Themistocles   

smell and colour of saffron. On one of these pillars these verses
are engraved:-
"With numerous tribes from Asia's region brought
The sons of Athens on these waters fought;
Erecting, after they had quelled the Mede,
To Artemis this record of the deed." There is a place still to be
seen upon this shore, where, in the middle of a great heap of sand,
they take out from the bottom a dark powder like ashes, or something
that has passed the fire; and here, it is supposed, the shipwrecks
and bodies of the dead were burnt.
But when news came from Thermopylae to Artemisium informing them that
king Leonidas was slain, and that Xerxes had made himself master of
all the passages by land, they returned back to the interior of Greece,
the Athenians having the command of the rear, the place of honour
and danger, and much elated by what had been done.
As Themistocles sailed along the coasts, he took notice of the harbours
and fit places for the enemy's ships to come to land at, and engraved
large letters in such stones as he found there by chance, as also
in others which he set up on purpose near to the landing-places, or
where they were to water; in which inscriptions he called upon the
Ionians to forsake the Medes, if it were possible, and to come over
to the Greeks, who were their proper founders and fathers, and were
now hazarding all for their liberties; but, if this could not be done,
at any rate to impede and disturb the Persians in all engagements.
He hoped that these writings would prevail with the Ionians to revolt,
or raise some trouble by making their fidelity doubtful to the Persians.
Now, though Xerxes has already passed through Doris and invaded the
country of Phocis, and was burning and destroying the cities of the
Phocians, yet the Greeks sent them no relief; and, though the Athenians
earnestly desired them to meet the Persians in Boeotia, before they
could come into Attica, as they themselves had come forward by sea
at Artemisium, they gave no ear to their requests, being wholly intent
upon Peloponnesus, and resolved to gather all their forces together
within the Isthmus, and to build a wall from sea to sea in that narrow
neck of land; so that the Athenians were enraged to see themselves
betrayed, and at the same time afflicted and dejected at their own
destitution. For to fight alone against such a numerous army was to
no purpose, and the only expedient now left them was to leave their
city and cling to their ships; which the people were very unwilling
to submit to, imagining that it would signify little now to gain a
victory, and not understanding how there could be deliverance any
longer after they had once forsaken the temples of their gods and
exposed the tombs and monuments of their ancestors to the fury of
their enemies.
Themistocles, being at a loss, and not able to draw the people over
to his opinion by any human reason, set his machines to work, as in
a theatre, and employed prodigies and oracles. The serpent of Minerva,
kept in the inner part of her temple, disappeared; the priest gave
it out to the people that the offerings which were set for it were
found untouched, and declared, by the suggestion of Themistocles,
that the goddess had left the city, and taken her flight before them
towards the sea. And he often urged them with the oracle which bade
them trust to walls of wood, showing them that walls of wood could
signify nothing else but ships- and that the island of Salamis was
termed in it, not miserable or unhappy, but had the epithet of divine,
for that it should one day be associated with a great good fortune
of the Greeks. At length his opinion prevailed, and he obtained a
decree that the city should be committed to the protection of Minerva,
"Queen of Athens;" that they who were of age to bear arms should embark,
and that each should see to sending away his children, women, and
slaves where he could. This decree being confirmed, most of the Athenians
removed their parents, wives, and children to Troezen, where they
were received with eager good-will by the Troezenians, who passed
a vote that they should be maintained at the public charge, by a daily