, marched also to that part of the Asopus nearest to it; where they were thus disposed by Mardonius. Opposed to the Lacedæmonians were the Persians, who, as they were superior in number, fronted the Tegeatæ also. Of this body the select part was opposed to the Lacedæmonians, the less effective to the Tegeatæ. In making which arrangement, Mardonius followed the advice of the Thebans. Next to the Persians were the Medes, opposed to the Corinthians, Potidæans, Orchomenians, and Sicyonians. The Bactrians were placed next, to encounter the Epidaurians, Trœzenians, Lepreatæ, Tirynthians, Mycenæans, and Phliasians. Contiguous to the Bactrians the Indians were disposed, in opposition to the Hermionians, Eretrians, Styrians, and Chalcidians. The Sacæ, next in order, fronted the Ambracians, Anactorians, Leucadians, Paleans, and Æginetæ. The Athenians, Platæans, and Megarians were ultimately faced by the Bœotians, Locrians, Melians, Thessalians, and a thousand Phocians. All the Phocians did not assist the Medes; some of them, about Parnassus, favoured the Greeks, and from that station attacked and harassed both the troops of Mardonius and those of the Greeks who were with him. The Macedonians and Thessalians were also opposed to the Athenians.

In this manner Mardonius arranged those nations who were the most numerous and the most illustrious; with these were promiscuously mixed bodies of Phrygians, Thracians, Mysians, Pæonians, and others. To the above might be added the Ethiopians, and those Egyptians named Hermotybians and Calasirians, who alone of that country follow the profession of arms. These had formerly served on board the fleet, whence they had been removed to the land-forces by Mardonius when at Phalerum: the Egyptians had not been reckoned with those forces which Xerxes led against Athens. We have before remarked, that the barbarian army consisted of three hundred thousand men; the number of the Greek confederates of Mardonius, as it was never taken, cannot be ascertained; but as far as conjecture may determine, they amounted to about fifty thousand men. Such was the arrangement of the infantry; the cavalry were posted apart by themselves.

Both armies being thus ranged in nations and squadrons, on the following day offered sacrifices. The sacrifices promised victory to the Greeks if they acted on the defensive, but the contrary if, passing the Asopus, they began the fight. Mardonius, though anxious to engage, had nothing to hope from the entrails, unless he acted on the defensive only. He had also sacrificed according to the Grecian rites, using as his soothsayer Hegesistratus, an Elean, and the most illustrious of the Telliadæ. The Spartans had formerly seized this man, thrown him into prison, and menaced him with death, as one from whom they had received many and atrocious injuries. In this distress, alarmed not merely for his life, but with the idea of having previously to suffer many severities, he accomplished a thing which can hardly be told. He was confined in some stocks bound with iron, but accidentally obtaining a knife, he perpetrated the boldest thing which has ever been recorded.

Calculating what part of the remainder he should be able to draw out, he cut off the extremity of his foot; this done, notwithstanding he was guarded, he dug a hole under the wall, and escaped to Tegea, travelling only by night, and concealing himself in the woods during the day. Eluding the strictest search of the Lacedæmonians, he came on the third night to Tegea, his keepers being astonished at his resolution, for they saw the half of his foot, but could not find the man. In this manner Hegesistratus escaped to Tegea, which was not at that period in amity with Sparta. When his wound was healed he procured himself a wooden foot, and became an avowed enemy to Sparta. His animosity against the Lacedæmonians proved ultimately of no advantage to himself; he was taken in the exercise of his office at Zacynthus, and put to death. The fate of Hegesistratus was subsequent to the battle of Platæa: at the time of which we were speaking, Mardonius, for a considerable sum, had prevailed with him to sacrifice, which he eagerly did, as well from his hatred of the Lacedæmonians, as from the desire of reward; but the appearance of the entrails gave no encouragement to fight, either to the Persians or their confederate Greeks, who also had their own appropriate soothsayer, Hippomachus of Leucadia. As the Grecian army continually increased, Timagenidas of Thebes, son of Herpys, advised Mardonius to guard the pass of Cithæron, representing that he might thus intercept great bodies, who were every day thronging to the allied army of the Greeks.

The hostile armies had already remained eight days encamped opposite to each other, when the above counsel was given to Mardonius. He acknowledged its propriety, and immediately on the approach of night detached some cavalry to that part of Cithæron leading to Platæa, a place called by the Bœotians the “Three Heads,” by the Athenians the “Heads of Oak.” This measure had its effect, and they took a convoy of five hundred beasts of burden, carrying a supply of provisions from the Peloponnesus to the army: with the carriages, they took also all the men who conducted them. Masters of this booty, the Persians, with the most unrelenting barbarity, put both men and beasts to death: when their cruelty was satiated, they returned with what they had taken to Mardonius.

After this event two days more passed, neither army being willing to engage. The barbarians, to irritate the Greeks, advanced as far as the Asopus, but neither army would pass the stream. The cavalry of Mardonius greatly and constantly harassed the Greeks. The Thebans, who were very zealous in their attachment to the Medes, prosecuted the war with ardour, and did everything but join battle; the Persians and Medes supported them and performed many illustrious actions.

In this situation things remained for the space of ten days: on the eleventh, the armies retaining the same position with respect to each other, and the Greeks having received considerable reinforcements, Mardonius became disgusted with their inactivity. He accordingly held a conference with Artabazus, the son of Pharnaces, who was one of the few Persians whom Xerxes honoured with his esteem: it was the opinion of Artabazus that they should immediately break up their camp, and withdraw beneath the walls of Thebes, where was already prepared a magazine of provisions for themselves, and corn for their cavalry: here they might at their leisure terminate the war by the following measures. They had in their possession a great quantity of coined and uncoined gold, with an abundance of silver and plate: it was recommended to send these with no sparing hand to the Greeks, and particularly to those of greatest authority in their respective cities. It was urged, that if this were done, the Greeks would soon surrender their liberties, nor again risk the hazard of a battle. This opinion was seconded by the Thebans, who thought that it would operate successfully. Mardonius was of a contrary opinion, fierce, obstinate, and unyielding. His own army he thought superior to that of the Greeks, and that they should by all means fight before the Greeks received further supplies; that they should give no importance to the declarations of Hegesistratus, but without violating the laws of Persia, commence a battle in their usual manner. This opinion of Mardonius nobody thought proper to oppose, for to him, and not to Artabazus, the king had confided the supreme command of the army. He therefore ordered that everything should be properly disposed to commence the attack early in the morning.

