A T H 



tlions:l)t of nctiiing now but to fell their lives as dearly as 

 pofiible ; believing it incumbent on them, as the leading 

 peopli of Greece, to devote themfeivs to certain death, 

 thereby to convince the Barbarians how much it mu.1 coft 

 them to reduce a free people to flaver)-. In the dead of 

 night, this heroic troop advancing direAly forvi-ards to the 

 tent of the king, penetrated to the middle of the Perfian 

 camp, cut off all that came in their way, and fpread the 

 moll dreadful confternation among the enemy. But day- 

 light at lall difcovering them dilUnclly to the Pcrfians, they 

 were immediately furrounded, and being rather overvvliclmed 

 than conquered, breathed their laft above heaps of flaughtcred 

 enemies ; leaving to after ages an example of intrepidity 

 before unknovi'n, and hardly to be paralleled in hiltory. 

 The Perfians are faid to have loll upwards of 2o,coo men 

 in this engagement, and, among the reft, the two brothers of 

 Xerxes. To the memory of thefc brave defejidcrs of 

 Greece, a fuperb monument u-as afterwards ered'.'d, bear- 

 ing two infcriptions ; the one in honour of all thofe who 

 hadierved on tliat occafion; importing, that an army of four 

 thoufand Pcloponnefian Greeks had there flopped the pro- 

 grcfs of the whole Perfian force ; the other in honour of 

 Leonidas and his ^oo Spartans, exprefied, in a few fimple 

 words, to this efftft : " Go, paffenger, tell at Sparta, that 

 we died here in obedience to her laws." This famous ac- 

 tion at Thermopyl^, in the opinion of Diodorus Siculus, 

 contributed very highly to the fubfequent advantages ob- 

 tained by the Greeks; for the Perfians, aftoniflied at fo 

 flriking an inftance of defperate valour, thence concluded, 

 that it was hardly pofiible to fubdue a nation of fuch un- 

 daunted refolution ; and the Greeks likcwife perceived, 

 from the fame example, that valour and difcipline are capable 

 ^cf vanquifhing the greateft multitude; and that therefore it 

 was poffible io overcome the Perfians. 



But the principal defence of Greece refted with the 

 Athenians. The very day that Leonidas fell at Thermopy- 

 ]x, the Athenian fleet, commanded by Themillocles, having 

 difcovered, while cruizing off Artemifia, a promontory of 

 Euboea, a detachment of the enemy's fleet amounting to 

 two hundred veffcls, attacked them in the night, and funk 

 more than thirty of them, and the reft, were that fame 

 night wrecked on the coaft of Euboea by a ftorm that fuc- 

 ceeded the engagement. The Athenians receiving next 

 day a reinforcement of fifty-three ihips more, attacked thofe 

 of the Cilicians, and funk many of them. A general en- 

 gagement enfued the fame day, in v.'hich both parties fought 

 with great bravery ; and though neither could boaft of 

 the viftory, yet the lofs was moft confiderable on the fide 

 of the Perfians. From the event of thefe fcveral aftions, 

 the Athenians learned, that vidlory is not always deter- 

 mined by the greater number of fiiips. Hearing, in the 

 mean time of what had pafftd at Thermopylx, the Greeks 

 thought it advifeable to retire nearer home, and th.-refore 

 fet fail for Salamis, a fmall ifland not far from Attica. 

 Xerxes having now advanced into Phocis, after marking 

 his march all along with the effects of his rcfentment, the 

 Peloponnefians refolved to fortify th:mfelves within the 

 ifthmus. The Ath.enians, therefore, feeing themfclves on 

 the eve of being cruflied under the whole weight of the 

 Perfian power, fent, in this extremity, to confult the oracle; 

 who told them, " that the only means of preferving their 

 city were wooden walls." Thefe wooden walls, pointed out 

 by the oracle, were interpreted by Themiflocles to be 

 their fliips ; and he told his countrymen, that the fole 

 means of prefervation left \vas, to abandon the city, and 

 to betalce themfelves to their fleet. Thi. advice was not 

 at all reliflied by the people, who ftiuddered at the thoughts 



A T II 



of dcferting their gods, and the tombs of their ancjc itors. 

