rs, and those from the other Peloponnesian
cities, declared that it was perfectly absurd to remain any longer at
Salamis, in a vain attempt to defend a country already conquered. The
council was broken up in confusion, each commander retiring to his own
ship, and the Peloponnesians resolving to withdraw on the following
morning. Eurybiades, who, it will be recollected, was the
commander-in-chief of all the Greek fleet, finding thus that it was
impossible any longer to keep the ships together at Salamis, since a
part of them would, at all events, withdraw, concluded to yield to the
necessity of the case and to conduct the whole fleet to the isthmus. He
issued his orders accordingly, and the several commanders repaired to
their respective ships to make the preparations. It was night when the
council was dismissed, and the fleet was to move in the morning.

One of the most influential and distinguished of the Athenian officers
was a general named Themistocles. Very soon after he had returned to his
ship from this council, he was visited by another Athenian named
Mnesiphilus, who, uneasy and anxious in the momentous crisis, had come
in his boat, in the darkness of the night, to Themistocles's ship, to
converse with him on the plans of the morrow. Mnesiphilus asked
Themistocles what was the decision of the council.

"To abandon Salamis," said Themistocles, "and retire to the isthmus."

"Then," said Mnesiphilus, "we shall never have an opportunity to meet
the enemy. I am sure that if we leave this position the fleet will be
wholly broken up, and that each portion will go, under its own
commander, to defend its own state or seek its own safety, independently
of the rest. We shall never be able to concentrate our forces again. The
result will be the inevitable dissolution of the fleet as a combined and
allied force, in spite of all that Eurybiades or any one else can do to
prevent it."

Mnesiphilus urged this danger with so much earnestness and eloquence as
to make a very considerable impression on the mind of Themistocles.
Themistocles said nothing, but his countenance indicated that he was
very strongly inclined to adopt Mnesiphilus's views. Mnesiphilus urged
him to go immediately to Eurybiades, and endeavor to induce him to
obtain a reversal of the decision of the council. Themistocles, without
expressing either assent or dissent, took his boat, and ordered the
oarsmen to row him to the galley of Eurybiades. Mnesiphilus,