Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/151

BATTLE OF SALAMIS.- RETREAT OF XERXES. 127 was not only in the utmost alarm, meditating immediate flight, but that the various portions of it Avere in such violent dissension, that they were more likely to fight against each other than against any common enemy. A splendid opportunity, it was added, was thus opened to the Persians, if they chose to avail themselves of it without delay, first, to inclose and prevent their flight, and then to attack a disunited body, many of whom would, Avhen the combat began, openly espouse the Persian cause.^ Such was the important communication despatched by The- mistokles across the narrow strait, only a quarter of a mile in breadth at the narrowest part, which divides Salamis from the neighboring continent on which the enemy w^ere posted. It was delivered with so much address as to produce the exact impres- sion which he intended, and the glorious success which followed caused it to pass for a splendid stratagem : had defeat ensued, his name would have been covered with infamy. What surprises us the most is, that after having reaped signal honor from it in the eyes of the Greeks, as a stratagem, he lived to take credit for it, during the exile of his latter days,- as a capital service ren- dered to the Persian monarch : nor is it improbable, when we reflect upon the desperate condition of Grecian affairs at the mo- ment, that such facility of double interpretation was in part his inducement for sending the message. It appears to have been delivered to Xerxes shortly after he had issued his orders for fighting on the next morning : and he entered so greedily into the scheme, as to direct his generals to close up the strait of Salamis on both sides during the night,^ to ' Herodot. viii, 75. ■■' Thucydid. i, 137. It is curious to contrast this with ^schykis. Persre, .^51, seq. See also Herodot. viii, 109, 110. Isokrates miglit well remark about the ultimate rewards given by the Persians to Themistokles, — Qefj-iffroKlea 6', be v~ep t7/( 'EA/'.dJof avTovQ KaTevavfiaxnoe, tojv fieyirrruv dupiuv ij^iuaav (Panegyric, Or. iv, p. 74), — though that orator speaks as if he knew nothing about the stratagem by which Themistokles compelled the Greeks to fight at Salamis against their will. See the same Oration, c. 27, p. 61. 3 JEs-jhylus, Persffi, 370. Herodotus does not mention this threat to the generals, nor does he even notice the personal interference of Xerxes in any way, so far as regards the night-movement of the Persian fleet. He treats the commimication of