When the night was far advanced, and the strictest silence prevailed through the army, which was buried in sleep, Alexander, son of Amyntas, general and prince of the Macedonians, rode up to the Athenian outposts, and earnestly desired to speak with their commanders. On hearing this, the greater number continued on their posts, while some hastened to their officers, whom they informed that a horseman was arrived from the enemy’s army, who, naming the principal Greeks, would say nothing more than that he desired to speak with them.

The commanders lost no time in repairing to the advanced guard, where, on their arrival, they were thus addressed by Alexander: “I am come, O Athenians, to inform you of a secret which you must impart to Pausanias only, lest my ruin ensue. Nor would I speak now, were not I anxious for the safety of Greece. I from remote antiquity am of Grecian origin, and I would not willingly see you exchange freedom for servitude: I have therefore to inform you, that if Mardonius and his army could have drawn favourable omens from their victims, a battle would long since have taken place: intending to pay no further attention to these, it is his determination to attack you early in the morning, being afraid, as I suppose, that your forces will be yet more numerous. Be, therefore, on your guard; but if he still defer his purpose of an engagement, do you remain where you are, for he has provisions but for a few days more. If the event of this war shall be agreeable to your wishes, it will become you to make some efforts to restore my independence, who, on account of my partiality to the Greeks, have exposed myself to so much danger in thus acquainting you with the intention of Mardonius, to prevent the barbarians attacking you by surprise. I am Alexander of Macedon.”

When he had thus spoken, he returned to his station in the Persian camp.

The Athenian chiefs went to the right wing, and informed Pausanias of what they had learned from Alexander. Pausanias, who stood in much awe of the Persians, addressed them thus in reply:

“As a battle is to take place in the morning, I think it advisable that you, Athenians, should front the Persians, and we, those Bœotians and Greeks who are now posted opposite to you. You have before contended with the Medes, and know their mode of fighting by experience at Marathon; we have never had this opportunity; but we have before fought the Bœotians, and Thessalians; take, therefore, your arms, and let us exchange situations.”

“From the first,” answered the Athenians, “when we observed the Persians opposed to you, we wished to make the proposal we now hear from you; we have been only deterred by our fear of offending you: as the overture comes from you, we are ready to comply with it.”

This being agreeable to both, as soon as the morning dawned they changed situations; this the Bœotians observed, and communicated to Mardonius. The Persian general immediately exerted himself to oppose the Lacedæmonians with his troops. Pausanias, on seeing his scheme thus detected, again removed the Spartans to the right wing, as did Mardonius instantly his Persians to the left.

THE BATTLE OF PLATÆA

When the troops had thus resumed their former posts, Mardonius sent a herald with this message to the Spartans: “Your character, O Lacedæmonians, is highly celebrated among all these nations, as men who disdain to fly; who never desert your ranks, determined either to slay your enemies or die. Nothing of this is true: we perceive you in the act of retreating, and of deserting your posts before a battle is commenced: we see you delegating to the Athenians the more dangerous attempt of opposing us, and placing yourselves against our slaves, neither of which actions is consistent with bravery. We are, therefore, greatly deceived in our opinion of you; we expected, that from a love of glory you would have despatched a herald to us, expressing yourselves desirous to combat with the Persians alone. Instead of this we find you alarmed and terrified; but as you have offered no challenge to us, we propose one to you. As you are esteemed the most illustrious of your army, why may not an equal number of you on the part of the Greeks, and of us on the part of the barbarians, contend for victory? If it be agreeable to you, the rest of our common forces may afterwards engage; if this be unnecessary, we will alone engage; and whichever conquers shall be esteemed victorious over the whole of the adverse army.”

The herald, after delivering his commission, waited some time for an answer; not receiving any, he returned to Mardonius. He was exceedingly delighted, and already anticipating a victory, sent his cavalry to attack the Greeks; these with their lances and arrows materially distressed the Grecian army, and forbade any near approach. Advancing to the Gargaphian fountain, which furnished the Greeks with water, they disturbed and stopped it up. The Lacedæmonians alone were stationed near this fountain, the other Greeks, according to their different stations, were more or less distant, but all of them in the vicinity of the Asopus; but as they were debarred from watering here, by the missile weapons of the cavalry, they all came to the fountain. In this predicament the leaders of the Greeks, seeing the army cut off from the water, and harassed by the cavalry, came in crowds to Pausanias on the right wing, to deliberate about these and other emergencies. Unpleasant as the present incident might be, they were still more distressed from their want of provision; their servants, who had been despatched to bring this from the Peloponnesus, were prevented by the cavalry from returning to the camp.

The Grecian leaders, after deliberating upon the subject, determined, if the Persians should for one day more defer coming to an engagement, to pass to the island opposite to Platæa, and about ten stadia from the Asopus and the fountain Gargaphia, where they were at present encamped. This island is thus connected with the continent: the river, descending from Cithæron to the plain, divides itself into two streams, which, after flowing separately for about the distance of three stadia, again unite, thus forming the island which is called Oëroë, who, according to the natives, is the daughter of Asopus.

The Greeks by this measure proposed to themselves two advantages; first to be secure of water, and secondly to guard against being further annoyed by the enemy’s cavalry. They resolved to decamp at the time of the second watch by night, lest the Persians, perceiving them, should pursue and harass them with their cavalry. It was also their intention, when arrived at the spot where the Asopian Oëroë is formed by the division of the waters flowing from Cithæron, to detach one-half of their army to the mountain to relieve a body of their servants, who, with a convoy of provisions, were there encompassed.

After taking the above resolutions, they remained all that day much incommoded by the enemy’s horse: when these, at the approach of evening, retired, and the appointed hour was arrived, the greater part of the Greeks began to move with their baggage, but without any design of proceeding to the place before resolved on. The moment they began to march, occupied with no idea but that of escaping the cavalry, they retired towards Platæa, and fixed themselves near the temple of Juno, which is opposite to the city, and at the distance of twenty stadia from the fountain of Gargaphia: in this place they encamped.

Pausanias, observing them in motion, gave orders to the Lacedæmonians to take their arms, and follow their route, presuming they were proceeding to the appointed station. The officers all showed themselves disposed to obey the orders of Pausanias, except Amompharetus, the son of Poliadas, captain of the band of Pitanatæ, who asserted that he would not fly before the barbarians, and thus be accessory to the dishonour of Sparta: he had not been present at the previous consultation, and knew not what was intended. Pausanias and Euryanax, though indignant at his refusal to obey the orders which had been issued, were still but little inclined to abandon the Pitanatæ, on the account of their leader’s obstinacy; thinking, that by their prosecuting the measure which the Greeks in general had adopted, Amompharetus and his party must unavoidably perish. With these sentiments the Lacedæmonians were commanded to halt, and pains were taken to dissuade the man from his purpose, who alone, of all the Lacedæmonians and Tegeatæ, was determined not to quit his post.

