These words seemed to be, as indeed they were, milder than the former words. So the envoys wrote them down, and returned with them to Athens. When the messengers told the words that they had heard and written down to the people, there were many and various opinions among those who sought to interpret the oracle. Some of the older men said that it seemed to them that the god bade them fortify the citadel, for that in old time the citadel of Athens had been surrounded with a fence. And this fence they supposed to be the "wooden wall." And there were others that said the "wooden wall" signified their ships; but these were confounded by the last words of the oracle: "Thou, holy Salamis, shalt bring Dark death to sons of women born, Or when they pluck the ripened corn." These words troubled them much, for the readers of oracles declared that it was signified by them that they should fight in ships and be worsted at Salamis. Now there was at Athens a certain man that was but newly risen into the front rank of the citizens. This was Themistocles the son of Neocles. He then coming forward affirmed that the oraclereaders did not read the words aright, for that, if they had been really spoken concerning the Athe nians, the god would have said, "Sad Salamis," rather than "Holy Salamis," it being decreed that the dwellers in the land should die there. It was manifest therefore, he said, to one that interpreted the words aright that they were spoken concerning the barbarians, and not concerning the Athenians. Wherefore he advised his fellow-citizens that they should make ready to fight in ships, for that these were their "wooden wall." When Themistocles had set forth these opinions, the Athenians judged them to be better than the opinions of the oracle-readers. For these would have hindered them from fighting in ships, yea, from so much as lifting up their hands against the enemy, and would have had them leave their country, and find some other wherein to dwell. Before this, another counsel of this same Themistocles had been given excellently in season. It so chanced that the Athenians had much money in their public treasury, having received it from their mines at Laurium. This they were about to divide among the citizens, man by man, so that each should have ten drachmæ; but Themistocles persuaded the Athenians that this division should not be made, but that they should use the money for the building of two hundred ships for the war that they had on hand, that is to say, the war against Ægina. This war indeed it was that was the saving of Greece, for it compelled the Athenians to become seafaring men. As for the two hundred ships, they were not used for the end for the which they were made; but they were a help to Greece when she most needed them. So many ships had the Athenians ready before the war; and they began to build others. And now, after hearing the oracle and consulting thereupon, they judged it well to put their whole force on shipboard, even as the god commanded them; and so, together with such of the Greeks as were of the same mind, to give battle to the barbarians. THE BATTLE OF THERMOPYLÆ KING XERXES brought with him from Asia twelve hundred and seven great ships; and in each ship there were two hundred rowers and thirty fighting men. Also he had of smaller ships, having fifty oars or under, three thousand, and in each of these, taking one with another, there were eighty men. Therefore the whole number of the men that served on the ships was five hundred and seventeen thousand and six hundred. Of foot soldiers there were seventeen hundred thousand, and of horsemen eighty thousand, and of Arabs riding on camels and of Libyans that fought from chariots twenty thousand. There were also one hundred and twenty ships of Greeks that dwelt in Thrace and in the islands thereof, and in these twenty and four thousand men. To these must be added foot soldiers of the Thracians, the Pæonians, the Macedonians, and others. And the sum of the whole was two million six hundred and forty-one thousand six hundred and ten. And of all this great host there was none fitter to be the ruler for beauty and great stature than King Xerxes himself. Of those that followed the camp, and of the crews of the provision ships and other vessels of transport, the number was more rather than less the number of the fighting men. As for the women that ground the corn, and others that came with the army, and the horses, and the beasts of burden, and the dogs, their number can not be told. King Xerxes pitched his camp in the region of Trachis, and the Greeks pitched their camp in the Pass. (This Pass is called Thermopyla, that is to say, the Hot Gates, by the greater part of the Greeks, but the inhabitants of the country call it Pylæ, that is to say, the Gates.) Here then the two armies were set over against each other, the one being master of all the country from the Pass northward, and the other having that which lay to the southward. Now, the Greeks that abode the coming of the Persians in this place were these-three hundred Spartans, heavy-armed men; and men of Tegea and Matinea a thousand, from each five hundred, and from Orchomenus one hundred and twenty, and from the rest of Arcadia a thousand. From Corinth there came four hundred, and from Phlius two hundred, and from Mycenae eighty. So many came from the Peloponnesus; of the Boeotians there came seven hundred from Thespiæ and four hundred from Thebes. Besides these there had come at the summons the Locrians of Opus with all the men that they had, and a thousand Phocians. For these the other Greeks had summoned to their help, saying to them by messengers, "We all that are here are come but as the vanguard of the host; as for the others, we look for their coming day by day. The sea also is in safe 1230518 |