Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/165

 BATTLE OF SALAiflS. - RETREAT OF XERXES. 141 combination of splendid patriotism, long-sighted cunning, and selfish rapacity. Themistokles knew better than any one else that the cause of Greece had appeared utterly desperate, only a few hours before the late battle : moreover, a clever man, tainted with such constant guilt, might naturally calculate on being one day detected and punished, even if the Greeks proved suc- cessful. He now employed the fleet among the islands of the Cyclades, for the purpose of levying fines upon them as a punishment for adherence to the Persian. He first laid siege to Andros, telling the inhabitants that he came to demand their money, bringing with him two great gods, — Persuasion and Necessity. To which the Andrians replied, that " Athens was a great city, and blest with excellent gods : but that they were miserably poor, and that there were two unkind gods who always stayed with them and would never quit the island, — Poverty and Helplessness.^ In these gods the Andrians put their trust, refusing to deliver the money required ; for the power of Athens could never overcome their inability." While the fleet was engaged in contending against the Andrians with their sad protecting deities, Themisto- kles sent round to various other cities, demanding from them private sums of money on condition of securing them from attack. From Karystus, Paros, and other places, he thus ex- torted bribes for himself apart from the other generals,'2 but it appears that Andros was found unproductive, and after no very long absence, the fleet was brought back to Salamis.3 The intimation sent by Themistokles perhaps had the effect of hastening the departure of Xerxes, who remained in Attica only a few days after the battle of Salamis, and then withdrew his army through Boeotia into Thessaly, where Mardonius made choice of the troops to be retained for his future operations. He retained all the Persians, Medes, Sakae, Baktrians, and Indians, ' Herodot. viii, 111. fTret 'Av6p'iovc ye elvac yciJTTeivac eq tu fiiyca-a avfi- KOVTar_ KoL -Qeoix 6vo axprjarovg ovk e/cAetTretv a(p£uv ttjv vtjaov, dZ/,' ael <pi?.oxt^pt£tv — UeviTjv TE Kal 'A.[j.rix<iVLrjv. Compare Alkaeus, Fragm. 90, cd. Bergk, and Herodot. vii, 172. bitter lines from the contemporary poet Timokreon. ^ Herodot. viii, 112-121.
 * Herodot. viii, 112; Plutarch, Themistokles, c. 21, — who cites a few