Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/140

112 dition of commanding by sea or land; while the next most powerful sea power in the west, Corcyra, promised help but gave none. In B.C. 480, therefore, when Xerxes was already on the march, there was no army ready to resist him. A fleet, however, of about 270 triremes, of which the Athenians contributed half, had been collected and was ready for action under the command of the Spartan Eurybiades. It took up its position at Artemisium, on the north of Euboea. On the request of some loyal Thessalians, an expedition had earlier in the year been sent to the vale of Tempe, the men being landed at Halus, on the Pegasaean Gulf, but it found the pass indefensible and had hastily returned. As the Persian army and fleet approached, the Spartans were at length induced to send a small force under their king Leonidas to guard the narrow defile of Thermopylae. It consisted of 300 Spartan hoplites, each accompanied by seven helots, and some allies from other states. At these two points, therefore, Thermopylae and Artemisium, the first resistance was to be made.

The Greek fleet was a composite one, and though the Athenians, who supplied the greater part, were under the influence of Themistocles, who was eager to encounter the Persian fleet and prevent its further progress south, many of the other captains were for retreating to the Peloponnese, and separating to their various states, or at any rate for making a stand only when nearer to what seemed a place of safety. When the Persian ships were approaching the coast of Magnesia, opposite Artemisium, the alarm was so