Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/155

BATTLE OF SALAMIS. - RETREAT OF XERXES. 131 affairs and the entire impossibility of retreat. Once satisfied of this fact, they prepared themselves at dawn for the impending battle.' Having caused his land-force to be drawn up along the shore opposite to Salamis, Xerxes had erected for himself a lofty seat, or throne, upon one of the projecting declivities of mount -iEgaleos, near the Herakleion and immediately overhanging the sea,2 — from whence he could plainly review all the phases of the combat and the conduct of his subject troops. He was per- suaded himself that they had not done their best at Artemisium, in consequence of his absence, and that his presence would in- spire them with fresh valor : moreover, his royal scribes stood ready by his side to take the names both of the brave and of the backward combatants. On the right wing of his fleet, which approached Salamis on the side of Eleusis, and was opposed to the Athenians on the Grecian left, — were placed the Pheni- cians and Egyptians ; on his left wing the lonians,^ — approach- ing from the side of Peirseua, and opposed to the Lacedsemo- nians, -ZEginetans, and Megarians. The seamen of the Persian ' Herodot. viii, 79, 80. Herodotus states, doubtless coiTectly, that Ai-isteides, immediately after he had made the communication to the synod, went away, not pretending to take part in the debate : Plutarch represents him as present, and as taking part in it (Aristeides, c. 9). According to Plutai'ch, Themistokles desires Aristeides to assist him in persuading Eurybiades : according to Herodotus, Eurybiades was already persuaded : it was the Peloponnesian chiefs who stood out. The details of Herodotus will be found thi'oughout both more credible and more consistent than those of Plutarch and the later writers. ^ -32schylus, Pers. 473 ; Herodot. viii, 90. The throne with silver feet, upon which Xerxes had sat, was long preserved in the acropolis of Athens, — having been left at his retreat. Hai-pokration, ^Apyvponovg 6i(ppoQ. A writer, to whom Plutarch refers, — Akestodorus, — affirmed that the seat of Xei-xes was erected, not under mount JEgaleos, but much fivrther to the northwest, on the borders of Attica and the Megarid, under the moun- tains called Kerata (Plutarch, Themistokles, 13). If this writer was ac- quainted with the topography of Attica, we must suppose him to have ascribed an astonishingly long sight to Xei-xes : but we may probably take the assertion as a sample of that carelessness in geography which marks so many ancient writers. Ktcsias recognizes the 'UpaKluov (Persica, c. 26) ' Herodot. viii, 85 ; Diodor. xi, 16.