Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/217

 BATTLES OF PLATiEA AND JIYKALE. 193 Here they were under the protection of a land-force of sixty thousand men, under the command of Tigranes, — the main reli- ance of Xerxes for the defence of Ionia : the ships were dragged ashore, and a rampart of stones and stakes was erected to protect them, while the defending army lined the shore, and seemed amply sufficient to repel attack from seaward.' It was not long before the Greek fleet arrived. Disappointed of their intention of fighting, by the flight of the enemy from Samos, they had at first pro2X)sed either to return home, or to turn aside to the Hellespont : but they v/ere at last persuaded by the Ionian envoys to pursue the enemy's fleet and again offer bat- tle at Mykale. On rcaching that point, they discovered that the Persians had abandoned the sea, intending to fight only on land. So much had the Greeks now become emboldened, that they ventured to disembark and attack the united land-force and sea- force before them : but since much of their chance of success depended on the desertion of the lonians, the first proceeding of Leotychides was, to copy the previous manoeuvre of Themis- tokles, Avhen retreating from Artemisium, at the watering-places of Euboea. Sailing along close to the coast, he addressed, through a herald of loud voice, earnest appeals to the lonians among the enemy to revolt ; calculating, even if they did not listen to him, that he should at least render them mistrusted by the Persians. He then disembarked his troops and mai-shalled them for the purpose of attacking the Persian camp on land ; while the Persian generals, surprised by this daring manifesta- tion, and suspecting, either from his manoeuvre or from previous evidences, that the lonians were in secret collusion with him, ordered the Samian contingent to be disarmed, and tlie Milesians to retire to the rear of the army, for the purpose of occupying the various mountain roads up to the summit of Mykule, — suppose that Gseson was the name of a town as well as of a river (Ephonas ap. Athena:, vi, p. 311. The eastern promontory (cape Poseidion) of Samos was separated only by seven stadia from Mykale (Strabo, xiv, p. 6-37), near to the i)lai-c wlicre Glauko was situated (Tlmcyd. viii, 79), — modern observers iu;ike {hi distance rather more than a mile (Poppo, Proleyg. ad Tliiuyd. vol. ii, p. 465). ' Herodot. i., 96, 97, VOL. V. 9 13oc.