Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/143

BATTLE OF SALAMIS.- RETREAT OF XERXES. 119 Soon after their arrival, Xerxes himself descended to the shore to inspect the fleet, as well as to take counsel with the various naval leaders about the expediency of attacking the hostile fleet, now so near him in the narrow strait between Salamis and the coasts of Attica. He invited them all to take their seats in an assembly, wherein the king of Sidon occupied the first place and the king of Tyre the second. The question was put to each of them separately by Mardonius, and when we learn that all pro- nounced in favor of immediate fighting, we may be satisfied that the decided opinion of Xerxes himself must have been well known to them beforehand. One exception alone was found to this unanimity, — Artemisia, queen of Halikamassus in Karia ; into whose mouth Herodotus puts a speech of some length, deprecating all idea of fighting in the narrow strait of Salamis, — predicting that if the land-force were moved forward to attack Peloponnesus, the Peloponnesians in the fleet at Salamis would return for the protection of their own homes, and thus the fleet would disperse, the rather as there was little or no food in the island, — and intimating, besides, unmeasured contempt for the eflELcacy of the Persian fleet and seamen as compared with the Greek, as well as for the subject contingents of Xerxes gener- ally. That queen Artemisia gave this prudent counsel, there is no reason to question ; and the historian of Halikamassus may have had means of hearing the grounds on which her opinion rested : but I find a difficulty in believing that she can have pub- licly delivered any such estimate of the maritime subjects of Persia, — an estimate not merely insulting to all who heard it, but at the time not just, though it had come to be nearer the truth at the time when Herodotus wrote,i and though Artemisia and the Demi of Attica, App. vol. ii, p. 250), " About one thousand ships is the greatest accuracy we can pretend to, in stating the strength of the Per- sian fleet at Salamis : and from these are to he deducted, in estimating the number of ships engaged in the battle, those which were sent to occupy the Megaric strait of Salamis, two hundred in number." The estimate of Colonel Leake appears somewhat lower than the proba ble reality. Nor do I believe the statement of Diodoinis, that ships were detached to occupy the Megaric strait : see a note shortly following. ' The picture drawn in the Cyropaedia of Xenophon represents the sub- jects of Persia as spiritless and untrained towar (dvdA/c^rfef kuI uavvraKroi)