The Good Book (63 page)

11. Eurybiades, however, delivered a contrary opinion. ‘If,' he said, ‘we break down the bridges, it would be the worst thing that could possibly happen for Greece.

12. ‘The Persian, supposing himself compelled to remain in Europe, would be sure never to give us peace.

13. ‘He could not afford inaction, which would ruin all his affairs, and leave him no chance of ever getting back to Asia;

14. ‘Indeed, it would even cause his army to perish by famine: whereas, if he stirred himself, and acted vigorously,

15. ‘It was likely that the whole of Europe would eventually become subject to him;

16. ‘Since, by degrees, the various towns and tribes would either fall before his arms, or agree to submit;

17. ‘And in this way, his troops would find food sufficient, since each year the Greek harvest would be theirs.

18. ‘As it was, the Persian, because he had lost the sea fight, intended evidently to remain no longer in Europe.

19. ‘The Greeks ought to let him go; and when he was gone from among them, and had returned into his own country,

20. ‘There would be time for them to contend with him for the possession of that.'

21. The other captains of the Peloponnesians agreed with this.

22. Finding the majority against him,   Themistocles changed round, and addressing himself to the Athenians,

23. Who of all the allies were most nettled at the enemy's escape, and who eagerly desired, if the other Greeks would not stir, to sail on by themselves to the Hellespont and break the bridges, said:

24. ‘I have often myself witnessed, and I have heard the same from others, that men who have been conquered, and driven quite to desperation, have renewed the fight, and retrieved their former disasters.

25. ‘We have now had the great good luck to save both ourselves and all Greece by the repulse of this vast cloud of men;

26. ‘Let us be content and not press them too hard, now that they have begun to retreat.

27. ‘At present all is well with us – let us abide in Greece, and look to ourselves and our families.

28. ‘The barbarian is gone – we have driven him off – let each go home, and sow his land diligently.

29. ‘In the spring we will take ship and sail to the Hellespont and to Ionia!'

30. All this Themistocles said, dissembling, in the hope of establishing a claim upon Xerxes;

31. For he wanted to have a safe retreat in case any mischance should befall him at Athens – which indeed came to pass afterwards.

32. But at this time his fellow Athenians were ready to do whatever he advised, since they had always esteemed him a wise man, and he had lately proved himself truly well-judging.

 

Chapter 87

  1. Privately now Themistocles lost no time in sending messengers in a light bark to Xerxes,

  2. Choosing for this purpose men he could trust even if they should be put to torture.

  3. Among them was the house-slave Sicinnus, the same whom he had made use of previously.

  4. When the men reached Attica, all the others stayed in the boat, but Sicinnus went up to the king, and said,

  5. ‘I am sent by Themistocles, son of Neocles, leader of the Athenians, and the wisest and bravest man of the allies.

  6. ‘He says to you: “Themistocles the Athenian, anxious to render you a service, has restrained the Greeks,

  7. ‘“Who were impatient to pursue your ships, and to break up the bridges at the Hellespont. Now, therefore, return home at your leisure.”'

  8. Now the Greeks, having resolved that they would neither pursue the barbarians, nor sail for the Hellespont to destroy the bridge,

  9. Laid siege to Andros, intending to take the town by storm. Themistocles had required the Andrians to pay a sum of money;

10. And they had refused, being the first of all the islanders to do so.

11. To his declaration, that the money must needs be paid, as the Athenians had brought with them two mighty warriors, Persuasion and Necessity,

12. They replied that Athens might well be a great and glorious city, since she was blest with such excellent fortune;

13. But they were wretchedly poor, stinted for land, and cursed with two weak governors, who always dwelt with them and would never quit their island; to wit, Poverty and Helplessness.

14. Accordingly the Andrians would not pay. For the power of Athens could not possibly be stronger than their inability.

15. This reply, coupled with the refusal to pay the sum required, caused their city to be besieged by the Greeks.

16. Meanwhile Themistocles, who never ceased his pursuit of gain, sent threatening messages to the other islanders with demands for different sums,

17. Employing the same messengers and the same words as he had used towards the Andrians.

18. If, he said, they did not send him the amount required, he would bring the fleet on them, and besiege them till he took their cities.

19. By these means he collected large sums from the Carystians and the Parians, who, when they heard that Andros was already besieged,

20. And that Themistocles was the best esteemed of all the captains, sent the money through fear.

21. In this way Themistocles, during his stay at Andros, obtained money from the islanders, unbeknown to the other captains.

Chapter 88

  1. Xerxes and his army waited only a few days after the sea fight, and then withdrew into Boeotia by the road they had followed on their advance.

  2. It was the wish of Mardonius to escort the king a part of the way; and as the time of year was no longer suitable for war,

  3. He thought it best to winter in Thessaly, and wait for the spring before he attacked the Peloponnese.

  4. After the army arrived in Thessaly, Mardonius made choice of the troops that were to stay with him;

  5. And, first of all, he took the whole body called the ‘Paragons', except only their leader, Hydarnes, who refused to leave the king.

  6. Next, he chose the Persians who wore breastplates, and the thousand picked horse;

  7. Likewise the Medes, the Sacans, the Bactrians and the Indians, foot and horse equally.

  8. These nations he took entire: from the rest of the allies he culled a few men,

  9. Taking either such as were remarkable for their appearance, or else such as had performed, to his knowledge, some valiant deed.