At this crisis the Athenians determined to remain quietly on their posts, knowing it to be the genius of the Lacedæmonians to say one thing and think another. But as soon as they observed the troops in motion, they despatched a horseman to learn whether the Lacedæmonians intended to remove, and to inquire of Pausanias what was to be done. When the messenger arrived, he found the men in their ranks, but their leaders in violent altercation. Pausanias and Euryanax were unsuccessfully attempting to persuade Amompharetus not to involve the Lacedæmonians alone in danger by remaining behind, when the Athenian messenger came up to them. At this moment, in the violence of dispute, Amompharetus took up a stone with both his hands, and throwing it at the feet of Pausanias, exclaimed: “There is my vote for not flying before the foreigners!”

Pausanias, after telling him that he could be only actuated by frenzy, turned to the Athenian, who delivered his commission. He afterwards desired him to return, and communicate to the Athenians the state in which he found them, and to entreat them immediately to join their forces, and act in concert, as should be deemed expedient.

The messenger accordingly returned to the Athenians, whilst the Spartan chiefs continued their disputes till the morning. Thus far Pausanias remained indecisive, but thinking, as the event proved, that Amompharetus would certainly not stay behind, if the Lacedæmonians actually advanced, he gave orders to all the forces to march forward by the heights, in which they were followed by the Tegeans. The Athenians, keeping close to their ranks, pursued a route opposite to that of the Lacedæmonians; these last, who were in great awe of the cavalry, advanced by the steep paths which led to the foot of Mount Cithæron; the Athenians marched over the plain.

Amompharetus, never imagining that Pausanias would venture to abandon them, made great exertions to keep his men on their posts; but when he saw Pausanias advancing with his troops, he concluded himself effectually given up; taking therefore his arms, he with his band proceeded slowly after the rest of the army. These continuing their march for a space of ten stadia, came to a place called Agriopius, near the river Moloës, where is a temple of the Eleusinian Ceres, and there halted, waiting for Amompharetus and his party. The motive of Pausanias in doing this was, that he might have the opportunity of returning to the support of Amompharetus, if he should be still determined not to quit his post. Here Amompharetus and his band joined them; the whole force of the enemy’s horse continuing as usual to harass them. As soon as the Barbarians discovered that the spot where the Greeks had before encamped was deserted, they put themselves in motion, overtook, and materially distressed them.

Mardonius being informed that the Greeks had decamped by night, and seeing their former station unoccupied, led the Persians over the Asopus, and pursued the path which the Greeks had taken, whom he considered as flying from his arms. The Lacedæmonians and Tegeatæ were the sole objects of his attack, for the Athenians, who had marched over the plain, were concealed by the hills from his view. The other Persian leaders seeing the troops moving, as if in pursuit of the Greeks, raised their standards, and followed the rout with great impetuosity, but without regularity or discipline; they hurried on with tumultuous shouts, considering the Greeks as absolutely in their power.

When Pausanias found himself thus pressed by the cavalry, he sent a horseman with the following message to the Athenians: “We are menaced, O Athenians, by a battle, the event of which will determine the freedom or slavery of Greece; and in this perplexity you, as well as ourselves, have, in the preceding night, been deserted by our allies. It is nevertheless our determination to defend ourselves to the last, and to render you such assistance as we may be able. If the enemy’s horse had attacked you, we should have thought it our duty to have marched with the Tegeatæ, who are in our rear, and still faithful to Greece, to your support. As the whole operation of the enemy seems directed against us, it becomes you to give us the relief we materially want; but if you yourselves are so circumstanced, as to be unable to advance to our assistance, at least send us a body of archers. We confess, that in this war your activity has been far the most conspicuous, and we therefore presume on your compliance with our request.”

The Athenians, without hesitation, and with determined bravery, advanced to communicate the relief which had been required. When they were already on their march, the confederate Greeks, in the service of the king, intercepted and attacked them: they were thus prevented from assisting the Lacedæmonians, a circumstance which gave them extreme uneasiness. In this situation the Spartans, to the amount of fifty thousand light-armed troops, with three thousand Tegeatæ,[37] who on no occasion were separated from them, offered a solemn sacrifice, with the resolution of encountering Mardonius.

The victims, however, were not auspicious, and in the mean time many of them were slain, and more wounded. The Persians, under the protection of their bucklers, showered their arrows upon the Spartans with prodigious effect. At this moment Pausanias, observing the entrails still unfavourable, looked earnestly towards the temple of Juno at Platæa, imploring the interposition of the goddess, and entreating her to prevent their disgrace and defeat.

Whilst he was in the act of supplicating the goddess, the Tegeatæ advanced against the barbarians: at the same moment the sacrifices became favourable, and Pausanias, at the head of his Spartans, went up boldly to the enemy. The Persians, throwing aside their bows, prepared to receive them. The engagement commenced before the barricade: when this was thrown down, a conflict took place near the temple of Ceres, which was continued with unremitted obstinacy till the fortune of the day was decided.

The barbarians, seizing their adversaries’ lances, broke them in pieces, and discovered no inferiority either in strength or courage; but their armour was inefficient, their attack without skill, and their inferiority, with respect to discipline, conspicuous. In whatever manner they rushed upon the enemy, from one to ten at a time, they were cut in pieces by the Spartans.

Mardonius Falls and the Day is Won

The Greeks were most severely pressed where Mardonius himself, on a white horse, at the head of a thousand chosen Persians, directed his attack. As long as he lived, the Persians, both in their attack and defence, conducted themselves well, and slew great numbers of the Spartans; but as soon as Mardonius was slain, and the band which fought near his person, and which was the flower of the army, was destroyed, all the rest turned their backs and fled. They were much oppressed and encumbered by their long dresses, besides which, being lightly armed, they had to oppose men in full and complete armour.

On this day, as the oracle had before predicted, the death of Leonidas was amply revenged upon Mardonius, and the most glorious victory which has ever been recorded, was then obtained by Pausanias. Mardonius was slain by Æmnestus, a Spartan of distinguished reputation. Æmnestus long after this Persian war, together with three hundred men, was killed in an engagement at Stenyclarus, in which he opposed the united force of the Messenians.

