eror.
The Persian fleet, too, finding the channel of the Euripus clear, sailed
down it, and rounding Sunium, came to anchor in the bay of Phalerum.

In the councils of the Greeks all was doubt and irresolution. The
army, which ought to have mustered in full force at Thermopylae and
Callidromus, and which, after those passes were forced, might have
defended Cithseron and Parnes, had never ventured beyond the Isthmus
of Corinth, and was there engaged in building a wall across the neck of
land from sea to sea. The fleet lay off Salamis, where it was detained
by the entreaties of the Athenians, who had placed in that island the
greater part of the non-combatant population; but the inclination was
strong on the part of many to withdraw westward and fight the next
battle, if a battle must be fought, in the vicinity of the land force,
which would be a protection in case of defeat. Could Xerxes have had
patience for a few days, the combined fleet would have broken up. The
Peloponnesian contingents would have withdrawn to the isthmus; and the
Athenians, despairing of success, would probably have sailed away to
Italy. But the Great King, when he saw the vast disproportion
between his own fleet and that of the enemy, could not believe in the
possibility of the Greeks offering a successful resistance. Like a
modern emperor, who imagined that, if only he could have been with his
fleet, all would necessarily have gone well, Xerxes supposed that by
having the sea-fight under his own eye he would be sure of victory. Thus
again, as at Artemisium, the only fear felt was lest the Greeks should
fly, and in that way escape chastisement. Orders were therefore issued
to the Persian fleet to close up at once, and blockade the eastern end
of the Salaminian strait, while a detachment repeated the attempted
manoeuvre at Euboea, and sailed round the island to guard the channel at
its western outlet.

These movements were executed late in the day on which the Persian
fleet arrived at Phalerum. During the night intelligence reached the
commanders that the retreat of the Greeks was about to commence at once;
whereupon the Persian right wing was pushed forward into the strait,
and carried beyond the Greek position so as to fill the channel where
it opens into the bay of Eleusis. The remainder of the night passed
in preparations for the battle on both sides. At daybreak both fleets
advanced from their respective shores, the Persians being rather the