ATTICA. 507 
all his attention to the inereafe of the naval ftrength of leled in hi dory. The Perfians are faid to have loft up- 
his countrymen. In this he had fo far fucceeded, that 
they at prefent had a fleet of ioo large galleys, befides 
many velfels of three banks of oars; and, on the approach 
of Xerxes, he perfuaded them to equip too more : to this 
fmall fleet Greece owed its prefervation. Eurybiades, a 
Lacedemonian, was named commander in chief of the 
united forces of both ftates. Here we have another proof 
of the moderation of Themiftocles, who readily facrificed 
his ambition to the advantage of the common caufe. For, 
although the Athenians were entitled to claim the chief 
command, as having furnilhed two-thirds of the fleet, 
Themiftocles neverthelefs cheerfully acquiefced in the 
appointment of E'.urybiades. 
The firft ftep taken by the allies was to difpatch Leonidas 
at the head of 10,000 men, to take pofleffion of the defile 
of Thermopylae, fituated at the foot of mount Oeta, be¬ 
tween TheUaly and Phocis, a pafs no more than ninety 
feet broad, and the only one by which the army of Xerxes 
could penetrate into Achaia. In the meantime, the fleet 
t f Xerxes coafted along the fhore, regulating its motions 
y thofe of the army. Every thing gave wav to the Per¬ 
fians ; and the cities through which they paifed furniflied 
them with provilions in abundance. Xerxes, after march¬ 
ing through Thrace and Macedonia, came at laft to the 
pafs of Thermopylae, guarded by the Grecian troops ; 
which, according to Paufanias, amounted all together to no 
more than 11,000; and of thefe only 4000 were more im¬ 
mediately deftined to defend the pallage. But every man 
of that number was fully determined to conquer or to die. 
Xerxes was far from thinking that the Greeks would dare 
to difpute his paflage. But finding himfelf miftaken, and 
being informed by Demaratus that a handful of men 
might at this place flop for a coiffiderable time all his 
forces, he endeavoured to corrupt Leonidas by magnifi¬ 
cent prefents, and the moft tempting promifes, even that 
of making him fupreme lord of Greece. But, Leonidas 
having rejected all his temptations with difdain, Xerxes 
thereupon commanded him, by a mellenger, to fend him 
his arms: “ Let your king come and take them,” anfwered 
Leonidas. Then the Medes advanced againft the Greeks ; 
but, being unable to fuftain their attack, were obliged to 
retreat. The troop of Perfians, diftinguiftied by the name 
of immortal , next charged the Greeks, and fought with 
great valour, fo that the pafs was choaked up with the 
dead. While the beft troops of Xerxes were thus facri¬ 
ficed to the Grecian valour, an inhabitant of the country 
having difcovered to the Perfians a fecret path conducting 
to an eminence that commanded the pafs, a large detach¬ 
ment was immediately fent to take poiTelfion of it. 
Leonidas receiving intelligence that the tops of the rocks 
forming the pafs were occupied by 20,000 Perfian troops, 
whofe darts muft foon overwhelm him and his fmall party, 
intreated the greater part of his men to retire, and referve 
themfelves for a more advantageous opportunity of ferv- 
ing their country; while he himlelf, with about 300 Spar¬ 
tans and a few Thefpians, would maintain the pafs to the 
laft. The reft having accordingly departed, “ Come, my 
friends,” faid Leonidas, “ let 11s dine cheerfully, in tlie 
hope of ftipping together in the other world.” His brave 
companions, who are fuperior to all praife, encouraged by 
the example of their chief, thought of nothing now but to 
fell their lives as dearly as poflible ; believing it incum¬ 
bent on them to devote themfelves to certain death, there¬ 
by to convince the Perfians how much it muft coft them 
to reduce a free people to flavery. In the dead of night, 
this heroic troop, advancing directly forwards 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 moft 
dreadful confternation among the enemy. But, day-light 
at laft difcovering them diftinklly to the Perfians, they 
were immediately furrounded, and, being rather over¬ 
whelmed than conquered, breathed their laft above heaps 
of flaughtered enemies; leaving to after-ages an example 
of intrepidity before unknown, and hardly to be paral- 
wards of 20,000 men in this engagement, and, among 
the reft, the two brothers of Xerxes. To^ie memory of 
thofe brave defenders of Greece, a fuperb monument was 
afterwards erected, bearing two infcriptions: the one in 
honour of all thofe who had ferved on that occafion, im- 
porting, that an army of 4000 Peloponnefian Greeks had 
there flopped the progrefs of the whole Perfian force ; the 
other in honour of Leonidas and his 300 Spartans. 
