desperately, day after day, as long as Leonidas and his Spartans held
their ground on the shore. Their sudden disappearance from those waters,
by which the Persians had been so much surprised, was caused by their
having received intelligence that the pass had been carried and Leonidas
destroyed. They knew then that Athens would be the next point of
resistance by the land forces. They therefore fell back to Salamis, or,
rather, to the bay lying between Salamis and the Athenian shore, that
being the nearest position that they could take to support the
operations of the army in their attempts to defend the capital. When,
however, the tidings came to them that Athens had fallen, and that what
remained of the army had retreated to the isthmus, the question at once
arose whether the fleet should retreat too, across the bay, to the
isthmus shore, with a view to co-operate more fully with the army in the
new position which the latter had taken, or whether it should remain
where it was, and defend itself as it best could against the Persian
squadrons which would soon be drawing near. The commanders of the fleet
held a consultation to consider this question.

In this consultation the Athenian and the Corinthian leaders took
different views. In fact, they were very near coming into open
collision. Such a difference of opinion, considering the circumstances
of the case, was not at all surprising. It might, indeed, have naturally
been expected to arise, from the relative situation of the two cities,
in respect to the danger which threatened them. If the Greek fleet were
to withdraw from Salamis to the isthmus, it might be in a better
position to defend Corinth, but it would, by such a movement, be
withdrawing from the Athenian territories, and abandoning what remained
in Attica wholly to the conqueror. The Athenians were, therefore, in
favor of maintaining the position at Salamis, while the Corinthians were
disposed to retire to the shores of the isthmus, and co-operate with
the army there.

The council was convened to deliberate on this subject before the news
arrived of the actual fall of Athens, although, inasmuch as the Persians
were advancing into Attica in immense numbers, and there was no Greek
force left to defend the city, they considered its fall as all but
inevitable. The tidings of the capture and destruction of Athens came
while the council was in session. This seemed to determine the question.
The Corinthian commande