The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [160]
8. The city authorities had accumulated a large sum in the treasury, and were about to share it among the citizens, who would have received ten drachmas apiece,
9. When Themistocles persuaded them not to distribute the money, but to use it to build two hundred ships to help them in their war against the Eginetans.
10. It was thus the Eginetan war which proved the saving of Greece; for thereby was Athens forced to become a maritime power.
11. Now, with the looming threat of Xerxes, they resolved to build yet more ships, and to equip them well.
12. The Greeks who were loyal to the Grecian cause assembled in one place, and there consulted, and exchanged pledges with each other.
13. They agreed that, before any other step was taken, the feuds and enmities between the different states should first be appeased.
14. There were many such; but one was of more importance than the rest, namely, the war then still continuing between the Athenians and Eginetans.
15. When this business was concluded, the Greeks sent spies into Asia to take note of Xerxes’ affairs.
16. At the same time they resolved to send ambassadors to the Argives, and conclude a league with them against the Persians;
17. And likewise they dispatched messengers to the people of Corcyra, and to those of Crete, exhorting them to send help to Greece.
18. Their wish was to unite the entire Greek name in one, and so to bring all to join in the same plan of defence, because the approaching dangers threatened all alike.
19. And they sent also to Gelo, the son of Deinomenes, in Sicily.
20. Now the power and wealth of Gelo, as king of Syracuse, was very great, far greater than that of any other single Grecian state.
21. The spies who went to Sardis before Xerxes set forth to the Hellespont were caught while noting the Persian strength,
22. And were just about to be put to death when Xerxes reprieved them, gave them free access to everything in his army,
23. And then sent them home, saying that he would prefer the Greeks to know his great strength than to be ignorant of it.
24. This was like his decision when, at the Hellespont, some Greek ships carrying corn from the Euxine to the Peloponnese were stopped, and the Persians made to capture them.
25. But Xerxes, on hearing what they carried and wither they were bound, said, ‘We too are going there; let them carry our corn for us.’
26. And the seamen were able to report on the great armament of the Persians when they reached home, instilling fear.
27. Among those who chose not to aid their fellow-Greeks in opposing Xerxes were the Argives.
28. They had received a message from Xerxes when he first planned his invasion, saying that the Persians regarded themselves as springing from Perseus, founder also of Argos, and that they were therefore kin;
29. And that it was wrong for kin to war on each other, or for the Argives to join the Greeks in opposing Xerxes.
30. Having lately lost many citizens in fighting with Sparta, the Argives were only too happy to find an excuse to stand aside from the war;
31. And used a stratagem to deny the call for aid from their fellow-Greeks. This was to ask for equal generalship of the army, which they knew the Spartans, with their two kings, could not accept.
Chapter 63
1. Of greater moment was the embassy to Gelo, who had made Syracuse great and wealthy.
2. When the Greek envoys reached Syracuse, they said, ‘We have been sent to you by the Lacedaemonians and Athenians, with their respective allies, to ask your help against the barbarian.
3. ‘Doubtless you have heard of his invasion, bringing out of Asia all the forces of the East, to carry war into Europe, claiming that he only intends to attack Athens, but really bent on subjecting all the Greeks.
4. ‘Help us maintain the freedom of Greece; your power is great, and your portion in Greece, as lord of Sicily, is no small one.
5. ‘If all Greece join together in one, we will be a mighty host, and we shall be a match for our assailants;
6. ‘But if some turn traitors, and others