e continent, for that was the action to which the Hellenes looked back
when they ventured to fight for their own safety in the battles
which ensued: they became disciples of the men of Marathon. To them,
therefore, I assign in my speech the first place, and the second
to those who fought and conquered in the sea fights at Salamis and
Artemisium; for of them, too, one might have many things to say--of the
assaults which they endured by sea and land, and how they repelled them.
I will mention only that act of theirs which appears to me to be the
noblest, and which followed that of Marathon and came nearest to it;
for the men of Marathon only showed the Hellenes that it was possible to
ward off the barbarians by land, the many by the few; but there was
no proof that they could be defeated by ships, and at sea the Persians
retained the reputation of being invincible in numbers and wealth and
skill and strength. This is the glory of the men who fought at sea,
that they dispelled the second terror which had hitherto possessed the
Hellenes, and so made the fear of numbers, whether of ships or men, to
cease among them. And so the soldiers of Marathon and the sailors
of Salamis became the schoolmasters of Hellas; the one teaching and
habituating the Hellenes not to fear the barbarians at sea, and the
others not to fear them by land. Third in order, for the number and
valour of the combatants, and third in the salvation of Hellas, I
place the battle of Plataea. And now the Lacedaemonians as well as
the Athenians took part in the struggle; they were all united in this
greatest and most terrible conflict of all; wherefore their virtues will
be celebrated in times to come, as they are now celebrated by us. But
at a later period many Hellenic tribes were still on the side of the
barbarians, and there was a report that the great king was going to make
a new attempt upon the Hellenes, and therefore justice requires that we
should also make mention of those who crowned the previous work of our
salvation, and drove and purged away all barbarians from the sea. These
were the men who fought by sea at the river Eurymedon, and who went
on the expedition to Cyprus, and who sailed to Egypt and divers other
places; and they should be gratefully remembered by us, because they
compelled the king in fear for himself to look to his own safety instead
of plotting the destruction of Hellas.

And so the war against the barbarians was fought out to the