Salamis and Megara and Egina, even if we have
success in all else; for with their fleet will come also the land-army,
and thus thou wilt thyself lead them to the Peloponnese and wilt risk
the safety of all Hellas. If however thou shalt do as I say, thou wilt
find therein all the advantages which I shall tell thee of:--in the first
place by engaging in a narrow place with few ships against many, if the
fighting has that issue which it is reasonable to expect, we shall have
very much the better; for to fight a sea-fight in a narrow space is for
our advantage, but to fight in a wide open space is for theirs. Then
again Salamis will be preserved, whither our children and our wives
have been removed for safety; and moreover there is this also secured
thereby, to which ye are most of all attached, namely that by remaining
here thou wilt fight in defence of the Peloponnese as much as if
the fight were at the Isthmus; and thou wilt not lead the enemy to
Peloponnese, if thou art wise. Then if that which I expect come to pass
and we gain a victory with our ships, the Barbarians will not come to
you at the Isthmus nor will they advance further than Attica, but they
will retire in disorder; and we shall be the gainers by the preservation
of Megara and Egina and Salamis, at which place too an oracle tells us
that we shall get the victory over our enemies. 37 Now when men take
counsel reasonably for themselves, reasonable issues are wont as a rule
to come, but if they do not take counsel reasonably, then God is not
wont generally to attach himself to the judgment of men."

61. When Themistocles thus spoke, the Corinthian Adeimantos inveighed
against him for the second time, bidding him to be silent because he
had no native land, and urging Eurybiades not to put to the vote
the proposal of one who was a citizen of no city; for he said that
Themistocles might bring opinions before the council if he could show a
city belonging to him, but otherwise not. This objection he made against
him because Athens had been taken and was held by the enemy. Then
Themistocles said many evil things of him and of the Corinthians both,
and declared also that he himself and his countrymen had in truth a city
and a land larger than that of the Corinthians, so long as they had two
hundred ships fully manned; for none of the Hellenes would be able to
repel the Athenians if they came to fight against them.

62. Signifying this he turned then to Eurybiades an