en
he came the second time, unable to cope with him by land we went
on board our ships with all our people, and joined in the action at
Salamis. This prevented his taking the Peloponnesian states in detail,
and ravaging them with his fleet; when the multitude of his vessels
would have made any combination for self-defence impossible. The best
proof of this was furnished by the invader himself. Defeated at sea, he
considered his power to be no longer what it had been, and retired as
speedily as possible with the greater part of his army.

"Such, then, was the result of the matter, and it was clearly proved
that it was on the fleet of Hellas that her cause depended. Well, to
this result we contributed three very useful elements, viz., the
largest number of ships, the ablest commander, and the most unhesitating
patriotism. Our contingent of ships was little less than two-thirds of
the whole four hundred; the commander was Themistocles, through
whom chiefly it was that the battle took place in the straits, the
acknowledged salvation of our cause. Indeed, this was the reason of
your receiving him with honours such as had never been accorded to any
foreign visitor. While for daring patriotism we had no competitors.
Receiving no reinforcements from behind, seeing everything in front of
us already subjugated, we had the spirit, after abandoning our city,
after sacrificing our property (instead of deserting the remainder of
the league or depriving them of our services by dispersing), to throw
ourselves into our ships and meet the danger, without a thought of
resenting your neglect to assist us. We assert, therefore, that we
conferred on you quite as much as we received. For you had a stake to
fight for; the cities which you had left were still filled with your
homes, and you had the prospect of enjoying them again; and your coming
was prompted quite as much by fear for yourselves as for us; at all
events, you never appeared till we had nothing left to lose. But we left
behind us a city that was a city no longer, and staked our lives for a
city that had an existence only in desperate hope, and so bore our full
share in your deliverance and in ours. But if we had copied others, and
allowed fears for our territory to make us give in our adhesion to the
Mede before you came, or if we had suffered our ruin to break our spirit
and prevent us embarking in our ships, your naval inferiority would have
made a sea-fight unnecessary, and hi