The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [178]
22. And they would thus be able to save their own men and destroy those of the enemy.
23. All these movements were made in silence, so that the Greeks would be unaware of them; and they occupied the whole night, so that the men had no time to get their sleep.
24. Meanwhile, among the Greek captains at Salamis, the strife of words was growing fierce.
25. As yet they did not know that they were surrounded, but imagined that the barbarians remained in the same places as the day before.
26. In the midst of their arguing, Aristides, the son of Lysimachus, who had crossed from Egina, arrived in Salamis.
27. He was an Athenian, and had been ostracised by the community, even though there was not a man so worthy and just in all Athens as he.
28. He arrived at the council, and, standing outside, called for Themistocles.
29. Now Themistocles was not his friend, but his most determined enemy. However, under the pressure of the great dangers impending, Aristides forgot their feud,
30. And called Themistocles out of the council, since he wished to confer with him, because he had heard before his arrival of the impatience of the Peloponnesians to withdraw the fleet to the Isthmus.
31. As soon as Themistocles came out, therefore, Aristides addressed him in these words.
32. ‘Our rivalry at all times, and especially at the present season, ought to be a struggle, which of us shall most advantage our country.
33. ‘I have seen with my own eyes what I now report: that, however much the Corinthians or Eurybiades himself may wish it, they cannot now retreat;
34. ‘For we are enclosed on every side by the enemy.
35. ‘Go in to them, and make this known.’ ‘This is good news,’ said Themistocles; ‘and know that what the Persians have done was at my instance;
36. ‘It was necessary, as our men would not fight here of their own free will, to make them fight whether they would or not.
37. ‘But come, as you have brought the news, go in and tell it. If I speak to them, they will not believe me.’
38. So Aristides entered the assembly, and spoke to the captains: he had come, he told them, from Egina, and had but barely escaped the blockading vessels;
39. The Greek fleet was entirely enclosed by the ships of Xerxes, and he advised them to get ready to fight. Having said so much, he withdrew.
40. And now another contest arose; for the greater part of the captains would not believe the news.
41. But while they still doubted, a Tenian trireme, commanded by Panaetius, the son of Sosimenes, deserted from the Persians and joined the Greeks, bringing full intelligence.
42. For this reason the Tenians were inscribed upon the memorials as among those who overthrew the barbarians.
43. With this ship, which deserted to their side at Salamis, and the Lemnian vessel which came over before at Artemisium, the Greek fleet was brought to the full number of three hundred and eighty ships.
Chapter 82
1. The Greeks now, no longer in doubt, made ready for the coming fight.
2. At dawn all the men-at-arms were assembled, and speeches were made to them, of which the best was by Themistocles;
3. Who throughout contrasted what was noble with what was base, and bade them, in all that came within the range of man’s nature and constitution, always to make choice of the nobler part.
4. Then he told them to go at once on board their ships, which they accordingly did; and the Greeks now put to sea with all their fleet.
5. The fleet had scarcely sailed when it was attacked by the Persians.
6. At once most of the Greeks began to back water, and were about to reach shore, when Ameinias of Palline, one of the Athenian captains, darted out in front of the line at an enemy ship.
7. The two vessels became entangled, and could not separate, whereupon the rest of the fleet came up to help Ameinias, and engaged with the Persians.
8. Against the Athenians, who held the western extremity of the line towards Eleusis, were placed the Phoenicians;
9. Against the Lacedaemonians, whose station was eastward towards the Piraeus,