The Persians, routed by the Spartans at Platæa, fled in the greatest confusion towards their camp, and to the wooden entrenchment which they had constructed in the Theban territories. It seems somewhat surprising that although the battle was fought near the grove of Ceres, not a single Persian took refuge in the temple, nor was slain near it; but the greater part of them perished beyond the limits of the sacred ground. Such was the issue of the battle of Platæa.

Artabazus, the son of Pharnaces, who had from the first disapproved of the king’s leaving Mardonius behind him, and who had warmly, though unsuccessfully, endeavoured to prevent a battle, determined on the following measures. He was at the head of no small body of troops; they amounted to forty thousand men: being much averse to the conduct of Mardonius, and foreseeing what the event of an engagement must be, he prepared and commanded his men to follow him wherever he should go, and to remit or increase their speed by his example. He then drew out his army, as if to attack the enemy; but he soon met the Persians flying from them: he then immediately and precipitately fled with all his troops in disorder, not directing his course to the entrenchment or to Thebes, but towards Phocis, intending to gain the Hellespont with all possible speed.

Of those Greeks who were in the royal army, all except the Bœotians, from a preconcerted design, behaved themselves ill. The Bœotians fought the Athenians with obstinate resolution: those Thebans who were attached to the Medes made very considerable exertions, fighting with such courage, that three hundred of their first and boldest citizens fell by the swords of the Athenians. They fled at length, and pursued their way to Thebes, avoiding the route which the Persians had taken with the immense multitude of confederates, who, so far from making any exertions, had never struck a blow.

In the midst of all this tumult, intelligence was conveyed to those Greeks posted near the temple of Juno, and remote from the battle, that the event was decided, and Pausanias victorious. The Corinthians instantly, without any regularity, hurried over the hills which lay at the foot of the mountain, to arrive at the temple of Ceres. The Megarians and Phliasians, with the same intentions, posted over the plain, the more direct and obvious road. As they approached the enemy, they were observed by the Theban horse, commanded by Asopodorus, son of Timander, who, taking advantage of their want of order, rushed upon them and slew six hundred, driving the rest towards Mount Cithæron. Thus did these perish ingloriously.

The Persians, and a promiscuous multitude along with them, as soon as they arrived at the entrenchment, endeavoured to climb the turrets before the Lacedæmonians should come up with them. Having effected this, they endeavoured to defend themselves as well as they could. The Lacedæmonians soon arrived, and a severe engagement commenced.

Before the Athenians came up, the Persians not only defended themselves well, but had the advantage, as the Lacedæmonians were ignorant of the proper method of attack; but as soon as the Athenians advanced to their support, the battle was renewed with greater fierceness, and was long continued. The valour and firmness of the Athenians finally prevailed. Having made a breach they rushed into the camp: the Tegeatæ were the first Greeks that entered, and were they who plundered the tent of Mardonius, taking from thence, among other things, the manger from which his horses were fed, made entirely of brass, and very curious. This was afterwards deposited by the Tegeatæ in the temple of the Alean Minerva: the rest of the booty was carried to the spot where the common plunder was collected. As soon as their entrenchment was thrown down, the barbarians dispersed themselves different ways, without exhibiting any proof of their former bravery; they were, indeed, in a state of stupefaction and terror, from seeing their immense multitude overpowered in so short a period.

AFTER THE BATTLE

So great was the slaughter made by the Greeks, that of this army, which consisted of three hundred thousand men, not three thousand escaped, if we except the forty thousand who fled with Artabazus. The Lacedæmonians of Sparta lost ninety-one men; the Tegeatæ sixteen; the Athenians fifty-two.[38]

Of those who most distinguished themselves on the part of the barbarians, are to be reckoned the Persian infantry, the Sacian cavalry, and lastly, Mardonius himself. Of the Greeks, the Tegeatæ and Athenians were eminently conspicuous; they were, nevertheless, inferior to the Lacedæmonians. The most daring of the Spartans, was Aristodemus; the same who alone returning from Thermopylæ fell into disgrace and infamy; next to him, Posidonius, Phylocyon, and Amompharetus the Spartan, behaved the best. Nevertheless, when it was disputed in conversation what individual had on that day most distinguished himself, the Spartans who were present said, that Aristodemus, being anxious to die conspicuously, as an expiation of his former crime, in an emotion of fury had burst from his rank, and performed extraordinary exploits; but that Posidonius had no desire to lose his life, and therefore his behaviour was the more glorious: but this remark might have proceeded from envy. All those slain on this day, were highly honoured, except Aristodemus. To him, for the reason above mentioned, no respect was paid, as having voluntarily sought death.

Among the troops of the Æginetæ, assembled at Platæa, was Lampon, one of their principal citizens, and son of Pytheas. This man went to Pausanias, giving him the following most impious counsel: “Son of Cleombrotus, what you have done is beyond comparison splendid, and deserving admiration. The deity, in making you the instrument of Greece’s freedom, has placed you far above all your predecessors in glory: in concluding this business so conduct yourself that your reputation may be still increased, and that no barbarian may ever again attempt to perpetrate atrocious actions against Greece. When Leonidas was slain at Thermopylæ, Mardonius and Xerxes cut off his head, and suspended his body from a cross. Do the same with respect to Mardonius, and you will deserve the applause of Sparta and of Greece, and avenge the cause of your uncle Leonidas.” Thus spake Lampon, thinking he should please Pausanias.

“Friend of Ægina,” replied Pausanias, “I thank you for your good intentions, and commend your foresight; but what you say violates every principle of equity.[39] After elevating me, my country, and this recent victory, to the summit of fame, you again depress us to infamy, in recommending me to inflict vengeance on the dead. You say, indeed, that by such an action I shall exalt my character; but I think it is more consistent with the conduct of barbarians than of Greeks, as it is one of those things for which we reproach them. I must therefore dissent from the Æginetæ, and all those who approve their sentiments. For me, it is sufficient to merit the esteem of Sparta, by attending to the rules of honour, both in my words and actions: Leonidas, whom you wish me to avenge, has, I think, received the amplest vengeance. The deaths of this immense multitude must sufficiently have atoned for him, and for those who fell with him at Thermopylæ. I would advise you in future, having these sentiments, to avoid my presence; and I would have you think it a favour, that I do not punish you.”

