Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/131

 BATTLE OF SALAMIS. - RETREAT OF XERXES. 107 Boeotia ready to sustain Leonidas, or at any rate to cooperate in the defence of Attica, they had taken no measures to remove their famihes or property : but they saw with indignant disap- pointment as well as dismay, on retreating from Artemisium, that the conqueror was in full march from Thermopyla;, that the road to Attica was open to him, and that the Peloponnesians were absorbed exclusively in the defence of their own isthmus and their own separate existence.' The fleet from Artemisium had been directed to muster at the harbor of Troezen, there to await such reinforcements as could be got together : but the Athenians entreated Eurybiades to halt at Salamis, so as to allow them a short time for consultation in the critical state of their affairs, and to aid them in the transport of their families. While Eury- biades was thus staying at Salamis, several new sliips which had reached Troezen came over to join him ; and in this way Salamis became for a time the naval station of the Greeks, without any deliberate intention beforehand.^ Meanwhile Themistokles and the Athenian seamen landed at Phalerum, and made their mournful entry into Athens. Gloomy as the prospect appeared, there was little room for difference of opinion,^ and still less room for delay. The authorities and the public assembly at once issued a proclamation, enjoining every Athenian to remove his family out of the country in the best ' Plutarch, Themistokles, c. 9. afia filv opyrj rrj^ Trpodnciac sl^e rovg ''A.-Qtj- vaiovg, ufia cSe Svad^v/xia Koi KaTTj^sia fiejuovcj/xivovg. Herodot. viii, 40. Sokeovte^ yap evpijasLv Il£?.oTrovvTia'iovc T-avdTjuel kv r^ "BoiuTLi} vTzonaTTifxivov^ Tov (3ap[3apov, ruv jiev evpov ovSkv tbv, oi 6e ettvv- ■&avovTo TOV 'la'&fidv avTovg TELxeovTag kg ttjv HEXoTTovvriaov, TTEpl TrXELcjrov 6e TToiovfiEVovg Tzepulvai, koc ravrjjv Ixovrag kv <pv?.aKy, to. te aAAa uTviEvac. Thucjd. i, 74. ore yovv fi/nsv (we Athenians) etc cC)ol, oh napsyEvecr&e (Spartans). Both Lysias (Oratio Funebr. c. 8) and Isokrates take pride in the fact that the Athenians, in spite of being thus betrayed, never thought of mak- ing separate terms for themselves with Xerxes (Panegyric, Or. iv. p. 60). But there is no reason to believe that Xerxes would have granted them separate terms : his particular vengeance was directed against them. Iso- krates has confounded in his mind the conduct of the Athenians when they refused the offers of Mardonius in the year following the battle of Salamis, with their conduct before the battle of Salamis against Xerxes.
 * Herodot. viii, 40-42. ^ Plato, Legg. iii, p. 69<»