Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/139

BATTLE OF SALAMS.- RETREAT OF XERXES. 115 among them, crushing many to death, — the war-shout was also heard from the interior of the temple of Athene. Seized with a panic terror, ihe invaders turned round and tied ; pursued not only by the Delphians, but also, as they themselves affirmed, by two armed warriors of superhuman stature and destructive arm. The triumphant Delphians confirmed this report, adding that the two auxiUaries were the heroes Phylakus and AutonoiJs, whose sacred precincts were close/ adjoining : and Herodotus himself when he visited Delphi, saw in the sacred ground of Athene the identical masses of rock which had overwhelmed the Persians.' Thus did the god repel these invaders from his Delphian sanc- tuary and treasures, which remained inviolate until one hundred and thirty years afterwards, when they were rifled by the sacri- legious hands of the Phocian Philomelus. On this occasion, as will be seen presently, the real protectors of the treasures were, the conquerors at Salamis and Plattea. Four months had elapsed since the departure from Asia when Xerxes reached Athens, the last term of his advance. He brought with him the members of the Peisistratid family, who doubtless thought their restoration already certain, — and a few Athenian exiles attached to their interest. Though the country was altogether deserted, the handful of men collected in the acropolis ventured to defy him : nor could all the persuasions of 1 Herodot. riii, 38, 39 ; Diodor. xi, 14 ; Pausan. x, 8, 4. Compare the account given in Pausanias (x, 23) of the subsequent re- pulse of Brennus and the Gauls from Delphi : in his account, the repulse is not so exclusively the work of the gods as in that of Herodotus : there is a larger force of human combatants in defence of the temple, though greatly- assisted by divine intervention : there is also loss on both sides. A similar descent of crags from the summit is mentioned. See for the description of the road by which the Persians marched, and the extreme term of their progress, Ulrichs, Reisen und Forschungen in Griechenland, ch. iv, p. 46; ch. x, p. 146. Many great blocks of stone and cliff ai-e still to be seen near the spot, which have rolled down from the top, and which remind the traveller of these passages. The attack here described to have been made by order of Xerxes upon the Delphian temple, seems not easy to reconcile mth the words of Mar- donius, Herodot. ix, 42 : still less can it be reconciled with the statement of Plutarch (Numa, c. 9), who says that the Delphian temple was burnt by the Medes.