 X hemiltoclcs, however, fucceeded at lall in pcrfuading 

 tliem, that the exiflcnce of Athens depended neither on its 

 houfes nor its temples, but on the lives of its citizens ; 

 and that the gods themfclves had, by the mouth of the 

 oracle, plainly declared it to be their pkafure, that the 

 Athenians ought to leave their city for a while. The peo- 

 ple at laft, convinced by his eloquence, confcnted to go on 

 board of their fliips. It is difficult to fay, whether we arc 

 more affedcd on this occafijn by the melancholy fitua- 

 tion of the Athenians, thus compelled by a barbarous 

 prince to dcfeit their native country ; or by the heroic refo- 

 lution of thefe Athenians, to go in this manner into a fort 

 ot voluntary baniflin.cnt, rather than fubmit to their op- 

 preffors. The Athenians conveyed their women, cliilJren, 

 and the greater part of their old men,' to Trazcnc, a fmall 

 town on "the fea coaft of Pcloponncfus, where they were 

 received with all the marks of humanity which their filualion 

 required. But many of their oldcft men were left in (he 

 citadel, being unable, by reafon of their great age and in- 

 firmities, to undergo the fatigue of tranfportation. Xerxes 

 in the mean time approaching towards Athens, fent a de- 

 tachment of his army to plunder the temple of Delphos, 

 which contained immenfe r'..-hes. But Herodotus and 

 Diodorus Siculus tell us, that moft of the loldiers fent on 

 this errand pcriflied in a violent tempeft. The Perfian army 

 arriving at Athens, found nothing but fitencc and folitude 

 witliin the walls. They attacked the citadel, which, after 

 a brave refiftance by its feeble garrifon, was taken by ftorm, 

 and all within it were put to the fword : Xerxes ordered 

 the reft of the city to be fet on fire. In the mean time 

 differences were likely toarife in the Grecian fleet commanded 

 by Eurybiades ; one half of them being of opinion that 

 they ought to advance towards the ifthmus of Corinth, to 

 be at hand to fupport their army; and the other, that they 

 ought by no means to quit the advantageous poft at Sala- 

 mis. The latter opinion was fupportcd by Themiftoclcs, 

 who, on this occafion, gave another proof of his extra- 

 ordinary moderation and coolnefs of temper. For while he 

 was maintaining his opinion with fome warmth againft 

 Eurj'biades, who was a man of a choleric difpofition, the 

 latter flew in a paffion, and lifted up his cane to ftrike him : 

 Themiflocles called out to him, " ftrike, but hear me." 

 His eloquence and firmnefs at laft prevailed, and the Greeks 

 faw that, being extremely inferior to the enemy in the num- 

 ber as well as in the Cze of their ftiips, it was of the higheft 

 importance to avail themfclves of their prcfent fituation, 

 and to give battle in fuch a narrow llrait as that of Sa- 

 lamis, where the ehemy could not bring all their fleet 

 into aftion. They refolved, therefore, to prepare to fight 

 the Perfians in this ftrait. The Pcrfians determiued to give 

 battle, contrary to the opinion of queen Artemifia, who 

 reprefented to them, that the lofs of a fea fight mgft 

 inemably be attended with the deftruttion of their army on 

 land. But her advice, though the moll prudent, was 

 rejedled, Xerxes having himfelf declared his fentiments for 

 their coming to aftion. Themiftoclcs, in the mean time, 

 to put it entirely out of the power of his countrj-mcn to 

 retire from Salamis, contrived to have falfe intelligence 

 conveyed to Xerxes ol their intending to decline the en- 

 gagement, and to make their elcape, and therefore advifing 

 him to order his fleet inftantly to advance and block them 

 up. This ftratagem he communicated to Ariftides, who 

 undertook to exhort the reft of the commanding officers 

 with whom he was in great credit, not to be difmavcd at 

 feeing themfelves hemmed in, but to behave with their 

 ufual intrepidity. The ilrata^iem had the defircd effed ; 



and 