Pausanias afterwards proclaimed by a herald, that no person should touch any of the booty; and he ordered the helots to collect the money into one place. They, as they dispersed themselves over the camp, found tents decorated with gold and silver, couches of the same, goblets, cups, and drinking vessels of gold, besides sacks of gold, and silver cauldrons placed on carriages. The dead bodies they stripped of bracelets, chains, and scimitars of gold; to their habits of various colours they paid no attention. Many things of value the helots secreted, and sold to the Æginetæ; others, unable to conceal, they were obliged to produce. The Æginetæ from this became exceedingly rich; for they purchased gold of the helots at the price of brass.

From the wealth thus collected, a tenth part was selected for sacred purposes. To the deity of Delphi was presented a golden tripod, resting on a three-headed snake of brass: it was placed near the altar. To the Olympian god they erected a Jupiter, ten cubits high: to the god of the isthmus, the figure of Neptune, in brass, seven cubits high. When this was done, the remainder of the plunder was divided among the army, according to their merits; it consisted of Persian concubines, gold, silver, beasts of burden, with various riches. What choice things were given to those who most distinguished themselves at Platæa, has never been mentioned, though certain presents were made them. It is certain, that a tenth part of the whole was given to Pausanias, consisting among other things of women, horses, talents, and camels.

It is further recorded, that when Xerxes fled from Greece, he left all his equipage to Mardonius: Pausanias seeing this composed of gold, silver, and cloth of the richest embroidery, gave orders to the cooks and domestics to prepare an entertainment for him, as for Mardonius. His commands were executed, and he beheld couches of gold and silver, tables of the same, and everything that was splendid and magnificent. Astonished at the spectacle, he again with a smile directed his servants to prepare a Lacedæmonian repast. When this was ready the contrast was so striking, that he laughing sent for the Grecian leaders: when they were assembled, he showed them the two entertainments. “Men of Greece,” said he, “I have called you together to bear testimony to the king of Persia’s folly, who forsook all this luxury to plunder us who live in so much poverty.” These were the words which Pausanias is said to have used to the Grecian leaders.

In succeeding times, many of the Platæans found on the field of battle, chests of gold, silver, and other riches. This thing also happened: when the flesh had fallen from the bones of the dead bodies, the Platæans, in removing them to some other spot, discovered a skull as one entire bone, without any suture. Two jaw bones also were found with their teeth, which though divided were of one entire bone, the grinders as well as the rest. The body of Mardonius was removed the day after the battle; but it is not known by whom.

The Greeks, after the division of the plunder at Platæa, proceeded to inter their dead, each nation by themselves. The Lacedæmonians sunk three trenches: in the one they deposited the bodies of their priests; in the second were interred the other Spartans; in the third, the helots. The Tegeatæ were buried by themselves, but with no distinction: the Athenians in like manner, and also the Megarians and Phliasians who were slain by the cavalry. Mounds of earth were raised over the bodies of all these people. With respect to the others shown at Platæa, they were raised by those, who being ashamed of their absence from the battle, wished to secure the esteem of posterity.

THE GREEKS ATTACK THEBES

Having buried their dead on the plain of Platæa, the Greeks, after serious deliberation, resolved to attack Thebes, and demand the persons of those who had taken part with the Medes. Of these the most distinguished were Timagenidas and Attaginus, the leaders of the faction. They determined, unless these were given up, not to leave Thebes without utterly destroying it.

On the eleventh day after the battle, they besieged the Thebans, demanding the men whom we have named. They refused to surrender them, in consequence of which their lands were laid waste and their walls attacked. This violence being continued, Timagenidas, on the twentieth day, thus addressed the Thebans: “Men of Thebes, since the Greeks are resolved not to retire from Thebes till they shall either have destroyed it, or you shall deliver us into their power, let not Bœotia on our account be farther distressed. If their demand of our persons be merely a pretence to obtain money, let us satisfy them from the wealth of the public, as not we alone but all of us have been equally and openly active on the part of the Medes; if their real object in besieging Thebes is to obtain our persons, we are ready to go ourselves, and confer with them.” The Thebans approving his advice, sent immediately a herald to Pausanias, saying they were ready to deliver up the men. As soon as this measure was determined, Attaginus fled, but his children were delivered to Pausanias, who immediately dismissed them, urging that infants could not possibly have any part in the faction of the Medes. The other Thebans who were given up, imagined they should have the liberty of pleading for themselves, and by the means of money hoped to escape. Pausanias suspecting that such a thing might happen, as soon as he got them in his power, dismissed all the forces of the allies; then removing the Thebans to Corinth, he there put them to death.

THE FLIGHT OF THE PERSIAN REMNANT

Artabazus son of Pharnaces fled from Platæa to the Thessalians. They received him with great hospitality, and entirely ignorant of what had happened, inquired after the remainder of the army. The Persian was fearful that if he disclosed the whole truth, he might draw upon him the attack of all who knew it, and consequently involve himself and army in the extremest danger. This reflection had before prevented his communication of the matter to the Phocians: and on the present occasion he thus addressed the Thessalians:

“I am hastening, as you perceive, with great expedition to Thrace, being despatched thither from our camp with this detachment, on some important business. Mardonius with his troops follows me at no great distance: show him the rights of hospitality and every suitable attention. You will finally have no occasion to repent of your kindness.”

He then proceeded through Thessaly and Macedonia, immediately to Thrace, with evident marks of being in haste. Directing his march through the midst of the country, he arrived at Byzantium, with the loss of great numbers of his men, who were either cut in pieces by the Thracians, or quite worn out by fatigue and hunger. From Byzantium, he passed over his army in transports, and thus effected his return to Asia.

CONTEMPORARY AFFAIRS IN IONIA

On the very day[40] of the battle of Platæa, a victory was gained at Mycale in Ionia. Whilst the Grecian fleet was yet at Delos, under the command of Leotychides the Lacedæmonian, ambassadors came to them from Samos. On their arrival, they sought the Grecian leaders, whom Hegesistratus (one of the ambassadors) addressed with various arguments. He urged that as soon as they should show themselves, all the Ionians would shake off their dependence, and revolt from the Persians; he told them that they might wait in vain for the prospect of a richer booty. He implored also their common deities, that being Greeks, they would deliver those who also were Greeks from servitude, and avenge them on the barbarian. He concluded by saying, that this might be easily accomplished, as the ships of the enemy were slow sailers, and by no means equal to those of the Greeks.

The Samians, with an oath, engaged to become the confederates of the Greeks. Leotychides then dismissed them all excepting Hegesistratus, who, on account of his name, he chose to take along with him. The Greeks, after remaining that day on their station, on the next sacrificed with favourable omens; Deiphonus, son of Evenius of Apollonia, in the Ionian Gulf, being their minister.

