Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/309

 GRECIAN AFFAIRS AFTER THE PERSIAN INVASION. 285 to send him up to Susa in a closed litter, under pretence that it was a woman for the king's harem : that Mandane, sister of Xerxes, insisted upon having him delivered up to her as an expiation for the loss of her son at the battle of Salamis : that he learned Persian so well, and discoursed in it so eloquently, as to procure for himself an acquittal from the Persian judges, when put upon his trial through the importunity of Mandane : that the officers of the king's household at Susa, and the satraps in his way back, threatened him with still farther perils : that he was admitted to see the king in person, after having received a lecture from the chamberlain on the indispensable duty of falling down before him to do homage, etc., with several other uncer- tified details,' which make us value more highly the narrative of Thucydides. Indeed, Ephorus, Deino, Kieitarchus, and Her- akleides, from whom these anecdotes appear mostly to be derived, even affirmed that Themistokles had found Xerxes himself alive and seen him : whereas, Thucydides and Charon, the two con- temporary authors, for the former is nea?-Zy contemporary, asserted that he had found Xerxes recently dead, and his son Artaxerxes on the throne. According to Thucydides, the eminent exile does not seem to have been exposed to the least danger in Persia. He presented himself as a deserter from Greece, and was accepted as such: moreover, — what is more strange, though it seems true, — he was received as an actual benefactor of the Persian king, and a sufferer from the Greeks on account of such dispositions, — in consequence of his communications made to Xerxes respecting the intended retreat of the Greeks from Salamis, and respecting , the contemplated destruction of the Hellespontine bridge. He ^ was conducted by some Persians on the coast up to Susa, where he addressed a letter to the king couched in the following terms, such as probably no modern European king would tolerate except from a Quaker : " I, Themistokles, am come to thee, having done to thy house more mischief than any other Greek, as long as I was compelled in my own defence to resist the attack of thy father, — but having also -done him yet greater good, when I could do so with safety to myself, and when his retreat was ' Diodor, xi, 5€ ; Plutarch, Themist. c. 24-30.