os, just as the aim of
Leonidas and of his band was to guard the pass: the Hellenes accordingly
exhorted one another not to let the Barbarians go by into Hellas; while
these cheered one another on to destroy the fleet of the Hellenes and to
get possession of the straits.

16. Now while the forces of Xerxes were sailing in order towards them,
the Hellenes kept quiet at Artemision; and the Barbarians, having made a
crescent of their ships that they might enclose them, were endeavouring
to surround them. Then the Hellenes put out to sea and engaged with
them; and in this battle the two sides were nearly equal to one another;
for the fleet of Xerxes by reason of its great size and numbers suffered
damage from itself, since the ships were thrown into confusion and ran
into one another: nevertheless it stood out and did not give way,
for they disdained to be turned to flight by so few ships. Many ships
therefore of the Hellenes were destroyed and many men perished, but many
more ships and men of the Barbarians. Thus contending they parted and
went each to their own place.

17. In this sea-fight the Egyptians did best of the men who fought
for Xerxes; and these, besides other great deeds which they displayed,
captured five ships of the Hellenes together with their crews: while of
the Hellenes those who did best on this day were the Athenians, and of
the Athenians Cleinias the son of Alkibiades, who was serving with two
hundred man and a ship of his own, furnishing the expense at his own
proper cost.

18. Having parted, both sides gladly hastened to their moorings; and
after they had separated and got away out of the sea-fight, although the
Hellenes had possession of the bodies of the dead and of the wrecks
of the ships, yet having suffered severely 13 (and especially
the Athenians, of whose ships half had been disabled), they were
deliberating now about retreating to the inner parts of Hellas.

19. Themistocles however had conceived that if there should be detached
from the force of the Barbarians the Ionian and Carian nations, they
would be able to overcome the rest; and when the people of Euboea were
driving their flocks down to that sea, 14 he assembled the generals and
said to them that he thought he had a device by which he hoped to cause
the best of the king's allies to leave him. This matter he revealed to
that extent only; and with regard to their present circumstances, he
said that they must do as follows:--every