10. The Persians furnished him with the greatest number of troops, men who were adorned with chains and armlets.

11. Next to them were the Medes, who in number equalled the Persians, but in valour fell short of them.

12. The whole army, reckoning the horsemen with the rest, amounted to 300,000 men.

13. At the time when Mardonius was making choice of his troops, and Xerxes still continued in Thessaly,

14. The Lacedaemonians decided to seek satisfaction at the hands of Xerxes for the death of Leonidas, and take whatever he chose to give them.

15. So the Spartans sent a herald with all speed into Thessaly, who arrived while the entire Persian army was still there.

16. He said, ‘King of the Persians, the Lacedaemonians and the Heracleids of Sparta require satisfaction due for bloodshed, because you slew their king, who fell fighting for Greece.'

17. Xerxes laughed, and for a long time said nothing. At last, however, he pointed to Mardonius, who was standing by him, and said,

18. ‘Mardonius here shall give Sparta the satisfaction they deserve.' And the herald accepted the answer, and went his way.

19. After this Xerxes left Mardonius in Thessaly, and marched away himself, at his best speed, towards the Hellespont.

20. In forty-five days he reached the place of passage, with scarcely a fraction of his former vast army left.

21. All along their line of march, in every country where they chanced to be, his soldiers seized and devoured whatever corn they could find belonging to the inhabitants;

22. While, if no corn was to be found, they gathered the grass that grew in the fields, and stripped the trees, whether cultivated or wild, alike of their bark and their leaves, and so fed themselves.

23. They left nothing anywhere, so hard were they pressed by hunger. Plague and dysentery attacked the troops while still on their march, and greatly thinned their ranks.

24. Many died; others fell sick and were left behind in the different cities that lay along the route, the inhabitants being strictly charged by Xerxes to tend and feed them.

25. Of these some remained in Thessaly, others in Siris of Paeonia, others again in Macedonia.

 

Chapter 89

  1. The Persians, having journeyed through Thrace and reached the passage, found that the bridges had been broken and dispersed by storms.

  2. They therefore entered the ships of the fleet that awaited them, and crossed the Hellespont to Abydos.

  3. At Abydos the troops halted, and, obtaining more abundant provision than they had on their march, fed without stint;

  4. From which cause, added to the change in their water, great numbers of those who had hitherto escaped perished.

  5. The remainder, together with Xerxes himself, came safe to Sardis.

  6. Another story is told of the return of the king. It is said that when Xerxes on his way from Athens arrived at Eion on the Strymon, he gave up travelling by land,

  7. And, entrusting Hydarnes with the conduct of his forces to the Hellespont, embarked himself on board a Phoenician ship, and so crossed into Asia.

  8. On his voyage the ship was assailed by a strong wind blowing from the mouth of the Strymon, which caused the sea to run high.

  9. As the storm increased, and the ship laboured heavily, because of the number of the Persians who had come in the king's train, and now crowded the deck,

10. Xerxes was seized with fear, and called out to the helmsman in a loud voice, asking him if there were any means whereby they might escape the danger.

11. ‘No means, master,' the helmsman answered, ‘unless we could be quit of these too numerous passengers.'

12. Xerxes, they say, on hearing this, addressed the Persians as follows: ‘Men of Persia,' he said, ‘now is the time for you to show what love you bear your king.

13. ‘My safety, as it seems, depends wholly on you.' So spoke the king; and the Persians instantly made obeisance, and then leapt into the sea.

14. Thus was the ship lightened, and Xerxes got safely to Asia.

15. As soon as he reached the shore he sent for the helmsman, and gave him a golden crown because he had preserved the life of the king;

16. But because he had caused the death of a number of Persians, he ordered his head to be struck from his shoulders.

17. Such is the other account given of the return of Xerxes; but it seems unworthy of belief, alike in other respects, and in what relates to the Persians.

18. For had the helmsman made any such speech to Xerxes, there is not one man in ten thousand who will doubt that this is what the king would have done:

19. He would have made the men on the ship's deck, who were not only Persians, but Persians of the highest rank, quit their place and go down below to take the oars,

20. Casting into the sea an equal number of the rowers, who were Phoenicians.

21. But the truth is, that the king returned into Asia by land, on the same road as the rest of the army.

22. There is another strong proof of this. It is certain that Xerxes passed through Abdera on his way back from Greece, where he made a contract of friendship with the inhabitants,

23. And presented them with a golden scymitar, and a tiara broidered with gold.

24. The Abderites declare, though somewhat improbably, that from the time of the king's leaving Athens he never once loosed his girdle till he came to their city, since it was not till then that he felt himself in safety.

25. Now Abdera is nearer to the Hellespont than Eion and the Strymon, where Xerxes, according to the other tale, took ship.

 

Chapter 90

  1. When the spoils of war had been divided among them and monuments made to their victory from the chiefest spoils,

  2. The Greeks sailed to the Isthmus, where a prize of valour was to be awarded to the man who, among them all, had shown the most merit during the war.

  3. When the chiefs were all come, they took the ballots to give their votes for the first and for the second in merit.

  4. Then each man gave himself the first vote, since each considered that he himself was the worthiest;

  5. But most of the second votes were given to Themistocles.

  6. In this way, while the others received but one vote apiece, Themistocles had for the second prize a large majority of the suffrages.