meratus, their countryman, whom he had obliged to accompany him in this expedition, to explain the intention of the Spartans. He replied, that their whole carriage and demeanour implied a determined resolution, to fight to the last extremity.

On the evening of the seventh day after Xerxes had arrived at the straits of Thermopyla, twenty thousand chosen men, commanded by Hydarnes, and conducted by the traitor Epialtes, who had offered to lead them through another passage in the mountains, left the Persian camp. The next morning, however, they beheld the glittering surfaces of spears and helmets, and soon after perceived a thousand Phocians, whom the foresight and vigilance of Leonidas had sent to defend this important, but generally unknown pass. The immense shower of darts from the Persians, compelled the Phocians to abandon the passage they had been sent to guard; and they retired to the highest part of the mountain. This gave the Persians an opportunity to seize the pass, through which they marched with the greatest expedition.

In the meantime, by means of a deserter from the Persian camp, the Greeks, under Leonidas, had been informed of the treachery of Epialtes, and the march across the mountain. Leonidas, therefore, immediately called an assembly, to deliberate on the measures to be pursued in consequence of this important and alarming information. All the confederates of Peloponnesus, the Spartans alone excepted, declared it was necessary to abandon a post, which, on account of the double attack intended against it, could not be maintained with any probable hopes of success. They considered it the most prudent measure they could adopt, in the present crisis of affairs, to return to the isthmus of Corinth, and join their confederates to defend the Grecian peninsula from the fury of the barbarians. Leonidas explained the sentiments of the Spartans, and said, that as glory was the only voice they had learned to obey, they were determined, at the price of their lives, to purchase immortal renown to their country. The Thespians declared they would never forsake Leonidas, and the Thebans were obliged to follow their example.

It was now the dead of night, when the Spartans, with unani- ́ mous consent, headed by Leonidas, and full of resentment and despair, marched in close battalion to surprise the Persian camp. Dreadful was the fury of the Greeks; and on account of the want of discipline, in having no advanced guard, or watch, greatly destructive to the Persians. Numbers fell by the Grecian spears, but far more perished by the mistakes of their own troops; who, in the confusion that now prevailed, could not distinguish friends from foes. Wearied with slaugh16

VOL. II.

ter, the Greeks penetrated to the royal tent; but Xerxes, with his favourites, had fled to the farther extremity of the encamp

ment.

The dawn of day discovered to the Persians a dreadful scene of carnage, and the handful of Greeks by whom this terrible slaughter had been made.. The Spartans now retreated to the straits of Thermopyle; and the Persians, by menaces, stripes, and blows, could scarcely be compelled to advance against them. The Greeks halted where the pass was widest, to receive the charge of the enemy. The shock was dreadful. After the Greeks had blunted or broken their spears, they attacked with sword in hand, and made an incredible havock. Four times they dispelled the thickest ranks of the enemy, in order to obtain the sacred remains of their king Leonidas, who had fallen in the engagement. At this crisis, when their unexampled valour was about to carry off the inestimable prize, the hostile battalions, under the conduct of Epialtes, were seen descending the hill. All hopes were now dispersed; and nothing remained to be attempted, but the last effort of a generous despair. Collecting themselves into a phalanx, with minds resolute and undaunted, the Greeks retired to the narrowest part of the strait; and, on a rising ground, took post behind the Phocian wall. As they made this movement, the Thebans, whom fear had hitherto hindered from defection, revolted to the Persians; declaring that their republic had sent earth and water, in token of their submission to Xerxes; and that they had been reluctantly compelled to resist the progress of his arms. In the mean time, the Lacedæmonians and Thespians were assaulted on every side; the wall was beaten down; and the enemy entered the breaches. But instant death befel the Persians that entered. In this last struggle, the most heroic and determined courage was displayed by every Grecian. It being observed to Dioneces, the Spartan, that the Persian arrows were so numerous as to intercept the light of the sun, he replied, this was a favourable circumstance, because the Greeks thereby fought in the shade. What, however, the Greeks were able to do, they had already performed, collectively and individually; and it became impossible for them longer to resist the impetuosity and weight of the darts and other missile weapons, continually poured upon them. They therefore fell, not conquered, not destroyed, but buried under a trophy of Persian arms. In this dreadful conflict, the Persians lost 20,000 men.

To the memory of these brave defenders of their country, two monuments were afterwards erected, near the spot where they fell. The inscription of the one announced, that four thousand Peloponnesian Greeks had arrested, in that place, the

progress of the whole Persian force; the other, în honour of Leonidas and his three hundred followers, was characteristic of the Spartans, and contained these memorable words, " Go, stranger, and declare to the Lacedæmonians, that we died here in obedience to their divine laws." This famous action of the Greeks at Thermopylæ contributed not a little, according to the opinion of Diodorus Siculus, to the advantages which the Greeks afterwards obtained. For the Persians, astonished at the desperate valour of the Spartans, concluded it was scarcely possible to subdue a nation of so undaunted a resolution; nor did it less inspire the minds of the Greeks with courage, who, from that time, became sensible, that valour and discipline are capable of vanquishing the greatest tumultuary force.

BATTLE OF SALAMIS.

