ALARM OF THE GREEKS. ^9 that the advancing march of the Persians was destined to be made, under the auspices of Alexander, king of Macedon, tribu- tary to them, and active in their service ; Avho sent a communica- tion of this fact to the Greeks at Tempe, admonishing them that they would be trodden under foot by the countless host approach- ing, and urging them to renounce their hopeless position.' Tliis Macedonian prince passed for a friend, and probably believed him- self to be acting as such in dissuading the Greeks from unavail- ing resistance to Persia : but he was in reality a very dangerous mediator ; and as such the Spartans had good reason to dread him, in a second intervention of which we shall hear more hereafter.2 On the present occasion, the Grecian commanders were quite ignorant of the existence of any other entrance into Thessaly, besides Tempe, until their arrival in that region. Perhaps it might have been possible to defend both entrances at once, and considering the immense importance of arresting the march of the Persians at the frontiers of Hellas, the attempt would have been worth some risk. So great was the alarm, however, pro- duced by the unexpected discovery, justifying, or seeming to jus- tify, the friendly advice of Alexander, that they remained only a few days at Tempe, then at once retired back to their ships, and returned by sea to the isthmus of Corinth, — about the time when Xerxes was crossing the Hellespont.^ This precipitate retreat produced consequences highly disas- trous and discouraging. It appeared to leave all Hellas north of mount Kithferon and of the Megarid territory without de- fence, and it served either as reason or pretext for the majority of the Grecian states north of that boundary to make their sub- mission to Xerxes, which some of them had already begun to do before.'* When Xerxes in the course of his march reached the Thermaic gulf, within sight of Olympus and Ossa, the heralds whom he had sent from Sardis brought him tokens of submission from a third portion of the Hellenic name, — the ThessalianS) Dolopes, ^nianes, Perrhsebians, Magnetes, Lokrians, Dorians, Melians, Phthiotid Achaeans, and Bceotians, — among the latter ' Herodot. vii, 173. '^ Herodot. viii, 140-143. 3 Herodot. vii, 173, 174.
- Diodor. xi, 3. ire 7rapov<JTj( r^r kv rotf Tefineai (pv'kaKfj^, etc.
