THE ADVANCE OF XERXES INTO GREECE.
B.C. 480
Advance of the army.--Sailing of the fleet.--Sciathus.--Euboea.--Straits
of Artemisium and Euripus.--Attica.--Saronic Gulf.--Island of
Salamis.--Excitement of the country.--Signals.--Sentinels.--Movement of
the fleet.--The ten reconnoitering galleys.--Guard-ships
captured.--Barbarous ceremony.--A heroic Greek.--One crew escape.--The
alarm spread.--Return of the Persian galleys.--The monument of
stones.--Progress of the fleet.--The fleet anchors in a bay.--A coming
storm.--The storm rages.--Destruction of many vessels.--Plunder of the
wrecks.--Scyllias, the famous diver.--Dissensions in the Greek
fleet.--Jealousy of the Athenians.--Situation of the
Athenians.--Eurybiades appointed commander.--Debates in the Greek
council.--Dismay of the Euboeans.--The Greek leaders
bribed.--Precautions of the Persians.--Designs of the Persians
discovered.--The Greeks decide to give battle.--Euripus and
Artemisium.--Advance of the Greeks.--The battle.--A stormy night.--Scene
of terror.--A calm after the storm.--Terror of the Euboeans.--Their
plans.--The Greeks retire.--Inscription on the rocks.--The commanders of
the Persian fleet summoned to Thermopylae.
From Therma--the last of the great stations at which the Persian army
halted before its final descent upon Greece--the army commenced its
march, and the fleet set sail, nearly at the same time, which was early
in the summer. The army advanced slowly, meeting with the usual
difficulties and delays, but without encountering any special or
extraordinary occurrences, until, after having passed through Macedon
into Thessaly, and through Thessaly to the northern frontier of Phocis,
they began to approach the Straits of Thermopylae. What took place at
Thermopylae will be made the subject of the next chapter. The movements
of the fleet are to be narrated in this.
In order distinctly to understand these movements, it is necessary
that the reader should first have a clear conception of the geographical
conformation of the coasts and seas along which the path of the
expedition lay. By referring to the map of Greece, we shall see that the
course which the fleet would naturally take from Therma to the
southeastward, along the coast, was unobstructed and clear for about a
hundred miles. We then come to a group of four islands, extending in a
range at right angles to the coast. The only one of these islands with
which we have particularly to do in this history is the innermost of
them, which was named Sciathus. Opposite to these islands the line of
the coast, having passed around the point of a mountainous and rocky
promontory called Magnesia, turns suddenly to the westward, and runs in
that direction for about thirty miles, when it again turns to the
southward and eastward as before. In the sort of corner thus cut off by
the deflection of the coast lies the long island of Euboea, which may be
considered, in fact, as almost a continuation of the continent, as it is
a part of the same conformation of country, and is separated from the
main land only by submerged valleys on the north and on the east. Into
these sunken valleys the sea of course flows, forming straits or
channels. The one on the north was, in ancient times, called Artemisium,
and the one on the west, at its narrowest point, Euripus. All these
islands and coasts were high and picturesque. They were also, in the
days of Xerxes, densely populated, and adorned profusely with temples,
citadels, and towns.
On passing the southernmost extremity of the island of Euboea, and
turning to the westward, we come to a promontory of the main land, which
constituted Attica, and in the middle of which the city of Athens was
situated. Beyond this is a capacious gulf, called the Saronian Gulf. It
lies between Attica and the Peloponnesus. In the middle of the Saronian
Gulf lies the island of AEgina, and in the northern part of it the island
of Salamis. The progress of the Persian fleet was from Therma down the
coast to Sciathus, thence along the shores of Euboea to its southern
point, and so round into the Saronian Gulf to the island of Salamis. The
distance of this voyage was perhaps two hundred and fifty miles. In
accomplishing it the fleet encountered many dangers, and met with a
variety of incidents and events, which we shall now proceed to describe.
