might experience substantial gratitude on a future day. In the meantime Themistocles cruised about among the Cyclades, taking vengeance on those who had taken part with the Persians, or, as the phrase was, had Medized. He demanded a sum of money from the people of the isle of Andros. The Andrians refused. Themistocles told them that the Athenians came having two great deities with them-Persuasion and Force-and that they must therefore give the money. The Andrians replied that they also had two deities of a very worthless kind, and who would never leave their island-Poverty and Inability. The Greeks besieged the town, but were unable to take it. Having obtained some measure of success elsewhere, Themistocles returned home.

The booty was divided, and the Greeks repaired to the Temple of Poseidon (Neptune), on the isthmus of Corinth, to decide the prizes of wisdom and valour. The people of Egina were adjudged to have deserved the first prizo for valour. When the individual prizes of merit were discussed, the universal sentiment of Greece adjudged Themistocles to have been the preserver of his countrymen and his country. Each commander, it is true, gave the first vote for himself, but they all agreed in giving the second vote to Themistocles. The great Athenian also visited Sparta, where he was received with conspicuous honours such as the Spartans had never before rendered to any stranger. A chaplet of olive leaves was decreed to him, which was also the simple but inestimable reward which they had assigned to their own admiral, Eurybiades. The finest chariot which Sparta could provide was also presented to him, and hundreds of Spartan knights escorted him homewards beyond the frontiers.

It was early in the following month when Xerxes, after his disastrous defeat, sought the Hellespont. He had with him about three hundred thousand men. He left the great body of them with Mardonius in Thessaly, but with sixty thousand men he moved towards the famous bridge on which so many of his hopes depended. It is hardly to be wondered at that poets and rhetoricians have dwelt, even with exaggerated force, on the striking contrast between his advance and his retreat. Eight

On their retreat his army experienced every cruel reverse which could possibly be in store for them. The troops were wasted by disease and want, and were

ATHENS

short months had indeed lowered his pride, shattered his hopes, and destroyed the flower of his great army.

Num

obliged to subsist on the bark and leaves of trees. It is said that in crossing the river Strymon, the ice, through the heat of the morning sun, suddenly gave way, and precipitated hundreds into the water. bers had left their bones to bleach on the plains of Thessaly and Macedonia. On the forty-fifth day Xerxes arrived on the shores of the Hellespont. He found, indeed, that the bridge had been broken up by the winds and currents, but his safety was not thereby impaired, as the Persian fleet was in attendance. Xerxes and the remnant of his army passed over to Abydos, and from thence proceeded to Sardis. The sudden change, from the greatest privation to luxury and abundance, led the Persian troops into excesses that proved hardly less fatal than sword, pestilence, and famine.

It remarkably happened that on the very same day on which the Greeks defeated the Persians at Salamis the Sicilian Greeks overthrew the invading host of the Carthaginians with a terrible overthrow. We really know very little with accuracy of the circumstances, but there is reason to believe that this invasion was an organized part of the general attack upon Greek independence. Three hundred thousand Carthaginians besieged Himera, but Gelo, of Syracuse, came to their relief, and the great battle of Himera was fought. Half the Carthaginians were slain, and the remainder, being driven to a position where they had no water, were forced to surrender. The prisoners were sold as slaves, and helped to erect those magnificent public buildings in Sicilian cities which long attested the magnitude of the victory.

CHAPTER XX.

PLATEA AND MYCALE.

AFTER the Persian hordes had withdrawn, the Athenians passed over to Attica, and when the spring came round once more began to cultivate their fields, and renew their perished city. The Greek fleet lay off Ægina, and the Persian fleet off Samos, and though the Persians might

lack courage or ability to attack the Greeks, they might yet be able to keep watch and ward over the Ionian provinces, and prevent a repetition of revolt. Despite the great reverses of the Persians, the northern Greeks, who had Medized, continued constant to Mardonius. Influenced in great measure by the oracles, Mardonius was most anxious to detach the Athenians from the Greek alliance. Alexander, King of Macedonia, came to Athens as his envoy, bearing the most generous proposals from Mardonius, and warmly professing his own deep interest

and regard for the Athenians. If they would B.C. 479. only coalesce with the Persians, they should

receive every reparation for the injuries they had suffered, and also a large addition to their territory. Alexander added that he would not have borne such a message if he had seen any prospect of the Athenians being able with success to maintain a perpetual contest with Persia. Had such proposals been made a year before, it is impossible to say that they would have been unsuccessful. Even now the Spartans were greatly afraid that the Athenians might be found wavering. They sent an embassy to Athens with all kinds of fair promises and offers if the Athenians would only remain faithful. The Athenians gave their answer to the envoys of the Spartans in the presence of the envoys of the Persians. So long as the sun held on its course, so long they declared they would never come to terms with Xerxes, but would defy him and all his armies. Then turning to the Lacedæmonians, they declared that their character ought to have exempted them from such ungenerous suspicions. They thanked them for their offers, but they did not need their help in their present privations. Only let the Spartans at once put their troops into motion to meet Mardonius in Boeotia, since he would probably march to attack them as soon as he had received their answer.

It happened just as the Athenians had expected. Mardonius, in the early summer, marched with full speed upon Athens. The ungrateful Spartans showed no readiness in carrying out the injunctions of the Athenians, but gathered all hands together to their favourite design of fortifying the isthmus. Once more the Athe

nians abandoned Athens, and once more they took refuge in Salamis. For the second time the Persians were in possession of Attica. In this state of matters Mardonius renewed his former offers. Only one voice seconded him, that of an unhappy senator of the name of Lycidas, who had probably been bribed by the Persians; he advised their acceptance. In their rage and indignation his countrymen stoned him to death, and the Athenian women also dragged out his innocent wife and children, and stoned them in like manner. They forthwith sent ambassadors to Sparta to remonstrate on the indifference and neglect with which their constancy was treated. The ambassadors found the Lacedæmonians quietly celebrating a festival, and for some days they vouchsafed no reply, but hurried on the works of their fortifications. But a wise Tegean reminded the governing Ephors that if Athens allied itself with Persia, and Athenian vessels brought over a Persian army, their fortifications would not be of the least use to them. Then the Spartans became really alarmed, and showed themselves as active as they had before been dilatory. In the night they despatched an army of five thousand citizens, each citizen being attended by seven Helots. In the morning when the Athenian envoys came to them, threatening that they would now make a separate pacification for themselves, the Ephors assured them with solemn oaths that the army had marched, and by that time had probably left Spartan territory behind them. The Athenians at once started to overtake the troops, and to convey the joyful tidings to Salamis.

When Mardonius learned that a large Lacedæmonian army was in the field he evacuated Attica, having once more laid it waste, and passed into Boeotia, which he considered would be more favourable for a campaign. He crossed the river Asopus, and took up a position in its plain, not far from the little town of Platæa. Mardonius had made his preparations with great skill and prudence. His vast square camp had towers and barricades; it was abundantly stored with provisions; it was in the midst of a friendly country; and he had the fortified city of Thebes to fall back upon. Yet there was much despondency in his army-melancholy