the sons of these men who went up to the king on account of the wrath,
namely upon Nicolaos the son of Bulis and Aneristos the son of Sperthias
(the same who conquered the men of Halieis, who came from Tiryns, by
sailing into their harbour with a merchant ship filled with fighting
men),--by this it is evident to me that the matter came to pass by
the act of the Deity caused by this wrath. For these men, sent by the
Lacedemonians as envoys to Asia, having been betrayed by Sitalkes the
son of Teres king of the Thracians and by Nymphodoros the son of Pythes
a man of Abdera, were captured at Bisanthe on the Hellespont; and
then having been carried away to Attica they were put to death by
the Athenians, and with them also Aristeas the son of Adeimantos the
Corinthian. These things happened many years after the expedition of the
king; and I return now to the former narrative.

138. Now the march of the king's army was in name against Athens, but in
fact it was going against all Hellas: and the Hellenes being informed of
this long before were not all equally affected by it; for some of them
having given earth and water to the Persian had confidence, supposing
that they would suffer no hurt from the Barbarian; while others not
having given were in great terror, seeing that there were not ships
existing in Hellas which were capable as regards number of receiving the
invader in fight, and seeing that the greater part of the States were
not willing to take up the war, but adopted readily the side of the
Medes.

139. And here I am compelled by necessity to declare an opinion which in
the eyes of most men would seem to be invidious, but nevertheless I will
not abstain from saying that which I see evidently to be the truth. If
the Athenians had been seized with fear of the danger which threatened
them and had left their land, 118 or again, without leaving their land,
had stayed and given themselves up to Xerxes, none would have made any
attempt by sea to oppose the king. If then none had opposed Xerxes by
sea, it would have happened on the land somewhat thus:--even if
many tunics of walls 119 had been thrown across the Isthmus by the
Peloponnesians, the Lacedemonians would have been deserted by their
allies, not voluntarily but of necessity, since these would have been
conquered city after city by the naval force of the Barbarian, and so
they would have been left alone: and having been left alone and having
displayed great deeds of