The country, of course, was every where in a state of the greatest
excitement and terror. The immense army was slowly coming down by land,
and the fleet, scarcely less terrible, since its descents upon the coast
would be so fearfully sudden and overwhelming when they were made, was
advancing by sea. The inhabitants of the country were consequently in a
state of extreme agitation. The sick and the infirm, who were, of
course, utterly helpless in such a danger, exhibited every where the
spectacle of silent dismay. Mothers, wives, maidens, and children, on
the other hand, were wild with excitement and terror. The men, too full
of passion to fear, or too full of pride to allow their fears to be
seen, were gathering in arms, or hurrying to and fro with intelligence,
or making hasty arrangements to remove their wives and children from the
scenes of cruel suffering which were to ensue. They stationed watchmen
on the hills to give warning of the approach of the enemy. They agreed
upon signals, and raised piles of wood for beacon fires on every
commanding elevation along the coast; while all the roads leading from
the threatened provinces to other regions more remote from the danger
were covered with flying parties, endeavoring to make their escape, and
carrying, wearily and in sorrow, whatever they valued most and were most
anxious to save. Mothers bore their children, men their gold and silver,
and sisters aided their sick or feeble brothers to sustain the toil and
terror of the flight.
All this time Xerxes was sitting in his war chariot, in the midst of his
advancing army, full of exultation, happiness, and pride at the thoughts
of the vast harvest of glory which all this panic and suffering were
bringing him in.
The fleet, at length--which was under the command of Xerxes's brothers
and cousins, whom he had appointed the admirals of it--began to move
down the coast from Therma, with the intention of first sweeping the
seas clear of any naval force which the Greeks might have sent forward
there to act against them, and then of landing upon some point on the
coast, wherever they could do so most advantageously for co-operation
with the army on the land. The advance of the ships was necessarily
slow. So immense a flotilla could not have been otherwise kept together.
The admirals, however, selected ten of the swiftest of the galleys, and,
after manning and arming them in the most perfect manner, sent them
forward to reconnoiter. The ten galleys were ordered to advance rapidly,
but with the greatest circumspection. They were not to incur any
needless danger, but, if they met with any detached ships of the enemy,
they were to capture them, if possible. They were, moreover, to be
constantly on the alert, to observe every thing, and to send back to
the fleet all important intelligence which they could obtain.
The ten galleys went on without observing any thing remarkable until
they reached the island of Sciathus. Here they came in sight of three
Greek ships, a sort of advanced guard, which had been stationed there to
watch the movements of the enemy.
The Greek galleys immediately hoisted their anchors and fled; the
Persian galleys manned their oars, and pressed on after them.
They overtook one of the guard-ships very soon, and, after a short
conflict, they succeeded in capturing it. The Persians made prisoners of
the officers and crew, and then, selecting from among them the fairest
and most noble-looking man, just as they would have selected a bullock
from a herd, they sacrificed him to one of their deities on the prow of
the captured ship. This was a religious ceremony, intended to signalize
and sanctify their victory.
The second vessel they also overtook and captured. The crew of this ship
were easily subdued, as the overwhelming superiority of their enemies
appeared to convince them that all resistance was hopeless, and to
plunge them into despair. There was one man, however, who, it seems,
could not be conquered. He fought like a tiger to the last, and only
ceased to deal his furious thrusts and blows at the enemies that
surrounded him when, after being entirely covered with wounds, he fell
faint and nearly lifeless upon the bloody deck. When the conflict with
him was thus ended, the murderous hostility of his enemies seemed
suddenly to be changed into pity for his sufferings and admiration of
his valor. They gathered around him, bathed and bound up his wounds,
gave him cordials, and at length restored him to life. Finally, when the
detachment returned to the fleet, some days afterward, they carried this
man with them, and presented him to the commanders as a hero worthy of
the highest admiration and honor. The rest of the crew were made slaves.
