Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/141

 BATTLE OF SALAMIS— RETREAT OF XERXES. H? altogether unguarded, and seemingly even unfortified :' more- over, the attention of the little garrison was all concentrated on the host which fronted the gates. Hence the separate escalad- ing party was enabled to accomplish their object unobserved, and to reach the summit in the rear of the garrison ; who, deprived of their last hope, either cast themselves headlong from the walls, or fled for safety to the inner temple. The successful escaladers opened the gates to the entire Persian host, and the whole acropolis was presently in their hands. Its defenders were slain, its temples pillaged, and all its dwellings and build- ings, sacred as well as profane, consigned to the flames.2 The citadel of Athens fell into the hands of Xerxes by a surprise, very much the same as that which had placed Sardis in those of Cyrus.3 Thus was divine prophecy fulfilled : Attica passed entirely into the hands of the Persians, and the conflagration of Sardis was retaliated upon the home and citadel of its captors, as it also was upon their sacred temple of Eleusis. Xerxes immedi- ately despatched to Susa intelligence of the fact, which is said to have excited unmeasured demonstrations of joy, confuting, seem- Areopagus, and fortified it as a means of attacking the acropolis, — uvte~ izvpyuaav (^schyl. Eumenid. 638). ' Herodot. viii, 52, 53 einvpo<r&e uv izpo tt/c uKpoTToAcog, ornate 6e Tuv TTvXeuv Kai rrjg av66ov, r^ 6fi ovre tic E<pv?i.aaa€, ovt' uv iiTLiztae [irj KOTE Ttg Kard. ravra avafSaiTj uv'&puKojv, rami} avipriaav Tcvsg Kara to Ipbv TT]q KsKpoTToc ■&vyaTpog ' AyTiavpov, KahoLntp ifKOKprjfivov kovTo^ tov x<^pov. That the Aglaurion was on the north side of the acropolis, appears cleai'ly made out ; see Leake, Topography of Athens, ch. v, p. 261 ; Krnse, Hellas, Tol. ii, ch. vi, p. 119; Forchhammer, Topographic Athens, pp. 365, 366; in Kieler Philologischen Studien, 1841. Siebelis (in the Plan of Athens prefixed to his edition of Pausanias, and in his note on Pausa- nias, i, 18, 2) places the Aglaurion erroneously on the eastern side of the acropolis. The expressions Efxnpoa^e Trpb t?/^ aKpoTiolio^ appear to refer to the posi- tion of the Persian army, who would natiurally occupy the northern and western fronts of the acropolis : since they reached Athens from the north, — and the western side furnished the only regular access. The hill called Areopagus would thus be nearly in the centre of their position. Forch- hammer explains these expressions unsatisfactorily.
 * Herodot. viii, 52, 53. ' Herodot. i, 84.