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96 A Greek ship is the first to strike, and crushes in by the force of its charge the sculptured prow of a Phœnician: then the engagement rages along the whole line.

The sea is hidden with ships floating keel upwards, and with wrecks and corpses. The shores are covered with the dead. The Persians take to flight, and the Greeks pursue, spearing and striking their drowning foes, "as men spear a shoal of tunnies," with spars and broken oars; and over the wide sea wailing is heard and lamentation, until night falls upon the scene of destruction. Worse even than this remains. For on a little island close to Salamis,—a rugged island such as Pan delights in,—Xerxes had set the flower of his nobility, that they might cut down the Greeks who would seek shelter there, or help any Persians in distress; and all these, the bravest of his hosts, were cut to pieces before the monarch's eyes. "Bitter fruit," Atossa cries,