The third of the Greek guard-ships contrived to escape, or, rather, the
crew escaped, while the vessel itself was taken. This ship, in its
flight, had gone toward the north, and the crew at last succeeded in
running it on shore on the coast of Thessaly, so as to escape,
themselves, by abandoning the vessel to the enemy. The officers and
crew, thus escaping to the shore, went through Thessaly into Greece,
spreading the tidings every where that the Persians were at hand. This
intelligence was communicated, also, along the coast, by beacon fires
which the people of Sciathus built upon the heights of the island as a
signal, to give the alarm to the country southward of them, according to
the preconcerted plan. The alarm was communicated by other fires built
on other heights, and sentinels were stationed on every commanding
eminence on the highlands of Euboea toward the south, to watch for the
first appearance of the enemy.
The Persian galleys that had been sent forward having taken the three
Greek guard-ships, and finding the sea before them now clear of all
appearances of an enemy, concluded to return to the fleet with their
prizes and their report. They had been directed, when they were
dispatched from the fleet, to lay up a monument of stones at the
furthest point which they should reach in their cruise: a measure often
resorted to in similar cases, by way of furnishing proof that a party
thus sent forward have really advanced as far as they pretend on their
return. The Persian detachment had actually brought the stones for the
erection of their landmark with them in one of their galleys. The
galley containing the stones, and two others to aid it, pushed on beyond
Sciathus to a small rocky islet standing in a conspicuous position in
the sea, and there they built their monument or cairn. The detachment
then returned to meet the fleet. The time occupied by this whole
expedition was eleven days.
The fleet was, in the mean time, coming down along the coast of
Magnesia. The whole company of ships had advanced safely and
prosperously thus far, but now a great calamity was about to befall
them--the first of the series of disasters by which the expedition was
ultimately ruined. It was a storm at sea.
The fleet had drawn up for the night in a long and shallow bay on the
coast. There was a rocky promontory at one end of this bay and a cape on
the other, with a long beach between them. It was a very good place of
refuge and rest for the night in calm weather, but such a bay afforded
very little shelter against a tempestuous wind, or even against the surf
and swell of the sea, which were sometimes produced by a distant storm.
When the fleet entered this bay in the evening, the sea was calm and the
sky serene. The commanders expected to remain there for the night, and
to proceed on the voyage on the following day.
The bay was not sufficiently extensive to allow of the drawing up of so
large a fleet in a single line along the shore. The ships were
accordingly arranged in several lines, eight in all. The innermost of
these lines was close to the shore; the others were at different
distances from it, and every separate ship was held to the place
assigned it by its anchors. In this position the fleet passed the night
in safety, but before morning there were indications of a storm. The sky
looked wild and lurid. A heavy swell came rolling in from the offing.
The wind began to rise, and to blow in fitful gusts. Its direction was
from the eastward, so that its tendency was to drive the fleet upon the
shore. The seamen were anxious and afraid, and the commanders of the
several ships began to devise, each for his own vessel, the best means
of safety. Some, whose vessels were small, drew them up upon the sand,
above the reach of the swell. Others strengthened the anchoring tackle,
or added new anchors to those already down. Others raised their anchors
altogether, and attempted to row their galleys away, up or down the
coast, in hope of finding some better place of shelter. Thus all was
excitement and confusion in the fleet, through the eager efforts made by
every separate crew to escape the impending danger.
In the mean time, the storm came on apace. The rising and roughening sea
made the oars useless, and the wind howled frightfully through the
cordage and the rigging. The galleys soon began to be forced away from
their moorings. Some were driven upon the beach and dashed to pieces by
the waves. Some were wrecked on the rocks at one or the other of the
projecting points which bounded the bay on either hand. Some foundered
at their place of anchorage. Vast numbers of men were drowned. Those who
escaped to the shore were in hourly dread of an attack from the
inhabitants of the country. To save themselves, if possible, from this
danger, they dragged up the fragments of the wrecked vessels upon the
beach, and built a fort with them on the shore. Here they intrenched
themselves, and then prepared to defend their lives, armed with the
weapons which, like the materials for their fort, were washed up, from
time to time, by the sea.
