The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [175]
15. And among their other modes of defence, rolled down masses of stone on the barbarians as they were climbing up to the gates:
16. So that Xerxes was for a long time perplexed, and could not contrive any way to take them.
17. At last some Persians found a secret way up a steep part of the precipice behind the citadel, and forced an entry.
18. They opened the gates to the main force, which rushed in and killed all those who did not throw themselves to their deaths from the walls.
19. Then they pillaged the citadel and set it alight. Xerxes, thus completely master of Athens, dispatched a horseman to Susa, with a message to Artabanus, informing him of his success.
20. Meanwhile, at Salamis, the Greeks no sooner heard what had befallen the Athenian citadel,
21. Than they fell into such alarm that some of the captains did not wait for the council to come to a vote,
22. But hastily boarded their vessels, and set sail as though they would take to flight immediately.
Chapter 79
1. The rest, who stayed at the council board, voted that the fleet should sail from Salamis and give battle at the Isthmus.
2. Night now drew on; and the captains, dispersing from the meeting, proceeded on board their respective ships.
3. Themistocles, as he entered his own vessel, was met by Mnesiphilus, an Athenian, who asked him what the council had decided to do.
4. On learning that the idea was to sail to the Isthmus, and there give battle on behalf of the Peloponnese, Mnesiphilus exclaimed:
5. ‘If these men sail away from Salamis, you will have no fight at all for our one fatherland;
6. ‘They will all scatter to their own homes, and neither Eurybiades nor anyone else will be able to stop them. Greece will be brought to ruin by this bad counsel.
7. ‘Make haste, and see if there is any possible way to persuade Eurybiades to change his mind, and stay here.’
8. Themistocles managed to persuade Eurybiades to reconvene the council of captains,
9. And when they had gathered, he quickly and eagerly began to speak, as men tend to do when they are anxious.
10. The Corinthian captain, Adeimantus son of Ocytus, said, ‘Themistocles, at the Games they who start too soon are scourged.’
11. ‘True,’ Themistocles replied, ‘but they who wait too late are not crowned.’
12. Then instead of using the arguments he had beforehand given to Eurybiades about the risk of the allies all going their separate ways, since this might offend those present,
13. He used a different argument. ‘Eurybiades,’ he said, ‘it rests with you to save Greece if you will listen to my advice.
14. ‘If we withdraw to the Isthmus we will be at a disadvantage, having to fight in the open sea against the greater numbers of the enemy.
15. ‘Moreover we will thereby already have lost Salamis, Megara and Egina. The land and sea force of the Persians will advance together,
16. ‘And our retreat will only draw them towards the Peloponnese, and so bring all Greece into peril.
17. ‘If we stay here we will fight in a narrow sea with few ships against many, and that will give us a great victory;
18. ‘A narrow sea is favourable to us, a wide sea favourable to them. Salamis will be preserved, where we have placed our wives and children.
19. ‘And indeed, the very point on which we set most store, namely defending the Peloponnese, is secured as much by this course as by the other;
20. ‘For whether we fight here or at the Isthmus, we achieve the same end.’
21. When Themistocles had spoken, Adeimantus the Corinthian again attacked him, and told him to be silent, since he was a man without a city or a country,
22. Because Athens had been taken, and was in the hands of the barbarians; and he urged that Themistocles should show of what state he was envoy, before he gave his voice with the rest.
23. Themistocles bitterly reproached Adeimantus, and reminded the captains that with two hundred ships at his command, all fully manned for battle,
24. He had both city and territory as good as theirs; since there was no Grecian state