ks
hemmed in.--Aristides.--He makes his way through the Persian
fleet.--Interview between Aristides and Themistocles.--Their
conversation.--Aristides communicates his intelligence to the
assembly.--Effect of Aristides intelligence.--Further news.--Adventurous
courage of Paraetius.--Gratitude of the Greeks.--Final preparations for
battle.--Friendly offices.--Xerxes's throne.--His scribes.--Summary
punishment.--Speech of Themistocles.--He embarks his men.--Excitement
and confusion.--Commencement of the battle.--Fury of the
conflict.--Modern naval battles.--Observations of
Xerxes.--Artemisia.--Enemies of Artemisia.--Her quarrel with
Damasithymus.--Stratagem of Artemisia.--She attacks
Damasithymus.--Artemisia kills Damasithymus.--Xerxes's opinion of her
valor.--Progress of the battle.--The Persians give way.--Heroism of
Aristides.--He captures Psyttalia.--The Greeks victorious.--Repairing
damages.--Xerxes resolves on flight.--The sea after the
battle.--Fulfillment of an ancient prophecy.

Salamis is an island of a very irregular form, lying in the Saronian
Gulf, north of AEgina, and to the westward of Athens. What was called the
Port of Athens was on the shore opposite to Salamis, the city itself
being situated on elevated land four or five miles back from the sea.
From this port to the bay on the southern side of Salamis, where the
Greek fleet was lying, it was only four or five miles more, so that,
when Xerxes burned the city, the people on board the galleys in the
fleet might easily see the smoke of the conflagration.

The Isthmus of Corinth was west of Salamis, some fifteen miles, across
the bay. The army, in retreating from Athens toward the isthmus, would
have necessarily to pass round the bay in a course somewhat circuitous,
while the fleet, in following them, would pass in a direct line across
it. The geographical relations of these places, a knowledge of which is
necessary to a full understanding of the operations of the Greek and
Persian forces, will be distinctly seen by comparing the above
description with the map placed at the commencement of the fifth
chapter.

It had been the policy of the Greeks to keep the fleet and army as much
as possible together, and thus, during the time in which the troops were
attempting a concentration at Thermopylae, the ships made their
rendezvous in the Artemisian Strait or Channel, directly opposite to
that point of the coast. There they fought, maintaining their position