The storm continued for three days. It destroyed about three hundred
galleys, besides an immense number of provision transports and other
smaller vessels. Great numbers of seamen, also, were drowned. The
inhabitants of the country along the coast enriched themselves with the
plunder which they obtained from the wrecks, and from the treasures, and
the gold and silver vessels, which continued for some time to be driven
up upon the beach by the waves. The Persians themselves recovered, it
was said, a great deal of valuable treasure, by employing a certain
Greek diver, whom they had in their fleet, to dive for it after the
storm was over. This diver, whose name was Scyllias, was famed far and
wide for his power of remaining under water. As an instance of what they
believed him capable of performing, they said that when, at a certain
period subsequent to these transactions, he determined to desert to the
Greeks, he accomplished his design by diving into the sea from the deck
of a Persian galley, and coming up again in the midst of the Greek
fleet, ten miles distant!
After three days the storm subsided. The Persians then repaired the
damages which had been sustained, so far as it was now possible to
repair them, collected what remained of the fleet, took the shipwrecked
mariners from their rude fortification on the beach, and set sail again
on their voyage to the southward.
In the mean time, the Greek fleet had assembled in the arm of the sea
lying north of Euboea, and between Euboea and the main land. It was an
allied fleet, made up of contributions from various states that had
finally agreed to come into the confederacy. As is usually the case,
however, with allied or confederate forces, they were not well agreed
among themselves. The Athenians had furnished far the greater number of
ships, and they considered themselves, therefore, entitled to the
command; but the other allies were envious and jealous of them on
account of that very superiority of wealth and power which enabled them
to supply a greater portion of the naval force than the rest. They were
willing that one of the Spartans should command, but they would not
consent to put themselves under an Athenian. If an Athenian leader were
chosen, they would disperse, they said, and the various portions of the
fleet return to their respective homes.
The Athenians, though burning with resentment at this unjust
declaration, were compelled to submit to the necessity of the case. They
could not take the confederates at their word, and allow the fleet to
be broken up, for the defense of Athens was the great object for which
it was assembled. The other states might make their peace with the
conqueror by submission, but the Athenians could not do so. In respect
to the rest of Greece, Xerxes wished only for dominion. In respect to
Athens, he wished for vengeance. The Athenians had burned the Persian
city of Sardis, and he had determined to give himself no rest until he
had burned Athens in return.
It was well understood, therefore, that the assembling of the fleet, and
giving battle to the Persians where they now were, was a plan adopted
mainly for the defense and benefit of the Athenians. The Athenians,
accordingly, waived their claim to command, secretly resolving that,
when the war was over, they would have their revenge for the insult and
injury.
A Spartan was accordingly appointed commander of the fleet. His name was
Eurybiades.
Things were in this state when the two fleets came in sight of each
other in the strait between the northern end of Euboea and the main
land. Fifteen of the Persian galleys, advancing incautiously some miles
in front of the rest, came suddenly upon the Greek fleet, and were all
captured. The crews were made prisoners and sent into Greece. The
remainder of the fleet entered the strait, and anchored at the eastern
extremity of it, sheltered by the promontory of Magnesia, which now lay
to the north of them.
The Greeks were amazed at the immense magnitude of the Persian fleet,
and the first opinion of the commanders was, that it was wholly useless
for them to attempt to engage them. A council was convened, and, after a
long and anxious debate, they decided that it was best to retire to the
southward. The inhabitants of Euboea, who had been already in a state of
great excitement and terror at the near approach of so formidable an
enemy, were thrown, by this decision of the allies, into a state of
absolute dismay. It was abandoning them to irremediable and hopeless
destruction.