After all the prodigies of valour which had been achieved, the Athenians found it impossible to oppose the army of Persia, and to defend the coasts of Greece against the ravages of the fleet. The inhabitants of Peloponnesus, despairing likewise of being able to contend with the enemy in the open field, had begun to erect a wall across the isthmus of Corinth. Under these difficulties, the Athenians, by the advice of Themistocles, embraced a resolution worthy of a generous and free people; they abandoned to the Persian fury their villages, their territory, their walls, their city, their temples, with the revered tombs of their ancestors. Their wives, children, and aged parents, were transported to places of security; and all the Athenians, capable of using arms, or that might be in any manner serviceable, embarked on board the fleet stationed at Salamis. The Grecian armament, greatly increased since its engagements with the Persian force, amounted to three hundred and eighty vessels; and the fleet of Xerxes, which now took possession of the Athenian harbours southward of the strait occupied by the Greeks, having also received a powerful reinforcement, was restored to its original complement of twelve hundred sail.

Xerxes, notwithstanding the disasters and disgraces which had hitherto attended his naval armament, was still desirous of making another trial of his fortune by sea. Against this, however, some of his party advised, but were overruled. When the Grecian commanders perceived that the enemy were preparing to hazard another naval engagement, they deliberated whether they should remain in their present situation, or proceed further up the gulf toward the isthmus of Corinth. This latter opinion most of the confederates embraced, as by that means they would be more able to defend, in any emergency,

their respective cities. But Themistocles, the Athenian admiral, sensible of the fatal effects that would thence ensue, and how impossible it would be to prevent the dispersion of the Grecian armament, if they sailed from Salamis, opposed this measure with all his might. Eurybiades, however, the Spartan admiral, who was chief in command, dissented from the opinion of Themistocles; and being provoked at an expression which the latter had made use of against him, endeavoured to strike the Athenian with his batoon. Upon this, Themistocles cried out, "Ay, strike if you will, but hear what I have to say." Another of the Lacedæmonians observing, that the Athenians, who had no city to defend, ought to have no voice in the council: Themistocles replied, "the Athenians have indeed abandoned all their private estates and possessions for the general safety of Greece; but nevertheless, they have two hundred ships of war, which no Grecian state can resist and should the confederates persist in their present dangerous resolution, the Athenians will seek for themselves as fair a country, and as large and free a city, as that they have left." The firmness of this discourse at once shook the intention of the Greeks, and they resolved to remain at Salamis.

But the Peloponnesians, nevertheless, were still ready to return to their first determination. Themistocles, by a masterstroke of policy, therefore, sent privately to Xerxes to inform him, that the Greeks, seized with consternation and dismay at the approach of danger, had determined to make their escape under cover of the night; and that this was the time for the Persians to achieve the most glorious of their exploits, and by intercepting the flight of their enemies, accomplish their destruction at once. Xerxes believed the report, and the several passages were immediately secured. Aristides, who seems not to have availed himself of a general act of indemnity that had passed, was the first that brought intelligence of the blockade made by the Persians. A battle was thereupon instantly resolved.

Confiding in their strength, and under the necessity of using vigorous efforts, the Persians were eager to engage. Accident, however, seems to have made the Greeks the assailants. At day-break, their order of battle was arranged. The Athenians were placed on the right, opposite the Phenicians; the Lacedæmonians on the left, opposite the Ionians. As soon as the morning arose, sacred hymns and pæans began; the trumpets sounded; and triumphant songs of war were echoed through the fleet. The two armaments moved to engage. A Phenician galley, decorated more than the rest, and eager to

meet the Grecian fleet, outstripped her companions; but being met by an Athenian galley, at the first shock, her sculptured prow was shattered, and at the second, she was buried in the waves. The battle soon became general, and was vigorous on both sides. Xerxes, seated upon a lofty throne, beheld from the shore this bloody and destructive scene. But neither the hope of acquiring the favour, nor the fear of incurring the displeasure of the despot, could impel the Persians to the performance of actions, worthy of those which the love of liberty and of their country excited in the Greeks. The foremost of the Phenician ships were soon dispersed or sunk ; and the rest of the enemy's vessels being thrown into confusion, the Athenians surrounded them, compressed them into a narrower space, and increased their disorder. They were at length entangled in each other, rendered incapable of acting, and to use the expression of the poet Eschylus, who was present in the battle, "were caught and destroyed like fish in a net." In the mean time, the Lacedæmonians, who opposed the Ionians on the left, rendered the victory complete. Many of the Asiatic Greeks deserted the Persians and joined the Lacedæmonians; others declined to engage; and the rest were sunk or put to flight. The sea is said to have been scarcely visible, for the quantity of the wrecks and the floating carcases. Forty Grecian galleys were sunk in the engagement, but the crews were mostly saved aboard other ships, or by swimming to the friendly shores of Salamis. When the rout was become total, Aristides, with a body of Athenians, landed on the rocky isle of Psytalia, where the flower of the Persian infantry had been stationed, in order to destroy the shattered remains of the Grecian armament, and put all the Persians to the sword. As Xerxes beheld this dreadful havoc, he started from his throne in wild agitation, rent his royal robes, and, in the first moments of returning tranquility, commanded his forces to their respective camps.

An anecdote is related of the queen of Halicarnassus, which is too remarkable and too celebrated to be omitted here. This woman had accompanied Xerxes as an ally in the expedition against Greece, and being pursued in this battle by an Athenian galley, met a Persian vessel commanded by a tributary prince of Calydna, in Lycia, with whom she was at variance. She darted the beak of her galley against the Lycian vessel, with great dexterity, and buried it in the waves. The Athenian galley, deceived by this measure, equally artful - and agdacious, believed the vessel of the queen of Halicarnassus to be one of those that had deserted the Persian interest, and, therefore, quitted the pursuit. Xerxes, who was a spectator