they
had escaped; and they were in a difficulty what they should do, whether
they should go back home, or sail down towards the Hellespont. At last
they resolved to do neither of these two things, but to sail on to
the mainland. Therefore when they had prepared as for a sea-fight both
boarding-bridges and all other things that were required, they sailed
towards Mycale; and when they came near to the camp and no one was seen
to put out against them, but they perceived ships drawn up within
the wall and a large land-army ranged along the shore, then first
Leotychides, sailing along in his ship and coming as near to the shore
as he could, made proclamation by a herald to the Ionians, saying:
"Ionians, those of you who chance to be within hearing of me, attend to
this which I say: for the Persians will not understand anything at all
of that which I enjoin to you. When we join battle, each one of you must
remember first the freedom of all, and then the watchword 'Hebe'; and
this let him also who has not heard know from him who has heard." The
design in this act was the same as that of Themistocles at Artemision;
for it was meant that either the words uttered should escape the
knowledge of the Barbarians and persuade the Ionians, or that they
should be reported to the Barbarians and make them distrustful of the
Hellenes. 108

99. After Leotychides had thus suggested, then next the Hellenes
proceeded to bring their ships up to land, and they disembarked upon the
shore. These then were ranging themselves for fight; and the Persians,
when they saw the Hellenes preparing for battle and also that they
had given exhortation to the Ionians, in the first place deprived the
Samians of their arms, suspecting that they were inclined to the side of
the Hellenes; for when the Athenian prisoners, the men whom the army
of Xerxes had found left behind in Attica, had come in the ships of the
Barbarians, the Samians had ransomed these and sent them back to
Athens, supplying them with means for their journey; and for this reason
especially they were suspected, since they had ransomed five hundred
persons of the enemies of Xerxes. Then secondly the Persians appointed
the Milesians to guard the passes which lead to the summits of Mycale,
on the pretext that they knew the country best, but their true reason
for doing this was that they might be out of the camp. Against these of
the Ionians, who, as they suspected, would make some hostile move 109