The government of the island immediately raised a very large sum of
money, and went with it to Themistocles, one of the most influential of
the Athenian leaders, and offered it to him if he would contrive any way
to persuade the commanders of the fleet to remain and give the Persians
battle where they were. Themistocles took the money, and agreed to the
condition. He went with a small part of it--though this part was a very
considerable sum--to Eurybiades, the commander-in-chief, and offered it
to him if he would retain the fleet in its present position. There were
some other similar offerings made to other influential men, judiciously
selected. All this was done in a very private manner, and, of course,
Themistocles took care to reserve to himself the lion's share of the
Euboean contribution. The effect of this money in altering the opinions
of the naval officers was marvelous. A new council was called, the
former decision was annulled, and the Greeks determined to give their
enemies battle where they were.
The Persians had not been unmindful of the danger that the Greeks might
retreat by retiring through the Euripus, and so escape them. In order to
prevent this, they secretly sent off a fleet of two hundred of their
strongest and fleetest galleys, with orders to sail round Euboea and
enter the Euripus from the south, so as to cut off the retreat of the
Greeks in that quarter. They thought that by this plan the Greek fleet
would be surrounded, and could have no possible mode of escape. They
remained, therefore, with the principal fleet, at the outer entrance of
the northern strait for some days, before attacking the Greeks, in order
to give time for the detachment to pass round the island.
The Persians sent off the two hundred galleys with great secrecy, not
desiring that the Greeks should discover their design of thus
intercepting their retreat. They did discover it, however, for this was
the occasion on which the great diver, Scyllias, made his escape from
one fleet to the other by swimming under water ten miles, and he brought
the Greeks the tidings.[E]
[Footnote E: There is reason to suppose that Scyllias made his escape by
night in a boat, managing the circumstances, however, in such a way as
to cause the story to be circulated that he swam.]
The Greeks dispatched a small squadron of ships with orders to proceed
southward into the Euripus, to meet this detachment which the Persians
sent round; and, in the mean time, they determined themselves to attack
the main Persian fleet without any delay. Notwithstanding their absurd
dissensions and jealousies, and the extent to which the leaders were
influenced by intrigues and bribes, the Greeks always evinced an
undaunted and indomitable spirit when the day of battle came. It was,
moreover, in this case, exceedingly important to defend the position
which they had taken. By referring to the map once more, it will be seen
that the Euripus was the great highway to Athens by sea, as the pass of
Thermopylae was by land. Thermopylae was west of Artemisium, where the
fleet was now stationed, and not many miles from it. The Greek army had
made its great stand at Thermopylae, and Xerxes was fast coming down the
country with all his forces to endeavor to force a passage there. The
Persian fleet, in entering Artemisium, was making the same attempt by
sea in respect to the narrow passage of Euripus; and for either of the
two forces, the fleet or the army, to fail of making good the defense of
its position, without a desperate effort to do so, would justly be
considered a base betrayal and abandonment of the other.
The Greeks therefore advanced, one morning, to the attack of the
Persians, to the utter astonishment of the latter, who believed that
their enemies were insane when they thus saw them coming into the jaws,
as they thought, of certain destruction. Before night, however, they
were to change their opinions in respect to the insanity of their foes.
The Greeks pushed boldly on into the midst of the Persian fleet, where
they were soon surrounded. They then formed themselves into a circle,
with the prows of the vessels outward, and the sterns toward the center
within, and fought in this manner with the utmost desperation all the
day. With the night a storm came on, or, rather, a series of
thunder-showers and gusts of wind, so severe that both fleets were glad
to retire from the scene of contest. The Persians went back toward the
east, the Greeks to the westward, toward Thermopylae--each party busy in
repairing their wrecks, taking care of their wounded, and saving their
vessels from the tempest. It was a dreadful night. The Persians,
particularly, spent it in the midst of scenes of horror. The wind and
the current, it seems, set outward, toward the sea, and carried the
masses and fragments of the wrecked vessels, and the swollen and ghastly
bodies of the dead, in among the Persian fleet, and so choked up the
surface of the water that the oars became entangled and useless. The
whole mass of seamen in the Persian fleet, during this terrible night,
were panic-stricken and filled with horror. The wind, the perpetual
thunder, the concussions of the vessels with the wrecks and with one
another, and the heavy shocks of the seas, kept them in continual
alarm; and the black and inscrutable darkness was rendered the more
dreadful, while it prevailed, by the hideous spectacle which, at every
flash of lightning, glared brilliantly upon every eye from the wide
surface of the sea. The shouts and cries of officers vociferating
orders, of wounded men writhing in agony, of watchmen and sentinels in
fear of collisions, mingled with the howling wind and roaring seas,
created a scene of indescribable terror and confusion.