The Greeks having sacrificed favourably, set sail from Delos towards Samos. On their arrival at Calami of Samos, they drew themselves up near the temple of Juno, and prepared for a naval engagement. When the Persians heard of their approach, they moved with the residue of their fleet towards the continent, having previously permitted the Phœnicians to retire. They had determined, after a consultation, not to risk an engagement, as they did not think themselves a match for their opponents. They therefore made towards the continent, that they might be covered by their land forces at Mycale, to whom Xerxes had intrusted the defence of Ionia. These, to the amount of sixty thousand, were under the command of Tigranes the Persian, one of the handsomest and tallest of his countrymen. To these troops the commanders of the fleet resolved to retire: it was also their intention to draw their vessels on shore, and to throw up an intrenchment round them, which might equally serve as a protection to their vessels and themselves. After this resolution, they proceeded on their course, and were carried near the temple of the Eumenidæ at Mycale. Here the Persians drew their ships to land, defending them with an intrenchment formed of stones, branches of fruit trees cut down upon the spot, and pieces of timber closely fitted together. In this position they were ready to sustain a blockade, and with hopes of victory, being prepared for either event.

When the Greeks received intelligence that the barbarians were retired to the continent, they considered them as escaped out of their hands. They were exceedingly exasperated, and in great perplexity whether they should return or proceed towards the Hellespont. Their ultimate determination was to follow the enemy towards the continent. Getting therefore all things ready for an engagement by sea, and providing themselves with scaling ladders, and such other things as were necessary, they sailed to Mycale. When they approached the enemy’s station, they perceived no one advancing to meet them; but beheld the ships drawn on shore, secured within an intrenchment, and a considerable body of infantry ranged along the coast. Leotychides upon this advanced before all the rest in his ship, and coming as near the shore as he could, thus addressed the Ionians by a herald:

“Men of Ionia, all you who hear me, listen to what I say, for the Persians will understand nothing of what I tell you. When the engagement shall commence, remember first of all our common liberties; in the next place take notice, our watch-word is Hebe. Let those who hear me, inform all who do not.”

The motive of this conduct was the same with that of Themistocles at Artemisium. These expressions, if not intelligible to the barbarians, might make the desired impression on the Ionians; or if explained to the former, might render the fidelity of the latter suspected.

When Leotychides had done this, the Greeks approached the shore, disembarked, and prepared for battle. The Persians observing this, and knowing the purport of the enemy’s address to the Ionians, took their arms from the Samians, suspecting them of a secret attachment to the Greeks. The Samians had purchased the freedom of five hundred Athenians, and sent them back with provisions to their country, who having been left in Attica, had been taken prisoners by the Persians, and brought away in the barbarian fleet. The circumstance of their thus releasing five hundred of the enemies of Xerxes, made them greatly suspected. To the Milesians, under pretence of their knowledge of the country, the Persians confided the guard of the paths to the heights of Mycale: their real motive was to remove them to a distance. By these steps the Persians endeavoured to guard against those Ionians, who might wish, if they had the opportunity, to effect a revolt. They next heaped their bucklers upon each other, to make a temporary rampart.

THE BATTLE OF MYCALE

The Greeks being drawn up, advanced to attack the barbarians: as they were proceeding, a herald’s wand was discovered on the beach, and a rumour circulated through the ranks, that the Greeks had obtained a victory over the forces of Mardonius and Bœotia.[41] On the same day that their enemies were slaughtered at Platæa, and were about to be defeated at Mycale, the rumour of the former victory being circulated to this distance, rendered the Greeks more bold, and animated them against every danger. It appears farther worthy of observation, that both battles took place near the temple of the Eleusinian Ceres. The battle of Platæa, as we have before remarked, was in the vicinity of the temple of Ceres; the one at Mycale was in a similar situation.

The Athenians, who with those that accompanied them, constituted one-half of the army, advanced by the coast, and along the plain: the Lacedæmonians and their auxiliaries made their way by the more woody and mountainous places.

Whilst the Lacedæmonians were making a circuit, the Athenians in the other wing were already engaged. The Persians, as long as their entrenchment remained uninjured, defended themselves well, and without any inferiority; but when the Athenians, with those who supported them, increased their exertions, mutually exhorting one another, that they and not the Lacedæmonians might have the glory of the day, the face of things was changed; the rampart was thrown down, and a sensible advantage was obtained over the Persians. They sustained the shock for a considerable time, but finally gave way, and retreated behind their entrenchments. The Athenians, Corinthians, Sicyonians, and Trœzenians, rushed in with them; for this part of the army was composed of these different nations.

When the wall was carried, the barbarians gave no testimony of their former prowess, but, except the Persians, indiscriminately fled. These last, though few in number, vigorously resisted the Greeks, who poured in upon them in crowds. Artayntes and Ithamitres, the commanders of the fleet, saved themselves by flight: but Mardontes, and Tigranes the general of the land-forces, were slain. Whilst the Persians still refused to give ground, the Lacedæmonians and their party arrived, and put all who survived to the sword. Upon this occasion many of the Greeks were slain, and among a number of the Sicyonians, Perilaus their leader. The Samians, who were in the Persian army, and from whom their weapons had been taken, no sooner saw victory incline to the side of the Greeks, than they assisted them with all their power. The other Ionians seeing this, revolted also, and turned their arms against the barbarians. The Milesians had been ordered, the better to provide for the safety of the Persians, to guard the paths to the heights, so that in case of accident the barbarians, under their guidance, might take refuge on the summits of Mycale; with this view, as well as to remove them to a distance, and thus guard against their perfidy, the Milesians had been so disposed; but they acted in direct contradiction to their orders. Those who fled, they introduced directly into the midst of their enemies, and finally were active beyond all the rest in putting them to the sword. In this manner did Ionia a second time revolt from the Persian power.

AFTER MYCALE

In this battle the Athenians most distinguished themselves, and next to the Athenians, they who obtained the greatest reputation were the Corinthians, Trœzenians, and Sicyonians. The greater number of the barbarians being slain, either in the battle or in the pursuit, the Greeks burned their ships, and totally destroyed their wall: the plunder they collected upon the shore, among which was a considerable quantity of money. Having done this, they sailed from the coast. When they came to Samos, they deliberated on the propriety of removing the Ionians to some other place, wishing to place them in some part of Greece where their authority was secure; but they determined to abandon Ionia to the barbarians. They were well aware both of the impossibility of defending the Ionians on every emergency, and of the danger which these would incur from the Persians, if they did not. The Peloponnesian magistrates were of opinion, that those nations who had embraced the cause of the Medes should be expelled, and their lands given to the Ionians. The Athenians would not consent that the Ionians should be transported from their country, nor would they allow the Peloponnesians to decide on the destruction of Athenian colonies. Seeing them tenacious of this opinion, the Peloponnesians no longer opposed them. Afterwards the people of Samos, Chios, Lesbos, and the other islands who had assisted with their arms in the present exigence, were received into the general confederacy, having by an oath, promised constant and inviolable fidelity. This ceremony performed, they sailed towards the Hellespont, meaning to destroy the bridge, which they expected to find in its original state.

