Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/109

BATTLES OF THERMOPYL^ AND ARTEMISIUM. 85 escape the unseen atmospheric enemies which howl around that formidable pi-omontory : the work of destruction to his fleet was only transferred to the opposite side of the intervening Thracian sea. Had the Persian fleet reached Aphetaj without misfortune, they would have found the Eubcean strait evacuated by the Greek fleet and undefended, so that they would have come im- mediately into communication with the land army, and would have acted upon the rear of Leonidas and his division. But the Btorm completely altered this prospect, and revived the spirits of the Greek fleet at Chalkis. It was communicated to them by their scouts on the high lands of Euboea, who even sent them word that the entire Persian fleet was destroyed : u^Don which, having returned thanks and olfered libations to Poseidon the Saviour, the Greeks returned back as speedily as they could to Artemisium. To their surprise, however, they saw the Persian fleet, though reduced in number, stiU exhibiting a formidable total and appearance at the opposite station of Aphetae. The last fifteen ships of that fleet, having been so greatly crippled by the storm as to linger behind the rest, mistook the Greek ships for their own comrades, fell into the midst of them, and were all captured. Sandokes, sub-satrap of the ^olic Kyme, — Aridolis, despot of Alabanda in Karia, — and Penthylus, despot of Pa- phos in Cyprus, — the leaders of this squadron, were sent pris- oners to the isthmus of Corinth, after having been questioned respecting the enemy : the latter of these three had brought to Xerxes a contingent of twelve ships, out of which eleven had foundered in the storm, while the last was now taken with him- self aboard. 1 Meanwhile Xerxes, encamped within sight of Thermopylae, suffered four days to pass without making any attack : a proba- ble reason may be found in the extreme peril of his fleet, report- ed to have been utterly destroyed by the storm : but Herodotus assigns a different cause. Xerxes could not believe, according to him, that the Greeks at Thermopylae, few as they were in number, had any serious intention to resist : he had heard in his inarch that a handful of Spartans and other Greeks, under an ' Herodot. vii, 194.