Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/147

 BATTLE OF SALAMS.- RETREAT OF XERXES. 123 " Themistokles, those who in the public festival-matches rise up before the proper signal, are scourged." " True, (rejoined the Athenian), but those who lag behind the signal win no crowns, "i ^ Herodot. viii, 58, 59. The account given by Herodotus, of these mem orable debates which preceded the battle of Salamis, is in the main distinct, instructive, and consistent. It is more probable than the narrative of Diodoras (xi, 15, 16), who states that Themistokles succeeded in fully convincing both Eurj'biades and the Peloponnesian chiefs of the propriety of fighting at Salamis, but that, in spite of all their efforts, the armament would not obey them, and insisted on going to the Isthmus. And it de- serves om* esteem still more, if we contrast it with the loose and careless accounts of Plutarch and Cornelius Nepos. Plutarch (Themist. c. 11) de- scribes the scene as if Eurybiades was the person who desired to restrain the foi-n'ardness and oratory of Themistokles, and with that view, first made to him the obsei-vation given in my text out of Herodotus, which Themistokles followed up by the same answer, — next, lifted up his stick to strike Themistokles, upon which the latter addressed to him the well-kno^vn observation, — '• Strike, but hear me," {Hara^ov fiev, ukovgov 6e.) Larcher expi-esses his surprise that Herodotus should have suppressed so impressive an anecdote as this latter : but we may see plainly from the tenor of his narrative that he cannot have heard it. In the naiTative of Herodotus, Themistokles gives no offence to Eurybiades, nor is the latter at all dis- pleased with him : nay, Eurybiades is even brought over by the persuasion of Themistokles, and disposed to fall in ^vith his views. The persons whom Herodotus represents as angry with Themistokles, are the Peloponnesian chiefs, especially Adeimantus the Corinthian. They are angry too, let it be added, not without plausible reason : a formal vote has just been taken by the majority, after full discussion ; and here is the chief of the minority, who persuades Eurybiades to reopen the whole debate : not an unreasonable cause for displeasure. Moreover, it is Adeimantus, not Eurybiades, who addresses to Themistokles the remark, that " persons who rise befoi'e the proper signal are scourged :" and he makes the remark because Themisto- kles goes on speaking to, and trying to persuade, the various chiefs, before the business of the assembly has been formally opened. Themistokles draws upon himself the censure by sinning against the forms of business and talking before the proper time. But Plutarch puts the remark into the mouth of Eurybiades, without any previous circumstance to justify it. and without any fitness. His narrative represents Eurybiades as the person who was anxious both to transfer the ships to the Isthmus, and to prevent Themistokles from offering any opposition to it : though such an attempt to check argumentative opposition from the commander of the Athenian squadron is noway credible. Dr. Blomfield (ad ^schyl. Pers. 728) imagines that the story about Eurybiades threatening Themistokles with his stick, grew out of the story