The barbarians who saved themselves by flight, came to the heights of Mycale, and thence escaped in no great numbers to Sardis. During the retreat, Masistes, son of Darius, who had been present at the late unfortunate engagement, severely reproached Artayntes the commander-in-chief: among other things, he said, that in the execution of his duty he had behaved more like a woman than a man, and had materially injured the interests of his master. To say that a man is more dastardly than a woman is with the Persians the most infamous of all reproaches. Artayntes, after bearing the insult for some time, became at length so exasperated, that he drew his scimitar, intending to kill Masistes. He was prevented by Xenagoras, son of Praxilaus, a native of Halicarnassus, who happening to be behind Artayntes, seized him by the middle, and threw him to the ground: at the same time the guards of Masistes came up. Xenagoras by this action not only obtained the favour of Masistes, but so much obliged Xerxes, by thus preserving his brother, that he was honoured with the government of all Cilicia. Nothing further of consequence occurred on their way to Sardis, where they found the king, who after his retreat from Athens, and his ill success at sea, had there resided.

The Greeks, sailing from Mycale towards the Hellespont, were obliged by contrary winds to put in at Lectum: thence they proceeded to Abydos. Here they found the bridge, which they imagined was entire, and which was the principal object of their voyage, effectually broken down. They on this held a consultation; Leotychides, and the Lacedæmonians with him, were for returning to Greece; the Athenians, with their leader Xanthippus, advised them to continue where they were, and make an attempt on the Chersonesus. The Peloponnesians returned; but the Athenians, passing from Abydos to the Chersonesus, laid siege to Sestus. To this place, as by far the strongest in all that district, great numbers had retired from the neighbouring towns, as soon as it was known that the Greeks were in the Hellespont: among others was Œobazus of Cardia, a Persian who had previously collected here all that remained of the bridge. The town itself was possessed by the native Æolians, but they had with them a great number of Persians and other allies. The governor of this place, under Xerxes, was Artayctes, a Persian, of a cruel and profligate character.

Whilst they were prosecuting the siege, the autumn arrived. The Athenians, unable to make themselves masters of the place, and uneasy at being engaged in an expedition so far from their country, entreated their leaders to conduct them home. They refused to do this, till they should either succeed in their enterprise, or be recalled by the people of Athens, so intent were they on the business before them.

The besieged, under Artayctes, were reduced to such extremity of wretchedness, that they were obliged to boil for food the cords of which their beds were composed. When these also were consumed, Artayctes, Œobazus, and some other Persians, fled, under cover of the night, escaping by an avenue behind the town, which happened not to be blockaded by the enemy.

When the morning came, the people of the Chersonesus made signals to the Athenians from the turrets, and opened to them the gates. The greater part commenced a pursuit of the Persians, the remainder took possession of the town. Œobazus fled into Thrace; but he was here seized by the Absinthians, and sacrificed, according to their rites, to their god Plistorus: his followers were put to death in some other manner. Artayctes and his adherents, who fled the last, were overtaken near the waters of Ægos, where, after a vigorous defence, part were slain, and part taken prisoners. The Greeks put them all in chains, Artayctes and his son with the rest, and carried them to Sestus. Conducting him therefore to the shore where the bridge of Xerxes had been constructed, they there crucified him; though some say this was done upon an eminence near the city of Madytus. The son was stoned in his father’s presence.

The Athenians, after the above transactions, returned to Greece, carrying with them, besides vast quantities of money, the fragments of the bridge, to be suspended in their temples.[b]

A REVIEW OF RESULTS

The disproportion between the immense host assembled by Xerxes, and the little which he accomplished, naturally provokes both contempt for Persian force and an admiration for the comparative handful of men by whom they were so ignominiously beaten. Both these sentiments are just, but both are often exaggerated beyond the point which attentive contemplation of the facts will justify. The Persian mode of making war (which we may liken to that of the modern Turks, now that the period of their energetic fanaticism has passed away) was in a high degree disorderly and inefficient: the men indeed, individually taken, especially the native Persians, were not deficient in the qualities of soldiers, but their arms and their organisation were wretched--and their leaders yet worse. On the other hand, the Greeks, equal, if not superior, in individual bravery, were incomparably superior in soldier-like order as well as in arms: but here too the leadership was defective, and the disunion a constant source of peril. Those who, like Plutarch (or rather the Pseudo-Plutarch) in his treatise on the malignity of Herodotus, insist on acknowledging nothing but magnanimity and heroism in the proceedings of the Greeks throughout these critical years, are forced to deal very harshly with the inestimable witness on whom our knowledge of the facts depends, and who intimates plainly that, in spite of the devoted courage displayed, not less by the vanquished at Thermopylæ than by the victors at Salamis, Greece owed her salvation chiefly to the imbecility, cowardice, and credulous rashness of Xerxes. Had he indeed possessed either the personal energy of Cyrus or the judgment of Artemisia, it may be doubted whether any excellence of management, or any intimacy of union, could have preserved the Greeks against so great a superiority of force; but it is certain that all their courage as soldiers in line would have been unavailing for that purpose, without a higher degree of generalship, and a more hearty spirit of co-operation, than that which they actually manifested.

