Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/150

 126 mSTORY OF GREECE. they not there also, to join hands and to help in the defence, — even if worsted at sea, — at least on land, instead of wasting their efforts in defence of Attica, already in the hands of the enemy ? Such were the complaints which passed from man to man, with many a bitter exclamation against the insanity of Eurybiades : at length the common feeling broke out in public and mutinous manifestation, and a fresh synod of the chiefs was demanded and convoked, i Here the same angry debate, and the same irreconcilable difference, was again renewed ; the Pelo- ponnesian chiefs clamoring for immediate departure, while the Athenians, ^ginetans,^ and Megarians, were equally urgent in favor of staying to fight. It was evident to Themistokles that the majority of votes among the chiefs would be against him, in spite of the orders of Eurybiades ; and the disastrous crisis, destined to deprive Greece of all united maritime defence, ap- peared imminent, — when he resorted to one last stratagem to meet the desperate emergency, by rendering flight impossible. Contriving a pretext for stealing away from the synod, he de- spatched a trusty messenger across the strait with a secret com- munication to the Persian generals. Sikinnus his slave, — seem- ingly an Asiatic Greek,3 who understood Persian, and had perhaps been sold during the late Ionic revolt, but whose superior qual- ities are marked by the fact that he had the care and teaching of the children of his master, — was instructed to acquaint them privately, in the name of Themistokles, who was represented as wishing success at heart to the Persians, that the Greek fleet ' Herodot. viii, 74. euf filv di/ avTuv avf/p uvdpl TrapiaraTO, d^uv/xa ttouv- fievoL TTjV EvpvjSiadeu uj3ov?utjv teXoq de, k^ep^uy?) ef to fiiaov, aiiXkoyog te 6ij kyivETO, kol 7co7Jia e/JyETo iTEpl tCiv aiiruv, etc. Compare Plutarch, Themist. c. 12. those who were anxious to escape from Salamis during the night, and were only prevented from doing so by the stratagem of Themistokles. This is a great mistake, as indeed these orators are perpetually miscon- eei^ang the facts of their past history. The ^ginetans had an interest not less strong than the Athenians in keeping the fleet together and fighting at Salamis. cannot be true.
 * Lykurgns (cont. Leokrat. c. 17, p. 185) numbers the ^ginetans among
 * Plutarch (Themistokles, c. 12) calls Sikinnus a, Persian hy birth, which