Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/215

 llie Repulse of Persia and the A thenian Einpire 1 7 1 Themistodes' masterly plan of campaign corresponded exactly Third Per- to the plan of the Persian advance. The xsiatics were coming in xhemi^^^*'^" combined land and sea array, with army and fleet moving together IJJ^^^^ P^-"'j^ down the east coast of the Greek mainland. The design of Fig. 85. The Pass of Thermopyl^ In the time of the Persian invasion the mountains to the left dropped steeply to the sea, with barely room between for a narrow road. Since then the rains of twenty-four hundred years have washed down the mountainside, and it is no longer as steep as formerly, while the neigh- boring river has filled in the shore and pushed back the sea several miles. Otherwise we would see it here on the right. The Persians, commg from beyond the mountains toward our point of view, could not spread out in battle array, being hemmed in by the sea on one side and the cliff on the other. It was only when a traitorous Greek led a Persian force by night over the mountain on the left, and they ap- peared behind the Greeks in the pass, that Leonidas and his Spartans were crushed by the simultaneous attack in front and rear (pp. 172-174) Themistodes was to meet the Persian fleet first with full force and fight a decisive naval battle as soon as possible. If vic- torious, the Greek fleet commanding the ^gean would then be able to sail up the eastern coast of Greece and threaten the