A GLANCE FORWARD

One hundred and fifty years after this eventful period, we shall see the tables turned, and the united forces of Greece under Alexander of Macedon becoming invaders of Persia. We shall find that in Persia no improvement has taken place during this long interval, that the scheme of defence under Darius Codomannus labours under the same defects as that of attack under Xerxes, that there is the same blind and exclusive confidence in pitched battles with superior numbers, that the advice of Mentor the Rhodian, and of Charidemus, is despised like that of Demaratus and Artemisia, that Darius Codomannus, essentially of the same stamp as Xerxes, is hurried into the battle of Issus by the same ruinous temerity as that which threw away the Persian fleet at Salamis, and that the Persian native infantry (not the cavalry) even appear to have lost that individual gallantry which they displayed so conspicuously at Platæa. But on the Grecian side, the improvement in every way is very great: the orderly courage of the soldier has been sustained and even augmented, while the generalship and power of military combination has reached a point unexampled in the previous history of mankind. Military science may be esteemed a sort of creation during this interval, and will be found to go through various stages: Demosthenes and Brasidas, the Cyreian army and Xenophon, Agesilaus, Iphicrates, Epaminondas, Philip of Macedon, Alexander: for the Macedonian princes are borrowers of Greek tactics, though extending and applying them with a personal energy peculiar to themselves, and with advantages of position such as no Athenian or Spartan ever enjoyed. In this comparison between the invasion of Xerxes and that of Alexander we contrast the progressive spirit of Greece, serving as herald and stimulus to the like spirit in Europe, with the stationary mind of Asia, occasionally roused by some splendid individual, but never appropriating to itself new social ideas or powers, either for war or for peace.

It is out of the invasion of Xerxes that those new powers of combination, political as well as military, which lighten up Grecian history during the next two centuries, take their rise. They are brought into agency through the altered position and character of the Athenians--improvers, to a certain extent, of military operations on land, but the great creators of marine tactics and manœuvring in Greece, and the earliest of all Greeks who showed themselves capable of organising and directing the joint action of numerous allies and dependents, thus uniting the two distinctive qualities of the Homeric Agamemnon--ability in command, with vigour in execution.

In the general Hellenic confederacy, which had acted against Persia under the presidency of Sparta, Athens could hardly be said to occupy any ostensible rank above that of an ordinary member: the post of second dignity in the line at Platæa had indeed been adjudged to her, but only after a contending claim from Tegea. But without any difference in ostensible rank, she was in the eye and feeling of Greece no longer the same power as before. She had suffered more, and at sea had certainly done more, than all the other allies put together: even on land at Platæa, her hoplites had manifested a combination of bravery, discipline, and efficiency against the formidable Persian cavalry superior even to the Spartans: nor had any Athenian officer committed so perilous an act of disobedience as the Spartan Amompharetus. After the victory of Mycale, when the Peloponnesians all hastened home to enjoy their triumph, the Athenian forces did not shrink from prolonged service for the important object of clearing the Hellespont, thus standing forth as the willing and forward champions of the Asiatic Greeks against Persia. Besides these exploits of Athens collectively, the only two individuals gifted with any talents for command, whom this momentous conquest had thrown up, were both of them Athenians: first, Themistocles; next, Aristides. From the beginning to the end of the struggle, Athens had displayed an unreserved Panhellenic patriotism, which had been most ungenerously requited by the Peloponnesians; who had kept within their isthmian walls, and betrayed Attica twice to hostile ravage; the first time, perhaps, unavoidably, but the second time a culpable neglect, in postponing their outward march against Mardonius. And the Peloponnesians could not but feel, that while they had left Attica unprotected, they owed their own salvation at Salamis altogether to the dexterity of Themistocles and the imposing Athenian naval force.

Considering that the Peloponnesians had sustained little or no mischief by the invasion, while the Athenians had lost for the time even their city and country, with a large proportion of their movable property irrecoverably destroyed, we might naturally expect to find the former, if not lending their grateful and active aid to repair the damage in Attica, at least cordially welcoming the restoration of the ruined city by its former inhabitants. Instead of this, we find the same selfishness again prevalent among them; ill-will and mistrust for the future, aggravated by an admiration which they could not help feeling, overlays all their gratitude and sympathy.[g]

FOOTNOTES

[33] A man of the name of Cyrsilus had ten months before met a similar fate for having advised the people to stay in their city and receive Xerxes. The Athenian women in like manner stoned his wife. During the French Revolution the women of Paris, better distinguished by the name of Poissardes, in every particular imitated this brutality, and whoever differed with them in opinion were exposed to the danger of the Lanterne.[c]

[34] The fate of Athens has been various. It was first burned by Xerxes; the following year by Mardonius; it was a third time destroyed in the Peloponnesian War; it received a Roman garrison to protect it against Philip son of Demetrius, but was not long afterwards ravaged and defaced by Sulla; in the reign of Arcadius and Honorius it was torn in pieces by Alaric, king of the Goths.[c]

[35] Plutarch relates some particulars previous to this event, which are worth transcribing:

Whilst Greece found itself brought to a most delicate crisis, some Athenian citizens of the noblest families of the place, seeing themselves ruined by the war, and considering that with their effects they had also lost their credit and their influence, held some secret meetings, and determined to destroy the popular government of Athens; in which project if they failed, they resolved to ruin the state, and surrender Greece to the barbarians. This conspiracy had already made some progress, when it was discovered to Aristides. He at first was greatly alarmed, from the juncture at which it happened; but as he knew not the precise number of conspirators, he thought it expedient not to neglect an affair of so great importance, and yet not to investigate it too minutely, in order to give those concerned opportunity to repent. He satisfied himself with arresting eight of the conspirators; of these, two as the most guilty were immediately proceeded against, but they contrived to escape. The rest he dismissed, that they might show their repentance by their valour, telling them, that a battle should be the great tribunal to determine their sincere and good intentions to their country.[c]

[36] Let it be remembered, to the honour of Greece, that on this occasion the Greeks, whose number only amounted to one hundred and ten thousand, were opposed by fifty thousand of their treacherous countrymen.[c]

[37]

Of the Spartans there were 5,000 Seven helots to each Spartan 35,000 Lacedæmonians 5,000 A light-armed soldier to each Lacedæmonian 5,000 Tegeatæ 1,500 Light-armed Tegeatæ 1,500 ------ Total 53,000[c]

[38] The Greeks, according to Plutarch, lost in all 1360 men: all those who were slain of the Athenians were of one particular tribe. Plutarch is much incensed at Herodotus for his account of this battle; but the authority of our historian seems entitled to most credit.[c] [Bury, however, thinks he gave the Athenians too large a share in the victory.]

[39] Pausanias altered materially afterwards. He aspired to the supreme power, became magnificent and luxurious, fierce and vindictive.[e]

[40] [Bury declares it to have been a few days later.]

[41] It is unnecessary to remark, that the superstition of Herodotus is in this passage conspicuous. Diodorus Siculus is most sagacious, when he says that Leotychides, and those who were with him, knew nothing of the victory of Platæa; but that they contrived this stratagem to animate their troops. Polyænus relates the same in his Stratagemata.[e] “These things which happen by divine interposition,” says Herodotus, “are made known by various means.”

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