'Fhe very day that Leonidas fell at Thermopyke, the 
Athenian fleet, commanded by Themiftocles, having dif¬ 
covered, while cruizing oft' Artemifa, a promontory of 
Euboea, a detachment of the enemy’s fleet, amounting to 
200 velfels, 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 fucceeded 
the engagement. The Athenians receiving next day a re¬ 
inforcement of fifty-three (hips more, attacked thofe of the 
Cilicians, and funk many of them. A general engage¬ 
ment enfued the fame day, in which both parties fought 
with great bravery ; and, though neither could boaft o f 
the victory, yet the lofs was moft confiderable on the fide 
ot the Perfians. From the event of thefe feveral actions, 
the Athenians learned, that viklcry is not always deter¬ 
mined by the greater number of flups. Hearing, in the 
mean time, of what had palled at Thermopyke, the Greeks 
thought it advifable to retire nearer home, and therefore 
fet fail for Salamis, a fmall ifland near Attica. The very 
fame day too of the action at Thermopylae, the Carthagi¬ 
nian army, amounting to 300,000 men, which co-operated 
with the Perfians, and was endeavouring to reduce the 
Greek ftates in Sicily, was totally defeated by Gelon, ty* 
rant of Syracufe. 
Xerxes having now advanced into Phocis, after marking 
his march all along with the eftekls of his refentment, the 
Peloponnelians refolved to fortify themfelves within the 
Ifthmus. The Athenians, therefore, feeing themfelves on 
tiie eve of being crufhed under the whole weight of the 
Perfian power, lent, in this extremity, to confult the ora¬ 
cle ; who told them, “ That the only means of preferving 
their city were wooden walls.” Thefe wooden walls point¬ 
ed out by the oracle were interpreted by Themiftocles to 
be their fhips ; and he told his countrymen, that the foie 
means of prefervation left was, to abandon the city, and 
to betake themfelves to their fleet. This advice was not 
at all reliflied by the people, who flniddered at the thoughts 
of deferting their gods and the tombs of their ancellors. 
Themiftocles, however, fucceeded at laft, in perfuading 
them, that the exiftence of Athens depended neither oh 
its houfes nor its temples, but on tlie lives of its citizens; 
and that the gods themfelves had, by the mouth of the 
oracle, plainly declared it to be their pleafure, that the 
Athenians ought to leave their city for a while. The 
people, at laft, convinced by his eloquence, contented to 
go on-board their (hips. It isTiere difficult to fay, whe¬ 
ther we are more affekted on this occafion by the melan¬ 
choly iituation of the Athenians, thus compelled by an 
arbitrary prince to defert their native country; or by the 
heroic refolution of thofe Athenians to go in this manner 
into a fort of voluntary banifhment, rather than to fubinif 
to their oppreftbr. 
The Athenians conveyed their women, children, and the 
greater part of their old men, toTrazene, a fmall town on 
the fea-coaft of Peloponnefe, where they were received 
with all the marks of humanity that their fituation requir¬ 
ed. But many of their oldeft men were left in the citadel, 
being unable, by reafon of their great age and infirmities, 
to undergo the fatigue of a removal. Xerxes in the mean 
time, approaching towards Athens, fent a detachment, to 
plunder the temple of Delphos, which contained immenfe 
riches. But Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus both tell 
11s, that moft of the foldiers fent on this errand perifhed 
by the way in a violent temped. The Perfian army, arri¬ 
ving, found nothing but filence and folitude within the 
Athenian walls. They attacked the citadel, which, after 
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