Evelyn Shirley Shuckburgh

“ When the Persian ships were approaching the coast of Magnesia, opposite Artemisium, the alarm was so great that Themistocles could no longer restrain the Greek captains, and the fleet sailed to Chalcis, on the Euripus, the narrowest point between Euboea and the mainland. But when the Persians, who were in an exposed position, had suffered severely from a great storm, the Greeks mustered courage to return to Artemisium, and there for three days the two fleets were engaged. ”

“ A curious story is told by Herodotus in regard to this battle. On the morning of the day a herald's staff was washed on shore, and a report spread of the victory gained at Plataea. Whether historians are mistaken in placing the battles on the same day, or whether (as later writers assume) the Greek generals deliberately spread the report to encourage their men, we cannot tell. In times of excitement such rumours will spread among men. Whatever their origin, their effect is often decisive, and the Greeks naturally attributed them to divine influence. ”

“ Xerxes, sitting upon a throne which commanded a view of the bay of Salamis, watched with extreme agitation the issue of these combats, in nearly all of which the Greek ships were successful. The number of his ships made the confusion more disastrous when they attempted to retreat, for the retiring ships frequently crashed in upon those that were still rowing up to join in the struggle. The loss of life on the Persian side was the greater from the fact that they had less facilities than the Greeks for escaping to land. ”

“ The ten years of freedom from Persian attack which followed were years of steady growth for Athens, especially as a sea-power. There was more than one reason for this. Events made it evident that ships of war were a necessity to the state; in Themistocles it had a far seeing statesman capable of carrying out such a policy; while a development of the silver mines at Laurium supplied the requisite funds. The renewal of the quarrel with Aegina after B.C. 490 made an increase in the war fleet necessary, and Herodotus remarks that the ships built for this purpose proved the salvation of Greece. ”

“ The combined fleet sent out in B.C. 478 to continue the liberation of Greek states from Persian garrisons was under the command of Pausanias of Sparta, uncle and guardian of the young king, the son of Leonidas. His position was the result of the traditional primacy of Sparta. But recent events had raised the prestige of Athens, and Aristides, the commander of the Athenian squadron, was a man to win respect and confidence from all. In his own city he had been generally in opposition to the forward and astute policy of Themistocles ”

“ The king's army duly occupied and destroyed the abandoned city, without any resistance except from a handful of men on the Acropolis, and his fleet arrived along the Attic coast, and could be seen stretching from Phalerum to Sunium. But this sacrifice would be all in vain if Themistocles could not persuade the Greek captains to keep the fleet together and engage the enemy where the confined space and narrow seas would deprive him of the advantage of his superior number of vessels. In fact it was by a trick that Themistocles finally secured that the battle should be fought where it was. ”

“ Following this there was a series of engagements between single ships, or between a single ship and several charging it at the same time, till the vast fleet of the enemy, harassed by repeated attacks of the Greek craft, which if smaller in size were more skilfully worked, and had the advantage of being less crowded, became a confused mob of vessels which damaged each other as much as they were damaged by the Greeks. ”

“ The Greek fleet was a composite one, and though the Athenians, who supplied the greater part, were under the influence of Themistocles, who was eager to encounter the Persian fleet and prevent its further progress south, many of the other captains were for retreating to the Peloponnese, and separating to their various states, or at any rate for making a stand only when nearer to what seemed a place of safety. ”

“ Here they were followed by the Spartans, who attempted to pull down the wooden palisade and enter the camp. They were never so good at such operations as at fighting in the open, and according to Herodotus it was not till the Athenians arrived that the camp was taken. Then the unhappy and disheartened crowd were slaughtered like sheep, with hardly a show of resistance. The only part of the Persian army that escaped was a division of forty thousand men led by Artabazos. ”

“ From that time the Persian king seems to have agreed not to send ships of war into the Aegean, and not to interfere with Greek towns on the coast.
By this time or soon afterwards the heroes of the second Persian war had disappeared. Pausanias had been convicted of treason and put to death (B.C. 471) . Themistocles had been ostracised in B.C. 471, and then being accused of having shared in the treason of Pausanias, had fled to Persia (B.C. 466–5) , and at about the same time Aristides died. A new age was beginning with new men. ”

“ Shortly after arriving at the Heracleum he had been reinforced by a thousand Plataeans, always eager to show their adherence to Athens and their difference with Thebes. The whole Greek force, therefore, consisted of ten thousand men They had the advantage of advancing down hill; but their centre was too weak, their line having been widely extended to prevent being outflanked; for the Persian embarkation was covered by a considerably superior force. ”

“ The battle which ensued was fought on land, not at sea. The Persian admirals distrusted their power to fight the Greek fleet. They had therefore dragged their ships on shore at Mykale and entrenched a kind of naval camp. Accordingly the Greeks also disembarked, and the battle which ensued had many features in common with that at Plataea, which according to tradition took place on the same day. ”

“ From Delos the fleet proceeded to Carystus on the south of Euboea. The Eretrians now recognised their danger. They sent urgent messages to Athens for help, but there was, as usual, a party within their own walls who welcomed the invader; and on the seventh day after the arrival of the fleet the town was surrendered, and such of its inhabitants as had not escaped to the interior were removed to the island of Styra to await transport to Asia. ”

“ News had come early to the Greeks at Thermopylae that they were betrayed. The sacrifices were unfavourable, and deserters bringing in the intelligence were soon followed by their own scouts conveying the same news. ”

“ Next year (B.C. 479) the fighting was on land, and the result of the invasion was settled by the great battle of Plataea. Early in the spring Mardonius, who had wintered in Thessaly, marched south and again occupied Athens. But he found the country ill-suited for cavalry, in which his chief strength lay ”