Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/216

 1/2 Otctlines of European History Persians enter Greece The battles of Thermop- ylae and Artemisium communications and supplies of the Persian army. There must be no attempt of the small Greek army to meet the vast land forces of the Persians, beyond delaying them as long as possi- ble at the narrow northern passes, which could be defended with a few men. An attempt to unite all the Greek states against the Persian invasion was not successful, but Sparta and Athens united to meet the common danger. Themistocles was able to induce the Spartans to accept his plan only on con- dition that Sparta be given command of the allied Greek fleets. In the summer of 480 B.C. the Asiatic army was approaching the pass of Thermopylae (Fig. 85), just opposite the western- most point of the Island of Euboea (see map, p. 1 46). Their fleet moved with them. The Asiatic host must have numbered over two hundred thousand men, with probaWy as many more camp followers, while the enormous fleet contained presumably about a thousand vessels, of which perhaps two thirds were warships. Of these they lost a hundred or two in a storm, leaving probably about five hundred warships available for action. The Spartan king Leonidas led some five thousand men to check the Persians at the pass of Thermopylae, while the Greek fleet of less than three hundred triremes was endeavoring to hold together and strike the Persian navy at Artemisium, on the northern coast of Euboea. Thus the land and sea forces of both contestants were face to face. After several days' delay the Persians advanced to attack on both land and sea. The Greek fleet made a skillful and credit- able defense against superior numbers, and all day the daunt- less Leonidas held the pass of Thermopylae against the Persian host. Meantime the Persians were executing two flank move- ments by land and by sea — one over the mountains to strike Leonidas in the rear, and the other with two hundred ships around Euboea to take the Greek fleet likewise from behind. A storm destroyed the flanking Persian ships, and a second combat between the two main fleets was indecisive, but the flanking of the pass was successful Taken in front and rear.