The violence of the sudden gale was still greater further out at sea,
and the detachment of ships which had been sent around Euboea was wholly
dispersed and destroyed by it.
The storm was, however, after all, only a series of summer evening
showers, such as to the inhabitants of peaceful dwellings on the land
have no terror, but only come to clear the sultry atmosphere in the
night, and in the morning are gone. When the sun rose, accordingly, upon
the Greeks and Persians on the morning after their conflict, the air was
calm, the sky serene, and the sea as blue and pure as ever. The bodies
and the wrecks had been floated away into the offing. The courage or the
ferocity, whichever we choose to call it, of the combatants, returned,
and they renewed the conflict. It continued, with varying success, for
two more days.
During all this time the inhabitants of the island of Euboea were in the
greatest distress and terror. They watched these dreadful conflicts from
the heights, uncertain how the struggle would end, but fearing lest
their defenders should be beaten, in which case the whole force of the
Persian fleet would be landed on their island, to sweep it with pillage
and destruction. They soon began to anticipate the worst, and, in
preparation for it, they removed their goods--all that could be
removed--and drove their cattle down to the southern part of the island,
so as to be ready to escape to the main land. The Greek commanders,
finding that the fleet would probably be compelled to retreat in the
end, sent to them here, recommending that they should kill their cattle
and eat them, roasting the flesh at fires which they should kindle on
the plain. The cattle could not be transported, they said, across the
channel, and it was better that the flying population should be fed,
than that the food should fall into Persian hands. If they would dispose
of their cattle in this manner, Eurybiades would endeavor, he said, to
transport the people themselves and their valuable goods across into
Attica.
How many thousand peaceful and happy homes were broken up and destroyed
forever by this ruthless invasion!
In the mean time, the Persians, irritated by the obstinate resistance of
the Greeks, were, on the fourth day, preparing for some more vigorous
measures, when they saw a small boat coming toward the fleet from down
the channel. It proved to contain a countryman, who came to tell them
that the Greeks had gone away. The whole fleet, he said, had sailed off
to the southward, and abandoned those seas altogether. The Persians did
not, at first, believe this intelligence. They suspected some ambuscade
or stratagem. They advanced slowly and cautiously down the channel. When
they had gone half down to Thermopylae, they stopped at a place called
Histiaea, where, upon the rocks on the shore, they found an inscription
addressed to the Ionians--who, it will be recollected, had been brought
by Xerxes as auxiliaries, contrary to the advice of
Artabanus--entreating them not to fight against their countrymen. This
inscription was written in large and conspicuous characters on the face
of the cliff, so that it could be read by the Ionian seamen as they
passed in their galleys.
The fleet anchored at Histiaea, the commanders being somewhat uncertain
in respect to what it was best to do. Their suspense was very soon
relieved by a messenger from Xerxes, who came in a galley up the channel
from Thermopylae, with the news that Xerxes had arrived at Thermopylae,
had fought a great battle there, defeated the Greeks, and obtained
possession of the pass, and that any of the officers of the fleet who
chose to do so might come and view the battle ground. This intelligence
and invitation produced, throughout the fleet, a scene of the wildest
excitement, enthusiasm, and joy. All the boats and smaller vessels of
the fleet were put into requisition to carry the officers down. When
they arrived at Thermopylae the tidings all proved true. Xerxes was in
possession of the pass, and the Greek fleet was gone.