The Rise of Athens

“After their deliberations about the oracle” Her, 7 144 3.

“guarding the possessions of the gods’ ” and “starting tomorrow” Meiggs and Lewis, p. 23. In 1959 an inscription purporting to be the Decree of Themistocles was discovered at Troezen. It was inscribed in the third or possibly late fourth centuries B.C. and some scholars think it is an untrustworthy fake. More probably it is a pulling together of authentic decisions taken in 480 and announced by the ecclesia.

Dogs howled Ael Ar 46 p. 257 DK.

his hound plunged Plut Them 10 6.

“what the city now needed” Plut Cim 5 2–3.

a few obstinate old men Paus 1 18 2.

“So tell me,” Xerxes asked him For this conversation, see Her 7 103–4. If it is fictional, we may suppose that it broadly expresses Persian attitudes.

11. “THE ACTS OF IDIOTS”

Again, the classic stories of the battles of Artemisium and Thermopylae are mainly as told by Herodotus 7 175-8 1–21 and 7 200–233. Diodorus Siculus supports.

strange smell See Green, Greco, p. 114.

hot, sulfurous springs Her 7 176.

“The bluest water” Paus 4 35 9.

“man much concerned with his courage” Diod 11 4 2.

a force of four thousand men I follow Burn, pp. 378–79, in his interpretation of Herodotus’s numbers.

sunken ship The shipwreck may have been Roman—perhaps carrying loot from the sack of Corinth in 146 B.C. The statue dates from about 460 B.C.

lost “at the lowest estimate” Her 7 190.

stripped naked for exercise

Ibid., 7 208 2.

“The truth, namely” Ibid., 7 209 1.

“Hand over your weapons!” Plut Sayings Spartans Leonidas 11.

“Have a quick breakfast” Ibid., 8 2, Diod 11 9 4.

“Many of the barbarians fell” Her 7 223 3–224 1.

Eurybiades lost his nerve Ibid., 8 4.

fight on purpose like cowards Her 8 222.

“They learned from their own achievements” Plut Them 8 1–2.

12. “O DIVINE SALAMIS”

Herodotus is the main source; also Plutarch’s lives of Aristides and Themistocles. For the battles of Salamis and Plataea, I rely on Burn and Green, Greco.

oracle at Delphi Her 8 27–39, Diod 11 14.

The news was received Her 8 99 1.

Xerxes paid it a personal visit Ibid., 8 67–69.

“The Greeks will not be able to hold out” Ibid., 8 68 2.

A very similar debate, in reverse For the discussions that follow, ibid., 8 49–50, 56–63.

“If you do not remain here” Ibid., 8 62 1.

A day passed The passage of time is unclear in the sources and some modern scholars argue that as many as three weeks of inactivity followed the Persians’ arrival before the Battle of Salamis was fought.

“I have been sent” Her 8 75 2–3.

The narrows of Salamis describe a semicircle There is scholarly disagreement on where various place-names should be located. The ancient sources are confused about the course of the battle. My reconstruction is indebted to Burn and Green, Greco, but its basic narrative follows N. G. L. Hammond in Cambridge Ancient History,

5 pp. 569–88, although I do not agree with him that Psyttaleia is Saint George island but, rather, today’s Lipsokoutali.

a golden parasol Plut Them 16 2.

“Then from the Hellene ships” Aesch Pers 386–400.

plucky Artemisia Her 8 87–88.

“My men have become women” Ibid., 8 88 3.

“The Hellenes seized” Aesch Pers 424–26.

the Phoenician contingent See Burn, pp. 467–68.

the sacred chariot Her 8 115 4.

oath of fidelity See Burn, p. 512ff. Diod 11 29 1–2, Tod 2 204 lines 21–51. The exact wording may not have come down to us, but the event is authentic. It is known as the Oath of Plataea.

Modern archaeologists For an account of the destruction of Athens, see Camp, pp. 57–58.

“It was worth seeing” Her 9 25 1.

omens stayed resolutely unfavorable Plut Arist 17 6–18 2. Some modern scholars believe that Pausanias manipulated the sacrifices to ensure that the Greeks, or at least the Spartans, attacked at just the right moment. But Greeks took their religion very seriously and barefaced trickery of this kind in public is unlikely.