Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/164

 140 HISTORY OF GREECE. parture of the hostile fleet from the bay of Phalerum, and immediately put themselves in pursuit ; following as far as the island of Andros without success. Themistoklgs and the Athe- nians are even said to have been anxious to push on forthwith to the Hellespont, and there break down the bridge of boats, in order to prevent the escape of Xerxes, — had they not been restrained by the caution of Eurybiades and the Peloponnesians, who represented that it was dangerous to detain the Persian monarch in the heart of Greece. Themistokles readily suffered himself to be persuaded, and contributed much to divert his countrymen from the idea ; while he at the same time sent the faithful Sikinnus a second time to Xerxes, with the intimation - that he, Themistokles, had restrained the impatience of the Greeks to proceed without delay and burn the Hellespontine bridge, — and that he had thus, from personal friendship to the monarch, secured for him a safe retreat.i Though this is the story related by Herodotus, we can hardly believe that, with the great Persian land-force in the heart of Attica, there could have been any serious idea of so distant an operation as that of attack- ing the bridge at the Hellespont. It seems more probable that Themistokles fabricated the intention, with a view of frightening Xerxes away, as well as of establishing a personal claim upon his gratitude in reserve for future contingences. Such crafty manoeuvres and long-sighted calculations of pos- sibility, seem extraordinary : but the facts are sufBciently attested, — since Themistokles lived to claim as well as to receive fulfil- ment of the obligation thus conferred, — and though extraordi- nary, they will not appear inexplicable, if we reflect, first, that the Persian game, even now, after the defeat of Salamis, was not only not desperate, but might perfectly well have succeeded, if it had been played with reasonable prudence : next, that there existed in the mind of this eminent man an almost unparalleled ' Herodot. viii, 109, 110; Thucvd. i, 137. The words rjv -ijjevdQ^ Tzpoae- 7roi7/aa-u may probably be understood in a sense somewhat larger than that which they naturally bear in Thucydides. In point of fact, not only was it false that Themistokles was the person who dissuaded the Greeks from going to the Hellespont, but it was also false that the Greeks had ever any serious intention of going there. Compare Cornelius Nepos, Themistokl. c. 5.